text:
|Bogota, Colombia
|High School:
|Colegio Nueva Granada
|Mechanical Engineering
2013-14: Competed three times for the Engineers as a sophomore … averaged a 505.0 in air rifle and a 530.5 in smallbore … shot his 505 air rifle score against Wentworth (10/5) … turned in a season-high 535 smallbore score against Rose Hulman (10/18) … added a 526 against John Jay/Rose Hulman/Wentworth (10/19).
2012-13: Saw action in six matches during his first season … fifth on the team with his smallbore average of 518.8 … fifth as well in air rifle with his 521.7 average … shot both disciplines three times during the season … started his season with a smallbore score of 522 against John Jay (10/13) … fired his season best smallbore score of 539 vs. Rose Hulman (10/14) … shot a 535 at the Beanpot (1/25-26) … also had his season-high air rifle score of 529 at the Beanpot … finished 35th at the MAC Championships (2/23) in smallbore with a 492 and 26th in air rifle with a 514.
Off The Range at MIT: Majoring in mechanical engineering … minor in management and energy … concentration in economics … internship at VW Argentina … research in RLE developing a diagnostic tool for kids with dyslexia.
High School: A 2012 graduate of Colegio Nueva Granada … 1st place Rifle Prone at Championship of the Americas Rio de Janeiro 2010 … Bogota Rifle Team … Colombian National Team … also played golf … National Honor Society … Valedictorian.


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Tracking if and how P2P file-sharing has altered the music business is a difficult challenge. The advent of the MP3 era has enabled illicit online file-swapping, but it also enabled the portable music players that have changed how music is listened to. Ambiguous study results and hyperbole from opposing camps on the issue haven't helped make much sense of these changes, either. A study that appears in the latest issue of Management Science attempts to bring some clarity to the issue. It uses some clever methodology not only to gauge the impact of file sharing, but it also attempts to provide a detailed glimpse into the changing music business.
The study drew much of its data from the Billboard Top 100 list of albums. Although record companies typically release over 30,000 albums per year, most sell under 1,000 copies; a disproportionate amount of music profits come from those rare albums that become popular. Researchers tracked the survival of albums that appeared on the Top 100 in terms of the total weeks they spent on the list, obtaining data from seven different time periods.
Those time periods were sliced two ways. The first was before and after what the authors viewed as a critical period in the music business. They suggest that 1998 to mid-2000 saw several major events that had the potential to change the dynamics of album sales. These included the introduction of the MP3 format and the rise of Napster, as well as the passage of the DMCA. The first year after that period (2001) was also the first year that saw a drop in total album shipments. General measures of the music economy, such as superstar status and marketing by one of the "big four" labels, were included for all time periods.
The post-MP3 period also includes data on file-sharing gleaned from WinMX, which the authors claim was one of the top three file-sharing services during this time. File-sharing data was also obtained for one additional point: after June 2003, when the RIAA announced it was going to shift its focus from suing the service providers to going after individual file-sharers. Data suggests that sharing dropped by as much as 80 percent after that announcement, so this period acts to partially isolate the role of piracy from the other changes that occurred during this time period.
The data on the general music economy support the view that the primary factor influencing music sales is the burden that listeners face in terms of simply finding music to buy. Factors that raise an album's public prominence therefore increase its chart survival. These factors include access to the publicity machines of major labels, a high-placed debut on the charts, and past chart success from the artist.
Consistent with the idea that P2P sharing lowers the "cost" of finding new music, the data suggests that music buyers now have shortened attention spans, so the amount of churn on the charts has gone up dramatically since 2001. Most albums spend a reduced amount of time on the charts, and those that debut at a low ranking tend to drop off much faster than they before. The effect isn't uniform, however; albums that debut high on the charts still have longer survival times, and female solo artists seem oddly immune to the changes.
The authors say that their data link this trend directly to sharing. They conclude, "We find that, although sharing does not hurt the survival of top-ranked albums, it does have a negative impact on low-ranked albums. These results point to increased risk from rapid information sharing for all but the 'cream of the crop'."
But the rapid turnover on the Top 100 has had an unexpected side effect: more albums from the independent labels appear on the charts, and those that appear survive longer than they had before. Releases from indie labels are still at a disadvantage compared to those from the majors, but the gap between them appears to have narrowed. Those who predicted that file-sharing would help popularize more obscure titles appear to have been on to something. The report suggests that this may provide an additional, cynical motive for the majors to combat file sharing: song swapping reduces the majors' influence in the music market in a way that has nothing to do with lost sales.

subset: commoncrawl


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Atlassian + Slack
Atlassian and Slack have forged a new strategic partnership. We'll be discontinuing Hipchat and Stride, and are providing a migration path to Slack for all our customers.
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enter site
tel. (256) 656-1500
Erin Cobb Photography is thrilled to call Huntsville and Madison County home! Erin Cobb is an award-winning certified professional photographer specializing in portraits of newborns, babies, children, and families in Huntsville, Alabama. As the 2007 winning photographer in the Baby Gap Casting Call Erin knows what it means to deliver beautiful, unique, and memorable portraits of children. If you have a newborn, baby, child, or family that you would like photographed, get in touch!
Erin Cobb is Huntsville's premier children's photographer who loves working with newborns, babies, toddlers, children, and families. Newborn photographer, baby photographer, child photographer, children's photographer, family photographer - Erin does it all and brings her fresh, fun style with her. Erin will photograph your newborn, baby, toddler, child, or family at her studio - The Cottage - located in the medical district of Huntsville, Alabama or will come to your home or location of your choice within the Huntsville, AL and Madison, AL areas. Presenting unique and high-quality family portraits is Erin's speciality.
All images and site content copyright 2015 Erin Cobb Photography


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John L. Scott has added a new face to its cadre of Realtors. Ishan Dillon, 29, recently moved from Columbus, Ohio, to join the Island real estate agency.
Dillon comes from three generations of master builders and Realtors in central Ohio. Though he studied biochemistry in college, thinking of one day practicing medicine, he instead followed in his family's footsteps and worked as a real estate agent in Ohio for seven years before coming to Vashon with his wife and two young sons.
Dillon said that although the move was a big one for his family, he and his wife had been dreaming of living on Vashon for several years, ever since they began to visit the Island with family that lives in Port Orchard.
Dillon said that although Vashon is a tough market to work in, he's already happy at John L. Scott, where he says the agents seem closer than they were at his previous agency.
"There's a very refreshing community that I'm now a part of at John L. Scott," he said.


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Blockbuster Movies May Boost Emerging 3-D Services
LONDON, March 31, 2010 - The runaway success of the digitally dazzling movies Avatar and Alice in Wonderland has boosted hopes among satellite and cable television operators that their emerging 3-D services will gain significant traction despite the high cost for the TV set and goggles. However, more 3-D means greater use of already scarce broadband. Keep Reading


