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Shares in Research In Motion Ltd fell more than 3 percent on Thursday morning after the BlackBerry maker said its global sales chief had resigned.
The resignation of Patrick Spence, a 14-year RIM veteran, comes as the Canadian company struggles to sell legacy products and prepares for the make-or-break launch of its new smartphone later this year.
London-based Spence had risen steadily through RIM's ranks and was widely credited with building strong sales growth in the Middle East and other emerging markets.
"Losing Patrick is undoubtedly a blow to RIM and he is a significant loss to the European operation," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight. "He was a well-liked and committed BlackBerry advocate who was highly regarded both inside and outside the business."
RIM did not name a replacement or say where Spence was going when it made the announcement late on Wednesday.
Spence was pivotal to the global launch of a range of BlackBerry 7 devices last year and had worked to decentralize RIM's sales planning so it fit better with regional needs.
His sudden departure was not a shock to some analysts, who said his close ties to RIM's former co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie may have left him isolated after Balsillie quit earlier this year over a major strategy disagreement.
"Spence was a Balsillie protégé so his departure isn't a surprise altogether," said IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. "But his departure is still a punch in the stomach to RIM faithful as he helped the company rise to prominence in key markets such as the UK and the Gulf states."
New CEO Thorsten Heins moved quickly to put his stamp on the company after he took over in January from Balsillie, who had focused on sales, and founder Mike Lazaridis, who led product development.
Heins filled a long vacant chief marketing job earlier this month and also named Kristian Tear as chief operating officer. Being passed over for that job may have influenced Spence's decision to leave, the Globe and Mail newspaper said, citing a source close to the company.
The departure creates a void in sales as RIM struggles to sell existing devices seen as lagging those of industry leaders Apple and Samsung, while at the same time working on a major transition of its smartphone lineup to the operating system first used in its poor-selling PlayBook tablet.
The stock was down 3 percent at $10.75 at mid-morning on the Nasdaq. It has lost three-quarters of its value in the past year and languishes at prices last seen in December 2003, when its annual sales were seven times smaller than its last quarterly revenue tally.
Source : Reuters


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The Wautoma Public Library Board meets either monthly or every other month, usually on the 1st Wednesday of the month at 4pm. An agenda is displayed at the Library, at City Hall, and also faxed to the Waushara Argus a week prior to a meeting being held. Public comments are always the first item on the agenda and the meeting is open to the public. Please limit public comments to 5 minutes. If longer discussion is necessary please contact the library director to be put on the Agenda.
Library Board Members:
Wendy Appel - President
Danielle Castner - Treasurer
Deb Buchholz
Pat King - County Rep
Jon Schweder
Heidi Hensel-Buntrock - Secretary
Cynthia Loa
Helena Waala

subset: commoncrawl


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Why our clients love us...
My dogs LOVE this place. Every time I visit Phoenix for work (which is quite often) I bring the pooches along, but I can't always leave them at home – enter: Villa La PAWS.
The staff is very friendly and the place, with multiple indoor and outdoor areas for the lil ones to play, is clean and well maintained. The best part though, is that the boys come home pooped and happy – and I'm sure they'd love to go right back!
I always struggle to find good places to have my dogs boarded at when I travel with them – but not in Phoenix!
I have a Great Pyrenees who is a rescue dog. I've been having him groomed at Villa Law PAWS, and they always do a wonderful job on him. I have always wanted to get his coat shaved down in the summer (even tho some experts advise against it), but he would never allow a groomer to get anywhere near him with the electric clippers. I took him in last weekend, and the wonderful groomers at Villa La PAWS managed to get my big boy completely shaved down, and we are all so happy!! They did such a wonderful job, no abrasions even with the very close clip. Thank you, Villa La PAWS, for not giving up on my Rio!!!
My dog JC has been going to Villa la PAWS since 2010 and she loves it! Daycare, slumber parties and grooming – they do it all!
JC frequently gets groomed at Villa la PAWS – they are absolutely the best! I won't take JC anywhere else.
JC has celebrated her last 3 birthdays at Villa la PAWS. The staff are just so incredible! They are patient, fun, loving, kind and yet firm when they need to be. They make such a big deal when JC comes in that I just always leave feeling so confident that she is in the best hands!
Best part? Especially if you're worried about leaving your fur kid for several days? They have live cams! Yep, all you have to do is go on the website or, wait for it, there's an app for it! I frequently check on JC using my iPhone or iPad app – it's so awesome!
Thank you Villa la PAWS!
This place is the best.
Before deciding to trust Villa La PAWS to our (at that time) one year old puppy on his first night away from home, we spent a lot of time examining everyone else. Though Villa La PAWS was on the list, I admit it was low on the list given it's location. I know, it's not fair to judge a book by it's cover. Frankly, I couldn't come up with a good reason to shy away from a kennel in a strip mall (in the middle of Maple Shade), it's just that most kennels are tucked away in wooded areas.
After a bit more research, it became clear that Villa La PAWS does things differently. Most exciting to me, they let the dogs exist in packs–during the day and even at night. Never are they shoved into cages or segregated. In fact, they share a room full of couches in the evening. Finally, they have webcams everywhere that you can log in to check, whenever, for free. Given this info, we went ahead and gave Villa a go.
My first customer service interaction was with Mike, whom I believe owns the franchise (he definitely manages it). It was great from then on. We've never had anything but a pleasant experience with customer service at Villa La PAWS. Back to Mike: he recognizes our pup, and vice-versa, every time we walk in the door, which isn't often enough. That's not to say that we aren't going away enough–rather, Villa La PAWS is not just a stellar kennel, but they also do day care (and grooming and training and I'm sure some other stuff I'm not aware of). Whenever my wife and I have been working too much, we bring the pup in to Villa La PAWS for a day of excitement, and he always comes home exhausted and seemingly happy. For further proof, I can hardly contain my dog during the very short walk from my car to the front door–he's that excited.
I won't go anywhere else for boarding and day care. These guys are the best.
What a lifesaver for a freelancer like me! I take my 3 Italian Greyhounds to Hillside Unleashed in north Scottsdale – the first doggie day spa and boarding facility my husband and I have felt comfortable using. I'm then free to be productive in my work, while knowing our dogs are getting great exercise and socialization. The staff always relays how the dogs did, and periodic written "report cards" provide additional information in a fun context.
This is hands down the most carefully appointed, spotlessly clean and beautifully designed facility I've seen. The staff are extremely attentive – there is always at least one staff member in the separate large and small dog play areas at all times. When we leave town, we also board our dogs at Hillside Unleashed because we trust that they will be cared for with affection as well as professionalism. The boarding area, like the rest of the facility, is absolutely spotless.
Doggie day spas are all over the place, but many are understaffed – and not properly maintained (i.e., just plain dirty.) Hillside Unleashed sets the bar for how a doggie day spa should be run. Highly recommend.


