Dozens killed as female bombers target rush-hour metro trains and raise spectre of wave of Chechen rebel attacks

The Moscow suburb of Yugo-Zapadnaya is grey and anonymous. There are looming Soviet tower blocks, a large park with beech trees and the Olympic village once used to house the athletes who took part in the 1980 Moscow games.

Shortly after 7am today two young women entered its crumbling metro station. No one appears to have noticed them. It was Monday; the metro was filled with commuters, many struggling to adjust to the new summer time. The morning was chilly with a hint of spring.

The women travelled into the heart of Russia's old capital – rattling across a bridge over the Moscow river, past the university and Sparrow Hills, and on underground towards the Kremlin. At Park Kultury station one of them got off; the other carried on. She travelled four more stops.

Her journey terminated at Lubyanka station, a busy interchange close to Red Square used by thousands of Muscovites. At 7.56am, just as the doors on her train were closing, she blew herself up.

Witnesses described scenes of panic and terror as the bomb, carried in the woman's belt, ripped across the second carriage of the train. The blast punched a hole in the door and sent glass and shrapnel flying into the seated and standing passengers. Smoke filled the tunnel. Dazed and bloodied survivors stampeded for the exit.

"It was terrible. People were covered in blood," said one witness, Valery. "I saw about five people running out of the wagon. One of them was bandaging up a woman. She was lying on the floor. I saw a dead person on the platform. "At first we thought the ceiling had fallen down. The windows were all blown out."

Another woman witness told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper: "People's faces were absolutely black. I saw one girl whose tights were ripped to pieces. There was a man with blood pouring out of his head. The doctors couldn't stop it.

"People came out of the metro crying. One man approached me. He looked normal. But then he collapsed from shock."

As the authorities realised they were dealing with a disaster, rescuers rushed to Lubyanka. Deep underground, commuters using the same red Sokol'nicheskaya line found themselves trapped. Mobile phones were useless. After several delays, backed up trains began moving slowly from the blast. They headed towards Park Kultury station.

The circle line station – culture park in English – is one of Moscow's most beautiful, and is decorated with heroic Soviet sculptures of young men and women playing chess, reading, or practising ballet. The red line is a short hop through a connecting interchange. No one appears to have seen a second woman waiting on the platform. Hundreds of frustrated passengers milled around awaiting news.

Finally, a train edged into the crowded station. The woman stepped forward and blew herself up. The explosion devastated the third carriage – killing at least 14 people, many of whom had been oblivious to the incident at Lubyanka and had simply and confidently continued their journey to work.

"I saw a dead body slumped on the floor. It was awful," a witness, Sergei, told the Echo of Moscow radio station. "There was smoke everywhere. The doors out of the station are extremely narrow. Everybody was trying to get out."

Ased Guliev, a 17-year-old student, told the Guardian of the panic in the station. "We had no idea what was happening. People started to shove," she said. "There was a horrible crush. When the smell got really sharp, that's when people started to get really upset. We tried to rush up the stairs. The woman behind me got very scared, so I helped her exit. I made sure she didn't fall or get crushed.

"There was panic. Women were screaming. For the first time in my life, I saw an image straight out of a movie – a woman carrying a child over her head, screaming 'Let me through! I have a child!'

"Outside the exit ... there were people with burns all over their heads, with their hair burned off, their hands – any part that wasn't covered by clothes. Some people had bloody faces, with wounds, as if from splinters or shards. Some started losing consciousness, other witnesses complained of heart pains."

The well-planned attacks were a sign of the deadly return of the terror that was a hallmark of Moscow life during the second Chechen war. The Kremlin has insisted the situation in Russia's violent North Caucasus is now stable, following its two wars against Chechen rebels in 1994-1996 and 1999-2005. The bombings were a stark statement that the war goes on. In reality, the Russian state is fighting a spreading insurgency across its mountainous southern frontier, waged by determined and increasingly sophisticated Islamist radicals. Their aim is to establish a pan-Islamic caliphate. Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan – the Muslim republics where the insurgents operate – are gripped by civil war. There are daily attacks on police and local security forces.

The Kremlin has responded to this threat to its integrity with brutality. It has launched a series of special operations. On 6 March special forces killed Said Buryatsky – a rebel ideologue and Russian-born Islamist convert. Another prominent insurgent leader, Anzor Astemirov, was shot dead last week. This may well have prompted today's attacks.

Moscow's veteran mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, confirmed a link with the North Caucasus. Luzhkov described the pair as female suicide bombers. The first had used 4kgs of explosives strapped to her waist, the second 1-2kgs, officials said. The belts had also been packed with lethal metal bolts, they added. .

Six months ago Doku Umarov, Chechnya's most senior surviving rebel leader, announced he was taking his campaign to Russia's heartland. Russia's government was uncertain whether to take him seriously. But in late November someone blew up a crowded commuter train travelling between Moscow and St Petersburg, the Nevsky Express, killing 27 people.

Umarov also boasted that he had reconstituted the suicide brigades notorious in the second Chechen war. The signs of this being more than empty rhetoric were there: a suicide bombing last summer outside Grozny's theatre, a deadly truck bombing at a police station in Nazran, Ingushetia's simmering capital. Moscow was the logical next target.

The bombers' choice of Lubyanka also appears no coincidence. The square is synonymous with Russia's powerful counter-terrorism agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) – the agency that succeeded the KGB and has been leading the hunt against the insurgents, holed up in forests and mountains.

Yesterday, at the exit to Lubyanka, firefighters lugged out the bodies. Underground, investigators picked over debris. Out on the street helicopters ferried the worst injured survivors to hospitals.

By the end of the day officials confirmed this was the deadliest terror attack in the capital since February 2004 – when 39 people were killed in a metro bombing. There were 38 dead and 61 injured. At least eight of those were in a critical condition.

The attacks appeared to be directed at the Russian state. Red Square is five minutes away on foot – past the unmistakeable symbols of Russian capitalism, including a Rolls Royce dealership and the art nouveau Metropol Hotel. At the bottom of the road near a statue of a bearded Karl Mark is Russia's Duma, or parliament, dominated by members of Vladimir Putin's insipid pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

Today Putin cut short a trip to Siberia and returned to Moscow to declare that the terrorists would be destroyed. During his earlier stint as prime minister in 1999 Putin sent federal forces into Chechnya – launching a triumphant war that propelled him six months later to the Kremlin.

Experts, however, said Putin's iron-fist strategy had not succeeded. "The Chechen authorities are permanently launching actions against the homes and the families of supposed insurgents, taking their relatives hostage and destroying their houses," Viacheslav Ismailov, an expert on the region, said.

"There are a lot of people who feel trapped in a corner. As long as they exist they are going to want revenge. You can't expect anything else. There is a fertile milieu for terrorism in Chechnya.

"It's the revenge of extremist elements from the North Caucasus.'

According to Ismailov, there were other factors contributing to the insurgency: poverty, unemployment, police brutality, rampantly corrupt government, and dubiously fixed elections. Ultimately, however, the Kremlin's current policy in the North Caucasus was self-defeating: the more violent methods used by pro-government forces, the worse the insurgency grows.

By this afternoon, most of Moscow's metro was back to normal, albeit with police stationed at entrances, exits and on platforms. Carriages were unusually empty, with passengers eyeing each other warily. The unspoken question was: were the attacks a one-off? Or are they a dark harbinger of worse to come?

Voters in my constituency are not fooled by the budget. They want to know how the Conservatives will get us out of this mess

Alistair Darling's budget is not going down well on the doorsteps of Batley. The media are reporting that it is unclear how Brown is going to plug the gap between structural deficit and debt. This nuance is subtle but important.

However, the people of Batley and Spen just want to know how we're going to get the country out of this mess, what it's going to cost and how soon.

They know that the freeze on personal allowances means a tax rise for 30 million of them. The NI contributions of 1% and then again another 1% on anyone earning over £20,000 will hit some of the lowest-paid workers – I'd expect George Osborne's promise on Monday to freeze these NI increases to have real appeal, as a result. Meanwhile, even those on the minimum wage will be hit by the failure to uprate personal allowances in line with inflation. With retail inflation at 3.7%, the tax-free personal allowance should have been increased from £6,475 to £6,715 – a rise of £240. At the 20% basic rate, this means that a taxpayer will pay £48 extra this year, while a two-earner couple will be liable for an extra £96 a year.

When this is explained to the voters they are very angry. I talk about other measures that Labour have stolen from us.

Alistair Darling hailed the new £250,000 threshold for paying stamp duty as a boon for young people trying to get on the housing ladder. But when the Conservatives first came up with the notion Labour sneered that it was not "an effective use of public money". The levy on high-strength cider announced yesterday was dismissed last year – when the chancellor rubbished plans by us for "smart taxes" as an "unworkable gimmick". This measure was supported by the public and publicans alike when I launched my Save the Great British Pub campaign last autumn. The creation of new university places – also proposed by the Conservatives – was rejected by Labour only this month as "elitist". Try telling that to the lad who I spoke to who is expected to get straight As at A-level but has been rejected by five universities.

The voters talk about council tax, which has doubled under Labour. I say we will introduce a two-year freeze on council tax increases. This goes down well but they know they are getting reduced services for their money; they want reductions, rather than a freeze, but recognise that it's a start.

I remind those who can remember that our debt is 30 times higher now than when we were elected in 1979. It seems that borrowing £170-odd-billion instead of £180-odd-billion is what passes for good news in Gordon Brown's world. It is a staggering amount – the highest proportionately of any country in the G20.

Voters tell me they are aware that we were the first country to go into recession and the last to come out. I'm asked about how we are going to reduce the deficit. I say we will start in 2010. All business leaders – Marks and Spencer, Richard Branson, Sainsbury's, the CBI, the European Commission (staggering to us Eurosceptics, I know), the Institute of Directors, etc, all say we have to start this year and not next.

They want to know what will be cut. I explain: cutting back Whitehall excess by one third; cutting quangos – the regional development agencies have cost us £50bn since being set up; launching a full spending review, particularly in the MoD where excess in purchasing is staggering but fails to provide our troops with the proper equipment with which to go to war. One lady on the doorstep said this resonated with her. Her son was going to Afghanistan and they had been buying uniform – in fact, she was in Question Time in Dewsbury last week. She is angry.

Talking of cuts. I explain about Labour's biggest and dirtiest lies, aimed at the most vulnerable – young families and the elderly. People are calling me, emailing and stopping me in the street.

We want everyone to listen: we are not cutting Sure Start; we are increasing health visitors by 4,200 (and, while I'm at it, increasing midwives by 3,000); and we are not cutting pensioners winter fuel payments, bus passes or TV licences. Labour must stop frightening people.

And of the Liberal Democrats? St Vince-of-Cable's message – which is increasingly sounding a little mad and desperate (is anyone listening to us?) – does not get a mention on the streets. Sorry, St Vince but the public know this is a straightforward fight between Labour and us.

You can't hide it Gordon, the voters have rumbled you.

Dear Martha Stewart,

After reading Mariana Pasternak's new telltale book, The Best of Friends: Martha and Me (Harper, 2010), I know how betrayed you must feel. You have to be asking yourself: How could Mariana, who I considered one of my closest friends, betray me like this? Granted, I've only read her side of the story, but here are my unsolicited thoughts on the matter:

1) Keep in mind that Mariana's book says more about her than it says about you.

Mariana dishes the dirt on your 20-year friendship, from when you were first neighbors in Westport, to when you became couple-friends with your now ex-husbands, and then became inseparable BFFs---like Oprah and Gayle, Ethel and Lucy, or Paris and Nicole. At every crook in the road, however, Mariana seemed obsessed with building herself up to tear you down.

Clearly, Mariana felt like she could never measure up to you because she goes to great lengths to make the case that she was more attractive, more desirable to men, a better mother, more grounded, and more cultured. She even uses double superlatives to describe her education at "highly selective" and "extremely competitive schools."

She fills us in on the sybaritic perks she and her daughters enjoyed simply by knowing you. They were given entrée to your world of celebrity, royalty, gardens, yachts, private jets, group vacations, and adventure. They partied with the rich and famous because of their relationship with you.

2) As your success grew, the divide between the two of you grew larger.

Like you, Mariana seems like an ambitious woman, by nature. She might have been happier had she been less envious of your wealth, fame, and success. She accuses you of being judgmental and desperate---yet her use of language is scathing. Two gems, among many, from the book: She compares you to the Glenn Close character in Fatal Attraction and comments that, "The Turkey Hill paradise became the lair of the dragon lady." If these were her feelings all along, I wonder how the relationship lasted as long as it did.

Mariana has an odd sense of entitlement, thinking that by virtue of being your friend and hanging on to your coattails, she deserved the same lifestyle as you have. Why else would she repeatedly complain that you asked her to pay her portion of the bill for the lavish and memorable trips you took together?

Mariana admits she was ambivalent about her friendship with you for some time. One telling sign: When you separated from your husband, although she didn't tell you, she sided with your ex. When a friend is filled with such ambivalence, she really isn't a true friend; she is a frenemy. Penning the book provided your ex-BFF an opportunity to even the score while making a buck.

3) The ending of your friendship isn't as unusual as it appears to be.

Sadly, the majority of friendships---even very good ones---tend to go awry for a variety of reasons. The most common scenario is that two friends just drift apart over time as they grow in different directions. Some friendships are tested by misunderstandings or disappointments, some of which are resolved and others not. But, by far, the most painful kind of breakup is to be betrayed by someone you thought was a close friend. It can be as painful and jolting as being dumped by a boyfriend or lover. The closer the friendship, the harder it is to get over.

Unlike divorces, we don't often hear much talk about acrimonious friendships. Perhaps women have accepted the pop myth that friendships are forever and that being unable to sustain a friendship is a sign of personal weakness. Other women are reticent to tell their stories because they think outsiders can't really understand how a once-impenetrable emotional bond could fracture. If they talk at all about their friendship breakups, they talk to therapists behind closed doors.

The bond between two female friends is complex, powerful and often inexplicable. Women share emotions and feelings with close friends that they may not even be able to share with a husband or sister. You had to be hurt when Mariana testified against you at your trial. But writing this book and exposing the intimacies of your longstanding friendship so publicly, was a particularly bitter form of betrayal.

Mariana suggests the book may be a contribution to the friendship literature. Yet, the book offers few, if any, positive lessons readers can take away about the nuances and strengths of female friendships. Instead, the author provides an excellent case study of betrayal.

Martha, I have no doubt that your wounds will heal over time because you have shown such resilience in the past.

Signed,
The Friendship Doctor

Cubby’s mom almost died last night. I tweeted my concern from the hospital, so I’ll tell you the rest of the story here . . .



Here she is at 2AM, prior to undergoing extensive repair procedures. You can't see it in the images but she was rendered unserviceable by abdominal pain and was only smiling for the camera because they had fed her morphine.

It’s amazing how these things can turn so bad, so quick. Cubby’s mom (we have been divorced many years and she lives alone) felt some abdominal pain Sunday morning when she woke up. By noon the pain was bad enough for her to call the doctor.

She drove to the Repair Center at the University of Massachusetts. The doctors there were not really sure what to do with her. She didn’t seem too sick, but she was in a lot of pain. They talked about several possibilities. Diverticulitis . . . a kidney stone . . . or possibly an ovarian cyst.

Her pain got worse; by four o’clock she couldn’t really even stand. Five o’clock came around, and the folks at Umass decided it was time to ship her to the hospital. An ambulance was called, and she made the ten-mile journey to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

That’s when she called Cubby and me. Things were looking, well, uncertain. I arrived at the hospital to find her resting in a room in the Emergency area. Cubby arrived a short while later with Kirsten, his girlfriend. Cubby and I looked at mom, and didn’t know what to think. She didn’t feel feverish, but she was complaining a lot, and she couldn’t stand up.

However, there was nothing obvious that we could do.

The nurses came in periodically to poke and prod. On one visit, they took blood samples. Then, having nothing else to do, they returned to take some more. But even that wasn’t enough. A fresh nurse came and took nose swabs.

“We’re looking for institutional infections,” the nurse said, with a hint of menace.

“She shouldn’t have any of those,” I said brightly. “She’s been out of State Prison almost three years now.”

The nurse snorted, and Cubby’s girlfriend asked her for a tour of the morgue. The nurse retreated quickly leaving Kirsten's morgue touring ambitions unfulfilled.

Cubby examined the wall outlets for oxygen, vacuum, and electricity. We pondered experiments with the available medical equipment, and we considered imaginative uses of the various tools in the room.

Still there was no diagnosis. Mom seemed to hurt more by the hour, but there was no visible reason. We considered the possibility of demons.

Nine o’clock came and went. “We’re going to send you for a See Tee scan,” the nurse announced. By that time, I was seeing tea myself, along with pasta shells, linguini with clams, and other dinner possibilities. We departed the hospital in search of food, leaving mom to be scanned at their leisure. Cubby and I went home to bed.

By eleven, mom’s biggest concern was whether they’d keep her overnight or if they’d dump her in the street at one o’clock on a rainy night. All that changed at 12:30. That’s when she called me and said they found a hole in her intestine.

It was diverticulitis gone bad. Something had gotten rotten and burst in her gut, and her innards were becoming suffused with vile filth. “We need to operate right away,” they said. I drove back to the hospital, in time to meet the surgeon who was as bright eyed and bushy tailed as one could want for two in the morning.

We were both rather alarmed, since any surgery that has to be done by firelight in the predawn darkness must be serious indeed. But the surgeon appeared unconcerned. “I’ve done three of these colon surgeries in the past ten days,” she said. Her confidence was reassuring. “The procedure should take about an hour,” she said, and they rolled mom into the operating room. I went out into the deserted waiting room, pulled up a couch, and tried to nap.



This is Holly Michaelson, the doctor who performed the repairs. I do not know if she is nocturnal or if she woke up just for us. I suspect the latter but in a place like the one we live in, the former is certainly a possibility.

Everyone in the area was dressed in those blue hospital gowns, with the exception of a geeky-looking guy in a shiny suit. At first, I thought he was the Sales Agent for those Krumedgeon Funeral Home people, but he turned out to be an innocent repairman from GE Medical Imaging.

An hour came and went. No word. That’s when I discovered the doors were all locked. I could not get out, and they could not get in. Hopefully someone in the operating room had a key, because I was finally in jail, alone in an empty part of the hospital. I pondered breaking the window to escape but I restrained myself by repeating "They did not mean to lock you in." And it seemed true . . . no one in his right mind would lock me in a glass walled room full of sharp and heavy objects.

I lay back down, and two hours passed. Still nothing. I reassured myself that she must at least be alive, because if she’d died they surely would have said something by now. Three hours came and went. Finally, fifteen minutes short of four hours after they began, the doctor appeared.

“It all went well,” she said. “You can see her in about half an hour, when she wakes up.” And she was right. Mom was awake and talking before dawn. However, her verbal abilities were limited and she was not very energetic.

The surgeon cut a three-inch incision in her groin, and snipped out several inches of rotten and pustulent intestine. Next, she disconnected the small and large intestines and routed the small intestine to a bag on mom’s side so the large intestine would have a chance to heal. As much of a nuisance as that seems, the detachable bag will make it easier for her to leave unwanted gifts for unpleasant people over the next few weeks That said, I am sure she will be anxious to return to normal digestive function.

“She’s going to need one or two more operations to put everything back together,” the surgeon said. “It may take six to eight weeks but she should make a full recovery.”

I think this was the kind of operation where if you wake up, it was deemed a success. It’s sort of like pilots say: any landing you can walk away from is a good one.



This is mom, just woken up, at 6:15.

I’m shocked that Cubby’s mom could get so sick, so fast. I guess she’s lucky she went to the doctor’s when she did. Fifteen years before, her dad died from a similar infection after walking around for two days with leaking guts. A few more hours on the loose, and the same thing might have happened to her.

Now she begins the process of recovery. It starts with suppressing the infection that’s brewing in her guts. They’ve got her on strong IV antibiotics, but 20% of people who have this surgery get serious infections anyway.

We’ll have to see what happens, and hope for the best.

It’s almost 11 o’clock. Day two is about to begin, and I am about to go to sleep.

Filed under: North America, United States, Hotels and Accommodations

L.A. LIVE - the sports and entertainment complex that envelops the Nokia Theater and STAPLES Center - is hoping to change the way people view downtown Los Angeles. Thanks to the stadiums, restaurants, nightclubs, shopping and outdoor pavilions that opened in October 2007, downtown Los Angeles was revived with a faint heartbeat. Now, two new hotels are opening their doors in an effort to wake up the district and give people a reason to spend the night in downtown L.A.

The J.W. Marriott Hotel Los Angeles and Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles make up the $2.5 billion building in heart of the L.A. LIVE complex, boasting 1,001 rooms total (878 rooms in the J.W. Marriott and 123 rooms at the Ritz-Carlton and Ritz-Carlton Residences). While the hotels share the space as part of the luxury brand's global portfolio, the two brands maintain their individuality in design and style.

J.W. Marriott hotel designers took advantage of the lobby's open frame. The neutral colors on the walls and rugs are contrasted with modern furniture in reds, purples and animal prints, emphasizing the enormous space while still giving travelers a comfortable place to rest upon arrival. A few steps past the check-in counter, however, and you're transported to a futuristic display of lights, mirrors and lots of action.

The hotel is home to one of L.A.'s newest dining destinations, L.A. Market. The full-service restaurant created by the "Rock-n-Roll" celebrity chef Kerry Simon is sourced from organic, sustainable and local sources, and combines his flare for everyday foods with his bold personality. The sushi pizza is a favorite of hotel employees, and Simon's signature burgers are worth every bite. The Mixing Room - located across the lobby from the restaurant - takes guests on a mixology escapade of signature cocktails and cosmic creations in an all white-and-gold furnished space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Nokia Plaza.

The J.W. Marriott guest rooms occupy floors 4-12 and are substantial in size and stature. There's a 4000-square-foot fitness center and a pool for those who want to soak in the California sun. While guests of the J.W. Marriott have access to the Ritz-Carlton's 8000-square-foot spa, some areas of the hotel remain exclusive to Ritz-Carlton clientele.

Continue reading Hotel Review: JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton wake up downtown L.A.

Hotel Review: JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton wake up downtown L.A. originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hedge funds are investing in big time divorce cases for spouses who think their exes have significant assets but can't afford to pay the legal fees to fight the case. And Laura attends "divorce fair" giving helpful advice for divorce's. Download MP3(Photo: Laura Lynch)

• BBC: Opening the doors on divorce
• Times Online: Divorce fair eases the pain of splitting

by Lisa Hymas

In 1969, graduating college senior Stephanie Mills made
national headlines with a commencement address exclaiming that, in the face of
impending ecological devastation, she was choosing to forgo parenthood.  “I am terribly saddened by the fact that the most humane thing for me to do is to have
no children at all,” she told her classmates.

I come here before you today to make the same proclamation—with a twist. I am thoroughly delighted by the fact that the most humane thing for me to do is to have no children at
all. 

Making the green choice too often feels like a sacrifice or
a hassle or an expense.  In this
case, it feels like a luxurious indulgence that just so happens to cost a lot less for me and weigh
a lot less on the carbon-bloated atmosphere. 

I call myself a GINK: green inclinations, no kids.

First, a word for you parents

Let me get this out of the way up front: I like kids—many
of them, anyway.  Some of my best
friends, as they say, are parents. 
I bear no ill will to procreators, past, present, and prospective.  I claim no moral or ethical high
ground.

If being a parent is something you’ve longed and planned
for, or already embarked upon, I respect your choice and I wish you luck.  Go forth and raise happy, healthy
kids.  May they bring you joy and
fulfillment, and may they become productive members of society who faithfully
pay their Social Security taxes.   

Of course, you parents and parent wannabes don’t need my
encouragement—our society supports your decision overwhelmingly.  OK, yes, the U.S. lacks paid family
leave and universal childcare, not to mention many basic rights for same-sex
couples with children—and we should remedy these shortcomings.  But from the tax breaks to the
discounted airline seats, from the eager grandparents urging you on to the friends,
cousins, and complete strangers who ask when the first or next kid is coming, from
the “What to Expect ...” empire to the proliferating mommy and daddy
blogs, our culture constantly affirms your choice—in many ways, almost
demands it.  And, no small matter,
our biology does too. 

So this post isn’t for you.  It’s for the childfree and childfree-curious, who don’t get a lot of encouragement in our society.  Parents, keep reading if you like, but
you have to promise not to tell the rest of us that we’d feel differently if we
just had our own! 

OK, down to business

Here’s the dirty little secret that we’re never supposed to
say in mixed company: There are a lot of perks to childfree living, not to
mention a lot of green good that comes from bringing fewer beings onto a
polluted and crowded planet.

