By Jim Donovan: As some homeowners impacted by Hurricane Sandy inspect and review damage to their homes, many expect that insurance will help them make necessary repairs.
While traditional home owner policies will normally cover wind and water damage from above, such as if a tree crashed onto your home and rain comes in. Those policies will not cover rising water, in those cases you needed to have purchased flood insurance in advance of the storm.
When filing an insurance claim due to storm damage, there are some things you need to do to move that claim along because timing is everything.
1. Contact your insurance company immediately ? give them a telephone number or address where you can be reached at all times.
2. Make temporary repairs to prevent more damage as a result your house being exposed to the elements.
3. Be sure to document the damage with photos or video before you do any repairs whether they be inside or outiside your home.
4. Make sure that you keep reciepts for everything you do.
5. Separate damaged from undamaged property. keep samples, (of fabric swatches and pieces of furniture) to offer proof of the claim.
6. If you haven?t been assigned an adjuster within a few days, contact your insurance company again. You?ll be asked to make a list of damaged or lost items for your adjuster.
7. Within 60 days you?ll need to file what?s known as a proof of loss. You?ll get the form from your adjuster. A proof of loss is a sworn statement that substantiates the claim and includes a detailed estimate to replace or repair the damage. Without it, the insurance company won?t make a payment.
But again document everything!
For telephone numbers to contact your insurance carrier visit: http://bit.ly/oxyotB
Medical research facility Cleveland Clinic and IBM are teaming up to develop ways to let supercomputer Watson become a useful tool for doctors. The machine's ability to analyze language and scour its database for answers is hoped to offer quicker and more exhaustive diagnoses for patients. As modern medical students spend less time memorizing diseases, they're focusing on learning how to think critically and navigate the huge amount of available data. Big Blue is also hoping that the Jeopardy champion will learn how to digest a person's medical records in order to match up their history with maladies. We're just nervous that someone will give Watson a telepresence robot and send him out onto the wards -- you'd be worried about his bedside manner if you've seen his ruthless quizzing manner.
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It was heartening to hear Bob Schultz say at the beginning of his interview with Frank Spotnitz that he?s been to many screenwriters? festivals and that The London Screenwriters Festival is one of the best festivals he?s ever seen. I happen to agree, even though LSF is actually the only screenwriters festival I?ve ever attended. The truth is that be it two people or six hundred there is something very special about a communion of screenwriters in a room, and while I?ve been blown away on a number of occasions this year, here in this room I feel that creative kinship stronger than ever. Perhaps because of the tone Frank uses when he speaks about not just his but our craft and shares the benefit of his experience with us.
A reporter, who?d been to film school Frank Spotnitz ended up, through a stumble of circumstance, working on the writer team for The X-Files second series, luck of sorts (along with his talent) played a part in getting him the job. He?d been at one time in a book club where Chris Carter was also a member, but they were not friends. However, when a friend of his from film school asked if he?d contact Chris to see if he?d look at his work, he agreed to make a call. The answer was no but Chris told him he?d be happy to read any of his work if he wanted. Frank took the opportunity, the work was good and happened to coincide with a couple of spots opening up on the writers team one of which he was given.
?We were really figuring it out as we went along, figuring out the mythology.? He says speaking of the way X-Files evolved in plot. He believes he probably wasn?t all that ready for the job he?d gotten in the writing room. ?I kept coming up with these mythology episodes that were unproduceable. I nearly got fired!? The room laughs but the scale of the writing had meant those episodes weren?t affordable within the budget for the show. When they figured out a way to pay for them, banking on audience figures rising if the show had more scale to offer, these scripts became tentpoles of the series. X-Files was the mini-move version of television.
It was the relationship between Mulder and Scully that fuelled the drama and some clever things were done with the scripting. Gender stereotypes were flipped in the two. Scully is the scientist and sceptic, and Mulder the intuitive believer. Almost inevitably each episode began with an unexplainable crime, the episodes then driven by Mulder and Scully?s arguments about what happened. The characters had contradictions within themselves too, with Scully the sceptic believing in God and Mulder who believed in all kinds of alien and paranormal phenomenon, everything but God, the idea of which he refused to entertain.
On the writing process Frank Spotnitz finds deadlines incredibly useful. The terror that you were writing an episode that would be made and aired for millions is a great motivator. Even the ickiest monster episode had ideas in it though that helped you make sense of life. ?Some of the best works are about something,? says Frank. On the comedy episodes of X-Files he speaks of a script Darin Morgan turned in that was a beautifully written episode, a great script but kind of threw them all because it was a comedy. Ultimately they trusted the writing and the audience loved the episode and loved the show more because they could laugh at themselves. ?If you want to do this don?t give up,? Frank advises, saying that ?your chance will come to you and you just pray you?re ready when it comes.? The business isn?t always easy, one writer left because he found it just too painful to do television with the constant notes and critique, the stereotype of execs who don?t know what they?re doing is not right though and makes the case for the important job they do.
Changes in writers won?t change a series too much but changes in show runners can and Millennium filmed consecutively with X-Files and was not designed to take up too much of their time, however they did end up running it and the experience of two prolific shows at the same time wasn?t pleasant. The show got new management the following season to relieve the pressure on them changed flavour and then those guys did it for a year and didn?t want to do any more so new showrunners again brought another direction to the material. The result being three quite different seasons.
Living in London now and with a new BBC & Cinemax spy drama Hunted airing its first season he explains the idea came about when he thought of a new angle for the spy genre in this character of Sam, thinking of her as the answer to what a real life Jason Bourne might be like. What sort of person would take on this life and do these things for a living and how damaged must they be. Coupling this with the privatised security industry he?s taking a look at the world now, the things that don?t get talked about like and the government becoming the little guy to corporations that can afford private armies and espionage companies to do their bidding.
He said he realised, coming to the UK, how commercially he?d been trained. ?You can do anything with artistic merit in the UK, but my mind jut doesn?t work like that, I like big audiences. I realised though that I could write a British spy show that Americans would watch.? In his first two years in the UK this is his second Cinemax co-production. ?The more passionate you are the more likely you?ll reach an audience.? He tells us adding that the tactic of cynically playing the odds won?t.