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With its latest set of TVs, Sony is trying to do something different in the looks department. The HX8, with its monolith design and tilted screen, certainly dominates any living room. Take a step down and you have this, the HX7, which uses a clever back plate and pair of chrome bars to give the impression of the set being balanced, almost in free-fall, on two single pieces of metal. It certainly grabs the eye and at a price significantly lower than a lot of other premium sets, it could be the telly to beat.
On paper there is definitely a lot to like: a good 400hz panel, full-HD 3D, internet connected TV content and more image processing tech than you can shake a stick at. So does it deliver? Is this the set you want to be watching the Olympic opening ceremony on, or can better be found elsewhere?
The HX7 looks different. It's a machine that - particularly in the bigger screen sizes - will dominate the living room: the 55-inch version looks much more conventional. This is something we like, as it makes a change from the typical television design. While not being quite as impressive as Samsung's near-borderless premium UE55ES7000 model, it is still a corker and with the TV switched on the thin bezel certainly looks good.
The set is very thin, so also looks good side-on. It also makes it easy to mount on the wall and ensures plenty of room behind the TV for cables.
Our HX7 required a bit of assembly before we had it up and running. There is a choice of bolts on the back which will allow you to view the set either tilted, like the HX8, or flat. Once rigged-up it takes a bit of guts to let go - the balance effect on the two chrome bars being so convincing they just don't look as if they will support the television's weight. Don't worry, they do.
Watching TV
Sony has included all sorts of clever picture processing tech with the HX7. Like most television sets, out of the box these settings are all stuck on full blast and do quite a bit of damage to the picture. Tone it all down though and there is plenty of real benefit, particularly when watching standard definition TV. A good example is the Motion Flow option, which will smooth out any judders and blur in video. It works wonders when viewing things like motorsport or football and when set to standard, can also do a lot to improve HD content.
The 400Hz panel might be a step down from the HX8's response time, but it is more than enough to impress. Pretty much anything we threw at the LED display looked great. Brilliant viewing angles and great brightness settings also helped. We spent a good amount of time testing the set in a bright room, with windows pouring light straight on to the display, and it rarely had any impact on our viewing experience.
As for colour and black levels, getting the HX7 setup nicely takes a while, but once you nail it is definitely a premium experience. None of the blown-out colours or overly contrasty scenes of other TVs are found here. Helped along by Sony's X-Reality engine, every image looks as dynamic as the next colours in particular are vivid but never harsh.
Watching both 3D Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray with the set is excellent. The high contrast ratio ensures, given good-quality material, that the HX7 can shine. Things like the new Star Wars Blu-rays for example were showing inky black starscapes, while other more modern content like Up! looked sharp with great 3D and very little ghosting or any of the other issues from which older 3D sets suffer.
Smart content
Sony's HX7 comes with Wi-Fi and plentiful web-enabled apps out of the box. Sadly, this is where the television suffers slightly. What should be a selling point for the set turns into a slightly laggy and clunky experience.
First, the included remote just isn't geared up for things such as searching YouTube or sending a Tweet. Second, the UI itself can become frequently unresponsive. It also looks fairly blurry and muddy, boasting what we think is unnecessarily low-resolution icons on what is a brilliantly sharp 1080p panel. Things like the iPlayer app perform well when up and running, but it's the getting there that is a problem.
Once you do start streaming content, the X-Reality engine really kicks in. YouTube videos in particular benefitted greatly from the processing it offered. Skype. rather bizarrely, also looks really good thanks to the panel.
Our other irritation with the internet-connected side of the HX7 is that Sony just recently rolled out a Google TV box. We can't help but think that so much improvement could be made to the HX7's smart experience had it just included Google's OS from the box. The remote is better, the UI better and things like surfing the internet and searching are just much nicer to do.
The HX7 has a lot on offer when it comes to connectivity. On top of the standard array of four HDMI ports, there is also things like a USB drive reader, which is great if you fancy plugging video straight into the telly.
Being as thin as it is, Sony has packed a lot of ports into a very small area on the right side of the telly. It can make for lots of ugly cables sticking outside the back of the set. The distance between each port is also a tad too close for comfort, forcing us to do things like swap some of our bulkier HDMI cables as they couldn't fit in next to others.
Sony's UI improves a lot with activities such as viewing photos or video from a camera or card. It is smooth and responsive and had most of our video content up on screen within moments of our connecting it. Leaving the card in however did cause an annoying lock-up each time we turned the set back, as it informed us of its presence.
For the price, the core viewing experience of the HX7 can't be argued with. It looks great and the design of the display ensures that you get more than just a boring TV set in your living room. Blu-ray and 3D performed admirably as did SD and HD terrestrial content.
A few niggles with the UI and a slightly substandard connected TV experience left us feeling Sony should just put Google TV in everything it makes. Other than that we were suitably impressed with the HX7: for the money the likes of the 50-inch offering could be among some of the best sets available to buy right now. A definite step in the right direction but a few lessons learnt and the next generation set could be a real corker.


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Thomas Roehl is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and member of the Financial Planning Association. Serving clients at Roehl & Yi Investment Advisors, LLC in Eugene, OR and the surrounding communities.
7, 63
Nothing is more heart-wrenching than to realize that your savings for retirement and your golden years will be fractured because of divorce....Read More >
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Whether you are a do-it-yourselfer or you plan to work with a financial planner, it might help to do a little retirement readiness assessment...Read More >
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Whenever I meet with prospective clients, I usually hear the following comment "I want my portfolio to outperform the overall market, but I don...Read More >
You have probably heard that commodities are a great way to protect your portfolio from inflation and offer variety from traditional stocks and...Read More >


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Solid Micrograin Carbide Spiral Pyramid Milling Tools 1/8" x 1-1/2"
The Spiral Pyramid has 3 flutes that help to pull out the material being cut. These milling tools are used in applications where more tool strength is needed. Unlike the Profile tool which only has one cutting edge, all three sides of the Spiral Pyramid tool cuts as it rotates. We stock spiral pyramids in micrograin carbide and high speed steel. Please specify tip size when ordering.


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Looking for design inspiration? Browse our curated collections!
by Granger
El Escorial: Apartments by Granger - 6.875" x 14.000"
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Fine Art America offers over 250 different frames at wholesale prices.
Fine Art America is one of the largest, most-respected custom framers in the world. We stock over 250 different frames which can be used to create museum-quality masterpieces from any print. All framed prints are assembled, packaged, and shipped by our expert framing staff within 3 - 4 business days and arrive "ready to hang" with pre-attached hanging wire, mounting hooks, and nails. Our wholesale buying power allows us to offer frame prices which are typically 25 - 40% less than retail frame shops.
Average Rating (4.90 Stars):
Kathleen Shirer
June 25th, 2019
Nancy Anthony
June 24th, 2019
I got this for my son who lives in DC but loves Muls. He will be hanging it soon Some issues with the order: never got acknowledgement when I placed order. I called twice and left messages; never heard back. Recipient received picture in timely manner. Two days after I got acknowledgement in my email that order was received and would ship soon. I got nervous that order was duplicated.
Daryl Meinen
June 24th, 2019
EL ESCORIAL: APARTMENTS. Six plans for the royal apartments at El Escorial palace in Spain. Drawing by architect Juan de Herrera, c1570.
Welcome to Granger Art on Demand! Spice up your home or office with a compelling selection of fine art and photographs available as customized, professionally framed prints, canvases, and more! To license high resolution images or for other professional inquiries, Visit us at GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive (Granger.com) Email: email@example.com For educational use: Visit us at Granger Academic (GrangerAcademic.com) GRANGER.COM Background: In 1769 Reverend James Granger, an avid print collector, published his 'Biographical History of England.' The book was notable for its extra leaves, left blank for the reader to embellish with illustrations from their own collection. Collecting prints to...
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Fine Art America sells thousands of pieces of artwork each month - all with a 100% money-back guarantee. We take great pride in the fact that hundreds of thousands of artists have chosen Fine Art America to fulfill their orders, and we look forward to helping you select your next piece!
All framed prints ship from our production facility within 2 - 3 business days of your order.


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Dear visitor, welcome to SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers. If this is your first visit here, please read the Help. It explains how this page works. You must be registered before you can use all the page's features. Please use the registration form, to register here or read more information about the registration process. If you are already registered, please login here.
Sunday, April 27th 2014, 9:10am
Supreme Member
Location: Central Minnesota
Sunday, April 27th 2014, 12:30pm
Sunday, April 27th 2014, 4:10pm
Sunday, April 27th 2014, 7:47pm
Sunday, April 27th 2014, 8:41pm
Monday, April 28th 2014, 1:58pm
The info you will need to know to make this work are:
- what is the elevation difference between the pump and where the heads and valves are? 5-6 ft at the highest which is also the farthest point
- what will the water pressure and volume be at that elevation? You will need to find the pump curve of that pump to know. Otherwise, you will need to run the line up the hill, stick a tee on the end with a manual valve on one side and a pressure gauge on the other. Flip the pump on, start cracking the valve and open till the pressure drops to the target min pressure. That will be your dynamic or working pressure when the system is on. You can then time how long it takes to fill a marked container like a five gallon bucket to know your GPM at that desired pressure, but design your system to use a little less GPM than what you find. Here is the link to the pump info... http://www.redlionproducts.com/lawn-irrigation/centrifugal-self-priming-sprinkler-pumps/
- what is the size of the area you want to water? Once you know how big the area is you want to water, you will be able to select the proper sprinklers. about 150' x 150'
- what size pipe? This ultimately is determined by your pump output. 1 1/2" pipe from your pump to your valves sounds like a good plan but from there, unless you have a gigantic yard, it makes sense to stick with 1" valves and pipe. The cost would get driven way up to move up to 1 1/2" , as well as difficulty of installation. Plus, if your pump only puts out 15 GPM, there is no reason for 1 1/2". This will also determine how many sprinklers and what GPM you can use on each zone. Exactly what I am trying to figure out...
- How many sprinklers and what nozzles will they use? Once you know the area, how many sprinklers and what nozzles, you can then start splitting things up to fit how many GPM you have. This will dictate the minimum valves you will need. You can split it up further for more control over potential problem areas with more valves.
Going online to some of the manufacturer websites will let you look at all the specs of their heads. About 30 sprinklers, not sure which ones.
Hope this helps line it out a little.
Tuesday, April 29th 2014, 12:48pm
Tuesday, April 29th 2014, 1:14pm
Supreme Member
Location: Central Minnesota
Tuesday, April 29th 2014, 2:49pm
Wednesday, April 30th 2014, 3:31pm