Yes, as a childfree person, I’ll miss out on a lot: The
miracle of childbirth (though, truth be told, I don’t feel so bad about
skipping that one).  The
hilariously perceptive things that only kids say.  A respectable excuse for rereading the Harry Potter
series.  The hope that my kid will
be smarter and cooler and better looking than I ever was.  More boisterous holiday
celebrations.  Someone to carry on
the family name (assuming I won the arm-wrestling match with my partner over
whose name the kid would actually get).  Maybe even the satisfaction of helping a child grow into a
well-educated, well-adjusted adult, and the peace of mind of knowing there’s
someone to take care of me in my old age. 

But parents miss out on a lot too (as some will be the first
to tell you): Time and emotional energy to invest in friendships and a romantic
partnership.  Space to focus on a
career or education or avocation. 
Uninterrupted “grown-up” conversations.  Travel that’s truly impulsive or
leisurely or adventurous (and never involves zoos).  Unpremeditated Saturday nights on the town and Sunday
brunches out.  Opportunities for
political or community engagement. 
Stretches of quiet for reading or writing or relaxing.  A non-child-proofed, non-toy-strewn,
non-goldfish-cracker-crumb-riddled home. 
Eight peaceful, uninterrupted hours of sleep a night.  All without any guilt that one should
be spending more quality time with the kid. 

A childfree life also means a lot more financial
freedom.  How expensive are
kids?  Try $291,570 for a child
born in 2008 to parents bringing home between
$57,000 and $98,000 a year, according to figures from the USDA. 
That’s for the first 18 years, so it doesn’t include college.  If you make more, you’re likely to spend more.  Couples bringing in upwards of $98,000
a year can expect to spend an average of $483,750 on a child’s first 18
years.  (Dig into the
numbers yourself [PDF] for all the caveats and conditions.)

Opting out of childrearing might leave you richer in
happiness too, as Harvard psychology professor and happiness expert Daniel
Gilbert recently told NPR:

[I]t probably is true that without
children, your marriage might be happier in the sense that you would report
more daily satisfaction.  People
are surprised to find this, because they value and love their children above
all things.  How can my children
not be a source of great happiness?

Well, one reason is that although
children are a source of happiness, they tend to crowd out other sources of
happiness.  So people who have a
first child often find in the first year or two that they’re not doing many of
the other things that used to make them happy.  They don’t go to the movies or the theater.  They don’t go out with their
friends.  They don’t make love with
their spouse.

In his 2006 book Stumbling
on Happiness, Gilbert offers more on
this topic:

Careful studies of how women feel
as they go about their daily activities show that they are less happy when
taking care of their children than when eating, exercising, shopping, napping,
or watching television.  Indeed
looking after the kids appears to be only slightly more pleasant than doing
housework.

None of this should surprise
us.  Every parent knows that
children are a lot of work—a lot of really hard work—and although parenting has many rewarding
moments, the vast majority of its moments involve dull and selfless service to
people who will take decades to become even begrudgingly grateful for what we
are doing. 

Even firebrand valedictorian Stephanie Mills, who initially
considered her decision not to have children a sacrifice, now writes:

... it proved to be a good personal
choice. I am cussedly independent and I love my solitude and freedom. ... Other
women, I know, have been able to combine demanding vocations with
motherhood.  Given my particular
nature, the responsibility and distraction of childrearing most likely would
have prevented me from pursuing my work as a writer, which has been immensely
rewarding ...

Which isn’t to say she never wonders about her
decision: 

Now that I’m old enough to be a
grandmother, I sometimes wish that I had a granddaughter to commune with, but I
am friends with some spectacular young people and can learn from them as well
as pass along whatever wisdom I’ve developed.  That will have to do.

Ultimately, as Mills suggests, life is a series of
tradeoffs.  By choosing not to have
kids, some doors are closed to you, but others are open—and they don’t have
sticky doorknobs. 

The green angle

Beyond the undisturbed sleep and the gleaming doorknobs, consider the environmental benefits to the childfree life. 

We’re on track to hit a global population of 7 billion
people next
year or the year
after—3 billion more than when Mills got all riled up four decades
ago.  We’ve spewed enough
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to push it past the safe point, which many
climate scientists agree is 350
parts carbon dioxide per million; we’re already at about 390 and rising
fast.  And Americans are among the
most carbon-intensive people on earth. 
The average American generates about 66 times more CO2 each year than
the average Bangladeshi—20
tons versus 0.3 tons.

If you consider not just the carbon impact of your own kids
but of your kids’ kids and so on, the numbers get even starker.  According to a 2009 study
in Global Environmental Change [PDF] that took into account the
long-term impact of Americans’ descendants, each child adds an estimated 9,441
metric tons of CO2 to a parent’s carbon legacy—that’s about 5.7 times his or her direct lifetime emissions.

“Many people are unaware of the power of exponential
population growth,” said
study coauthor Paul Murtaugh, a professor of statistics at Oregon State
University.  “Future growth
amplifies the consequences of people’s reproductive choices today, the same way
that compound interest amplifies a bank balance.”  (To take an extreme example,
compare childfree me with Yitta Schwartz of Monroe, N.Y., who died this year at
the age of 93, leaving
behind an estimated 2,000 descendants.) 

A person who cares about preserving a livable environment
has lots of options for doing her bit, and you’ve heard all about them: live in
an energy-efficient home in a walkable neighborhood; bike or walk or take
public transit when possible; drive an efficient car if you drive one at all;
fly less; go veg; buy organic and local; limit purchases of consumer goods;
switch to CFLs or LEDs; slay your vampires;
offset carbon emissions; vote for climate-concerned candidates, and hold them
accountable for their campaign promises.

But even in aggregate, all of these moves don’t
come close to the impact of not bringing new human beings—particularly
new Americans—into the world. 

Here’s a simple truth: 
For an average person like me—someone who doesn’t have the ability of
an Al Gore to reach millions, or of a Nancy Pelosi to advance (if not actually
enact) landmark environmental legislation, or of a Van
Jones to inspire (and piss off) whole new audiences—the single most
meaningful contribution I can make to a cleaner, greener world is to not have children.

Just say it

Why does it
feel almost audacious to articulate all of this? 

Those of us who are childfree by choice are in the minority,
but if you judged by the public discourse about our lifestyle, you’d think we
were practically nonexistent. 

Parents talk all the time about the delights and challenges
of raising kids, to other parents and to all the rest of us, and I don’t begrudge
them that. 

We childfree people rarely discuss in public the upsides and
downsides of life without kids—and that’s what needs to change. 

If you’re intentionally childfree, how many times have you
been asked, “So, when are you going to have children?” and mumbled a
less-than-candid reply: “Oh, I’m not sure,” or “Well, it just
might not happen for us,” or “Maybe someday ...” when what you
really mean is “Never.”

Childfree people tread too gingerly around parents, as
though we might wound their feelings if we told the truth about why we’ve made
different decisions than they have.  But we insult them by thinking they’re so
fragile or insecure about their family choices—and we shortchange ourselves
and society at large by not speaking openly about the legitimate choice to not
have a child. 

What would happen if you answered the kid question
honestly?  “No, I’m happy with
my life as is,” or “A child doesn’t fit into our life plans,” or
“Kids aren’t really my thing,” or “I think there are plenty of
people on the planet already.” 

If we said what we really think, I suspect we would actually
find a lot of kindred or at least sympathetic spirits out there, GINKs and
otherwise.  We might have some
refreshingly frank and gratifying conversations with the parents in our
lives.  And we could give those who
are undecided about parenthood the understanding that the choice to be
childfree is completely valid, and not completely lonely.

Little bundles of (j)oy aren’t for everyone—and it’s time
we said so out loud. 

Related Links:

Population growth should be curbed, argues Jane Goodall

New York City gets big reaction to new sex symbol

Data highlights on the global food supply

It begins with a flyer on your front doorstep, a roadside sign with a local phone number, an ad on TV. "Stop Foreclosure Now!" "We guarantee to stop your foreclosure." "We stop foreclosures every day. Our team of professionals can stop yours this week!" They promise quick access to your bank or lender, and a way out of foreclosure and losing your home. They seem almost too good to be true, especially if you're a beleaguered homeowner clinging to your house.

Almost always they are too good to be true. Welcome to the world of the foreclosure rescue scam. Just as epic levels of fraud helped cause the subprime crisis, now, in the wake of the greatest housing meltdown in at least a generation, thousands of scheming, manipulative foreclosure relief swindlers are preying upon desperate homeowners unschooled in consumer finance and looking for help. The FTC, for example, reported 7,927 complaints on "mortgage modification and foreclosure relief" last year; in 2008, it had one. The Illinois Attorney General filed 31 different lawsuits last year regarding mortgage rescue scams, and the Florida AG filed 20 within the past year.

This newest wave of housing fraud is documented in painstaking detail in a new report, "Foreclosure Rescue Scams: A Nightmare Complicating the American Dream," to be released today by a leading housing advocacy group, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, as part of a hearing held by the House oversight committee. An early copy of the report was obtained by Mother Jones.

To document the pervasive foreclosure relief scamming out there, NCRC arranged more than 200 different undercover "shops," or visits with, these swindlers, getting details on numerous relief scams and probing what each claimed to offer. The services had names like 123 Fix My Loan, Help U Modify, and Legal Loan Bailout; others were clearly intended to confuse homeowners by sounding like legitimate government or private programs, like HopeNow Mortgages or Federal Loan Modification Bureau. In all, 115 foreclosure relief services were identified in NCRC's investigation. (So shady are some of these scams that 17 of them didn't even have legitimate phone numbers.)

The fear, the NCRC report says, is that these rackets draw homeowners away from real programs that could help them. "Modification
companies
are
often operating
in
a
regulatory
vacuum,
without
any
accountability,
and
may
be
preventing
consumer access
to
the
Home
Affordable Mortgage
Program
and
the
Home
Affordable
Refinance Program," the report says.

Dowsing is a psychic method that has been used for many centuries. Dowsing is also called water witching or radiesthesia, this is because extrasensory and paranormal means make up the backbone of this psychic technique.

The psychic methods of dowsing have been put to use to find a variety of objects, since time immemorial. Objects include little items like lost jewelry or belongings, to bigger things like water, petroleum, ores, corpses, weapons put to use in crimes, mines, tunnels, and even treasure hidden underground.

There are many concepts on how psychic dowsing is made possible. One significant principle about dowsing is of which the dowser establishes a link on a psychic level with the substance or subject being searched for. Another concept about psychic dowsing is of which all things are encased by a type of energy field, and also of which the dowser has the power to find and also zero in on the vibrations given off by whatever object or substance he or she has been requested to acquire.

So how can you dowse to find a missing or undetectable item? To begin with, you need to have a dowsing tool for this psychic method. Dowsing tools can be forked sticks typically of willow, rowan, ash or hazel. Sometimes they can as well be metal, plastic, whale bone, wood or metal rods, coat hangers and also aluminum and also copper wires. Along with some dowsers just use his or her hands, palms down, to find the objects, the pendulum is the most popular dowsing tool to use.

After you have chosen the dowsing tool you are most comfortable with, here are steps to dowse for a lost or hidden object:

1. Relax to have a calm, peaceful, as well as open mind, to let your psychic energies flow freely.

2. Support you dowsing tool with both hands (generally pendulums are best to be held in one's receptive hand -- the left hand if you're right handed as well as vice versa).

3. When outdoors, walk slowly on the ground surface or ground under shallow water, while throwing your psychic energy of the need to find what is desired into the tool. Do this until the tool vibrates or shakes, or the pendulum swings. There may be times that dowsing is done indoors with the use of a map. In this scenario, you must hold your dowsing tool over the map and do the same channelling of energy as you scour across the map with your tool.

4. In the case of water in underground streams, pipes, cables or tunnels, if the tool will lean as well as point toward a area, pursue it to map it. On the other hand, when using a pendulum and a map to do psychic dowsing, your tool will shake or vibrate over the location of the map wherein the item desired can be found.

Dowsing is just one of the most useful psychic methods of which are even put into use by the biggest names today. Yes, believe it or not, today's major petroleum enterprises, military groups, mining groups, as well as numerous other entities, use the dowsing psychic practice for their various reasons.

[1]Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife In yesterday's column, I wrote about how I believe the California ballot initiative to legalize marijuana is bad policy [2]. Because I did a lousy job of arguing my point, what got lost is that I am for legalizing marijuana. People should be free to do what they like, so long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others-- duh. What I am against Richard Lee's initiative ballot initiative, which will be on November's ballot. Why am I against it? Because it is doomed to failure. After listening to what many of you had to say, I could have done a better job explaining the issue without putting in confusing personal anecdotes. After all, that's Peggy Noonan's gig. So, let's have another go at it. Here's why this ballot initiative won't work -- and here's how it should be done. The major problem with the bill as written is that it's an ideal, not a practical solution. Let's say that the crime and violence associated with marijuana really is nothing more than a result of it being prohibited and criminalized. Let's just go ahead and say that compared to cigarettes or tobacco, marijuana is the pussycat of good-time substances. Let's say that marijuana has no long-term deleterious health effects. Of course, these are all debatable points, but it's not really a debate I am interested in. Life is hard enough as its, you should be free to eat, smoke, drink whatever you like and when you die, have your ashes fired out of a fireworks canon. There are worse ways to go. Granting all that, when you read The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 [3], it becomes clear that this is not a bill about finding a way to make marijuana practically legal, it just opens the floodgates. To use a recent example, imagine if the healthcare bill said, 'healthcare is now guaranteed to all, but it's up to individual cities and towns to decide how they're going to do that.' [4]Greenhouse at a farm in Potter Valley For those who see legalizing marijuana as something on par with repealing the Prohibition, this is a feel good bill in ever sense of the term. How is this going to work in practice, though? The bill tells cities and towns that they're not only responsible for regulating the commercial sale of marijuana, but its "appropriate controls on cultivation, transportation, sales, and consumption of cannabis to strictly prohibit access to cannabis by persons under the age of 21." In fact, it dumps regulation of the entire soon-to-be-legit marijuana industry on individual municipalities. On the surface, this might sound great: Let every place decide its weed according to its need, but in practice, the bill puts a heavy burden on any city or town that decides to sell commercial marijuana. There's an entire chapter of the California Food 38; Agricultural Code dedicated to avocados, but we're going to leave marijuana crop regulation in the hands of individual towns? Supporters of the bill will be quick to point out that the bill allows for oversight at the local and state level, even if it doesn't establish it. So, if the state legislature wanted to, it could create oversight. This, of course, is a legislature that can barely pass its own budget. Furthermore, as Marcos Breton pointed out in an article in the Sacramento Bee [5], the California Supreme Court's January decision in People vs. Kelly establishes that the state legislature can not establish any restrictions on marijuana usage beyond what is in the bill. Even if marijuana is legalized, it's still illegal. [6]Medical marijuana raid The ballot initiative passes and marijuana becomes legal in California, but it's still illegal under federal law. Do you honestly expect the federal government to do nothing after you pass a bill that provides no state regulation of marijuana. other than to say that it can be taxed, it can't be sold to anyone under 21 and that towns and cities will decide the rest? This is a stunningly naïve conception about how politics works. Under George W. Bush, DEA agents raided pots shops selling medical marijuana [7] and while Obama opposed those actions, one fact is immutable: There is an election in 2012. Sure, the bill might have received 56% approval in a state Field poll conducted last April, but nationally, if this bill passes, you can guarantee it will become a campaign issue. The likely outcome of course, is either Obama cracks down on marijuana in California to look 'tough on drugs' or a Republican takes office -- either way, California's pot dream will go up in smoke. The solution Had the bill's organizers not been so gung-ho to make a point and had actually thought about how to secure legalized marijuana for the long term, they might have realized it. Realizing the unique federal challenges marijuana sellers will encounter, there's only one way to ensure that DEA agents don't go busting down any doors, which is to make California the nation's first marijuana control state. Let me explain. Alcoholic control states have a state monopoly on the wholesale and retail sail of liquor. You buy your booze from a state store and the money goes to the state. There are 18 of them in the country., though California is not one of them, though this approach is a logical stepping stone from the curent medical marijuana dispensary system. The control state system was created as a sort of halfway house after Prohibition and it would make a good model for California legalization, if for no other reason than that it would be nearly impossible for a federal agent to try to shut down a state-owned and run store. If they did, every libertarian-minded crazy (and there seems to be a lot of those today, in addition to the nice, rational sane ones) will be screaming 'revolution!' Unfortunately, while this bill adresses the question of making marijuana legal, it never adresses the practical aspects of how to implement it-- and that ultimately, will prove to be its undoing. [1] http://www.daylife.com/image/0cXF7mh5ch3fJ?utm_source=zemanta38;utm_medium=p38;utm_content=0cXF7mh5ch3fJ38;utm_campaign=z1 [2] http://trueslant.com/japhygrant/2010/03/24/is-california-high-new-pot-initiative-is-bad-policy/ [3] http://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/initiative/ [4] http://trueslant.com/japhygrant/files/2010/03/Marijuana-grown-for-medical-purposes-inside-a-greenhouse-at-a-farm-in-Potter-Valley-California.jpeg [5] http://www.sacbee.com/2010/01/24/2485094/marcos-breton-california-dazed.html [6] http://trueslant.com/japhygrant/files/2010/03/medical_marijuana_dea_raid6.jpeg [7] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/05/dea-led-by-bush-continues-pot-raids/

Good morning Cardiff!

Today the full council meeting will now take place at County Hall at 4.30pm after a software failure affected webcasting systems at City Hall. The hot topic of the meeting is the council's Local Development Plan – proposed to be scrapped. Cardiff Council's development in the city was has been put under the spotlight this week with the BBC Week In Week Out programme causing a flurry of comments as well as revelations about the consultation process for the plan to build new houses on brownfield sites.

Last night's pact meeting in Plasnewydd focused on problematic parking around City Road – with a traffic warden sweep in this area to take place today and new figures for illegal parking released by South Wales Police here. I'll be bringing you the report from the meeting soon.

Tonight Cardiff Twestival will open its doors to Tweeters and non-Tweeters alike – with the local slant on the global event kicking off at 8pm at Buffalo bar. The big attraction, aside from stomping tunes from Bethan Elfyn and friends, has got to be the bumper prize packages on offer all with a delightful Cardiff flavour. Read our feature on the event here.

One of the Wales' most eminent scientists and the former co-chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will give a keynote speech on global warming at Cardiff University. Sir John Houghton will give a lecture on Climate Change at 6pm in the Wallace Lecture Theatre, Main Building, Cardiff University.

Pecha Kucha Cardiff is on tonight at Chapter Arts Centre. A bit like Ignite Cardiff, speakers and derived from the Japenese word for 'chit chat', Pecha Kucha allows speakers to share their knowledge through 20 images shown for 20 seconds each. The event starts at 6.30pm and you can read more details here.

From the Horses Mouth by Spectacle Theatre is on tonight at 7.30pm at Llanover Hall Arts Centre, Romilly Road, Canton. Read more about it here.

In the news, Welsh Assembly Government have approved plans to replace Llanrumney and Rumney high schools and build a new school on Rumney recreation ground, reports BBC Wales.

Penarth's eyesore estate the Billybanks have been named the ugliest building in Wales and eighth worst in Britain, reports WalesOnline.

On the blogs, postgraduate students from University of Glamorgan's journalism courses at the Atrium have started a new community blog for Adamsdown. Adamsdownhere will document news, events and local dramas in the area and is seeking local contributors from the area.

Robert Crich has reviewed The Hidden Cameras, supported by Cardiff's very own The School, at the Gate on Monday. Crich called The School "dreamy, neat-pop and Phil Spectre Wall-of-Sound style is more impressive than ever." Read the full review on yourCardiff.

Filed under: Republic of Dish

PHILADELPHIA -- Kathleen Turner leans back in an old-fashioned wooden swivel chair and props her feet -- shod in bright red cowboy boots -- smack on top of a desk.

For the next 75 minutes, the voluptuous, whiskey-voiced Turner is up and down as she channels Molly Ivins, the high-born Texas populist; profane, hilarious and astute chronicler of dumb-as-dirt, racist, sexist and plain ol' thieving politicians; and an absolutely ferocious, itinerant First Amendment junkyard dog.

"Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins" had its world premiere Wednesday night at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. On a sparse stage set that feels like a newspaper boneyard, Turner traverses the complex life of an American original: A privileged upbringing (deb parties, Smith College, good French), a domineering daddy (a price-fixing Big Oil lawyer called The General) and a cultivated yet ditzy mama; a 6-foot physique that made her feel like "a Clydesdale among greyhounds"; two lovers who died young (one in a motorcycle wreck, the other in Vietnam, the first war she loathed and opposed, before Iraq); great jobs (The Texas Observer, her "gateway drug"); awful jobs (The New York Times, where editors were "mice training to be rats"); the God Bless 'Em Godawful Texas Legislature; her beloved dog (named "S---" for her perverse pleasure in shouting the name indoors and out); and her own mortality at 62, after three bouts of breast cancer with a generous side of cigarettes and booze.

This play is not a recitation of Molly Ivins' greatest hHits, her celebrated zingers, rants and civic sermons delivered over 40 years. Still, one ought to know it was she who dubbed as "Shrub" George Dubya Bush, and who said of Pat Buchanan's red-meat, right-wing speech at the 1992 Republican Convention, "It probably sounded better in the original German." If it's a full Ivins immersion you seek, listen to all of her audio books.

For a more complex, nuanced sense of Ivins in all her loud messiness, see this play (it runs through April 18). Half the words are really Molly's. The other half are the well-researched inventions of the veteran reporter-author Engel twins: Margaret, who lives outside D.C., a former Washington Post staffer who runs the Alicia Patterson Journalism Foundation; and Allison, who lives near Palm Springs and is communications director for the University of Southern California, where she earned a master's in screenwriting.

"The day after Molly died I was so upset that her voice was gone that I called Allison and said we have to do a show about her," Margaret told me an hour before the first preview on March 19. "I felt she was our Mark Twain, our Will Rogers, and by 'ours' I meant the country's. She had readers all across the spectrum. At her peak she was in 300 papers. She cared so much about politics and she could write about it in such a humorous and sharp way. She could translate complicated matters in Washington so everyone could understand it. And she did it from Austin, Texas, way beyond the Beltway."

"Kathleen was our No. 1 choice" said Allison Engel. Jim Autry of Des Moines, who serves with Turner on the board of the liberal People for the American Way, was a pal who says he "told Allison I'd put the script into Kathleen's hands, and the rest is history. Kathleen and Molly are kindred spirits, and this play is a great piece of synchronicity."

Turner had met Ivins at several PAW events, and later at her New York apartment building, where former Gov. Ann Richards -- another smart, mouthy Texas political force of nature -- also had a place and whom Ivins would visit.

"I wanted to do this play to keep Molly alive, to do right by her," Turner told me after show.

Allison Engel marvels at the seven-month "land speed record" between Turner's first reading last August at an Arena Stage theater near Washington and the March 24 Philly debut. "I think we were just extraordinarily lucky," she said. "Kathleen had this opening in her schedule and the Philadelphia Theatre Company was able to accommodate it." (Arena Stage, alas, enlisted first through a Margaret Engel connection, was booked solid for 2010, hence the Philly opening, for which the sisters kept rewriting until just before the first preview).

Turner, her blond hair now a deep red, evokes rather than mimics Ivins, the latest in a succession of strong females she has played; they range from the very scary Matty Walker of "Body Heat" back in 1981 to the bitter, alcoholic Martha in the 2005 Broadway revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" to last year's recurring role as the sex-crazed agent on "Californication," the Showtime cable series.

As I watched her during the play and at a champagne reception for 60 Engel & Engel friends who'd come from around the country to celebrate, I thought, "three cheers for women of a certain age." Turner is 55. The authors are 58. In fact, says Margaret Engel, one impetus for writing the play came from an earlier appeal by Sally Field, who urged women writers to create meaty scripts for older actresses. "We feel good about that," Allison Engel said. "It's a good role for a woman who's not 18 year old."

The play was originally called "The Red Rose of Texas." But longtime friend and former Rep. Jim Leach, the 15-term Iowa Republican who now heads National Endowment for the Humanities, lobbied to get the word "patriot" into the title. "There is nothing more patriotic than dissent," he said.

Ivins' favorite dissenter was John Henry Faulk, the Texas writer who was blacklisted in the '50s, later won a libel suit against the red baiters but never collected a dime. And so Miss Molly laments onstage, "We get so rattled by some Big Scary Thing -- communism or crime, hell, even sex -- we think we can make ourselves safer by giving up some of our rights. Johnny said, 'When you make yourself less free, you are not safer. You are just less free.' "

After Faulk died, Ivins hit the First Amendment and civil liberties trail. "For nigh onto 15 years, at least once a month, even in the throes of a massive hangover, I have staggered onto a plane and arrived sometime later at Fluterville or Lard Lake or some such desperate place where citizens need help. . . . It is so damn uplifting that I put the ACLU and The [Texas] Observer in my will. My legacy will be helping folks be a pain in the ass to those in power."

