A Central Indiana family will get to come home Tuesday, thanks to the generosity of strangers.
The Ross family became stuck in Florida after their teenage daughter, Madison, was hospitalized with pneumonia.
Madison, was born with spina bifida and has had cerebral palsy since she was four months old.
Her sickness meant an air ambulance was the only way for her to get home. Plainfield-based Grace on Wings offered to cover all flying expenses except for fuel.
After our story first aired and your generous donations came in, a$10,000 goal was met.
?Going down.? That?s the last thing Don Draper hears in his office from the man Duck has brought in to replace him. The next scene shows Peggy sitting in Don?s office, looking out his window. This did not occur to me the first time I watched, but many of our more astute (or maybe morose) readers worried this was the moment Don?s body would come sailing past the office window, just as it does in the opening graphic. But then Slate?s own Fred Kaplan pointed out to me that the graphic actually ends with Don back in his chair, working, living. I think we all three agree in this TV Club that in the next and supposedly final season of Mad Men Don will probably be on his way up, even if he is no longer at the firm. Perhaps he will make it to A.A., or be closer to Sally, or live the groovy ?bicoastal? lifestyle he offers to Megan. Surely he will be on his way to becoming the '80s Don Draper we have all come to anticipate.
And what of Peggy? The symbolism in this finale was heavily pointing to Peggy joining whatever the era equivalent was of the Forbes list of most powerful women: her first-time-ever pants in the office (and what pants they were! red plaid! with a matching top!); her sitting in Don?s chair, very comfortably, rifling through his things; Ted?s injunction to her to stay behind in New York and build her career. Early on in this season Peggy had been heavily leaning in, bossing her underlings, giving Joan good advice. But then the office merger threw her off a bit, and she got sidelined again. In the next season, I am betting that Peggy morphs into Don: ruthless, untouchable, and harboring secrets.
One thing that struck me in this finale is how often we see the adults through the eyes of the children. Sally is the most cutting in this regard, as she tells her father on the phone, ?Well, I wouldn?t want to do anything immoral,? and then follows that up with, ?Why don?t you just tell them what I saw?? And then there?s baby Kevin, trying to work his magic on Roger, giving him a Thanksgiving table that, unlike the one his daughter threatens, isn?t empty. Those children?Kevin, Bobby, Eugene, Sally, all of Sally?s outrageous girlfriends?those are the Mad Men viewers. Matt Weiner, who is 47, is contemporary with the Draper boys. ?She?s from a broken home,? Betty tells Don about Sally. But it?s broader than that. A show that seemed to be about what our parents were like is shifting into one about how they made us who we are. That?s what was so beautiful about the look that passed between Sally and Don in the last scene, an understanding between generations.
This was a strange season in that it seemed to throw up intriguing plot possibilities and then grow quickly bored with them?and then it always circled back to the disintegration of Don. I?m not sure viewers always appreciated being in such close quarters with a morose crumbling alcoholic?certainly not as much as our own Troy Patterson did. But at least we got our redemption in the end.
Gentleman, it?s been a pleasure clubbing with you this season. Seth, as you suggested: ?Let's all move to Los Angeles. We can be happy together there. Just three desks, a window, and the ocean.?
It?s all fun and games until someone shoots you in the face?
Alchemy, at 2,000 degrees Celsius. A new study from the Argonne National Laboratory reports that a group of scientists from Japan, Finland, America, and Germany have used lasers to turn liquid cement into a glassy, liquid metal.
The newly-invented process could be beneficial for building circuits that resist corosion. Their discovery could eventually change the way all sorts of devices are made, ranging from iPads to TVs.
The study, which appeared in The Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences and was accompanied by some inspiring photoshop art (see below), describes the process of heating a cement compound to 2,000 degrees Celsius. Using aerodynamic levitation, which lifts materials off of a surface using gas pressure, the team was able to carefully control the way the cement cooled. The result of the superheating? A glassy surface that can ?trap? free electrons?the things needed to conduct electricity.
Their discovery has the potential to change how gadgets are made. "This new material has lots of applications including as thin-film resistors used in liquid-crystal displays, basically the flat panel computer monitor that you are probably reading this from at the moment," said a physicist named Chris Benmore in Argonne?s release. And eventually, the same levitation-and-laser process could turn other materials into semi-conductors. "Now that we know the conditions needed to create trapped electrons in materials we can develop and test other materials to find out if we can make them conduct electricity in this way,? Benmore added.
Turning cement into metal might sound like a more sustainable manufacturing technique?but, as Architect Magazine writer Blaine Brownell points out, the process used to heat the cement compound is remarkably energy-intensive. So, for now, it?s unclear whether such a discovery could end up being better for the environment. [Argonne National Laboratory]
June 12, 2013 ? Loggerhead turtles use visual cues to find gelatinous prey to snack on as they swim in open waters, according to research published June 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Tomoko Narazaki and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Tracking underwater movements with 3D loggers and National Geographic Crittercams, the researchers found the turtles relied on sight, rather than sound or smell, to identify and move toward gelatinous, floating prey like jellyfish and other organisms; one turtle even swam toward a floating plastic bag. Turtles in this study foraged for such foods approximately twice every hour, suggesting they may rely on such gelatinous prey for energy more than previously thought.
Previous studies have shown that turtle diets vary with their age, habitat and other factors, but adult turtles depend on deep-sea hard-shelled animals like mollusks for food. The gelatinous prey studied here are low-energy, easily digestible foods that are unlikely to replace these other prey. However, the authors suggest that opportunistic foraging on such prey may benefit loggerhead turtles during oceanic migrations, when prey at the bottom of the sea is harder to reach.
The study also offers insights into the foraging habits of these turtles, listed an endangered species by by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The authors add that the methods used here could be developed to map areas with higher foraging opportunities along oceanic migratory routes for loggerhead turtles.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Tomoko Narazaki, Katsufumi Sato, Kyler J. Abernathy, Greg J. Marshall, Nobuyuki Miyazaki. Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta) Use Vision to Forage on Gelatinous Prey in Mid-Water. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (6): e66043 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066043
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Today companies like Microsoft and Sony aren't just trying to sell you the video game console of the future, they're trying to sell you the living room of the future, a central hub that connects you to your family and your family to the world. But our expectations for what tech should be included in the living room of tomorrow have evolved dramatically over the past century.
From newspapers delivered by radio in the 1930s to the internet-connected TVs of the 1990s, today we have a brief history of the living room of the future.
