James McManus, the last of the city’s Tammany Hall Democratic party bosses, died at home Monday at the age of 84.
McManus, the Democratic Party district leader in Hell’s Kitchen for more than 50 years, headed up the McManus Midtown District Club, which began in the Tammany Hall era.
His great-grand-uncle, Thomas McManus, who was elected to the state assembly in 1892, founded the McManus Club, which ran politics in Hell’s Kitchen for decades. James McManus took over the club in 1963.
For generations, its St. Patrick's Day breakfast was a must-stop for city politicians — until it was canceled in 2015 for lack of an appropriate venue.
McManus stepped down as district leader in 2017, so his nephew, Mickey Spillane Jr. — the son of the legendary Hell’s Kitchen mobster Mickey Spillane, remembered as the “last of the gentlemen gangsters,” could win the position, according to the New York Times .


Monique Truong presents her new novel, "Bitter in the Mouth," about a young woman's search for identity and family, today (Sept. 27) at 7 p.m. at Kepler's, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. For more information, visit www.keplers.com.
Vivian Leigh stars as the title character in the 1948 film version of "Anna Karenina," showing tonight (Sept. 27) at 7:30 p.m. at the Stanford Theatre, 221 University Ave., Palo Alto. Admission is $7 and includes a showing of 1934's "We Live Again" at 5:55 and 10 p.m. For more information, visit www.stanfordtheatre.org.


The government has unveiled plans to implement new digital infrastructure that aims to bring down the administration costs associated with running a business.
The strategy includes a single support system for the three online platforms Digital Post, NemLog-in and NemID, which is estimated to save Danish companies somewhere in the neighbourhood of 200-400 million kroner annually.
“We’ve been tasked with updating the digital infrastructure and we’ve listened to the companies. The new solutions must cater to the needs of the companies and make their work as easy as possible,” said the innovation minister, Sophie Løhde.
In future, administration costs will be drastically reduced as it will be possible for companies to link to multiple digital solutions simultaneously and administer their users in one place. The new solutions will also make it easier to send digital mail to the companies’ own internal mail systems.
The confederation for industry, Dansk Industri (DI) praised the effort, and several leading companies, including the airline SAS, have also voiced their approval.
“It’s essential for us as a company to have as efficient a workflow as possible. So we look forward to the next generation of Digital Post, NemLog-in3 and MitID, which proposes significant simplifications in terms of increased user friendliness and updated functionality,” said Lars Andersen, the head of public affairs for SAS.


It was everywhere, rustling through conversations the way a breeze moves through trees, in the smirks and jokes of some, in the extended, slightly nervous ovation the President and Mrs. Clinton received as they walked into the East Room of the White House on Friday night for a Millennium lecture on jazz. It was the President's Problem, and it colored the event. The musicians onstage spent much of their time, as did the audience, analyzing the way the President and his wife interacted, how they played their public roles, how, in the middle of a Greek tragedy, they were doing.
The concert and lecture, the fourth this year in a series planned by the White House to bring together experts on a particular subject, had the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the pianist Marian McPartland as hosts. The audience of about 100 included the Czech President, Vaclav Havel; Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright; Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, and William J. Ivey, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, along with some of jazz's more important figures. The saxophonist Wayne Shorter showed up, as did the bassist Ron Carter; the saxophonist and band leader Illinois Jacquet; the head of the Institute of Jazz Studies, Dan Morgenstern, and the social critic Stanley Crouch.
Put together by a coalition of Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Thelonious Monk Institute in Washington, and broadcast on VH-1 and C-Span, the lecture included speeches by the President (who talked about how influential a whole series of musicians had been on his life, including Charlie Parker, Monk and John Coltrane), Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Havel. Mr. Marsalis and Ms. McPartland spoke, as did two jazz educators, Dr. Billy Taylor and David Baker. Ms. McPartland, Mr. Marsalis and Dr. Taylor played music that underscored their points. And a big band, made up mostly of members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, did some roaring.
The show was meant to to put jazz in its national and international context. At the end, questions were taken on the Internet from Britain, Canada and the United States.
There was some suspicion that the event had been put together to show that the President could continue with the life of the country despite the Problem. The event, organizers said, was planned some six weeks ago.
Dr. Taylor, who had given a short lecture and demonstration of be-bop, heard something in what Mr. Havel was saying.
And there were some strong moments musically, too, with the big band performing Duke Ellington's ''Harlem Airshaft,'' swinging it thoroughly. Mr. Marsalis opened the musical portion of the lecture with a duet with Ms. McPartland on ''St. Louis Blues'' that had him tossing burred notes throughout the piece; it all led to his thesis, which bubbled through the entire lecture, that jazz is perfectly emblematic of democracy. The balance, goes the thesis, between the individual desires of the soloist and the necessity of the group is democracy in esthetic action.
Sherman Irby, an alto saxophonist in the big band, was watching the President.
Other musicians felt the same way. After the performance, a small group of musicians in the dark outside the White House waited for a ride back to the hotel.
''He's the hippest President we've ever had,'' said Eric Lewis, the pianist in the orchestra.


COTTAGE GROVE � Jill Bryant of Cottage Grove died Sept. 17 of unknown causes, pending medical review. She was 43. No service is planned.
She was born March 31, 1967, in Roseburg to Jerry Claypool and Janice Henbest. She married Robert Bryant on April 15, 1995, in Lake Tahoe, Nev.
She attended Roseburg High School.
Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Robin Claypool of Eugene; two sons, Christopher Claypool of Eugene and Jordan Bryant of Cottage Grove; grandmother Leatha Miller of Portland; a brother, Mark Claypool of Portland; a sister, Lori Claypool of Roseburg; and one grandchild.
A celebration of life will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28, at First Congregational Church in Eugene for Dr. Virginia Mary �Ginny� Buck of Eugene, who died Sept. 23 of complications from cancer. She was 65.
She was born July 27, 1945, in Englewood, Nev., to Theodore and Mary Newby Boswell. She married Richard Buck on June 15, 1968, in Naperville, Ill.
She studied medicine at the University of Rochester and was an allergy and asthma physician at Oregon Allergy Association at Oak Street Medical.
Survivors include her husband; two daughters, Nerissa Ediza of Portland and Crystal Buck of Durham, N.C.; a son, Elijah Buck of Chicago; two sisters, Elizabeth Stegner of Chicago and Ruth Jessem of New Jersey; and a granddaughter.
Andreason�s Cremation & Burial service in charge of arrangements. Remembrances to Relief Nursery.
DRAIN � Edith Viola McDonald of Drain died Sept. 22 of age-related causes at age 89.
A memorial service is planned for later.
She was born Feb. 6, 1921, in Marshfield to Harry and Lillian Harrington Spencer.
She married Leonard McDonald on Feb. 7, 1941, in Reno, Nev. He died March 13, 2002.
She worked as a telephone operator, secretary and homemaker.
Survivors include four sons, James and Gary, both of Drain, Tony of Junction City and Randy of McCleary, Wash.; five daughters, Phyllis Dobson of Burns, Molly Dain of Springfield, Bonnie Swearingen of Bend, Donna Guindon of Redmond and Valarie Baimbridge of Elkton; two sisters, Jane Billings of Drain and Pat Ray of Springfield; 21 grand�children; and 37 great-grandchildren.
Sam Melner of Eugene died Sept. 22 of age-related causes at age 81. No service is planned.
He was born April 15, 1929, in New York. He married Marjorie Melner on March 30, 1963, in Grenada, West Indies.
He held a master�s degree in education. He served in the Army.
Survivors include his wife; two sons, Peter of Eugene and Rick of Portland; a sister, Beth of California; and five grandchildren.
Arrangements by An-dreason�s Cremation & Burial Service in Springfield. Remembrances to the ALS Association.
Olga I. Munro of Eugene died Sept. 20 of age-related causes. She was 90. A memorial service is planned for later.
She was born Dec. 15, 1919, in Seattle to Otto and Anna Kellerup Nielsen. She married George Roberts on Feb. 21, 1944, in Seattle. They later divorced. She married Charles Munro on Feb. 14, 1983, in Carpinteria, Calif. He died in 1998.
She graduated from Renton High School in 1938.
She graduated with a degree in secretarial sciences from A.A. Peterson Private Commercial School in Seattle in 1939. She was co-owner of Advanced Rubber Stamps in Venture, Calif., from 1959 to 1982. She was a watercolorist and an artist.
Survivors include two daughters, Jean Lum of Eugene and Carol Ann Rose of Ventura, Calif.; a brother, Carl Nielsen of Shelton, Wash.; two grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Arrangements by Alpha Cremation & Burial Service in Eugene. Remembrances to Hospice of Sacred Heart�s Pet Peace of Mind program.
SPRINGFIELD � Joel William Putney of Springfield died Sept. 22 of cardiac arrest. He was 68. No service is planned.
He was born Aug. 23, 1942, in Minot, N.D., to Walter and Irene Stredwick Putney. He married Joanne Troxel on Nov. 6, 1981, in Eugene.
He worked as a heavy-equipment mechanic.
Survivors include his wife; a son, John Pigeon of Springfield; two brothers, Guy and Russell, both of Bend; three sisters, Marlene Dunmyer of Arizona, Carolyn Care of Sweet Home and Connie Shortreed of Pinole, Calif.; and one grandchild.


