text:
Best way to learn something is to do it, right? I decided to create a simple card game, with no AI since its supposed to be an online multiplayer game an exercise/experience that could come in handy later on. The games just something I play with my friends when we get together, the mechanics and rules are not important here; I have no problem with implementing game logic, but the networking part is giving me some trouble. Now, I dont need any code, I just need someone to help me understand some concepts, on a general, abstract level.
What I want is for the player to be able to create a game server (give it a name, set some game-related options, etc.) and wait for the others to connect; or to be able to connect to an existing server, that he can pick from a list. You know like in the good ol Counter Strike.
Ive started by reading some articles on simple chat applications, synchronous vs asynchronous communication, and the like. What I dont understand is how do I make the my program find the game servers that already exist, and what do I need to do to make a server visible to any client game looking for one? I guess I need some sort of publicly available or standard remote endpoint.
And, I must admit, although I know the basic network programming concepts, and how things are done (create server, establish a connection, send data back and forth ), I dont have a clear understanding of some basic things about networking, since I dont have much experience with it. For example, whether the server must have an IP of the computer its started on, or you can assign any IP to it, or what? Ive read some articles on IP classes, special addresses, default network, loopback, broadcast... Do I just pick whats suitable, or there are some mystery rules that govern this world If someone could give me a brief 101 on that Because I think this is the main source of my problem
Are there any tutorials or books on this topic(s) you know of?
Thanks in any case.
P.S. Im using C#, if its relevant.


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A Class is something that you want to describe and the Attributes define the detail for the Class.
For example, the APPOINTMENT Class in the NHS Data Model describes an arrangement for a PATIENT to be seen by a CARE PROFESSIONAL.
The detail for the Class is defined by its Attributes, for example APPOINTMENT DATE, ATTENDED OR DID NOT ATTEND etc.
For further information on Attributes, see Attributes.
Classes are shown in diagrams as in the example below:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Delete DNS Templates
You can delete DNS templates at any time.
- Log in to your My Products page.
- If you aren't automatically directed there, make sure to select the My Products tab:
- Click Manage All:
- From the DNS menu at the top left of your account, select DNS Templates.
- On the Manage Templates page, next to the template you'd like to delete, click on the trash can icon:
- In the window that appears, click Delete.


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marutama ra-men {まる玉 らーめん}
ask me what type of japanese ramen i love most and my answer is almost reflex-like.
-- tonkotsu broth ramen.
hands down. period.
hands down. period.
not to be mistaken with tonkatsu which is also a japanese dish but is instead a deep fried panko breaded pork cutlet, tonkotsu is best described by mr j.kenji of food labs at serious eats.
"made with an intensely porky, opaque pale broth with a sticky-lipped intensity and the rich, buttery texture of light cream, there's no smell more warming on a cold day than a big hot bowl of tonkotsu ramen set before you. it is the ultimate comfort-meal-in-a-bowl."
thank you, mr kenji because it's like you've read my mind and put them into words most exquisitely.
so when someone at work recommended marutama ra-men {まる玉 らーめん}, which is one of his top favorites for ramen places (btw, his other half is japanese), i was intrigued but i wasn't sure what to expect of it. after the popular ramen trend took the local food scene by storm a couple of years ago, marutama stood out from the rest of the porcine-based counterparts by being the pioneer of chicken soup for ramen in japan.
nestled in a hidden corner on the first floor of fahrenheit 88 mall in bukit bintang, the petite noodle joint mimicked the simplistic japanese decor of its sister franchises in japan, indonesia, thailand and hong kong. it took a bolder approach with the focus walls painted in my favorite hue of red that contrasted yet complimented the other grey and white walls as well as dark & light brown furniture. as the sun set, the last of the evening sunlight streamed in through the ceiling-high windows that faces the back roads of bukit bintang.
i picked a spot by the window to enjoy what was left of dusk before the night rolled over. the restaurant was quiet that evening with me being the sole diner, granted it was still pretty early for dinner.
the compact menu was filled with the choices in the combination of either spicy/non-spicy broth and toppings of chashu, pork belly or ajitsuke tamago. in fact, if you're feeling hungry, why not all three? or you can even order the toppings (or their other offerings) as a side to be shared with others if variety is what you're looking for.
ajitsuke tamago ra-men | chicken soup ra-men with a slice of roast pork, seaweed, spring onion and a seasoned egg (choice spicy or non spicy) (rm 21)
as much as i love spicy versions, the best way to savor the nuances and notes in its stock will be in its most natural and basic version of the non-spicy.
being the only diner at the restaurant meant that the bowl of goodness got to me really quickly. the broth was warm and i inhaled its fragrance when i tasted my first sip.
as the warm soup trickled down my throat, it sung a couple of the same notes as my favorite tonkotsu broth but on a milder, subtler tune. the stock almost had the similar sticky lipped richness and light creaminess in a flavorful disposition.. a lighter version, if you will but seasoned just nicely. the soup is cooked for five hours daily over high heat using the freshest ingredients and that it takes one whole chicken to make two bowls of soup to achieve that level of flavor intensity. plus, marutama boasts of no added preservatives nor msg.
the handmade noodles were fresh as it was coated lovingly by the thick broth. i've always liked my ramen's texture to be cooked el dente for that firm, springy bite with each chew but this was slightly overdone, thus making it a little softer than i'd like.
one of my favorite ingredients in the bowl has got to be the understated and unassuming imported river bed seaweed from japan that gave another layer of flavor that somewhat cut through the richness of the stock. i would call it the secret (although not-that-secret) ingredient that made this bowl of noodles whole.
the slice of roast pork loin with its great lean to fat ratio was cooked to its tenderly satisfying texture. flavor-wise, pretty good but it didn't stand out as memorable.
and finally, a must have with every bowl of japanese ramen -- the ajitsuke tamago. very mild flavors of soy and mirin infused into the marinated soft boiled egg, done using almost textbook perfect techniques (although i've definitely tasted better ones). as i pierced the egg with my chopsticks to split it open, the runny yolk streamed some of its golden richness into the stock to accentuate the flavors.
don't miss out on the fried garlic flakes on the table and you can even have a second experience with that same bowl of ramen with the addition of their signature condiment. perhaps first half without and the second half with. ;)
the fried garlic flakes gave a slight earthy, sweetness mingled with a bitter undertone from the garlic itself to give a more robust punch of flavor with the occasional crunch of the fried flakes. don't forget to try it for yourself to figure out if you prefer it with or without.
[#protip] while you can't add more stock, you can always have an additional order of ramen (rm 3) if you would like extras to slurp up all that chicken stock with.
oh, and if you are wondering whether the green tea is refillable, it's a yes ;)
marutama ra-men has a tall order to fill especially when i've always advocated tonkotsu broth. i'd definitely commend its chef for the care and technique in achieving the flavor intensity to rival their pork-based counterparts though it had not swayed the latter from its pedestal. an enjoyable bowl of comforting, hearty bowl of japanese ramen with a lighter twist in its chicken stock. go forth with an open mind/stomach/taste buds and who knows? you might find a different kind of ramen joint to be added to your favorites list.
p.s. marutama {まる玉} translates from japanese into 'round ball'....which totally explains its logo!
p.s. marutama {まる玉} translates from japanese into 'round ball'....which totally explains its logo!
marutama ra-men | location
f1.27.01. first floor
jalan bukit bintang
55100 kuala lumpur
{open daily: 11am - 10pm}
jalan bukit bintang
55100 kuala lumpur
{open daily: 11am - 10pm}
disclaimer this is written based on personal experience and opinion. experiences and taste buds may vary for others.


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For some people, landscaping might be a minor change to their home's look. For other people, it is a work of art and they have a lot of techniques and ideas that are advanced, used to create masterpieces. The tips in this article will be of benefit to you no matter what your plans may be, so read on.
Try using native plants for landscaping. When choosing plants, native plants are a perfect fit because they will thrive in your climate. Native plants will thrive in the poorest of soils, are less likely to require a lot of water, and will survive in even the most extreme weather conditions.
Choose appropriate plants for your climate zone, and learn which plants are perennial and which only last for a single year. You must also remember your seasons when landscaping as well. Knowing these things will help you make the most of your yard and your landscaping budget.
An excellent landscaping tip for everyone is to compile a list of every material you might need before beginning your project. There are few things worse than beginning your project and discovering you are missing a needed item. Then, you have to stop working so you can go purchase the missing material.
Test your soil before starting any landscaping project. Making sure the soil is tested helps you know what it needs so you can make changes before you start planting. Your plants will be healthier ,and your garden will be successful by doing this.
Is selling your home in your plans? When you decide to landscape your home the rewards are very beneficial if you plan on selling your home in the near future, you can get around 100 to 200 percent in returns by doing so. The front lawn is obviously more important for curb appeal, but a nice backyard can really drive up your home's value, too.
As you have probably now concluded, landscaping means different things to different people. Some think it's a quick fix up, while some think it's an in depth and artistic endeavor. Using the tips above, any landscaping you do will look wonderful.
How To Match The Style Of Your Home With Your Landscape Design


