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With Larry Crowne getting released this weekend, I recently attended a press conference with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Directed by and starring Tom Hanks, the story centers on a laid-off middle-aged man (Hanks) who goes back to college and strikes up a relationship with one of his professors (Roberts). Larry Crowne is the first film Hanks has directed since 1996's That Thing You Do, and he co-wrote the script with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). You can watch the trailer here.
During the press conference, they talked about their relationship off screen, the diverse casting, how the film will play against all the big budget movies like Transformers 3, how the film deals with what's real life problems, where do they keep their Oscar's, and a lot more. Hit the jump for the interview.
As usual, I'm offering you two ways to get the interview: you can either click here for the audio, or the full transcript is below.
Question: You worked on Charlie Wilson's War together and you've known each other a long time, can you tell us a little bit about your relationship?
Tom: We've known each other I'm guessing 10 years. We met, we figured this out.
Julia: Well we can't really remember when we met, but we figured out when we became friends.
Tom: Pals.
Julia: We did an inexplicable photo shoot now that we think about it.
Tom: For Premiere Magazine, so Premiere Magazine had to be in existence so that's how long ago or how recently it was, and we laughed our heads off.
Julia: We did.
Tom: And from there, it became a pleasant thing and then Charlie Wilson's War and then we wrote this.
Tom, you're not going to wait another 10 years to direct another film, are you?
Tom: I tell you, it takes it out of you. Both That Thing You Do and this, they take a long time to develop and it just percolates in your head until you get to the point where you say to yourself "I don't want to give this up. I don't want to give this over to anybody else." It's like a very personal mission that you just find yourself on.
Was this film harder simply because you were the star of the movie?
Tom: In all honesty, I've made quite a number of movies like Castaway and a few others where I'm the only guy in the movie and the only place to be is right next to the camera in costume ready to go in order to get it. The years, and more specifically probably the four months prior to beginning shooting, is where the big preparation is that the director does because I knew we were going to get on the set. The best way in order to go about this is to relatively seamlessly jump in as Larry, come back, go back and forth, and just play because the good news is, if you're the boss, if it ain't good, you don't use it. You just cut it out.
Obviously directing takes a lot longer than simply acting in a movie. What was it about this particular subject matter that made you want to do both and to stick with this project for so many years in order to get it off the ground?
Tom: Six years of talking about this with Nia (Vardalos) really started off with I wanted to examine the theme of reinvention, and not just reinvention by way of fate dictating it, but by your own proactive place in how you move onto whatever the next chapter of your life is going to be. It really began I lose my job, I go to college, and my teacher is Julia Roberts. What would happen? And then we go back and then you continually fill up the reasons that he goes to college in the first place and what those issues are. I actually think it's fascinating anytime you're going to talk about an individual's adventure, and in this case, it's the adventure of what he is going to do for the rest of his life. It's not a mid-life crisis. It's a mid-life disaster. A mid-life crisis is when you wake up with everything and you go "I have everything but I'm still unhappy." That doesn't happen to Larry. Larry thinks it's the greatest day in the world and then he gets fired and he loses all of his community as well as he possibly loses his house. That, to me, is something that we started off with and we just built on it and it was an idea that just never left. I thought that if we can do it in a very authentic manner meaning that we show it as truly possible, the logic of it all makes sense. As opposed to the usual contrivances of a movie like this: an evil father-in-law who doesn't want his daughter to marry him, a boss who is trying to blah, blah, blah, whatever goes along. It's the type of movie that I myself am attracted to as an audience going guy. I think it's a delicate balance trying to make a movie about it.
Can you talk about the diverse casting? Usually, in Hollywood films, you see the token minority but this film seemed very true to life. Was that a conscious effort?
Tom: No, it was a conscious thing because that's the college that I went to. When I went to junior community college, it was loaded with every conceivable type of person. It was greatly diverse and there was no individual, single race or culture that was represented. So we wanted to have that. In fact, we shot at Cal State Dominguez Hills which is down in Orange County that has the most diverse student body of any four-year university west of the Mississippi. We wanted to reflect the world as it actually looks, particularly in a community college.
What inspired you to use Culture Clash in the film? They're three very funny guys.
Tom: Yeah, they're great. I had seen a production of theirs that they did at the Getty a little over a year ago and I just admired them so much and I wanted to be able to number one represent what the restaurant industry looks like which is an awful lot of Hispanics that work there and also make one of them the boss because he'd been there for a long time and also hire actors that would come up with so much great stuff and I was always able to say to them "Guys, come up with something in the background there." And, as you'll notice, they loaded it up the frame with more stuff than I could have possibly imagined. So, great jobs for great actors, I hope.
While you were shooting the film, you made an appearance on the David Letterman Show and mentioned you were casting Peter Scolari, your old Bosom Buddies co-star.
Tom: Oh yes, that's true.
We didn't see him in the movie. Did it not work out?
Julia: He cut him out. See, he's not a good friend.
Tom: No, no, here's what happened. Here's what happened. (to Julia) You liar! First of all, he was in the movie but he had a conflict that we could not work out. He was doing an Off Broadway play, I can't remember the name of it, forgive me, that was actually opening the week that we would have shot his stuff. So alas, it didn't work out. He was doing it, along came the conflict, and such is show business.
Tom: It actually would have been Frank, the owner of Frank's. But we were lucky enough to have Ian Gomez who we'd worked with before in the past as well. So it's just one of the things that happens in big time professional show business.
Do you hope to work with him again?
Tom: Oh I always do. Peter was in From the Earth to the Moon. Peter was in That Thing You Do. I always want to work with Peter again.
Julia: They're bosom buddies.
Tom: There you go! That's how close we are.
There's a scene where Larry Crowne tells Talia who's just dropped out of school, 'That was a foolish thing to do." There are people that do pretty well without going to college. What does that scene say to the Talia's out there?
Tom: Well you're talking to a guy who left college after his third year because I began work in the field that I was studying for. Someone offered me a job as an actor and I was studying in theater at the time and that's what happens to Talia in this. You know, college isn't necessary for everybody and it's only from what you put into it what you go there for and I think Talia was actually going to college to hang out with cool people. I think that was the only reason she was going to college, in which case, mission accomplished. She got that job, she got the offer, and she moved on. Bravo to her. She's taken probably a bigger risk by leaving college and opening up that store than she would be staying in college and taking classes that she didn't really understand in the first place.
Julia, in the movie, your husband was addicted to porn.
Tom: And none of the guys here would ever think of doing [that], of spending their time in such a manner.
In real life, what are some of the behavior or addictions you would not tolerate in a husband?
Julia: Well luckily I'm happily married to a person that I admire and enjoy so it's not really fair to say or to conjure some kind of bad scenario that I wouldn't tolerate. I mean, people have their different ideas of what's good and what's happy, and in this particular scenario that Tom drew for me, it was fun to play and Bryan (Cranston) is hilarious. But yeah, it's sad for both of them the situation they've gotten themselves into in that house.
You also started acting young and I don't believe you went to college.
Julia: I didn't.
How did you get your education?
Tom: That's a good question. It's the school of hard knocks.
Julia: It's the school of hard knocks. (laughs) Tom!
Tom: Sorry, I'm answering your questions for you.
Julia: Please do. Please, I beg you. I have very smart parents. I feel I learned a lot from both of my parents and life experience. Two of my three siblings are older so I suppose I learned from them and became a very avid reader at a young age, which I think enough cannot be said for what you can discover through literature. So I think that was probably my most valued characteristic as a teenager.
Can you talk about the soundtrack for this movie?
Tom: Oh, some of the music that we chose? You see that Larry has that big record collection so we all thought what does Larry listen to? Well he would probably pull these songs out of there and that's the soundtrack of Larry's life.
In a summer full of blockbuster movies with explosions and animatronics, how do you compete and get people to come out and see a movie of this nature?
Tom: How do we compete in the marketplace? Forgive me, I haven't the slightest fucking idea. It's going to be interesting because here we are in a summer of big time blockbusters. It's not the summer, it's year round. The nature of the movies is different than it was 5 years ago and they're all driven by the possibilities of CGI which means you can make anything happen on screen that you can possibly desire. That's a great brand of freedom that is given over to the filmmaker. But when you're going to try and have people talk in a room and actually reflect life as we know it and have people recognize themselves and their own street and their own house in it, well then you're aiming for the high country and it's a much bigger gamble. You can interview all the marketing gurus and the people in charge of, you know, the people you gotta fight with in order to get your seats here, and they all talk about release dates and counterprogramming. At the end of the day, it's gotta be a good movie, it's gotta be a funny movie, and it's gotta make people think "Hey, I couldn't have spent my time any better." And by the way, that thing about the guy who wore a suit and the planet exploded and he still got the girl by traveling through time, that movie sucked. So I'm glad I went. Oh no, I'm not saying any movie sucked but you know what I'm talking about.
But the Depression still happened.
Tom: It's still going on.
So this film took on a whole new meaning.
Tom: Yes, and you can make a movie about that in which the best version of it is going to be a documentary that really examined what's going on. The second best version of that, I think, would be a movie that at the end of the day is extremely depressing and/or serious or so hard hitting that it offers up no hope. We are competing in a marketplace in which the thing we might have going for us is the true battle against cynicism. That's what Larry Crowne is about more than anything else. It's funny, at the end of this film, Larry Crowne lives in a crappy apartment. He still has a lousy job. He can't even afford to pay for the gas in his big car and he's going to school with no real set future of what's going to happen. But he's got this amazing new, forceful presence in his life and he can honestly say "The best thing that ever happened to me was getting fired from my job." Now that actually does happen in the real world, and oddly enough, it's also a glamorous beat in order to try to create in a motion picture. That's what we're going for and if you do that well enough, enough people will respond to it.
Is Julia your glamorous beat?
Julia: That's what you promised me in the beginning.
Tom: That would be with a capital "B".
Tom, what is it like to work with your significant other and have Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez both on set and have that kind of family aspect to this film business?
Julia: Well I would just like to say this about all the married people working together on the set: it was just a joy. That is the great joy to go to work with people that you love, whether they be people that you are in love with or people that you just love and be creative and artistic and make things that you want to send out into the world and make people feel good. It was a great environment to work in for me. Leaving my family behind and coming with all these people, it was a dream. It's so we do what we want to do and we appreciate that.
Tom: My wife and I, we met making a movie. This is not just our job, it's our life. It's what we do naturally whether we're working together or not. I gave the script to Rita and said "Okay, Julia Roberts is playing one part. The other part is Gugu. So who do you want to be?" So she picked that out and she went to town on it and it's just a blast. It's fun. It's what we do for a [living]. We're amazed we get paid to do it.
Julia: And she was a hot blonde.
Tom: I said "Baby, is there any way at all you could take that wig home at the end of the work day? Can you just keep it on? Let me take it off later on tonight." No, I'm joking, but it's just one of the great things that we get to play at work. It's fantastic.
Both of your characters undergo a reinvention and Larry Crowne does so with the help of Gugu. What keeps you two young and beautiful in spirit?
Julia: I'm glad he said in spirit, because I was going to say lift.
Tom: No!
Julia: Tape.
When Larry Crowne gets fired, it seems at first like his life is over but he finds a way to make the best out of it. What was your darkest moment and how did you see it through?
Julia: Well the darkest moment for me would have been about the fifth day of shooting…
Tom: …of Larry Crowne.
Julia: …of my life of Larry Crowne.
Tom: Yeah, that was a bad day. I called you the "C" word. It was horrible. [shouting] I'm joking! Jeez!
Julia: Tom, when was your darkest moment? Did you find one in your life when you persevered and your life changed like Larry Crowne?
Tom: Oh man! Thank you, Julia. That was very well put. Quite frankly, our careers have been pretty well chronicled. But there is a time, I'm going to guess for both of us, where we're living in a wretched house in the Valley that we cannot afford. We have been fired from the job that we had and it's now been 13 months since you've actually worked in the city and the phone still is not yet ringing and you wonder if in fact you're going to take the job at the Der Wienerschnitzel on Laurel Canyon. When you have that moment, that never quite goes away.
Julia: I had the Manhattan version of that. So not the Valley, it would have been on the East side.
Tom: What? Bru Burger? The Bruin Burger instead of the Der Wienerschnitzel?
Julia: Athlete's Foot.
Tom: Oh, that's right. She sold shoes. That's right. There you go.
You both have Oscars. Where are they and do you still look at them? Do you still remember the time when you got them?
Julia: My Oscar's at Tom's house because I have all of his.
Tom: We switched.
Julia: We switched.
Tom: Mine are up on the shelf with all the kids' trophies and horse ribbons and soccer plaques.
Julia: Shiny bits.
Tom: Shiny bits, all the family bling, celebrating all that.
Tom, can you tell us about the origin of 'spectacular'?
Tom: Spectacular comes from the Apollo 16 astronauts who were jumping around on the moon and they literally said "This is spectacular! I tell you I've never seen anything so spectacular in my life."
Larry Crowne opens in theaters on July 1st.


