Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
News Flash - Palin Power
This is a test. For the next thirty seconds, this station will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.
Automotive Acne (Productions) is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.
This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.
The following is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.
This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency.
If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to tune to one of the broadcast stations in your area.
If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official information.
If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions.
This station is testing its Emergency Broadcast System equipment. The EBS will soon be replaced by the Emergency Alert System; the EAS will provide timely emergency warnings.
Automotive Acne (Productions) serves the (name of operational area) area. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.
This station serves the (name of operational area) area. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.
Bonus Round:
Wolf Block joins forces with a lobbying firm
As businesses from banks to car makers converge on Washington seeking financial aid, the Wolf Block law firm has announced plans to greatly expand its lobbying on behalf of companies and other interests fighting for a piece of the bailout.
The firm, which currently has a small lobbying staff in Washington, along with lobbyists in Harrisburg, Boston, New York and Wilmington, said it was affiliating with the American Continental Group, whose leadership includes David Urban, former chief of staff to Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).
Under the arrangement, Wolf Block Public Strategies and American Continental would share fees and client referrals, said Mark Alderman, chairman of Wolf Block, a 300-lawyer firm based in Center City. Wolf Block Public Strategies is the law firm's lobbying subsidiary.
The new alliance will include several high-profile players in Washington politics and policy. Alderman was a top fund-raiser for President-elect Barack Obama and one of his first prominent supporters in Pennsylvania, and Urban has many ties to Democratic and Republican moderates.
Urban's firm, which has nine registered lobbyists, includes Sheryl V. Cohen, a former chief of staff to Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D., Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. The committee is playing a central role in the government response to ailing credit markets and the economic downturn.
"I absolutely believe that we would be doing something like this no matter who had won the election," Alderman said. "What this will do is link us in a formal way."
As the relationship evolves, Alderman said, the firms will review the possibility of a full-fledged merger.
Ever since the financial markets began tanking and the Bush administration responded with various aid packages, Washington has become a magnet for commercial interests seeking aid, information or both.
That has produced a windfall of business for lobbying firms that are capable of not only taking on big projects, but also referring clients internally to lawyers who can sort through the legal issues raised by the various bailout proposals.
Alderman and Urban said the hope is that clients who come to the affiliated firms for lobbying assistance will also seek their legal advice at Wolf Block.
Wolf Block's lobbying clients include Lockheed Martin and Bose. American Continental's clients include Disney and Ernst & Young, the global accounting and advisory firm.
"We have been off to a nice start there, but David is way further down the road," Alderman said.
Article written by Chris Mondics
published Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page D1 - Business Section
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Classical
'FANTASIE--FANTASME'
David Greilsammer, piano. Naïve V 5081; CD.
The idea of choosing piano works for a solo recording that explores the concept of fantasy may not seem all that original. But on this fascinating album the Israeli pianist David Greilsammer explores the concept in a program of striking diversity, exposing musical resonances among disparate works by composers from Bach and Brahms to Cage to Ligeti. Of course the concept would mean little were the performances not so brilliant and probing. Mr. Greilsammer, born in Jerusalem in 1977, is a formidable pianist.
He begins with one of the boldest fantasies ever written, the first part of Bach's ''Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue,'' playing just that rhapsodic and grimly agitated fantasy section. He then segues directly into the first of two recent ''Fantastrophes'' by Jonathan Keren, frenetically jazzy music that shifts between states of sublime mysticism and catastrophic wildness.
The surprising segues continue, as Mr. Greilsammer moves to Brahms's mellow Intermezzo in A minor from the Op. 116 Fantasies, then to the first three of Schoenberg's elusive Six Little Piano Pieces and Ligeti's fantastical ''Musica Ricercata'' (the sixth movement), in which Ligeti's jittery counterpoint harkens to Bach.
''The Presentiment,'' a hallucinogenic movement from Janacek's Sonata ''1.X.1905,'' which follows, proves an ideal setup for Cage's playfully exotic Sonata No. 5 for Prepared Piano. Mozart's stormy, episodic Fantasy in C minor (K. 475), which Mr. Greilsammer plays with arresting freedom yet crisp articulation, marks the halfway point in the program.
