Yes please Pin anything you want, I love that! Also I am thrilled to have you link to me and yes, you may use a picture to link also...but please!!! Do not use photos of the kids! It is copying my post and/or my pics to use on your blog or anywhere else that I consider theft.
Source: http://www.familyhomeandlife.com/2013/03/happy-easter.html
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Israeli Jews celebrating Passover will easily relate to their ancestors this year ? the country has been swarmed by millions of locusts, one of the 10 plagues visited on the Egyptians.
Locusts make their way from Egypt just before they land in Kerem Shalom near the border with Egypt, in southern Israel's Negev Desert, March 11.
Ariel Schalit/AP
EnlargeLocusts have descended on Israel this week, just in time for Passover. As millions of Jews commemorate the story of the children of Israel?s exodus from Egypt, including the 10 plagues that afflicted Pharaoh and his people, millions of the crunchy buggers are creeping all over Israel?s southern deserts.
Skip to next paragraph Christa Case BryantJerusalem bureau chief
Christa Case Bryant is The Christian Science Monitor's Jerusalem bureau chief, providing coverage on Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as regional issues.
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This is nothing like the eighth plague of biblical times, in which locusts covered ?the whole face of the earth? in a kind of collective punishment for the Egyptians whose leader refused to let his Hebrew slaves go free.
But this year is the first time since 2005 that modern Israel has had to combat locusts, which can swarm so thickly that drivers can?t see beyond their windshield. Potato farmers bemoaned the detrimental effect of a previous wave of the grasshopper-like insects several weeks ago. The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, which was on ?locust alert,? has responded quickly to the latest wave with pesticides.?
But it?s not just Israel. Today the Palestinian Authority?s Ministry of Agriculture sprayed pesticides in Hebron, in the southern West Bank. And Egyptian farmers have suffered millions of dollars in damage after a swarm of about 30 million locusts hit Cairo earlier this month.
The most serious situation, however, appears to be in Sudan, where the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) head has warned that immature ?hoppers? are lining up along a 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) stretch of the Nile and could pose a serious threat to Nile Valley crops in May.
OK, so locusts are not your average grasshopper. But still, how can they cause such massive damage?
Consider these arresting facts: They can eat their weight in crops every day; they can fly more than 80 miles a day ? in swarms as dense as 200 million per square mile; and females can lay as many as 1,000 egg pods in roughly 10 square feet, according to an FAO fact sheet.?
To put the threat in practical terms, one ton of locusts (just a fraction of your average swarm) can eat about as much food as 2,500 people can in a day, says FAO.
The Israelis have sought to reverse the food chain this Passover, however, by grilling the kosher insects for a crunchy, high-protein delicacy. And they?re not alone. Locust recipes abound.?
A Mexican version from ?Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects,? by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, calls for roasting locust torsos and sprinkling them on homemade guacamole in a taco shell. Scrap that. Sprinkle and?enjoy, the cookbook says.?
B?tayavon, as the Israelis would say.?Bon app?tit.
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Hal Hargrave Jr., who is paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash when he was 17, chats with his trainer Chris Fitzgerald as he gets ready for his physical therapy session at a gym in Claremont, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. After years of grueling physical therapy, Hargrave started the nonprofit Be Perfect Foundation and raised $2 million to help other young people who couldn't afford the same kind of rehabilitation program made available to him. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hal Hargrave Jr., who is paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash when he was 17, chats with his trainer Chris Fitzgerald as he gets ready for his physical therapy session at a gym in Claremont, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. After years of grueling physical therapy, Hargrave started the nonprofit Be Perfect Foundation and raised $2 million to help other young people who couldn't afford the same kind of rehabilitation program made available to him. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hal Hargrave Jr., who is paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash when he was 17, leaves after his workout in Claremont, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. After years of grueling physical therapy, Hargrave started the nonprofit Be Perfect Foundation and raised $2 million to help other young people who couldn't afford the same kind of rehabilitation program made available to him. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hal Hargrave Jr., left, who is paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash when he was 17, shares a laugh with his trainer Chris Fitzgerald during his physical therapy session at a gym in Claremont, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. After years of grueling physical therapy, Hargrave started the nonprofit Be Perfect Foundation and raised $2 million to help other young people who couldn't afford the same kind of rehabilitation program made available to him. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Hal Hargrave Jr., who is paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash when he was 17, shares a laugh with his trainer Chris Fitzgerald during his physical therapy session at a gym in Claremont, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. After years of grueling physical therapy, Hargrave started the nonprofit Be Perfect Foundation and raised $2 million to help other young people who couldn't afford the same kind of rehabilitation program made available to him. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The logo of Be Perfect Foundation started by Hal Hargrave Jr. is seen at a gym in Claremont, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. Hargrave Jr., who is paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash when he was 17, started the nonprofit Be Perfect Foundation and raised $2 million to help other young people who couldn't afford the same kind of rehabilitation program made available to him. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
CLAREMONT, Calif. (AP) ? The irony is never lost on Hal Hargrave Jr. that it was handicapped-accessible bathroom doors he was delivering to Las Vegas when he lost control of his truck on a desert highway and flipped it four times, a crash that paralyzed him from the neck down.
If it was a sign to the strapping 17-year-old athlete, who once routinely benched 300 pounds, that his life was headed off in the wrong direction, it was a harsh one.
Still, that's pretty much how Hargrave sees it these days as he runs an organization that in just four years has raised $1.2 million to provide wheelchairs, remodel homes and subsidize the costs of rehabilitation therapy for more than 100 paralyzed people.