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A number were asking about specifics.
http://www.calihomefunerals.com/book-of ... etails.php
I am glad I got him his first book deal. Spent some time with him doing other things. i am sure his interviews will vanish off the internet and his 6 or seven or so kids will wonder what he did. He was batshit crazy/criminal when I met with him in prison and I have his second book which is full of people I introduced him to.
Here is his wiki page.
Aukai Collins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aukai Collins
Born February 13, 1974 (age 42)
Hawaii, United States
Occupation Author
Official Website
Aukai Collins, born on February 13, 1974, also known as Aqil Collins, was an American of Irish descent who converted to Islam and fought with Islamic Chechen irregulars of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was wounded in combat with elements of a Russian Spetsnaz unit from which he subsequently lost his leg.
He then, among other things, went on to work as a deep cover intelligence operative for the FBI.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
His exploits, which included contacts with Al Qaeda leading operatives, are described in the autobiographical book My Jihad: One American's Journey Through the World of Usama Bin Laden—as a Covert Operative for the American Government (ISBN 0-7434-7059-1).
In this book he distinguishes between the Chechen armed terror against the Russian army, which he regards as justified according to Islam, and terrorism in Al Qaeda style, which he regards as contrary to Islam.
He also claimed that he warned the FBI long before 9/11 that Hani Hanjour, one of the September 11th hijackers, was using a Phoenix flight school as his training ground for terrorism. The FBI emphatically denied that Collins provided any information to the FBI about Hani Hanjour prior to 9/11 but admitted that Collins did have some dealings with FBI operatives.[7]
He also appears in Canadian-born adventurer Robert Young Pelton's book, The Hunter, The Hammer, and Heaven: Journeys to Three Worlds Gone Mad and director Lech Kowalski's short film documentary Camera Gun.
After authoring My Jihad, Collins became a bounty hunter, which ultimately led to his arrest in Mexico on weapons charges.[citation needed] He was released in May 2006 after serving a 4-year prison sentence in Durango, Mexico.[citation needed]
He died on July 19th, 2016 of sepsis in Oceanside, California.
Jump up ^ Laura Miller (July 17, 2002). "My Jihad". Salon magazine. Archived from the original on 2006-12-13. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
Jump up ^ James S. Robbins (June 21, 2002). "Accidental Jihadist: One "crazy American" and his very strange book.". National Review. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
Jump up ^ Matt Bivens (July 21, 2003). "An American Fighter's War in Chechnya". Moscow Times.
Jump up ^ Ed Finn (August 26, 2002). "Hawaiian Jihadi". Time magazine. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
Jump up ^ Claire Rosser (July 2003). "My jihad - Biography & Personal Narratives - Book Review". Findarticles.
Jump up ^ Aukai Collins (August 2002). "The War Junkie". Maxim magazine.
Jump up ^ Linda Vester, Brigitte Quinn (May 24, 2002). "The Big Story With John Gibson: Interview With Aukai Collins". Fox News. Retrieved 2007-08-29.

subset: commoncrawl


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There is a good chance that if you are reading this you aren't one of my usual daily readers, so a warm 1st time welcome to you.
If you did come just for the level 19 Warlock twink guides then I hope they help you out. Yes they are a little out of date, particularly the gear guide, but in general the they hold true.
I note there have been a couple of correction comments and suggestion comments and for that I can't thank you enough! Keep them coming, afterall my intention was to gather as much information as possible about twinking a lock in one spot as possible. Your comments make this all the more possible.
In fact I would go one step further. If you think you can fill in some gaps, print make the guide better, then feel free to contact me via the ContactGnome link at the top of this page.
Meanwhile, as you are here, take a look around. I may not have the warm hearth that my Gnomish magely friend Larisa has, or the class of that Frosty foe KrizzlyBear has, but there is heaps of Mage and Gnome content (just for starters) to keep you occupied.
When you run out of content here, feel free to explore my friends in the Wo
W blogsphere from my ReadByGnome page.
So welcome and thanks for coming to all by new and of course old readers!
Thanks also to Dan O'Halloran from WoWInsider for his post that most likely brought you here.
Gnomer and Out!
PS: Based on Larisa's suggestion, here are my latest Blog achievements:
The one at the top of the post as suggested by Larisa originally.
and for the double Achievement Ding… there was more than 1 post cited!
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.


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I recently finished the second chapter of my online comic, "EAT."
Here are some of the highlights:
You can see the full version at http://www.beavertoe.com/EAT
I'd really appreciate it if anyone could take a look and let me know what they think.
EAT: Unleash the Power of Food
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Just received a notification of an update to FTM2012, bringing the version up to 18.104.22.1680, in the Help, About Family Tree Maker window.
Calendar Report:
Added option to adjust font size (five predefined sizes)
There had been issues in this are in the past. One was the number of individuals that could find into one calendar day. From what I can tell, this resolves this issue.
The font sizes are as seen above. The default is Medium. I looked at my Calendar for May, and only found ONE person. Looking at the above, I had Immediate Family selected, I should have had at least two people. Wondering what was wrong, I checked the Calendar Options. (first ICON on the Left, just above the word "background". I notice that I had a check mark in the "Include births and marriages only if still living". I removed the Check Mark.
Now the calendar looks better. I played around with the Font Sizes to make sure I had everyone listed on this Calendar, and I do. The font size was set to Small, and the 31st has everyone listed.
There are other options for you to review, including color options. This blog post is only showing the Font Size option.
Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington


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Tricia and Angelica leave Booktown behind for some much needed R&R. Naturally they choose a Mystery
Lovers cruise, where they can ponder whodunnit in deck chairs while sipping colorful drinks and
soaking up some rays. But the fun is cut short when a fellow passenger is murdered for real. Is the
killer a famous mystery author, one of her fans, or a member of the ship's crew? As Tricia tries to
find the killer before they reach port, she may be cruising for a bruising...
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Book Depository | Chapters


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CHICAGO (Reuters) - CME Group (CME.O) has received approval ahead of schedule from U.S. anti-trust regulators to buy the Kansas City Board of Trade, although the deal is not yet finalized.
Regulators determined ahead of the end of a 30-day review period that the transaction was not anti-competitive and that they would not object, a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.
The decision was first made public in an FTC report on Tuesday.
CME, which owns the Chicago Board of Trade, agreed in October to buy the Kansas City Board of Trade for $126 million in cash, beating out several rivals before clinching the deal.
The purchase cements CME's dominance in world grain futures markets and keeps rival IntercontinentalExchange (ICE.N) from gaining an important foothold in agriculture.
CME dominates agricultural futures with its benchmark grain and soy contracts. The Kansas City Board of Trade trades a variety of bread wheat known as hard red winter wheat.
ICE challenged CME earlier this year by launching five look-alike U.S. grain and soy futures contracts.
CME said in a statement that the deal with KCBT is expected to close before the end of the year, "pending approval by KCBT shareholders and regulators, and completion of customary closing conditions." A spokesman declined to comment further.
KCBT's board of directors has already approved the transaction. A KCBT spokeswoman said she could not discuss when shareholders will act.
Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Marguerita Choy


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Prices converted are approximately:
Superbly cast, very life-like unpainted white metal figures in 1:43. Figures are cast in multiple pieces to ease painting and fitting into models. Mostly drivers and mechanics but also a few spectators and grid girls and also armco barriers & tools for diorama builders. When well painted these really bring your model to life. Made in England.


