providence journal

The Providence Journal’s coverage of the assault on traditional marriage advocates in Warwick, Rhode Island on July 28 has consistently downplayed how pepper spray was used on the conservative protesters, in favor of how food was thrown at them.

ProJo.com’s Wednesday report on the attack ran with the headline, “Same-sex marriage protesters assaulted with food,” and didn’t mention the pepper spray until the second-to-last paragraph. The following morning, reporter Kate Branson used a more nuanced headline (“Update: 4 accused of hurling food at activists in Warwick”), but at least mentioned the pepper spray in the second paragraph.

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, also known as the American TFP, is a conservative Catholic group based in the central Pennsylvania town of Spring Grove, and supported by hundreds of thousands of donors all over the U.S. They are conducting a “traditional marriage crusade” in the northeastern states of New York, Rhode Island, and Maine. “Caravans” of their young volunteers are traveling across those three states, and stop at busy intersections, holding signs expressing their support of traditional marriage, which they believe to be a sacrament.

roger wilson

Roger Wilson, a long time, active member in CommunityAIR, passed away this morning.

Roger was connected everywhere in the city. A senior partner, until his retirement, with Fasken Martineau, a corporate lawyer who sat on many boards and handled multi-million dollar clients, a member of the RCYC and a resident of Toronto Island.

A fierce supporter of CommunityAIR, Roger had his greatest impact in the fight against the bridge. It was through his efforts that the yacht clubs were mobilized and that was key in stopping the bridge. He continued his involvement in CommunityAIR right up until the end.

When evaluating what the Pirates acquired today, I think we've first got to establish what they gave up. Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, and Ian Snell are all players that have their own value. Sanchez is a .300 hitter with a decent gove, Wilson has a great glove, and Snell still has stuff that could make him a solid major league starter.

The thing to remember is that Wilson is a pending free agent with an expensive option that the Pirates weren't going to pick up, that Sanchez has had injury trouble the last two years that's interfered with his production and an expensive vesting option the Pirates didn't seem thrilled to pay, and the team's relationship with Snell had completely soured to the point that he couldn't return to the Pirates.

I've got a pretty long post, plus a long list of links below, so check it all out after the jump.

To summarize, the Pirates had three players that absolutely no one in the world thought would end the week in a Pirate uniform. Given that they were starting with a tipped hand and that Sanchez's option seemed to be driving interest in him way down, the Pirates could've traded all three guys for the proverbial bag of balls today and the general response would've been that we all should've known better than to expect more for these three guys.

Instead, the day ends with the Pirates bringing one top prospect (Tim Alderson), a former top prospect (Jeff Clement), and three interesting young pitchers (Brett Lorin, Nathan Adcock, and Aaron Pribanic). And Ronny Cedeno, who at least plugs the immediate hole created at shortstop for the short-term.

In fact just last night he was at a CommunityAIR meeting, discussing with his usual determination and good spirits, ways to close the Island Airport and bring an end to the Toronto Port Authority. He was in fine fiddle, filled with confidence and life, a big man in every way, strong and vital.

Roger cared about his city and his community. Above all he worked to try and achieve the clean, green Waterfront that we have been promised.

so you think you can dance results

HOLLYWOOD, California - Brandon Bryant, Evan Kasprzak, Jeanine Mason and Kayla Radomski were named SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE’s Top 4 finalists after host Cat Deeley revealed that Melissa Sandvig, 29, a Ballet dancer from Los Alamitos, CA and Ade Obayomi, 20, a Contemporary dancer from Orange County, CA were eliminated from the competition.

The two-night, four-hour season finale of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE promises to be the series’ most spectacular showdown ever!

The Top 4 will compete one last time in the hopes of winning America’s vote and the title of America’s Favorite Dancer, a $250,000 cash prize and a featured spot on the cover of the November issue of Dance Spirit magazine.

Judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, as well as guest judges Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Adam Shankman and Debbie Allen, will offer critiques on the final performances of the season.

Broadcast for the first time from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, the finale will air Wednesday, Aug. 5 (8:00-10:00 PM ET) and Thursday, Aug. 6 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live) on FOX.

In addition to naming America’s Favorite Dancer, the two-hour live finale will feature performances by this season’s Top 20 dancers, Hip Hop dance team The Rage Boyz Crew and Talia Fowler, winner of Season Two of “So You Think You Can Dance Australia.”

The celebration will also showcase encore performances of the Judges’ favorite routines from Season Five.

gdp report

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Prices of U.S. Treasurys rose across the board Friday morning after a report that painted a picture of a still weak U.S. economy, with consumers and businesses both continuing to struggle.

The Commerce Department, in its advance report on second quarter gross domestic product said that consumer spending slid by 1.2% during the April through June period after increasing 0.6% in the first quarter and dropping 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Meantime, business spending dropped 8.9% after decreasing 39.2% in the first quarter.