LAGOS—Nigeria lost out on tens of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues over the last decade from cut price deals struck between some multinational oil companies and government officials, a confidential report says.
A team headed by the former head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, produced the 146-page study on an oil ministry request. It covers the year 2002 to 2011.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil exporter, shipping more than two million barrels per day (bpd), and is also home to the world’s ninth biggest gas reserves and one of the largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals.
The report provides new details on Nigeria’s long history of corruption in the oil sector, which has enriched its elite and provided the oil majors with hefty profits while two-thirds of people live in poverty.
The report concluded that oil majors- Shell, Total and Eni made bumper profits from cut-price gas, while Nigerian oil ministers handed out licences at their own discretion. This, while not illegal, did not follow best practice of using open bids. Hundreds of millions of dollars in signature bonuses on those deals were also missing, it said.
“We have not seen this report and are, therefore, unable to comment on the content, but we will study it if and when it is published,” a Shell spokesman said.
The report alleges international oil traders sometimes buy crude without any formal contracts, and the state oil firm had short-changed the Nigerian treasury of billions of Naira over the last 10 years by selling crude oil and gas to itself below market rates.
There was no suggestion that the oil majors or traders had done anything illegal, but the report highlighted a lack of transparency in their dealings in a nation rife with graft.
She said she expects the final report to be with President Goodluck Jonathan within two weeks.
Ribadu’s probe was among several set up following a week of nationwide strikes against a rise in fuel prices in January, which morphed into a campaign against oil corruption.
Billions of dollars of revenue was missing in unpaid debts from signature bonuses and royalties, the report found.
Nigeria LNG, a company jointly owned by the NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni had paid the country for gas at cut-down prices before exporting it to international markets, the report said.
Total and Eni declined to comment because they invest in but do not operate Nigeria LNG, the role played by Shell.
“The estimated cumulative of the deficit between value obtainable on the international market and what is currently being obtained from NLNG, over the 10 year period, amounts to approximately $29 billion,” the report said.
It also said foreign oil firms had outstanding debts.
Addax, now a unit of China’s state-owned Sinopec, owes Nigeria $1.5 billion in unpaid royalties, part of a $3 billion black hole of unpaid bonuses and royalties owed by oil firms.
Addax did not respond to requests for comment, but the report noted it disputes owing the signature bonuses.
Shell owes the Nigerian government N137.57 billion ($874 million) for gas sold from its Bonga deep offshore field, the report said, while oil majors owed $58 million between them for gas flaring penalties. They were also not adhering to newer higher fines.
The probe also said Nigeria was the only nation to sell all its crude through international oil traders rather than directly to refineries, adding that such trades were often opaque.
It said some international oil traders who were not “on the approved master list of customers” had been sold crude oil “without a formal contract” so little could be obtained about the details of these deals, which can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“This logically will serve to reduce margins obtainable on sale of crude oil,” the report said.
But Alison-Madueke disputed this, saying there are no informal contracts and there is “an official tender put out every year”, which can be seen by the public in newspapers.
The state oil firm gets an allocation of 445,000 bpd of crude oil to refine locally but it has been selling itself this oil at cut down prices, a practice which cost Nigeria $5 billion in potential revenue between 2002-2011, the report said.
“NNPC buys at international rates,” Alison-Madueke retorted.
The report said the NNPC made 86.6 billion naira over the 10-year period by using overly generous exchange rates in its declarations to the government. There was no sign of the money.
Nigerian oil ministers between 2008-2011 handed out seven discretionary licences but there is $183 million in signature bonuses missing from the deals, the report said. Three of these oil licences were awarded since Alison-Madueke took up her position in 2010, according to the report.
“I have not given any discretionary awards during this administration,” Alison-Madueke told Reuters, although she added that the president had the right to do so instead of using bids if he saw fit. “That is entirely up to him,” she said.
Among the report’s recommendations were that parts of NNPC be reorganized or scrapped, an independent review of the use of traders be set up and a transparency law be passed requiring oil companies to disclose all payments made to Nigeria.
U.S. regulators put new rules in place in August that will require U.S. listed oil and gas companies to disclose payments they make to foreign governments like Nigeria.
Strangely, none of the oil companies mentioned in the alleged fraud responded to their calls, and the NNPC which “responded’ did not say anything different from the minister. Even members of the committee could not comment.
“Minister: The report is not normally put in the public domain until the government’s complete report is finalized. What normally happens when you set up a committee is that when the committee hands in its report, a team is put together by the arm of government or agency that set up the committee in the first place.
“That has already happened. That team consists of people with relevant experience in the area. So, it is not just about the Revenue Task Force. The Revenue Task Force handed in its report sometime in September. But there were also the Governance and Control and the Refineries Task Forces which have all sent in their draft reports.
“We have set up a team that is looking at them across the board to see if there is a difference in opinion or a difference in perspective. This team will complete its work and submit a comprehensive report in the next 10 days.
“It is only after then that government will talk about implementation and the issues that you mentioned will be addressed. Government will decide on where to draw the line on any issue that is not in conformity with its policies. And some of the points you have raised are, in fact, not as they have been presented. I am very careful not to comment on the report until it has been finalized. There are areas that have already been handled by these committees because they are not the way they were presented. That is why I’m very careful not to comment before we finalize. There are some areas that I thought should be addressed because they come up very often in the media, such as the issue of discretionary awards. I have not given any discretionary award since the inception of this administration. What normally happens with discretionary awards is that they are part of marginal or major bid rounds. It is in the President’s power by law to grant discretionary awards or to go with competitive bidding or to go with a mixed bag when you have a bid round, and it is entirely up to him to decide which way to go.
The statement, signed by the NNPC spokesman, Fidel Pepple, titled: “Petroleum Minister Clears Air on Committee Report …. Says It Will Be Ready Soon,” did not clarify issues raised by Reuters.
Members of the committee included a former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, deputy chairman.
Other members are, a Director of Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Mallam Abba Kyari; Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN; Ms Benedicta Molokwu, Mr. Supo Sasore, SAN; Mr. Tony Idigbe, SAN; Mr. Anthony George-Ikoli, SAN; Dr. Omolara Akanji, Mr.Ituah Ighodalo, Mr. Bon Otti, Prof. Olusegun Okunnu, Mallam Samaila Zubairu, Mr.Ignatius Adegunle and Mr. Gerald Ilukwe.
Are N/Asssembly Resolutions binding on the Executive?


Wed., Dec. 21, 2011, 8:13 a.m.
Wed., July 27, 2011, 4:10 p.m.
Tue., July 26, 2011, 9:32 a.m.
Fri., July 1, 2011, 10:33 a.m.
Wed., March 24, 2010, 5:40 p.m.
Mike Prager joined the Spokane Chronicle in 1982, a year before it merged with The Spokesman-Review. He currently covers transportation, weather, neighborhoods, general news and historic preservation.


This is important because a difference in either, or both, comprehension and retention, would mean that a wide range of significant endeavours, from stock market and related financial decision making to public education, have been more affected by the transition from paper to screen than we previously understood.
I've just moved from Ontario back to my home province of Alberta - where the Sun shines, the air is clean, and the economy is booming. During the move we ran a series of eight chapter summaries, or notes to myself, for a possible book on how and why to use Sun's Sun Ray thin clients and smart displays along with a guest blog written by frequent contributor Roger Ramjet.
The answer to a skills deficit is education and practice, the answer to prejudice is community.
here are many different ways to provide access to Windows applications on Sun Ray smart displays.This Sun pageoffers "white papers" and real how-to information on a wide range of choices.
Are Wi-Fi security myths good for deterrence?
"SSID suppression", "DHCP restrictions", and "MAC filtering" are a huge waste of time. If you absolutely can't run good WPA security, just turn on WEP for some real deterrence. Having said that, it's ironic that WPA-PSK security when used correctly has no known method of being cracked yet it's even easier to deploy than WEP which is breakable in a couple of minutes. WEP on the other hand is much easier to deploy than MAC filtering which is breakable in a matter of seconds using freely available GUI tools that run on Linux.
Can you make Linux easy?
So why do people hate Windows?
Windows winds down hardware. As time goes by, patches and updates and upgrades and necessary applications load my box up with code that hogs my memory, and takes up CPU cycles, until the memory and cycles needed for new work magically disappear. Then you're supposed to replace the box, and over time buy new software.
it's possible to see this report as wrong on all counts, and not only credit theauthors with a legitimate attempt to come to grips with a real problem but feel sorry for thembecause what they ended up, in all innocence, writing a case study on how not to deploy Linux.
How do you stop Sony's rootkit at the office?
Companies are not helpless against Sony's rootkit; they can preemptively stop it in the first place with Active Directory Group Policy.
To make 802.11 happen under Linux with Linksys, you need an access card that works with Linux.
you might be better off not trying to re-invent the wheel - have you looked for applicable software, like phorum, that would let you do more of what youwant with less effort?
Hello everyone, I'm George Ou and I normally write for my security corner. I've just come on board here at Ask Bloggie to field questions on PC and Wireless Networking questions.
Bloggie asks, Linux on a Mac?
I'd consider going to Linux from Mac OS X a a bit of a downgrade - so why do it? especially when you've got an XP box handy for which any Linux would be an upgrade?
It's all about retail mark-ups, which are usually twice what the box cost when it came in the door. Do that with one box and $300 becomes $600. Do that with a bunch of boxes, shipped separately, and it can be $700.
Is desktop publishing possible without Microsoft Office?


MINNEAPOLIS (KARE) It is Infant Safe Sleep Week in Minnesota.
During this week, the Minnesota Department of Health is promoting safe sleep practices for infants.
According to MDH, state data shows that unsafe sleep environments account for nearly all unexpected infant deaths in Minnesota. About 50 infants die each year.
In order to try and prevent more of these tragedies, MDH is asking people to use social media to promote their safe sleep practices by using the hashtag #SafeNapSnap.
The agency is also asking advertisers and retailers to use images that promote safe sleep, including showing babies lieing on their backs in an empty crib with no pillows, blankets or toys.
A study done by the Children's National Medical Center shows magazines targeting women of childbearing age, more than one-third of images showed babies in unsafe sleep positions and more than two-thirds showed babies in unsafe sleep environments.
for ALONE: Infants should always sleep or nap alone.
B for BACK: Always put a baby on their back to sleep or nap.
C for CRIB: Babies should always sleep or nap in their own safety-approved crib or play yard.
Parents should also take pillows, blankets and toys out of the crib, according to MDH.
For more information on Infant Safe Sleep Week, visit the MDH website.