When he's not fundraising for the nonprofit Be Perfect foundation, the former high school athlete, who had planned to study business and play baseball in college, is still working out 15 to 20 hours a week. He even goes to the same fitness center he frequented as a high school baseball player. Only this time he heads to a new, 3,000-square foot wing that he persuaded the gym's president to add to benefit dozens of other spinal cord injury victims.
In the 5? years since his accident, the friendly, outgoing Hargrave has gone from the big likable kid everyone around here seemed to know to one of this tight-knit community's true folk heroes. The teenager who used to take his wakeboard to the beach to do backflips now enjoys rolling around town in his wheelchair, helping others.
"Here's a 17-year-old boy who had a debilitating, life-changing accident," said Mike Alpert, president of the Claremont Club where Hargrave works out. "So many people that go through that would give up. Would be depressed. Would blame everybody else. Here's a young man who just said, 'I have a calling to change the world and to help people through what's happening to me. And then he goes out and does it! How special is that?"
Not that he works 24-7 on the foundation. Hargrave, 23, is also a full-time student at the nearby University of La Verne, where he maintains a near-perfect 3.8 grade point average.
"Don't you just love him?" said the university's president, Devorah Lieberman. "He's an amazing young man."
None of this, the foundation, the section of the Claremont Club that Hargrave helped persuade the San Diego-based spinal cord recovery center Project Walk to place its first-ever franchise in, not even the La Verne education, would have happened, Hargrave says, if he hadn't swerved his truck to avoid debris in the road on that July day in 2007.
He had initially turned down an academic scholarship to La Verne to attend California State University, Long Beach, where he figured he'd have a better shot at a college baseball career while studying business administration. By now, he figured, he'd have his degree and be ready to move up in the family business, Apex Imaging. He'd been working for the company that summer, helping remodel a Las Vegas restaurant.
Still, in the back of his mind, Hargrave kept thinking he wanted something a little more challenging out of life.
"I got it," he says with a smile over lunch at the Claremont Club's cafe. "I understood at that point that this was intended to happen, for whatever reason."
Not that the epiphany came immediately. First he had to fight just to stay alive.
"It was very touch and go the first two weeks," his father, Hal Hargrave Sr., recalled. "They had him on breathing machines. He got pneumonia. ... We didn't know if he was going to stay with us or not."
It was during those days that Alpert looked him up in the hospital, as did scores of other people in this town of 35,000 nestled at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, 30 miles east of Los Angeles.
When he got out of the hospital, Alpert suggested, Hargrave should return to the club, where he had many friends.
He was splitting his time between there and Project Walk in the San Diego area when he became friends with Brian O'Neill, an electrician who had suffered a similar injury in a dirt bike crash. One day, as the two said goodbye, O'Neill told his friend he wouldn't see him again. He'd lost his job and house and couldn't afford the rehab sessions.
The idea of a foundation to help people like O'Neill was born then and there, Hargrave says. Soon he had moved O'Neill to the Claremont Club and was creating Be Perfect.
At the foundation's first fundraising dinner in 2009, he expected to raise maybe $30,000. When $250,000 came in, he recalls thinking "maybe this is going to be bigger than I ever expected."
As things took off, he asked Alpert if he could start bringing more disabled people to Claremont to work out with him.
Alpert, who said sure, soon realized he had no space to provide the specialized care they needed.
"To make a long story short, I basically lied to my board of directors and said I needed a second Pilates studio," he recalls with a laugh. "Since then I've told my board the truth, and they didn't fire me. So here we are."
The new Project Walk studio, which opened last month, includes two dozen members who use its state-of-the-art equipment, including an $80,000 gait trainer that helps a paralyzed person simulate walking. When he's not busy working out there, Hargrave is recruiting, saying the facility can accommodate dozens more.
When he was injured, doctors gave Hargrave only a 1 to 3 percent chance of walking again.
Since then, he's regained the use of his arms and is able to extend his legs. His fingers haven't recovered enough for him to shake hands (he has to fist bump), but he can manipulate an iPad well enough to take notes in class. When he was ready to return to school but wanted to be closer to home, to his surprise La Verne simply reoffered him his scholarship. He hopes to eventually become a sports broadcaster.
Another goal is to eventually walk again, no matter how far off in the future that might be. However that goes, Hargrave says he couldn't be happier with the turn his life has taken. He hopes to eventually build an endowment that will allow the Be Perfect Foundation to be helping others long after he's gone.
"I had dreams of going off and going to school and becoming a baseball player and doing this and that," he says. "But when I think back on it, it was so selfish. And now my dreams are much different. My dreams are to keep people in therapy and my dreams are to help other people. That's what my life is about at this point and I understand that and it's something I'm passionate about and it's something I want to do forever."
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obama President Obama dedicated his weekly address to the celebration of two religious holidays this week - Easter and Passover - and urged Americans to engage in prayer and reflection over the weekend.
"For millions of Americans, this is a special and sacred time of year," President Obama said. "This week, Jewish families gathered around the Seder table commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and the triumph of faith over oppression. And this weekend, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and I will join Christians around the world to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hopeful promise of Easter.
"In the midst of all of our busy and noisy lives, these holy days afford us the precious opportunity to slow down and spend some quiet moments in prayer and reflection," he added.
PHOTOS: President Obama's First Term Captured In Photos
The president will be in Washington, D.C., over Easter weekend. And on Monday, the first family will welcome Americans to the White House for the annual Easter egg roll festivities.
"This weekend, I hope we're all able to take a moment to pause and reflect, to embrace our loved ones, to give thanks for our blessings, to rededicate ourselves to interests larger than our own," he said. "And to all the Christian families who are celebrating the Resurrection, Michelle and I wish you a blessed and joyful Easter."
