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Editor's note: We've got a new restaurant critic here at New Times. John Linn has been something of a protégé to Gail Shepherd over the years. Now Shepherd's moving over to become a staff writer for us, and Linn's stepping into the role of restaurant critic. As he gets his taste buds ready for the transition, we're serving up a leftover, a December 2007 column Shepherd wrote on one of our favorite local spots.
I just got back from Brooklyn, where street gluttons wait patiently in line a hundred minutes or more to crowd into a dinky storefront parlor for the pizza at Di Fara. The old guy behind the counter, Dom DeMarco, is spry and focused; his Neapolitan hand is the only one to touch these pizzas, made one at a time at a fairly leisurely pace, while his footsore customers gaze upon him with reverence. DeMarco saturates his crusts with extra virgin olive oil, scatters hunks of buffalo mozzarella and a snowfall of Grana Padano or Reggiano, snips leaves of fresh basil or oregano, and dispenses them around the steaming pie like a magician waving an herb-scented wand. About an hour or so into our wait, as we inched ever closer to the prize, the friend who'd invited me wanted to know if we South Floridians had anything comparable. Places people lined up for? Native foods worth a two-hour wait? Some little old lady with a roadside tamale stand, maybe?
I thought about it. I could have answered honestly, "The Cheesecake Factory," but my foodie creds with this guy would have been ruined forever. We SoFla types do have our stubbornly held legacies — barbecued gator, sugar-and-margarine-on-Wonderbread sandwiches, the orange/shredded-coconut salad we rightly call ambrosia. We have controversies over who makes an authentic key lime pie or where to find the best deal on stone crabs just as fierce as any New York pizza wars. But one of the only places I could think of where customers lined up for hours, and where the result was in fact worth the wait, was Canyon Southwest Café.
Canyon Southwest Caf
Canyon Southwest Caf, 1818 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Open for dinner Monday through Thursday 5:30 until 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m., Sunday until 10 p.m. Call 954-765-1950, or click here.
Canyon, conveniently situated next to the Sunrise movie theater in Fort Lauderdale, doesn't take reservations — they know better. At midweek, the bar behind the front door is packed with people swilling Canyon's signature pink prickly pear margaritas, made with the cactus fruit marinated in blue agave tequila, which gives the drink the kind of blush you could only hope to raise in your beloved's cheek. Those delicious margaritas, served frozen, straight up, or on ice, even at $9.50 each, go a long way to softening the impact of an hour's wait for a table. What with the eye candy, considerable from this perspective, and the conversation enjoyed with your fellow tequila swillers, you might even say your time spent is pretty painless. "Part of the experience," as my Brooklynite friends would say of Di Fara's.
Still, we can hardly call Southwestern-style cooking our own, unless we redraw the North American map with very generous boundaries. Florida does share elements of this hybrid cuisine. A group of Texas chefs may have "reinvented" New Southwest cooking in the '80s, but in truth, both ingredients and cooking techniques derive from the oldest regional cuisine in the Americas: the words guacamole, tomato, and chili have Aztec origins. The Southwestern cooking we know today mixes and matches cultural foodways of Mexico, Spain, Native America, and the open range, painting from a palette of primary colors: yellow corn; red tomatoes; green peppers, tomatillos, and avocados; chilies, squashes, and beans in a dozen different hues.
These vegetables and fruits flourish in our southern tropical climate: In this sense, the flavors dished up at Canyon are both local and familiar. We recognize the crunch of the corn tortilla, the tang of cilantro-laced salsa, the soothing heft of yucca, the dusting of ground chilies. The menu's skewered and grilled bison may look exotic, but these big guys were once natives too, a favorite food of our 14,000-year-old Florida Indian cousins. Pork, like Canyon's chili-rubbed chop served with tequila-papaya salsa, arrived here early via the Spaniards. As for snails (Canyon serves escargots with tawny port sauce and a red chili tamale), we have more than 100 native marine and freshwater species; Florida snowbirds, along with our local snail kite, have been digging this whorled gastropod from its shell since the end of the last ice age.
Chef-owner Chris Wilber, who's been cooking at this location since the mid-'90s, was one of the first restaurateurs here to recognize that spicy-hot foods and humid-hot climates are a natural match. Mexicans turn up the heat in their tacos because the burn induces a good sweat, a sort of internal air conditioner. They recognize too that a corn or flour tortilla works like a swab to soak up the capsaicin oils in chilies that leave your mouth all but seared. (Note: Never drink water trying to cool a chili-inflamed tongue — it'll only compound your misery.) If Southwestern cuisine isn't precisely indigenous to Florida, it sure feels and smells and tastes like it should be.
Wilber pushes it further in our direction by tilting his menu ever so slightly toward seafood, from snapper and grouper to shrimp and oysters. There's a fantastic appetizer of shrimp tapas ($15), a flatbread topped with grilled Florida shrimp, tomatillo drizzle, a scattering of creamy-sharp Spanish manchego cheese, and roasted chili peppers. If you snag a seat at the bar while you're waiting for a booth, you can order snacks like this one to whet your appetite or the equally exquisite blue-corn-crusted oysters, fried and served in their shells ($16), beautifully crunchy on the outside and pudding-like within. A little pool of cilantro cream puddles underneath them, and the whole deal is accompanied by a whispery-light green salad tossed with roasted corn and chili vinaigrette. Both the tapas and oysters are a lesson in texture and color — vivid on eye and tongue, with a buttery umami that fills your mouth with happiness: real party food. A party is exactly what you're here for. I spotted no one during my last two visits who wasn't having what looked like the time of their lives.
As noisy-crazy as Canyon is, the place still exudes coziness. Earth and wood tones are dashed with the occasional spot of electric blue; the lighting is low except for peaks of intense glitter shimmering on the designer tequila bottles posed on the back of the bar, as if to say: Drink me. Wooden wine warrens have been tucked here and there into the walls overhead. Draped in an elegant white tablecloth, our booth had the feel of semi-privacy in the midst of mayhem. And the servers passing gracefully through the thrum were highly knowledgeable and just damned nice. The hostess at the door, overseeing an elbowroom-less location that would send any normal staffperson into a frothing tizzy within 15 minutes, treated us with benign geniality. We might as well have been the only customers in the place, instead of just two of many dozens.
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Wilber calls his menu "modern Southwestern with Asian, South, and Central American influences," and he's scattered a few dishes, like the wasabi ginger beef with soba noodles and carne asada, around to ground that claim. But the best dishes here are squarely in the Southwest tradition. Bison skewers ($17) are cooked to a perfect turn, tender and rare on the inside, coated with an inspired rub redolent of Indian spices, a fresh tomato salsa with jalapeño on the side, and a rich red chili crema to drag the meat through.
On our first visit, I raved that Canyon might be the best restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, and a little research at home confirmed that New Times had voted it just that in our 2001 Best Of Broward-Palm Beach issue. The flavors Wilber uses are potent reminders of what can be done to your taste buds: Everything pops. On a second visit, although the food was just as good, I started to quibble. Those flavors did indeed shine from every dish, but they'd started to shine in the same way, whether the dish was chicken or fish or steak — the creams and the chilies and the corn, the salsas and the pestos, were beginning to run together. Even the organic chicken with toasted almond red chili mole ($24), a meal that ought to have confounded all the other flavors we'd sampled, tasted like more of the same (and the chicken was overcooked).
I don't know how you'd get around this problem as a regular customer, exactly, because even the divine red snapper fillet (roasted Peruvian potatoes, toasted corn, marinated tomatoes, $25) would start to seem a little dull after too many repetitions. The beef tenderloin burrito ($24), very fine as it is — overflowing with strips of tenderloin, red peppers, and mushrooms — is ultimately just gussied-up street food. I have nothing bad to say of the salmon fillet cooked on a Mexican cast-iron comal (a flat, heavy pan); it was nicely prepared with a melting center, but only the chili potatoes that came with it linger in memory. I started to wonder if the wilder and more potent the flavors, the harder the chef has to work on upping the taste sensations to keep customers on the edge of their seats. Would Canyon begin to bore in the long haul?
Wilber hardly seems to want to become some sort of mad food scientist — the menu over Canyon's 12 years has shifted only slightly, little tweaks to celebrate each new year. And the crowd keeps on coming, throwing back those prickly pear margaritas (it's hard to imagine how my appetite for these could ever flag) and spooning up the last remnants of white chocolate bread pudding (it comes in a vat the size of a powder-room sink and tastes like the best sex you've ever had). If Wilber and pastry chef Dean Roman had done no more than create one perfect cocktail and an even more idiosyncratically delectable dessert, their work on this planet would have been well done.


