Javier Bardem has never played an investigative reporter in his many dramatic films.
But the Spanish Oscar winner turns into a real-life journalist for Sons of the Clouds: The Last Colony, the refugee-crisis documentary he brought to TIFF 2012. He’s involved because he’s frustrated by a lack of clarity and action by global governments and the United Nations.
Forced to live in refugee camps or on Moroccan-occupied lands for decades, the Sahrawi remain peaceful due to their highly honourable culture, says Bardem.
Together with director Alvaro Longoria, Bardem uses his celebrity spotlight to probe deeply into the epic tragedy and scandal that has hundreds of thousands of people in the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, living as the impoverished hostages of failed politics.
These people, known as Sahrawi, have for decades been forced to live in refugee camps or on Moroccan-occupied lands, because the world doesn’t know how to deal with Morocco’s illegal territorial ambitions.
Neighbouring Morocco seized control of the Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain quit the territory, but it hasn’t abided by a United Nations order in 2000 that a referendum be held to allow Sahrawi self-determination and possible independence from Morocco.
The UN has done nothing to enforce its ruling. Meanwhile, governments in Spain, France and the U.S. have been foot-dragging, reluctant to rock the boat with their allies in Morocco. In the film, Bardem and Longoria are seen trying to pry answers and commitments out of politicians, including Moroccan ones, getting mostly evasive answers or no answers at all.
“We were very affected by how much rejection we had from people who should be there talking about it and giving their opinion,” Bardem said.
Q: How many Sahrawi are there?
Longoria: They're split between the occupied territories, which they consider to be 150,000, and the refugee camps, which is around 200,000. But there's no official figure about how many Sahrawis there are.
Q: Why is so little known about the plight of the Sahrawi?
Bardem: It's little known because they basically are peaceful. In Spain it's well known because we have this historical responsibility with them, a moral responsibility with them, but out of Spain it's not well known beyond the political forums.
It’s a good example of a solution that should be an easy solution, that could be fixed. Not easily, because nothing is easy. But it is not that complicated because they have the law and the truth on their side. And it doesn't get fixed because of economic interest and geostrategy interests and the backup of the United States and France and Spain also.
Q: You say in the film that Spaniards would react much more strongly than the Sahrawi do, if they were in the same situation. Why have the Sahrawi accepted their plight so peacefully?
B: I don’t know, but they have that in their own nature. It's something when you go to the refugee camps and talk to them and see how they react. They are like that. I don't know the reason.
L: Well, maybe it's a position where the culture is a very honourable culture, no? They believe the right thing will happen and they're trying to prove it can be like that. If they go back to war, they're very few. It would be a disaster. They would be destroyed.
B: The thing is new generations are rising, as we say in the movie. People have been born in refugee camps and they are getting tired of that. It will be a bloodbath if that happens.
Q. There’s a hopeful note at the end of the film that the U.S. and the UN are going to try to use sanctions against Morocco to try to get some action. Are you hopeful that the tide is turning?
B: Well, I think it’s come to a point, this very moment, where things should be taken seriously by people who can really make a difference about it … Because otherwise, it will be one of the tales that happen every day in the news, where people are killed and bombed and destroyed (by terrorism).


A treat for those who have never been able to ascend to the dizzy heights of the Parish Church Tower. We have views covering all four sides of the tower. The netting is there to prevent birds getting inside.
On a clear day the uninterrupted view from all sides is stunning and it does show how elevated the church is. We all know the tower from the outside, these images give you a peak at the inside and the inside out. Can you spot your house?
The photos were taken during the 2014 Summer Fete.


"They've got the TV on (inside Craig's office)," he said. "He's got his Spuddy Buddy (Idaho potato doll) on the credenza when you walk in, and a ceramic potato full of those Idaho pins. There have been a number of Craig people, at least four staffers, who have gone out and come back with vanilla and chocolate swirl soft ice cream. They've been fueled by soft swirl ice cream this afternoon."
When one young staffer walked by, the reporters grilled her. She just smiled and walked on, taking another bite of her ice cream.
Meanwhile, official Senate business continued. One man came to the office with what looked like an official photograph. Another wandered the halls with big canvas bags that said Florida Orange juice.
"I didn't see him stop by Craig's office," Popkey said.
Craig mentioned the value of his seniority in his statement Thursday as a key reason he decided to stay in office for the rest of his term. Some of that value can be seen in the Hart Office Building.
"He's around the corner from (Alaska Sen.) Ted Stevens and across the atrium from (Majority Leader) Harry Reid," Popkey said. "This is really prime office space. A couple of floors down, you can see the 'welcome back Johnson' signs, for Sen. Tim Johnson, who had a stroke."
People visiting their lawmaker's offices have paused to ask what's going on with the crowd. They stop and gasp, and they whisper, "Larry Craig."
The reporters — Popkey included — didn't even know if Craig was in this office, though. Others have staked out Craig's "hideaway" office in the U.S. Capitol. That's the official term for these small congressional spaces lawmakers use when they are between votes. Others are talking about staking out the yacht club where Craig lives when he's working in Washington, D.C.
Popkey has noticed there's a big difference in the way Idahoans view this and the way folks do in the nation's capitol.
"These are people with no stake in what happens," he said. "For them, it's another Britney Spears type of event. It's another celebrity behaving badly. These people don't have the stake that we all do."


Born July 12, 1926 in Los Angeles, Calif. Passed away on June 29, at the age of 82, in San Gabriel, Calif. A private family memorial service was held on July 12.
He is survived by nephew, Rick (Susan) Yamamoto; niece, Jayne (Ken) Sakoda; grandnephew, Brent (Jennifer) Yamamoto; and grandnieces, Lauren (Marc) Kanamori, Lynsey (Shaun) Moore, Joy (Dave) Sanchez; and great-grandnephew, Maxwell Kanamori.


With its blue globe, swooshed rings and a constellation of stars remarkably like NASA's, North Korea has proudly unveiled a new logo for its space agency to 'glorify' its stature as a global power.
But almost as soon as it was unveiled, the emblem was already threatening to bring dictator Kim Jong Un crashing back down to Earth.
Amid the fanfare, it has been quick to attract mocking criticism because its acronym NADA unfortunately translates as 'nothing' in Spanish.
That, cynics have pointed out, pretty much sums up the hermit nation's achievements in the space race to date.
North Korea has managed to launch just one satellite into space after several botched attempts and even that is thought to have malfunctioned while in orbit.
And while the logo has also been likened to NASA's iconic symbol - albeit a cartoon version - North Korea made no reference to its arch rivals when announcing the design.
Critics soon took to Twitter to mock the logo.
Felicity Morse said: 'Love that North Korea has not only ripped off Nasa's logo, but also called it Nada'.
The logo was released to mark the first anniversary of North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, according to The Korean Central News Agency.
It said the stars, which form the Great Bear constellation, were designed to 'glorify Kim Il Sung's and Kim Jong Il's (former rulers) Korea as a space power'.
It denied it was pursuing the 'weaponisation of outer space'.
In December 2012, Pyongyang finally launched a satellite - described as a 'dishwasher wrapped in tinfoil - after several botched attempts.
After 14 years of trying, hundreds of millions of pounds and repeated failures, the government claimed the mission was a huge success, but many believe it ended up simply tumbling out of control.
North Korea insists its space program is peaceful, but its long-range rocket program has generated international fears that it is getting closer to developing nuclear missiles capable of striking the U.S.


A contingent of 26 Godspeed Wings team members will run today in Carrollton, Ga., at the USA Track and Field Junior Olympic Cross Country National Championships.
The Godspeed Wings range from 10 to 18 years old and represent the Carson City, Douglas County, Lake Tahoe and Elko.
The Youth Boys team of Trevor Birba, Tyler Bourns, Martin Cerceo, Kyle Conroy, Ian Rice and Chad Shroy won the team title at the Region 14 championships three weeks ago in Pleasanton, Calif., but will be without key runner Justin Grant.
The Midget Boys team that took first in both the Pacific and region meets hopes to finish in the top five teams today. The team consists of Travis Airola, second at regionals; Patrick Reilly, fourth at regionals; Spencer Brinson, David King, Brendan Rice, Richard Shroy and Patrick Van Epps.
The Youth Girls team of Christa Casci, Tiffany Halen, Kelsey McClurg, Lauren Riersgard, and Taylor Stokes finished fifth at the regional meet and are looking to crack the top 10 today.
The Intermediate Girls team that placed second at both the Pacific regional meets will only have two of its original five: first-time national qualifier Britney Almaguer of Elko and Annie Brinson, who is coming back after breaking her arm in late October. Three-time All-American Sheena Bonaldi is out with a sacroiliac injury.
The Godspeed Wings will have one entry in both the Young Women and Men’s categories: South Tahoe High senior Hudson Wilvers and Douglas senior Taryn Joyce-Mendive will be vying for her second All-American award.
Anthony Stewart will compete in the Intermediate Boys race along with Ryan Woltz, both first-time Junior Olympic national qualifiers. Also running are Alli Collier and Katerina Von Rumpf, who placed third and fourth respectively in the regional Midget Girls age group.
Carson High senior Shanna Sparks will miss the trip to nationals after being diagnosed with a chronic infection this week. Sparks came down with strep throat 10 days before the Western Region Foot Locker Championships last Saturday, where she finished 25th in the elite girls race.