The Republicans used their weekly address, delivered by Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., to not only spread well-wishes for Easter and Passover, but also to advocate for the building of the Keystone XL pipeline to lower energy prices.
"The Keystone XL pipeline is a no-brainer," Terry said in the GOP address. "The people and the Congress have spoken. The experts have weighed in. Now it's the time to build the Keystone pipeline. No more delays, no more politics. If the president continues to drag his feet, Congress is prepared to act.
"Doing all of this isn't just about the dollars and cents. It's about coming together to solve longstanding problems to ensure our children will have the same chances, the same hope and freedoms we've had," he said. "These are the blessings we celebrate during the rites of Easter and Passover. It's a time to unite in prayer and celebration - to renew traditions, lift up our spirits and tell old stories that remind us how trials and suffering can be overcome with courage and resolve. It's a time for perspective. If we look for opportunities to work together and seize on them - if we choose to build on and not squander past sacrifices - we come that much closer to realizing the promise of a more perfect union and peace for one and all."
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Businesses have been making increasing use of smart phones and tablets as work tools. Thanks to Abbyy FineReader Touch, remote workers can use iPhones and iPads to snap images of documents and upload them to Abby's cloud-based FineReader Online service to save it in various searchable, editable formats. Though it's no substitute for a desktop optical character recognition (OCR) program, this iOS app does let you scan and convert documents from anywhere, which is very handy.
Abbyy is a provider of OCR, PDF, and document conversion software, including the Editors' Choice FineReader 11, as well as older versions (FineReader 6 and 9) that are frequently bundled with the scanners we test. Though those solutions are for the desktop, Abbyy also offers mobile apps, including Abbyy FineReader Touch.
The FineReader Touch Interface
The app's iPhone interface is a black screen with toolbars on the top and bottom. Once you've scanned documents, a list of them, giving the date and time of the scan, file name and type, length of time available on the server for each document, appears in the center of the screen. The button at top left gives you the status of the document you're scanning. At top right is a search button (though it searches on documents, not text).
The tab at top center shows the balance of document conversions you have available to you. (You start with 100). Touching the tab takes you to the store, where you can buy more: $2.99 for 20 pages, $4.99 for 50 pages, $6.99 for 100 pages, and $9.99 for 200 pages.
At bottom left is an information tab, which provides Help, lets you email Abby for support; lets you rate the app, and tells you about other Abbyy apps. At bottom right, the gear icon lets you change settings. At bottom center, the camera icon lets you image a document with your iPhone's camera.
From the FineReader Online site, you can also upload saved documents for conversion to Word, Excel, PDF, PDF/A, RTF, TXT, and OpenDocument Text formats. You can access the documents you've converted, open and save them, or export them to Google Docs, Evernote, or Dropbox. After 14 days, your documents will be automatically deleted from the FineReader site.
Testing
I used my iPhone 5 to image text pages (printed from Word documents), tables, magazine pages, and other documents in FineReader Touch, and save them in appropriate formats (Word .docx is default). Text recognition of one-page documents scanned to Word format took an average of 44 seconds per page. That's much slower than typical desktop-based OCR speeds, but keep in mind that you're not likely to be using FineReader Touch to scan documents en masse.
OCR results were generally good. FineReader could recognize text down to 6 pt on our standard Times New Roman and Arial test pages in documents imaged in good lighting. The FineReader cloud also did a good job in converting most of the saved documents I sent to it, though occasionally a document with unusual formatting would stump it.
Abbyy FineReader Touch is optimized for the iPhone 5, but it also works with the iPhone 4 and 4S, as well as recent iPods touch, and all iPads except for the first-generation model. Though although the app is compatible with the iPad 2, I wasn't surprised that OCR performance was abysmal, given the device's primitive 0.9-megapixel camera. It undoubtedly would have done better with the 3- and 5-megapixel cameras of the most recent two iPads (and the iPad mini's 5-megapixel camera). Even with the iPhone 5, lighting and document/camera positioning had some effect on scan quality.
Abbyy FineReader Touch has its limitations. It's most accurate with recent iPhones and iPads with higher-resolution cameras, and shooting for OCR requires good lighting, and some care in positioning the documents. Many portable scanners already come with OCR software, are faster, and working through the cloud may be an extra step if you're scanning and converting a series of documents to your hard drive. As a paid service, its costs could add up if you scan a lot of documents. Documents handled through the FineReader cloud are given generic names based on the date and the number of documents uploaded to FineReader (by all users) on that date, so you'll have to go back and change them to a more usable name.
However, these quibbles shouldn't detract from its usefulness to people who may need to make quick scans of documents to readable text while in the field: scholars, researchers?secret agents, for that matter. For them, ABBYY FineReader Touch may be the best solution for their mobile scanning needs.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/w1FBd2hXDrQ/0,2817,2417192,00.asp
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As many of us celebrate Easter with a festive brunch, we may find ourselves staring down a monster buffet table. What should you grab? When is it okay to indulge and what constitutes a major diet setback? We asked our favorite nutrition experts to outline their absolute brunching don'ts as we head into the holiday.
What's your strategy for eating healthfully at brunch? Tell us in the comments!
1. Brunching In The First Place
"Honestly, the biggest mistake is going to brunches at all," says Ruth Frechman, M.A., R.D., C.P.T. "It?s calorie suicide. Typically, brunches are expensive. Most people want to get their money's worth. They could easily consume 4,000 calories in one meal. The average person only needs 2,000 calories for the entire day."
2. Choosing Sweet Over Savory
This is the central question of brunch: Do you go sweet or savory? Pancakes or eggs? Now we have an answer: savory (but not too salty!).