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Please call/text - 414-870-0032
Views: 248
Replies to This Discussion
Hey, where are you located or where do you play?
Just moved in to dallas....Right now in Extended stay by the 635-75 corner, greenville av.
Open to play anywhere..
I can play evenings usually after 6 45 if plano is convenient for you?
Call me, let us talk to plan out what can be the best place for both of us.
send me your cell # through text - 414-870-0032.
I sent you a text let me know if u want to play today doubles...972 358 4084
Hi, I am normally available to play on weekday evenings and weekends.
We have a mixed doubles group that plays in Shepton HS in Plano on Saturdays. Hope you can join sometime.
Txt me or call me at 214 208 9078 when you are available.
Hi Tapas ,
I'm a 4.0 player. I stay in Irving and I'm willing to play over the weekdays and weekends. Where do you generally hit ? I don't mind travelling 6-10 away from my place.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Machine Quilting.....Starts and Stops
I think the best method is done in such a way so that you (or judges) can NOT detect where your starts and stops are, AND that your stitches are absolutely locked and will not come out. This of course is also the most time consuming way to do it.You will begin as always by taking 1 stitch and bringing your bobbin thread to the surface, hold the tails in your left hand and begin stitching.Now you want to separate these two threads and then tie a knot, lay that knot right tight against your work......then do it once again.....you have now knotted these threads twice, below is a close up of the first knot as it was being pulled tight.Next you will thread a needle.........one with a larger eye and a needle threader helps or you can use a self threading needle if you prefer. (both thread tails are threaded into the eye together)The next step is to insert your threaded needle into the quilt right where that first stitch was taken, carefully slip the needle into the batting/quilt middle only, bring it out about an inch and a half away, give it a gentle tug to cause the knots to "pop" into the quilt and then you can clip your threads closely
To do this method in areas where you have ended your stitching, you will first need to thread a needle with your bobbin thread so that you can bring it to the top....now that both threads are on top you simply repeat the knotting/threading/burying process.
and there you have it, yes it requires a little effort but your starts and stops will be secure and undetectable.
Edit: Just a note about dealing with your threads at the end of a stitch line....there is a way to do it at the machine, without threading a hand sewing needle....I do it this way but a commenter Rebecca Grace has described the process perfectly so I will use her words
Rebecca says... when you get to the ending, there IS a way to bring up the bobbin thread without using a hand needle. When you finish the line of stitching, DON'T clip threads, but just raise the presser foot and pull the quilt a few inches to the side. Then move the quilt back where it was, holding onto the loop of excess thread on the top of the quilt, lower the needle into the hole of the last stitch and bring it up again. Give a little tug on the loop of top thread, and the bobbin thread will pop up just as it does when you were starting out.
16 comments:
- Brenda said...
funny thing: Leah Day over at the free motion quilting project says exactly the same thing in her post today. I bought some of those self-threading needles exactly for that, but can't quite figure them out.
- January 26, 2012 at 5:37 PM
- Robbie said...
I've too used this method but I think I saw it by 'Pink'? He's a longarm machine quilter and I thought the method was perfect. So much better than having to tie off on the back of your work. Thanks for sharing for folks who haven't seen this technique before!! you are always so willing to share what you know with others! We thank you for that!
- January 26, 2012 at 6:43 PM
- Denise :) said...
Bless you! I knew there was an easier way than what I was doing!! :)
- January 26, 2012 at 8:01 PM
- Mary Ann Tate said...
- January 26, 2012 at 10:26 PM
- Charlotte Scott said...
Yup, have to agree this is the best way. It looks so much neater. You've written a great tutorial. And I LOVE Clover self-threading needles for this task. Jane Sassaman introduced us to them in a workshop and they make the task so much quicker.
- January 26, 2012 at 10:43 PM
- Rosalind said...
If you have a lot of threads to hide there is another way where you only have to thread your needle once. It also works with short threads.
Double a thread and thread the two ends through the eye leaving the loop at the long end. Make the knot in your quilt ends as you describe and then insert your needle at the knot, catch your quilt tails in the loop and pull through to hide in the batting. Your needle loop releases your quilt threads and is ready threaded for the next one.
Hope that makes sense!
- January 27, 2012 at 4:49 AM
- Joan said...
Thats great Jill...just they way I do it - time consuming, but really satisfying :) Your tutorial was wonderful!
- January 27, 2012 at 6:13 AM
- Finishing Lines by K.Sperino said...
excellent tutorial Jill!! I also use a needle threader as I have trouble with all self threaders shredding my threads, but they work excellent for some... When you complete your stitching you can also pull up your bobbin thread by dropping your needle into the last hole and pull it to the top, snip it with a long enough tail and then you can tie/ bury later. This keeps the threads where you can see them, otherwise I tend to get them tangled into the bottom stitching... great job! :)
- January 27, 2012 at 9:04 AM
- Teresa in Music City said...
Always love learning something new! Thanks for the tips!!!! Can't wait to try it out!
- January 27, 2012 at 9:47 AM
- Chris said...
Thanks for taking the time to demo. I have been unsatisfied with the way my Janome Horizon starts and stops. The top looks good, but the back is an eye sore. I will be using your technique in the future. :)
- January 29, 2012 at 10:12 PM
- Jaye said...
I am glad to see that you bury your threads as well. I do this also. It is time consuming, but looks the best.
- January 31, 2012 at 11:12 AM
- Valerie the Pumpkin Patch Quilter said...
I do this also on anything that I really want to hide my starts and stops. You explain it so well though! :) Thanks for sharing, it's reaffirming in a way to know that others do this too!
- February 20, 2012 at 10:46 AM
- Cassandra said...
Thanks for posting this!! It improved my quilting 10 fold. I'm a newbie and this REALLY helped. Thanks again!
- June 21, 2012 at 12:51 PM
- Michele T said...
Thanks for this tip!!!
- November 12, 2012 at 10:24 PM
- Rebecca Grace said...
I just stumbled across a link to this post on Pinterest -- and it's SO timely. I have been working for months on improving my FMQ skills and the one thing that I hate most about my machine quilting is how ugly those tiny "locking stitches" look at the beginning and ending of every line of quilting. I always seem to get tiny thread whiskers at the stops and starts, and even though several well-known machine quilting teachers say to do the starts and stops that way, I think it looks horrendous especially with any kind of contrasting or decorative thread. I am printing out your tutorial and sticking it up at the machine so I can try it this way next time.
One thought that I had, though -- when you get to the ending, there IS a way to bring up the bobbin thread without using a hand needle. When you finish the line of stitching, DON'T clip threads, but just raise the presser foot and pull the quilt a few inches to the side. Then move the quilt back where it was, holding onto the loop of excess thread on the top of the quilt, lower the needle into the hole of the last stitch and bring it up again. Give a little tug on the loop of top thread, and the bobbin thread will pop up just as it does when you were starting out.
Thanks for the tutorial!
- October 28, 2013 at 5:59 PM
- Unknown said...
A friend just sent me your post and can't wait to try it.
- March 27, 2016 at 9:05 AM


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'evolution' tag.
Nagel, and others (and not just intelligent design (ID) folks, some of whom think God orchestrates evolution) see the need for some more directed form of evolution to explain the diversity and complexity of life on our planet. Nagel seems to think mind / consciousness, and not God in the traditional conception of the term, might fit the bill. But to me that seems rather extreme, and goes against "reductive materialism / naturalism" that has been so successful at explaining how the world works over the last few hundred years.
One wonders if a less drastic solution that tweaks the mechanism of neo-Darwinian evolution, might be invoked to save the day for materialism / naturalism.
As discussed elsewhere (see this post for details), I've recently been studying epigenetics, where gene expression can be modulated by methylation (among other mechanisms). In methylation, a methyl groups can attach to a particular DNA base pair, causing the gene to "wrap up" around a histone, preventing it from being transcribed into RNA, thereby suppressing expression of the protein that the gene codes for. This methylation can be driven by environmental factors, is quite localized, specific, and repeatable, and can occur not only in somatic cells, but also in germ-line cells (eggs and sperm), and thereby get passed down to several subsequent generations.
While the epigenetic changes can be adaptive both for the organism in which they first occur, as well as their progeny, they aren't permanent changes to the base-pair sequence of genes, so they aren't heritable variations over thousands or millions of years, like we see across species in the world. So they are "Lamarkian" to a point, but not in the true sense of the world – giraffe necks could get longer for a generation or two after (hypothetical) epigenetic changes occurred as a result of a giraffe stretching to reach the high leaves on a tree, but eventually the epigenetic changes would "wear off" and subsequent generations would go back to having short necks.
But what if epigenetic changes via methylation not only silences genes, but also made those silenced genes more prone to mutation? The methylation would not only be a signal that "this gene isn't worth expressing in the current environment", it would also be signaling "this gene is not very useful in is current form in the current environment, so target it for mutation". With an elevated mutation rate specific to maladaptive genes lasting several generations, new variations should more readily arise in subsequent generations, accelerating experimentation with parts of the genome where changes would be mostly likely to be beneficial in a rapidly changing environment.
This sort of elevated mutation rate in parts of genes that have been methylated (silenced) is exactly what this study [1] found. To quote the abstract:
Our results … provid[e] the first supporting evidence of mutation rate variation at human methylated CpG sites using the genome-wide sing-base resolution methylation data.
It's not clear that this targeting of random mutations to specific maladaptive genes could result in the type of big changes Nagel and others point to when criticizing neo-Darwinian evolution. But it seems like a way to facilitate a sort of "semi-Intelligent Design", without an explicit designer, by focusing "random tinkering" with the genome in places where genetic changes could do the most good in the current environment.
[1] BMC Genomics. 2012;13 Suppl 8:S7. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-13-S8-S7. Epub 2012 Dec 17.
Investigating the relationship of DNA methylation with mutation rate and allele frequency in the human genome.
BACKGROUND:DNA methylation, which mainly occurs at CpG dinucleotides, is a dynamic epigenetic regulation mechanism in most eukaryotic genomes. It is already known that methylated CpG dinucleotides can lead to a high rate of C to T mutation at these sites. However, less is known about whether and how the methylation level causes a different mutation rate, especially at the single-base resolution.
RESULTS:In this study, we used genome-wide single-base resolution methylation data to perform a comprehensive analysis of the mutation rate of methylated cytosines from human embryonic stem cell. Through the analysis of the density of single nucleotide polymorphisms, we first confirmed that the mutation rate in methylated CpG sites is greater than that in unmethylated CpG sites. Then, we showed that among methylated CpG sites, the mutation rate is markedly increased in low-intermediately (20-40% methylation level) to intermediately methylated CpG sites (40-60% methylation level) of the human genome. This mutation pattern was observed regardless of DNA strand direction and the sequence coverage over the site on which the methylation level was calculated. Moreover, this highly non-random mutation pattern was found more apparent in intergenic and intronic regions than in promoter regions and CpG islands. Our investigation suggested this pattern appears primarily in autosomes rather than sex chromosomes. Further analysis based on human-chimpanzee divergence confirmed these observations. Finally, we observed a significant correlation between the methylation level and cytosine allele frequency.


