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What does an Irish musician have to do to get some respect these days? Several hot music tours this fall will tell…
Best known as half of The Swell Season (and star of the 2006 film, Once), Dubliner Glen Hansard is heading out on a much-anticipated 20th Anniversary Tour of America this November with his other band, The Frames.
U.S. music fans are familiar with The Swell Season’s Oscar-winning Once theme “Falling Slowly,” but many may not realize that the tune also appeared on The Frames’ album The Cost, or that The Swell Season’s touring band — which garnered up to $40 per ticket for a sold-out May, 2010 concert at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall, for example — is essentially The Frames’ lineup plus Czech vocalist Marketa Irglova (Hansard’s Swell Season partner, one-time girlfriend and Once co-star). Onstage, both musical configurations deliver the full melodic spectrum of Hansard’s songwriting with requisite levels of intimacy and intensity, yet The Frames’ upcoming shows offer tickets at around only $25 apiece.
So, when Hansard exchanges his Oscar-winning act for a similar live concert experience in the U.S. market under a different name, does he suddenly become less valuable? Is it because The Frames’ appeal is more Irish? Promoters might argue it’s simply a case of economics (and the subtraction of Irglova, a talented singer and songwriter in her own right), although I think there’s more to it than that.
For the sake of argument, it seems to me that every Irish band who achieves a certain level of international success eventually goes back to being Irish again, regardless of how many gold records they have on their walls or how much cash is in their pockets. But what does that mean, exactly?
Ticket price discrepancies between The Swell Season and The Frames aside, the notion that — for better or for worse — Irish musicians are inextricably linked to their country’s musical traditions and national pride is not far-fetched; with such rich heritage, it’s no wonder four out of five of Ireland’s biggest-selling acts in the rock era (Van Morrison-yes that’s Northern Ireland, I know, Enya, The Cranberries and The Corrs) have each vacillated between the commercial and the Celtic in their careers. Only U2 (obviously Ireland’s biggest band of all-time) has thus far escaped the trappings — or, conversely, the lure — of typical Irish instrumentation (although it did employ some fiddle on 2002′s “The Hands that Built America”). Nonetheless, after three decades of world domination, U2 still proudly refers to itself as an Irish band.
As staunchly close-knit as the Irish community in America has always been, it’s no surprise that the Irish music scene in the states has also long taken care of its own: In early-1990s New York, the coffehouse-turned-hip-music-venue Sin-e fostered new American talent (Jeff Buckley, Ben Folds) while also providing a safehaven for Irish performers (Sinead O’Connor, Hothouse Flowers). Around that same time Black 47, a Celtic-fusion rock band based in the Bronx and named after the Great Irish Famine, became known as “NYC’s house band” and unofficial ambassadors of Irish culture due to its omnipresence in every pub and festival, even though its original members were a diverse group of American, British, and Irish.
Sometimes seeming less Irish can work in a band’s favor, internationally. Take, for instance The Script, a Dublin trio who, after signing to Sony music in 2008 and relocating to London, went on to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert later that year and serve as the opening act for Paul McCartney’s U.S. tour in 2009. The Script’s soul-tinged power pop has gotten beaucoups of stateside radio airplay, and the band currently has two singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 — but chances are only a handful of Yanks (those who listen closely to The Script’s lyrical shoutouts to Grafton Street nightlife or happened to hear about the trio’s triumphant show with U2 in front of 80,000 at Ireland’s Croke Park last summer, for instance) actually know that these guys are Irish. Audiences will discover just how Irish The Script is when they catch the band on its second-ever U.S. headlining tour this fall.
Another case in point: Two Door Cinema Club. Historically there’s been little distinction between Northern Irish music and Irish music, although this Bangor teenaged electropop trio (also on tour this fall) couldn’t sound more UK if it tried. Lauded by several American publications as the next best thing in melodic indie, its crave-able ditties have been making waves on this side of the pond since its debut, Tourist History, was released this spring.
More often than not, though, being part of the Irish music community is a safe and supportive place — at least for Colin Devlin, whose music you may not know you know, but whose debut album (with brother Peter, as The Devlins) won four stars in Rolling Stone back in 1994. Since then, American audiences have heard The Devlins in dozens of television programs and movie soundtracks (Closer, Batman Forever, HBO’s Six Feet Under) and onstage with the likes of REM and Sheryl Crow. Although Colin Devlin performed at the festivities at Utah’s Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was nominated for a 2010 Meteor Award (the Irish Grammys) — thanks to the 2009 release of Democracy of One, a lush solo gem produced by longtime Sarah McLachlan collaborator Pierre Marchand — upcoming appearances at two prestigious Irish events in the U.S. may help him gain more of a foothold stateside. And he won’t be alone: Both New York’s “Wee Craic” festival honoring the best Irish short films of the year and The Los Angeles Irish Film Festival feature a host of luminaries getting their Irish on.
(Wanna get your Irish on this fall? For more information about The Frames’ US Tour, including dates and tickets, click here. For The Script’s tour dates and tickets, click here. For Two Door Cinema Club dates and tickets, click here. To see Colin Devlin at the Wee Craic at Stella Artois in New York on September 17, click here. For information about the Los Angeles Irish Film Festival (featuring a tribute to actor Richard Harris and a closing ceremony performance by Colin Devlin on October 3), click here.
*Writer’s note: A longtime follower of The Devlins, I contributed a gratis biography for Colin Devlin’s Democracy of One in 2008.

Follow Kristi York Wooten on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/kristiwooten

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I was incredibly excited when I learned that DonorsChoose.org was giving $5 gift cards to anyone who pledges online to see Waiting for “Superman”. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s an amazing organization that makes it possible for individuals to directly fund classroom projects across the country. A teacher can post a need for a new projector, a wish for a field trip to the Supreme Court, books and study guides…anything educational that she needs help funding.
Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, calls it microphilanthropy. I call it a light-bulb-moment. Just like swapping out your light bulbs for energy-efficient ones helps to lower your energy use, this, too, is something you can do in just a few minutes that has an enormous impact. Your entire donation goes straight into the classroom, facilitated directly by DonorsChoose.org. And perhaps the best part is that the teacher and students send notes and emails to each and every donor, updating you on how the project is going. So while you are taking the time to figure out who you can encourage to be a great teacher or identifying who is on your local school board and where they meet, this is a great interim step that can be done in just a few minutes.
Last year I gave a DonorsChoose.org gift card to my sister-in-law for her birthday. She politely looked at the card, turned the card over, nodded, and said with a smile, “Oh, how interesting. Thank you.” Then a week later I got a phone call from her and she was ecstatic. She had gone through all the classroom projects, found ones she liked in various parts of the country and gave a little bit to each of them until she had used up her card. She said it was the most fun she had ever had with a present and that she was now following the projects to see when they achieved full funding.
Now that over 50,000 people have pledged to see Waiting for “Superman”, there are entire class projects that have been funded by our pledgers. Recently, Ms. G’s “Parents Empowered!” request in Durham, North Carolina, was funded to provide take-home study packs as a way to help parents stay in involved in their kids’ learning and support their learning at home. Ms. E in Webb, Mississippi, was able to provide ACT Prep Books to her students so they can study for college exams. Could it get any better?! Well, actually it does. I’ve just learned that when Waiting for “Superman” hits theaters, you will get a $15 dollar DonorsChoose.org code when you buy a ticket online through Fandango. You didn’t know being a hero could be this easy, did you?
Lesley Chilcott is a documentary film producer. After being a producer on the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth, Chilcott partnered with director Davis Guggenheim to form Electric Kinney Films, a feature documentary production company. Chilcott began her career at MTV Networks and was part of the creation of the first MTV Movie Awards. She left MTV to produce music videos and commercials as an independent producer. Chilcott has produced It Might Get Loud, the Barack Obama bio-film A Mother’s Promise for the Democratic National Convention, the animated short It Was A Dark and Silly Night, and Waiting for “Superman”. She also co-founded the nonprofit Unscrew America to address sustainability and environmental issues.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

To begin my Spring/Summer Fashion Week 2010 spectacular, I decided to divert my travels all the way to Chelsea to see the work of Alex Casertano, a designer you’ve probably not heard of. I hadn’t either until several weeks ago, when those in the know started heralding Casertano as a talent to watch. So I did, and I enjoyed what I saw. Even to the untrained eye some of Casertano’s influences were noticeable… or perhaps I just have a conditioned reflex to mutter “Prada” whenever I see an exposed bra under an open, deep-V blouse. He did once say he designs for his girlfriend. At any rate, I found a handful of pieces from Casertano’s “American Sportswear” collection that I’d love to introduce to my admittedly non-sporty wardrobe. Take a look at some photos I managed to snap over the crowd:
1 of 8
Jessica Simpson, Joe Zee & More Spotted At Thursday’s Fashion Shows (PHOTOS, POLL)
Bettina Wulff Visits Switzerland, Hangs Out With First Gent Roland Hausin (PHOTOS)
Michelle Obama Moves With Taylor Swift, NFL Players In Louisiana (UPDATED PHOTOS)
Princess Letizia Debuts Updated ‘Do, Shorts Suit (PHOTOS, POLL)
Michelle Obama Hosts Dance Event, Mixes Prints In Black & White (PHOTOS)
Svetlana Medvedeva vs. Mehriban Aliyeva: Fashion Face-Off! (PHOTOS, POLL)
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Follow Hilary Moss on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/hilsays