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Over the years I have found that I know much more than I give credit to myself. The only area where I had to be careful was in the timing and how I put them into action.
At a time when my first marriage was sliding into a point of no return I sensed my ex was setting traps about me. One of that was in using our daughter against me. There was another issue, that of divorce. This was frowned upon in our society where religion was made a big thing and breaking commandments as serious as sin and damnation!After my first marriage I had switched to Pentecostal worship as a sop to the belief of her.( Of course being among these closed in community I felt playing the part in the parable of the Good Samaritan. I fell among thieves, literally.)
I had to take counter measures against the stratagems of these. With the passing of my father I was on my own. In a way it opened up a way out. I could think of asking for divorce, a matter which my father as a Christian would have found uncomfortable.
I had no problem with it. Only that there was a daughter to take care of. She was, as I sensed rightly, my ex-wife's trump card. I knew it. Months before the split my ex was sending her to her parent's house every weekend so I may have little chance of seeing her when I had time and leisure for it. I could see the way the game was progressing.
I was set that I would not allow myself to be emotionally blackmailed. My daughter was old enough to know her mind and make her wishes known. Since she was a willing tool I didn't wish to make an issue of it. Mentally I gave her away to her mother.
In 1994 I decided to marry my old pen pal. I sent a letter to the last known address ( I had not heard from her for 23 years), and it reached her! It was a wild card but it hit the mark. Coincidentally I had a chance to go abroad and meet her. The chains of events were all showing in my favor. I decided her children would be my children. It was indeed the case. After marriage I closed my practice and went to live with her. I could easily establish a friendly relationship with them. Because of this choice I could enjoy the best period of my life watching five of my grandchildren grow. Nothing else could match except the love and warmth I enjoy in my marriage. The manner in which events developed I could seize my chances and come out of what might have been a terrible situation.
Looking back I see that my mind could sense the way to effect an emotional healing. The cure was all in me.


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This Forum has been archivedVisit the new Forums
|Forums: Index → Narutopedia Announcements → Infobox template usage style change
For quite some time now, the template style on the wiki was indirectly controlled by me. Basically I had a style I worked with on all templates, I used that style when writing the example usage on the template page, and because I was also normally the first person to start using the template, and other people normally just copied that and modified it to fit.
As it is my nature as a programmer, I like to keep code as neat and tidy as the pages themselves. The primary thing of that, means keeping things standardized by what's most common. If template "GoHereDoThat" is normally used like {{GoHereDoThat}} then I don't like to go to another page and see {{ goHereDoThat }} even though the system considers them the same. So things like using the same case on all uses of the same template, using a certain pattern on how much whitespace to put in between keys ='s and |'s inside pages, not switching between ==Header== or == Header == within articles, are all bits I like to keep code neat.
I'm making this note here, cause I'm thinking of changing a bit of that style. You don't have to worry about it much, cause of course my nice and handy bots would end up cleaning it all up for everyone.
Currently, all box like templates (basically Infoboxes), have a common pattern for how they are put on a page. Something like this:
{{TemplateName | key = asdlkjf | another key = }}
The key points, being one tab at the start, one space between the | and the key, and enough spaces after the key and before the = to keep all the ='s on the same line, note that for many of the infoboxes, this is actually something to do with the length of the longest key out of all the infoboxes (so that infoboxes stuck together don't look awkward by the = at different spots), and finally there is always a trailing space after the = , even if there is no value.
It's what I found what the cleanest form for the infobox templates. However I've come to notice that the indentation at the start is starting to differ between pages. The original infoboxes all used a single tab character at the start, however I've come to notice that sometimes one or two of those tabs (or even all of them) get replaced with a set of spaces. It has been my nature in programming to loath the use of spaces as the whitespace used in indentation, I've always favored the tab as a lot of programmers do.
The tab character of course, causes some issues on the internet as you cannot type it, while that is of course not an issue with infobox templates as most of the time people just do a copy and paste, when they break the style a little, people have a habit of trying to fix what they broke by putting the padding back, this of course confuses people because some of them just match up the tab with a number of spaces. And thus, this causes the skewing of the indentation.
After thinking about the space vs. the tab, I realized another thought "Why do templates even need to be indented?" Templates don't get nested, and there seams to be little reason for indentation, most likely it was just a result of my programmer's habit of indenting blocks of code. It's overall not useful in Wiki markup.
Another important factor, is that I cannot type a tab within my console (which is used when working with a bot), so I can't exactly use a tab within a replacement of stuff on the wiki very easily.
So I've decided to opt for a form of templates more like:
{{TemplateName | key = asdlkjf | another key = }}
It makes a bit more sense, it's closer to what will actually be outputted when things like Semantic Forms are the ones actually handling infoboxes (^_^ At which point, absolutely none of you will have to worry about "Erm, I make indentation look ugly, what do I do?"), and it makes bot work easier. ~NOTASTAFF Daniel Friesen (DanTMan, Nadir Seen Fire) (talk) Dec 25, 2008 @ 01:00 (UTC)


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Why do we still need 'on screen keyboard' meanwhile with can type directly using normal keyboard?
There are few main reasons, such as using for a 'Touch Screen Monitor' for Display with no normal keyboard and the other thing is for security thing.
If you use internet banking and you are afraid someone monitor your key press then you may use this program.
From Ubuntu Terminal screen (Applications > Accessories > Terminal), type:
taufanlubis@toshiba:~$ sudo apt-get install gtkeyboard
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 357kB of archives.
After unpacking 1110kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe gtkeyboard 1.1.7-5 [357kB]
Fetched 357kB in 21s (16.9kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package gtkeyboard.
(Reading database … 165334 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gtkeyboard (from …/gtkeyboard_1.1.7-5_i386.deb) …
Setting up gtkeyboard (1.1.7-5) …
How to run the program?
From Ubuntu Terminal screen (Applications > Accessories > Terminal), type: gtkeyboard


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Set Your Tivo: 11.14.09Posted by nvr1983 on November 13th, 2009
I originally wanted this to be a post for the entire weekend, but after looking at the schedule for the weekend I realized that the only games worth watching were on Saturday so I had to make a slight revision and consequently this will be a Saturday only post. The way I look at it is to view Sunday as a day off to rest up (maybe get a little bit ahead on either school work or "real world" work so you can do absolutely nothing next week) for the first set of big games, which will be start on Monday. Unfortunately as you will soon see even Saturday might be a bust unless you live in about a 200-mile radius near the Indiana or Ohio border. Fortunately, your fearless editors have come through with RTC Live coverage at 2 out of 3 sites with the third site being less enlightened about new media.
Creighton at #22 Dayton at 1 PM on WHIO-TV: Yeah. That's right. Only on local television, but like I said we will be there with RTC Live coverage. This will be the first game for both teams so both teams will be hyped up for this game even though the Flyers come in with significantly higher expectation not that the Bluejays are slouches. After being snubbed by the NCAA Selection Committee two years ago, the Flyers now have a target on their back after knocking off West Virginia in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. Brian Gregory's team is led by Chris Wright, everyone's preseason A-10 POY (everyone also conveniently forgets that Wright wasn't even 1st team A-10 last year), but if the Flyers are to live up to their preseason ranking they will need other players to step-up. If we were to pick out two players to fit that description would be London Warren, who picked apart West Virginia with 9 assists and only 1 turnover, and Marcus Johnson, a sophmore swingman who put up solid if unspectacular numbers (6.3 PPG and 5.2 RPG) last year, but has been pegged by Gregory as a breakout star this year. On the other sideline, Dana Altman will be hoping that P'Allen Stinnett can fill the void left by Booker Woodfox, last year's Missouri Valley Conference POY and need center Kenny Lawson (8.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and conference-leading 1.6 BPG last year) to dominate the Flyers on the inside. If the Bluejays can get big performances out of those two and some big shots by Kaleb Korver (yes, he is Kyle's brother and he can shoot–45% from beyond the arc last year). However, the Bluejays' biggest advantage might be that the Flyers could be looking ahead to their next opponent–#20 Georgia Tech and its hyped freshman Derrick Favors in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Davidson at #10 Butler at 2 PM on WHMB-40: Yeah. Local television again, but once again we have come through for you with yet another RTC Live from historic Hinkle Fieldhouse (the site of Milan's famous 1954 win over Muncie and where they filmed Hoosiers–anybo are dy got the odds that Bill Simmons has ever travelled there since he references the movie so often?). Of course, we have a funny feeling that if Stephen Curry were still in a Wildcat uniform ESPN might have found a way to get them on one of their networks. Instead this game will give us a look at Butler, everyone's top mid-major team and one of the highest ranked mid-majors that I can remember in recent years. Butler coach Brad Stevens managed to lead the Bulldogs to 26-6 record last year despite starting three freshmen in every game, a remarkable feat for the 2nd year coach who has more wins (56) in his first two years than any coach in D1 history other than Bill Guthridge (58). This year, Stevens will have significantly higher expectations for his Bulldogs who are led by sophomore Gordon Hayward (13.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.0 APG, and 1.5 SPG) and junior Matt Howard (14.8 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.1 APG, 0.7 SPG). On the other side of the ball, Davidson coach Bob McKillop will have his hands full trying to manage an inexperienced and Curry-less group in a hostile environment. In addition to losing Curry and his nation-leading 28.6 PPG, the Wildcats also lost Andrew Lovedale (a solid inside presence who provided both points and rebounds) and Max Paulhus-Gosselin (an excellent defender who to the best of my knowledge is not related to Jon, Kate, or any of the 8). This year, McKillop will be relying on Will Archambault (8.3 PPG and 4.3 RPG), Bryant Barr (7.1 PPG and 2.0 RPG), and Stephen Rossiter (6.1 PPG and 5.9 RPG). Unfortunately, the Wildcats strength is on the inside where Hayward and Howard will be dominating. The Bulldogs relative weakness is on the outside where Curry could have done some major damage, but he's hanging out with Nellie now so expect the Bulldogs to be out to send a message to the rest of the nation that they deserving of this extremely high ranking.
Mount St. Mary's at #16 Oklahoma at 2 PM on ???: This is ridiculous. I can't find this game on any TV listing and we won't be there thanks to Big 12 policy against new media so we will just assume that Jeff Capel will hire one of those courthouse artists to let the rest of us know what the action was like. There are only really two reasons to watch this game if you happen to be in Norman, Oklahoma (since you can't see it anywhere else–seriously Oklahoma's site doesn't even list a local TV station carrying the game): to see how the Sooners adapt to life without Blake Griffin and to see how Willie Warren plays as the main option for the Sooners playing against the Mountaineers' backcourt of Jeremy Goode (15.9 PPG and 3.1 RPG), Kelly Beidler (12.1 PPG and 6.5 RPG), and Jean Cajou (13.6 PPG and 3.4 RPG). We expect the Sooners to be ok, but don't be surprised to see them struggle a bit in the early going. They shouldn't have a problem with the Mountaineers, but if Milan Brown's backcourt gets hot from beyond the arc we could have an interesting game that nobody outside of the arena will see.