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MOREHEAD CITY � Public opposition fueled a company�s decision to withdraw plans for a log-export business that included a fumigation facility at the state port.
MOREHEAD CITY � Public opposition fueled a company�s decision to withdraw plans for a log-export business that included a fumigation facility at the state port.
Cogent Fibre partner Robert Mantrop said the company heard the concerns expressed by residents at the Aug. 28 informational meeting hosted by the Town of Morehead City and won�t proceed with the bulk log export operation is was considering.
�As a company, it is of great importance to the partners and employees of Cogent Fibre to continue to represent a positive impact on the local community and environment,� he said in a written statement. �With this in mind, Cogent Fibre would like to announce that it has listened to the concerns put forward during the meeting and has concluded that those concerns are significant enough to discontinue the pursuit of this project any further. In the meantime, we will continue with our existing wood chip operations and continue to develop new opportunities that are in accordance with our mandate.�
More than 100 people attended the meeting, at which many expressed concerns about the fumigation process, particularly the use of methyl bromide, which the Environmental Protection Agency has classified a hazardous air pollutant.
Those concerns included potential health and environmental impacts. Others said a fumigation operation would not suite the community.
Mantrop said they were exploring the possibility of a new export opportunity and are still very early in the process.
�We were going through the steps to see if it would be possible,� he told The Daily News.
In the proposed case, the potential trade was southern yellow pine log shipments to India and China. Both countries require the use of methyl bromide as a fumigant prior to shipping and do not allow other methods of fumigation.
Cogent contacted the State Ports Authority to see if this method of fumigation was permitted but found that the current air permit does not allow for such fumigation at the Port of Morehead City, but that there was a permitting process through the N.C. Division of Air Quality.
Such permits are typically provided to the company applying the fumigant, and Cogent requested that Royal Pest Solutions submit the permit application.
That application process was still in the initial stages at the time of the informational meeting in Morehead City.
The application was not complete and the Division of Air Quality was waiting for additional information before beginning the formal review process.
It was unclear Thursday what Cogent�s decision will mean for the permit application.
Anne Bookout, vice president and general counsel for Royal Pest Solutions, said they don�t know at this point whether they will drop the air permit application or pursue it.
If they do proceed, Mantrop said it will be without them.
�I can tell you 100 percent our company will not be part of it,� he said.
Contact Daily News reporter Jannette Pippin at 910-382-2557 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Visit JDNews.com to comment.


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North Texas provides an example of how the youth landscape is changing now that MLS has entered the fray.
A Dallas Morning News article in March revealed how crazily competitive youth soccer is in North Texas, where 195,000 children play the game.
A Web site that offers up-to-the-minute scores and field conditions hosts forums in which parents spread rumors, sound off on coaches and players, and pick fights with each other. Some 12,000 users have posted to its forum bulletin boards and the site averages 2.5 million page views a month.
"The clubs are so powerful that people usually have to succumb to their whims," Matthew Shipley, who founded TurfMonster.com in 2004, told the Morning News. "People need an outlet when they don't like a coach or think they are not getting what they signed up for or not getting their money's worth. …
"It's just nasty out there. That's why Turf Monster exists in North Texas."
One forum asked which were the most-hated teams. It attracted 4,500 views in less than two weeks before Shipley pulled it.
"It just got too filthy," said Shipley on the vitriol aimed at a team of 9- and 10-year-olds. "I have language filters, but there are too many ways around it."
It's such an environment that Major League Soccer's FC Dallas entered when it launched an ambitious youth program two years before MLS, in 2007, mandated that all its clubs field youth teams.
"The idea is the clubs begin to develop players who have the professionalism instilled in them from a younger age and that helps them develop the technical and tactical development of the game," said Alfonso Mondelo, MLS's technical director of player programs.
It is, of course, the model used around the world, to different degrees of success. When a club promotes a player to its pro team, it saves the money it would have to spend buying a player. And if it sells one of its own products, it earns a transfer fee that helps pay for the youth program.
There's also the notion that pro clubs can do a better job at producing high-quality players because they would be focusing on long-term development rather than scorelines at the young ages. And pro clubs can give opportunities to players who can't afford the high cost of American youth soccer.
But the entry into the youth game by MLS clubs was not universally applauded. Fearful that their talent would be lured away by MLS clubs, some youth club leaders went as far as to threaten boycotts of MLS games.
One Dallas-area director of coaching, who says his club used to purchase FC Dallas tickets and distribute them to its players, says he now pushes the delete button when he receives queries from the MLS team. His beef is FC Dallas isn't just fielding a few elite teams, but it's growing so big that it will destroy smaller clubs.
Chris Hayden, FC Dallas youth director of coaching, doesn't see it that way.
"I don't see FC Dallas working as super club with a monopoly on the Dallas market," he says. "I think there are a lot of very qualified people who work in all of these different clubs and they'll continue to flourish. We're just trying to create a link from our youth system, which is big and growing, to the pro team.
"We're not the biggest club in Dallas. Our goal is not to be the biggest club or to monopolize the area. We want to provide quality coaching for players who want to be a part of FC Dallas."
While its elite teams use the FC Dallas facilities in Frisco, its younger teams are spread around the metroplex.
"A lot these kids are playing in their neighborhoods," Hayden says. "They're not traveling great distances. They're playing with their friends with a coach they like. They enjoyed their first experience with a FC Dallas team, and they want to be part of the club."
By 2007, FC Dallas laid claim to being the "first fully integrated vertical player development system in MLS." It now has 600 players of both genders at the U-7 to U-10 level, and 1,200 players from U-11 and U-19. In 2008, it began fielding teams in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, the 74-club U-15/16 and U-17/18 league now in its second season.
FC Dallas is one of 10 MLS clubs that compete in U.S. Soccer Academy. (The Kansas City Wizards are slated to join 2009-10.) Not all are as ambitious as FC Dallas. The L.A. Galaxy, for example, fields only Academy teams, plus a U-20 squad that competes in the USL Super-20 League.
The 40 players who play on FC Dallas' U.S. Soccer Academy teams, the FC Dallas Juniors, do so free of charge – an expense that Hayden estimates at $8,000 to $10,000 per player, per year.
Hayden stresses that his U.S. Soccer Academy players' expenses are funded by club ownership, not from the fees of the clubs' other players.
In fact, one of the most welcome aspects of MLS clubs' entry into youth soccer is they're creating opportunities for players to play elite ball without charge.
"It makes a huge difference," Hayden says. "It opens up your player pool. You don't have kids who can't play because of finances. If it wasn't funded, we would not have the same group of players, because there would be some who couldn't afford it."
This would seem to be a cause to celebrate, but youth clubs competing with the MLS clubs see themselves at a disadvantage.
"We have found a way through our affiliations and sponsors – tournaments and camps we do — and a lot of sacrifices from our coaches, to make our [U.S. Soccer] Academy teams free of charge," says Hassan Nazari, the director of the powerhouse Dallas Texans. "But we are fortunate and I feel sympathy to other clubs that have to compete with this type of thing. I am not criticizing the MLS clubs. But what they can offer to the players makes it difficult to compete."
As far as complaints about MLS teams taking players away from other clubs? That tradition long predates MLS's youth programs. As one longtime youth coach put it a few years back, "There's more poaching than coaching in youth soccer."
Hayden says that 40 percent of the club's Academy players came from within the FC Dallas youth program. Others made the team in the same kind of tryout other clubs hold. And, FC Dallas Juniors discovered players through Sueno MLS — the nationally televised player search from which Jael Barrera and Noel Luna landed on the U-17/18 squad. Gabriel and Ramiro Funes were selected but are currently in Argentina training at River Plate.
In addition to impressive performances in Academy play — FC Dallas Juniors are dominating the U-15/16 Texas Division that includes area giants Andromeda, Solar and the Texans – FC Dallas Juniors Alex Molano and Jose Perez are now in the U.S. U-17 national team Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla.
Hayden looks forward to the day when youth players from his club break into the first team.
"It's very important for FC Dallas to have a Dallas influence," he says. "To have kids who grew up here play for the city's pro team is very good for the team, and that goes for all MLS cities."
To help other clubs cope with Academy costs, U.S. Soccer, with the U.S. Soccer Foundation and Nike, has launched a scholarship program.
For sure, MLS clubs that cover their youth players' costs have an advantage over the youth clubs that struggle to meet travel and coaching expenses. But MLS should be hailed for the opportunities it's creating for young players.
"FC Dallas is lucky to do that," says Kevin Smith, Coaching Director of Solar SC. "Maybe there'll be one day when we get there, you know? The good thing about Dallas is it's a soccer hotbed, and there's a lot of quality kids, and they can't all go to FC Dallas."
(This article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Soccer America magazine.)
(This article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Soccer America magazine.)