Home Movies, TV, and Newspaper by Radio
At the 1939 New York World's Fair, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) showed off its "Living Room of Tomorrow." Television was still very much an experimental technology, but it was an enormous hit at the Fair, where Depression-weary visitors couldn't get enough tech-utopianism. RCA's display put TV front and center in their living room of tomorrow?even if the screen was absolutely tiny.
It wasn't just TV that RCA was promising. This sleek, streamlined, ultra-modern living room of tomorrow had a movie projector, radio, record player, sound recorder, and even a fax machine that would deliver your daily newspaper by radio. RCA was experimenting with these bizarre faxpaper machines in the 1930s, gaining license from the FCC to utilize radio spectrum that went unused between midnight and 6am.
The August 1939 issue of Popular Mechanicshighlighted RCA's living room set-up at the Fair:
Simple in arrangement, and soft in color because of television, the suggested ?radio living room of tomorrow? at the New York World?s Fair is open to visitors, who are permitted to inspect the various sight, sound and facsimile facilities while they are in operation.
Television and proto-faxes are one thing, but it wasn't until after World War II that the living room would truly become the high-tech nerve center of the American middle class home. The postwar economic recovery and rise of leisure time meant that people looking into the future saw living rooms with increasingly sleeker TVs, video on demand, and a generally more diverse mix of media.
It's no surprise that TV has long had a central spot in the living room of the future. By 1956 about 75 percent of American homes had a television. And it was fast becoming a great American family-friendly past-time.
Home Media Library
The February 1, 1959 edition of the Sunday comic strip Closer Than We Think by commercial illustrator Arthur Radebaugh imagined the "Electronic Home Library" of the near future.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Some unusual inventions for home entertainment and education will be yours in the future, such as the "television recorder" that RCA's David Sarnoff described recently.
With this device, when a worthwhile program comes over the air while you are away from home, or even while you're watching it, you'll be able to preserve both the picture and sound on tape for replaying at any time. Westinghouse's Gwilym Price expects such tapes to reproduce shows in three dimensions and color on screens as shallow as a picture.
Another pushbutton development will be projection of microfilm books on the ceiling or wall in large type. To increase their impact on students, an electronic voice may accompany the visual passages.
While I imagine that you might get a sore neck from staring at the ceiling all day, that electronic voice accompaniment would certainly alleviate the problem. This was also one of the earliest conceptions of the DVR as we know it today; if only Radebaugh had foreseen the advent of those annoying Hopper commercials, we might have headed them off at the pass.
Flatscreen and Worldwide
What happens when beaming entertainment and news all around the world becomes a reality? The 1966 book Magna Carta of Space explored what international agreements may need to be hammered out now that countries were putting humans, satellites (and potentially weapons) into space.
Their living room of the future included a flat-screen TV almost as large as yours today, but what are people watching on it? The shot of the Eiffel Tower was perhaps a wink at mid-'60s readers that the French?and their comparatively loose attitudes toward sexual imagery?might infect the American living room of tomorrow. Little did they know that the US would forgo sex for ultraviolence as its primary illicit indulgence.
The Ultimate Remote
In 1967, Walter Cronkite gave Americans a look at what was billed as the futuristic home of the year 2001. His CBS show "The 21st Century" showed Americans in the 1960s what the kitchen, office and, of course, living room of the future might look like. Designed by Philco-Ford, the house was also featured in a company-produced short film called "1999 A.D."
The living room of the future included a giant control panel from which to adjust everything from the TV to the glowing, color-changing walls.
A lot of this new free time will be spent at home. And this console controls a full array of equipment to inform, instruct and entertain the family of the future. The possibilities for the evening?s program are called up on this screen. We could watch a football game, or a movie shown in full color on our big 3D television screen. The sound would come from these globe-like speakers. Or with the push of a button we could momentarily escape from our 21st century lives and fill the room with stereophonic music from another age.
It's never said explicitly in the episode, but those light-up walls weren't just for giggles. Glowing walls actually had some utility during the Cold War, providing illumination in those windowless, concrete-reinforced rooms built as fallout shelters. The atomic concept houses of the late 1940s and '50s would often show backlit aquariums, well-lit dioramas, and colorful walls in a conscious effort to distract from the fact that they were windowless rooms.
The June 1967 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine gave readers their own take on that Philco-Ford house of the future.
Their version of the house added a holographic dimension to the TV. From the magazine:
The living room, with its wallsized television screen, is the focal point of this house.
The TV screen is three-dimensional or holographic, enabling you to look around corners almost as though you were inside the scene being projected. We expect that electroluminescence is going to be the medium for displays of this type.
Death of Film, Rise of Robots
The flatscreen high-def TV continued to be the centerpiece of the living room of the future in the 1970s. But as you can see in the illustration above from the 1979 children's book Future Cities by Kenneth Gatland and David Jefferis, the personal robot makes lounging in your living room that much easier.
The book lays out all of the improvements that are just around the corner for kids of the 1970s:
1. Giant-size TV. Based on the designs already available, this one has a super-bright screen for daylight viewing and stereo sound system.
2. Electronic video movie camera, requires no film, just a spool of tape. Within ten years video cameras like this could be replaced by 3-D holographic recorders.
3. Flat screen TV. No longer a bulky box, TV has shrunk to a thickness of less than five centimetres. This one is used to order shopping via a computerised shopping centre a few kilometres away. The system takes orders and indicates if any items are not in stock.
4. Video disc player used for recording off the TV and for replaying favourite films.
5. Domestic robot rolls in with drinks. One robot, the Quasar, is already on sale in the USA. Reports indicate that it may be little more than a toy however, so it will be a few years before 'Star Wars' robots tramp through our homes.
6. Mail slot. By 1990, most mail will be sent in electronic form. Posting a letter will consist of placing it in front of a copier in your home or at the post office. The electronic read-out will be flashed up to a satellite, to be beamed to its destination. Like many other electronic ideas, the savings in time and energy could be enormous.
Big TVs? Email? Blu-ray? Video cameras? Check, check, check, check. How is it that robot butler is the only one we're still missing out on?
Interactive Holographic Classics
By the 1980s the living room of the future was quite the interactive experience. Not only could you watch holographic movies, you could become a part of the action.
The 1981 kids' book Tomorrow's Home by Neil Ardley promised kids just that with a two-page spread that showed how people of the future might entertain themselves by stepping into their media:
All this could come about with developments in holographic video ? a system that uses laser beams to produce images that have depth just as in real life. Once perfected, it will produce a show that takes place not on a screen but in real space ? even around you. You could walk in and out of the action, and view it from any direction ? the ultimate in realism. In this case, the computer that operates the system has been instructed to omit the role of Julius Caesar so as to allow you to take part. Although the images look so real, you could walk through them, so you suffer no harm from your killers' knives.
