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Huzur delivered today's Friday Sermon from Bradford, England at the occasion of the inauguration of a new Al Mahdi Mosque. Huzur cited verses 29 to 32 of Surah Ibrahim (14:29) at the beginning of the sermon.
Huzur praised the beautiful mosque and its beautiful elevated location that gives a panoramic view of the city of Bradford. Huzur said this was but with the grace of God.
Huzur said that he would be inaugurating another mosque in the city of Sheffield tomorrow. In addition two new centres have been purchased in the region Huzur is currently visiting.
Huzur gave some facts and figures about the new Bradford mosque and remarked at the hard work people had put in its completion.
Huzur specifically mentioned the contribution of UK Lajna towards the building of this mosque. He said the UK Jama'at is also waking up to the need to have purpose-built mosques, may Allah enable them to achieve their target of twenty five soon.
Huzur said recently there has been an inclination among young people specifically in Europe to turn to Islam. It is our responsibility to take care of this leaning and draw people to the true Islam that Ahmadiyyat represents.
Huzur said merely the construction of a beautiful mosque is not sufficient. It is imperative to fulfil the objectives of a mosque. That is, turn to Allah with pure intent with a heart that is replete with the desire to seek His pleasure as well as fulfil the rights of fellow mankind.
Huzur said he expected each member of the Community of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) to have this fervour, otherwise Allah commanded a certain type of mosque to be razed to the ground. Huzur cited verses 107 to 109 of Surah Tauba to expound this point.
Huzur said it cannot be expected from the Community of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) who was sent in the latter-days so that people may recognise Allah, so that creation may honour creation, that their mosques will be a cause of pain, or God forgive us, be a source of spreading disbelief or that they will give refuge to hypocrites. Therefore we have to spread the message of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) in our surroundings and let the world know that the Mahdi who was to come in subservience of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) to remove the troubles of the world has indeed come.
He had come to lay the foundation of peace and conciliation and the mosques of his Community shall lay the foundation of love, peace and forbearance.
Today the Ahmadiyya Community is at the forefront of the communities who work towards alleviating the pain and suffering of others. Our services all over the world are self-less, unique and of numerous in scope.
In the Surah Tauba verses that cite the mosque that was not built for Allah, one of the evils mentioned about it is that it spread disbelief. Huzur said our mosques are built to fulfil the rights of the One and Only God and to fulfil the objective of our creation. The Bradford area has a lot of Muslim population and one of its sections was not pleased with the building of our mosque. They tried to make difficulties during the construction. However, with Allah's grace our mosque is complete; therefore we should try and fulfil the right of worship of Allah with greater sincerity.
We should do so in light of the pronouncement of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) that his advent was to sow the eternal sapling of pure and luminous Unity of God among people once again.
We are the people who claim to belong to his Community; therefore we are the branches of this plant. As long as we are lush we will fulfil our rights, otherwise we will be separated like dry and rotten branches. We have to prove with our word and our deed that we build mosques for the worship of God.
Allah states that mosques are not built by those who cause division among believers, therefore each Ahmadi should herald love and peace from their word and deed and be a quintessence of 'tender among themselves' (48:30) Then alone will our Tabligh efforts be fruitful. It is the obligation of the Community of the Promised Messiah (on whom be peace) that their practises are those of true believers. They have to implement the teachings of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) in their lives and thus establish this mosque on the model about which Allah states its foundation is laid on taqwa and to seek Divine pleasure.
We are free from hypocrisy and work purely for the sake of Allah. By giving the example of the design of the hypocrites to injure Islam in the days of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) Allah has consoled us that just as this ploy failed in the early days in future if believers continue to abide by sincere belief Allah will save them from every evil.
The fundamental aspect for one who builds a mosque is pure intention; they should be free from any subversive thoughts and should have a sense of sacrifice.
The fact that this mosque can be seen from the city and appears prominent should not alone be a source of joy for us. The real beauty of the mosque will be apparent when we tread the path of taqwa and fulfil our objectives. Each Ahmadi should try that along with the building of mosque they focus on worship of God with sincerity and create an ambiance of brotherhood, be forgiving, free from malice and rancour, fulfil the rights of own and others and be humble. Only then would one be rightful recipients of the saying of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) that God makes a home in Paradise for one who builds a mosque on earth.
The aforementioned verse (14:32) cites two commandments which are constantly repeated in the Holy Qur'an. The first commandment is that of observing Prayer.
With the construction of this mosque our responsibility will increase because construction of new mosques generally widens exposure. Therefore it is important to raise the standards of worship of God. Enhanced worship would lead to our reformation and we will have better opportunities to take the message of Ahmadiyyat to others and reap betters results.
The second commandment is to give in the cause of God. The foundations of the Hartlepool mosque and this mosque in Bradford were laid on the same day. However, the Hartlepool mosque, being smaller, was completed two years ago. What Huzur wished to mention was that at the inauguration of the Hartlepool mosque Huzur had announced the commencement of the new Tehrik e Jadid year. It was the first time Huzur had announced the new Tehrik e Jadid year outside London. By chance, today once again it was the occasion to announce the new year for Tehrik e Jadid.
The scheme of Tehrik e Jadid was initiated by Hadhrat Musleh Maud (may Allah be pleased with him) when the enmity of the opponents was at its peak. However, with the launch of this scheme the Tabligh of Ahmadiyyat increased dramatically and today the mosques and the centres that we are making are in fact the fruits of this Tehrik. Giving in the way of Allah facilitates publication of literature, construction of mosques, training of missionaries.
Previously we had just two Jamias. Now, with the growing need for missionaries many Jamias have been opened in the world. Britain is among the fortunate countries to have a Jamia.
Just as regular Salat is needed, similarly constant giving is required. A one-off giving does not fulfil one's obligations. Now Allah has opened new ways and means of Tabligh, like MTA. Today the world is listening to this Friday Sermon live through MTA. We now have to take our message to each city, each town, each street of the world and for this financial giving is needed. Indeed, we also affirm giving in our pledge.
It is the blessing of Allah that He Himself puts the passion of giving in the members of the Community. In these times of global economic crisis Allah assures believers that their worship and their giving will protect them from the bad effects of this crisis. This is because a believer has his/her sight on the final objective for which, i.e. for seeking the pleasure of Allah worship and financial giving is of avail. It is Allah's grace that Ahmadis comprehend this matter. At times one feels that maybe the financial commitments are a lot but Ahmadis continue to spend in the way of Allah.
Many await the announcement of the commencement of the Tehrik e Jadid year with their saved up contributions. They do not keep their account with Allah in debit. Some have to be reminded by Huzur that their families also have a right, to which they respond that this is why they are 'making a deal with Allah.'
The giving of Ahmadi women is greater than those of men. UK Lajna has participated in the construction of this mosque as well as the Berlin mosque. A wave of giving seems to have taken course in Britain and UK Lajna has a part in it.
At the end of the 74th financial year for Tehrik e Jadid the contributions made stand at £ 4,102,792.00. This amount, despite the global economic crisis, is £500,000 more than last year.
This year once again Pakistan stands first in making the biggest contribution, second is USA, then the UK, Germany, Canada, Indonesia, India, Belgium and Australia in joint eight position, Switzerland, and the joint tenth position goes to Nigeria and Mauritius. Huzur said USA has secured the second position but their total contribution is less than last year's while the exchange rate of US dollar has been better this year. The contribution of UK is £74,000.00 more than last year.
Nigeria has made a significant improvement and has joined the first ten Jama'ats thus being the first Africa country to join the rank of the first ten.
The total number of contributors to Tehrik e Jadid is 500,000 which Huzur deems is still insufficient.
Huzur said the registers/accounts of those belonging to Dafter Awwal of Tehrik Jadid (the original contributors of the first 19 years) have been restored, some by their families, others by the Central Jama'at.
In Pakistan the first three big contributors are the Jama'ats of Lahore, Rabwah and Karachi.
In the UK, among the large majalis the positions are as follows: London Mosque, Worcester Park, West Hill, Tooting, Sutton, Bradford, Manchester, Gillingham and Inner Park. The smaller majalis stand as follows: Scunthorpe, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Spen Valley, Leamington Spa, Bournemouth, North Wales, Woking, Keighley and Devon & Cornwell.
In USA the first four Jama'ats are; Silicon Valley, Chicago West, North Virginia and Detroit.
In Canada the first three positions go to Calgary North East, Calgary North West and Peace Village.
Huzur prayed that may Allah reward all those who participated in Tehrik e Jadid this year – may He bless their wealth immeasurably and may they continue to make financial sacrifices and may they enhance their standards of worship of Allah.
Related Resources