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Friday, January 6, 2012
New Colors for 2012
As many of you have noticed from our designers last week, we now have 12 new colors for 2012. This means that Copic Sketch markers and inks are now available in a whopping 358 colors!
I will be posting more information about these new colors, along with some illustrations later this week. Until then, you can drool over the luscious colors :). Below are some of the thoughts that went behind the development of these colors. G43 & G46: These complete the G40 sequence. These are great greens...not too bright, not too yellow, not too gray. A new must-have green sequence.
BG57: This goes with last year's new color, BG53. These are not as bright as the BG40's but more vibrant than BG70's family.
BG90: A new, beautiful pale, gray BG to go with the other BG90's colors
E84 & E89: These were developed as a nice, slightly greenish brown sequence to match last year's E87
BV34: Poor old BV31 has been alone for so long, but now it has a darker companion color. A lovely grayish BV color.
V22 & V28: This completes the V20 & V25 sequence. These were developed to be nice purples without hints of pink or blue, but are slightly grayish.
RV52: A bright, but pale pink to go with RV55 from last year.
R56: For too long R59 has been alone. This is one of my new favorite, must-have colors. I sequence this with E04-R56-R59. Try it and trust me :)
YR27: This is a wonderful orange, not as brown as the E90's sequence, and not as intense as YR18. It fills out the other beautiful YR20's colors.
These markers are available as pre-orders from many places, and will be shipping in February. Come to our booth at CHA and you can see them for yourself. Booth #2390
Have a great weekend!
22 comments:
- CrowGirl said...
February can't come fast enough! Those are GORGEOUS, especially the red and orange.
- January 6, 2012 at 3:48 PM
- Mary said...
Thanks so much for your input on the new colors. Very helpful. I want mine NOW!
- January 6, 2012 at 3:53 PM
- joanne sharpe said...
- January 6, 2012 at 4:00 PM
- Melinda Gleissner said...
Thank you. This was a great explanation.
- January 6, 2012 at 4:02 PM
- nzjenny77 said...
Cant wait to get all the new colours.
- January 6, 2012 at 4:07 PM
- Joynana said...
Oh I really can't wait. I have to have them too. Lovely colors.
- January 6, 2012 at 4:55 PM
- Kathi said...
I'm very excited about the new release colors.
I can't wait!!!
Thanks for the little intro!
- January 6, 2012 at 5:44 PM
- Tammie Edgerton said...
Woohoo...great news! Thanks for letting us know, Marianne!
- January 6, 2012 at 6:16 PM
- Michelle Quinno said...
Gorgeous colors! I love the greens!!
- January 6, 2012 at 7:04 PM
- Susie said...
I plan to order them. Such pretty colors. BTW - today I got home from Christmas vacation and the pens and book you sent me that I won on Splitcoaststampers - THANK YOU!!! Hope I have time on Sunday to use them.
- January 6, 2012 at 8:36 PM
- reflections:0) said...
Oh Yummy love the new colors...
- January 6, 2012 at 8:56 PM
- Sandy S said...
love the new colors! especially your presentation of the squiggly lines...
so much fun!
Sandy S
- January 7, 2012 at 9:53 AM
- BethMcBeth said...
I am so happy for YR27! Can't wait to use it!
- January 7, 2012 at 5:24 PM
- Candy's Creations Blog said...
I can't wait to get my hands on these!
- January 7, 2012 at 8:09 PM
- gail said...
Big time drool...
- January 7, 2012 at 11:18 PM
- Lori Barnett said...
Girl...I can't WAIT to get these in my hands! Pure torture waiting!!! lol
- January 8, 2012 at 6:28 AM
- January 8, 2012 at 11:46 AM
- a Seeker of the TRUTH said...
Thanks for taking the time to share this information with us. I cant wait to purchase some new colours.
Going back to read some of your other post as only just stumbled across your blog. Chores can wait. Lol
happy crafting
- January 13, 2012 at 8:51 AM
- Suzanne said...
My DH is NOT going to be happy! LOL Me? Very happy! :)
- January 13, 2012 at 4:16 PM
- 7daysofdoodles said...
Looking forward to new colors. On the way out the door to buy a couple portfolio's. You are an inspiration.
- January 14, 2012 at 7:50 AM
- Beate said...
I love your squiggly lines and the new colors! I can't wait to get them.
Hugs and smiles
- January 19, 2012 at 6:47 PM
- Marina said...
A random question here- Is it possible for me to buy Copics outside of the USA online? Every site I visit tells me that they only ship Copics to North America.
- February 4, 2012 at 12:27 AM


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Well, we have to say, we didn't exactly expect our first game at the new Busch Stadium to have the feel of a U.S.-Japan World Cup Softball Game. By the fourth inning of the Cardinals' 15-3 loss to the Braves, we were roaming the park freely, searching for cracks in the woodwork and doing anything possible to avoid looking at what was going on on the field. (We also found this Loge Level sign from the old Busch on sale for $200; if our wave of nostalgia hadn't been extinguished by Jeff Weaver, we'd have bought that darned thing.) We probably should have known our first visit was going to end in such carnage when we saw the name "Jeff Weaver" on our scorecard.
So how is the stadium, you ask? Honestly? We hate it. 15-3 losses will do that. Last night was the perfect example of why, as much as we talk about how important a stadium is to a team and its fans, it doesn't really matter all that much. If the Cardinals would have won, we'd have had a great night at the park, but they didn't, so the park sucks. Shea Stadium might be a dump, but nobody hates it this year. Last night's game could have been played on a moonbeam leaning up to a fluffy cloud, and it would have been miserable.
That's OK, though. Baseball's memory is only 24 hours long; we'll be back again tonight, ready to love the new stadium again.
How 'Bout That Edmonds Homer? [The Birdwatch]


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Aspira The Spa
Beauty and Wellness / Spa Services
location on Google Maps.
in new tab.
on social media.
Aspira was created as a place to take one's journey - a place to move forward in nature and peace.
Meaning 'infused with spirit', Aspira was borne on the banks of a lake considered sacred by the Native Americans who lived there. Shaped like an elk's heart, the lake bestows its powerful natural energy upon all who encounter it.
Our logo, a three-spiral symbol from the ancient Uighur civilization, identifies this journey place for the mind, body and spirit.
Inside Aspira, the space is thoughtfully designed, embracing the wisdom of feng shui and the elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water. We embrace the healing wisdom of indigenous peoples from around the world for a holistic, organic approach to the spa experience. There is a reverence for all that is natural and the balance created with such reverence - in the design of our space, in the purity of our products and in the approach of our services.


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By Lou Mancinelli
Imagine the Oak Lane, Olney and Logan neighborhoods of Philadelphia surrounding North Broad Street, between Cheltenham Avenue (North) to Wingohocking Street (South) and Tacony Creek (East) to Washington Lane (West) as a rural hinterland home to sprawling farms, orchards and estates.
Present-day East Oak Lane was home to Dr. George deBenneville, first local physican and founder of the Universalist Church of America; T. Henry Asbury, owner of Enterprise Manufacturing, and Edward Bromley from the great Bromley textile family. East Oak Lane developed into a Victorian neighborhood after the North Pennsylvania Railroad was built in 1853, first with large summer hotels like the Lawnton and Kenilworth Hotels and later with grand Victorian family homes.
Currently the West Oak Lane neighborhood is a conglomeration of row homes and urban development. But in the mid-19th century, Joseph Wharton, founder of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, once the world's largest steel company, built Ontaluana, his family mansion, on 63 acres there. Until the early 20th century, in fact, he owned much of West Oak Lane.
West Oak Lane was also home to Fannie Kemble, a famous British Actress and abolitionist who lived with her wealthy husband, Pierce Butler. The Logan neighborhood was home to other notables like James Logan, who built Stenton Mansion, and Charles Wilson Peale, the great American painter, who lived at Belfield Mansion on 104 acres.
Even earlier, during the 18th century goods produced at mills along the Tacony and Wingohocking Creeks were transported along Old York Road, the Kensington-Oxford Turnpike (now Rising Sun Avenue) and Olney Road (now Tabor Road).
"The Philadelphia region was often described as the best poor man's country in the world because the land was fertile and the climate moderate," write Marita Krivda Poxon and Rachael Hildebrandt in the Introduction to their new book, "Images of America: Oak Lane, Olney and Logan" (Arcadia Publishing, 2011).
Krivda and Hildebrandt collaborated with the Old York Road Historical Society (OYRHS) to collect hundreds of historical photos of the area that by the late 19th-century, with the advent of the steam engine and railroads, began to appeal to developers and merchants who could access the city via public transportation.
Krivda and Hildebrandt's book chronicles the transformation of the area from rural to urban. Its photos reveal the dichotomy of old American architectural gems that exist less than a mile from North Broad Street.
Today much of Olney and Logan are dominated by once majestic row homes which have deteriorated because of lack of maintenance and newer construction which lacks architectural style and imagination. The book's photos tell the tale of the American industrial revolution and its effect on the 20th-century landscape.
The idea for the book grew from an organized series of lectures on the architectural history of East Oak Lane presented by Krivda in 2009 and 2010, to benefit the Oak Lane Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Krivda, 64, is a medical librarian (for more than 30 years) who recently worked as director of the medical library at Chestnut Hill Hospital until it shifted to a volunteer-only library. She was raised in a Queen-Anne style East Oak Lane home designed for hosiery manufacturer Owen Osborne by the architectural firm Briean and Godwin, and built in 1888.
Krivda's parents bought the home in 1945 from Dr. Charles Percy Major, who for 25 years had run an in-home medical practice there. When her mother died in 1994, Krivda "just couldn't sell the family home," located at 904 Oak Lane. There was too much history in it.
So she bought the 18-room Victorian home from her family (next door, at 902 Oak Lane, is a mirror image home Osborne built for his daughter) with her husband, Philadelphia lawyer T. Michael Poxon, and the couple moved to East Oak Lane from Blue Bell Hill off Wissahickon Avenue. Since then, the couple and their neighbors have been active in reinvigorating the Oak Lane Community Action Association, the East Oak Lane Tree Tenders and the Friends of the Oak Lane Library.
Krivda attended Holy Angels Roman Catholic School and Cardinal Dougherty High School, both in East Oak Lane. After graduating from Temple University in 1968, she attended graduate school at Trinity College ('71) in Dublin, Ireland.
When she moved back to East Oak Lane in 1994, Krivda began to research her home, the important families who built her neighborhood and the local Victorian architecture.
She read an undergraduate thesis by John DiBenedetto in 1976 called "Oak Lane: A Study of Urban Growth and Architectural Development, 1876-1976," which inspired her.
about 130 years ago, East Oak Lane was home to several factory owners looking to build summer homes or large country homes away from the city. The most important was T.
Henry Asbury, the Father of East Oak Lane. "He wanted a neighborhood," said Krivda, "so one of the first things he built was St. Martin's Protestant Episcopal Church in 1887." He gave land to build other churches and Melrose Hall, a social club with its own lake and cricket field.
"Many people in Philadelphia don't even know East Oak Lane exists," said Krivda during an interview at her home in late April. "The neighborhood experienced changes in the 1970s and 1980s, but the architectural integrity of the homes on landscaped, tree-dotted plots is still very evident today."
At the turn of the 20th century, as the city limits began to expand, men like Wharton sold their large estates, and developers built affordable row homes to accommodate a rising working class. This development did not change East Oak Lane. The last area developed in East Oak Lane was Oak Lane Park, built between 1900-1930, a Frederick Law Olmsted- inspired area with large, stone colonial revival homes. The 20th century row house grid in West Oak Lane had very little effect in East Oak Lane.
For marketing purposes, real estate agents called the area with row houses west of Broad Street West Oak Lane to catch some of the prestige of Oak Lane. The old Oak Lane with its large, single homes became East Oak Lane.
According to Krivda, a Welshman named Griffith Miles bought 250 acres of land in 1695 from the Quaker Samuel Carpenter and erected a log home near the present day street called Oak Lane. For many years the surrounding area was known as Milestown. Around 1870, the neighborhood was re-named Oak Lane by a farmer, Hall W. Mercer, after a storm caused a 300-year-old oak tree to fall onto the country lane in front of his farm. The old name for West Oak Lane was Branchtown, based on an old Indian name.
As Krivda compiled more information for her lecture series of Oak Lane, she realized her research might be publishable, so she contacted Arcadia Publishing, of South Carolina, which had already published similar books on Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy and Germantown.
David Rowland, president of OYRHS, put Krivda in touch with Hildebrandt, a Chestnut Hill College student who was looking for a way to publish her own research on Olney. Together, the trio made this book possible.
When the North Pennsylvania Railroad was built in 1853, the Oak Lane, Olney and Logan neighborhoods became incorporated into the city. Before that, present-day East and West Oak Lane, Olney, Fern Rock and Logan neighborhoods were all part of Bristol Township.
Many pockets of the old rural hinterland remain in East Oak Lane. If you turn east off Broad Street at the Oak Lane Diner, you can drive along 66th Avenue and find old homes in East Oak Lane built with the local grey stone known as Wissahickon schist.
Much of this stone came from blasting done for the railroad in the 1850s and later for the Oak Lane Reservoir. By 1928, Wharton's extensive land holdings were sold, and 66th Avenue and Broad Street, part of his former estate, was turned into row homes. While many old East Oak Lane homes have been demolished, "We still have preserved a large number of Victorians and almost all Colonial revival homes in Oak Lane Park, and we want to inspire a grass roots historic preservation movement in East Oak Lane," said Krivda.
"Images of America: Oak Lane, Olney and Logan" (Arcadia Publishing, 2011) is available online at retailers like Amazon.com and at Under the Oak Café, 804 Oak Lane (215-924-1410) and from the author at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Summer Grooming Tips
Want to keep your pet cool and comfortable this summer? A few changes to your normal grooming routine can help.View Article
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New Patient Center
Here you'll find everything you need about Parkville Animal Wellness and how we can help you. We have online forms for everything related to our Parkville veterinarian clinic, and information, including a virtual office tour and what to expect in your visit.