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"It often happens that the universal belief of one age, a belief from which no one was free or could be free without an extraordinary effort of genius or courage, becomes to a subsequent age, so palpable an absurdity that the only difficulty is, to imagine how such an idea could ever have appeared credible." ~John Stuart Mill English author and philosopher (1806-1873)
It¹s the future. We turn on the T.V. to a half-hour, commercial-free news program. A reporter speaks: Today is the 10th anniversary of the last case of the deadly 'sad cow' disease that turned the entire world vegan at once, and everyone is amazingly feeling better! We take you now to view a sampling of the general public walking the streets. They move with agility and have a spring to their step. Now we take you to a clip from ten years ago. Dare I say that we appear to be a more evolved species, even than 10 years ago? It was TRUE what the pioneer vegans told us of veganism being the next step in the evolution of humankind!
Once overloaded hospital rooms are emptying at an accelerated rate. It appears that Americans are all getting healthier, leaner, less toxic and disease-ridden. New medical findings indicate children born in these vegan times don't have the typical runny noses (and developing ear infections) so common in children of the last decades. The children are clear-eyed, bright and intelligent. Size 3X has been done away with at the International Clothing Convention, as gross obesity is a disease of the 'not so good old days'. New medical studies show that heart attacks, cancer, diabetes, and other debilitating diseases are at an all time low. The stock market is showing pharmaceuticals so down that these companies are finding other ways to make money. Some of these companies are branching out into natural plant-based herbal remedies, veganically grown and fairly traded. The stock market is also showing solar, wind, hydro and other alternative energy sources are way up and fossil fuels are steadily on the decline.
'The Community Fruit Tree Project' is underway. People all across the globe are planting fruit trees on all residential roads. The funding was ordered by the courts to come from the meat and dairy industries. A law was passed to close down all slaughterhouses and stop the breeding of sentient beings for food or milk, 10 years ago today. The ruling stated that 2% of the companies' profits was to be allocated to fund the Fruit Tree Planting Project in neighborhoods. Let's go to one such typical neighborhood now. (Children and dogs are safely playing together in the streets.) Man's best friend seems to be taking to the vegan diet, as well. Here we see a young boy who learns about 'loyalty' from his dog and best friend. He is learning to REALLY love animals in a way that was unknown decades ago when people ate animals and could not comprehend what really loving them would be like. The neighborhood has gathered, dressed in smiles and grins, to plant various fruit trees. One woman is seen handing out Swan and Milkweed plants that attract the Monarch butterfly, to increase their population. It's Saturday morning and there is a stand on the street corner where neighbors gather to discuss things pertaining to the community. They swap seeds that they have collected from their gardens. They share or sell their excess fruit and vegetables. All the yards on the street are tidy and flowery. Birds, bees and butterflies are plentiful. Two young girls have set up a watermelon stand and are eating up the profits and giggling. All over the globe, human beings are coming out to plant fruit trees on roadsides, for all to share. We take you to one woman seen petting a wild deer in the woods adjacent to her back yard. "This deer and myself no longer feel the fear that as a young woman I lived with day in and day out, and I'm sure my friend here would agree. It's the most miraculous feeling to experience life without constant fearfulness. Who would have ever thought, 10 years ago, that life could become so peaceful for this deer and me? Who would have ever thought I could become friends with a wild animal? We certainly didn't know then what we are realizing now!" Thank-you to our roadside reporter, Will Dumore, and now back to Cher Wordsworth.
Good Day. There is not a single war happening anywhere on Earth for the first time in human history. Let's pause and ponder this profundity. When people all became vegan, they stopped wanting 'to kill.' Thus our crime rate has diminished greatly. All the money we used to pour into law enforcement, prisons, and the judiciary system would have been more wisely spent funding vegan programs, we see now. We could have fed vegan meals to dangerous murderers in prisons to calm their temperaments. How could we have been so blind? Jails are emptying now. People want to live righteously, and so no longer require law enforcement. Parents are breathing easier in these vegan times as violence in our schools has ended. New research shows that children's scholastic achievements have greatly advanced. Children no longer have learning disabilities as they are in a safe, loving environment for learning, while eating nourishing, delicious food.
(Crime is such a thing of the past that it hardly makes the news.) We take you now to meet a dog named Braveheart, who was found rescuing abandoned kittens and becoming their foster mother. Braveheart is seen here taking the kittens to her people where they nourish them from the plant kingdom and supplement those necessary nutrients unavailable from plant food. By being exposed to humanity¹s change to veganism, these kittens are also evolving out of carnivorism to omnivorism. We are leading the way for them.
A panel of renowned scientists from all over the world have merged and released a statement that the ozone hole is significantly decreased. Climate change is at a halt. The great polar ice caps have slowed down their rapid melting of decades past. This is all due to ending animal agriculture and its contribution to the greenhouse gas effect. New species of gentle animals are emerging on the planet and being discovered daily. These are really exciting turn-arounds!
The last slaughterhouse to close was reopened today, in Houston, Texas, as a memorial museum of the Farm Animal Holocaust. On display are the actual trucks used to haul "livestock" (as they used to say). In actuality though, 'living animals' were hauled off to slaughter, reminiscent of the trains used to bring Jews and Catholics to the gas chambers in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The livestock hauling truck stands as an emblem engraved with the words 'Let it never happen again'. At the dedication speech, the speaker called for the term 'genocide' to be expanded to include animals, as well as people. He continued to say that the enslavement and genocide of any feeling, breathing, conscious being will never be again.
We go now to New Zealand where scientists have finally invented and come out with sterilization baits to replace the archaic and inadequate poison baits once used to eradicate the introduced-by-man and unwanted possum in the New Zealand bush. The new baits are proving successful. New Zealanders feel proud to have stopped using poison baits in their natural and indeed beautiful environment, and have made peace with the persecuted possum in this way. Soon all New Zealand forest floors and waterways will be free of cyanide and the like.
Back to the U.S. of A., where Dennis Kucinich, the first appointed 'Secretary of Peace' is stepping down from office, heroically, after an accomplished long term in office and helping to usher us into an Age of Peace. It was a milestone in history when the American people saw the important need for a Secretary of Peace. Not that long ago mass murderers were our heroes. Not that long ago we had only a 'secretary of war' and no government official thought to have a 'secretary of peace'. It¹s amazing what we didn¹t see then that now seems so easy to see.
We go now to Meta Morphosis, our reporter in the field who takes us via airplane to visit L.A.'s busy restaurant scene. The flight attendant asks me, 'Will you be having Tofuna Salad Platter, Meatless Loaf and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, or Wheat-meat Lasagna?' Wow. Food was never so good! (I think to myself, it's all so yummy and better suited to our species, too! Preparing food without blood and guts is really a lot more enjoyable.) Here we are on a street in Los Angeles where I see a vegan pizzeria, Mama Mia's Spaghetti House, a Kentucky Baked Tofu Cutlets Take-Out, New McDonald¹s Soy Burgers, An International House of Plant-Based Pancakes, a gourmet veganic 5 star eatery and winery, a Thai Cuisine Cafe, a Mendy's New Fashioned Vegan Burger joint, a Potato Palace, several raw food establishments, veganic soup and salad bar chains, a Chinese restaurant, fresh juice bars, bakeries, all vegan of course, that goes without saying! As we all know, grocery stores of years past have become mega, reasonably priced, health food stores. Now over to Barry in our capital.
Thank-you, Cher. The clothing and shoe industry's losses are at an all time high, as we vegans tend to want to reuse and recycle, and participate far less in consumerism. Since we're not all clogged up with animal fat, our 'reasoning' has become clearer and it is now obvious to us that we must protect and preserve our precious planet. Recycling collection points have been granted more funding and attention by the courts today. A new Clean Air/Clean Water Act is underway. A star-studded celebrity event at the White House last night raised $100 million dollars for the Clean Air/Clean Water Act. This is Barry Good reporting from Washington D.C. Now back to Cher.
Our highlighted heart-warming story to report to you tonight is: There is NOT a single reported case of a starving child left in Africa, Cher happily and enthusiastically announces. We have accomplished our task to put an end to world hunger. There seems to be plenty of surplus grains, legumes and potatoes since we stopped breeding and eating cows, pigs, and everything else that moves. Food is being shipped in from everywhere! There is a team feeling that has never been seen before on Planet Earth, says a spokesperson for the 'Stop World Hunger¹ committee, Mr. Change Forthebetta.
The Supreme Court of the U.S.A. ruled today that all companies that profited from animal husbandry shall pay back a whopping 10% of its gross profits as retribution for deceiving the American public. They were ordered by law to use the money to fund Fruit Tree Planting projects and veganic gardens in their neighborhood and surrounding communities. All company representatives that we questioned seemed fine with the fine.
Now we take you to a college in Australia where a woman is being awarded a medal of courage for being the first vegan to introduce the vegan ideal to their school, and leading the way towards the shift to present times. People are being honored worldwide today as the United Nations proclaimed this 'Heroes of the Vegan Movement Day'. War heroes of the past will no longer be celebrated. All national holidays honoring war heroes are hereby replaced with days commemorating the forerunners who helped bring us into a radiant Golden Age of Peace.
Now we go to the U.S. Parks and Recreation spokesperson: 'Visitors to our National Parklands and Forests is at an all time high. Since hunting was banned, the rubbish in the national forests is virtually nil, even though far more people are hiking our national forests. This is something we felt worth reporting to you. You; a person just like us. Thank-you and good night from Cher Wordsworth and the team here at BBC (Better Broadcasting Communications.)
By M. Butterflies Katz http://www.veganpoet.com Co-author of Incredibly Delicious; Recipes for a New Paradigm by Gentle World http://www.gentleworld.org
Return to: Spiritual and Inspirational Stories