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The core file system capabilities in Windows Server have not changed radically since the earliest version of Windows NT. Windows 2000 introduced dynamic disks. There have been improvements to NTFS reliability and performance. File services have had incremental changes, as has the file-sharing Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, but nothing groundbreaking. File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) added capabilities around screening, quotas, reporting, and classification but didn't change the core capabilities of the file system and how file services are used.
When I think of file services, I think of a server on which to store your Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents. If this server needs to be highly available, it can be clustered, with one server at a time offering the file share. Volumes with fault tolerance can be created on dynamic disk by using Windows mirroring (RAID 1) or striping with parity (RAID 5) capabilities. However, IT administrators must manually perform both the selection of disks and any repair actions. Furthermore, more advanced features, such as thin provisioning of storage and the easy addition of more storage to a pool in which volumes can be created, just aren't possible without the use of a separate SAN or NAS. But this changes in the next version of Windows Server, Windows Server 2012 (formerly code-named Windows Server 8).
Using Storage Spaces
As an IT administrator or even an end user, you often need storage that might sometimes require fault tolerance. Other times, you just need to be able to store information that is protected in another way. You can open the Disk Management Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, examine the physical disks, convert them to dynamic disks if necessary, and then create a volume that meets your requirements. If the volume needs to grow, you might be able to extend it (depending on the physical disks), but you can't add additional disks to an existing volume, to provide easy scalability. For small and midsized organizations or even large organizations with smaller remote locations (i.e., locations with just a couple servers and for which neither SAN nor NAS is economical), providing a good storage solution for services is a huge problem. At the other end of the scale, power users on desktops also struggle to organize their data across internal drives and USB-connected disks.
Storage Spaces is a new feature in Server 2012 (and the Windows 8 client). This feature enables a completely new way to think about and administer storage. With Storage Spaces, the physical disks that provide underlying data storage are completely abstracted from the process of requesting new volumes, now known as spaces. The Storage Spaces technology automatically performs any necessary actions to restore data redundancy if a disk fails, provided that sufficient physical disks are available.
The first step is to create a storage pool, which is a selection of one or more physical disks that are then pooled together and can be used by the Storage Spaces technology. Storage pools support USB, Serial ATA (SATA), and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) connected disks in a Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) scenario. With no hardware-based high-availability support such as RAID happening behind the scenes, Storage Spaces takes care of fault tolerance. The use of USB-connected drives is great on the desktop; servers focus on SATA- and SAS-connected drives. In addition, Storage Spaces fully supports shared SAS. You can connect a disk enclosure to several hosts in a cluster, and the Storage Space on those shared SAS drives will be available to all nodes in the cluster and can be used as part of Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV). If you use an external disk enclosure, then Storage Spaces supports the SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) protocol, which enables failure indications on the external storage. For example, you could enable a bad disk alert if Storage Spaces detects a problem with a physical disk.
Other technologies, such as Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption, can also be used with Storage Spaces. When a new storage pool is created, the disks that are added to the storage pool disappear from the Disk Management MMC; the disks are now virtualized and used exclusively by Storage Space technology. You can see the disk state in the storage pools view in File and Storage Services in Server Manager (on a Windows 8 server ) or by using the Storage Spaces Control Panel applet (on a Windows 8 client). This article focuses on using Storage Spaces on the server with Server Manager and Windows PowerShell, but all the features that I write about here are also available on the client. (The only difference is that on clients, the Storage Spaces applet, instead of Server Manager, is used for management.)
Start Server Manager. Make sure that the server you want to manage has been added to the list of servers on your Server Manager instance (see the sidebar "Windows Server 2012 Management"), then open File and Storage Services. Select the target server from the Servers tab, and then select the Storage Pools tab, which shows information about existing storage pools and disks that can be used in a storage pool. (These disks are system disks that aren't hosting any volumes.) These unused disks are shown in a Primordial Storage Space and are the building blocks from which storage pools and Storage Spaces can be created, as Figure 1 shows.
To create a storage pool, follow these steps:
- From the Tasks menu, select New Storage Pool to launch the New Storage Pool Wizard.
- Enter a name and an optional description for the new storage pool, and then click Next.
On the next screen, select the physical disks that are available to add to the new pool. Also select the disks' allocation (Data Store, by default). You can allocate the disks as part of the virtual disks that you will create later or reserve them as hot spares, as Figure 2 shows. Click Next.
- Read the displayed confirmation. Click Create to complete the storage pool creation.
A storage pool is now available. The next step is to create virtual disks within the storage pool. You can then create volumes on those disks so that the OS can use them.
Storage Spaces introduces a feature that was previously available only when using external storage solutions such as SANs and NAS devices: the ability to thin-provision storage. During the creation of a virtual disk, you have two options. The first is to create the disk as fixed, meaning that all the space for the size of the virtual disk is allocated during its creation. The second is to create the disk as thin, meaning that space is taken from the pool only as needed. Using a thin-provisioned disk, you can create a virtual disk that is much larger than your actual available storage. Now, this capability doesn't mean that you can store more data in the thinly provisioned disk than is actually allocated to the pool. But volumes typically fill up over time. I might create a 10TB thin disk that initially has only 1TB of associated physical storage; as the amount of data increases and approaches 1TB, I can add another 1TB of physical storage to the pool simply by adding more disks. As the data approaches 2TB, I can add another 1TB of storage by adding still more disks, and so on. As long as I add physical disks before the virtual disk fills, there's no issue. Alerts can be generated to notify me that a storage pool is reaching its threshold, giving me time to add the required storage.
When you create a virtual disk, all you need to know is in which storage pool to create the disk. No knowledge of physical disks is required or even openly available. The point of Storage Spaces is to create virtual disks as needed. To create a virtual disk, follow these steps:
- Select a storage pool in which to create a new virtual disk. In the Virtual Disks section, select the New Virtual Disk task.
- Confirm that the correct server and storage pool are selected in the storage pool selection page of the wizard, and then click Next.
- Give a name and optional description for the new virtual disk, and then click Next.
- Select the storage layout, which can be simple (i.e., no data redundancy and data striped over many disks), mirrored (i.e., data duplicated to additional disks), or parity (i.e., spread data over multiple disks but add parity data to help protect against data loss during a disk failure). Prior to Storage Spaces, these layouts would have been referred to as RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5, respectively. That nomenclature isn't used with Storage Spaces layouts because of differences in implementation. Make your selection, and then click Next.
- Select the provisioning type (i.e., Thin or Fixed) and then click Next.
- Specify a disk size. If you choose Thin as the provisioning type, you can select a larger size than the available physical free space. Click Next.
- A confirmation is displayed; click Create.
After the virtual disk is created, it is available in Server Manager and the Disk Management MMC, where you can create volumes and format the disk with a file system. You can see the actual amount of space that the virtual disk uses in a storage pool in Server Manager (or in the Storage Spaces Control Panel applet on a client). See the accompanying video for a walk-through of this process.
You can also use PowerShell to manage Storage Spaces. For example, to create a new storage pool that uses three physical disks, I can use the following commands:
$phyDisks = Get-PhysicalDisk $storSub = Get-StorageSubSystem New-StoragePool -FriendlyName "Stuff" -PhysicalDisks $phyDisks[0] , - $phyDisks[1], $phyDisks[2] -StorageSubSystemFriendlyName $storSub.FriendlyName
To create virtual disks in the pool, I can use these commands:
New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName "Stuff" -ResiliencySettingName Mirror -Size 10TB -Provisioningtype Thin -FriendlyName "Data1" New-VirtualDisk -StoragePoolFriendlyName "Stuff" -ResiliencySettingName Parity -Size 10TB -Provisioningtype Thin -FriendlyName "Data2"
I can output the results of the Get-VirtualDisk cmdlet as a list to get details about a virtual disk. For example, I can use the following command to get information about the number of data copies for a mirror and its operational status:
PS C:\ > Get-VirtualDisk -FriendlyName Data1 | fl
Figure 3 shows a small part of the resulting output.
Server Message Block: Better than Ever
In a future article, I'll go into detail about the new storage protocols in Windows 8. But if I want to explain why I think of Server 2012 as a great file services platform, I need to talk at least briefly about how to use the great new Storage Spaces enabled volumes.
Windows has used SMB as its protocol of choice for remote file access for a long time. Server 2012 introduces SMB 2.2. Although seemingly only a minor version increase from the SMB 2.1 in Server 2008 R2, SMB 2.2 actually makes a vast change to both the performance and capabilities of the SMB protocol.
The overall performance of SMB has been greatly improved, making access to data via SMB essentially equivalent to direct access to the storage. This access is enabled by several changes, including SMB Multi-Channel, which now allows multiple TCP connections to be established over multiple NICs if available for a single SMB session. This change enables bandwidth aggregation because multiple NICs and CPUs can be used for network processing when Receive-Side Scaling (RSS) and multiple NICs are leveraged. This also works for Server 2012 native NIC teaming. (Yes, Server 2012 has an inbox NIC teaming solution!) High availability to file shares with failover clustering has also dramatically improved with a new Active-Active mode, which enables a CSV that's accessible to all nodes in a cluster. Multiple hosts in the cluster can simultaneously share the CSV for key workloads such as Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) stored on a file share or even Microsoft SQL Server databases. This Active-Active file sharing allows for zero downtime and no loss of handles in the event of a failover.
Beyond SMB, Server 2012 has iSCSI as a role service, as part of File Services in File and Storage Services. After it's installed, this service allows a Server 2012 server to act as an iSCSI target, enabling access to its storage from both a file level (using SMB) and a block level (using iSCSI). iSCSI targets on a server are typically virtual hard disks (VHDs), and full configuration of access and authentication services is possible.
The Tao of Chkdsk
There is still one concern related to the use of Windows Server file services, specifically NTFS, which has very large volumes with many files. When something goes wrong, you might need to run the chkdsk utility to repair the problem. Chkdsk is very good at its job but it's a long laborious job, which must go through all the disk content looking for problems, and then perform the repair, which -- due to the nature of disks and their speed -- can take a very long time (possibly days for large volumes with many files). The result is a period of days during which the volume is offline while the repair operation is performed. Along with considerations of performing a data restore after a disaster, this action is why many times NTFS volumes are kept below a certain size: to ensure that chkdsk can be run in a reasonable period (i.e., a few hours) if the worst happens.
The new Resilient File System (ReFS) file system, which will become more prevalent in future versions of Windows, aims to reduce the chances of corruption. NTFS itself has become more resilient, with self-healing capabilities, but chkdsk is still needed at times. Windows 8 has solved once and for all the concerns about running a chkdsk on even the largest volume.
Chkdsk is slow. As I already mentioned, the tool must go through the entire disk and all its content looking for problems, which takes time. As it finds the problems -- which will be on a minuscule number of actual files -- Chdsk fixes them. These fix operations take almost no time (i.e., seconds). The problem is that chkdsk takes the volume offline, making the content unavailable as it performs the health checking and fixing.
Server 2012 breaks the chkdsk fix process into two parts. The first part scans the disk and data, looking for problems. If a problem is found, then that problem is marked and noted as requiring fixing. The big difference is that the volume is still online, whereas the long search-and-checking process is performed because no fix is actually being performed. Once the scan is completed, if problems need to be fixed, and the chkdsk is run again in a spotfix mode, which takes the volume offline as it performs the fixes on the identified problems that were found during the scan. The volume is now only offline for seconds instead of hours or days. The scan process has been separated from the actual repair process. Using chkdsk, the two commands are as follows. The first one will take a long time as it's performing the scan, but there will be no impact to volume availability. The second command would take the volume offline or trigger at next reboot.
Chkdsk /scan J: Chkdsk /spotfix J:
The accompanying video provides a full example.
If you're using PowerShell, use the following commands:
Repair-Volume –Scan D Repair-Volume –SpotFix D
If CSVs are used, there is actually zero downtime when running the spotfix action. The reason is that CSV adds another level of indirection between the disk and how it's accessed. Also, CSV can actually pause I/O operations for about 20 seconds. This means that when the spotfix action is run, CSV just pauses I/O to the volume while it's taken offline and fixed. So, as far as users of the CSV volume are concerned, there was just a slight delay in access and no actual offline action or loss of file handles.
A Powerful Storage Solution
If you asked me to describe Storage Spaces in five words or fewer, it would be "a poor man's SAN." But as I've tried to demonstrate, the Storage Spaces functionality, combined with the in-box iSCSI and SMB 2.2, actually provides a very powerful storage solution for servers and desktops alike. This isn't a poor man's anything but rather a very powerful storage platform. When other technologies, such as the new data de-duplication feature, are also considered, the use cases for the Windows file services platform explode. Going forward, many organizations can start using Windows server-based file servers as a first-class storage citizen.
Sidebar: Windows Server 2012 Management
The next version of Windows Server, Windows Server 2012, embraces the management philosophy "the power of many, the simplicity of one." Even with virtualization, most server management is still performed either by connecting to the OS for Remote Desktop management or by remotely connecting to one server at a time via Server Manager. With Server 2012, all management can and should be performed remotely. After installing the Remote Server Administration Tools for Server 2012 on a Windows 8 client machine, start Server Manager, and create groups of servers, which you can then manage as an entire group. Dashboard views (such as the one in Figure A) make it easy to see any problems on any server in the group and to perform actions on multiple servers simultaneously. Typical management actions, such as adding or removing roles and features, are possible, as are configurations such as Storage Space actions. This doesn't mean that you can't run Server Manager locally on servers. But as the trend to optimize management continues, managing a single server makes less sense. As more servers run Server Core instead of a full installation, management will need to be performed remotely unless you want to use Windows PowerShell for all administration.

