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Waiting Game Continues for Court Watchers Anticipating BCRA Ruling
By Amy Keller
Posted November 12, 2003 at 2:27pm
They've been sitting on pins and needles since September, but those following the legal odyssey of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 will have to wait a little longer having received no relief from the Supreme Court this week.
Eager court watchers speculated that a decision could be coming this week after the high court clerk's office indicated an opinion was to be released today — but to the disappointment of many, the decision handed down was for Barnhart v. Thomas, not McConnell v. FEC.
"No BCRA Opinion Today," Rick Hasen wrote on his popular Election Law weblog.
"The next chance apparently is Monday … and after that the Court is in recess until December 2," speculated Hasen, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Hasen and other campaign finance experts noted that with the 2004 elections already well under way, the waiting game is becoming even more difficult.
"Obviously it's nerve-wracking, and the earlier in the 2004 cycle this is resolved, the better. But we're confident of the outcome, and whenever the decision comes down, we'll be ready," said Mark Glaze, associate counsel and director of public affairs for the Campaign Legal Center.
In a press release issued late last week, the Federal Election Commission reminded the regulated community that critical electioneering advocacy provisions are about to kick in for the 2004 presidential race.
Under the new law, individuals and other groups not registered with the FEC who make electioneering communications costing more than $10,000 must disclose that activity to the FEC within 24 hours of the television or radio broadcast.
That means disclosure dates will begin as early as December for the presidential race in places such as the District of Columbia, Iowa, and New Hampshire, which have early primaries and caucuses in January. Meanwhile, the electioneering provisions will begin affecting Congressional primaries in places such Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas in February.
So, when exactly will the Supreme Court issue a ruling on the case?
According to Hasen's analysis, the court, when in session, usually issues opinions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and occasionally on a Monday after a week in which they've had oral arguments. Therefore, Hasen surmises, "the possible scheduled dates for the release of an opinion this year" are Nov. 17, Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10 and 15.
That said, the nine justices have no deadline by which they are required to issue a ruling in the case, and there is nothing to keep them from announcing their release of the opinion on another date given the unusual manner in which it has handled McConnell v. FEC.
But campaign finance reform experts, like Democracy 21's Fred Wertheimer, said they are betting that the court will hand down a ruling in the complex case some time in December, with the latest probable date for a decision being Dec. 15, when the court is scheduled to begin its winter break.
"Most people have expected the opinion to come down in December," Wertheimer said, explaining that in the meantime there's not much else to do other than sit and wait.
"We're at a point where it's out of everyone's hands. There's time enough when we see the opinion to react to it, so I'm not in a state," Wertheimer said. "I'm focused on other stuff."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Alrighty, here's my next major project for me PC.
I have a good idea of what I want to do, but need some info.
The question: Would a Maze2 Waterblock from Dangerden make an effective evaporator or should I bore one out of copper stock?
I like the maze design inside the waterblock but i am not sure if the solder holding the 2 pieces together would hold well. I realize that a one piece configuration would be stronger but I already have the waterblock.
I want to use a smaller diameter of tubing for the choke point just prior to the Evap. I have the soldering skills to do this, just need the right design.
best bet would be a hollow copper cylinder i think, ideally you want a small inlet into the evaporator, and waterblocks dont have that.


ManufacturerUSA.com provides many useful information about business services, manufacturer, import & export, industrial supplies, agriculture.
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· which one of these Band Make Best CNC Ever in every thing. ... MARTECH Machinery, NJ - USA ... The most expensive CNC machines will be custom made for special tasks.
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> language that is specifically designed for processing XML data.
> > now endorse. I don't know how active Lorel or XML-GL are.
> > various subsets of XQuery, such as Microsoft's LINQ and IBM's XJ.
> >> most of these language (like xml-ql,xql and xml-gl) work nowadays?
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Stoner Creek Elementary celebrates reopening 1,000 days after March 2020 tornado
by: Nikki McGee
MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) — Stoner Creek Elementary School, which is is proudly reopening its doors in Mt. Juliet, has come a long way over the last thousand days after being destroyed in the March 2020 tornado.
"It was very interesting on how a storm could come through and level one classroom but the classroom right beside of it have the wall off but be able to see it sitting as it was the day before we left it," Principal Amanda Smith said. "A lot of emotions, just thankful that those students weren't sitting in those classrooms."
Leslie Powers remembers seeing the aftermath with her two daughters at home, including the devastation at Stoner Creek Elementary.
MARCH 2020: Mt. Juliet tornado cleanup met with volunteers from near and far
"Makenzie, at the time, was going to school there and so she started crying and just going through that, like, 'What's going to happen? Am I going to see my teacher again? Am I going to see my friends?'" Leslie recalled.
The Powers family, like many, said they're glad the tornado struck when it did.
"I was very grateful that, like my mom said, that it did happen at the time that it did because, had it not, who knows what could have happened," said McKenzie Powers. "It was, like, eye-opening just to see how grateful I am for what I have."
JULY 2020: New video shows moments EF-3 tornado tore through Wilson County's Stoner Creek Elementary School
Makenzie is now in 7th grade and goes to another district school while West Wilson Middle School across the street is being rebuilt. Still, the reopening of Stoner Creek represents healing for many.
"I love it! It's probably better than it was!" Stoner Creek kindergartener Kennedy Powers said.
According to Leslie, the school district also deserves a pat on the back.
"The teachers here have been amazing," Leslie said. "They've always stayed positive, they're here for the kids, and they really are amazing."
Smith won principal of the year from Wilson County during the cleanup and rebuilding process. She said she and the district's hard work has finally paid off.
"When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, and I feel like we've done that as we've climbed mountains, and to be able to look at this place now and how shiny and new and state of the art it is, we would say that all of those mountains were definitely worth the wait because here we are now," Smith said.
One year later: Deadly December 2021 tornado track that impacted Middle Tennessee, Southern Kentucky
West Wilson Middle School is at least a year away from completion, according to Wilson County Schools.
Pair allegedly charged $1K+ to 75-year-old's bank …


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Emergency plumbing and heating in Kensington, London
Kensington Emergency plumbing and heating
Are you looking for an emergency plumbing and heating company in Kensington? Zest Property Maintenance Services has an expert team of highly trained plumbers that are able to provide you with emergency plumbing and heating services in Kensington, London.
With many years of experience, our emergency plumbing and heating services can be trusted and relied upon for quality of work. Our plumbers work to the highest standards and it's this that makes us different to our competitors in Kensington and across London.
Trying to find an emergency plumbing and heating company in Kensington can be difficult. Who do you use? Can the company do the job proficiently? Are they trustworthy?
At Zest Property Maintenance Services we aim to exceed your expectations. Our engineers are fully qualified and have the necessary accreditations required to service your plumbing needs efficiently.
We have been serving in Kensington and the London community for over 10 years and have doubled in size in the last 2 years. Our experienced Gas Safe registered plumbers, look forward to serving you.
to make an appointment for an emergency plumbing and heating company in Kensington. Our experienced team is ready to take your call and help. You can also use our online booking form 24 hours a day. We look forward to hearing from you and giving you a chance to use our services.
Recent news for Kensington, London
London's busiest housing markets where the most homes have sold
A study from London lettings and estate agent Benham and Reeves uncovered which London boroughs have been the busiest in the past 12 months when it comes to the number of homes sold as a percentage of ...
Harness 'Boris booster-ism' urges former MP in London's most marginal seat as pressure mounts on PM
Ms Borwick backed Mr Johnson to "drive the country forward" as the Prime Minister came under increasing pressure over the 'partygate scandal'. | ITV News London ...
Royal sneak peek! Kate and William to open doors to Kensington Palace home for new project
KATE, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William's home is set to host a new exhibition - for which the help of royal fans is required.
'Spacious' London studio flat where the bedroom is a MATTRESS squeezed into a CUPBOARD is up for rent for £910 a month
The ground floor studio flat, which is located in Hendon, Barnet, north west London, comes with a modern kitchen, a small living room furnished with a sofa and coffee table and a bathroom.
Jeremy Vine marks map for tourists visiting London of 'dangerous places' and 'death traps'
The host of BBC Radio 2's lunchtime show is an avid cyclist and has posted a map of where it is safe to cycle in Kensington and Chelsea. Mr Vine said: "TOURISTS. Many of you will come to London as the ...
Other services in Kensington
Emergency boiler repair in Kensington, London
24 hour emergency plumber in Kensington, London
Boiler service in Kensington, London
Boiler Replacement in Kensington, London
Heating Engineer in Kensington, London
Emergency plumbing and heating service in other areas
Emergency plumbing and heating in Barnes, London
Emergency plumbing and heating in Notting Hill, London
Emergency plumbing and heating in Twickenham, London
Emergency plumbing and heating in Chiswick, London
Emergency plumbing and heating in Paddington, London


When tooth, gum or mouth pain strikes it can be quick and all consuming. Call us when pain strikes and we will do our very best to assist you and get you out of pain. We set aside Pain On Day appointments every day that we use to accommodate those sudden painful situations, accidents or those niggling issues that may or may not be escalating. On the odd occasion that we cannot provide the treatment to fix the issue straight away, we will be able to see you and offer you a solution to counteract pain and organise further treatment.


