The dust may have settled on England’s hopes of lifting the World Cup, but one man who had a firm grip on the Jules Rimet trophy will be in Blackpool tonight.
Goalkeeping legend Gordon Banks will be attending a dinner at Blackpool North Shore Golf Club. The dinner follows a football and golf fun day at the club. Banks was a member of England’s 1966 World Cup winning team, the pinnacle of a glorious career which saw him earn 73 international caps and play 558 league games, the majority for Leicester City and Stoke City.
Tables are still available for the dinner and can be bought for £40 from the club.


If your company never seems to have enough cash on hand, the problem may not be a lack of sales. It could be delayed collections. When customers don't get their payments to you on time, you have to pay your bills and expenses out of company reserves. Those reserves can dwindle and disappear if customers regularly pay late. Companies have found useful techniques for reducing the collection period and improving cash flow.
When a company waits for the post office to deliver payments to the door, it can lose one to three days in collecting payments. You can avoid this wait time by using a postal box and giving your mail pick-up personnel a key to the box and authority to make deposits in your bank. You not only avoid office delivery, you save time by having the deposits made on the same trip as when the mail gets picked up.
You can calculate how many days your vendors, lenders, utility providers and leaseholders give you to pay your bills. Then look at how long you give your customers to pay their bills. If you have to pay your expenses before you receive money from customers, that period is called a "float." The solution is to adjust your terms so that you have longer to pay and so that you give your customers less time to pay.
You may find that your collection terms are fine, but your enforcement of those terms is lax. You can tighten up your collection procedures by making sure personnel send letters the moment payments are late, making phone calls to customers who haven't paid and by offering favorable terms or discounts to customers who pay early. This may be a matter of training personnel, or it may require you to purchase accounts receivable software that will track payment due dates for you.
Part of the time you lose on collections may be due to bank processing. If you set up direct deposit with your customers, they can transfer money to your bank directly from their accounts, thus reducing bank processing time. You can set up a bank account that allows for automated clearing house payments. These ACH transfers from your customers' accounts to yours incur no expenses and the money can be available in as little as a day after the transfer.
You may be taking too long to process the checks you receive. You can streamline the process by reducing the number of people who must handle checks. If you track the time that lapses from when you receive a check to when you deposit it, you may find that you are causing unnecessary delays in getting your money. Consider putting a manager in charge of the entire process so that each department that handles a check will be accountable to one person.


The mine is operated by Bledsoe Coal Corp. This year, it became one of two mines MSHA had succeeded in placing on a pattern of violations status, based on repeated significant violations of federal health and safety standards.
MSHA inspectors have issued 34 orders since April for miners to pull out of all or parts of the mine because of alleged unsafe conditions. Federal inspectors also issued several citations last month at the Viper Coal LLC Mine No. 7 in Pike County for alleged unwarrantable failure to follow health and safety rules.
The problems included that the mine operator was not following the proper ventilation plan, which resulted in a drastic reduction in the airflow in the mine, according to the news release.
Inspectors went to the mines as part of MSHA's "impact inspection" program. The agency started the program last year to give more attention to mines with poor compliance histories or other problems, such as a high number of accidents.
Inspectors have issued more than 6,300 citations since April 2010 during such inspections at coal and non-coal mines across the country.


Housebound seniors need to get goods delivered. Businesses, however, might not have the resources — vehicles, workers and money — to provide this service at low or no cost.
Based on a request from a housebound elder, I asked if any readers had experiences with businesses that delivered goods for free, or a reasonable rate, and were discreet about it. She apparently had a nosy neighbor.
Limited information surfaced. Plus, businesses that do deliver usually arrive in marked vehicles.
I did hear from more seniors looking for food delivery services to help bridge the gap between cooking at home and ordering Meals on Wheels.
One reader living south of 441 was frustrated that some Appleton restaurants won’t deliver past the highway.
Not all restaurants have $25 minimums for food delivery. Each one has different delivery requirements, minimums or fees. Driver tips are in addition to those costs.
The Bar locations in Appleton and Grand Chute, for example, have a $15 minimum food order and $2 delivery charge.
Muncheez Pizzeria in downtown Appleton has free delivery of pizza, subs, wings or salads with a minimum order of $12. While its prime delivery areas are Appleton and Grand Chute, it stretches south past 441 to Manitowoc and Airport roads. Average driver tips are $4.
“Our demographics tend to be younger because we’re open to 3 a.m., but we have all kinds of customers. We deliver to everyone,” said Muncheez owner Paul Vander Linden.
For general goods, home delivery will likely cost something unless the senior is savvy about accessing the Internet and ordering sufficient quantities to avoid shipping fees.
Rates for those delivery people are roughly $12 to $18 an hour depending on location, mileage and time. She also can connect seniors to for-fee concierge service companies that will do errands and shopping.
“If finances are an issue, I tell them to connect with their county’s Aging and Disability Resource Center to find out what pool of resources there might be for them,” she said.
She suggests seniors also check with neighborhood grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants and shops that they use regularly to find out if delivery is an option. Smith Pharmacy in Little Chute, for example, has free mail or local prescription delivery service.


Misery loves comfort, and with approximately 50 million Americans plagued by seasonal allergies, there are plenty of people feeling miserable and seeking comfort when pollen is in the air.
But in an attempt to relieve their sneezing, stuffy or runny noses, and itchy eyes, allergy sufferers might make a few mistakes.
The good news is that "seasonal allergies are totally treatable," said Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York. "The key is to have a plan in place."
Bassett described seven common mistakes that people with seasonal allergies make, so you can know to avoid them.
"Wind is not a good friend to people with seasonal allergies," Bassett told Live Science.But when the weather gets warm, it's tempting to let fresh air and cool breezes into your home or car. "This is a big mistake for people with seasonal allergies because this allows pollens to visit," Bassett said. He recommends keeping windows shut, running the air conditioner to recirculate inside air and using HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters to trap pollen.
Your shoes, clothes, hair and glasses can all track pollen from outside into your home. Pets also bring pollen inside, so keep them clean. You should keep your own hair clean, too. "Wash hair at the end of the day to avoid transferring pollen to your pillowcase and sleeping on a pollen cloud," Bassett advised. It can also help to use saline nasal sprays, which are like a shower for your nose, to gently irrigate pollen from it, Bassett said. He also recommended that people avoid hanging laundry on an outdoor clothesline during allergy season.
Many people don't realize that lots of pollen enters the body through the eyes, Bassett said. Protecting your eyes offers a great opportunity to reduce the pollen load your body experiences, he said. A brimmed hat and sunglasses can help block pollens from your face before they find their way into your nose and eyes. Eye rinses can wash away pollen, and antihistamine eye drops can relieve red, itchy eyes.
Treat allergies at the onset of pollen season, rather than waiting until symptoms get more severe, Bassett said. He advises his patients to begin taking their medications one or two weeks before their allergy season typically begins. A proactive approach works better for many people; it may reduce the severity of symptoms, and the patient may end up needing less medication, Bassett explained.
People should generally limit their use of over-the-counter nasal decongestant spray to a maximum of five days in a row; otherwise the spray may irritate the lining of the nose and sinuses. With too much use, these sprays can make the nose severely congested, and some people just keep squirting in more spray to ease the stuffiness. "Rebound congestion creates symptoms worse than the original problem," Bassett said.
Mistake 7: Eating foods that aggravate allergies.
When some people with pollen allergies eat certain fresh fruits and vegetables, it may result in an itchy mouth or throat. This is known as oral allergy syndrome. The allergic cross-reaction occurs shortly after the offending food is eaten. It happens because the immune system recognizes a similarity between proteins in some pollens and those in fruits, vegetables, nuts and spices. For example, a person with a birch pollen allergy may develop oral allergy symptoms after eating an apple, carrot, peach, almond or hazelnut. Sometimes peeling, cooking or avoiding the food altogether during allergy season may prevent symptoms, Bassett said.


As China rises, it is cementing relations with the rest of the region.
Warming relations with Myanmar were underlined on September 8 when Myanmar’s junta leader, Than Shwe, visited Beijing, marking the 60th anniversary of cooperation between the two nations. Official Chinese data says the two countries did $2.9 billion in business last year, but analysts believe the actual figures are higher.
Beijing’s investment in Myanmar, which is centered on the country’s energy resources, sharply outweighs trade between the two countries, but China’s interest in Myanmar goes beyond resources. Beijing is developing numerous ports along the Myanmar coast in the Bay of Bengal, which affords Chinese access to the Indian Ocean and extends its naval capability.
In September, China and Russia also joined forces with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in joint military exercises. A major 16-day affair in Kazakhstan, “Peace Mission 2010” was officially labeled a counterterrorism drill, but its scale—it involved around 5,000 troops, 1,600 armed vehicles, 100 cannons and mortars, and 50 combat aircraft—suggested an exercise in conventional warfare. The exercise was the seventh joint drill conducted by Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations, and was the largest of its kind ever held.
And in a sign of China’s expanding power and influence over the island nation of Taiwan, the two launched maritime search-and-rescue drills in the Taiwan Strait on September 16. The exercise tested the capacity of maritime personnel on both sides of the Strait to safeguard transport within it. The drill was the first of its kind jointly undertaken by China and Taiwan since the end of 2008.
As China’s global clout grows, it will keep building its regional hegemony as it joins forces with Russia to form a military alliance as foretold in end-time prophecy.
China is positioned to sign a $2 billion agreement to construct a railway line in Iran as the first step of a broader plan to connect Beijing to Central Asia and the Middle East. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raised the idea earlier this year, and China’s railways minister visited Tehran on September 12 to finalize the contract. The new line—the first step in an entire rail system for Central Asia—will run from Tehran to the town of Khosravi on the Iran-Iraq border. Bible prophecy describes a time when great masses of soldiers from Asia will sweep into the Middle East, and the proposed rail system could help facilitate such an event.