subset: commoncrawl


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Time flies! How to prepare for an empty nest
Remember the wise, experienced parent who told you as you juggled a colicky baby and mischievous toddler while grocery shopping that this time will pass quickly?
Those days from baby stage to teen years, whether challenging or joyful, seemed like they would never end. But now you find yourself on the other side of the spectrum where that experienced parent was, saying goodbye to your last child at home.
In what seems like the blink of an eye, you have an empty nest and wonder how the time could possibly have passed so quickly.
"You have probably spent so much time devoted to raising your kids, and they brought a big sense of purpose to your life," says Bradley Gerber, clinical psychologist at Sentara RMH Medical Center. "Redefining your life purpose or revisiting what it was before kids will allow you to fill that void when the kids move out."
Plan Ahead
Parents can take steps to ease the transition to an empty next well before the last child flies the coop.
"Start planning how you will spend your time," Gerber says. "Having more time to yourself will be great, but unless you know how you will spend it, it may bring a feeling of loneliness. This may be through a new or old hobby, volunteering or traveling."
Try not to focus only on the negatives of having an empty nest. The upside is that after years of devoting your time - day and night - to your kids, you can have time for yourself, friends, other family members and favorite past times.
Your Kids' Role
Trying to figure out how often to text or call your kids and hoping your kids will check in, too, becomes a nagging concern as parents navigate this new landscape. As the saying goes, we can only control the choices we make. Be confident in the groundwork you've laid, Gerber advises.
"Our kids will initially feel a great sense of excitement to be on their own and with that, they can sometimes forget to stay connected as much as we would like," Gerber says. "The bond we create with our kids will hopefully keep us connected and increase the chance our kids will check in with us."
Your Changing Relationship
Just as you evolved as parents from stage to stage as your child passed through them, you will continue to grow and learn to be the parent of an adult. Not knowing where your children exactly are and what they are doing like you did in the past can be unnerving, but the fact that you've put in the time and effort toward raising a capable and independent adult should help ease that concern.
"Then when they launch from our home, we can worry less about whether they will be able to handle their new freedom and focus, instead, on nurturing an adult relationship," he adds.
Also, allow time and space for missteps as your children forge through their new-found freedom.
"Know that they will make mistakes no matter how good a parent you are," Gerber says. "These mistakes are important as our children learn how to handle adversity and mature in their new identities as adults."
Now put the Kleenex down! Pick up your book. Go on a walk. See a movie. Plan a trip. You've earned it. Celebrate a job well done.


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Only Mark Levin would dismiss the country's most influential morning TV show because the host does not talk on the radio.
On his Wednesday radio show, conservative talker Mark Levin derided MSNBC host Joe Scarborough as a "pathetic troll" who pretends to be a conservative. … "He's not a conservative, and he failed at talk radio," Levin said. "Joe, don't blame me. Don't blame everybody else if you're not important. I'm doing you a favor. I'm playing your voice on my program. I'm giving you attention — attention that many of my listeners don't think you deserve, but here I am. I'm magnanimous toward you."
Er, right.
There was a period in my life when I knew Mark Levin a little. I thought him an intelligent person, even when he did not say or write intelligent things. But spending 3 hours a day monologuing has deleterious effects on a person's self-awareness. And getting trapped inside a feed-back loop with an audience that is old, alienated, and angry has even more deleterious effect's on a person's awareness of the society around them.


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And then there is REALITY
Posted by Unknown | | Posted On Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 10:24 AM
After a wonderful time of travel over the holidays, coming home splashes me back into REALITY. No one making me dinner, no one doing my laundry (thanks mom!), no schedule, no worries really.
Then REALITY hits, just walking through our wash room, to smell stagnant water. Blah.....stinking, stench. To find your washing machine has somehow overflowed and water is in your living room, under the carpet. To pay Stanley Steemer way too much money to remedy the problem. To have a de-humidfier and fan blowing loudly for 2 days in a spot in your home that is walked too frequently that well they are just in the way.
REALITY is having your 5 year old get sick in the middle of the night and not waking anyone because the fan blowing is so loud you do not even hear your poor child. REALITY is having to clean little 5 year old because somehow he slept in it......(I do not like the word to give it time on my blog). REALITY is my husband is amazing because he cleaned up little 5 year old and sheets and items with stuff on it.
REALITY is pink eye that a little girl has with a nasty cough. REALITY is being thankful I am home to endure sicknesses. REALITY is waking up sick with stomach bug and having to stay in bed all day. REALITY is again my husband is amazing and is ABLE to take care of life when I can't. REALITY is REALITY.
I am choosing to not let REALITY steal my JOY! I want to look onto the LIGHT and always know where my JOY comes from. REALITY is not in focus for me, it is a little blurred by changing my attitude.
The one REALITY I will be thankful for is you PAGE, that I will not change on!


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English strawberries are just too lovely at the moment to resist and they make a perfect topping for this simple cheesecake.
This cheesecake could not be easier to make – it doesn't require any cooking, only contains 7 ingredients and barely takes 20 minutes from start to refrigerator!
Of course, you can use any fruit for the topping. I loved the way that half the strawberries are kept whole and the other half turned into a lovely thick coulis.
The CCB (Caked Crusader's Brother) declared that this was the cheesecake he'd been waiting for me to make. After all my attempts, I've finally found the cheesecake he's been wanting for years! He has now said that he needs to find something else to nag about......
For the cheesecake:
250g digestive biscuits (personally, I prefer hobnobs for a cheesecake base but I bowed to family pressure)
100g unsalted butter
1 vanilla pod
600g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
100g icing sugar
284ml double cream
For the topping:
400g strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
25g icing sugar
1 teaspoon water
Place the ring from a 20cm round springform tin on the plate you'll server the cheesecake from. Wrap the ring in either clingfilm or greaseproof paper to ensure that you can free the cheesecake easily.
Break the biscuits into crumbs – either in a food processor or with the bag and rolling pin method (i.e. place biscuits in a bag. Secure end. Bash with rolling pin)
If using the food processor method add the butter to the crumbs and pulse it until the butter is distributed. If using the bag method, melt the butter and stir in.
Use the crumbs to line the base of the cheesecake. Press them down onto the plate but not so hard that you create biscuity concrete!
Refrigerate while making the cheesecake.
Slice the vanilla pod in half and remove the seeds.
Place seeds in a bowl along with the cream cheese and icing sugar and beat until smooth and well combined.
Pour in the cream and beat until the mixture is completely combined.
Spoon over the biscuit base and level.
Leave to set overnight in the refrigerator.
To make the topping puree half the strawberries along with the icing sugar and water.
Sieve this mixture to remove the seeds.
Add the remaining halved strawberries to the top of the cheesecake and, when ready to serve, pour over the coulis/puree.
Remove the cheesecake from the fridge about 30 minutes (depending on your weather conditions!) before you wish to serve and remove the ring from the edge.
Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.