Frank?s British writers room works exactly the same as they do in Hollywood. ?A volume of episodes needs a consistency and it?s also more fun.? He gives credit to the production company Kudos for making the commitment to pay writers to be in the writers room as otherwise the need to spend some of their time on other work would have prevailed and so that was very important. As a process, he tells us, the writers? room is really successful. They lay out the episode (he uses cards on cork board) and argue out everything. As series creator he acts as moderator and chooses the solutions that they are going to go with. In a good process that solution should feel right to all the writers. The process is about putting the work first and the ego second. ?If I can re-write your script and make it even 5% better, why wouldn?t I? Or you mine. It?s still got your name on it and now it?s better. If you can rewrite a script of mine and make it better I would say ?thank you!?? He speaks of the writers room in being helpful to keep things fresh, writers push each other because a new script every eight days forces you to do that.
Talking about ?Hunted? he says he would have liked to embrace transmedia platforms more but unless it?s advertising it?s hard to find the money to fund that. HBO though did take out Byzantium adverts at the time of Occupy Wall Steet was still going on, without explaining what the adverts were. The tagline was ?We?re not for everyone. Just the 1% that matters.? And inviting people to apply for a job by doing a Byzantium test. Which caused buzz (and some outrage) about who Byzantium were. For his source material he researched a number of private security firms who were amazingly helpful. While nobody admitted to killing for a living, and of course some of the show is magnified for impact it?s not as far fetched as it seems. Research he says gives an authenticity to writing and prevents the rehashing of things you only know from other shows and films.
Finishing up Frank speaks about how writers are said to put their heart on their sleeves and the work being personal and responds. ?This is your life. You put yourself out there, and it?s worth it.?
Leilani Holmes Festival Blogger www.twitter.com/momentsoffilm www.cowbird.com/leilani
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DENVER (AP) ? Peyton Manning faced down his biggest fear and the frightfully bad New Orleans Saints defense with equal aplomb.
Despite banging his throwing thumb on a blitzer's helmet in the second quarter, Manning passed for 305 yards and three scores, led a pair of 90-plus-yard touchdown drives and easily outplayed Drew Brees to lead the Denver Broncos to a 34-14 rout of the Saints on Sunday night.
Manning faced relentless questions about his health coming into the season after missing all of last year with a nerve injury that required four neck surgeries. Now, it'll be questions about his thumb.
"As a quarterback, your biggest fear is hitting your hand on the helmet of a defensive lineman," Manning said. "It's mostly the nail. Might be sore tomorrow. But I'm probably a little bit lucky."
Manning surpassed the 300-yard mark for the fifth straight time to match his personal best and set a franchise record for the Broncos (4-3), who took sole possession of first place in the AFC West.
He completed 22 of 30 throws for a passer rating of 138.9 and handed off aplenty to Willis McGahee, who ran for 122 yards and a score, and rookie Ronnie Hillman, who gained a personal-best 86 yards on 14 carries.
The Broncos gained 530 yards ? a season high ? against the NFL's worst defense. The Saints are the first team to allow 400 yards in seven straight games since at least 1950, which is as far back as STATS LLC can search its NFL database.
Coming in on a two-game winning streak, the staggered Saints (2-5) were hoping to get a boost from the return of linebackers-turned-interim head coach Joe Vitt from his seven-week suspension for the team's bounty scandal. All he can do is stand on the sidelines, though, and linebacker Jonathan Vilma ? another Saint implicated in the scandal ? returned to the starting lineup, but he couldn't plug the holes, either.
The Saints fell five games behind Atlanta in the NFC South a year after going 13-3, continuing a tumultuous stretch that's dogged the franchise since the NFL penalized them for running a money-for-hits bounty pool.
"This football team has been through a lot," Vitt said. "But it's not an excuse for the way we played tonight. It's not an excuse for dropped balls, missed tackles."
Looking back, Vitt said there was probably too much made of his return last week and the team got caught up in it.
"There's nothing that I can do to put pixie dust on this team to make it play better, to make it play more emotional," Vitt said. "And there's probably more hype that substance on my part."
The Broncos held Brees and the league's top passing offense to 213 yards and two scores.
Brees, who was 22 of 42 for 213 yards, did extend his record to 50 straight games with at least one touchdown pass. He also reached 301 career TD passes to climb past John Elway for sixth on the career list.
He was no match for Denver's current star quarterback, however.
"That was a very poor performance on our part," Brees said. "We were not able to sustain drives and we left our defense out there entirely too long. That was just very stale. It never felt like we could get anything going ? 1 of 12 on third downs? That's pitiful."
Broncos linebacker Wesley Woodyard did extensive damage, finishing with 13 tackles, two pass breakups, one sack, one forced fumble and one interception, when Vitt chose to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Denver 47 early in the second quarter with the game tied at 7.
"They told me before the game they would keep me free to make plays," Woodyard said.
Manning capitalized on Woodyard's pick by leading Denver on a 56-yard drive for the go-ahead touchdown, capped on a 13-yard pass to Eric Decker, who was all alone when Jabari Greer slipped.
A bit later, Manning was sandwiched on a safety blitz while completing a 23-yard pass to Eric Decker and hit his thumb on a defender's helmet. He handed off four straight times after that, then overthrew a pass in the end zone and completed a short pass to Brandon Stokley before the Broncos settled for Matt Prater's 33-yard field goal for a 17-7 halftime lead.
Manning looked fine warming up for the second half and then he answered any questions by going 4 for 4 to start the third quarter, moving the Broncos 93 yards and capping it with a 1-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas for a 24-7 lead.
"I got nervous," Stokley said. "But it didn't look like it was anything too serious."
"Knowing him, as tough as he is, I didn't sweat it," tight end Joel Dreessen said. "I knew he was fine."
Thomas finished with seven catches for 137 yards. Decker also caught a 2-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter for a 31-7 lead.
Brees threw a 29-yard scoring strike to Darren Sproles on the first play of the second quarter, tying it at 7. He also hit tight end Jimmy Graham with an 18-yard TD throw just before the 2-minute warning after the Broncos had put up 27 straight points.
The Broncos won back-to-back games for the first time this season, and with a decidedly more favorable schedule, they look primed for a big run.
"I keep mentioning finding our identity," Manning said, "and we're starting to form it."
NOTES: The Saints managed just 51 yards rushing to Denver's 225. ... The Saints have surrendered a staggering 3,323 yards under new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. ... The Broncos were without CB Tracy Porter, who missed his second straight game because of symptoms he continues to experience following a seizure he had in August. ... Saints S Roman Harper left in the third quarter with a concussion.
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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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Follow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton
MyShoebox provides mobile and web apps to aggregate and organize user photos from a number of sources. It also provides unlimited storage for users to backup all of their photos, and provide access to them on all the different devices that they care about. With native applications for Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android phones and tablets, users can simplify photo collections across those devices.