The Sensorium
For some people, however, holographic media wasn't enough. Plugging the human body directly into the living room would prove to be the wave of the future.
The February 1982 issue of The Futurist magazine ran illustrations by Roy Mason which imagined the house of tomorrow. The "sensorium" was supposedly going to replace the family room at some far off date in the future.
The magazine explained that the circular design wasn't just for taking advantage of viewing the hologram, it also facilitated conversation. You also had the option to hook yourself up to the living room's biofeedback sensors, allowing the whole place to become one big creepy mood ring.
Home entertainment center or "sensorium" features a free-standing "holostage" that generated three-dimensional TV images from broadcast, cable, or recordings. The walls are large-screen video displays that can change color in time to music, or, linked through biofeedback sensors, respond to people's moods. Comfortable circular couch also encourages a more traditional form of entertainment ? conversation.
The sensorium isn't quite eXistenZ-level of plugging in, but I suppose that's a good thing.
Microsoft's Web TV
In 1995 Microsoft produced a series of "life in the future" videos that were included on a CD-ROM with the book The Road Ahead by Bill Gates.
Their living room of the year 2004 looks pretty ordinary, but the TV of the future is revolutionary because it can talk to the internet, much like the ubiquitous "smart" TVs of today do. The whole experience actually feels a bit like a Choose Your Own Adventure in the creepy way that the media personalities lay out your choices for entertainment.
The living room of the future has always been about connections; making them deeper, stronger, and more expansive. And while you can see everyone from Microsoft to Sony to Apple carrying that torch today, it's still not clear that access to more stuff has brought us closer together. If anything, in the living room of the future, we're further apart than ever.
NEW YORK (AP) ? AT&T Inc. on Monday said it's adding a walkie-talkie-like application to the iPhone for its corporate customers, replicating a hallmark feature of the Nextel network, which is being shut down this summer.
A push-to-talk feature is available on some non-Nextel phones from Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, but this is the first time it's available on the iPhone in the U.S.
With push-to-talk systems, the user pushes a button to broadcast a voice message to a group ? in the case of the AT&T app, of up to 250 people. This type of service has been popular for work sites and first responders.
Sprint is shutting down the Nextel network this summer because it doesn't support high-speed data traffic. It's trying to get as many Nextel users as possible to switch to Sprint phones with push-to-talk capability, but it's competing with Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
Dallas-based AT&T said the push-to-talk function won't work just by downloading the app ? the company has to work with its corporate customers to integrate it.
AT&T shares rose 40 cents to $35.85 in morning trading. Its shares have traded in a 52-week range of $32.71 to $39.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States suffered through a skyjacking epidemic that has now been largely forgotten. In his new book, The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking, Brendan I. Koerner tells the story of the chaotic age when jets were routinely commandeered by the desperate and disillusioned. In the run-up to his book?s publication on June 18, Koerner has been writing a daily series of skyjacker profiles. Slate is running the final dozen of these ?Skyjacker of the Day? entries.
Name: Leon and Cody Bearden
Flight Info: Continental Airlines Flight 54 from Los Angeles to Houston, with scheduled stops in Phoenix, El Paso, and San Antonio
The Story: The first outbreak of America?s 11-year skyjacking epidemic occurred in the summer of 1961, when four planes were seized in the nation?s airspace. The last of these incidents, involving 16-year-old Cody Bearden and his father, Leon, is the one that finally forced the federal government to pay attention to the escalating crisis.
The elder Bearden was a convicted bank robber and father of four who, due to a host of financial and psychological problems, had decided that the United States was rotten to the core. He roped Cody, his guitar-playing eldest son, into a plot that would allow them to start fresh in Cuba: Their plan was to give Fidel Castro a $5.4 million Boeing 707 as a gift and thereby earn political asylum.
The Beardens boarded the red-eye flight in Phoenix with two loaded handguns tucked into their carry-on bags. (At that time, there was absolutely no baggage screening at American airports.) En route to El Paso, Leon and Cody forced a stewardess to issue a call for volunteer hostages over the jet?s public address system. Four men came forward to meet the hijackers in the plane?s first-class lounge, including a lanky Border Patrol agent named Leonard Gilman.
Leon Bearden told the volunteers that he had ordered the pilot to keep flying to El Paso. After the plane refueled, he and Cody would release all the passengers, save for the four volunteer hostages. The plane would then veer southeast to Havana.
As the Boeing 707 began its descent, Gilman gently asked Leon Bearden if he wished to go to Cuba for political reasons. ?I?m just fed up,? Leon replied. ?I don?t want to be an American anymore.?
By the time Flight 54 touched down in El Paso at 2 a.m., President John F. Kennedy had been briefed on the situation. Loath to hand his Cuban nemesis another public relations victory so soon after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the president authorized the FBI to do everything in its power to prevent the hijacked plane from leaving Texas.
At the FBI?s behest, Continental?s ground crew stalled for time after the passengers were released, pretending that the jet required hours of maintenance. As the sun began to rise that morning, Leon Bearden became highly agitated by the endless delays. He commanded Flight 54?s captain to take off at once, punctuating his directive by firing a bullet between the co-pilot?s feet.
But the trip to Havana lasted less than 50 yards. As the Boeing 707 pivoted toward the runway, a dozen federal agents opened fire with submachine guns, shredding the jet?s landing gear and destroying one of its engines. The stranded Beardens were left with no choice but to let an FBI negotiator come aboard the aircraft. But Leon had become too unhinged to strike any sort of deal. ?I would rather be killed myself than go to prison,? he told the negotiator. ?I?d rather kill myself.?
An instant after making this suicidal threat, Leon glanced back to see the flight attendants sneaking out the plane?s rear exit. Before he could do anything drastic, Gilman punched him in the ear with all his might, shattering a bone in his right hand in the process. As the hijacker crumpled to the floor, the FBI negotiator spun and tackled Cody, who had let down his guard while listening to his father?s rant.
The Upshot: A day after the Beardens were subdued, the Senate held an emergency hearing to address the nation?s rash of hijackings. As part of that hearing, a senator asked Najeeb Halaby, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, whether anyone had considered the possibility of searching all passengers prior to boarding. Halaby scoffed at the idea: ?Can you imagine the line that would form from the ticket counter in Miami if everyone had to submit to police inspections?? The senators ended up voting to make air piracy an offense punishable by death, but they took no action on security screening. Leon Bearden was later sentenced to life in prison, while Cody accepted a plea bargain that allowed him to be released from custody by his 21st birthday.