text:
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Society of Vineyard Scholars // Anaheim 2013
Society of Vineyard Scholars
Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 10:00 AM - Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 1:00 PM (PDT)
It Seemed Good To The Holy Spirit And To Us:
The Church as a Community of Discernment
April 18-20, 2013
Anaheim, CA, USA
The fourth annual Society of Vineyard Scholars Conference will be held April 18-20, 2013 in Anaheim, CA, USA. The theme of the conference is "It Seemed Good To The Holy Spirit And To Us: The Church As A Community of Discernment." The conference will be hosted by the Anaheim Vineyard.
This year we have three plenary speakers. Richard Mouw, eminent Christian philosopher, ecumenical churchman, and outgoing President of Fuller Theological Seminary, will speak to us about the sensus fidelium -- the role that ordinary Christians play in the process of theological discernment. Amos Yong, J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology at the Regent University School of Divinity, will speak to us on the topic of "The Holy Spirit and the Religions: Christian Discernment in a World of Many Faiths." Our final plenary speaker will be Cherith Fee-Nordling, Professor of Theology at Northern Seminary, who will speak to us about the relationship of spiritual life to scholarly practice. In addition to these plenaries, we will have long-form talks from Beth Stovell, J. P. Moreland, Jordan Seng, Allen Yeh, Ken Wilson, and others to be announced.
Beyond all this, there will be numerous panel sessions featuring presentations of and responses to papers written by SVS participants spread over Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. This intellectual interaction forms the heart of what we do at SVS.
Also, we will make significant time for prayer, worship, and prophetic ministry. We highly value the essential relationship between the worship and the life of the mind, and we will bear that value out in our time together.
Finally, we will allow plenty of time at this conference for people to hang out and form relationships. There will be a reception on Friday night, lunchtime breakouts for people with particular shared interests, and so on. Also, for the second year running, we are sponsoring a breakfast for women at SVS. Hosted by Dr. Adey Wassink and Dr. Rose Madrid-Swetman, this is designed to be an occasion of particular encouragement and support for the women scholars and church leaders who gather in the context of SVS. Across the board, our goal is to develop and nurture a community of theological discourse in the Vineyard, and we are committed to allowing the time and space that it takes to do so
For all the most up-to-date details on the conference, including discounted conference hotels, SVS membership, and more, see the conference website.
The Society of Vineyard Scholars exists to sustain a community of theological dialogue in and for the Vineyard movement.
In order to purchase these tickets in installments, you'll need an Eventbrite account. Log in or sign up for a free account to continue.


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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Oh, Holy Night
I get in the door and, holding on the wall for balance, I move as fast as my Mama Cass legs will carry me. In the bedroom, I shuck off my shirt first. Then, the suspenders come off the shoulders and my pants and shorts drop. Finally, socks are off. I am suddenly naked. Buck naked. I don't like to expose myself, even here on the blog, so I immediately reach for my housecoast.
My magic housecoat. My indestructable wonderful housecoat. It truly is magical. When it is on, no harm can come my way, no bad vibes can penetrate it, no spells or incantations can reach me. The phone goes off. The door isn't answered. The world is held entirely at bay. Wrapping it around me I suddenly feel an incredible peace.
This, my magic housecoat, has lasted from our house in Quebec, our place up by Barrie and now our home here in Toronto. It has never failed me. Some days I work it hard. Some days, after rough days, I stay indoors wrapped up in magical layers, and never set foot outside. Those days, it works hard.
So imagine my horror. I grabbed my housecoat and wrapped it round me. I came and sat here at the computer and when I sat down I felt cold, really cold, metal on my right side. I reached down and found that there is a hole in my housecoat. I felt, first, shock, second, sadness, third, vulnerable. I felt like Spiderman (the cool comic one not the wimpy movie one) with a hole in his super suit.
I can't sew.
I am not crafty.
So I took my stapler and fixed the hole.
My house coat, magical though it is, deserves better ... unfortunately it got me. I'll have to do. Besides my stapler is nearly full.
Dearest gentle readers on this ICLW (international comment leaving week) do you have any magical clothes that you wear to ward off evil spirits and wicked wishes?
22 comments:
- Belinda said...
Sacrilege--stapling the magic housecoat; but very creative! :)
- 24 September 2009 at 00:37
- wendy said...
I don't have any magic clothes but reading your description of the powers of your housecoat I think I need some! Is there a special magic clothes store I could shop in? There are certainly days I could use them.
- 24 September 2009 at 06:25
I have a wonderfully comfy grey sweater that was my dad's...I cuddle in it on days I feel cold, not well and especially on the days I miss him the most..when I need an understanding and accepting ear!
- 24 September 2009 at 06:34
I have a blanket that was my mom's; and, may the staples add Superior Ninja skills to your housecoat!
- 24 September 2009 at 07:52
I have a combo of grey hoodie and leather jacket that make me lok way cooler and way tougher than I really am. One of the few reasons I like cooler weather is 'cause I can wear this combo.
Sorry about your housecoat Dave. Hope the staples don't scratch ya!
Don in Missouri
- 24 September 2009 at 08:34
- Unknown said...
No duct tape? Duct tape fixes everything. And is magical itself.
- 24 September 2009 at 10:09
- ivanova said...
I have a grey collared shirt that's been one of my favorites since I was thirteen. I am NOT the same size I was when I was thirteen, so it must be magic if I can still wear it.
PS I'm sure you know that a lot of dry cleaning places also do mending. They will laugh at you for wanting to mend something old. . . and they will definitely laugh at the staples. But, if you are willing to let the magic housecoat out of your sight, you could get a dandy professional repair.
- 24 September 2009 at 10:16
- Kristin said...
No, not staples in the magic housecoat. Surely there is a tailor you can take it to and get it patched. We can't have any of the magic properties leaking out of an improperly patched hole.
- 24 September 2009 at 11:14
I have a pair of shoes that are really special. When I wear them I am beautiful, tall and sophisticated. Maybe I should wear them more often!
PS What about speed-sew? It's like glue for fabric.
- 24 September 2009 at 12:00
- Clay said...
I have a very nice T-shirt that I've had for 10 years. It's imprinted with a lovely, restful Lighthouse scene, with seagulls and everything!
The background is a pleasant blue and white tie-dye sort of thing. Um, been wearing it for a week, while I'm home.
There are iron-on patches, might be the easiest thing to do. That or the duct tape.
- 24 September 2009 at 13:28
I have a hat which is fluffy and black and has cat ears on it. I wear it when I am feeling vulnerable and I go out walking, stalking the streets feeling like I'm not a human being and no one notices a cat. I realise logically I probably stick out more, but it wraps round my head and ears and feels like a protective barrier.
- 24 September 2009 at 14:03
- Terri said...
We have an afghan that is truly a comforter for me and my kids--able to ward off thunderstorms, family crises, school disappointments and more... with it and a cup of tea I am much less 'vincable.'
- 24 September 2009 at 14:16
Used to have pale yellow cotton/linen sweater that was very light weight and about 6 sizes too big for me. I wore that sweater whenever I needed to feel calm or safe. Since it was so big, I could pull it on over whatever I had on. I wore that sweater alot and just wore it out. It got frayed in spots I finally had to retire it. I've been looking for a replacement for a very long time.
Maybe a patch would work on your housecoat. It's not too hard to sew one on.
- 24 September 2009 at 14:59
- Brad said...
I have to get behind what Lisa RM said. Duct tape. :)
I don't have any special clothes that I wear, but I do enjoy my dog blanket.
There is simply nothing better. :)
- 24 September 2009 at 15:26
- Erin said...
I wish I had the time to make you another housecoat.
- 24 September 2009 at 23:06
I have the most wonderful pair of pants. I call them my "spongey pants". They are well worn, have several small holes in them, and are always comfy no matter what I eat. They are never to be worn in public, but I plan long evenings in them typically with a good book or movie. I usually am so excited to put them on that I have created the "spongey pants dance" and the "sponge pants chant". Very few things in life make me as happy.
- 24 September 2009 at 23:06
- Saige said...
Your poor house coat! I hope it feels better soon. I am so glad it is better than the wimpy movie spider man.
I have a magic shirt that makes me look hot and skinny. I usually wear it on Fridays to celebrate the fact that I made it through another work-week.
- 24 September 2009 at 23:48
- Katie said...
I have a housecoat belonging to my grandmother. It had a tear when I brought it home, and I used that fabric glue and mended it, which didn't hold. So, I've worn it with the tear for eons. Despite many washings it's never lost that smell of her.
Wonderful, fantastic blog! I'm reading happily and may be here all afternoon.
- 27 September 2009 at 16:45
- Rechelle said...
I have a j. peterman green striped shirt that is years old but when I wear it, I am completely comforted- it is possibly the biggest stress reliever I have - I have even dreamed I was putting it on because I was so stressed in my sleep- I can't tell you how wonderful it is to slip into it, button it up, roll up the sleeves and instantly feel better- I can't bear thinking of the day it will wear out-
- 27 September 2009 at 18:41
- kitrona said...
I have an old sweater of my dad's, and my huge and comfy sweatpants that also used to be my dad's. But the real magic is my "binkies"... replacements for my original security blanket. One really needs to be thrown away, as the entire middle is strings, but I love it. The other is new and has cats on it, and it comforted me today the way little else could. I think it has the magic. :)
- 29 September 2009 at 07:29
Oh Dave, you don't want to sit on staples! Find someone to mend it, or look for stitch witchery that you can iron between the edges. Wish I was close enough to mend it for you.
- 30 September 2009 at 01:58
- Gary Miller said...
I have a 'comfort sweater': It's about 15 years old; it's a knitted fisherman-type thing; is wonderfully sloppy; comes out of the washing machine ready-shaped for me to put it on; has sleeves that are so long that I resemble Cro-Magnon Man; is used to comfort my dog when it's thundery or there are fireworks going off and is hated by everyone I know.
I - and my dog Coy - of course, absolutely love it.
If it works...use it!!
- 1 October 2009 at 21:58