A Colorado teen has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for his role in the death of a 7-year-old girl during an apparent imitation of the "Mortal Kombat" video game.
Lamar Roberts was sentenced Friday in Greeley's Weld County District Court. The 18-year-old pleaded guilty last month to knowingly or recklessly causing a death through child abuse.
Prosecutors say Roberts and 17-year-old Heather Trujillo were baby-sitting Zoe Garcia on Dec. 6, 2007. They say the two kicked, hit and slammed Trujillo's half-sister to the floor.
According to arrest affidavits, Trujillo and Roberts were baby-sitting Zoe and her twin, 3-year-old sisters, who were sleeping in another room, while Trujillo's mother worked at a nearby bar.
"Trujillo said they were acting out the video game 'Mortal Combat' [sic] by savagely hitting and kicking Zoe, even dropping her on her side, which broke her wrist. Roberts, who claimed to be a martial-arts expert with his hands registered as 'lethal weapons,' said Zoe had asked him to stop hitting her but that he didn't because 'I was drunk,'" the Denver Post reports.
Zoe began to have trouble breathing. She seemed to fall asleep but was making wheezing and gurgling noises instead of normal breathing. Trujillo and Roberts put her in the bathtub and ran warm water on her back in an attempt to revive her, according to the affidavit.
When Zoe stopped breathing altogether, Trujillo and Roberts cracked an egg in her moth to see if she was "messing with them" according to the affidavit. The egg went down Zoe's throat.
But Trujillo and Roberts waited 15 minutes before calling for help.
Trujillo pleaded guilty in July to negligently causing death through child abuse. She must serve six years in Colorado's youth offender system.


Postmasters have voted to reject An Post proposals on the future of post offices citing anger at the company’s attitude to changes in the business.
At a meeting in Athlone, Co Westmeath, on Sunday members of the Irish Postmasters’ Union (IPU) said An Post had written to them in the last two weeks threatening to terminate their contracts if they did not attend training on handling new current accounts.
An Post chief executive David McRedmond has already told workers the company would make a loss again next year despite the 28 cent rise in the cost of a stamp unless action was taken. Part of that action is the operation of a new current account for customers, in a move designed to offer competition to the banks.
IPU general secretary Ned O’Hara said members should not co-operate with the roll-out of the new Smart account. He said the union had twice voted at its annual conference not to co-operate on the training of postmasters to operate the new account, without an agreement on the future structure of the post office network.
The IPU is meeting with Minister for Communications Denis Naughten on Thursday and will be asking him to intervene and invest in the network.


The British-built Kestrel was a prototype Vertical/Short TakeOff and Landing (VSTOL) aircraft successfully tested in the 1960s. An improved version, known as the Harrier, became the world's first operational VSTOL fighter when it entered Royal Air Force (RAF) service in 1969.
The first Kestrel began flight trials in 1961 in Britain. The next year, the United Kingdom, US, and the Federal Republic of Germany ordered nine aircraft for combined testing by those countries' representatives. A joint evaluation squadron, which included USAF pilots, conducted Kestrel trials in 1965.
Six of these trial aircraft came to the United States where the US armed forces conducted additional testing. Although the US Air Force did not order it, the US Marine Corps and RAF operated the follow-on Harrier for several decades.
The Kestrel on display was delivered to the Museum from Edwards Air Force Base, California, in 1970.


The former partner of the late Jade Goody has revealed the heartbreaking story behind his youngest son’s decision to spend Christmas with his granny.
Jeff Brazier shares two sons with Jade, who passed away from cervical cancer in 2009, and explained to his Twitter followers on Christmas Day it would just be him and his other son, Bobby, 14, spending the day together.
Now TV personality revealed Freddie’s asked to spend Christmas with his gran a week before the big day.
He spoke to Mirror about his youngest heading over to Jade’s mother Jackiey’s house to keep her company and, well, pass the tissues.
He said: ‘Freddie is very big-hearted. He didn’t want his grandma to be on her own so it was the two of them together.
‘It was really beautiful of him and I could see it meant the universe to his gran.
Jeff recently told Fabulous magazine about the efforts he goes to to keep Jade’s memory alive.
He said: ‘We’ll talk about our day and then we’ll always chat about Jade.
Bobby and Freddie were just four and five when their mother passed away and since then Jeff has showcased how close-knit the family is, as he raises their boys.
Jeff Brazier has partnered with Vauxhall Motors to explore how long parents spend driving their kids around. For more info please visit www.vauxhall.co.uk.


The Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C. has exploded with growth over the past 20 years, with restaurants springing up alongside shops, high-end condos and arts venues. While there are no purely vegetarian restaurants in this part of town, a variety of quality establishments have several dining options for those avoiding meat.
Tapas restaurants are characterized by their "small plates" offerings, allowing diners to sample diminished portions of many different dishes. Zaytinya (zaytinya.com) brings this concept to Turkish, Greek and Lebanese cuisine, with such offerings as Ottoman-style roasted eggplant stuffed with onions and tomatoes and veggie classics like spanakopita and fattoush. There are enough vegetarian options here to satisfy any palate. The establishment is owned by celebrity Chef Jose Andres, who also owns Jaleo (jaleo.com), just up the street.
Jaleo serves up Spanish tapas, with small plates such as endives with goat cheese, oranges and almonds and sautéed spinach, pine nuts, raisins and apples. Both restaurants get very crowded during happy hour, and both get very noisy. Reservations are recommended for dinner.
Penn Quarter neighbors Chinatown, and Asian-influenced food dominates this section of the city. Rasika (rasikarestaurant.com) is a central-Asian/Indian restaurant, decorated sumptuously and featuring pieces of original Indian-inspired art. Vegetarian options here are plentiful, including items like eggplant with diced potato, olive oil and peanut sauce and cauliflower with mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chilies and lemon juice. A wine sommelier is available to offer pairings with any dish.
Absolute Thai (absolutethaidc.com) breaks its menu into different categories with the "healthy" section full of vegetarian options. Spring rolls include taro, cabbage, cellophane noodles, dried mushroom and celery and tofu is offered in many different varieties and with various seasonings.
Quick casual options allow diners to grab and go with their food without much wait, but offer healthier and higher-quality food than traditional "fast" food. Merzi (merzi.com) is an Indian restaurant that allows diners to build their platter of food one menu at a time. Guests choose a base of rice, naan, salad or chaat, and then add other ingredients like sauces and vegetables. The samosas here at the end of the line should not be looked over, and the "Mango Fantango" beverage is very similar to a traditional mango lassi.
Chop't (choptsalad.com) takes the Merzi idea and applies it to salads. As guests move down an assembly line, they first choose the lettuce and then any assortment of vegetables and toppings, which are then chopped up into little bits and tossed with dressing.
Niche restaurants focus on serving one particular thing and serving it very well. Teaism (teaism.com) has a wide variety of teas -- both hot and cold -- and serves simple, but high-quality, Asian-inspired meals. Veggie options include tofu noodle salad and seitan stir fry.
Hot Potato Café (hotpotatodc.com) proves that a restaurant can exist by serving only potatoes, so long as the potatoes are massive and diners can pile them high with many different ingredients. Be prepared to take your order to go -- this restaurant has very limited seating.
Kaho, Mason. "Vegetarian Restaurants in Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/vegetarian-restaurants-penn-quarter-washington-dc-56572.html. Accessed 21 April 2019.


Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will begin a visit to Britain on March 7 which will include talks with Prime Minister Theresa May on topics such as extremism and societal reform, May’s spokesman said on Tuesday.
“The visit will usher in a new era in bilateral relations focused on a partnership that delivers wide-ranging benefits for both the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the spokesman said.
May discussed the visit with her cabinet earlier on Tuesday, including the much anticipated stock market listing of state oil company Saudi Aramco - potentially the biggest listing in history and the subject of a high-profile tug-of-war between Britain and the United States.
“The fact that there is a potential listing of Saudi Aramco was discussed, but in no more terms than that,” the spokesman said.
In a separate statement issued after the meeting with her cabinet, May said the crown prince’s visit - his first since his appointment in June 2017 - would allow Britain to talk “frankly and constructively” about areas of concern like Yemen and security in the Middle East.