From there he circles back almost in a mirror reflection, through Cage, Janacek, Ligeti and so on, playing some of the missing movements and parts of works we have already heard incomplete, concluding with the fugue from the Bach piece. Somehow, in this context, and thanks to Mr. Greilsammer's dynamic performance, the imposing counterpoint of Bach's great fugue sounds fantastical.
review by ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: November 9, 2008
The New York Times
Arts & Leisure section, page 32
More Art Info via The NY Times:
Hirst Studio Hard Times
He might have sold more than $200 million in art at a two-day auction in London this year, but not even Damien Hirst, below, is immune to the effects of the ailing economy. The Guardian reported that several workers who make the pills for Mr. Hirst’s drug-cabinet artworks were told their contracts would not be renewed. A spokesman for Mr. Hirst’s company, Science Ltd., would not confirm for The Guardian how many jobs were shed but said, “We have to be mindful of the current economic climate and how this may affect us in the future.” In 2007 Mr. Hirst’s work “Lullaby Spring,” a cabinet filled with pills painted by hand sold for $14.4 million. But at an auction this month at Sotheby’s in New York, a minor Hirst work sold for well below its estimate while a second did not sell at all.
Compiled by Dave Itzkoff
Published: November 24, 2008
David Greilsammer, piano. Naïve V 5081; CD.
The idea of choosing piano works for a solo recording that explores the concept of fantasy may not seem all that original. But on this fascinating album the Israeli pianist David Greilsammer explores the concept in a program of striking diversity, exposing musical resonances among disparate works by composers from Bach and Brahms to Cage to Ligeti. Of course the concept would mean little were the performances not so brilliant and probing. Mr. Greilsammer, born in Jerusalem in 1977, is a formidable pianist.
He begins with one of the boldest fantasies ever written, the first part of Bach's ''Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue,'' playing just that rhapsodic and grimly agitated fantasy section. He then segues directly into the first of two recent ''Fantastrophes'' by Jonathan Keren, frenetically jazzy music that shifts between states of sublime mysticism and catastrophic wildness.
The surprising segues continue, as Mr. Greilsammer moves to Brahms's mellow Intermezzo in A minor from the Op. 116 Fantasies, then to the first three of Schoenberg's elusive Six Little Piano Pieces and Ligeti's fantastical ''Musica Ricercata'' (the sixth movement), in which Ligeti's jittery counterpoint harkens to Bach.
''The Presentiment,'' a hallucinogenic movement from Janacek's Sonata ''1.X.1905,'' which follows, proves an ideal setup for Cage's playfully exotic Sonata No. 5 for Prepared Piano. Mozart's stormy, episodic Fantasy in C minor (K. 475), which Mr. Greilsammer plays with arresting freedom yet crisp articulation, marks the halfway point in the program.
From there he circles back almost in a mirror reflection, through Cage, Janacek, Ligeti and so on, playing some of the missing movements and parts of works we have already heard incomplete, concluding with the fugue from the Bach piece. Somehow, in this context, and thanks to Mr. Greilsammer's dynamic performance, the imposing counterpoint of Bach's great fugue sounds fantastical.
review by ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: November 9, 2008
The New York Times
Arts & Leisure section, page 32
More Art Info via The NY Times:
Hirst Studio Hard Times
He might have sold more than $200 million in art at a two-day auction in London this year, but not even Damien Hirst, below, is immune to the effects of the ailing economy. The Guardian reported that several workers who make the pills for Mr. Hirst’s drug-cabinet artworks were told their contracts would not be renewed. A spokesman for Mr. Hirst’s company, Science Ltd., would not confirm for The Guardian how many jobs were shed but said, “We have to be mindful of the current economic climate and how this may affect us in the future.” In 2007 Mr. Hirst’s work “Lullaby Spring,” a cabinet filled with pills painted by hand sold for $14.4 million. But at an auction this month at Sotheby’s in New York, a minor Hirst work sold for well below its estimate while a second did not sell at all.