What a week ol' Barry's been having in Washington! First, there was that scoop about the NSA spying on all the Verizon customers. Then, there was this PRISM scandal about how intelligence agencies are basically spying on everyone all the time. Now, there's news that he's making a hitlist of foreign countries to hit with cyberattacks when the time is right. There's probably some spying involved in that, too.
Details of Obama's latest directive?which was drawn up last October?have been revealed by The Guardian's national security hawk Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill who say the step "will heighten fears over the increasing militarization of the internet." And, taken at face value, it probably will. That's probably why the National Security Agency (NSA) refused to disclose the details of the plan after the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the document. (You can read the full document here.)
It's not like a militarized internet is a new idea. The precursor to the internet's, ARPANET, was built by the military for heaven's sake. It's not like Vint Cerf and friends were trying to create a better way for us to shopping or stay in touch with our friends from college. This amazing thing that we call the internet was a national security weapon from the beginning, even if we didn't use it as such.
This is more or less what the administration has said about the new plan. "Once humans develop the capacity to build boats, we build navies," an unnamed senior administration official told The Guardian. "Once you build airplanes, we build air forces." And so once we built the internet, we started to build a cyber army.
It's been decades in the making, but the United States Hacker Army is finally starting to show its stripes. A little less than a year ago, the Pentagon revealed for the first time that it had been developing not only tools for cyber defense but also weapons for cyber offense. This wasn't a huge surprise, since most experts agree that the highly sophisticated Stuxnet malware deployed in Iran was built by the U.S. and Israel. Since then, we've been learning about some of our new cyberwar tactics, including but not limited to shooting down satellites and spying on Americans.
Honestly, though, there's not much new in this whole strategy besides the president's 18-page policy directive that makes America's cyber strategy official. We've been breaking into other countries' computers for ages. "We hack everyone everywhere," an intelligence officer told Greenwald and MacAskill. "We like to make a distinction between us and the others. But we are in almost every country in the world." [The Guardian]
(Reuters) - Postal workers in Spokane, Washington, on Saturday retrieved a wayward letter suspected of containing the deadly poison ricin that vanished for several weeks after it was sent from Washington state to a CIA address that does not receive mail, the FBI said.
The envelope resembled four ricin-laced letters postmarked May 13 from Spokane that had addresses penned in red ink, FBI agent Frank Harrill, an agency spokesman, said in a statement.
Matthew Ryan Buquet, 38, of Spokane was charged last month with mailing a threatening communication in connection with one of those four letters, which was sent to a federal judge but intercepted by a court employee during a screening process.
Ricin, a highly lethal poison made from castor beans, can enter the body through ingestion, inhalation or injection.
A "determination will be made at some point" over whether to charge Buquet with sending any additional ricin-laced letters in the batch, Harrill said in a phone interview.
The letter addressed to the CIA arrived at a U.S. Post Office in Spokane as undeliverable, Harrill said. The FBI previously issued a warning about the letter and said it was addressed to a "location that does not receive mail deliveries."
It will be sent next to a bioforensic lab to determine whether it, too, contains ricin, as did the other four letters in the batch from Washington state, the FBI said.
The three others, other than the envelope sent to a federal judge in Spokane, were addressed to President Barack Obama, Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington state and a U.S. Post Office in Spokane, the FBI said. Investigators are not aware of any illnesses connected to the letters.
The FBI has said the case is not related to two other recent cases of ricin-tainted envelopes sent to elected officials.
Actress Shannon Rogers Guess Richardson, of New Boston, Texas, was charged on Friday with sending ricin-laced letters to Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And martial arts instructor James Everett Dutschke, of Tupelo, Mississippi, was arrested on April 27 on suspicion of mailing three earlier such letters to the president and others.
The letters Richardson is accused of mailing contained menacing references to the U.S. debate on gun control.
The FBI has not disclosed the messages in the five letters sent from Washington state, and the bureau has not discussed a possible motive in the case.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Eric Walsh)
You're wondering what I have been up to in May. I have been rushing around like a whirling dervish.
Thus:
? a presentation on Difficult Conversations to the senior management of a distinguished school
? a talk at my old school on Lessons for Life
? fielding a group of Americans who passed by on a Downton Abbey tour
? giving a presentation on Speechwriting to the European Speechwriters Network
? joining a New Statesman panel discussion at the British Library on Propaganda
? travelling to Stockholm to give a masterclass on Presentation Skills to a leading European energy Corporation
? then to Warsaw to give Polish officials are masterclass on Negotiation Skills
? and on to Torun to address the latest YoungMarkets conference on the always engaging subject of Taxonomy
? back to Northampton yesterday to give a local business group a punchy presentation on The Business of Diplomacy
? and then on down to London for a fascinating meeting with Philip Blond, after a ?challenge session? with the FCO on some high-level EU questions
While all that has been going on I have helped with a couple of significant speeches and prepared myself for departing tomorrow on a cruise around the Baltic Sea for two weeks, during which I'll be giving four presentations on My Role in the Downfall of Communism and associated subjects.
On return from the cruise I dash to Amsterdam for some masterclass work with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, then back to Warsaw for further Negotiation Skills masterclasses. Then I stagger back to England and collapse.
I have three tasks while bobbing around the Baltic Sea in the next two weeks (other than delivering those four sparkling presentations).
I have been commissioned to write a major essay about the Serbia/Kosovo problem. Then I need to write for a US website a review of Charles Moore?s biography of Margaret Thatcher.
And, above all, I need to see if I can crank out my first book, a masterpiece on the general subject of Speechwriting and Speechmaking.
It turns out that here on this website I have produced a pretty large bloc of work already on the general subject of speechwriting/speechmaking. Mrs Crawf has been sweating blood helping me copy everything under the rubric of Speech and Other Writing into a single Word document that I can use as a quarry for parts of the book.
One result of this mind-boggling exercise has been a Word document of over 600 pages. I can run a word-count and tell you with unerring precision that since I started this blog in 2008, I have written 321,587 words about different aspects of speechwriting and analytical presentation skills. That is almost 5 books-worth in itself.
So, you have a choice.
If (as you do) you want and need my many and varied opinions on public speaking, speechwriting and general executive communication, you have two choices.
You can scour this blog and work your way through over 300,000 words. For free.
Or you can hope and pray that in the next few weeks I managed to lick all this material into shape and produce it as a cheap but excellent nicely paced book, full of vivid examples, that you are delighted to buy.