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We hope you will enjoy surfing the website. We are at your disposal for every need in internet, software, hardware, 3D or programming problems. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask by using the "Contact Us" section. For more about us, pls read the "About Us" section.
FIRST AND LAST Co., Ltd. - CEO Tak
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BioMed Central announces winner of 7th Annual Research Awards
(April 22, 2013) — Open access publisher BioMed Central revealed the winner of its 7th Annual Research Awards at a presentation last night in Boston, MA. The awards honour the very best research published in one of BioMed Central's 250 plus open access journals in 2012.
The winners of the prestigious BioMed Central Research Award, supported by antibodies-online.com, were selected from a shortlist consisting of the winners of the ten subject categories. Kenneth M. Stedman, an associate professor of biology at Portland State University, and his doctoral student Geoffrey S. Diemer, won the award for their article "A novel virus genome discovered in an extreme environment suggests recombination between unrelated groups of RNA and DNA viruses," which was published in Biology Direct.
The article won accolades not only for the method used to uncover the virus, but for its biological insights into the novel viral genome. It makes a significant contribution to our understanding of viruses and has implications well outside the immediate finding.
"We're extremely honored at this award considering all of the wonderful research that is being published at BioMed Central, and particularly pleased to be able to accept this award at the 10th anniversary at BMC Biology, which is a celebration of open access and the accessibility of great science to the public," said Stedman. "This prize is a great affirmation of the internationally leading scientific research that we are undertaking at Portland State University and the Center for Life in Extreme Environments."
Laurence Hurst, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Bath UK summarized why the judges felt that the article should be the winner: "We felt this was a truly exciting paper, because they have shown for the first time using a metagenomic approach, that there is evidence for a novel viral genome best explained as a result of recombination between RNA and DNA viruses. The paper clearly opens up new avenues in viral research, not least because the mechanism by which the interviral RNA-DNA recombination occurs has yet to be discovered."
Andreas Kessell, co-founder of antibodies-online.com, explains, "At antibodies-online we accelerate research. We interact with the research community every day and are happy to sponsor the BioMed Central Overall Research Award winner 2012. The annual BioMed Central Research Awards are an excellent way to recognize and honor outstanding research published throughout the previous year. antibodies-online thanks all participants in advancing research for a better life and compliments this year's winners Geoffrey S. Diemer and Kenneth M. Stedman on the BioMed Central Overall Research Award."
The awards were commemorated as part of an evening celebrating BioMed Central and open access, including the tenth anniversary of the initial publication of BMC Biology, the flagship biology journal of BioMed Central, and the launch of the new medical and biology online magazine Biome. The evening also included a panel discussion on the hotly-debated topic of how to avoid the 'tyranny' of current peer review practices, which was fitting since Biology Direct, which published the award-winning article, has pioneered a novel form of peer review.
The winners were selected by a panel of top scientists and clinicians picked from the editorial boards of BioMed Central's portfolio of over 250 journals, which has published over 150,000 peer-reviewed open access articles to date.
Deborah Kahn, Publishing Director of BioMed Central, said: "I would like to thank our fantastic panel of judges and to congratulate the deserving winners of the 7th Annual BioMed Central Research Award for their outstanding achievements. We would also like to thank our new partners antibodies-online.com for their support."
# # #
Media Contacts
Rebecca Fairbairn
Public Relations Manager, BioMed Central
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3192 2433
Mob: +44 (0) 7825 257423
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Patrik von Glasow
Public Relations Manager, antibodies-online Inc.
Tel: +1 404 474 4654
Fax: +1 888 205 9894
Email: email@example.com
BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher, which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.
Founded in 2006 as a university spin-off in Aachen (Germany), antibodies-online.com now employs over 60 people. Today it has a presence in Atlanta (USA), Aachen (Germany) and Shanghai (China).


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The Spark That Set the World Aflame
The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia on June 28th of 1914 set off a conflict that engulfed Europe, and America. When Austria declared war on Serbia that day. By the end of the year the regional conflict exploded into a war that spanned the globe.
The Early Evolution of Flight
The history of World War One aviation is a rich and varied story. The Great War consumed the world in a conflict that was unrivaled until that time. It was a kind of war far different than was waged on the ground where gains were measured in inches and wholesale death on both sides of the trenches. The fight for control of the air was where the cunning, and bravery of the individual could matter for much. This website is my tribute to those fragile aircraft and to the brave pilots on both sides that flew them.
The Race for Military Aviation Technological Supremacy
The story of World War One Aviation is the race to turn fragile powered kite-like experiments in aeronotics into mass-produced sturdy lethal war machines. The story is full of success and failure as designers struggled to solve the problems of military aviation


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You see the following error code when you try launching a game on your Xbox One S or original Xbox One console that requires a subscription and the subscription is expired:
Something went wrong
To resolve this issue, try the following solutions.
Solution 1: Verify the status of the subscription (Ex: Gold subscription, EA Access, etc.)
Note Games with Gold titles require an active Xbox Live Gold subscription on the account that originally redeemed the Games with Gold offer.
To renew your subscription:
Solution 2: Try launching the game again
Solution 3: Restart your console
To resolve this problem, try restarting the console:
Thanks for your feedback!
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The sound of jazz can be heard on almost every block once you hit the Quarter in N'awlins; during the 20th anniversary of the Essence Musical Festival that music was rounded out with the soulful or funkdafied sounds of just about every other genre of music that speaks to your soul.
The Superdome was the place to be in the evenings and during the day I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a few brands that I've come to know and love. Design Essentials hosted an event featuring the Grammy nominated Ledisi who played host to their inaugural Big Easy Style Lounge. Guests were treated to massages, makeup application and had the opportunity to chat with professionals about the range of products and which specific combination worked best for individual needs.
Because I'm a naturalista currently wearing a weave (with some leave out) the sleek edge control was recommended as well as the hydrience which serves as both heat protectant and moisturizer.
For more details on the Design Essentials line please visit www.designessentials.com


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Brilliant. Just brilliant. Do you think I may qualify for one of those Darwin awards? Here's my sorry tale:
Many a morning, my ears are still wet from my shampoo when I insert my phone's earpieces into them. One recent morning, a little light bulb lit up over my head: "Hey! I'll lightly swab the water out with Q-tips to speed the drying process! Sure, there's some advice I'm vaguely aware of that it's really not healthy to insert Q-tips — or anything smaller than your elbow — into your ear, but just look at the little cotton domeheads on sticks! They're so clearly engineered to enter an earhole, aren't they?"
The swabbing felt good, and seemed to work. Just one small problem: Within days, I was experiencing occasional bouts of what I can only describe as indescribable weirdness. It was a sort of dislocating reality shift. A sudden sense that the world was off, and then righted itself again. Something like the feeling you get when you're on a stationary train and don't notice when it starts moving, then look out the window and see the landscape sliding by: a displacement, a minor sensory shock, a brief vertigo.
With my few remaining brain cells, I made the wise decision to stop using the Q-tips, and the sensation abated a few days later. And in hopes that others may learn from my mistakes, I spoke today with Dr. Jennifer Smullen, an otologist and neurotologist (a specialist in surgery of the ear and nerves to the ear) at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. She was kind enough first to treat my sheepishness, and then to share wisdom that I hope spreads far and wide. Our conversation, lightly edited:
I am feeling very stupid at the moment…
Don't feel stupid. This comes up over and over. I do not have a day that goes by that I do not address this issue.
Sigh. I'm feeling a little better. So why should I not have done what I did?
Number one, you would like to have some wax in your ears. The ear canal makes wax for a purpose. The wax in your ear waterproofs the ear canal and keeps water from going in and getting stuck, sort of like wax on your car. If you clean your ear with a Q-tip, that strips the wax and lets the water stay in.
So my trying to remove water with a Q-tip actually created a vicious cycle?
Exactly. So number one, you should leave the wax in your ears because it waterproofs them. It's also a natural antibiotic. It's naturally acidic and it prevents infection in your ear. So if you take away the wax, you're more likely to get a swimmer's ear infection. Third reason why you shouldn't remove the wax with a Q-tip in particular is that at the end of the ear canal is the ear drum, and the ear drum is much closer to the outside than you might think. If you put a Q-tip in your ear so the entire cotton has gone in, you're probably touching your ear drum. People always say they didn't go in that far, and they always do.
And what's the problem with reaching the ear drum?
The ear drum is very delicate, so you can puncture it with a Q-tip, and I've seen that many times. Continue reading