"My number one brunch don't would be dishes that are practically made of pure carbs like pancakes or waffles. Because these are digested so quickly they're guaranteed to make your blood sugar spike and then plummet," says Karen Ansel, R.D. "While you might feel fine for a while you're inevitably going to get that carb coma feeling a couple of hours later. Adding sugary maple syrup to these only adds insult to injury. Instead pick something that's more balanced with a combination of protein, complex carbs (preferably from whole grains) and some healthy fat like huevos rancheros with avocado."
3. Confusing Brunch and Breakfast
"One of the biggest mistakes people make, they do before they even get to brunch. And that's not eating anything at all," says Rachel Begun, M.S., R.D., registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "You need calories to burn calories, meaning you need to eat food to get the metabolism going. If you wait until late morning or early afternoon to eat something, your metabolism is sluggish and not operating at maximum capacity. Plus, going to brunch starving is a recipe for overeating."
Joy Dubost, Ph.D R.D. C.S.S.D. agrees: "We may think because we are combining two meals we can [eat more]," she says. "But if you are not careful on choices and portion-size, brunch can quickly exceed calories consumed in two separate meals."
Instead, try to have a healthful snack in the morning before you head out the door -- something that combines fiber and protein, like low-fat cheese with an apple or yogurt with berries and slivered almonds.
4. Ordering From The Drink Menu
Alcoholic brunch drinks like bloody marys and "adult" coffee drinks are an easy way to go overboard on the calories without even realizing it. "Consuming multiple beverages, particularly those that are higher in calories, can end up being a high calorie meal on its own," explains Dubost. "I would recommend keeping it to one 12-ounce beverage. For lighter options you may want to choose mimosas or wine spritzers."
5. Beware Customizable Options
We're looking at you, omelet bar. The egg base might be just fine, but add enough meats and cheeses and you've got a calorie bomb on your hands.
"Many dishes can be higher in calories because we load them with numerous ingredients," says Dubost. "Try to keep it more basic or include various flavorful vegetables."
6. Thinking About Calories, Fat ... But Not Sodium
Between the bloody mary mix, hollandaise sauce and hash browns, brunch can amount to a salt lick. And while you might choose egg whites for your omelet and salad on the side, it won't do much to lower the sodium of your meal. That means you can easily surpass the government's daily recommendation of 2,300 mg within a matter of bites.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/healthy-brunch-tips-mistakes_n_2980091.html
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By Martyn Herman LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Whether by design, necessity, self-interest or because of all three, nurturing youngsters has become fashionable for England's elite with no expense spared in the hunt for the new Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard. The length and breadth of the country, scouts from top clubs are hoovering up promising footballers barely old enough to tie their bootlaces in a bid to unearth the 30 million pounds ($45.40 million) treasures of the future. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-mandela-spends-second-night-hospital-092102547.html
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A WTHR-TV Indianapolis investigative report exposes a fraudulent scheme wherein the IRS is sending $4.2 billion per year to illegal immigrants as an "additional child tax credit" for children who don't even live in the U.S.
Further, the IRS and Congress have been ignoring the scheme for years. ?The Inspector General's office has repeatedly identified the problem in audit after audit.? The IG, Russell George says, "The magnitude of the problem has grown exponentially," but the IRS is doing nothing to stop it.
"It's so easy it's ridiculous," the tax preparer whistleblower who exposed the fraud admits.? Names are simply listed on the IRS form. "The more you put on there, the more you get back." No questions asked?the check's in the mail.
Below is the video of the shocking report.
The whistleblower notified the IRS of dozens of returns that were "fraudulent, 100% fraudulent tax returns." But, no response was ever received from the IRS. Out of frustration he went to WTHR investigative reporter Bob Segall.
"If the opportunity is there, and they can give it to me, why not take advantage of it?" admits one of the undocumented perpetrators to Segall on camera.
Segall found that there are "2 million?undocumented workers right now who are getting tax refunds because of this loophole."
Meanwhile, American school kids hoping for the opportunity of a lifetime to see the inside of the White House find the doors are closed supposedly because we can no longer afford to let them in.?
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VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world's poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy.
Francis' decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls - a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic - during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict's papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church.
One of the most-read traditionalist blogs, "Rorate Caeli," reacted to the foot-washing ceremony by declaring the death of Benedict's eight-year project to correct what he considered the botched interpretations of the Second Vatican Council's modernizing reforms.
"The official end of the reform of the reform - by example," ''Rorate Caeli" lamented in its report on Francis' Holy Thursday ritual.
A like-minded commentator in Francis' native Argentina, Marcelo Gonzalez at International Catholic Panorama, reacted to Francis' election with this phrase: "The Horror." Gonzalez's beef? While serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's efforts to revive the old Latin Mass so dear to Benedict and traditionalists were "non-existent."
Virtually everything he has done since being elected pope, every gesture, every decision, has rankled traditionalists in one way or another.
The night he was chosen pope, March 13, Francis emerged from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica without the ermine-rimmed red velvet cape, or mozzetta, used by popes past for official duties, wearing instead the simple white cassock of the papacy. The cape has since come to symbolize his rejection of the trappings of the papacy and to some degree the pontificate of Benedict XVI, since the German pontiff relished in resurrecting many of the liturgical vestments of his predecessors.
Francis also received the cardinals' pledges of obedience after his election not from a chair on a pedestal as popes normally do but rather standing, on their same level. For traditionalists who fondly recall the days when popes were carried on a sedan chair, that may have stung. In the days since, he has called for "intensified" dialogue with Islam - a gesture that rubs traditionalists the wrong way because they view such a heavy focus on interfaith dialogue as a sign of religious relativism.