Some might call that red hot patriotism.

 

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my playlist is flyleaf -im so sick cold flames -miss me kiss me mindscape-undone Fort Minor - Where'd You Go 3 doors down - kryptonite Vaux - Are You With Me papa roach-last resort Authority Zero-No Regrets Good Charlotte - I Don't Wanna Be In Love gabriel antonio - ride for me Zion - Zun Dada Boys Like Girls-Thunder STOMPER-EASY COME EASY GO I LOVE<<span class="highlight">3

Version 3.0 of our Simply Scuba iPhone App is now ready for you to download. New features include a currency option, customer product reviews and demonstrational product videos. It’s never been easier to shop for all your scuba gear whilst you’re on the go. Search for the product, see what other customers have to say about it, check out one of our videos and add it to your basket. Proceed to the checkout where you can pay easily and securely for your item. The next thing you know, a parcel will arrive on your doorstep!

To download version 3.0 of the Simply Scuba iPhone App visit iTunes.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide opened it's first Westin in Austin, Texas, on Saturday. In true alignment with the musical spirit for which Austin is known, the opening festivities kicked off with a live music performance by local talent.

The Westin Austin at The Domain features 340 guest rooms, eight meeting and banquet rooms totaling 17,000 square feet of space, the Urban Restaurant and Lounge, a 24-hour fitness center, and a stunning location amidst 1.3 million square feet of dining, retail and entertainment venues. Judging by the photo tour online, the hotel's interior design offers crisp, clean lines, a modern but warm atmosphere and earthy urban undertones.

Situated just 15 minutes from downtown Austin, steps away from numerous corporations such as IBM and Dell and seconds from high-end retailers, the Westin Austin is slated to be an ideal venue for weddings, social galas and business functions. According to Nancy London, vice president of Westin Hotels & Resorts, "The Westin Austin at The Domain delivers our signature blend of sophistication and rejuvenation, designed to send guests home feeling even better than when they arrived."

Learn more about The Westin Austin at The Domain and submit an RFP for an upcoming Austin event through the Cvent Supplier Network.

There are four sure-fire blockbusters ready to kick down the doors of Summer this May, one for every hot weekend. Iron Man 2 gets the Summer started on May 7, followed by Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, then Shrek Forever After the week after that, with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time closing out the month. It's a schedule designed to put butts in cinema seats.

And then June happens. There's one potentially big hit and a whole lot of question marks. Pixar's simply not going to bomb with Toy Story 3, but how strong is the competition? A live-action Marmaduke film? A horror-western starring Josh Brolin (Jonah Hex)? An Adam Sandler comedy reuniting him with his SNL cast from twenty years ago? The A-Team? My thoughts on this have no bearing whatsoever on whether or not I actually want to see these movies. I think Knight and Day looks cute, and I liked Forgetting Sarah Marshall enough to get myself to Get Him to the Greek, but most movie-goers can see the obvious difference between May's blockbuster month and June's month of let's-see-what-sticks releases.

Need more proof? Just look one month ahead to July. Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens June 30 for the July 4th holiday, followed in order by The Last Airbender, Inception, Predators, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Salt. I didn't even include Despicable Me, which Universal has been shoving down our throats for a whole year now. Since when did June become the new August (a month notorious for the weakest of the Summer releases)?

Filed under: Box Office, Distribution, Movie Marketing, Fan Rant

Continue reading Summer Blockbusters: What Happened to June?

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We’re already familiar with GPS and pseudo-GPS triangulation technologies, that use cellphone towers or known WiFi base stations to figure out roughly where you are, but InvisiTrack reckon they can use spectrum bands more commonly found carrying TV signals to pinpoint position down to under 3m indoors or 1m outdoors.  Their InvisiTrack LS system relies on the fact that the 512 and 698 MHz bands can better penetrate through walls and other structures than higher-frequency bands like the 2.4GHz used for WiFi.

Unfortunately, while the press release makes it sound like InvisiTrack uses actual TV broadcasts for triangulation, in actual fact you’ll need both a new receiver in your mobile device and to be near at least two transmitters to go with it.  Still, in ad-hoc mode the receivers themselves act as transmitters, creating a mesh network from which position of all involved can be extrapolated from just one location lock.  While 10-times the range of existing triangulation systems sounds great on paper, we’ll wait until InvisiTrack LS gets picked up by mobile device manufacturers before we get too excited.

Press Release:

InvisiTrack™ Utilizes TV Bands to Bring Accurate Location Positioning Indoors

Introducing InvisiTrack Location System (LS) – The World’s First Accurate and Reliable Indoor/Outdoor Low-Frequency Location Positioning, Ranging and Navigation Solution That Requires No Fixed Infrastructure

CTIA Wireless 2010
LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–InvisiTrack, Inc. today announced its InvisiTrack™ Location System (LS), the world’s first accurate and reliable indoor/outdoor location positioning, ranging and navigation solution that requires no fixed infrastructure for effective operation. InvisiTrack LS is available now for integration with mobile phones and TV band-based products.

“We started InvisiTrack with a vision for creating a location technology that provides accurate location fixes with equal effectiveness both indoors and outdoors, enabling users to navigate seamlessly between both environments”
InvisiTrack LS advances the state-of-the-art in location positioning technology by maximizing the superior propagation characteristics of low-frequency radio signals to provide accurate and reliable location fixes indoors. This solution differs from legacy location methods, such as those designed to work with Cell-ID, GPS, A-GPS and Wi-Fi signals, which do not provide accurate and reliable location fixes indoors due to limitations imposed by the propagation characteristics of high–frequency radio signals.

GPS enables users to navigate to the main address of a shopping mall; LBS can provide a list of what or who is inside. InvisiTrack LS vastly improves this experience by enabling users to navigate to their destinations inside the shopping mall and find whomever or whatever they are looking for. InvisiTrack LS also enables mobile network operators and online advertisers to deliver precisely targeted location-based advertisements, finally making possible effective pay-per-walk-by advertising.

In 2008, the FCC opened up sections of radio frequency spectrum, called TV bands, for public use. TV bands between 512 and 698 MHz offer significant benefits for location positioning and tracking indoors, compared with higher frequency services like Wi-Fi, operating at 2.4 GHz. TV bands provide increased range for signal propagation and detection, leading to significantly greater effectiveness at penetrating buildings and other large structures. InvisiTrack LS utilizes TV bands to increase signal range by up to a factor of ten over that of legacy location methods, to work in many environments where higher frequency solutions do not, and to provide accurate location fixes with resolutions of less than 3 meters indoors and 1 meter outdoors without need for fixed infrastructure.

The InvisiTrack research and development team has taken a unique approach in developing InvisiTrack LS, basing it on three complementary innovations, each of which is patented (or has patents pending) in the U.S., Europe and Asia:

Narrow Bandwidth Ranging: To maximize performance in challenging outdoor environments and improve location accuracy indoors, InvisiTrack developed a range-signal boosting technology that enables InvisiTrack LS to operate at up to 10 times greater range than other location methods in use today This patented hardware and software technique enables InvisiTrack LS to make accurate distance measurements by using narrow bandwidth ranging signals, thus allowing use of low-frequency radio bands, such as VHF and UHF TV bands, while maintaining compliance with FCC regulations.
Multipath Error Correction: One of the foremost problems when attempting to navigate in metropolitan areas with buildings and other large structures that reflect radio signals is an effect known as multipath error propagation, a leading cause of inaccurate location readings. InvisiTrack LS overcomes this problem by using a unique signal design and high-resolution maximum likelihood estimate methods to calculate the precise range between InvisiTrack LS-enabled devices even if the devices are separated by obstacles, such as walls, floors, buildings and other reflective structures. This method is asynchronous and does not require fixed infrastructure for accessing and maintaining a synchronized clock source.
Virtual Triangulation: By simply moving an InvisiTrack LS-enabled device, such as a smartphone, the user establishes virtual points in space. InvisiTrack LS uses these points to triangulate the position of a tracked target. Virtual Triangulation supports applications requiring both 2D (i.e., latitude and longitude) and 3D (i.e., latitude, longitude and altitude) coordinates, and produces accurate location positioning when using as few as two InvisiTrack LS-enabled devices, unlike other location methods that require three or more clock-synchronized signal points of reference for operation.
“We started InvisiTrack with a vision for creating a location technology that provides accurate location fixes with equal effectiveness both indoors and outdoors, enabling users to navigate seamlessly between both environments,” said Russ Markhovsky, Founder and CEO, InvisiTrack, Inc. “With InvisiTrack Location System, not only have we created ‘The Last Mile of GPS’, but we’ve also opened the door to an entirely new genre of location-based services that will bring new utility to consumers and will tap new revenue streams for first market-mover companies making effective use of the technology.”

A unique feature of InvisiTrack LS is its ability to operate flexibly in ad hoc/mesh and fixed/mesh configurations with encrypted and unencrypted signaling options, supporting a range of location-based services benefitting consumers and businesses, as well as public safety and other government organizations.

Mobile devices configured with InvisiTrack LS offer vast improvements in location functionality, including location positioning, ranging and navigation with seamless traversal indoors and outdoors—notably in areas where legacy location methods have not been effective.

Additional information is provided on the InvisiTrack Web site at www.invisitrack.com.

About InvisiTrack:

Founded in 2005 with support from the State of Maryland and the University of Maryland, InvisiTrack is creator of advanced location positioning, ranging and tracking technologies, including InvisiTrack Location System (LS), the world’s first accurate indoor/outdoor location positioning, ranging and tracking. InvisiTrack is working with leading mobile handset manufacturers, network operators and service providers to bring a new genre of location-based services to consumers, enterprises and government agencies.

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Today's rumours have a heavy cold

Caught in a strange place between sleep and waking, eking out a luminous, desk-bound semi-life deep within its rumour lair, and haunted daily by a jangling timpani of swoops, pleas, raids, want-away aces and sensational smouldering summer sagas, the Mill has many recurring dreams.

Like: the one where Terry Venables keeps insisting the Mill play at left-wing back in place of Steve McManaman against Spain at Euro 96, except that, looking down, the Mill's legs have been transformed into dropping Tesco value baguettes. The one about going youth hostelling with Ray Wilkins around the Western Isles and getting into a series of minor arguments about money which always end with Ray walking on ahead in a grumpy, stiff-backed way, his backpack flapping pointedly while he mutters things like "tremendous" in a sarcastic voice. And of course the one where the Mill can feel the salty tang of John Terry's breath on its neck, where Ashley Cole keeps flicking his exposed rump with a wet towel and a sad-looking, desperately-pleading Carlo Ancellotti keeps repeatedly brining the Mill to ground with a series of well-timed ankle tap tackles.

Yes, this is the one where Chelsea are closing in. And in this morning's Sun it looks like coming true for at least one jinking Dutch playmaker. "Chelsea are closing in on Rafael van der Vaart," The Sun reports. Apparently Chelsea are already talking to his "representatives" and, if the Mill's nightly visions are any kind of guide, jabbing him slyly with toothpicks. Van der Vaart will cost £10m and Carlo Ancelotti has been "tracking" him for several months, presumably in a canvas hat and a khaki jacket from Millets with lots of flappy pockets.

Also in the Sun, Harry Redknapp doesn't need to sign Joe Cole because he has already - and once again - made loads of brilliant signings, particularly Niko Kranjcar. "When you talk about signings of the year - Niko is right up there," Redknapp pointed modestly. "I was the manager at Fratton Park who brought Niko over for the same money from Hajduk Split in Croatia to the Premier League," he added, French-kissing himself in the bathroom mirror.

According to the Daily Mail, Lionel Messi earned £29.7m in the last year, even more than hobbling, peripheral minor Los Angeles personality David Beckham. Messi's got a £3.6m bonus for winning six trophies with Barcelona. But does he know Will Smith? Wayne Rooney isn't even in the top ten. Carlos Tevez is at number seven, which is great news for whoever owns the key to his leg-irons these days.

CSKA Moscow have denied they are about to sign Albert Riera as part of a particularly vindictive punishment by Rafa Benitez, who look a bit that way. A club statement reads: "The Army Club are surprised to learn (from media) that they are candidate for the signing of Liverpool's Spanish midfielder Albert Riera... However, to those who are trying to bring extra interest to the player, we can give advice (it's free!): to specify an interested party, we would say Barcelona or Manchester United. By the way, this will be more interesting to lovers of rumours."

And Corinthians president Andres Sanches says he doesn't want to buy ageing doe-eyed Chelsea featherweight Deco, because he already has Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, who are also old and expensive.

In The Mirror, eager galloping horse Gary Neville is about to be given a new one-year contract by Manchester United. Fulham fancy a slice of Wigan utility odd ball Paul Scharner, who is out of contract in the summer. Stoke are also sniffing around him with their tongue lolling out.

Sam Allardyce got a text from Alex Ferguson after Blackburn's draw with Chelsea. "I've had a message from Alex saying 'well done, looks like the injuries didn't bother you too much'," Big Sam has said. Which, if you replace the word "injuries" with a series of gynecological synonyms is probably about right. Allardyce wants to sign Kasper Schmeichel for £1m.

Juventus will sell Gigi Buffon in the summer. "The Italian giants hope to lure Manchester City and Bayern Munich into an auction", presumably by leaving a trail of Smarties and then lurking for hours behind a set of paneled doors. Juventus also want either Rafa Benítez or Fabio Capello to be their manager and also to sign Cesc Fábregas, which even The Mill knows will never happen.

In The Times, Kevin Kyle has rebuffed the big-money advances of Russian club Spartak Nalchik, who have presumably been on Google quite a lot. "I had to have a look at it although being in the south west of Russia would have meant time away from family," Kyle said, still unaware of the existence of houses and schools and shops in the south west of Russia.

And on Goal.com Pat Noonan and Carey Talley, who sound like a pair of relentlessly grinning, bouffant-haired, tie-clip-sporting anchormen on a palsy daytime news show have been released by, respectively, the New England Revolution and Chivas USA.

Republican senators put up stiff opposition with Viagra amendments designed to embarrass Democrats

Senate Republicans have made good on their threats to try and gum up the works in order to prevent final passage of healthcare reform legislation, including a "no Viagra for perverts" amendment designed to put Democrats on the spot.

They've filed 23 amendments to the legislation so far, most of which have zero chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. Some of the bills have nothing to do with health care, such as one filed by Bob Bennett of Utah that would overturn same-sex marriage in Washington DC. Others would repeal the very legislation Democrats have just spent a year pushing through Congress, and are merely political gestures, meant to play to the Republican base, the tea party activists, Fox News viewers or the folks back home.

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law a once-in-a-generation health care reform bill, which will eventually extend health insurance to 32 million Americans who currently lack it and will bar insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions. But as part of the deal among Democratic leaders in the Senate, House and the White House, Congress is also taking up a package of modest fixes to the legislation, called the budget reconciliation bill.

The House passed that bill Sunday, and it must now pass the Senate intact. The Republicans remain unanimously opposed to healthcare reform, but Senate rules require only 51 votes. That's well within the Democrats' margin, almost assuring its passage.

The only tactical move left to the Republicans is to file as many amendments to the bill as they can, even though they know the Democrats are highly unlikely to agree to any. If the Republicans can get 51 votes on even one amendment, the bill will have to be sent back to the House for more bitter wrangling over there – and more Republican grandstanding. "The American people expect us to try to change this if we can," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday.

Here's a sample of the more obtuse Republican amendments to date:

• David Vitter of Lousiana: An amendment "to repeal the government takeover of health care".

• Also from Vitter: An amendment "prohibiting use of funds to fund the Associate of Community Organizations for Reform Now". This is targeted at Acorn, a liberal community organising group hated by conservatives. The amendment would flog a dead horse – it comes after the group said it had gone bankrupt and was shutting its doors. Also, federal courts have already ruled a similar bill passed last year to be unconstitutional.

• Tom Coburn of Oklahoma: An amendment to bar insurance payment for the impotence drug Viagra for convicted child molsters and rapists. Clever. Coburn is setting up the Democrats to vote in favour of perverts.

• Another from Coburn: An amendment "To require all Members of Congress to read a bill prior to casting a vote on the bill". The healthcare bill alone ran about 2,700 pages.

• Bob Bennett of Utah: A bill that would call a vote in Washington DC on whether to overturn the same-sex marriage law. Disguised as support for greater democracy, this is a favourite cause of conservatives who believe Washington's majority black population opposes gay marriage and will vote to bar it. (Same-sex nuptials in the US capital began this month, and despite what opponents had predicted, the institution of heterosexual marriage remains intact.)

In contrast, Senator Susan Collins, the Maine moderate, showed herself once again to be the most serious member of the Republican caucus. She filed three sensible amendments, one to allow individuals aged 30 and over access to a catastrophic health plan, another "to provide for an assessment of Medicare cost-intensive diseases and conditions", and one to allow nurse practitioners, physicians assistants and others to offer home health services. But even these amendments can't be added without the Democrats bringing down the healthcare reform process.

Interview by Jenny Desmond Walters for SCBWI Bologna 2010

Your experience in the book publishing industry spans more than 30 years. Over this time, have you observed that many book trends and topics come and go, or do you think there are classic themes in children's storytelling that never go out of style?

Both. Great stories and great themes never go out of style. But I've been in the business long enough to observe that most everything in this business is cyclical. I've seen entire genres come into fashion, go out again, and then return with a vengeance.

I was at Atheneum in the early '80s when Jean Karl and Margaret McElderry were publishing brilliant work by Ursula K. LeGuin, Anne McCaffrey, Susan Cooper, and Andre Norton.

Then we went through a period when fantasy was pronounced dead, at least until the arrival of a certain boy wizard.

Historical fiction was thought a difficult sell . . . until Sarah, Plain and Tall [by Patricia Maclachlan (HarperCollins, 1985)] came along. Now it's tough again.


Children's nonfiction was almost by definition an "institutional sale" until DK re-invented the category with Eyewitness.


In the '80s, picture books were the machine that drove the industry; sadly, that category has been difficult for a number of years, for a variety of reasons, but I think the tide is turning. I hope so, because most of the books I publish are visual.

I've never paid much attention to trends and simply published books I found irresistible, on the assumption that other people would too. And I'm still employed, so I guess my track record must be pretty good.

As the Editorial Director of Neal Porter Books at Roaring Brook Press, what are some of the specific ways you’re involved in finding new authors?

Well, that title sounds awfully grand, especially when you consider that Neal Porter Books consists of myself and an assistant. I wish I could say I spent my days burrowing through material that comes in over the transom, but I live and work in a small New York apartment and I simply do not have the space, or support, to deal with mountains of unsolicited material.

About 60 percent of the books I publish are agented; 20 percent are by authors or artists whom I've long admired who don't happen to have an agent (that usually involves a phone call or query on my part), and the rest have been referred by people I already publish. I love finding new artists.

I'm fortunate in that I've worked with the same designer, the wonderful Jennifer Browne, for the last 16 years. Jennifer has a great eye, and together we scour the Internet, student shows, websites, etc. For me, there are few things as satisfying as finding the right artist for a text, then watching the whole book come together.

Can you tell us what a typical day at work is like for you?

As I've mentioned, for the last ten years I've worked at home, so unlike most people in publishing, my commute consists of walking from my bedroom to a walk-in closet off my living room that serves as my office. Once I've scanned the New York Times, I head for the closet and my computer, and check my e-mail, which often includes messages from European publishers working five or six hours ahead of us.

Just dealing with e-mail is a huge task; I'm glad it's there but am skeptical about whether it's made us more productive as editors. I check in with the office and also with Jennifer, who works from home in New Jersey.

We're small, but we're far flung. Jennifer and I do a lot of our work over the Internet. She'll send me a PDF of a jacket design or a page layout, and then we'll go over it on the phone.

Meetings with authors or artists take place throughout the week, and it's nice to be working around a coffee table in my living room, rather than in a sterile office. The downside is that I have to vacuum more often than if I were left to my own devices.

The day zips by pretty quickly--punctuated by many, many phone calls--some welcome, some not--and occasional trips to the Roaring Brook offices, usually to deliver final art to production.

We have a weekly editorial meeting at Roaring Brook, which I very much enjoy. It's a chance to see what my colleagues are up to and also to get feedback on books I'm either thinking of acquiring or that are in process. It's not an acquisitions meeting per se, just an opportunity to solicit opinions and offer advice.

We also have a production meeting once every other week, where our managing editor attempts to keep all of our books on track.

Sometimes I'll have lunch with an author or agent, but more often than not I'll simply forget to eat. There's flap copy, catalog copy, tip sheet copy to write--the least favorite thing I do because it feels too much like homework.

I save the evenings for reading, and sometimes for answering yet more e-mails. Given the time difference, I often get messages from Australia at around midnight, and I love shocking them (at least those who don't know I work at home) by responding immediately.

Your Wikipedia entry mentions that multiple books edited by you have received top awards and citations every year for at least the last seven years, including awards last year going to the amazing Laura Vaccaro Seeger for One Boy (Neal Porter, 2008) and Yuyi Morales for Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book (Neal Porter, 2008).

I'm curious to know what happens next--after a book receives one of the American Library Association's coveted awards, what changes occur in the author's and editor's world, aside from much celebrating, of course? Also, I think it's pretty cool that you have your own Wikipedia entry!

The Wikipedia entry was filed by a good friend who also happens to be an author I publish. I think it just goes to show you that anybody can have a Wikipedia entry.

As for the awards, they're lovely things, and can open many doors, especially if they're given early in an author or artist's career.

The Newbery and Caldecott have an immediate effect on sales, more dramatic than any other literary award, including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer, and even the Nobel. But the less well known awards, the Sibert, the Geisel, et al, also bring excellent work to the attention of a much larger audience, and that's a very good thing.

I have mixed feelings about all of the blogging and tweeting that goes on in the run up to the announcements. It's nice to see so many people excited about children's books. But an author whose book wins the Mock Newbery in Des Moines can be set up for a major disappointment on the morning when the ALA calls are actually made.

I try to ignore it as much as possible and suggest that authors do the same.

Speaking of Laura Vaccaro Seeger, I read an interview by the School Library Journal (July 1, 2007) where she talked about the inspiration for her book, Dog and Bear: Two Friends - Three Stories (Neal Porter, 2007). She mentioned that in this book, you are Bear. That must be pretty special! Can you tell us more about how this story came about and the role you played in helping her shape these characters?

Laura had published three brilliant "concept" books at that point, and we both wanted to do a simple, narrative picture book. I happened to be visiting her one afternoon and encountered a peculiar-looking stuffed bear perched on a high chair in her living room.

I said something highly intelligent and probing like, "What's with this bear?"

And she told me that she'd found him in a thrift shop.

I said, "Maybe he needs a story."

At that point, her frisky dachshund Copper bolted into the living room. And Dog and Bear were born.

Since the stories were so simple, I thought it was important that we get an absolute bead on who these characters were, and suggested that she make a list of personality traits for each.

When she read the list for Dog--excitable, energetic, creative, etc., I said, "That sounds just like you."

And when she read the list for Bear--quiet, thoughtful, timid, a little formal, etc., she said, "That sounds like you!"

And so they were.

When you publish the work of a client, do you generally work with that person throughout their career, or is it more common to work together on a book-by-book basis?

I'm not crazy about the word "client" - it makes me sound like I'm doing all the work, and I really view it more as a collaboration. That depends on so many factors--financial as well as artistic.

Let's just say that the most satisfying relationships are long term.

I reviewed the Roaring Brook Press Spring 2010 catalog (PDF) on the Internet and was excited to see an array of wonderful and interesting titles in the pipeline. I've already made out my wish list of titles that I'll definitely own. What are some of the books you are most enthusiastic about this year?

Laura has a new picture book this spring, What If?, that's really about making choices, and the consequences of those choices. It's also about a boy, a ball, and three seals. The same story is told three times, with three possible resolutions. It's kind of a picture book version of "Rashomon," if you know that movie. And I think it's extraordinary.


Charles R. Smith Jr. and Shane Evans have done a smashing picture book biography of Jack Johnson, the first Black Heavyweight Champion, that we're publishing on July 4, 2010, the 100th anniversary of "The Fight of the Century." [See Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson.]


A fall book that I'm very excited about is Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan's Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, with wonderful paintings by Brian Floca. It's a book about three great collaborators--Martha Graham, Aaron Copland, and Isamu Noguchi, that's been written and illustrated by three great collaborators.