text:
Job Shadow
Employer: Country Comfort Retirement Home
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When it comes to choosing a destination for your holidays, there is no second opinion on Europe. Europe is one place where you can get the entire package of beautiful scenery, great locales; man made structure, culture and rich heritage all in one. The continent is huge and each of the countries has something to offer or the other. One can have a great time over and here and most important of all, it comes well under the budget. Europe travel tours just make an attempt to make your tour a memorable and cherished one.
For history buffs, nature lovers and for those who want to have great gastronomical delights can have a really good time in Europe. Countries such as Greece, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Hungary, and Switzerland are very much popular among the tourist. The tour programs to these countries are very well defined and are well planned beforehand, so that you can have the best of holidays without facing too many hassles.
As per your interest and time available, you can prefer to choose the destination. But do keep your budgetary allocation in mind, as it is very much essential. The main aim is to provide you the best possible destinations, so that you do not miss out anything. Every aspect of the tour package is taken care before hand. In fact, you are not at all required to worry about reserving hotel, booking air tickets, hiring cabs. This way, you get relief from a lot of hassles and worry free. Moreover, you get to save a lot of money.
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text:
Join us for the 12th annual Newport Beach Film Festival. Choose from over 400 films at this year's event running from April 28th to May 5th, 2011!
Visit www.NewportBeachFilmFest.com and click on Buy Tickets!
2011 Newport Beach Film Festival TICKETS ON SALE!
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text:
Let's face it, being in graduate school is pretty stressful. As my former roommate said, "I always feel like I should be doing something, even if I've completed all of my assignments." This is one of the truest statements you'll ever hear about graduate school. The constant feeling that something, somewhere needs to get done can get really stressful and fast. Here are some things I've found are helpful in managing stress:
1. Yoga- Everything you've heard about yoga is true. It's so relaxing. I try to make time for 45 minutes to 1 hour of yoga every Sunday. There are classes at the RPAC (both for class credit and not-for-class credit) if you're just starting and there are studios on W. Lane and High Street (Short North). Most places offer 1-2 free classes if you want to try it out before purchasing multiple classes.
2. Make time to sleep- It's so easy to stay up reading or trying to edit those last few PowerPoint slides before the presentation in the morning. But sleep is really important when it comes to stress management. Sleep is the best way to "recharge", so try to make the time. I've found my new motto to be "if it's not due this week, then try not to worry about it." This has come back to bite me only a few times, so for the most part it works. It certainly helps put things into perspective.
3. Have a week day schedule- It doesn't have to be the same thing everyday, but think about what you need to accomplish everyday and manage time accordingly. If you do this either the night before or even the morning of, you'll find you're not stressing all day about when you're going to have time to do all these things. It also keeps you on track, so you don't start doing something that doesn't need to be done.
4. Take time out for yourself- I allow myself between 30 mins to 1 hour per day to do what I want in terms of relaxing. That may mean watching Top Chef right after class, working out, even painting my nails (yes, I have to plan time to paint my own nails…. sad, but true), etc. During this time, I don't allow myself to think of all the things that need doing or about what I really could be doing instead of figuring out who I want to leave on Top Chef.
5. Exercise! – After about a year long hiatus, I finally got motivated (with the help of one of my best friends) to start working out again on a regular basis. People in the health-care field, parents, friends, etc. who work out always talk about what a great stress reliever exercise is and now I can give you confirmation that this is true. I feel great after running on the treadmill for an hour. Unfortunately, I can't workout everyday, but three times a week seems to work for me. It has definitely helped with the stress, especially because I can talk to my friend about whatever is going on and vice versa. Gym time has turned into exercise/therapy time, which is even better 🙂
When you're constantly stressed, you are more likely to get sick, have physical pain throughout your body, eat more, etc. In order to stay happy and healthy it's important to manage stress.


text:
BBC News
- Tory leadership race: Contenders clash over Brexit
- Wahaca changes eat-and-run policy after waiter asked to pay part of bill
- Harry and Meghan share picture of son Archie on Father's Day
- Wainfleet flooding: Pumps used to reduce water levels
- Theresa May calls for mental health to be priority
- Gulf of Oman: Iran protests to UK ambassador
- Greenpeace activists try to board oil rig at sea
- Julia Rawson disappearance: Police find body in Tipton
- Donald Trump attacks Sadiq Khan over London violence
- Trans charity Mermaids UK 'deeply sorry' for data breach
- Extinction Rebellion postpone Heathrow drone protest
- Police officer hurt in Erdington pursuit crash
- Wales' chapels: The Abernant man single-handedly keeping the doors open
- 'She will always be my daughter' - a Father's Day letter to Jessica
- EastEnders star: How award saved my dad
- Leaked exam: 'I cried in the car on the way home'
- Tattoos at work: Are they still an issue?
- Slavery: Welsh weavers 'implicated in US slave trade'
- Tory leadership race: Moments from the TV debate
- Jailed Nazanin's husband in Iranian embassy tent protest
- Nigerian weddings: Glitz, glamour but mind the cost
- 'Grime Gran': Margaret Keefe, 80, plugged into music scene
- Thrapston nifty knitters knit their town's whole high street
- Illegal eel exporters exposed by Countryfile
- Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill says NI talks 'should not stop for summer'
- Sex education: Llanelli MP says no child should be excluded
- Arrest over Knightswood 'violent attack' death
- Apache flight path over Essex 'hotspot' raises concerns
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Smartphone owners are increasingly using their devices for shopping, from researching products and reviews, to comparing prices, finding retail locations, and redeeming coupons. And retailers are responding with mobile apps and websites designed to attract smartphone shoppers. So, who's winning so far? Nielsen's detailed analysis of smartphone usage reveals that retail websites are more popular than retail apps, and that Amazon's is the most popular retail mobile website of all.
Nielsen's metering of the smartphones of 5,000 U.S. volunteers participating in Nielsen's mobile research shows that during the 2011 holiday season, the top retail apps and websites combined -- Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target and Walmart -- reached nearly 60 percent of smartphone owners. "The majority of smartphone owners used their devices for shopping this past holiday season," said John Burbank, President of Strategic Initiatives at Nielsen. "Mobile shopping has reached scale and is only going to grow as smartphone penetration continues to rise."
Other insights on US smartphone owners' use of retail apps and websites:
"Retailers need to think of their business as a multi-channel environment that can potentially include mobile, online, and bricks and mortar stores," said Burbank. "Winning with shoppers requires a consistent experience across channels that reinforces the values you represent as a retail brand, whether it be price, service, reviews, selection, style, or other key attributes."


text:
2009 Boy Scout Requirement Changes
From MeritBadgeDotOrg
(→External links: add link)
m (2009 Merit Badge Requirement Changes moved to 2009 Boy Scout Requirement Changes: To be consistent with previous year's changes and to allow for the fact that there may be rank adjustments as well.)
Revision as of 16:17, November 9, 2008
The requirements for several Merit Badges changed on August 1, 2008. All Merit Badge pamphlets are reprinted with color photographs, diagrams, and covers effective August 1, 2008. The actual text and requirements, in most cases did not change from the previous editions.
The requirements for the following Merit Badges have changed: Architecture, Automotive Maintenance, Coin Collecting, Drafting, Emergency Preparedness, Engineering, Farm Mechanics, Indian Lore, Insect Study, Landscape Architecture, Lifesaving, Motorboating, Painting, Pottery, Radio, and Swimming.
The Auto Mechanics merit badge was replaced with badge Automotive Maintenance. Architecture and Landscape Architecture Merit Badges were combined into a single book.
All Merit Badge Workbooks are updated.
Boy Scout Requirement Changes Policy
|— 2018 Boy Scout Requirements, inside front cover