Francis may have rubbed salt into the wounds with his comments at the Good Friday procession at Rome's Colosseum, which re-enacts Jesus Christ's crucifixion, praising "the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters" during a prayer ceremony that recalled the suffering of Christians in the Middle East.
Francis also raised traditional eyebrows when he refused the golden pectoral cross offered to him right after his election by Monsignor Guido Marini, the Vatican's liturgy guru who under Benedict became the symbol of Benedict's effort to restore the Gregorian chant and heavy silk brocaded vestments of the pre-Vatican II liturgy to papal Masses.
Marini has gamely stayed by Francis' side as the new pope puts his own stamp on Vatican Masses with no-nonsense vestments and easy off-the-cuff homilies. But there is widespread expectation that Francis will soon name a new master of liturgical ceremonies more in line with his priorities of bringing the church and its message of love and service to ordinary people without the "high church" trappings of his predecessor.
There were certainly none of those trappings on display Thursday at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention facility in Rome, where the 76-year-old Francis got down on his knees to wash and kiss the feet of 12 inmates, two of them women. The rite re-enacts Jesus' washing of the feet of his 12 apostles during the Last Supper before his crucifixion, a sign of his love and service to them.
The church's liturgical law holds that only men can participate in the rite, given that Jesus' apostles were all male. Priests and bishops have routinely petitioned for exemptions to include women, but the law is clear.
Francis, however, is the church's chief lawmaker, so in theory he can do whatever he wants.
"The pope does not need anybody's permission to make exceptions to how ecclesiastical law relates to him," noted conservative columnist Jimmy Akin in the National Catholic Register. But Akin echoed concerns raised by canon lawyer Edward Peters, an adviser to the Vatican's high court, that Francis was setting a "questionable example" by simply ignoring the church's own rules.
"People naturally imitate their leader. That's the whole point behind Jesus washing the disciples' feet. He was explicitly and intentionally setting an example for them," he said. "Pope Francis knows that he is setting an example."
The inclusion of women in the rite is problematic for some because it could be seen as an opening of sorts to women's ordination. The Catholic Church restricts the priesthood to men, arguing that Jesus and his 12 apostles were male.
Francis is clearly opposed to women's ordination. But by washing the feet of women, he jolted traditionalists who for years have been unbending in insisting that the ritual is for men only and proudly holding up as evidence documentation from the Vatican's liturgy office saying so.
"If someone is washing the feet of any females ... he is in violation of the Holy Thursday rubrics," Peters wrote in a 2006 article that he reposted earlier this month on his blog.
In the face of the pope doing that very thing, Peters and many conservative and traditionalist commentators have found themselves trying to put the best face on a situation they clearly don't like yet can't do much about lest they be openly voicing dissent with the pope.
By Thursday evening, Peters was saying that Francis had merely "disregarded" the law - not violated it.
The Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when liturgical abuses are concerned, had to measure his comments when the purported abuser was the pope himself.
"Before liberals and traditionalists both have a spittle-flecked nutty, each for their own reasons, try to figure out what he is trying to do," Zuhlsdorf wrote in a conciliatory piece.
But, in characteristic form, he added: "What liberals forget in their present crowing is that even as Francis makes himself - and the church - more popular by projecting (a) compassionate image, he will simultaneously make it harder for them to criticize him when he reaffirms the doctrinal points they want him to overturn."
One of the key barometers of how traditionalists view Francis concerns his take on the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. The Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern world, allowed the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin. In the decades that followed, the so-called Tridentine Rite fell out of use almost entirely.
Traditionalist Catholics who were attached to the old rite blame many of the ills afflicting the Catholic Church today - a drop in priestly vocations, empty pews in Europe and beyond - on the liturgical abuses that they say have proliferated with the celebration of the new form of Mass.
In a bid to reach out to them, Benedict in 2007 relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass. The move was aimed also at reconciling with a group of schismatic traditionalists, the Society of St. Pius X, who split from Rome precisely over the Vatican II reforms, in particular its call for Mass in the vernacular and outreach to other religions, especially Judaism and Islam.
Benedict took extraordinary measures to bring the society back under Rome's wing during his pontificate, but negotiations stalled.
The society has understandably reacted coolly to Francis' election, reminding the pope that his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, was told by Christ to go and "rebuild my church." For the society, that means rebuilding it in its own, pre-Vatican II vision.
The head of the society for South America, the Rev. Christian Bouchacourt, was less than generous in his assessment of Francis.
"He cultivates a militant humility, but can prove humiliating for the church," Bouchacourt said in a recent article, criticizing the "dilapidated" state of the clergy in Buenos Aires and the "disaster" of its seminary. "With him, we risk to see once again the Masses of Paul VI's pontificate, a far cry from Benedict XVI's efforts to restore to their honor the worthy liturgical ceremonies."
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.klkntv.com/story/21830764/popes-foot-washing-final-blow-for-traditionalists
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In the hierarchy of computing hardware, artificial muscle doesn't really even register: it's usually a target for action, not the perpetrator. The University of Auckland has figured out a way to let those muscles play a more active role. Its prototype Turing machine uses a set of electroactive polymer muscles to push memory elements into place and squeeze piezoresistive switches, performing virtually any calculation through flexing. The proof-of-concept computer won't give silicon circuits any threat when it's running at just 0.15Hz and takes up as much space as a mini fridge, but the hope is to dramatically speed up and shrink down future iterations to where there are advanced computers that occupy the same size as real muscles. Researchers ultimately envision smart prosthetic limbs with near-natural reflexes, completely soft robots with complex gestures and even a switch from digital to analog computing for some tasks. Although we're quite a distance away from any of those muscle-bound ideas becoming everyday realities, it's good to at least see them on the horizon.