And my pick for quirkiest book of the year is Brains for Lunch, a zombie novel set in middle school that's written entirely in haiku! The author is K. A. Holt [shown], and the pictures are by Gahan Wilson, the great New Yorker cartoonist.

And last, what are some of the personal or professional goals you have for attending SCBWI Bologna and the Bologna International Children’s Fair this year?

I have but one goal at Bologna: to be utterly seduced by a book and to publish it. That happened three years ago with Marion Bataille's ABC3D and who knows? Maybe lightning will strike again.



Thank you so much, Neal, for taking time to share your knowledge and expertise with us. We look forward to learning great things from you at this year's SCBWI Bologna event.

My pleasure.

Cynsational Notes

Neal Porter has been in and around the book publishing industry for more than 30 years. After a brief stint in the college textbook department of St. Martin's Press, he moved into trade publishing, where he held marketing positions at Avon Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Atheneum and Scribners.

In 1985, he became Editorial Director of Aladdin Books at Macmillan, and in 1987, he moved to London to become Joint Managing Director of Walker Books in London. He returned to the United States in 1989 as Vice President and Publisher of Macmillan Children's Books and subsequently held executive positions at Orchard Books and Dorling Kindersley.

In 2000, he decided to step away from administration and focus exclusively on editing books. That year he helped to found Roaring Brook Press, where he is currently Editorial Director of Neal Porter Books.

Jenny Desmond Walters is the founding regional advisor of the SCBWI Korea chapter. She is an experienced education professional with a love of learning and literature. She has worked in public television developing curriculum and promoting instructional programs, as well as worked extensively with educational publishers and learning materials companies. For the last several years, Jenny has lived in east Asia where she has become an avid writer and observer of life in Japan and Korea. Her articles have been published in national children's magazines and writing journals, and she has been a member of SCBWI for more than 10 years. Jenny currently resides in Seoul with her husband and three daughters, and she rarely runs out of interesting stories to write.

The SCBWI Bologna 2010 interview series is brought to you by the SCBWI Bologna Biennial Conference in conjunction with Cynsations. To register, visit the SCBWI Bologna Biennial Conference 2010. Note: Special thanks to Angela Cerrito for coordinating this series with SCBWI Bologna and Cynsations.

With an election looming, immigration will be an issue – but one that must be reported sensitively, not sensationally

Listening to the long rant of Newham citizens against "immigrants" on the Today programme this morning took me back me back to my early days as a BBC trainee reporter in Birmingham in the early 1970s. Vox pops, as they were called, were the easiest of wallpaper radio journalism. Out into the street with a Uher and microphone and a wave of Powellite hate against immigrants could be recorded. Listening this morning, nothing had changed.

Then, as now, there was a silky smooth voice of an establishment grandee saying that immigration was out of control. His words are repeated today by Nick Griffin and the BNP. In the 1970s, it was John Tyndall and the National Front. Mainstream politicians did not know which way to turn. Labour brought in tougher immigration controls and Margaret Thatcher promised that the country would not be "swamped".

Today did not send its reporter into Newham health services to ask patients if they objected to being treated by doctors and nurses who may not be "white English", to use the preferred phrase of the racists, Today gave a platform to. The programme also allowed a former ambassador, Sir Andrew Green, to repeat the old canard that immigration is a "political taboo" which no mainstream party will address.

The three great lies about immigration are as follows:

• Politicians are not talking about it. I can think of no other issue that flares up so often on the doorstep. It is raised regularly at local Labour party meetings. The government has changed the law again and again. Phil Woolas and other ministers get into trouble as they talk of little else.

• It is out of control. In fact, last year there were 24,000 claims for asylum but 65,000 asylum seekers were sent or went home. The great wave of east European workers sucked in by the booming low-wage labour-intensive economy of the early century has subsided. Over decades Britain has absorbed hundreds of thousands of Irish. Now it is a different type of Catholic European – Poles and Slovaks.

• There is something easy to be done. What? Leave the EU and stop European citizens living and working here? And what if Spain, looking at 800,000 British citizens living and working there, decides to apply the same policy? Declare Britain will pull out of international treaties on refugee rights? Tell 200,000 Americans and 300,000 Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and white South Africans they have to go home? Tell British citizens who want to marry someone from far away that they cannot?

In the 1970s, with my BBC microphone, I picked up exactly the same hate racism that the Today's reporter recorded with ease in Newham. One answer to immigration was the mass unemployment of the 1980s, which meant no one came to work here and, instead, we exported our "Auf Wiedersehen Pet" workers to richer economies.

Some measures should be taken. I pointed out in the Commons last week that Iraqi asylum seekers can now go home. Iraq has had a successful general election. Kurdish Iraq is safe. Businesses, shops, restaurants are back along the Euphrates in Baghdad. The nation has the world's largest oil reserves. Violence occurs, just as bombs blew up and killed people in British cities during the long IRA terror campaign. But Iraqis who fled from Saddam's regime of terror or during the Shia-Sunni civil war driven by al-Qaida after 2003 can now return. The same is true of Kosovans. Kosovo is booming. There is too much corruption, as elsewhere in the Balkans, including Greece, but there is no reason to claim refugee status.

On health grounds, we should slow down the rate of cousin marriage. The evidence of congenital defects arising from cousins marrying is now overwhelming. My friends in Britain's Kashmiri community know this, but the culture of cousin marriage remains strong – just ask Europe's royal families. There may be a case for limiting cousin marriages without full-scale medical checks and it should be discussed. It would be helpful if outfits such as the Muslim Council of Britain could take a lead on this, instead of supporting reactionary, patriarchal cultural practices, which feeds into anti-Muslim prejudice.

In the 1970s, under the impulse of no-nonsense veteran journalists from its regions, the BBC drew up guidelines on race reporting that put some limits on the excitement of the metropolitan BBC Oxbridge elites who thought they had an exciting story about mass immigration changing the face of Britain and destroying communities. Now, Nick Griffin swells as he listens to former ambassadors, foolish MPs and London elite commentators all trying to pretend that they are telling a hidden truth on the presence of non-white, non-Christian, non-received English-speaking incomers living in our country.

There needs to be no silence on immigration – simply a conversation about the issue that recognises there are problems and works out ways of overcoming them. That requires sensitivity and balance and not allowing the kind of three-page platform interview provided to Nick Griffin in the current Total Politics; and it means talking to MPs who deal daily with the issue.

Nicolas Sarkozy thought he had solved the "immigrant question" in France with tough language about hosing the scum off the streets of Paris and launching a debate about national identity in France, which quickly turned into a feast of anti-Muslim prejudice. All he did was boost Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National vote last weekend. Similarly, the BNP thrives on the kind of BBC reporting we heard this morning.

There is no simple answer. Punch-up panel debates on Newsnight between a representative of Immigration Watch and someone from the immigrant community, or between MPs with opposing views, do not help. Nor does the vox-pop racism on offer this morning. In the 1970s, serious BBC journalists working with the NUJ and others worked out rough-and-ready, deontological guidelines on reporting these issues. It is time the BBC sat down again and took a lead in raising the debate above the very low level where Nick Griffin, Migration Watch and MPs who think that claiming immigration is out of control will lessen the BNP vote want to keep it.

Image credit: Reader Rachel in Kentucky

GOP Sen. Jim DeMint went head to head against Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin on NBC’s “Today Show” and MSNBC this morning. DeMint noted that the “American people are very angry”. Durbin’s response? Essentially: Shut up and pay the price of Democrat majority rule.

Watch Durbin justify the massive cost of Demcare and the taxes it will impose as “the cost of having the kind of America we want to have:”

Writes Sen. DeMint: “What kind of America do we want to have? One where people are free to live their lives as they see fit, or one where Washington controls nearly every aspect of our lives?”

We know what kind of America Democrat dinosaur Sen. John Dingell wants: “The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.”

Yes, he said it:

Welcome to Nancy Pelosi’s vision of taking America in a “new direction”.

***

What’s happening in the Senate: Debate will continue all day on the Senate wreckonciliation “fixes,” with the GOP offering a plethora of amendments and procedural motions. GOP Sen. Judd Gregg is taking aim at the student loan nationalization power grab, via the CSM:

Senate Democrats emerged from a caucus luncheon Tuesday resolved to block any changes in the House fixes.

“This is just going to be parliamentary games,” says Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri. “It will be death by gotcha votes – dozens of them. We have to stand up and be strong and say: Sorry, we are not going to play.”

This companion bill – the promise of which was the only way to secure passage of the unpopular Senate bill through the House – increases subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans and it adjusts funding to lower deficits. It also includes a measure that makes the federal government the exclusive provider of student loans.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R) of New Hampshire wants to focus public attention on the student loan provisions. The nationalization of the student loan industry, quasi-nationalization of the financial system, nationalization of the auto industry, and quasi-nationalization of the health industry will “drive this country down a road towards a European-style government,” he says.

The Foundry reports: “Reconciliation Bill Adds Even More Taxes.”

***

And behind closed doors, where they are no doubt assuring each other that the whole charade is meaningless: Obama to sign abortion order behind closed doors.

Stupak.

Etymology: Eponym for Congressman Bart Stupak.

Function: verb 1: In a legislative process, to obstruct passage of a proposed law on the basis of a moral principle (i.e. protecting the unborn), accumulating power in the process, then at a key moment surrendering in exchange for a fig leaf, the size of which varies according to the degree of emasculation of said legislator and/or as a reflection of just how stupid people are presumed to be. (Slang: backstabber.) Poor Bart Stupak. The man tried to be a hero for the unborn, and then, when all the power of the moment was in his frail human hands, he dropped the baby. He genuflected when he should have dug in his heels and gave it up for a meaningless executive order.

Now, in the wake of his decision to vote "yes" for a health care bill that expands public funding for abortion, he is vilified and will be forever remembered as the guy who Stupaked health care reform and the pro-life movement.

Of all the disappointed activists, Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org and creator of StandWithStupak.com, was perhaps the most demonstrative in his support of pro-life Democrats. He even created a video with a remake of the final battle scene from "Braveheart." A helmeted British Barack Obama says, "Our cavalry will ride them down like grass.
33; Full attack!" Whereupon, Stupak, eyeglasses incongruously perched on his blue-painted face, commands his pitchfork army, "Steady.
33; Hold, hold, hold."

Alas, Stupak couldn't hold.

Ultimately, he was weak and overwhelmed by raw political power.

History is no stranger to such moments, but this one needs to be understood for what it was. A deception.

The executive order promising that no federal funds will be used for abortion is utterly useless, and everybody knows it. First, the president can revoke it as quickly as he signs it.

Second, an order cannot confer jurisdiction in the courts or establish any grounds for suing anybody in court, according to a former White House counsel. The order is therefore judicially unenforceable.

Finally, an executive order cannot trump or change a federal statute.

One can reasonably surmise that Obama, a former constitutional law professor, is well aware of the uselessness of his promise. Perhaps this is why he didn't mention it during the bill-signing ceremony Tuesday.

Stupak, too, knew that the executive order was merely political cover for him and his pro-life colleagues. He knew it because several members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops explained it to him, according to sources. The only way to prevent public funding for abortion was for his amendment to be added to the Senate bill.

Clearly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the president didn't want that. What they did want was the abortion funding that the Senate bill allowed.

Thus, the health care bill passed because of a mutually understood deception – a pretense masquerading as virtue. No wonder Stupak locked his doors and turned off his phones Sunday, according to several pro-life lobbyists who camped outside his office.

The ticktock of what transpired during the final 72 hours before the vote will keep political science majors – and psychologists – happily lost in research for years. Meanwhile, whatever Americans feel about the health care bill and its relative merits, they should disabuse themselves of any idea that this was an honest play.

Ironically, the day before the vote, Obama said: "We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine." Democrats were bound to win, all right, but truth and light had nothing to do with it.

Stupak's clumsy fall from grace is a lesson in human frailty. In a matter of hours, he went from representing the majority of Americans who don't want public money spent on abortion to leading the army on the other side.

Something must have gone bump in the night.

Whatever it was, demonizing Stupak seems excessive and redundant given punishments to come. Already he has lost a speaking invitation to the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast next month. His political future, otherwise, may have been foretold by a late-night anecdote.

After the Sunday vote, a group of Democrats, including Stupak, gathered in a pub to celebrate. In a biblical moment, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was spotted planting a big kiss on Stupak's cheek.

To a Catholic man well-versed in the Gospel, this is not a comforting gesture.

TRACY – When California is hurting, much of the pain usually falls on the Central Valley. So it's no surprise that the biggest layoff of the recession in California will hit the Valley hard.

The imminent closure of Toyota Motor Corp.'s NUMMI auto factory in the East Bay is creating serious spillover effects. It will erase thousands of manufacturing jobs in the Valley, a region where unemployment already tops 18 percent once you get south of Sacramento.

Phanna Kang is among those headed toward an uncertain future. He's worked the past eight years at Pacific Coast MS Industries in Tracy, a Japanese-owned company that makes air ducts and fuel and brake lines for NUMMI. The Tracy plant will close when the last Toyota rolls off the assembly line at NUMMI on March 31.

Kang, the father of a 3-year-old daughter, was already struggling to pay the mortgage on his Modesto home. Now he's pretty sure he won't be able to pay.

"I'm going to lose the home," he said.

Pacific Coast, which employs 130 workers, is one of several Valley auto-parts plants that sprang up to serve NUMMI and are now headed for oblivion. The Tracy plant opened in 1984, the same year as NUMMI.

"How do you work on closing a factory? This is something I had never done before," said Jasper Bullock Jr., 50, general manager of the Pacific Coast plant.

The NUMMI disaster will hit the Valley in several ways. At least 1,200 Valley residents commute to Fremont to work at NUMMI directly. An unknown number of Valley residents work at Bay Area plants that make parts for NUMMI. And at least 1,000 work for parts manufacturers in the Valley itself, like Pacific Coast.

Throw in the "multiplier effect" – the jobs that vanish when laid-off workers curtail their spending in restaurants, stores, etc. – and the total job loss in the Valley will hit 6,000 over the next few months, said economist Jeff Michael of the University of the Pacific.

Michael estimates the total statewide job loss at 20,000, including the multiplier effect. NUMMI itself employs around 4,500 workers.

Michael said the ripple effects from NUMMI will eliminate about 5 percent of San Joaquin County's factory jobs. But the impact goes beyond the numbers. The layoffs will stifle the region's efforts to diversify its manufacturing base beyond food processing and construction materials, he said.

"This is devastating," said Debbie Duplichan, a rapid-response coordinator at the WorkNet jobs agency in San Joaquin County. "I don't think anybody truly has their head around what's going to happen – the economic impact is going to be substantial."

Unemployment stands at 18.4 percent in the Stockton area and 18.9 percent in Modesto.

The last auto plant in California, NUMMI, or New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., once stood as a symbol of the revival of American automaking. The Fremont plant was closed by General Motors Corp. in 1982 and reopened two years later by NUMMI, a joint venture between GM and Toyota.

The plant was a model of efficiency. But when auto sales plummeted last year, NUMMI's production fell by 25 percent. The plant's existence was further imperiled when GM pulled out of the joint venture following its bankruptcy reorganization. Toyota announced last August that the plant, which makes Corollas and Tacomas, was closing, with production moving to Canada, Texas and Japan.

Labor leaders and some elected officials held out hope that Toyota, its reputation shattered by a recall crisis, would reverse its decision and keep the plant open to generate good will. But the automaker held firm.

In recent weeks the Valley parts factories, many of them owned by Japanese companies and dedicated almost entirely to supplying NUMMI, have announced their closures. Among those shutting down is Kyoho Manufacturing of California, a Toyota subsidiary that arrived in Stockton just two years ago to make stamped and welded body parts. It employs 154 workers.

"They showed up in 2008 and here they are shutting down in 2010," Michael said. "It's a
33; sign of how unanticipated the collapse of the auto industry was."

Pacific Coast tried to save itself in spite of the NUMMI shutdown. The Tracy plant dedicates about 5 percent of its production to Toyota plants in Canada and Mexico, and Bullock explored the possibility of making parts for a Toyota truck plant in Texas.

Ultimately, the plant was done in by geography. A sister facility in Kentucky makes parts for Toyota plants in the Midwest and South, and shipping finished parts halfway across the country from California didn't make sense.

The Tracy plant, spread across three buildings just north of Interstate 205, remains busy even as the final days approach. Black plastic tubing is molded into brake and fuel lines; larger pieces become ducts for the air conditioning system. Asphalt is used to make pliable mats placed inside doors to muffle street noise.

"It's a hard laboring job but it pays the bills," said John Thor, 27, an employee who lives in Modesto. He said he might try to go back to school to become an electrician when Pacific Coast closes.

The last day of production in Tracy will be March 30. The next day, a caterer and disc jockey will be brought in for the plant's final day of existence.

"We're having a party on the 31st," Bullock said, dabbing his eyes. "It's over with and we're going to have a party."

The Saint Bernard is considered to be a giant dog, with weights of up to 200 or more pounds. This is a very muscular and strong dog. The dog will measure 27 to 32 inches at the shoulder with the bitch 26 to 29 inches. The coat of the St. Bernard comes in two types, rough or smooth. The rough coat is longer than the smooth, but tends to lie fairly flat. The color of the coat is usually red, black, or mahogany with white. It is claimed that the dog has the ability to sense impending avalanches. The Saint Bernard will live from 8 to 10 years. The St. Bernard is also known as the Alpine Mastiff, the St. Barnhardshund, and the Bernhardiner.

History: Monks began breeding the Saint Bernard over 1000 years ago in the Swiss Alps. It is thought that the monks bred the Great Pyrenees, Great Dane, and Tibetan Mastiff together to get the St. Bernard. The hospice was near the treacherous pass of Saint Bernard where travelers were often stranded during winter snow storms or in avalanches. Working in packs, the dogs would sniff out people buried in the snow, dig them out, then attempt to warm them by lying down on them. One of the dogs would then go back to hospice to alert the monks and a rescue team would be dispatched.

Temperament: The Saint Bernard is a dog that attaches itself closely to its human family. This breed is known for being gentle and patient, especially with children. As with most members of the Mastiff group, this dog loves children. This is not a fast moving dog, but tends to move slowly. As with all large breeds, however, the St. Bernard should be socialized with people and other animals from an early age. Although it is not an aggressive dog, the St. Bernard will serve as a guard dog for the family.

Health Issues: The Saint Bernard is subject to various health problems including hip dysplasia and entropion of the eye. Stomach torsion, or bloat, is also fairly common so smaller meals served several times a day are recommended. If the dog does experience bloat, it must be taken to the veterinarian immediately for treatment. Heart problems can also surface in the St. Bernard as can tumors and skin allergies.

Grooming: The Saint Bernard, regardless of the length of its coat, will benefit from a weekly brushing. During the twice yearly shed, additional grooming may be necessary. Shampoo only when absolutely necessary to retain the coat's natural oils. Ears should be checked daily for any sign of infection. As the St. Bernard is a drooler, especially after eating or drinking, have a cloth ready to tidy up. The eyes of this dog should be kept clean and free of any kind of irritating substance.

Living Conditions: Although some St. Bernards are still used for rescue work, the majority of them are companion dogs. This large dog can actually be happy in an apartment as long as it receives enough exercise. The St. Bernard loves to be around its human family and enjoys being outside with them. It does not do well in hot weather and is actually hardy enough to live outdoors, even in the winter. Remember, though, that this a very people-oriented dog and will want to be with the family as much as possible.

Carbon Motors has announced that it's agreed to purchase up to 240,000 of BMW's 3.0-liter inline-six diesel engines. [1]The Carbon Motors E7 What the heck is Carbon Motors, you ask? Carbon Motors was formed in 2003 with the intent to provide a purpose-built police cruiser to compete with other cop cars built from existing civilian vehicles and saddled with the accompanying compromises. Last year, the company took up residence in a vacated Visteon factory in Connersville, Indiana, and announced plans to spend $350 million updating the 1.8-million square-foot space for its purposes. Carbon’s car is known as the E7 for now, although the company calls that an internal code name and will reveal a more intimidating moniker closer to production, which it says will begin in 2012. via 2012 Carbon Motors E7 Cop Car to Use BMW Diesel Power - Car News - Car and Driver [2]. The company basically plans to produce cars specifically tailored to the police market - large, extremely robust cars with specific features tailored to the law-enforcement community, such as rear-opening back doors to aid in loading arrestees. Remember the Checker Marathon [3]? As taxi cabs, they were one of the most  iconic American cars of all time, and could be seen almost every "New York" movie or television show shot in the 60s, 70s or 80s. They were built like tanks, were inexpensive to maintain, and could seat up to seven with their two fold-down jump seats. Despite all this, Checker stopped producing cars in 1982, and went out of business last year. It was simply too hard for a niche automaker to survive. [4]The Checker Marathon Things are even more brutal now. I wish Carbon luck. But, they're competing against established automakers such as Ford, which just announced a new Police Interceptor [5] with almost the same capabilities as the E7. I doubt the start-up company is long for this world. [1] http://trueslant.com/dallegro/files/2010/03/Carbon-E7.jpg [2] http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/10q1/2012_carbon_motors_e7_cop_car_to_use_bmw_diesel_power-car_news [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_Marathon [4] http://trueslant.com/dallegro/files/2010/03/checker-sm.jpg [5] http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/03/new-ford-taurus-police-car-to-replace-retiring-crown-vic-.html?EXTKEY=I91CONL38;CMP=OTC-ConsumeristRSS

[1]Image by Joshua Rappeneker via Flickr I'm pretty sure this won't get answered and published because it's mundane, but how do people get a life -- a nice fulfilling social life? I am 20 and currently in university. Most days I go through the motions of trying to chat people up and most days it works and I can pretend that I have friends. But when I come home, all I do is drink and whine about my horrid, horrid life on various Internet message boards. Thing is, I am fairly certain I tried it all. Talk to people, act confident even if you aren't. Invite people to stuff. Pretend you're interested in the things you're not, so people will like you regardless. But nothing is really working. And with the spring semester ending in less than two months, I'm realizing that I completely wasted the year. I just wish I was a normal 20 year old who goes to parties, gets extremely drunk and wakes up with some random girl whose name he doesn't know. How do you go about making that happen? -- Friendless and Miserable. There's a pretty wide road between a "nice fulfilling social life" and waking up with alcohol poisoning, a naked stranger and gonorrhea. You can barely feign interest in a few moments of small talk during the daytime. What would be different at a party with the same vapid people? The drinking? You're already drinking -- and instead of seeking traditional human contact, you're amusing yourself by typing at other people who also prefer typing into the void. Let's consider the possibility that you're basically anti-social, a moody loner, and there's not going to be a "nice fulfilling social life" for you at all -- not if you're defining it by the routines of other 20-year-old college kids. Lots of people drink and type on the computer at night. I'm doing it right now -- this column's not going to write itself. If that's all you're doing, maybe dial it down a notch, and please don't drink and drive, give a hoot, etc. I regularly advocate for getting the hell away from the computers on a daily basis, donating your teevee to a prison, and spending as much time as possible outside, away from traffic and office parks and shopping malls and Other Humans. Run if you like to run, walk in the shade and gaze at nothing if that's your speed, take the stairs up to the roof of your dorm and read, your mental and physical health is going to instantly improve in tangible ways if you get outside for a solid hour every day. But look, if you're more comfortable hanging around message boards where some like-minded souls get together and complain, do that. Brood upon the wretchedness of your comfortable academic life, that is fine, this is the age to brood. And with the newfound clarity you'll get from giving your eyes and brain a brief daily vacation out of doors, you might come up with a genius idea like this: Get on your message boards and propose a pub meet-up around your campus or town. If the university has more than a few hundred students, there will be at least a couple of people on your Internet board who are also in your geographic area, and chances are they prefer typing and drinking to trying to fit at the parties for the social types, but would still like to know some people "in real life." Lots of forums and boards have meet-ups. In the United States, Fark [2] and Metafilter [3] host them, even 4chan [4] has pub nights. If your thing doesn't, start a thread, "ANYBODY IN [YOUR TOWN] UP FOR A [SITE NAME] PUB NIGHT?" Use your board's in-jokes and slang to show you will not be butt-hurt if nobody wants to do this, and then watch in subdued delight as a bunch of people claim to want to do this, and then feel bad but quickly get over it when about five people actually show up the first time. Five is a lot of people! Who has/needs more than five actual good friends? Eventually, somehow, girls will appear and enjoy the witty/confident nonsense you talk about, with these people, and sex will be had. Wear a condom, etc.! If your group is especially deficient in even the most basic Social Skills, you might need something more structured, like an MTV Awards Night party or laser tag or whatever you people do, hopefully something better than those lame examples. Do you spend all night sexting with hobbit enthusiasts, for example? There's a whole cottage industry catering to your costumed whims. (Ha ha, "cottage," because is that where hobbits live, "in real life"? No they live in a kind of dirt hole with furniture, I guess.) But, hopefully, a simple pub night will get you out with people who are fun to talk to, because you've got similarly trivial or depraved interests, and all the in-jokes and rapport that comes with that stuff. The first attempt might fail, just make it a regular thing, say Wednesday nights, what else does anybody have going on? Once a month, maybe. My ex-boss Nick Denton [5] made a small fortune about a decade ago hosting parties for computer nerds too socially retarded to actually go out. It was called "First Tuesday" and that's what it was, a party for Silicon Valley geeks on the first Tuesday night of the month. And then he moved to New York [6], where even the nerds go out because the apartment is the size of a bathtub, which is in the kitchenette with the futon, the end. Ken, a friend asked me this question yesterday and I was totally stumped, so I'm hoping you can help me: What is the meaning of life? -- Lewis Grossberger [7]. The meaning of life is a 20-year-old passed-out drunk guy in a hobbit suit who actually believed his favorite Internet board was hosting a "pub night" in an old abandoned warehouse down by the railroad tracks, and you've just given him gonorrhea. Send your important questions to ask.layne@gmail.com. But if you have a REAL problem, call the police or something, as Ken Layne [8] will not really help you at all. This is just a web page on the Internet, and he is just a writer who works for Wonkette [9]. [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894167210@N01/321541 [2] http://fark.com [3] http://metafilter.com [4] http://www.4chan.org/ [5] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist/person/0,,47452,00.html [6] http://gawker.com [7] http://trueslant.com/lewisgrossberger/ [8] http://wonkette.com/author/klayne [9] http://wonkette.com