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Not too long ago, I boarded a plane in Dubai bound for the United States. There were a number of Emirati families on board, some of whom I recognised and greeted. After a 14-hour direct flight, we descended from the plane and made our way to passport control.
One Emirati family walked towards the line for US citizens and, in my naivety, I almost told them they were standing in the wrong queue. I hesitated, correctly it turned out. They were American citizens and obliged to stand in the US citizens section.
Many people who hear this story immediately assume that the mother was a foreigner. Not only is that incorrect — the mother is a true-blue Emirati — but she also works in the UAE government.
In the past week, I was reminded of this by an article in The National relating to mixed parentage. The Grand Mufti of Dubai, Dr Ahmed al Haddad, made controversial comments questioning whether there should be restrictions on Emiratis marrying outside their nationality.
In truth,a substantial number of talented Emiratis have been born to mixed marriages, a point that Dr al Haddad’s comments did not seem to take into consideration. According to one person who was present at the panel discussion, Emiratis from mixed marriages may have “mixed loyalties.” So are they Emirati enough?
Well, let us take a look at some of these Emiratis to find out. Ali Mostafa, the director behind City of Life, is the product of a mixed marriage. City of Life, which depicts contemporary life in Dubai in a powerful and realistic fashion, has become an international ambassador for the UAE after opening in Australia and Canada with a screening scheduled in Washington DC. Is its director Emirati enough?
Omar Saif Ghobash and Yousef al Otaiba, the UAE ambassadors to Russia and the United States respectively, both have foreign-born mothers and yet they serve the UAE with as much attention and dedication as any other Emirati ambassador. I have written before about how Mr al Otaiba has worked tirelessly on behalf of the country, in particular on the nuclear 123 agreement with the United States. Mr Ghobash speaks six languages and was heavily involved in bringing New York University to the UAE’s capital. Are they Emirati enough?
Razan al Mubarak is also a product of a mixed marriage. Her late father, like Ambassador Ghobash’s, gave his life for the country. Ms al Mubarak, in her roles as assistant secretary general of the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi and managing director of the Emirates Wildlife Society, is busy protecting the country’s wildlife on both land and sea. Is she Emirati enough?
At Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm Mubadala, the chief operations officer, Waleed al Mokarrab al Muhairi, also happens to be chairman of Yahsat, Advance Technology Investment Company and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. But perhaps most importantly, he is credited with being “one of the principal architects behind the Abu Dhabi 2030 Economic vision”. And yes, Mr al Mokarrab comes from a mixed family.
Wael Al Sayegh is a writer, poet, translator and founder of the consultancy firm Al Ghaf, which delivers “inter-cultural induction programmes to multinational organisations serving the region”. Mr Al Sayegh has spoken to many multinational corporations about UAE culture and offered a Dubai perspective to foreign news outlets, including the BBC, during recent high-profile criminal cases. Is he Emirati enough?
Sarah Shaw, an Emirati whose biological father is English, currently works at the General Secretariat of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and is a huge supporter of Emiratisation. Is she Emirati enough?
Other Emiratis from mixed families who have made substantial contributions include the director general of the Dubai World Trade Centre, Helal Saeed al Marri, the film director Nawaf Janahi and the columnist Mishaal al Gergawi, among many others.
There are examples in my immediate circle of Emirati friends who genuinely care about this country, not despite one of their parents being foreign born but perhaps because of it.
Should the UAE, and specifically Dubai, known for being hospitable and welcoming to people of all ethnicities, backgrounds and cultures, make our very own citizens feel unwelcome?
The truth is the UAE is a richer country because of these individuals of mixed backgrounds. What we should concentrate on is strengthening the ties that people have to this great nation. I have previously suggested military service for Emirati high school graduates, cultural immersion and social volunteering as ways to build civic participation.
Frankly, it would be insulting to question the loyalty of Emiratis who are born to a foreign parent. It is also unfair, un-Islamic and ultimately in this case un-Emirati to generalise about people of any background. The Emirates is a vibrant country of many colours – only seeing a single shade excludes too many of its strengths.
*This article first appeared in The National on Sunday 29th August 2010

Follow Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The fifth annual StarChefs.com International Chefs Congress has landed culinary heavyweights Thomas Keller, Marcus Samuelsson, and Jeffrey Steingarten for their food extravaganza event this month in New York City. Open to culinary professionals from all sectors of the industry as well as the general public, the event brings together some of the best talent in the universe of food for three days of demonstrations, workshops, seminars and discussions.
Being held at the Park Avenue Armory, the event kicks off on September 20 with a Keynote Panel on this year’s theme, Creativity: Art vs. Craft. Thomas Keller (The French Laundry and Per Se), Dan Barber (Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns), and David Kinch (Manresa, Iron Chef champion), will participate in a delicious discussion moderated by food writer Michael Ruhlman.
Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto on the main stage at the 2009 ICC. Photo by Max Flatow
Rick Moonan (RM Seafood in Vegas and Top Chef Masters finalist) will be in town for a hands-on workshop Sustainability Under Pressure: Sous-Vide Seafood. Another cool workshop on the roster is There Will Be Blood: Cooking with Life’s Essential Liquid, headed by New York City’s Brad Farmerie of PUBLIC.
Pastry hands-on workshops abound as well, with Food Network Challenge’s Keegan Gerhard leading Some Like It Cold, a workshop on innovative techniques and flavors for ice creams, sorbets, and pastry creams.
Chef April Bloomfield dissects a whole pig at the 2009 ICC. Photo by Michael Harlan Turkell
From Europe, Albert Adria of elBulli fame is making the trek to NYC for the International Chefs Congress, as is Tom Aikens of Tom Aikens Restaurant in London.
Other big name participants include Marcus Samuelsson, winner of Top Chef Masters and Chef/Owner of Aquavit, pastry punk Johnny Iuzinni of NYC’s Jean-Georges restaurant and head judge on Top Chef Just Desserts (premiering September 15 on Bravo), Charlie Palmer of Aureole in NYC and Charlie Palmer Steak in Las Vegas and Washington, DC, and Elizabeth Falkner of San Francisco’s Citizen Cake.
This year StarChefs.com will hold its first annual International Pastry Competition, where twenty pastry chefs will go whisk-to-whisk in a three day test of skill and talent. Judging the international line-up of competitors will be Mr. Chocolate himself, Jacques Torres, pastry phenom Albert Adria, food alchemist Wylie Dufresne of wd~50, and Iron Chef hyper critical judge Jeffrey Steingarten, author of The Man Who Ate Everything.
Chef Sean Brock using liquid nitrogen in his savory workshop. Photo by Michael Harlan Turkell
In addition to all the cooking and baking workshops, culinary seminars, and discussion panels, there’s also a Products Fair, where attendants get the pleasure of sampling gourmet food products from around the world, and a “Somm Slam” where sommeliers will compete in a food and wine pairing challenge. Linked to the event is the New York Rising Stars Review, a showcase and killer party for up-and-coming talent in the NYC area.
I’m beyond excited for this year’s International Chefs Congress! I’ve attended three of the past four ICCs, and only missed the one because I was in Europe at the time. I’ll be there this year to cover this ultimate food event for Huffington Post, so if you can’t make it yourself, I’ll do my best to make you feel as if you’d been there. Feel free to visit the ICC schedule and post a comment here to let me know who you want me to catch up with at this dream event for culinary professionals and foodies!
Chefs Emeril Lagasse, Norman Van Aken, and Charlie Trotter discuss American Cuisine at ICC 2009. Photo by Vicky Wasik
You can purchase tickets to the event online at StarChefs.com. While it is pricey, everyone I’ve ever met there feels it’s well worth it!