when your therapist started sexualizing your therapy, were there some days when everything felt almosy totally normal and professional and other days when some things felt wrong and the normal days made it easy to explain away the weird moments from other days?
What you really should be thinking is - There's a shark circling me and I need to get out of the water right now.
Free advice, take it or leave it: Go have a consultation with another therapist. One session, explain what's happening and see what they say. I would do it on your own, not through your current T.
that’s good advice. i’m very confused and am questioning myself. i go from thinking, this definitely isn’t happening to this is happening, from week to week.
I've never had a T that sexualized my therapy (had one who did a lot of gaslighting in other ways). But based on my experiences in other relationships that were not supposed to have anything sexual/romantic, where people did this, it was exactly like you describe in the OP. I would say that if you have this recurring feeling and perception, it is probably not unfounded. In my case, I could resolve it a few times simply by not reacting to those subtle (or less subtle) attempts at all. Other times I would just tell them straight that I don't like that behavior and have zero interest. People might try a few more times but then often give up in the absence of reinforcement and then we could continue with the real focus of the connection. I imagine there are people so aggressive/obsessed that they won't give up, but that is extreme. The problem is more when you respond/engage/allow it, that reinforces their motives.
In the case of a therapist - has he been useful to you at all? If not, I would definitely dump him. If he is useful in other ways, maybe the above strategy and stay firm and uncompromising with it.
He tried to return to the ‘old Pdoc’ and listen to my issues after he sexualized our therapy but it never worked.
Therapy stopped the moment he helped me with my buttons.
i feel like he is messing with my mind.
he hasnt helped me with buttons or anything though. that would definitely be clearly sexual. its not like that. its very subtle.
When others sexualized me, I sensed a continual presence of the interest every time I was around them, regardless of inconsistency in their behaviors.
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Star Trek: Discovery may be stealthily telling the origin story of the Borg through Control. The Borg are, of course, one of the most iconic races in all of Star Trek; introduced in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Borg are a race of relentless, hive mind cyborgs that seek to assimilate all life in the universe into its collective, wiping out countless lives in the process. Their wildly advanced technology and single-minded goal made them the Federation's most dangerous adversary for a decade, highlighted in classic TNG episodes like "The Best of Both Worlds," where Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself is assimilated into the collective. They headlined the second (and best) The Next Generation movie Star Trek: First Contact, and played a major role in Star Trek: Voyager's overarching plot.
And yet we still don't know much about the Borg's origins. There have been hints along the way that they were once a purely organic race, but their transition into the terrifying space zombies fans love to hate has never been explained in any real detail. However, it's possible Star Trek: Discovery is about to change that.
Discovery season 2's main adversary has turned out to be Control, an artificial intelligence developed by Section 31, Starfleet's morally ambiguous special ops division. Control and the Borg share a lot of similarities - but how could they possibly be the same thing? Discovery takes place roughly a century before The Next Generation, when the Borg should still be in the Delta Quadrant, a region of space that's decades away from Federation territory at maximum warp. And there's also no precedent to suggest humanity played a hand in their creation. So how could Star Trek: Discovery possibly be setting up an origin story for the Borg? It's complicated, to say the least.
Page 2: Does Control Being The Borg Actually Make Sense?
It must be noted how many surface-level similarities Control and the Borg have. The A.I. in Star Trek: Discovery was designed to be a sort of meta-strategist for the Federation, an artificial intelligence that could process all data sent to it by Starfleet's highest ranking officers to formulate plans of attack; it seems a little shady for the Federation to allow such a cold machine to determine its overall strategies, but this is still a version of Starfleet that has had its foundation shaken by the Klingon War. Unbeknownst to Starfleet Command or Section 31, Control eventually gained sentience and, if the visions of the future Spock sees through the Red Angel are to be believed, it will one day wipe out all organic life in the galaxy. That's not quite the Borg's M.O., but it's close, and we'll address the differences in a bit.
Eventually, Control decides it needs to be able to hide in plain sight to achieve its objectives so takes over Captain Leland's body after injecting him with nanites that look an awful lot like the nasty stuff the Borg inject their assimilation victims with. Control/Leland is even forced to suppress the black veins that were a hallmark of late-era Borg drones; the fact that Control assimilated a bald Starfleet captain is almost too on the nose.
In perhaps the most blatant reference to the Borg, Control assures Leland that "struggle is pointless," which is not too far a leap from the Borg's trademark "resistance is futile." Coincidence? It's possible, but Star Trek: Discovery has never been shy about referencing past incarnations of the franchise (this season has had some obscure Klingon nods), and it seems highly unlikely no one in the writers' room would notice the obvious parallels here.
Related: Did You Catch Star Trek: Discovery's Futurama Reference?
Did Control Become The Borg Via Time Travel?
Similarities between Control and the Borg are one thing, but there's simply no way the Borg could be born in the Alpha Quadrant in the 23rd century; that would contradict literally everything we've ever been told about them. However, season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery has hinged significantly on time travel, arguably to a degree the franchise has never really approached before, give or take a Deep Space Nine classic. This isn't Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home's goofy time travel hijinks; this is Doctor Who-level timey-wimey shenanigans, dealing with causality loops and paradoxes and fixed points in time.
The Red Angel was revealed to be Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, Commander Michael Burnham's long-believed-dead mother. Dr. Burnham was developing time travel technology for Section 31 when the Klingon attack happened and, in a moment of desperation, she escaped death by using the suit to jump into the future. But the suit took her much further forward than she planned; she became tethered to a point 950 years in the future, where she found Control had achieved its mission and wiped out all sentient life in the galaxy. Dr. Burnham used the Red Angel suit to travel back in time hundreds of times in an attempt to thwart Control, but has so far been unsuccessful. How Control will ultimately be defeated is yet to be revealed, but it's a pretty good bet it will involve time travel.
The Discovery crew's plan was to send the Red Angel suit - loaded with the Sphere data that Control needs to enact its plan - into a point so far in the future Control could never find it, but that plan was derailed by Control/Leland, and both the suit and Dr. Burnham were sucked back into the time stream to an uncertain fate.
Much of this season's plot has hinged on the previously unknown revelation that Spock had a learning disability similar to dyslexia, which is the primary reason he was able to process the scrambled images and information the Red Angel bestowed upon him since his childhood. What if that same inversion of conventional thinking spurs an idea in Spock - instead of sending the Sphere data into the far future, why not send a presumably weakened version of Control into the far past, in the most distant part of space known to the Federation at this point, where it simply wouldn't have access to the information or technology it needed to destroy all life? There's a sort of cold cruelty to that plan, since even a compromised Control could still potentially wreak havoc on whatever life it encountered in the Delta Quadrant; yet this is a version of Starfleet that seems resigned to the fact it sometimes has to make impossible choices to save as many lives as possible.
Page 2 of 2: Does Control Being The Borg Actually Make Sense?


Garrett Camp has abruptly stepped down as CEO of StumbleUpon, the link-sharing service he started 10 years ago.
The company is searching for a replacement. Camp will still be the company's chairman. Cofounder and CTO Geoff Smith is staying on.
StumbleUpon, which was bought by eBay in 2007 for $75 million and then spun out as an independent company in 2009, specializes in the now-hot field of "social discovery"—helping people find interesting links. In part because its product deliberately aims to drive users to other websites rather than keeping them on the site, it's become a very effective driver of traffic to news and entertainment sites.
By some measures, it's better than Facebook at generating traffic.
According to StumbleUpon spokesman Mike Mayzel, Camp has been talking to the board about making this change for a year.
Over that time, Camp has done a pretty good job as CEO. StumbleUpon raised $17 million in March 2011 and has.grown its registered user base from 14 million to 25 million.
But with Camp ready to exit the CEO role, StumbleUpon had a conundrum: do the search quietly, and risk a leak that might suggest board discontent with Camp, or announce Camp's plans and free the company up to find its next leader.
"We wanted to make the CEO search public," said StumbleUpon spokesman Mike Mayzel. Camp will be involved in finding his replacement.
The ideal candidate is someone with international experience, Mayzel said. StumbleUpon gets 85 percent of its traffic from North America, but plans to launch local versions of its website in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany this summer.
Camp is also a cofounder of Uber, the on-demand limousine service.


Recent polls in Germany show Chancellor Angela Merkel leading in her bid for reelection on September 22.
Roughly three-in-four Germans (74%) think Merkel has done a good job dealing with the euro crisis, according to a March 2013 Pew Research Center survey. This may be one reason she leads her chief rival Social Democratic chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrück.
In other European countries, Merkel also gets high marks for her handling of the crisis, except for those that have been hard hit with austerity measures. In France, 73% of the public says she has done a good job handling the region’s economic troubles, far more than the 33% of the French who laud their President Francois Hollande for his economic management.
Roughly seven-in-ten Poles (72%) approve of Merkel’s handling of the economy, while only 26% think their Prime Minister Donald Tusk has done a good job. And even 56% of the British give Merkel high marks in economics, a much better grade than they give their own Prime Minister David Cameron (37%).
However, not everyone in Europe admires Merkel’s economic record, particularly in parts of southern Europe where some populations feel Germany has imposed austerity upon them and not helped them enough in their time of trouble. Just 39% of the Spanish think Merkel has done a good job handling the European economic crisis. While that is a higher grade than they accord their own leader Mariano Rajoy (27%), the Spanish are far more appreciative of the economic policies of French President Hollande (57%).
But anti-Merkel sentiment is strongest in Greece, where just 10% approve of her handling of economic problems. Hollande (30%), Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (22%) and Cameron (17%) are all held in higher regard.


Demanding action: Borough President Adams, left, Councilman Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island), center, and Councilman Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park) warn residents about fraudulent engineering evaluations that were used to deny insurance claims at a press conference in Gerritsen Beach on March 1.
Revelations that systemic fraud cheated thousands of Hurricane Sandy victims out of insurance claims unleashed a storm of anger and calls for justice in hard-hit Southern Brooklyn.
Federal officials admitted over the weekend that engineering reports showing flood damage were altered so that insurance companies could deny claims, and said the government is working to settle hundreds of resulting lawsuits.
One Gerritsen Beach couple whose claim was denied based on an altered report was fortunate enough to have gotten evidence of the original determination, according to the couple’s lawyer.
“He was smart enough to take a picture with his iPhone,” said Benjamin Pinczewski, who represents Vincent and Terri Ann Carrozza — whose flood insurance company claimed the damage to their home after the superstorm wasn’t from the flooding but was “preexisting” structural damage.
Pinczewski said the engineer hired to survey the damage by the couple’s insurance company, Travelers, initially determined that the damage was from flooding, but the report was later changed, and the company denied the Carrozza’s claim.
“[The engineer] said it was flood damage — he wrote a report, and then Vincent was told that the report didn’t say that,” he said.
A spokesman for Travelers declined to comment of their claim for privacy reasons.
On the March 1 edition of “60 Minutes,” a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said that insurance companies used fraudulent reports to deny thousands of Sandy victims’ claims.
Brad Kieserman, the agency’s deputy associate administrator for insurance, said he has seen engineering reports that were altered so that — as in the Carrozzas’ case — reports that originally said homes were damaged from flooding were changed to say the destruction wasn’t related to water damage, so that victims didn’t receive full payouts from their insurance companies.
The head of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the relief agency, said he has asked the department’s inspector general to investigate the extent of the fraud and recommend ways to correct it.
The relief agency is currently working to settle 1,200 lawsuits from residents who say they were victims of the fraud. But senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand want the settlement should apply to all residents whose engineering reports were altered — whether they filed a lawsuit or not.
The senators said the agency’s settlement should extend to all residents whose claims were denied because of altered engineering reports from HiRise Engineering, P.C. — which handled the Carrozza’s claim — U.S. Forensic, Llc, and any other firms that were implicated in the alleged fraud.
Borough President Adams and councilmen Alan Maisel (D–Marine Park) and Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island) joined the Carrozzas for a press conference at their home on Keen Court on March 1, urging Sandy victims whose insurance claims were denied to resubmit them — and pushing State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to appoint a special monitor to ensure the claims are treated fairly.
Maisel said the oversight is overdue, and could have prevented the fraud in the first place.