The latest financial controversy for Toni Braxton are accusations of bankruptcy fraud, alleging that she gave her estranged husband more than $50,000 to avoid paying creditors. (She?s also trending this morning on Twitter for her?Behind the Music episode. Did you see it? We have to check that out.)
This could actually happen to anyone if they don?t know the rules or they try to do a runaround the laws. If you are filing, check the bankruptcy laws in your state. But first, assess whether or not it is time for you to declare bankruptcy. According to bankruptcy lawyer Bruce Weiner of Brooklyn-based Rosenberg, Musso & Weiner, LLP , bankruptcy is an option when ?the amount of credit card debt is approaching annual income; you have had a drop or loss of income and are thinking of tapping into IRA or 401(k) to pay credit cards; or you stop answering phone because of collection calls.?
New York-based attorney Daniel Gershburg, agrees, adding that ?one of the first signs that bankruptcy may be necessary is that you don?t have enough money to pay your credit card minimums. And once you begin to consistently transfer balances from one card to pay for the other, it?s time to file.?
Here?s how to file:
Go to a counselor: Attend a credit counseling course. ?The course takes approximately 90 minutes and you learn about credit and budgeting,? says Gershburg.
Do the paperwork: ?Fill out petition and schedules, preferably with an attorney who understands exemptions (what you can keep when filing), all the income tests and rules, and will ask the right questions about transfers or payments to relatives. [He/she] also will understand which debts will be discharged,? says Weiner.
Be organized: ?File petitions, schedules, counseling certificates, and 60 days of pay stubs with court,? Weiner tells Madame Noire.
Follow up: ?After trustee assigned to case, mail all papers to trustee together with last tax return,? Weiner explains.
Take a 341 Meeting a.k.a. the?Meeting of the Creditors: About three weeks after you file for bankruptcy, you should meet with a trustee to go over the bankruptcy estate and other financial data, including the amount you?ve kept in your checking account, inheritances and other info, Gershburg explained to us.
Class in session: You will be required to go to another credit counseling class to get your discharge papers, which will be sent about 60 days after, Gershberg said. Keep your bankruptcy lawyer on hand.
If Braxton did transfer some of her money into her husband?s bank account, it?s something that could have been remedied by a bankruptcy trustee, Weiner points out. Federal bankruptcy law gives you two years to undo this action, and most states will give you six years.
?What this means is that if you transfer an asset to anyone for less than fair consideration at a time when you are in debt, the trustee will sue the transferee to avoid the transfer and bring the asset into the bankruptcy so he or she can sell it,? he says. ?Another thing that gets people in trouble is repayment of loans to relatives within one year of filing. A trustee can recover that money as a preferential payment.?
If in doubt, check with an attorney. ?Your relatives are no different, under bankruptcy laws, than Visa or American Express,? says Gershburg.???Giving your relatives assets prior to bankruptcy means that the other creditors can?t get their own debts paid. It can either be classified as preferential payments and/or a fraudulent transfer. While, to you, paying your mother maybe more important than paying Discover, doing so can risk your entire bankruptcy case.?
He recommends that you always speak with an attorney before giving mom what you owe her.
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Microsoft has just outed Data Sense, a new app for Windows Phone 8 that helps ensure you don't burn through your data plan. On top of tracking your usage app-by-app, it compresses every single web page you browse to keep data consumed to a minimum, and also sniffs out WiFi hotspots when they become available. The app features a Live Tile to give an ongoing saga of the megabytes you've consumed and will warn you near a preset limit. Redmond claims the hotspot sniffing and compression will let you consume 45 percent less data "when compared to the competition" -- likely a reference to iOS and Android, which already have a similar feature. Data Sense will arrive first on Verizon this fall, but there's no word yet on when other carriers will have it. To check the PR, go past the fold.
For more, check out our Windows Phone 8 event liveblog!
SUNDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Getting a flu shot may help people stay healthy in more than the obvious way, new research suggests.
"The shot doesn't just protect you against flu, it protects you from heart attacks," said Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiologist at Women's College Hospital and the University of Toronto.
In his research, Udell found that those who got a flu shot reduced their risk of heart attacks and other serious cardiovascular problems by nearly half during a one-year follow-up period.
He was scheduled to present his findings Sunday at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto.
Udell and his team re-evaluated the results of four randomized trials that looked at how the influenza vaccine might help heart health. In all, the studies had more than 3,200 patients. The original studies were done from 1994 to 2008.
Some of the people in the trials were free of heart disease, while others either had stable cardiovascular disease or had recently had heart attacks or other coronary problems.
All groups were followed for median of a year. Those who got the flu vaccine had about a 50 percent reduction in heart attack, stroke or other major cardiovascular events.
During the follow-up, nearly 200 major cardiovascular events were reported, including 65 deaths related to cardiovascular issues.
The research was not funded by vaccine developers.
Udell said experts don't know for sure why the flu vaccine may be heart-protective, but offered two possible explanations.
First, he said, the vaccine may protect vulnerable patients already in poor health from one more illness that could "dip them over the edge." Second, the protection may come from avoiding the inflammation associated with getting the flu, he said. Inflammation has long been linked to cardiovascular problems.
Whichever way it might work, he said, "it certainly lends support to a lot of clinical guidelines that recommend the flu vaccine to patients either with heart disease or after a heart attack."
In another study presented at the meeting, researchers evaluated nearly 230 patients with irregular heartbeats who had been given implantable cardiac defibrillators. These devices give the body a shock or jolt to restore normal rhythms when needed.
During flu season, those who have implantable cardiac defibrillators often report they get more shocks (and need medical attention) than other times of the year.
Cardiologists from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto found that about 11 percent of those who got the flu vaccine got at least one shock from their defibrillator during flu season, but nearly 14 percent of those who did not receive the vaccine got a shock from their defibrillator.
The protective effect of the flu vaccine is not surprising to Dr. Len Horovitz, an attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and an internal medicine and lung specialist.
"Influenza is a big strain on the system," he said. That is especially true if someone has underlying disease, such as heart problems, diabetes, kidney disease or asthma.
"Even a healthy person doesn't tolerate the flu that well," he said.
The new report about flu vaccine protecting the heart, Horovitz said, is "all the more reason to push for vaccination, as we always do."
This year, he said, he has noticed less pushback when he reminds patients to get their annual flu shot. Some of his patients are asking for the shot earlier this year.