You can learn a lot about nurses when you visit your local Emergency Room.
Long story short: I took a flop, hit my face and head on my way down to the floor, and landed in the Emergency Room with a bleeding, bruised noggin, and a shiner. I haven't had this much purple and blue on my eyelids since the 70s!
As I waited (for nearly two hours) to be seen by a doctor, and observed other patients and the attending nurses, one thing became perfectly clear: it takes a very special, self-less person to be a nurse. Some RNs have what it takes. Some don't.
Nurses need a tremendous amount of patience to deal with people who can't, or won't, follow simple directions. For example, a sign warning incoming patients to refrain from eating or drinking before being seen by the doctor was clearly posted beside the ER triage window, but nearly every patient that came into the ER after me headed directly to the vending machine after filling out their paperwork. Were the instructions too difficult to understand? Or were those patients just too lazy or too ignorant to comply?
When dealing with injured children, nurses must exercise restraint as well as patience. One little boy, no more than eight years old, came into the ER holding a towel up to his visibly bleeding head wound. Despite fighting back tears, the poor little guy waited patiently as his mother spoke to the triage nurse, who wasted no time in "fast tracking" the child to immediate medical attention. Another equally patient little girl hobbled into the ER on crutches, and waited quietly beside her mother to be evaluated. Such injured little ones must be emotionally difficult for a nurse to attend to, but an allegedly injured child who whines loudly, and dramatically turns on the water-works only when her parents look her way (like another child that was wheeled into the ER that night), requires restraint and patience that non-medical professionals, myself included, would be hard-pressed to muster.
After two hours of waiting, I was finally led to the curtained room where I spent yet another two hours. At that point, I was too tired to care when I overheard a nurse say that I, too, should have been "fast tracked" because of my head injury. A rather grouchy nurse tossed a medical gown at me, told me to put it on, pulled the curtain closed, and vanished, never to be seen again. The medical gown was unsnapped; re-fastening it required a PhD in engineering. An unsmiling nurse hooked me up to the heart monitor; another unsmiling nurse drew blood. Their "mechanical" bedside manner was irritating. I was about to blow a fuse...when in walked a ray of sunshine named Renata.
Renata was a busy nurse (aren't they all?), rushing here, rushing there - yet she always had a smile, and a kind word. Efficiency personified, she chatted happily, talked a while to my son, who was with me, asked if we needed anything. Renata didn't even bark at me when I refused an IV (I hate those things!).
Thankfully, all was well; I was released. As I walked passed the nurse's station, the "angels in white" were busily writing on charts, answering telephones, doing all the things nurses do that we patients are blissfully unaware of. Clearly, nurses invented multi-tasking long before it became a catch phrase.
A good nurse requires empathy, patience, efficiency, intelligence, and warmth to singlehandedly deal with doctors, coworkers, families, and patients, all of whom expect them to do so with unerring perfection. I definitely do not have what it takes to be a nurse. Neither do some nurses. But bright lights, like Renata, and my sister, Jeannie, who, as a wonderful, caring nurse has come to my family's rescue more times than I can count, make up for those few nurses who don't make the grade.
National Nurses' Week began on National Nurses' Day, May 6th, and ended on Florence Nightingale's birthday, May 12th. Nurses deserve far more recognition than six short days. They deserve bigger paychecks, better working conditions, the respect of the medical doctors, and the thanks and appreciation of the patients they care for daily.
Renata, thank you very much. Jeannie, as always, thank you.


Another year Beyoncé and Prince opened the show with a once-in-a-lifetime scene. Foo Fighters have shared the stage with jazz pianist Chick Corea. Elton John and Eminem. Usher and James Brown. Once every few years, Sting jumps in.
The 2019 ceremony, which will be broadcast on CBS from the Staples Center on Feb. 10, offers ample opportunity for producers to mix it up. Below are a few combinations that could make for meme-worthy moments.
Country singer Kacey Musgraves, who has an album of the year nomination, joins Drake for a simmering take on her “Slow Burn” coupled with his multiple nominee “God’s Plan” — with a surprise appearance by reggae album nominees Sting and Shaggy.
Loretta Lynn (nominated for country solo performance) and former President Jimmy Carter (spoken word performance) collaborate on a sung-spoken reworking of Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” with a mid-performance surprise cameo from the other Carters — a.k.a. Beyoncé and Jay Z — and another surprise appearance from Sting and Shaggy.
Nominees Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper merge “All the Stars” with “Shallow” to create “All the Stars are Shallow.” Added bonus: This combines two of the major movie songs nominated for Grammys.
Finally, producer of the year nominee Kanye West performs his track “Lift Yourself.” Joining him? Pop vocal album nominee Taylor Swift, who leaps onstage mid-song to recite West’s “Poopy-di scoop / Scoop-diddy-whoop” verse. As if that’s not enough for one performance, Sting and Shaggy could certainly provide backing vocals.
Absurd? Nothing is too crazy for Grammy.


Three people have been arrested after a stolen reefer trailer from Mississaugua was recovered in Colborne, Ont.
OPP have recovered a large 53-foot trailer that was stolen from Mississauga last fall.
On Tuesday, the OPP’s Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau and the Peterborough/Northumberland Community Street Crime Unit executed a search warrant at a property west of the Town of Colborne, about 23 kilometres east of Cobourg.
The search led to the recovery of a stolen white 2010 Great Dane 53-foot reefer trailer.
Police arrested Benjamin Mazurek, 28, and Milton Mazurek, 63, both of Alnwick-Haldimand Township, and Patricia Ann Reddom, 47, of Brighton. They each have been charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
The accused were released and are scheduled to appear in Cobourg court on Feb 28.


Sutton is set to get its very own Women’s Institute with the launch of a new group that aims to attract like-minded women of all ages.
The Sutton-in-Ashfield WI is holding its first meeting today at 7pm at St John’s Methodist Church on Titchfield Avenue.
It is one of a new wave of WIs which have been started up by younger women across the country in recent years, offering members the chance to share interests, learn new skills and make friends.
The women starting the Sutton group hope that theirs will see the same success as other new WIs.
“There’s a lot of interest in crafts and baking but there’s been a lot of change over the past 100 years since the WI started,” said mum-of-two Rebecca Low, 33, from Sutton.
Though there are already WIs in Teversal, Kirkby and several in the Mansfield area, the town of Sutton has not had its own group until now.
Rebecca said that the response to the Facebook page she has set up has been ‘amazing’.
Many of more than 40 women who have shown an interest in joining the new group are in their thirties or forties - much younger than the stereotypical WI member.
They are all keen to get involved in traditional WI activities such as baking, crafts and floristry, as well as more modern activities like wine tasting and burlesque dancing.
Women of all ages are welcome to attend the meeting tonight, which will discuss how to become a member and where a committee will be formed.
For more information visit www.facebook.com/SuttonWI.


New Jersey's Topaz Jones shares his latest project Arcade today (Oct. 28). The 22-year-old rapper/singer employed all of his influences from the jazz and funk world for this new 10-track effort. The mixtape was executive produced by New York collective Late Night Episode and boasts a guest feature from Pell. Prior to today's release, Topaz dropped the single "Tropicana" six months ago as a taster to his matured future funk sound.
Arcade features silky melodies, live instrumentation and some pretty dope storytelling on the part of Topaz. Aside from "Tropicana," early standouts are "Powerball," "Sports Car," and "Winona" featuring Pell.
When XXL spoke with Montclair, N.J.'s "Black Bon Jovi" for The Break, Topaz shared that he draws his musical influences from many different factors—and family members—in his life.
"I grew up in a musical household. My father, uncles and aunts were all musicians," explained Topaz. "My father was in some funk bands in the 70’s and 80’s that were pretty popular. My aunts used to be in a development group at Motown. We always had a lot of funk and soul playing around the house along with psychedelic rock. I was into Jimmy Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, AC/DC and then I started to come into my own. It moved into Ray Charles and Michael Jackson then into more hip-hop."
Check out the groovy new Arcade above and feel free to buy it on iTunes now.


Give the NDP government a pat on the back for one thing — dealing with the often grotesque overcompensation among some public-sector executives in Alberta.
This week it was school superintendents. Back in April it was presidents, vice-chancellors and chief executive officers of 20 publicly funded university and colleges. And last year it was the presidents and vice-presidents of ABCs — agencies, boards and commissions.
Under the former Tory government, executive compensation was permitted to go all over the map, especially during the time of former Premier Alison Redford.
Average compensation for Alberta public-sector executives was above the national average — sometimes well above. And the overcompensation contributed to a culture of entitlement in which senior management felt entirely justified receiving outsized salaries and monstrous perks.
Moreover, there were no independent reviews that sought to compare public sector compensation to similar jobs and levels of responsibility in the private sector.
The New Democrats have tried to change that. Their recent moves have brought Alberta public-sector pay more in keeping with at least public-sector standards in other large provinces, such as Ontario, B.C. and Quebec.
Before the recent changes, the numbers were often shocking.
For instance, Edmonton Catholic Schools superintendent Joan Carr made $426,824 last year. That’s considerably more than the superintendents of Edmonton and Calgary Public Schools, both of whom manage noticeably larger operations.
Under the new rules, brought in by Education Minister David Eggen on Friday, Carr will see her pay cut a whopping 28 per cent when her contract is renewed in August. To Carr’s credit, she plans to stay on two more years despite the reduction in pay.
The NDP have also eliminated what they call “outlier” perks such as $1,200 a year for gym membership, $1,200 a year for one superintendent’s spouse to attend school board events, $10,000 for “incidentals” (that’s a lot of incidentals) and $10,000 a year towards one super’s children’s university tuition.
From now on, there will be five pay grades for superintendents depending on the size of the boards they oversee, with salaries ranging from $60,000 to a maximum of $275,000.
In all, 67 of 74 superintendents will see their pay cut by an average of 10 per cent for a total savings of $1.5 million (which the government plans to spend in classrooms).
A similar five-level, cost-cutting pay grid imposed on university and college executives nearly two months ago should save a further $5 million. And reduction in the pay of senior ABC managers, announced last spring, could save as much as $16 million more.
These sums ($22.5 million in all) are tiny against provincial spending of $56 billion and annual deficits in the range of $10 billion, but they are an important step towards breaking the mentality of entitlement among senior public-sector managers — the feeling that they are owed lavish lifestyles at taxpayers’ expense.
Now the Notley government just has to deal with the overcompensation of Alberta Health Services’ hundreds of executives and managers.