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Hop has the veneer of a subpar kids' flick, but it's actually a stealth sequel to the total clusterfuck that was X-Men: The Last Stand. This secularized-Easter-cum-talking-creature feature tells the lost history of Cyclops, who supposedly died offscreen in X3.
I didn't have high expectations for Hop. In fact, the only reason I went is because I am contractually obligated to attend every single talking animal film Hollywood churns out. Yes, like Edward Prendick shipwrecked on the island of Dr. Moreau, I must bear witness to sentient fauna babbling at each other for 90 minutes in their G-rated shibboleth, stark reminders why we should never play God.
The only reason I was slightly looking forward to Hop was the fugitive possibility of a wiseacre lagomorph. After all, the anthropomorphic bunny has long played the blackguard in popular culture — think Beatrix Potter's food riots against Clan McGregor, the claymation rabbit from Moonwalker, and the Trix Rabbit's recidivistic cereal larceny. The film's CG-animated Easter Bunny protagonist is voiced by Russell Brand, a fellow who once called the President of the United States a retarded cowboy on live television, so Hop seemed par for the course.
But boy howdy, was I astounded by Hop's gutsiness. The film is a coda to Marvel's X-Men franchise, an unheralded epilogue that transcends copyright and the studio system. Not only does Hop evince a nuanced knowledge X-Men lore, it also makes X-Men 3 way more satisfying. Yes, dear readers — X-Men: First Class isn't the only mutant movie at the multiplex in 2011.
The linchpin of the operation is actor James Marsden, who plays Scott "Cyclops" Summers in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand and Fred O'Hare in Hop. Allow me to recap Marsden's roles in both films.
X3: In the third installment of this Marvel superhero film, Cyclops is distraught over the passing of his girlfriend Jean Grey, who dies saving her compatriots in 2003's X2: X-Men United. Bryan Singer, who helmed the first two films of the X-trilogy, turned down X3 to direct Superman Returns. Marsden too was involved with Superman Returns, playing Lois Lane's poor schmuck human fiancé.
Caught between playing a guy defined by his ability to shoot lasers out of his eyes and another guy defined by his inability to shoot lasers out of his eyes, Marsden got the short shrift in X3. Cyclops — an otherwise major player in the comic book X-Men mythos — is almost entirely cut out of the film. He's onscreen for maybe 5 minutes and "dies" lickety-split when Jean Grey comes back as her evil telekinetic alter ego, Dark Phoenix.
Hop: Here Marsden plays Fred O'Hare, a slacker human who befriends the Easter Bunny after the latter neglects his gig. Hop expunges all the Christianity from Easter Sunday. Jesus' resurrection just happened to fall on a four-millennia-old pagan holiday devoted to dispensing sweets to tots worldwide. Incidentally, Easter bunnies defecate jellybean (coprophagia was big with the old gods, I suppose). After failing to find his true calling in the human world, Fred realizes his destiny is to become the world's first human Easter Bunny.
Now, I'm about to indulge in a quasi-tortuous X-Men history lesson. Explaining X-Men continuity is like teaching the quadratic equation via charades, so apologies in advance.
The X-Men movies mined famous comic book X-tales. For example, X2 pulled from God Loves, Man Kills whereas X3 drew inspiration from Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men and the Dark Phoenix saga.
In the comics, Phoenix is a god-like psychokinetic entity with the power to rejigger reality. During author Grant Morrison's tenure on New X-Men from 2001-2004, a dead Jean Grey/omniscient Phoenix famously warped reality so that Cyclops gets over her death. She "repairs" the broken universe so that her hubby can be happy.
I find it hard to believe that the filmmakers behind X3 would so callously kill an important X-Man like Cyclops. Surely Brett Ratner — the auteur behind Rush Hours 1, 2, and 3 — would never fuck over a multimillion-dollar superhero franchise that badly. No, the audience never actually sees Cyclops' corpse. All that's left of Cyke after his brief encounter with Dark Phoenix are his ruby-tinted Wayfarers.
Ergo, it's patently obvious that Dark Phoenix altered reality and shanghaied an amnesiac Cyclops to a paradise universe where he would be happy. And that universe is Hop.
What subtle cues in Hop denote that it's a tacit sequel to X3?
A destiny deferred
In Hop, Cyclops is Fred O'Hare, an adult slacker who lives with his parents. Fred has no annoying laser eyes or responsibility (Cyke was a notoriously anal Type A personality). Fred however constantly muses that he's special and destined for greater things. This existential yearning stems from the disappearance of his mutant powers. Fred's full potential is realized when he becomes the first human Easter Bunny. In the X-Universe, mutants like Cyclops are feared and loathed. In the Hop pocket dimension, Fredclops is beloved by millions.
Themes of resurrection
Some critics may dismiss the Hop's candy-coating of all Christian theology as a crass attempt to secularize Easter (or to prosthelytize about some ancient Babylonian confectionary festival; Marduk loved Peeps after all). However I believe the filmmakers left out all that Jesus stuff to avoid thematic overkill.
In the Marvel Universe, the Phoenix Force is a primal entity with the power of resurrection. In terms of Christian theology, the Phoenix Force = Old Testament God + Jesus + Ray Harryhausen's roc from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
There's a thematic symmetry between Phoenix and Easter. When Dark Phoenix (an anti-Christ analogue) transports Cyclops to the paradise dimension, she impels him to take over Easter, a celebration of resurrection. Indubitably, Fredclops is Hop's Christ figure — he died in X3 and is reborn as the Easter Bunny. Jesus Christ would only muddle this already heady metaphorical brew, and the audience would find his presence in an Easter film wholly redundant.
.be#t=2m50s The M'Krann Crystal
In Hop, the Easter Bunny draws his power from an artifact known as the Scepter of Destiny. The Scepter is encrusted with a large ruby-like jewel that's a spitting image of the M'Kraan Crystal, a cosmic gemstone that is the nexus of all alternate realities. The M'Kraan Crystal is protected by Phoenix in the comics, so it's totally logical that she would also entrust it to Cyclops.
A parallel nemesis
In X3, Cyclops must fight the mutant Magneto, a demagogue who rises up violently against human oppression. In Hop, Fred must battle the mutated chick Carlos, a dictator who leads his avian proletariat up against their bunny overlords.
Indeed, Hop is the addendum to The Last Stand X-fans have been waiting for. Cyclops' story arc comes to a satisfying close in a thematically rich way this critic just didn't see coming. Sure, Hop may look like a mildly less shitty version of Alvin and the Chipmunks, but don't be fooled. It's a clandestine conclusion to Marvel's mutant canon and exemplary guerilla filmmaking. Anyone who tells you otherwise just isn't looking hard enough.


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Hope all of you doing great, I am bit busy this week with my kid. But still spending time for blogging crazy me. Let me tell the story behind this offline shopping. Here in Chennai it was very hot before 10 days and usually I won't go out when it is hot outside. For the past 10 days in Chennai the whether is awesome and pleasant, no hot and no rain, but now it is raining. Last week just drizzling and the whether was very good to go around the city for shopping.
So, I have decided to go to the shopping area of Chennai, it's near by my living place. Finally after a long time I did my offline shopping successfully, great na!!!
Now The Haul Pictures:
|My July Month Collective Haul Post - Offline Shopping
Tips & Toes Pressed powder, I love Tips & Toes brand products hence they are affordable with good quality. I bought two different shades one for giveaway :).
This Colourful rings are very cute and I bought this immediately because they are adjustable, can be fit for any size of finger, well I am gonna put all this cuties in the giveaway ;). These rings has great finish and I loved them a lot.
Whenever I go shopping I never miss to shop earrings, I will go crazy if I see earrings in the shop and will start to collect them atleast 10 designs :p. The studs in four colours are awesome and good looking. The Rose stud for the giveaway. I loved this hoops actually was searching for red and black. They all out of stock, so picked up this sky blue colour. I love Jumkas very much, though I have so many Jumkas, still wanna new one always :p lols. That pearl drops is awesome.
These eye pencils are affordable and well pigmented, don't get shocked by seeing MAC product on my haul post, this is china MAC :p, affordable and good one. The ADS pencils I think so many of you already knew about it. One black glitter eye pencil, one lip liner in red shade, MAC Kajal and ADS double lip liner&eye pencil.
This is for giveaway Black hoops in various size, hope you girls will like it :).
I got Faces Gochic lipstick in Hazelnut shade, Tips& Toes Water resistant eye liner also, they are awesome I loved this Hazelnut shade very much. I will review it soon.
There was a huge collections of Nail colours in the store, I just got confused which one to pick and finally three BOB Nail paints in Peacock Green, baby pink and yummy dark orange shade. The Doab nail colours are great and I picked purple and blue shades from this range. Finally Channel V nail polish in light green, this brand is very new for me.
My old Blush brush got damaged and I saw this blush brush in the store looks promising and good, so I bought this one without second thought :p.
This anklets, yeah I got bored with my currently wearing anklets design and saw this one looks so good. This looks very beautiful isn't it?