Follow Regina Varolli on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

I brought Hilary Duff’s book Elixer with me to the beach this weekend. I had planned to give it a quick glance and read the first few chapters, enough time to see if I wanted to continue with it. What I found is that I spent a good portion of the day Saturday and Sunday reading and even woke up Monday morning to take my coffee outside and get in a few more chapters. One of my friends asked what I was doing up so early and I held out the book. “You’ve been reading that all weekend,” he said, “I had no idea Hilary Duff was a writer, let alone a good one.”
Hmm.
I’ve tried in the past to blog about ghostwriting and have failed. I have a lot of opinions on the whole issue and I’m constantly censoring myself to make sure I don’t just sound like a bitter writer. It’s a tough debate. On the one hand I understand that these books are extensions of personal celebrity brands. They have DVD’s and television shows, magazine articles and action figures… why not put out books, too? But as my friend stood over me, peering at the cover, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him Hilary Duff was a good writer. Because, you see, I don’t believe she wrote the book.
Let me get something straight: I have no problem with ghostwriting as a thing unto itself. What bothers me is the way it’s shrouded in secrecy, ignored to the point of straight-up lying. Why not be honest? What is the problem with saying, “Hey, I’m a movie star. I’m super busy. And while I’m totally into the idea of putting out a book, I’m not going to sit at my computer six hours a day for a year and a half, so I need a little help here.” I’d respect that, because just slapping Hilary Duff’s name on the cover, having her show up for signings and readings, going on morning talk shows and interviewing with David Letterman does not make her an author. It also (and this is more to my point) does not make her a writer.
Writing is hard. It takes commitment and determination and a good part talent. It’s not an afterthought, and addendum, it’s a career. So while I’m happy to tell my friend “this book is really good, and it’s attached to Hilary Duff,” what I can’t tell him is: “Hilary Duff is a great writer.”
To me, it’s a bit like my calling up Julia Roberts and informing her I’m going to be starring in her next movie. “But you don’t act,” she might stutter (if Julia Roberts stuttered. Also, if Julia Roberts answered my phone calls). “Sure,” I’d say, “but it’s sort of a dream of mine to star in a movie. And I think it would be really good for my personal brand.” “Right, but you don’t act,” she’d say, a little more clearly this time. “No worries,” I’d say, “I’m a writer, people know me.”
Um, wrong. It’s more like: I’m a writer, people don’t know me.
But the point stands: I don’t act. I have no experience in it. I don’t know how to get into character, the proper way to memorize lines. I have no idea about timing or rehearsal schedules or the protocol onset. It’s not my profession.
I’ve often heard writers say that we get the short end of the stick glamour-wise. Most people don’t know what we look like (which is good, considering the majority of our workday is spent in sweatpants). We don’t have fancy gallery openings and we don’t walk red carpets. Mostly we sit drinking copious amounts of coffee and struggle over the perfect words to use in the perfect order to reveal a truth that will make someone feel something. It’s a very tricky thing to do but there are some of us who are called to do it and if we’re lucky enough to heed that call, it’s an incredibly rewarding life.
Tyra Banks wants to sell a trilogy? Wonderful. Lauren Conrad wants to have a New York Times bestseller? More power to her. But putting out books, coming up with a book concept, even editing books is not the same thing as writing them. Everyone has a story to tell and in a perfect world everyone would get the opportunity to tell it. Some of us have the stories, some of us have the words, and some of us have both. Let’s honor the portions we bring to the table and give credit where credit is due.
Of course there are those who will argue that I have this all wrong. And who knows, maybe they’re right. Maybe Ms. Duff has had dreams of becoming an author since she was six years old. Maybe every free moment she has is spent scribbling in notebooks and downloading new versions of word. Maybe the whole point of her entire career — the television show, the movies, the stunt on Gossip Girl — was so that eventually, someday, she would get to parlay it into writing a book.
I mean, that’s certainly the point of mine.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Nine long years after 9/11, the battle over the meaning of what happened to our city, our country and our world on that fateful blue-crystal morning continues unabated, with the battleground still the swirling nexus of news and politics. As usual, all sides in this cultural clash are employing the very media they consistently accuse of “news bias” to promote their competing visions. Like the “Global War on Terror” spawned by the attacks, the ongoing struggle to interpret 9/11 now appears to be a war without end.
As we approach the 9/11 “anniversary,” bigotry and smears against both Muslims and their “militant, anti-Semitic” faith have become distressingly common in prominent media outlets ranging from the New Republic to CNN and Fox News, and from the Washington Post to the Washington Times. Here’s just a taste of mainstream media’s anti-Muslim rhetoric from the past few weeks, as compiled by Media Matters:
Peretz questions whether Muslims “are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment.” In a September 4 New Republic column, editor-in-chief Martin Peretz wrote: “I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”
Buchanan: “[A] Western nation that opens its doors to mass migration from the Islamic world is taking a grave risk with its unity and identity.” In an August 24 column, Pat Buchanan also stated: “Prejudice is prejudgment. And if prejudgment is rooted in the history and traditions of a people, and what life has taught us, it is a shield that protects.”
Graham: “True Islam” can’t be practiced in U.S. because “you cannot beat your wife, you cannot do honor killing.” On the August 19 broadcast of CNN’s John King USA, Franklin Graham repeated his frequent attacks on Islam, concluding: “We’re not under Sharia law. We’re under the Constitution of the United States. And so we’re protected.”
No rhetoric been hotter, however, than that used to describe Park51, the proposed Islamic center in downtown Manhattan. Newt Gingrich compared it (on the August 16 edition of Fox & Friends) to Nazis erecting a sign next to the Holocaust museum in Washington; faded rock star Ted Nugent said (in a Washington Times op-ed) it would “attract extremists and radicals — Muslim voodoo kooks who love death and destruction in the name of Allah — who will try to harm America;” conservative commentator Cal Thomas described it as a terrorist front in an August 3 column, and also noted in a July 21 post on a Washington Post blog, “A mosque near Ground Zero isn’t about honoring the dead, but celebrating their deaths;” ex-presidential adviser Dick Morris called it (in a column) “a terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and training center;” and Fox News contributor Sarah Palin described it (during the August 16 edition of Fox News’ On the Record>)as a “stab in the heart” for Americans and a “slap” to 9-11 victims.
On the other hand, despite the near-certainty that Koran-burning stunts and anti-Shariah Law protests by the “informed opposition” featuring signs written in “dripping, blood-red ink” will dominate this weekend’s media lineup, charges of “news bias” by the bigots and new “Know Nothings” are already surfacing. Witness the web site abcnewsbias.com, for example, which purports to document how an “ABC employee’s role at the rally was to provoke a confrontation with participants so ABC News cameras could record it and then use the footage. The ABC employee was literally making news.”
The charges, made by Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition, were later amplified on media provocateur Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Peace” web site. Much of what Lafferty “reported,” however, is factually untrue. I know because the “ABC employee” in question, John Veit, has worked off and on for my company Globalvision for many years. Veit was working for ABC News as a free-lance audio technician at the rally, and took the opportunity to shoot interviews with anti-Shariah protesters on a personal video camera. Having seen Veit’s interviews — none of which were ever used by ABC in any capacity — I can assure you that the “opposition” to the purported (and greatly exaggerated) possibility of Sharia law being imposed here in the US was anything but “informed.” One memorable clip shows a drunken man wearing a “No Al Qaeda at Ground Zero” t-shirt sitting covered in vomit…
Nevertheless, for his actions, ABC News executives reprimanded Veit. (Senior Vice President Jeffrey W. Schneider told me, “He was not instructed to perform interviews or to engage with protestors and was there solely as an audio tech. He has been reprimanded for his behavior at this event.”) Veit was also denounced on air as a “longhaired… maggot-infested, dope-smoking FM-type” by Rush Limbaugh.
Veit later told me, “While conducting the interviews, I became frustrated by the protesters’ inability to provide coherent answers and found the flagrant bigotry and ignorance repulsive.” He conceded that his frustration “showed in my tone and tenor,” noted that, “The clips I emailed to friends and family were only to show them the extent of the very tempestuous situation at the Cordoba Center and meant to remain private,” and concluded by saying, “I feel compelled to respond to the allegation that I was planted there to inflame tensions. The notion that I was barbered, dressed as a protester and sent by ABC to incite hostility is as ludicrous as it annoying. It compromises the integrity of ABC News, albeit to a fringe element, but it is unwarranted.”
Just another skirmish, then, in an ongoing media war without end…
Frank Gaffney wrote in his August 26 Washington Times op-ed about the protests, “As I looked out at the thousands of people assembled near Ground Zero on Sunday to oppose the construction of a mega-mosque there, I was reminded of Winston Churchill’s famous line that inspirited Britain at the first sign the tide was turning in World War II: “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
If only that were the case! But the odds sadly seem much higher that, just as soon as this year’s 9/11 commemorative battle ends, the next one will promptly begin. After all, 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the worst terror attacks against the United States ever and after all, that means war!

Follow Rory O’Connor on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/rocglobal

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

For years people have been endlessly speculating about why there are so few female entrepreneurs. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal on the lack of women leading tech startups has fueled the fire again with TechCrunch, twitter and every feminist, misogynist and trivialist adding their two cents. Everyone has an opinion, with the notable exception of women like me who have actually done the seemingly impossible (according to the media) and started a tech company.
In a recent post, “Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men.” Michael Arrington conjectured that “the problem is that not enough women want to become entrepreneurs,” and that “statistically speaking women have a huge advantage as entrepreneurs, because the press is dying to write about them, and venture capitalists are dying to fund them.” He’s right, up to a point. Women do have a huge advantage when starting a business, because we are so novel. We do make for an interesting press angle and we may get an important meeting with a VC if we have the right idea because they want to round out their portfolio. What hasn’t been my experience is VCs, event organizers or reporters going out of their way to find female tech leaders or entrepreneurs to fund, write about or invite to speak on their panels. I suppose my experience would be different if I were Marissa Mayer or Carol Bartz, the two tech poster-women generally called on by default. Trust me, we’re here, we may just not be as forthright in promoting ourselves as some of our male counterparts. We’re probably too busy running our companies and taking care of our families to boot.
So why don’t more women go the entrepreneurial route? I think that the answer is pretty simple and probably the same reason that so few women rise to the ranks of CEO in our businesses. Women are forced to make an agonizing decision right around the time that their careers start to take off, “What’s more important, my career or my children?” Any mom knows what a loaded question this is. An excellent NY times article, “A labor market Punishing to Mothers” pointed out the steep price that women pay for taking time off from work. For some, motherhood results in years off the job, years which normally coincide with big leaps in responsibility and titles at work. For entrepreneurs, who regularly put in 90 hour weeks getting their businesses off the ground, balancing motherhood seems like a non-starter.
I suspect that we don’t see enough female entrepreneurs for the same reason why only 15 Fortune 500 Companies have female CEOs – because many of us have decided that ultimately our families come before our professional growth.
Here’s a secret I’d like to share with all of the women and men out there – being an entrepreneur and a mother is possible. And while it may be hard, it’s a lot easier than working for someone else. As a business owner I don’t have to ask someone’s permission to run home if one of my kids is sick, and I’ve managed to be present in my sons lives by trading in Fridays off with working late nights at home. Am I superwoman? Far from it. What I do have is an amazingly supportive husband, who is neither threatened by my success nor afraid to take on his share of the responsibility in the raising of our children. I suspect that if more partners were willing to take on a full 50% stake in child rearing, and more women stopped looking at the reasons why they can’t balance their kids and their careers, we’d get ourselves out of this debate once and for all.

Follow Jessica Rovello on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/ArkadiumGames