[1]Japanese maple. Image via Wikipedia The past two months have ravaged the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic U.S.: heavy snow, intense rain, hurricane-force winds. In my small suburban New York town, as in many communities, we have lost dozens, likely hundreds of trees. People have died when a heavy limb [2], or entire tree, fell on them. Arborists, at least, are happy, [3]booked solid for business cutting up and chipping these trees and limbs for months to come. The property of our apartment building contained many lovely old specimens -- one, beside the garage, gave us a huge, veritable cloud of white blossoms each spring, a sight I look forward to every year. Now, destroyed by the weight of so much snow from a storm a few weeks ago, it lies sheared into three parts, its already-budding branches lying on the wet pavement. One of my favorite trees, so ethereal in every season it almost shimmers with beauty, is the Japanese maple. There was one on the grounds of a nearby college, right by the roadside, and I've driven past it almost daily for 20 years. I love that tree. Now it's a raw stump, its delicate lace-like branches lying by the side of the road, lined up with dozens of others. It's like looking at a row of corpses. Am I the only person who finds the loss of these gorgeous community members deeply sad? Who -- if anyone, in a time of totally devastated city, town and state budgets -- will even think to replace some of them? Who can afford it? Does anyone care? Maybe, being Canadian, and having spent a lot of my time outdoors, I think about trees. Our flag is centered with a red maple leaf. From the USDA Forest Service [4], which lists nine advantages of urban forests: Trees are major capital assets in America’s cities and towns. Just as streets, sidewalks, sewers, public buildings and recreational facilities are a part of a community’s infrastructure, so are publicly owned trees. Trees-and, collectively, the urban forest-are important assets that require care and maintenance the same as other public property. Trees are on the job 24 hours every day working for all of us to improve our environment and quality of life. Without trees, the city is a sterile landscape of concrete, brick, steel and asphalt. Picture your town without trees. Would it be a place where you would like to live? Trees make communities livable for people. Trees add beauty and create an environment beneficial to our mental health. Trees: Add natural character to our cities and towns. Provide us with colors, flowers, and beautiful shapes, forms and textures. Screen harsh scenery. Soften the outline of masonry, metal and glass. Can be used architecturally to provide space definition and landscape continuity. Trees impact deeply on our moods and emotions, providing psychological benefits impossible to measure. A healthy forest growing in places where people live and work is an essential element of the health of the people themselves. Trees: Create feelings of relaxation and well-being. Provide privacy and a sense of solitude and security. Shorten post-operative hospital stays when patients are placed in rooms with a view of trees and open spaces. A well-managed urban forest contributes to a sense of community pride and ownership. At least one person cares [5]-- even if they're out in California. Write Paul and Joan Wild, to their local paper: We have lived in this community for 54-plus years, which may tell you that we are old. I have spent my younger days shoeing horses in the small shopping area just south of the 10 freeway off of Citrus Avenue. It seems that every time I go to get my hair cut, there are more changes. The latest being the group of sycamore trees cut down to allow more parking. The only green in the shopping mall and it is cut down. I think if you stretched, you could get one space. I am more than aware we need revenue, but come on, do you need every mature green tree gone? Those trees survived with no watering or care for years, but the trees did offer shade and a place to rest and have your lunch in your car. A mature tree is a sight that if the developers have their way, will be a thing you can only tell your children about. This area has looked like a bomb site for more than a few months. Right now the most common sound is the buzz of chain saws and the roar of chippers -- we also lost one of our property's oldest, tallest pine trees. This summer, I'll miss its shade, beauty and softness. I sure hope replanting is as important as clean-up. [1] http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Acer_palmatum0.jpg [2] http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/person-killed-by-falling-tree-in-central-park/ [3] http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0310/711851.html [4] http://www.state.sc.us/forest/urbben.htm [5] http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_14636628

Skechers USA, a global leader in lifestyle footwear is currently hiring a Regional Wellness Manager for the North West Territory. You must have at least 3 years of work experience in Fitness training, Sports Medicine or Nutrition. Retail experience in footwear or apparel is preferred. This position is a training position that focuses on educating and communicating the message of our Shape Up product to employees, consumers and other retailers and how it ties into fitness and leading a healthy lifestyle. This position requires 70%-80% travel within the market. You must be passionate about coaching and developing employees and meeting sales expectations consistently. Knowledge of our Shape Up and Tone Up footwear line is required.

If you are interested in applying for this position, please forward your resume to: Adan Villalobos- Recruiter- adanv@skechers.com

JOB PURPOSE

To support and manage Shape-ups and the wellness fitness category in company retail stores. Responsible for the everyday follow up and support in regards to overall sales performance within specified region by executing technical clinics, events, in store training, visual standards, marketing execution and opportunities, frequent store visits, audits and operational excellence.

ESSENTIAL JOB RESULTS












• Manages all Shape-ups and fitness oriented retail doors to better educate the sales teams on the technical features of the Shape-ups and other Skechers fitness products.

• To support each store in visual concepts, sales needs, reward programs, in store events and trainings.

• To be a team leader within the region and support when necessary various local events which promote Shape-ups and Skechers fitness.

• Communicate with RSM and field team on competitive disadvantages and opportunities within specified store locations.

• To be consistently energetic, dynamic and enthusiastic while advocating Shape-ups and Skechers fitness.

• Travel frequently throughout region to assess opportunities and progress.

• Submit written reports and assessments from information gathered from store and market visits to RSM and Operations Department.

• Participate in the filming and creation of in store DVD training programs.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Other duties as assigned
• Fitness oriented
• Practice healthy lifestyle activities regularly


SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• None


JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Excellent customer service skills
• Must be a strong team player
• Excellent written and oral skills
• Works well in high demand environment
• Ability to travel up to 75% of the time
• Enjoys travel, working from home and can impeccably manage personal schedule


JOB QUALIFICATIONS

• 2-4 years marketing, merchandising or retail related background.
• College degree preferred, high school diploma or equivalent

The majority of the 30-odd people gathered outside the Central Library’s gated entrance on a chilly March morning appear to be homeless. When the doors open at 9 a.m., the visitors stream past the turnstile and head upstairs to computers and downstairs to the bathrooms. Presumably better-off patrons trickle in more slowly, their needs seemingly less urgent and more narrowly cerebral.

A significant 584,476 Philadelphians—more than a third—have library cards, so it’s no surprise that Mayor Nutter’s 2009 proposal to close some branches sparked such a backlash. If each branch was a unique social ecosystem, however, the Central Library would be the most biodiverse.

The sprawling library is 286,000-square feet and contains approximately 7 million items; a wide marble staircase leads to the reading rooms, each one with its own distinct personality. There’s the Periodicals room, crowded by regular newspaper readers who flip through the Inquirer, Daily News and New York Times—cheaper, for sure, than a subscription.

I grab a seat in the History and Social Sciences room, notable for the old mystic-looking men who quietly work on projects that are clearly more personal than professional. One gray-haired man is taking copious notes on sheets of unattached 8.5-by-11 printer paper, a stack of books on Thomas Jefferson piled before him. He pretends not to hear me when I approach him to talk.

I settle next to an Aero Relief Map of Pennsylvania, the mountains, valleys and rivers spelled out in miniature bumps, lines, pregnant protuberances and cavernous incisions. The map collection is to the right; sports books to the left, appropriately watched over by a poster of Rocky. A few tables away, another bearded man sits in front of a stack of books, surrounded by pages of notes, colored pencils, tape and scissors. “I am very busy,” he says in a foreign, perhaps Eastern European, accent. Then he turns back to his labors.

The library staff is well-aware of the institution’s charm and the eclectic cast of characters it hosts each day.

“On both sides of the desk,” jokes Free Library Chief of Central Public Services Donald Root, an exuberant man sporting a pin-striped suit, a neatly kept gray mustache and a tie with a map of the New York Subway. “There’s one Italian guy in Art and Literature who pulls a little basket,” he says. “Apparently he was a great scholar once, had written books. But now he’s homeless.”

Another man smiling sheepishly introduces himself: “I’m continuing my black history month, researching on African history,” says Sherman Moody, a Vietnam veteran who moved to Philly from New York in 1955.

Moody was paging through the bibliography of Essays on Nubian Culture by Duane Smith. He finished reading the 1997 volume and was now writing down the names of books for future inquiry. Moody is a regular at the Central branch, but he never takes books home. “It keeps me coming here,” he says. “It’s a chance to get out of the house.”

The library as we, or perhaps our parents, knew it has changed over the decades.

“I think a lot of the librarians came here with the misconception that it’s very scholarly, quiet and filled with researchers,” Root says. “Maybe once upon a time that was true.”

These days there are fewer research requests—although some scholarly questions do come in through the “Ask a Librarian” chat feature. Many patrons come in to use the computers and get help writing their resumes or just to escape the outside world.

The homeless are ever-present in the building. For them it’s one of the few indoor public spaces that up-by-your-bootstraps America offers. And while they certainly appreciate having a place (with indoor bathrooms) to pass the day, most of them spend a lot of their time reading. “I think it is a place where the homeless should feel like they should come,” Root says. And they do.

In fact, the library’s H.O.M.E. Page Café is run by and for the benefit of Project H.O.M.E. Aside from the unfortunate provision of Starbucks, it's a really good thing to have coffee for sale at the library.

“It’s a wonderful cafe,” says Tracy Young, a H.O.M.E. Page barista for the past three years. “It’s good for people who work at the library, or who want to come in and read a book and get hungry.” Young has lived at Project H.O.M.E. for 20 years. “When this opportunity came up, I jumped on it,” he says.

 

The 1927 neo-classical giant and its next-door twin, the Family Court, were crafted in the image of two buildings on Paris’ Place de la Concorde. According to Root, Marie Antoinette “spent afternoons relaxing and taking piano lessons” at one of them. These beauties are unfortunately squirreled away from the heavily foot-trafficked sidewalks of Center City, sitting halfway between the Art Museum and City Hall along the area’s most pedestrian-unfriendly stretch. Despite its location, the library attracts people of all races, the well-to-do and the downtrodden—and consequently makes for great people-watching.

Two events listed on a library calendar illustrate the urban mélange at play. Visitors can choose between “Introduction to Email and Social Networking” and “Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Persepolis.” And the new Senior Center attracts another demographic to a different sort of classes. “We’ve had events on everything from Medicare to love lives after 60,” says Root, standing before a cubical full of gray-haired patrons surfing the Web. Any given function will draw a different crowd into the downstairs auditorium, and events with authors like Jonathan Safran Foer, Barbara Kingsolver and Tim O’Brien can often sell out.

I follow Root up a flight of stairs, through a staff-only door and into the bowels of the library. It’s a secret world with floors of low-ceilinged stacks holding items that patrons rarely request, from “Highlights of U.S. Export and Import Trade 1971” to “Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection 1862,” a compendium of scientific tables and conversions as they were understood at the time.

We re-emerge to find ourselves in the Fleisher Collection, a particularly special oddity. The room contains more than 21,000 full musical scores and performance materials, the largest such collection on earth. The Free Library is the top lender of these materials to orchestras worldwide including some of the estimated 130 orchestras in the Philadelphia metro region. Curator Kile Smith has worked here 29 years, and every day he fields long-distance calls from music directors. “I got a call once and a guy said, ‘I am in Tokyo, do you speak German?” recalls Smith, who fortunately does speak a bit of German.

To the side of the front entrance is the Music reading room, now the library’s finest after months of remodeling. The high-ceilinged room has an Art Deco style, with two-tiered chandeliers designed to resemble the originals. The room also boasts comfortable chairs and ground-floor windows—two things sorely lacking elsewhere in the building. “If we had the money, we could redo all the rooms like that,” says Root, with a wistful sigh.

The Free Library has for the past 10 years been planning a massive renovation designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, but it is, unsurprisingly, in limbo because of a funding crunch. The blueprints call for a striking expansion of the library’s rear atop what is currently a parking lot, including a large, three-story glass atrium and outdoor cafe seating.

Today’s Central Library is really in decent condition given the budgetary situation. A water fountain that had been broken a few weeks ago is now fixed. The bathrooms are fairly clean considering how often they are used. And there are so many books and DVDs to be had—all free.

But the Library needs serious money to move forward with this renovation, let alone to stop the sporadic branch closings still taking place across the city. The budget battle of 2009 made it clear that Philly loves its libraries—at least when they’re threatened with extinction. ■

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All fighters who will compete in the STRIKEFORCE Challengers mixed martial arts (MMA) event this Friday, March 26, at Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif., will weigh in the day before, Thursday, March 25 at World Sports Café.

The weigh in is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, free of charge and will start at 5:30 p.m. PT.

In the main event on SHOWTIME®, heavyweight sensation Lavar Johnson (13-3) will square off with undefeated Lolohea Mahe (6-0-1) of Hawaii. Johnson’s effort will mark a miraculous comeback after he was gunned down and nearly killed by Central Valley area gang members on July 4, 2009, while attending a family barbeque near his home in Madera.

Fresno’s Zoila Frausto, an undefeated women’s prospect, will take on another standout in Miesha "Takedown" Tate (8-2) of Olympia, Wash. Frausto, a former soccer player for Fresno City College, has compiled a perfect 5-0 record in professional MMA since her debut on February 13, 2009.

Other featured fights: "Abongo" Humphrey (5-1), Atlanta, Ga., vs. George Bush III (5-1), Columbus, Ohio, at light heavyweight (205 pounds); Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Luke Stewart (6-2), San Francisco, Calif. vs. Andre Galvao (3-1), Brazil, at welterweight (170 pounds); and American Kickboxing Academy bred wrestling stud Justin "The Silverback" Wilcox (8-3), San Jose, Calif., vs. Shamar Bailey (10-1) of Chicago, Ill., at a catch weight of 160 pounds.

Tickets for the STRIKEFORCE Challengers event are on sale at the Save Mart Center box office and select Save Mart Supermarkets as well as at all Ticketmaster locations (800-745-3000), Ticketmaster online (www.ticketmaster.com) and STRIKEFORCE’s official website (www.strikeforce.com).

Save Mart Center doors will open for the STRIKEFORCE Challengers event at 6 p.m. PT. The first live, non-televised, preliminary bout will begin at 6:45 p.m. The SHOWTIME telecast begins at 11:45 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast).

Wednesday, March 24

Basia Bulat
In modern music industry terms, Basia Bulat is pretty successful—the self-taught Canadian-by-way-of-Poland folksy-pop singer has had not one but two songs picked up for car commercials. Influenced by both the Carter Family and Neutral Milk Hotel, new tracks like "Gold Rush" and "Go On" off her second album Heart of My Own pour her vocals—aggressive and tinged with a little diva melisma—over driving global drum-circle sounding percussion that gets you glimmers of Graceland if not to that old clinch mountain home or over the sea, per se. Heart's beats are fast and fiery, with an urgency much more immediate and intense than 2008’s relatively chill Oh, My Darling. We know, we know, don't let the cheesy album titles scare you. Bulat's a real-deal multi-instrumentalist with something to say. -Tara Murtha

8pm. $10. With Meg Baird. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. r5productions.com

Red Hot Patriot with Kathleen Turner
Actress Kathleen Turner lends her smoky chords to Philadelphia Theatre Company's Red Hot Patriot, a one-woman show about one hell of a woman. Patriot tells the story of Molly Ivins, the American newspaper columnist and political commentator known for her fearless barbs and playful prose. Ivins was raised under the broad Texas sky, the daughter of an affluent Houston oil man. She'd go on to spar with state legislatures and bureaucrats looking to strike it rich on the black-gold of the Arab world. A harsh critic of the conservative establishment, she retained a Southern charm that made her a hit with readers across the country until her death in 2007. Twin sisters Margaret and Allison Engel- journalists in their own right- combed through a lifetime of editorials and speeches to capture the voice of the funny and forthright American icon. -Paul F. Montgomery

7pm. $46. Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St. 215.985.0420.

Thursday, March 25

Jonatha Brooke
And you thought Billy Bragg and Wilco took all the good stuff. Their two Mermaid Avenue albums plumbed the depths of the Woody Guthrie archive, which his daughter, Nora, opened up for Bragg and others to do some digging. He and Wilco then wrote music to the lyrics they found. Turns out Jonatha Brooke was doing some digging of her own, and Woody's words sound a lot different coming from a pure-pitched alto than they do from a grizzled old punk rocker. Good thing, too: The Works, Brooke's musical compendium of Guthrie's lyrics, continues to reveal sides of the American music godfather we never knew, from the spurned bitterness of "You'd Ought to Be Satisfied Now" to the pubescent lust of "All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me." Time to grab that shovel again, Bragg. -Jeffrey Barg

7:30pm. $41-$55. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. 215.222.1400.

Philadelphia Union Party
This is it: The chance to say, when Philadephia's next great sports franchise was born, "I was there." Or at least, "I watched it live on TV with a bar full of other maniacs." The Philadelphia Union plays its first game in Major League Soccer Thursday night against the Seattle Sounders. For those who can't join the hundred-or-so die-hards traveling to the Pacific Northwest for the game, join the Sons of Ben (the Union's awesome fan group) upstairs at the Dark Horse Pub for unhinged screaming and cheering. This could just be a playoff season for your new favorite team, with a roster studded with U.S. national squad members, plenty of Euro flair and a very special Brazilian called Fred. Before you leave the house, remember to watch the Sons' best chant on YouTube- "Sticking to the Union," sung to the great Woody Guthrie tune. All together now? Uuuuuuuuuuunion! -Tom Cowell

9:30pm. Free. Dark Horse Pub, 421 S. Second St. 215.928.9307.

Friday, March 26

Allison Miller Quartet
Just after Thanksgiving '09, drummer Allison Miller played Philly in a trio with saxophonist Ellery Eskelin and organist Erik Deutsch. Her new Boom Tic Boom is a different animal, with fellow Ani DiFranco sideperson Todd Sickafoose on bass and the esteemed Myra Melford on piano. There's a twist too: violinist Jenny Scheinman guests on one track, and the collab worked well enough for Scheinman to join full-time on the road, making Miller's project a quartet. The music has rhythmic teeth and quirks but also a decidedly melodic aspect, a sound befitting a leader who has worked with everyone from progressive reedist Marty Ehrlich to organ groover Dr. Lonnie Smith. -David R. Adler

8pm. $12. Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St. 215.545.4302.

An Evening With John Waters
Crown prince of crude, filmmaker John Waters hits Bryn Mawr to do a bit of trash talking. In his bawdy solo routine called "This Filthy World," Waters tells his lewd life story, from his origins in the muck of Baltimore, to his rise to fame and glory-holes as the grand muckety-muck of B-movie sleaze. Waters sought Divine providence in gender-bender cinema with films like Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble in the 1970s, then went on to attract big-name stars like Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci in the '90s. Somewhere along the way, art happened, and there are tales to be told. Find out just what it takes to earn an NC-17 and learn the difference between exploitation and just being advantageous. Does anything put a curl in that pencil mustache? Hop the R5 and head back to school for a one-night class of low-class hysterics. -P.F.M.

8pm. $10-$18. Goodhart Hall, Bryn Mawr College, Yarrow St. and N. Merion Ave. 610.526.5210.

Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell
Spalding Gray, perhaps theater's greatest monologist, passed away in 2004 from an apparent suicide. His tales, however, are brought to life in the surprisingly moving Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, which runs for three consecutive evenings at the Painted Bride Art Center. Created by Gray's widow, Kathie Russo, and director Lucy Sexton, the piece features excerpts from Gray's most penetrating monologues including Gray's Anatomy, Life Interrupted and the magical Swimming to Cambodia. Performed by a core ensemble of four, the cast is augmented with a different guest performer each evening including Marty Moss-Coane, the likable and talented host of WHYY's Radio Times who takes the stage tonight.  During his career, Gray was a mainstay at the Bride, performing annually until 1986 and making a final appearance in 2001.  Though Gray is gone, his stories continue to provide us with an indelible picture of both the man and ourselves. -J. Cooper Robb

8pm. $25. Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St. 215.925.9914.

Absurd Commentaries:A Partiformance
Oil your hinges and warm up for an interactive celebration of kinetic energy and the complex rhythms of everyday life. With Absurd Commentaries: a Partiformance, DJ Tony East and the hoofers of Movement Brigade present a series of dance narratives that invites audiences to abandon their comfort zone and embrace the absurd. Featuring performances by Eleanor Goudie-Averill, Tim Popp, Daniele Strawmyre and Alie Vidich, the works encompass numerous genres and musical styles including hip-hop, reggae and electronic. Dancers rhapsodize the urban grind, drawing from personal experience, a friend's poetry, even Japanese ghost stories. These are lively sequences of motion and expression that speak of romantic happenstance, chance meetings of lonely-heart lovers and syncopated strangers. It's life and community and all the action verbs in between. Grab the oddest threads in your closet and come as you aren't for a discounted ticket and an opportunity to join in the festivities.  -P.F.M

8pm. $10-$15. The Arts Parlor, 1170 S. Broad St. 267.467.0657.

Saturday, March 27

Chris Potter Underground
Saxophonist Chris Potter is a technical stunner but impeccably musical, with well over a dozen releases to his name and sideman credits that include Dave Holland, Dave Douglas, Paul Motian and countless others. He's recorded everything from straight combo (Unspoken) to chamber tentet (Song For Anyone), but with Underground, Follow the Red Line and most recently Ultrahang, he's pursued an offbeat sound with the Doors-ish instrumentation of solidbody guitar, Fender Rhodes electric piano and no bass. Keyboardist Craig Taborn, guitarist Adam Rogers and drummer Nate Smith (a Dave Holland bandmate) handle Potter's new turns in advanced jazz and hard funk with a fierce attack and a steady hand. -D.R.A.

8pm. $25. Chris¹ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom St. 215.568.3131.

Slinky Birthday Party
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound? That question was answered 55 years ago when a Philadelphia naval engineer named Richard James was working on a gizmo to measure the horsepower of a battleship. He dropped a tension spring, and the Slinky was born. The dates are as fluid as the toy, but around March 27, 1945, James and his wife started marketing the do-hickey to local toy stores. It didn't really take off until it was in Gimbel's department store at Christmas of that year. The 27th is, however, James' birthday as well as that of his son Tom-the first kid to ever play with a Slinky- who will be at the Seaport Museum for the launch of its new exhibit, "It Sprang From The River." More bizarre than the toy's invention is the inventor's downward slide into a Bolivian religious cult. But that's for another day. Now: Cake. -Peter Crimmins

1pm. $7-$12. Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Columbus Blvd. and Walnut St. 215.413.8655.

Sunday, March 28

Wye Oak
If nothing else, the glut of bands lurching out of Baltimore these past few years has proved there's more to "the city that bleeds" than The Wire, rat fishin', and an unfeasibly high homicide rate. From the hirsute heroics of folk rockers Arbouretum to the arch fuckwittery of Dan Deacon, the Baltimore scene is nothing if not diverse. Standing in the shadows are its resident-shrinking violets, Wye Oak, a band who seem to eschew the self conscious hipsterdom of so many of their contemporaries, as they plow their own singular furrow, one of folk-tinged dream pop, with an almost defiantly retro-early '90s vibe- think Galaxie 500, Belly and MBV. Add slow burning songs packed with insidiously effective hooks which bury their way into the inner recesses of the skull, and an overwhelming element of fragile beauty, and we're talking a band to cherish. -Neil Ferguson

9pm. $10. With Shearwater + Hospital Ships. Johnny Brenda¹s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave. 215.739.9684.