Arrange bamboo cuttings in a vase for an easy, stylish houseplant.
Add a bit of nature to your home's décor with an arrangement of bamboo cuttings in a vase. The straight lines of the bamboo's stalks provide a fresh, sleek accessory to any room. By taking cuttings from existing bamboo plants, you can create your own arrangement to suit your tastes. Bamboo requires little care and can survive in low light conditions, making it an excellent choice for the homeowner who may not have time to maintain a finicky houseplant.
Prepare a vase to receive the bamboo cutting. Fill the bottom third of the vase with clean decorative stones to act as a support to the cutting.
Pour distilled water into the vase. Fill the vase until the water level is one to two inches above the surface of the stones. Set the vase aside.
Select a healthy bamboo stalk from which to take your cutting. Examine the stalk closely; it should be free of blemish, disease or damage. Choose a bamboo stalk that is not more than 3 years old.
Identify the rings, also called growth nodes, on the bamboo stalk. Measure length of bamboo starting at the top of the stalk. Count the nodes to ensure that there are a total of four to six.
Cut the stalk with a sharp knife just above the lowest node on the measured length of the stalk. Make the cut at a 45-degree angle. Cut through the stalk as cleanly as possible to ensure a smooth edge.
Remove any leafy side shoots from the bottom half to two-thirds of the stalk with the knife. Place the bamboo cutting in your vase. Push the cutting down into the decorative stones until it's end is at the bottom of the vase.
Keep the bamboo cutting in a bright room out of direct sunlight. Change the water once a week. Refill the vase with water as needed to keep the water level above the surface of the stones.
Westover, Jessica. "How to Cut Bamboo for a Vase." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/cut-bamboo-vase-21037.html. Accessed 20 April 2019.


"113th Commencement, Summer" (1963). Commencement Programs. 27.


"Take Linux, for example. It's hard for me to advocate, as I used to, something that has now fully embraced the Windows mentality via systemd."
Contrary to popular belief, Linux does not have to use systemd. There are plenty of distributions out there who have not drunk the coolaid. Do be a nice chap and try not to spread FUD.


CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carowinds opens for the season on Saturday tomorrow and guests will be able to ride the newest double launch coaster, the Copperhead Strike.
Carowinds invited members of the media to try the coaster for you first.
Take a look at FOX8's Shannon Smith and Cindy Farmer as they twist and turn through the more than half-mile coaster.


A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump says his boss doesn't think Israeli settlements should be condemned and they don't pose an "obstacle to peace."
Jason Greenblatt's comments to Israel's Army Radio Thursday would mark a stark departure from the long-time American stance that Israeli construction in areas captured in the 1967 Six Day War makes it more difficult to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Greenblatt is the chief legal officer and executive vice president at the Trump Organization. He has been tapped by Trump as his top adviser on Israel.
Israel and the US are close allies but relations were often tense between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly over Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Netanyahu and Trump have been friends for many years and ties between the two are expected to improve.
After Trump was proclaimed the victor of the presidential elections, Netanyahu posted a Facebook video congratulating the president-elect, describing him as a "true friend" and expressed his optimism about elevating the US-Israeli relationship to "new heights." Later on Netanyahu called Trump, reiterated his belief that he was a "true friend of Israel" and assured him that the US has no greater ally than Israel.
Meanwhile, Trump's victory has put a new, optimistic wind in the sails of the settlement enterprise in Israel, as right wing MKs and West Bank regional council leaders welcomed the Republican's election.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council, publicly supported Trump, and expressed his hope that a new path will be made in regards to the West Bank settlements.
"I'm sorry to say this, but the decision to build a new park in the West Bank isn't made by the head of the Regional Council nor by the Israeli government, but on the whims of the President of the United States and how he feels that day," Dagan said.
Dagan, who participated in the opening of the Trump campaign headquarters in the West Bank, and even met with Trump Advisor David Friedman, continued by saying that "we decided that we will no longer sit on the side and watch as world leaders decide our lives, but become involved instead – both for our sakes, and for the sake of our children." Dagan said.
Dagan then directed his message to the Netanyahu government, saying "we have high expectations for a significant change in how the Israeli government treats Judea and Samaria following the election of a US president who is a friend to the settler movement in the West Bank. We expect an end to the construction freeze, and even more."
Mayor of Ariel Eliyahu Shaviro also welcomed Trump's victory. The mayor added that he believes that the new American president will stand by his pledge of preventing a Palestinian state, and will continue to support building within the settlements, especially in Ariel.
Meanwhile, Acting Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council Moshe Saville said "I'm sure that a new era of bravery and connection to the land has begun."
The settlers also received support from the Bayit Yehudi party, specifically from Party Chairman Naftali Bennett. He wrote on Facebook that "Trump's victory is a rare opportunity for Israel to announce on its withdrawal from the idea of establishing (a Palestinian state) in the heart of Israeli territory, something which would constitute a direct harm to our security and in the justice of our cause. This is the President elect's view as is written in his platform, and this of course must also be what we do as well. Straight, simple, and clear. This is the end of the era of the Palestinian state."
Meanwhile, Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) said "something happened, the change which occurred (on Tuesday) in the US is a fait accompli. One thing must be made clear, the two state solution must be shelved immediately. The government in the US is going to change, and with that so will the terrible freeze on building which was forced on the State of Israel by the previous administration… I call on the prime minister and the entire government to stand behind the settlement of Judea and Samaria, and to announce the building of thousands of housing units today."
Science Minister Ofir Akunis told Army Radio Thursday that, "We need to think how we move forward now when the administration in Washington, the Trump administration and his advisers, are saying that there is no place for a Palestinian state."
See all talkbacks "Trump adviser says boss doesn't view Israeli settlements as obstacle to peace"


The bizarrely dedicated fans of the McDonald’s McRib sandwich are overjoyed that the barbecue-sauce-soaked boneless pork patty treat is returning for a limited time to all U.S. Golden Arches locations. But are McRib devotees simply being McManipulated?
Few fast food menu items can say they have their own Facebook page. Then again, few fast food items have experienced the rollercoaster-like ups and downs of the McRib.
This fall, the McRib made news as McDonald’s re-introduced it once again—this time, making it available in all U.S. locations through November 14. The obvious question is: If the McRib is so popular, why doesn’t McDonald’s sell it year-in, year-out, at all locations?
Retailers understand that the words “for a limited time only!” are known to make shoppers spend in irrational ways, with the latest example being the rise of Groupon and other flash deal sites. Instead of the traditional sales pitch, in which the focus is on the quality, utility, and desirability of the product, the “limited time only” strategy plays off of the widespread human characteristic to hate missing out on something—regardless of whether or not you actually want that something.
Hard to fathom they would be that hungry for a pork patty pressed into the shape of a small slab of ribs if it were a menu staple.
The limited-time-only factor succeeds in creating a sharp, sudden rise in demand that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Another prime example of such market manipulation is the much-vaunted “Disney Vault,” where Disney movies supposedly disappear after a strong marketing push. That is, they disappear until yet another digitally remastered edition inevitably surfaces later on. These efforts all artificially manufacture a scarcity, with the idea that the limited supply and limited availability produces increased demand—and more sales.


Guidance: Contains strong language, adult content and strobe lighting.
Ibiza Weekender will return for another series and rep Jordan Davies says he and pal Deano Baily will step up their pulling game. The Weekender team welcome new arrival Austin, Callum faces his biggest dilemma so far, and Jordan raises his game.


Edward Snowden Reddit AMA: Citizenfour documentary subject has just one regret.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he doesn’t care if people call him a traitor.
A day after Citizenfour won the Oscar for best documentary feature, its subject, Edward Snowden, appeared on Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” question-and-answer session.
To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don’t think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that’s not so bad. My perspective is if you’re not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don’t care enough.
For what it’s worth, Greenwald—who joined Snowden and Citizenfour director Laura Poitras on the Reddit AMA—insisted on Reddit that he had laughed it off too, despite earlier calling it “stupid and irresponsible” to a BuzzFeed reporter.
I would have come forward sooner. I talked to Daniel Ellsberg about this at length, who has explained why more eloquently than I can.
Had I come forward a little sooner, these programs would have been a little less entrenched, and those abusing them would have felt a little less familiar with and accustomed to the exercise of those powers. … Once you grant the government some new power or authority, it becomes exponentially more difficult to roll it back.
Don’t let it happen in your country.
With that, Snowden implicitly brushed aside any notion that his time as a fugitive in Russia might have caused him to rethink the intelligence leaks that made him the target of an international manhunt. He has repeatedly said that his life in Russia is “great,” though he faces charges of theft and espionage back in the United States.
Redditors cheered Snowden’s resolve. That said, on a practical level, it’s unclear how much earlier he could have realistically come forward. After all, he had only worked at Booz Allen for a few months before he began leaking documents to Greenwald, Poitras, and the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman, among others.
On the other hand, many of the documents he turned over to the media actually came from his time at Dell, where he worked on the computer firm’s CIA and NSA accounts from 2011 to 2013. Had he blown the whistle then, it’s conceivable the programs he revealed would have been slightly less far along. Whether they would have been any easier to dismantle is another question. I tried asking Snowden myself, but my question didn’t get enough upvotes from other Redditors to merit a response.
We can devise means, through the application and sophistication of science, to remind governments that if they will not be responsible stewards of our rights, we the people will implement systems that provide for a means of not just enforcing our rights, but removing from governments the ability to interfere with those rights.
Call Snowden what you will, but he’s right about this much: The U.S. government today views its citizens’ privacy as a lower priority than its own spying capabilities. You can see this not only in the NSA’s surveillance programs, but in the words of President Obama, who supports strong encryption only if it’s weak enough for the government to get around it.
Thomas Hobbes might differ with Snowden on the sort of rights that humans would enjoy in a state of nature. But John Locke, and many others, would agree with him that “there must always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed.” Snowden is convinced that balance is out of whack, and he has no regrets about allegedly breaking the law in order to realign it. Good for him.
Oh, and perhaps now we can all stop whining about that Neil Patrick Harris joke. It was one of the few funny things he said all night.
Was Edward Snowden a Traitor?