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Economic downturns aren’t all bad news: one upshot is that they force people to reexamine their expenditures. When money’s tight, most of us start to scrutinize where every cent is going. We reprioritize. Spending $25 for a night out at the movies, when we stop to think about it, doesn’t really make much sense — especially when we could wait a few months and own the movie on DVD for half the price. Four-dollar lattes each morning suddenly seem absurd.
Recessions and depressions help us see, and correct, our wayward ways. We trim the fat, after having insisted for years there wasn’t any fat to trim.
But when the economy is flying high, nothing looks fatty — though that’s only because no one’s really looking. We invent and grow accustomed to new toys, and we wonder how we ever lived without them. We forget that there’s a world of difference between needing what we have and having what we need. “Want” and “need” become synonyms.
The field of education isn’t exempt from this phenomenon. In boom times, we expand curricular and extracurricular offerings, we upgrade facilities, we hire more staff and we reduce class sizes. We have no doubt that if we build it, they will come. That was the theory behind the construction of the $578 million Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles, which will open to 4,200 public-school students in September. It sounded like a great idea back in 2006 when voters approved bond measures to the tune of $20 billion for such projects.
California has proven particularly adept at the game of conflating “want” and “need,” which helps explain its current fiscal woes. In 1996, when the Golden State was awash in cash, California decided to launch a state-wide class-size reduction program that would, over time, reward districts for capping classes in grades K-3 at 20 students. The effort is estimated to have cost the state at least $20 billion.
By many accounts, class-size reduction is a success story. Parents love it, as their children get more individualized attention. And teachers, of course, love it. Who wouldn’t want fewer students in each class? Costs were initially irrelevant because in the heady days of the late 1990s, California was routinely running multi-billion-dollar budget surpluses.
Now it’s 2010, and class-size reduction programs in California and elsewhere — especially Florida — look foolish. They were built on a shaky foundation, a single study out of Tennessee that was conducted in 1985. The Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) project compared the academic achievement of low-income elementary students in small classes of 13-17 with that of similar students in larger classes of 22-25. In the much smaller classes, modest but enduring gains were observed among poor African-American kindergarteners and first-graders.
Thinking they’d found the holy grail to raising student performance and erasing the achievement gap between poor and affluent children, politicians and policymakers in some states sought to shrink class sizes.
The trouble is, they didn’t pay close enough attention to the study’s results, and they crafted programs that bore little resemblance to the conditions in the Tennessee study. California, for instance, went universal with its program — handing out money to any district in the state that capped classes at 20 in grades K-3. This had the unintended effect of creating a run on good teachers: the best teachers tended to flee to the suburbs, which were suddenly hiring and which offered better pay and working conditions. (Many also already had smaller classes, so they were given state money for doing nothing — simply a case of the rich getting richer.)
Harder-to-staff schools soon found themselves in desperate need of bodies at the front of their classrooms. Overnight, nearly 21,000 new teachers were needed state-wide. People were hired off the street and granted emergency credentials to teach. The percentage of uncertified teachers skyrocketed: in 1995, about 1 in 50 California teachers lacked full credentials, compared to 1 in 7 teachers four years later. Poor children were, predictably, much more likely than middle-class or affluent children to be taught by unqualified teachers.
It’s little wonder, then, that the successes of Project STAR were nowhere to be seen in California.
An even more disastrous scene has unfolded in Florida, where voters in 2002 approved an amendment to the state constitution that gradually reduced class sizes in all grades. At the high school level, classes in core disciplines cannot exceed a school-wide average of 25 students. Beginning with the 2010-11 school year, the amendment’s requirement will have to be met at the individual classroom level. The state legislature, realizing the classroom-level requirement will cost taxpayers an extra $353 million this year alone, will ask Florida’s voters to loosen the regulations in November. The state has spent an estimated $16 billion on class-size reduction thus far.
Increasing class sizes makes no one happy. When Chicago school officials announced their intention to raise class sizes in June, the teachers’ union immediately filed suit to block the move. In New York City, some parents and teachers are outraged that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have allowed class sizes to creep up on their watch, despite campaign promises to the contrary.
The reality, though, is that of all the things we should worry about in providing a quality education to our children, class size isn’t high on the list. Teacher quality matters a lot more. Zeke Vanderhoek, the founder of The Equity Project Charter School in New York City, knows this. His teachers are the most highly compensated public-school educators in the country, earning minimum salaries of $125,000 per year. How does the school afford such salaries? Because Vanderhoek decided he’d much rather have the nation’s top educators teaching classes of 30 students rather than mediocre folks teaching classes of 20 students. And the research backs him up.
Champions of small classes, who invariably cite Project STAR, fail to grasp that the study’s findings have little bearing on current debates about class size in this country. The STAR study wasn’t about tinkering at the margins, reducing classes by one or two students, and it certainly wasn’t about the effects of small classes on student achievement at the middle- or high-school levels. The study has very little external validity, which is a polite way of saying its findings shouldn’t be generalized to other contexts.
The question isn’t whether class size matters. Of course it matters — at the extremes. Elementary students in classes of 50 would almost certainly learn a lot less than similar students in classes of 10 or 20. But what we’re talking about in the U.S. is marginal reductions to class size, going from 30 to 25 students per class, and the benefits versus the costs of such reductions.
The real question is whether across-the-board, marginal reductions to class size are a sounder investment than any number of other reforms we could try. That is, is reducing class size a move that yields a disproportionate bang for our buck? Decades of research suggest the answer, sadly, is no. Investments in teacher quality would do much more than smaller classes to raise student achievement in the U.S.
I’m a teacher myself. If given the option, I naturally prefer to teach fewer rather than more students. Because my time is finite, I fear each of my students will get less of my attention as my classes increase in size. But, all things considered, smaller classes aren’t the smartest investment we can make. They’re a bit like flying first class: lovely if you’re flush with cash, but by no means necessary to arrive at your desired destination. Yes, first class offers you extra leg room, better food and more attention from the flight attendant, but it also costs ten times the price of coach. In other words, it’s a luxury — like small classes — we can no longer afford.
A version of this article appeared in The Providence Journal on September 5, 2010.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Is it 5771 already? Well, look, time flies when you’re having a great culture.
The arrival of the High Holy Days makes every Jew, across the entire spectrum from secular to frum (Yid., pious, observant), get a little more self-conscious and reflective. But what are they reflecting on?
My wife and co-author, Barbara Davilman, posted on HARO (Help A Reporter Out) a request from writers for memories of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Here’s her report.
As someone who hates to be told what to do, and where and when to do it, I never really got along with organized religion. (I gave a “why I hate Hebrew school” speech at confirmation.)
But I’ve discovered, over the years, that being Jewish can be just as much a cultural practice as a religious one. So, although I no longer go to temple (not even on the High Holy Days), and I don’t go to anyone’s house for seder on Passover (unless I’m guilted into it), I am a cultural Jew. This means that my hair will always be the bane of my existence (don’t start with me with the Brazilian Blowout), I’ll always plan my day around food, and give directions using restaurants. If I feel pain anywhere in my body, I’ll jump right to “it’s cancer,” but refuse to go to the doctor.
It also accounts for how I’m pretty good at hondling (bargaining, negotiating), I deflect compliments people give me, and I worry excessively–about my dogs, yes, but only because I don’t have any children. (All these, and more, are explained and illustrated in The Big Jewish Book for Jews, which is the last book you–or at least, I–would have expected me to co-write.)
And I know I’m not alone. I see more and more people listing, under their Facebook category of Religious Views, the generic description “spiritual.” When I posted my HARO request for memories of High Holy Days gone by, many of the replies had nothing to do with God, renewal, or atonement. No, they concerned food, clothes, and parentally-induced trauma. Like these:
“My earliest recollections of the High Holy Days was my Grandma making her own gefilte fish,” writes Margo Rappel. “I came home from school and found carp and other live fish swimming in her bath tub.”
Similarly, Lisa Flicop remembers meeting her boyfriend’s (and now husband’s) extended family for the first time and being confronted with Aunt Sylvia’s gefilte fish. “While I am typically an adventurous eater, gefilte fish was just one of those foods that I prefer not to be within smelling distance.” Still, “I went for it. I made sure I had plenty of horseradish and wine to wash it down with. I ate the fish, but by then I had had too much wine…”
Jodi Lyons took time out from preparing knishes to recall herself “as a little girl cooking for a huge extended family–with three generations of women preparing recipes handed down from generation to generation.”
But it wasn’t all gefilte fish and pot roast.
Sarah Lefton remembers “being in my pissed-off teenager phase one Yom Kippur. INXS was playing a concert at the Coliseum the night of Kol Nidre (the sacred prayer sung three times on the evening before the day of Yom Kippur). Being in Columbia, SC, you don’t necessarily get a lot of the big shows and I was kind of infatuated with Michael Hutchence at the time. The fight over whether I could go was a major knock-down, drag-out teenage power play with my parents, and I lost. It wasn’t pretty.”
Compare and contrast Audrey RL Wyatt’s, “When I was a rebellious teen I refused to go to Temple on Yom Kippur to say Yiskor (the commemorative prayer for the dead) for my father. It’s not that I didn’t want to pray for my dad, I was rebelling against my mother’s determination that everyone see me do it.”
The beautiful, touching memories continue as Devra Renner remembers, “I recall as a kid my mother would become so shrecked (terrible, fearful, monstrous) at the thought of being late to Kol Nidre, she would become a lunatic about getting to the synagogue. The irony of fighting like mad with my mother about getting ready to leave, and then going to listen to Kol Nidre service where we prepare to confess our sins and forgive one another was akin to downing a case of Manischevitz and then attending an AA meeting.”
The frantic mothers, the gefilte fish–yes, but what about the clothes? Andrea Levine writes, “Having grown up and gone to High Holiday services at a conservative shul in Ventnor, NJ, Beth Judah, I will say that I spent most of the year, beginning the day after Yom Kippur, looking for the most amazing outfit, shoes, and bag, along with suit or dress and jewelry, to wear the following year. We went to services partly to see and be seen!!!…That is really the essence of the High Holy Days for me as a child.”
This pales, though, before the epic tale of Suzanne Wexler. “When I was a kid, my mom–a converted shixsa (sic) with blond hair and a southern drawl–would have me and my sister Alana model our synagogue best, from orange gingham jumpers to plaid blue kilts with white turtle necks, weeks before the Jewish high-holidays…
“I assumed that mommy was so obsessed with us looking ‘appropriate’ because she looked and sounded so different from the other women at our modern Orthodox shul…in Montreal, where the congregation just stopped short of traditions like top hats and wigs.”
And it was not enough that the two little girls be dressed to kill. They had to wear identical outfits.
“‘I don’t want to look like her,’” my sister would shriek…But mom said that when Alana and I matched from head to toe–sigh!–we were absolutely to die for.”
Suzanne and her sister theorized that Yom Kippur–go know what this had to do with “atonement”–was the setting for some sort of fashion competition, the winners to be judged by “the rabbi and his men” in secret, its results to remain classified.
It wasn’t until the girls grew up, and Alana had two daughters of her own, that Suzanne learned the reason for their mother’s fancy-shmancy, matchy-matchy wardrobe instructions. Why had her mother been so avid about making the girls look like twins?
“‘Oh, you two were my sweet little baby dolls,’ she replied, her southern accent suddenly resurrected. ‘I wanted you to look just like the ones I played with growing up named Trixie and Lulubelle.’” Hence their “extreme Christian makeover.”
“We thought she wanted us to triumph among all Jewesses,” Suzanne writes. “In fact, she was way more interested in making us stick out like two proud goyim, dressed in high-collar necklines and spanking new saddle shoes…We’d been wafting into synagogue wearing our Southern Baptist best…”
A mixed marriage (to a wife who converted) might also account for the way Rich Hollenburg’s six-year-old son Jason mimics his father at prayer, reciting, “Baruch atah Illinois…”
Inspiring, no? Well, no. But imbued with the importance of family and tradition (of one kind or another), which is an essential aspect of Judaism both religious and secular. What are some of your High Holy Day memories? Even if they’re not about food, clothes, or mothers.
B.D.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Jessica Simpson was in the house at Lincoln Center this morning, wearing a shimmering silver dress that would make a disco ball jealous (and, likely, launch a thousand Michael Kors insults, seeing as “disco” is his favorite slur) as she alighted to the stage at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week to serve in her official capacity as guest judge for Project Runway’s Season 8 runway show. “Is she fat or skinny?” a woman behind me whispered to her seatmate, a man who claimed to have finished fourth place twice on The Amazing Race.
Actually, the fattest judge in attendance was Nina Garcia. (Apparently she has some kind of uterine growth). Frau Klum went bold in a coral pantsuit, while Kors stuck to his GTL regimen and uniform of black t-shirt, black blazer, jeans, and mirrored sunglasses. As guests waited for the show to start, they dug through goody bags that included a copy of Tim Gunn’s new book (YES) as well as products from Garnier and L’Oreal.
Finally, the lights went down and the ten — yes, ten (there was an audible gasp when Heidi announced it) — mini-shows began.
Michael Drummond went first, listing his inspirations as X-rays and Mark Rothko. There was a third, but in his nervousness it was escaping him. “Oh!” he remembered just before the lights dimmed. “Women’s underwear!” Um, best inspiration list ever.
His collection was full of unfinished-looking (on purpose, I hope) dresses and knitwear in shades of gray punctuated by the odd metallic flash. The models sported gravity-defying ponytails that made them look as though they were trapped in a wind tunnel.
Verdict: No way he makes it all the way.
Next was Valerie Mayen, who cited her “wackadoo childhood” as informing her sensibility. “Being Guatemalan I love color,” she said, going on to compare her collection to the love child of Rainbow Brite and David Bowie (again, YES).
Indeed, the models walked in perfect ROYGBIV order, ending with a few more muted black and white looks. The construction was impeccable, the pieces were fun and wearable (well, possibly with the exception of a pair of high-waisted, banana-colored pants), and all in all the crowd loved our gal Val.
Verdict: A definite possibility for the finals.
Christopher Collins went third, barely speaking into his mic as he described his collection as being “about roots, race, and romance.” This coming from a white boy who lives alone in a tree.
His looks were all over the place — the first few showcased a stark black-and-white print, which then disappeared in favor of clingy metallic dresses and a few more casual pieces, including a lace romper. Proportions seemed off.
Verdict: No.
Casanova came onstage to lots of applause. Now, English is not his first language, but I’m pretty sure he said that his collection was called Arcadia and was inspired by his grandmother…
… who must have been a whorish gypsy showgirl, because OMG these clothes were over-the-top. The first look was a belly shirt (oh, dear God, please let’s not allow these to come back in vogue) paired with tight satin pants. Also! Each pair of pants had giant sparkly pieces of flair on each butt cheek that looked like the symbol for Prince. And did I mention that each model was wearing gold face paint? My notes devolved from after that. Here’s what I wrote:
ALL PANTS SHINY!
ALL ASSES SPARKLY!!!!
STUDDED BOOBIES!!!!!!!!!
An elderly woman next to me turned and whispered, “Good tops, bad bottoms.” She was pretty old, though, so she might have been partially blind.
Verdict: Hell no.
Ivy Higa served as the halftime show, telling us that she was inspired by her favorite beach in her native Hawaii. Her looks were paired with odd, two-layer sunhats and the everything was safe and boring resortwear. Can you tell I don’t like Ivy? Also: I don’t need another spring and summer season of rompers, people, so stop making them and maybe they’ll go away.
Verdict: Unlikely.
Showing sixth was Michael Costello, the most polarizing character this season, who may or may not have little elves coming in the middle of the night to sew his clothes. Michael was inspired by his friend Sunny Lopez, which gives the collection no context whatsoever. The entire thing was brown, though, so we can deduce that Sunny Lopez:
A) Is herself brown (Name sounds Latina; likely)
B) Loves chocolate and/or spray tanning
C) Is a shitty friend
Almost every look was a shiny brown dress with jewel accents and/or fringe. It was not cute. Also, the house music that was playing included a woman whispering “Michael Costello” over and over again, which struck me as unnecessarily masturbatory.
Verdict: Brown. I mean, no.
An uncomfortably long pause (like, five minutes) followed Michael’s presentation, leading me to wonder if the remaining designers had tackled him backstage and were in the process of beating him senseless with discount pumps from the Piperlime accessories wall.
Eventually, though, Gretchen Jones emerged, wearing a see-through skirt that showcased a pair of booty shorts. “This has been a long journey of self-discovery,” she said somberly. Her collection was called “Running Through Thunder.”
“She’s a ‘See-you-next-Tuesday,’” I heard the Amazing Race guy mutter under his breath. HA.
A lot of Gretchen’s looks featured vaguely African prints and chevron-shaped necklaces. A garish, shiny green vinyl that looked like petrified Hefty Bag was incorporated into a few pieces. But overall, the collection was incredibly well-made.
Verdict: Given her villainous role this season and the fact that she’s one of the best designers in the bunch, I think odds are even that Gretchen makes it to the final three.
Mondo Guerra came out next, to the biggest applause of the show. And seriously, he is so cute. “My inspiration came from what I know and love,” Mondo said. “I like to have fun.” He then dedicated the collection to his grandmother and “spiritual guide” Betty. Aw.
Mondo’s collection was nothing if not fun — a super-stylized, riveting parade of wild prints, bedazzled t-shirts, and colorful headgear that made his models look like retro pinup girls. It was kind of Carmen Miranda meets Harajuku. And while it was over-the-top, it also had much more depth and personality than the heavy-handed glitz of Michael C. or the ridiculous excess of Casanova.
Verdict: If there is any justice in the world, Mondo will make it to the finals.
Next up was April Johnston, who was inspired by the image of “dusty dolls going to a tea party and being washed away.” Yup.
Her models wore Ace bandage-like head wraps that made them look like accident victims. The first gown out looked like it was made out of hospital sheets and a straight jacket, complete with buckles. The colors were all muted, bloodless pastels, and the whole thing was very Girl, Interrupted.
Verdict: I don’t know. I have a theory that would land April in the final 3 but I’ll wait to share it until after we’ve dispensed with…
Andy South, who presented last. Andy gave a little speech about how the moment took his breath away and “makes living so amazing.” Then something about following his dreams. Or maybe the collection was inspired by dreams? My attention span, as you can tell, had waned by this point. Then Andy’s models came out and each of them had gold head pieces that looked like reindeer antlers or maybe one of those earring trees you can sometimes find at Claire’s Accessories, and I’m pretty sure little charms and stars were dangling from the ends of each branch. And when you put your models in distracting conceptual headgear that’s meant to communicate the meaningfulness of your dreams, it’s hard for people to pay attention to the clothes. I think I saw some green shorts, though, and they were shiny.
Verdict: Dream on.
Okay, so, my theory.
I went to the show last year, and while I didn’t know the outcome then, I looked back at my notes and it turns out that Seth Aaron, Emilio, and Mila all showed in a row in the middle of the group (they were 7th, 8th, and 9th to present I believe).
SO.
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the same trick was used this year, and that all three finalists showed in a row. Based on the strength of their collections, I’m inclined to believe that Gretchen and Mondo are two of the three. Which would mean that either Michael C. or April would be the third. I can’t really imagine that it’s Michael C. (if it is, he is the clear third-place finisher), so it’s go to be April.
Then again, maybe last year was a fluke and I’m totally off-base. Still, that’s my official wager: Gretchen, Mondo and April. In about six weeks, we’ll see if I’m right.
Check out some of the designers’ work:
Valerie Mayen
1 of 24
Nicholas K Spring 2011: The Art Of Wearable Clothes (PHOTOS, POLL)
Bettina Wulff Visits Switzerland, Hangs Out With First Gent Roland Hausin (PHOTOS)
Zooey Deschanel’s Tiered End-Of-Summer Frock: Rad Or Bad? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Michelle Obama Moves With Taylor Swift, NFL Players In Louisiana (UPDATED PHOTOS)
Kristen Stewart, Cameron Diaz & More In Little White Dresses: Who Wore It Best? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Gisele, Adriana Lima & Pharrell Converge At Fashion’s Night Out: The Show (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
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Follow Una LaMarche on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/sassycurmudgeon