UPDATE March 7 4:12 PM EST: Attorney General Eric Holder sent a second letter to Senator Rand Paul on Thursday clarifying the administration’s views on the use of military force inside the United States.
Yes, the president does have the authority to use military force against American citizens on US soil—but only in “an extraordinary circumstance,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday.
Last month, Paul threatened to filibuster the nomination of John Brennan, Obama’s pick to head the CIA, “until he answers the question of whether or not the president can kill American citizens through the drone strike program on US soil.” Tuesday, Brennan told Paul that “the agency I have been nominated to lead does not conduct lethal operations inside the United States—nor does it have any authority to do so.” Brennan said that the Justice Department would answer Paul’s question about whether Americans could be targeted for lethal strikes on US soil.
This post has been edited to include Paul’s statement and the final line of Holder’s letter.


LAUREL, MS (WDAM) - For the first time ever, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit focusing on the work of Laurel native and world-renowned soprano Leontyne Price.
The exhibit, which opens on Tuesday, Jan. 29, features video of some of her performances at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as programs, costumes and other memorabilia.
“She’s had a long career and has been one of the most wonderful opera singers of all time in our country, so this was the time to do it,” said Tommie Rodgers, registrar with the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.
The exhibit runs through April 28.


You can only depreciate office furniture.
Depletion and depreciation are similar terms. Depletion is commonly referred to for the use of a resource, like coal, whereas depreciation means the use of an asset. However, both words perform the same function. You start off with the cost of an item and, over the life of that item, you have an expense to match its use. With furniture, you should use depreciation. The two most common depreciation forms are straight line depreciation and double declining depreciation.
Find the cost of the furniture, and estimate a useful life for the furniture and if you think it will have any value when you are done with it. The useful life is how long you reasonably expect the furniture to last. For example, assume you bought furniture for $500 and expect it to last for five years and it will be worth $50 at the end of the five years.
Subtract the value you estimate the furniture to be worth at the end of its useful life from the cost of the furniture. Then divide the difference by the useful life to depreciate the asset under straight line depreciation. In the example, $500 minus $50 equals $450. Then, $450 divided by five years equals $90 of depreciation a year.
Divide two by the useful life of the furniture and then multiply the result by current value of the furniture to calculate depreciation using the double declining depreciation method. The current value of the furniture is the cost of the furniture minus any accumulated depreciation. In the example, two divided by five years equals 0.4. Then, 0.4 times $500 equals $200 of depreciation for the year.
McBride, Carter. "How to Calculate Furniture Depletion." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/calculate-furniture-depletion-10012.html. Accessed 22 April 2019.


The present EMU Collections Department policy is to hold a student’s degree as hostage until the debt is paid in full. If a student has taken all of his required classes in his program of study and then must take his internship to finish his degree, the EMU Collections Department will not allow that student to complete his program by registering for his internship until he pays his debt. The only penalty which can be placed upon the EMU Collections Department for violating these Federal laws is to be sued in court.
Unfortunately, many Chapter 7 bankruptcy students are not in a financial position to hire and attorney to represent them in court and therefore feel pressured to pay the EMU Collections Department the money that they require. This “fresh start” that was intended to occur by the Federal Government has now been negated by an educational institution whose policy it is to exploit the poor for their own financial gain.
Students who attend EMU work hard in order to earn a college degree, thus hoping to improve the quality of their lives. The current policy of holding a degree hostage by refusing Chapter 7 bankruptcy students to complete their education until the debt is paid in full represents a gross injustice and must be changed.
Under the current policy, students who cannot afford the retainer fee to hire an attorney to represent them in court and cannot meet the financial requirements of the EMU Collections Department are forced to end their quest for a college degree. Under the current policy, Chapter 7 bankruptcy students cannot improve the quality of their lives. This policy fosters an environment where the poor get poorer.
The EMU Collections Department must rewrite their policy to abide by Federal bankruptcy laws. Discharging debt claimed by citizens in the bankruptcy process, just as credit card and healthcare institutions do, would ease the financial burden of students who leave the bankruptcy process to experience a new financial beginning. If it is the policy of EMU to see that their students work hard to earn a degree and become successful in life, then the proper motivation procedures must be in place.
It is the responsibility of the university to take the necessary steps to enact the proper changes to prevent itself from creating an environment which results in irreparable harm to a now highly respected and successful Eastern Michigan University.


League of Legends is rolling out something called “champion mastery” across the game’s many servers this week. It’s an experimental feature that sounds like it could scratch an itch that League players have felt for a long time: the desire to toy with their favorite characters in immediate, tangible ways.
The promise of the system—and the thing that makes it an exciting addition for League of Legends—is that it gives players more opportunities to assess their own performance and get a sense that they’re actually making progress in the game over time. The way League has worked so far, the game doesn’t give its players much of anything in that regard besides the overall level they’re able to achieve in the fiercely competitive ranked mode. Since it takes a long time to reach a level where you can even compete in ranked games (let alone compete effectively), it’s hard to stay motivated if you find yourself chugging along with a preferred champion or two for months on end. A new character-specific leveling system is a good way to help players overcome such moments of discouragement.
What other kinds of rewards are planned for the future?
We are going to see how people enjoy using the system and what they like about it before we finalize our future plans. We’d love feedback on this.
Will skins ever be a reward?
It’s not something we’re considering right now, but we are exploring other ideas for unique rewards we think you guys might like.
Many League players were either hoping or expecting that Riot would add some sort ability that allows them to unlock special skins or other aesthetic variations for their favorite characters once champion mastery. The pricy “chroma packs” that change the color of champions’ clothing seemed like an easy option—especially considering that Blizzard’s competing MOBA Heroes of the Storm already makes those sorts of color variations free in its character-leveling system. That, and the fact that many League of Legends players were upset that Riot had the audacity to charge five bucks a pop for something so seemingly simple in the first place.
It’s telling that Riot has shied away from tying anything so tangible as champion skins or skin colors—i.e., things they could charge money for—to a system meant to give players a better sense of how they’re progressing in the game. It will be interesting to see if the champion mastery’s crests and letter grades are enough to command players’ attention until other types of “unique rewards” show up.


View of One World Trade Center (left) and the Manhattan skyline looking south from the Empire State Building in New York.
NEW YORK - The richest Americans are increasing their ranks and putting the recession of 2008 and 2009 behind them, according to an annual study by the Chicago-based Spectrem Group.
Total millionaire households in the United States jumped to more than 9.6 million according to Spectrem, an increase of more than 600,000 over the previous year. That is the highest level since the research group started measuring in 2004.
Those who have more than US$5 million (S$6.3 million) grew to 1.24 million. The 2014 Affluent Market Insights Report aggregates monthly surveys by Spectrem that reach more than 12,000 investors in total.
The richest of these rich, or ultra-rich, who have more than US$25 million in investable assets (not including a primary residence), increased by 57 per cent through the end of 2013, and now number 132,000, up from 84,000 in 2008.
These people tend to be senior corporate executives, doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs, said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, adding that they are often significant job creators. The Boston Consulting Group previously calculated this segment (net worth from US$20 million to US$100 million) as controlling about $7.5 trillion in assets.
The ever-expanding critical mass of America's rich is significant when you "consider the amount of wealth they influence in the country," Walper said.
Assets that are invested in equities are making more Americans rich. In 2013, mass affluent clients, who have from US$100,000 to US$1 million, had 20 per cent of their portfolios in low-yielding bank deposit products, while the ultra high net worth segment had only 11 per cent in cash.
Of those surveyed, 60 per cent of rich households planned to invest more in equities during the next 12 months, compared with only 31 per cent among the mass affluent.
That supports data from the 2013 Fidelity Millionaire Outlook, published by Fidelity Investments. Fidelity found that high net worth individuals prefer to keep their holdings in the market, rather than in cash. Among those with more than US$5 million, 10 per cent planned to decrease their cash holdings, according to the Fidelity report.
The ultra-rich took advantage of not having to cash out of their investments during the recession. In fact, they invested during dips in the market and rode it up during in the last two years, said Spectrem's Walper.
The mass affluent, on the other hand, pulled back.
While the mass affluent typically consist of dual-income, professional families, they have hefty financial obligations like college tuition and housing expenses. "They were stressed the most, and have not recovered as quickly as the higher end,"Walper said.


Weight management sessions are being offered at Middlesbrough Council leisure centres to people who want to lose some weight and lead a healthier lifestyle.
The Balance Weight Management courses are aimed at enabling people to lose weight and keep it off with easy-to-learn eating habits.
The courses are run in eight-week blocks and sessions are being held at the Rainbow Leisure Centre (telephone 01642 592800 for more information), Southlands Leisure Centre (01642 300428), Neptune Centre (01642 230106), and Clairville (01642 246767).