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Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain Park is a winter wonderland full of real snow! With a 400-foot tubing hill and 2 moving sidewalks to take you back to the top, your Snow session will be packed with fun. Snow Mountain offers single tubes, double tubes, and large family-sized tubes.
Dates and Times vary. Check www.stonemountainpark.com/calendar for schedule.
From snowman building and snow forts to tubing and togetherness, enjoy all the moments that will make for the perfect snow day.


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The batteries that come in our electronic cigarette starter kits are what provide the power that is needed to vaporize the nicotine solution that we call "e-liquid". The resulting vapor is what is inhaled by the user, simulating the the sensation of smoking.
The size of the battery greatly affects the amount of vapor the unit produces and also determines how much charge capacity is at your fingertips. That means, the larger the battery, the more continuous vaping time and the stronger your clouds of vapor will be.
The electronic cigarette heating element is known by many different types of names such as an "atomizer", "cartomizer" or "tankomizer" etc. All you really need to know is that the heating element is the wheel that drives vapor production.
We provide a variety of different heating elements designed to suit the needs of all kinds of vapers. Every heating element we offer has one basic component and that is the heating coil. This is what heats up and vaporizes the e-liquid into the tasty vapor that you will come to love.
In order for the electronic cigarette to create vapor, you must supply the heating element with a steady supply of e-liquid. There are several different vapor delivery methods as explained above in the heating element section.
From pre-filled cartomizers that have the e-liquid and heating element built right in, to blank cartomizers and tank systems that give you the freedom to refill yourself with our e-liquid bottles, your options are truly endless.
What really sets us apart is our Premium, USA-Made e-liquids that are sourced from quality vendors and batch tested to ensure quality and freshness.
So now that we've combined our battery power with a steady supply of e-liquid and a heating element, we have a fully functioning electronic cigarette that will provide us with satisfying clouds of vapor with each and every puff.
For more information on how to get started check out our starter kits comparison page to see a break down of the different types of starter kits we have to offer. This will help you choose whichstarter kit is the right fit for you. Happy shopping and most of all, happy vaping.
We're here to help. We want to make sure you get the most out of your vaping experience. Visit our extensive knowledge base for more information about electronic cigarettes. If you still can't find the answer you're looking for, feel free to chat with one our live agents or give us a call on our support line at 1-866-866-6370.


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My mom saw my layout for the I-tunes challenge at the quarterly sale here (https://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/ideas/showphoto.php?photo=149583).
After a good night sleep she woke up and asked me if I would make a canvas layout of this with my dad and my sister and of my mom and me. So I did. I used the I-tunes template and a tutorial in a dutch photoshop magazine. The light effects, brushes (from Hawksmont) and grunge papers are freebies from the internet, that were used in the tutorial.
It was a lot of work, but what matters most to me is that my mom liked it very much.
Thanks for looking!


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Replacing Gen. Vance? Not yet, says the Privy Council Office
There has been a lot of speculation at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa about when the Liberal government will replace Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance.
There are those at NDHQ who insist some of the potential candidates for the CDS job have been interviewed, including Lt.-Gen. Christine Whitecross.
But the Privy Council Office says that is not the case at all.
Paul Duchesne, director of media affairs at the Privy Council Office, told Postmedia that no interviews have been conducted and no process to replace Gen. Vance has been started.
"I can confirm that a process for the position of Chief of the Defence Staff is not currently underway," Duchesne stated.
"The process has not been conducted nor is it underway," he added when asked to clarify if the replacement interviews might have already been finished.
There is no specific length for the term of the CDS. Vance was named to the post in July 17, 2015. Some previous chiefs of the defence staff have served around three years. Gen. Walter Natynczyk served more than four years.