subset: commoncrawl


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I don't write off these folks as posers as some people do on other boards.
Digital Devil Saga 2 is nowhere near as effective without the character development portrayed in DDS1. The storyline of DDS1 might seem somewhat small once the series segways into the second game, but really, you need to experience it. The exposition helps tremendously.It's entirely mandatory in my opinion.
At the beginning you're having a normal day with your friends and end up being one of the few survivors of the end of the world. Seing how those characters developed, the vision they had for the new world, the methods they used to aquire the power to accomplish it, the way you could shape your relation with them through the course of the game, choose sides or restore the world back to normal. or being mocked by the god of that world and deemed unworthy or just becoming the friggin' lord of the underworld taking lucifer's place, the way the game puts all of that into your own hands, is what makes it so great.


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KEENE — For the second week in a row, the Dover High School football team rallied late from a two-touchdown deficit. Unfortunately for the Green Wave, a missed extra point proved to be their downfall as Dover lost 21-20 to Keene (5-1, 3-1) in Division II action on Friday.
Dover fell to 1-5 and 1-3 overall and faces an uphill climb in the hunt for a playoff spot.
The Green Wave trailed 15-7 at halftime and 21-7 at the end of three quarters. Dover's comeback started when Colin Shaughnessy scored on a 6-yard touchdown run to make it 21-14 with 10:03 left in the game.
Following an interception, Dover took over and scored on the very next play, a 47-yard TD pass to Kyle Seawards. After the PAT was missed, Dover trailed by a point with 7:38 left. Dover's final drive sputtered and Keene held on for the win. Seawards had an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Dover hosts Bedford on Friday.
Portsmouth 35, Hollis-Brookline 19
PORTSMOUTH — The Portsmouth football team was a 35-19 win over HollisBrookline in Division III action Friday night at Tom Daubney Field.
The Clippers improved to 3-1 in the division (4-1 overall). Donovan Phanor threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jake Becker and found Taylor Henschke for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Phanor finished with 66 yards rushing on 12 carries. Mikel Toar gave Portsmouth a 14-7 lead heading into halftime on a 7-yard scoring run. Portsmouth travels to Merrimack Valley (0-4) next Friday.
Dirigo 12, Traip 6
KITTERY, Maine — The Traip Academy football team lost its first game of the season, 12-6 Friday night under the lights in Western Maine Class C. Both teams are 5-1.
Traip's final drive ended with a fumble at the Dirigo 15-yard line with 1:24 remaining. Cory Aldecoa led Traip with 184 rushing yards, including an 86-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Up next for Traip is a visit to OOB next Friday night.
Winnacunnet 34, Spaulding 20
HAMPTON — The Spaulding football team fell 34-20 at Winnacunnet (6-0, 4-0) on Friday night in Division II.
Spaulding (1-5, 1-4)
Sam Ouellette ran for a touchdown and threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Mike Bellio. Trey Scott scored on a 98-yard touchdown run.
Spaulding is at Manchester West next Friday.
Deering 45, Noble 32
NORTH BERWICK, Maine — The Noble High School football team, coached by Tom Daubney, fell 45-32 to Deering on Friday night in Western Maine Class A.
Ethan Beaulier threw to David Thibault for a pair of touchdown passes, one for 40 yards and the other for 32. Derek Shute scored two rushing touchdowns, one for 6 yards and the other for 22. Shute ran for a pair of 2-point conversions and Beaulier connected with Thibault for two 2-point conversions.
Noble hosts Massabesic next weekend.
Material from the Portsmouth Herald and Keene Sentinel was used in this report.
H.S. football roundup: Dover falls short at Keene
KEENE — For the second week in a row, the Dover High School football team rallied late from a two-touchdown deficit. Unfortunately for the Green Wave, a missed extra point proved to be their downfall as Dover lost 21-20 to Keene (5-1, 3-1) in Division II action on Friday.