What's more, while GDP fell at a seasonally adjusted 1.0% annual rate in the second quarter versus the 1.5% drop expected in a Dow Jones survey, some market participants had expected an even stronger headline number, said Carl Lantz, a fixed income strategist at Credit Suisse, and when that didn't materialize, they jumped into the bond market.

"Even though the headline was better than consensus, the whisper number was for a bit stronger and some of the details were worrisome," he said. "The story is still that the consumer is pretty weak and until the employment picture improves, it's hard to see that changing much."

GDP acts as a scoreboard for the economy by measuring all goods and services produced. It fell by 6.4% in the first quarter and by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, at the pit of the recession.

In recent trade, the two-year note was up 2/32 to yield 1.17%, the 10-year was 19/32 higher to yield 3.57% and the 30-year was up 1 7/32 to yield 4.37%. Bond prices move inversely to yields. Treasurys benchmark yield curve, the gap between the two and 10-year yields flattened even more, with the curve moving to plus 240 basis points from plus 245 Thursday. At the start of the week it was at plus 271 basis points.

U.S. stocks climbed on Friday after a report showed a smaller-than-expected contraction in the economy this spring, keeping blue chips on track for their strongest monthly gain in nearly seven years.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by about 47 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index were higher by a handful of points each.

Going into the last day of July, the Dow industrials are up 8.4% for the month, the best monthly performance since October 2002. The Dow is also on track for its best July since 1989, when it rose 9.04%. Stocks have rallied by around 40% since hitting lows in March, fueled by hope that the recession has bottomed.

The Commerce Department said on Friday that GDP contracted at a seasonally adjusted 1% annual rate, better than the 1.5% rate of decline that was expected by Wall Street economists, as businesses were less aggressive than expected in liquidating inventories. Consumer spending, which accounts for the bulk of U.S. economic activity, slid 1.2% in the second quarter after rising 0.6% in the first quarter.

Earnings, also a key driver of the market's July rally, were lackluster on Friday. Chevron shares were flat after the oil giant said that its second-quarter earnings dropped 71% amid lower oil and gas prices.

Overseas, Asian markets pushed higher on the strength of the U.S. market overnight, while European markets were mostly lower.

cash for clunkers suspended

cash for clunkers suspended

Hate to be the one to break the news, but the Cash for Clunkers program has been suspended, due to the fact that it is Out of Money. It seems that it was funded with 1 Billion dollars and while this is a lot of money, when you realize that up to $4,500 was given away for each car, that is only 20,000 People who got money. 20,000 out of 250 Million, and I bet 50 million who could have qualified.

Well it’s over for now, but not too late for Martial Arts Schools (click to see a list of the best ones in DFW) to get some Free Publicity. See below from my previous article. You can still get local press coverage for your Clunker Smashing project and now a lot of sympathy because your school can’t get a new car.

The new Government Cash for Clunkers Program 2009 is going to be a big boom for Martial Arts Schools across America with this particular rule that must be applied to all cars in the program.
Especially intriguing is the new Cash for Clunkers program's last-minute revision requiring car dealers to
"transfer the trade-in vehicle to a disposal facility that will crush or shred it so that it will never be returned to the road, although parts of the vehicle, other than the engine block and drive train (unless the drive train is sold in separate parts), may be sold."

That means that all the cars that have to be “driven” not pushed into the car dealers must be shredded or disposed of in such a way that they can never be used on the road again.

This is a great opportunity for the (click to see the best MMA schools in DFW) to destroy some cars and get some Free Local Press and TV coverage. Imagine having your students attack the car, destroying it piece by piece using Karate kicks and chops, great TV footage and a lot of fun for the students.

If you own a Martial Arts School get someone who has a drivable clunker and plans on being in the government program. Then get the car dealer to agree to let you destroy the car for TV after they have agreed that it meets the requirements for being “driven” to the dealer.

It will be a huge boom to your school and a lot of fun

dunny

I love that is Dunny Kidrobot LA Presents: ilovedust 20” Dunny Live Painting (08.06)

Join Dunny on August 6th for a live painting event. ilovedust will be painting a 20” City Juice Dunny and will also be giving away limited edition screen prints. This event takes place from 6-8PM so be sure to get their early and don’t forget to bring a camera!

iphone hacker

In the past 24 hours we have seen major updates to not one but two software unlocks for the iPhone 3GS. Who says competition isn’t a good thing and who doesn’t love a good old fashion hacker fight? Let’s get it on:

In the red corner we have George Hotz along with his fresh version of .

• 3G(the network speed) issues fixed
• Now only patches one file, CommCenter
• Leaves no traces on your baseband after it runs.
• Much more clean and reliable.

In the blue corner we have the iPhone Dev Team. And since Hotz released his source code, his competition used it to create their latest version of iphone.