Does “Mein Kampf” Remain a Dangerous Book?
Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is being published and sold in Germany for the first time since the Second World War.
There was a lot said last week about the reëmergence, in Germany, of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”)—which just became legal to publish and sell there, for the first time since the end of the Second World War, albeit in a heavily hedged “scholarly” edition. Did providing a public place for the autobiographical testament of the Nazi dictator, written when he was briefly imprisoned in Bavaria, in the nineteen-twenties, in some way legitimize it, people asked, even if the text was surrounded by a trench work of scholarly addenda designed to italicize its lies and manias?
I read “Mein Kampf” right through for the first time last year, while working on a piece about Timothy Snyder’s history of the Holocaust as it happened in the Slavic and Baltic states during the Second World War. (Snyder reads Hitler in a somewhat original and provocative way, derived in part from his reading of “Mein Kampf.”) I read it in the first English translation, from 1933, with the German version alongside, online, and a crib of graduate-school German grammar nearby. (I’ve since reread sections, in Ralph Manheim’s later translation.) The question of what to do with “Mein Kampf” is, in some sense, independent of the book’s contents—buying it is a symbolic act before it’s any kind of intellectual one, and you can argue that it’s worth banning on those grounds alone. A good opposing case can be made on similarly symbolic grounds: that making it public in Germany is a way of robbing it of the glamour of the forbidden.
However that may be, the striking thing about the text as a text is that it is not so much diabolical or sinister as creepy. It is the last book in the world that you would expect a nascent Fascist dictator to write. Most of us—and most politicians in particular, even those who belong to extremist movements—try to draw a reasonably charismatic picture of our histories and ourselves. We want to look appealing. An evil force may emerge and temporarily defeat the narrator, but that force is usually placed against a childhood of a purer folk existence, now defiled. That’s the way most politicians’ campaign memoirs still work, for instance.
I had set out with a pile of drawings, convinced that it would be child's play to pass the examination. At the Realschule I had been by far the best in my class at drawing, and since then my ability had developed amazingly; my own satisfaction caused me to take a joyful pride in hoping for the best. . . . I was in the fair city for the second time, waiting with burning impatience, but also with confident self-assurance, for the result of my entrance examination. I was so convinced that I would be successful that when I received my rejection, it struck me as a bolt from the blue. Yet that is what happened. When I presented myself to the rector, requesting an explanation for my non-acceptance at the Academy's school of painting, that gentleman assured me that the drawings I had submitted incontrovertibly showed my unfitness for painting.
The triviality of the injury and the length and intensity with which it’s recalled—in a book intended, after all, to attract fanatical followers to a fanatical cause—would seem to be more unsettling than seductive. And many similar passages of equally irrelevant self-pity follow. His description of his hunger while footloose in Vienna is pointillist.
Mussolini’s autobiography, to take the obvious comparison, though ghostwritten—by a former American Ambassador to Italy, apparently!—nonetheless reflects his sense of the best self to put forward; the youthful memories are more predictably of a concord between the young Italian and the national landscape he inhabits. (The Masons play the same role for Mussolini that the Jews did for Hitler: the cosmopolitan force interrupting the natural harmony between the people and their home, the blood and the birthplace.) Mussolini’s is a Fascist dictator’s memoir written as you would expect a Fascist dictator to write it. To be sure, Hitler is writing at the bottom of the ascent and Mussolini at the top, but the temperamental difference is arresting nonetheless.
Indeed, strangely, the "lesser" Fascist and extreme right-wing European figures of the period are closer to the idealized image of a national savior than Hitler even pretends to be. Corneliu Codreanu, in Romania, for instance—who was, hard to believe, an even more violent anti-Semite than Hitler—was a model of the charismatic national leader, providing a mystical religious turn as well. Even Oswald Mosley, in England—for all that P. G. Wodehouse nicely mocked him in his figure of Roderick Spode—had many of the traits of a genuinely popular, charismatic figure, worryingly so. Hitler’s self-presentation has none of that polished charisma. He is a victim and a sufferer first and last—a poor soldier who is gassed, a failed artist who is desperately hungry and mocked by all. The creepiness extends toward his fanatical fear of impurity—his obsession with syphilis is itself pathological—and his cult of strong bodies. Pathos is the weirdly strong emotion, almost the strongest emotion, in the memoir.
Yet the other striking—and, in its way, perhaps explanatory—thing about the book is how petty-bourgeois (in the neutral, descriptive sense that Marx, or, for that matter, Kierkegaard, used the term) its world picture is, even including the petty-bourgeois bias toward self-contempt. The class nature of Hitler’s experience is as clear to him as it is to the reader—he is, he knows, a child of the lower middle classes, and his view of the world is conditioned by that truth.
His pervasive sense of resentment must have vibrated among those who know resentment as a primary emotion. Creepy and miserable and uninspiring as the book seems to readers now, its theme of having been dissed and disrespected by every authority figure and left to suffer every indignity must have resonated with a big chunk of an entire social class in Germany after war and inflation. Even his Jew-hating bears the traces of personal rancor as much as of “scientific” racial ideology. The poison of anti-Semitism comes in many flavors, after all, but the kind that, for instance, Drumont, in France, or Chesterton and Belloc, in Britain, had until then favored was aristocratic in pretension. It assumed that Jews have a secret, conspiratorial power. Admiration is mixed with the disgust, as with the parallel “yellow peril” of the Asians—they’re so smart that they’re sinister.
Hitler’s anti-Semitism seems a purer case of petit-bourgeois paranoia. It resents not the newcomer who invades the sanctuary but the competitor in the shop down the street, who plays by unfair rules. (“I didn’t know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their tongues or their virtuosity at lying.”) It’s telling that his anti-Semitism in “Mein Kampf” is, early on, entangled with his Francophobia. The Jews are like the French: they are, in plain English, the people who get to go to art school. Both the Francophobia and the anti-Semitism are part of the same petty-bourgeois suspicion: They think they’re superior to us! They think they’re better than us because they’re slicker than we are! They look down on us, and it is intolerable to have anyone look down on us! That fear of mockery and of being laughed at is so strong in Hitler that it filled his speeches as late as the onset of the war: the Jews and the English are laughing at me, and they won’t be allowed to laugh for long! That someone would feel this sense of impending shame as a motive for violence is commonplace. But that someone would choose to make so overt his love of violence arises from a fear of being mocked, and that he would use this as the source of his power seems weirdly naked and unprotected.
“Mein Kampf” is a miserable book, but should it be banned? I could certainly sympathize with any German who would like to see it kept illegitimate; some speech should, in fact, be off-limits. But is it a dangerous book? Does it circulate sinister ideas best kept silent? Putting aside the book’s singularly creepy tone, it contains little argumentation that wasn’t already commonplace in other, still-circulating anti-Semitic and extreme-right literature. Hitler’s character remains bewildering, in the obvious mismatch between the extent of his miserableness and the capacity of his will to power, although perhaps it should not be—many other personal stories suggest that miserable people have the will to power in the greatest intensity. But his themes are part of the inheritance of modernity, ones that he merely adapted with a peculiar, self-pitying edge and then took to their nightmarish conclusion: the glory of war over peace; disgust with the messy bargaining and limited successes of reformist, parliamentary democracy and, with that disgust, contempt for the political class as permanently compromised; the certainty that all military setbacks are the results of civilian sabotage and a lack of will; the faith in a strong man; the love of the exceptional character of one nation above all others; the selection of a helpless group to be hated, who can be blamed for feelings of national humiliation. He didn’t invent these arguments. He adapted them, and then later showed where in the real world they led, if taken to their logical outcome by someone possessed, for a time, of absolute power. Resisting those arguments is still our struggle, and so they are, however unsettling, still worth reading, even in their creepiest form.
The first German edition of “Mein Kampf” since 1945 will be published in January. Gerhard Weinberg says it’s about time.