Less than 30 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 49 got vaccinated last flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More information
To learn more about flu vaccination, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She wore a little green dress with bright eyes, and tiny little hands and? feet. Three month old Baby Harriett didn?t realize that today was a special day. One that would save her life!
A small group of three Shot@Life Champion were given the privilege of following a family?s journey. Young grandmother Rosemary and her son Brian allowed us into their home in the Kabarole Village of Uganda to observe what a typical Sunday looks like for them. We entered their home on a short dirt road where a sheet functioned as the front door. We were graciously welcomed into a neat and tiny living room with dirt floors. We were greeted by the entire family: Grandmother Rosemary, age 35, primary caretaker of Baby Harriett along with her son Brian, age 21, who is Harriett?s father. Daughters Prishna, age 19, Rena, age 19 months (Prishna?s daughter), and Rosemary?s youngest child Juliette, age 16. We were told that Grandmother Rosemary?s husband could not join us as he was in the fields of another village digging and working the family crops.
To make a better life for herself and her family Baby Harriett?s mother, Sheila, age 20, left her daughter with her boyfriend and his mother to finish school for nursing. As commendable as this decision is, Sheila?s absence has left Baby Harriett without the proper nutrition she needs through breastfeeding. In the country of Uganda, babies only have two choices, breast milk or regular cow?s milk as baby formula is not readily available and expensive.
We followed Grandmother Rosemary, which is difficult to say because she?s so young, to her Catholic mass service where we were able to see the Kabarole Village worship experience. The beauty of this day is that it was coupled with Healthy Family Health Day, which is a clever way to capture citizens to receive life-saving immunizations.
In Uganda, churches are literally everywhere. But health clinics and hospitals are scarce. So UNICEF decided to bring their immunization, birth registry, nutrition screenings and HIV/AIDS testing to houses of worship all across the country. They bring in health care workers and supplies reaching more than 19,000 families in 2011. That number continues to increase as the word spreads abut these FREE services.
Immediately following the worship service, parishioners made their way to a room just across the parking lot to take advantage of the services. This is where we watched Baby Harriett receive her immunizations. But the toughest moment to watch was the nurse checking little Harriett to determine if she was malnourished. Sadly, the band on her frail arms could nearly wrap around twice. Baby Harriett was confirmed to be in the red, danger zone. I watched and cried, feeling so emotional that her young life was now hanging in the balance, but grateful that her grandmother was concerned enough about her health to bring her in for treatment. In Uganda, 21% of children under age 5 are underweight in the poorest communities, versus 8% in the riches communities.
The awareness campaigns and fundraising from champions and organizations like Mocha Moms, Inc. , a national non-profit for stay at home mothers of color, make it possible for precious children like Baby Harriett to receive this type of care when families can not otherwise afford it.
After seeing Grandmother Rosemary and Bay Harriett off, our day continued with a group of Kabarole Village mothers and their beautiful children. We sat down to dialogue about what life is like for them as mothers. Of the 7 moms who joined us, 4 of them had lost at least one child.
The story of Valeria, widowed mother of 12 and now a grandmother, lost twins boys at birth. But she also lost her daughter to dysentery (blood stools and diarrhea) at the young age of 10. An epidemic broke out in the community and Emelda was not immunized. 1.5 million children die each year in developing countries from conditions like diarrhea, which can be easily prevented with vaccinations.
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Although it feels like we live a world away, the group of mothers (Margaret #1, Margaret #2, Violet, Agnes, Fatima, Jenny and Valeria) are more similar to American moms than we are different. They have the same concerns and dreams for their children. They want to see them safe, healthy, educated and productive citizens.
I was also happy to hear that all but one of the women was married with a supportive family intact, which dispels the myth that African or African-American men leave their families after children are born.
I can not tell you how eye-opening this day was. What an amazing gift to share time with women who prove that the word MOTHER is universal in every way.
What are your dreams for your children?
Happily married mother of 2 fabulous daughters. CEO & Designer of Shootie Girl? Custom Rhinestone Apparel. Former government and global software giant manager turned work-from-home mom and National Director of Community Service for a national non-profit moms organization.
Other Tonk traits include: a great sense of humor, very intelligent and full of life, confident and happy, involved in everything and curious beyond compare.? Additionally, Tonks love everyone, children and dogs included, and they hate being alone. They are chatty and social and incredibly loveable.
One day in June a woman came into the ACF and immediately fell in love with BC. She took him home and they formed a little family unit filled with love for each other.? And now poor BC is facing yet another upheaval and trial in his life. His mom is moving out of state to move in with her son and daughter-in-law to help with their two children and unborn twins.
Her family is adamant that she can not bring BC with her?We are asking for help ? BC has to leave his mom?s home at the end of the month when she moves. She has been trying to find him a home, but as of now he has no where to go.
BC is a sweet cat with so many wonderful qualities. He is a gentle and loving soul who will make someone a delightful feline companion.
If you have any interest in adopting or fostering BC, please let us know. And please spread the word to all of your family and friends. BC is a Coronado cat who needs the support of the community.
It takes a village to save a cat?
if you have any questions or want to meet BC, please contact the Cat Adoption Team online or at 619-840-9727.
COLUMBUS ? Madison County went with the conservative approach to manufacture its first and only run in Saturday?s Class 4A softball state championship.
Northwest Whitfield was rewarded for being aggressive in response.
On the second pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lady Bruins junior catcher Bayli Cruse launched a line drive to the deepest part of the field, straightaway center, but all that mattered was that the ball landed on the other side of the fence at the South Commons Softball Complex.
The walk-off, two-run home run gave the Lady Bruins a 2-1 win and the first fast-pitch softball state title in school history.
After seven scoreless innings from both sides, the Lady Red Raiders scored in the eighth, when the international tiebreaker ? which places the player who made the last out in the previous inning ? went into effect. Brianne Carr advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, then scored two batters later on Jessica Allen?s grounder to second baseman Karlie Henson.
Needing a score to avoid heading to a do-or-die second game in the double-elimination tournament, Northwest (35-3) could?ve used the same small-ball approach taken by Madison County (33-8). With Hannah Godfrey starting the inning on second, a successful sacrifice bunt would have moved her to third and anything but a strikeout or shallow popup most likely would have scored a run.
Instead, Cruse, the team?s top power hitter, was granted the chance to swing away.