After our son grew up and moved away, my husband and I celebrated Easter quietly the next several years. There were no children to surprise with Easter baskets, no little ones to engage in an egg hunt. Often, there were only two of us at the table.
That all changed when our son married and started a family of his own. Last year, he invited us to Boston, a short drive from our small New England town, to celebrate Easter with his wife and their new baby girl.
Yours truly, who takes grandparenting seriously, devoted a morning to assembling an Easter basket and combed countless toy stores in search of a fuzzy bunny for our granddaughter. When I offered to help prepare Easter lunch, though, our son, a talented amateur cook, insisted that he plan the meal.
This year, I suggested that our Boston crew drive to our house for Easter. I’m planning an easy menu for this day when so many attend church services before gathering at the table. Salmon and asparagus, two harbingers of spring, are to be the centerpiece and will be conveniently roasted together, although on two separate baking sheets.
The asparagus will need 6 to 8 minutes in the oven to become tender and lightly charred, while the salmon will require a few minutes more. The coral-hued fillets and the tender, sleek spears will be accompanied by a cucumber-and-watercress salad and a gratin of redskin potatoes.
A beurre blanc (French for white butter) sauce will make an indulgent garnish to use sparingly on the fillets. To make it, chopped shallots are simmered in white wine until the liquid has evaporated, then butter is whisked in, a little at a time, until the sauce becomes creamy and opaque.
The sauce can be made an hour in advance and kept warm in a skillet of warm water.
To make the sauce, halve the stick of butter lengthwise, then slice each half into -inch pieces. Set butter aside. Place shallot and wine in a medium, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Cook, watching carefully, until almost all the liquid has evaporated, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Arrange two oven racks, one at lower and the other at center position.
Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil, and oil each generously with olive oil. Place fillets, skin-side down, on one sheet, and season generously with salt and pepper. Drizzle teaspoon vinegar over each fillet. Spread asparagus in a single layer in the other baking sheet, and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, then toss to make sure the spears are coated with oil. Sprinkle asparagus with 1 teaspoons salt.
Roast in preheated 450-degree oven, with the asparagus pan on the center rack and salmon pan on the lower rack. Roast asparagus until tender when pierced with a knife and slightly charred, 6 to 8 minutes. Watch carefully.
Remove and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Roast salmon until flesh is opaque and flakes easily when pierced with a knife, 10 to 12 minutes. Watch carefully. Remove and cover with foil.
Stir fresh dill into the warm beurre blanc sauce. Arrange a salmon fillet and a bundle of asparagus spears as a garnish on each of 6 dinner plates. Drizzle a heaping tablespoon of sauce over each fillet; garnish with a dill sprig. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.
Note: To check fillets for bones, run your fingers over the surface of the salmon, and remove any protruding bones with a pair of tweezers.


WAABA exists to connect, engage and energize William & Mary Washington DC area alumni in support of each other, our alma mater and our students.
Free parking will be available. Cocktails and hors d?oeuvres are offered with our compliments.


Leather Lobby Keychain, $13.60 with code EXTRA20 (was $24.50) I was going to make fun of this by saying something like “even your keys can dress funny” but now I kind of want it.
Izola Maritime Soap Set, $11.25 with code SHOPTOIT (was$18) The description for this item claims it is “handcrafted in the style of 18th-century toiletries” which sounds... sketchy. Weren’t they still battling the bubonic plague in the 1700s? Where my historians at?
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics “In Your Face” Set, $23 (was $47.50/$67 value) From the reviews: “I’m glad I just finally went with my gut because some of the reviews here about this set were so negative and let me just say FLAT OUT WRONG bc this has been one of my favorite purchases of the year.” Whoa.
Crystal Mosaic Pumps, $180 (were $325) Been eyeing these stupid things for months now. Should we just make our own? Wanna have a bedazzling contest?
Canvas 5-Shelf Organizer, $12.99 (was $19) I’m only showing you this as an excuse to tell you a tiny story: Last weekend I was at HomeGoods and this, I’d guess, 13-year-old found one of these and was BLOWN AWAY. She kept hollering, “Mom! MOM! LOOK! Look! Look what it does!,” as she crumpled it up and then hung it again. Really makes you think.
Woven Stretch Belt, $19.99 (was $59) Do you also feel like this belt constantly eludes you? While you’re over there at Chico’s, buy me these. Thanks, pal.
PB Teen Bed of Roses Duvet Cover, $89-129 Okay, this is not on sale and it is for children and the decorative pillows are hideous, but WANT.


Manifest is looking to hire an Editor in our Washington, D.C. Studio, for one of our largest and fastest growing accounts. In this role, you’ll write and edit B2B technology content for the education sector, collaborating with a smart and dedicated team at Manifest for one of the largest technology solutions and services providers in the country. You’ll also work with the clients as projects require and will pitch your stories directly to them.
Develop and publish engaging and compelling content for a multi-channel program.
In keeping with client brand parameters, support editorial calendar development, content creation and content editing on a variety of content projects.
Participate in cross-team brainstorming sessions.
Collaborate with analytics, audience engagement and performance marketing to support content strategy with data-driven creative ideas.
Assign stories to and work closely with freelance writers as needed.
Attend and cover industry events as needed.
6+ years of experience as a journalist and/or editor.
Sharp writing and editing skills and ability to craft compelling narrative.
Experience with content management systems, HTML and CSS.
Meticulous attention to detail and deadlines.
Experience writing/editing about technology and/or education a plus.
On-camera video experience a plus.
Experience working with customers or clients a plus.


The 2013 Miss Emancipation pageant is billed for Sunday, August 11 at the National Cultural Centre at 8 pm.
Formerly the Miss Guyana African Queen pageant, it has been re-launched under a new name and seeks to promote the education and empowerment of African women, according to its director Shabakie Fernandes. The pageant seeks to place and even greater emphasis on promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), particularly to girls in the African nation of Mali, where education for them is not free, Fernandes said.
“The Miss Emancipation Pageant through the Guyanese Girls Unite Project will give these girls the much needed facilities to explore their senses and skills and most importantly get an education that let them know not even the sky is the limit,” Fernandes said.
The show will feature various segments such as the evening wear, business wear and talent pieces. This year in keeping with the United Nations Day of the Woman, contestants will be required to choose a strong woman of African descent to speak on as their platform.
The winner will go home with $100,000 along with a hamper. Second, third and fourth place contestants will each win $75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 along with hampers.
Alexis Connelly and Dr Melissa Varswyk have joined Shabakie Fenrandes in organising this year’s events.
Last year, the winner was Jillicia Pinder.
Jennel is 18 years old and her philosophy is: ‘There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.’ She aims to become a doctor.
Born a Virgo 18 years ago, Shanice is now a second-year student pursuing Marketing studies at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus.
Born on September 23, 1992, Shevona is now a student at Nations University, pursuing Business Management studies.
April born and 18 years old, Sunaika is a student pursuing a degree in International Relations at the University of Guyana.
Miracle is currently studying Communications and is now entering into her final year of studies. She was born on May 11, 1992.
Joelly is 19 and currently in her second year, studying Communications at UG’s Turkeyen Campus.
Makida was born on August 4, 1990 and she is striving to become a medical doctor.
Tickets are now available at the National Cultural Centre, Nigel’s Supermarket, Ashmins, Upscale Restaurant and Joan’s Salon on Durban Street.


P.E.I. has announced it will create a child advocate position, becoming the last province in Canada to do so.
P.E.I. has announced it will create a child advocate position.
The announcement was made Friday by Premier Wade MacLauchlan in Charlottetown.
Michele Dorsey was named the children's commissioner and advocate, effective Jan. 1, 2019. She'll work through a new government entity, the Office for Children and Youth.
"The new children's commissioner and advocate and the Office for Children and Youth is a significant cross-governmental undertaking to build a bright, healthy, prosperous future for young Islanders," said MacLauchlan in a written release.
The Office for Children and Youth will be responsible for championing the rights of children, ensuring the voice of children and youth are represented in policy and programs, supporting families navigating programs and services and more, the release said.
"A focused government-community approach to children's healthy development will support healthier and safer environments for Island families," said Family and Human Services Minister Tina Mundy.
The initial recommendation for P.E.I. to have a child advocate came from the jury at the inquest looking into the murder-suicide of four-year-old Nash Campbell and his mother Patricia Hennessey.
Premier Wade MacLauchlan made the announcement at Chances Family Centre in Charlottetown.
The two died in a vehicle fire near Tignish on June 21, 2013. Hennessey lost custody of her son the day before.
In his report stemming from that inquest, P.E.I.'s chief coroner of the day Dr. Desmond Colohan recommended the province "assess the need for such a position and consider the best way to meet the intent" of the jury's recommendation for a child advocate.
Government's initial position, defended time and again in the face of repeated criticism from opposition parties, was that the province could protect children without creating the position.
The province unveiled a new "hub model" to get various government agencies to work more closely and share information to better protect children at risk. It also created a position for a lawyer to represent children involved in contentious custody disputes.
In April 2016 Liberal MLAs voted down a motion introduced by the PCs to create a child advocate.
"We've got the official guardian, the family law centre, we're considering the establishment of a children's lawyer, we have a hub model of four departments, the chief health officer is in place," Premier Wade MacLauchlan said at the time. "What is in place is in the fullest sense delivering the service that would be provided by a child advocate."
A year later, after his government tabled its first balanced budget, the premier said he might be willing to reconsider.
The P.E.I. government created a position for a child and youth services commissioner in 2010 but the position was quietly eliminated in 2015. At the time government said the position was dropped "as part of an effort to move as many resources as possible to the front line."
Friday, Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker called Dorsey's appointment "hugely disappointing, especially with respect to the authority and independence of the position, and the hiring process used to fill it," he said in a written release.
The position is not actually a child advocate as the term is understood in other jurisdictions, he argued in the release.
"Island children deserve an independent non-partisan advocate — an advocate whose authority is set out in legislation, who is hired through an open merit-based process, and who can act independently of government interference," Bevan-Baker said. "That is not what the premier is providing."