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When Victor Harris put his fingers into his Lincoln Navigator's fuel filler to retrieve a piece of paper which had fallen in, his finger got stuck. Really stuck. Four hours stuck. Call for help stuck.
The Saginaw, Michigan man was putting a fuel additive into his Lincoln Navigator when a piece of paper fell into the filler neck. Seeing it just within reach he stuck his fingers in to pull the paper out and in the process managed to get seriously stuck. He attempted to free himself for two hours before friends finally called the fire department. After two hours of
laughing work, firemen cut the filler neck out of the truck and sent Harris to the hospital where doctors freed the stuck finger and patched it up with a couple stitches. [Yahoo, WJRT]


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The Schizophrenia of US Foreign Policy
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just announced her intention to remove an Iranian group, People's Mujahedin of Iran, or the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK). from the US list of terrorist organizations. This is clearly to pave the way for Washington to allow the immigration of 3,200 fighters, who once entered Iraq as guests and allies of the dictator Saddam Hussein.
These people, who up to now were classed as "terrorists" in the political terminology of the US, are now to be given a new home in the United States to allow them to live happily there until the end of their days. There is no other way to interpret Clinton's announcement. The epilogue comes just in time for the 10th anniversary of the invasion, carried out in the name of the fight against terror, and underlines the fiasco that did not quite end with the withdrawal of most US forces last year.
The new Iraqi leadership was intended to be an ally of the US and a spearhead for democracy and freedom in the Middle East. But at the latest since Nuri al-Maliki took over as Prime Minister in Baghdad, it is apparent that the US has bombed the way clear for the Islamic Republic of Iran to exert power and influence in Mesopotamia.
Iraq now belongs to the sphere of influence of its large eastern neighbour and worst enemy of the US in the region, indeed in the world. Nothing spells this out more clearly than the fate of the Mujahedin. This Iranian political sect once fought the Shah in the name of a crude blend of Marxism and Islamism.
Following his ousting, they were locked into a bloody power struggle with Ayatollah Khomeini, which they eventually lost. Their fighters sought refuge in Iraq and in 1980, went into war against the Islamic Republic on the side of Saddam Hussein.
Fighting a losing battle
As we know victory eluded them, and the Mujahedin remained in Iraq. Saddam Hussein assigned them a camp to the north of Baghdad, which they named "Ashraf". They were still there when the Americans came in 2003. They did not fulfil their dream, to still perhaps perform a much yearned-for historic role in another war against Iran.
On the contrary, under Prime Minister Maliki, the Iranian guerrillas at camp Ashraf found themselves in increasing difficulties. Between 2009 and 2011, Iraqi forces killed dozens of Mujahedin members in pogrom-like bursts of violence. The message was clear: "We don't want you here anymore!"
The group has since been placed in the care of the United Nations. Camp Ashraf has been almost completely cleared by the Mujahedin, whose members were transferred to the former US forces' Camp Liberty close to Baghdad airport.
UN staff register them as refugees in need of protection. And after Clinton's announcement, all the indications are that they will soon be boarding planes to Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York. The Islamic Republic will not do the US the favour of allowing the opposition fighters to return to Iran unharmed and with impunity.
Ambivalent foreign policy
This expected outcome is being accompanied by a debate in the US that shines an unforgiving light on the ambivalence and schizophrenia of US foreign policy.
The tortuous handling of the people's mujahedeen on the one hand illustrates the humiliation of a decade of disastrous policies on Iraq. Those in Washington who have recognized this prefer to maintain a shameful silence in the hope that it will all pass off quietly and without causing any furore. It is not possible to simply leave these remnants of Bush policies in Iraq, due to the menacing possibility of a new massacre that would have a negative repercussions for the US.
On the other hand there are the former CIA and FBI heads, the members of Congress and influential journalists who have always regarded the Mujahedeen terrorist listing as misguided and troubling, because the Iranian opposition group is after all an important and valuable ally in the fight against the Mullah regime in Iran.
The agenda of these advocates pays as little heed to the terrorist past of the Mujahedeen as it does to the fact that the group, with its fighters and its political leadership in Paris, functions internally like an obscure, obstinate political sect. It is striving for a "secular, peaceful and democratic form of government" in Iran, says Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican Congressman from California.
Such lobbyists for global freedom have never yet failed to dish up the rhetoric. For people like Rohrabacher, the Mujahedeen are not terrorists, but allies in the war on terror, just like the Iranian-Kurdish splinter group "Pjak", the "Jundullah" from Balochistan, Azeri separatists, and just like Gaddafi and Assad post 9/11.
Combat training in the service of the US
According to research carried out by "The New Yorker" magazine, from 2005 US special units secretly trained selected Mujahedeen fighters in guerrilla warfare methods in the deserts of the US state of Nevada. It is possible that the elite guerrillas then infiltrated Iran to carry out acts of sabotage. The fact that at the same time, the group was officially on the US terror list was not an obstacle to this clandestine cooperation.
Lobbying for the Mujahedeen by US public figures pertinent to the cause is however not motivated by purely selfless commitment to freedom and democracy in the Middle East. Advocates were paid five-figure sums to speak in support of the exiled Iranian group; the former governor of the US state of Pennsylvania, Edward G. Rendell, even pocketed US$ 150,000.
One person who is pleased about the new development concerning the Mujahedeen is Martin Kobler, head of the UN mission to Iraq. He hopes that the matter will be quickly wrapped up. The German diplomat recently lamented the fact that years of engagement with the Mujahedeen had swallowed up too much of the UN mission to Iraq's resources. To speed up the evacuation process, he even suggested that Germany allow the immigration of a small number of the 3,200 Iranian exiled fighters. Kobler made it known that 294 of them had family or other connections with Germany.
For the purposes of historic irony, one could say that this share of the full contingent somehow corresponds to Germany's share of the blame in the Iraq war. It was not large, but not insignificant either. After all, it was the German intelligence service, or BND, that provided the US with the information it needed to justify the necessity of the 2003 campaign.
"Death on wheels"
Washington was seeking proof that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. This proof was provided by the Federal Intelligence Service, which passed on to the US reports from its informant Rafid Alwan, a chemical engineer who fled Iraq and came to Germany, about alleged biological weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein.
The Bush administration used these German reports to justify the war. Still etched in the memory of many is the speech by US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council on 5 February 2003, just a few weeks before the invasion. Powell presented drawings of trucks that could be loaded with anthrax pathogens.
These reports on imminent "death on wheels" have gone down in recent history as one of the most momentous intelligence service lies ever told. Nevertheless, the BND helped Rafid Alwan to attain refugee status in Germany, and even ensured he received a German passport under a new identity.
If the friendship with America demanded it, Germany would certainly manage to do the same in the case of the 294 Iranian members of the Mujahedeen.
Stefan Buchen
© Qantara.de 2012
Stefan Buchen works as a television journalist for Germany's national television ARD. He is the author of the documentary film "Die Lügen vom Dienst – der BND und der Irakkrieg" (Intelligence Service Lies – the BND and the Iraq War).
Editor: Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de