You weren't born into wealth and privilege. School never came easily to you. Your parents pushed you to pursue a career you had zero interest in. Too much time was wasted playing video games and smoking weed with kids you thought were your friends. College was a blast, but it didn’t last. Your degree doesn't help make the big bucks and the bank still wants to get paid back on the school loans. Since you didn't hang with the right crew, there is no one to hook you up with an opportunity. Your family can't help since they are going nowhere themselves.
When you finally land somewhere, you look around and find yourself in a modern-day, white-collar factory. You, along with hundreds of others in a cubicle farm, labor over boring tasks that you couldn't care less about. Everyday is more monotonous and tedious than the last one. It starts to scare you that this could potentially be your life forever. Others seem to pass you by—lapping you in success—and you seem to be going nowhere fast.
Also, let’s also be honest. You may not be as smart, sophisticated, charismatic or possess the right pedigree as some of your colleagues. So, what’s the answer? You have to hustle. It's a combination of street smarts, improving yourself, staying motivated, fighting and striving.
Decide what to do with your life.
Get a game plan together.
Execute and kill it every day.
Learn as much about your area/industry as humanly possible.
Put in 10,000 hours of work to become an expert.
Eat, sleep and dream what you want to accomplish.
If you fail, start all over again without worry or concern.
Leave behind all the losers dragging you down.
Develop a thick skin, so nothing will rattle you.
Picture who you want to be in the future and then become that person right now.
Dress, act and talk like the successful person you want to become.
Work on your interpersonal, social and presentation skills.
Find people smarter than yourself and learn from them.
Go to sleep early and wake up super early.
Know what your manager needs and exceed their expectations.
Network and meet with as many people in your field as possible to pick their brains and learn as much you can from them.
Don't take “no” for an answer and keeping moving forward.
Build a tribe of people around you to support your endeavors.
Cultivate a social media presence positioning you as an expert in your field.
Find a niche that you can excel in.
Learn from your mistakes and don’t dwell on the setbacks.
This is only a small part of the hustle. The idea is to become totally devoted and focused on your dreams and not let anything or anyone stop you from achieving everything you want in work and life.


A new development is built along Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, a Superfund site polluted with decades' worth of industrial waste and sewage.
The Trump administration has been taking steps, some quietly, some very publicly, to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One such quiet step was the administration’s proposal earlier this year to speed up agency efforts to remediate and redevelop former industrial and other hazardous sites known as Superfund sites and brownfields.
On its face, the proposal might seem like a bright spot. But EPA officials actually envision using public funds to clean up private lands owned by developers like President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to prepare these sites for massive redevelopment projects.
It’s an old but deceptive approach, cleaning up a handful of highly visible, hazardous sites and creating the appearance that the EPA is keeping the public safe, while leaving the vast majority of potentially toxic sites untouched, their risk to the public unaddressed.
Indeed, America’s cities are built on top of former industrial sites that have largely gone without regulation and remediation, and the continual “churn” of urban land use and redevelopment means there is little recorded or institutional knowledge about these sites’ locations.
A prime example is the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, an old manufacturing area now booming with bistros, art galleries, and boutiques rather than machine shops and factories. A two-acre community garden and playground dubbed “Liberty Lands” now sits atop a reclaimed Superfund site once occupied by Burk Brothers Tannery. But attention and remediation has not extended to the 200 or so other relic industrial sites that operated in the area after the 1950s: They won’t be found in the EPA’s hazardous sites databases, because they either closed prior to reporting requirements or remained small enough to avoid them.
The nature of risk containment today fails to address the historical legacies of hazardous land uses, especially as cities are again growing rapidly and gentrification hides what came before and whatever sources of contamination that may still remain behind.
Ever since the federal government began requiring voluntary reporting of industrial toxic releases in the late 1980s, environmental officials have limited this reporting requirement to the largest, most obvious polluters, the active sites most people know or at least suspect to be a problem. Later, when related efforts extended to include polluted sites no longer in operation, federal action again took a worst-first strategy.
Government agencies now typically identify and clean up only the most visibly polluted sites of relic industry, such as the two vast brownfields in the Dumbo and Gowanus neighborhoods in Brooklyn purchased by Jared Kushner, often with liability-free agreements for subsequent redevelopment.
Meaningful action to address the hazards facing America’s city dwellers will require looking beyond the most obvious sites of concern and asking how many hazardous sites are out there in American cities. Our book, Sites Unseen: Uncovering Hidden Hazards in American Cities begins to tackle this question. We used industry reports and manufacturing directories stretching back to the 1950s to build a historical database of sites occupied by industries known to dump hazardous waste.
We identified these types of sites in four cities, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Portland, Oregon, and found that, despite being very different cities, they all shared a common feature and fate: More than 90 percent of the thousands and thousands of potentially hazardous sites we uncovered went unreported in government databases and were given no regulatory attention.
The passage of time has rendered such legacy sites less visible as they are converted into less risky uses such as playgrounds, loft apartments ,and coffee shops and as older residents move on and demographic changes in neighborhoods erase public memory of earlier hazards. As these processes unfold, the problem of contamination branches out from specific sites into an ever-expanding landscape of environmental risks.
Until Americans acknowledge these dynamics, the scale of environmental hazards and toxic sites in cities will not be fully recognized and addressed in a meaningful way. Our study has mapped out this problem in four large cities and offers a DIY guide for others to do the same in their own cities and towns.
Local, state, and federal stakeholders must take the next step and work together to understand and mitigate risks to all urban residents. The sooner and more fully we recognize and address that America’s industrial past means that few cities have escaped contamination, the healthier and more sustainable those places will become. Large-scale redevelopment projects like those undertaken by the Trumps and Kushners of the world are just the tip of the iceberg.


Navy Seals Jump In To Griz Game!
Navy Seals jump in to a Griz game in Honor of Bo Reichbach who was injured in War. Missoula, Montana.


What is the driving age? And what kind of vehicles are women permitted to drive?
The Supreme Decree stipulates that the application of the Traffic Regulations and its Executive Regulations shall apply to both women and men. The driving age is 18 for the private driving license, which applies to all types of vehicles including motorbikes. There are exceptions for those reaching 17. They will be granted a temporary permit for no more than one year. Women will be allowed to drive trucks once the necessary conditions have been met for that purpose. The driving age is 20 for public driving licenses and public works vehicles.
What happens if you already have an international license?
Article 37 of the Traffic Regulations Act excludes those who have international and foreign driving licenses from the driving test as long as it is effective. It is also possible for women visiting Saudi Arabia to drive with their international and foreign-recognized driving license for one year from the date of entry or until the expiry of their permit, whichever is earlier based on Article 42.
Can women from abroad rent a car and drive?
Women with international/GCC visas should be able to easily rent a car as long as their license is valid. “We accept international visas in all our branches as long as it is valid and the same goes for women,” said Hattan Madani, a customer service employee at Budget told Arab News. Note that not all car rentals provide this option: only Budget and Key for car rental. The rest insist that women must have a Saudi license.
How many will be registered to drive at first?
The auto industry has estimated that there are 9 million potential new customers in the Saudi female population who will be eligible to drive. According to the London-based consulting firm Facts Global Energy, about 6 million are expected to apply for a license.
Where do you go to get your driving license and what do the tests involve?
Step 1: Register through the "Abshar" portal, fill out the application form and pay the fees incurred in issuing the license, as well as pass the driving test.
Step 2: Pass the driving test on Qyadati.com.
Step 3: Schedule an appointment for the training program after paying the program fee from the previous website.
Step 4: Attend and take the theoretical training. The theoretical training consists of workshops and lectures of eight hours, the driving simulator for half an hour.
Step 5: Prepare for a practical training period consisting of 12 hours of training in the field, 11 hours in the city and highways and one hour for training and preparation to test for the license.
Step 6: Pass the test under the supervision of traffic police.
Where can you go to school to learn to drive?
Five Saudi universities have launched driving schools for women: Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University and Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Tabuk University and Taif University.
Effat University collaborated with Ford Motor Company to assist Saudi women gain the power of mobility by hosting a special “Driving Skills for Life" program.
Based on its award-winning global safe driving initiatives, DSFL has customized an introductory program which focuses on building women’s confidence behind the wheel, expanding their automotive knowledge, preparing them to take their driving lessons and instilling safe driving practices before they tackle public roads.
What do the the tests involve?
Upon the completion of the eight lectures, the basic information acquired by the trainee is tested through the theoretical test. Passing this test is a prerequisite for starting the next phase of training.
Then comes the simulator training, which is conducted using a device that simulates real car driving and consists of all the parts that make up a car interior such as the car seat, steering wheel, dashboard, power switch and safety belt. The passenger is surrounded with screens displaying a virtual reality that simulates a large number of scenarios that the driver may experience in different weather and geographic conditions. The device gives instructions to the passenger in an interactive manner and provides feedback on the driver's skill and also an explanation of the mistakes she made while driving.
The hands-on training begins in an enclosed field (yard) with no other cars. In this yard, the trainee acquires basic driving skills such as maneuvering the car, different types of parking and other basic driving skills.
The yard training consists of six hours of training. The trainee is then subjected to an applied test that measures the extent to which these aforementioned skills were acquired during yard training. In the event that the test was not passed, the trainee is required to go through a training hour for each skill that she did not pass before she starts the practical training on the roads. In the event of passing the yard test, the trainee begins training on actual roads.
What happens if you commit a traffic offense?
There is coordination between the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to use the girls’ care centers as detention centers in the event of a violation that requires arrest or detention.
Violators will also be publicized, according to the traffic regulations.
Having non-insured cars will be considered an offence stipulated in Paragraph (11) of Table (4) with a fine ranging between 100 and 150 riyals.
Were women ever permitted to drive in Saudi Arabia?
Historically, women in rural areas may have driven at one time. At institutes such as King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and Saudi Aramco, women have been issued permits by the special zone’s driving school.
The driving environment at KAUST is similar to that of European countries or the United States, according to Dr. Aala Abulfaraj, 37, who drives at KAUST, where she is a research scientist in molecular biology and immunology.
What are dealerships doing to attract female customers?
Major players in the auto industry such as Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, General Motors and United Motors Co., which between them boast the authorized rights to sell Toyota, Chevrolet, GMC, Chrysler, Dodge and Jeeps in the Kingdom, have ramped up their advertising and marketing campaigns. Along with establishing a call centre managed exclusively by women to handle finance options and general inquiries, Abdul Latin Jameel Motors, the Japanese group’s authorized Toyota distributor in Saudi Arabia, will be designating showroom lots run by all-female staff.