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VCI continues its collaboration with Kit Parker films on Forgotten Noir Volume 2, another installment of post-war crime thrillers. Yes, both of these moderately-successful gangster movies features scenes shot at night and threats of violence, but that doesn't technically make them films noir -- they're both straight moralistic tales with good guys versus bad guys, based on the 'undercover agent' concept re-popularized in 1948's The Street With No Name. The shows are entertaining double bill fillers, with good actors and even a star on the way down, George Raft.
Loan Shark
1952 / 79 min.
Starring George Raft, Dorothy Hart, Helen Westcott, John Hoyt, Paul Stewart
Cinematography Joseph F. Biroc
Art Direction Feild M. Gray
Film Editor Albrecht Joseph
Original Music Heinz Roemheld
Written by Eugene Ling, Martin Rackin
Produced by Bernard Luber
Directed by Seymour Friedman
Loan Shark is pretty much the skids for ex-star and former New York underworld figure George Raft. In the late 30s and early 40s he single-handedly made Humphrey Bogart's career by turning down plum roles in film after film. If it wasn't a story where a good guy pretended to be bad, became a hero and kissed the girl at the end, Raft didn't seem to understand it.
Loan Shark is low-key and utterly predictable, relying on the charm of old favorite George Raft to maintain audience interest. The crooked setup is unbelievable in that any such racket operating in the open needs official cooperation from corrupt policemen; a five year-old would immediately figure out who most of the crooks are. The same crooked foreman Charlie Thompson (Russell Johnson) suckers all the workers into the usurer's net by, but none of them suspect Charlie of being in on the racket. As in many thrillers, "the workers" are characterized as ignorant dummies interested only in a cold beer after hours.
As the ex-con avenging his brother-in-law's death, Joe is a standard tough guy and not much of a noir hero. He enters the employ of the gangsters by beating up a thug, and from then on might as well hang a sign on himself that says, "police informant." John Hoyt and Paul Stewart are fine as the bad guys. Most of the solid citizen characters come off as clueless dolts, immediately breaking off with Joe and never questioning why he's doing such a bad thing.
William Phipps, a standard presence in war films and especially Sci-Fi pictures of the 50s (Five, Invaders from Mars, The War of the Worlds) is the ill-fated spokesman for the workers ... note that Loan Shark has no Union presence. Given a choice part as a frisky waitress is Robert L. Lippert's girl friend (or so claimed Val Guest) Margia Dean. As producer Robert L. Lippert had a relationship with Hammer films, this may explain why she ended up playing unlucky astronaut Victor Carroon's wife in The Quatermass Xperiment.
Loan Shark rates an entry in Silver and Ward's Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the Film Style but I have to believe that the compilers of that book, working before the advent of home video, didn't get a chance to review it. Besides the iconic presence of Raft the movie has little noir sensibility. They may have included the title because of an error in their synopsis, which (perhaps following a shooting script) says that Joe scalds Vince Philips to death in a laundry boiler at the end. The movie never gets near a "laundry with evocative shadows"; the concluding showdown takes place in a deserted theater.
Arson, Inc.
1949 / 63 min.
Starring Robert Lowery, Anne Gwynne, Marcia Mae Jones, Douglas Fowley, Edward Brophy
Cinematography Carl Berger
Art Direction Martin Obzina
Film Editor Edward Mann
Original Music Raoul Kraushaar
Written by Arthur Caesar, Maurice Tombragel
Produced by Robert L. Lippert, William Stephens
Directed by William Berke
Arson, Inc. is the better of the two pictures despite coming from the same tired mold of 'undercover operator fools gangsters.' Arthur Caesar and Maurice Tombragel's script has some pleasant surprises and the actors do creditable work under difficult conditions, especially bad guys Douglas Fowley and Edward Brophy,
Arson, Inc. is structured just as cheaply as any Lippert production. An actor (William Forrest) posing as a fire chief starts the film with a lengthy lecture illustrated with stock footage from the early 1930s. Later scenes save money by cutting in equally old, mismatched shots as well -- like one picture of a fire truck that shows a woman wearing a skirt down to her ankles.
Robert Lowery is a good-looking and inoffensive hero. His meeting-cute scene with Anne Gwynne ends with him watching her correct homework at a dining room table. She hands him a pile of history papers to work on! It's a rare scene in a thriller that actually relates to real life. For comic relief, Jane has a grandmother, also a babysitter, who hangs around the periphery acting strange. She's supposed to augment her income by babysitting as well, but it's never explained why she hangs out on dark street corners!
The arson plot is far-fetched but immensely enjoyable because of familiar actors Douglas Fowley and Edward Brophy. Fowley (the silent movie director who tears his hair out in Singin' in the Rain) goes wonderfully over the top barking out bad-guy orders as the crooked arson boss. Brophy (the knife thrower in Mad Love) is a riot as a pushy, emotional firebug Pete. He can act tough but goes goofy over secretary Bella. Pete proudly teaches Joe the A B C's of arson, like starting multiple fires to make the investigators think that a serial firebug is on the loose.
An amusing turn of events happens when Joe is invited to a lively party thrown by Fred. We expect some kind of criminal's rendezvous, but it turns out to be a bunch of people singing Little Brown Jug around a piano! Fred ogles Anne Gwynne's Jane like he's a wolf about to pounce, and nobody seems to notice!
The plotting is fairly cut and dried but we like the personalities, a plus that comes in handy when the supposedly formidable bad guys self-destruct at the conclusion. Naturally, all the bad guys come to a violent, final end, as everyone knows crime never pays. We're expected to believe that Fowley can drive his old clunker car down a mountain road at 120 mph. Director William Berke keeps things cooking and our young lovers interested in each other, no matter how silly the story gets. Our hero's big action at the end is to pull a fire alarm switch! At 63 swift minutes, Arson, Inc. hasn't time to become boring.
Forgotten Noir Volume 2 is a satisfactory pair of old-fashioned crime thrillers that aren't particularly noir. The transfers are clean and appropriately flat. Both titles come with original trailers (not to mention the posters for Lippert's HIghway 13 and I Shot Jesse James that show up in the background of shots.) Arson, Inc. has the first half of a text essay on Robert L. Lippert written by his son; Loan Shark has a dull commentary by Richard M. Roberts that mostly lists a lot of information from the IMDB. Roberts tells us that we're watching a man exiting a building, that a shot is a good one, etc. Roberts does say that the back lot rented to film the night scenes is Charlie Chaplin's studio up on La Brea Avenue, one of the few pieces of new information on the entire track.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
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Volume IX, No. 5
The Education Innovator will take a brief summer break in July. Look for the back-to-school edition in late August when we resume publication.
What's inside...
A New Era of Family Engagement
What's New
- From the U.S. Department of Education
- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
- From the Institute of Education Sciences
- Raising Student Achievement
- Teacher Quality and Development
- Raising Student Achievement
- School Improvement
- Teacher Quality and Development
- Technology in Education
A New Era of Family Engagement
One evening last November, 59 students at Avondale West Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, with 68 parents accompanying them watched "The Tale of Despereaux," but not just for its entertainment value. Joining them that evening were Avondale West teachers in grades three to five who worked with their students leading up to the movie night. In place of the regular Title I Parent Reading and Math Nights, they used the story of a small mouse with big dreams that discovers reading as a way to achieve those dreams. Students and parents estimated the number of spools of thread in a large container to win a personal copy of the movie. Teachers used portions of "The Tale of Despereaux" to develop math projects that students and their parents completed. A large word wall in the school's front lobby greeted the participants with vocabulary from the movie.
This and similar creative strategies for engaging students, parents, and families are supported throughout Kansas and other states by the Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRC) network funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education. The network, first established in 1995, is committed to building the capacity of schools and districts to use statewide delivery models to develop school, community, and family partnerships that contribute to student success.
Setting Priorities for a New Era of Engagement
Research studies point to the need for many more comprehensive, strategic approaches to bringing parents and families into partnerships with schools, with the ultimate outcome of these efforts being increased student achievement. According to the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group (Working Group), a leadership collaborative that informs the development and implementation of federal policy related to family, school, and community engagement, there is strong research evidence that "parental beliefs, attitudes, values, and childrearing practices, as well as home-school communication, are linked to student success."
"There is a skyscraper full of research showing how parent, family, and community engagement is crucial to children's learning and school success from birth on."
— Heather B. Weiss, National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group
With the Department of Education and others "expanding their commitments and investments and thereby creating opportunities to build and integrate effective engagement," Weiss and her Working Group colleagues wanted to ensure that family engagement is viewed as a core innovation and reform strategy.
The Working Group began by enumerating a set of priorities to build a strong foundation for family, school, and community engagement, including: the need for a coherent and comprehensive strategy to guide family, school, and community partnerships; a consciously designed infrastructure to elevate the essential nature of engagement as a reform strategy; and improvement of data systems in terms of timeliness, relevance to parents and families, and accountability for outcomes that strengthen the quality of family engagement.
From their deliberations, a new definition of family engagement emerged – one intended to catalyze innovative national policies and programs to help ensure the highest quality of educational opportunities from birth through young adulthood. Realizing that those opportunities will require partnerships among families, schools, and communities to promote kindergarten readiness, improve schools, and increase student achievement, the definition calls for:
- shared responsibility on the part of schools and other community agencies and organizations that commit themselves to engaging families in meaningful and culturally respectful ways;
- a continuum of engagement across a child's life, from Early Head Start programs to readiness for college by high school graduation; and
- reinforcement of learning in multiple settings – at home, in pre-kindergarten programs, in school and extended learning programs, in faith-based institutions, and in community programs.
The Working Group, according to Weiss, will continue its work, possibly increase its members, and stay focused on emerging policy changes, preparing to inform the implementation phase of such major actions as the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Information to Empower Parents and Families
School districts, with support from the Department of Education and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, have spent more than $1 billion to build and implement data systems. With an expected infusion of another $1 billion by 2015, all states should be better prepared to provide transparent information about student achievement and make it readily available.
According to the Harvard Family Research Project, this historic investment must be strategic – accessible, understandable, and actionable – towards the major outcomes of achieving national education reform goals. In 2008, New Visions for Public Schools launched "Good to Go," a college- and career-readiness campaign with three interdependent components: increasing parental engagement, developing community resources to speed up progress towards the goal of college preparation, and an innovative set of tools to track student progress at the high school and post-secondary levels. The Student Tracker-[PDF, 503KB] electronically depicts college readiness benchmarks and provides information about a student's progress in terms of attendance, grades, and state-testing results. Color-coding makes the information readily understandable for parents, teachers, and students, and the "tracker" serves as the basis for discussions among the three groups during parent-teacher-student conferences. The New Visions family engagement model is in 32 high schools this year, and plans call for it to be adapted for middle school in the near future, in order to provide a continuous pathway for family engagement in service to the goal of career readiness.
In Indiana, the State PIRC believes that parents need both information and opportunities to become leaders in order to work effectively with their school and community partners. The Indiana Academy for Parent and School Leadership (Academy)-[PDF, 177] annually brings together 10 school-based teams for focused, shared learning experiences designed to increase participants' knowledge and skills. They return to their schools and communities prepared to engage in conversations with school leaders, conduct surveys, recruit and enroll parents in workshops and other informative activities, and initiate parent projects that support student learning as part of local School Improvement Plans. The Academy is "crucial in preparing leaders to go home and empower other parents," according to Dee Jones, an Academy graduate and former Indiana State PTA president. In turn, that empowerment, she adds, allows "parent[s] to help children become successful in school and in life.&rdquo
Voices in Action, an outgrowth of the Academy, reaches out to Latino immigrant families in Indiana, providing them with information on policies such as Title I and connecting them to community resources. The immigrant parents and families also learn the differences between the expectations for parent engagement in the U.S. compared with their former homelands.
Building School and District Infrastructure
Informed and empowered parents and families are only half of the equation, according to the Working Group. There also must be receptive and capable institutions, most importantly schools, but also community providers of extended learning such as after-school programs, faith-based organizations, and, in the case of early childhood, Head Start and other early care providers. Building that commitment and capacity takes strategic and sustained efforts. Iowa's Sustaining Parent Involvement Network (iSPIN), administered by the Iowa State PIRC, is featured in "Taking Leadership, Innovating Change: Profiles in Family, School, and Community Engagement" because of the progress it is making on this important front. At the state level, the Iowa PIRC works closely with the State Association of School Boards and the School Administrators of Iowa to see that parent engagement is in alignment with standards for teachers and administrators as well as in the assessment of school leaders.
With that state-level effort as a backdrop, iSPIN endeavors to create a structure for family engagement that can lead to better outcomes for all the local team members – schools, families, and students. The basis of the structure is a required set of school-level commitments to parent engagement; the commitments are in-depth in nature and dependent on systemic actions in professional development, access to information and materials, local coaching on building and sustaining partnerships, and opportunities for iSPIN schools to network with one another.
iSPIN's systemic approach, according to the Working Group, has "helped schools change their culture around parent engagement," and has made parent engagement efforts "a part of the basic fabric of the school." Even "involved" parents, such as Michele Clayton of West Des Moines, praise iSPIN for the ways in which it deepens their involvement. In just a few months, Clayton said she began to "think differently about all the ways I can help to keep my own children more engaged in school."
Over the next two years, the Iowa State PIRC plans to conduct a quasi-experimental study of iSPIN sites, building on a 2004 evaluation of the Solid Foundation program, a precursor to iSPIN.
An empowering culture in schools to support effective instruction is also a key component of the Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS), a part of the Kansas State PIRC (KPIRC) that calls for schools to make a concerted effort to engage families. The six PTA National Standards for Family-School Partnerships are at the heart of MTSS, along with the acknowledgement that local intentions to adhere to the PTA standards require partnerships between families, schools, and communities, along with strong, coherent school-by-school plans to achieve student success. Within those plans must be creative, engaging, and student-outcome-driven actions like the movie night at Avondale Elementary School, which received one of five annual Family and Parent Partnership Projects grants from the KPIRC. The grants require the participating schools to plan, strategize, implement, and evaluate family engagement efforts.
The Federal Role in Supporting Parent Engagement
As research has informed the role of parents in education, the Department of Education's strategies concerning parents and families have evolved, particularly in regards to the PIRC network. When the network was created 15 years ago, parent involvement was the end. Success was defined by involvement appearing as a goal in local school improvement plans. In 2002, capacity building – at the state and local levels – became the operative strategy for PIRCs. Now, parent engagement has replaced involvement, not as a goal, but rather as a key strategy at the state and local levels to increase student achievement.
Speaking to the Mom Congress recently, Secretary Duncan affirmed the critical role parents play in their children's success in school. "It is well documented – and plain common sense – that parental involvement … boosts student learning and improves both behavior and attendance," he said. That fact and others concerning the role of parents led the Obama Administration to propose a doubling of funding for parent engagement – from one to two percent of Title I dollars, which will total $270 million.
OII's Office of Parental Options and Information, in partnership with United Way Worldwide, the National PTA, the Southwest Education Development Lab, and the Harvard Family Research Project, is sponsoring Achieving Excellence and Innovation in Family, School, and Community Engagement, a four-part webinar series for stakeholders from national, regional, and local levels. The goal of the series is to inform these stakeholders about research on family, school, and community engagement, best practices, and innovations in school improvement and student learning. The series began on April 29 with Transforming Schools Through Family, School, and Community Engagement; Webinar 2, A New Day: Family, School, and Community Engagement in Education Reform, is scheduled for June 30, at 1:30 p.m. EDT.
Key Resources: "Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago," available from the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago "The Turnaround Challenge: Why America's best opportunity to dramatically improve student achievement lies in our worst-performing schools," available from Mass Insight Education and Research Institute State Strategies for Turning Around Low-Performing Schools and Districts: A Study Guide for Policymakers Based on a Symposium for State Board Chairs and Chief State School Officers, available from the National Association of State Boards of Education "A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement," available from the Southwest Education Development Lab "National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group: Recommendations for Federal Policy," the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group