?We talked about it,? Northwest coach Jason Brooker said. ?We had our Nos. 3, 4 and 5 coming up, and I kind of depend on one of them to get a hit. We talked about bunting and trying to bunt (Godfrey) in, but they?re a good team, and it would take a great bunt to get her in.
?I just kind of went with my gut. Bayli had been struggling, but the last time up she hit it hard to the center fielder.?
Cruse, who originally acted like she would bunt, connected as solid as she had all week with the fastball from Lady Red Raiders starting pitcher Randee Bettis.
?(Coach Brooker) said I wasn?t going to bunt no matter what,? Cruse said. ?I?ve had a rough tournament. I?ve had five (total hits) in the four games.?
But Cruse knew the state title was coming to Tunnel Hill the moment the ball left her bat, and so did all of her teammates.
?I stopped and watched it, which is not the thing to do,? Godfrey said, giving her perspective from second base. ?But I knew it was out.?
Junior first baseman Mallory Souther watched it from the dugout.
?Right when it hit off the bat, we knew it was gone,? she said. ?We were going crazy.?
Third baseman Mykeah Johnson, who was also standing in the dugout, did one better.
?Actually, I called it,? the senior said. ?Me and my teammate, Macy Weeks, were sitting, and I said, ?Watch her hit a walk-off home run right here.??
This was the second time Northwest, ranked No. 1 in the Ga.PrepCountry.Com Class 4A coaches poll, beat second-ranked Madison County in the state tournament and the third time the Lady Bruins topped the Lady Red Raiders this season. Coincidentally, all three wins were similar, and Northwest started and finished its 2012 campaign by beating the Region 8 champs.
The Lady Bruins won their first game of this season 7-6 in eight innings against Madison County in a game played at North Georgia College and State University. On Thursday, Northwest won 8-7 in eight innings in the tournament?s second round to move just two wins from a state title.
That win came after an 8-0 victory against Macon?s Rutland in the opening round of the tourney, and on Friday the Lady Bruins won 3-2 against West Laurens, which Madison County beat 2-1 in eight innings during Saturday morning?s consolation bracket final to earn a rematch with the Region 7 champs with the state title on the line.
?You have to give Northwest Whitfield credit,? Madison County coach Doug Kesler said. ?They?ve beaten us three times this year, and each time has been in extra innings by one run. ? We had our opportunities to win in all three games, but it did not go our way this year.?
Northwest finished third in Class 4A in 2009 and was fourth a year ago.
Two years ago, Madison County eliminated Northwest from the state playoffs just one round shy of Columbus. It?s the only time in the past four years the Lady Bruins did not make it to the state tournament, so going 3-for-3 against Madison County added something special to hoisting the trophy.
?We wanted to play them since the beginning,? said Emily Boyd, a senior who has been the team?s ace for four straight seasons. ?From coming so close and not getting it, and having to lose your last game, it?s so much better to win your last game.?
Boyd also played a major role in the Lady Bruins? win. She pitched all eight innings, allowed just five hits and struck out seven. She also walked one and had to deal with two Northwest errors as Madison County got runners on base in each inning except for the fifth and a runner to second in all but three innings.
However, the only time the Lady Red Raiders pushed a runner to third was in the eighth, because Boyd and her defense kept finding ways out of the jams.
?She battled the whole game,? Brooker said. ?She has heart. She had a blister on her thumb. Her dad (assistant coach Greg Boyd) was saying he wasn?t sure if she could make it if it went another game. She sucked it up.?
And Northwest?s offense was similar. The Lady Bruins had a runner reach second base in all but three innings and even had runners at second and third in the fourth when Boyd grounded out to shortstop for the third out. Bettis held Northwest to six hits in the game, with Cruse collecting two and Souther having the only extra-base hit aside from the winning home run.
Colbie Thomas, Godfrey and Macy Weeks each had one single.
?We were guessing too much for their pitching, trying to figure out if she would come inside or outside,? Boyd said. ?(Madison County hitters) were just trying to put it in play, not really swinging too hard. ? They did a good job of it, and we had to step up and play defense. When you get to this level, you will be fighting out of jams. It?s just the pitchers who can get out of them who are the ones who win.?
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NINGBO, China (Reuters) - More than a thousand people gathered in the eastern Chinese port city of Ningbo on Saturday to protest against plans to expand a petrochemical plant, highlighting a major challenge for the leadership as it readies for its once-in-a-decade power transition.
On Friday, protesters overturned a police car and attacked the police.
By early Saturday, protesters, watched over by police, gathered in a central shopping street in Ningbo, wearing masks and giving out pamphlets denouncing the expansion of the plant by a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation in the district of Zhenhai.
"PX...Get out of Ningbo!" read one placard, in a reference to the chemical paraxylene, which the protesters said was a carcinogen.
The protests come just two weeks before the Communist Party holds a congress which opens on November 8 and will unveil the country's new central leadership.
The past few years has seen a rise in protests over environmental issues. In July, Chinese officials canceled an industrial waste pipeline project after anti-pollution demonstrators occupied a government office in eastern China.
These protests, which are tolerated more than those driven by political concerns, pose a conundrum for the authorities which want to maintain social stability but also present an image of listening to the needs of ordinary people.
On Weibo, China's version of Twitter, discussion of the protests was not blocked but some users in Ningbo reported difficulty in uploading photographs.
The Ningbo Municipal Public Security Bureau Zhenhai branch released a statement urging protesters to express their demands in a lawful manner.
(Reporting by Carlos Barria, Writing by Melanie Lee, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone wrapped ads around British national newspapers on Friday touting the quality of its network ahead of rival EE's launch of next-generation 4G services next week.
The campaign, in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian nationals and in the Metro and City AM freesheets, cost more than 4.5 million pounds, according to a source close to the company.
It will be supported by outdoor advertising.
Since the arrival of smartphones, network quality has come to the fore as a point of differentiation between telecom operators, both in Britain and in other markets, according to analyst Thomas Wehmeier at Informa Telecoms and Media.
"All of these fancy devices that customers have, whether smartphone or tablets, simply don't work unless you have a decent level of connectivity," he said.
He said there had been little difference in network quality between UK operators but this would change with the arrival of 4G.
"The transition to 4G is significant because it opens the door for somebody to establish a beachhead as the UK's biggest and best 4G operator," he said.
EE, jointly owned by France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, will launch Britain's first 4G network on Tuesday, offering five times faster connections than 3G.
It will be supported by a campaign costing tens of millions of pounds fronted by film actor Kevin Bacon.