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Whisk Away Wrinkles with Botox in Los Angeles
Going to the right place for Botox in Los Angeles can be a life changing event. In the modern day, it's so important to look youthful and vibrant. Many places all over Southern California promise great Botox services, but it can be difficult to separate the best from the also-rans. However, it's important to keep in mind that some of the absolute best places for Botox in the world are right in Los Angeles. You just have to know what to look for.
How Botox in Los Angeles Works
Everyone has muscles in their face that cause wrinkling. What Botox in Los Angeles does it blocks a substance called "acetylcholine." That blocking keeps those muscles from moving. In fact, it essentially paralyzes them. Through doing that, the muscles freeze and can't move. The end result of all of this is that the wrinkles basically disappear since the muscles can't make them. This safe, secure procedure can make your face that much more attractive and radiant.
Smiles and Laughter
"Dynamic Wrinkles" may sound like the name of a rock band for elderly people, but it's actually a term doctors use to describe wrinkles that are often called "frown" or "smile lines." See, everyone's face gets used to making the same expressions over and over again. So, the skin gets familiar with these expressions and "remembers" them. Over time, our skin makes those same expressions (smile lines and laugh lines) when we aren't even making them. That's what Botox in Los Angeles services can help to reverse.
The Best Technology
Venice Beach Surgical Center uses the new RADIESSE Volumizing Filler tool. It wipes away the signs of aging through the addition of great volume and lift. It does this by stimulating the body's organic, natural collagen to grow on its own. By providing a sturdy structure, it actually works as an under skin scaffold, providing lasting results. How lasting are the results? Clinical trials have shown that they can last for an entire year or even more!
RADIESSE is Radical
What sets RADIESSE Botox in Los Angeles apart is that there is no other wrinkle filler that instantly replenishes lost volume. It doesn't wait around – it gets the job done. While it starts the production of natural collagen in a person's face, it also keeps that production going. In fact, that production tends to last for months and months in most patients. To put that in perspective, that's well beyond the initial effect of the RADIESSE filler.
Laugh Away Laugh Lines
"Crow's Feet" can fly away once Botox has been injected. This procedure has become all the more common over the last few years. The best looks of your life don't have to be behind you. Unlock the real you and take your body back with Botox. Botox is best administered from true professionals. For the best in Botox and other surgical procedures, you should reach out to the Venice Beach Surgical Center at (310) 391-7143 or online. They're the number one choice for Botox in Los Angeles.
By: Dr.Rojas | June 29, 2018
in Cosmetic Surgeon tags: botox los angeles, Cosmetic Surgery in Los Angeles


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Dana White Speaks On Strikeforce Deal
By Kelvin Hunt Feb 16, 2009, 3:06pm EST
Share All sharing options for: Dana White Speaks On Strikeforce Deal
From USA Today:
"I'm sure they're going to put on some good shows, and hopefully, they can make that business model work for them," White says. "I've got nothing negative to say about them whatsoever."
I've heard from a source that Dana White knew that Strikeforce was going to acquire assets from ProElite(how could he not know). It's clear from Dana's statement and Scott Coker's interview on Inside MMA that they are on good terms as of right now. I think Coker is smart enough not to send an outright challenge to Dana White and the UFC. There is nothing wrong with being the Pepsi of MMA. However, the ego of Gary Shaw, Calvin Ayres, and others were not satisfied with that and we see where that got them. I wonder how things will be a year from now.


The main responsibility or job of a private investigator would be to conduct surveillance and gather information from their target. It truly is often unavoidable that the private investigator has to carry out info gathering from the target person himself or herself or to the acquaintances or relatives of the target individual. Nonetheless as a way to keep away from detection from the target individual the private investigator must conduct his or her interview within the most discreet manner. Bringing out a pen and paper or the use of conventional audio recorders would quickly spark suspicion this strategy of data gathering wouldn't be efficient and thus it would only create danger to the safety of the private investigator or private detective.
Simply because of the should conduct and gather audio data, whilst avoiding detection, was the reason that the pen recorder was developed. The pen voice recorder is actually a recorder that is disguised as a pen, which would allow the private detectives to conduct their investigation in a discreet manner. The Pen Recorder could be on a stand-by and activated to a record state with all the subtle movement of the clip, which obviously wouldn't spark any suspicion and you'll be able to readily turn it back to stand by as a way to avoid recording any unnecessary conversations.
Among the very best capabilities of the Pen Recorder is that it has a voice activation property, which would allow the pen to record as soon as it "hears" a sound. This voice activation property would allow private investigators and private detectives to collect information in a certain location even with no getting within the very same location as the target individual. The various recordings are readily played back and listened to through the supplied earpiece and through a PC playback.


Pitorsino is an apartment of about 90 mq that overlooks a large garden a few steps from the swimming pool exclusively opened to the guests of the farmhouse.
Pitorsino is an apartment with mezzanine. It offers a wide sitting room with two sofas that may become, if needed, comfortable beds, a dining area with table and chairs for 6/8 persons, a kitchenette fully equipped, two large bedrooms (with one double bed or two single beds), two comfortable bathrooms with bathtub and/or shower, a dressing area, wide wardrobes to arrange your personal belongings and closets.
In front of the sitting room, Pitorsino Apartment has a porch furnished with table and chairs, a covered parking and, in the swimming pool area, it has its own gazebo with sunbeds and deckchairs.
Pitorsino Apartment is few kilometers from the centre of Orbetello and other historical villages, harbours and private marinas and wonderful beaches.
To offer you the maximum comfort, Pitorsino Apartment has a total independent heating system (consumption will be calculated apart for week stays, it is an extra fee).


Kia tūao, e tū ki te ao!
The SVA movement's new motto, Kia tūao, e tū ki te ao – Be a volunteer and stand up in the world, reflects our commitment to a new generation of volunteering. Click on the SVA projects below to find out more!
SVA launches Services Badges for High Schools!
Following the success of our SVA Schools Primary Program, this year the SVA Foundation will help teachers recognise volunteering in their schools via a three tiered badge system.
Read more here and sign up below!
The UC Student Volunteer Army is the heart of the SVA movement. Each year the club on campus at the University of Canterbury signs up thousands of volunteers and organises events around the region.
If you are a UC Student or Christchurch based volunteer, download our app to signup to events and register for volunteer days!
#SVASchools is a volunteering resource pack co-designed by and for school children and teachers.
We have mobilised over 64,000 students to be volunteers through #SVASchools in the past two years reaching 15% of the year 6-10 year old students across New Zealand!
The School Program provides teachers with everything they need to mobilise classrooms to identify issues in their community, work on solutions, and reflect on what they learned. Project themes include environmental, social connection and disaster preparedness, with many students engaging with external community groups, service clubs, parks, streams, and local governments.
We are a charitable trust focused on building a culture of volunteering in New Zealand. All support is appreciated to help us continue to grow the SVA movement!


Dallas, Texas, November 2015 – Another year has flown by and the Howard team wants to provide you with information that will be useful for both yourself and your business to prepare you for the remainder of 2015 and beyond. Howard Insights: 2015 Annual Update.
Howard, LLP is a Dallas-based accounting firm that has provided valued financial consulting, audit, assurance and tax services to individuals and businesses across multiple industries. The Howard team takes pride in helping both domestic and international clients achieve financial goals and peace of mind by resolving their toughest, most complex financial issues. Howard professionals are more than just CPAs; they're insightful problem solvers and trusted advisors. Additional information about the firm can be found at www.howard-cpas.com.


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Health Informatics Assignment Week 22 to 24
Week 22 Questions
Questions for Discussion
In what ways will bioinformatics and medical informatics interact in the future? Will the research agendas of the two fields merge, or will they always remain separable?
Will the introduction of DNA and protein sequence information change the way that medical records are managed in the future? Which types of systems will be most affected (laboratory, radiology, admission and discharge, financial, order entry)?
It has been postulated that clinical informatics and bioinformatics are working on the same problems, but in some areas one field has made more progress than the other. Identify three common themes. Describe how the issues are approached by each subdiscipline.
Why should an awareness of bioinformatics be expected of clinical informatics professionals? Should a chapter on bioinformatics appear in a clinical informatics textbook? Explain your answers.
One major problem with introducing computers into clinical medicine is the extreme time and resource pressure placed on physicians and other health care workers. Will the same problems arise in basic biomedical research?
Why have biologists and bioinformaticians embraced the Web as a vehicle for disseminating data so quickly, whereas clinicians and clinical informaticians have been more hesitant to put their primary data online?
Define the following terms, each of which is relevant to current health care financing:
Usual, customary, and reasonable fees
Health maintenance organization
Diagnosis-related group
Preferred-provider insurance
Compare HMOs, PPOs, POS plans, and high deductible plans. What are the strengthsand potential limitations of each with respect to cost and quality of care?
How will the differences in incentives for providers under each of the following payment systems affect providers' assessments of new medical technologies, such as patient-monitoring systems?
An HMO
An individual physician participating in a PPO arrangement
A hospital with a large number of patients treated under Medicare's prospectivepayment system
A standard fee-for-service arrangement
Compare information system needs in a hospital that treats mostly private-paypatients with those in one that accepts capitated payments.
You are the new administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, theagency responsible for Medicare and for the federal component of Medicaid. You are about to authorize a new program for health care financing for the elderly. The program offers elderly beneficiaries a choice of all health plans on the market.
With what information do you think it is important to provide beneficiaries so thatthey can choose among plans?
What data would you want to collect to evaluate the performance of plans?
What mechanisms would you implement to collect these data?
Describe at least three ways in which health care organizations can use the Internet to improve patient care.
Select an area of biomedicine with which you are familiar. Based on what you havelearned in this book, propose a scenario for that area that takes place 20 years in the future. Be sure to think about how issues of system integration, networking, and changes in workflow will affect the evolution of computers in the setting you describe.
Imagine that you are a patient visiting a health care facility at which the physicianshave made a major commitment to computer-based tools. How would you react to the following situations?
Before you are ushered into the examining room, the nurse takes your blood pres-sure and pulse in a work area and then enters the information into a computer terminal located in the nursing station adjacent to the waiting room.
While the physician interviews you, he or she occasionally types information intoa computer workstation that is facing the physician; you cannot see the screen.
While the physician interviews you, he or she occasionally uses a mouse-pointingdevice to enter information into a computer workstation located such that, when facing the physician, you cannot see the screen.
While the physician interviews you, he or she occasionally uses a mouse-pointingdevice to enter information into a computer workstation that you both can see. While doing so, the physician explains the data being reviewed and entered.
While the physician interviews you, he or she enters information into a clipboard-sized computer terminal that responds to finger touch and requires no keyboard typing.
While the physician interviews you, he or she occasionally stops to dictate a phrase. A speech-understanding interface processes what is being said and stores the infor mation in a medical record system.
There is no computer in the examining room, but you notice that between visits,the physician uses a workstation in the office to review and enter patient data.
Now imagine that you are the physician in each situation. How would you react in each case? What do your answers to these questions tell you about the potential effect of computers on patient–physician rapport? What insight have you gained regarding how interactive technologies could affect the patient–physician encounter? Did you have different reactions to scenarios c and d? Do you believe that most people would respond to these two situations as you did?
You are the medical director of a 30-physician multispecialty group practice. Thepractice is physician-owned and managed and maintains a tight affiliation with a nearby academic medical center. You are considering implementing an ambulatory medical record system to support your practice operations. Discuss at least eight significant challenges you will face, considering technology, user, legal, and financial factors. How will you address each issue?
Defend or refute the following proposition: "Knowledge-based clinical systems willbe widely used and generally accepted by clinician users within the next 5 years."
You are asked to design a pharmacogenetic system that can help to understand whichpatients will respond to particular medicines. You need to design a database of studies that relate descriptions of the medical conditions, medications, and genetic sequences. Which terminologies would you choose for each of these data types? What are some key elements that would need to be included in the database schemas? What problems do you anticipate having in the design of the data structures for this task?