Correction In the May Innovator feature, it was indicated that Teaching Ambassador Fellow Michelle Bissonnette participated in the negotiation of teacher contract agreements. That portion of the article should have read:...Bissonnette has looked closely at progressive labor and management relationships as well as negotiated agreements that have been critical to dramatic reform in districts across the country. We regret this error and any confusion it may have caused.
What's New
From the U.S. Department of Education
President Obama and Secretary Duncan delivered commencement addresses at several high schools. The Secretary addressed the 85 graduates of Washington, D.C.'s Benjamin Banneker High School. His address, "Finding Your Passion," challenged graduates to strive for excellence, pursue their dreams, persist and achieve college and career success, and use their great talents to make a positive contribution to their community and the nation. The President addressed the 290 graduates at Michigan's Kalamazoo Central High School, the winners of the President's inaugural Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. "Together, as a community, you've embraced the motto of this district – 'every child, every opportunity, every time' – because you believe, like I do, that every child, regardless of what they look like, where they come from, or how much money their parents have, deserves a quality education," he said. (June 2010)
The Secretary has appointed 15 members to serve on the Committee on Measures of Student Success. Created under the Higher Education Opportunity Act, the committee will develop recommendations for two-year institutions of higher education to comply with the law's completion and graduation rate disclosure requirements. It will also develop recommendations regarding additional measures of student success that are comparable alternatives to the completion or graduation rates, taking into account the mission and role of such institutions. (June 2010)
First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary Duncan joined three other Cabinet secretaries and Patrick Covington, chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), to launch "United We Serve: Let's Read. Let's Move." This new initiative – an Administration-wide effort spearheaded by CNCS – seeks to combat summer reading loss and childhood obesity by engaging youth in summer reading and physical activity, as well as by providing full access to healthy, affordable food. Specifically, the initiative aims to increase access to volunteer projects around reading, exercise, and healthy eating; provide toolkits and other key resources to help Americans develop high-impact service projects; and build new partnerships to reach youth in large cities and rural communities. (June 2010)
More than 250 parents, grandparents, caregivers, and community members from 17 states gathered at the Department for a dialogue with Department officials. The 90-minute discussion touched on meaningful ways to support family engagement in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), supporting children with special needs, and the allocation of Title I funding in schools. (May 2010)
The Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII) offers a number of resources, including Strengthening Partnerships and Building Public Will for Out-of-School Time Programs, a guide by the National League of Cities that describes three strategies that municipal leaders have used successfully to advance after-school programming. For charter schools, The National Center on School Choice at Vanderbilt University conducts scientific, comprehensive, and timely investigations on the individual and systemic effects of school choice and competition. The Center exercises national leadership in school choice research, including charter and magnet schools, private school vouchers, teacher recruitment, school management, and state policymaking. CII supports regional centers in their work with states to provide districts, schools, and families with opportunities, information, and skills to make wise decisions on behalf of students. (May 2010)
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia submitted applications to be considered for Phase 2 of the Race to the Top competition. Race to the Top is the Department of Education's $4.35 billion fund to dramatically reshape America's educational system to better engage and prepare students for success in the 21st century global economy and workplace. The Department will select the Phase 2 winners over the summer, using the same process as Phase 1. Finalists will be selected and invited to Washington, D.C. to make in-person presentations to RTT review panels. Each reviewer will then submit final scores, and the Secretary will select awardees. Depending on the size of the winning states, 10 to 15 states could win Race to the Top grants. (June 2010)
The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) awarded grants to 20 state education departments for the design and implementation of statewide longitudinal data systems. These grants, funded through ARRA, are intended to support states with the development and implementation of systems that promote the linking of data across time and databases, from early childhood into career, including matching teachers to students, while protecting student privacy and confidentiality consistent with applicable privacy protection laws. The total value of the three-year grants will range from $5.1 million to $19.7 million. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands applied. (June 2010)
From the Institute of Education Sciences
A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a part of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), presents findings associated with public high school graduation and dropout rates, for the 2007-08 school year. Nationwide, 75% of public high school students who started as freshmen in the fall of 2004 graduated high school in 2008 – up from 74% who graduated on time in 2007. Commenting on the new figures, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the report "confirms that our nation faces a dropout crisis. When 25 percent of our students – and almost 40 percent of our black and Hispanic students – fail to graduate high school on time, we know that too many of our schools are failing to offer their students a world-class education." (June 2010)
The Condition of Education 2010 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 49 indicators on the status and condition of education, in addition to a special section on high-poverty schools. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2009 print edition includes 49 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education. (May 2010)
The National Center for Special Education Research and the National Center for Education Research within IES will host a series of webinars related to research funding opportunities between May and August. Topics in the series include the application process and grant writing for a number of different types of research projects. (May 2010)
Raising Student Achievement
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released a set of state-led education standards, the Common Core State Standards, at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Ga. The English-language arts and mathematics standards for grades K-12 were developed in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including content experts, states, teachers, school administrators, and parents. The release of the standards marks the conclusion of the development of the Common Core State Standards and signals the start of the adoption and implementation process by the states. (June 2010)
Intel Corporation and Society for Science & the Public announced the top winners-[PDF, 40KB] of the world's largest pre-college science competition: the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. This year's competition consisted of 1,611 young scientists from 59 countries, regions and territories. In addition to the three top prizes, the Intel Foundation awarded $8,000 to each of 19 "Best of Category" winners and also provided $1,000 grants to the winners' schools and the affiliated fairs they represent. More than 600 additional awards and prizes were provided by dozens of other corporate, academic, government, and science-focused sponsors for their groundbreaking work. (May 2010)
Teacher Quality and Development
You learned about the Department's Teaching Ambassador Fellows in last month's Innovator, now read their latest blog installment about schools that have successfully turned around low-performance. Join the discussion as the Fellows ask for input on ways teachers have been a part of effective reform efforts at the turnaround schools, and for examples of teacher-led reforms that have been models of collaborative stakeholder engagement. (June 2010)
Innovations in the News
Raising Student Achievement
When the new school year begins in Hillsborough County, Fla., students in 21 of the district's elementary schools will be placed in classrooms using an experimental approach that strategically clusters students based on several achievement levels. The effort, based on a 1999 research study from the Gifted Education Resource Institute at Purdue University, is supported by a five-year grant from the federal Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program that involves more than 50 schools in eight states. [More—The St. Petersburg Times] (June 4)
In Kentucky, the 2008-2009 school year marked an historic low in the drop-out rate, with the biggest decrease in drop-outs among Hispanic and African-American students—from 6 percent for each of the groups in 2008 to 4.1 percent for Hispanics and 4.9 percent for African-Americans in 2009. In addition, 2009 marked another increase—the number of high school graduates entering college increased from 55.2 to 56.4 percent. [More—Kentucky's Courier-Journal] (June 2)
In Philadelphia, the Diplomas Now program is targeting the middle grades to pay attention to the "red flags" that often spell trouble later on, resulting in high drop-out rates, particularly in large urban centers. "Early warning" spreadsheets, built from data on attendance, behavior, and grades in English and math, are used to target students potentially at risk, along with "a second shift of adults" who help teachers to give extra tutoring and other services and attention to the students, often as early as in sixth grade. The program has shown signs of progress during its pilot year in Philadelphia last year, which prompted other cities – Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Antonio—to adopt the approach with help from a three-year, $5 million grant from the PepsiCo Foundation. [More—USA Today] (May 20)
School Improvement
A spending cut of $97 million for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland will be eased in part by at least $2.25 million from an unusual business deal with a major education publisher, one in which an elementary curriculum developed by county educators will be marketed worldwide. "I tend to look at it from the standpoint that we are broke," is how Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry D. Weast characterized the business arrangement that will pay the district royalties of up to 3 percent on the curriculum's sales as well as the $2.25 million as a guaranteed advance on royalties. The county also gains the ability to ramp up its efforts already underway to develop an innovative curriculum that integrates subjects like the arts and social studies with math, reading, and writing. [More—The Washington Post] (June 9)
While research is scant regarding a four-day school week, educators in rural Peach County in Georgia are in favor of it based on the results of this year's experiment to pare a day from the former five-days-a-week schedule, which was done to fill a $1 million budget shortfall. To the surprise of some, test scores increased as did attendance—of both students and teachers – and costs of substitute teachers went down by a third. For the students who needed a place to spend a day each week out of school, area churches and the local Boys & Girls Club sponsored "Monday care," that offered tutors to help with homework. Georgia is one of a handful of states that permit districts to count the school year by hours rather than days. [More—The AP] (June 6)
The Julius Corsini Elementary School, once one of the lowest-achieving schools in the Desert Hot Springs, Calif., school district, is one of only six schools nationwide to receive this year's Panasonic National School Change Award. The principal and staff of Corsini Elementary attribute the achievement to a transformation in the school's culture, which is guided by the belief that all students can learn. Among the distinguishing characteristics of the school is the fact that 100 percent of its teachers underwent the rigorous process of National Board Certification. [More—The Desert (CA) Sun] (June 4)
The Martin Luther King Jr. Early College school in Denver has undergone a five-year transformation with flying colors. Last month, the sixth through twelfth grade school graduated 100 percent of its 73 seniors, its first graduating class since undergoing an overhaul. Moreover, all of the graduating seniors are going to college, with 87 percent having been accepted into four-year colleges. Nearly $1 million in scholarships will help make sure college is financially possible for the graduates. [More—The Denver Post] (May 24)
In Central Falls, R.I., 87 teachers who were to be fired this summer will retain their positions after meeting several requirements that include writing an essay and interviewing with the school's leadership team. A 17-point agreement between the local teacher union and Central Falls district called for all teachers and support staff to reapply for their jobs as a first step, and once rehired, to agree to a longer school day, more rigorous evaluations, and 90 minutes weekly of professional development as well as summer training. The school will open with a new set of administrators; the four who were terminated will be assigned to other positions in the district. [More—The Providence Journal] (May 26)
A collaboration among the Rochester (Minn.) Public Schools, the Mayo Clinic, and Winona State University is turning students into excited scientists who are learning through hands-on lessons designed by Mayo researchers, teachers, parents, and students, some of which involve the study of the life cycle of Zebra Fish, a species that happens to share 75 percent of the genetic code with humans. Called InSciEd Out, a goal of the collaborative program is to elevate student performance in science and build a new generation of scientists. Technology plays a role by allowing Mayo researchers to consult with students on projects via Skype, and pre-service teachers from Winona State gain invaluable experience that will make them more science-minded when they reach their first classrooms. [More—The Winona (MN) Post] (June 9)
In Northwest Minnesota, another group of elementary and middle school students are gaining experience as space scientists through "Reach for the Sky," a summer program on the White Earth Indian Reservation. The students launch helium-filled weather balloons to "near-space" altitudes. Data is transmitted by radio to computers or downloaded after the balloons return to earth. University of Minnesota students with the High Altitude Balloon Team are helping their younger counterparts in the program to interpret the data. Funding for the program comes in part from a National Science Foundation grant. [More—MinnPost.com] (June 8)
Some STEM projects have their ups and downs, literally. For their project in the Independent Study and Mentorship (ISM) class at Liberty High School in the Frisco Independent School District, Nathan Rubin and Ian Mair built a roller coaster in Nathan's backyard. Called the Predator, the 60-foot-long wooden structure is 10-feet high and contains more than 4,000 screws. "We figured anything is possible with this program," said 18-year-old Mair. Juniors and seniors can apply to enroll in ISM, which, in addition to roller coaster construction, can involve neuroscience, corporate law, or drama therapy. Both Rubin and Mair are seniors and credit ISM for their acceptances into University of Texas at Austin and University of California-Berkeley, respectively. [More—The Dallas Morning News] (May 27)
In Patton Township, Penn., students from Park Forest Middle School were recently atop their school to install a wind turbine as part of a STEM program involving educators from Penn State University. The turbines will help power a charging station for laptop computers. The middle school students learned about electricity, including how it affects the school, as well as skills like welding. Besides the wind turbine, Park Forest students have worked on a solar water heating system. "It teaches students how to use what they've learned and sort of apply it in a more real life situation," is how Chris, an eighth-grader who is considering a career in engineering, describes the STEM efforts at Park Forest. [More—Pennsylvania's Centre Daily Times] (May 24)
Teacher Quality and Development
School officials in Hillsborough, Fla., may look to the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin to help them design a teacher evaluation system that is expected to include peer and principal evaluations as well as test scores to determine teachers' tenure, promotions, and dismissals. The effort is part of a $202 million partnership between Hillsborough County Schools and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is likely to draw national attention for its scope. In addition to using testing data from math and reading, the planned system is expected to include end-of-course exams in most school subjects, and is also expected to filter out such variables as students' family income and background. [More—The St. Petersburg Times] (June 10)
School districts in state of Washington are eligible for grants from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to test new ways of measuring the performance of teachers and principals. The $100,000 to $200,000 grants that will be awarded to eight districts will give them a jump start on meeting a new state policy that will require all Washington districts to have robust evaluation systems in place by the 2013-2014 school year. [More—The Seattle Times] (May 26)
Technology in Education
Nearly 100 third-grade teachers in the Bakersfield City School District (BSCD) believe it takes a village to educate children, but for them, it's a virtual village that is helping them to learn from one another and teach to district and state standards. BSCD subscribed to Learning Village this year, and became the only California district to use it districtwide. While they await test scores and other empirical data to judge the effects of the system that relies on digitized textbooks and SMART boards, teachers and principals say the experiment is working. "It's the way of the future for professional development," observed BSCD Assistant Superintendent Marvin Jones. [More—The Bakersfield Californian] (June 5)
The California Virtual Academy (CAVA) at San Mateo is part of a growing number of California charter schools that conduct some or all of their classes online, using, in some cases, third-party providers such as K12 Incorporated, a publicly-traded corporation that operates virtual schools in 25 states and abroad. CAVA's costs to serve its 900 students, which include the shared costs of a 10,000-square-foot office and storage space and more than $642,000 in management fees to K12 Incorporated, are offset by $5,105 per-student state and federal funds. That figure is $375 more per student than what the local charter authorizer, Jefferson Elementary School district, expects to provide its traditional schools, which causes some scholars on charters and school finance, such as Luis Huerta of Teachers College, Columbia University, to question assertions by some that virtual schools provide a comprehensive education at a lower average cost than traditional schools. [More—The New York Times/Bay Citizen] (June 4)
Office of Innovation and Improvement
Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary
Doug Herbert
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Sr. Production Editor
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Production Editor
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Copy Editor
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Article Contributions
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Last Modified: 08/31/2010