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AGE: Turns 28 on Oct. 15, 2013.
NBA EXPERIENCE: 2013-14 will be his seventh season.
HOW THE MAGIC ACQUIRED HIM: Traded by the Denver Nuggets in the four-team, 12-player deal that sent Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers on Aug. 10, 2012.
CONTRACT STATUS: Signed through 2015-16, including a player option for 2015-16.
2012-13 STATS: 36.0 mpg, 16.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.2 apg, 43.9 fg%, 30.0 3p%, 85.7 ft%
SCOUTING REPORT: Afflalo is a hard-nosed player who hates to lose perhaps more than anyone on the Magic roster. Last season, he recorded career-high averages in minutes, points, rebounds and assists. He entered last season as a career 40.5 percent 3-point shooter, but he connected on just 30.0 percent of his 3-point tries last season, perhaps because the Magic didn't have a consistent low-post scoring threat and failed to generate many corner 3s. Afflalo is a tenacious, willing defender, but his defense wasn't up to his standards last season. (It didn't help that he sometimes had to play small forward and defend much taller players.) He missed the season's final 12 games because of a right-hamstring strain.
THE SEASON AHEAD: Afflalo is fully healed from his hamstring injury, and he spent several months of his offseason following an intense workout regimen to boost his endurance and help his defense. If he remains injury-free, he'll begin the season as the team's starting shooting guard. His competitiveness and work ethic are significant assets to the Magic, and he sets a good example for the team's young players. But if the team struggles again, as expected, Afflalo and the rest of the team's veterans will have to find a way to keep themselves engaged. Given the team's youth movement, Afflalo might be challenged for playing time by second overall pick Victor Oladipo.
ODDS & ENDS: Afflalo grew up in the Los Angeles area. . . . He helped lead UCLA to the Final Four in two consecutive seasons. . . . He loves to play pingpong. . . . His Twitter handle is @arronafflalo.
Josh Robbins covers the Orlando Magic and the NBA for the Orlando Sentinel. You can reach him via e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com and connect with him on Facebook at facebook.com/JoshuaBRobbins. Follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.


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As women of the LGBT persuasion know, there are many terms, phrases and shorthands we use to describe things that are unique to our community. This can be as tame as "equality" and as offensive as "carpet muncher"; as sexy as "androgynous" and as confounding as "futch." So we brought in some experts (comics, writers and actors) who were quizzed on some choice words that are supposedly part of our lexicon. (Like, does anyone actually say "wusband"?) We're calling this The Lphabet.
This week: F words! We're talking "femme" and "futch."
Check back every week for a new letter and episode of The Lphabet.


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FACEBOOK users have given a big thumbs down to the social networking site after it emerged their web activity is being tracked - even after logging out.
Australian tech expert Nik Cubrilovic has revealed that when you log out, Facebook merely modifies the cookie, it and in some cases installs new ones that send user information as you continue to surf the web when you log out, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Every time you log in to Facebook it installs what is known as a "cookie" in your browser which tracks your activity on the site, sparking massive online fury.
Deleting cookies – a how to guide
"Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit," Mr Cubrilovic wrote in a blog post.
"This is not what 'logout' is supposed to mean - Facebook are only altering the state of the cookies instead of removing all of them when a user logs out."
Whenever you visit a website that contains a "like" or "share" button – or any other Facebook app, your information including your account ID is sent back to Facebook, Mr Cubrilovic explained.
The only way to protect your privacy is to delete all of your cookies.
However all this is of little consolation to angry users vented their fury in online forums, saying their privacy has once again been violated by the social networking site.
One Facebook user @ScreamMinaj wrote on twitter: "Now Loading ... Facebook Is Just Plain STUPID Now -_- *Deactivates Account*".
Another user @emsexton wrote: "Freaking woah, Zuckerberg. You are out of control".
A number of applications and plug-ins have surfaced in reaction to Facebook's new makeover and the privacy implications that come with it.
Google Chrome has created an app called Facebook Disconnect which removes the news ticker from your page when you use the Chrome web browser.
Firefox's "ShareMeNot" add-on also prevents third parties from tracking you until you actually click on the "like" or "share" button.
Mr Cubrilovic said the news showed Facebook needed to be more transparent about its privacy settings.
"Facebook are front-and-centre in the new privacy debate just as Microsoft were with security issues a decade ago," he wrote.
"The question is what it will take for Facebook to address privacy issues and to give their users the tools required to manage their privacy and to implement clear policies - not pages and pages of confusing legal documentation, and 'logout' not really meaning 'logout'."
Originally published asDISLIKE: Logging out won't stop Facebook spying


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When Harry Rady flew to New York from San Diego this week, he was on a mission: to find an independent registered investment advisor that would buy him out.
While pounding the pavement in Manhattan, the chief executive of Rady Asset Management called AdvisorOne from his cell phone between interviews with potential buyers to explain why he had come to town.
"I want to merge my firm with a large RIA that has scale so I can focus on what I can do best," said Rady (left). "Since I've been in New York, the response has been nothing short of remarkable. We'll take our time to make a decision, but we hope to find a match by the end of the year. I'm conservative, but 80% to 90% of the firms I'm meeting are saying, 'We want you to be part of our team.'"
What Rady does best is serve clients as an outsourced chief investment officer. As smart and talented as Rady may be, though, his apparent success in talking with potential indie RIA buyers may also have something to do with the current demand for outsourced CIOs who can focus on buying and selling securities.
Outsourced CIOs Come to Wealth Management
The trend of hiring outsourced CIOs, already popular in the world of endowments and nonprofits, is making inroads in the world of wealth management.
Last year, according to an SEI Quick Poll, the majority of nonprofits considered switching to an outsourced CIO model to manage assets as a result of economic conditions.
"Changing market conditions have led some to reconsider their current approach," SEI reported. "Of this group, they cited increased complexity in investment vehicles (52%) and increased due-diligence requirements (43%) as reasons for concern. Also, 20% of respondents said their organization lacks the necessary internal resources and 25% said the number of new asset classes is a strain on their existing investment management approach."
In Harry Rady's world, those figures translate to high-net-worth families whose needs include wealth transfer, philanthropy, business succession planning and even aircraft management. It's a world he knows well: Harry is the son of billionaire financier Ernest Rady, former chairman and CEO of Westcorp, a financial services holding company bought by Wachovia in 2005, and Harry has served as the CIO of his family's multibillion dollar financial, investment and real estate conglomerate.
HighTower, BlackRock Get a Mention
Asked last week which indie RIAs he had been visiting, Rady wouldn't say, but he did confirm that they were along the lines of HighTower, the RIA firm that has attracted a raft of breakaway brokerage teams from major wirehouses over the last couple of years. The firm's standard approach, as led by Elliot Weissbluth, is to bring in a team looking for the benefits of independence and partnership.
Rady also mentioned that asset management giant BlackRock is now in the business of aggressively hiring outsourced CIOs.
Over the last decade, the path has been cleared for outsourced CIOs as brokers and advisors do less risk management and asset allocation, Rady asserted.
'Advisors Want to Free Their Time Up to Manage Client Relationships'
"Brokers and advisors were picking stocks and managing money a decade ago, but over the years, broker-dealer wirehouses have mandated that advisors no longer pick individual stocks. They're supposed to pick mutual funds, but now even that is changing," he said. "It's not that advisors aren't smart and capable, but they want to free their time up to manage client relationships and bring in new clients."
Just before he got into the elevator for his next interview, AdvisorOne had one last question for Harry Rady:
What is his advice to advisors seeking to ally themselves with larger indie RIA firms?
"I would strongly advise those people at the Merrills and Morgan Stanleys of the world to invest some time in understanding what the independent model has to offer versus the wirehouse broker-dealer model," he answered. "The days of the big wirehouses and broker-dealers are numbered, and I tell my friends in the industry that the future is in the independent advisor space. The economics are simple: a 40% payout at Morgan Stanley, but 70% at an independent. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see why independent RIAs are attracting talent."
Read How Due Diligence Can Give Advisors Confidence at AdvisorOne.com


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This was published 7 years ago
Romanians busted over credit data theft
An international wrestling champion known as "The Carpathian Bear" was among 16 people detained as police busted a Romanian syndicate accused of the largest credit card data theft in Australian history.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say the syndicate had access to 500,000 Australian credit cards and about 30,000 were used to buy goods or services worth more than $30 million.
Police say the fraudsters hacked into the computers of up to 100 small Australian retailers.
It's believed no Australian credit card holders lost money, as financial institutions have reimbursed them.
Announcing the bust on Thursday, the AFP said its joint operation with Romanian police involved a raid by 200 officers on 36 properties across Romania on Wednesday.
Police detained 16 people and arrested and charged seven.
Among those detained but not arrested was international martial arts and Greco-Roman wrestling champion Gheorghe The Carpathian Bear Ignat, who had allegedly travelled to Australia in recent years.
The investigation, codenamed Operation Lino, started in June 2011 when the AFP received a referral from an Australian financial institution related to suspicious credit card transactions.
Stolen credit card data was used to create false credit cards, enabling thousands of counterfeit transactions to be carried out in numerous locations, including Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and the United States.
The probe grew to involve law enforcement agencies in 13 countries, with the Australian banking and finance sector in strong support.
The AFP manager for cyber crime operations, Commander Glen McEwen, said it was the largest data breach investigation undertaken by Australian law enforcement officers and the co-operation of other nations was crucial.
"Today's successful outcome is a culmination of 17 months of hard work with these partners," he told reporters in Canberra.
He said the syndicate did not particularly target Australia but "found opportunities" targeting a mix of up to 100 small city and country retail operations including grocery stores and petrol stations.
Commander McEwan said it was all done remotely from Romania, with the hackers finding security vulnerabilities enabling them to get into computers and access credit cards directly.
"I must stress that security vulnerability no longer exists ... has since been patched and we haven't had any recent compromises in Australia."
Steven Münchenberg, chief executive of the Australian Bankers Association, congratulated police on their investigation.
He said banks had advanced monitoring systems to prevent fraud and had contacted customers and taken action to protect accounts when suspicious transactions occurred.
Commander McEwan urged credit card holders to keep their cards and PIN numbers secure, check ATMs for unusual attachments and check their financial statements regularly.