Vodafone, as well as Telefonica's O2 and Three, must wait until next year to launch their own 4G services once they have obtained the necessary spectrum.
Wehmeier said Vodafone's campaign was a defensive move to stop customers who are willing to pay a premium for 4G defecting to EE.
"Those four to five months really are going to give EE a chance to attract a very interesting segment of customers," he said.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by David Cowell)
Mitt Romney insisted in Monday?s debate that the auto companies would not have been liquidated under his watch, even as he?s complained the bilions of dollars in government aid used to rescue the industry was unnecessary. But Larry Summers, who served as a top economic aide to President Obama in his first year, told TPM his claim is a ?fantasy? for a variety of reasons.
Romney has said he would have saved money by relying on private finance to move the big three car companies through bankruptcy, although he?s been extremely vague as to how he would have reached that outcome without committing the vast federal resources that the Bush and Obama administrations did to achieve it. Romney claims that the two presidents overspent by billions of dollars by doling out federal loans when mere guarantees of some sort paired with an earlier bankruptcy might have gotten the job done for cheaper.
But Summers, echoing the opinion of industry experts, CEOs, and Republican politicians in Michigan who supported the bailout, said the kind of resources necessary were impossible to find in the private sector under any circumstances. The Detroit News editorial board made the same case this week even as it endorsed Romney.
?There was not private money available,? Summers told TPM on a conference call with reporters Friday. ?And there wasn?t Congressional authority for the federal government to start guaranteeing loans ot the automobile companies.?
At the time, the top financial firms around the world were facing their own existential crisis, having just received hundreds of billions of dollars in government aid during the economic crash. The auto rescue ended up requiring about $80 billion in aid from across the Bush and Obama administrations. That would have been by far the biggest debtor-in-possession bankruptcy loan in history had the private sector stepped in per Romney?s plan. The previous record? $8 billion to Lyondell Chemical in early 2009 ? and it came with huge interest rates and fees.
Summers argued that the level of debt at the car companies? required whoever financed them to take a large equity stake. And if the federal government didn?t take that equity, taxpayers wouldn?t benefit when the companies turned around.
?Guaranteeing loans to the automobile companies in the necessary quantity without getting an equity stake so that when the company succeeded you profited from the upside would have been far more costly to the federal government,? he said.
Not only did Romney?s proposal to entice banks with guarantees not make ?any financial sense,? Summers added that it wasn?t even clear that it was his proposal in the first place. Romney only started dropping references to it late in the campaign. His only suggestions for federal aid at the time were warranty guarantees and possible help working out post-bankruptcy financing.
Either way, Summers said, the plan they ended up using worked. So what?s there to argue?
?There?s lots of things you can debate about the tactics and the precise way we executed this support program for the automboile companies,? Summers said. ?What you can?t debate is we still have three major American automobile companies in the United States and that looked very unlikely in January 2009. What you can?t debate is, based on current market evalutions all the money that President Obama put into the American automobile industry is like to come out and come back to taxpayers.?
2012, 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, larry summers Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
As the election goes into the final stretch, the media focus is on the big immigration picture,?But for people who are actually applying for green cards and visas, the only thing that matters is what is happening to their petitions and applications. No matter what grandiose promises the politicians may or may not make, the immigration system can work only if it is administered by officers who both know the law and are willing to follow it.
Unfortunately, the idea that the people responsible for making decisions about actual immigration cases are willing either to learn what the law is, or pay attention to it, let alone doing both, often seems to be more of a Platonic ideal than actual reality.?Recently, I wrote about an adjustment of status to permanent resident application filed by one of my clients which was held up by an RFE requesting evidence that the applicant, who had been in the US for over a decade, had never been out of status or violated the terms of his admission.
No problem, because in that particular case, the client had always maintained legal status from day one up to the present.?But in that case, the client would have been eligible to adjust status anyway, even if he had been out of status at some point in the past, because he came within the provisions of INA Section 245(k), which allows certain employment based green card applicants to adjust to green card status without leaving the United States, even if they have not always maintained legal status in the past.?
Section 245(k) is not a new or exotic law. It has been around for quite some time, and (I thought) was a very well known statute. Well, evidently, it was not so well known to the adjudicating officer in this case. Fortunately, when this statute was brought to the attention of the officer (along, just to be safe, with the requested, but unnecessary, evidence of maintaining legal status at all times previously) the green card was finally approved.?
No harm ?was done, except for a delay of a few weeks while the unnecessary additional evidence was collected, submitted and reviewed. But in an even more recent, and still pending, case involving another one of my clients, the delay caused by official ignorance or unwillingness to follow the law may not necessarily be so quickly resolved.
This case involves an H-1B visa application at an overseas US consular office by a well qualified professional working in a well recognized specialty occupation for a long established H-1B employer. The employer's H-1B petition was approved over a year ago without any difficulty or question, and the employee's change of status from F-1 student to H-1B worker was also approved at the same time as part of the petition.?
However, when the employee, who has always been working in the H-1B job according to the conditions in the approved petition, went to his native country for a vacation and applied for a routine H-1B visa stamp at a US consular office in order to return to the US, the visa was held up because his post-completion optional practical training (OPT) work permission had expired several months before the starting date of his approved H-1B petition, (even though the petition was filed before the OPT expiration date), since his petition was subject to the annual limit on H-1B visas. This situation is known as the H-1B "cap gap".
The visa officer, therefore, thought that the applicant had overstayed his permission to remain in the US, and, to make things worse, had also worked illegally during the "cap gap" period between his OPT expiration and his approved H-1B starting date. The consular officer, it developed, was apparently not aware of the automatic OPT extension that the DHS, by regulation, as well as by published notice and guidance, has been granting to F-1 students in a cap gap situation at least since 2008.
When advised about the automatic cap OPT extension, the visa officer, to his credit, immediately agreed that the cap gap extension applied, and that there was no question of the applicant having ever remained or worked in the US without permission. But he then requested production of an additional document to prove that the applicant's cap gap OPT extension was in effect. The requested document (an updated I-20 form showing the OPT extension) neither existed nor was required, as the OPT extension is expressly made automatic by operation of law upon timely filing of an H-1B petition for change of status?
When this fact was also pointed out to the consular officer, the result was silence, and so far as I know, the visa has not yet been issued. My client remains stuck overseas, and his employer is still waiting.?
Every time we read a depressing news story about some animal killing their own kid, some sick person keeping a girl hostage for years, some piece of crap swindling people?s hard-earned retirement, we get a little more skeptical, a little colder and to a large extent, a little less ?human.?