As you may already know, British Airways already impresses when it comes to flying long-haul. Now, the airline is upping the stakes with its new Economy food offering. Those flying on a Middle East route in the World Traveller cabin will be happy to know that the airline has introduced a chicken in spicy Arabic sauce meal to get your tastebuds going.
Accompanying the meals are a starter such as couscous salad, Colcannon mash with seasonal vegetables side or tomato, farfalle and vegetable dish for non-meat eaters. Save room for the Pots & Co dessert which comes in salted caramel and chocolate mousse. Don't have much of a sweet tooth? There's always cheese and biscuits to look forward to.
You can experience the new dishes on Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia routes and it's all part of a catering roll-out from January 17 that adapts for each region and changes every six months. So China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea flights can enjoy chicken in spicy Cheng du sauce, while Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai travelers get to chow down on kathrikai milagu seeragam and channa dal.
With vegetarian dishes being a big hit in places like Bangalore and Dehli, those routes can look forward to acchari veg and dal palak. Think that sounds good? Wait until you see what's for breakfast; it's Chicken Congee for Far Eastern routes and the likes of Idli Shanna, Sambhar, upma and dosa for India.
Traveling can make you ravenous so it's also a good idea to save a few bits and bobs for later in the flight or after you disembark and the airline listened to passengers to found it a bit tricky to do so with their offerings.
"Our customers have also told us they want to be able to save some items for later in the flight, so we've replaced the water cup with a bottle of Highland Spring on the first meal, and added Graze snack boxes on our longest flights," Carolina Martinoli, British Airways' director of brand and customer experience, said. "We're also offering Magnum ice-creams on daylight flights from London and a Tuck Box on inbound and overnight flights."
A second meal or good-sized snack will be served on lengthy journeys; think a sandwich or pizza wrap. Chocolates and potato chips are available from the galley so passengers can help themselves, plus a hot English breakfast will be served on overnight flights so you won't go hungry.
Remember that you request a special meal anywhere up to 24 hours before the flight and you can preorder Gourmet Dining meals for an extra cost.


As young people, we are keyed into what's fair and not fair in our lives. We call things that are really unfair injustices. Youths in Racine have a history and pride in fighting against injustices and for a better world with Youth Empowered in the Struggle, a youth-led group that works for social justice.
Issues we have been involved in include fair and humane immigration reform, worker justice, the King holiday, school funding, the Student Bill of Rights and Get Out the Vote efforts in our community.
Our efforts have been attacked recently in the media, including talk radio, local newspapers and blogs. These bullies have devoted a lot of ink and airtime to covering "allegations" about our June 5 Get Out the Vote effort. We have been accused of being partisan, using taxpayer money and being manipulated by adults.
We find it extremely offensive and scary that some of our students were followed around by adults interrogating and taking pictures of us on election day June 5. We are shocked by the amount of media coverage devoted to claims that have no supporting evidence or officially filed complaints. In high school, we would call those rumors - and we want to set the record straight.
First, we as students decided to participate in the Get Out the Vote effort because our community historically has low voter turnout. Voting is power, and our community needs to gain power if we are to be heard.
We devoted countless hours to plan every aspect of the event with our Youth Empowered in the Struggle organizer. We decided to be nonpartisan because we believe adults in our community will vote for what's best for all of us. We have faith in our elders.
None of our signs, materials or van decorations included mention of any candidates whatsoever. We have beautiful pictures of the vans we decorated with messages such as "Vote today!" and "Make a difference."
Second, there was no taxpayer money or school contribution involved. We recruited our peers to participate, and the teachers we recruited as chaperons took a personal day to drive our vans as we went door to door. The idea that announcements were made in school every hour is simply not true.
Third, the areas where we knocked on doors are the lowest voter turnout wards in our city. We chose those areas based on voter turnout numbers, so it can be proven that these wards were chosen fairly. These are also the neighborhoods where most of our families live, and we care about them deeply.
If there is any manipulation taking place, it is being done by those who are painting our efforts as partisan and somehow shady. The same accusations have been made about every Get Out the Vote effort that Youth Empowered in the Struggle has undertaken since 2004. Are those making the accusations doing so because they don't want to see people in our communities vote? They obviously see us as being effective in promoting voting, which to me is just good citizenship.
We are proud to have knocked on over 8,100 doors and talked with over 3,600 people who committed to vote on June 5. Voter turnout in Racine increased 15.4% over the turnout in 2010.
Over 350 students gave their time on that day to increase involvement in our community. Students from Horlick, Case, Park and Walden planned the event for over a month, and many volunteered from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day. We know that our commitment is extraordinary, and we should be respected and encouraged for displaying leadership at our young age, not attacked.
We are thankful to our parents and teachers for supporting us in our community engagement and to our school district for respecting our right to do so. We have a right to do what we are doing and will continue to be leaders in empowering our communities.
Kennia Coronado is a student leader with Youth Empowered in the Struggle, a recent graduate of Racine Horlick High School and an incoming freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. YES is the student arm of Voces de la Frontera.


It's our ultimate summer beauty annoyance—here's how you can banish chapped lips forever.
The summer hair struggle is real.
Dry summer skin is no match for these amazing products.
Consider this your primer on primers.
With this so-simple weekend tutorial, you'll be embracing your inner Ariel in no time.
It's definitely our Spring hair inspiration.
Get ready to get organized.
Fight dryness AND experiment with a new Spring fragrance.
Because if you're not obsessed with Cookie Lyon, we don't know what to say to you.


Viper Comics acquires the rights to Inspector Gadget and Johnny Test.
Viper Comics has acquired the rights to Inspector Gadget and Johnny Test.
The publisher will release graphic novels based on the popular animated shows next year.
"We're ecstatic to have been granted the opportunity to give both of these characters the comic treatment. These are two awesome properties to add to our lineup of recently acquired licences," said Viper's Jessie Garza.
Developed by Jean Chalopin, Inspector Gadget was originally broadcast worldwide between 1983 and 1986. It follows the exploits of a dim-witted detective with various bionic gadgets built into his body.
Johnny Test is a Cartoon Network property based around an 11-year-old boy who often serves as a guinea pig for his genius twin sisters' scientific experiments.
Official release dates for the Viper graphic novels are yet to be announced.


City centre turns into battle zone as anti-government fighters target several locations.
Mohammad Atmar, the new minister of internal affairs, told journalists that seven of the attackers had been killed.
A ministry spokesman, Zemarai Bashery, added that two of the attackers had taken refuge in a building and had been killed.
Farhad Paiker, an Afghan journalist, told Al Jazeera that a suicide bomber had hit a shopping centre.
"A suicide bomber in a car came towards the foreign ministry. Security forces tried to stop it and it hit a shopping centre," he said.
"It is really chaotic in the area."
Later a car bomb exploded near another shopping centre, close to the education ministry.
A security source was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying that a suicide bomber had killed "several police and intelligence officials".
Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's Kabul producer, reporting about 200m from the scene of some of the fighting, said: "There are hundreds of Afghan army and police and intelligence officials present. Civilians have completely left the area.
"It is a big question mark how they [the fighters] got so close to the presidential palace."
David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent who was at the Serena Hotel around which some of the heaviest fighting took place, said: "We've heard four large explosions very close to the hotel."
"It is extraordinary that security has been breached to this extent," he said, adding that it showed the Taliban could act at will.
The Serena Hotel, which is frequented by foreign journalists, was reported to be on fire shortly after the attacks began.
Chater said there had been recent warnings that opposition fighters had hijacked six armoured cars and were planning an attack on the capital.
The attack appears to be the most co-ordinated offensive on the capital since the US-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban from power.
Afghan politicians insisted the Taliban attack held little significance.
"It does not mean the Taliban is strong. It means they cannot target military targets only the Afghan people. It means that they are weak," Mir Ahmed Joyenda, an Afghan parliamentarian, told Al Jazeera.
Even so, the attack comes at a sensitive time in Afghan politics with Karzai yet to finalise his cabinet after disputed elections.
Chater said that the strikes will bring into question the credibility of Karzai's authority and the military strategy in Afghanistan of Barack Obama, the US president.
The attack also comes ahead of the London Conference on Afghanistan hosted by the UK, UN and Afghanistan on January 28 on winning the conflict in the country.


"How would the world sound today had songbirds never existed? ...One may ask whether human music would have reached the heights it has, had the first songbird not sung in an Australian rainforest."
Songbirds originated in Australia millions of years ago, and from here they spread out across the world.
But even though evolution marched on, it doesn't mean that Australian bird calls are the most simple.
In fact, the variation of Australia's avian noises and the history of their songs has inspired two classically-trained musicians to pick up their 400-year-old instruments and jam with the birds.
LISTEN TO SIMONE AND MAGGIE SLATTERY TALK ABOUT THE POETRY OF BIRDS.
Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending, 1917.
"Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird?"
If you like nature and have some kids in your life, here is a short taste of a new ABC podcast called ABC Classic Kids.
PODCAST BONUS. Two women, armed with a pencil and a violin, take on the history of birdsong.


DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are happily married, but have one serious problem. Our sleeping habits are incompatible. I am an extremely light sleeper; he is a horrendous snorer.
He sees a snoring specialist and tried several medical treatments, none of which worked. The only solution is a minor surgical procedure. He doesn't want to have the surgery. He insists he "sleeps fine," and says I'm the one with the problem.
I have tried earplugs, white noise machines, sleep medications and more, but I cannot get a decent sleep with the obnoxious snoring. He stays up much later than I do, and I enjoy sleeping in our master bedroom until he comes to bed. I usually get driven out of the room by the noise.
We agree we don't want to sleep in separate rooms and lose the intimacy, but it's the only option for me to sleep well. Neither of us wants to give up the master bedroom because it's the only one with an attached bathroom.
Am I wrong for asking him to have surgery so we can share a bed? And if he won't, who should get the master bedroom?
DEAR SLEEPLESS: Let's be honest. By now your husband knows full well he doesn't "sleep fine." The reason for his reluctance is fear of the surgery. It wasn't wrong of you to ask, and out of consideration for you and the intimacy in your marriage he shouldn't have refused.
However, because he insists on coming into the master bedroom, which he knows wakes you, for the sake of your health, take the other bedroom. Understand, the "intimacy bed" does not always have to be the "sleeping bed." Good sleep quality is necessary for us to function properly.
DEAR ABBY: I have five grown children and three grandchildren. They have always come first, especially my grandchildren. When I began the relationship with my husband, I told him how important both were to me and that, no matter what, my grandchildren always came first. He agreed and said he felt the same way.
Now, two years into our marriage, my daughter and grandchildren want to come live with us for nine months while her husband is deployed. My husband is freaking out and keeps complaining every day even though they aren't even here yet. He has pushed me to my breaking point, and I am not sure what to do. I would never tell him that or act that way toward his children or grandchildren. I'm now considering divorce. What should I do?
DEAR FAMILY FIRST: I can't help but wonder how you would REALLY feel if the shoe was on the other foot. Would you be as accommodating as you expect him to be, or would you be panicking, too?
Remind your husband that this is what he agreed to before your marriage, and point out that this isn't forever. It will be for only nine months. Tell him it will be an opportunity for him to get to know the grandkids and vice versa. Who knows? He might even enjoy it.
If he's still unhappy after a reasonable period of time after they arrive, then it may be time to discuss separating. But don't jump the gun.