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The U.S. is often said to be on the brink of a nuclear revival, fueled by fear of climate change, demand for electricity and distrust of renewable power. Combined with fallout from the global financial crisis, these modern woes have drowned out older concerns — like meltdowns and radioactive waste — that plagued nuclear power's past.
But as if to highlight the fragility of this comeback, the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March 2011 brought many of those fears back to the surface. Cooling systems broke down at multiple nuclear reactors in Japan after the quake, triggering explosions, partial meltdowns and radiation leaks. For a U.S. public that was just warming back up to nuclear energy, this could renew some long-held skepticism.
"I think it calls on us here in the U.S., naturally, not to stop building nuclear power plants, but to put the brakes on right now until we understand the ramifications of what's happened in Japan," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" shortly after the meltdowns. Yet despite this anxiety, Lieberman and other politicians are wary of sounding gloomy. They're aware that past disasters — namely the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and the Chernobyl meltdown of 1986 — already stunted the U.S. nuclear industry's growth for nearly 30 years. "I don't think right after a major environmental catastrophe is a very good time to be making American domestic policy," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said following the quake. A White House spokesman said President Obama is committed to "ensuring that nuclear energy is produced safely and responsibly here in the U.S."
It remains unclear if the situation in Japan is enough to stop years of momentum for U.S. nuclear power. Energy companies have applied to build more than two dozen reactors here in the last four years, and some advocates want much more. Obama touted the benefits of nuclear power during his 2010 and 2011 State of the Union addresses, and has proposed tripling government loan guarantees for new nuclear projects, raising the total to more than $54 billion. Meanwhile, the public seems to share this enthusiasm (or at least it did before the Japanese quake): A record-high 59 percent of Americans said in a 2009 Gallup poll that they support nuclear power, while a survey by consulting giant Accenture found more than two-thirds of people worldwide want their countries to invest in it more heavily.
This is a far cry from the 1980s and '90s, when Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and the specter of radioactive waste scared many away from nuclear power. That's not to say those issues are resolved: Nuclear energy still presents some serious environmental dangers, and unlike wind and solar power, it's not cheap or renewable. But with climate change encroaching, and logistical and political hurdles hobbling renewable energy, those concerns are now often overshadowed. As the U.S. prepares to boost its standing as the world's No. 1 producer of nuclear power, here's a look at some positives and negatives of splitting atoms for electricity.
How nuclear power works
The nucleus of an atom is held together with a huge amount of energy, which scientists gradually learned how to release during the early 20th century. There are two ways to do this: fusing atoms together (nuclear fusion) or blasting them apart (nuclear fission). Nuclear fusion is how the sun and other stars make energy, and offers an almost limitless power source — assuming you can make it work. Humans have yet to master nuclear fusion, but the U.S. and other countries have spent millions researching it.
Nuclear fission, on the other hand, was mastered nearly 70 years ago by scientists working on the atomic bomb. The group included some of the 20th century's most famous minds — including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer — who produced a world-changing weapon that also found a more peaceful postwar purpose: making electricity.
The trick to nuclear fission is firing a neutron at the right kind of atom at the right speed, hopefully blasting it to pieces, and having enough similar atoms around to catch the shrapnel and start a chain reaction. The exploding atom — usually a heavy, radioactive metal like uranium or plutonium — releases two smaller atoms called "fission fragments," two or three extra neutrons, and about 200 million electron volts of energy (by comparison, the heat energy at room temperature is 0.04 electron volts). If there are enough other uranium or plutonium atoms nearby, those freed neutrons can fly out and split them, too, potentially starting a chain reaction.
Most nuclear plants use either boiling-water or pressurized-water reactors, both of which rely on splitting uranium atoms to heat up water, which spins a turbine that generates electricity. To keep up that fission, though, newly mined uranium ore must first undergo a major transformation — only a certain variant of uranium known as U-235 can sustain nuclear fission, and it makes up less than 1 percent of all uranium on Earth. The less useful U-238 accounts for about 99 percent, so to make nuclear fuel, enrichment plants must process the ore to increase its concentration of U-235 atoms. They do this by vaporizing the natural uranium and blasting it through porous membranes that separate the U-235 from the U-238, a technique called "gaseous diffusion." The gases can then be remixed and solidified, with U-235 making up 3 to 5 percent of the final material, a small metal pellet.
These enriched uranium pellets are no bigger than a person's fingertip, but each one produces as much energy as 150 gallons of oil. To coax out their energy, they're stacked end-to-end in 12-foot metal fuel rods, bundled together in large fuel assemblies, and submerged in water or some other coolant in the reactor's core. The coolant then absorbs heat from the uranium as its atoms are split, and converts that heat energy into electricity by spinning a turbine.
The bright side of nuclear power
Two of the most often cited benefits of nuclear energy are that it emits almost no air pollution (that's steam coming out of cooling towers), and that it produces electricity more reliably than renewable sources like wind or sunlight, whose output depends on weather. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have been rising along with electricity demand for decades, and although that growth has slowed lately due to improved efficiency as well as the financial crisis — the country's carbon dioxide emissions are forecast to rise 9 percent over the next 25 years, while energy use rises 14 percent — Americans' interest in nuclear power has nonetheless been quickly rekindled.
Many Republicans in Congress favor expanding the U.S. nuclear industry, a sentiment that President Obama has tried to use as leverage for passing a climate-change bill. During his State of the Union speech in 2010, he mentioned "building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country," before urging the Senate to pass a "comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America." Less than a week later, he unveiled his 2011 federal budget, which slashed subsidies for fossil-fuel companies and tripled loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors, raising the total available from $18 billion to $54.5 billion. (Still, Congress has repeatedly failed to pass a climate bill, and with the GOP now vowing to block any regulation of CO2 emissions, the future of U.S. nuclear power had grown murkier even before the Japanese meltdowns.)
Aside from their smaller carbon footprint, nuclear power plants offer consistent "base-load energy," meaning they're less fickle than wind- and solar-power plants. A cloudy day can render solar panels powerless, and wind turbines are only as powerful as the wind gusts that spin their blades. Nuclear reactors, on the other hand, leave much less up to chance — as long as they have a steady supply of water and enriched uranium, they can keep churning out electricity regardless of the weather.
That electricity is not only reliable, it's also more potent than the energy produced by most other fuels. Nuclear reactors are notoriously expensive to build, but pound-for-pound, the fuel itself is actually cheaper than fossil sources — nuclear fuel costs about 0.5 cents per kilowatt hour, while fossil fuels cost roughly 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. One ton of natural uranium can produce more than 40 million kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to burning 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil.
Uranium mining can also offer some environmental benefits over fossil-fuel development, at least in the form of "in-situ leach mining," which involves pumping a slightly caustic solution into a uranium deposit, letting it dissolve the uranium, and then pumping the "pregnant" solution back to the surface. This is less invasive and releases fewer toxins than open-pit mining, and has become the preferred method for mining uranium in the United States. But while uranium is plentiful around the world, it's not a renewable resource, and many critics point out the U.S. imports 86 percent of its uranium — mainly from Australia, Canada, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — meaning nuclear power isn't an entirely domestic energy source.
The dark side of nuclear power
For all its benefits, nuclear energy has one major drawback that most other power sources don't: radiation. Because it employs the same basic technology as an atomic bomb, it has the potential to wreak similar havoc, as evidenced by the epic meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986, or the partial meltdowns at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Japan's Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. After decades of promises from nuclear advocates that the safety issues behind Chernobyl and Three Mile Island had been resolved, the Japanese disaster highlights the ever-present threat of meltdowns — especially in areas with high risk of seismic activity, whether it's in Japan, California or South Carolina.
And even when they're not leaking radiation into the atmosphere, nuclear reactors still have an unfortunate byproduct: radioactive waste. Low-level nuclear waste can include clothing, shoe covers, wiping rags, mops and any other materials that have been contaminated by radiation, while high-level waste mainly refers to the enriched uranium itself after it's been used, known as "spent nuclear fuel." Low-level waste can often be safely stored until the radiation fades and the items are thrown away. High-level waste, on the other hand, presents a much larger problem.
All radioactive materials have a "half-life," or a certain time until half their atoms decay. The half-life of uranium-235 is about 704 million years, but spent nuclear fuel doesn't last quite as long; different elements in it can stay radioactive anywhere from a few minutes to a few millennia. Small fission fragments emit most of the short-term radiation — the half-lives of cesium-137 and strontium-90, for example, are about 30 years — but heavier elements take much longer to decay — plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years, and neptunium-237's is 2.1 million.
Ten years after being removed from a reactor, spent nuclear fuel emits more than 10,000 rem (a measure of radiation exposure) per hour, whereas 550 rem at once can kill an adult. Even low doses may cause problems over time, especially if the radiation hits a stream, river, lake or aquifer. Yet aside from reprocessing, about the only thing to do with nuclear waste is hide it somewhere that won't leak. After years with no national plan, U.S. lawmakers opted for underground storage with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, selecting Nevada's Yucca Mountain for its geology and dry climate. The Department of Energy agreed to pay utilities to hold their waste until the site opened.
Yucca Mountain still hasn't opened, however, due at least partly to opposition from Nevada elected officials, and U.S. power plants are still holding their spent fuel. The Obama administration has now essentially killed the Yucca Mountain repository by removing it from the federal budget, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu has already begun looking into other burial sites and disposal methods, namely reprocessing — possibly even at a proposed Yucca Mountain facility.
is still the only country that reprocesses its own radioactive waste (although Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan have all sent waste to France at some point for reprocessing), largely because it's also the planet's most nuclear-powered nation. Nearly 80 percent of France's electricity comes from its 59 fission reactors, which then transport their nuclear waste hundreds of miles across the French countryside to reprocessing facilities (pictured at right).
That need for transportation is one of the main reasons why reprocessing has been slow to catch on outside France. Moving and storing spent or reprocessed fuel requires a high degree of security, since plutonium and other radioactive elements could be used by terrorists to make a so-called "dirty bomb." Still, the allure of recyclable nuclear power and high-tech jobs has drawn the interest of several U.S companies and lawmakers, and the French utility Areva reportedly has designs on helping create an American reprocessing market.
The greatest threat to U.S nuclear power may not be waste disposal or even terrorism, though — along with fears of another Three Mile Island, a major reason the industry stopped growing in the '80s and '90s was its reputation for cost overruns. Power plants were taking longer and costing more to build than originally projected, and often struggled to wean themselves off federal aid. Energy utilities say they've streamlined and cut costs, but economic forces have also been conspiring against them lately. The credit crisis and high costs for materials and labor have burdened some of the early reactors being built this century, with one Florida plant's cost already doubling past its original $7 billion estimate.
Out with the old, in with the nuclear
In 1957, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station near Pittsburgh became "the world's first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses," according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The industry grew gradually during the '60s, then took off after the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, which inspired U.S. utilities to order a record 41 new nuclear power plants in a single year.
Today there are 66 nuclear plants around the country, with 104 individual reactors that supply nearly 20 percent of U.S. electricity. If all the proposed projects are approved, the U.S. reactor fleet would grow by 25 percent, possibly letting the country cut back on coal without worrying about gaps in production. That may raise energy prices and displace demand for renewable power — not to mention worsening the problem of nuclear waste — but it could also create jobs in poor parts of the country, proponents often point out. As President Obama said in 2010, "the nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy, and America must be that nation."
Energy Secretary Chu has taken some heat for his pace in awarding the existing $18 billion in nuclear loan guarantees, but while the Energy Department hasn't set a timetable for announcing which proposed projects will be given loans, many see Obama's announcement of $8.3 billion for two reactors near Burke, Ga., as a sign the wheels are in motion. And with that $54 billion in loan guarantees now on the table — as well as nuclear power's role as a bargaining chip in climate talks — old worries about nuclear waste, high prices and meltdowns have largely melted away. Whether or not they fully resurface in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis, however, remains to be seen.
For updates on proposed nuclear reactors, visit the Energy Information Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission websites. And for more about nuclear power, check out these links on MNN:
- Media Mayhem: Nuking climate change
- Can nuclear waste be recycled?
- Uranium: The new 'foreign oil'
- Underwater sponges could soak up uranium in Japan
Editor's Note: Thanks to readers who pointed out errors in a previous interactive map of nuclear reactors published with this story. An updated map will be added in its place; in the meantime, a static map from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission appears at the top of this story.