Monday, March 29

The xx
Not only is London's The xx one of the more buzzed-about bands of the moment, they've delivered a self-titled debut album nearly as sexually charged as Marvin Gaye's Let¹s Get It On, Massive Attack's Mezzanine, and Air's Moon Safari; a feat that's exceedingly rare in indie-land. Spare and elegantly arranged- with wisps of R&B, post-punk, dream-pop, and trip-hop floating in and out- the band's undeniable sensuality comes from the tension and restraint of its simple beats, plucked guitars, and feathery grooves, but even more so from the lips of singers Romy Croft and Oliver Sim, whose beguiling exhalations are simultaneously coy and carnal. If they can pull off the same live, you'll need a cold shower after this gig for sure. -Michael Alan Goldberg

8pm. Sold out. With Jj + Nosaj Thing. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. 866.468.7619. r5productions.com

Ancient Roman Battle Re-Enactors
If an Ancient Roman battle re-enactor met a Civil War battle re-enactor, who would win? Turns out the Blue and the Gray don't have the market cornered on military hobbyists who like to spend their weekends dressing up and getting bloody for the sake of history. Legion XXIV, based in Newtown Square, defends "the frontiers of Ancient Rome in the Mid-Atlantic province of Pennsylvania" with all the chain mail, plate armor, catapults and broadswords you see on Blood and Sand, but with less sex. The Legion brings the Constitution Center's Ancient Roman exhibit to vivid life. Has the Center invited representatives of the mighty Legion to explain the Roman Republican underpinnings of our American Democracy? Doubtful, but they will let you try on the armor. -P.C.

Noon. $8-$12. National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St. 866.917.1787.

Tuesday, March 30

Japandroids
Japandroids' first tour got interrupted when singer and guitarist Brian King was struck down with a potentially life-threatening perforated ulcer, but you can't keep a good man down. King and his partner, drummer and singer, David Prowse started their roll toward good fortune while King was still in recovery, earning an 8.3 and "Best New Music" from Pitchfork. Pitchfork's Ian Cohen captured the general level of enthusiasm when he called Post-Nothing "catchy music played with punk's enthusiasm and velocity." Fast-forward less than a year and Japandroid's spazzy, happy, distorted tunes are the main offering on a second tour ... this time clubs only, no hospitals. - Jennifer Kelly

7pm. $12. With Love Is All. Barbary, 951 Frankford Ave. 215.634.7400. r5productions.com

Did you know that Cambridge is home to three Revolutionary War era forts-turned-condos? Well, it’s true, and now one of these beautifully renovated historic homes, in this case a 3 bedroom condo in an sage-green duplex, is on the market at 64 Putnam Ave in Cambridge, right next to Putnam Square. The condo’s 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms sit in 1,474 square feet at the price of $669,000, but what is now a beautifully renovated condo was once a fort ordered to be built by George Washington himself. That’s right George Washington. The Boston Herald’s Paul Restuccia reports, “In May 1775 following the siege of Boston, Washington personally ordered construction of the Putnam Avenue fort. (The street is named for Gen. Israel Putnam, who commanded the Connecticut militiamen who built the fort.)” And they’ve even incorporated a granite marker, which oddly resembles a tombstone, into the new fencing, reminding passersby that the site was once a fort built back in 1775. So what does the fort-turned-condo look like now? WellR30; The 108-year-old condo was gut-rehabbed back in 2003, which brought new windows, clapboard, utilities, interiors and roof to the building. The exterior is sage-green with white trim and its facade is interspersed with five windows, one on the first floor in a bay arrangement, and two doors, one for each condo within the duplex. When you step over threshold of 64 Putnam Ave you will find yourself in a 19-by-18-foot living room outfitted with recessed lighting, 9-foot ceilings, a marble-encased gas fireplace, and hardwood floors, probably staring out those beautiful bay windows if its sunny out. The kitchen features classic black-granite countertops with a mosaic-tile backsplash, light maple cabinets, and stainless steel appliances. The master bedroom sports hardwood floors, an overhead fan/light, two windows, a black tile master bathroom, as well as a 5-by-4ft walk-in closet with custom Elfa shelving. The first floor also holds a traditional dining room with two windows, hardwood floors, and chandelier, and the second of three bedrooms, which also has its own bathroom. Downstairs you will find the third and final bedroom, this one slightly larger than the last, a 20-by-12ft family room, and one large, double-door storage closet. The shared backyard is fenced in with a patio, and the duplex has a driveway as well as one deeded parking space. Only a block from Putnam Square and approximately a half mile from Harvard Square, where you can pick up the Red Line, 64 Putnam Ave is an awesome property in a great neighborhood at a highly accessible location. Check this place out and more at CondoDomain, because when you buy with us WE REFUND YOU with a portion of the commission! For the full Herald article, click here.

By Simon de Burton
From the Financial Times:

"As motorcycle launches go, this one was far from ordinary: the champagne was pink, the canapés were exquisite, the host wore black tie and the location could certainly be described as enlightening (an antique chandelier shop in Chelsea's King's Road). I'd like to say it was all somewhat superior, but it was actually more than that - it was all rather Brough Superior.

The point of the soirée, you see, was to celebrate the fact than an Englishman  called Mark Upham has delighted enthusiasts by returning Brough Superior to the road following its cessation of motorcycle production in 1940, having made little more than 3,000 machines in a a 20-year period. But what machines they were. "As fast and reliable as express trains and the greatest fun in the world to drive," is how Lawrence of Arabia described them, while the former editor of The Motorcycle, H.D. Teague, summed them up as being quite simply "the Roll-Royce of motorcycles". It shows there was something to be said for the pursuit of perfection.

During the early 1900s, George Brough started working in his father's car and motorcycle business, but found that Pater's standards just weren't hight enough. so he left to set up his own company, wheeling the first Brough Superior out of his Nottingham workshop in 1919.

Within three years he was building his tuned SS80 model (guaranteed good for 80mph) and took to the track at Brooklands. His fellow competitors laughed at Brough's pit-lane pampering of the bike he named 'Spit and Polish' - until he won the expert's scratch race and set a new 100mph lap speed. He won 51 of his next 52 races, too, only being denied victory in the last after he fell off.  The bike, of course, dutifully kept goin and crossed the finish line first.

By the time Brough had introduced his SS100 model in 1924 (each one tested by the proprietor at 100mph) and the Alpine Grand Sports for hard-riding tourists, the Brough Superior legend was established and had Lawrence of Arabia as its most famous patron - he bought his first in 1922 and called it Boanerges, following with six others named George II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII.  He died on the George VII in May 1935 while awaiting delivery of the eighth, after he swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles and then crashed.

Lawrence and writer George Bernard Shaw were among several big names drawn to Broughs for their exceptional fit and finish, their relative exclusivity, and no doubt, their reassuring high price tags. Brough fans enjoy quoting the fact that, at around £150, an SS80 cost more than a small house in 1923.

Such attributes have made original models highly sought-after; Bonhams sold two bikes in 2008 for £166,500 (a world record for a UK motorcycle) and £151,100 respectively - which is why Upham's decision to make and sell brand-new Brough Supriors that look exactly like those of old is attracting global interest.

He has read the market well. During the past five years he has sold 46 original examples from BoA (British Only Austria), the thriving classic motorcycle business that he runs from a substantial farmhouse in the small Austrian town of Pettenbach, supplying rare machines and parts to all corners of the globe.

However, Upham will only say that there are Brough Superior original on the market for between £250,000 to £1m. (Lawrence of Arabis's 'death bike', incidentally - which was privately owned and shown at London's Imperial War Museum in 2006 - could be worth up to £1m, although its owner turned down an offer of $2.5m in 1997).

Upham, 53, set up his first motorcycle shop in Somerset in 1977, having left his Hampshire boarding school, Red Rice, to attend agricultural college where he spent most of his time 'learning to weld'. He had harboured a desire to reinstate Brough since buying his first example as a wreck, aged 19, but it was not until the trademark, name, and intellectual rights (for the UK, EU, and Japan) appeared in a Bonhams sale catalogue in 2007 that his dream became a possibility.

In the event, the lot was withdrawn, and Upham entered int negotiations to buy it privately.  He finalised the deal in 2008 and spent the following year working on a trio of prototypes with the look, sound and performance of the original but built using 21st-century materials and engineering that would have been beyond the wildest dreams of the nit-picking George Brough.

The modern-day Brough contains few English-made components simply becuase Upham has some of the best engineering facilities in the world on his doorstep some casts will come from a workshop just an hour from home that produces parts for Lamborghini and Audi; engine crankcases will be made across the border in Germany; and the frames have been designed and stress-tested at Austria's Leoben University to ensure thy are of a higher specification than the less-then-perfect originals.

Upham's project quickly came to the attention of an American road-building tycoon who offered to sponsor him to appear with two prototypes at 2009's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the presigious classic car show that is visited by some of the world's wealthiest petrolheads.  Among those attneding was television host and motorcycle nut Jay Leno who said the new Broughs were 'the best thing he'd ever seen at the event'. The owner of six originals, Leno was at first convinced that the replicas were immaculately restored examples from the 1920s and had one of them removed from its stand so that he could be filmed riding it for his car-and-motorcycle themed website (www.jaylenosgarage.com).

"To see a brand-new one [Brough Superior] was stunning", Leno said afterwards. "Everything was just as it would have been in 1925. To be able to thrash is as you would a new motorcycle back in the day was pretty amazing.  It was a real thrill.  During the war people put them away in their sheds an covered them with straw to save them from being taken for scrap for the war effort, because they were just so valuable."

Upham has so far completed new version of the Alpine Grand Sports tourer and the legendary Pendine racing model, so named after taking first and second place at the 1928 Pendine one-mile sprint race. Only one machine has been sold - to the supportive American highway builder whose private mechanic is currently engaged in long-term tests of the machine at La Rochelle, France.

The order book is, however, now open for production to commence - but don't all rush at once becaues tehse machines are not going ot be cheap "I don't wish to say how much one will cost, but it will be a six-figure sum. It will be less than the price of a good, original example - but still as much as a small house in some places," says Upham, cryptically.  "The website is currently attracting 1,000 hits a month, but one of the main aspects of the bike is that it will be mega-exclusive.  I have had letters asking: 'How much is it?' but this misses the point.  Not wishing to sound arrogant, but if you're concerned about how little you can buy it for, you're not the person for a Brough Superior. I'd rather sell five machines to people I like and who understand than 25 to people I don't like - those who write me a nice letter get a positive response", says Upham, who is happy to produce three to six bikes a year.  "I'm fortunate in not needing to do anything fast", he adds.

It may sound like an eccentric way to do business, but Upham is not taking the potential of Brough Superior lightly.  The motorcycles will remain core, but he has made sure that the name can be licensed for use on any number of products.  "I would like Brough Superior to be a household name.  I have registered it in Europe for everything from beers and wines to jewellery, jackets and shaving foam, and I'm looking for merchansdising partners.  That way we can create our own capital to keep building motorcycles without borrowing money", says Upham.

Brough Superior champagne, anyone?"

It used to be, if you were serious about starting a tech company, you went to Silicon Valley. But emerging entrepreneurial hubs around the country are giving startup aspirants options. In this series, we talk to leading figures in those communities about what makes them tick. Here, part ten in our series.

It rains an average of 155 days of the year in Portland, Oregon, which sits near the coast between Silicon Valley and Seattle. That may be what drives some startups and engineers indoors to coffeehouses armed with laptops to hatch ideas such as MyOpenId, Voyager Capital-backed AboutUs, interactive TV company Ensequence, which raised $20 million last year, and ShopIgniter, which just closed a $3 million round from Seattle's Madrona. Quite a list. They make up part of what some call “Silicon Forest,” and the city clearly sees its future: In February Mayor Sam Adams announced a $500,000 seed fund aimed at startups and small businesses.

However, it's still early in the formation of a full-blown ecosystem, and the city lacks many second-generation entrepreneurs to provide mentorship and angel investing. Thanks to its affordable cost of living, however, there is a myriad of smaller-scale startups and the talent to go with it.

And Portland is also drawing startups from beyond its borders. In 2004, Jive Software, which makes social marketing tools, decided to move from pricier New York City to this laid back west coast city. Five years later, it posted annual revenue of $30 million.

David Hersh, chairman of the board of Jive, talked about what makes Portland a great place for startups and why he decided to move his own company there.

So what is it about Portland that makes it a good place to get a business going?

Portland certainly has an aggressively independent vibe. There's a very DIY culture here. It prides itself on being non-conformist so there's certainly a lot of that element of going out on your own and doing whatever it takes to start companies. In terms of the startup phase, I mean there's so much energy around that--around the ideas and going off on your own and there's so much support for doing that that I think it's one of the great things about the city. It's just the overall psyche of the city around its kind of aggressive independence that makes for a very vibrant startup culture.

I think the downside is getting beyond the startup into massive expansion mode. [That's] where it may be more difficult.

Why did you choose Portland when shopping for a new city for Jive?

Well, we moved from New York City to Portland in 2004 in order to grow the company. We were very successful at being able to pull together a large number of software engineers and build out a very talented team and build out a great product and the company continued to expand pretty aggressively. So much so that we kind of grew too big for a lot of the resources that Portland has and expanded beyond Portland's borders, but we still have our headquarters in Portland.

We looked at a number of places, I knew the Bay Area fairly well and we looked at Boulder, Colorado, and Seattle and Portland. Portland was just an interesting mix where I think it's a town that is very appealing to engineers and what I mean by that is it's a town that engineers seem to gravitate to because it's very easy to navigate, really easy to get around. You can have a nice house and a nice lifestyle, but still be in a downtown area. You've got nice access to tons of green areas but you can be skiing in an hour, you can be at the beach in an hour.

So it's like a small version of the Bay Area, a much more manageable version of the Bay area, and so it worked out really well for us because you've got access to talent in the form of these great engineers and they cost a lot less than in other markets. They're a lot more loyal. They have shorter commute times and, ultimately, it just seemed like a much more resource-rich area for us to scale in the way that we needed to scale at the time.

Couple that with the fact that we actually felt wanted. My first time visiting out there, I had a meeting with the mayor and the mayor was very curious about our situation because we represented the creative class. We are a company that was attracted to Portland and we were the creative class and that's how you build a vibrant community.

When you have a meeting with the mayor the first time you're out there, you realize you can actually get things done in the city and yet it's still a city of enough size and scale that there should be a lot of resources to pull from.

Are there particular types of startups that you think do better in Portland than in other places?

From an industry standpoint, Portland has some natural clusters that have developed. Certainly, one of the biggest has been athletic apparel with Nike being there and then Adidas and Columbia, they've had this epicenter of the athletic apparel industry and so that's been a cluster that developed and there's a lot of talent there. There's certainly been an upsurge in smart energy where I've seen a lot of companies either have their U.S. operations there or some startups that are doing very unique things in smart energy.

Software, of which we're a part, has been a relatively strong cluster. A lot of what I'm talking about is Portland-proper focused because we are downtown, and Portland is definitely one of those cities where there is Portland and then there is not Portland, right?

Once you get outside Portland you may see things like Boeing contracts and military things, CAD design and hardware companies. I'm not as familiar with them, I'm in the more kind of like, cool, hip, downtown. Like what's happening in the startup culture around that area.

How is Portland better or different for entrepreneurs than other cities?

I think because it's a smaller city there's a little bit of the aggressive cohesiveness that comes with being a smaller city and wanting to kind of prove yourself to the world and that translates into a very tight-knit entrepreneurial community. So your ability to navigate the waters of Portland to connect with other people who can help you is so easy. I mean you can get to anybody you want to in minutes. And they're all very supportive of other Portland companies and they all want to see Portland do well. I think the other thing is that there is a lot of great talent out there for the startup phase, so your ability to pull people in to help you out along the way is great.

What kind of talent are you referring to?

Engineers and inside sales people--people who have worked at other startups who've kind of seen how it works and what you need to do. People who are willing to live in a startup world, and also, this is the most affordable city on the West Coast, so this is a city where the artist can still afford to live in the downtown area and by extension, people that work for startups can afford to live in a downtown area, so your lifestyle isn't too impinged by working in a startup.

What's the drawback to being in Portland?

I think Portland is great for companies in startup phase, but it has a hard time operating at scale because there are fewer people out here who have been through it before. There's going to be plenty of executives out there, but for technology spaces that are more unique, they're just not there.

We have been very successful in Portland and we're still based and headquartered here. I talked to The Oregonian recently about it and described it as kind of like the four-minute mile. It took a long time for the first person to break the four-minute mile, but once you did, then a bunch of people did. There was a psychological barrier that you had to get across, so I think even in the five years that we've been based out there, I've seen the types of startups improve dramatically.

So the nature of the companies that are getting started out there and the promise that they have and how they're getting funded--I've seen that improve and I feel like eventually, there's going to be a company in technology that breaks the four-minute mile. When that's done, suddenly then you've got more talent, more money flowing in and more companies who can see how you get there.

For more from this series:

Why you Should Start a Company in...Austin Why you Should Start a Company in...New York Why you Should Start a Company in...Los Angeles Why you Should Start a Company in...Chicago Why you Should Start a Company in...Boston

Laura Rich is a freelance writer and co-founder of Recessionwire.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuseeger/ / CC BY 2.0

My throat's been killing me this whole week - and while I at first thought it was the onset of some sort of sickness, I haven't gotten weak or feeble yet. This morning, I finally realized the culprit: those damn Northern sandstorms.

Beijing has been having some terrible sandstorms recently - its quality air index reached Level 5 as the mix of sand, dust and pollution blasted through the city. It's gotten so bad that at least one Western publication has declared it an "environmental meltdown!" While I'm glad I'm not there (especially after looking at the photos), it still sucks that it's reaching the south - Taiwan, Hong Kong... and yes, Shanghai.

Says Shanghai Daily, despite a short lull in the amount of dust being blown our way yesterday, today's weather warning includes the following advice: "try and avoid light-colored outfits as muddy rain is imminent..."

The Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center said air quality yesterday was good, on the second of a five-level indicator, and much better than between Saturday and Sunday when the dust and sand first arrived.

However, late last night wind brought dust and sand back and it downgraded the level to heavily polluted.

"Rain is a good way to flush and make floating dust fall," said Chen. "And with continuing winds, dust is being blown out to sea."

There are some benefits, apparently - nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide both bind to dust particles, so the storm's managed to lower levels of those two types of particulate matter. Still, it has also sent hundreds to hospitals for allegric reactions and respiratory diseases. So how can you deal with it? Here's some tips on
">
">Suite 101 taken from Australia's Department of Health (as you may remember, they had some pretty severe storms there last year):

• Stay indoors if possible.
• Keep windows and doors closed and put the air con on.
• If you are driving during a dust storm, go slowly. Pull over to the side of the road if visibility drops. Dust storms cause road accidents. Keep the windows and air vents closed and switch the air con to ‘recirculate’.
• A P2 mask (available online or from pharmacies - [ed note: also called an N95 mask. here's what it looks like]) will protect you from fine particles; a P3 mask protects against Avian or Swine Flu.
• Avoid high impact exercise routines, particularly if you have a respiratory condition.

People's Daily had its own tips to share:

1. Take precautionary measures “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Early precautionary measures are better than medical treatment after-the-fact. Viruses and bacteria are prevalent in windy and dry weather. Eye drops and buccal tablets are a good choice, and it is also wise to carry a bottle of water. You can also add glycerin to your nostrils to keep them from getting too dry. Wear a facemask and goggles when going out.

2. Have more water and fruit You are expected to have more water, tea, porridge, soups or fruit juice during the dust storm to maintain the levels of water in your body.

3. Avoid working out in dusty weather It is very bad for your health to workout when there is a sandstorm outside. The inhabitable particles in the air will cause respiratory diseases.

4. Keep appropriate humidity indoors The recommended humidity level amid the sandstorm is 50 to 60 percent, and levels below 30 percent may lead to dry and itchy skin and nasal passages, increasing the potential for respiratory illnesses.

5. Keep your skin clean and balanced Wind and dust may result in loss of skin moisture. Use skin care products before going out to help protect your skin from the wind, dry weather and other harm.

So break out the facial creams, strap on your leftover swine flu masks and remember to keep hydrated. We'll wear this dust storm out yet!

They’re usually long out of the competition by the time the National Championship is decided, but it’s the smaller schools that really give the NCAA Tournament its unique flavor. Like the old Indiana High School Basketball Championship before it was ruined by classification, the Tournament is one-size-fits-all; everybody plays everybody, and a first-round win for a Hampton or a Weber State is as cherished as a sectional title to a cracker-box Hoosier high school. There is only one Champion, but each of the 64 teams in the bracket, big and small, has the opportunity to match skills with the best- and it’s the opportunity that matters.

Since the Tournament expanded to 64 back in 1985 through this past weekend, twenty-three so-called mid-major schools have emerged from low-seeded obscurity to reach the Sweet 16. Five have reached the Elite 8, the doorstep of the Final Four. One has broken through that door and gotten all the way to the Final Four. Each of these stalwarts eventually ran into an opponent that was simply too big, too strong and too good to overcome; each earned glory in victory and in defeat. It’s the opportunity that matters and each of these teams took advantage of their opportunities to the absolute fullest.

What are the ingredients for a mid-major run? Well, there’s the obvious- good guard play. You need a guy who can score inside if you’re serious about getting beyond a round or two deep- a guy like Calvary of Gonzaga, Gates of Kent State and Thomas of George Mason. You need good match-ups: Gonzaga’s 1999 run, for example, kick-started in round one against a demoralized Minnesota team that was on its way to probation. You need the underdog’s neutral-court advantage- or, in the case of Davidson in the 2008 sub-regional or George Mason in the ’06 regional, a partisan home-court advantage. And you need some luck. But then again, so do the Champions.

Entries on the list meet two criteria to qualify for inclusion:

-         They were a “low” seed going into the Tournament; 9^th or lower. The 2006 Gonzaga and the 2007 Butler teams, for example, didn’t qualify because the former was a 3^rd seed, the latter a 5^th.

-         They hailed from one of the so-called “mid-major conferences”- i.e. any league besides the six BCS members, Mountain West, Conference USA and Atlantic 10. Obviously there is some fluidity in terms of conference affiliations and the mid-major designation. For example, Temple and Xavier of the A-10 can be considered major programs, while Fordham and St. Bonaventure can be considered mid-majors. And of course, the A-10 does fall below the Red Line. But in my thinking, no league that produces a #1 seed can really be considered “mid-major” and the A-10 has done so twice; Temple in 1988 and St. Joseph’s in 2004.

The list is distributed fairly evenly among college basketball’s more formidable mid-major leagues. The Missouri Valley and Mid-American Conferences lead the way with three entries apiece; the Horizon League, West Coast Conference, Southern Conference and Colonial Athletic Association each put two teams on the list; the Mid-Continent Conference AKA the Summit League has one, and one entry- the 1986 Cleveland State Vikings- hails from the defunct AMCU-8, whose former members are today scattered among four different leagues.

This year’s three mid-major Sweet 16 contenders- Northern Iowa, St. Mary’s and Cornell- are not included. Their stories aren’t over yet.

16.) Southern Illinois, 2002: It was the first year of the Tournament’s “pod” system and despite being the 11^th seed in the East Regional the Salukies were ensconced in the friendly confines of upstate Chicago. They used their home-court advantage and strong performances by big man Jermaine Dearman and guard Kent Williams to surge into the Sweet 16 in impressive fashion. After beating Bobby Knight and Texas Tech handily in the first round SIU overcame a 19-point first-half deficit to shock 3^rd-seeded Georgia, 77-75. The ride came to an end in the Sweet 16 when 2^nd-seeded Connecticut held the Salukies to 38.3 percent shooting and won easily, 71-59.

(Unless you count the Atlantic 10, the Missouri Valley is probably the most consistent mid-major league in the country. Eight of the Valley’s ten teams- Indiana State, Bradley, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Southwest Missouri State, Creighton and Wichita State- have won at least one Tournament game as a conference member since 1985, and five of those teams have reached the Sweet 16. From 1999-2007 the Valley annually got multiple teams in the Tournament. That’s the current resume. The historical resume is a ways below.