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Usage: Columbus, OH
While most of Ohio is on par with the national average for the month to month energy usage, Columbus residents tend to consume more energy in the summer. Located in the Midwest, Columbus residents experience hot and humid summer which require more energy to keep their homes cool. Those that live in the city also can experience temperatures that are 3-5 degrees hotter than surrounding areas due to concrete and buildings trapping in heat. Winters can also be extreme with below zero temperatures and snow which requires more heat to stay warm. For a month to month comparison of Columbus residential usage compared to the rest of Ohio and the national average, see the graph below.
Featured VideoAt Compare Electricity, we are dedicated to bringing you all the latest videos to keep you informed about Columbus' energy usage and trends. In our latest video, we detail Ohio's energy usage compared to the rest of the Country. Over 32% of Ohio's energy usage comes from its large industrial sector with commercial and residential sector each account for a little over 20%. Ohio's residential energy usage is nearly the same as the national energy usage throughout the year. For more information, check out the video below.
Looking for a specific city in Ohio? Check out our featured cities below for more specific energy usage information.
Compare Electricity is dedicated to keeping you current and up to date with industry leading research. View all the latest news, articles and videos for your location below:


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Greetings all. Happy New Year & Salutations for Red Hackle Day.
Although as we know the story of the Red Hackle remains mysterious, there was nonetheless a fight at the village of Geldermalsen on 5th January 1795, in which the 42nd Royal Highlanders were engaged, and suffered their only fatal casualty of the campaign.
Here, in a less familiar account of the action, is a rarely told episode involving the Black Watch. The recapture of the guns, omitted in this version as well as in Stewart's history of the 42nd in the same work, was not their only contribution that day.
'The army lay on the snow for two nights, and, on the 31st, were put into barns till they were removed to Gildermalsen, on which place the enemy advanced in force on the 5th of January 1795.
The 78th was drawn up in two wings in front of the village, leaving the road open between the wings, and having the Light company, with two howitzer guns, in advance. The 42d, in support, occupied the different avenues to the village; the 12th and 19th regiments were at some distance to the right, and the 33d, with a squadron of the 11th dragoons, in the advanced post of Meteren. The enemy made his attack with such vivacity, that the outposts were quickly driven in.
A regiment of French Hussars, dressed in an uniform similar to that of the emigrant regiment of Choiseul in our service, pushed forward under cover of this deception, and galloped along the road, with great fury, crying "Choiseul, Choiseul!" This so far succeeded, that they were allowed to get close to the advanced company of the 78th before the truth was discovered, when they were instantly attacked and checked, but not sufficiently to prevent a part pushing, at full speed, through the intervals between the two wings towards the village. Here they were met by the Light company of the 42d, whose fire drove them back, and scattered them in an instant.'
'78th or Ross-shire Buffs. Military Annals,Sketches of the Highlanders, etc.' Col. David Stewart, 1822.
Nemo me impune lacessit


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Why not really stretch out your legs on your next trip? For the cost of not
much more than an airport taxi round trip, you can make a BIG impression on that
client, loved one, or visiting relative.
Limo rates are typically in the $75 - $200 per hour depending on the size and type of limousine you've hired. Local limousines are available in 6, 8, 10, even 14 passenger configurations. Most limousines are luxury cars like Cadillacs, Lincolns, or Viscounts, but some limo companies include specialty cars like Bentleys and Rolls Royces in their fleets. If you want something more subtle, but still chauffeured, many companies offer sedan service.
The following features are typical with most limos: tinted window glass, privacy divider (the glass that rolls up between passengers and driver), TV and VCR, a plush or leather interior, cellular phone and moon roof (powered sun roof).
Some companies require a one or three hour minimum booking (especially at certain times of the year). Some have an add-on charge for additional passenger pickups. Champagne (when it is not part of a package) and any long-distance calls on the cell phone are extra. If you are using a limo for an extended period of time, many companies will offer you a lower rate for "stand by" time. Remember that each limousine company has different services, vehicles, and prices. Ask them for details.
Many limo companies offer a variety of special packages:


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The record that launched 10,000 rock bands is at the heart of a new lawsuit filed Wednesday by legendary rock band the Velvet Underground.
The band, which emerged from the late '60s avant garde New York scene, released their debut The Velvet Underground and Nico in 1967. The band's friend and patron Andy Warhol provided its iconic cover image, a screen print of a banana.
Now, the Velvets — long broken up but anchored in its time by Lou Reed, who went on to a long-lived career as one of rock's elder statesmen — are suing the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts over that banana.
The foundation had licensed the banana image to be emblazoned on iPad sleeves and iPhone cases. According to the band, the foundation said it had a copyright interest in the image, which includes Andy Warhol's typewritten name.
But according to the Velvets' lawsuit, the banana is in the public domain, since Warhol, who died in 1987, never copyrighted the image.
The Velvet Underground insists that it has earned the image's trademark rights, by virtue of decades of using it as one.
"The symbol has become so identified with the Velvet Underground... that members of the public, and particularly those who listen to rock music, immediately recognize the banana design as the symbol of the Velvet Underground," the suit says.
It notes that even an Absolut Vodka ad showed the banana's likeness with the caption "Absolut Underground."
The band seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages in its suit, filed in New York federal court.
The Velvet Underground and Nico, also known as "the banana album," sold only 10,000 records on its initial release, but the old platitude says that everyone who bought it started a band. Rolling Stone ranked it the 13th greatest album ever.
The band's classic line-up included guitarists Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison, violist John Cale and Maureen "Mo" Tucker. At Warhol's suggestion, German model Nico sang three of the debut album's songs, hence its name.
The album's noisy din, unorthodox drumming and avant garde influence — not to mention its frank lyrics about heroin deals and sadomasochism — became a huge influence to punk, noise and indie rock.
Selected Reading: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork
Velvet Underground Sues Over "Banana Album" Cover Art
The band, which split almost 40 years ago, says the Warhol Foundation has no right to license the cover art to be reproduced on products
The record that launched 10,000 rock bands is at the heart of a new lawsuit filed Wednesday by legendary rock band the Velvet Underground.


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Sylvie's Turkey Breast Ballotine is featured in the Wings chapter of Flying Pans - Two Chefs, One World, the award-winning cookbook by Chefs Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver. It is also The Marine Room's featured recipe of the month. When we planned on just three of us for Thanksgiving dinner, I wanted a change from roasting an entire turkey with all the traditional sides. After spending an afternoon with Chef Bernard at Rancho La Puerta, I was inspired to prepare something from his cookbook.
Chefs Bernard and Ron have a passion for fine cuisine, travel, and life. Flying Pans takes you on a culinary voyage through forty countries, combining recipes with anecdotes, trivia, and stories. The recipes were photographed at San Diego's Macy's School of Cooking, and were all styled by the chefs themselves.
"The role of a chef is to create a feast for the senses...
telling the tale of a region and its people via taste, texture, scent, and sight.
I am always striving to discover new styles of cuisine with original cultural roots."
- Chef Bernard Guillas
|Sylvie's Turkey Breast Ballotine
Sylvie's Turkey Breast Ballotine
Croissant Sausage Stuffing, Glazed Carrots, Cipollinis, Apple Cider Gravy
Minimally adapted from Flying Pans - Two Chefs, One World
The Marine Room's Featured Recipe for November 2011
Serves 8
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup stemmed, diced oyster mushrooms (I substituted chanterelles)
2 cups minced leeks, white part only
1/4 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts
1/2 cup diced sun dried tart cherries
1 teaspoon chopped sage
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 cup chicken stock
6 links hot Italian sausages, casings removed (about 3 cups)
8 large croissants, cubed
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 4-pound boneless free range turkey breast
1 stick unsalted butter, diced
2 teaspoons chopped thyme
Preheat oven to 375°F. Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, leeks, hazelnuts, cherries, sage and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes without browning, stirring often. Transfer mixture to large mixing bowl. Add chicken stock. Fold in sausage and croissants.
Place turkey breast on cutting board. Butterfly-cut breast lengthwise to create pocket. Place two thirds of stuffing in center. Roll. Tie with butcher twine. Transfer remaining stuffing to baking dish. Cover.
Place turkey in roasting pan skin side up. Dot with butter. Season with thyme, salt and pepper. Bake 1 hour or until center of stuffing reaches 160 degrees, basting often. Bake reserved stuffing during last 30 minutes of cooking turkey. Transfer turkey to cutting board. Place roasting pan on stovetop over medium heat to make sauce.
Apple Cider Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped shallots
2 green apples, cored, chopped
4 leaves sage
2 tablespoons sifted flour
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup sparkling apple cider
2 cups chicken stock
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Add butter, shallots, apples and sage to roasting pan. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in flour. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add balsamic and apple cider. Bring to boil. Add chicken stock. Bring to simmer. Reduce to sauce consistency. Strain through fine sieve. Season with salt and pepper.
Cranberry Relish:
1 cup dried cranberries
1 pound fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 stick cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Mint sprigs for garnish
Place all ingredients, except mint, in saucepan. Cook, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have popped and reduced to relish consistency, 6-8 minutes. Transfer to serving bowl, or individual serving ramekins. Serve at room temperature. Garnish with mint.
Vegetables and Presentation:
1/2 cup verjus (you can substitute ½ cup of Savignon Blanc plus 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar)
1/2 pound young carrots, peeled, trimmed
1/2 pound cipollini onions, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon minced mint
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Add butter, verjus, honey, cipollini onions and carrots to large skillet over medium heat. Bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Cover. Cook 2 minutes. Uncover. Cook until liquid is syrupy. Add mint. Toss. Adjust seasoning. Set aside.
Slice turkey breast into 1-inch thick slices. Place in center of warm serving plate. Garnish with carrots and cipollinis. Spoon sauce onto plate. Serve with cranberry relish.
|Fresh ingredients for the Croissant-Sausage Stuffing
|Chopped and ready to be sauteed
|Large Croissants
|Stuffed, rolled, tied, and ready for the oven
|Some of the Cranberry Relish ingredients
|Cranberry Relish
|This may become a new Thanksgiving tradition in our home
Newfie Notes:
- I purchased a 4.5 lb. boneless turkey breast. When I unwrapped it, I discovered it was actually one full breast, or two half breasts. I decided to make two ballotines at that point, one from each half breast. Not knowing how to butterfly a turkey breast, I watched a few videos online. This one by Martha Stewart was helpful (but I still made John do it!)
- My turkey breasts took a bit longer than an hour, especially after opening the oven and basting often. Be sure to use an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature, and remove from oven when the center of the stuffing reaches 160 degrees F. Allow to rest about 10 minutes before slicing.
- I bought day-old croissants for half price.
- Chanterelles are extremely expensive. The recipe calls for Oyster mushrooms. I won't make that mistake again!
- I was unable to find verjus. As indicated above, Chef Bernard recommends substituting 1/2 cup of Savignon Blanc plus 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar.
- The Apple Cider Sauce is out of this world!
- Don't wait until next Thanksgiving to try this recipe. It would be lovely for Christmas, or any special occasion.