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The Central Connecticut volleyball team fell twice on the first day of the 2012 season. The Blue Devils (0-2) dropped their first two matches of the West Virginia Mountaineer Invitational on Friday. Falling to Loyola (MD) (1-0) and then to the host Mountaineers (1-1).
CCSU v. Loyola
The Central Connecticut volleyball team opened the 2012 season with a loss to Loyola (MD) on Friday afternoon. The Blue Devils dropped the match, 3-1, as the Greyhounds were able to capture the first (25-22), third (27-25) and fourth (25-22) sets. Central won the second set by a score of 25-17.
A very even match, Loyola won its sets by just eight total points.
In the first set, the Blue Devils tied the game at 22-22 on a kill by senior Blaike King with freshman Makenna Lommori recording the assist on the play. However, the point was the last of the set for the Blue Devils as Loyola closed out the game with three straight points.
Senior Emily Cochran recorded a kill to tie the second set at 11-11 and from that point the Blue Devils never looked back. CCSU closed the set on a 14-6 run with sophomore Rachel Dunlap and senior Jennifer Waddill both playing key roles in the 25-17 victory.
The third set went to extra points with the Blue Devils falling just short in an extremely close game. The largest deficit of the set saw the Blue Devils trail 17-12, but a comeback quickly knotted the score at 20-20. The score was tied five more times, as the teams alternated points to a 25-25 tie.
The fourth set was also close, but again the Greyhounds were able to pull away late and earn the victory.
Cochran finished the match with a team-high 11 kills and 14 digs. King also had 14 digs in the match.
Lommori finished her first match as a Blue Devil with a team-high 25 assists. Freshman Ashley Lenington contributed 17 assists in her first collegiate action.
Dunlap posted two solo and five combined blocks to lead all players.
CCSU v. West Virginia
The Blue Devils fell to West Virginia in three sets to conclude the first day of the 2012 volleyball season. The Mountaineers won sets by scores of 25-14, 25-14 and 25-23. Sophomore Brittany Schumacher posted a game-high 18 digs for the Blue Devils in the loss.
The Mountaineer's took control of the action early in both the first and second set. In both cases, West Virginia gave the Blue Devils few opportunities to build a comeback.
In the third set, the Blue Devils were able to turn the momentum in their favor with an early 4-1 lead and later an 18-14 advantage. The West Virginia squad was able to hang in the game and battled back to win, 25-23, by taking the final two points of the set.
Freshman Heather Trueman posted four kills in the third set. She also had a pair of aces and three digs in the match.
Lommori finished with a team-high six kills and also had 11 assists and seven digs.
The Mountaineer's posted 48 kills and 8.0 blocks to control the net throughout the match.
The Blue Devils will complete play at the Mountaineer Invitational on Saturday at 2 p.m. CCSU will play Saint Francis (PA), but the game will not count as a Northeast Conference contest.


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And the best part is? She looked good on everybody...
The women above are all different heights, weights, and body shapes, and the sweater looked dynamite on all of them. I even tried it on myself (and I wish I had a picture, but alas, thus is the onus of the photographer.) Here's the thing, I'm almost 6 feet tall and a size 12, this sample is the smallest size published in the pattern!
We couldn't quite figure it out, but I think its the 1x1 rib that comprises much of the sweater, it looks like stockinette, but has incredible stretch, thus making its wearer look thinner. The stripes also contribute to the lengthening effect. The back is constructed side to side, and there is a gathering right at the lower back, taking in the fabric and giving it a tailored look. I love this sweater! It was designed by Cecily Glowik MacDonald (you rock!) and knit in the star of the show, Liberty Wool Print. I'm casting this on in a solid as soon as I get the yarn, and will be sure to post some pics!
This scarf is also Liberty Print, done in mitered squares in just one color of the Liberty Print! This one got ALOT of oohs and aahs...It was designed by our very own Andi Clark, you might remember her beautiful napkin edging for the staff Allegoro project?
The crowd was very engaged, asking questions and fondling all the garments, getting a sense of the feel of our yarns.
That last young lady is feeling Jared Flood's Cinder in Ariosa. The green hooded sweater is Connie Chang Chinchio's Alley Cat also in Ariosa, and the red sweater is Cecily's Dayspring. The lovely and gracious model is Cara of WEBS. Some people just wanted to try it all on--why not all at once? Who is this mystery woman? It's Melissa LaBarre!
Check out the crowd. Who is that blonde? Why, it's the woman who taught me how to knit! Thanks, Amy!
We also had giveaways! WEBS is so generous and always gives something away at their events. This time there were gift certificates! And Betsy brought along a kit to make our beautiful vest, Forest, in Woodland, including the pattern book and all the necessary yarn. You can see the vest on the left below. Congratulations, Miss Martha!
Altogether, an amazing time was had by all! There were refreshments, modeling, giggling, picture-taking, girl talk, and inspiration for all. I wish you could have all been there. The garments are traveling out to trunk shows all over the US, perhaps to a LYS near you?
I have tons of pictures! Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a slideshow...Thanks for reading!


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About Matt
Storylines/Places to Start
Friday One-Shots
The Store
BASED ON A TRUE-ISH STORY. I saw a whole bunch of old college friends recently, and that led to a lot of reflecting. Ugh. Never think about the person you used to be like! You were probably horrible and the worst, and what were those PANTS you're wearing? Jesus christ, get with the program and get a different haircut, what year is this


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I first came across "The Island Register" when I originally started to research the United Empire Loyalists, and had found a number going from Nova Scotia over to Prince Edward Island to settle in 1783 onward.
It is an email newsletter sent out every Friday by Dave Hunter from Prince Edward Island, and he started it in 2001 when he found that so many people could trace their ancestry back to the island.
About a couple of years ago he added the "Death Notices From Local Newspapers and Other Source" ending for the week, and he gives the link to them onsite.
He also gives the weather for the week just ending, and the "News on the Island Register" which is always an interesting read, and letters from his readers.
I was particularly interested in the article on "Michael Ambrose McInnis and 'The Maple Leaf'" because I have relatives in California, and I am sure that they are in the publication. Now all I have to do is find the "Maple Leaf" which has just become easier because the article was written by his granddaughter - so there is my first lead in a long and anxious trail looking for 'The Maple Leaf'.
He also has the "Phone Report" in his newsletter and a weekly report on the phone museum on his property and "Laptops for Kids" where he pick up laptops on the Island for less than fortunate children. He has fixed and given away 20 laptops so far.
If you want to sign up for this particular newsletter, the address is <email@example.com>.


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Bill Belichick insists the rematch of a December game with the Texans will be different.
Not too much different, of course, because he fully expects his Patriots to win the divisional-round playoff game and advance to the AFC title match.
As for another 42-14 outcome, New England's coach is having none of it.
``The plays will match up differently and I'm sure there will be new plays that weren't in that game,'' Belichick said. ``I don't think you can overanalyze that game. We're playing a team, we have our team, they have their team and it's a big picture thing.''
The big picture is that the AFC East champion Patriots (12-4) come off their playoff bye as 9 1/2-point favorites against the AFC South winners. Houston (13-4) beat Cincinnati 19-13 in the wild-card round, not looking particularly overwhelming.
It's pretty simple what the Texans must do at the outset Sunday: stay close. They fell behind so quickly on Dec. 10 that the outcome was decided after one quarter.
``We know that our effort and how we performed last time wouldn't give us a chance against anybody on the road,'' coach Gary Kubiak said. ``It's about right now refocusing on all the things we have to do to go down there and have a chance to be successful, and I'm sure that's what they're thinking about.''
It won't be as bad as 42-14, but ...
Green Bay (plus 3) at San Francisco
The Packers have no fear about going on the road in the postseason. A similar crew to this year's group won three away games two years ago, then beat Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.
And the NFC North champion Packers who the West-winning 49ers face Saturday night have gotten healthier as the playoffs approached. They have a decent running game to go with that deep receiving corps Aaron Rodgers throws to.
But Green Bay has two significant questions:
-Can the spotty offensive line neutralize one of the NFL's most dangerous pass rushes, something it couldn't do in the season opener?
-Can a defense that has been gorged on the ground at times slow down the league's fourth-best rushing attack, led by Frank Gore.
The Niners also have some uncertainties, notably how second-year QB Colin Kaepernick will handle the playoff pressure for the first time. They do have a secondary that matches up well with Green Bay's receivers.
The Pack has been through this before and succeeded. Why not again?
Baltimore (plus 9 1/2) at Denver
For the Ray Lewis Tribute Tour to keep rolling, the Ravens must beat Peyton Manning and the NFL's hottest team, the AFC West champion Broncos. In the Mile High City.
It's a lot more imposing a task than the AFC North champ Ravens faced at home against the Colts.
``There's probably an element that we'll carry forward because you're always building on what you are,'' coach John Harbaugh said. ``Hopefully we take all the things that happened and we take it into that game emotionally and carry it with us. But this is a new game. It's a whole new environment. It's a whole new situation for us. So I think the slate is wiped clean in that sense. This will be a new challenge for us.''
Too big a challenge.
Seattle (plus 3) at Atlanta
Seattle has become the fashionable choice, the outsider that could emulate the Giants of last season, the Packers of the previous year, and so on.
The Falcons, meanwhile, have been stamped by many as the shaky favorite because of an 0-3 postseason record under Mike Smith. There's also the feeling that no team fears going into the Georgia Dome, and with the Seahawks having erased their road woes in the last month or so, they are a formidable foe.
Still, these Falcons are better than the previous three playoff editions, and they have the big, physical and versatile receivers to deal with Seattle's big, physical and versatile secondary.
Like the other NFC game, this will be close.
Against spread: 2-2 (114-126-7). Straight up: 3-1 (162-93-1)
Best Bet: 8-8-2 against spread, 12-6 straight up.
Upset special: 11-7 against spread, 9-9 straight up.
Online:http://pro32.ap.org/poll andhttp://twitter.com/AP-NFL


text: Karen Robbins is originally from Alabama, and later moved to Tennessee where she has studied art and become a part of the art world for many years. She is a self taught artist, starting from the age of twelve and has become known and established in Tn. in many local galleries. She paints in a wide variety of mediums and styles from impressionism to abstract and surrealism. She has a unique eye for art. As she has said, it's the way you see and interpret it on canvas, that is what makes us all unique.