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Irish designers are not just blowing glass, knitting jumpers and weaving baskets, they're also dressing some of the world's biggest names
Galway man and master milliner, Philip Treacy is no stranger to the stars. To name drop just a little, in his time in the spotlight, he has decorated the heads of Sarah Jessica Parker, Grace Jones and Dita Von Teese.
Lady Gaga has Treacy to thank for some of her iconic looks, including the famous telephone hat in her music video for Telephone. Gaga even opened Treacy's Michael Jackson-themed show at London Fashion Week in September 2012 declaring the Irish designer to be "The greatest milliner of all time".
And, to top it off, according to a report in Vogue, there were rumours that she wanted to intern at the milliner's London-based company. How's that for kudos?
A little less "out there", the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, is a fan of Dublin-born Orla Kiely and has been photographed wearing her pieces many times. The designer's distinct prints are recognisable all over the world, and her handbags adorn the arms of women everywhere from Tokyo to Tipperary.
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From real royalty to TV royalty, Don O'Neill from Ballyheigue, County Kerry, has had the honour of seeing the queen of the chat show, Oprah Winfrey, wearing his creation at the Oscars, as well as on the cover of her magazine O. Don recalls it was a "huge deal" to dress living legend Oprah; and the glittering, gold dress from O'Neill's Theia label was compared to the Oscar statuette itself.
Away from Academy Award duties, Oprah's not the only star donning his wares – American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has also worn one of his Theia dresses on stage recently in Brazil.
Of course, between handbag designer Pauric Sweeney (favoured by Jessica Biel and Jennifer Lopez) to esteemed womenswear designer Louise Kennedy (who has counted Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue and Meryl Streep among her clients), it'd be easy to think that Irish fashion was all about the here and now.
But delve a little into the past, and you'll find iconic Irish designers with big reputations. Take Sybil Connolly. X Files star Gillian Anderson opted for a little vintage style for the Bafta Awards in 2012 when she donned an outfit by the late Irish designer.
Connolly, who died in 1998, was named in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame back in 1965. On top of that, one of her dresses was worn by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when she sat for her official White House portrait. Jackie O also visited Connolly during a visit to Ireland in 1967, and the highlights of her collection can be seen in the Newbridge SiIver Museum of Style Icons.
While Ireland's more established designers are widely acknowledged, up-and-coming geniuses are getting their designs seen in all the right places. Fashion icon Daphne Guinness, singers PJ Harvey, Paloma Faith and Sinéad O'Connor, actress Saoirse Ronan and supermodel Jacquetta Wheeler have all worn Joanne Hynes's work, given that she is a perfect of example of edgy, modern Irish design.
Newcomer Una Burke has dressed performers including Rihanna, Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga. Gaga also wore a design by Offaly-born Sorcha O'Raghallaigh, who was chosen by London department store Selfridges as one of their Bright Young Things. And don't forget to keep an eye out for JW Anderson, favoured by Kirsten Dunst and Alexa Chung, whose collection X Topshop scored big critical acclaim in 2012.
Ireland by design? You bet.
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If the names Philip Treacy, Orla Kiely and Louise Kennedy mean something to you, you already know how widely travelled...
Bronze Age treasures in our museums are testament to our heritage and skill for making some seriously shiny stuff out...
Irish crafts aren't just showpieces, in fact, most have been part of daily life for centuries
If you're looking for something with style, or just a memorable souvenir then it's time to go shopping...
We know exactly where the antiques are hidden on our Treasure Island
Holiday ideas, news, offers… sign up for our ezine and we'll keep you in touch with Ireland.
Excited your interest? There are airports throughout the Island with international arrivals. Discover airlines flying to Ireland from your location.
Want to know more? Ask a question in our Community, they're the people who know Ireland best.
For more information on travel, accommodation and attractions have a look at our brochures and maps.
If you're a visitor from the island of Ireland you may want to visit one of these sites… Otherwise proceed to Ireland.com
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Sun Launches Upgrade Campaign to Woo Windows NT Customers
Sun Microsystems Wednesday launched NT Upgrade Campaign, an upgrade program through which it hopes to attract current Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 customers that will be left adrift when Microsoft's recently announced end-of-life plans for NT Server 4.0 take effect.
With Sun's new program, enterprises can trade up to Sun Cobalt RaQ server appliances or Sun Cobalt Qube appliances and receive a discount up to 20 percent.Sun Microsystems Wednesday launched NT Upgrade Campaign, an upgrade program through which it hopes to attract current Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 customers that will be left adrift when Microsoft's recently announced end-of-life plans for NT Server 4.0 take effect.
To ease an organization's transition from NT Server 4.0, Sun Cobalt server appliances integrate Linux-based application and system functions in a secure, browser-based interface designed to shield the administrator from technical complexities and minimize the need for trained IT staff.
Sun Cobalt server appliances also allow customers to continue using their existing tools, such as Windows clients and Web Development Tools -- a particular boon for enterprises migrating from NT that have a plethora of Windows applications in use.
Sun believes this functionality virtually eliminates a customer's learning curve during the transition from a general-purpose server to a Sun Cobalt server appliance. It also believes that its server appliances reduce total cost of ownership because they include built-in software tools and monitoring agents that minimize the need for ongoing system management and support efforts. The elimination of licensing fees for LAN users further decreases the cost of using a Sun Cobalt server appliance.
"In addition to offering a cost-effective, easy-to-use alternative to Windows NT Server, Sun Cobalt server appliances provide the continuous uptime and rock-solid protection that every organization needs to remain profitable in today's competitive e-business marketplace," said Peder Ulander, director of marketing for Sun's Cobalt division.
"Windows NT customers will find that with these plug-and-play server appliances, they can enjoy the convenience of hassle-free computing and support without sacrificing privacy and security," Ulander added.
Sun claims the software layer in its Cobalt appliance servers can be installed in minutes, thereby minimizing downtime and increasing productivity. Because all system components are tightly integrated, the server appliances are highly reliable, as evidenced by the fact that Sun measures uptime in months and years rather than in days or weeks.
The NT Upgrade Campaign is effective immediately and runs through June 30. Sun Cobalt retailers worldwide are taking part in the promotion.
The reduced pricing brings the Qube 3 down to a minimum of $1,349. RaQ server will be priced starting at $1,399.
Sun is holding a Web-based seminar on February 27 at 12 p.m. EST to discuss the details. Registration information is available at http://www.cobalt.com/registration/.
Related Stories:
Sun Targets Home Networks, Small Businesses With Qube 3
Sun Announces Server Appliance Management Product
Sun Completes Acquisition of Cobalt Networks
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When I was growing up my dad had a constant supply of gravel around our house because he was always using one of his tractors to move the gravel around to fill up potholes that would form on the many gravel drives around the lumberyard. From time to time my friends and I would climb the huge pile of white and grey granite stones and proclaim ourselves kings and queens of the world. That is, until we got knocked off our perch and onto our keisters. To this day I have scars and divets in my shins, knees and elbows from my rather abrupt ousters from being a world ruler.
From time to time I need a diversion in the classroom…maybe I don't feel particularly well, perhaps the weather is really crummy, or it could be that a certain student is pushing my button a little too often. Then again, maybe I'm just simply not in the mood to teach that next lesson in my American Revolution unit or World War II, or I simply can't face explaining how the Korean War has never really ended. Yes, believe it or not Elementaryhistoryteacher gets a bit worn mid-way through a unit...sometimes.
Then again….it could be the students need a diversion. You begin class and look out to find those glazed over looks that beg for a diversion. Perhaps it's a really sunny day after a string of really nasty weather days, maybe there was a really nasty fight down the hall and it riled everyone up, and then again perhaps students need a diversion because……because diversions are…they are….
… the stuff of life!
Diversions make the mundane bearable.
So…..one of my little pleasures that serve as a diversionary lesson begins where I ring my little bell to signal class has begun and then on the whiteboard at the front of the board I write: Remain quiet. We are going to suspend our present study and detour down another road. Today's lesson involves folks who wanted to take over the world, but first we are going to watch a little video and enjoy some music.
I show some song lyrics on the overhead and begin the video…..
Yep, from the mid-eighties the song is Everybody Wants to Rule the World from the band Tears For Fears. The audio is particularly good on this video, so turn it up and enjoy!
Here are the lyrics:
Welcome to your life…There's no turning back…Even while we sleep…We will find you…Acting on your best behavior…Turn your back on Mother Nature.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
It's my own design…It's my own remorse…Help me to decide…Help me make the most of freedom and pleasure…nothing ever lasts forever.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
There's a room where the light won't find you…Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down…When they do I'll be right behind you.
So glad we've almost made it….So sad they had to face it.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
I can't stand this indecision…Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world.
Say that you'll never, never, never, never need it….One headline why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world.
All for freedom and for pleasure….Nothing ever lasts forever.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
I ask students what they think the song is about and how it might fit into a study of history. I then inform them that when asked about the song, Curt Smith, the band's lead vocalist, stated, "The concept is quite serious – it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes."
Then we switch gears a little and we discuss a cartoon from the WB Television Network called Pinky and the Brain. You can find all sorts of video clips from the series at this YouTube link. Pinky and the Brain are two rats who have been altered genetically and reside in a laboratory. Pinky is good-natured but feebleminded while the Brain is self-centered and scheming. Each episode begins with the following dialogue:
Pinky: "So Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"
Brain: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky – try to take over the world!"
Added to the mix in each episode and each new plan for world domination are parodies of classic novels and popular movies.
I share with students that the show was actually inspired by an actual conversation between two men who had previously worked on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the popular Ren and Stimpy series. They wondered like we all have what it would be like to take over the world.
We then launch into a discussion about world domination. Why would someone want to control the world? What would the pros and cons be? Would it take a particular type of individual to actually pull off such a feat?
At this point I present a list to students including some of the following: Napoleon, Ghengkis Khan, Caesar, Hitler, Alexander the Great, and a few others. Hopefully, you have recognized these names as men who sought to take over the world…..or at least the world that was known to them at the time.
Based on our prior discussion regarding what motivates someone to seek world domination I ask students to choose one name and do a little in-class research using my encyclopedias and the vast array of Kids Discover magazines I've been collecting over the years. Each issue is centered around one topic…..The Constitution….Ancient Rome….Gengkis Khan, etc. They are geared for younger students age 7-12, and I haven't found a student yet that doesn't like them.
Students complete some research on their own and then I ask them to gather in small groups based on the person they chose. I ask them to share with each other what they have discovered and analyze the information in order to conclude what motivated the person to want to take over the world and why they failed. Finally, each student meets with another student who researched a different person. They share with each other what they have discovered and keep meeting with a different student until they have heard about each man on our research list.
Diversion ARE the stuff of life and sometimes they are very, very necessary.


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Cooking like the pros.
The original pro collection® was designed by professionals for professionals. That is why it is so extremely robust. All the pots are made of sturdy 18/10 stainless steel.
Flavor guarantee.
The extra heavy and tightly closing lid is the key: heat and moisture are retained in the pot. This ensures the food is juicy and aromatic.


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Picture + Paper + Personal = The Perfect Postcard
For anyone who laments the demise of printed mail (the funny stamps! the feel of paper! the thrill of opening that metal box and seeing something other than a bill peeking out from the stack!), but relishes the speed and convenience of e-cards (I'm too lazy to go to the mailbox I'd rather just click a button!), Hazel Mail may just put your communication conflicts to rest once and for all.
The nifty program lets you upload your own photo from your computer or phone (yes, there's an app for that). Then it will create an actual postcard (i.e. paper), stamp it and mail it anywhere in the world, all for way less mental and financial hassle than it would cost to find a mailbox in the middle of nowhere. In the high technology vs. personal touch debate, this scores a solid "best of both worlds." Easy as a Twitpic but just as personal as a handwritten letter from your childhood pen pal. No, I didn't have one either, but I've read about them, and they sure seem swell.
All it really means, of course, is that instead of getting the typical birds-eye view of a beautiful landmark, my family and friends can now look forward to receiving snazzy prints from my ever-in-development "Hey look where my feet have been" series. Thanks, Hazel!