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You are a kid of many talents.
You can make your own breakfast, pack your own lunch, and whip up a mean mac-&-cheese for dinner. You know a stegosaurus from a diplodocus, you can tell a king snake from a king cobra, and you know their habitats, too. You can pop wicked wheelies on your bike, whistle between your fingers, recite poetry from memory, and burp on command.
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Remove backups from Site Backup
You can remove individual backups from Site Backup. However, because Site Backup creates daily, incremental back ups, it might not remove all of (or any) files stored in the backup if they are also stored in other backups.
Backups are removed during your next scheduled backup, not immediately.
- In your My Server control panel, click the Backups tab.
- In the Site Backup area, click Manage.
- If another message displays, click Manage again.
- Next to your account or database, click (Backup History).
- Next to the backup you want to remove, click Delete.
- Click Yes.
Next step
- When does Site Backup create backups of my site? to find out when your backup will be removed.


text:
White Papers and Application Notes
A Theoretical Model for the Control of Color Degradation and Microbial Spoilage Occurring in Food Convective DryingS. Curcio[1], M. Aversa[1]
[1]University of Calabria, Department of Engineering Modeling, Rende, Cosenza, Italy
The aim of this work was the development of a predictive model aimed at identifying a proper control strategy of food drying process. In particular, it was intended to determine the effect of operating conditions both on the color degradation, chosen as a reference quality parameter, and on the microbial spoilage occurring during potatoes drying. A transport model, accounting for the simultaneous transfer of momentum, heat and mass occurring in the drying air and in the food sample, was formulated and coupled both to a product decontamination model, describing the microbial inactivation kinetics of Listeria monocytogenes and to another model aimed at predicting the kinetics of color changes occurring during drying. The proposed model allowed determining, on the basis of a dynamic optimization algorithm, a trajectory of operating conditions that has to be tracked by means of proper control systems so as to optimize the performance of drying process.
- curcio_presentation.pdf - 0.8MB
- curcio_poster.pdf - 0.34MB
- curcio_paper.pdf - 0.13MB
- curcio_abstract.pdf - 0.02MB


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Saturday, July 10, 2010
The Wings of Ma'at
18 comments:
- BernardL said...
I bet the marketing stress contributed to your health glitching. Solid review. I'm enjoying D & D very much.
- July 10, 2010 1:13 PM
- Lana Gramlich said...
Congrats on the good review. :) Sorry to hear your back's still not good. I remember when I slipped a couple of disks in my back last year. It took months to get back to "normal." Hang in there, hon. *hug*
- July 10, 2010 3:01 PM
- Angie said...
Congrats on the review! :)
I've read the first three Anita Blake books, and enjoyed them quite a lot. I'll probably keep going again some day, get the next couple, etc. I've been warned by a number of people about the sexual shark-jump later on, though; one of the people who told me when to not bother anymore was a bookstore clerk, whom one might think would be more interested in having me spend money than not :) but she was pretty clear in her opinion.
I'll probably read at least one of the shark-jump books to see what I think myself, but pointless sex bores me, so I'm not expecting to appreciate Ms. Hamilton's new direction. [shrug] I've heard from fans of hers that she's been very firm and clear about how this is where she wants to go and she has no intention of reverting back to her old style on these books, so there you go. Whatever makes her happy, I suppose, and the readers will vote with their wallets as always.
- July 10, 2010 3:42 PM
- laughingwolf said...
welcome back, m'dear... was worried
the back will take its own sweet time, and then some...
accolades just keep rolling in for d&d... yaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!
as for gratuitous sex: many will do anything for filthy lucre, including writing crap, cuz some moronic publisher said so GRRRRRRRRRRR
wv: poron
- July 10, 2010 5:24 PM
- Natasha Fondren said...
Feel better, please, Bernita!
I read the series three times. The first time was as it came out, and I LOVED the sexuality in Narcissus in Chains. But somewhere after that, I stopped reading. When I got the gig to write an essay on the series in Ardeur, I finished the books.
Then I read the whole series two more times, LOL. (Non-fiction is hard for me!) The endless internal justification got tiring, but the arc of the series did start to make sense.
I think of the series question as "What makes a monster?" If the series is viewed in that sense, then Narcissus in Chains doesn't seem to jump ship as much as it first appears. LKH confronts all the monstrous things inside ourselves that scare us, and part of that is our sexuality. In the end, I found Anita's struggle with and ultimate acceptance of her "monstrous" sexuality to be woman-empowering.
- July 10, 2010 11:24 PM
- Charles Gramlich said...
I didn't think it was going to be easy to make sex dull but Hamilton succeeded. That was one of the later books in the series. I did go back and read the first in the series and it was considerably better, but I still am afraid I don't see all the originality folk talk about. Anyway, two is my limit on Hamilton. I won't get another.
- July 11, 2010 1:57 AM
- fairyhedgehog said...
I'm sorry your back is still so painful.
It sounds like all the reviews are coming in good. (As is only right.)
- July 11, 2010 6:11 AM
- Bernita said...
Am so glad of that, Bernard, though I don't do action nearly as well as you do.
Yes, it was a good solid review. I like it when they give the reason why an element doesn't work as well for them.The reviewer prefers pure kick-ass, I think.I can't fault her for that because I usually do too!
Lana, thank you. You are such a comfort because it helps to hear that this will eventually resolve--because there are times when I wonder if it ever will.
Don't think she intends it to be pointless sex, Angie, but it doesn't particularly reasonate with me on a sociological or metaphysical sense, even though I understand her reasoning on an intellectual level.
Thank you, Dear Guy.Heat has been "brutal" ( the perfect word from your son) and the back frustrating.
I don't think she's writing these scenes because of the mantra "sex sells" exclusively. I suspect she's exploring themes of sex and death for creative reasons.
Natasha, thank you. Haven't read them all( obviously) I understand in part her intent, but for me she just didn't pull it off.
Charles, I have to agree that she makes sex dull.Even mechanical for the most part. Perhaps some of us see her concepts as original because we simply haven't read enough in the sub-genre.
Thank you, Fairy. I'm in the "how long, O Lord?" stage iat the moment.
I am so happy about the reviews--and secretly astonished they've been so good!
- July 11, 2010 9:15 AM
- BernardL said...
You underestimate your 'action' writing prowess, Bernita. The battle Lillie and Thresher waged against the reanimated corpse husband in Lillie's house, for example, was a top notch scene. I don't need non-stop action. I need a story to go along with the action. Establishing a world as in D & D, especially in first person is a monumental task. Combining story and action in a new paranormal world will always strike readers and reviewers in different ways. Frankly, any review you can get where the reviewer actually read the book is a plus. :)
- July 11, 2010 12:02 PM
- writtenwyrdd said...
You know, I keep finding that when I leave comments on blogger that they disappear. It's really annoying.
But, yet again, let me say I hope the back improves soon and congrats on further good reviews of the book! Yay!
- July 11, 2010 12:17 PM
- Bernita said...
Bernard, I am so glad you liked that scene because I have the highest respect for the way you handle action.! Thank you.
I agree and I've been very fortunate in my reviewers. They all strike me as honest and sincere.
Archer emailed me that he seemed to be having the same problem this week, Written, yet I found his post when I cam online.
Blogger has been so good for quite a while now that I suppose we're due for a series of problems.
I'm finding the wv doesn't show up first time on blogger.
And thank you again. You helped make it possible with your solid, intelligent critique.
- July 11, 2010 1:23 PM
- raine said...
Congrats on another great review, Bernita, & sincerely hope back relief is on the way.
- July 11, 2010 10:40 PM
- Lauren said...
Congrats on the review! I hope your back starts to give you some relief here soon.
- July 12, 2010 8:30 AM
- laughingwolf said...
balance/order/justice... could it be any more libran? :O lol
- July 12, 2010 10:22 AM
- Bernita said...
Dear Raine and Lauren, thank you.
I don't mean to whine--just to explain-- but I am so weary of pain.
So true, LW!
A daughter gave me a plaque of Ma'at which hangs in my hall.
- July 12, 2010 10:42 AM
- laughingwolf said...
cool... smart daughter :)
wv: shishroa
- July 12, 2010 3:50 PM
- nitebyrd said...
I enjoyed Laurell Hamilton's early Anita Blake books but the later ones are just non-stop sex w/o much plot, I doubt I continue reading. Now, Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series is like oxygen for me! She is just brilliant!
I've just started D&D after finally figuring out the PC reader thingy from B&N!
- July 14, 2010 11:20 AM
- Bernita said...
It's a charming conceit to have Ma'at, LW!
I feel much the same, Nitebyrd. Gabaldon is so rich and textured.
- July 14, 2010 11:34 AM