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Monday, October 30, 2006
French Superiority
The ultimate pain au chocolat, complete with French attitude.
There are very few things worth getting out of bed for. Some of them unmentionable here. So if you're not a morning person and are looking for something to lure you from the sweetness of slumber, try Patisserie Claude.
File this West Village bakery under the "city's best-kept secrets," which could be chalked up to its innocuousness existence: No loud storefront. No fancy packaging. No clever advertising. At Patisserie Claude, the products speak for themselves. With barely room for four tables, it's usually a medley of locals, reading the paper over coffee and perhaps exchanging a few words with Claude himself — if he's in the mood. For 25 years, he's been baking pastries here in the city that transport you to the steps of Montmartre.
The plain croissants are, in a word, sublime. Light and buttery, they're textbook examples of French prowess in the kitchen. But the Sweet Freak philosophy is to choose chocolate whenever the option exists. The pain au chocolat has the same layers of flaky dough as the plain croissants, but the rich, oozing center pushes the pastry from sublime to otherworldly. Especially if you go in the morning when the pastries are warm from the ovens.
Patisserie Claude
187 West 4th Street
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Among academics who track the behavior of young adults and teens, there's a touchy debate: Should the word "entitled" be used when talking about today's younger people? Are they overconfident in themselves?
Jean Twenge, author of the book "Generation Me," is in the middle of the discussion. The San Diego State University psychology professor has made a career out of finding data that she says shows that college students and others their age are more self-centered — narcissistic even — than past generations. Now she's turned up data showing that they also feel more superior about themselves than their elders did when they were young.
"There are some advantages and some disadvantages to self-esteem, so having some degree of confidence is often a good thing," says Twenge. But as she sees it, there's a growing disconnect between self-perception and reality.
"It's not just confidence. It's overconfidence."
And that, she says, can pose problems, in relationships and the workplace — though others argue that it's not so easy to generalize.
"If you actually look at the data, you can't just condense it into a sound bite. It's more nuanced than that," says John Pryor, director of UCLA's Cooperative Institutional Research program, which produces an annual national survey of hundreds of thousands of college freshman, on which Twenge and her colleagues based their latest study.
That study was recently published online in the British journal Self and Identity.
Among other things, Twenge and her colleagues found that a growing percentage of incoming college freshmen rated themselves as "above average" in several categories, compared with college freshmen who were surveyed in the 1960s.
When it came to social self-confidence, about half of freshmen questioned in 2009 said they were above average, compared to fewer than a third in 1966. Meanwhile, 60 percent in 2009 rated their intellectual self-confidence as above average, compared with 39 percent in 1966, the first year the survey was given.
In the study, the authors also argue that intellectual confidence may have been bolstered by grade inflation, noting that, in 1966, only 19 percent of college students who were surveyed earned an "A'' or "A-minus" average in high school, compared with 48 percent in 2009.
"So students might be more likely to think they're superior because they've been given better grades," Twenge says.
Statements like that can set off the generational firestorm.
Young people are quick to feel picked on — and rightly so, says Kali Trzesniewski, an associate professor of human development at the University of California, Davis.
"People have been saying for generations that the next generation is crumbling the world," Trzesniewski says. "There are quotes going back to Socrates that say that kids are terrible."
But in her own research, she says she's been hard-pressed to find many differences when comparing one generation to the next — and little evidence that even an increase in confidence has had a negative effect.
Many bosses and others in the workplace have long argued that recent college students often arrive with unreasonably high expectations for salary and an unwillingness to take criticism or to pay their dues.
"But a lot of them have a confidence that we wished we had," says psychologist Jeffrey Arnett, a research professor in the psychology department at Clark University in Massachusetts. He studies "emerging adulthood," a term that has been coined to describe the period from age 18 to 29 when many young adults are finding their footing.
Arnett doesn't object to Twenge's findings. But he adds: "I disagree with using those findings as a way to promote these negative stereotypes of young people, which I spend a lot of my time battling against."
He says those stereotypes also overshadow positive trends related to young people, in the last decade or so.
"If you look at the patterns in young people's behavior, all the news is good, pretty much. Crime is down and rates of substance abuse are down, way down. Rates of all kinds of sexual risk-taking — from abortion to sexually transmitted diseases — are down."
You also can't look at factors such as self-confidence and feelings of superiority without considering other findings that balance out those traits, says Pryor from UCLA. Look, for instance, at community service, he says.
In 1990, when the question was first asked in the survey, about 17 percent of college freshmen said there was a very good chance that they'd participate in public service in college. In 2010, nearly a third of freshman said the same.
In addition, in 1989, two-thirds of college freshman said they had volunteered in high school, compared with nearly 87 percent surveyed last year.
Cynics like Twenge have argued that they only do so because many high schools require it — or because they know it looks good on a college or job application.
It also should be noted that there has been relatively no change in the percentage of students who said it was important for them to help others in difficult circumstances — 69.7 percent in 1966, compared with 69.1 percent in 2010.
But Deborah Tippett, a professor at Meredith College in North Carolina, says she has definitely noticed that this generation of students is more likely to act on that wish to help — and she thinks it's that confidence that has led many of her students to do big things.
One of them, she notes, is spending her third summer in Africa this year running a program that's building an orphanage for children with AIDS.
That said, she also agrees that the confidence — or overconfidence — has a down side.
"They really do believe they can do it all," says Tippett, who heads the human environmental sciences department at Meredith. "It makes them wonderful, but it also makes for some hard lessons.
"I see it now when I tell students that they aren't doing work that's above average or even average. It's really hard for them to take."
A lot of students say they've seen that dynamic, too.
Janelle Mills, who'll be a junior this fall at Stetson University in Florida, says she and her peers get tired of their elders "ragging" on them about being entitled or lazy — or just labeling them in general. But she also thinks there's something to this study about over-confidence.
"Kids are being encouraged to be the best that they can be. I think that this can create a superiority complex for those who begin to think that their best is better than everyone else's," she says. "Modesty and humility are no longer common and are becoming harder to find."
Twenge has argued that the self-esteem movement — "where every kid is special" — has contributed to this. Others wonder if over-confidence is a byproduct of the super-pushy "tiger parent" syndrome, where even average parents set up music classes and sports and outside tutoring so their children can get ahead.
Tippett, at Meredith College, says we'd do our children a favor if we also better prepared them for failure, and the realization that they're not perfect, especially when they hit the real world.
"I think that's the real challenge with this generation: How do you help them so that they will be productive people in the workplace?" she says.
Arnett, at Clark University, says he worries about that, too — and how this generation handles disappointment, entry-level assignments, low pay and criticism at work. "But what I see is that they don't run screaming from the workplace and lay in the corner in the fetal position," he says. "They adjust."
To him, it's all part of an emerging adult's journey.
Twenge doesn't at all disagree with Arnett on that point. "He's right. As they get older, their self-beliefs will adjust with reality," she says.
But she believes it's still worth looking at the generational differences — and to keep overconfidence in check.
Brittany Vickers, who'll be a junior at Ohio Wesleyan University in the fall, says older generations can help with that.
"The best teachers and coaches I've ever had never said I was good enough. They always told me what I could improve on," she says. "You hate them at first, because you actually have to work hard to be successful. But, when the praise comes, it really means something.
"Sadly, they've been few and far between."
Headline - Study: More college freshmen feel 'above average'