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Happy New Year!!
We've got lots and lots of great challenges lined up, and
With the holidays behind us, I'm sure you can all use a few extras of a certain kind of card in your stash.
Please allow me to take this opportunity to say Thank You for playing with us.
We love bringing you inspirational challenges,
and we are thankful for the inspiration you bring to our players gallery with your creations.
Thank you to Michele and the amazing design team for their never ending source of inspiration.


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The first time Pocket-lint jumped into the new fourth-generation Range Rover was in Morocco. The weather was hot, the terrain soft and fast, but the relevance to a UK driver virtually nil. While it showed us what the "all-new" Range Rover could achieve, what about in the UK, in the winter, in the snow, at the Land Rover Experience headquarters in Eastnor Castle?
There are eight Land Rover Experience centres around the UK and the main one, used by Jaguar Land Rover itself, is based in the Cotswolds. It's where they tested the 2013 Range Rover - handy, considering there are miles and miles of managed track. When we say tested, we really mean it: over 300 prototypes and thousands of man-hours all to help the new Range Rover to get to this moment.
Getting to the centre is almost as much fun as driving in the grounds, with the Cotswold countryside offering plenty to enjoy from the Range Rover's spacious cockpit. Across the course of the day we tested the 3.0 TDV V6 entry-level model (£71,000) and the 4.4 TDV V8 Autobiography (£94,695) with adaptive roll technology to stop it moving around as much - it works.
We started our day at Chipping Campden in the beautiful Cotswold hills. The snow was thick, the roads icy. Of course, the Range Rover laughed in the face of that adversity. Understandably so, because of a new feature added to the Range Rover: Auto Terrain.
The auto feature accounts for the fact that, although given the choice of terrain setting to use, drivers normally forget until it's too late, or don't know whether they should be in snow mode or not. The Range Rover now does it for you automatically by monitoring the road every couple of milliseconds. Think of the auto scene mode on your camera and you get the right idea. It goes about making the drive as easy and as safe as possible.
Of course some will say that takes away all the fun, but in reality it meant that we didn't have any problems regardless of what terrain we encountered.
At Land Rover Experience the weather, the challenge you want and a number of other factors determine which tracks are available, and which tracks you'll use. It's not as simple as saying I'd like to do my usual please. Tracks range in scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the hardest and that involves having to use winches.
"We could have put you on that course," explained one of the instructors, "but it's not very much fun and you would have only got around 100 yards."
That's great if you are using the centre for training for your next global road challenge - something many do - but for the majority of the centre's visitors having some fun and seeing what their new Land Rover or Range Rover can do off road is the main goal.
As it was we were taken out for a spin on a grade five track that gave us enough of a challenge, but not enough to make us really worry about what we were about to do. That's not to say there weren't a couple of moments where we wondered whether the Range Rover would make it, but raised suspension, low-level gear ratio setting for downhill descents, and the willingness to just "trust" the vehicle, meant we fared better than we expected along the treacherous single-lane track.
If that paints a gruelling picture, don't worry, it's a lot better than it sounds, mainly because of the sheer luxury of the ride that the Range Rover offers. Heated or chilled seats, a heated steering wheel, a fridge in the arm rest, massage options and individual climate control per passenger (front and back) meant it was hard to appreciate the harsh environment that we were driving in until we opened the window. We did; it was cold.
The Land Rover Experience Centre offers a number of packages to suit most, with prices starting from £200 for a morning to a lot more if you want to really push the boat out, and you don't have to use your own shiny new 4x4 if you don't want to. If you're lucky, you might even be able to haggle a day's pass when you buy your new car.
On the track on our day the snow and ice certainly added an extra dimension to the exercise that many probably won't get to experience. Setting off in convoy, you are accompanied in the car by a voice on a walkie-talkie, rather than an instructor taking over the wheel. That means you're in total control of the driving whether you like it or not.
It's all par for the course and certainly gives you the chance to gawp at what the car in front has just done without feeling embarrassed. In the case of Pocket-lint there were certainly plenty of times, albeit while we were busy playing with the numerous toys on our kitted-out car, that we weren't sure we were going to make the next stage. We did of course, and some of it in the dark with headlights blazing.
As for the new Range Rover, it copes very well, not only getting you to the venue, but also out on the rough stuff. The V6 and the V8 were both incredibly responsive from a performance perspective and an incredibly luxurious ride too.
We especially like new features like the auto closing doors if you fail to close them properly - think expensive kitchen cupboards - and in the business class rear configuration the central console that runs right through the centre of the car. You do have to sacrifice a seat for this feature, however.
As with previous Range Rover models the ride is very high, allowing you to enjoy that commanding position Range Rover is famous for, while the cockpit has been further insulated to give you an almost silent ride.
On the tech side of things, you'll get a digital dash that changes depending on what is going on, and there are enough buttons (although less than the third generation) to make a BlackBerry Qwerty keyboard look simple.
As with other models in the JLR line, entertainment is provided by a dual-screen touchscreen display in the centre of the dashboard. So the passenger can watch the Jeremy Kyle Show, listening on the accompanying Bluetooth headphones, while the driver follows the satnav. There is the option for further screens in the headrests with their own headsets too for the rear passengers.
The boot is spacious while the tailgate boot door split has been changed to give you a lower entry point - current Range Rover customers don't panic, it's still good for standing on, or having somewhere to put that picnic.
As a day out, the Land Rover Experience is great fun giving you a chance to see what your car can really do. You might never venture off the roads with your Range Rover, but it's perfectly happy if you do.
As we discovered in Morocco, the Range Rover really is top of its class, as long as you've not only got the cash to enjoy it, but also the patience to wait. While the first cars will start rolling off the production line in the next couple of weeks, if you order a new one there is currently a nine-month waiting list.
We will be bringing you a full Range Rover review in the near future.


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Blood drive will benefit injured police officer
Officer injured in line of duty
A blood drive will be held Tuesday in support of a Harrisburg police officer who is still recovering from serious injuries he suffered in the line of duty.
Harrisburg police Officer Dan Peiper just returned home after three months in the hospital and rehabilitation.
Peiper was in intensive care for most of his hospital stay. He was critically injured after his police vehicle was struck and flipped over by a suspect who police said was fleeing from officers.
Peiper's police K-9 officer was also injured as a pedestrian who was pinned by the vehicle against a brick wall at 6th and Woodbine streets on April 20.
Police Capt. Annette Oates is hoping citizens from the city and beyond will take part in the one-day blood drive.
"Dan's doing a lot better. He returned home last Sunday. He still has a long way to go, but he's doing very well considering everything he's been through," said Oates.
The Central Pennsylvania Blood Bank will be taking blood at the Capitol City FOP Lodge No. 12 at 114 Walnut St. in Harrisburg from 6-11 a.m. and again from 1-5:30 p.m.
Peiper is home but still undergoing rehab and still has a long way before he is able to return to the force.


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Date: July 14
Time: 6:00pm
The summer social is always a hit. Come join us for some food and drink out on the patio (weather permitting). Look for us inside otherwise.
**RSVP by July 10 so that we'll be sure to have a seat for you.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Design Algoma Summer Social
Posted by Design Algoma at 9:03 AM 0 comments
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Morality refers to the concept of human ethics which pertains to matters of good and evil — also referred to as "right or wrong". Morality is generally discussed within three contexts:
- matters of individual conscience;
- systems of principles and judgments — sometimes called moral values — shared within a cultural, religious, secular, humanist, or philosophical community; and
- codes of behavior or conduct.
Theistic morality is based on the assumption that there is a god who has absolute understanding of right and wrong, and orders people to obey rules as a condition for goodness, see Christian morality for an example.
Secular morality is a complex subject and is discussed in a separate article.
Absolute and relative morality
Absolute morality postulates that was is moral and what is immoral is unchanging and can be laid down well in advance. Thus it is very popular with religions and their reliance on holy texts to determine moral and ethical guidelines and commandments. Moral relativism (which should under no circumstances be conflated with relativity) on the other hand postulates that morals can be somewhat flexible and develop as education and understanding progresses, and accepts the subjective nature of morality. This acknowledges that cultural differences across different times and different regions may mean that what people consider moral can change. This change, particularly over time, is sometimes known as the moral zeitgeist, from the German "spirit of the times". Hence once slavery was accepted in parts of the western world, it now is not - or at least it has been outsourced to poorer countries and prisons. Moral relativism isn't without criticism as it is viewed as lending justification to clearly immoral acts by effectively saying "well, they do things differently over there".