Filed under: Robots, Science, Alt
Via: Phys.org
Source: Applied Physics Letters
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/29/turing-machine-built-from-artificial-muscles/
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President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
President Barack Obama removes his jacket before touring a tunnel project at the Port of Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, while promoting a plan to create jobs by attracting private investment in highways and other public works. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama tours a tunnel project at the Port of Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, while promoting a plan to create jobs by attracting private investment in highways and other public works. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
President Barack Obama speaks at a port in Miami, Friday, March 29, 2013, promoting a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private investment in roads and other public works projects. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
MIAMI (AP) ? Trying to show that the economy remains a top priority, President Barack Obama promoted a plan Friday to create construction and other jobs by attracting private money to help rebuild roads, bridges and other public works projects.
Obama fleshed out the details during a visit to a Miami port that's undergoing $2 billion in upgrades paid for with government and private dollars. The quick trip was designed to show that the economy and unemployment are top priorities for a president who also is waging high-profile campaigns on immigration reform and gun control.
Obama said the unemployment rate among construction workers was the highest of any industry, despite being cut nearly in half over the past three years.
"There are few more important things we can do to create jobs right now and strengthen our economy over the long haul than rebuilding the infrastructure that powers our businesses and economy," Obama said. "As president, my top priority is to make sure we are doing everything we can to reignite the true engine of our economic growth ? and that is a rising, thriving middle class."
Among the proposals Obama called for, which require approval from Congress, are:
?$4 billion in new spending on two infrastructure programs that award loans and grants.
?Higher caps on "private activity bonds" to encourage more private spending on highways and other infrastructure projects. State and local governments use the bonds to attract investment.
?Giving foreign pension funds tax-exempt status when selling U.S. infrastructure, property or real estate assets. U.S. pension funds are generally tax exempt in those circumstances. The administration says some international pension funds cite the tax burden as a reason for not investing in American infrastructure.
?A renewed call for a $10 billion national "infrastructure bank."
Arriving at the expansive port in Miami, Obama stood inside a double-barreled, concrete-laced hole in the ground, touring a tunnel project that will connect the port to area highways. The project has received loans and grants under the programs Obama touted and is expected to open next summer.
The president made private-sector infrastructure investment a key part of the economic agenda he rolled out in his State of the Union address last month. In the speech, he also called for a "Fix-It-First" program that would spend $40 billion in taxpayer funds on urgent repairs.
Congressional approval is not a sure bet, considering that House Republicans have shown little appetite for Obama's spending proposals. In fact, the infrastructure bank is an idea Obama called for many times in the past, but it gained little traction during his first term.
Obama's focus on generating more private-sector investment underscores the tough road new spending faces on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers often threaten to block new spending unless it's paid for by cutting taxes or other spending. "These are projects that are helpful to the economy and shouldn't break down on partisan lines," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
But Florida Republicans, including Gov. Rick Scott, faulted Obama for being "late to the party." Before Obama arrived in Florida, Scott argued that state taxpayers have had to pick up too much of the tab for this and other port projects because the president was slow to support them.
Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters traveling with Obama that the initiatives discussed Friday will cost $21 billion, not including the $40 billion for "Fix-It-First." Krueger said any increased spending associated with the proposals would not add to the deficit.
Krueger said details of how the programs would be paid for would be included in the budget Obama is scheduled to release on April 10.
___
AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.
___
Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
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By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - A parolee suspected of killing Colorado's prisons chief spent most of his eight-year prison sentence in solitary confinement for assaulting and threatening to kill jailers and fighting with other inmates, prison records made public on Thursday showed.
Evan Spencer Ebel incurred 28 disciplinary infractions in the five state prisons where has housed between 2005 and his mandatory parole in January, the Colorado Department of Corrections said in a statement accompanying the records.
Ebel was initially sentenced to three years in prison on robbery, menacing and other charges, but quickly earned more time for his violent and disruptive behavior.
Seven months into his incarceration, Ebel told a female corrections officer that he would "kill her if he ever saw her on the streets and that he would make her beg for her life," one disciplinary entry noted, which resulted in his placement in solitary confinement.
The 28-year-old son of a prominent Colorado attorney died in a shootout with police near Decatur, Texas, following a high-speed chase and gun battle last week.
Investigators said the handgun Ebel used to shoot at Texas police officers matched the weapon that killed Tom Clements, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Clements, 58, was gunned down when he answered the door at his home south of Denver on March 19. Police have not said if Ebel killed Clements, but call him their prime suspect.
The records released on Thursday also confirmed that Ebel was a member of the 211 Crew, a violent white supremacist prison gang. He went by the moniker "Evil" Ebel and had a swastika tattoo.
Corrections officials classified him as a "very high risk" to re-offend upon his release from prison.
Meanwhile, the 22-year-old woman arrested for providing the 9mm handgun to Ebel that was used in the killings made her first appearance in court on Thursday, according to the Arapahoe County clerk's office.
Stevie Marie Vigil is charged with illegally buying a firearm and a judge ordered her held on a $25,000 cash bond, and set an April 30 date for a preliminary hearing.
Agents with the Colorado Bureau of Investigations arrested Vigil on Wednesday for allegedly using her clean criminal history to buy the weapon from a Denver-area gun dealer in early March.
The licensed dealer cooperated with authorities, who said he was unaware of Vigil's plans for the gun.
Vigil then transferred the gun to Ebel, in a so-called "straw purchase," police said. As a convicted felon, Ebel could not legally possess firearms.