All, right. Well, listen, thank you, Dr. Ronis – appreciate it. Good evening, everyone. What a terrific video about our honorees, and I'm honored to be here to, in turn, honor them.
It’s good to be with all of you, a lot of colleagues past and present, servicemembers, friends. General Selva, Paul, are you out there? Paul, Ricky, nice to be with you, as always. Thanks for holding down the fort while I was away. I’m also glad Norm Augustine is here with his wife Meg. Norm, good to see you and Meg, always, always…and also to learn that the men and women of the defense industry of the United States are also being honored this evening – more about that later. Norm and I have known each other for decades – decades now, Norm. And I remain, for one here, a devoted reader of Augustine’s Laws.
Norm and I attended the so-called “Last Supper” in 1993 when the Pentagon and industry set the course for our relationship in the post-Cold War period. I’ve said it many times before, but for decades the Department and the defense industry have worked together on the national security team. I always tell people we don’t make anything at the Pentagon. The Soviet Union tried that, and it didn’t work out very well for them. We have a different system, and the companies and the men and women of the defense industry are part of our strength, so I’m glad to see them honoring that fact tonight, and you, Norm and Meg, good to see you.
And I also want to thank Dr. Ronis, Larry Rzepka – wherever Larry went, and all the representatives from our National Defense University and the NDU Foundation here tonight – for all you do to educate and support those who serve. And thank you, as well, for honoring them with this recognition. I’m, in turn, honored to accept the NDU Foundation American Patriot Award today on behalf of them – the men and women of the Department of Defense…soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, civilians, and contractors.
Together – together, they make up the finest fighting force the world has ever known, one we should all take pride in and be thankful for. All of them – each and every one – are doing one of the noblest things a person can do, which is to help defend our country and to make a better world for our children.
To do so, they’re confronting – right here, right now as we speak here this evening – five major, unique, and evolving challenges.
They’re countering, first, the prospect of Russian aggression and coercion, particularly in Europe, where I was just this morning, for a meeting with our NATO Allies in Brussels.
They’re managing historic change in the Asia-Pacific – the single most consequential region for America’s future. They’re strengthening our deterrent and defense forces in the face of North Korea’s continued nuclear and missile provocations. They’re checking Iranian aggression and malign influence in the Gulf, and helping defend our friends and allies in the Middle East. And they’re accelerating the certain defeat of ISIL…in its parent tumor in Iraq and Syria; as well as in Afghanistan, Libya, and everywhere else the ISIL cancer metastasizes around the world; and by helping to protect our homeland and our people here.
Indeed, I was in Iraq earlier this week, visiting with our troops in Baghdad and Erbil, which isn’t far from Mosul, where American personnel are advising and enabling our Iraqi partners in the fight against ISIL. I saw firsthand how they’re continuing to perform with excellence at this milestone in our campaign. And I was encouraged by how our coalition military campaign plan, particularly the Iraqi-led assault on Mosul, is proceeding according to the plan – the plan we laid out a year ago. And make no mistake: Raqqa is next.
Now, the Defense Department doesn’t have the luxury of choosing among these five challenges – we have to do it all. And, of course, we must be flexible and agile, because, no matter how excellent NDU studies are, when you look at history, you see that we have an almost unblemished record of failure when it comes to predicting the strategic future. So we’re preparing to contend, in addition, with an uncertain future – ensuring that our personnel and the Defense Department continue to be ready for challenges we may not anticipate today.
To meet those five challenges and in the face of that unknown future, DoD is taking steps to remain the most powerful military on earth. To ensure we do so, to ensure we take care of our people, to ensure we have the right plans and strategies in place, and to ensure we’re prepared for whatever comes our way, I’ve been working every day to meet the three commitments I made when I was sworn in…two years ago now, I guess, and which every Secretary of Defense I’ve ever known – and I’ve worked for 11 of them, with 11 of them – make.
And the first, as Secretary of Defense, my first commitment is to our honorees tonight – to our personnel, our men and women, uniform and civilian – to their excellence, to their welfare, to making sure they’re treated with dignity and respect, and above all, making certain that when they’re sent into harm’s way, it’s done with the utmost care and purpose.
I’m doing everything I can to support the strength and readiness of today’s fighting force, so they can confront those five challenges – investing in the right training, the right equipment, the right force size, and the right compensation.
What that means is, we’re training our force to be ready for full-spectrum combat. We’re providing them the equipment and maintenance support needed to get the job done and come home safely. We’re ensuring the right mix of active, guard, and reserve across the force. And we’re providing the compensation and benefits that our troops, military families, and DoD civilians deserve.
But our support for today’s force also involves more than that, it also includes our commitment to help care for our military’s wounded, ill, and injured and support our military families, because they serve too.
It includes our enduring pledge to support the families of the fallen, whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our country. It also includes our pledge to support our servicemembers when they move on to whatever’s next for them so they can succeed in every way possible. And it also means that when our servicemembers are not being treated fairly, and with respect, we act quickly to fix it, as we’ve done with the California National Guard bonus issue this week.
Of course, our commitment to today’s force also includes what we’re doing to ensure the dignity of our people, which is why we’ve been prioritizing the prevention and elimination of sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military.
And it also means we have to be open up to all Americans who can meet the high standards of our force, because our strength as an all-volunteer force depends on drawing the best from the widest possible pool of talent that can meet our standards. That’s why we opened up all remaining combat roles to women, and we’re welcoming transgender Americans to serve openly.
Of course, America’s military deserves only the finest leaders. And that’s why the best decisions I’ve made as Secretary of Defense have been my recommendations to the President on nominations for the leadership of the force. That includes the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford, Vice Chairman Paul Selva, who’s here tonight as I mentioned, and the rest of the Joint Chiefs, and by now, eight out of our nine combatant commanders – proudest decisions.
Understanding the strength of our force and our capabilities helps me honor my second commitment, which is to the President of the United States and our Commander-in-Chief – to offer President Obama my best strategic counsel, to ensure that he receives candid military advice, and to execute his decisions with DoD’s expected and accustomed excellence.
We’ve done so on each of the five challenges we face. In Europe, we’ve developed – and we’re implementing – a strong and balanced strategy to deter Russian aggression against our NATO allies in Europe. In the Asia-Pacific, we’ve crafted the latest phase of our rebalance to that region, and now we’re operationalizing it and catalyzing the region’s burgeoning principled and inclusive security network. In the face of North Korea’s continued aggression, we’ve modernized our alliances with Japan and South Korea, deployed new capabilities to defend our allies, our forces, and our homeland, and reaffirmed that our extended deterrence commitments are unbreakable.
In the Middle East, as the United States continues to monitor Iran’s adherence to the nuclear accord, we’re taking our defense relationships with Israel and our Gulf partners to new levels. And on ISIL, one year ago, President Obama approved the first in a series of recommendations by me and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, to begin gathering momentum in the fight against ISIL.
We’ve achieved significant results to date – helping our local partners in Iraq and Syria to recapture Ramadi, Hit, Fallujah, Qayyarah, Shaddadi, Manbij, Dabiq, and more, and now…now execute our plans for Mosul and Raqqa. And I’m confident our campaign plan, our global coalition, and the local partners we’ve developed and enabled will help deliver ISIL the lasting defeat it deserves and will surely get.
Meanwhile – even as we’ve been executing all those missions – we’ve also been laying the groundwork and charting a path for a more agile, innovative, and efficient military and Defense Department to serve and protect our nation in the years to come. And that’s because my third commitment – after our people and our Commander-in-Chief – is to the future…to keeping our military edge as sharp as possible in a changing and fiercely competitive world.
And to stay ahead of our competitors and challenges – to stay the best – I’ve been pushing the Pentagon to think outside of our five-sided box…to invest aggressively in innovation of all kinds: in our technology, in our operations, in our people and all-volunteer force, and in our organization.
That’s why we’re making increased investments in science and technology, and building new bridges to the amazing American innovative system – to stay ahead of future threats. It’s why we’re also innovating operationally, making our contingency plans and operations more flexible and more dynamic in every region.
It’s why we’re building what I’ve called the Force of the Future – because as good as our technology is, it’s nothing compared to our people, and in the future we need to continue to recruit, develop, and retain the very best talent from future generations. And because we owe it to America’s taxpayers to spend our defense dollars as wisely and responsibly as possible, we’re also pushing for needed reforms across the DoD enterprise – from continuously improving acquisitions, to further reducing overhead, and to proposing new changes to the Goldwater-Nichols Act that defines much of our institutional organization.
Because we’re doing all this – because we’re meeting these three commitments – and because of our nation’s enduring strengths – like, our growing, innovative economy, our world-class universities – places of instruction like NDU, our dedication and service to values and principles, our unrivaled network of allies and partners, and of course, our unmatched, battle-tested, innovative, and awesomely capable military, because of all that, I’m sure that the future for our country is bright and full of opportunities for our nation to seize.
And I am confident that the United States will maintain our unrivaled military strength for decades and remain the world’s foremost leader, partner, and provider of security in every region across the globe.
But I never forget – and we can never forget – who makes it all happen. And you know the answer…because you chose to honor them tonight…it’s our people. And we have a few of them here with us. And let’s give them a round of applause, and would they stand? Paul, you’re going to need to lead the way here.
Each of you, and each of your fellow servicemembers and DoD civilians, make me incredibly proud – make this country proud. You’re some of the nearly 3 million men and women serving across this country and around the clock, in every time zone on earth, and in every domain…in the air, ashore, afloat, and in cyberspace – all in service to this great nation.
All of you are defending not only the United States and its people; you’re also defending the values and principles that define us – and which, by the way, so much of humanity also desires – while you provide the security that will enable our children to live a better future.
Because you do so, we can sit here and enjoy this dinner in peace. We can go to work tomorrow or study at schools like NDU. Americans can live our lives, they can dream our dreams, and enjoy the freedoms upon which this country was built, and for which so many generations of Americans have fought.
You make all that possible. And at a time when not as many serve, I want you to know that we don’t take you for granted. Stephanie and I wake up to you every morning…wake up for you every morning, thinking of you. I know that our mission is demanding and constantly changing, but I couldn’t be prouder of you for what you do every day – and for all you’ve done for us.
Your excellence is unparalleled. Your service is valued. And your sacrifices will never be forgotten.
May God bless you, and all men and women of the finest fighting force the world has ever known – and may God bless the United States of America.