15.) Miami (OH), 1999: The 10^th-seeded Red Hawks took flight on the wings of all-everything swingman Wally Szczerbiak. The MAC Player of the Year tallied 43 of his team’s 58 points in a one-point opening round win over 7^th-seeded Washington and added 24 more as Miami shocked 2^nd-seeded Utah, the national runner-up the year before. A 58-43 loss to 2^nd-seeded Kentucky in the Sweet 16 didn’t erase the luster of Wally World’s performance- or that of his coach. Charlie Coles had nearly died at courtside of a heart attack during the 1998 MAC Tournament. A year later, the old man had his team in the Sweet 16.

(The 1999 Miami team is the last at-large invitee out of the Mid-American Conference to date. The MAC has sent multiple teams to the Tournament five times since it expanded to 64, in 1985, ’86, ’95, ’98 and ’99. The last three at-large teams- MiamiMichigan in ’98 and Miami in ’99- won at least their opening-round games. Six MAC members have won Tournament games since 1985- Kent State, Ohio, Ball State and the three directional Michigan schools. By the way, the University of Akron has never won an NCAA Tournament game. Just wanted to throw that out there.)

14.) Butler, 2003: A 25-5 regular-season record wasn’t good enough to get the Bulldogs into the 2002 Tournament, but they made up for the snub with a superb run the following year as a 12^th seed. Brandon Miller’s jumper with 6.2 seconds left lifted Butler past 5^th-seeded Mississippi State in the first round, 47-46, and two days later Darnell Archey hit on 8-of-9 from downtown as the Bulldogs sent 4^th-seeded Louisville home, 79-71. In the Sweet 16 Oklahoma’s size and strength proved insurmountable; the Sooners out-rebounded the Bulldogs 37-20 and cruised to a 65-54 victory. Nevertheless the snubs were over for Butler, which has become one of the nation’s model mid-major programs.

(Butler has been to the Sweet 16 three times since 2003, but the Bulldogs spent a long time in the wilderness before their recent oasis of success. Prior to its first-round victory over Wake Forest in 2001, Butler’s last NCAA Tournament triumph came in 1962. The Bulldogs went thirty-five years without a bid from 1962 to 1997. For at least two generations Butler was at best the fourth name in Indiana basketball behind IU, Purdue and Notre Dame. Now they’ve made it to the Sweet 16 more times since 2003 than any other school in that hoops-crazed state.)

13.) Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2005: Bruce Pearl’s Panthers had played in only one NCAA Tournament in school history, but they performed like seasoned veterans in 2005. Slotted as a 12^th seed, the Panthers led 5^th-seeded Alabama virtually the entire way and rolled to an 83-73 victory over the Tide in round one. They kept right on rolling two days later, getting 23 points from forward Joah Tucker in an 83-75 triumph over 4^th-seeded Boston College. But once again a mid-major run ended at the hands of a top seed, as eventual runner-up Illinois took command early in the second half and knocked off the Panthers, 77-63.

(The Horizon League has proven to be one of the most consistent mid-majors over the last decade. The conference has sent at least one team to the second round ten times in the last thirteen years and every year since 2005. Butler is the bellwether, but Cleveland State, Detroit and Wisconsin-Milwaukee have also stepped up with wins since 1998. Only one current Horizon member still seeks its first Tournament appearance, let alone win: Youngstown State.

Speaking randomly here, shouldn't the four Northeast Ohio Division I hoop programs put together some kind of in-season series along the lines of Philadelphia's Big Five? Maybe a little pre-Christmas Tourney at the Q?)

12.) Valparaiso, 1998: The 13^th-seeded Crusaders used one of the most iconic shots in Tournament history to advance in the first round, when Bryce Drew, son of head coach Homer Drew, knocked down a three-pointer at the buzzer to topple 4^th-seeded Ole Miss, 70-69. Valparaiso continued to roll in the second round, getting 22 points from Drew to overcome 12^th-seeded Florida State, 83-77 in overtime. They played well in the Sweet 16 against 8^th-seeded Rhode Island, but the brilliant Ram guard tandem of Tyson Wheeler and Cuttino Mobley proved too much as the Crusaders fell, 74-68.

(The cloying Tournament theme song “One Shining Moment” is entirely appropriate when it comes to Valparaiso. The Crusaders have made seven appearances in March Madness. In 1998 they reached the Sweet 16; in their other six appearances they’re 0-6, losing by an average margin of twenty-three points.)

11.) Bradley, 2006: Bradley’s basketball history is a long and distinguished one, and in ’06 the Braves gave their fans their biggest thrill since the team was competing for National Championships in the early ‘50s. Seeded a modest 13^th, the Braves looked like anything but an underdog in the first round against Kansas, taking charge with a 13-0 half-spanning run and ousting the 4^th-seeded Jayhawks, 77-73. Two days later, with Patrick O’Bryant banging around for 28 points and 7 rebounds, they built a fourteen-point second-half lead and withstood a Pitt rally to overcome the 5^th-seeded Panthers, 72-66. The run ended in the Sweet 16 when top-seeded Memphis cracked open a tie game late in the first half and beat the Braves going away, 80-64.

(It’s probably a bit of an injustice to label the Missouri Valley Conference as a “mid-major.” Very few leagues have the basketball lineage and tradition of the Valley; from Bradley’s 1950 NIT and NCAA finalist, to Cincinnati’s back-to-back National Champions of the early ‘60s, to Drake nearly upsetting Alcindor and UCLA in the ’69 Final Four, to Larry Bird and Indiana State, all the way up to the present-day heroics of Northern Iowa. There are bigger and more prestigious conferences on the national landscape, but when it comes to the historical fabric of this game, the Valley takes a backseat to virtually no one.)

10.) Chattanooga, 1997: The 14^th-seeded Moccasins didn’t waste any time with introductions in the first round of the ’97 Tournament against 3^rd-seeded Georgia, blowing out to a 20-2 lead and outlasting the Bulldogs, 73-70. Then they took a giant second step. Angered by perceived pre-game disrespect on the part of 6^th-seeded Illinois, Chattanooga overcame a seven-point second half deficit and pulled away late to shock the Illini, 75-63. A loss to Providence ended their season, but not before the Moccasins had become the second and last 14^th seed to reach the Sweet 16.

(Chattanooga and Davidson have brought glory to the Southern Conference for winning in the NCAA Tournament; two other schools have brought glory to the conference for losing. In 1989 then-member East Tennessee State, led by the diminutive point guard Keith “Mister” Jennings nearly became the first 16^th seed to win a first-round game, leading Oklahoma by seventeen at one point before falling, 72-71. Seven years later 16^th-seeded Western Carolina took top-seeded Purdue down to the very last shot of the game before succumbing, 73-71.)

9.) Richmond, 1988: The Spiders are the Tournament’s model giant-killer- they’ve won games as a 12^th, 13^th, 14^th and 15^thth seed in 1988. Once again Indiana was the foil in round one, as Dick Tarrant’s team used a balanced attack (four players in double figures) to hold off the 4^th-seeded Hoosiers, 72-69. In the second round the Spiders used Peter Woolfolk’s 27 points and stifling defense to surprise 5^th-seeded Georgia Tech, 59-55. Richmond’s next assignment was a Sweet 16 showdown with top-ranked Temple. It was too tall of an order. The Spiders hung around for a while, trailing by only six at half, but the Owls had too much Mark Macon (24 points) and too much defense for a comeback. TempleRichmond’s dream run, 69-47. seed- but they made their greatest run as a 13 pulled away in the second half to end

(Very few Goliaths have proven more vulnerable to the slingshots and jump shots of would-be David’s than Indiana. Since 1986 the Hoosiers have lost first-round games to, among others, Cleveland State, Richmond, Pepperdine and Kent State. Other famed mid-major multi-victims include Arizona, downed by 14^th and 15^th seeds in 1992-93, South Carolina, downed by 15^thth seeds in 1997-98, and of course, Kansas.) and 14

8.) Ball State, 1990: The 12^th-seeded Cardinals got their 1990 run off to a dramatic start in the first round against 5^th-seeded Oregon State when Parris McCurdy converted a three-point play with no time remaining to top the Beavers, 54-53. The Cardinals then jumped out to a huge lead over 4^th-seeded Louisville in the second round before hanging on to win, 62-60. Top-ranked UNLV was next in the Sweet 16, and no one played the eventual National Champion Runnin’ Rebels closer. Going toe-to-toe with Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Co., muscling and, dunking on even terms, the Cardinals trailed the Rebels 69-67 and had a chance to tie or win in the last seconds before a botched lob pass sent them down to defeat.

(That Ball State team could also talk trash with the voluble Rebels. The teams woofed all night and continued their chatter after the buzzer with a heated exchange in the bowels of the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Cardinal coach Dick Hunsaker was infuriated with the conduct of the Rebels, labeling them “a bunch of thugs.” But his own team gave as good as it got. In the first round against Oregon State the Cardinal trash-talk so unnerved Beaver All-American Gary Payton-who shot 3-of-12 and fouled out- that one of the game’s legendary mouths complained to the officials about it.

And their performance against UNLV still stands as one of the most valiant by a mid-major in the history of the modern Tournament. The Runnin’ Rebels weren’t your garden-variety Champion. Three of their starters- Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony- were first-round NBA draftees. UNLV beat its five other 1990 Tournament opponents by an average of twenty-two points, and its 103-73 burial of Duke still stands as the greatest rout in title-game history. The Rebels were an all-timer of a college hoops team. But Ball State of the Mid-American Conference had them on the ropes.)

7.) Southwest Missouri State, 1999: It wasn’t just that the 12^th-seeded Bears reached the Sweet 16; it was the manner in which they got there, by dominating a pair of schools from college basketball’s sexier set. They completely stymied 5^th-seeded Wisconsin in the first round, holding the Badgers to 25.5 percent shooting and a microscopic 32 points in an easy win. Southwest Missouri then did itself one better in the second round, overwhelming 4^th-seeded Tennessee, 81-51. Alas, top-ranked Duke was made of sterner stuff than the Badgers and Volunteers; the Blue Devils broke it open in the second half and cruised to a 78-61 decision.

(The Bears now reside in the Missouri Valley Conference, but they’re alum of the old Association of Mid-Continent Universities, a league with a nice little tradition of its own. Five of the eight original AMCU-8 members- Cleveland State, Valparaiso, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Northern Iowa and Southwest Missouri State- have won NCAA Tournament games. Speaking of Cleveland State…)

6.) Cleveland State, 1986: Head coach Kevin Mackey sprang his full-court, Run ‘n Stun attack on Indiana and his 14^th-seeded Vikings stunned the 3^rd-seeded Hoosiers in the opening round, 83-79. It was the first win ever by a 14-seed, albeit by a few hours (Arkansas-Little Rock took down Notre Dame the same day.) Mackey then sprang the Mouse, and Kenny McFadden nibbled and scampered for 23 in another upset, this time of 6^th-seeded St. Joseph’s in round two. Facing David Robinson and the Naval Academy in perhaps the Tournament’s most unlikely Sweet 16 pairing, Cleveland State led by as many as five late in the second half. But the Admiral banked in a follow shot with six seconds left and the Midshipmen moved on in a thriller, 71-70. The Vikings would have played number one-ranked Duke in the East Regional Final had they hung on against Navy.

(The Navy game has long stung in the craws of Cleveland State’s players, who know they let the opportunity of a lifetime- a crack at the nation’s number-one team with the Final Four in the balance- slip through their fingers. Kevin Mackey believed it was a mistake to bring the team back to Cleveland before the Sweet 16- the players had become local celebrities and the constant attention blunted their finely honed edge. Point guard Shawn Hood opined that the Vikings almost focused too much on David Robinson and underestimated the Admiral’s solid supporting cast. For most of the teams on this list there’s a sense of closure; they got as far as they possibly could and the regrets are few and far between. For Cleveland State, however, there is the bittersweet sensation: they got further than anyone thought they might… but not as far as they believed they should have.)

5.) Kent State, 2002: A first-round winner as a 13^th seed in 2001, the now 10^th-seeded Flashes used experience, superior guard play and the x-factor of Antonio Gates to roll impressively to the Elite 8. They dominated 7^th-seeded Oklahoma State and 2^nd-seeded Alabama in the opening rounds, jumping to double-digit first-half leads and winning both games going away. Then, led by the brilliant Trevor Huffman, they ground past Pitt in an overtime classic to move on to the South Regional Final. Awaiting them was a familiar foe- Indiana, whom Kent had upset in the first round in 2001. The Hoosiers remembered that loss very well and were determined to avenge it. They swished their first eight three-point attempts, an incredible 15-of-19 on the night, and ended Kent’s dream ride one game short of the Final Four, 81-69.

(I can remember being pleased when Indiana shocked Duke in the South Semifinals just before the Flashes took the floor with Pitt. The Blue Devils were top-ranked and as good of a defender as Demetric Shaw was, I had “some” doubts about his ability to handle Mike Dunleavy. Kent had dominated Indiana down the stretch in the 2001 Tournament, and most of the cast of both teams were back for the sequel. I knew Kent could beat Indiana because I’d seen them do it. But I’d seen them do it on a neutral floor with a crowd that favored the underdog by instinct. I hadn’t seen them do it on the road.

And the 2002 South Regional Final was a road game for Kent. Rupp Arena was partisan and packed with red-clad Hoosiers and their team, already hyped by the occasion, fed off their emotion. I’d also underestimated the psychological backlash of Kent’s victory over the Hoosiers the year before. The Flashes had humiliated proud- well, formerly proud- Indiana, and you don’t wound the pride of the prideful without consequences. Kent just wasn’t meant to win that game.)

4.) Gonzaga, 1999: The 10^th-seeded Bulldogs burst onto the national scene in ’99 with a smooth backcourt of Matt Santangelo and Richie Frahm and a skilled inside force in Casey Calvary. Going inside and out, they defeated 7^th-seeded Minnesota in the first round then put themselves on the map with an 82-74 whipping of 2^nd-seeded Stanford in the second. They kept themselves there in the Sweet 16 against 6^th-seeded Florida as Calvary’s last-second put-back won it for the Zags, 73-72. Next up was top-seeded Connecticut with the Final Four at stake. Although Gonzaga performed valiantly the Huskies, on their way to the title, were too much. Connecticut survived a series of Bulldog rallies late to hang on, 67-62. Despite all their success in the decade since, 1999 represents Gonzaga’s only appearance in the Elite 8.

(Calvary didn’t make his only appearance in the circle of game-winning Tournament players. Two years later, his put-back with seconds to go lifted the 12^th-seeded Bulldogs past 5^th-seeded Virginia in the first round. In consecutive years from 1999-2001 Gonzaga made it at least to the Sweet 16 as a 10^th, 10^th and 12^th seed, scalping two 2^nd seeds, a 5^th seed, a 6^th seed and two 7^th seeds along the way. That’s giant-killing.

By the way, it didn’t take very long for the Zags to be knocked off the perch they’d built for themselves. In 2002 they were awarded the 6^th seed in the West- a reward for the 29-3 record they’d built pummeling the competition in the West Coast Conference. Some of the players and coaches on that team were open in their protestations that the 6^th spot was beneath them. In the first round the Zags were trucked by 11^th seeded Wyoming. Maybe they weren’t under-seeded after all.)

3.) Loyola Marymount, 1990: Loyola’s Elite 8 drive was fueled by unthinkable tragedy. All-American big man Hank Gathers collapsed and died of a heart attack during a conference tournament game, and his teammates, especially Hank’s fellow Philadelphian Bo Kimble, responded with one of March’s most memorable runs. Their 149-115 second-round annihilation of defending National Champion Michigan, featuring 21 three-pointers, 33 assists and 84 second-half points, was the most sensational offensive exhibition in Tournament history. After a narrow victory over 7^th-seeded Alabama in West Regional Semis, Loyola was only one win from the Final Four. But UNLV ended the Cinderella story with a thud, running the Lions off the floor in the West Regional Final, 131-101.

(For a small huddle of Jesuit schools, none with an enrollment of over 8,972, the West Coast Conference has quite a basketball tradition. San Francisco won back-to-back titles behind Bill Russell in 1955-56, while six of the WCC’s eight members- Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, Santa Clara, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount and San Diego- have won Tournament games since 1985.)

2.) Davidson, 2008: Usually a mid-major run ends at the hands of an opponent that has all the match-up answers in size, speed and talent. And so it went for Davidson in 2008. But no one ever really had an answer for Stephen Curry, who was otherworldly in picking up the 10^th-seeded Wildcats and carrying them within an eyelash of the Final Four. Curry’s 40 points- 30 in the second half- were the catalyst in a first-round upset of 7^th-seeded Gonzaga, and his 25 second-half points triggered a rally from 17 down and a second-round win over 2^nd-seeded Georgetown. Curry kept firing in the Sweet 16, and his 33 points and stiff team defense led the Wildcats to a 73-56 rout of 3^rd-seeded Wisconsin. Top-seeded Kansas couldn’t stop Curry either, but they did contain him with 25 points on 9-of-25 shooting, and closed out the game with a 12-6 run to win narrowly, 59-57.

(There was an added twist of the knife to Davidson’s Regional Final loss. Had they hung on against Kansas, the Wildcats would have gone on to a Final Four confrontation with in-state behemoth North Carolina. Old North State bragging rights would have been at stake… not to mention a long-awaited opportunity for revenge. Twice in a row, in 1968 and ’69, Davidson reached the final eight of the NCAA Tournament. Both times they were knocked out by North Carolina.)

1.) George Mason, 2006: Prior to ’06 every mid-major Tournament run had ended short of the Final Four. That year George Mason took the next step- and did it by beating some of the biggest face cards in the college basketball deck. Widely regarded as an undeserving at-large as the fracas opened; the 11^th-seeded Patriots proved their worth in a hurry dominating 6^th-seeded Michigan State, 75-65. In the second round George Mason fell behind 3^rd-seeded North CarolinaVerizon Center in Washington, just a half-hour from GMU’s campus, and the Patriots made themselves at home. They easily defeated 7^th-seeded Wichita State in the Sweet 16, faced top-ranked Connecticut in the Elite 8- and this time, the glass slipper fit perfectly. Trailing by as many as twelve in the first half, Mason rallied to shock the Huskies in overtime, 86-84, and punch its ticket to the Final Four. Eventual Champion Florida ended their season in the semifinals, but not before the Patriots had become the first bona-fide mid-major to reach the biggest stage since the Tournament expanded to 64 teams.

(Mason may have lost fairly decisively to that great Florida team, but the Patriots still faired better than the other low-seed mid-major that reached the Final Four since seeding began. In 1979 the Penn Quakers took the East Regional title as a 9^thNorth Carolina and Syracuse along the way, and headed to Salt Lake City to take on Magic Johnson, Greg Kelser and Michigan State. The Spartans jumped out to a 38-8 first-half lead on the way to a 101-67 demolition that was every bit as lopsided as the final score would indicate. Magic’s line that night: 29 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. There weren’t any guys like that in the Ivy League.)

And through the first weekend of this topsy-turvy ’10 Tourney- the best in quite a while, if I do say so myself- the smaller fry have once again proven themselves more than capable of performing on the big stage. Three of them will dance into the Tournament’s second weekend wearing glass slippers. The 9^th seeded Northern Iowa Panthers are in the Sweet 16 on the heels of their upset of top-ranked Kansas. The 10^th seeded St. Mary’s Gaels flew all the way to Rhode Island and ambushed Eastern foes Richmond and Villanova to qualify for the regional rounds. And 12^th seeded Cornell dominated the 4^th and 5^th seeds in its region to become the first Ivy League school since those ‘79 Penn Quakers to advance beyond the opening weekend.

It’s highly unlikely that any of these three David’s will slay Goliaths all the way to the National Championship. It’s possible that none of them will even survive to the Elite 8. But that’s the beauty of the NCAA Tournament. There may only be one Champion. In March, you don’t have to win it all to be a winner. Just ask any fan of one of those smaller schools that earned their opportunity in March- and ran with it.

By Fred Lee

These days, it seems as if you can’t read about health news without coming across some article promoting the benefits of vitamin D. In fact, with all the recent news coverage, you might think that the list of healthful qualities is endless. Well, now there seems to be one more benefit to add to that list. A recent study has found that consumption of the “sunshine vitamin” lowered the risk of children suffering from the influenza infection (flu) by as much as one half.

In fact, only one in ten children (ages 6 to 15 years) who took vitamin D actually contracted the flu, compared to the control group (placebo), where one in five children came down with the flu. The data suggests that vitamin D had more of a protective effect than even vaccines in preventing the flu, though it only seemed to work against influenza type A, and not type B.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, doctors followed 354 children who took part in the clinical trial, which took place during the winter months when flu season is in full swing. The children in the test group were given 1200 IUs (international units) of vitamin D for three months.

During the first month, researchers saw no difference between the test group and the control group in terms of becoming sick. However, during the second month, when vitamin D levels in the blood would presumably be higher, there was a significant difference between the two groups.

Interestingly, vitamin D was even more effective at reducing the risk of flu infection than the anti-viral drugs zanamivir and oseltamivir. The implications are potentially huge, because vitamin D is not only produced naturally by our bodies, it does not have the toxic side effects that drugs and medication have, and it is more economical, especially on a large public health scale.

The recent findings add to the growing number of health benefits tied to vitamin D, which is also believed to protect our bones from fractures, as well as reduce our risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It has also been suggested that vitamin D improves athletic performance, productivity, and helps alleviate depression.

Unfortunately, most people do not get enough of the nutrient, even though our bodies produce it whenever we go out into the sun. The reason for this shortage may be due to the increased use of sunscreen, as well as the longer amounts of time that we spend indoors at our jobs, working on computers, or watching TV.

Seasonal flu is a highly contagious respiratory infection that affects nearly everyone, especially children, who constantly come in contact with each other. Caused by the influenza virus, its symptoms can range from mild to severe, and can even lead to death.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anywhere between 5% to 20% of the population of this country gets the flu, and on average, more than 200,000 people are admitted to the hospital for flu-related complications, and nearly 36,000 die from them. High risk groups include the elderly, people who are immuno-compromised, and young children.

If you are concerned about the flu and its impact on your family, speak with your pediatrician regarding your options. For more information about the flu, visit the website for the CDC. To learn more about vitamin D, visit the website for the Vitamin D Council.

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Reopening brothels seems ideal, but French sex workers have fought hard to remain independent from pimps and state control

The French MP Chantal Brunel recently called for the country to bring back brothels. Her compatriots seem to agree: a poll suggested that 59% of French people supported the idea while only 10% opposed it.

As a result, many French media have pitted the rightwing Brunel against anti-sex work organisations: the former a pragmatist, the latter ideologues. French sex workers' voices tend not to be heard as much – probably because their demands are not as simple as the debate seems to be.

The Syndicat du Travail Sexuel (Strass), the French sex workers' union, met Brunel three weeks ago. They agreed that the anti-soliciting law passed in 2003 by Nicolas Sarkozy, when interior minister, had failed. This law was supposed to crack down on pimping. Because of it, street sex workers have to work in remote areas where they can escape police repression. Unfortunately, some workers now find themselves in dangerous areas and have to accept pimps' protection.

Since soliciting was criminalised, HIV organisations have noticed an increase in the number of STDs among sex workers. This is a real concern because the law makes it more difficult for outreach programs to reach the workers. The fact that police use the possession of condoms as evidence of soliciting hasn't helped: if police cars follow prevention buses, the workers refuse to accept condoms.

The human rights organisation, Ligue des Droits de l'Homme (LDH) released a report in 2006 about police violence against sex workers and human rights violations. It denounced the confusion between the fight against soliciting and the fight against prostitution. The new concept of "passive" soliciting gives the police power to arrest whoever they want merely on the suspicion that someone is a sex worker. This leads to all sort of abuses.

In 2007, five police officers were convicted of raping an Albanian sex worker. Despite agreeing to testify against them, she was deported after the trial. It is almost impossible for sex workers to persuade the police to log offences against them. Two weeks ago another woman working in Nice reported a rape committed by three police officers. The men acknowledged they had sex with her, but said that she was consenting. How many other cases go unreported?

To many, Brunel's proposal to reopen brothels seems the ideal solution. But like most French sex workers, I remain sceptical. On one hand, brothels could bring a certain safety and guarantee police protection instead of repression, but on the other, it means more control over our lives. I doubt our community will easily consent to working in brothels when traditionally, French sex workers have fought since the beginning of the movement in 1975 and the occupation of churches to remain independent from pimps and state control.

Instead of brothels (called "closed houses" in French), Strass proposed the idea of "open houses". I think this is a good idea. It means that sex workers could work indoors like doctors or lawyers without working for an employer. In France sex workers don't want bosses. UK sex workers and activists from other countries tend to speak only in terms of decriminalisation versus legalisation. We want to keep the choice of our clients, hours, practices and in particular prevention practices. The latter is a serious concern, because Brunel's idea of medical control is unclear and we wonder if she means mandatory testing.