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Share this page Four senior al-Qaeda members escape Baghdad jail Four prisoners with ties to al-Qaeda have escaped from the US-controlled section of Baghdad's Karkh prison.
The inmates were found to be missing during a security sweep on Wednesday night, after two other detainees were caught attempting to flee.

Is it “3 strikes and you’re out” or “third time’s the charm?”
After decades of working with married couples, I have realized that there’s not much I can do if peoples’ mindsets are focused on being right instead of making their relationship better.
WATCH:
As a result I now focus on partners that are motivated to make their marriage a success and are willing to give up having to be right to do so. Those couples are often the ones where both partners are marrying for the third time or at least one is for the third time (usually the moneyed one) and the other for at least the second.
It doesn’t always hold true, but it seems that a couple in a first marriage often doesn’t know what to do when each person grows in a different direction and apart from the other. Rather than accepting this as a reality, they launch full bore into making the other person wrong when in fact they are just different and growing into who they are meant to be.
Then the second marriage is about doing the opposite of the first as a reaction to the other person being wrong. It is not about admitting and actually taking personal responsibility for problems in that first marriage. In other words, the narcissistic part of each person’s personality is alive and well and entitled. If they haven’t taken that personal responsibility for problems, they are often just as likely to run into problems — maybe different ones, but problems nevertheless — the second time around.
The third time may be the charm because after being a two time loser, it becomes more difficult to keep blaming the other person entirely. What’s the saying? “Have a failed marriage once, shame on them; have a failed marriage twice, shame on you.” And when you get older, just not wanting to fight is a legitimate resolution to arguments, whereas when you are younger that would seem to be too avoidant and there is often an obsessive need to deal with and resolve all the issues. Also by the time you’re on a third marriage, you’ve gone from believing you’re invincible to wanting to make it to the finish line of life with peace of mind.
Now there are many who will not remarry a third time. For the ones that do, there are usually habits they have learned that will help their third marriage to succeed (and ones that first and second marriages would do well to learn as well).
12 Habits of Healthy and Happy Third Marriages
Talking “with” instead of “at” your mate. Let their body language be your guide. When you’re talking “at” your partner, they’ll tense up. When you’re talking “with” them, they’ll most certainly relax.
Tuning in — instead of tuning out — to what your mate is saying. When your mind begins to wander, stop and remember that what your partner is saying is important to them whether you’re interested or not.
Remembering to thank your mate. Not thanking your spouse for being considerate, thoughtful or kind makes them feel unappreciated and foolish for caring about you.
Saying, “I’m sorry,” instead of becoming defensive. When you mess up, the sooner you sincerely apologize the sooner your mate can stop resenting you.
When you say, “I’m sorry,” follow through. An apology buys you another chance. However, if you keep making the same mistake, apologies not only seem empty, but annoying as well.
Being on time. Frequently keeping your spouse waiting is not only inconsiderate; it’s arrogant.
Not Jumping to conclusions. Presuming that you know what your partner feels — and why — without first getting all the facts is only going to push them away.
Not playing the victim. This behavior not only accuses your spouse of hurting you, but adds insult to injury by implying that they’re doing it intentionally, when that may not be the case.
Not making the other person wrong. Rather than realizing and accepting that it takes two to make a mistake, they always blame problems on the other.
Talk well about your spouse behind their back. When you bad mouth your spouse to others, this not only adds to the list of secrets you keep from your mate, but also tells others how little you respect them.
Have ground rules for dealing with a difference of opinion. Having ground rules such as agreeing to not use words like “never” and “always” or agreeing that neither person can become abusive and unrelentingly accusatory — a couples’ disagreement will prevent a disagreement from deteriorating and sometimes reaching the point of cruel words or an action that can’t be taken back.
Knowing that doing something once is not enough. If you only temporarily do the above — and don’t continue to monitor yourself from slipping back into bad habits — you’re teasing your partner with changing. You’re also kidding yourself that you’re committed to improving your marriage, when really you’re not.
Of course there is no rule against applying the above to your first marriage.
Mark’s website and personal blog
The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship: How to Fall in Love Again…and Stay There (Perigee, $15.95)