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Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012, 12:09 pm
Tip Big: Restaurants Aren't Good to Workers—Especially Women
Many don't earn minimum wage, and benefits are basically nonexistent
Just in time for the restaurant industry's biggest day of the year, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United delivered an anti-Valentine to the industry for its systematic mistreatment of women in the business, from fast service joints to fine dining establishments. The report—"Tipped Over the Edge: Gender Inequity in the Restaurant Industry"—shows the business has delivered no tangible love to its workers and a healthy dose of discrimination towards women in the restaurant workforce.
ROC, an organization with more than 9,000 restaurant worker members in 19 cities, started in New York City a decade ago. It serves as a worker rights center, a research-oriented advocate for better public policy, and an organizer and supporter of "high road" restaurants that demonstrate, as ROC director Saru Jaramayan says, that "you can pay good wages and have a thriving business and industry."
But instead, most restaurants thrive—and the industry continues to grow and rack up record profits, even during these hard times—by paying workers poorly. ROC's report—supported by a dozen groups focused on women's rights—notes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics identified seven jobs in the restaurant industry in its 2010 list of the ten lowest-paid occupations. Including tips, the average server made $8.81 an hour. But the average is misleading because of huge variations in the industry.
First, there are big variations by state. The federal government sets a very low threshold with its subminimum wage for tipped employees. Although by law tips for categories of tipped employees like servers and the subminimum are supposed to yield at least the $7.25 minimum wage, many workers do not earn the minimum.
One big part of the problem is that the subminimum—set at $2.13 since 1991—has not been linked to 60 percent of the standard minimum since the Republican Congress de-linked it in 1996. Some states set higher subminimums or simply apply their often higher minimum wage to tipped employees as well. Although poverty of restaurant workers is higher than the workforce average everywhere, restaurant worker poverty is much higher in those states that stick to the federal subminimum.
Second, there are variations by occupation and by industry segment (fastserve, family dining, fine dining). While these variations generate inequalities among all restaurant workers, they hurt most with women who are disproportionately in the lower-wage occupations and segments as well as in tipped work, which makes them more vulnerable to state and federal subminimum wage policies.
Women servers earn only 68 percent of what male servers make—and black women only 60 percent, indicating how race as well as gender makes a difference. But at an average salary of $25,000 a year (compared to $17,000 for women), male servers aren't getting rich either.
Benefits and working conditions are grim on average, especially so in the vast majority of restaurants below "fine dining." Many of those restaurants are part of large chains, such as Darden Restaurant Company, owner and operator of 1,900 restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Darden paid CEO Clarence Otis Jr. $8.5 million plus $22.1 million in stock options last year.
But for workers, especially women, the restaurant industry is not so generous:
• 90 percent of restaurant workers get no health insurance through their employer (and a third of women workers have no health coverage at all).
• 90 percent get no paid sick leave, which leads two-thirds of them to work while sick.
• women in the restaurant business are five times more likely to suffer sexual harassment at work than the average woman at work (making the industry the "single largest" source of harassment claims according to the EEOC).
• workers—with women most adversely affected—are subjected to arbitrary, short-notice changes in schedule, which makes planning difficult (especially for child care), and often cut hours of work and pay or extended hours into low periods. Tipped workers may be effectively working without pay.
While most of the industry's poor treatment affects all workers, female restaurant workers suffer most, partly because of discriminatory hiring patterns but also as a side-effect of public policy. Indeed, most of ROC's policy proposals would help men and women alike.
Foremost among the proposals is raising the federal subminimum to 70 percent of the standard minimum and once again linking the two. Others include national standards for paid sick days, a national mandate or incentives for sexual harassment training, better job training, and enacting policies to help workers get more control over schedules and support "collective organizing among restaurant workers."
The first and last are most critical, though the 70-percent standard is modest, considering that some big restaurant states like California have no subminimum and a state minimum above the federal level. And as far as the last proposal, ROC's current ambitions seem not to include full-fledged unionization. (And U.S. unions aren't paying much attention to restaurants. At one point, the predecessor of the UNITE-HERE union had a significant role in fine dining, but now beyond hotels its main dining targets are corporate, university and other cafeterias.)
Nor do ROC's long-range plans include moving toward an end to the tipping system, as many European countries have done. Both customers and workers would be better off if workers had living wages and good union contracts. Many workers now seem content with the tipping system itself, Jayaran says, but she also acknowledges, "Consumers should not be the ones responsible for workers' wages. The industry should provide a decent wage that allows them to survive."
But the group's organizing and spotlighting better employers proves their are no business obstacles to treating workers better. Barbara Sibley, a former industry employee who now owns La Palapa restaurant in New York, says paying her workers well and respecting them ultimately improves the customers' experiences. "Restaurant work is hard," she says, "but running a restaurant right is profitable. If I can run a restaurant right and make it profitable, anyone can."
Most workers, however, endure a job like Claudia Munoz had in Texas. Managers forced her to declare earning more tips than she took in so it would appear she made the minimum wage. They didn't pay her for overtime work. They forced her to work extra hours off the clock. Some days her hours were cut short, depriving her of the discounted employee meal, sometimes leading her to go without food for the day.
The ultimate insult came when managers charged her for the bill of a table that walked without paying while she was the only server in the restaurant, taking all her tips for the day and billing her for the balance. "I saw the racism, sexism, and low wages in the industry," she says. "Everything I remember from that place was horrible."
Now a ROC leader, she is trying to change one of the nation's largest industries, one desperately in need of public policy reforms and worker action.
Help In These Times Continue Publishing
Progressive journalism is needed now more than ever, and In These Times needs you.
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David Moberg
David Moberg, a senior editor of In These Times, has been on the staff of the magazine since it began publishing in 1976. Before joining In These Times, he completed his work for a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago and worked for Newsweek. He has received fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Nation Institute for research on the new global economy. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
More by David Moberg
- The UAW Vote in Mississippi is a Battle for the Soul of the U.S. Labor Movement
- Nursing Home Workers Win Big After Threatening to Strike: "We Have the Power Now"
- Trump's Pick for Labor Secretary is Literally the Worst
- More Than 6 Million Americans Who Want Full-Time Jobs Are Stuck Working Part-Time
- The Hope From Audacity: Fight for $15 Pulls Off "Most Disruptive" Day of Action Yet


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Im creating a supplement that will give you more nutrients than the average diet if you buy 1 year amount before it comes out you get it for 50 pence per day which is the price of a pack of crisps these days. Contains more minerals than 5 servings of fruit and vegetables with out pesticides. Need 5 partners min on this deal so i can manufacture at fair price our first batch.
No synthetic nutrients which dont absorb well anyway and cause other imbalances for example high copper supplement drains zinc levels. Plant based power made from a few ingredience no additives, fillers, chemicals or steroid.
Soil minerals are down 65% since 1970s due to chemical herbicides and fertilizer which kill all the good bacteria and lifeforms like worms which process rocks and move minerals to aid plant growth and nutrient density.
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There is very little movement in any of the classes as the main protagonists have been training on the Saronic Gulf in Athens for some time now. What the rankings do provide is a vehicle to see the how the Olympic Sailing Competition affects the positions of Athletes who compete.
Following the Olympic Games, the next ISAF World Sailing Rankings will be released on 2 September. The Olympic Sailing Competition is considered as a high graded event and can have a huge effect on the rankings that immediately follow its conclusion.
During the build up to the start of the Olympic Sailing Competition and following the launch of the new look ISAF Athens 2004 Microsite, ISAF is releasing a series of preview articles detailing the runners and riders in each of the eleven events. For those previews already published - Europe, Finn and Laser - simply follow the link to read the latest from Athens.
Windsurfer Men and Women - Mistral
There is no change at the top of the Windsurfer Men or Women and the fleets are lead by French sailors Julien BONTEMPS and Faustine MERRET respectively. A full preview on the Mistral class will be published on Sunday 8 August.
Single-handed Dinghy Women - Europe
Siren SUNDBY (NOR) surprisingly leads an almost static rankings in the Europe class of which many of the top sailors are now firmly embedded at the Agios Kosmas Sailing Centre in Athens. ISAF published a full preview of what's to come in Athens on Friday 30 July. To read the full article Click Here.
Keelboat Men - Star
Again, no change in the Star Class with World Champions Freddie LOOF and Anders ELKSTROM (SWE) still topping the table. A full preview of the Star Class will be published on the ISAF Website at www.sailing.org on Saturday 7 August.
Keelboat Women - Yngling
The Yngling fleet has surprisingly seen a fair movement amongst the top of the fleet. Kristin WAGNER and her crew of Anna HOLL and Veronika LOCHBRUNNER (GER), who will be representing their country in Athens, have moved into second position behind leading skipper Dorte JENSEN.
Guiglia CONTI (ITA) has made further in roads by popping up from sixth into third. This movement is perhaps more surprising when one considers that the only additional event included in this rankings release is the ISAF Graded Open European Championship, which saw a grand total of 17 all female crews out of the 81 boats present.
ISAF will publish a full preview of the Yngling at the Olympic Sailing Competition on the ISAF website www.sailing.org on Friday 6 August.
Multihull Open - Tornado
There is no change in the Multihull Open world sailing rankings, with Austrian Olympians Roman HAGARA and Peter STEINACHER still leading from Dutchmen Mitch BOOTH and Herb DERCKSEN. A full preview of the multihull sailors in Athens will be published on Monday 9 August.
Single-handed Dinghy Men - Finn
Yesterday, ISAF published a preview of the Single-handed Dinghy Men's event in Athens. There is limited change in the top six with Mateusz KUSZNIEREWICZ (POL) still leading from Rafa TRUJILLO (ESP). One of the biggest movers is the emergence of Jonas HOEGH-CHRISTENSEN (DEN) from tenth to sixth place, this follows Andrew (BART) SIMPSON's drop from fifth to seventh. Simpson has pushed Britain's Olympic representative Ben AINSLIE all the way leading up to Athens, but Olympic selection was out of reach, and it will be defending World Champion Ainslie who will be on the start line.
To read the full Olympic preview article on the ISAF website, please Click Here.
Double-handed Dinghy Open - 49er
Very little change in the 49er as Chris DRAPER and Simon HISCOCKS (GBR) still lead the world going into the Olympic Games. Tim WADLOW and Pete SPAULDING (USA) have been training and competing hard since their selection as the USA representatives in Athens and with today's ranking release have seen a climb of one place from fourth to third behind Marcus BAUR and Max GROY from Germany.
A full Athens preview for the fleet will be published on the ISAF website on Thursday 5 August.
Double-handed Dinghy Men and Women - 470
The 470 fleet are including Warnemunde Week amongst their included regattas in this world rankings release and there is a limited amount of movement in both fleets. Ingrid PETITJEAN and Nadege DOUROUX (FRA) still lead the ladies fleet from Jenny ARMSTRONG and Belinda STOWELL (AUS).
In the men's fleet the ever dominant Nathan WILMOT and Malcolm PAGE (AUS) are still at the top, followed by movers and 2003 World Champions Gabri ZANDONA and Andrea TRANI from Italy, pushing Nick ROGERS and Joe GLANDFIELD (GBR) down to third place.
ISAF will be publishing a full preview of the 470 class in Athens tomorrow, Wednesday 4 August.
Single-handed Dinghy Open - Laser
The Laser fleet, as always have a huge number of graded events worldwide and this time around is no different. With over 250 sailors ranked on the ISAF World Sailing Rankings for the Laser class it is of no surprise that there is movement all the way through the rankings. The top three remain the same however, and ISAF published today a full preview of the Laser fleet who will be on the start line in Athens. To read the full article Click Here.
The Olympic Sailing Competition of the 2004 Olympic Games takes place from 14-28 August from the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre in Athens, Greece. Racing takes place on four courses on the Saronic Gulf and measurement and boat allocation has already begun at the Olympic Sailing Venue.