The main problem is that clients are never tested, and are more likely to ask for unprotected sex. Prevention relies on the principles of shared responsibility and medical data confidentiality. Only condoms protect against HIV transmission. When empowered, sex workers can prevent the transmission of disease.

After she met Strass leaders, Brunel started to use the term open house, but she also says that outdoor sex work will remain criminalised. This is clearly a form of blackmail. Either we accept the control of the state, or we continue to be criminalised. It will only divide sex workers between legal and illegal workers and we know migrant workers will probably still risk being deported. Open houses would enable us to choose to work. We are part of society. We pay taxes, so we should be heard seriously and allowed to organise ourselves how we want. We need to be included in the negotiation with local powers about where we work, not imposed bad solutions.

French sex worker unionists are unhappy that they haven't been invited to parliamentary working meetings on the question. Politicians will only repeat the same mistakes if they don't listen to us.

On 24 March, Strass and its allies are organising "Assises de la prostitution", which will take place in the French senate. But very few politicians support us openly. Politicians can be our clients and vote against us at the same time. They are afraid to vote for sex workers' rights by fear of being identified as sexist by feminists who oppose prostitution.

This year, the annual "Pute pride" demonstration will start from the senate after the conference. Visibility is the best way to fight against stigma. When we claim to be proud, it doesn't mean that we all love our job. It means that we refuse to be shamed to death. We need to use coming out as a political strategy like other sexual minorities did before us. I hope Strass will receive more political support. In the UK we can join the GMB, a national mainstream union, but we don't have the same recognition in France.

EU countries have very different laws and models: the Swedish government is pushing for the criminalisation of clients. If France changes its policy it will probably influence other countries. That's why, although I now live in London, I keep an eye on what my friends and colleagues experience across the Channel. Whether new laws will improve sex workers' lives remains to be seen.

This delightful, little-visited city in north-east France is set to burst on to the tourist map when the new Centre Pompidou-Metz museum opens in May. John Brunton tips 10 highlights

When the dazzling new Centre Pompidou-Metz museum opens its doors on 12 May, this little-known city in the north-east of France will suddenly become a hot new weekend destination. Only a 1h 20min TGV ride out of Paris, Metz is a friendly, utterly untouristy place, not at all geared up for the arrival of visitors from around the world. But like Lille, which was suddenly "discovered" when it became European Capital of Culture, Metz is something of a hidden secret, with a host of great bistrots and gourmet restaurants, bars and clubs, shopping and markets.

1. Hotel de la Cathedrale

This is the ideal place to base yourself, perfectly located opposite the landmark 13th-century Gothic cathedral. It's a friendly rabbit's warren of rooms all decorated with vintage pieces and bric-a-brac from the city's twice-monthly antiques fair. Locals haven't yet jumped on the bandwagon of cashing in by opening chic B&Bs; (apart from a fun houseboat), but frankly the rates at the Cathedrale could not be more reasonably priced. For wine lovers, there is an excellent bar à vin just next door, the Strapontin.
• 25 place du Chambre, tel: +3 3(0)38 77 50002, hotelcathedrale-metz.fr; doubles from €58 (£52).

2. Cafe Mathis

This typically French bistrot is one of the most popular hangouts in town and the ideal place to immerse yourself in Metz local life - whether you pop in for café and croissants at the bar, a hearty plat du jour at lunchtime or early evening aperitifs. There are always animated discussions going on, and don't be surprised if you get pulled into the conversation, as tourists are still a relative rarity. In summer, the owners also take over a sunny garden up the road, in front of the mansion where François Rabelais once lived, staging concerts, theatre and poetry readings.
• 72 en Fournirue, +33 (0)38 71 89467.

3. Chez Mauricette

Right next to the cathedral, the Marche Couvert is one of the oldest, most grandiose covered markets in France. It was originally built in 1785 as the palace for the Bishop of Metz. Sadly for him, the French Revolution broke out before he could move in and afterwards the citizens decided to turn it into their food market.

The fiesty Madame Mauricette is a well-known Metz personality. The half-a-dozen tables outside her market stand are an institution for sampling delicacies from the surrounding Lorraine region. A copious "assiette" of regional products costs €5-7 and includes pate with Mirabelle plums, saucisson, cured ham, pork brawn, local cheeses and a fresh salad. Next door is the equally genial Le Temps, des Soupes, where another character, Patrick Grumberg, serves a choice of 20 different homemade soups every day.
• Marche Couvert, place Jean-Paul II, +33 (0)38 73 63769, chezmauricette.eu.

4. Rue des Jardins

Metz is not exactly a shopping paradise, but the quaint Rue des Jardins, in the heart of the old medieval city, is worth checking out. There are a couple of bargain antique shops, and Gibus (N°5) is a hip vintage store specialising in handbags, other accessories and 1960's and 70's items collected from all over Europe by owners Karine and Pierre. Across the road, the newly opened Except (N°20) is a split-level concept store that combines the clubbing clothes of local design label 3dx, a futuristic coffee bar, interior design, and changing exhibitions showcasing young artists.

5. Claude Bourguignon

The Lorraine region is famed for its sweet mirabelle plums and no visit is complete without tasting the famous "tarte aux mirabelles". There seems to be a patisserie on every street corner, the windows filled with tempting cakes, meringues, eclairs, macarrons, gateaux au chocolat and the odd-looking "kugelhopf" from nearby Alsace. But the one to track down is Claude Bourguignon, who has a quiet salon in the back where you can indulge in a calorific afternoon tea, or savour the other local speciality, a Quiche Lorraine, which strictly follows the traditional recipe of cooking with eggs, mild and smoked bacon, but never adds cheese.
• 31 rue de la Tete d'Or, +33 (0)387752352.

6. Le Pop White

Ask any Metzois where the people meet in the early evening for an "apero" and the unanimous reply will be the place Saint Jacques. This charming square by the cathedral quickly gets filled with a dozen different bar terraces as soon as it's warm enough to sit outside. A popular rendezvous for students is Cafe des Arts, but Metz now has Le Pop White, its very own cool lounge bar that could just as easily be in Barcelona, Berlin, or, of course, Paris. While local fashionistas make sure they're seen here sipping exotic cocktails, there is also a bar upstairs that livens up later at night when it turns into a clubbing venue.
• 4 place Saint Jacques, +33 (0)38 73 50646.

7. Le Magasin aux Vives

There are a host of gourmet restaurants in Metz, but this stands out from the rest. Christophe Dufosse, the only chef in town to have a Michelin star, succeeds in highlighting local products while inventing original, creative recipes. His daring Quiche Lorraine is a "deconstruction" with all the ingredients presented separately; in a creamy risotto he uses pungent black truffles found in the surrounding countryside. The vineyards of the Moselle and the local Gris de Toul are well represented on an extensive wine list. The restaurant is part of a vast 16th-century military citadel that Christophe and his wife Delphine have renovated into a four-star hotel. Plush but reasonably priced (from €185 for a double), it's bound to become a favourite address for art lovers drawn here by the new Pompidou.
• 5 avenue Ney, +33 (0)38 71 71717, citadelle-metz.com.

8. Les Trinitaires

Hidden away on the St Croix hill that overlooks the town centre, this multi-media arts complex is housed in an ancient convent, whose vaulted cellar and chapel have been the city's prime venue for concerts by jazz greats like Sonny Rollins and Archie Shepp for over 45 years. In summer, the cloisters are converted into an open-air stage, while a new pop art bar is open every evening. Just across from the entrance to Les Trinitaires is another popular venue, the Cafe Jehanne d'Arc, which showcases local bands most evenings, often performing free of charge.
• 12 rue des Trinitaires, +33 (0)38 72 00303, lestrinitaires.com.

9. Bar Le Flamenco

Delightfully louche and sleazy, with table football (or baby-foot as it's called here) and live rock and punk bands at the weekend. The drinks are cheap too - cocktails €3-5 and a baron (Metz's term for a pint) is only €3, probably the lowest price in town. It's open till the early hours if there's a crowd. Nearby, L'Emile vache (77 rue des Allemands), exhibits eccentric artists and is a concert venue for eclectic music like Luxembourg hip-hop, Metz electro and rockabilly, plus punk bands from across the nearby German border.
• 4 rue Mazelle.

10. Bar Latino

A pulsating salsa club is the last thing you'd expect to discover in sleepy Metz, but turn up at Bar Latino after midnight at the weekend and the dancefloor is jammed with a couple of hundred clubbers. The barmen mix €5 mojito and caipirinha cocktails, while the DJ mixes Cuban, Columbian and Mexican tracks. The night doesn't end here either, as just down road is Tiffany, a cavernous disco that blasts out house and techno, ragga and R'n'B till 6am.
• 22 rue Dupont des Loges, +33 (0)38 77 57257, barlatino.fr.

• All photographs by John Brunton

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India must aim at accelerating the pace of economic growth to about 10 per cent per annum to eliminate poverty and provide productive employment for its young population in the near future.

"This is the growth target which we should work towards for the Twelfth Five Year Plan," he said in his inaugural address at the Conference on Building Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities here this morning.

Dr Singh said India's recent economic performance had been commendable on many counts. He said the economy had grown at an average annual rate of about 9 per cent before the global economic meltdown. It slowed down in 2008 because of the global crisis which continued into 2009, when it was compounded by a severe drought the country faced.

He said that, despite these adverse circumstances, the economy had grown by 6.7 per cent in fiscal year 2008-09, and it had accelerated to 7.2 per cent in the current fiscal year which will end on March 31.

"These rates are well above those seen in the developed worlds, and reflect the underlying strengths of our economy. We expect to achieve 8.5 per cent growth rate in the year 2010-11 and I hope we can achieve a growth rate of 9 per cent in the year 2011-12. I believe that we need to do even better," he said.

The Prime Minister said a growth rate of 10 per cent looked ambitious but was not impossible and had been acheived by other emerging economies in Asia.

"However, it is not something that will happen automatically. We would need continual improvements in our policy regime and in our implementation procedures," he said.

He said that he would be reviewig these issues later today at a meeting of the full Planning Commission to discuss the Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

Dr Singh said that, for truly inclusive growth, the infrastructure needs of the whole country needed to be met. "Infrastructure must therefore be defined broadly to include highways and roads of all kinds including rural roads, railways, air and water transport, irrigation, electric power, telecommunications, water supply and sewerage system," he said.

He said the Eleventh Plan had estimated that the country would need to invest over Rs.20 lakh crore in infrastructure over the five-year period. This was more than double the realised investment during the Tenth Five Year Plan. The Plan also recognised that such a large investment in infrastructure could not be funded from public resources alone. This is because the government would have to necessarily devote a large portion of its own resources to critical livelihood support programmes and to providing access to education and health services which are crucial to ensuring inclusiveness of the growth process.

"The strategy for infrastructure development therefore involved combination of public investment supplemented by private investments wherever feasible. The mix was expected to vary from sector to sector, and also from region to region," he said.

The Prime Minister said experience had shown that private participation in infrastructure development was indeed a feasible proposition and could help expand infrastructure much faster than it would have relying only on public resources.

According to him, the telecom sector is the most compelling example of this proposition. The Eleventh Plan target for tele-density was realised ahead of schedule, in the third year of the Plan itself. The addition of one crore subscribers every month, with user charges among the lowest in the world, has really taken the communication revolution to the doorstep of the "aam aadmi" (common man), he said.

He said there had also been many successful public-private partnership (PPP) projects in roads, ports, airports and electric power but much more needed to be done in these areas.

Dr Singh said the Central Government had developed a fairly robust framework for PPPs which balanced the legitimate requirements of the investors and the needs of the users and also ensured transparency. Model documents have been developed for several sectors. Projects are awarded on the basis of competitive bidding and standardisation of documents and the bidding processes have contributed greatly to the promotion of transparency, he said.

He said that one of the reasons why it was difficult to attract private investment in infrastructure was that all projects may not be able to generate adequate revenue streams. The projects may have high economic rates of returns but may not be financially viable.

He said the Central Government had dealt with this problem by offering a capital subsidy which is competitively determined through the bidding processes. Since the capital subsidy is only a proportion of the total capital cost, government resources effectively leverage a large volume of private resources. This Viability Gap Funding arrangement can be accessed by state governments as well. The scheme has been received well and a large number of PPP projects have been approved under this scheme, he said.

Dr Singh said he was happy to note that the States were now actively pursuing infrastructure projects, including through PPP arrangements. Some of the states have made notable progress in this area, while others are at earlier stages. The Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission are actively engaged with the State Governments to help them in managing the PPP process, he said.

He said the power sector was crucial for fuelling the 10 per cent growth the Government was aiming at.

"The capacity addition achieved already in the Eleventh Plan period is much higher than the achievement anytime in the past. But we have made less progress in this area than we should have. Power shortages remain a problem in many parts of our country. The distribution segment, which is entirely in the states sector, continues to be fragile," he said.

He said the Government was trying to tackle the problem of high Transmission & Distribution losses through a restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme which has just begun to roll out.

"We must also take steps to operationalise open access as early as possible to enable bulk consumers to buy electricity directly from competing producers so that a vibrant market is created where producers can invest for eliminating shortages and also reduce tariffs through competition," he said.

Dr Singh said that the Government was working very seriously towards accelerating the road building programme in all parts of the country, especially the north-eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir. Some changes have been made in the terms of concessions responding to stakeholder feedback, and with these changes the Government expects strong investor interest in PPP road projects.

He said the Delhi-Mumbai and Ludhiana-Kolkata dedicated rail freight corridors are a transformative initiative of the Indian Railways. While much of the investment in the railways is necessarily in the public sector, PPPs have nevertheless been envisaged in many areas. Metro rail projects are being increasingly pursued in many cities, through various models including PPPs, he pointed out.

Dr Singh also spoke about the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which is designed to bring in a quantum improvement in urban infrastructure. He urged the States to actively identify and pursue the possibilities of PPP in all segments of urban infrastructure which require both expansion and upgradation.

He mentioned that, in civil aviation, Delhi and Mumbai airports are currently undergoing a complete transformation while airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore have already been completed and operationalised through PPP. The Airport Authority of India is also upgrading several of its airports including the two metro airports at Kolkata and Chennai.

He said the Government had also initiated an ambitious plan for expansion of the port sector, including through PPPs.

He said issues involving the logistics sector needed to be seen in a holistic manner. He said the Government had constituted a High Level Committee under the chairmanship of Dr Rakesh Mohan to prepare an integrated plan for the development of the transport sector in the economy.

The Prime Minister stressed that the strategy of inclusiveness required high priority to the social sectors, especially education and health.

"While these efforts will have to be primarily in the public sector, there may be merit in bringing in public private partnership in these areas as well. We need to work on PPP models in these sectors that are fully consistent with the objective of providing access to the underprivileged sections of our society," he said.

Dr Singh said effective private sector participation in infrastructure would require a large mobilisation of resources through financial institutions. The Finance Ministry has taken several initiatives in this regard. Preliminary exercises suggest that investment in infrastructure will have to expand to $ 1000 billion in the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

He urged the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission to draw up a plan of action for achieving this level of investment.

He said also was also a need to review the approach that should guide the regulatory institutions in different sectors.

"An Approach Paper on the subject was published by the Planning Commission after extensive consultations with experts and stakeholders. I have asked the Commission to prepare a draft bill outlining the next stage of regulatory reform. We would welcome the views of all stakeholders in this very important area," he said.

Dr Singh emphasised that a successful infrastructure development strategy depended crucially and critically on implementation.

He said both the Centre and the States had to give top priority to strengthen implementation capabilities. He pointed out that the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure to monitor progress in this area.

"I have asked the Planning Commission to engage in detailed consultations with each of the infrastructure ministries and come up with agreed targets of achievement for each Ministry, in order to identify slippages at early stages and take corrective action as necessary. I would urge the states to adopt similar tight monitoring so that we achieve the best possible outcome in the remaining two years of the present Eleventh Five Year Plan," he added.

NNN

Tony Blair's former spin doctor doffs his cap to 'top notch' Tory who is promoting David Cameron as authentic

As we sit in our garrets tapping out endless words on our computer screens, we humble journalists sometimes wonder whether members of the great and good take any notice of our work. Well, it turns out that a truly aristocratic member of Labour's great and good has taken note of my piece in yesterday's Guardian about the Tories' plans for the general election.

Alastair Campbell has taken time out from his busy post Downing Street career as a novelist -- and sometime adviser to Gordon Brown -- to pen a lengthy blog which takes issues with my article. The former Riviera Gigolo is clearly mellowing in his late middle age -- yes it is difficult to believe this dishy chap will be 53 in May -- because the blog is beautifully written and humorous.

Campbell's essential charge is that I have been hoodwinked by a "top notch" Tory spinner:

Every now and then, you just have to hold up your hands and say 'well done, well done' to someone from the other side of the political fence, no matter how much you want to persuade yourself in the interests of party tribalism that all your enemies are hopeless indiiduals (sic) of no merit whatever. I refer to whichever Tory Spin Doctor (TSD) was responsible for the briefing to The Guardian's Nick Watt.

Campbell then lists a series of "notions" I have fallen for in the mistaken impression that they show great strategic thinking by the Tories. Campbell has had a fisk, so here I go with my fisk:

• I have fallen for a spin that the Tories have thought up a new, more open, form of campaigning off the back of one appearance by Cameron last week when he turned heckling by apprentices to his advantage.

Well, I was there when Cameron was heckled. I noticed his nerves when he thought he was about to lose control of the meeting and watched as he turned in panic to the media. The Tories' plans for Cameron live and unplugged has been on their grid for some time. But I'm not sure we would be seeing many unscripted events if Cameron had bombed last week.

• The Tory spinner has offered the "piece de resistance" of the briefing by prompting me to write that Cameron will connect easily with voters because he believes he has a record to defend on the economy.

Campbell writes:

I am now on my feet in spontaneous lauding of a briefing of such nerve that I want to find the man who did it and offer him to name his price to defect. One of my finest moments was when the former Chief of Defence Staff Charles Guthrie (before he started taking potshots at GB) called me 'the SAS of spin.' But TSD is a one man commando unit all of his own.

Sadly Campbell neglects to mention that I wrote the following at this point in my article:

Labour is likely to scoff at this because the Tories' recent wobble was caused, at least in part, by surprise at Britain's weak economic recovery that led Cameron to tone down his rhetoric on spending cuts.

• George Osborne is dumped on to ensure that if the budget goes well for Labour, it will be him and not David Cameron who gets the blame. This is what I wrote about George Osborne:

Many Tories say there is still one key weakness: Osborne. One highly influential figure says: "George Osborne is a terrible weakness on the doorstep and in the polling. It is too late to change him. But if the economy is the number one issue and your principal economic spokesman is weak, then you have a problem."

And this is what I wrote about the recent Tory wobble which I said was being blamed on four main factors.

These are: a fear that the Tories' warnings of early spending cuts were frightening voters; a feeling that the campaign lacked leadership because of Osborne's dual role as campaign director and shadow chancellor; polling evidence showing that the 38-year-old Osborne is seen as too young and inexperienced to be a credible chancellor; and a failure to simplify the Tory message.

And what happened to journalists who wrote like that about Labour when Campbell was in charge? They were denounced in public by Campbell, as I was in 2002 when he accused me of writing "unadulterated, bilious shite" in the Guardian.

Campbell has obviously calmed down since then, if his witty blog is any guide. Life sitting at home in Gospel Oak flicking through 24 hour news channels has obviously done wonders for his temperament.

Anyone tempted to take seriously Republican complaints about the "rushed" and "secretive" process by which health care reform was finally passed (the subject of John Boehner's tantrum on the House floor) should consider the "process" by which a Republican administration rammed the Patriot Act through Congress in October 2001.  This far-ranging bill, including dramatic expansions of unchecked, executive authority to spy on Americans, summarily detain people, and designate political protesters as terrorists was enacted a mere 6 weeks after its introduction, in the fear filled days following September 11th and anthrax attacks on leading Senate Democrats (Tom Daschle and Pat Leahy); the Patriot Act was not read and reportedly not even distributed to many members of Congress (which didn't stop Boehner from supporting it).  

"Attorney General John Ashcroft had pressed for passage of his anti-terrorism legislation within a week. But on the House Judiciary Committee, an unusual bipartisan coalition--Barney Frank and Maxine Waters in collaboration with Bob Barr and Majority Leader Dick Armey--put some elements of the Bill of Rights back in the bill. And in the Senate, Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy at first resisted the intense pressure from Ashcroft and the White House to ram the bill through. Leahy later went with the crowd."
   
"By a 36-to-0 vote, the House Judiciary Committee did pass a somewhat improved version of the bill; but late at night, behind closed doors, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, other Republican leaders, and operatives from the White House scuttled that legislation and crafted a new bill.  On October 12, right after that coup, the House voted, 337 to 79, for a 175-page bill that most of its members hadn't even had time to read.  Democratic congressman John Conyers said on C-Span that only two copies of the bill were available to his side of the aisle...Barney Frank said it plainly: 'This was the least democratic process for debating questions fundamental to democracy I have ever seen.  A bill drafted by a handful of people in secret, subject to no committee process, comes before us immune from amendment.'"
    
"Another sneak attack on the democratic process had put a quick fix on the Senate Judiciary Committee's anti-terrorism bill.  Present at that closed-door session were Senate leaders and emissaries from the administration.  Swiftly, the Senate passed that much harsher legislation by a vote of 96 to 1 on October 11.  Again, most members of the 'world's greatest deliberative body' did not have time to read the entire 243-page bill."

AnimalLover:32;

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We have a full slate of events scheduled for this weeks PAX East in Boston. Starting Thursday, we have a different event each day for Boston area gamers. I am pretty excited to be headed to New England for the events and meet many area gamers. 

 

Thursday, March 25th

I am kicking off our PAX activity a little early with this Pre-Pax 2010 session for area college students. I’ll be doing this at the Microsoft NERD in Cambridge. There is no admission fee, and you don’t need PAX passes to attend, but you will need to register as capacity is limited.

 

When: March 25th from 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Where: Microsoft Nerd
What: I’ll be meeting with college students to discuss working in the game industry. If you are a Boston area college student, head over to the Microsoft NERD Facebook group to keep updated on similar events.

Again, this is a free event but you will need to register to attend. Once we reach capacity, they’ll have to close registration.

Friday, March 26th – Tweetup!

I’ll be headed back to NERD but this time with my show co-hosts e, lollip0p and Stepto. Pluswill be there as well. We’ll be there with other members of the Xbox LIVE team and community (like DMZilla and litheon.) The doors for PAX don’t open until 2pm on Friday so join us first before you roll over to the Hynes Convention Center for the rest of the weekend.

 
There is no registration or admission fee, and you don’t need PAX passes to attend.

When: March 26th from 9:30am to 11:30am
Where: Microsoft Nerd
What: Meet members of the Xbox LIVE team and other members of the community
Why: We’ve got some coffee and sugar laced snacks to get your Friday started, plus we’ll have some giveaways plus the first 300 people who attend will walk away with an exclusive PAX East item. We’ll also have a Surface on hand if you want to get your hands dirty (digitally speaking of course) with one. 

If you DO have PAX Passes, be sure to stop by the Xbox Booth where will have some of the newest games to show and for the first time anywhere you can have hands-on time with Crackdown 2.

 

Also, allow me to draw your attention to the following panels where many of your favorite Xbox LIVE members will be participating:

 

Friday, 6:30pm: Traversing the Twitterverse, and Beyond! (Manticore Theatre) Join me along with @Xboxsupport’s McKenzie Eakin and Robert Bowling from IW as we discuss Twitter and gaming.

 

Saturday, 3:00pm: Xbox LIVE Group Therapy.(Wyvern Theatre) WE’LL DO IT LIVE! Join me for the first ever live taping of my podcast. They entire gang will be there, including e, lollip0p and Stepto. We’ll have an hour of fun as we try to record a ‘normal show’ and then take your questions. Come be a part of history.

 

Saturday, 5:30pm: Podcasting (f)or PR (Naga Theater) I’ll be on a panel to discuss the medium with Julian Murdoch [Freelance Writer, GamersWithJobs.com], Jeff Green [Editor-in-Chief, EA], Ken Levine [Creative Director, Irrational Games ], Shawn Elliott [Podcast Producer, Irrational Games], James Stevenson [Insomniac Games].

 

Sunday, 11:30am, Enforcement on Xbox LIVE: Tales from the Din Part 2 (Manticore Theatre). Join Stephen "Stepto" Toulouse, head of Xbox LIVE Policy and Enforcement, and members of his team as he walks you through the ins and outs of policing the service. If you saw (or heard) his session at PAX in Seattle last year, you’ll be glad to know his session has been updated with all new content and even more unbelievable stories.

 

This attendee guide from the Hynes Convention Center web site has some good information if this is your first time to the area.

 

See you at one (or all) of the events.