Eda Carmine Talks

I have been mulling the Democratic Congress’s approach to ending the Iraq war. Of course what I WANT them to do is to just lay down the law to Bush and set a solid time table or else cut off the money.

But they are smarter. They may not be getting us out right away, but it is doubtful that they could. Even if they cut off the money, it would be impossible to keep up the pressure when our soldiers start running out of supplies. It would be a disaster.

Instead they are forcing the topic repeatedly into the media, into the debate. They are siding both with the troops AND with withdrawal. Bush will be forced to accept withdrawal as a goal or veto funding for the troops. If Bush vetoes it, he will be open to the accusation of not supporting the troops.

And over time, the debate will continue. The Democrats will continue to try and set a timetable for withdrawal. And Bush will keep resisting. And the Republicans in Congress will face a choice: abandon the McCain/Bush/Lieberman quagmire or face losing the next election.

Suddenly, the Democrats have gotten the upper hand in the debate.

If they drop it, then they have lost. But if they keep pushing, keep bringing it up, keep opposing Bush…slowly the Republicans in Congress will be forced to set a time table. And the Democrats will have led the way.

Jerrold Nadler put it best: we want the headlines to read, “Democrats say enough is enough…Bush threatens veto.” THAT is exactly what happens. We have now set the tone of debate. Let’s hope we keep the initiative.

Here is this week’s newsletter.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

KARL ROVE’S HIT LIST…and our list of opportunities

BARAK OBAMA RESPONDS TO DEMOCRACY FOR NYC

ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS: Recycled Paper

A LITTLE HUMOR

INDIANA FOCUS: Targeting Ann Coulter’s Hate Speech

WISCONSIN FOCUS: Targeting Ann Coulter’s Hate Speech

MIDWEST PROGRESSIVE GROUPS

CALIFORNIA FOCUS: Targeting Ann Coulter’s Hate Speech

CALIFORNIA GROUPS AND EVENTS

VIRGINIA FOCUS: Targeting Ann Coulter’s Hate Speech

VIRGINIA/DC GROUPS AND EVENTS

NY STATE FOCUS: The Albany Project

NYC GROUPS AND EVENTS

NEW JERSEY FOCUS: School Board Elections

NEW JERSEY GROUPS AND EVENTS

I should say right now that I hated the first “Mission: Impossible” movie a lot and I hated “Mission: Impossible II” even more. Thankfully, “Mission: Impossible III” is way, way better than those horrible movies. Director J.J. Abrams, who created the TV show “Alias” and is executive producer of “Lost”, actually manages to make Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt character a human being with a life and something to lose, namely his fiance, Julia, (Michelle Monaghan). Those who have seen “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and “The Bourne Supremacy” know that secret agents and love don’t mix so well. If you didn’t know this already, the first five minutes of “M:i:III” will clue you in and leave you on the edge of your seat with white knuckles. This human dimension is what makes you care about what happens in “M:i:III” and is what was sadly lacking in the first two movies. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the villainous arms dealer Owen Davian and does an amazing job, making his scenes some of the best in the film. Somehow, it’s not hard to imagine Hoffman being a megalomaniac. Other things that make “M:i:III” better than its predecessors are several great “impossible missions” (oddly lacking in the first films I thought), interesting supporting characters (Ethan Hunt’s team stays the same through the film) and a storyline that you can follow and that makes sense. If you are at all a fan of (good) Bond movies and the Bourne films you won’t be disappointed.

Brad Zweerink

Comic book industry veteran John Layman joins the team at Cryptic Studios as Design Writer for their upcoming MMO, Marvel Universe Online.

Layman has plenty of experience with the Marvel  universe, having written  for several prominent Marvel series, including Gambit, House of M: Fantastic Four, and Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness. (Which, frankly, is not nearly as cool as Marvel Zombies vs. Ambulance would’ve been. But I digress.)

Layman also wrote for Metroid: Hunters on the DS and Marvel Trading Card Game for the PSP, so he’s at least somewhat familiar with writing for video games.