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When you need to find anyone or anything in the library community, just turn to American Library Directory.
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Archives of Dermatology March 2002 Vol 138 pages 385-389.
This review is different from the usual type of review you might read about bullous diseases in that by being "systematic" it was submitted ahead of time to an independent panel of editors at the Cochrane Collaboration for Evidence-Based Medicine stating that the aim was to summarize data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) only for the treatment of BP. In addition, how those trials are to be searched for, analyzed and compared is scrutinized.
Out of all the databases only 6 RCTs were published, including 293 patients. One trial compared prednisolone at different doses: 0.75mg/ kg/day vs 1.25mg;/kg/day, and another compared methylprednisolone with prednisolone, and neither study found a significant difference between the two groups, but the patients on the higher prednisolone doses had more severe side effects.


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H/T John Hinderacker and Michael Ramirez…emphasis mine.
"If there is one thing we know for sure about the federal government, it is that it spends way too much money–around $3.54 trillion in FY 2012, with a $1.1 trillion deficit. You would think that the man who presides over this mess, Barack Obama, would have the decency to be embarrassed. He has, after all, run up more than $4 trillion in debt in a mere four years. But no: Obama displays no concern at all about the fact that he has mortgaged your children's future. On the contrary, he adopts a self-righteous tone toward those who are trying to preserve your children's inheritance by reining in wanton federal spending. This betrays, I think, a pathological lack of moral understanding.'


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My name is Bonnie Jean MacDonald and I have been researching my family for over 15 years now.
I have retired my client business and from the Association of Professional Genealogists www.apgen.org and the Puget Sound Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists www.psapg.org.
I am now the Past Newsletter Editor of the Washington State Genealogical Society. They have a new website: http://www.wasgs.org/ and a new blog.
This is not the end of my interest in genealogy, I am just going in a different direction. Recently I attended the 2015 Delano Kindred Reunion in San Diego, California and have been contributing to Find A Grave this last year.
I have created several blogs in order to write about my family and what I have discovered. It helps to keep me sane! I am writing because I want to eventually compile books about the family. I have no children of my own except for the furry kind, so I am highly motivated. One of my clients lost his grandmother's research and I helped to recreate as much as I could but still it is not the same. Walking in the footsteps of another is really a fun endeavor. My inspiration was my cousin Paul H. Goss who died in 1963. He did a great deal on the Goss Family research and he is the one who inspired several of my blogs.
On the right side of this blog you will find links to blogs I like and my other blogs. I have used Blogger and WordPress over the years. Each has its own interesting way of doing things.
All my blogs interrelate and are all are parts of my family tree.
I started with my Dad's side of the family with the blog: The Man Who Lived Airplanes: The Life of Keith B. MacDonald to celebrate him and his love of airplanes. http://macdonellfamily.wordpress.com/ My dad's mother was Grace Barclay McDonald the daughter of George and Amarilla, the subjects of this blog. This is about my surname of MacDonald with a little Barclay thrown in to show the connection to this blog.
On my mom's side there is the blog about The Boardmans and Browns of Winnipeg, A Canadian Story http://boardmanbrown.wordpress.com/ I have met several cousins on this blog and never dreamed I would get as far as I have with the research. I am now not just a mix of English and Scottish but officially Irish as well!
Photographs of cemeteries visited were collecting dust and not helping others so I decided to create a blog about these cemeteries and share my finds: BJM's Cemetery Discoveries can be found at this link: https://barclayspineriver.wordpress.com/bjms-cemeteries-discoveries-cemeteries-for-the-barclays-and-some-spracklen-ins/
http://bjmcemeterydiscoveries.blogspot.com/ You actually might see references to this blog about a particular cemetery if it has something to do with my family. Other cemeteries were visited when I was helping clients with their research. There are also links to check out for researching cemeteries and more.
I have done two genealogical research trip blogs starting with Pennsylvania Wanderings:
http://pawanderings.blogspot.com/ http://pawanderings.wordpress.com/ This blog is getting old and the links are starting to go bad. If you go there and have a problem email me and I will see if I can help. This was about the Goss Family and visiting the family historical sites in the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania area where they migrated to about 1769 from Massachusetts.
The Goss Family is connected through my great grandmother Amarilla Spracklin who is featured on this blog on my Dad's side of the family.
She has a lineage that goes deep into the 1600's in Massachusetts. I traveled around Massachusetts in April of 2011. It covers my visits to the Goss sites as far east as Lancaster. Massachusetts Meanderings and More…:
http://massmeanderings.blogspot.com/ http://massmeanderings.wordpress.com/
I even discuss a little about my Barclay research in Connecticut in this blog and the visits to several cemeteries which I will eventually feature on this blog.
These two genealogical research trips Pennsylvania Wanderings & Massachusetts Meanderings are completed and I will not add much to them. Eventually both will be meshed into the blog that is called: Solomon Goss of Fearing Township in Ohio: http://sgossfamily.wordpress.com/
Solomon Goss was my 4th great-grandfather. It was his ancestor Philip Goss who settled in Roxbury sometime in the late 1600's and is buried in the Old Settlers Cemetery in Lancaster, Massachusetts in 1698. His youngest daughter Lydia married John Andrews Spracklin, Amarilla's grandparents. I also wrote about my genealogical research trip to Ohio in August/September of 2011 including the highlights in several posts rather than a separate blog.
This is a big undertaking so mistakes or errors can be made. On all my blogs I am setting up a category called Updates and Corrections. If you visit and see something you like you might want to check back to make sure I didn't add or make a correction. I will use the strike out so you can see what was changed. If it is a simple error in grammer that is not changing the context I will correct it with out much fuss.
You can follow me, or fill out the email subscription which is very easy to do and then you will get a new post in your email so you can see what is happening. It is on the right side of the blog. The other suggestion is that you make a comment, just remember that this is not email so keep your comments on the subject matter and not about you. I do have editing rights and will make sure you are okay before I approve a comment.
Thanks for stopping by, Bonnie
Updated October 1, 2015


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ACROSS MY DESK: Noble & Pious Thing
Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes of the 20th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, said it so well.
"I think it is a noble and pious thing
To do whatever we may by written
Word or molded bronze and sculpted
Stone to keep our memories, our
Reverence and our love alive and
To hand them on to new generations
All too ready to forget."
From the most recent issue of "The Weekly Fireside" of the American Civil War History Special Interest Group (on AOL) for the week ending 10 April 2005. To subscribe, send an email to
email@example.com with subscribe in the subject line.


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Sir Alex Ferguson has a practical take on morality. Anything benefitting Manchester United is right. Anything hindering Manchester United is wrong. With Manchester City and Real Madrid suddenly able to outbid Manchester United for players. It should surprise no one that the grizzled Scot spoke out for the little man.
"I said a year ago, when they [the Abu Dhabi United Group] took over at City, that this was possible," Ferguson said. "Some of the values across the world now are amazing; the numbers that get tossed about. The values of players have shot sky high. I don't think any of the [big] transfers this summer are realistic but for some reason it has caught fire this summer. It's an unusual summer and it's very difficult to get value because of that."
"We went in for Benzema but, as far as we were concerned, the price tag was beyond his value. If other clubs want to go to that level, that's entirely their business. We had a value that we thought was fair and we didn't want to go above that position. Maybe Lyon thought we under-valued him and that's fine, it's their decision. They got €42m for him and they will be happy with that because they have done well. All this tells you about us is that we are sensible."
Ferguson discusses "sensible" spending, but under his tenure at Manchester United, that has always meant spending superior resources to crush the opposition. Let's look at this decade.
United signed Ruud Van Nistelrooy for a club record £19m in 2001. Later that year, he smashed that record by bringing in Juan Sebastian Veron for £28.1m.
Ferguson broke the transfer record again in 2002, spending £29m for Rio Ferdinand.
In 2004, the club spent £25.6m for Wayne Rooney.
United signed Michael Carrick from Tottenham for £18.6m in 2006, and spent £17m on Owen Hargreaves the next summer.
In 2008, Ferguson broke the club's transfer record again spending £30.75m on striker Dimitar Berbatov.
When Ferguson wants a player, Manchester United overspends with superior financial resources to get him. It is hypocritical to criticize other clubs, which finally have more financial resources than United, for doing so.
It is interesting that Manchester United are resigned to being outbid for players. They have had two extended Champions League runs the past two seasons and received an £80m windfall from the Ronaldo transfer. If all was well, there should be plenty of cash available.