Follow Mark Goulston, M.D. on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/markgoulston

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Imagine an iPhone-like “app store” for medical apps that can give a consumer, a doctor, or any healthcare practitioner the access to a wide variety of applications that can help the process of care. Imagine that this “app store” was agnostic about EMRs or other sources of patient/user data. In this fantastic (yet attainable) world, a doctor or a hospital CIO could easily pick an app from this store (just like we pick apps in the Apple App Store every day) capable of helping them understand their healthcare data, save time, achieve better outcomes, or reduce costs. They could even use an application that mixes data sets (“mash up” the data), and using analytics to unlock even deeper insights and creating greater possibilities.
A few weeks ago, Aneesh Chopra, the first Federal CTO of the United States, nominated me to serve on the advisory of the SMArt Initiative of Harvard Medical School. The initiative is lead by Dr. Zak Kohane and Dr. Ken Mandl.
SMArt stands for “Substitutable Medical Apps, reusable technologies,” and the program is funded by the ONC (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) through the SHARP (Strategic Health IT Advanced Research) program.
After speaking with the executive director of SMArt, Rachel Ramoni, and learning more about this exciting initiative, I accepted a position on the advisory board, and joined their developer meetup at Harvard Medical School in Boston last week.
The meetup brought together a bunch of stellar folks from academia, industry, and government in partnership to build the infrastructure for what they have defined as the first: “Flexible health IT environment.”
In the meetup Kohane, Mandl and their team described their suggested architecture for a platform that will be the foundation for an iPhone like app-store for medical apps, based on shared basic components. Their vision is to create a developer-friendly and easy to use interface for building applications compatible with the platform, and for the resulting applications to have simple and intuitive user interfaces. A crucial part of the vision is the principal that the entire exchange can be done without regard to which EMR or PHR or other system the patient data is flowing from.
The SMArt team has presented a design for a flexible architecture that creates a user interface similar to the one found in the Apple App Store – one that allows for shared basic components to be used to build medical apps. Such a flexible architecture will allow for the scalable creation of a set of useful services and tools enabling efficient data capture, effective data retrieval, easy storage of data, and useful analytics. The Harvard team is also very mindful of maintaining the autonomy of user institutions that use different EMR system and will choose different apps, and they are also very thoughtful about safeguarding patient privacy.
Another important move made by the leadership of the SMArt initiative was the creation of an open source type platform. Under their plan, licenses to develop apps will be granted also based on the commitment of the application creators to contribute back to the development community. I strongly support this collaborative approach and think it is crucial for all of us on our quest to creating a much more efficient and effective healthcare system.
There are still many questions to be answered and many problems to be solved, from governance (“who plays Steve Jobs”), to the flow of data across platforms, to the interoperability and integration between the different containers / modules, but the SMArt team is off to a great start. I’m very excited to be involved with this project and its potential for end users, and look forward to working with the SMArt team to ensure that their compelling back-end architecture vision results in a useful and desirable solution for front end users.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport.
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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: New electric car…from South Korea, not us; Boulder wildfire now largest in Colorado history; Killing BP’s oil well on hold while BP’s blame game continues to continue, and the Interior Department blames itself … PLUS: Obama calls for R&D tax credits for green development, but will the GOP play along? … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.
IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): German military freaked out by prospect of peak oil; China dominates clean energy industry by skirting trade rules; NASA fosters greener aviation future; Virginia attorney general vows to try again in Climategate records case; WaPo FAIL: Replacement of old technologies drives growth; New analysis finds Prop. 23 would cut CA jobs; CA is top solar state, but NV is per-capita winner; US Chamber of Commerce has “no shame or sense; Corn ethanol boom driving ‘Dead Zone’ expansion: feds …PLUS: Bummed about the future? Zen and the art of protecting the planet …
‘Green News Report’ is heard on many fine radio stations around the country. For additional info on stories we covered today, plus today’s ‘Green News Extra’, please click right here…

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

You’re young. You may have just started or returned to college for fall semester; maybe you’re starting senior year in high school; maybe you finished college last spring but haven’t been able to find a job yet; maybe you already have a job; maybe you have nothing to do with college or a job and you are just trying to figure things out… or so many other scenarios that I don’t know about.
The world in front of you does not seem very bright right now — the economy has tanked; BP’s criminal spill must have impacted you emotionally; the climate bill failed; ongoing war in Afghanistan… the list goes on and on. I bet you’re disheartened (or worse disgusted) with politics and politicians. Possibly you’re thinking of not even voting this year.
I’m writing this letter to you with all that in mind.
During the past decade, I gave lectures at the United Nations and at Universities of all sizes and reputation across the country. But I’m not a motivational speaker. And I sure am no Rilke. But I’ll try my best to inspire you to start a clean energy revolution — yes I’m talking about a revolution.
During my childhood in India, I had no interest in politics or election. I loved cinema. Each time I could save 75 paisa (about 2 cents) by selling my fish (guppies and mollies) at the Sunday market, I’d go see a film made by such directors as Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and others. Through these films I began to learn about storytelling and about social justice.
In 2004, I became a U.S. citizen. I’ve been fighting for ecological and human rights justice in the American Arctic for nearly a decade.
Now I’m concerned about your future, as well as the future of all young people all over the world, and all the birds and animals. Why? I’ll tell you.
This year, you’ve watched, read, and heard about: tragic flood in Pakistan; deadly fires in Russia; BP’s criminal oil-methane-spill in the Gulf of Mexico… and the list goes on. All these disasters are devastating for human communities as well as the ecology of each of these regions. They’re also very costly to deal with. These disasters will increase both in frequency and intensity if we continue our addiction to oil-and-coal and fail to address climate change.
You maybe asking “how does any of that relate to me?” Let me explain.
Energy experts are now worried about the increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from China and India. I’ll update that scenario for you. China is now the largest emitter of GHG, U.S. is #2, and India is #3. However, per capita GHG emission goes like this — U.S. is about 4 times more than China, and about 12 times more than India.
If we don’t move away from burning fossil fuels in short order, China, U.S., and India – just these three countries together will put so much carbon in the atmosphere over the next several decades, that you will find yourself in a planet that may not seem very healthy or habitable for you and for much of life that inhabit our earth. You’re young and you must shape and define the future of the planet that you’ll continue to inhabit long after I’m gone.
Henry Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience — it was powerful and profoundly influenced among others Gandhi, Tolstoy, and Dr. King. Then came Howard Zinn and he wrote The Problem Is Civil Obedience. A few years ago Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, co-edited the influential book Voices of a People’s History of United States. I was honored when in 2005 Anthony asked me to perform Howard’s The Problem Is Civil Obedience at the Seattle Art Museum. We did readings from the book two days in a row. Howard Zinn passed away earlier this year, but it is his words that ring true in my ears.
Barbara Freese in her thoroughly researched book Coal: A Human History details how Big Coal was actually more influential than even Big Oil in getting George W. Bush elected as the U.S. President. After the climate bill failed this past July, Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in The Hill, “too many Senators are more concerned about short-term oil and coal profits”. What I’m trying to say is that politicians are obedient to the corporations that helped them get there. You don’t have to be obedient to anyone.
Recently I read in The New York Times that fewer young voters see themselves as Democrats this year. There was a nice critique of that piece in The Huffington Post. Its also true that recent polls are showing that Republicans maybe taking over either or both chambers of Congress. My allegiance is not to any particular party, but to the issue of clean energy economy and a healthier planet for all life. We squandered our chance to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill during the 111th Congress. Now if the Republicans do indeed take over either or both chambers of Congress, what worries me is that Big Oil and Big Coal will be rejoicing and the clean energy economy in the U.S. will have to wait. All these don’t bode well either for you or for our earth.
China will continue to burn coal-and-oil for some time to come, no doubt about that, but they’ve also started unprecedented investment in clean energy technology. They know that in 10 or 20 years there will be an enormous global market for clean energy and they sure would like to be the leader of the pack. Where will U.S. be then?
I’m urging you to start a clean energy revolution in the U.S.
Between now and the November election I’d suggest few simple things that you can do:
Local — Do research to find out which organization(s) in your city/town/state working on clean energy economy and find out how you can get involved. To give you an example, in my home state of New Mexico we have a wonderful organization called New Energy Economy (NEE). I recently testified at a climate hearing on their behalf in front of our Environmental Improvement Board that is considering NEE’s proposal to cut GHG emission in New Mexico by 25% below the 1990 level by 2020.
Global — Check out 10-10-10 Global Work Party that 350.org will make happen next month. I bet they’re doing something in your neighborhood. Find out where and participate for sure. With just one act that October day, you’ll feel part of a global movement, that dissolves all borders of race, class, gender, age, and economic status, with only one common global concern – climate change.
Beltway — Do research to find out who are running for office in your district and in your state for U.S. Congress and what their positions and past records are on clean energy and climate change.
Friends and Family — Tell everyone what you learned with your research and action. If they’re younger tell them you’re working to help secure a better future for them. If they are older tell them they must join you to secure a better future for you.
Stories — If you need stories for inspiration, to know that what you’re fighting for is worth every bit, you can visit anytime ClimateStoryTellers.org that I founded last month.
You’re young. Your future is in your hands. Start your climate revolution now. Come November you must vote and you must vote with climate in your mind.
It’ll be the beginning of a long journey for you just like it has been for me since I saw my first Mrinal Sen film when I was a little kid in India. In the process you’ll secure a better future for yourself and for so many others.
In solidarity,
Subhankar Banerjee