A Jewish truck that was attacked by Arab irregulars on the main road to Jerusalem, 1948. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – Four decades after they vanished without a trace in the battles of Israel’s War of Independence, Maj. (res.) Sharon Maayan, a researcher in the IDF’s Missing Soldier Unit, helped find the remains of modern Israel’s first soldiers.
The 62-year-old father of three from Moshav Tzafririm in central Israel, told JNS about his extraordinary 29 years of service in the IDF, where he used new methods and recreated old battles to track down the remains of missing soldiers.
Last week, Israel marked the annual Memorial Day for the 173 soldiers whose burial place is unknown.
Maayan began his service as an Air Force cadet before continuing on to the Golani infantry brigade and 12 years of reserve service. He took part in the 1982 Lebanon War as a member of the reconnaissance company in the Armored Corps.
“After 12 years, I decided I wanted a change. This is part of my personality, to try new things,” he said. As he decided on what to do next, he heard from friends serving in the Air Force’s missing personnel unit, which was set up in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Inspired by that unit’s work, Maayan joined the IDF Southern Command’s Missing Soldiers Unit in 1990, becoming one of its founding members. He got to work figuring out how to investigate the fate of soldiers who appeared to have vanished without a trace.
In these kinds of investigations, researchers must work day and night under difficult circumstances, he said.
“A missing soldier is someone who we do not know what happened to,” explained Maayan. Israel has five such soldiers — three of whom went missing in action during the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon; the missing airman Ron Arad; and Guy Hever, who was last seen on his army base in the Golan Heights in 1997.
Soldiers whose place of burial is unknown, by contrast, are known to have been killed in combat, but their final resting spot has yet to be traced by the authorities.
In 1995, Maayan began the mammoth detective work of finding the burial places of soldiers killed in the battles waged between the newly formed IDF and Arab forces in Latrun in 1948.
He ended up sketching out a map of an area that stretched out over 100 square kilometers, and turned it into a valuable tool that mapped out every single battle, clash, and casualty from that time. The battles of Latrun raged from May to July in 1948, in which Israeli forces sought to take the area from the Arab Legion.
After poring over all previous works on those battles, intelligence sources, military history books, and media reports, Maayan was able to cross-reference the data and begin “to reach conclusions,” he said.
He interviewed veterans of those battles, including some who suffered from post-traumatic stress; it wasn’t easy to get them to describe the key relevant sequence of events that Maayan needed to help him in his mission.
But slowly, he began putting together the pieces of the puzzle “one detail after another,” he said. Over a process of years, he located 12 out of the 13 burial spots of fallen IDF casualties that he had been assigned to find.
“We are talking about the importance of bringing every casualty — and every Jew [who fell in Israel’s wars] to proper burial in Israel,” Maayan said, describing what motivated him.
An essential aspect of this work involved being in the field, he stressed. “I am very tied to the ground. I went out on the routes that the soldiers traveled on. If I had testimony that described the roofs of a nearby village, I went to the same location. It was Sisyphean work,” he recalled.
He received a big boost from information in the IDF archives, which today are organized by topics. This was not always the case.
One of the soldiers whose remains Maayan found was Aharon Sasson, who was born in Damascus and went MIA on June 9, 1948 during a battle at Latrun.
Prior to being drafted to the IDF’s Brigade 7, Sasson sold weapons. After he vanished in battles, his family was concerned by rumors that security forces had killed him due to false accusations of treachery.
“This was a very difficult stain,” said Maayan.
Maayan retraced what really happened: Sasson took part in an operation called “Bin Nun,” which turned out to be a failed effort to take the Arab police fortress in Latrun. He sustained an injury during the battle, but that did not stop Sasson from returning to the front-line and joining a new unit whose mission was to guard the Burma Road, built by the IDF to bypass Arab armies that had besieged Jerusalem.
During that mission, Sasson’s unit engaged in an intense battle with an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood unit that reached central Israel. Sasson was mortally wounded, apparently crawling along the road before succumbing to his wounds.
After Maayan completed his investigation, Sasson’s family was able to reach closure. “Every name is a whole world. Every casualty is someone who left behind a family,” he stressed.
The IDF’s Missing Soldiers Unit is also active when it comes to more recent wars, such as the 2014 conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
“This is a painful and open case,” Maayan said, adding that he could not go into details at this time. “I dealt with taking testimony from the survivors of the attack on the Golani brigade armored personnel carrier,” he said, referring to the incident that killed seven soldiers and resulted in the seizing of the body of Oron Shaul by Hamas.
Maayan, who continues to volunteer for the service (he has since retired), said that he is passing on his experience to others.
“We know how to work by the book. But our big advantage lies in our personal abilities, and how we work with one another. I go with my intuition, and the field speaks to me. I know how to look and listen. Other members of the unit are lawyers by training, which enables them to take on complex writing and engage in dialogue that is borderline legal. There are archaeologists who know how to dig, and Nature Authority employees who can read the field and the map,” he stated.
Ultimately, he said, what helped him solve so many cases was looking for solutions outside the box, and trying new, unusual ways to find answers.
Yaakov Lappin is a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He specializes in Israel’s defense establishment, military affairs, and the Middle Eastern strategic environment.


J. David McSwane, the student editor of The Rocky Mountain Collegian, was looking forward to a quiet spring semester at the Colorado State University after drawing global attention last fall for a four-word editorial criticizing President Bush.
What he got instead was another storm.
On the first day of classes in January, Mr. McSwane learned that the university president was meeting with representatives from the local daily, The Fort Collins Coloradoan, which is owned by Gannett, to discuss a potential “partnership” with the student newspaper.
The Collegian, now worried about its future as an independent student newspaper, is planning to fight any possible takeover by a media company. And Gannett and The Coloradoan have become targets for harsh criticism from college newsrooms and journalism departments across the country, who portray Gannett as a “dark lord” that wants to rein in student press freedom.
“If The Coloradoan were to take over The Collegian, only Gannett would win,” The Daily Nebraskan, the campus newspaper at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in an editorial.
Gannett dismissed any suggestion that it planned to conquer student journalism.
Gannett owns two student newspapers in Florida, however — The Tallahassee Democrat owns The FSView & Florida Flambeau at Florida State and Florida Today owns The Central Florida Future at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Both are for-profit newspapers, although the vast majority of student newspapers, including The Collegian, are nonprofit.
Media companies find college newspapers attractive properties for several reasons: operating costs are low because student labor is inexpensive, sometimes even free. Advertising is on the rise. And perhaps most important, the newspapers are read — frequently — by a young audience with relatively deep pockets.
In 2006, MTV acquired Y2M: Youth Media and Marketing Networks, whose subsidiary, College Publisher, is host of Web sites for 450 campus newspapers.
According to Alloy Media and Marketing, which places advertisements in college publications, advertisers spent $30 million on ads in college papers in 2006. Alloy also estimated that advertising in college newspapers increased 15 percent in 2007, from 2006.
And as John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst in Silver Spring, Md., noted, college newspapers have a captive audience. A 2006 survey conducted by College Publisher found that 44 percent of undergraduate students read their campus newspaper twice or more a week — compared with 28 percent who read the local newspaper that often — and 77 percent read it at least once a month.
That independence from the bottom line is what keeps student journalism fresh and irreverent, or so holds the common wisdom in college newsrooms, and journalism professors tend to agree. “If there is free press, it’s probably on the college campuses,” said Donna Rouner, a journalism professor at Colorado State who wrote an op-ed for The Collegian criticizing any deal.
No proposal has yet been submitted, but an advisory committee composed of students, including a representative from The Collegian, and Colorado State faculty members held its first meeting Thursday to decide whether a deal with Gannett or any other media company was worth pursuing.
Blanche Hughes, the vice president for student affairs, who sits on the committee, said its goal was to gauge how the proposal would work for students as well as the university. She said the committee would look for job and education opportunities for students and assurances from any company that made a bid for The Collegian that the quality of the newspaper would be maintained.
Mr. Morton said he doubted that Gannett’s ownership would change a student newspaper. “I’m sure Gannett has absolutely no interest in having anything to do with the editorial product,” he said.
But buying student newspapers, Mr. Morton said, made financial sense. “It’s a way of enlarging your footprint,” he said.
Mr. Schwartz, the general manager of The Daily Tar Heel, said he thought Gannett was going after young readers. But he said campus newspapers, with their easy availability and focus on community-based journalism, helped to instill the newspaper habit in students.
“Let us make them newspaper readers for you,” he said.


HARARE, Jan 7 Zimbabwe's largest brewer Delta Corporation hiked beer prices by 25 percent on Monday citing high local costs, announcing the move days after it was forced to abandon another plan to accept only hard currency payments for its products.
JOHANNESBURG/HARARE, Jan 3 A plan by Zimbabwe's largest brewer to only accept hard currency amid a severe dollar shortage was thrown into doubt on Thursday after a minister said the government would not allow it to go ahead.
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 2 Zimbabwe's largest brewing company Delta Corporation said on Wednesday that its beverages subsidiary will accept hard currency only from Jan. 4 to protect itself from a crippling shortage of U.S. dollars in the country.