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Where in the world is JetBlue's founder?
David Neeleman is busy launching a new discount airline—in Brazil.
When we last blogged about Neeleman, he had been forced out of his primary responsibilities at JetBlue when hundreds of flights were canceled and passengers were treated very poorly.
Now he's aiming to copy the JetBlue model in Brazil, offering point-to-point service out of Sao Paulo. The unnamed airline has received $150 million in financing. It aims to take to the skies next year, pending approval, according to Reuters . WSJ.com has the following fun factoid:
Mr. Neeleman, who was born in Brazil and has both American and Brazilian citizenship, bought a small Brazilian airline called Cheta as a base for the new operation. Dual nationality means restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines don't apply to him.
For more on Neeleman, see this post on The Cranky Flier.
EARLIERNeeleman knocked out of his role at JetBlue, the airline he founded.


Jo's extensive knowledge comes from working over a wide range of tv genres including live music and sports event, factual documentaries and entertainment She has worked at Endemol UK, September Films IMG, the BBC and at the ITV Studios. Her credits include Channel Five's Lynx Location Apollo, Lionel Ritchie Live for US broadcaster PBS, Channel Four's late-night live show Full Frontal.
At BBC Sport Jo was Production Manager in 2012 for the World Track Cycling event, broadcast live from the newly build Velodrome and The Athlete's Parade a live event at the Victoria Memorial. In addition, she worked across Ski Sunday, Rugby League, NFL, British Swimming Championships, World Gymnastics and London 2012 documentaries, 100 Days To Go & Beating Bolt.
Other credits include Gary Barlow: Journey to Afghanistan for ITV Studios and 2 series of Autopsy: The Last Hours of…..for Channel Five.
Remy Blumenfeld is a creative leader and content creator who has served on the boards of Endemol and of ITV Studios.
Often the TV shows he has produced have been about exploring the edges of society which he has helped bring into the mainstream.
FLAVA (Channel 4) was the first black music series on terrestrial TV.
Bombay Blush (BBC2) was the first time India's modern and offbeat pop culture was featured on terrestrial TV. Airing for two series, the show looked at the pink underbelly of India's subculture.
Wudja Cudja (ITV1) was designed to see how far ordinary members of the public would be prepared to go to be on TV and win money. It inspired dozens of later shows such as I'm a Celebrity Get me Out of Here. It debuted on ITV1 and ran for two seasons.
There's Something About Miriam is a reality show which focussed the world's gaze on transexuality.
Get A New Life (BBC2) was a transformation show like no other. Each episode, one family got to make a fresh start in another part of the world. The series ultimately re-located 100 families, who it helped find jobs, homes and schools. In the process, Remy redefined the whole make-over genre.
Gay Straight or Taken (ITV1) a female contestant goes on a group date with three men and must try to figure out which man is gay, which one is straight but taken, and which one is straight and available.
At ITV, where Remy was director of formats, he was responsible for ground-breaking new series which still air around the world today, such as The Chase (ITV1) Four Weddings (Living) as well as for exporting shows around the world, such as Come Dine With Me and I'm A Celebrity.
He has created more than 50 television formats, many of which have been exported around the world. The Independent newspaper has ranked him as one of the top 20 most influential gay men or women in the UK and in September 2010 he was by his named by his peers as one of the world's top 5 format creators.
Remy's latest series, Who'd Be A Billionaire?, explores whether we'd be happier being super rich.
Click these links to see Remy's Wikipedia and IMDB pages.


Above is an image of the stone circle called Callanish in Scotland. One of its specific features is that it tracks the lunar standstill, or lunar solstice.
In the same way as the Sun every year cycles between its highest and lowest rising and setting, degrees north (summer Solstice) and south (winter Solstice). The Moon also has a similar pattern of highest and lowest rising and setting, or lunar Solstices.
This pattern is much longer for the Moon however, as it lasts 18.6 years, compared to the Sun's pattern every year.