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text: Hi gang, This Saturday the 16th I am going caching from early till late. If any of you are interested in joining me you are welcome to. I will be leaving Brewer around 6:30 and getting back I don't know when. I am meeting The Blazing Trolls in Waterville around 1:00. You can join for any portion you like. My list to find goes like this:Plymouth Pond Cache, Geocaching Friends, Garland Pond Cache , Wassooooookeag, Coburn Park Cache, Heselton Street Walking Trail , Skowhegan Watching Place, The Take A Break Cache, The Stand II, Cache in on great view of Knox, Field of Dreams Cache, Sanborn Pond Cache, The Stand "With A View", Picnic by the Bay, Belfast By the Bay, Moose Point, Marsh Stream Cache, Sears Island Special,and The kidder. I'm sure I may have missed a few along the way. I will not only make my 200 plateau, but I hope to beat my one day best. The weather is supposed to be good, so I am planning on this to happen. I will PM or e-mail you a number to call me at and we'll set up details. Let me know.


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I have had a couple of days to process my first attempt at hiking the Appalachian Trail and figured it would be a good idea to make some notes on the lessons I learned from the experience… by the way, most of these lessons learned are not earth shattering revelations. Truth be told almost everyone of the lessons could have been avoided if I had simply followed the advice I had already gleaned from books and articles on the subject of hiking. Experience is the best teacher though…
I ran short of water with a few miles left in my hike because I decided not to take the 0.2 mile side trip to the spring near Compton Gap when I was a little over 5 miles from the end of my hike. There is plenty of advice related to water out there. The best advice is to not pass up the chance to top off your supply. Getting dehydrated is not good.
Another lesson learned is that I should carry something that I can use as a filter for my water bottles when attempting to fill them. Although I use Aquamira drops to make the water safe for drinking the chemicals don't remove "floaties" from the water.
I am still new to the world of hammock camping so each time I hang my hammock from a tree and climb in is a learning experience. Setting out for the AT I knew that my first night on the trail the temperature was supposed to dip down into the low 50's and that I would be cold. I figured that wearing (and carrying in my pack) a pair of heavy fleece pants and a fleece jacket would be good enough inside my 55 degree sleeping back to keep me warm. I was wrong. Although I was never in any real danger I did end up spending much of the evening curled up in the fetal position trying to stay warm.
Why was I cold in my hammock? First off, I set up my hammock on the windward side of the mountain instead of the lee side (generally not wise) and the wind was blowing pretty good all night long. Second, I ignored the advice to use a pad and/or under quilt with my hammock for insulation. When the air temperature is 20 degrees warmer you can do without the extra insulation. When its 50 degrees going without is asking for a long, cold night.
Food and Consumables
I over packed food and consumables for the trip I ended up taking. Part of this was unavoidable due to cutting a full night off of the trip but most of it was just due to being unsure of what to expect. Here is a list of items that I carried that went unused:
- Cook set – alcohol stove, pot, coffee mug
- Fuel – 8 oz of heet
- Coffee packets (decided to break camp and hit the trail without having any and don't regret the decision at all surprisingly)
- 2 packets of Ramen noodles
- 2 packets of dried fruit
- 1 Cliff bar
- 1 Milky Way bar
If I had stayed with the original plan to sleep out two nights I would have used the stove to cook some Ramen noodles and I might have also brewed coffee in the morning. It is also possible that I would have consumed more of the other food items during the course of the trip. The real issue wasn't so much that I was carrying too much (although I still have some experience to gain in planning) it was that my trip plan changed mid-trip.
On the first day of my hike I got cocky and pretty much threw my trip plan out the window. I planned to make my North Bound 27.4 hike in three days but when my average MPH was much higher on day one then I had expected it would I started thinking that the hike was going to be easier than I had thought… so instead of walking 9 or 10 miles on day one I did 13. On day two I did around 15 miles and was in a lot of pain during the course of the day.
The lesson I took away from this was don't get cocky, don't over do it, and most importantly I think (since I am unlikely to remember the first two lessons for long) is that I should be doing more training hikes to prepare for the rigors of hiking and I should make a plan and stick to it…
Technology is great but not something you should rely on when you are hiking in the wilderness (shocking I know). I brought my iPhone and a battery pack to charge it with and found that reception was basically non-existent for 90%+ of the 27.4 miles of my route. For the most part this was ok. I didn't really wish to receive phone calls or emails when I was hiking. I had hoped however to post a few updates a day along the route to keep family in the loop with my progress and that turned out not to be possible. On day one I managed to get one update via Facebook at mile 5.8 into the hike. After that I couldn't get strong enough reception until I was more than 22 miles into my hike and approaching Front Royal again.
On the plus side I was able to put my iPhone into plane mode and keep using it as a camera and take advantage of a pre-loaded map of the AT through Shenandoah National Park during the hike.
I have a GoLite Jam 70L Pack (as well as the 35L version) and this was my first real long distance hike with it. Overall the pack performed well but there were a few minor things that caused me problems.
First, I think that I should have gotten my pack in medium instead of large. I struggled along the way to keep the pack sitting properly on my hips and bearing the load. All this and I had the straps cinched down most of the way. Second, the cinch straps on the side of the pack can interfere with getting your water bottles in and out of the side pockets.
Overall these were minor issues that I think I can resolve with a bit more experience.
I survived the hike, yay! One of the most valuable lessons I learned from this hike was just that I could do it. I was a little nervous about attempting my first big hike on the AT and completing it goes a long way towards giving me the confidence to do it again.
Other than that everything all of the issues I ran into were very minor and surmountable with more practice and miles on the trail.