At an idyllic, quiet, tranquil patch of fen and prairie in Oakland County's Springfield Township, a tragedy is unfolding.
It's there that Michigan's most endangered species, the Poweshiek skipperling butterfly, flutters away what may be its last days on Earth.
The brownish-orange, thumbnail-sized butterfly, with a wingspan of only an inch or so, once was fairly common on the North American plains. Now, it's precariously close to extinction: Fewer than 200 are known to remain — in one tiny pocket of the Canadian province of Manitoba, in a solitary area of Wisconsin and the largest remaining number, fewer than 70, in Oakland County, particularly at the Shiawassee Basin Preserve in Springfield Township.
Not long ago, "it was probably the most frequently encountered prairie skipper, a type of butterfly," said Tam Smith, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Minnesota-Wisconsin field office.
"When folks went out doing surveys for butterflies in the Midwest, they would see the Poweshiek skipperling everywhere," she said. "They paid little attention to it because it was so common."
But starting in the early 2000s, surveyors began to notice an abrupt and rapid decline in Poweshiek populations, Smith said.
"We don't really know for sure what happened," she said.
Leading ideas include the loss of the butterfly's very particular habitat — pristine, never-tilled prairie grasses — to agricultural development. Unlike Monarch butterflies, which migrate across North America to Mexico each winter, Poweshieks are homebodies, sticking to their particular habitat — meaning when it's spoiled, they are in trouble.
Other possible stresses include climate changes such as hotter summers and rainier springs, or the introduction of new pesticides or pathogens, Smith said.
Listed as an endangered species in October 2014, federal, state and other researchers are working to learn not only what happened, but what can be done now. The Fish and Wildlife Service collaborates with partners at the Minnesota Zoo in the Twin Cities suburb of Apple Valley to breed Poweshieks in captivity, and reintroduce them to Oakland County and other locations where they still exist. For the first time this summer, two Powesheiks bred in captivity were released in Oakland County.
"That's really exciting for us," Smith said. "We overcame a lot of obstacles to get to where we're at right now."
Other projects, focused on preserving and improving existing habitat, and attempting to restore lost habitat, are also ongoing, Smith said.
The Poweshiek skipperling has a one-year life cycle, and is in flight only for one month, from mid-June to mid-July, when it breeds and the female lays her eggs, and both the male and female die. A green caterpillar hatches over the summer, growing to only about the width of a penny. It stays in caterpillar form over the winter, when it enters a hibernation-like state.
"Many other prairie skippers will create little shelters out of grasses, down in the dust layer," to get through winter, Smith said. "The Poweshiek doesn't really do that. It spends its winter on top of the grass, exposed to the cold, frost and snow. It has a kind of anti-freeze in its body so it can survive over the winter."
In the spring, the caterpillar awakens, goes into pupa form and emerges as a flying butterfly.
"Flight season is very short — only a couple of weeks," Smith said. "It's a very crammed field season" for scientists "where we're trying to get a lot done."
The researchers head to areas where they know the Powesheiks are mating. "We try to take a proportion of the females that we observe in the field, to take their eggs that they lay during the flight period," she said. "We collect an adult female, take her back in a small, plastic cup with some nectar sources in it that are kept fresh, some grasses."
The female stays in the cup for two or three days, until she lays her eggs. "Then we release her back into the field where she was collected initially," Smith said.
The eggs are then taken back to the Minnesota Zoo, where they hatch within about two weeks. The small caterpillars are then raised in the lab through the summer, fall and winter.
"It was kind of a learning curve for us to learn how to do this," Smith said. "It was the first time it's ever been done.
"Hopefully, their survivorship at a zoo will be greater than we're typically seeing out in the field."
Researchers follow temperature and humidity gauges in Oakland County and "report that data pretty much in real time back to the zoo, so they can mimic what's happening in the field and keep conditions as natural as possible," Smith said.
Springfield Township Supervisor Collin Walls didn't start out a butterfly advocate.
"The more you learn about it, like anything else in nature, or in life, it's part of our heritage — it's part of our ecosystem. It's worth trying to preserve."
The township hired a natural resources manager, Michael Losey, to more carefully focus on the butterfly and the township's other natural attractions. Losey met in the township this spring with personnel from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, as well as counterparts from other U.S. states and Manitoba, to discuss best practices and future courses to help save the Poweshieks.
While the township encourages visitors to the Shiawassee Basin Preserve, it's circumspect about where, specifically, the small pocket of remaining Poweshiek skipperlings are located.
"We had an issue last year — a photographer aware of where they were occurring and being a little too pushy of getting into the habitat while they were mating and laying their eggs," Losey said.
"People who are interested in seeing butterflies in their habitat and interested in butterfly conservation are always welcome to come visit our preserve. But with the Poweshieks, since they are federally endangered, if you're following them to take pictures, and you're trampling their habitat, that could be a negative impact on the species."
Though Oakland County is the Poweshieks' remaining stronghold, that's a relative term. A few years back, as many as 300 of the butterflies could be found locally, Losey said. Now the count is less than 70.
"That's why we're really sensitive about having folks in the habitat where they remain — loving them to death," he said.
Many scientists believe the planet is experiencing its sixth mass extinction in the past half-billion years, the first since the dinosaurs were lost 65 million years ago. Human activities are believed behind the increased pace of extinctions.
Those working to save the Poweshiek skipperling acknowledge that it's on the knife's edge of joining the millions of species lost to the ages.
"Given that worldwide we're looking at an extinction crisis, it's possible we're looking at the same thing in Oakland County in 2018," Losey said. "But it goes to show how much we're still learning about the natural world, how our impacts are maybe contributing to their declines."
Why should people care? Walls said Springfield Township residents consider protecting and enhancing the natural habitat around them as a "major goal" for the enjoyment it brings, the recreational opportunities, and for property values.
The Poweshieks may be a harbinger, Smith said.
"While we are witnessing the decline of this species, we're also seeing the decline of other prairie butterflies, bumblebees. And maybe for similar reasons," she said.
The continued loss of natural pollinators could have major, negative impacts on the agricultural industry worldwide, studies have shown.
"They're kind of a canary in the coal mine. Something happened to cause this dramatic decline in the early 2000s. It's an indicator that something is wrong that we need to pay attention to."
While U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Springfield Township officials are leery of giving precise information about where the endangered Poweshiek skipperling makes its home in the Shiawassee Basin Preserve, for fear of any egg, caterpillar or habitat destruction, township natural resources manager Michael Losey encourages visitors to the 515-acre preserve, where there's plenty of butterflies and other habitat to see and enjoy.
Two trailheads along Eaton Road allow access to the preserve's trail network, at 8757 Eaton Road and 8731 Eaton Road, in Davisburg. Admission is free.
For more information, visit Springfield Township's website at http://www.springfield-twp.us/ and click "Departments" and then "Natural Resources."
The Minnesota Zoo's Prairie Butterfly Conservation Program is working to save the Powesheik skipperling and other prairie butterflies from extinction. The program accepts donations via the zoo's website ; via mail, making checks payable to the Minnesota Zoo Foundation at 13000 Zoo Blvd, Apple Valley, MN 55124, or by email to donations@mnzoo.org.


Our congregation was fortunate to have Dorothy Parker as a return guest speaker on the day Larry Mitchell”s interview with her was published in the religion section.
Dorothy”s heroic nonviolent resistance against the School of the Americas (since renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) is an inspiration to those of us who unequivocally oppose the teaching and training of torture methods. HR 1217 is a bill pending in Congress to suspend operations at the facility and to conduct a full investigation into Defense Department training in Latin America. Despite the renaming of the School of the Americas and claims of reform (in 1996 infamous training manuals were discovered that advocated torture and execution), academic and human rights organizations maintain that any reforms are superficial and do not change patterns of support for human rights abusers who graduated from the school. I personally do not want my tax dollars used to support the commission of atrocities. I encourage all people of good will to hold our government accountable by supporting the proposed legislation, which would suspend operations at the facility pending an investigation.