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Bill Z. has brought my attention to a December 2012 nuclear physics paper that was updated 3 days ago,
The fate of carbon-based life as a function of the light quark massThey (Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs, Timo A. Lähde, Dean Lee, Ulf-G. Meißner) try to determine the precision with which God or non-God had to fine-tune the average light quark mass – a parameter defined as \((m_{\rm up}+m_{\rm down})/2\) – in order to guarantee that there would be enough carbon, oxygen, and other elements that are crucial for the type of life that is recommended by 4 of 5 dentists.
The detailed calculations are concerned with the Hoyle state. What is it and what did the authors of the new paper conclude?
In 1954, Fred Hoyle noticed that we were lucky about a seemingly technical coincidence in nuclear physics that was apparently needed for us to exist. Note that in the baryonic (proton- and neutron-based i.e. visible) matter in the Universe around us, hydrogen and helium are the dominant elements.
It's no coincidence. It was mostly hydrogen (\(Z=1\)) and helium (\(Z=2\)) – and just some lithium (\(Z=3\)), aside from negligible trace amounts of heavier elements (\(Z\geq 4\)), that was directly produced during the Big Bang nucleosynthesis in the first three minutes after the Big Bang. One may reconstruct the temperature in the Universe during these early formative stages of our Cosmos and calculate, using the statistical methods, the ratios of the concentrations of these three light elements. The results seem to match the observations of hydrogen, helium, lithium rather impressively – and this agreement is one of the important pieces of evidence supporting the Big Bang paradigm.
Looking from a practical perspective, are the three lightest elements enough to get everything we need to be happy? Well, lithium may be helpful for some laptop and cell phone batteries and helium is useful at most for funny tricks to change your voice into the voice of the Smurfs (fine, it's also great as the gas in balloons, either for kids or adults, and as the coolant in NMR and the LHC). We could also describe helium as the main waste product of the thermonuclear reactions in the Sun and other stars if it weren't too disrespectful.
Hydrogen is useful for a huge fraction of compounds we need and love. But where is the rest? It's obvious that the three elements aren't enough to build life and the civilization as we know it. In particular, two other major heavier elements behind the miraculous project of life – carbon and oxygen – seem to be absent. Yes, these are the same two elements found in the gas that they call a pollution but we call it life.
Aside from hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, the three major elements, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur are three more elements that are paramount for life we know. Other elements such as silicon or calcium or fluorine (because I mentioned the dentists) may be helpful to shape our bodies at various moments and/or to create various intelligent gadgets but they're no longer a universal "must". Where do all these elements come from?
The heavier elements are abundantly enough produced by helium burning in stars that have gone red giants. Our carbon, oxygen, and other elements arose from the production in these red giant stars that once existed but they are no more. In 7.5 billion years or so, our beloved Sun will become a red giant, too. It will devour the Earth and other planets – that's the less dramatic part of the story – but it will also produce completely new carbon, oxygen, and other elements that may be incorporated into the bodies of a future extraterrestrial civilization.
Fine. How do the red giants produce carbon (\(Z=6\))?
Note that six is a multiple of two: we call these numbers "even". So it has the right number of protons to arise from several, namely three, nuclei of helium which seem abundant. Moreover, the ordinary carbon nuclei we need have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, the same number, so it seems appropriate to combine three helium-4 nuclei to create carbon-12:\[
\Large {}^4_2{\rm He} + {}^4_2{\rm He} + {}^4_2{\rm He} \rightarrow {}^{12}_6{\rm C}
\] It's somewhat unlikely for three helium-4 nuclei – which I will call the alpha-particles just like everyone else – to hit each other and produce the carbon nucleus directly. So the reaction actually proceeds in two steps, with an unstable level of beryllium-8 or \({}^8_4{\rm Be}\) in between. This beryllium-8 nucleus combines with another alpha-particle to get the desired carbon but this second step has too low a rate.
We wouldn't get enough carbon in this way (if it were just a generic fusion of these nuclei) and it's actually known that something special is going on. There is a resonance, a \(0^+\) state of carbon-12 known as the Hoyle state. Fred Hoyle actually predicted – using the apparent abundance of carbon as the only input – that it should be somewhere over there and indeed, the prediction was soon experimentally confirmed.
There exists a state of carbon-12 whose mass/energy is equal to the mass/energy of three free alpha-particles plus \(\varepsilon=397.47(18)\keV\); we say that the state is \(\varepsilon\) above the three-alpha threshold (a threshold, in general, is the minimum mass/energy of an unstable/composite object that allows the corresponding state to decay to particular products without violating the energy conservation law).
In the relevant region of the parameter space, the reaction rate for the carbon-12 production – via the Hoyle resonance – may be approximated by \[
r_{3\alpha} = \Gamma_\gamma (N_\alpha/k_B T)^3 \exp(-\varepsilon/k_B T).
\] You see that up to an overall normalization constant, this is equal to the third power of the number (density) of alpha-particles per unit volume (because three of them have to meet) and a Boltzmannian factor that exponentially decreases with energy. This \(\varepsilon\) shouldn't be too high because the exponential suppression could be severe. It shouldn't be too small, either, for other reasons. In the past, it was argued that a 15% deviation of \(\varepsilon\) from the known value could still allow enough carbon etc. for life.
Now, what have they found about the dependence of this accident on the light quark mass?
They use a novel numerical method, nuclear lattice simulations, to calculate the dependence. It's something like lattice QCD except that it seems to work with some composite pion fields and the low-energy emergent nuclear physics mess instead of the fundamental QCD fields. The light quark mass is translated to the mass of the pion \(M_\pi\) and they discuss the dependence of the energies of several energy levels on either the light quark mass or the pion mass which is almost the same dependence.
I don't want to bore you with all the details – you may read the original paper, it's just 4 pages long. Instead, let me repost a graph summarizing some partial results of their analysis:
On the \(x\)-axis, they depicted the relative change of the binding energy of the alpha-particle; on the \(y\)-axis, you see the corresponding (much larger) relative change of the three energies related to the helium-4, beryllium-8, and carbon-18 nuclei, namely of\[
\Delta E_h &= E_{12}^* - E_8 - E_4\\
\Delta E_b &= E_8 - 2E_4\\
\varepsilon &= E_{12}^* - 3E_4 = \Delta E_h + \Delta E_b
\] Because of the final relationship for \(\varepsilon\), it's not surprising that the yellow curve is in between the other two. But what may be surprising is that these two curves – and therefore all three curves – have pretty much the same slope. What does it mean? It means that the several fine-tunings are actually not independent from each other.
You could think that for the nuclear factory to work and produce the elements, you may need several miracles – several anthropic conditions, in this case three – and therefore God has to be even greater than the size He would adopt if there were just one miracle. God's omnipotence seems like the third power of a generic god's power (or three times? It depends whether His omnipotence is quantified on the log scale).
However, the new paper shows that this ain't the case. The three coincidences aren't independent from each other. Pretty much because of mathematical identities, they're more or less equivalent to one coincidence only. If one identity for the nuclear level energies holds, the other two will probably hold as well, with a highly acceptable accuracy. It means that one miracle is enough and life is much more likely than what you would expect if you thought that the three conditions are independent of each other.
Now, you could claim that we still need meta-God to explain the mathematical "metamiracle" that the three conditions are actually almost equivalent to each other. If you did so, you would cover these questions by lots of exciting religious fog. But the matter of fact is that they can actually explain this "metamiracle" – at least in a preliminary way – in terms of completely non-mysterious, irreligious arguments, too. The same slopes kind of follow from the alpha-cluster structure of beryllium-8 and carbon-12 nuclei. I won't present this derivation in its full glory but the alpha-particle-based compositeness of the two nuclei sort of rationally explains why the two slopes are almost the same.
Even though several levels and energy differences are involved, the authors de facto show that there is only one "miracle" we need for a sufficient production of the heavier elements behind life. Moreover, the tolerated error for \(\alpha_{\rm elmg}\) as well as \(m_q\) could be around 2 percent or so: the fine-tuning isn't extreme.
Although this very topic may make you "wish" that there is some evidence for the Intelligent Design and/or a stunningly convincing role for the anthropic principle, and the very fact that a paper about this metaphysical and mysterious question was written could manipulate you into a more spiritual thinking, I would say that the actual results of their analysis imply exactly the opposite conclusion. Different "miracles" aren't really independent from each other and they're not "terribly unlikely miracles", anyway. Good luck at the 1-in-50 level seems to be enough for the amount of carbon to be just fine. At most, you may need two such 1-in-50 fine-tunings – one for the fine-structure constant and one for the light quark mass – except that I think that only some combination of them will have a high enough impact on the essential processes needed for the elements of life to arise.
Now, you could still argue that 1-in-50 is a low chance. The probability \(p=0.02\) or so is pretty small, some of you could say, and this strengthens some arguments in favor of God, Intelligent Design, the anthropic principle, or something along these lines. Well, perhaps. I don't think it's a right way to think about this coincidence. Why?
First, \(p=0.02\) is equivalent to a "bump just a little bit larger than a 2-sigma bump". To make extraordinary claims about God or the anthropic principle – and one really doesn't know which of these (or other metaphysical) explanations "follows" from the "miracle" – and justify them by not-so-extraordinary evidence such as 2-sigma bumps seems to betray the lack of evidence. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and this ain't one.
Second, this not-so-extreme probability \(p=0.02\) is the \(p\)-value before the look-elsewhere effect of a particular type is included. What I want to say is that we're computing the probability that a particular system of nuclear furnaces will be able to produce a particular type of life (determined by its elements etc.). However, there could very well be other types of life – perhaps \({\mathcal O}(50)\) types of life – that may arise in the same parameter space which means that the probability that at least one of these types of life will be allowed for a "random" choice of the values of parameters may approach 100 percent.
These observations of coincidences that are needed for life are intriguing but we shouldn't get carried away for two basic reasons. First, as argued above, the probabilities that we get a tolerable value of the parameters (values compatible with life) aren't extremely tiny and we should treat these "modestly suggestive" low probability just like any other 2-sigma bumps in physics. They're not enough to settle a question, they're not enough for a paradigm shift.
Second, it's pretty much guaranteed that if we calculate the odds that some "conditions constraining parameters that makes the theory friendly to life as we know it" are obeyed, it's unsurprising that the answer will probably be Yes because our type of life does exist, after all. The proposition that "conditions apparently needed for this life to arise with a significant probability were satisfied" is pretty much tautologicaly true. These conditions simply aren't independent of some empirical known facts. We're just measuring the answer to the question "Does life exist?" using a different, perhaps more contrived, procedure. But the fact that many such questions have "Yes" answers isn't a miracle; it's pretty much tautologically guaranteed because these questions were cherry-picked by their equivalence to the existence of life (or some of the aspects of this existence).
If the probabilities arising in similar anthropic coincidences were much tinier, i.e. much more extreme than 2-sigma bumps, I could be impressed. The tiny cosmological constant could be an indication of this sort. However, we may only argue that the "probability that the cosmological constant is below \(10^{-120}m_{\rm Planck}^4\) is of order \(10^{-120}\)" if we adopt a uniform probability distribution for cosmological constants in the interval comparable to \((0,m_{\rm Planck}^4)\).
While some plausible models that make the uniform distribution look natural exist, they're not "inevitably true" and it's still easy to imagine that this uniform probability distribution is a completely naive, wrong expectation. If we replace it by another one – one that follows from a slightly sophisticated mechanism and one that gives tiny values of the cosmological constant with far higher probabilities – the "unavoidably impressive" miracle goes away once again. If you wanted to convince me that there is a miracle that harbors strong evidence in favor of the anthropic reasoning or God or anything like that, you would have to show me a coincidence that has a tiny probability according to the right calculation of probabilities (a calculation which takes all mathematically guaranteed correlations such as those above into account) and a nicely justifiable probability distribution for the parameters.
If you used a quasi-uniform one, you would have to convince me that it's reasonable to expect that the distribution is quasi-uniform for that situation. It would have to be so reasonable – almost inevitable – that, in fact, I would find your anthropic principle or God more likely as an explanation than the mundane possibility that there simply exists a better argument or "better theory" telling you that a non-uniform distribution is actually a much more sensible (and likely) one. Or a better theory that simply allows you to calculate the observed value. How strong evidence is needed to prefer God over the "better theory" depends on subjective prior probabilities but be sure that 2-sigma or even 3-sigma bumps are way too small for people like me to pick God or His best pal, the anthropic anti-God, instead of a "better, so far unknown, theory".
If you can't show me such a thing, I would keep on insisting that there doesn't exist any tangible evidence to believe the anthropic/religious paradigm and because these things aren't mathematically elegant or explaining any true pre-existing mysteries in physics, they don't really deserve to become a part of physics, at least at this moment.