It?s not our fault; these events unfortunately and indelibly add themselves to the tapestry that is our lives and take their place amongst other experiences to then determine how we perceive any given situation. So if you spend a lifetime witnessing positive things, you will most likely have a positive perspective. If you are subjected to continuous negative reference, you will inevitably have a darker perspective. We all live between those two extremes, within the shades that exist between light and darkness.
Most of us reading this list have pretty much everything going for them and we should actually be some of the happiest people on Earth. But we are not, and it doesn?t seem to be getting any better. A lot of it comes down to the fact that we have become entitled little brats who expect everything while providing near-to-nothing back. We have lost our sense of accomplishment, of intangible satisfaction for a job well done or for the abstract reward that comes from helping others.
How can we have gone from the ?greatest generation? to this entitled one in such a short period of time? Here are some factors that you may want to consider, most of which are unique to our time period and also feed off each other.
I remember the first time I say Dawn of the Dead (the original), I had great difficulty watching the ?flesh eating scenes? without cringing. The first time I saw Reservoir Dogs, I could not get through the cop torture scene in one shot. And of course, Deer Hunter and the words ?Didi Mau? resounded in my head for weeks after I first saw it.
Today, I?m pretty much immune to any horrible visual stimuli whether real or fabricated. I am desensitized and so is the rest of society, at varying levels. If you look at the societal impact the Lindbergh baby kidnapping/murder had and compare it to the apathetic perspective we have towards the far worse parental abduction and murders of today, you will clearly understand what I am talking about.
Whether it?s violence in our schools or public venues, an increasing disrespect towards women and children via violent or sick pornography, the reactive thought process and ease with which we start wars, or our seemingly complete lack of empathy towards starving children whose worst crime was not being born at the right time, in the right place, as we were, I truly fear for the next generation and their level of apathy. And with the advent of the Internet, we are indeed like children with a new toy, more interested in playing with it ad nauseam than to take into consideration the potential impact it is having on us, on our society, on our humanity. Ratings seem to take priority over our moral compass and the negative impact it is having on our core and in turn, on our entire perspective of the human equation. And it is only getting worse, since the best ratings come from the worst in humanity, and our inhumanity is what produces what we covet most, money, our one and only true God.
You want to get someone to do something they wouldn?t normally do, scare the crap out of them. Fear is still the main control mechanism being used by the powers that be, although they are now peddled in a variety of disguises. ?The war on? is one of the favorite ?fear camouflages.? The war on drugs, the war on terrorism, the war on women, on religion, on patriotism, on democracy, and I could go on. If it?s a war, we automatically think that our well-being is at stake. War is too strong a term to be used so lightly, we have no idea what true war is, the true toll it takes. But it is a useful term to evoke an automatic reaction and keep the masses in line.
Other words have become synonymous with fear, you hear them every day. Evil-doers, our teetering economy, threat levels, extremists, pedophiles, drug addicts, etc. If you are scared, you are usually complacent and that?s the way ?they? like it. Fear your neighbor, fear your teachers, fear your government, fear the cops, lock your doors and hope you get to live another day.
We are ?afraid? we are losing our country, our rights, our jobs, our freedoms but what we should truly be waging war on, if we were to eliminate all these other wars I have mentioned, is simple. Let?s have a war on ignorance which is the source of all fear and we shall make peace with everything around us. Mind you, we will always have some conflict, and fear does serve its purpose from time to time. But we have converted this emotion to a science and it is no longer just a reactive mechanism that forms an essential part of our survival instincts but a control mechanism whose sole goal is to keep the burning fire that is fear and ignorance stoked at all times.
Our self-worth has become synonymous with what we own. If you want to ?succeed? in life, you need social status, whether attained by the car you drive, the neighborhood you live in, the phone you use, the shoes you wear, the trips you take. No longer is the quality of our families, our friends, our reputation a measure of a man?s (or woman?s) life, it?s all about what you have and, more importantly it seems, what others don?t have.
I was taking a walk with my 3 year-old son a while back and we came upon a discarded McDonald?s French fry container. Immediately, my son, in a very nice voice I must add, sang the ?baba ba ba ba?I?m lovin? it? tune. Now he doesn?t watch commercials on TV, the children?s channel we subscribe to has none. But somehow, somewhere, he heard that tune enough and also associated it with the McDonald?s logo to create a near Pavlovian response to this completely accidental visual stimulus. That, my friends, is a powerful thing. We truly fail to recognize to what level we are being manipulated. From the moment we can see and hear, we are targeted consumers. And since it is ever present, we just stop paying attention to it. But I guarantee you that they haven?t. It?s so powerful that we don?t think twice about spending 6 bucks on our daily coffee fix knowing, albeit not in a tangible way, that there are people out there starving. I bet you that if by the side of the Starbucks cash register sat a starving little girl, you wouldn?t ignore her the way you do now, at least most of you wouldn?t. But distance permits you to rationalize the situation, as they say, out of sight, out of mind. And they have also taken your empathy into consideration, allowing you to help by sponsoring a child, only a few bucks a month, right? Or maybe sending money to some far away charity, or giving to Unicef at Halloween. Nice little man-made coping mechanisms. Although these don?t even come close to addressing the true issue of starvation and poverty in a resource rich society, it?s just enough to make us feel better about ourselves and continue being good little consumers, buying products manufactured by the very people we choose to ignore.
Another by-product of this reality is that we now only seem to appreciate the true value of relationships and people over things once they start disappearing ? a lesson usually learned when it?s too late. Or when we are on our death bed reviewing our lives, our priorities, our decisions, only then do we regret. They let us arrive at those conclusions because at this ?final? stage, our roles and value as consumers is at its end. Trust me however, if they could market the afterlife to you, they absolutely would. But religion already has monopoly over that industry so they must be content with what they got: the living years.
The last 50 years has seen more technological advances than the last 5000 and it?s growing at an exponential rate. Since the first goal of new technology is profit, we don?t take into consideration the potential short and long term impact that new technology can have, only its immediate potential for profitability. How often have we realized the negative impact of new technology only after it?s too late? How often have we known about the potential harm any one new product could cause and still went ahead with its release?