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FICPAYou Are Here:
Quick CPE Search
Disable Protected View In Office 2010
Share Printer Friendly
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By default Office 2010 will open documents in protected mode that fail validation, have been downloaded from the internet, are located in potentially unsafe location and include attachments. Protected view opens the document in read-only mode thus minimizing the exposure to some potential security threat.
If you are an experienced user who is annoyed by the protected view, you can always disable it even though it is not recommended by Microsoft.
Open MS Word 2010, go to File Menu(Office Backstage) and select Options. Select Trust Center from the left sidebar and then click Trust Center Settings button in the main window. Now in Trust Center dialog window, select Protected View from the left sidebar and disable protected view for any desired option.
You can disable Protected View for files that failed validation, that have been downloaded from the internet, are located in unsafe locations, and/or contain attachments.
When done, hit OK. The above example is that of Word 2010, you will have to manually uncheck the options from Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Outlook 2010, etc.
This Tech Tip is brought to you by the Business and Technology Section ... IT solutions for today's CPAs. For more information and to view an archive of previous Tech Tips, please visit us here.
Do you have specific topics you would like to see covered in Tech Tips? Email any suggestions to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Call to academia for innovative concepts and technologies for lunar exploration
ESA is currently in the process of defining a long-term European strategy for space exploration. As part of this activity, Alcatel Alenia Space Italia (AAS-I) is leading a study to identify potential European contributions to the exploration of the Moon, taking the international context into account. Within this framework and in line with the Aurora Exploration Programme, on behalf of ESA, AAS-I has issued a 'Call for Innovative Concepts and Technologies' addressed to academic institutions.
The aim of the Call is to look for innovative concepts and technologies, for instance in fields like in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), nuclear propulsion, habitation, nano-technology, modular architecture, and many other fields, which are relevant for Europe and which could lead to the development of new approaches and technologies for space exploration.
This is an interesting opportunity for the academic institutions to communicate their own vision and ideas for a European space exploration programme and to present their potential contributions.
Interested Academic Institutions shall submit their proposals by 21 October 2005, using a dedicated form that will be made available to them.
The form addresses, among others, the following points:
- Description and current status of the innovative concept/technology;
- Proposed further study workplan not exceeding three months, to be performed in the frame of the AAS-I study;
- Outlook on the future development of the proposed innovative concept/technology;
- Relevant applications for space exploration;
- Assessment of innovation potential (for space exploration, for other space sectors and non-space sectors).
The submitted ideas will be screened by ESA and AAS-I, and will be taken into account in the whole process of defining European contributions to space exploration.
For some selected ideas ESA and AAS-I will offer a grant of ~10 k€ to support the implementation of a three-month study with the objectives of:
- Improving and consolidating the technical and programmatic information provided in the frame of the Call;
- Supporting the assessment of the impacts (technical/programmatic) induced by the proposed innovative ideas on ESA/AAS-I selected exploration scenarios.
The selection will be based on the innovation potential of the idea in general, but also for lunar exploration in particular, as well as on the quality of the proposed study workplan.
The academic studies will conclude with a final presentation at ESA's research and technology centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, involving ESA, AAS-I, and chosen academia. Indeed, a few academic institutions that answered the Call but were not initially selected, will also be invited to participate. All the other proposing universities are welcome to attend the meeting if they wish.
Academic institutions interested in answering this Call can request the dedicated form by writing to: firstname.lastname@example.com
Any further information can be obtained at the same e-mail address, or by contacting Piero Messina.
Piero Messina
Aurora Exploration Programme
+33 1 5369 7410
+33 6 87 71 51 26


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"Enthralling . . . as fascinating as any novel and more so than most."—The New York Times Book Review
"Urgently readable . . . the work of a master of narrative history."—Newsweek
"Written in a style that combines vigor, clarity, and sensitivity . . . should be the envy of historians and novelists alike."—Chicago Sun-Times
"Fascinating . . . an absorbing book."—The Plain Dealer
"Exceptional."—The New Yorker


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FOOTBALL ROUND-UP: Trojans tramble Bears
Quarterback Anthony Toscano threw two touchdown passes to Brian Spade and three other Trojans scored rushing touchdowns to help Bandys knock off Bunker Hill, 45-14, in Claremont on Friday.
Toscano tossed both of his touchdowns to Spade to open the first and second halfs, respectively, connecting from 24 yards out in the first quarter and 63 yards away in the third quarter.
Travis Kisser booted a 37-yard field goal for Bandys (7-4, 4-3) on special teams to help give Bandys a 10-0 lead after the first quarter.
Keaton Allen, Quiante Derr and Devan Davis added one touchdown run each of four, five and 14 yards, respectively.
Davis tallied a team-high 183 yards on the ground for Bandys, who gained 523 yards of total offense.
For the Bears (5-6, 1-6), Ryan Huffman had a 46-yard touchdown in the first half, while quarterback Colton Chapman threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Gettys in the second half.
Bunker Hill managed to gain just 143 yards of total offense in Friday's contest.
Hickory 63, Fred T. Foard 0
Eight different Red Tornadoes scored in a route of the Tigers in Hickory on Friday during Hickory's "Homecoming" game.
Quarterback Matt Williams threw three touchdown passes for Hickory (7-4, 4-2 in NWC), including two to Daniel Davis and one to Nick Guarino. Williams tallied 205 yards through the air in the game.
The Red Tornadoes also made big plays on defense. Darian Jolly intercepted a pass and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown, while a Dillion Crisp forced fumble turned in the end zone turned into a defensive touchdown by lineman Nathan Gibbs.
Crisp also scored on offense with a 3-yard touchdown run, and Jordan Lockhart added a 1-yard touchdown run of his own.
Leading 56-0 late, Jaquon Crawford added Hickory's ninth and final score on a 24-yard run.
Foard (2-8, 0-6) netting only 135 yards of total offense in Friday's contest.


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Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
Press Release – US State Department
Last week was an important one here in Washington for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international group that countries can join to promote accountability in the management of payments countries receive from oil, gas, and mining activities.
Posted by Robert F. Cekuta
August 2, 2013
Last week was an important one here in Washington for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international group that countries can join to promote accountability in the management of payments countries receive from oil, gas, and mining activities. While the United States has long supported the EITI as a donor, we have committed to joining the initiative as an implementing member and taking on the same obligations to boost transparency as other countries around the globe (USEITI). This step by the United States is a strong sign of the growing momentum towards greater transparency and accountability apparent in the world today.
The team of U.S. government, civil society, and company representatives that is charged with implementing USEITI met last week and discussed these developments with Clare Short, Chair of the international EITI Board (and former UK Development Minister).
I have the great pleasure of serving with Clare on the international EITI Board, where we worked hard to develop a set of changes in the EITI rules to enable the Initiative to have a greater impact benefiting citizens of the 39 member countries. It was not easy for the Board to agree on these changes and there were many strongly held points of view. After months of work and debate, we succeeded and the resulting consensus sets out a strong sense of what EITI should stand for and how to put in place systems to boost the government transparency and accountability that EITI seeks to promote.
In June, President Obama and all the G8 Leaders strongly supported this work. Their Lough Erne Summit statement references the EITI eleven times, which is a remarkable sign not only of how truly widely supported the EITI has become, but also of the growing awareness of the connection between sound governance, the ability of countries to attract capital, and economic prosperity. Several of our G8 partners – the UK, France, Germany, and Italy – are following the United States' example by committing to implement or pilot the EITI at home. Other countries that have recently committed, including Colombia and Papua New Guinea, will also be looking to our domestic USEITI process for lessons learned.
So it is in this context that it was truly special to have Clare join us to see the USEITI process in action. Just as the international EITI Board discussed EITI's goals at an international level, the USEITI representatives are working through what meaning EITI will have inside the United States. This group representing various American stakeholders is showing the Initiative's goals are important and applicable to countries that already consider themselves quite transparent.
The work here underlines that EITI is about much more than just meeting the Initiative's core requirement to publish reports matching company payments to government receipts. The USEITI discussions are highlighting that it is about bringing diverse groups together to identify what additional information the partners can make available to be even more transparent, and how to communicate accurate and timely information to the public about how the government is managing our oil, gas, and mining resources. In many cases it is even about pulling together and putting into context information that is already available, in order to help the average citizen hold their government accountable for responsible extractive sector management. And it will be important in many countries around in the world in seeing that the development of their natural resources benefits their people.
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url


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December 12, 2013
LAWT News Service
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson has announced a $75,000 reward for information in the shooting death of 7 year old Taalib Pecantte and the attempted murder of his mother Sawan Mock.
Wesson and the Los Angeles Police Department are asking for the public's help in identifying and bringing to justice the perpetrators of this terrible crime.
On Monday, December 2, 2013, at 8:55 p.m., Taalib Pecantte, a 7 year old boy, his mother and her friend were seated in her vehicle in the 1900 block of South Corning Street. Four male suspects wearing black hoodie jackets ambushed them and fired multiple gunshots into the vehicle. Taalib and his mother were struck by the gunfire. Taalib died the following day from his injuries at Children's Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery
LAPD Detectives have been unable to identify any suspects or eye-witnesses to the crime and are seeking the public's help.
"We need the public's help in getting the person or persons who committed this crime off the streets before they can do it to someone else's child," said Wesson. "Somebody saw something."
Anyone with information is urged to call the LAPD's 24-hour toll-free number, (877) LAPD-24-7. Anonymous tips can be conveyed by calling Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.