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We're now a decade past the night where Joe Torre, Bob Brenly and Bud Selig seemingly conspired to ruin the mid-season classic for everyone and for all of eternity, ending the 2002 game in a tie after shoehorning all of their pitchers into action in the game's early innings. It's almost started to feel as though the anger from that night is beginning to dissipate. Finally.
Much of the consternation in the ensuing decade over the quality and meaning of the All-Star Game can be attributed to that night, and understandably so. What followed were questionable decisions that attempted to fix what would not have been broken if that one game had rested in more astute hands. The rosters eventually expanded to 34 players. The game would "count" and decide home-field advantage in the World Series. And at some point, a premium was placed on "utility" all-stars - hello Omar Infante - who could play a number of positions if managers had already torn through their vast list of reserves.
Even with all of those missteps, I can't stop coming back to the game with an eager spirit and an open mind. Maybe it's because it's almost impossible to fake your way through the game baseball, so even as an exhibition, it can be pretty compelling to watch. Pitchers don't throw at half speed, batters take full cuts, and fielders lay out to get balls. The game is still a game, and it's the game that fans love.
That's not to say it's perfect, though. As someone who is a friend of the All-Star Game, indulge me for a moment as I make a few humble suggestions for improving the for fans of the game.
Reduce the Roster Size: If you look at the rosters from the All-Star Games in the Eighties and Nineties, you'll find some surprising selections, but not nearly as many undeserving half-season flukes as have been seen in since the latest wave of expansion.
Unfortunately, graceful alternatives to the current roster structure would mostly result in creating artificial rules to control the dumber urges of the yearly managers. If you ordained that starting pitchers needed to be used for at least three innings, what happens if that pitcher gets shelled in the first or second inning? Would you end up with players feigning mid-game injuries to remove themselves? Layering on rules that are not germane to the game would only lead to weird non-baseball decisions and new manners of circumvention. Or worse, players avoiding the All-Star Game altogether.
But if you were to reduce the size of the roster back to 30 or even 28 players, you would take away the impulse of the managers to go to their pen or their bench too early. The starters who were voted in by the fans would get more time, and there would be fewer questionable selections tacked on to the butt end of the roster to fill out the card. Because very few of us are holding our breath in anticipation of Chris Perez's appearance in the game tonight.
The problem with reducing the roster is that it will make it harder to ensure full representation from all of the 30 teams, and this is still a noble and desirable outcome. Regardless of what the punditry say, fans still get excited to see their guys in the game. To address this, two additional stipulations would be put in place.
First, you limit the number of representatives from any given team to five players. Yes, the 2012 Texas Rangers are a sight to behold, but would anybody mourn the absence or Matt Harrison or Joe Nathan if they hadn't made the team this year?
Second, you allow for non-player personnel to be a team's representative. If the best the Oakland A's could muster this year was Ryan Cook, why not allow Chili Davis to represent the team as the hitting coach, or Nick Paparesta as the athletic trainer? Maybe those aren't the best examples, but you get my drift.
Make Way for the Kids: In most years, rookies or up-and-coming stars are often left off the rosters. That's why it is a delightful turn of events this year that Mike Trout and Bryce Harper will make appearances in the All-Star Game.
Ballot-box stuffing aside, the fans generally do a pretty good job of picking the right players to appear in the All-Star Game. Whether through the standard vote for the starters or the votes for the final slots on the roster, the fans generally pick someone deserving. So why not extend to the fans the opportunity to vote in a young, compelling player from each league who has less than 1.5 years of MLB service time to participate in the game?
Ensuring that there is a mechanism for reliably adding these young players to the roster would provide an interesting storyline in the lead up to the game, and would help to highlight the new and emerging talent that will eventually become the stars of the game. Plus, it would allow the fans to get to know a number of new faces as they weight their options on the ballot.
Put the Game on Cable: When Fox digs deep to find outlandish sums of money to throw at baseball, the All Star Game is one of the key properties for their over-the-air broadcast rights. And yet, the need to turn the game into a broader entertainment program that captures non-fans results in some of the most garish and unnecessary moments.
When fans have been waiting all day to watch the game, seeing some crappy country-pop-faux-rock ensemble mugging into the camera while singing a completely unnecessary song is an insult. It's completely superfluous, and takes time away from the actual baseball portion of the broadcast. In fact, it seems as though the player introductions - one of the best parts of the All-Star pageantry - are now rushed because of the non-game related promos and stunts that lard up the first 45 minutes of the broadcast. Moreover, you can be reasonably certain that the camera will cut away to prominently feature People Who Think They Can Dance, the hosts of whichever music competition is on these days, and long, ponderous voiceovers by the star of whichever Fox drama no one is watching these days.
Not that you can blame them for taking advantage of the event to pimp their own product. That's always been a good part of the equation for any rights holder. And while it would be hard to argue that ESPN is the model of restraint when it comes to self-promotion during broadcasts, cable sports networks are much more focused on appealing to the fan of the game rather than concerning themselves with drawing in eyeballs that happened to stumble upon the screen.
Ultimately, the game belongs in a place where the focus will be on promoting the sport and creating a greater appreciation of baseball. Eliminating the need to maximize every ratings point and wring out every promotional opportunity would go a long ways towards making the experience more satisfying for fans. It might even help baseball entice a few more fans to become engaged in the game every day.
And really, shouldn't that ultimately be the point of this showcase?
Let's Chat, Shall We?: If you're planning on having a multi-screen experience with tonight's Home Run Derby, I'd be happy to have you as my guest as I host a chat on Sportsnet.ca to coincide with the tater slammin' contest.
Agree or disagree with any of the All-Star Game suggestions above? Want to talk about the Jays' first half, or commiserate on the state of the pitching staff? Or do you need support to guide you through the Homerthon itself? Want to bounce outlandish trade scenarios past me? I'm all ears. Stop by, and join in the fun tonight at 8 pm.