Maple-marinated feta with dehydrated black olives and sourdough focaccia at Ellē.
The bar-snacks menu at this opulent French restaurant near the White House holds many (relatively) affordable treasures. Perhaps none is more innovative, more delicious—and more evocative of chef Keith Bombaugh’s Alinea training—than these foie-gras-stuffed “tacos” served in a shell of dehydrated bananas. The presentation, over a bed of roasted pistachios, isn’t just for show—it’s two bar snacks for the price of one. 900 16th St., NW.
What’s a creamy smoked-fish spread fit for a Jewish deli doing on chef Tae Strain’s nouveau Korean/American menu? “I always think of bagels and smoked fish—it’s so delicious,” Strain shrugs. The dip is made with double-smoked Carolina trout plus cream cheese, sour cream, crème fraîche, and lemon. Smoked trout roe and pickled red onions elbow through the richness. It’s served with the kitchen’s fabulous bing bread, but we could eat this stuff with a spoon. 1090 I St., NW.
Can’t decide between Maryland’s two great crab soups—sherry-spiked cream or zesty tomato-vegetable? You don’t have to at this Annapolis-area crabhouse, which lets you go halfsies in the same bowl. Both are superb renditions packed with sweet local meat, but here the sum is greater than the parts. 700 Mill Creek Rd., Arnold.
You might think it’s just a plate of ham, but at this glittery Spanish dining room, the deliciousness is in the details. Cinco Jotas ham is made from pigs fed acorns and grass and is aged for 36 months. Carvers who’ve had months of training slice the meat and fan it on candle-warmed “volcano” plates so the fat melts just so. Simple but unforgettable. 791 Wharf St., SW.
This Nepalese destination serves five kinds of momo (dumplings). Our favorite order: the ones filled with yak. Ground up and spiced with coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger, and Nepalese black pepper, the very lean protein is surprisingly tender. While the pan-seared momo could stand on their own, they’re even better with the trio of cilantro-mint, spiced-tomato, and roasted-tomato sauces. 3807 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria.
Assembly is required for this Indian street snack—and that’s part of what makes it so fun. First, fill the crispy wheat shell with potatoes and chickpeas. Next, dress it with diced red onion and tamarind chutney. Then fill the bite-size vessel with cool, spicy mint broth. Pop the whole thing in your mouth—quickly!—for a burst of flavor and crunch. 4078 Jermantown Rd., Fairfax.
This riff on a cheese plate is the sleeper hit at this bakery by day/restaurant by night. The golden slices of focaccia made with sourdough levain prove that Ellē knows its bread. But the toast only supports the real star: maple-marinated Greek feta topped with a quenelle of brown butter that’s emulsified with more maple. Dehydrated oil-cured black olives add the perfect salty crunch. 3221 Mount Pleasant St., NW.
Chef Haidar Karoum got this hummus recipe from his dad, a passionate home cook. When the family entertained, he’d amp up the chickpea dip with buttery almonds, paprika, olive oil, and sautéed beef. Karoum follows the same winning script here but does his father one better by adding a side of snowshoe naan. The trick to the tangy, stretchy Afghan-style flatbread: a dough made with yogurt instead of water. 1331 Fourth St., SE.
Chloe’s hummus with spiced beef and Afghan-style naan.
Szechuan food has long been popular in Washington, which means we’re not lacking for bowls of numbingly peppery dan-dan noodles. Peter Chang sets this version apart with pickled cabbage, chewy house-made noodles, and a wildcard: lily bulb, a slightly bitter root used in Chinese medicine to help with sleep. Ironic, because it makes these noodles practically jump with flavor. 4500 East-West Hwy., Bethesda.
Chef Fabio Trabocchi has been hay-smoking ingredients for more than a decade—it’s a technique he first employed at the long-gone Maestro. For this Venetian-inspired dish, he cooks gargantuan live Alaskan king crabs, then uses the stock for sauce and tosses the meat with gnocchi. Another showstopping touch: The dish is served in the crustacean’s shell. 3050 K St., NW.
If you’re new to Uyghur cuisine—which blends Central Asian and Turkish flavors—laghman noodles are a perfect introduction. At Eerkin’s, the strands are stretched to order and smothered in spiced gravy, stir-fried vegetables and chilies, and morsels of lamb. 4008 University Dr., Fairfax; 2412 Wisconsin Ave., NW.
The trick to Massimo Fabbri’s rendition of this Tuscan staple is to start with whole rabbits. He roasts the bones, then makes a white-wine-fortified stock, amping up the meaty sauce. Wide ribbons of pappardelle are, of course, handmade, and the whole thing is finished with fresh thyme, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. The only effortless step? Polishing it off. 1316 Ninth St., NW.
Laghman noodles with lamb and chilies at Eerkin’s.
Like much of the menu at this Shaw bistro, this brunch staple is a collision of the traditional and the forward-thinking. Chef Cedric Maupillier uses an Alsatian blueprint for the eggy tart, packing it with leeks, onion, nutmeg, and Gruyère. But he bakes the quiche in a thin, footlong rectangle. The result means more buttery crust and more bronzed edges to fork through. “In your country, you have Subway,” Maupillier says. “At Convivial, we have quiche.” 801 O St., NW.
Chef Naresh Advani’s vegetarian southern Indian cafe is known for its house-made breads, but we never miss this brilliant bowl of rice. Pilau grains and split lentils are tempered with a handful of aromatics—mustard seeds, turmeric, whole red chilies, fresh curry leaves—plus a squeeze of lemon juice. Make it a meal with yogurt, pickles, and pappadam. 298 Sunset Park Dr., Herndon.
The best way to taste the brilliance of Tony Conte’s pies is through a simple Margherita. The char-pocked crust puffs up to hold a pristine sauce of Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes plus basil and lush mozzarella. 12207 Darnestown Rd., Darnestown.
Chef Erik Bruner-Yang has always dreamed of having a chicken-yakitori restaurant. In the meantime, this parade of gallinaceous delicacies is his next-best thing. The multi-dish meal might include sausage-stuffed wings, soy-glazed skewers, crackling skin chips, and decadent liver parfait. The best comes last: the most comforting cup of chick-en broth we’ve tasted. 1770 Euclid St., NW.
Convivial’s footlong quiche with leeks, onions, and Gruyère.
It was the last place we expected to mentally transport us somewhere beachy, but this strip-mall dining room came through. Plump shrimp are fried until the batter just about shatters, then are tossed with fried shallots, roasted chilies, and cilantro. Finally, the mess is piled atop tamarind, also known as nature’s sweet-and-sour sauce. 8110-A Arlington Blvd., Falls Church.
Chef Victor Albisu reimagines his favorite street taco, swapping out pork for marinated duck roasted in duck fat, chipotles, and, for a touch of citrusy sweetness, Jarritos pineapple soda. Fork apart the tender bird and fashion DIY tacos with cilantro, shaved onions, pineapple salsa, and warm corn tortillas. 777 I St., NW.
Salmon . . . really? Hear us out. This little-seen cut is meaty and rich with fat, which is deliciously drawn out with a turn on the grill. At this Union Market–area hot spot, chef Marjorie Meek-Bradley is happily surprised that the collar, simply dressed with salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic butter, often outsells the more familiar salmon steak. Wise move, diners. 1250 Fifth St., NE.
It’s rare that we get excited about anything fast-casual—unless we’re at this Filipino counter operation. Chef/owner Javier Fernandez makes porcine magic, wrapping pork tenderloin in pork belly, then roasting it slowly to render the fat and upping the heat until its mahogany skin is so crisp you could use it to slice through paper. You can get it in a sandwich or a bowl, but we like it on its own with a side of rice. 5268-H Nicholson Ln., Rockville.
Fiola Mare’s hay-smoked gnocchi presented in a king-crab shell.
Come to Spike Gjerde’s Line hotel restaurant for dinner and you’ll start to notice little trails of smoke wafting around the room. Those are from servers presenting tableside this still-cooking cut of fish on a smoldering piece of wood. When it makes its way to your plate, the filet is paired with a seasonally changing sauce—say, hot-sauce hollandaise or lobster cream. 1770 Euclid St., NW.
Chefs Chris Morgan and Gerald Addison had talked about putting a turmeric-golden chicken on their menu, but they were still playing with the recipe when Morgan encountered a hole-in-the-wall rotisserie in Marrakesh. He called Addison in DC: “Dude, I found the chicken.” They’ve since managed to replicate the dream dish, down to the bed of flatbread that soaks up all its slow-roasted juices. 1346 Florida Ave., NW.
Forget stiff diner slices. This dessert—which is based on a recipe from the 19th century—is made to order with frozen lemon cream, toasted meringue, and fresh blueberries. It’s a summer favorite but on the menu year-round. 3139 M St., NW.
Lemon meringue pie from America Eats Tavern.
Vegan desserts can seem more Living Without than indulgent. Not so for chef Kate Jacoby, who loves rich chocolate sweets. Her ultra-fudgy chocolate cake is set off with a chicory-cookie crust plus barbecue pecans, torched marshmallow, and coconut-soy graham-cracker “ice cream” that’s creamier than the actual stuff. 600 H St., NE.
Even carrot-cake purists will fall for pastry chef Paola Velez’s Greek-inspired sundae. Instead of thick cream-cheese frosting, she combines whipped cinnamon-and-salt-accented mascarpone with warmly spiced cake. Carrot “spoon sweets” (think marmalade) add a little citrus , while black-walnut gelato makes it extra creamy. The cherry on top? A nest of katafi, crunchy threads of phyllo dough. 1734 N St., NW.
José Andrés is a wizard at elevating humble fare—Krispy Kreme doughnuts, chicken shawarma—to otherworldly at his avant-garde tasting bar. Our current favorite: a three-bite rendering of a Vietnamese sandwich in which an apple meringue serves as bun, and crab, bright herbs, and crab mayonnaise make up the filling. 855 E St., NW.
This article appears in the December 2018 issue of Washingtonian.


The Suomi NPP satellite caught this image of Hurricane Sandy yesterday morning (Oct. 25), just as the cyclone passed over Cuba.
As Hurricane Sandy barrels toward the U.S. East Coast, NASA is battening the hatches at its Virginia coast launch and flight testing grounds to prepare for a literal wallop from the oncoming "Frankenstorm." A private rocket is on a launch pad at the site awaiting its maiden flight, and must also be protected.
The space agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., is bracing for potential flooding and high winds from Sandy when it arrives early next week. The storm, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to merge with cold weather fronts early next week to become a more powerful storm.
"We're watching it closely," Wallops spokesman Keith Koehler told SPACE.com Friday (Oct. 26). "We've started preparations like putting aircraft into hangars and clearing those hangars as best we can, just taking the appropriate precautions."
The Wallops Flight Facility is the center of NASA's suborbital research projects and oversees balloon and sounding rocket launches from the Virginia's Eastern Shore and elsewhere. The facility is staffed by 1,100 workers and also serves as a hub for aeronautics research.
Koehler said that on Sunday (Oct. 28), the flight center will be closed, with only a skeleton crew of Wallops staff, security and emergency personnel remaining on Wallops Island. A public night sky observing event scheduled for Saturday was canceled due to the weather, he added.
Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares rocket rolls out to the launch pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the morning of Oct. 1, 2012. Over the next several months, Orbital plans a hot-fire test of the Antares first stage, the rocket's maiden flight, and a demonstration cargo mission to the International Space Station.
Wallops is also the home of new commercial spaceflight efforts and the first private Antares rocket by the Virginia-based company Orbital Sciences Corp., stands partially assembled atop a launch pad at the nearby Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. The Antares rocket's first stage was moved to the launch pad on Oct. 1 for fueling and other tests.
Propellant hoses to the rocket are being detached to help prepare it for the upcoming storm rains and winds, Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski told SPACE.com. The rocket's nearby hangar is also being safeguarded against the storm.
Orbital Sciences has a $1.9 billion contract to launch at least eight cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station for NASA using its Antares rockets and Cygnus, a new robotic spacecraft. The first Antares rocket is slated to launch by the end of the year.
This National Hurricane Center forecast shows the anticipated path of Hurricane Sandy as it nears the U.S. East Coast in late October 2012.
As of Saturday morning, Hurricane Sandy was about 165 miles (270 kilometers) north of Great Abaco Island and 335 miles (540 km) southeast of Charleston, S.C. It had maximum sustained wind speeds of75 mph (120 kph) and was moving north-northeast at about 10 mph (17 kph).
The storm caused at least 43 deaths as it barreled across the Bahamas in the Caribbean, according to news reports.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are tracking Hurricane Sandy from space using several satellites. The hurricane has also been seen from the International Space Station in Earth orbit.