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Carrier Considerations: Business Interruption Coverage for COVID-19 Losses
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The insurance industry is bracing itself for the large number of claims arising out of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Depending on the coverage form involved, insurers should have strong coverage defenses to most of these claims.…
Anti-Slapp Statute Does Not Apply To Allegations That Insurer Improperly Refused To Provide Cumis Counsel
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Miller Marital Deduction Trust v. Zurich American Insurance Company, — P.3d –, 2019 WL 5304862; First Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division Three, Case No. A155398 (October 21, 2019). In Miller Marital Deduction Trust v. Zurich American Insurance Company, the California Court of Appeal held that allegations that an insurance company improperly failed to provide independent, "Cumis" counsel did not arise from protected speech and thus were not subject to California's anti-SLAPP statute. Seeking to avoid liability for environmental contamination on a property they owned, the Millers sued several prior owners of the property, including the Miller Estate. Zurich retained…
California Supreme Court Applies Notice-Prejudice Rule to Violation of First-Party Consent Provision as a Predicate to Policy Forfeiture, but Confirms that No Prejudice is Required to Enforce a Third-Party "No Voluntary Payments" Provision
By Jeffrey Crowe
Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, — P.3d –, 2019 WL 4065521 (2019); California Supreme Court, Case No. S239510 (Aug. 29, 2019). On certified questions by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court in Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company examined notice and consent provisions under both first-party and third-party coverage – despite the parties' dispute as to the type of policy coverage at issue.…
Court Finds That "Care, Custody Or Control" Exclusion Did Not Negate Coverage For General Contractor Who Shared Jobsite Supervision
By Katherine Sample
McMillin Homes Constr., Inc. v. National Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 35 Cal.App.5th 1042 (2019); Fourth Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division One, Case No. D074219 (June 5, 2019).…
Insurer's Mistake in Treating Non-Resident Relative as an Insured Under UM Coverage Of Umbrella Policy Did Not Create Coverage by Estoppel
Melissa Komorsky v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, et al. — Cal.Rptr.3d –, 2019 WL 1451275 (Cal. Ct. App., March 1, 2019), Second Appellate District Court of Appeal, Case No. B286443. An uninsured motorist struck and killed Linda Liker, which led to competing claims for uninsured motorist ("UM") benefits between Ms. Liker's surviving husband, Alan, and her daughter from a prior marriage, Melissa Komorsky. Melissa did not reside in the Likers' home.…
California Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations Upheld Following a Near-Decade Long Legal Challenge to their Enforceability
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Following nearly a decade of uncertainty as to their enforceability, the California Court of Appeal upheld key components of the California Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations on September 20, 2018 and affirmed that the California Insurance Commissioner has the authority to penalize insurers for engaging in improper claim settlement practices based upon even a single act of misconduct.…
Good Fences Don't Always Make Good Neighbors: California Court of Appeal Holds that "Invasion of the Right of Private Occupancy" May Include Non-Physical Invasion of Rights in Real Property
By Yaas Hejazi
In Albert v. Truck Insurance Exchange, No. B278295 (Cal. Ct. App. May 15, 2018), the California Court of Appeal, Second District, considered whether an insurer owed a duty to defend an insured who was sued for erecting a fence that partially blocked an easement providing access to a neighbor's property. The Court of Appeal concluded that the insurer owed a duty to defend because the policy provided coverage for personal injuries arising out of a wrongful "invasion of the right of private occupancy." According to the Court, such coverage may include a non-physical invasion of rights in real…
Developer Had No Right to Independent Counsel Based on a Possible Conflict of Interest for Carrier-Appointed Counsel
Centex Homes, et al. v. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, — Cal.Rptr.3d –, 2018 WL 494749 (Jan. 22, 2018), Third Appellate District Court of Appeal, Case No. C081266. Homeowners from two residential developments sued Centex for alleged construction defects. As an additional insured under policies issued to subcontractor Ad Land Venture, Centex tendered the underlying construction defect lawsuit to St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. St. Paul appointed a lawyer to defend Centex, but subject to a reservation of rights that its general liability policies issued to Ad Land did not cover damage to Ad Land's work…
Professional Liability Policy Did Not Provide Coverage for Lawsuit that the Insured Knew or Should Have Known About
Admiral Insurance Company v. Superior Court of San Diego County, 18 Cal.App.5th 383 (2017); Fourth Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division One, Case No. D072267 (December 12, 2017). In Admiral Insurance Company v. Superior Court of San Diego County, the California Court of Appeal held that a professional liability policy did not provide coverage for a lawsuit where, prior to the inception of the policy, the insured knew, or could have reasonably foreseen, that a claim would be made.…
California Court of Appeal Affirms Judgment Finding No Duty to Defend Drug Manufacturer in Lawsuits Alleging Increased Opioid Usage
By Oscar Figueroa
Update: On February 21, 2018, the California Supreme Court granted Actavis' petition for review, but has deferred the matter pending disposition of related issues in Liberty Surplus Insurance Corp. v. Ledesma and Meyer Construction Co., Case No. S236765." The Traveler's Property Casualty Company of America v. Actavis, Inc. — Cal.Rptr.3d –, 2017 WL 5119167 (Nov. 6, 2017); California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 3, Case No. G053749 In two separate lawsuits, the Counties of Santa Clara and Orange (the "California Action") and the City of Chicago (the "Chicago Action") sued various pharmaceutical companies, including Actavis, Inc. In the California…
Auto Insurer Properly Denied Liability Coverage Where Insured Operated a "Non-Owned" Auto Furnished for Insured's Regular Use
By Suzanne Badawi
Medina v. GEICO Indemnity Company, 8 Cal.App.5th 251 (2017) Leigh Anne Flores worked for Pacific Bell. While driving a Pacific Bell van, she hit another car driven by Javier Medina. Pacific Bell furnished the van to Flores for work, but Flores also used it for personal use without any express objection or restriction by Pacific Bell. At the time she struck Medina, Flores was on a personal errand during work hours.…
Genuine Dispute Doctrine Did Not Support Summary Judgment Where Expert Failed To Review All Medical Records
By Joseph Foss
Zubillaga v. Allstate Indemnity Company, 12 Cal.App.5th 1017 (2017) Carmen Zubillaga sustained a back injury from a car accident. After settling with the other driver's insurer, Zubillaga made a claim for underinsured motorist benefits to her auto insurer, Allstate Indemnity Company. Zubillaga demanded the remaining $35,000 policy limit to settle her UIM claim. Allstate rejected Zubillaga's demand, and instead offered $10,000. Zubillaga later claimed that she had radiating back pain requiring epidural injections. Allstate increased its offer to $12,084 and retained an orthopedic surgeon to examine Zubillaga. The surgeon examined Zubillaga and concluded that she did not have radiating back…
Court Finds Ambiguity in Additional Insured Endorsement to Trigger Defense Duty Under Completed Operations Coverage
Pulte Home Corporation v. American Safety Indemnity Company, — Cal.Rptr.3d — , 2017 WL 3725045 (Aug. 30, 2017); California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1, Case No. D070478. In two construction defect lawsuits, homeowners sued the general contractor and developer, Pulte Home Corporation, for alleged foundation, electrical and waterproofing defects. Pulte required that its subcontractors purchase general liability insurance with completed operations coverage naming Pulte as an additional insured. American Safety Indemnity Company had issued such liability insurance policies to several subcontractors implicated in the defect claims. Those policies included "products – completed operations" coverage for property damage occurring…
Professional Services Exclusion Negates Coverage for Liability Arising Out of Insured's Failure to Mark Oil Pipeline
By Jeffrey Crowe & Jennifer Hoffman
Energy Insurance Mutual Limited v. Ace American Insurance Company, 14 Cal.App.5th 281 (2017); First Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division Four, Case No. A140656 (July 11, 2017). In Energy Insurance Mutual Limited v. Ace American Insurance Company, the California Court of Appeal held that a "professional services" exclusion applied to bar coverage for claims made against an oil pipeline owner, Kinder Morgan, and its temporary staffing agency, Comforce, following an explosion at a construction site. Kinder Morgan had hired two temporary employees from Comforce to work as construction inspectors on a water supply line project. As a result of Kinder…
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Days of Our Lives Spoilers
The Young and the Restless Spoilers
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers
Days Of Our Lives Spoilers For The Week Of January 11: Charlie's Truth Is Out! Claire Devastated
Days of Our Lives Spoilers: Charlie's Truth Is Out, Claire and Ben To Grow Close?
Days of Our Lives Spoilers: Laura Horton Is Back In Town
General Hospital Spoilers: Peter To Do Something Really Shocking!
General Hospital Alum John Reilly Passes Away! Internet Pays Respect
General Hospital Spoilers: Romance Blooming Between Marcus And Jordan?
The Young and the Restless Two Weekly Spoilers: Phyllis' Setback, Summer-Sally War Begins
The Young and the Restless Spoilers for January 11: Nikki Tries To Calm Victoria and Nick
The Young and the Restless Spoilers For The Week Of January 11: Nick and Victoria In A War
The Bold and the Beautiful Weekly Spoilers: More Steffy Drama Coming Up!
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Ridge And Shauna Head Over Heels In Love
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers For Week Of March 23: The Brill Secret To Be Out?
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Steffy To Call Out On Thomas
The Bold and the Beautiful's Thursday episode looks very interesting. Steffy now knows the truth, so she will call out Thomas on that. This will leave Thomas in a bad situation. He will have to respond to all the allegations. Steffy will even come clean to Liam. He might even help her reveal Thomas's truth. Carter will try to convince Zoe that everything is going too quickly, so she should think of all that. Will Zoe understand? Read here about all these storylines.
Steffy To Call Thomas Out
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers for Thursday reveal that Steffy will call out Thomas for his deeds. The Bold and Beautiful fans know that she now knows Thomas' true intensions and will ask Thomas about them. Now, Thomas will have to answer. In fact, Steffy has even realized that Thomas' reactions and actions regarding hers and Liam's kiss and closeness were because he wanted to cause a rift between him and Hope. All this happened when Steffy came to know about Thomas wanting to marry Zoe right away. She understood that it was all planned. He wanted to upset Douglas and Hope, so Hope would agree to marry him.
Thomas To Try And Defend Himself
Thomas isn't someone who will let it all go out of his hand so easily. He will argue with Steffy on the accusations. This argument will get very intense. However, Steffy will not back down, and Thomas will refuse to admit his real intentions. He will just try to prove that he is trying to move on in his life like everyone else. He really wants to marry Zoe. However, it looks like Steffy will not buy any of that.
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Steffy To Tell Liam Everything
Later in the week, Thomas' web of lies will start backfiring him. Steffy will go to Liam and come clean about everything. She will tell him all her concerns regarding Thomas and also the truth about the kiss they shared on the cliff. We will get to see what happens after this confession. Certainly, Steffy won't accept Thomas's word and not believe that he has honest intentions.
Carter Walton To Be Worried For Zoe
In The Bold and the Beautiful's Thursday episode, Carter Walton will start worrying about Zoe. He will be concerned with what Zoe is getting herself into. Fans who have been following the show know that Thomas has been pushing the wedding very quickly. Carter can feel something wrong there. He'll find that very odd. In the episode to air this Thursday, he will ask Zoe about what is going on.
The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers: Carter And Zoe To Talk
Carter is very interested in Zoe. It looks like he really really cares for the woman. Plus, he knows all about Thomas's troubled history and his obsession with Hope. Something about all this quick wedding isn't going down well with him. He will approach Zoe and try to talk some sense in her. He will tell her that she can do better than Thomas.
Whatever Carter has in mind, he will have to be quick in doing it. The wedding is on the horizon, and things are really moving fast. Maybe he will start putting options in front of Zoe. Right now, she is very caught up with the idea of being a Forrester. So, maybe Carter talking to her could change something.
It looks like the Thursday episode of The Bold and the Beautiful will be an interesting one. A lot is going on. Maybe Thomas's truth comes out, and Zoe sees the truth. What will happen when everything is revealed? It will be very interesting to watch, so don't miss out on anything. Stay tuned with TV Season Spoilers to get The Bold and the Beautiful Spoilers and B&B updates for upcoming episodes.
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The Nobel and Literature's Third Rail
No country is an island, a poet might say, but the insularity of the U.S. has raised some hackles.
Emily Badger
(Photo: Clarisse Meyer/Unsplash)
Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy that awards the Nobel Prize in literature, startled American readers, authors and prize hopefuls a few weeks ago when he labeled the U.S. "too isolated, too insular."
We don't translate enough foreign writers, he said; we don't participate in the meaningful global dialogue in literature; and our authors are too sensitive to the plot lines of American mass culture.
"That ignorance," he concluded, "is restraining."
His critique, though, seemed to go beyond discussion of, say, Philip Roth's Nobel worthiness to a more fundamental accusation of insularity in American society.
Similar arguments have been made by domestic commentators and academics: Americans since Sept. 11 have shirked international cooperation in wars, climate treaties and defense pacts while passing at home on foreign films, foreign-language study and passport applications. Our earliest forebears, dating back to George Washington, even honored isolationism as a noble goal and not a nasty word.
But the sentiment stings coming from the Scandinavian gatekeeper of a literary prize — a man whose sudden ability to agitate us seems disproportionate to the fact that most of us had never heard of him before (when he's not announcing Nobel winners, Engdahl is a literary critic and historian in Sweden).
"If it had come from an insider, it would have ended up a kind of family conversation," said Ilan Stavans, who teaches literature and Latin-American culture at Amherst College. "But because it's coming from outside the family, it is about the family in general, how the family's perceived outside."
Stavans, for one, is pleased someone outside has dared to say such things. We're so worked up over Engdahl's accusation — when plenty of other potshots fired from abroad have been shrugged off — because, as Stavans put it, "people attack comments when they feel threatened by them, when they feel vulnerable."
Look past the backlash this month in American publishing circles (one writer has argued that if Engdahl thinks we don't participate in the "big dialogue" of literature, we should stop participating in the Nobel itself). Stavans and some historians and political scientists argue there is a legitimate debate to be had about the touchy issues of American exceptionalism and anti-Americanism lurking at the edges of Engdahl's comments — and, for example, throughout this election season.
It's possible the Swede was wrong about American literature, but he did have a point about American society. Whether he was the right man to say it is another matter.
Subsumed by Our Own Navel
"There is an old argument, which I subscribe to," said Ian Tyrrell, a history professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, "that the more important the U.S. has become in the world, the less interested it's been in other people because it's projected its influence outward rather than receiving influence inward."
Tyrrell, who wrote a book on the U.S. titled Transnational Nation, sees throughout the United States a tension between engagement and disengagement, between wanting to rally international cooperation to spread democracy and fight terrorism, but an opposition to the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto treaty.
He points too to the disengagement in declining foreign-language study since the 1960s and in the foreign news coverage that often focuses solely on locales that directly affect us, such as Israel or Iraq.
"I think we are a country made of a million little pieces that come from different parts of the world," said Stavans, who is working on an anthology of American immigrant literature. "But that doesn't make us interested in those parts of the world, which is sad."
What we are often interested in, in this year of a presidential election, is what defines us as Americans and makes us different from the rest of the world. "Barack Obama," Sarah Palin has famously repeated to flag-waving fans at political rallies, "is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America."
Underscored is a line between "small-town American values" and elite, outward-looking otherness, a division that may do more to feed Engdahl's stereotype of the insular American than advance the discussion of America's real place in the world. Is the U.S. in the world, Tyrrell asks, and not of the world?
George W. Bush spent little time in it, outside the States, before becoming president, and Palin herself didn't own a passport until two years ago.
Confusing her message, her running mate John McCain recently chided opponent Barack Obama for having "never been south of the border," suggesting that at some level we recognize the value of international exposure even as we mock it.
"This is a culture of immigration, but I guess at some point we have to come to terms with this notion of American exceptionalism that always comes up," said Steven Kellman, a University of Texas, San Antonio professor of comparative literature (and himself the winner of a book award). "To what extent is the U.S. unique in the world? This comes up in almost all political oratory, with at some point someone saying, 'This is the greatest country in the world,' often without really defining what makes greatness."
It's not, Kellman points out, our standard of living, our rate of literacy or our life expectancy, all of which are higher (if not "greater") in other countries.
Kellman thinks the dominant American culture is at the moment undergoing a particularly provincial — sometimes bordering on xenophobic — stretch, one that Tyrrell compares after Sept. 11 to America in the wake of World War I. Sauerkraut, he reminds us, was at the time temporarily re-named "liberty cabbage," the Great War's version of "freedom fries."
Past anti-foreigner and insular movements, Kellman says, have been followed in American history by an opposite reaction of revulsion and reaching out, with, for example, the creation of the Fulbright Program following World War II.
"I'd like to think we're on the verge of that, that perhaps the pendulum has swung too far," Kellman said. "After a period of cowboy diplomacy that succeeded only in alienating the United States from the rest of the world, Americans are realizing that isolationism and insularity are not in the national — or human — interest."
If nothing else, Stavans adds, our economy is today teaching us that.
Arts, Letters and Politics — Oh My!
But what does all this have to do with world literature?
Kellman, who has for years served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, is ready to grant Engdahl's premise about American insularity but not its extension to American literature. Most of our great American writers, he says, have been adversarial to the dominant culture — which appears, to some extent, to be what Engdahl is looking for.
Jeffrey Meyers, a biographer who has written about the literary politics of the Nobel Prize, sees a clear distinction between American foreign policy and American culture — and he finds more context to Engdahl's comments inside the Nobel committee than in America itself.
"America is going through a bad time," he said. "We look bad in the wars, we look bad with Bush, we look bad with Condi Rice, we look bad with Dick Cheney and we look bad economically; we do look bad, but that's different than the culture. Philip Roth isn't George Bush, and to get the two mixed up is ridiculous."
That is exactly what he thinks the Nobel committee has done, replacing literary merit with political statements through years of selections. Such politics may be more logically communicated through the Nobel Peace Prize, although Alfred Nobel (who was an expert on dynamite, not literature) did specify that the literary prize should go to "the most outstanding work of an idealist tendency."
Opposing repressive governments in general — and, lately, the United States in particular — has been a good way to earn the literature committee's favor, Meyers believes. Going to jail, he says in all seriousness, is the absolute best way to do this.
Many who subscribe to the theory of anti-American bias point to recent English-language winners and vocal U.S. critics Doris Lessing and Harold Pinter, who used his Nobel acceptance lecture to accuse Bush of war crimes.
"Certainly," Meyers said, "America has a lot to answer for during the last eight years — I wouldn't defend much of it under the Bush administration — but don't think the Nobel Prize is the bat to use to bash America."
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, who was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in literature a week after Engdahl's comments, embodies the global perspective Engdahl says American writers lack: A French national, Le Clézio had a British father, lived as a child in Africa and today splits time among three different countries (including the U.S.).
Engdahl commented, at Le Clézio's announcement, that today's great writers "find stimulation from displacing themselves from their culture of origin to other cultures."
This seems like an odd criteria for the prize: exiling yourself from your native country.
Meyers, though, says he would rather have a bad Nobel than no Nobel at all. In some ways, the whole flap has done exactly what good literature is supposed to do — force us to examine our values and what role we want writers (never mind writing prizes) to play.
"We have to recognize these are all somewhat arbitrary decisions, but what each of them does is make us think about alternative possibilities," Kellman said. "What exactly are we looking for in great writers?"
One of the earlier American Nobel laureates, William Faulkner, spent most of his career writing about one small corner of Mississippi. "But his greatness," Kellman said, "was in making that seem like a real microcosm of the entire world."
Stavans says now is a particularly good time — with dramatic changes looming in the economy and on the political stage — to re-conceive of great writers as not just entertainers.
"I think that gap between how things are and how the writer wishes them to be," Stavans said, "is a healthy way in a democracy that enables us to see that what we have achieved is not enough, that we have to be critical of who we are."
Had Engdahl put it that way, perhaps he would have been better received.
PublishingCultureNobel PrizeLiteratureWritersDemocracy
Emily Badger writes about cities and urban policy for the New York Times from the San Francisco bureau. She's particularly interested in housing, transportation, and inequality — and how they're all connected. She joined the Times in 2016 from the Washington Post.
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ATFP sister organization the American Charities for Palestine is featured in an article in the New York Times (1). Palestinian Security Forces continue to make progress in Hebron (2). Fatah leader Ahmed Hilles returns to the Gaza Strip after fleeing factional violence there three months ago (3). The Washington Institute for Near East Policy assesses the recent escalation in settler violence (4). The U.N. and other aid agencies ask the international community for $462 million in emergency aid for the Occupied Territories (5), as Israel allows limited supplies into Gaza (6). A Yeshiva leader is arrested for inciting Israeli youth to violence (7).
U.S. Muslims Taken Aback by a Charity's Conviction
by Laurie Goodstein - November 25, 2008 - 7:00pm
American Muslim groups responded with uncustomary silence on Tuesday to the news that leaders of a Muslim charity shut down by the federal government had been convicted in a retrial of money laundering, tax fraud and supporting terrorism.
Palestinian Forces Dilute Hebron's Volatile Brew
by Ethan	Bronner - November 24, 2008 - 7:00pm
It was a scene that revealed both its medieval origins and its contemporary significance. On one side of the concrete schoolyard sat the Rajabi clan, wearing their finest kaffiyeh headdresses. On the other side were the Ajnounis, similarly decked out. These ancient Hebron families had been feuding in the lawlessness of this city, leaving nine dead in recent months. Yet here they were last week, brought together by the newly installed Palestinian security forces, and being obliged to reconcile.
Fatah leader who fled to West Bank returns to Gaza
A Gaza leader of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction returned home on Tuesday more than three months after fleeing to the West Bank following deadly clashes between his clan and the Islamist Hamas movement. "I feel how any Palestinian feels on returning to his family and friends," Ahmed Hilles told reporters after entering the Gaza Strip from Israel through the Erez border crossing.
Violence by Extremists in the Jewish Settler Movement: A Rising Challenge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
by Matthew	Levitt, Becca Wasser - November 24, 2008 - 7:00pm
Thirteen years after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli security officials are expressing heightened concern that a new wave of violent extremism among fringe elements in the Jewish settler movement threatens not only Palestinian civilians, but also Israeli national security and the future of any potential peace diplomacy. Recent Trends in Violence by a Settler Fringe
Agencies seek $462 million in aid for Palestinians
The U.N. and other aid agencies appealed to the international community Wednesday to send $462 million in emergency assistance to address what they said is a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories. Most of the money will be used for food and cash handouts, said Maxwell Gaylard, local head of the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A total of 159 emergency programs are planned in areas such as health, education, food, water and sanitation.
More aid to enter blockaded Gaza
Israel has permitted limited aid and fuel deliveries into the Gaza Strip, which it has closed to virtually all supplies for the past three weeks. Gaza's only power plant, which is in urgent need of spare parts, is to restart at reduced capacity. Shortages and power cuts in the territory have led the UN to describe conditions there as the "worst ever". Israel says the tightening of the Gaza blockade is a legitimate response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
Yeshiva head arrested for 'incitement'
by Yaakov	Katz - December 31, 1969 - 7:00pm
Rabbi Yigal Shandrapi, the head of Yeshuat Mordechai Yeshiva, is expected to be brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Wednesday for a remand hearing, after police from the Judea and Samaria Division arrested him on Tuesday on suspicion of inciting Jewish youth to riot. According to the allegations, Shandrapi incited the teenagers two separate cases, the most recent of which occurred two months ago at the Yad Yair outpost, in the West Bank. During that incident, soldiers described being attacked and said that their vehicles were damaged.
IDF ignoring High Court on West Bank assassinations
by Uri Blau - December 31, 1969 - 7:00pm
The Israel Defense Forces has assassinated wanted men in apparent defiance of High Court of Justice guidelines for such operations, according to operational briefings obtained by Haaretz. The documents reveal that the IDF approved assassinations in the West Bank even when it could have been possible to arrest the targets instead, and that top-ranking army officers authorized the killings in advance, in writing, even if innocent bystanders would be killed as well.
Barak: We will evacuate settlers from Hebron house, by force if necessary
by Amos	Harel, Tomer Zarchin - November 25, 2008 - 7:00pm
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the state would use force to evacauate settlers illegally inhabiting a house in the West Bank city of Hebron, if the squatters do not vacate the premises voluntarily. A High Court of Justice ruling issued last week gave the settlers three days to evacuate, but a loophole was found allowing them to remain for a full 30 days before any force could to be taken.