Our social structure is also being drastically changed, in some ways a blessing, in others a curse, but regardless, our need to capitalize seems to always outweigh our need to assess the potential risk of these technological leaps and bounds. How is this affecting our ability to properly communicate, in a world where texting has replaced live interaction? How will this affect our ability to socialize in a real world environment, to understand our fellow man, our close and distant neighbors? Our ability to effectively communicate seems to be digressing in the name of an easier, less evasive form of communication. But, as long as people keeping upgrading their phones, their browsers, their FB status, nobody seems to want to find out about the potential harm technology is having on our society and ability to truly understand each other. There?s just no money in it.
A perfect example of technology run amok are nuclear weapons. Yes, I do understand that it ended a terrible war far sooner than by conventional means and potentially saved millions of lives. But we have lived under the nuclear threat ever since and we could easily become an extinct species because of it. If we knew back then what we know now, about dirty bombs, terrorism, rogue states, the fall of the Soviet Union and its inability to control all of their nukes, would we have ever created a device capable of wiping out everything and everyone? We are the first humans to have the potential of completely annihilating ourselves, is that something to be proud of? Didn?t we know enough about the variances of human behavior to see this coming?
Ahh religion, the mother of all sources of misinformation, often created from ignorance and expanded through fear and intolerance.
However, it did also provide as a conduit for our moral education (10 commandments and such) so by the time I finished school, I knew and understood why I needed to treat others as I wanted them to treat me, etc., etc. Mind you I say it was a conduit, one of many that could have achieved the same goal without the baggage inherent to any religious belief.
Now, in my country, religion is morphing into philosophy, where it belongs. Our government prohibits the teaching of religion in our public school system. This created a temporary gap in our moral education since we had always relied on schooling or the church to provide it.
My sons are now obliged to take a ?religion and ethics? course which teaches them about all religions without focusing on any one in particular. They examine deities, religious culture, traditions, clothing, symbols, etc. This goes a long way to eliminate ignorance which fosters tolerance between varying groups of people. The course also provides moral guidelines we should all respect in a civilized society better than religion ever could because no one is excluded, no matter your beliefs or lack thereof.
I am always amazed that religious people believe that without religion, people would have no moral compass, no rudder, no reason to be kind to their fellow man. As if religion was necessary for people to come to the conclusion that it is in their own best interest to be good to one another, to live peacefully within a tolerant and accepting society. Religion differentiates us from each other when the truth is that we are all indeed the same. Religion asks us to forsake a value system that would go to improve everyone?s life in the name of one that promises reward in a non-existent afterlife. Most of us have evolved to a point where skin color, physical appearance, disability, language, culture, geographical location makes us no different from one another. Religion is the last hurdle of our species infancy and we seem to be indeed shedding our old superstitious skin.
The mother of all fears, it makes us slow down to gawk at a car accident, it provides high ratings on the news all because it?s a glimpse of what is to come and what we, no matter how smart or wealthy, cannot control. It?s on our minds, religious or not and it?s barreling down towards us at Mach speed, or so we are led to believe. But it isn?t, not that fast anyway. Spend one hour with my mother-in-law and you will realize just how much time we really got. Fear of death is the main power that fuels religion, consumerism, technology, etc. Sometimes, death is expected but most of the time, it?s not and we, as a self-aware species, do not like that. So we adopt coping mechanisms designed to offset our thoughts of mortality by either making efforts to extend our lifespan or, by eliminating mortality all together, by creating the concept of an afterlife, the ?carrot? of our religious foundations.
It has become such a prominent obsession that we forget to enjoy the time we do have, a realization that is commonly made only when it?s too late. It?s kind of funny that we are so obsessed with the one thing we really have no control over. A normal human reaction, yes, but one that can be tempered by recognizing the value of the life we have as opposed to focusing strictly on the potential finality of our impending demise.
To a human being and most animals, belonging is as important as air and water. Whether we are part of a sports team (fan or player), a scout troop, a religion or a political party, it feels good to be surrounded by people who share the same interests and values as you. Politics have taken that need and made it an absolute. You are either with us or against us, liberal or conservative. There is no middle ground to politics anymore since the outcome of any election will have a tremendous impact on every point mentioned thus far. Corporate donations, lobbyist, religious leaders, the media are all directly affected by the results of a political campaign. The essence of politics, the reason for democracy has all but disappeared.
I remember the first time I read the Constitution of the United States and being amazed at how these folks who had access to so little information, could understand human behavior so well as to redact such a masterpiece. I am equally amazed at how we, with our access to information, have regressed in our ability to provide citizens with the protections and opportunities they deserve, regardless of race, creed, religion or political perspective.
Politics has morphed into a struggle for power through misinformation, fear and intimidation. But what is far worse is our acceptance of it as if it was the way it should be, too afraid to speak out, too scared to rock the boat, to intimidated to do anything but pick a team or lose interest all together. The US has never been so polarized, a term that basically means, in this particular instance, that emotions have more control over opinions than common sense. The essence of true government representation has all but disappeared in the name of those special interest groups that help elect those representatives that favor their agenda. But we accept it; we play the game, pick a side and hold the line no matter what, at the expense of true progress.
And in a way, that is also exactly what we want. And by WE, I do not mean the Power Brokers ?du jour? or the elected officials or the media moguls. WE is any of us who has been exposed to and became a victim of fear, pain, hatred or power for any human can and will eventually succumbs to those influences. And this is why we have a charter of rights, a constitution and the laws governing our countries. This is why no one person or entity should be able to weaken the pillars of our intellectual evolution. This is why we must realize we are all really two people, the person and the citizen. And as entitled as we are as a species, it is by being both people that we realize that the only true way to be safe and content is by allowing others the same opportunities, the same quality of life, regardless of their geographical location, religious beliefs or political disposition.
In conclusion, Understanding these mitigating influences allows a person to become what I term as ?self-aware,? meaning that they are able to see the big picture and recognize the aforementioned influences for what they really are as opposed to accepting them as ?gospel.? And only by shedding those self-serving influences can we really understand the true potential of mankind and evolve further as a species.
He said he realised, coming to the UK, how commercially he?d been trained. ?You can do anything with artistic merit in the UK, but my mind jut doesn?t work like that, I like big audiences. I realised though that I could write a British spy show that Americans would watch.? In his first two years in the UK this is his second Cinemax co-production. ?The more passionate you are the more likely you?ll reach an audience.? He tells us adding that the tactic of cynically playing the odds won?t.
MyShoebox provides mobile and web apps to aggregate and organize user photos from a number of sources. It also provides unlimited storage for users to backup all of their photos, and provide access to them on all the different devices that they care about. With native applications for Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android phones and tablets, users can simplify photo collections across those devices.
Benjy Sarlin 