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Todd and Noah weren't quite home when I sat down to eat with Preston and Stella. I made a taco for myself and both Preston and Stella and then I sat back and watched and listened for the reaction. It didn't take long for Stella to tell me that she didn't like them, which wasn't surprising being that the only food I don't have to remind her to keep taking bites of is chocolate cake with ice cream. Preston on the other hand said nothing until he finished and then asked for another one (sweet victory). As Preston and I were finishing up, Todd and Noah walked in and sat down at the table. I made Noah a taco and Todd made one for himself. Besides, Stella, Noah would have been a sure bet to take one bite, set it down, eat the entire bowl of sliced pears sitting in the middle of the table (all in hopes of never having to touch or taste the squash taco again). But, to my pleasant surprise, Noah ate the entire taco without one complaint and Todd ate two. I was thrilled! I will happily take four out of five and deem the spaghetti squash tacos a dinner victory!
3 pound spaghetti squash
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon ancho chili powder (you can also use regular chili powder)
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Sixteen 6-inch corn tortillas
One 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained well
Crumbled queso fresco, feta, or Cotija cheese
Finely diced red onion
Chopped fresh cilantro
Hot sauce
Lime wedges
Cut squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and roast the halves facedown on a oiled baking sheet for about 40 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
When the squash has finished cooking and has cooled slightly, working over a bowl, scrape the squash flesh with a fork, loosening and separating the strands as you remove it from the skin. Discard the skin. In a small bowl, whisk lime juice with chili powder, cumin, coriander, and salt. Pour over the spaghetti squash strands, and gently toss together. Taste the squash, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Heat a dry, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Warm and slightly blister each tortilla. Sprinkle each warm tortilla with black beans, squash mixture, cheese, diced red onion, cilantro and a couple of shakes of hot sauce. Serve with lime wedges.
Recipe slightly adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook


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In Anne and Chris Sigler's front yard on High Street stands a barren oak tree, cut down to four great but stunted branches shooting out of a thick trunk.
Two weeks ago it was much more: a 50-ton valley oak, a member of a species (Quercus lobata) identified as so important to Palo Alto that it was granted protection by a city ordinance in 1996.
But when its owners noticed a deep crack in the tree's house-facing side, coupled with a heavy lean toward a neighbor's property, emergency measures were taken to dismantle it. The Davey Tree Expert Company has been working at removal for nearly two weeks, six hours a day.
Chris Sigler is an Oregon native, a place he said has "lots of tree-huggers."
"It was glorious," he said of the oak. "It was what made this house. I made it the centerpiece of my property."
When Sigler, owner of a construction-management consulting business, expanded his home a few years ago, he made sure to seek out and protect the tree's roots.
"It was the crown jewel of my home and my neighborhood. I brought the doctor (city arborist Dave Dockter) over more often than I went to the doctor. He hugged that tree with me for years. It was like losing a family member."
Section 4 of Palo Alto's Tree Technical Manual states trees that display partial or clearly imminent failure while threatening persons or property may be removed without the city's review or approval.
As it happened, two arborists familiar with the tree -- John McClenahan and Dockter -- did review its case. They both agreed that removal could not be avoided. According to Dockter, who prepared the manual, emergency removal "only happens once or twice a year," if that.
Dave Schellinger, whose great-grandfather built the house in the 1920s, said he "grew up under the tree's auspices."
He now lives next door.
"For us in the neighborhood the presence of the oak tree will be very much missed," Schellinger said.
The neighborhood's other residents echo the sentiment.
"It was a grand old tree, and it's sad to see it go, but there were safety issues involved," said one local who preferred not to be named. The tree had been visible from her yard some houses away.
Across the street, Lee Mitchell said he hopes that a cross section of the oak be preserved at the city's Junior Museum & Zoo on Middlefield Road.
"It would be pretty cool. Kids could count out the age rings and everything," he said.
Dexter Girton has been living next door to the oak tree since he bought his home in 1974. Should the oak have fallen, it was his house and garage that would have suffered potentially disastrous damage. The land all around his home hosts numerous fruit trees, many of which have benefited from composting of the oak's fallen leaves.
"It looked pretty. People who visited really liked it," the retired electrical engineer said. "But I worried it would fall sometime, especially when I worked in the garage. It was definitely a hazard for the safety of the house. Anyone looking at the tree knew that."
Last December another century-old tree had to be removed near the intersection of Cowper Street and Homer Avenue, only a few blocks away. Affectionately called "George," it was a coast live oak that sprawled well beyond the confines of the surrounding sidewalk. Prior efforts to save the tree, including cable support and the removal of seven tons of trimming, had proved insufficient.
In George's case, the tree's health was reviewed by an arborist hired by the city, and its removal recommended.
Dockter cited Shel Silverstein's book, "The Giving Tree," as a model for positive outlook on the loss of a tree. He said the oak on High Street provided shade and beauty for perhaps 200 years, and with work to preserve its wood, it could provide people with joy for another 200.
"Provenance is what makes any antique more valuable than another," he said.
Under the afternoon heat this week, Girton moved among the stockpiles where segments of the felled valley oak sat. He pointed to a stack of cross-sections leaning against a wall and a separate group of logs -- future tables and woodturnings, he said, for neighbors who could use something by which to remember it.


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Be the Best You Can Be | Life Inspiration for 2014
Hi everyone
Wow, I realised I haven't had a chance yet to post on The Good Girls Guide this year yet (slightly embarrassed)…life has just picked off straight where I left it on the 21st of December when I went on leave.
After 2 glorious weeks of relaxing, swimming, eating and soaking up a simply incredible Cape Town summer (nice and hot), it was back to work with a bang. Throw in a body now well on the way into 30 weeks of pregnancy, a husband about to be caught up in the madness of a new school year (he's a teacher), the realisation that I have to get all my 'affairs' in order before heading out on maternity leave in just a few short months…well it was rather a lot to take in!
The good thing is that I never doubted it could and CAN all be done. God is just so constant and present in my life right now and He has such control over little piece – I can walk through a day of back ache, last minute supermarket visits, and forgotten laundry knowing that despite all those very ordinary things, He is still with me.
I'm also feeling rather inspired that while 2014 is bringing the biggest change to my life in 29 years, it's a year that is ever so slowly motivating me to be the best I can be, and the best God wants me to be. Whether that's being the best new mom I can be, the best wife, friend, sister or daughter, I was called to never settle for just being normal. Here's to 2014.


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Modern Breadbox
Although I was looking for inexpensive dresses to wear on vacation (not that I have one exactly planned yet), what I picked up was this Liberty of London Tunic. It's so versatile, and although it's really thin and airy, it's not see-through. Sleeves roll up or down, pair it with capri leggings and flip-flops or dressy heeled sandals, or wear belted with leggings and boots, throw on a cardigan or blazer over it, or wear it alone as a swim cover-up (it's cute enough to go from beach to town). It's adorable!
7 comments:
- Pretty Little World said...
I loved every single piece of the Liberty of London Target collection -- I was really surprised how wearable and pretty all of those florals are!
- March 27, 2010 at 10:27 PM
- Cassaundra said...
that's the same print that the suit i purchased has! yay! liberty of london!
- March 28, 2010 at 6:29 PM
- Kitty Stampede said...
Damn, I wish we had Target here in Canada. I love the look of those bread boxes and have actually been searching for one. I`ve seen a cool one at a thrift store recently and for some reason didn`t get it and it was soo cool, been kicking myself ever since.
- March 28, 2010 at 7:49 PM
- Kristen said...
Love that dres... might be making a trip to Target soon!
- March 28, 2010 at 8:37 PM
- drollgirl said...
ah!!! these breadboxes are SO CUTE!!!
- March 29, 2010 at 1:45 PM
- Teresa @ good-grace said...
hee hee! That's so funny that you mention the breadboxes ... I was at Target a few weeks ago - and was literally giddy when I laid my eyes on them! Such a sleek and chic, utilitarian little piece - and keeps our bread safe from our boxer, Kennedy. (He's been known to pull an entire loaf from the countertop - should we inadvertently leave it out. Eats the entire thing! He's even eaten a pound of butter that I had out - trying to get it to room temperature.) The microwave serves as a makeshift breadbox, according to my husband... which annoys me every time I open it to heat something up.
- March 30, 2010 at 9:51 AM
- Christina said...
my friend owns one of those breadboxes and i was totally swooning over it. i was even happier to find out she purchased it at target! i'm telling you, they've been on a roll lately.
- March 30, 2010 at 11:50 AM


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Today is NFL Championship Sunday and I had to rearrange my work schedule so I can sit on my couch and watch the AFC and NFC Championship games like most football fans. Instead of working my Sunday gig in the afternoon, I did the early morning (12am-8am)…..that gives me plenty of time to put the iPod on and listen to some Metal! Here's what I listened to…..
Brainstorm – Memorial Roots (2010): The new Brainstorm was released everywhere but the U.S. in late 2009 so I was lucky to get a digital promo from AFM Records so I could give this a listen and review. I made this my Album of the Month and I like this new record better than 2007's DOWNBURST.
Helix – Vagabond Bones (2009): I bought this late in 2009 and it's been in my playlist every since. It's got some great songs, most about drinking! Favorite song here is 'Jack It Up'.
Circus 51 – s/t (2009): A six song independent release from Amarillo, Texas. I wanted to give this an extra spin because I listened to it a few times on the stereo and I noticed the production was a little "muddy", I figured that headphones might clear some stuff up. The songs are there but the production lacks.
Epica – Design Your Universe (2009): I missed this album in 2009 but picked it up last week. This was my first listen and my first impression is a good one…..Simone Simons has a great voice and there is a ton of orchestration making the music very layered. This one needs a lot more time!
UZI – Madhouse (2009): Eonian Records keeps releasing great long lost '80s gems and MADHOUSE keeps getting better with every listen. Makes you wonder how/why UZI wasn't signed back in the '80s.
Motley Crue – Dr. Feelgood (1989): Went with a classic to end my shift and I wanted to hear some Crue. This album is just so good, the Crue was at the top of their game and the biggest band around back then. Favorite track – 'Without You'.