• Works on both 3G and 3GS
• Doesn’t patch any mach-o binary whatsoever. (Doesn’t require a separate patch as each new firmware comes out).
• Has no race conditions, no popups about “Missing SIM”, no network issues
• Is almost 7000 times smaller than its nearest competition

So there you have it - two software unlocks for your iPhone 3GS and one update for your iPhone 3G unlock. You have to credit George Hotz for stepping his game up when the Dev Team has been dragging their feet. It really seems to have sparked up a good rivalry that we can all benefit from.

anderson cooper bachelorette

Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski, the couple from the reality dating show, “The Bachelorette”, appeared on the Live with Regis and Kelly show on July 29, 2009.

Earlier this week, the couple was appeared on ‘Good morning America’, where Jillian and Ed were interviewed and they answered some interesting questions asked by their fans on the show. On the same show, Jillian Harris also showed off her $60,000 engagement ring. That particular ring was designed by Neil Lane, who is the leading celebrity jeweler in the Hollywood.

But if you compare both the shows, the Live with Regis and Kelly show, was a bit more spicy.
The Bachelorette couple was interviewed by Kelly and Anderson Cooper over at Live with Regis and Kelly. Anderson Cooper was hosting the show in the absence of Regis. On the show, Cooper asked Jillian some embarrassing questions including this one,

rorschach blots wikipedia

It’s all perfectly legal, however, as the rorschach blots wikipedia test was created almost 90 years ago, so they have lost their copyright protection here in the U.S.

Psychologists have created accounts at rorschach blots wikipedia for the sole purpose of arguing that the website is basically voiding one of the oldest psychological assessments known to man.

The rorschach blots wikipedia have, in fact, shown up on other sites, but it wasn’t until they showed up on Wikipedia that psychologists took notice.

“The more test materials are promulgated widely, the more possibility there is to game it,” said Bruce L. Smith, a psychologist and president of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods, who has posted under the user name SPAdoc. He quickly adds that he didn’t mean that a coached subject could fool the person giving the test into making the wrong diagnosis, but rather simply “render the results meaningless.”

So what do you think? Does it matter that the Rorschach Blots have been posted to Wikipedia?

Latest News

Workers are rolling out the red carpet for the president at a Kroger grocery store in rural Virginia, but President Obama could get a chilly reception when he appears Wednesday for a town hall meeting on health care.

Assistant produce manager Cathy Montgomery says she likes that the president is getting tough with Congress.

2 of 2

Phil Younce, a frozen food clerk at the Bristol store, fears health reform is being rushed, just like the stimulus.

"Like the last package that we pushed through, I think it was too hurried, and a lot of mistakes, a lot of things that shouldn't be," said Younce, who voted for Republican candidate John McCain in the presidential election.

But assistant produce manager Cathy Montgomery voted for Obama, and she's pumped he's getting tough with Congress.

"I like the fact that he's stepped up, and he's being aggressive, I really do. I mean, I'm all for that," she said.

Obama's health care stop in Bristol is the second of two town hall meetings Wednesday. He also has an event scheduled at a high school in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Bristol, which is near the Tennessee border, is also where Obama kicked off his general election campaign after defeating Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

Don't Miss

• No agreement yet on health care
• Obama: No reduced Medicare benefits in reform

Thousands in the area showed up at a health expo offering free medical care over the weekend, exposing a problem all too familiar to doctors in the region.

"Clearly, we all recognize -- any physician in the hospital would recognize -- that it's a system in crisis," said Dr. Bennett Cowan.

But like most employees at the Kroger supermarket, produce manager Steve Shipplett gets generous health benefits.

Even though he voted for Obama, he's nervous those benefits may be taxed to cover the uninsured, and he's demanding more specifics from the president.

"He's going to have to spit out some numbers and let the public know exactly what it's going to cost them and what they're going to have to give up," he said.

Shipplett says if the president steps up and sells his plan, then he's willing to step up, too.

"We've got to do something, and if it means me paying these taxes to get this reform through I would begrudgingly do it, yes," he said.

And back in the frozen food aisle, Younce is ready to do his share, too.

"No matter what kind of plan you are going to come up with, somebody has to pay for it. So eventually, it comes down to us -- the people that's working and paying taxes. We're going to have to pay for it one way or another. I just hope we can come up with a plan that is worth paying for," he said.

After more than six hours of negotiations, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, House Democratic leaders, the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats and other lawmakers emerged Tuesday night without a deal on health care reform.

Those in the talks said they were making progress, but the Blue Dogs argue that the health care bill will cost too much without fixing the ailing health care system. Interactive: Sticking points of the health care debate »

CNN on Wednesday obtained an e-mail from a top aide of Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus -- a message that aims to debunk a Washington Post headline that negotiators are close to a deal.

"While progress has been made in recent days, neither an accord nor an announcement is imminent," wrote Russ Sullivan, Democratic staff director for the committee. "In fact, significant policy issues remain to be discussed among the Members, and any one of these issues could preclude bipartisan agreement."