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Sabet Elias Joins BNY Mellon as Chief Technology Officer
Elias joins BNY from Bank of America where he was Chief Technology Officer
David Kimberley | Executive Moves ( Executives ) | Monday, 01/10/2018 | 16:54 GMT+2 2018-10-01T14:54:47+00:00 2018-10-01T17:09:38+00:00
Photo: BNY Mellon
BNY Mellon (BNY) has been on something of a hiring spree in recent months, with numerous changes made to its foreign exchange division. Now it's the technology department's time for a shake-up with the American bank announcing this Monday that Sabet Elias has been appointed Chief Technology Officer.
Based in New York, Elias has, according to BNY's statement, already started work. His role is a new one and will see him helping BNY set its technological agenda and building new platforms.
"Sabet is a talented technologist and brings to the bank a solid track record of building platforms," said BNY's Chief Information Officer, Bridget Engle. "As we continue to shape our global technology agenda and improve resiliency, we need to add leadership talent with deep experience in technology to take us to the next level."
Sabet Elias – Techspert
Elias joins BNY from the Bank of America where he was Sales and Trading Chief Technology Officer. Joining in 2011, Elias spent close to eight years at the American firm working on the strategy and building of various technological products.
Sabet Elias – BNY's new Chief Technology Officer
Prior to joining the Bank of America, Elias was Infrastructure Chief Technology Officer and Global Head of Electronic Trading Infrastructure at Citigroup. During his three years with the financial services giant, he worked on a number of different initiatives, including the development and maintenance of low latency trading infrastructure.
Before leaving to join Citigroup in 2008, Elias was Chief Technology Officer at the now-defunct Lehman Brothers. Starting in 2000, he was responsible for the engineering, support, and build-out of data centers, core infrastructure, networks, servers, storage and platforms that supported the firm's applications.
BNY's newest employee didn't always work in the financial services industry. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in information systems from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Elias worked in AT&T's Bell Labs – an industrial research and scientific development company now owned by Nokia.
Tags: Bny Mellon / executive move / institutional
FX Veteran Lars Hornsleth Joins Jump Trading to Head APAC Business