Courts records in the case are sealed, so it is unclear what connection Vigil may have had to the 211 Crew. She faces a maximum 16 years in prison if convicted.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Lisa Shumaker)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suspect-colorado-prison-chief-killing-spent-bulk-sentence-030533378.html
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By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor
Bravo bigwig Andy Cohen launched the network's ever-growing, always-popular franchise, "The Real Housewives," in 2006. What started with a few privileged, entertaining and often-argumentative women from the O.C., eventually expanded to include the dozens of frequent feuders from coast to coast.
On Friday morning, Cohen visited TODAY and fielded a couple of questions about the leading ladies on the shows -- questions that he wasn't exactly eager to answer.
For instance, which Housewife is his personal favorite?
"That is horrible! That is a terrible question," he said with a smile as he mulled it over. "I would get in terrible trouble. ... I love when any of them really succeed."
And that means he's really loving one woman right now.
"You know, NeNe Leakes is going through a major period of success -- from, of course, 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta,'" he shared. "She's got a starring role in 'The New Normal' on NBC. I'm especially proud of her right now."
There's even more for Cohen to be proud of where Leakes is concerned.
After several years of fussing and fighting, Leakes and her former "Real Housewives of Atlanta" co-star Kim Zolciak have finally buried the hatchet and gone back to being BFFs, a fact Leakes recently celebrated on Twitter.
As for Cohen, if he was a little reluctant to name his favorite Housewife, that's nothing compared to his reaction when asked to name his least favorite.
"Oh, yes! Let me tell everybody about it," he joked. "Yes! Let me rank my top five least favorite Housewives for you right now. No! Love them all for different reasons."
See more from Cohen on part two of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" reunion special Monday night, or see him on his own show, "Watch What Happens Live," which airs Sunday through Thursday nights -- both on Bravo.
Who's your favorite or least favorite Housewife? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
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Getty ImagesGiven Friday?s events, it?s clear that the suggestion that the Cowboys couldn?t have used the franchise tag on Tony Romo in 2014 came from the Romo camp as part of an effort to break whatever final hurdle(s) existed between the team and the player.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, it never was going to be issue.
The glitch that would have resulted in the final years of Romo?s contract voiding after the window for using the franchise tag had closed came, we?re told, from a deal that was done in 2011 to help create cap space.? At that time, Romo, the Cowboys, and his agents agreed to commence the process to make Romo a Cowboy for life, and to get it done before the start of the final season of his current contract.
In the end, Romo was never going to leave the Cowboys.? So it didn?t matter if there was no franchise tag to be used.
?Tony has a special relationship with Jerry [Jones], Stephen [Jones], and the Cowboys organization.? The parties truly view it as a long-term partnership and they truly trust each other,? the source said.? ?Tony values being a Cowboy for life.?
Moreover, the guaranteed money in the new Romo deal ($55.5 million) hints that the franchise-tag formula was a factor in the negotiations.? With a salary of $11.5 million in 2013 and franchise-tag numbers of $20.16 million and $24.19 million, respectively, in 2014 and 2015, Romo would have made $55.85 million over the next three years, if he had gone one year at a time under the franchise tag.
Either way, the Cowboys have gone all in with Romo.? Today?s deal simply puts even more chips in the middle of the table.
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MOSCOW (AP) ? Russia on Thursday harshly criticized the Arab League's recognition of the Syrian opposition as the only representative of the country, saying it effectively kills efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to the civil war there.
At a summit in Qatar on Tuesday, the Arab League let the main Syrian opposition coalition take over the country's seat for the first time.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his government "deeply regrets" the move, which he said amounts to "the Arab League's rejection of a peaceful settlement." He told reporters that the decision amounts to discarding of an international peace plan approved in Geneva in June, which was supported by the Arab League at the time. It called for an open-ended cease-fire and peace talks to form a transitional government that would run the country until elections.
However, the plan was a non-starter for the opposition because of Moscow's insistence it did not explicitly ban Syrian President Bashar Assad and other members of his regime from taking part in the transitional leadership.
Lavrov said the summit's decision Tuesday "strokes out all the efforts that have been made, including the Geneva agreements, and throws the status of Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. and Arab League envoy for Syria, into limbo.
"If one of the founders of his mission, the Arab League, declares that the opposition coalition is the only legitimate representative of the country, there will be no talks and those who want to oust the regime will be provided with weapons. I simply can't see how Mr. Brahimi could remain the envoy.... That effectively puts an end to international mediation from the point of view of the Arab League."
Lavrov said the Doha summit's decision signaling an intention to supply the Syrian opposition with weapons is aimed at "inciting confrontation and encouraging irreconcilable forces."
At the United Nations, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin reiterated Lavrov's message and accused the Arab League of creating obstacles to progress in Syria, saying it was "beginning to act more like a negative than a positive force."
Russia has been Assad's main supporter throughout the two-year conflict, joining forces with China at the U.N. Security Council to shield his regime from international sanctions over his crackdown on an uprising that turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people.
___
Associated Press writer Maria Sanminiatelli contributed to this report from the United Nations.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-criticizes-arab-league-move-syria-163129068.html
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NEW YORK (AP) ? When Larry Hagman died of cancer last November, TNT's "Dallas" reboot was put to the test over how to write his character out of the show.
Hagman's final episode ended with conniving Texas oilman J.R. Ewing talking on the phone to his son, John Ross, and the sound of gunfire reminiscent of the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger in the original CBS series, which aired from 1978 to 1991.
Now the show is embroiled in a murder mystery to find out who killed J.R.
Josh Henderson, who plays John Ross, said in a recent interview that it's strange to be on the set without Hagman.