"The Infinite Landscape: Master Photographers from the UMMA Collection"
There’s no way of knowing when early morning mist may settle over Mount Baker in Washington in just the right way or when the Pacific waves will crash against the shore so the light reflects just so. The visibility of these natural occurrences may sometimes depend on the season and weather, but it always depends on the timing and the position of the viewer. For the photographer, visual memory is recorded within seconds. And sometimes, the immediacy of this form of art can yield an image even more breathtaking than the actual view itself. These images are on display at the University’s Museum of Art Off/Site location in the exhibit “The Infinite Landscape: Master Photographers from the UMMA Collection.” This will be the last exhibit at the Off/Site before the renovated museum on State Street reopens in the new year.
Fifty-five photos — by artists who are all recognized as masters at their craft — create a comprehensive presentation of 19th and 20th century landscapes on the gallery walls. Some of the photographs date back to the 1840s, when the earliest photographic processes were being invented. Ansel Adams, Paul Caponigro, Brett Weston and Minor White are among the featured artists whose photographs portray domestic and wilderness landscapes. There are specific photographs of places like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park and Niagara Falls, as well as photographs of broader rural settings including fields, lakes and homes from states such as West Virginia and Alabama.
“The nature of landscape in terms of art, science and the boundless quality of the physical world can feel infinite,” said Carole McNamara, Senior Curator of Western Art at UMMA.
Ultimately, the exhibit questions how man relates to his natural environment. Man is illustrated as a force in search of reconciliation with the natural world and when he is juxtaposed against the expansive backdrops of oceans and cliffs, his image is barely visible, small as a grain of salt, but still undeniably present.
And though almost all the photographs are absent of people, this still affects the way the artists perceive their surroundings.
People’s influence on nature is perhaps more evident in Michael Kenna’s photographs of sculpted bushes and tamed garden arrangements and Walker Evans’s domestic scenes of a school and a cluster of houses by a graveyard. While people may not appear in the photographs, signs of human life still exist.
When the photographer engages with natural surroundings, he begins to understand where he may fit into this immense world. One can only wonder how awe-struck Ansel Adams felt as he stood watching the skinny white Aspens towering over him in Northern New Mexico, or how chilled Edward Jean Steichen must have felt as he captured the eerie 4 a.m. moonlight hitting a sculpture of Balzac, a 19th century French writer.
The temporality of not only the landscapes, but of the characteristics of places, is especially highlighted in the exhibit. The movement of water falling rapidly down the Gallatin River in Montana, although shown as continuous in William Jackson’s photograph, is also illustrated as unpredictable in where it will flow. After a shadow is cast upon the sand of Franco Fontana’s “Paessaggio Baia Delle Zagare,” deep greens and blues erupt over the entire body of water. The depiction of color is a reminder of how such scenes are always being repainted according to the movement of time.
The act of photographing natural habitats may serve to preserve the places we inhabit, as well as protecting our environment in an artistic sense. Because many of these landscapes are prone to physical changes, there is a sense of urgency in capturing them behind a lens. Such photographs make us aware that we may never see a rising tide or falling sun in the same way again.


The Beth Yeshurun Day School's "A Night Under the Stars" gala was a hot ticket, thanks to J.J. Watt. The annual event, chaired by Courtney Zubowski Haas and Dr. Eric Haas, along with Amy and Segev Zadok and BYDS development chair Amy Grinstein, sold a record 600 tickets in support of education and the volunteer efforts of the Houston Texans star.
Watt was the recipient of the Robin and Josh Berry Volunteer Award, which holds special meaning for him. It's named for the late parents of Willa, Aaron and Peter Berry, who attend BYDS. Watt has formed a close bond with the children, who were orphaned in 2011 when a head-on collision took the lives of Robin and Josh Berry, and left Aaron and Peter paralyzed from the waist down.
"He has sort of nurtured us in the same way that I've been nurtured before," Peter Berry told the audience as he and his siblings talked about their friendship with Watt. "He was looking to make an impact in our lives — and he succeeded."
“J.J. came to us in the hospital," Aaron Berry said. "He's coming over to our house, and he means it when he comes over. He actually tries to help us. He doesn't just come to look good," Peter Berry added.
Watt also supports after-school sports programs for middle school kids both in Texas and in Wisconsin, his home state, through his Justin J. Watt Foundation.
Watt couldn’t be in attendance, so his parents John and Connie Watt accepted the award on his behalf. “"It's awesome," John Watt said. "I know when J.J. first met them after the accident, he created an instant bond with them. He called us after that first meeting and just said what special kids they were. It's something that just really touched his heart."
Also honored at the gala were Diane and Alan Levin for their commitment to the BYDS mission.
Decorations by Bergner Johnson that included blue twinkling lights from the ceiling of the school auditorium and dimly lit lamps on the tables were elegantly subdued. But the atmosphere was fully charged, thanks to the Bellaire High School marching band, which took a turn around the auditorium playing rousing tunes.
Also amping up the energy were ABC 13 Eyewitness News This Morning anchor Tom Koch, who served as the evening’s emcee, and KHOU 11 News This Morning meteorologist Chita Johnson, who hosted the silent auction and big board.
Among those enjoying the evening's festivities were Dror and Helen Zadok, Katie McCall and David Noll, Rabbi Brian and Lisa Strauss, Dr. Mindy Fein, Michelle and Jonathan Zadok, Amy Zadok and Segev Zadok, Paul and Randi Zubowski, Suzy Simons, Simone and Matt Berry, Monsour Taghdisi and Henry Richardson, Lane Craft, Reid and Anissa Friedman and Dean Zubowski.


Truly the teenage girls of Britain are enjoying a golden period of pop festivity. As Justin Bieber is still precipitating a squally front amongst his tweenie fans across UK arenas, their older sisters are getting their share of caffeinated screaming in to salute the arrival of Katy Perry. Yet, while the Canadian heart-throb is filling arenas with his mere pint-size presence, kooky American Perry is giving infinitely more bang for her fans’ bucks.
Her California Dreams tour is less of a pop concert and more of a megawatt jukebox musical. Aesthetically borrowing from Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Perry performs on a stage littered with giant fairy cakes and lollipops and threads her songs together with a film story that involves ogreish butchers, lost cats, dodgy brownies and the quest for a handsome baker boy. Along the way Perry changes costumes more often than Mr Benn, often on stage, and sometimes several times during the course of one song. The effect is dazzling but strangely exhausting – I haven’t felt this tired since watching the musical version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
The David LaChapelle high-kitsch aesthetic is perfect for Perry whose doe-eyed cuteness makes her look like a Japanese anime character come-to-life and as a performer, she seems to share more in common with old-style comic actresses like Lucille Ball rather than street-cool pop contemporaries like Rihanna. The 26-year-old has a solid, muscular voice, well suited to the soft-rock operatics of her breakthrough hit I Kissed a Girl but exposed on a cover of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody as lacking delicacy or suppleness.
Perry is a charming hostess though, sharing her love of British TV like My Big Fat Gipsy Wedding and The Only Way is Essex, picked up from her husband, comedian Russell Brand, and even extorting the audience to listen to Morrissey and the Cure. But just as Perry comes across as more Barbara Windsor than Betty Page, so her adoring audience, when invited to invade the stage, turn out to be much younger than the tone of Perry’s more adult references suggest.
The glitz and glamour of her show does however, paper over the lack of range in Perry’s songs, with most of her latest hits rammed into the finale. Belting out her biggest song with a chorus line of high-kicking ginger bread men, Firework seems to sum up Perry pretty well- colourfully entertaining in the moment but doesn’t leave much of a trace.


Mahikeng - As Heritage month draws to a close, celebrations continue with the honouring of legends of traditional music and African culture at the South African Traditional Music Achievement (Satma) Awards.
On Friday, all roads led to the awards, to be held at the Mmabatho Convention Centre in the North West Province.
Although underfunded, the Satmas have injected R13 million into the North West economy, according to organizers.
Running in it’s 13th year, the Satmas use a different theme to ensure youth engagement and involvement.
Held under the theme: “Embracing your Heritage”, hundreds of South African traditional music lovers will be entertained by award-winning Musicians Sjava and Afro-pop group Mafikizolo.
In embracing heritage, his Majesty King Hinsta (of the Xhosa Kingdom), Ukhozi FM DJ Khathide Ngobe, Rex Rabanye, Sol Plaatje alongside three other legends from the North West province will also be honoured at the main event taking place on Saturday.
The Star will be reporting live on the red carpet and awards.
To follow the awards, follow @ReporterStar.