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Caramel Mud Cake
And here's the recipe.
It's very common to have crack top mud cake especially by using a 8" pan. So, don't worry! Just turn the cake upside down. It looks as gorgeous!
Kristy the texture of your mud cake is so fine! fantastic cake!ReplyDelete
i wouldnt mind having this mud cake LOLReplyDelete
wow this looks wonderful cut me a slice!ReplyDelete
Kristy, I baked caramel mud cake too but mine definitely dun look as good as yours. And how brilliant is too drizzle with chocolate ganache, I bet added extra flavour too!ReplyDelete
Oh, I love this with the caramel!! Not good for diet, but good for sweet tooth.ReplyDelete
it looks like the honey cake~
I love your serving plate, it's adorable with good saying! The mud cake's recipe sounds pretty easy, maybe we should try this for this coming CNY!^-^ReplyDelete
Oh sweet~ My favourite ;) At least something special rather than the normal icing cakes...ReplyDelete
hey Kristy! I dare eat la.. mud or no mud.. sounds easy.. (look who's talking!)ReplyDelete
Kristy, I must try to make this but after CNY,because now busy doing cookies and cleaning. Thanks for the solution for avoid cracking on top.ReplyDelete
Jess : Thank you!
mamakucing : Want me to FedEX over? :o)
Rebecca : No a problem! Just wait me at the other side of the printer. lol!
Jess : Whoa, the chocolate ganache... the more the merrier! NMost recipe they used selfraising flour for baking but I used a/p flour by adding in extra baking powder. So, the cake looks taller and lighter.
Belinda : Ya, I know! I hope I don't have problem by the time I wanted to fit in my new year dress, 2 weeks later! ;o(
Maya : Honey cake is very fine & soft cake!
Claire : I bet you will! haha... You've no need to waste your energy in baking. Elin will sure send you some yummy treats soon. All you have to do is, just empty your stomach! haha....
Thank you very much for spending your time here with me today. It's great hearing form you all.
Hope you ladies are having a terrific day.
Blessings, Kristy
Can I come and join you for a slice? LOL DianeReplyDelete
I like the Chocolate Mud Cake at Coffee Club. U must try when u visit S'pore.
When can I try your baking? Love all your creations!
Caramel cake.. I definitely wouldn't complain having half with tea now :)) can imagine its lovely taste..ReplyDelete
wat a gorgeous recipe..sounds awesome dear..
Tasty appetite
looks awesome and very soft....ReplyDelete
Nice twist! Mud cakes are so sinfully good.ReplyDelete
Mud cakes (and pies as well) are always so rich and delicious.
Oh it looks amazing! I want a piece... a big one.
*kisses* HH
Love mud cake esp when it is dark chocolate. Nice with scoop of vanilla ice -cream.ReplyDelete
The oozing white chocolate ganache really caught my eye but the whole cake sounds fabulous. Lovely photos too!ReplyDelete
Caramel is a lovely change from chocolate, much as I love chocolate! My kids will go bonkers over this one as they love white chocolate :)ReplyDelete
It looks so moist and tasty. What a lovely texture. I like how you can flip it and presto perfect!ReplyDelete
Mouthwatering cake. Looks so tempting.ReplyDelete
So nom nom! the mud cake looks really moist.ReplyDelete
Interesting name bit it sure looks very delicious, especially with the chocolate icing.ReplyDelete
Name does not matter, it's the taste that counts and your cake looks moist and yummy!ReplyDelete
Looks great, I especially like the white chocolate ganache:)ReplyDelete
This cake has such a wonderful texture. I'll have to find some time to make it. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings...MaryReplyDelete
The cake looks great too! My husband would love that white chocolate topping. :-))ReplyDelete
That is one moist cake, Kristy! Actually, you pulled me in with caramel...that always gets my attention!ReplyDelete
This looks super decadent and moist! Love it with a cup of tea, yum!ReplyDelete
Your cake looks perfect Kristy! So moist and sweet and scrumptious! Wish I had a piece.ReplyDelete
Oh, I could go for a slice of this great cake right now! It looks delicious, mouthwatering for sure!ReplyDelete
It's 5:30 a.m., but can I have a slice right now??? Please! Looks and sounds wonderful!
Have a great weekend!
What a delicious version of mud cake! White chocolate ganache is the perfect icing. I would like a nice, big slice please.ReplyDelete
Wai Kitt : Ya, can not be so greedy! Make everything in one shot. haha... Take it easy.
Diane : Not a problem! Just help yourself. :o)
Shirley : Haha... Shy~lah!
Medeja : Haha...half??? Half slice or half cake?
Jay : Thank you very much!
Divya : Hope you will like it too!
Ann : Glad you like it too & wlecome back from M'sia!
Sam : Oh, do they call this as pie too?
HH : What about a quarter??? Medeja wants half of it!*sigh*
tigerfish : Ooo... that sounds great! I must try having it with ice-cream next time.
Bridgett : Thanks alot! Hope you're well, dear.
Denise : Your kids are the luckiest! They owned a Pro-cook at home. LOL.
Lyndz : Haha... just an excuse, friend. haha...
Nithu : Hi there, welcome to my humble little space & hope to hear from you more often.
Penny : Ya, it it! I'll double up the icing next round. :P
MaryMoh : Thank you! Errr... eating mud! ha...
Cheah : Thank you!
Jeannie : Ooo... that is the most fattening part. haha...
Mary : You too!
Angie : But white chocolate is much sweeter than dark chocolate.
Barbara : Mmmm....Caramel is definitley really tempting huh!
Bee : Make it two please! :o)
Reeni : Thanks alot for your nice words and you're always welcome to have it.
Pam : Thank you very much and nice to hear from you.
Andrea : Oooo... you woke up early! If you don't mind, just wait me at the other side of your printer! :P
Cathy : Oh, you're always welcome. Please help yourself!
Thank you all for spending your time here with me. I think the cake is too small & definitelynot enough to share with all for the time being. I'll bake more next round. :o) Glad that you like it too.
Hope you're all having a wonderful day.
Blessings, Kristy
Kristy...love your camouflaging style as well as your delicious version of this cake ;o)
Ciao for now,
Yum, Kristy! I've never made a caramel cake, but yours looks so great!ReplyDelete
it looks like the honey cake~ yummy~~ReplyDelete


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Tagged: San Fransisco Giants
The Filibuster
Are the Giants better off without Melky?
Oak Park, IL
On August 15 the Giants were 64-54 after losing to Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals. That same day they found out that they would be losing Cabrera for the rest of the regular season due to a 50-game ban. Since then, the Giants won 27 games and only lost 11 on their way to clinching the division with a couple weeks left to go. Now, there's no doubt that Cabrera, juicing or not, can hit. In reality, the drugs just made him better. And it's also pretty evident that he was on track for the NL batting title. But when you look at the record compared to what the expectations were following news of Cabrera's ban and one thing becomes obvious.
The Giants are a good team.
And they might be even better without Melky.
Look at the numbers. With Melky the Giants were 10 games over .500 and doing well in the West but still not a sure thing. Without Melky this same team is 26 games over .500 as of Friday and simply blew away the rest of the division.
What that tells me is that something changed in the collective psyche of the Giants when Melky got the boot. The knew they could no longer depend on one guy to come up with the clutch hit and, as a result, it has been a whole bunch of guys who have had to come up with the hits and catches. This makes them a team as opposed to a collection of players brought in as a supporting cast for the one star.
I don't know if the Giants have the magic to make a run this year like they did in 2010. If I had to guess, I'd probably say no since baseball is so wildly unpredictable. But they seem to be coming together as a team more now than they did with Melky leading the charge so anything is possible. Throw in the fact they don't have to worry about facing Strasburg in the postseason like they did back on August 15 and it means that their chances are just a little bit better.