Just last weekend at the Unitarian Universalist* Church of the Restoration on Stenton Avenue in NW Philly, Internationally renowned Monnettte Sudler and her band "Ladies Night Out" played a dynamite concert to a full house. The concert was part of Philadelphia's Official Jazz Appreciation Month in April. "Ladies Night Out" includes Lynn Riley on saxophone and flute, Noriko Kamo or Organ and Luciana Padmore on drums.
*Unitarian Universalism is a faith that encompasses all religious/spiritual backgrounds (including atheism, agnosticism and Buddhism) in a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning".


Want to enhance your role as a trusted nonprofit intermediary for clients who are either preparing to buy a home or trying to avoid foreclosure? Find information for you, print-ready fact sheets for your clients, helpful web links, and more here.
Looking to expand your business by opening doors for more homebuyers? Find the tools, resources, and information you need to stay current on key housing topics, become a knowledge source, and enhance your role as trusted advisor for both your current and future clients.
Subscribe to the free Housing Professionals Outreach News email subscription service and be one of the first to find out about Freddie Mac trainings for housing professionals, new or updated policies that could impact your clients, borrower outreach tools and initiatives, and more.
Looking for learning opportunities and tools you can use to educate yourself and your clients about Freddie Mac's borrower outreach initiatives? Register for our housing professionals-focused webinars, view our videos, and customize and download our consumer-focused presentations and materials here.
This multilingual financial education curriculum and consumer outreach initiative is designed to help your clients build and maintain better credit, make sound financial decisions, and understand the steps to sustainable homeownership.
This CreditSmart tutorial fulfills the homebuyer education requirement for Home Possible mortgage first-time homebuyers. Printable certificate of completion with borrower's name is generated after successfully completing the quiz. FREE. English only.
Features 12 financial education modules that provide valuable information to help clients build and maintain better credit, make sound financial decisions and understand the steps to sustainable homeownership. FREE. Available in English and Spanish. No certificate.
Financial literacy publication for service members (past and present) to help them prepare financially for deployment, avoid financial schemes that target military families and to manage their money wisely while in the military. It also takes a look at the VA home loan program. FREE. English only.
Through our on-the-ground Borrower Help Centers and national Network, we work with trusted national nonprofit intermediaries to support Freddie Mac's ongoing commitment of preparing prospective buyers for responsible homeownership and helping struggling borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages avoid foreclosure.


Stamina was one of the first fitness equipment manufacturers to develop infomercial products with the introduction of the American Gladiator® Home Gym. From there we introduced the AeroPilates® Performer, InStride® Walker, the Body Dome®, the GYROTONIC® Transformer, and more. Our products are also under brands such as Body by Jake®, Suzanne Somers, Tony Little, Cosmopolitan®, Brenda DyGraf, Denise Austin, and BodyShaping®. More recently, we've brought products to the market with Gold's Gym®, Joyus®, Danskin®, and Lotus®.
There are tons of choices when starting your fitness journey. To help you find the right path, we have created a series of videos and educational pages that breakdown the benefits and features of each equipment category. You'll learn which category matches your fitness goals and what to look for when shopping for your exercise equipment.
Find the right equipment to fit YOUR exercise area.
Stamina has a huge selection of quality exercise and wellness equipment. From exercise bikes and rowing machines to back health and AeroPilates reformers, you are bound to find the perfect piece of equipment.
When it comes to protecting our environment, we are all responsible for doing our part. So like many companies and individuals Stamina is seeking out more ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle every day.


Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:5-7.
'Family Ministries @ Streatham Baptist Church' exist to support parents, guardians and carers in the role of bringing up their children as Christians.
The events, groups and activities will offer support, space and teaching to families, parents, guardians and carers attending Streatham Baptist Church.
Meet every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning from 09.30am to 11.30am in the Atrium at Streatham Baptist Church, during term time only.
(Please use the entrances on Natal Road or Lewin Road).
Jelly Tots is our 'Parent and Toddler Group' where all are welcomed.
We have tea, coffee and biscuits, fruit and cold drinks for the children.
Plenty of toys, art and craft activities, songs and story time.
Meets every first and third Sunday of the month from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.
A place for families and all ages to have fun together, explore the Christian faith and enjoy a meal.
£2 Subscription per family per session.


Holly said she has 'nothing but pure love' for he big sister.
Holly Willoughby shared an adorable snap of herself as a schoolgirl as she wished her sister a happy birthday.
The presenter, 37, posted a collage of photographs of the siblings on Instagram, as her sister Kelly celebrated her 40th.
The shots show the sisters as toddlers, then as small children and then adults.
"Nothing but pure love for this one today and always… my sister… love you… beyond!" said Willoughby.