MONMOUTH — It’s time to get Sauced. It’s kind of a new theme hitting the Maple City area. There is now a Sauced Pub to pair with the Sauced Grub restaurant at 431 N. 11 St.
Sauced Grub officially opened Nov. 15, 2018, in the former Eagles Club building. There was no grand opening in a bitter winter that saw over 60 inches of snow in the Monmouth area (29 1/2 inches above normal) and the temperatures hitting minus 30.
Caldwell bought The Pizza Place, formerly Breadaux Pizza, in Monmouth a couple years ago.
But Caldwell felt he did not have enough space at The Pizza Place and that’s when he was able to buy 3 acres of land and the old Eagles Club — right across the street from Tombstone Bowl.
Caldwell has continued the wide-variety of pizza and calzones on the menu of Sauced Grub.
Cisco and his wife, Amanda (McManus), moved to Monmouth recently after living in the Denver area. Cisco is originally from Denver and has brought the popular “Den-Mex” flavor to Monmouth from his hometown, with a signature dish of green chili. Cisco lived in Colorado for 35 of his 38 years and it quickly shows with his popular street tacos, chimichangas and quesadillas.
Uniquely, right when customers walk in the door of the restaurant, they order their food at the front counter and pay for it. Then, they sit down at a table or booth. The order gets in quickly to the cooks in the back and the food makes its way to the table faster. Amanda helps take care of all this at the front of the restaurant and does whatever else needs to be done — cooks, cleans, preps.
Monmouth’s Craig and Wendy Twomey are two of the most loyal customers; already they have eaten there close to 15 times.
“Street tacos are our favorite, but we love it all,” Craig said.
Monmouth’s Mike Fry and Meghan Smith also ate at Sauced Grub earlier this week. They often order the nachos and the cheese sticks.
“I am a picky eater and they are very accommodating,” Meghan Smith said.
But of all the customers, Tammy Duff might be the most loyal of them all. Tammy takes her family to Sauced Grub to eat at least once a week, and sometimes even two to three times a week.
Caldwell is the sole owner of Sauced Pub, which is located in the same building. It’s in the original bar area of the old Eagles Club, but with a fresh coat of paint and updates to the stage and bar.
Caldwell has a ton of space outside that he owns behind the bar and it is loaded with potential. His main idea is an outside-bar area, which could be huge in the summertime when the nicer weather kicks in. Outside volleyball, horseshoes, a car show, bike nights, a flea market, wedding receptions and some big-name bands are some of his other ideas on his radar. And next football season, Caldwell could see some tailgating for Monmouth College football families before the 1 p.m. kickoff on Saturdays this fall.
Caldwell said he sees the outdoor volleyball starting up at the end of May or early part of June. He said the roof for the outdoor patio is scheduled to go on sometime this week and then the horseshoe pits will follow.
The 37-year-old Caldwell said the third and final part of his reconstruction phase — which would be after the outside area is up and running — would include a banquet/private party room for graduations and the option of bringing bigger bands inside the building if the weather is not decent.
Sometime in June, they are planning for a grand reopening for Sauced Grub and Sauced Pub.
• Saturday, May 4: Music by Bang’n Redhedz, 8 p.m. to midnight. No cover charge.
• Friday, May 24: Monmouth native Chuck Murphy will perform, 8-11 p.m. No cover.


The safety protocol used by healthcare workers to treat Ebola patients in Dallas wasn’t adequate because it didn’t require that all skin be covered, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
A Dallas nurse infected with the deadly virus after treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan probably contracted the disease through exposed skin, Fauci said on the “Fox News Sunday” program Sunday.
The protocol recommended by the World Health Organization “is best fitted for out in the field,” Fauci said. It was not designed for “very invasive-type procedures” in a hospital.
Fauci made the rounds of all five Sunday network talk shows after a week of heightened concern about the Ebola virus that has killed more than 4,500 people in west Africa and drew calls from U.S. lawmakers for a ban on travel to the U.S. from affected countries.
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have said the release of new guidelines for U.S. health-care workers is imminent.
The current CDC guidelines were modeled on WHO guidelines designed for treating patients in rural settings in poorer African countries where Ebola had been seen earlier, Fauci said. Conditions in U.S. medical centers are very different.
WHO officials didn’t immediately respond to e-mailed requests for comment.
Fauci said the U.S. should also provide more hospital staff advance training on treating the disease, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids. He also called for expanding the number of hospitals capable of treating Ebola patients.
“We want to make sure we have people who are pre- trained,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program Sunday.
New Ebola patients in Dallas, where two nurses were diagnosed with the disease, will be transferred to three top infectious-disease centers in the U.S., with a fourth center also available, Judge Clay Jenkins, the county’s top executive, said yesterday.
The Pentagon took a step toward providing more patient care in the U.S. by announcing the creation of a 30-person medical support team that will be trained to assist if needed in domestic Ebola cases.
The team of doctors and nurses will get a week of training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas and will then be available to deploy within the U.S. for 30 days, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the top Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement issued today. The team would not be used outside of the U.S., Kirby said.
Since the death of Duncan on Oct. 8, two nurses who treated him at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital have been diagnosed with Ebola. They are the only people so far with confirmed cases of Ebola transmission inside the U.S.
The first nurse, Amber Vinson, is receiving care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, while the second nurse, Nina Pham, has been admitted to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where Fauci works.
In addition to those two hospitals, St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana, and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston are also available to treat future patients, Jenkins said yesterday.
U.S. lawmakers have been divided, often along party lines, over whether to impose a travel ban on the west African countries most affected by the disease — Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
Senator Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said on NBC he favors suspending travel visas for affected countries “until we have this under better control.” By contrast, Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said on the same program that there’s “no medical consensus yet” on whether a travel ban would be good health policy.
Moreover, few people from affected countries are trying to get into the U.S., and screening at airports appears to be working, he said.
Of the 36,000 people who tried to leave the three west- African countries over the last two months, 77 were blocked because of health issues, Fauci said. Many were sick with malaria; none had Ebola.
Richard Umbdenstock, president and chief executive officer of the American Hospital Association, said hospitals have already been retraining workers.
Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United, the largest U.S. union representing registered nurses, said nurses had been asking for better equipment and procedures, such as hazmat suits, respirator masks and a “buddy system” to prevent the spread of the disease.
–With assistance from Greg Giroux in Washington, Chris Fournier in Ottawa and Harry R. Weber in Dallas.
It is demand that creates jobs. Without someone to buy what they are selling, corporations would not do anything.


Trump to global CEOs and financiers in Davos, Switzerland: “America is open for business.” We’re now a great place for you to make money. We’ve slashed taxes and regulations so you can make a bundle here.
Trump to ambitious young immigrants around the world, including those brought here as children: America is closed. We don’t want you. Forget that poem affixed to the Statue of Liberty about bringing us your poor yearning to breathe free. Don’t even try.
In Trump’s America, global capital is welcome, people aren’t.
Well, I have news for the so-called businessman. America was built by ambitious people from all over the world, not by global capital.
Global capital wants just one thing: A high return on its investment.
Global capital has no obligation to any country or community. If there’s another place around the world where taxes are lower and regulations laxer, global capital will move there at the speed of an electronic blip.
Global capital doesn’t care how it gets a high return. If it can get it by slashing wages, outsourcing to contract workers, polluting air and water, defrauding investors, or destroying communities, it will.
People are different. Once they’ve rooted somewhere, they generally stay put. They develop webs of connections and loyalties.
If they’re ambitious — and, let’s face it, the one characteristic that almost all immigrants to America have shared for more than two centuries is ambition — they develop skills, educate their kids, and contribute to their communities and their nation.
My great grandfather arrived in America from Ukraine. He was nineteen years old and penniless. What brought him here was his ambition. He built a business. He started a family.
Then he invited his brothers and sisters from Ukraine to join him. He put them up in his home and gave them some of his savings to start their own lives as Americans.
You may call it “chain migration,” Mr. Trump, but we used to call it “family reunification.” We believed it wasn’t just humane to allow members from abroad to join their loved ones here, but also good for the America. It made the nation stronger and more prosperous.
By the way, Mr. Trump, global capital doesn’t create jobs. Jobs are created when customers want more goods and services. Nobody invests in a business unless they expect consumers to buy what that business will produce. Those consumers include immigrants.
Consumers are also workers. The more productive they are and the better they’re paid, the more goods and services they buy — creating a virtuous circle of higher wages and more jobs.
They become more productive and better paid when they have access to good schools and universities, good health care, and well-maintained transportation systems linking them together.
This combination — people rooted in families and communities, supplemented by ambitious young immigrants, all aided by good education and infrastructure — made America the economic powerhouse it is today.
Along the way, regulations proved to be necessary guardrails. We protected the environment, prevented fraud, and tried to stop financial entities from gambling away everyone’s savings, because we came to see that capitalism without such guardrails is a mudslide.
We didn’t accomplish what we’ve achieved by cutting taxes and slashing regulations so global investors could make more money in America, while preventing ambitious immigrants from coming to our shores.
We raised taxes — especially on big corporations and wealthy individuals — in order to finance good schools, public universities, and infrastructure. We regulated business. And we welcomed immigrants and reunited families.
Global capital came our way not because we were a cheap place to do business but because we were fabulously productive and innovative place to do business.
Now Trump and his rich backers want to undo all this. No one should be surprised. When they look at the economy they only see money. They’ve made lots of it.
But the real economy is people. America should be open to ambitious people even if they’re dirt poor, like my great grandfather. It should also be open to their relations, whose family members here will give them a start.
It should invest in people, as it once did.
America didn’t become great by global capital seeking higher returns but by people from all over world seeking better lives. And global capital won’t make it great again.