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Sometimes I get depressed when I read the blogs of other women scientists - particularly when the topic of children vs. an academic career is the topic du jour. The short version is that many of us seem to think we have two choices: (1) Have a career and no children, or children we never see; or (2) Give up our plans for t-t/research academia in order to raise a family. That we can’t be both academic researchers and fantastic parents seems to be a foregone conclusion.

Well, I refuse to be a foregone conclusion.

In January, I was blessed with a wonderful daughter - a child that I had been aching for (and actively working toward) for years. I want to be an attached parent, one who knows what my child’s interests are and what she had for lunch. I want to be there for bedtimes, games of pat-a-cake (and later, catch), and school plays.

In April, I got a job offer for a tenure-track position at a research university. I’ve been preparing for such a job for as long as I can remember. I want to get tenure, be a good mentor to students, teach interesting classes, conduct funded, intriguing research, and be a good colleague.

I’m having an incredibly good year, and it pains me when people suggest that I’ll fail at one endeavor or the other. That I’ll miss years of mealtimes and never have a weekend off, or if I do take time to be with my family, that I’ll be unfunded, under-prepared, and untenurable.

That shouldn’t be true. And I won’t let such talk defeat me from the start.

I will work very hard and very efficiently at my job. I’ll pour my heart into grant proposals and syllabi. But I’ll also draw the line at some only-moderately-unreasonable number of hours per week (say, 50-60). It is equally important to me that I have the time to sing my daughter to sleep, make her mashed bananas for breakfast, and change the occasional poopy diaper.

If those things deny me tenure, then so be it. I will acknowledge that I could have done more, but defiantly reply that I shouldn’t have had to.

I will not be a foregone conclusion. I will be a productive assistant professor. I will be an awesome mother. Just you watch.

Behold, our glorious empty rhetoric:

Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here.

The White House has convened an urgent multi-agency meeting for Thursday afternoon to deal with the new threat.

It must be important if Bush scheduled it for later this week!

Just be afraid all the time.

Some years ago I wrote a small ObjectARX module named VLXLoad that loads a .vlx file of the same name and in the same directory as the .arx module. I never claimed credit for the utility, but now that I’ve released the source code, I guess I’ll have to own up to it.

If you’re interested in seeing an example of “dynamically” defining an ADS (lisp callable) function when an ObjectARX module loads, take a look at the VLXLoad source code. The code also demonstrates how to call the GetModuleFileName() WinAPI function to get the path of the executing module, and how to declare and use the undocumented ads_queueexpr() function.

There is no documentation (and probably no comments), so be warned. The download contains ready to build projects for Visual Studio 2002 (targeting AutoCAD 2004-2006) and Visual Studio 2005 (targeting AutoCAD 2007). These projects were both created with the corresponding ObjectARX wizard, and are included in the course materials for my “High-Octane ObjectARX” class at AU 2006 as an example of a simple (yet very useful) ObjectARX application.

If you just want to use VLXLoad, I’ve also made the original pre-built binaries available on my Freebies page. The idea is to rename the correct .arx file so it matches the name of your .vlx, then set up registry demand loading so that the .arx loads when AutoCAD starts. The .arx then loads the associated .vlx file, and voila, demand loading for .vlx files. Instructions for setting up demand loading have been posted on the ‘net in the past (and it is well documented in the ObjectARX SDK), so I won’t describe that here.

Many places, including the UK, have mandated the use of a hands-free calling device if a driver wants to use a cell phone while operating a vehicle. There has been concern for years whether making phone calls while driving–even with a hands-free device–is safe. Supporters of hands-free calling claim that such calls are similar to speaking with a passenger in the back seat, for example. Well, this study by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) of the UK’s Department of Transport came to some pretty unsettling conclusions about such calls.