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Topic: First post... May as well show my entry for the costume contest... =)
My sons costume from 2006... Made from a combo of a toy kit, a Walmart trash can, a sweat suit, mock turtleneck, and some bondo/foam/fiberglass for the jetpack. The helmet is the $20 Rubies two piece Jango that I converted. Oh, and some slip on shoes that I spray-painted. Total price was around $150 or so.
Hope you all like it. I'm pretty proud of it considering it was the first costume that I've made/painted.


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Snitch (Starring The Rock) [Movie Trailer]
"In the fast-paced action thriller SNITCH, Dwayne Johnson stars as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. Desperate and determined to rescue his son at all costs, he makes a deal with the U.S. attorney to work as an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel on a dangerous mission -- risking everything, including his family and his own life."
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FREEPORT (WIFR) -- Area Christians are taking part in Ash Wednesday services and one local church has found a way to adapt to our busy schedules.
Grace Episcopal Church in Freeport offered "Ashes to Go" today where residents could walk or drive up to the church and receive their ashes and blessing. This is the second year for the outdoor program. Church leaders say they wanted an easier way to get the public involved in Ash Wednesday. Jean Clayton says she's happy that she can still participate, despite her busy schedule.
"It's just a lot more convenient. I just got back from vacation and have a lot of errands, and so I thought I would just do this on the way," said resident Jean Clayton.
The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago started "Ashes to Go" three years ago. More than 30 Stateline congregations participated.


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So yesterday, I asked the twitter world and the blog world if I should post a video that is rather embarrassing of me taking an ice bath. I took the video in the first place because a. I'm an idiot and b. I wanted to show you guys a new idea I had (that many of you maybe have already had but I thought it was brilliant, and, I, at times, can be slow) to make an ice bath not suck so much. Today is Friday and I usually try to post something entertaining or funny, and I guess today I wanted to take it to the next level.
So when I did the walk with DJ, I knew after day one (walking 26.2 miles) we would HAVE to ice bath to be functioning at all the next day (where we had to walk 13.1 more miles). Taking an ice bath really helps get the yuckiness out of your muscles and makes you much less sore. Believe me, ice baths are REALLY CRAPPY, but they also REALLY work. Also, if DJ can take one, you can too. She freaking rocked the ice bath, so get in there and stop complaining. Normally most of the time, unfortunately, I'm cussing while in the ice bath, but luckily this video I kept myself in check. Anyways, if we hadn't taken them, I doubt we would have been mobile the next day. Seriously. Give it a shot, and you'll really feel the difference.
That being said, let me tell you a few little somethings about me. I HATE WATER. I am like a cat. Even when I take a shower, I take relatively very short showers, (6-10 minutes max) and also I really don't like the ocean, or swimming, or anything at all that is water related, besides drinking water of course! This could be because my hair takes forever to do once I wash it, but who knows. I've never been very keen on water. Oddly enough my brother loves to surf, is a lifeguard, loves swimming and has webbed feet. HAHA, sorry T-money had to throw that in there! I guess he got the all the love for the water in the family, while I got none. Secondly, I HATE being cold, nay, LOATHE it. I always am bringing a jacket wherever I'm going, and yes, I HATE the snow. I get cold pretty easily since my arms and legs are skeletor status. Mid section, doesn't get cold so easily, score. So therefore, an ice bath is like my arch-nemesis. Two things I do not like at all.
So, I had the brilliant idea from somehow thinking of putting a frog in boiling water. If you put him in when it's boiling, he hops out, but if you put a frog in cold water and then boil it, he stays in. I then thought of myself as a frog and this translates to ice baths! See, sometimes my train of thought is a little weird. So when it comes to ice baths, I have an incredibly hard problem when the tub is filled and the ice is in it with sitting down. I get my feet in and stand there whining for a while. Then I can't get myself to sit down. I know that once I sit down, and give it a minute I'll be frozen so it doesn't matter but it's the fact of sitting my butt down. I thought, what if I filled the tub up with the usual cold water, and then had DJ pour in the ice for me after I was already in? Would it be better? Well let me tell you, this works WAY better for me! It still stinks to sit down in such cold water, but I can do it pretty quickly, and it's definitely not as bad as sitting down in ICE COLD water. I can do it only with a few moments of whimpering and breathing noises. Then pouring in the ice, there is some breathing that makes me sound like I'm going to have a baby, but then it's over and I'm in and already sitting down. Then I just let it freeze for a minute and I'm good to go for the required 10-15 minutes.
So first off, I'm wearing a swimsuit, I'll let you guys know that in the first minutes of the video. Just make fun of my breathing and especially the whimpering puppy noises when I pour in the 2nd bag. It's freezing people. I used to have to get in the whirlpool in high school and I hated that too. I was also way smaller in high school so I would sit there and FREEZE and my teeth would chatter, the physical therapists always felt bad for me. So now a days, I put on a sweatshirt and get my iPhone all ready and just let it burn.
Anyways, here's the video. This solidifies that I'm a freak, and even more so because I just posted it for the world to see. Also, I preface this video with the fact that I hate my voice. Ha ha ha. Enjoy!
On that note!
This weekend I have a 12 MILER. ONLY 12!!! YAY! I am excited to be back on track (figuratively, not literally) and ready to run Long Beach! This Debbie Downer has turned her frown upside down and is ready to rock! My inner cheerleader is back. Okay maybe it's because I had a pumpkin spice latte and since I never drink caffeine, I could be twitching a little, but hey! It's the WEEKEND PEOPLE!


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Sun Microsystems is teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University to support the continuing development of Alice, a Java-based computer programming environment that teaches students to program Java software while having fun creating 3D animations, stories, and video games.
Alice is an object-oriented, open source system developed over the last 10 years that is provided free to educators and students by the university. It features a drag-and-drop interface that allows students to create 3D environments and populate them with a wide variety of easy to program objects and characters. Because it's based on open development principles, it encourages users and teachers to share knowledge to improve teaching methods and identify improvements to the software on which the system is based.
Alice was the key research project of Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon's professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design who died of pancreatic cancer last summer at the age of 47. Pausch spent more than a decade of his career developing the program. He was able to see a rough version of a new, enhanced Alice 3 just before he died.
Over the next three years, Sun will work with Carnegie Mellon to globalize Alice, providing the tools to translate it into different languages. and develop drag-and-drop artifacts unique to a variety of cultures. Sun will work with the Alice development team to bring the system to a worldwide audience of educators and students.
"The Alice team has done wonderful work over the last decade, making great contributions to computer science education," said Carnegie Mellon alumnus James Gosling, vice president and Sun Fellow who created the Java language. "There's no better investment we can make than in the education of the next generation. I'm thrilled that we're making this commitment."
Today, it's estimated that the current version -- Alice- 2.0 -- is being used in 10 to 15 percent of U.S. colleges and universities, as well as a number of high schools and middle schools. There is a version called "Storytelling Alice" that is especially attractive to middle school girls, helping them to become aware of the importance of computer science early in their educational careers.
A team of researchers headed by Associate Teaching Professor Wanda P. Dann and lead developer and Project Scientist Dennis Cosgrove is working to bring out Alice 3. Dann said that the support of Sun will enable her group to debug and extend their rough version of the system, increase the size of their team, speed up the development process and produce a higher quality product.
"Sun's participation will provide our team with the technical resources we need to bring the development of Alice 3 to completion over the next three years," Dann said. "We will bring out a full release of Alice 3 and follow that with the development of application programming interfaces that will make it useful in all STEM disciplines, including computer science." Dann said that Alice 3 also will make it easier for teachers using Alice to move their students into Java software.
Alice 3 also will feature essential arts assets from a version of "The Sims" -- one of the best selling PC video games of all time -- which were given as a gift to the research team in 2006. The Sims content helps to transform the Alice software from a crude, 3-D programming tool into a compelling and user-friendly programming environment.
"Alice 3 is a major advance over the 2.0 version" said Peter Lee, professor and head of the Computer Science Department in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. "It retains the attractive, intuitive interface that motivates students to write computer programs almost without knowing it. At the same time, it provides a pathway to learning industrial-strength Java software programming. For many, this will be a great ticket to upward mobility."


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Praise for
The Gospel According to Starbucks®
"Cultural barista Leonard Sweet serves up a triple venti cup of relevant insights to wake up decaffeinated Christians. Careful, the book you're about to enjoy is extremely hot."
–Ben Young, pastor, author of Why Mike's Not a Christian
"Reading this book is a caffeine jolt. Get ready to be accelerated into the future, with Jesus a central part of the experience."
–Dan Kimball, pastor, author of The Emerging Church and They Like Jesus, But Not the Church
"The Gospel According to Starbucks® inspires us to quit playing safe and mediocre lives and to fulfill our God-given potential. Leonard Sweet uncovers God's purpose for people not just as individuals but also as communities. An outstanding and thought-provoking book."
–Paul McGee, international speaker, best-selling author of S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On®)
"I have a massive passion for passion. It's my favorite spiritual topic. And I have a nominal coffee obsession, Starbucks being my ritual more often than not. So what a treat to read Leonard Sweet's extra-shot weaving together of the two–all in the hope that each of us will drink in the meaningful and passion-filled life we were designed for."
–Mark Oestreicher, president of Youth Specialties