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text:
GAO says $8.3 billion demonstration project should be canceled or restructured.
An $8.3 billion Medicare demonstration project the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services runs was faulted by government auditors for its large size and a design that might hamper conclusive results, prompting a key congressional overseer to blast it as an attempt by the Obama administration to curry favor with voters.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called a Wednesday hearing to explore whether the Health and Human Services Department's three-year demonstration project to give bonuses to private health plans that upgrade patient services was "designed to offset Obamacare's massive cuts to Medicare Advantage ahead of an election." This could be a case of the Democrats "playing politics with seniors' health care," Issa said.
Jonathan Blum, acting principal deputy administrator and director of the CMS Center for Medicare, defended the demonstration as an important means for rapidly improving the efficiency and quality of health plans. He disputed suggestions from the Government Accountability Office that the program might be illegal.
In implementing the 2010 Affordable Care Act, CMS has been reducing federal subsidies to Medicare Advantage, or the Part C program, for approved private health plans, now used by some 28 percent of seniors, or 13 million people. The redirected funds are being used in part to experiment with a "quality bonus payment" pilot program that rewards private health plans that expand benefits in such areas as wellness and customer service and thereby raise their CMS rating to one of the top two on a five-star quality system.
"To date, there are very positive signs it is working while changing the business model with which plans interact with Medicare Advantage," Blum said. The bonuses allow plans to invest in new infrastructure that helps create more of the top-rated plans that currently aren't available in all counties, he said.
Medicare Advantage premiums on average have fallen 16 percent, and enrollment has climbed by 17 percent, he testified. "Having people enroll in an average plan is not sufficient," Blum said. "We have seen dramatic change in the plans' commitment to quality."
But James Cosgrove, director of health care issues at GAO, said the demonstration project, as designed, relies too much on past data, doesn't provide a control group and doesn't offer better bonus incentives than the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The result, he said, "will be that there might be quality improvements, but we won't know if they're attributable to the demonstration."
He told the panel the $8.3 billion 10-year project was the largest of its kind he'd ever encountered, calling it seven times bigger than the next largest.
Edda Emmanuelli-Perez , GAO's managing associate general counsel, raised doubts as to whether HHS had legal authority to launch the program under the relevant section of the1967 Social Security Amendments, saying it was hard to know because the case law and legislative history are "virtually nonexistent." Earlier this month she wrote HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a letter to that effect, but she has not received a reply.
In March, GAO had recommended HHS cancel the demonstration and use the Affordable Care Act to design a better program.
Republicans for two years have been attacking Democrats politically for redirecting funds from the Medicare Advantage program.
At Wednesday's hearing, Issa cited GAO's recommendations and said, "So the secretary of HHS has unlimited ability to take appropriated money and do what she wants without Congress, to spend $8.3 billion to see if it works even though GAO experts say it won't work?" He said that amounted to "the president using $8.3 billion to buy an election."
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., called Issa's comment "a reckless charge." He asked GAO officials whether they found any evidence of it, prompting Cosgrove to say, "We did not look at motivation for doing the demonstration."
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., reminded Blum that the health care reform law is "under fierce attack and was fought every step of the way, so you have be extra careful."
Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., who is a physician, called the CMS project "a gamble with $8.3 billion in taxpayer money" that suddenly brings in a "large group of mediocre plans" into an experiment just prior to an election. He referred to the 13 million beneficiaries in the Advantage program as "voters" before correcting himself.
Blum said HHS had reviewed GAO's objections to the program, including consulting the department's general counsel, and that the program was "designed by career civil servants." HHS determined the secretary has broad authority under the 1967 law to conduct such a demonstration.
Given the CMS actuaries' estimate that implementing health care reform will cost more than $1.3 trillion for private plans over 10 years, he added, the $8.3 billion over the next three years for a thorough evaluation of the effects of bonuses on quality of offerings is "a small portion."


text:
A change in this post from my Danson and Rawcliffe stories. Have you seen online the new records for the Chelsea Pensioners Service Records at www.findmypast.co.uk? They go back to 1754 and make fascinating reading.
My interest was in Peter Pringle of Duns, Berwickshire who in the 1851 census was described as a "Blind Chelsea Pensioner", born Duns. His wife Arabella was born in Ireland and his son John was born in Chatham, Kent. The helpful background notes on the website outlined that not all pensioners lived at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, with others, like Peter receiving "out relief."
I was keen to find out more about Peter's military career. An online list of soldiers named a Peter Pringle as serving in the Peninsula War and at Waterloo - though there was nothing to confirm if this was "my" Peter Pringle. Another online listing of army births, held at the National Archives, confirmed the birth at Chatham in 1824 of John, son of Peter Pringle and also the birth in 1826 in Hobart Town (Tasmania?) of Arabella, daughter of Peter Pringle. This surely must be the same family, bringing to light an early Australian connection, with Hobart set up as a penal colony in 1803-4. Had Peter served on a convict ship? All this information got more and more absorbing, so I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the pensioner records online.
The record on Peter Pringle related to his discharge in 1829, "through physical infirmity of chronic rheumatism". He had served since 1801 in the 20th Dragoons, 14th Foot and 40th Foot. Unfortunately the section on service was very difficult to decipher, but the place names look to be Spanish, with a reference to Peter being twice wounded at the capture of Cuidad Rodrigo (?). I also found out he was 46 years old , 5 foot 6 inches tall, with blue eyes and fair complexion. His conduct as a soldier had been "extremely good".
I was a wee bit disappointed not to find out anything more on the the possible Australian connection, but it was still great to see this record and add further colour to the Pringle family story.
I was a wee bit disappointed not to find out anything more on the the possible Australian connection, but it was still great to see this record and add further colour to the Pringle family story.