Automotive Digest recently summarized the findings of the TRL’s study. (Original UK-based link here.) But TRL’s main conclusion is:
“One clear implication is that using a mobile phone via a hands-free kit while driving is not equivalent to talking to a passenger. It is a much more difficult task. The obvious conclusion is that it is not worth the increased potential risk of using a hands-free carphone.”TRL suggests that hands-free calling is more difficult than talking to a passenger in the vehicle because:The lack of proximity of the conversationalist and the possible pauses in the voice transmission require the driver to exert more mental effort on the conversation; and,The person on the other end of the line is not present in the car like a passenger, and therefore cannot react to changing road conditions to help the driver in the same way a passenger can.TRL also found that drivers engaged in hands-free calling tend to drive faster, with more variation in speed, and that their ability to safely follow vehicles in front of them lessened. This study is the first I’ve seen that supports the evidence we’ve all seen first-hand on the road. How many times have you seen a car being driven poorly or dangerously on the road only to later notice that the driver is talking on a cell phone–hands-free device or not? If more such studies come to similar conclusions, we might see more companies ban their employees from having hands-free phone conversations while driving or even governmental regulations to prevent it. In the meantime, these conclusions may be enough to make you consider whether it’s really worth taking a call next time you’re behind the wheel.

Herb Information

Name: Indian Gooseberry

Biological Name: Emblica officinalis

Euphorbiaceae family

Other Names:
Indian Gooseberry, Emblic myrobalan, Amla, Amalaki;

Parts Used: Fresh Fruit, Dried fruit, the nut or seed, leaves, root, bark and flowers. Ripe fruits used generally fresh, dry also used.

Description:
The bark of Amla is gray in color and peals in irregular patches. Its feathery leaves, which smell like lemon, are of linear oblong shape and size 10 to 12 mm length and 3 to 6 mm width. Its flowers are monoecioius having greenish yellow color. They grow in auxiliary clusters and start appearing in the beginning of spring season.

Amla fruit, depressed globose with six vertical furrows, start developing by the middle of spring and the fruit ripen towards beginning of autumn. The color of the fruit is pale yellow.

Amla has been regarded as a sacred tree in India. The tree was worshipped as Mother Earth and is believed to nurture humankind because the fruits are very nourishing. The leaves, fruit and flowers are used in worship in India. In Himachal Pradesh the tree is worshipped in Kartik as propitious and chaste.

Active Ingredients:
The active ingredient that has significant pharma-cological action in amla is designated by Indian scientists as ‘phyllemblin’. The other ingredients present are gallic acid, tannins, pectin, and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).
It is a tonic, has a haematinic and lipalytic function. It is one of the strongest rejuvenatives in Indian pharmacopoeia. It contains 30 times the amount of Vitamin C found in oranges.

Medicinal Applications:
Fresh fruit is refrigerant, diuretic and laxative. Green fruit is exceedingly acid. Fruit is also carminative and stomachic. Dried fruit is sour and astringent. Flowers are cooling and aperient. Bark is astringent. It is one of the highest natural source of Vitamin C (3,000 mg per fruit)

Dosage and Uses:
Amla is used in the following forms: Decoction and Infusion of leaves and seeds; liquor, essential oil; confection; powder; paste and pickles. An astringent extract equal to catechu is prepared from the root by decoction and evaporation.

As a vermifuge: AKA Gross Gunk on the skin and scalp Juice of the fruit with honey is used.

For scabies or itch Apply the seed burnt, powdered and mixed in oil for scabies or itch.

Safety:
Caution: May cause acute diarrhea. No other information is available.

Benefits of Emblica officinalis

Enhances production of Red Blood Cells. Strengthens teeth, hair and nails.

Very Powerful anti-inflammatory herb. Useful on hemorrhoids mixed with honey or witch hazel.

Prevents premature greying of hair and makes them strong and free from dandruff.

Conditions for which Indian Gooseberry is Useful For:
acidity
anemia
hair (premature gray/balding) hemorrhoids
painful urination
urinary problems

As the foundation’s director, Julie Foudy brings high-profile visibility to the academy that bears her name. From what we saw at the NSCAA Convention is that Julie is more than just lending her name; she spoke and a couple hours each day at the foundation’s trade show booth.

From their Website:
Our focus at the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy will be to teach our students the ingredients it takes to be a leader on the field AND a leader in life. The Academy is designed for girls, ages 12-18. Our students will get the best of both worlds: they will learn soccer from some of the best women players in the world AND will be exposed to a multitude of leadership concepts they can cultivate for life.
Get more at: Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Foundation