Please click here to access the Department for Education's Performance Tables for our school (NB. this information is updated periodically).
% Achieving a good level of Development across all areas.
At Monkton CEP School there are 15 children in each year group. This means that one child equals 6.7%, please bear this in mind when comparing the school figures with the Kent and National figures.


text:
Plays His Hits
by Burt BacharachBurt Bacharach
Basically, this is a retitled reissue of his 1965 Kapp album Hit Maker!, with the addition of his 1965 "What's New Pussycat?"/"My Little Red Book" single, the 1963 single "And So Goodbye, My Love," and the previously unreleased alternate take "Saturday Sunshine." An orchestra and chorus directed by Burt himself run through most of his popular early and mid-'60s hits, including "Don't Make Me Over," "Walk On By," "Wives and Lovers," "Anyone Who Had a Heart," "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me," "24 Hours from Tulsa," and "Trains and Boats and Planes." It's hard to determine why anyone would want these, rather than the original hit versions recorded by Dionne Warwick, Sandie Shaw, Gene Pitney, and others. Burt himself doesn't sing at all, although Joel Grey and Tony Middleton take lead vocals on "What's New Pussycat?" and "My Little Red Book," respectively. It's smooth, easy listening fare, largely instrumental, with occasional interjections by female backup vocalists. For that reason it may find favor with current lounge revivalists, and indeed, if you want one early Burt Bacharach record, this may be the one to get, if for no reason other than that it contains his own interpretations (bland as they are) of his best early work. And the approach wasn't without commercial reward: the version of "Trains and Boats and Planes" included here actually reached number four on the British charts, outperforming Billy J. Kramer's cover.
Don't Make Me Over
Wives and Lovers
Anyone Who Had a Heart
The Last One to Be Loved
Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa
A House Is Not a Home
What's New Pussycat?
My Little Red Book
Saturday Sunshine
And So Goodbye, My Love
Burt Bacharach Primary Artist,Piano
Burt Bacharach Arranger,Composer,Director,Producer
Joel Grey Contributor
Hal David Composer
Jim Pierson Producer,Liner Notes
Tony Middleton Contributor
music by gene pitney
greatest hits buddha
hits misses by gene pitney
sings guess
the essential barbra streisand
20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The
This seems like an unnecessary collection, considering that All Time Greatest Hits -- released on ...
This seems like an unnecessary collection, considering that All Time Greatest Hits -- released on the same label, just five years previously -- has all 12 songs on this grandly titled 20th Century Masters edition, and adds four tracks not ...
When RCA Records launched a new series of CD and cassette compilation albums under the ...
When RCA Records launched a new series of CD and cassette compilation albums under the name All Time Greatest Hits in March 1988, its first entries were by Neil Sedaka, Harry Belafonte, and José Feliciano. The Sedaka album is just ...
Foolish Little Girl/Sing Their Hits from It's a
The Shirelles' fifth and sixth albums are combined onto one CD with this 2009 reissue, ...
The Shirelles' fifth and sixth albums are combined onto one CD with this 2009 reissue, with the addition of historical liner notes. In keeping with the rest of Ace's extensive series of Shirelles two-fers, it's the kind of thing where ...
Golden Age of American Rock 'n' Roll, Vol.
For many years, Original Sound's Oldies but Goodies series was acknowledged as the best source ...
For many years, Original Sound's Oldies but Goodies series was acknowledged as the best source for catching up on the many great early rock & roll hits by artists who had only one (or two, or three, or even a ...
Greatest Hits [Special Products]
Of the many Bobby Vinton hits collections on the market, this Sony Music Special Products ...
Of the many Bobby Vinton hits collections on the market, this Sony Music Special Products release is one of the best -- with 14 tracks, it's more comprehensive than most, with the vast majority of the singer's classic recordings (Roses ...
Greatest Hits [Buddha]
Although it sports the same amount of tracks (26) as Rhino's 1993 Anthology, up to ...
Although it sports the same amount of tracks (26) as Rhino's 1993 Anthology, up to now the last word in comprehensive Spoonful compilations, the 2000 issue of the umpteenth collection from this short-lived '60s band gets the nod over all ...
The Four Seasons were never in a class with Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers or ...
The Four Seasons were never in a class with Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers or Little Anthony & the Imperials, and Franki Valli's voice tended to sound shrill. But despite their imperfections, Valli and friends came up with their share ...
The mid-'60s were a time of transition for Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. The ...
The mid-'60s were a time of transition for Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. The teen market had put Valli on the map, but he knew that teenagers turn into adults, so he gradually shifted his focus from teen pop ...


Stick to What You Know, and Outsource The Rest.
Suzie Stratton, the president of Tinker Toys, a neighborhood toy store in Abilene, Texas, learned that finding the right branding partner is crucial in today's specialized world.
But then, by luck, Suzie was introduced to a company that specialized in online and offline branding, particularly in the small business sector.
Stratton is a toy expert, not a marketing wizard. Marketing is a specialty. Don't make the mistake of trying to do it on your own.