"Not having him anymore, it's just very different, and we miss him. You know he would want nothing but for us to continue going with the show because as long as 'Dallas' is on, we'll be talking about J.R., and I'll always be trying to live up to him and it's gonna be, you know, as long as the show's on the air, he'll always be with us," Henderson said.
The 31-year-old actor said he's ready to be the main villain on "Dallas," now in its second season on TNT (Mondays, 9 p.m. EDT). The reboot has pitted cousins John Ross and Christopher (played by Jesse Metcalfe) in a battle for control of Ewing Energies.
"We've been doing this for going on two years, and I feel like I really know who John Ross is, and I really now completely understand the ups and the downs of John Ross and J.R.'s relationship and I'm excited about it. ... I think people trust me enough now ... to at least carry on the torch a little bit for the Ewings."
It's not an exaggeration to say Henderson fell into show biz.
Henderson started on the WB reality series "Popstars" in 2001, where he won a spot in a music group. Soon after, an agent asked to meet with him about the possibility of acting.
"I didn't even know what an agent was," he said. "My first audition, I didn't have a headshot, but I had a teen centerfold from the music stuff I did, and the producers of this TV show thought it was hilarious."
Henderson says his naivete worked to his advantage.
"Everything happened so quickly. I was just excited to be there. And I think that energy and that kind of, not ignorance, but I was just so green, I wasn't thinking about it, I just did it. And I think that's really what helped me."
Within three weeks of signing with an agent, he booked a TV pilot and a film on the same day.
Henderson has been recording music that hopefully will be featured on "Dallas."
___
Online:
http://www.tntdrama.com
___
Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/josh-henderson-ready-main-dallas-villain-191551175.html
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? Messier 77 is a galaxy in the constellation of Cetus, some 45 million light-years away from us. Also known as NGC 1068, it is one of the most famous and well-studied galaxies. It is a real star among galaxies, with more papers written about it than many other galaxies put together.
Despite its current fame and striking swirling appearance, the galaxy has been a victim of mistaken identity a couple of times; when it was initially discovered in 1780, the distinction between gas clouds and galaxies was not known, causing finder Pierre Mechain to miss its true nature and label it as a nebula. It was misclassified again when it was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue as a star cluster.
Now, however, it is firmly categorised as a barred spiral galaxy, with loosely wound arms and a relatively small central bulge. It is the closest and brightest example of a particular class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies -- galaxies that are full of hot, highly ionised gas that glows brightly, emitting intense radiation.
Strong radiation like this is known to come from the heart of Messier 77 -- caused by a very active black hole that is around 15 million times the mass of our Sun. Material is dragged towards this black hole and circles around it, heating up and glowing strongly. This region of a galaxy alone, although comparatively small, can be tens of thousands of times brighter than a typical galaxy.
Although no competition for the intense centre, Messier 77's spiral arms are also very bright regions. Dotted along each arm are knotty red clumps -- a signal that new stars are forming. These baby stars shine strongly, ionising nearby gas which then glows a deep red colour as seen in the image above. The dust lanes stretching across this image appear as a rusty, brown-red colour due to a phenomenon known as reddening; the dust absorbs more blue light than red light, enhancing its apparent redness.
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The S&P 500 hit its closing high level of 1,565.15 on the final trading day of the first quarter, as the relative calm surrounding the opening of Cyprus banks trumped a mixed bag of economic reports.
The next milestone on the S&P 500 will be its all-time intraday high of 1,576.09, set on October 11, 2007.
The Dow has soared nearly 11 percent this year, on pace to logging its best first-quarter in 15 years. The S&P 500 has jumped almost 10 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading higher.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded below 13.
Most key S&P sectors were higher, led by utilities, while financials lagged.
"From a technical perspective, everyone wants to know the implications of the S&P 500 finally setting a new closing high - that day will mean little to us," wrote Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ. "It's the action in the period that follows that we think matters the most. A meaningful move to us would be a strong break above the old high, perhaps by 2 percent, followed by a test of the old high, and then a resumption of the uptrend."
On the economic front, the U.S. economy grew at a 0.4 percent annual rate, according to the Commerce Department, just a touch below the 0.5 percent gain expected by economists in a Reuters survey. However, the reading was higher than the government's previous estimate of a tepid 0.1 percent expansion rate.
Weekly jobless claims jumped 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000, according to the Labor Department, but the gain was still in the middle of their range for the year. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 340,000.
Meanwhile, the pace of business activity in the Midwest slowed in March, with the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago barometer dipping to 52.4 from 56.8 in February. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the regional economy.
In Europe, Cypriot banks re-opened after an almost two-week closure to relative calm. Strict capital control measures were imposed and could remain in place for weeks. Cypriots will not be allowed to withdraw more than 300 euros a day, cash checks, or take more than 3,000 euros when traveling abroad.
In company news, Blackberry reported quarterly earnings that outpaced market expectations, boosted in part by the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Still, the company lost subscribers at a rapid pace, with the base of users contracting to 76 million from 79 million. (Read More: Is BlackBerry's Turnaround on Track?)
Pinnacle Foods jumped in their NYSE debut as the packaged foods maker priced at $20, at the top of their expected range of $18 to $20.
Goldman Sachs edged higher after Guggenheim started coverage of the banking giant with a "buy" rating and price target of $175. Meanwhile, the brokerage initiated coverage of Morgan Stanley with a "neutral" rating and a price target of $25.
United Technologies rose after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the Dow component with an "overweight" rating, saying the company has "significant, broad-based" tailwinds.
Volume is expected to remain relatively low ahead of Good Friday. Markets will be closed in the United States and most of Europe, but banks will be open. Economic data including personal income and consumer sentiment are expected to be reported Friday.
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