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

For many kids and parents, back to school time is marked with anticipation and a sense of opportunity and hope for the future. Kids are eager to make new friends, get good grades and participate in activities that will help them achieve a successful career and fulfilling lives. Parents are also full of excitement and hope for their children. For many parents, this is a time of reflection on the contributions they can make to their children’s success and the communities in which they live.
September 11th is also a time of reflection for many Americans and is now a day in which we can collectively take actions to better our country. The National Day of Service, which started two years ago, serves as an opportunity for all of us to give back to our communities and achieve a renewed sense of purpose.
To date, the program has been successful in increasing volunteerism. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the beginning of this year that about 63.4 million people, or 26.8 percent of the population, volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2008 and September 2009. The volunteer rate the year before was 26.4 percent. And parents with children under the age of 18 were substantially more likely to volunteer than were persons without children under 18 years of age, 34.4 percent compared with 23.9 percent. Parents, and others who volunteer their time, demonstrate how the actions they take today can impact tomorrow.
Each of us, by serving in our communities, has the opportunity to make a huge contribution to the future of our nation and to make a huge impact on future generations. What better way to help shape our nation’s future than by personally investing in our children’s education and empowering young people to own their future economic success?
As students head back to the classroom, there are a few subjects that most of them won’t be taught: how to manage money, how to create a budget or balance a checkbook, how to manage credit and how to prepare for economic and business success in a globally competitive environment. Without these lessons, we’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to teach the business leaders and entrepreneurs of the next generation these crucial skills at a young age.
Junior Achievement programs bring relevancy into the classroom and inspire students by teaching the basics of money management and the tenets of entrepreneurship, by connecting young people to the business world and by introducing them to the principles of life in the global marketplace. These basic skills and experiences need to be taught early, before students head off to college or enter the workforce, where this knowledge is not only expected, it’s required to succeed in a globally competitive environment.
You can help ignite the spark in young people to understand and embrace the opportunities and realities of work in a 21st century global marketplace. As the National Day of Service approaches, parents may want to consider volunteering to teach one of JA’s innovative and experiential programs that empower young people by helping students grasp essential business, money and job skills early on. Junior Achievement works with schools around the country to bring its programs into the classroom across all student levels, from kindergarten through 12th grade.
See what Junior Achievement programs are available in your area and share your personal experiences and expertise to help enrich a child’s education and chance for a brighter future. Now more than ever, young adults need your knowledge and skills to help them succeed. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Carpe Chef – seizing the chance to be on the front page.
After over indulging two nights at The Taste of Beverly Hills, my general admission passage into the Los Angeles Times Celebration of Food & Wine on Sept. 5 forced me to limit my intake. My general admission ticket came with eight wine tasting tickets, but the majority of food trucks and exhibitors sold food rather than sampled at least for the hordes of us with general admission only tickets. But needing to pay for food kept me from overeating.
The Los Angeles Times Celebration of Food & Wine highlighted Los Angeles as a unique culinary destination. Los Angelenos can spend an evening dining fine at an upscale venue or grabbing “to-go” from an innovative food truck serving cuisine ranging from tacos and tamales to dumplings and pancakes. Participating exhibitors included The Border Grill Food Truck, the Buttermilk Truck (their strawberry pancakes looked great, but they weren’t sampling and I wasn’t buying), Don Chow Tacos, the NomNom Truck (which was sampling a paltry spoonful of banana pudding — most people were buying NomNom’s Vietnamese sandwiches) and The Ragin Cajun (which was sampling a tiny cup of tasty beef brisket with gravy). Wahoo’s Tacos and Hoy Cantina both let people use a wine ticket for some food. The most generous exhibitors were the Cooking Channel Ice Cream Truck which was serving a generous scoop of Carmela ice cream (either Salted Caramel or Strawberry Buttermilk) and Delicious Wishes of Beverly Hills (offering scrumptious cupcake balls).
Unlike the Beverly Hills event which was crowded but not jam packed with fast moving lines, many of the lines at Paramount Studios were long and slow moving. But the Los Angeles Times event with its more egalitarian $65 general admission ticket ($55 in advance) sold out, and seemed to have a wider variety of people than I had seen in Beverly Hills. It did feel like Los Angeles coming together, even though we were sweating in long lines for good chow. The VIP admission cost $125, included unlimited free samples and sold it well in advance of the event.
Chef Roger Mooking mixing ingredients.
Since most of the food required reaching into my wallet, I concentrated on my culinary education and attended several panels and Q&As rather than stuffing my face. Two chefs made cooking look easy peasy on the Hollywood Stage (Roger Mooking of Everyday Exotic on the Cooking Channel and Aida Mollenkamp of Ask Aida and FoodCrafters on the Cooking Channel).
Chef Aida Mollenkamp demonstrating an “easy-to-make” balsamic and honey drizzle for crackers.
The panel discussions with chefs, food bloggers and Los Angeles Times Food section staff were first rate. With four stages plus a venue for wine chats, the event’s focus on education reminded me of the great panels offered yearly at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Food Blogging Panel featuring Ree Drummond (center), Aarti Sequerira (right) and Rene Lynch (left, moderator and assistant food editor Los Angeles Times).
I learned several things and now have a list of restaurants I must try.
Russ Parsons, Food Editor Q&A.
If you’ve ever wondered “How many times does a Los Angeles Times food critic visit a restaurant before writing a review?” Russ Parsons said food critics go in anonymously, pay for their meals and make at least three visits — more if the food is bad — if the review is going to be negative, they want to ensure the restaurant wasn’t just having an “off” day [3 times in a row].
Latin Cuisine Panel (L to R: Jimmy Shaw, Russ Parsons, Ricardo Zarate and John Sedlar).
From the “Reinventing Latin Cuisine” panel featuring John Sedlar (Rivera), Jimmy Shaw (Loteria Grill) and Ricardo Zarate (Mo-Chica), I learned that creative chefs can and will literally cook anything — and make it tasty. Ricardo has been introducing Los Angelenos to Peruvian food at Mo-Chica. He’s also the force behind Test Kitchen where chefs and mixologists rotate to introduce diners to a variety of cooking styles. John Sedlar’s restaurant Rivera was described as a Latin fusion restaurant that blends cuisines from Spain to Argentina. When Sedlar designs a menu for Rivera, he focuses on: “what’s challenging; what’s new; and what’s fresh.”
I still am trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Ricardo says that ant larvae can be delicious. Jimmy Shaw says people enjoy beef tongue tacos at Loteria Grill. I would require a margarita before nibbling on a tongue taco. The inventiveness of these three chefs made me want to visit all three restaurants. Rivera is famous for serving dishes with a stenciled philosophic message (created from spice, cayenne, cinnamon and cacao).
When asked which dish they would most highly recommend for a first visit to their respective restaurants, here were their responses:
Jimmy Shaw, Loteria Grill: “The Mole Poblano, Shredded beef or Chilaquiles (a breakfast dish).”
Ricardo Zarate, Mo-Chica: “Ceviche, lamb shank and Causa (a Peruvian potato salad).”
John Sedlar, Rivera: “Tortillas Florales and Heirloom Corn Posole.”
Many people lined up, including myself, for the opportunity to be photographed on the cover of the Los Angeles Times Food Section. And lastly, the new Los Angeles Times Wine club was launched at the event.
A handy wine tote is a gift to new members.
And for those who had too many wine tastings, there was an exhibitor on hand that could be paid to get them home — Y Drive LA, a service that will speed over on a moped to a bar or venue where one or more people have had too much too drink. Y Drive LA’s driver puts his collapsible moped in your trunk and then drive you home in your own car. You get home safe and they get back on their bike to go help the next customer who’s had a few too many.
Y Drive LA folded scooter.
I do have some suggestions for next year:
Please provide a map or a guide that lets people know which restaurants and trucks are sampling and which are not. I wasted a lot of time standing in lines for a sample only to reach the front and find out they weren’t offering a free taste of anything. They were there to sell food to general admission people like me.
Try to use cones or some method for distinguishing lines. Often it was hard to get from one stage to another for a panel discussion due to lines and crowds of people in front of an exhibitor’s booth or food truck. Established walking paths would be great.
Provide more tables and areas where people can sit down and eat. We had to fend for ourselves, sitting on sidewalks or leaning against loading docks (and further blocking pathways).
Consider either having more all-inclusive VIP tickets available. (It’s really nice just lining up for treats rather than having to dig into one’s wallet every five minutes.) Or consider selling food tickets so people can buy food with tickets to reduce the long lines waiting for change, etc.
Don’t be discouraged by this light criticism — it’s a wonderful event, and made me realize how much culinary variety Los Angeles has.
I learned Los Angeles is teeming with creativity from her sound stages to her kitchens.
Terry Gardner testing whether props can create a chef (trying to finesse both cheese and grapes).
All photographs shot by Terry Gardner

Follow Terry Gardner on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

In light of Burger King’s decision this week to stop purchasing from Sinar Mas, the Indonesian palm-oil company notorious for its rainforest-clearing practices, I thought it timely to recommend an award-winning documentary called Green.It’s a thoughtfully shot and edited film that shows deforestation’s devastating consequences – and our role in it. By focusing in on one orangutan named Green, filmmaker Patrick Rouxel concentrates our compassion and concern. Green is ill and injured after her lush rainforest home is flattened. She’s taken to a hospice and tended to by merciful humans. During these scenes, her wizened facial expressions are easily read, her surrender apparent. Spliced in are sequences of how she got there. We’re shown serene wilderness panoramas teeming with animals, establishing what stands to be lost. We see the requisite splitting, booming deforestation scenes replete with roaring chainsaws and grinding tractors. Most significantly, though, we see short, intelligent montages about consumerism: trucks in procession heaving with harvested raw materials, factories polishing up the goods we giddily buy, stores brimming with those goods. Rouxel, who often invokes hypocritical juxtaposition, manages to make viewers understand cause and effect, and their role in it, more than most other filmmakers or journalists who attempt the same. His cinematography’s not perfect but his ability to highlight poignancy is stellar. Especially considering that not a word is spoken throughout the film’s 48 minutes.
Click here to watch Green.

Follow Avital Binshtock on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/avitalb

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The pastor of a small US church who wanted to burn copies of the Koran has cancelled his protest.
Terry Jones said he was calling off the Florida event after the group behind a planned mosque close to Ground Zero in New York agreed to relocate it.
Mr Jones had said the burning would be a stand against terrorism, but his plan was internationally condemned.
President Barack Obama had warned Mr Jones the event would be “a recruitment bonanza” for al-Qaeda.