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August 12, 2014 at 7:30pm to October 2, 2014 at 9pm – CoachVtennis.com, Marietta GA, East Cobb, West Cobb, the Square, Smyrna, Lost Mountain, Vinings CoachVtennis.com Better Tennis Fast & Simple. Drop in Drills / $25 per class-session / or 6 sessions $125 Drop in Drills are for students that have enough skill to play but lack practice opportun… Organized by CoachV - William Vazquez | Type: meet, up, match, practice, drills, tennis, tips, adult, coaching
March 4, 2013 at 9am to March 8, 2013 at 8pm – Indian Wells CA, Better Tennis Fast & Simple. Holistic tennis is the understanding that tennis is learned and not taught. Holistic tennis is the ability to draw tennis skills from every aspect of a individual's… Organized by CoachV - William Vazquez | Type: #coachvtennis-camp, tennis, clinic, camp, coachv, tim, prapong, william, vazquez, lessons, practice, drills, training
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|Version 6 (modified by 8 years ago) (diff),
FAQ Contents
General Questions
- Are there any chances to see YAM being ported to other GUI systems …
- Why does YAM complain about a wrong version of a MUI custom class …
- (How) can I access an IMAP mail server from YAM?
- Can I use YAM to read newsgroups from the Usenet?
- I lost/forgot the passwords of some of my configurated users in YAM. …
Are there any chances to see YAM being ported to other GUI systems such as Reaction?
Even if it would be a nice opportunity for YAM to be available for other GUI systems than just MUI, chances are more or less zero to see it ever be ported to something that isn't at least compatible or derived from MUI. Not only would it take a very large amount of time to adapt it to other GUI systems, which in fact would certainly end up in a complete rewrite from scratch, but there doesn't exist any other GUI system on AmigaOS which is as feature rich and flexible as MUI.
Even the advanced Reaction classes supplied with AmigaOS4 won't allow to convert all current functionality in YAM over to a Reaction GUI. And then, YAM uses numerous third-party MUI custom classes such as TextEditor.mcc, NList.mcc and so on which are not or only partly available as e.g. Reaction classes. In addition, MUI is so flexible that you can very easily tune its look&feel to be pretty much the same like the GUI system you normally use. And another point is that all current Amiga platforms come with at least a MUI compatible GUI toolkit (AmigOS3, AmigaOS4, MorphOS, AROS) so that YAM can be very easily maintained as a multi-platform email program by just using MUI.
So we currently don't really see a possibility or reason to port YAM to any other GUI system available to AmigaOS-based computer systems. MUI is still the most advanced, flexible and available GUI toolkit for any Amiga platform.
Why does YAM complain about a wrong version of a MUI custom class (e.g. NList.mcc)?
Either the installer script didn't update the MUI libraries properly, or there is still an old version loaded in the memory or somewhere on your hard disk. Try rebooting your Amiga; if this doesn't help, copy the contents of the MUI directory from the YAM archive to 'MUI:libs/mui'.
Please also make sure you don't have a 'YAM:Libs' or 'YAM:mui/libs' directory in which old MUI classes are stored. The only path were #?.mcc and #?.mcp files belong is 'MUI:libs/mui'.
(How) can I access an IMAP mail server from YAM?
Unfortunately, YAM isn't currently able to access mail servers that do only support IMAP as the mail access protocol. Up to now, YAM only supports the POP3 protocol for downloading/retrieving emails from a mail server. But we have already considered supporting IMAP in a future version of YAM. According to our roadmap we have planned to support IMAP presumably in version 3.0+.
However, for current versions of YAM, there might be chances that the IMAP server you want to get the mail from also supports the POP3 protocol. Either your provider also allows POP3 downloads or the IMAP server software itself is able to manage the POP3 protocol directly. Please consult your provider for more details.
Can I use YAM to read newsgroups from the Usenet?
YAM doesn't support newsgroups (NNTP) and it's not planned to implement this in a later version. If you're looking for a newsreader, have a look at NewsRog or any similar Usenet client.
I lost/forgot the passwords of some of my configurated users in YAM. How can I restore them?
The 3-digit numbers are in fact the password in encrypted form. The "official" way is to log into YAM as a user with manager privileges (usually the first user). This user can change any other user's data. Deleting these 3-digit numbers will effectively clear the password.
This password has nothing to do with the password for your mail accounts. It is just for logging into YAM. Without any password for a single user YAM will start up without any interruption. With multiple users you first have to select the user and then enter the optional password.