Compiled by Dave Itzkoff
Published: November 24, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Food For Thought
The Carnegie Legacy Will Be Lost In 4 Neighborhoods
Sure, Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron who built the formidable business empire that became U.S. Steel. But most Americans probably know him as the guy who went from town to town, scattering public libraries the way Johnny Appleseed planted trees.
His fortune, which was valued at $400 million when he died in 1919, paid for more than 2,500 branches. Carnegie was a staunch believer in meritocracy. He was convinced that anyone, no matter how poor, could be lifted up by knowledge, and he insisted that his libraries express that in their architecture.
If you're not met at the entrance by an impressive staircase and a mighty portal of classical columns, chances are the building isn't a Carnegie. In many neighborhoods, his libraries are still the most dignified buildings residents ever encounter. Walking through those heavy doors is the first step in the hard passage to a middle-class life.
Philadelphia, which created the nation's first public-library system, had the good fortune to receive 25 of Carnegie's libraries. But if Mayor Nutter goes through with his crisis plan to shrink the library system by 11 branches, the city will lose four representatives of its original Carnegie legacy.
What will happen to Carnegie's four temples of knowledge is anyone's guess. Some might be used for other city purposes. Some might be sold, assuming the Carnegie deed permits the transfer. But others could be left to sit vacant, transformed into temples of gloom, monuments to opportunities lost.
Statistics are the language of bureaucrats, not the language of real life. So while it is undeniable that Philadelphia supports more than its statistical share of branches, it is also true that it has a larger proportion of poor families than most big cities. Many of their kids go to public schools that have no libraries [and limited access to the internet].
Join the Friends of the Free Library's campaign to raise privately the $8 million needed to keep the 11 branches open. The effort echoes the Carnegie creed: He demanded that residents buy the land to qualify for one of his libraries. Of course, the Friends' effort is an Internet campaign -
(www.libraryfriends.info).
You would think the mayor would welcome such citizen initiative. But a city spokesman told me that the Nutter administration intends to refuse the money. "We think a smaller city library system will be a stronger system," he explained.
Instead of finding fault in Philadelphia's large collection of neighborhood branches, the administration ought be crowing about being at the top of this particular statistical heap. You can bet Andrew Carnegie would be.
excerpt from
Cuts weren't in Carnegie's library plans by Inga Saffron
published Friday, November 21, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page E1
More:
Fishtowners March To Save Their Library
Sure, Andrew Carnegie was a robber baron who built the formidable business empire that became U.S. Steel. But most Americans probably know him as the guy who went from town to town, scattering public libraries the way Johnny Appleseed planted trees.
His fortune, which was valued at $400 million when he died in 1919, paid for more than 2,500 branches. Carnegie was a staunch believer in meritocracy. He was convinced that anyone, no matter how poor, could be lifted up by knowledge, and he insisted that his libraries express that in their architecture.
If you're not met at the entrance by an impressive staircase and a mighty portal of classical columns, chances are the building isn't a Carnegie. In many neighborhoods, his libraries are still the most dignified buildings residents ever encounter. Walking through those heavy doors is the first step in the hard passage to a middle-class life.
Philadelphia, which created the nation's first public-library system, had the good fortune to receive 25 of Carnegie's libraries. But if Mayor Nutter goes through with his crisis plan to shrink the library system by 11 branches, the city will lose four representatives of its original Carnegie legacy.
What will happen to Carnegie's four temples of knowledge is anyone's guess. Some might be used for other city purposes. Some might be sold, assuming the Carnegie deed permits the transfer. But others could be left to sit vacant, transformed into temples of gloom, monuments to opportunities lost.
Statistics are the language of bureaucrats, not the language of real life. So while it is undeniable that Philadelphia supports more than its statistical share of branches, it is also true that it has a larger proportion of poor families than most big cities. Many of their kids go to public schools that have no libraries [and limited access to the internet].