Source:BBC

As 27 new charter schools open in New York City this week, it’s increasingly clear that these schools are no longer viewed as fads or experiments but rather as part of a long term solution to fixing our public schools. The latest evidence comes in a Daily News-Marist Institute poll that shows two-thirds (66%) of New Yorkers now believe charter schools are a “good thing because they give more choices to parents and kids.”
The findings are particularly significant because they don’t just reflect those who have long supported charters, including families in underserved communities. The survey shows support for charter schools spans New Yorkers of every race, income level, and political party, and those in every borough.
Equally important is the fact that just 24% of those surveyed believe charters take resources away from traditional public schools. This is one of the central (and false) arguments perpetuated by teachers unions and other reform opponents to push back against charter school growth. It’s obvious that most New Yorkers just aren’t buying it, further signifying how disconnected opponents are from what the public wants. Between the economic crisis and President Obama’s Race to the Top program, there is an unprecedented consensus among voters, editorial writers, and even Hollywood that we must make improving public schools a national priority, and charter schools play an important role in that work.
Charters were conceived on the principle that educators should be able to try out new ways of doing things and offer high-quality alternatives in communities where other public schools weren’t performing well. So far, many of the 125 charters in New York City are fulfilling that promise–consistently outperforming district schools and drawing tens of thousands of parents to admissions lotteries each April with the hopes of enrolling their children.
This year’s new class of charters, in particular, embodies the vision of charters as home-grown schools seeking to address a community’s needs.
There’s Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School in the South Bronx. Co-founded by the well-known Bronx physician who started the Urban Health Plan, he and other educators at the school will introduce students to careers in the health care industry to help address a critical aspect of the cycle of poverty.
In Brooklyn, Lefferts Gardens Community Charter School opened this week, a true “grassroots” school that was launched as a result of two community parents who wanted better options for their children and founded a charter school to get that job done.
And in East Harlem, there’s Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation, which enrolled a large number of special education students and English Language Learners with a mission to graduate local teens historically at risk of dropping out.
As the charter sector grows, so too does the ability of schools to identify successful best practices and share them with their district school neighbors. These efforts got a major boost earlier this year when state lawmakers lead by Senate Leader John Sampson raised the charter cap, allowing 260 more schools to open statewide in the coming years.
But bringing these ideas to scale, and bringing more high-quality options to even more families, will require financial support that still remains elusive.
Charters continue to receive fewer public funds than traditional schools and still have no guaranteed access to facilities in which they can open and grow.
Attitudes, however, are slowly changing and there is a growing recognition among lawmakers, parents, and now the general public that charters are indeed a “good thing”–a good thing we need more of so they can help make all schools great.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Almost everybody at some point in their career wonders what it would be like to be their own boss. “Effortless Entrepreneur”, by Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman with Daylle Deanna Schwartz, tells the story of Omar & Nick, two college kids who started their own business and made millions. And, for a change, it wasn’t a tech business. It was good old fashioned hauling away trash. For some of you reality TV aficionados you may have seen them on Millionaire Matchmaker.
We all like the success stories about people who are self made. You might be wondering if you have the right stuff to make something out of nothing – a germ of an idea to a multi-million dollar business.
Here are some things to consider:
An idea – Do you have to create a category or find a niche market to be successful? Not necessarily. What’s important is to differentiate your product or service. Nick and Omar didn’t create the junk hauling category but they were smart enough to figure out how to position themselves against their competitors. They did this initially with their name, “College Hunks Hauling Junk.” Not only is it memorable but it describes the service and who’s providing it. They were able to capitalize on a segment of the target audience who preferred hiring struggling college students to a large corporation. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Ask yourself why your product or service should exist? If you believe you have a good idea, you owe it to yourself to explore it.
A business plan – Writing a business plan will help organize your thoughts and evaluate the key areas of your potential business. A business plan will require you to assess the size of the market, your target audience, the competitive situation, your funding needs, etc. The plan takes an objective look at the viability of your idea which is why banks require it prior to lending money. While you love your idea and are attached to it, your banker is looking at the financial risk. If they’re willing to lend you money, that’s a vote of confidence in your business.
A personality type – Are you persistent? Willing to deal with uncertainty? Can you be accountable to yourself? Can you be resourceful, getting things done with little support? Can you go a year without making money? When people think about owning their own business they think of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and fail to consider all the hard work involved. Even on your days off you’ll be thinking about your business because no one will care more about it than you.
Many people are starting their own business, despite this difficult economy. Stories like Omar’s and Nick’s are inspiring to entrepreneurs of any age. Take a page from Effortless Entrepreneur as you think about launching your own business. Ask the tough questions and go with your gut. Think about any great company and you’ll find it started with two key ingredients: a great idea combined with someone’s determination to see it through. If you have these qualities you might just be the next Omar and Nick.
Fred & Gladys
Whelan Stone
Executive Search and Coaching
Authors of GOAL! Your 30 Day Career Plan for Business & Career Success

Follow Fred Whelan and Gladys Stone on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/WhelanStone

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

A wave of recent research revolves around the premise that your gut is smarter than your head. In our newer more complex world tapping into your deeper intelligence is a key to avoiding pitfalls and taking what is necessary to make a quantum leap.
Over the last few month’s I’ve unplugged in order to dive into the mechanics of what makes the ground fertile for a big change. It is fascinating to see the most innovative organizations recognize that the best choices involve more than rational deliberation. (Women, of course, have known this for millennia.)
A Big Wig’s Big Payoff
George Soros is one of the top investment managers in the world. His 32 percent annual return has earned him legendary status as a trader and speculator. Just imagine–if you had invested $1,000 in his Quantum Fund when he started in 1969, you would have found yourself worth $4 million by 2001. Dang! I wish I had.
George looks over the same financial data, statistics and market analysis as his competitors. What is his secret weapon? Listening to the intelligence of what I refer to as the town inside George’s body. George-ville. Yep. In his autobiography, Soros on Soros, he writes about listening to the brilliance of his back pain. Whenever he felt a twinge in his lower back, he knew something was “off” in his portfolio. He would stop whatever he was doing, assess his strategies, figure out which investment was not productive, and correct it. George honored the advice of his body so deeply that he wouldn’t allow himself to be disturbed while he was following his back pain’s cues.
Why not take a few seconds to listen to your own early warning system?
If you think of your gut as a sort of radar, you will understand why airplanes use it and why you should too. Like George, you can have access to more of your own intelligence if you give it your attention.
A Country Western Song Waiting to Happen
Learning how to un-think and listen to your inner smarts is one of the best things you can do for yourself when it comes to relationships, too. Studies show that 82 percent of communication is nonverbal. Studies show that we form opinions about other people in less than three seconds. Those conclusions may be right or wrong decisions. You might assess them and ignore it anyway. Or you might make rash choice in three seconds and regret it later. Perhaps there’s a new guy in your life. So what if he has been the town bad boy for years? He’s cute. He’s a good kisser. Who cares? Well, maybe he’s saying all the right things, but have you noticed the tiny, icy pang in your stomach? Listen up! Your body signals may be telling you that Mr. Wonderful is actually a Country Western Song Waiting to Happen.
In a business context you need to check things out with your gut as well as your mind.
1. First Is Always Best.
First impressions are really important (and often, always right). The biggest mistake folks make is second guessing their gut. Let yourself really honor that first impression. Sure, things can be changed if you feel like taking another look. Don’t ignore your feelings if they are strongly negative.
2. When In Doubt Check It Out
The turbulent times we live in seems to be bringing scam artists. A underhanded-relator approached our family about selling a property. It never ‘felt’ right to me. After doing some digging we discovered that the carrot he was swinging in front of our noses was actually rotten.
3. Push The Pause Button
Your intuition is a hard worker. But it works on it’s own time zone. Don’t rush your gut.
This morning I was getting ready for a meeting with an attorney. Since I just moved I needed to juggle that lunch with a meeting with the Gas company. I kept having the feeling that the lunch wasn’t going to happen. This made no logical sense. We had confirmed an hour earlier.
I took some extra time before I left the house. Lo and behold the attorney called to say he wasn’t feeling well and needed to cancel. Not going to that meeting saved me at least two hours of wasted time today.
How has listening to your intuition helped you?
You can receive notice of my blogs by checking Become a Fan at the top. Ask Eli a question at info@elidavidson.com or go to www.elidavidson.com today.
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I’m not sure why it didn’t get more attention, but the Washington Post’s editorial of last week entitled “Shouldn’t Winning the [Afghan] War be Mr. Obama’s Top Mission,” is in the ‘man bites dog” category for me and may indicate a tectonic shift in our political landscape. Perhaps these sentiments wouldn’t be noteworthy if they appeared somewhere else (such as this space), but when the Post admonishes this president for a “mixed message”, we should think about what it means for America.
The Post quite properly makes clear that winning this or any other war in which the US becomes involved can not simply be A priority for our Commander in Chief but must be THE top priority. In so doing, it takes him to task for the vacillation between war discussion and economic discussion in his speech of last week on the Iraq and Afghan wars.
“But a president leading a nation at war doesn’t have the luxury of deciding that the domestic piece of that equation is now his “most urgent task.” Mr. Obama might wish that he could pour all of his energies into invigorating manufacturing, reducing dependence on foreign oil, nurturing entrepreneurship and improving education, all of which he talked about Tuesday night. He might wish not to be a wartime president at all. But, as he has said, al-Qaeda has not given him, or the country, that choice.
“If the United States is under attack, it must fight until the danger has eased, not until it decides that fighting has become too costly.”
In the first instance, one hopes that the president will heed this advice and give our troops the unconditional support they deserve and they and the country needs for our long term security. This is true in any case, but especially in view of the poor results from his economic program; that is many, myself included, believe that the biggest reason the economy is floundering is the anti-business tone from the Oval Office and Congress, such that ‘benign neglect’ (apologies to the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan) would be a vast improvement.
Equally fundamentally, when such a bulwark of the liberal establishment as the Post expresses such doubts with the direction of a Democratic president, we should all be wondering what this portends. In my estimation, apart from an admirable objectivity and patriotism on the part of the Post as to substantive weaknesses, it reflects a significant weakening of support for him and his program. The Post has been a staunch supporter of President Obama for as long as he has been nationally relevant, and certainly can not be accused of war mongering. One wonders if the actual and attempted terrorist acts of the past year (Ft. Hood, Christmas Day and Times Square) enter into the analysis of the Post.
For it to critique the president’s position in terms that quite literally caused me to believe in the first instance that I was reading its “token conservative” columnist Charles Krauthammer, suggests that the Democratic agenda is in serious trouble and that we may be at an ‘inflection point” comparable to what we saw in 1994. Put this together with the questions being raised about ObamaCare by an influential Democrat like Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and about tax policy – i.e. extension of the Bush tax cuts – by a number of prominent Democrats, and it is clear that there is growing unease with the apparent “reset” that voters appeared to request in 2006 and, especially, 2008.
Republicans need to realize that while the wind is blowing strongly in their direction, they must keep it that way by avoiding the sort of extremist image which frightened voters in 2006 and 2008. Voters want practical solutions to their all too real problems and are just as scared of the utopian, redistributionist programs and rhetoric of this administration as they were with the corruption and preoccupation with social issues which did in the party in the last two national elections.
In order to govern effectively, Democrats need to realize that they do not presently have a mandate for a reprise of the New Deal or Great Society. It is debatable whether they did in the wake of the 2008 election, but the electorate does not like what it is seeing and is restive for practical change. In the midst of economic calamity, voters seemingly wanted “hope and change”, but don’t feel the changes which are being made give them hope for improvement .
The candidates who will prevail in the upcoming elections are the ones who, like the Post, will be in tune with reality.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com