You're welcome to dance like there's nobody watching. But you'd better write emails like your email provider is going to be hacked.
The Internet-era twist on the old maxim is the lesson that technology entrepreneur Greg Isenberg learned from the cyberattack that ravaged Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer network last month, sending thousands of sensitive email exchanges into the public domain as the studio, under threat, fretted over whether to release "The Interview."
Isenberg, who runs a popular video-watching app called 5by, lost control of his email account in June after a fraudulent message lured him to a malicious website resembling YouTube. The hacker reset Isenberg's PayPal password, drained his account and found his Social Security number in another email. Immediately after, Isenberg changed his passwords and turned on two-step authentication so someone would need to know his password and have his smartphone to log into his accounts.
The Sony breach spooked him again, though. He toughened up each of his key passwords to a Ft. Knox standard this time around, said Isenberg, a self-described "double-neurotic."
"I felt so burned in June and then sad with what happened to Sony," he said. "We take for granted that our data is all secure. It reminded us all that we're all subject to this."
The public airing of Sony's dirty email laundry — along with nearly 50,000 Social Security numbers, salary information and movies still under wraps — lifted paranoia about security across the business world.
Frank Mong, general manager of enterprise security solutions at Hewlett-Packard Co., called the breach a watershed moment: Sensitive Sony files being held hostage by hackers represent a new threat.
"That is concerning not just for the movie industry but for all industries within the U.S. economy or world economy," he said.
Cybersecurity experts say most companies will wait a couple of months for the post-breach chaos at Sony to settle before deciding whether their computer policies need modifying. But some executives see no reason to tarry.
David Angelo, founder and chairman of El Segundo advertising agency David & Goliath, has shifted his routines to let his lips do as much talking as possible instead of e-mailing. His simmering frustration with complicated email threads was bad enough; security concerns pushed him over the edge. Recently, he called together six people for a meeting rather than let one of those confusing electronic conversations weave on.
"The power of a company will always come down to the day-to-day interaction between people," Angelo said.
He'd been considering an "email etiquette forum" for his 200 employees early next year; the situation at Sony pushed him to follow through. Change will start at the top. Important company announcements won't be delivered via a medium Angelo sees as devoid of flavor, feeling and body language.
"Let's do it in person because when it's sent out in a companywide email you're not feeling the intent and passion of the top people in the company," he said.
The cyberattack is leading Hewlett-Packard to bulk up its training, using Sony as a case study, Mong said. The latest teachable moment for employees will push the old adage of "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it" in corporate correspondence.
"Now you have to operate under the mind-set that my email is not confidential," Mong said.
"We should all live with a little more paranoia when we do these things — ask, 'Is this really legitimate?' Should I really be clicking that?" he said.
To be sure, some vigilant companies said the Sony saga hasn't given them a reason to tighten the hatches any more than they already are.
Nadel Architects, the Los Angeles firm behind projects such as the lighted pylons that greet visitors to LAX, employs an encrypted system called Newforma to transfer renderings and blueprints to clients.
Outside cybersecurity services see an opportunity to sell new services in the Sony hacking's aftermath, but such upgrades can be "very costly," said Alex Gonzalez, the firm's information technology director. What happened to Sony, he said, isn't enough to change the math yet.
Still, the Sony headlines have helped boost cybersecurity stocks as analysts predict that worried corporations will seek the vendors' expertise. LifeLock, which monitors an individual's credit and identity information, has been among those outperforming the market, up about 4.7% on the New York Stock Exchange in the last month.
Employers often purchase LifeLock for employees or customers whose personal information is exposed in a leak. (Sony went with a competitor called AllClear ID.) But costs rise almost 50% if an employer waits until after a breach to sign up, said Eric Warbasse, LifeLock's senior director of financial services and breach response.
Unpreparedness could lead to additional liabilities. Last month, some U.S. Postal Service workers' unions filed a labor complaint alleging that the agency should have collectively bargained breach response, including the purchase of credit monitoring services.
Warbasse expects many companies to come calling once results of employees' lawsuits against Sony emerge and more details are revealed about the supposed culprits.
The allegation by federal authorities that North Korea spearheaded the Sony attack has drummed up discussions at some companies about whether retaliation tactics should be built into cyberattack response plans, according to security analysts.
It is illegal for the private companies battling attackers in the digital Wild West to "hack back." But many companies see the eye-for-an-eye approach as a means to stymie criminals, particularly if they sit abroad, where the legality of a retaliatory response is unclear and the chance of hackers being prosecuted is low.
Shawn Henry, whose cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Services has defended clients from about 70 hacker groups originating from at least seven countries, said someone could run their "fingers down the phone book and you would find a company running into this problem."
5by's Isenberg — and the almost three dozen companies contacted by The Times — declined to say what's included in the breach response plan of his small New York City operation or what alterations the Sony situation might spur.
But personally, he began using an app called LastPass to securely store his passwords. According to leaked internal files, several Sony employees had listed personal and corporate passwords in unencrypted documents on work computers.


or Musics of the World (Music 11).
Students should always consult an adviser when choosing courses. Please see Barbara Olivier or Julie L. McGilvray to petition for the minor once you have completed the requirements.
Requirement Checklists and departmental forms are under key information, at right.
Kerberos login is required to access the major and minor forms. Once you are logged in you will see the instructions.