These examples are going to be good. Not least because thanks to the miracles of FOI I have asked the Foreign Office for telegrams I sent back to HQ following memorable speeches from different world leaders that I witnessed as a British diplomat, and the FCO obligingly have unearthed quite a few of these and sent them to me. Interesting to see how my reporting at the time does or does not coincide with how I remember those events now.
Why bother with another book on speechwriting? Aren't there plenty of them already?
Yes there are. Most of them, funnily enough, are written by speechwriters.
But not all speechwriters are particularly good themselves at public speaking. And most speechwriters have little experience in organising top-level speaking occasions.
I have done all these things and more. My conclusion is that it is a subtle and mysterious task to link together the speaker and the speaker's words to the audience and the venue and the context of the occasion itself. I have seen so many examples where one or other of these elements was out of sync, leading to unhappy if not ruinous results - even for senior people. The book should have plenty of examples of things going wrong, as well as things going right.
Internet access during this cruise is going to be insanely expensive, so what with that and then my subsequent manoeuvres I'll be off air here until early July.
Cooling babies ? saving lives Brenda Strohm, TOBY children study co-ordinator, goes to meet a family whose son Thomas suffered lack of oxygen at birth. Cooling ? as pioneered by the TOBY Trial, which started in 2002 ? lowers the risk of death or severe impairment 50% for babies who are deprived of oxygen during birth????
Source: TheGuardian Posted on:
Friday, Jun 07, 2013, 8:43am Views: 14
TEXARKANA, Texas (AP) ? A pregnant Texas actress who first told the FBI that her husband sent ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then allegedly said she sent them because her husband "made her" do it, was charged Friday with threatening the president.
Shannon Guess Richardson, 35, appeared in a Texarkana courtroom after being charged with mailing a threatening communication to the president. The federal charge carries up to 10 years in prison, U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Davilyn Walston said.
Richardson, a mother of five who has played bit roles on television and in movies, was arrested earlier Friday for allegedly mailing the ricin-laced letters last month to the White House, Bloomberg and the mayor's Washington gun-control group. The letters ? which authorities determined were mailed from Richardson's hometown of New Boston or nearby Texarkana and postmarked in Shreveport, La. ? threatened violence against gun-control advocates, authorities said.
However, Richardson's court-appointed attorney, Tonda Curry, said there was no intention to harm anyone. She noted that it's common knowledge that the mail is checked before it reaches the person to whom these letters were addressed.
"From what I can say, based on what evidence I've seen, whoever did this crime never intended for ricin to reach the people to which the letters were addressed," said Curry.
Curry said she has met with Richardson only briefly and has had no extensive talks with her.
According to an FBI affidavit, Richardson contacted authorities on May 30 to implicate her estranged husband, Nathaniel Richardson. She later failed a polygraph test, and investigators looking into her story found numerous inconsistencies, the document said.
Among the inconsistencies: Nathaniel Richardson would have been at work at a time when Internet searches tied to the letters were made on the couple's laptop and at the time they were postmarked.
During an interview with authorities Thursday, Shannon Richardson admitted mailing the letters knowing they contained ricin, but she said her husband had typed them and made her print and send them, the affidavit said.
No charges have been filed against Nathaniel Richardson. His attorney, John Delk, told The Associated Press Friday that his client was pleased with his wife's arrest and was working with authorities to prove his innocence.
Delk said he wasn't anticipating that Nathanial Richardson would be arrested. "But until I'm sure they're not looking at him being involved, I can't say much more," he said.
Delk previously told the AP that the couple is going through a divorce and that the 33-year-old Army veteran may have been "set up" by his wife.
FBI agents wearing hazardous material suits were seen going in and out of the Richardsons' house on Wednesday in nearby New Boston, about 150 miles northeast of Dallas near the Arkansas and Oklahoma borders. Authorities conducted a similar search on May 31.
The house is now under quarantine for "environmental or toxic agents," according to a posting at the residence. Multiple samples taken from the couples' home tested positive for ricin, according to the affidavit. Federal agents also found castor beans ? the key ingredient in ricin ? along with syringes and other items that could be used to extract the lethal poison, the affidavit says.
Bloomberg issued a statement Friday thanking local and federal law enforcement agencies "for their outstanding work in apprehending a suspect," saying they worked collaboratively from the outset "and will continue to do so as the investigation continues."
Shannon Richardson appears in movies and on TV under the name Shannon Guess. Her resume on the Internet movie database IMDb said she has had small television roles in "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Walking Dead." She had a minor role in the movie "The Blind Side" and appeared in an Avis commercial, according to the resume.
She was seen leaving a Texarkana hospital on Friday shortly before the court hearing. A hospital spokeswoman didn't return a phone message seeking comment. Curry, her attorney, said she was taken to the hospital because it's federal marshals' standard procedure to have pregnant prisoners examined by doctors.
She also said it's her understanding that authorities have no intention of arresting Nathaniel Richardson at this point.
Delk said the Richardsons were expecting their first child in October. Shannon Richardson also has five children ranging in age from 4 to 19 from other relationships, four of whom had been living with the couple in the New Boston home, the attorney said.
Nathaniel Richardson works as a mechanic at the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, Texas, a facility that repairs tanks, Humvees and other mobile military equipment. He and Shannon were married in October 2011.
According to court records, Shannon Richardson is in federal custody. The government is requesting that she be held without bond, and a detention hearing is scheduled for next Friday, the records show.
The FBI is investigating at least three cases over the past two months in which ricin was mailed to Obama and other public figures. Ricin has been sent to officials sporadically over the years, but experts say that there seems to be a recent uptick and that copycat attacks ? made possible by the relative ease of extracting the poison ? may be the reason.
If inhaled, ricin can cause respiratory failure, among other symptoms. If swallowed, it can shut down the liver and other organs, resulting in death. The amount of ricin that can fit on the head of a pin is said to be enough to kill an adult if properly prepared. No antidote is available, though researchers are trying to develop one.
___
Danny Robbins reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Adam Goldman contributed to this report from Washington.
Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.
This week's collection includes the immediate aftermath of a building collapse in Philadelphia, flooding in southern Germany, an upside-down baseball player and a creative answer to a lack of napping spots in New Delhi, India.
___
This gallery contains photos published May 30- June 6, 2013.
Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://apne.ws/XZy6ny
___
See other recent AP photo galleries:
AP PHOTOS: As case wears on, Manning less visible: http://apne.ws/15O2yU5
AP PHOTOS: Floods wreak havoc in Europe: http://apne.ws/11HiRwN
AP PHOTOS: Indonesia promotes Muslim fashion: http://apne.ws/15O36t4
AP PHOTOS: Clogged rivers, waste symbolize Serbia's eco-nightmare: http://apne.ws/17rqXCh
AP 10 Things To See:
Week 1: http://apne.ws/ZWiCOl
Week 2: http://apne.ws/ZWiJt0
Week 3: http://apne.ws/10USsze
Week 4: http://apne.ws/14Qg5N1
Week 5: http://apne.ws/ZbwW8U
Week 6: http://apne.ws/101TrcA
Week 7: http://apne.ws/XZyYZu
Week 8: http://apne.ws/18ulJSa
Week 9: http://apne.ws/10vr50m
Week 10: http://apne.ws/13z9GDF
Week 11: http://apne.ws/188wrC7
Week 12: http://apne.ws/11r5UqZ
Week 13: http://apne.ws/10SWx8f
___
Follow AP Images on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Images
Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com/
___
This gallery was curated by news producer Caleb Jones in New York. Follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/CalebAP and Instagram http://instagram.com/calebnews
If the NFL moves a franchise to London, as Commissioner Roger Goodell sees as a future possibility, that team may be at a decided disadvantage when it comes to free agency.
Although NFL free agents typically go to the team that offers the most money, Bengals offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth, the team?s union representative, says he wouldn?t go to London. And he thinks a lot of other players feel the same way.
?I would hope that I was financially able to quit,? Whitworth told the Cincinnati Enquirer. ?That?s what I would hope because if I was, my papers would be the first one in. . . . I don?t see any players that would enjoy that. Sure, you may find a handful of guys that say, ?Oh hey, that?d be cool,? but the rest of them wouldn?t.?
Quitting is an extreme reaction, and if an NFL team moved to London, the vast majority of players would suck it up and go, even if they wouldn?t like it. But that London team might have to overpay to convince free agents to uproot their lives and go live across the Atlantic, especially considering the higher tax rates that high-income earners pay in the United Kingdom. And overpaying for free agents isn?t a good way for a team to build a strong roster. So the London team could be at a competitive disadvantage.
There are ways that the NFL could mitigate those issues. A London team could be given extra salary cap space to compensate for the higher tax rates, or players could be given relocation stipends to pay the costs of moving to another country. Or if the Jacksonville Jaguars became the London Jaguars, they could keep a facility in Jacksonville and continue to do offseason work and training camp there, and even use a Jacksonville practice facility during the regular season so they wouldn?t have to fly back to London when they have back-to-back road games in the U.S.
But the whole point of the NFL going to London would be to build a solid fan base in England, and that?s going to be a lot harder to do if everyone on the London team treats going to London like a chore. The NFL doesn?t want to come across like a bunch of greedy Americans who will gladly take the British fans? Pounds but don?t want to be a part of their community.
The bottom line is that there are a lot of potential obstacles to moving an NFL team to Europe. And a big one is that a lot of players wouldn?t want to go.
We've known for a few years now that DARPA-funded prosthetics research is yielding some pretty incredible technology. We're not talking incredible in the robotic cheetah sense. We're talking incredible in The Incredibles sense of the term. Specifically, DARPA is literally building superheroic technology that enables amputees to control prosthetic limbs with their minds, and it's getting pretty darn good.
In science fiction terminology, you might say DARPA is building cyborgs, bionic men and women who for one unfortunate reason or another have lost a part of their body. Thanks to science?and a research project that's years in the making?they can now have it back and will soon be able to live completely normal lives.
This initiative has been around around for a while, but this just-released video of a man using a technique called Targeted Muscle Re-innveration (TMR) for Advanced Prosthetic Control shows how tantalizingly close we've come to prosthetic perfection:
Notice how he handles that cup of coffee with relative ease? There's no Wi-Fi connection making that happen, just his brain and muscles.
The brilliant devices comes out of DARPA?s Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) program. ?Although the current generation of brain, or cortical, interfaces have been used to control many degrees of freedom in an advanced prosthesis," explains Jack Judy, DARPA program manager, "researchers are still working on improving their long-term viability and performance."
Judy explains that the new prosthetic technology doesn't plug directly into the brain as some mind-controlled limbs do. Instead, it reads the brain signals that are already pulsing through local nerves and muscles. Indeed, these signals are the some of the same interrupted signals that cause the phantom limb effect. Reconnecting those nerves to a robotic wires seems like a great way forward, and in fact, the military is already moving in that direction. "RE-NET program advances are already being made available to injured warfighters in clinical settings," said Judy.
DARPA's not the only one working on this kind of technology. Robotics departments across the country are scrambling to become the first to make the perfect Luke Skywalker cyborg hand or the best robo-arm. Amputee Zac Vawter managed to climb the 103-floors of the Sears Tower last year using a mind-controlled leg:
From here on out, we start to approach Star Trek-scale technology. One step up in sophistication from limbs that connect to nerves and muscles are devices that plug directly into the ol' grey matter creating what's called a brain-to-computer interface. A team of researchers built a bulky but functional setup that enabled a paraplegic woman to give herself a drink of water for the first time in nearly a decade. Can you even imagine? Probably not but you can watch one more time! Watch 'til the end for the full mind-blowing effect:
This is only the beginning. We've seen bionic eyes help blind people see again. We've seen scientists 3D-print livers, blood vessels, jaw bones and stem cells ? to name only a few ways we're printing human parts. There's even a crazy neuroscientist, Miguel Nicolelis, who's building an exoskeleton that will enable a paralyzed person walk just like a normal person. He plans to unveil it at the next World Cup in Brazil, where he wants the device to help a patient walk out onto the field in front of billions of people. It's an amazingly brazen idea. But all of these projects are also just plain amazing. [DARPA]
And that has only partially to do with football, but everything to do with how he deals with the attention he?s going to be getting as a Jets quarterback.
Smith said reports about his immature behavior before and after the draft were ?inaccurate,? during an interview with Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com and Jim Miller on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
?It?s just eye-opening. It allows you to see exactly what business you?re in,? Smith said. ?I understand it?s part of my job to handle that. I?m going to take it in stride and do all the things that are necessary to make me and my team look good.?
Good luck with that.
From reports about his draft weekend travel plans, to the criticism he?s taken for switching agents, Smith thinks he?s been unfairly portrayed.
?From the standpoint of me being a diva, you talk to my teammates and coaches from Little League. Nobody will say that,? Smith said. ?From the standpoint that I switched agents because of where I fell in the draft, I?m not naive. I understand an agent can?t get you selected higher or lower. It?s based on what teams need and the decisions they make in the front office.