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
And still going.... Add golgo to the list of "no class".
_____________________< muuuh, more popcorn > --------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\_______ (__)\ )\/\ ||----w | || ||
You are all just posting count hure's
I third it, it's bringing far to much negativity to LMCE.
Way to pick up on the sarcasm golgo, you're are brilliant. (that was more sarcasm)To clear it up for up you...again. My origial post was looking from someone who used other media centers as the list of needs I have were not working out for me with LMCE. As we all can see, there are to many hard headed people out here that took it personally. And that brings us where we are today.


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
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August 27, 2018, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM @ Village Board Room
Village Board meetings are held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.
Meetings begin at 7:00pm at the Village Hall


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NEW YORK, N.Y. – Bobby Sanabria already feels like a winner.
The Latin jazz musician, who led the protest against the Recording Academy when it downsized from 109 to 78 categories last year, is nominated for best Latin jazz album – one of the awards that had been eliminated but returns at the awards show next year.
"We're very proud," Sanabria said in a recent interview. "It just places emphasis on the importance of this uniquely American art form. … Of all the forms of music that are still getting recognition from the Grammys, this is one of the most disenfranchised forms because it isn't part of mainstream culture."
The Recording Academy announced in June that it would reinstate the best Latin Jazz album award and added two others, bringing the total number of awards 81.
Sanabria's nomination in the category for "Multiverse," along with his Big Band, is his third time competing in the field. His band's song, "Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite for Ellington," is also nominated for best instrumental arrangement; the nomination goes to arranger Michael Philip Mossman.
Bronx-born Sanabria said he's excited that the best Latin jazz album was restored, but he hopes the others come back as well.
Story continues below
"CD sales are down, so the more categories we have, it's just good business," he said.
The Academy shook up the music industry when it announced in April 2011 that it would downsize its categories to make the awards more competitive. That meant eliminating categories by gender, so men and women compete in the same vocal categories. Artists like Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon and Bill Cosby complained, and Sanabria led the group that filed a lawsuit, which was dismissed.
The 55-year-old drummer and percussionist said that the Grammys cut is a sign of the dying appreciation of jazz and blues music in American culture.
"We live in age now where DJs are more respected than musicians and I have nothing against DJs . but there's something to be said for the artistry of a human being taking a musical instrument and performing at a virtuosic level on it, and it takes years of dedication," he explained. "I read something that in New York City they're having trouble filling the demand for DJs for New Year's Eve, and that used to be the night all musicians worked. That isn't the case anymore and something needs to be changed in the culture, and the Grammys can help in that respect with categories like (best Latin jazz album) . and the classical music categories."
Sanabria's latest album is a mixture of sounds, and he said he has his parents to thank for diversifying his musical exposure. He wants to win the Grammy so that they can witness it.
"(They are in) their eighties now and they're not in good health (and) they were the impetus for me," he said.
Among his competition for best Latin jazz album, Sanabria will battle one of his students from New York's The New School, Manuel Valera of the New Cuban Express. He said he's excited to see his student get this kind of recognition, and hopes other young adults will learn to appreciate jazz music's importance. On Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, a day before the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Sanabria is performing a concert special – "Family Concert: What is Latin Jazz?" – at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
"Without blues and jazz, you have nothing. There's no Beyonce, there's no Jay-Z, there's no Katy Perry, there's no Aerosmith," he said. "It's the foundation of American music and it's sad that it isn't being taught as part of the history curriculum at every public school."
Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at 杭州桑拿按摩论坛twitter杭州夜网/MusicMesfin


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Jazmene Abaya
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Al Shams Abayas stands committed to doing our part to overcome COVID-19. The health and safety of our staff and customers are paramount in every aspect of our business, so we have taken extra care to sanitize and disinfect our facilities. Our team is working remotely but we remain 100% operational and ready to dispatch our daily orders. While we are doing our best to maintain our order processing and dispatch schedule, due to COVID-19, you may experience delays by shipping carriers, once your order has shipped.
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Hello pretty! You're gonna be so cute wearing our Jazmene Abaya. Made with silky black Nida and creme crepe, Jazmene hits all the marks for a stylish look with a classic feel. The tiny black crystals give the perfect hint of shimmer for when you want just a touch of glam. Be gorgeous and beautiful sister...wear Jazmene.
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- Concealed front closures
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- Model is 5'7 and is wearing a size 58


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Andy Andy Shallal: Busboys and Poets is a gathering space. It's a bookstore, it's a bar, it's a wonderful restaurant. It has a stage space in the back we call the Langston Room, a stage that we do all kinds of things on, everything from poetry to book talks, to panel discussions, fundraisers, political conversations, you name it. We also do music, all kinds of different things, everything that brings community together we do there. We wanted the bookstore to be kind of at the forefront of what we do, because we wanted information to be out there. Part of what instigated Busboys and Poets is really the desire to create a place where people can get informed. I always thought, you know what? Information needs to be out there, it needs to be presented to people in a way that's accessible. So I put a bookstore next to a bar, next to a restaurant. People come in, they are waiting for a table, they walk around the stacks of books and they buy a book on the spur of the moment and suddenly they're changed by that information that they just received. We also use the bookstore to bring in lots of authors, different writers from all different walks. We've had some, some of the greats and some locals. So it's been a great attraction.
I think the arts are such a significant part of any community. They define our humanity in so many ways and they certainly define communities. The arts have been slow to come to Washington and Washington has started to recognize itself as really an arts center with the Humanities Counsel, with the D.C. Arts Commission, there's a real effort to revitalize the arts and I think people are starting to understand, the importance of the arts, not just as a way to create this amazing vibe, in a given community, but the importance of the arts as an economic development engine. I'm always amazed, dollar for dollar when you spend money on the arts you get them back in folds and folds and folds. And if more economic development gurus would learn to understand that, I think economic development can take place in a much more rapid way. People do not move into a community because it has a mattress discounters in it, they move into a community because it's got beautiful arts communities, arts spaces. Places like Busboys and Poets for expel, where the arts are really part of what we do, create that wonderful vibe and people start buying into condos and paying top dollar because they can live next to places like this. When I opened my space at K street, at City Vist, a the landlord was smart enough to ask me to come and be the anchor tenant there. When they announced that Busboys and Poets was coming in there, the city Vista sales went through the roof.


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- "Get trained today in any of our lucrative fields; from Restroom Management to Automobile Ignition Circumvention, Liberty City College has the specialized that you've been looking for. Visit us online now to discover your future."
- — GTA III Website.
Liberty City Community College, as known in short as Liberty City College and by its in-game sign as St. Matthias University, is a college based in Liberty Campus, Staunton Island, Liberty City.
The college is run by Dean Smegley,[1] with Eric Ershwitz also employed by the college as the Professor for Contemporary Crime.[2]
The college was named the worst in the United States, resulting in the appointment of Smegley as the Dean of the college. The college, under Smegley, is abandoning the old methods of evaluating and old subjects, replacing them with diplomas for subjects such as street cleaning and grading students on how bad they look. Using these figures, the college would move to 34th in the league tables.[3] Liberty City Community College is primarily based on Columbia Univeristy in Manhattan, New York City.
The new diplomas include.[4]:
- Street cleaning
- Processed Agriculture Rotation
- Grill Management
- Floor cleaning
- Restroom Administration
- Coatroom Management
- Automobile Ignition Circumvention
- Pharmaceutical Baking
In Grand Theft Auto III, Claude receives missions given by King Courtney by means of a public telephone located in front the college.
Prominent Appearances in Missions
- Grand Theft Auto III
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- Grand Theft Auto Advance
- Grand Theft Auto Advance
- ↑ Liberty City Community College: THE WORST UNIVERSITY IN THE COUNTRY. Johnny Ryan of Liberty Tree.
- ↑ From Baseball Bats to Rocket Launchers. Chris Carruthers of Liberty Tree.
- ↑ Liberty City Community College: THE WORST UNIVERSITY IN THE COUNTRY. Johnny Ryan of Liberty Tree.
- ↑ Liberty City Community College website. Liberty City Community College and Rockstar Games.
See Also
- Vespucci University – HD Universe equivalent.