PAULINE PELLEGRINO was expecting a big baby.
Ms. Pellegrino, a 37-year-old Leonia resident, said her doctor had estimated that her baby would weigh about 9 pounds. It was the day before Ms. Pellegrino's due date, and the baby showed no sign of being born soon. Big babies can often mean difficult deliveries and possible injury to both mother and child, so her doctor decided to try to induce labor with the drug Pitocin. It wasn't effective, so the dosage was increased, but then the baby's heartbeat became irregular; Ms. Pellegrino was then wheeled into the Englewood Hospital operating room for a swift Caesarean section. Her daughter weighed a normal 7 pounds 10 ounces.
Another day, another C-section in New Jersey.
New Jersey had the highest rate of C-sections in the country in 2003, 33.1 percent, according to recent preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md. The national rate is 27.6 percent, up 6 percent from 2002. While a few other states have rates of more than 30 percent, others, like Minnesota and Wisconsin, are in the low 20's. Nationally, the C-section rate has been growing since 1996, when they accounted for just 20.7 percent of all births.
New Jersey exemplifies many of the reasons C-sections are on the rise: the state has a large population of older mothers, and those women tend to have more risk factors during pregnancy, which leads to more C-sections. And with a vaginal birth, there is risk of damage to the muscles of the pelvic floor, which can lead to incontinence. There is also the growing number of women who opt for C-sections for the sake of convenience. And then there is the skyrocketing cost of malpractice liability insurance for obstetricians; many doctors fear being sued over the complications that can arise during vaginal childbirth and tend to recommend C-sections more quickly than in the past.
Birth rates for women over 30 are rising nationwide. New Jersey, however, ranks third in the rate of births to women over 35, according to government data for 2002. Older women are more likely to suffer from pregnancy-related hypertension or diabetes and to have problems during labor. They are also more likely to have multiple births because of fertility treatments. All those factors often lead to the operating table.
And once a woman has a C-section, she is more likely to need one for future deliveries. Attempting a vaginal birth after one Caesarean may cause a uterine rupture and subsequent brain damage to the baby, though the risk is small. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises that such a vaginal birth be tried only when a doctor and anesthesiologist are available to offer emergency care. That's a standard difficult for many smaller hospitals to meet. Hundreds of hospitals throughout the country have even banned such attempts at a vaginal birth.
The threat of a malpractice suit weighs particularly heavy on a New Jersey obstetrician deciding whether to recommend a C-section. Annual malpractice insurance rates for the state's obstetricians -- ranging generally from $92,000 to $128,000 a year -- are among the highest in the nation. And just one claim, settled or not, can almost double a premium. Obstetricians are sued more often than any other type of doctor.
C-sections do reduce the risk of unexpected stillbirths and birth complications for the baby like injuries and neurological impairment, all leading reasons for obstetrics claims. But more women still die during C-sections than during vaginal births. According to a study published by Obstetrics and Gynecology in August 2003, the risk of maternal deaths with a C-section birth was 35.9 per 100,000 live births and 9.2 per 100,000 by vaginal birth. Fetal monitoring has become more sophisticated, yet any questionable situation that precedes a less-than-perfect outcome -- even a slightly abnormal heartbeat -- is grounds for a lawsuit. As one obstetrical saying goes, "You never regret the C-sections you've done, only the ones you haven't."
"Because of a threat of professional liability, doctors are under the gun so much they're more apt to do a Caesarean section, even an elective one, if the patient wants it, after presenting the pros and cons," said Dr. Thomas F. Purdon, a recent past president of the college of obstetricians.
A vaginal birth is still generally safer, Dr. Purdon said, as did all the doctors interviewed for this article. But even one negative court judgment can boost insurance premiums so high that a doctor is forced to stop practicing, or to drop the "ob" from his or her ob-gyn shingle. In fact, almost 23 percent of ob-gyns working in New Jersey stopped doing obstetrics between 1999 and 2003 because of the threat of lawsuits, according to a recent survey by the college of obstetricians. Dr. Francine Sinofsky, president of the New Jersey Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, estimates that the number is now closer to 40 percent, including doctors who have moved out of state. The college of obstetricians has designated New Jersey 1 of 15 states where the cost of liability insurance threatens the availability of doctors to deliver babies.
More women are simply choosing to have C-sections, too. A study published in The British Medical Journal in November showed the rate of C-sections for no indicated medical reason rose by 67 percent between 1991 and 2001 in the United States. In a 2003 survey, Health Grades, a Lakewood, Colo., health care research company, found an increase of 20 percent in such operations from 1999 through 2001. New Jersey had the third-highest rate.
Mothers over 35 are more likely to have planned C-sections, the Health Grades study reported, possibly because they want more control over the birth process. More women are also being induced to labor now, sometimes to accommodate their own or doctors' schedules; inducing itself increases the possibility of a C-section. But a scheduled delivery has the benefit of preparation.
"I begged for a C-section with my twins," said Liz Newell, of Ridgewood, whose doctor eventually recommended a C-section for medical reasons. "With another child already at home, at least I could plan for the day."
Dr. Ruth Schulze, an ob-gyn practicing in Ridgewood and secretary of the Medical Society of New Jersey, said: "There are some very educated women who put forth their agenda. And if you can say you've appropriately counseled the person and they're requesting something, you had better do it. Because if you don't do that and you have a complication, you're going to come back and sue me."
Though doctors still debate it, an opinion from the college of obstetricians' ethics committee states that an elective C-section is medically ethical, provided that the patient wants it and the doctor feels it is in her best interest. But potential complications are grave. A Caesarean can cause infection, hemorrhaging and deep-vein blood clots. It carries a higher risk of death for the mother, and can lead to placental problems that can cause major bleeding or premature delivery in future births. Babies born by C-section are more likely to suffer from respiratory distress and need oxygen therapy, and a German study published this year indicated that children born by C-section are twice as likely to develop food allergies. And it takes six to eight weeks for the mother to recover from what is, after all, major abdominal surgery.
"It was really months before I felt normal again," said Elisha Charles, of Bloomingdale, who had a C-section with her first daughter. "I couldn't wear pants that put any pressure on my midsection."
Many advocates of vaginal birth say it is a meaningful rite of passage that's psychologically better for the mother. A range of studies show that women are more likely to have a negative perception of their delivery with either an elective or emergency C-section. Ms. Charles had a vaginal birth for her second baby, and said she preferred that experience.
The C-section "was more a matter of being robbed of the whole experience of giving birth," she said. "You kind of feel like your baby is taken."
Debra Pascali-Bonaro, founder and president of MotherLove, which is based in River Vale, said: "Giving birth naturally empowers women. You're going through this range of emotions, and at the moment you give birth these elevated oxytocin levels and endorphins give you this sense of euphoria and well-being and actually facilitate the bonding that needs to take place between mother and baby." Her company trains doulas, birth coaches who offer continuous emotional support as well as massage, counseling, therapeutic touch and postpartum help.
Yet outside of home birth, the state has no options for delivering in a nonmedical setting. The last independent birth center, the Childbirth Center in Englewood, can no longer accommodate on-site births because malpractice insurance became unaffordable, even without a single claim, said Lonnie Morris, the director of the center.
Hospitals are filling a small part of the gap with natural birth aids. Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood is constructing a new building, set to open this spring, that will included an expanded area for its Childbirth and Women's Wellness Center. The center has a self-described holistic environment for births, including a labor tub, and its staff includes certified nurse-midwives. Hackettstown Community Hospital's Childbirth Family Center began offering water births in 2000. Valley Hospital in Ridgewood has started a doula training program and encourages their participation in births, which studies show can lower the C-section rate by 10 to 15 percent.
"We wanted to be the compromise between the natural childbirth option and the high C-section rate," said Cindy Ferestien, the center's coordinator of parent education.
These efforts, though, will probably have little impact on the state's C-section rate, which will keep rising, doctors say. "As far back as I can track, the rates nationally have been going up, so maybe New Jersey is ahead of the curve," said Dr. Paul Stumpf, director of reproductive endocrinology at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and the college of obstetricians New Jersey section chairman. "At some point in time, it's got no further to go."


NEW YORK -- New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin said he turned into a common football fan enthralled by the performance of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick in Monday's game against the Redskins.
But come Sunday night it will be the Giants' (6-3) turn to deal with the versatile Vick in a showdown against the Eagles (6-3) in Philadelphia with the NFC East lead at stake.
"Let's see, 35-0, 12 plays for Washington," Coughlin told reporters at the Giants training complex on Wednesday when asked what he was thinking about watching Vick play. "Just what everybody else was — put the pencil down and become a fan."
Vick threw four touchdown passes and ran for two other scores as the Eagles soared to a 59-28 rout of Washington.
Coughlin said there are various approaches to take against the strong-armed quarterback, who is also one of the fastest runners in the game when he takes off from the pocket.
"You have to obviously try to contain and keep him inside and not let him outside," Coughlin said.
"There's all kinds of strategic things that you say you can do and you must do, but you have to time it up with the right circumstances, the right play, the right situation."
Contrasting with the explosive showing by the Eagles, the Giants are coming off a stunning upset by the Dallas Cowboys, who at 1-7 and playing under a new head coach ended New York's five-game winning streak with a 33-20 victory.
"We're taking it as a big game," Giants quarterback Eli Manning said about playing the Eagles. "This one game is not going to decide anything, and it's not going to ensure anyone is going to win the division.
"Obviously it's an important game when it's two teams who are 6-3 on Sunday night. And knowing that it's Philly week, and it's always a big game when you're playing the Philadelphia Eagles."
Before laying an egg against Dallas, the Giants were being talked up as possibly the best team in the NFC. Now the Eagles are getting the accolades off their Monday Night dominance.
"It never amazes you or maybe it always amazes you . . . the way they're talking about Philly this week, they were talking about us last week," Manning said.
"Either way, it can't go to your head, whether they're talking good or talking bad about you. It's what you do in your own preparation and getting ready to play, go out there, compete, and try to make the plays that are there."


Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.
Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as “Western education is sinful”), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group.
Other notable trouble spots include Egypt, where 600,000 Copts – more than the entire population of Manchester – have emigrated since the 1980s in the face of harassment or outright oppression.
Why is such a huge scourge chronically under-reported in the West? One result of this oversight is that the often inflated sense of victimhood felt by many Muslims has festered unchallenged. Take the fallout of last month’s protests around the world against the American film about the Prophet Mohammed. While most of the debate centred on the rule of law and the limits of free speech, almost nothing was said about how much more routinely Islamists insult Christians, almost always getting away with their provocations scot-free.
Innocence of Muslims, the production that spurred all the outrage, has been rightly dismissed as contemptible trash. What, though, of a website such as “Guardians of the Faith”, run by Salafist extremists in Cairo? Among many posts, it has carried an article entitled “Why Muslims are superior to Copts”. “Being a Muslim girl whose role models are the wives of the Prophet, who were required to wear the hijab, is better than being a Christian girl, whose role models are whores,” it declares. “Being a Muslim who fights to defend his honour and his faith is better than being a Christian who steals, rapes, and kills children.” Hateful messages breed hateful acts. Is it any surprise that mobs have set fire to one church after another across Egypt in recent years?
Who will help the likes of Malala?
The deeper truth masked by all the ranting – and, it should be added, by the blinkers of many Western secularists – is that Christians are targeted in greater numbers than any other faith group on earth. About 200 million church members (10 per cent of the global total) face discrimination or persecution: it just isn’t fashionable to say so. In 2010, I set out to write a chronicle of anti-Christian persecution on several continents. Published in my book, Christianophobia, the results of my research are even more disquieting than I expected.
Abu Hamza, the 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan and other totemic figures were allowed to practise their religion openly in Britain, yet there is scarcely a single country from Morocco to Pakistan in which Christians are fully free to worship without restriction. Muslims who convert to Christianity or other faiths in most of these societies face harsh penalties. There is now a high risk that the Churches will all but vanish from their biblical heartlands in the Middle East.
The suffering is no less acute elsewhere. Before East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, 100,000 Catholic non-combatants were killed by agents of the Suharto government between the 1970s and the 1990s. And a few months ago, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, officially announced that “it is necessary to destroy all the churches” on the Arabian Peninsula.
One reason why Western audiences hear so little about faith-based victimisation in the Muslim world is straightforward: young Christians in Europe and America do not become “radicalised”, and persecuted Christians tend not to respond with terrorist violence. This forbearance should of course be a source of pride in many respects, and would be an unqualified good if properly acknowledged. But it counts for much less in a climate where most of what is considered newsworthy has to involve tub-thumping or outright violence.
The problems faced by Christians are not by any means restricted to the Muslim world. Take India, where minorities – Muslims included – are menaced by Hindu extremists who consider the monotheistic traditions to be unwelcome imports, and resent Christian opposition to the caste system.
Between August and October of 2008, Hindu hardliners in the eastern state of Orissa murdered at least 90 people, displaced 50,000, and attacked 170 churches and chapels. This disaster was not unexceptional. The past four years have seen scores of assaults on churches and congregations in other parts of the country.
Elsewhere, the culprits include not only Communists, but also Buddhist nationalists in countries such as Burma and Sri Lanka. The scale of Communist intolerance is a matter of record. Curbs on freedom of worship in countries including China, Vietnam and Cuba are draconian and sometimes exceptionally sadistic.
Why does all this matter? One obvious answer is that faith isn’t going to go away. Whatever one’s view of the coherence of religious belief, it has become clear that secularisation has gone into reverse, partly through the spread of democracy. Three quarters of humanity now profess a religious creed; this figure is predicted to reach 80 per cent by mid-century.
The prospect should not surprise us. Atheism feeds off bad religion, especially fundamentalism, whose easily disposable, dogmatic certainties now form one of atheism’s main assets. On the other hand, it is much harder for non-belief to replace the imaginative richness of a mature religious commitment, and the corresponding assurance that life is worth living responsibly, because it has ultimate meaning.
But faith is like fire, to cite an analogy used by the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. It warms; but it can also burn. Along or near the 10th parallel north of the equator, between Nigeria and Indonesia and the Philippines, religious fervour and political unrest are reinforcing each other. This point should be granted even if one accepts religion’s status as an immense – perhaps the preeminent – source of social capital in existence.
On the positive side, faith-based conviction has mobilised millions to oppose authoritarian regimes, inaugurate democratic transitions, support human rights and relieve human suffering. In the 20th century, religious movements helped end colonial rule and usher in democracy in Latin America, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The challenge, then, at once simple and substantial, is to promote the peaceful messages at the heart of the world’s major faiths, while neutralising perversions of the core teachings.
Nothing I have said should be interpreted as encouraging a holier-than-thou attitude among Christians. Large parts of the Christian world were saturated with unsurpassed violence 70 or 100 years ago; and a British man, Thomas Aikenhead, was executed for blasphemy as recently as the turn of the 18th century. Innocence of Muslims was produced by a convicted criminal with a Coptic background.
Given Christianity’s evolution, there are grounds for thinking that Islam may change, too. Points of contact between the two traditions are at least as significant as the differences. When they are true to their guiding principles, both faiths insist on the sanctity of the person as a seeker of God. From this should follow a recognition of religious liberty as the first of human rights. Self-interest need not be erased from an apparently high-minded equation. Freedom of belief is the canary in the coalmine for liberty in general, and thus for the flourishing of a society.
It is vital to pursue these medium- and longer-term ambitions. They are critical to world peace. But promoting inter-faith ties should not displace attempts to tell the truth about the current plight of Christians – and to take action against a major injustice.


If you are a current Hajim student who is interested in learning more about optics, please feel free to contact Dustin Newman, Undergraduate Program Manager (dustin.newman@rochester.edu) to arrange a tour and meeting with key faculty and staff.
If you are high school student, we invite you to schedule a visit to the Institute. Feel free to contact the Undergraduate Program Manager to out the details.


However, as yet there’s no evidence of massive “tax flight,” as it’s been dubbed.
A study conducted for Controller Betty Yee by Stanford University concluded, “Migration is a very small component of changes in the number of California millionaires.
This year, Beacon Economics produced a study of migration patterns for the Next 10 foundation and concluded that while California had a net loss of 625,000 people between 2007 and 2014 in state-to-state moves, those most likely to leave are over the age of 25 and lack college educations, while the state had a net gain in college-educated movers.
Whether California’s highest-income residents stay or go is no small matter.
The state’s one-percenters, about 150,000 families, pay half of its income taxes and thus account for about a third of general fund revenue – a share that has climbed sharply in recent years.
While there’s only anecdotal movement of tax flight to date, it’s difficult to predict whether that will continue because conditions may soon change.
The 2012 tax-increase package was, as noted earlier, sold to voters as being temporary, and as such was not likely to spur a major change in behavior.
However, a coalition of pro-spending groups, led by the California Teachers Association, is pushing Proposition 55, which would extend the high-bracket surtaxes for an additional 12 years. And were it to pass, there’s every reason to believe that the same groups would seek to extend it further, perhaps permanently, when the time came, circa 2030.
Would making higher rates at least semi-permanent do what the temporary taxes apparently did not do – spur the wealthy to flee California in serious numbers?
It’s a question that no one can answer – yet.


The pockmarked road leading to Barangay (village) Pando inside Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province is as rough as the journey taken by farmers of the sugar estate who toiled for decades, awaiting the chance to own their land.
On Monday, that journey finally ended.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) handed the very first certificate of land ownership award (Cloa) covering a portion of Hacienda Luisita to 82-year-old Benigna Mañalac, who was glad she was living long enough to witness history in the making.
The DAR has processed Cloas for 6,212 beneficiaries inside the estate owned by the family of President Aquino.
Mañalac was joined by Feliciano Escaño, Rosenda Tobias and Evelyn Nicdao, who were among the first of around 600 beneficiaries from this remote corner of the hacienda in Concepcion town.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes led the Cloa distribution on Monday, which will proceed three times a week until everyone receives the certificates. The agency expects to complete the process on Oct. 18.
De los Reyes said the first Cloa released represented 390 hectares of the estate. Close to 4,100 ha in the 6,433-ha Hacienda Luisita are covered by land reform.
The certificates of 5,800 beneficiaries have been recorded by the register of deeds, making these private properties. The rest are still being processed by the register of deeds, pending some requirements, he said.
described the distribution as her happiest moment.
She has been unable to walk for the last 10 months due to a hip bone fracture, but she said she would make sure that her family’s land would be productive. The Cloa represented her claim and that of her late husband.
“I am old now, but I will let my children work on the farm,” she said.
Mañalac said she had worked at Hacienda Luisita all her life, pulling out weeds and planting cane every year in the fields. She retired at 65, having served as a general foreman for 16 years.
Seven members of the Mañalac family are agrarian reform beneficiaries and they opted for adjacent lots so they could farm these lands as a group.
For Escaño, 72, one of the first beneficiaries, the Cloa meant that he could tap other farm workers and form an association so they could pool resources and make the land productive.
He was glad that the government undertook soil tests, so he would be confident about the crops he intends to grow on these fields.
Tobias, 76, a widow with 10 children, could not hide her glee. Despite her retirement, she said she was confident that she could pay the monthly amortization for the piece of land she now owns.
Tobias receives a monthly social security pension, which, she said, was sufficient to cover the P61 monthly amortization and provide some capital for the vegetable and palay she would plant.
She said she just needed to cut down on her cigarettes to make the plan work. A pack costs P30 and she consumes a pack a day, she said.
In a DAR statement, the beneficiaries would pay about P75,000 for the 6,600 square meters of land given to each of them.
The agency expects to receive P61 each month for the first three years from the Cloa beneficiaries. On the fourth and fifth year of amortization, the beneficiaries are required to pay P118 each month.
From the sixth year until the 30th, the beneficiaries are required to pay P230 each month.
Like most villages inside the estate, some beneficiaries still need to address some concerns.
In Barangay Pando, large tracts of land have been leased out to sugar planters and that contractual agreement would be terminated only on the cropping period between 2014 and 2015.
Other areas there have also been rented out to citrus growers from Nueva Ecija province and the plants are still in their flowering stage.
It is precisely this reason, he said, why the “tambiolo” or raffle system was used in parceling out the property so the distribution would be fair.
Once the Cloa distribution is completed, De los Reyes said the next step for the agency would be to install boundary monuments “as soon as the land has been cleared of standing crops.” He said many of the fields were still planted with sugarcane.


SugarCRM's CEO proposes that there are two areas of the industry that need to change focus: you have to remember the users are individuals and the way people buy have changed.
NEW YORK -- Social media only amplifies the effects of customer relationship management -- a reality that many enterprises need to accept and build upon, according to SugarCRM CEO Larry Augustin.
"The industry is actually growing faster than projections," said Augustin while speaking at the opening keynote session of SugarCon 2013 at the Waldorf Astoria on Tuesday. He noted that a few years ago analysts were predicting annual spend growth rates of seven to eight percent, but results are actually hitting closer to 10 percent.
As the CRM industry stands now, Augustin cited that there are approximately 18 million users of commercial CRM with $22 billion dollars in annual spend.
Augustin concluded, "You can't drop the ball once now. You have to pay attention to every one of those interactions."
"We're in a vibrant, fast growing industry. Big numbers," Augustin summed up simply.
Globally, Augustin continued that there are roughly 3.6 billion email accounts with 18 million CRM users and 918 million corporate accounts.
He added that half of those accounts are customer-facing, rounding out to about 450 million people.
Augustin then proposed the following challenge for the CRM industry: For every one person using CRM today, there are 25 other people who face the customer and are not using CRM.
So why is there this gap?
Augustin argued that there are two areas of the industry that need to change focus: you have to remember the users are individuals and the way people buy have changed.
Previously, Augustin reflected that vendors could control the buying processing and messaging through marketing and advertising.
But that's just not the case anymore.
"Today, buyers don't just get information from the channels that vendors control," Augustin asserted. "They get information from their peers on the Internet. And when they come to us to buy, they're reaching out to us through multiple channels. Not just the ones we provide."
To reach those 450 million, Augustin posited that it boils down to answering three objectives: understanding the needs of every individual customer, empowering users to engage with their customers, and then delivering a consistent experience every time.
Augustin stressed that each customer matters, reminding keynote goers that it only takes one user with one YouTube video to go viral to make any kind of difference or splash.