?Just the whole draft experience and everything that went down, I was supposed to be leaving the draft and all that stuff, that was inaccurate again. There were a lot of things that were said that were anonymous and inaccurate. But all that comes with [the territory]. I?m built for it, so I?m not really worried about it.?
Given the Jets? recent dysfunction, he has an opportunity to not only win a starting job, but to make himself look good in the process simply by being the new guy. He?s prematurely predicted playoffs, but he?s never butt fumbled, which gets him off to a good start.
But to succeed, he?s going to have to prove he can handle both responsibility and criticism, because both are coming.
Cleveland Indians' Yan Gomes is congratulated by teammates after hitting a game-winning three-run home run off Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Charlie Furbush in the 10th inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 20, 2013, in Cleveland. Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs scored. The Indians won 10-8 in 10 innings. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Cleveland Indians' Yan Gomes is congratulated by teammates after hitting a game-winning three-run home run off Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Charlie Furbush in the 10th inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 20, 2013, in Cleveland. Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs scored. The Indians won 10-8 in 10 innings. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Charlie Furbush walks off the field after giving up a three-run home run to Cleveland Indians' Yan Gomes in the tenth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 20, 2013, in Cleveland. The Indians won 10-8 in 10 innings. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
Cleveland Indians' Yan Gomes watches his ball after hitting a game-winning three-run home run off Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Charlie Furbush in the tenth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 20, 2013, in Cleveland. Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs scored. The Indians won 10-8. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
CLEVELAND (AP) ? Yan Gomes hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning and the Cleveland Indians, twice revived by Seattle's fielding errors, beat the Mariners 10-8 on Monday to complete a four-game sweep.
Gomes, who also homered in the second, drove a 3-2 pitch from Charlie Furbush (0-3) over the wall in left, giving the Indians their fifth straight win, third walk-off over the Mariners in four days and most improbable victory of what is becoming a special season.
As Gomes reached the plate, he was mobbed by teammates following the comeback that became necessary after Cleveland's bullpen gave up homers in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings.
It was the Indians' first four-game sweep of Seattle since 1981, and the rally gave Cleveland its 18th win in 22 games.
Joe Smith (2-0) won despite giving up a go-ahead homer to Justin Smoak in the 10th.
Ryan Raburn hit a three-run homer for Cleveland, which opened a 2 1-2 game lead over Detroit in the AL Central.
The Mariners got a tying homer by Kyle Seager in the eighth and a go-ahead shot by pinch-hitter Endy Chavez in the ninth but couldn't close it out because of their own miscues.
The Indians were an out away from losing in the ninth when Seattle closer Tom Wilhelmsen dropped an underhanded toss while covering first, allowing the Indians to tie it 7-7.
After Smoak homered in the 10th, the Indians were three outs away from losing when the Mariners helped them again.
Michael Brantley singled and Drew Stubbs followed with a bunt that Furbush, seeking his first career save, fielded but bobbled. The left-hander rushed his throw to first and would have had Stubbs ? umpire Tim Timmons called him out ? but Smoak dropped the ball.
Gomes then delivered his game-winning homer as the Indians improved to 21-7 since April 20.
The final three innings bordered on the absurd as the Mariners took the lead only to give it away with their bone-headed plays.
Wilhelmsen's error in the ninth not only cost the Mariners a certain win, but it allowed Cleveland closer Chris Perez to escape a loss after he gave up the homer to Chavez in the ninth. It was another bad outing for Perez, who gave up back-to-back homers in the ninth on Saturday but wound up getting a win.
With Seattle trailing 6-5 in the eighth, Seager homered off Vinnie Pestano, who recently came off the disabled list, into the Mariners' bullpen for his fifth homer.
The Indians took a 6-5 lead in the seventh off Yoervis Medina without hitting the ball beyond the infield grass.
Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma was tagged by the Indians for five runs in four innings, but the right-hander settled in and retired the final seven hitters he faced and got a no-decision. He gave up seven hits and struck out six in six innings.
Iwakuma won his previous three starts and came in with the AL's second-lowest ERA.
Indians starter Scott Kazmir didn't get out of the fourth as the teams combined for 10 runs and 14 hits through four innings before the game slowed to a crawl.
Raburn and Gomes hit back-to-back, two-out homers in the second, when the Indians caught a break to take a 4-2 lead.
With Carlos Santana on with a one-out double, Mark Reynolds just missed a homer, flying out to the track in left. Brantley walked and Raburn fell into an 0-2 hole and appeared to take strike three, but plate umpire Laz Diaz called Iwakuma's pitch a ball to give Raburn new life.
He made the most of it, connecting for his fifth homer to make it 3-2. Gomes followed with a shot onto the pedestrian porch in left.
The Mariners scored two in the third to tie it, with Morales hitting an RBI single and Kyle Seager scoring Michael Morse grounded into a double play.
Seattle, which entered the game just 1 of 23 with runners in scoring position in the series, made the most of their first two chances and took a 2-0 lead in the first ? their first one of the four-game series ? on an RBI double by Kendrys Morales and Morse's run-scoring single.
NOTES: Mariners SS Brendan Ryan started a gorgeous double play in the fourth when he one-hopped Bourn's liner and flipped the ball with his glove to 2B Robert Andino, who fired to first to nip Cleveland's speedy leadoff hitter. ... Indians RHP Brett Myers (elbow) will make his second rehab start on Wednesday at Double-A Akron. ... Frequent fliers, the Mariners will log 52,509 travel miles this season, most in the majors. ... Mariners RHP Aaron Harang will start Tuesday against the Angels. He missed his previous start with back stiffness. ... Indians RHP Justin Masterson was named the AL's pitcher of the week. He pitched 16 scoreless innings in wins over the Yankees and Mariners, allowing just seven hits and striking out 20.
FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama, left, stands next to Myanmar President Thein Sein during a group photo session at the East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua, on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Thein Sein?s historic White House visit next week is the culmination of U.S. outreach to a former pariah regime. That?s been based on a principle of taking ?action for action? by deepening ties in response to democratic reforms. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama, left, stands next to Myanmar President Thein Sein during a group photo session at the East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua, on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Thein Sein?s historic White House visit next week is the culmination of U.S. outreach to a former pariah regime. That?s been based on a principle of taking ?action for action? by deepening ties in response to democratic reforms. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? In a long-awaited White House visit, President Barack Obama told Myanmar's president that he appreciates the Asian leader's efforts to lead the country in "a long and sometimes difficult, but ultimately correct, path to follow" toward democracy.