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Petitions to Wind Up (Companies)
In the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) Leeds District Registry. No. 825 of 1999 In the Matter of UK EXPRESS DESIGNS LIMITED and in the Matter of the Insolvency Act 1986 A Petition to wind up the above-named Company of 20-22 Grove Crescent Road, Stratford, London E15 1BJ, presented on 11th February 1999 by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise, Croydon VAT Office, AMP House, Dingwall Road, Croydon, claiming to be a Creditor of the Company will be heard at Leeds District Registry, The Courthouse, Oxford Row, Leeds 1, on 23rd March 1999, at 10.30 a.m. (or as soon thereafter as the Petition can be heard). Any person intending to appear on the hearing of the Petition (whether to support or oppose it) must give notice of intention to do so to the Petitioner or its Solicitor in accordance with Rule 4.16 by 1600 hours on 22nd March 1999. The Petitioner's Solicitor is Dibb Lupton Alsop, Arndale House, Charles Street, Bradford BD1 1UN. (Ref. BFD/N.H./415029/34329.) 9th March 1999.


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May 13, 2014
With Spring showers comes hail, and with hail roof damage often follows. During this stormy spring, buyers and sellers can skip headaches by paying extra attention to the weather prior to closing. This way an otherwise smooth transaction won't end up dented as a result of hail damage.
Unfortunately, no one can avoid the immediate harm caused by hail – often damaged shingles – but buyers and sellers can avoid complications arising from discovering the hail damage after closing by taking a few simple steps. First, pay attention to the weather. You don't have follow your favorite weatherman's twitter account (unless you're contemplating becoming a storm chaser), but you want to know if hail-producing storms have hit the home's neighborhood. Second, if storms have hit the home's neighborhood, both buyers and sellers should examine the roof for hail damage prior to closing. If there is damage, the seller and buyer will need to address how they wish to proceed.
If your purchase/sale contract is on the KCRAR forms used by most real estate agents in the area, the form requires the seller to keep the property fully insured until closing and notify buyer of any damages in writing within 24 hours. The form contract further provides each party with options as to how they wish to proceed when damage is discovered prior to closing. In a nutshell, if the damage is minor, the seller can elect to replace or repair the damage. If the damage is not minor or the seller elects not to repair minor damage, the contract provides the buyer with two options.
The first option is to cancel the contract and walk away. The second option is to continue with the purchase. If the buyer chooses to purchase, buyer can require seller to pay seller's insurance deductible and assign seller's insurance proceeds to buyer. Alternatively, if the parties agree on the cost of repairs, buyer can require seller to pay that amount. In both variations of the second option, the buyer can oversee repairs after closing.
While this may seem cumbersome, discovering hail damage post-closing can take frustration to an entirely new level for all parties involved. If the hail damage occurred prior to closing, typically the insurance policy in place at the time of damage would provide coverage. Insurance companies for both parties, however, may end up involved.
For more information on or to talk to an experienced insurance agent, contactTroy Jefferson (Johnson County & surrounding areas) or Melinda Kluck (Jackson County & surrounding areas) at Reece & Nichols Insurance for advice today. Both agents also service Cass and Clay Counties in Missouri.
Amy Ringsdorf, Corporate Counsel/Vice President
Call 913.945.3704
Email [email protected]


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Last edited: 15 November 2017
Sustainable NE Seattle is part of the Sustainable Seattle, Washington, USA community. Members are neighbors who wish to transition the community toward resilience and sustainability. As part of their activities, they have sponsored solar cooker construction workshops, with an number of them planned for the spring and summer of 2011.
- See the Calendar of events for workshop details.
- Monthly meetings are held the third Thursday of every month at the Wedgewood Presbyterian Church. Interested neighbors are encouraged to attend.
Articles in the media
- December 2011: Solar cooking works, from sunny Brazil to Seattle - Crosscut.com
External links
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a former Obama administration official, quietly launched his campaign for governor Monday, more than 16 months before voters hit the polls to elect a successor to Governor Deval Patrick.
An expert on health care cost and quality but a political novice, Berwick kicked off his maiden run for elective office, becoming the first big-name Democrat to enter what is expected to be a robustly contested race for the Corner Office.
Berwick, a 66-year-old Newton pediatrician, spent almost a year and a half running the country's massive Medicaid and Medicare programs, while helping to implement the national health care law. He is lauded by fellow health care experts for his intelligence and effectiveness on national health policy.
He chose, however, to launch his campaign in an unusual fashion: in an e-mailed press release, sent while he was out of state, at a time public attention is focused on the Senate special election eight days away.
In a phone interview Monday, Berwick framed himself as progressive on major issues and said it was crucial that Massachusetts continue to focus on health care reform and the well-being of children, topics he has focused on during his career.
Butat times he avoided specifics, preferring to paint the themes of his candidacy in broad strokes.
He said people he has spoken with in the state want "government to perform better. They want more responsiveness, and that's what I want to work on."
"It's about the future," Berwick said. "I have two grandchildren. I want to hand them a planet and community that is really thriving."
Berwick, who holds three degrees from Harvard, repeatedly emphasized his experience in helping health organizations deliver better care to consumers, an asset he said he would bring to being the state's chief executive. In the late 1980s, Berwick was a founder of the influential Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an organization based on reducing medical errors and waste.
Another Democratic physician, Dr. Joseph Avellone, has announced a bid for governor in 2014. state Treasurer Steven Grossman and Representative Michael E. Capuano, both Democrats, have said they are pondering bids as well. State Senator Dan Wolf, a Democrat, is also considered a potential contender.
On the Republican side, Charles D. Baker, the GOP nominee who lost to Patrick in 2010, has said he is considering another run. Evan Falchuk, running as the United Independent Party candidate, has also officially entered the race.
Berwick, a Connecticut native who moved to Massachusetts when he was 18, was appointed by Obama in July 2010 as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
There, Berwick explained, he pushed for health care that was more patient-centered, advocating programs that could help prevent medical issues, and reducing the cost of health care by improving it.
Berwick left his post after 17 months because Republican senators had vowed to block his confirmation. Republicans slammed him for his comments supporting Britain's national health plan. They accused him of being a proponent of health care rationing after he said it made sense to compare the effectiveness of various treatments to decide which are worth funding.
Berwick said Republicans had taken his comments out of context. He called the accusation that he is interested in rationing health care "hogwash."
Fellow experts in the health care field, however, praised Berwick's savvy.
"He's got a brilliant mind," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a health care advocacy group. "He's a Renaissance person, a deep thinker who's not paralyzed by thought," said Pollack, who met Berwick in 1997 when President Clinton appointed them to a commission to develop a patients' bill of rights.
"He certainly has a good understanding of the synthesis between good policy and practical politics. He would make a remarkable governor," he added.
But Bay State political analysts questioned the timing of his campaign rollout, when Berwick was not even in Massachusetts. In the interview with the Globe, he said he was speaking from a Washington-area airport before boarding a flight to Florida.
"You get one chance to make a good first impression in a campaign," said Massachusetts Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh. "This isn't it."
At the end of May, Berwick had just more than $175,000 in his campaign account, according to filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
Berwick began actively mulling a campaign a few months ago and has been traveling around the state speaking to residents. He said he has heard a desire for "government they can trust" and for leaders to pursue a "progressive agenda."
In the interview, Berwick declined to criticize anything about Patrick's tenure as governor, saying he was focused on the future, not the past. "I think he's done, in general, a very good job," Berwick said.
He declined to share his thoughts on the specifics of the budget debate roiling Beacon Hill. And while he said education policy would be a major focus of his campaign, he would not say whether he supported lifting the cap on funding for charter schools in the state.
Berwick also expressed significant concern about casino gambling's impending arrival in the state. "I am worried about the potential effect of casinos on communities," he said, adding that the state should move with robust oversight as casinos are built.
Environmental issues, too, would be a focus of his election effort, Berwick said. He favors the Cape Wind project, explaining that it is important to develop offshore wind resources to help reduce dependence on carbon-producing energy sources.
Tracy Jan of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Joshua Miller can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos.


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Did you know that on October 31st, the planet will become a 7 billion-strong population? And half of that 7 billion are under the age 25! An overwhelming number, isn't it?
Yet, I can only get my head around the implications (such as available resources, including all of the issues surrounding climate change — water, food, weather) if I consider the issue from my small perspective. What do I do?
I know I can turn off the lights, drive less, watch less TV, reduce my use of plastic, turn down my heat, and recycle. Yet, the camp community also has an opportunity to help each camper become a champion of the "carbon footprint" effort. A campaign for our planet led by the world's most important asset — youth. Youth changed our use of seat belts. Youth changed our sense of responsibility to pick up trash and not throw waste out of our car windows. Youth helped us support Smokey the Bear. They are powerful advocates!
So, how do we mobilize youth at our camps this summer? What will you do? We can conserve water and electricity, we can encourage kids to walk places when they go home, we can recycle, and we can help them understand how to grow and produce food. Yet, as a camp community, what can we do next summer to make a difference — for our campers and our world? One person at a time, as a collective 7 billion. What are your ideas for mobilizing each small footprint to impact the larger footprint?
(click image for enlarged PDF)


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Now I just feel silly. I thought I could sum you up in two words - hate and intolerance. It seems I completely forgot ignorance.Mulholland wrote:I would be much more tolerant of homosexuality if they would quit trying to recruit children and force their views down everybody's throat. I would be perfectly happy if homosexuals weren't normalized and led to believe that their uber-sexually promiscuous ways are okay, as they spread AIDS like a plague, as they sometimes cross over and spread it to unsuspecting women. I would be absolutely tolerant if it weren't costing taxpayers billions keeping them alive with expensive medication cocktails that are the ideological fruits of the liberal ideology of sexually aberration.
Homosexuality kills and you liberal types breed it.