The demo for Xbox One zombie game Dead Rising 3 is now available to download, according to Microsoft's Major Nelson.
Xbox Live gamertag Major Nelson is actually Larry Hryb, the director of programming for Xbox Live at Microsoft. He announced on Twitter that the Dead Rising 3 demo is available, and he noted on his blog that it had released on Friday the 13th, of course.
Gamers can download the Dead Rising 3 demo by going to the "New Game Demos" section of the Game Store. Developer Capcom Vancouver teased through Major Nelson's blog that it even hid goodies in the demo: "Definitely check out the map for where the blueprints are around Ingleton."
"We have some cool combos to try out and even a Super Combo weapon called the Ultimate Grim Reaper. It is a multiple blueprint find, and super deadly when you get the fully stacked version. Don’t forget, after you make it or other combos, you can always pull them back out of the locker in the Safehouse and have another run at it," Capcom Vancouver added.
The Dead Rising 3 demo is a free trial that allows interested gamers to explore the title for 20 minutes, though they can play it only twice per gamertag. The demo's release follows news from earlier this week about the overall lack of game demos for Xbox One.
Major Nelson addressed these concerns in the comments section of his blog on Monday, claiming it was up to game developers to publish demos for their own games. He added: "[sic] They'll be more demos for Xbox One as the platform goes forward."
Capcom Vancouver and publisher Microsoft Studios unveiled Dead Rising 3, a survival horror video game, during an Xbox One exclusive at Microsoft's E3 press conference in June, and then they released the game on 22 November as an Xbox One launch title.
Check out Pocket-lint's review of Dead Rising 3 if you want an in-depth look at what to expect. We described it is as great fun, because it definitely sets the new standard for zombie games, but there are some technical issues and less-than perfect visuals.


No-Smoking Laws Now Cover Half the U.S.
Thanks to passage of smokefree workplace legislation in Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio, more than half of all Americans will soon be protected by law from passive tobacco smoke.
According to a California-based group called Americans for Nonsmokers Rights (ANR), that will mark the first time more than half the country is covered.
In addition to local residents, travelers will be prime beneficiaries -- especially since Las Vegas and Phoenix are already top vacation destinations, baseball spring training is expanding westward, and the 2008 Super Bowl is already scheduled for Phoenix next February.
According to ANR executive director Cynthia Hallett, the year just passed was a historic one for nonsmoking travelers. She noted that Westin and Marriott hotels went smokefree, along with the cities of Washington and Chicago, and more than 100 new local smokefree laws were passed.
In addition, the Surgeon General of the United States issued a landmark ruling that branded as unsafe all levels of exposure to passive tobacco smoke. That statement included the caveat that ventilation systems are not viable alternatives to 100 per cent protection of nonsmokers.
Despite that report, however, gambling interests in Atlantic City and Las Vegas remain opposed to casino smoking bans and 30 states started the new year without statewide smoking protections in place.
Americans who travel overseas may soon find skies friendly even at ground level: the European Union is considering smokefree workplace legislation that would cover all member countries.
Smoking has already been banned or limited in several foreign countries, including France, Ireland, and Israel.


FROM the examination of the slants, size, spacing, speed, and pressure of your handwriting, these professionals can give you insight into your personality — knowledge that can serve you both professionally and in your personal life. They're called graphologists.
Related to the work of these pros is that of the forensic document examiner — the specialist with the ability to deduce the authenticity of documents.
Career & Education talks this week to Beverley East, one of the few people who practise in both fields. A graphologist and forensic document examiner for more than two decades, she is president of her own firm called Strokes and Slants.
With offices in Kingston as well as London and Washington, Strokes and Slants provides a wide range of services — from handwriting analysis for a variety of purposes, to forensic document exmination, to training.
East is, in fact, currently training members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force — one of her many clients — for the new Forensic Document Examination Division.
Her work recently blew the murder case involving the alleged leader of the Stone Crusher gang wide open as she proved that a dead eyewitness' statement had been falsified.
Meanwhile, East has in the past provided her services locally to companies such as Red Stripe, Jamaica National, Jamaica Money Market Brokers, First Global Bank, and a slew of law firms.
In the UK, her clients have included private investigators, the London Taxi Finance company and Alpha Omega Associates Limited, Legal and Judicial Law Services Limited, and the Queen Elizabeth Foundation for Disabled People.
In the United States, they have included the US Postal Service, Miller Brewing Company and several law firms.
Despite her success over the years, East is the first to admit that her journey has been long and characterised by hard work and dedication to perfecting her skills in both fields.
A graduate of Kingsway College in London where she studied languages — French, German and Italian — the graphologist also holds qualifications in marketing, public relations and advertising from the College of Distributive Trade. With a master's in graphology from the International Graphoanalysis Institute in Chicago, East is certified in questioned document examination (QDE) through the National Bureau for Questioned Document Examiners and lectures through the Forensic Document Examiners Inc.
She is also a member of the National Association of Document Examiners and the best-selling author of Finding Mr Write: A New Slant on Selecting the Perfect Mate and Reaper of Souls, a novel based on the 1957 Kendal train crash in Jamaica.
Who is a graphologist and/or forensic document examiner?
A graphologist is a person who analyses handwriting, identifying personality traits through an individual's handwriting. A forensic document examiner is a person who examines documents that are under question. These documents could be altered, typed, forged with a signature or disguised handwriting. Most common documents [include] wills and testament, cheques, insurance documents, medical records, time sheets, ransom notes, and other anonymous letters, etc. Graphology is stroke analysis [while] document examination is stroke comparison.
What is the value of the work that you do?
As a graphologist, my work assists many [to] understand more about themselves and persons they work with. Graphology is used often as a tool for the [employee] selection process, profiling with the police and psychological testing. The work I do as a document examiner assists those in fighting fraud and crime; assisting banks with training tellers, and police [and] individuals who may have been victims of identity theft or fraud within their own family or personal relationships.
What was it that prompted your entry into the field?
I was in working in London in human resources as a head hunter for a recruitment agency and they had a graphologist on staff to assist with personnel selection. I was chosen for my job based on my handwriting. When I found out, I wanted to see my report. I was astonished [at] how much of my personality was revealed and accurate — the good, the bad and the ugly. I wanted to know who did the report. I asked so many questions, the consultant suggested I study it. I originally began studying graphology to do my own job better, but the more I studied, the more I was fascinated and drawn to the subject and realised this was what I wanted to do full time. While studying my master's in graphology, certain aspects of forged signatures were revealed to me. After completion of my master's, I continued to study more on QDE (questioned document examination) by joining the National Bureau of Document Examiners and studied and apprenticed with the world-renowned Felix Klein. I am now a member of the National Association for Document Examiners.
What are the academic requirements for getting into the field?
You should have a first degree in a subject that is related, [whether] psychology, any area in criminology or social behaviour. However, you are accepted with degrees outside of these areas. [Of note is that] for most people in this field, it is a second career.
What other skills and/or competencies are required for entry into the field?
You really have to be patient, with a good eye for detail. The initial studying is tedious; the learning of both graphology and QDE is tedious because a lot of measuring has to be done at the beginning to arrive at the foundation for accuracy, your background has to be spotless, [and] a clean record as most of your past will come and haunt you as a QDE if you end up in the courtroom. No criminal record, not even a ticket for speeding, drugs or drunk-driving. The judge won't accept you as an expert if the opposition side finds something from your past. Just because you are qualified doesn't automatically mean you are qualified to testify in court. Each judge examines your capabilities different. I suggest to new recruits, hold back on going to court until you have a few years under your belt. I waited nine years before I testified. I did not want to be kicked out of court and then have it on record because I was inexperienced. Most Graphologists do not like this aspect of QDE and stay in the safe zone of Graphology.
What do you most enjoy about the work that you do?
Every case is different, intriguing. No two people write the same so every case is handled with a clean slate. I get to meet and work with a lot of interesting people. I find my work fascinating. I love training bank tellers and others interested in becoming examiners. I love examining documents. I love profiling people — an occupational hazard. I [also] enjoy giving presentations on handwriting analysis; it's fascinating and I usually have everyone on the edge of their seats.
What are the challenges you face on the job?
The challenges I face are: it is a closed network, an 'old boys club' (middle-aged white males — usually ex FBI agents); they really don't want you in. There are less than 1,000 qualified and practising questioned document examiners and qualified graphologists. Most of them live in the US and most of them work for the FBI or Scotland Yard. Being a woman — a black Caribbean woman — has been an upward climb, but I have not allowed it to deter me. My marketing background aided me to brand myself and my company. In both areas as a graphologist and document examiner, no one seems to really take you seriously. They think it's some kind of fortune-telling method that takes five minutes to do. When you establish fees, people are reluctant to pay. With several investigative TV shows, such as CSI, document examination has received a little more credibility. But it takes years to become a success. Those choosing this type of career need to be prepared to be in the trenches and slog a little. Unfortunately, everyone wants instant success.
Trained as a graphologist, with expertise as a forensic documentary examiner, what sort of employment options are open to you?
You have to create you own niche if you are self-employed. That is the hardest part of being self-employed. There are very few jobs available unless you [get into] law enforcement.
Why would you advise anyone to get into this line of work?
As a document examiner, it is challenging and rewarding work once you are established. Unfortunately, crime doesn't seem to go away so there is always plenty to do.