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text:
THE FOCUS ON NATURE TOUR IN CHILE
"From the Pacific to the High Andes"
The Cape Petrel is a bird
that we expect to see
on our Chile pelagic trips
off Valparaiso.
List of Birds during our Chile Tour - November 2007
Cumulative List of Birds during our Chile Tours (with some photos)
The following narrative of the FONT Nov '07 Chile Tour was written by Armas Hill, the tour leader:
As it nearly always is, the pelagic trip offshore from Valparaiso that was part of our November 2007 FONT birding & nature tour in Chile, was a highlight.
We were, as usual, out at sea for about 4 hours in the morning. During that entire time, there were seabirds in view, including shearwaters, petrels, giant-petrels, storm-petrels, pelicans, gulls, terns, boobies, and phalaropes.
The last of these, the Red Phalaropes, were not attracted to the "chum" that brought most of the other birds in close to the boat, but yet there were many phalaropes near us during the trip. We estimated well over a thousand of them.
During that boat-trip, on November 23, 2007, the best of the seabirds were 2 Northern Royal Albatrosses. Both seen sitting on the water very close to us. Those large albatrosses, so big, even seemed to dwarf the other 3 species of Albatrosses that, during the trip, were either on the water or flying by us in the air: the Black-browed, the Buller's, and the Salvin's.
The wingspan of the Northern Royal Albatross is as much as 138 inches (that's 11.5 feet, or nearly 6 feet per wing!) Wow, what a bird to see as we did!
The plumages of the 2 individuals were a bit different; one was an adult, and the other nearly so.
The wingspan of the Salvin's Albatross is 98 inches. That of the Black-browed is 88 inches; the Buller's is 83 inches. So, these wingspans (of the albatrosses also known as "Mollymawks") are in the realm of 7 to 8 feet in length - that is each wing being from about 3.5 to 4 feet long.
Those albatross-wings enabled the birds to fly a long way. 3 of our 4 albatross species flew from New Zealand breeding sites to the offshore Chilean waters where we saw them. Our offshore trip was a couple hours out, and a couple hours back to land.
It's 9.647 kilometers (one-way) from New Zealand to Chile. For those of us who flew by jet from North America to Chile, as a comparison, it's 6,959 kilometers (one-way) from New York.
The 3 species of albatrosses that crossed the Pacific (the Northern Royal, the Salvin's, and the Buller's) traveled further to see us than we did to see them (referring to our flights in planes from places such as Texas and Pennsylvania). And, yes, those albatrosses certainly did see us too, as our "chum" was tossed from the boat, attracting the oceanic birds by scent from miles around.
The Northern Royal Albatross, Diomedea sanfordi, is a rare bird, with a total population of only about 7,000 pairs. As just noted, the birds we saw came from New Zealand breeding sites.
Actually, New Zealand is the ONLY place where the Northern Royal Albatross breeds, and in New Zealand, 99 per cent of the total breed ONLY on the Chatham Islands.
In 1985, a severe storm hit the breeding sites on the Chatham Islands, reducing soil cover and destroying all of the vegetation. Since then, nests there have been built with stones, or eggs have been laid on bare rock. Unfortunately, as a result, mean annual productivity has plummeted to 18 per cent of what it had been, due to egg breakage, high temperatures, and flooding in temporary pools. The species has been recently, and continues to be, monitored carefully.
We can only hope that things improve so that the wonderful sightings we've had of the royal albatrosses off Chile continue in the years ahead.
Another scourge has been affecting albatrosses, overall, of various species. Every year, during the last couple decades, thousands of albatrosses have fallen victims to long-line fishing hooks, subsequently drowning. It's been written that as many as 100,000 albatrosses have succumbed to this annually.
Naturally, without many predators, albatrosses live a long time - up to 60 years. But the impact of their decline during the last 20 years has notably dramatic.
Of all the birds of the world now been categorized as threatened (and unfortunately now there are many), the group in recent years with the biggest increase of endangered and threatened species have been the seabirds.
FONT has been conducting pelagic trips off the Chilean coast of South America since 1990. And, in general terms, our data has shown that the number of albatrosses seen in those waters, since then, has decreased. There's some variation due to factors such as "El Nino" & "La Nina" waters, but, as said, in general, numbers in the last few years have been lower than they were a decade ago.
There's a link following this narrative to the Birdlife International website, relating to the recent decline in albatrosses & other seabirds due to long-line fishing. It's worth taking a look.
Another comment worth making regarding birds we saw offshore (and along the Chilean shore) is they come there from such a variety of places.
The cool waters of the Humboldt Current are a draw not just for the albatrosses that come across the wide Pacific from New Zealand, but for some other long-distance travelers as well.
The Red Phalaropes, that have been mentioned, come from the far-northern reaches of the Northern Hemisphere where they nested.
The Sooty Shearwaters and Wilson's Storm Petrels came from further south in the Pacific.
The Franklin's Gulls, that were numerous out over the salt water of the Pacific came from fresh-water marshes and ponds in the interior of Canada and the US. That species undergoes quite a transition in terms of seasonal habitat.
The Surfbirds, along the rocky seacoast, that we enjoyed so much watching on the rocks, came from Alaska, where they nest high in the mountains far away from the sea. Surfbirds, by the way, were not found to nest there until well into the 20th century, in 1926.
During the portion our November '07 Chile Tour on land, here was another wonderful encounter with a bird that's "big". One of the biggest of American birds that soar in the sky, it was the Andean Condor, with as a wingspan of up to 122 inches. That's over 10 feet.
The Andean Mountains, that were such a majestic backdrop as watched the condors, were also big.
But still, how impressive it was to see a dozen condors, fly by as if in a procession between us and the mountain, one after the other, all gliding from right to left. The grouping was a mix of adult and immature birds.
Another large bird, actually with "Giant" in its name, has already been alluded to in this narrative. It's the Southern Giant Petrel, with a wingspan of 81 inches (almost as long as that of the Buller's Albatross - and almost as long as that of another of our "biggies", the Peruvian Pelican which has wingspan of 90 inches).
And in the mountains, we saw another bird named "Giant". With a length of up to 9 inches, it was the Giant Hummingbird, the largest of the approximately 320 species in that family (which is, by the way, the second largest of bird families in the Americas, and which contains, at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Giant Hummingbird, a bird, in Cuba, that's the smallest in the world).
During our November 2007 tour in central Chile, we saw over 125 species of birds.
Mentioned here already have been just a few of those we saw.
Other highlights during our tour included:
Torrent Duck in a raging Andean river,
Humboldt Penguin, Gray Gull, and Inca Tern along the Chilean seacoast,
Cocoi Heron (a species common other places in South America, but not so in Chile),
and these:
Cinereous Harrier, Gray-breasted Seedsnipe, White-sided Hillstar, Crag Chilia, Moustached Turca, Rufous-tailed Plantcutter, Many-colored Rush Tyrant, and the Spectacled Tyrant.
We enjoyed very much our sighting of a male Torrent Duck, in the Andes southeast of Santiago. The species ranges throughout much of that long range of mountains. The subspecies in central Chile is the southernmost of 6.
Where we saw that subspecies in central Chile, is the northernmost part of its range. There's a gap between that southernmost subspecies (the nominate), and the other subspecies further north.
Torrent Ducks are confined to fast-flowing rivers and streams - in waters so swift that one might think no duck, or any bird, could function there. But they are truly marvelous swimmers and divers. Not only are they capable of swimming against the fastest currents, but they can also remain surprisingly stationary in such waters. In the midst of the raging torrents, they dive and swim close to the bottom, to reappear on the steep side of the next rock or boulder, and then they stand there as if oblivious to the rushing waters swirling around them. Observing such behavior by the male we saw, we can only watch and wonder how the bird does it!
Turning away from the fast-flowing river below us, to a cliff-face on the other side of a dirt road, there was, above us, the Crag Chilia. That bird's nifty name is quite appropriate as it's one that's endemic to Chile. Superficially similar to a Canyon Wren (but without the wonderful song), the bird is an inhabitant of crevices and crags on cliffs. We observed one repeatedly taking food into a crevice for its young.
The Moustached Turca was another Chilean endemic bird that we enjoyed watching. Sometimes it would be in a bush, but usually it was on the ground, where it would rapidly run and then abruptly stop, with its short tail always cocked.
The bird is in the tribe of tapaculos, a group well represented in Chile. Among the tapaculos, the turca is generally the easiest to see.
Moustached Turca
Other birds on the ground, for us, at various elevations in the Andes, included: California Quail, Gray-breasted Seedsnipe, South American Snipe, and Baird's Sandpiper.
The California Quail was introduced in Chile over a hundred years ago, in 1870. Today, it's said that there are more California Quail in Chile than there are in its native range. We saw many.
Gray-breasted Seedsnipe are nice birds to see. There are 4 species of seedsnipes (a unique family), all of them in the Andes.
One of the Gray-breasted Seedsnipe sightings, during our November '07 tour, was especially nice. A short distance away, on the ground, in front of a rock, there was a fluffy little bird. In binoculars, it was seen to be a very young seedsnipe. It stood still there for a while, before running into a cavity beneath the rock.
The South American Snipe that we saw, on the ground, also stood very still, by the edge of a little pond. We saw it outside the windows of our vehicle. As we moved closer to the bird, it stayed there, remaining as still as could be.
We backed the vehicle up a bit, and then drove away, before hearing a Dusky Tapaculo call in the rocks in the background, as a pair of Speckled Teal was at the far end of the pond.
On the opposite side of the road, where we stepped out of the vehicle, to enjoy a look at a Crested Duck, there were, along a mountain stream, some Baird's Sandpipers. They had come from North America, as we did, but for them it was to spend another summer, in the Southern Hemisphere. The Baird's Sandpiper is a common bird of the summer of the Southern Hemisphere in the High Andes.
Yet a couple more birds that we saw in the Andes should be mentioned.
The hummingbird, called the White-sided Hillstar, was good to see. Of course, hummingbirds, anywhere, are good birds to see. But it's fascinating how some species of hummingbirds live high in the Andes. The Hillstars that we saw were at flowering plants by a "refugio", a place to stay and eat, high in the mountains. Years ago (in the early 1990's) we stayed there during our tours. It was good to visit the picturesque place again. And, it was particularly good, as we saw the hummingbirds there on the grounds.
The Rufous-tailed Plantcutter is in a rather off-beat family of 3 species, related to cotingas.
Widespread in Chile, the plantcutter occurs from the sea up into mountains. During previous tours, we've seen the bird in bushes by dunes along the seacoast. For us, in Nov '07, however, it was as high as we've ever found it, up in the Andes, at an elevation of over 8,000 feet above sea level.
Some birds that we saw in central Chile in November '07 were "new" for us in that region of the country.
Among them, was the Cocoi Heron, at a marsh near Santiago.
During our previous Chile tours, we've seen the bird only in the southern part of the country, north of the "Lake District". In Nov '07, we saw a total of 4 at a place where we've birded many times in the past. But the next day, when we visited the place again, the species was not to be seen.
The Cocoi Heron is rather like the Great Blue Heron, but with a white neck. It's larger than the Great Blue Heron. In fact, it's the largest of the herons in the Americas.
Cocoi Heron
Another "new bird" for us in central Chile was the Cinereous Harrier. We were fortunate to see a fine, adult male, flying in front of us, above rolling fields.
And yet another bird "new" for us for central Chile, during this, our 17th tour there, was the Spectacled Tyrant, a flycatcher. We nicely saw both males and females, at two locations. The male, all-black, with a bright yellow eye-ring and bill, perches high up on reeds.
Within reeds, there was one of our favorite birds of the tour. It was another flycatcher, a smaller one.
In English, its name is the Many-colored Rush Tyrant. In Spanish, it's called "Siete Colores", meaningr "Seven Colors". Even smaller than a House Wren, it's just as restless and agile. It flits endlessly, always in a reedbed, from rush to rush. The bird half jumps and half flies from reed to reed, and then balances itself on an individual stem with consumate ease. The tiny, vivacious sprite that's forever on the move, also continuously changes position in order to better show off its multi-hued plumage that's a veritable symphony of black, bronze, green, yellow, crimson, red, and white. (And, yes, that's seven colors.)
The Many-colored Rush Tyrant was one of the nicest birds we saw.
A couple birds we did not see during our November '07 tour in central Chile, that we have in the past, were the Diademed Plover and the South American Painted Snipe.
The Diademed Plover, a bird of the high Andes, has not been found in recent years, at the single location near Santiago, that's been good for it in the past. When we were at that place in Nov '07, it seemed as if too many people were there, either in recreational vehicles, or camping at the particular place that was known for the species since the 1950's.
The marsh, where the Painted Snipe has been for us previously, was, this year, too dry.
So, we won't dwell on what wasn't there, but rather we'll remember the birds that we did see, including the wonderful ones that have been mentioned here.
As noted, over 125 species of birds were seen during our tour in central Chile in 2007. It was, as also mentioned, our 17th FONT tour in Chile. The first FONT birding & nature tour anywhere was in Chile back in November of 1990.
Here's a last mention, now, regarding some of the birds of the tour:
As we were about to leave Santiago, and driving along the wide city boulevard, with grass and trees in the middle of the busy street, there were Southern Lapwings (even smack in the heart of the city, in front of the main government building), and there were Austral Thrushes, one after the other.
The Austral Thrush was very similar in its behavior to the American Robin, commonly in the city and towns.
Also we have in North America, there were in central Chile: Mockingbirds, Blackbirds, and Meadowlarks.
The Chilean Mockingbird is endemic to that country.
The Blackbird, like the Thrush, has the adjective "Austral".
The Long-tailed Meadowlark, quite unlike its North American counterpart, has a bright red breast.
The House Sparrow was the same as ours (and the same as that of Europe).
In Chile, there are siskins rather than goldfinches. We saw both the Black-chinned Siskin and the Yellow-rumped Siskin.
The only New World Sparrow is the Rufous-collared Sparrow (it occurs north into Central America).
But in Chile, there's a wealth of finches:
we saw Yellow-finches (2 species), Sierra-Finches (a few different species), and one finch with a rather odd name that's common, and so it's called the Common Diuca Finch.
It was spring when we were in Chile, and thus the birds were singing.
That Common Diuca Finch had one of the nicest of the songs we heard, providing yet another reason, among many, for us to enjoy our tour in Chile as we did.