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Everybody knows that Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a sometimes combative columnist and a liberal lion. But in a conversation which aired this weekend we learned more about his personal response to an ongoing crisis he describes as "really nasty," "very, very severe," and "gratuitious," and which he says "will not go away quickly or necessary at all" unless we do something.
We learned how Krugman trolls for music online, that he still believes that Ben Bernanke has been "assimilated by the Borg," and that despite his fondness for science fiction he describes himself as "not that cosmic."
He may be wrong about that last part.
We interviewed Prof. Krugman for our "Conversations" series on The Breakdown. (Previous guests include Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Thom Hartmann, economics/law professor William K. Black, Jr., and other very interesting folks.) Krugman's on a publicity run to push his new book – and not, we suspect, because he needs the money. The book promotes some policies that he (and we, along with many others) feel are urgently needed. (He's speaking at the American Dream conference next month, too.)
Krugman's book is called End This Depression Now! (exclamation point included). If that sounds like a self-help book – the sequel to Listening to Prozac, maybe, or something by Dr, Wayne Dyer – that's not altogether inappropriate in this age of collective near-despair.
(He could have called it Economy, Interrupted.)
We began by asking Krugman if what we had heard was true: That he became an economist because he loved the Foundation series of science-fiction novels by Isaac Asimov. (I was such an Asimov fan as a kid that I sent him a short story I'd written when I was twelve years old. In return I got a postcard that encouraged me to 'keep writing,' a diplomatic choice of words whose delicacy I failed to appreciate at the time.)
In the Foundation series, the fate of the Galactic Empire is studied and guided by a brilliant team of scientists known as 'psychohistorians,' whose field was invented by a 22nd-century genius named Hari Seldon. Like Krugman, I was fascinated by the idea that you could predict the human future if you just had enough information. Selden designed a handheld computer called the Prime Radiant, which projected its data and equations in the air around him. It all seemed pretty cool to me back then, too. We have a word for kids like that nowadays:
In Asimov's novels the Galactic Empire periodically faced a "Seldon Crisis." These existential dangers were usually navigated with the advice and guidance of the psychohistorians. I asked Krugman if the American empire was facing a "Krugman crisis."
"I'm not that cosmic," Krugman said.
In fact, Krugman was determined to keep the focus on the prosaic, straightforward nature of the problem, the human cost of our inaction, and the fact that its solutions are straightforward and practical. "We know to take textbook economics and apply it to this situation," he saaid, "(but) very few people in positions of influence are willing to listen. That's a horrifying thing, because we're suffering gratuitous economic disaster."
"It's completely unnecessary."
As Krugman put it in our conversation, the hard part is the politics. "(The economic solution) is not mysterious. This is not 'Gosh, what are you people proposing? This was all hashed out in papers a decade ago, many of which were written by Ben Bernanke."
"To the extent that people say the economics is confusing or uncertain," Krugman said, "that's overwhelmingly because people want it to be."
"Benanke knows all about this," Krugman said. That led to a question about the groupthink mentality that's keeping Washington focused on the wrong problem – deficits – in a time of widespread suffering. He spoke of the "turf theory" which says that people "end up defending institutional prerogatives … we're supposed to fight that. We've had a rather severe shortage of people in positions of power who are willing to fight that."
Krugman's differences with the Administration lay less in what he sees as the President's personal values and more in the White House's perceptions of the political and pragmatic: "I believe that the President hasn't bought into the stigmatization of the people in distress, but what he has done is accepted the notion … that you should stay within the confines of a conventional wisdom as defined by what amounts to a successful, deceptive propaganda campaign."
"And I'm arguing that's a losing strategy, even politically."
As I write this, the Peter G. Peterson "Fiscal Summit" is taking place in Washington DC. (Sen. Bernie Sanders and a number of other people are gathering outside to protest it, too) There, under the sponsorship of the anti-government billionaire Peterson, political heavyweights will gather to promote two insane ideas: that our most urgent problem is government deficits, not the economic misery of millions, and that the smartest thing we can do right now is pursue the austerity policies that are shattering Europe economically and politically.
This well-financed Washington obsession is the inspiration for Tom Tomorrow's latest cartoon, which gives a sci-fi twist to the economic debate that Krugman should especially appreciate (despite the fact that his own fate in it turns out to be dire.)
Tom Tomorrow's aliens say what all aliens used to say: "Foolish human." And if anything comes through more strongly than ever in the new book (and our conversation), it's Krugman's own humanity.
I asked about the challenge of hearing useful advice go unheeded, or avoiding a breakdown into aggravated despair in clashes like his recent one with Ron Paul, whose views on war and civil liberties add a great deal to our discourse – but whose economic remarks to Krugman were just off the wall. (Paul was saying something at great length about the Greek and Roman empires and the gold standard, as I recall).
"I try to keep the perspective that I'm frustrated because I can't get people to listen to what seems to me to be obviously the right ideas," said Krugman. "The real people who are frustrated are the 59 year olds out there who don't have jobs and may never get another one, or the nineteen year olds coming out of college with no job prospects."
"A sense of humor helps, too."
Krugman's book shows great empathy for the victims of our politically-induced economic malaise, too. He uses the moving Peter Gabriel song "Don't Give Up" to frame a discussion of our current economy's human costs. That led us into a discussion about the Willie Nelson/Sinead O'Connor version of that song, which I encouraged him to check out. (There's a sample of it in the interview), his YouTube habits, and … well, you just gotta listen.
Krugman's a brilliant guy and excellent writer who I agree with most of the time. He stood up against the near-hegemony of the RIght in the public sphere during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. That took a lot of courage. He's been taking a lot of bows and arrows ever since. (Rush Limbaugh even interrupted his tirade against me to take a shot at Krugman. I considered the association a compliment.)
Krugman won his Nobel for macroeconomics, which is as close to "cosmic" as it gets in that field. Psychohistory may even have influenced his Nobel-winning work (I wish I'd asked him) in economic geography and economies of scale. (Hari Seldon preferred a sample size of one quintillion people. That's not currently available – not on this planet, anyway.)
Cosmic or not, it was a down-to-earth and compassionate guy who showed up for the interview. He's written an important book that should be read by millions of people around the country – and by a couple hundred or so in Washington, where its message is most urgently needed.
You can hear the interview here. This weekend's show also included a special report entitled "The Case Against Chase: The Fall of the House of Dimon," and commentary on the – well, the psychohistory – of Mitt Romney's bullying episode. The full episode's podcast is below:
Some of our other conversations can be found on the Breakdown Conversations page. (Sorry about the formatting; we're working on it.)


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"We always have a blast. There's something cathartic about playing music with a group of people you love." —Hannah O'Flynn '15
The Barbary Coast is the student jazz ensemble of Dartmouth College. Composed almost entirely of non-music majors, the Coast is dedicated to the idea that a large group of people improvising together, exploring ideas and making choices in real time, can be a transformative experience. The jazz orchestra has been a model of creative interaction, structural innovation, and American ingenuity for over a century-and the Coast has been around for almost as long: first for decades as a student-led ensemble, then for 40 years under the leadership of Don Glasgo before he passed the baton to Taylor Ho Bynum in 2017. In its rich history, the ensemble has hosted a diversity of guest artists, from jazz legends like Max Roach, Dexter Gordon and Clark Terry, to leaders of the avant-garde like Sun Ra, Don Cherry and Lester Bowie, to Latin jazz masters like Eddie Palmieri and Jerry and Andy Gonzales. This tradition continues with visits from some of the brightest voices of today's creative music scene like Nicole Mitchell, Mary Halvorson and Tomeka Reid. The Coast explores the full spectrum of jazz and creative music, from pioneers like Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams and Charles Mingus, to the latest original compositions by its guest artists, its director and its students. Each term brings a new theme-whether the focus is on a particular composer or historical period, a collaboration with guests or other Hop Ensembles, or the annual senior feature concert, with repertoire chosen by its graduating students.
Taylor Ho Bynum has spent his career navigating the intersections between structure and improvisation–through musical composition, performance and interdisciplinary collaboration, and through production, organizing, teaching, writing and advocacy. Bynum's expressionistic playing on cornet and his expansive vision as composer have garnered him critical attention on over twenty recordings as a bandleader and dozens more as a sideman. His varied endeavors include leading his own bands (such as his long-running Sextet and his 15-piece creative orchestra The PlusTet), his Acoustic Bicycle Tours (where he travels to concerts solely by bike across thousands of miles) and his stewardship of Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation (which he serves as executive director, producing and performing on most of Braxton's recent major projects). Bynum has worked with many legendary figures such as Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor, maintains current collaborative projects with forward thinking peers like Mary Halvorson and Tomas Fujiwara, and travels the globe to conduct explorations of new creative orchestra music. His writing has been published in the New Yorker, Point of Departure and Sound American; and he has taught at universities, festivals and workshops worldwide, and has served as a panelist and consultant for leading funders, arts organizations and individual artists. His work has received support from Creative Capital, the Connecticut Office of the Arts, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, USArtists International and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Watch more videos from the Coast
Fall '18: Joseph Daley (tuba) and Kris Davis (piano)
Winter '19: Thumbscrew – Mary Halvorson (guitar), Michael Formanek (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
Bill Lowe
Jim Hobbs
Joseph Bowie
Steven Bernstein
Nicole Mitchell
Peter Apfelbaum
Gregorio Uribe
Tue, September 11 from 10 am to 6 pm
Auditions required. Sign Up Here
Please contact the Ensembles Office at 603.646.2530 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Hartman Rehearsal Hall
call 603.646.2530 or email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Registration is now open to attend an exclusive meal prepared by one of the country's most decorated chefs, who hopes to raise money to build a rooftop garden in downtown Los Angeles.
The event, featuring Alma restaurant's Chef Ari Taymore, begins at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 20 at New School of Cooking, 8690 Washington Blvd. in Culver City.
Alma was recently named the "Best New Restaurant in America" by Bon Appétit magazine. Taymore's cooking style relies on farm fresh, healthy ingredients.
Attendees will have a four-course dinner with beverage pairings for $125 each. Proceeds will go to Taymore and farmer Courtney Guerra to build a rooftop urban garden above the restaurant.
To register, visit the calendar section of the website, www.newschoolofcooking.com.