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Submitted by AGORA moderator on
Vadim's brilliant white groom's tuxedo matched both his smile and the outfits of his friends as they gathered along Berlin's famed shopping street, the Ku'damm, and waited for the uberfestive annual gay pride parade to begin.
But if the attire of the Russian men hinted at global progress in what many here believe is the civil rights effort of this era – gay and lesbian equality under the law – their words and placards told a very different story.
Vadim, 36, and tellingly afraid to give his real name for fear of reprisals back in Moscow, admitted that his costume was just as much a fantasy as those of the men down the street dressed as unicorns.
"Back in our country, homophobia is law," he explained. "Our struggle isn't about the right to marry. Right now, we're focused on the right to state our case without violating the new laws against gay propaganda."
Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage were widely interpreted last month in the United States as ushering in greater acceptance of gays and lesbians in American culture . But in Europe, even as the British Parliament approved gay marriage on Tuesday, attitudes toward gays and lesbians are decidedly more mixed. Two countries, the Netherlands and Belgium, legalized gay marriage a decade ago. But elsewhere the approach toward gays and lesbians is far less tolerant.
In Russia last month, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that imposes a $3,000 fine on people advocating for gay and lesbian rights – including the right to marry. The legislation passed 436-0 in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament.
"It's not about imposing some sort of sanctions on homosexuality," Putin said. "It's about protecting children from such information."
In Poland, Lech Walesa, whose stand for workers' rights galvanized his nation's battle against communism three decades ago, recently suggested Poland's two openly gay politicians should be put "behind a wall" in Parliament. Macedonia has seen a series of violent attacks on gay and lesbian individuals and organizations. Germany this summer rejected a move to grant gay couples the right to adopt children and hasn't moved forward on same-sex marriage, though the Bundestag, the German equivalent of Congress, has approved civil unions. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party opposes same-sex marriage.
In Britain, the House of Commons' approval of same-sex marriage sends the bill to Queen Elizabeth II for approval – a formality.
Meanwhile, France – after months of sometimes violent protest – passed a same-sex marriage bill in April; the aftermath was tumultuous. In May, Dominique Venner, a well-known French historian from the far right and a fierce opponent of gay marriage, wrote a blog entry about its legalization: "New spectacular and symbolic actions are needed to wake up the sleepwalkers and shake the anaesthetized consciousness. We are entering a time when acts must follow words."
Not long afterward, he walked into Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral and, in front of 1,500 witnesses, shot himself in the head. Soon afterward, Marie Le Pen, a National Front leader and France's most famous member of the far right, said Venner's suicide was "obviously a gesture of positive despair" and was "aimed at waking up the people of France."
The people of France were awakened a couple weeks later, when, amid continuing high tensions over the legalization of gay marriage, leftist protester and student Clement Meric was beaten to death by far-right skinheads. While the cause of the attack is unknown, it has been tied to gay marriage in the public mind. Again, thousands took to the streets to protest, though this time against hate groups. Recently, France officially banned three far-right groups because of the incident.
Peter Tatchell, who's been involved in the effort to legalize same-sex marriage in England since 1992, noted that "despite often violent protests in France, it's important to remember that the opponents are in a clear minority."
He called the movement "an unstoppable European and global trend. Same-sex marriage is the moral and political equivalent to the worldwide effort to get women the right to vote."
Italian gay and lesbian rights activist Imma Battaglia isn't so sure that an effort that has never really gotten started in her country can be called unstoppable.
She points to online maps showing the status of same-sex marriage laws that have far more turf where nothing is happening than where there is progress.
"In Italy, the debate is very strong, but the result is nil," said Battaglia, who is also a Rome city councilman. "Nothing changes, not for 20 years has anything changed. Everyone talks, but it's a big talk show, nothing more."
Even Germany, long thought to be culturally open, has been slow to open to efforts to grant gay couples the same status as opposite-sex ones. Eva Henkel, a board member of a leading German gay rights group, notes that the courts and popular opinion appear to be ahead of the current political will on the issue.
"The courts have made it clear they see very little difference between heterosexual marriage and gay civil unions," she said. "Of course, we're not to equality yet, but there is progress."
Germany has an openly gay foreign minister, and Berlin's mayor famously outed himself before his first election in 2001 by announcing, "I am gay, and that's a good thing."
Yet this summer, after a high court ruling that gay couples in civil unions deserve the same tax benefits as married straight couples, Norbert Geis, a member of the ruling Christian Democrat coalition in the Bundestag, said "the sanctity of marriage is diminished."
His views on adoption also were thought to reflect the view of Merkel's party, which had opposed the defeated adoption laws. "Homosexual parents are not natural," he said. "Parents are a father and a mother. That's the way it is."
Volker Beck, a Green Party member of the Bundestag, says that sort of attitude is the reason gay marriage is important and that civil unions are a poor substitute.
"There is a difference in 'getting married' or 'getting registered,'" he wrote in an email.
When a form asks for civil status and a person checks civil union, "Your sexual orientation is always immediately revealed to anyone: your employer, your church, officials etc.," Beck noted. If the form merely asked if one were married, nothing more could be inferred.
"In a world where homophobia is still at large, it still can be necessary to conceal your sexual identity or at least be able to decide for yourself whom to tell," he said.
By Matthew Schofield for the Tribune, July 16th 2013: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/07/16/2585275/europes-image-of-toleran...


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Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality looks into nuclear waste disposal
What will a new administration mean for the future of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository? During today's E&ETV Event Coverage of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, major stakeholders on all sides of the waste disposal debate give their take on the cost and progress of the project and comment on the future of Yucca Mountain.
Witnesses (in order): Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada; Edward Sproat, director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Department of Energy; Michael Weber, director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. EPA; B. John Garrick, chairman, U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board; Marvin Fertel, executive vice president and chief nuclear officer, Nuclear Energy Institute; and Anne George, commissioner, Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control, and chair, NARUC Committee on Electricity.