The other night, I had a strange dream. I was back in college, toting books from classroom to classroom. But in this particular dream, my baby girl was also with me, and I was desperately looking — to no avail — for a private space to nurse her between classes.
The dream reminded me that motherhood often closes certain doors, and is extremely difficult in certain spaces. Its time constraints and responsibilities can make it difficult to pursue certain careers, or to procure certain degrees. But many women want to break down these barriers, and find the means to pursue higher education while still embracing motherhood.
If only it were easier for them to do so. But we've made it nearly impossible for mothers to pursue higher education in the U.S. while their kids are still at home.
At a recent United Nations event, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that more educated women would not choose to have large families: "Present me the woman who decided, being perfectly educated, to have seven, eight, or nine children," he said.
In response he should have seen coming, highly educated women from around the world posted pictures of their many children, using the hashtag #PostcardsForMacron. The existence of these women does not mean that having seven or eight children is common amongst the world's most educated. But these pictures and stories posit that, in a best-case scenario, women would not have to choose between having children — be that one child or seven — and getting an education. As one Twitter user put it: "Show me a woman who wants to be forced to choose between being educated and having children … Why can't we support women who want to do both?"
I know the challenges of pursuing a career while simultaneously nurturing a family. My daughters make me a better writer. They also make writing a lot harder. Funding my own maternity leave, procuring child care during busy seasons, and trying to figure out a means to return to school at some point are difficulties I've grappled with in just the last few months. Thankfully, technology and increasing opportunities to work from home have made it possible for me to walk this rather difficult path. And I am thankful for the opportunity. But many times, I've been reminded how much easier it would be to do one or the other — pursue a writing career and a grad degree without kids, or enjoy my adorable kids without worrying about work projects and deadlines.
I don't think everyone should have to do both, if they don't want to. Being a stay-at-home parent is a noble vocation, and usually a full-time job. Often, parents have to divide and conquer in order to meet the needs of their families — and that may mean they have fewer educational opportunities. In the Washington, D.C., metro area, child-care costs are often exorbitantly expensive — which means that, unless your salary is significant, the numbers often just don't add up to go back to work, or back to school. But I wonder whether more people would embrace the difficulty if they were empowered to do so through increased societal support.
Support for parents is not just for those who are trying to choose between children and a Ph.D., after all. It is also important for those who already have children and need better opportunities to provide for them. For the single or impoverished parent, continued educational opportunities are incredibly important.
According to U.S. News, more than a quarter of undergraduates — 4.8 million students — are raising a dependent. These people need better support. How could a pro-life, pro-family society help care for these parents? How can we increase access to education for them?
One of the greatest frustrations for a young mom seeking a degree are the numerous barriers of entry for parents, including child care. While an increasing number of colleges and universities offer some form of on-campus daycare, even subsidized child care often comes with a waitlist and a price tag. This year, Congress put more funds toward the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program — which provides government subsidies toward college and university child-care programs — increasing its annual funding $15 million to $50 million. While some say this is only a drop in the bucket compared to students' need, it does present a hopeful increase in awareness of that need.
We also must embrace breastfeeding and make it easier to do in public spaces. While many colleges and universities are working to increase the accessibility of nursing and lactation spaces, there's still work to be done, Robin Hoecker notes for HuffPost: "Despite existing laws requiring lactation spaces and pregnancy accommodations, the vagueness of these statutes, coupled with the grey area of graduate students' status as employees, makes these laws difficult to enforce. This ultimately makes universities less accessible and desirable for women who don't want to, and shouldn't have to, choose between motherhood and academia."
Extra time and flexibility are also an important boon to mothers trying to pursue higher education. Catherine Pakaluk, the woman who started #PostcardsforMacron, noted on Twitter that it took her 12 years to complete graduate school: "While that may be normal in some fields, it's really not normal in economics where 6 years is closer to standard. Grateful for a doctoral committee that let me take my time." Schools should consider setting different standards for undergrad and graduate parents, considering the extra responsibilities they bear.
High fertility rates are not the product of a lack of education. But the two — an education, and multiple children — can often feel mutually exclusive. Many brilliant women out there choose children over a degree, because they see their children as the best investment of their time and talents. Their motherhood is not the result of ignorance — far from it. They've seen the value of life, and embraced it, even if it means fewer educational opportunities.
But if we can help those brilliant women choose both — if they want to do so — we should. Because children are a gift — to the Ph.D. student as well as the stay-at-home mom.


With Carl Icahn exploring othermeans of communicating, Twitter will not be profitable until at least 2015. Of course, it will be profitable, especially if you are Goldman Sachs or can get in on the ground floor, one former Twitter user says.
“It is my view that Twitter’s shares will likely double in the first month of trading — or maybe sooner,” Mr. Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management Inc., said in an email….


Tim Baggett, Arlington Parks and Recreation’s athletic sports manager, started the kickball league in 2012, thinking the city’s residents might get a kick out of playing a sport that’s a mainstay of elementary schools. He was right. These days, there’s 20 teams in the summer league. Arlington also offers adult kickball in the fall and spring.
On a hot Tuesday evening in mid-June, a team called The Blue Crew took on a team called Rojo Caliente. Both were from Gospel City. The Blue Crew comprised members of the church’s youth group, while Rojo Caliente was made up of adults. And on this night, the grown-ups got the better of the teens, winning 5-1.
Arlington’s Caleb Carter was honored as District 4-6A’s Defensive MVP, while Bowie’s Josh Llamas took Freshman of the Year and Arlington’s Michael Baumann was Newcomer of the Year.
Pitchers Eric Walker (Martin), Tanner McCaskey (Arlington) and Nick Johnson (Bowie) were all first-teamers.
Jose Guitierrez (Lamar) was named first-team first baseman, Cade Varrichio (Bowie) was the first-team shortstop, Shaughn Kelly (Lamar) was the first-team utility player and outfielders Wesley Powell (Lamar) and Jacob Dominguez (Bowie) were also first-team selections.


My apologies to Kenny Rogers, anyone who isn’t familiar with the song, "The Gambler," and anyone who doesn’t believe that 1970s country music isn’t made of pure melodic and lyrical gold. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one.
The other day, "The Gambler" popped into my head about the same time I was feeling the stresses of parenthood. And while there are stresses of parenthood at every age (let’s not even talk about napping or learning to eat broccoli), now that my kids are older there is a constant struggle in my life of wanting to make sure they are well taken care of and also letting them explore so they can make their own mistakes … and learn how to fix them. It’s the helicopter parent vs. the bad mom. And it’s brutal.
You've got to know when to hold 'em / Know when to fold 'em / Know when to walk away / And know when to run / You never count your money / When you're sittin' at the table / There'll be time enough for countin' / When the dealin's done.
And as I was singing the song and folding my laundry or whatever I was doing, it hit me. The Gambler wasn’t just giving some old drunk guy a life lesson, he was also talking to me! Except I’m not playing poker, I’m raising children, who will eventually turn into adults and will all their lives be human beings who have the potential to do good things for the world and, hopefully, not end up on a train, passing out alcohol to strange men in poker games.
Kids. You’ve got to know when to hold them — to protect them from mistakes you’ve learned the hard way. You’ve got to know when to fold them — to choose your battles, to let them go sometimes. Know when to walk away — to let them learn things on their own, to fumble through growing pains. Know when to run — well let’s face it, sometimes we all just want to run away now and then! You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table — hovering parents don’t make anyone happy. They’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done — If you’ve done your job, and done it well, someday you can count your blessings while you watch them grow.
Call me crazy, but I’m gonna call that the ace I can keep.


Gainsborough & District Primary Schools’ Sports Association held their annual seven-a-side girls football competition in partnership with the English Schools’ Football Association.
With four teams all containing some girls who play competitive weekend football in the local area; Lea, Benjamin Adlard, Charles Baines and winners for the last six years in a row, Parish, the expectations were set for a great evening of football.
The games of seven minutes each way, under the TGA floodlights, gave the girls plenty of time to show off their impressive skills.
The four teams played each other in a round robin competition to see which team would lift the much sort after trophy! The football was of a really high quality and shows how girls football in the area has come on leaps and bounds.
Finally the results were announced, Benjamin Adlard and Lea were commended on their performances before Charles Baines were presented with medals for coming second. The trophy and winners medals went to Parish who had won all three of their games, conceding one goal all evening.
Thanks were given by organiser, referee and Parish teacher John Anderson to the other referee Cheryl Smith, the schools involved, footballers, spectators and TGA for the use of the astro-turf.
Parish now go through to the Lincolnshire Finals in Skegness at the end of January 2019 to represent the Gainsborough area. It will not be the end of schools’ football for some of the girls from the other schools’ teams either, as a number of the players on show impressed the watching coaches and will be selected to attend individual trials in February next year.
From these trials a Gainsborough Girls representative football team will be chosen again to play in a national competition in Sheffield in March 2019.
Parish also took the opportunity to travel to Lincoln to take part in the North of Lincoln tournament straight after their latest success. The standard was even higher for this tournament and although they started slowly they began to play better football and finished a very creditable 3rd place.


This report was extracted from "Middle Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Studies: Volume II. Chemical and Biological Benchmark Studies", the final report to the Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Department of Interior, prepared by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science under Contract No. 08550-CT-5-42. References to other chapters and appendices of the complete report have been left intact in this extract.


STARSPORT reveals the latest transfer news and gossip from across the globe.
Chelsea have appointed Guus Hiddink as their temporary manager.
"Chelsea Football Club can confirm Guus Hiddink has been appointed first-team manager until the end of the season," a statement on their official website read.
"The owner and the Board welcome back a coach with a wealth of top-level experience and success, including his previous spell with the club in 2009 when we lifted the FA Cup.
"Mr Abramovich and the Board believe that Guus has what it takes to get the best out of our talented squad."
Meanwhile, Manchester United managerial target Pep Guardiola has revealed he will announce his future plans after Bayern Munich's Bundesliga clash against Hannover.
talkSPORT quote the former Barcelona boss as saying: "Kalle knows absolutely everything.
And finally, Porto midfielder Ruben Neves has dealt Arsenal a blow by revealing that he could spend the duration of his career at the Estadio Dragao.
"Yes, it's possible that I will end my career at FC Porto," the 18-year-old is quoted by Goal as saying.
"I'm happy at the club and I'm focused on improving every day to reach my goals, which include winning titles with FC Porto, my favourite club."


Face-off - Sarkozy's 'mea culpa': A gambit for the 2017 election?
Three and a half years after his defeat in the 2012 presidential elections and with little more than a year to go before the next elections, French opposition leader and former president Nicolas Sarkozy has admitted to mistakes and "regrets" over his time in power in a new book, “La France pour la vie”. But is this a desperate move to salvage his chances for the upcoming presidential race or a sincere assessment of his achievements and failures during his five-year term?