Join the Friends of the Free Library's campaign to raise privately the $8 million needed to keep the 11 branches open. The effort echoes the Carnegie creed: He demanded that residents buy the land to qualify for one of his libraries. Of course, the Friends' effort is an Internet campaign -
(www.libraryfriends.info).
You would think the mayor would welcome such citizen initiative. But a city spokesman told me that the Nutter administration intends to refuse the money. "We think a smaller city library system will be a stronger system," he explained.
Instead of finding fault in Philadelphia's large collection of neighborhood branches, the administration ought be crowing about being at the top of this particular statistical heap. You can bet Andrew Carnegie would be.
excerpt from
Cuts weren't in Carnegie's library plans by Inga Saffron
published Friday, November 21, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
page E1
More:
Fishtowners March To Save Their Library
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Recipe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lamb Sliders With Tzatziki
Makes 8-10 servings
For the tzatziki:
½ cup plain Greek-style yogurt
½ tablespoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons grated cucumber
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the burgers:
1 1/3 pounds lean ground lamb
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, toasted and ground
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 to 10 small rolls of any kind, split
1. To make the tzatziki, in a small bowl combine the yogurt, garlic, cucumber, oil, juice, parsley, salt and black pepper. Set aside.
2. For the lamb burgers, in a large bowl, combine the lamb, garlic, fennel, parsley, salt and pepper. Form the mixture into 8 to 10 small, thin patties.
3. Heat a large, cast-iron griddle over high heat and brush with oil. Add the lamb burgers and cook for about 2 minutes on each side for medium.
4. Lightly toast the rolls on the griddle, then sandwich a lamb burger in each and spread with tzatziki. Serve immediately.
Per serving (based on 10): 318 calories, 14 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 20 grams fat, 63 milligrams cholesterol, 1,166 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.
From Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun's in Atlanta in NBC Sunday Night
Football Cookbook (Time Inc., 2008)
This & Other Tailgating Recipes
published Thu, Nov. 13, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Lamb Sliders With Tzatziki
Makes 8-10 servings
For the tzatziki:
½ cup plain Greek-style yogurt
½ tablespoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons grated cucumber
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the burgers:
1 1/3 pounds lean ground lamb
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, toasted and ground
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 to 10 small rolls of any kind, split
1. To make the tzatziki, in a small bowl combine the yogurt, garlic, cucumber, oil, juice, parsley, salt and black pepper. Set aside.
2. For the lamb burgers, in a large bowl, combine the lamb, garlic, fennel, parsley, salt and pepper. Form the mixture into 8 to 10 small, thin patties.
3. Heat a large, cast-iron griddle over high heat and brush with oil. Add the lamb burgers and cook for about 2 minutes on each side for medium.
4. Lightly toast the rolls on the griddle, then sandwich a lamb burger in each and spread with tzatziki. Serve immediately.
Per serving (based on 10): 318 calories, 14 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 20 grams fat, 63 milligrams cholesterol, 1,166 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.
From Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun's in Atlanta in NBC Sunday Night
Football Cookbook (Time Inc., 2008)
This & Other Tailgating Recipes
published Thu, Nov. 13, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Friday, November 21, 2008
3-Card Marney & Another Cup Of Coffee
Without consumers to lead the charge, an economic recovery will be hard to achieve. And yet everyone agrees that we need to start saving more. So should I buy to stimulate the economy? Or should I save the money in order to “grow” the economy and provide for my own old age? I can’t do both.
This is the dilemma that 30 years of Reaganomics (the real Reaganomics — keeping the economy overstimulated with huge deficits and irresponsible [lending and] borrowing — not the fantasy Reaganomics of government run like a family and tax cuts that pay for themselves) has left us with. So what do we do? The nearest thing to an actual plan seems to be something like this: stimulate first, to avert various short-term disasters, and then — at some signal from the Treasury Department — turn around and start saving like mad, to avert various long-term disasters. In other words, we need to get back our consumer confidence, and then lose it again."
--Michael Kinsley
published Friday, November 14, 2008
The New York Times
page A33
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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