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Suzy Darling is having a rough few days. She just walked out on her unfaithful husband, Steve, taking her children with her to her newly bought penthouse. The penthouse is beautiful with a lovely balcony and it's right next to her dental practice.
Just one problem: It's haunted by the ghost of Henry Mallet, whom Suzy alone can see and hear. Suzy has to juggle dealing with Henry's antics and demands, raising her children, settling into her new place, running her dental practice, and dodging Steve's attempts to in turn sabotage her new life and woo her back.
Spirited is an Australian dramedy on W Channel starring Claudia Karvan, Matt King, and Rodger Corser. It's already been green-lit for a second season.
Source :
Séries created by : Jacqeline Perskes in 2010http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0675476/
8 episodes (one season/series) have been produced so far by the Australian network W.
Official website :http://www.wchannel.com.au/spirited/
With :
Claudia Karvan=>Suzy Darling
Matt King=>Henry Mallet
Rodger Corser=>Steve Darling
Belinda Bromilow=> Jonquil Payne
Charlie Hancock=> Verity Darling
Louis Fowler=> Elvis Darling
fiche IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1524415/
(I would advise you to watch only the first 30 seconds in order to avoid being spoilered too much)
My opinion
I discovered the series by chance (I was readind an article about Australian TV) ! The synopsis reminded me of The Ghost and Mrs Muir (a 1947 film) which I really enjoyed. I saw the pilote and thought it was nice but not extraordinary. Still I went on and I was totally sucked in ! I love the mix of everyday life and Henry's interventions, it can be really funny ! The different secondary characters are touching and/or funny, the plot moves along quickly enough ...
So, a really nice surprise in the end ! The 2 main actors are great, the husband as well (as a jerkass), the children's actors as well ...
There are fantstic elements but the most important things are the characters relationships and interactions, Henry's and Suzie's opposite personalities, their changing relationship ...
The excentric characters made me think of Gilmore Girls sometimes ! There are also more serious and emotionnal moments, with some romance thrown in the mix !
This is a warm series, a good programm to watch during the long cold Winter nights coming !
The only problem is that I'm suffering withdrawal syndroms now !


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This Lewmar Drilled track is perfect for jib/genoa leads where through deck fixing is not possible, for instance in double skinned boats where bolts are trapped in a mounting plate, or else tapped into the deck.
Drilled Track features plunger holes between every fastener, for use with either pin-stop leads or end controls.
This tack section is made of 6082T6 aluminum and uses Lewmar NTR style cars.
Size 1 track is suitable for boats up to 36 feet.


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This ladies group provides a warm and friendly place where you can feel comfortable to ask any question, and participate in learning about the interesting lives with both the struggles and the victories of different men of the New Testament.
Current study 1st Corinthians.
Contact: Lorraine 803-493-4978 & Debbie Clonts or Church Office: 803-802-3189


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America Needs a King
Does America need a monarch? Ever since, according to legend, George Washington turned down the chance of becoming the new country's king, America's identity as a republican nation of citizen rulers has been rock solid. Indeed, nothing can stir patriotic anger more than the suggestion that the U.S. president is acting like unelected royalty. Yet even before independence, John Adams argued in favor of a "republican monarchy" of laws, lamenting, "We have so many Men of Wealth, of ambitious Spirits, of Intrigue … that incessant Factions will disturb our Peace."
Looking at the United States, today, Adams was prescient, with the country almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, special interests dominant, and poisonous partisan gridlock destroying Washington, D.C. While Adams favored a republican monarch with absolute veto powers, today we need a person who can sit above politics and help strengthen our commitment to republican values. We need a king, or something like one.
Story Continued Below
As the only nationally elected official, the president has become a symbol of the country. Such symbols, whether in a democracy, monarchy, or authoritarian state, must serve a purpose above politics, both at home and abroad. Yet that is impossible for a U.S. president who is head of his own government, putative head of his political party and invariably a competitive, partisan politician. For example of just how awkward this can be, hours after a mass shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington last September, President Obama unleashed a blisteringly critical speech on the budget, accusing the Tea Party faction in Congress of promising "economic chaos" and questioning whether Republicans were "willing to hurt people just to score political points."
In parliamentary systems around the globe, the head of state is separate from the head of government. In some countries, like Russia and France, the president (as head of state) is more powerful than the prime minister (who is head of government). In others, like Israel, the president serves simply as a symbol of the nation, while the prime minister runs the country. Europe's constitutional monarchies limit their heads of royal houses to symbolic functions, while reserving that role to one family. Having a national, unifying position ostensibly standing outside the daily muck of politics provides a rallying point for all citizens and a safety valve to redirecting national passions in a non-partisan way.
We have no such safety valve in the United States. Our experiment in self-government has progressed to the point where the differences in our increasingly complex country are now the salient feature of public life. They are certainly not as fundamental as the questions of slavery or civil rights, but they are deep and growing deeper nonetheless. The role and size of government, individual rights to privacy, immigration, the definition of marriage and the like are all driving polarization, not just in Washington, but in Peoria and Albuquerque and Manchester. The result is a country that is becoming shriller, more willing to demonize opponents and less united. This deep corrosion of political life is directly responsible for Americans' growing sense of alienation.
There is, for many Americans, nowhere to turn to find a sense of common meaning. Not politics: Nine out of 10 polls followed by Real Clear Politics in December 2013 recorded that 60 percent or more of respondents feel the country is on the wrong track, with some polls reaching as high as 66 percent. Politicians are despised as a class, with congressional approval at an astonishingly low 6 percent, according to a year-end Economist/YouGov poll. Not the courts: The Supreme Court is now viewed unfavorably by nearly half the country, being seen as increasingly partisan after its controversial 2000 election ruling and 2012 Obamacare decision. Not religion: It's increasingly a private affair, and has become a source of growing contention between believers and often-secular elites. Only American popular culture substitutes for a sense of community, with sports and film stars looked up to as exemplars despite their often lurid and sensational antics and unreachable wealth.


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Girls: Crest (13-2, 7-0) at Forestview (12-5, 5-1)� First place in the Big South 3A Conference is on the line as these two hook up for a rematch of Crest�s 65-62 home win Dec. 18. Forestview trailed by 18 points in the second quarter before rallying behind senior Bre Armstrong (22 points and school-record 27 rebounds) to make it a game.
Boys: East Gaston (9-7, 3-3) at Olympic (16-0, 6-0)� East Gaston was one of three teams tied for second place in the MEGA 7 3A/4A Conference heading into Monday�s action, and they were all chasing Olympic, the state�s top-ranked 4A team. Olympic beat the Warriors 93-59 in the first meeting.
Girls: North Gaston (7-8, 2-4) at Ashbrook (13-4, 4-3) � Ashbrook has been able to hang with the best teams in the Big South 3A Conference (Crest and Forestview) but had difficulty putting away a much-improved North Gaston team last month as the Green Wave escaped 57-46 in overtime.
Boys: Crest (8-7, 4-3) at Forestview (8-9, 3-3)� These two teams and Kings Mountain are in a logjam for the last two of four playoff berths out of the Big South 3A Conference. Crest held a half-game lead over Forestview and Kings Mountain entering Monday (when Kings Mountain faced South Point) for third place.
Big South 3A
North Gaston at Ashbrook
Crest at Forestview
South Point at Hunter Huss
Southern Piedmont 1A/2A
Bessemer City at Lincolnton
Cherryville at Lake Norman Charter
West Lincoln at East Lincoln
North Lincoln at Highland Tech
East Gaston at Olympic
Garinger at Berry Academy
West Mecklenburg at Charlotte Catholic
Private/charter schools
Covenant Day at Gaston Christian
Gaston Day at Hickory Christian
Piedmont Community Charter at North Hills
Southern Piedmont 1A/2A
West Lincoln at Highland Tech
Charlotte Catholic at Garinger
Harding at Hopewell
Private/charter schools
Queens Grant at Lincoln Charter