Obama spoke as he sat in the Oval Office with former general Thein Sein, who became the first president of Myanmar to visit the White House in 47 years. Activists object to the invitation because of concerns over human rights in the country, but it marks a turnaround in international acceptance for Myanmar after decades of isolation and direct military rule.
Obama credited Thein Sein's leadership in political and economic reform in bringing about an end to significant tensions between their two countries.
"As I indicated to President Sein, countries that are success are countries that tap into the talents of all people and respect the rights of all people," Obama said. "And I'm confident that if Myanmar follows that recipe, that it will be not only a successful democracy but a thriving economy."
Thein Sein previously served in a repressive junta, and his meetings at the White House and Congress would have been all-but-impossible before he took the helm of a nominally civilian government in 2011. His name was only deleted from a blacklist barring travel to the U.S. last September.
He arrived in Washington Saturday, six months after Obama made history with an unprecedented U.S. presidential visit to the country also known as Burma. The administration's outreach to Myanmar's generals has provided an important incentive for the military to loosen controls on citizens and reduce dependence on China.
Myanmar has been rewarded by relaxation of tough economic sanctions, and Thein Sein will be addressing American businessmen keen to capitalize on the opening of one of Asia's few untapped markets.
Sitting next to Obama in the Oval Office and speaking through an interpreter, Thein Sein said he was grateful for the invitation to discuss reforms and said Myanmar still has democratic processes to learn and significant challenges. "It is a daunting task ahead of us," he said, noting in particular the widespread poverty in the country.
"We will need the assistance and understanding of the international community, including the United States," Thein Sein said.
In his remarks, Obama used "Myanmar" ? the country name adopted by the junta in 1989. However, the U.S. will keep using "Burma" in official documents.
"We very much appreciate your efforts in leadership in leading Myanmar in a new direction and we want you to know that the United States will make every effort to assist you in what I know is a long and sometimes difficult but ultimately correct path to follow," Obama said.
Obama cited the release of political prisoners and their incorporation in the political process, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, credible elections. He also mentioned the legislature's increasing inclusivity and efforts to resolve long-standing ethnic conflicts and establish laws that respect rights.
"As President Sein is the first to admit, this is a long journey and there is still much work to be done," Obama said. He said they discussed Sein's intention to release more political prisoners, institutionalize political reform and rule of law so it endures and work to end ethnic conflict.
Obama said he expressed concern about violence against Muslims in the country. "The displacement of people, the violence directed toward them needs to stop," Obama said.
It was the first by a Myanmar leader since a September 1966 visit by Ne Win, an independence hero-turned dictator, who began the nation's descent from regional rice bowl to economic basket case. Thein Sein visited New York last September for the U.N. General Assembly but didn't come to Washington.
The U.S. last month announced it is considering duty-free access for Myanmar to U.S. markets, and there could be progress Monday toward a bilateral trade and investment framework agreement.
Thein Sein's welcome paled next to that granted last September to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who met Obama and was presented by Congress with the highest civilian award it can bestow.
Human rights activists and Myanmar campaigners have sharply criticized the administration for inviting Thein Sein, arguing it sends the wrong message and wastes leverage to press for further democratic change. The administration says it is important to signal U.S. support for his reform agenda, likely still opposed by military hardliners.
Thein Sein told the Washington Post in an interview Sunday that the military "will always have a special place" in government.
The military governed Myanmar for five decades and retains a quarter of parliamentary seats, giving it an effective veto over constitutional amendments ? including changes that would be required to allow Suu Kyi to run for the presidency in crucial 2015 elections.
Outside the White House on Monday, about 30 activists opposing Thein Sein's visit protested corruption in the government and treatment of ethnic Kachins in a northern region blighted by fighting between army and rebel forces. "We need real changes in Burma to stop the violations," said an organizer of the rally, Ye Htut of the International Foundation for Burma National Congress.
Ahead of Thein Sein's trip, Myanmar released at least 19 political prisoners in what has become a pattern for amnesties that coincide with high-profile international meetings as a way of highlighting the government's benevolent policies. Right groups say at least 160 political detainees are still held.
The government has permitted the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its notorious prisons for the first time in seven years. But hasn't allowed adequate humanitarian access to conflict zones where tens of thousands have been displaced. Authorities have failed to stop, and may have abetted in some cases, an explosion in communal violence that has killed hundreds and led to segregation of Muslim communities.
The U.S. State Department on Monday again designated Myanmar as a country of special concern for its severe violations of religious freedom, as it has since 1999 in an annual global assessment. It said the government promoted Buddhism, practiced by the majority, over minority faiths that include Islam.
The department said there were credible allegations of the involvement of local border security authorities in the burning of villages during the communal violence in western Rakhine State, and of Muslims being arbitrarily detained since June, and reportedly denied food, water, and sleep. Some deaths in custody were reported, the department said.
The U.S. Campaign for Burma said Thein Sein's trip follows a troubling downward trend in Myanmar, and that "instead of honoring an abusive leader" the U.S. should tie its concessions to conditions.
Thein Sein told the Post that allegations the Myanmar army condones or even participates in ethnic pogroms against the nation's Muslim minority were a "pure fabrication."
____
Associated Press writers Josh Lederman in Washington and Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar, contributed to this report.
If Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano ever gets tired of having to tell people Josh Freeman is his starting quarterback, someone should probably mention to him that it?s kind of his own fault.
Schiano started singing like Tammy Wynette again in relation to Freeman Monday, the day after he was quoted as saying he was ?not against? the notion of starting rookie Mike Glennon instead.
?We have a starting quarterback, and it?s Josh Freeman,? Schiano said, via Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times.
According to the report, Schiano said he?s trying to be honest, and doesn?t mean to put pressure on Freeman by saying such things in the national media.
?I guess nationally, they don?t sit here with me every day like you guys [local media] do,? Schiano said. ?From the day we arrived, our whole program has [been based on] competition, . . . That?s what we believe in. It?s the most competitive sports league in the world. It?s competition, and I love it.
?But we have our starting quarterback, and it?s Josh Freeman. I?m not looking to find another.?
If he really wanted to clear things up, he could always, you know, stop leaving the door open a crack every time he talks about Glennon.
Or, if he wanted a stronger statement on Freeman and how much he loves him under center, he could give him a new contract to replace the final year of his rookie deal.
But it doesn?t appear at the moment that Schiano intends to do either.
And that?s fine, as long as everyone?s clear about the implication sent by those actions.
He likes Freeman, right up until the point he decides he doesn?t.
So Schiano?s apparently going to have to keep clarifying all the things that he keeps saying, whether to the national or local media.
