Election Day Dispatches

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Photos by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

I've just stopped by Columbus, Ohio?s 28-E, a precinct in the diverse suburbs east of the city. Most people in the steady lunchtime line were black. Add this to my small pile of anecdotes from Virginia, which has memorably huge lines in Northern Virginia and Richmond. And add something else?the absence of any presence from True the Vote, the independent, conservative, poll-watching organization that grew out of the Tea Party.

Before I got to the polls, True the Vote had an announcement: It was going to have trouble policing Ohio?s Franklin County. In order to watch the polls and potentially challenge voters, you have to either 1) be a member of a major party or 2) get five possible watchers to sign a form saying they can do it. True the Vote filled out the forms, but the Franklin County Board of Elections rejected them, explaining that the documents might have been falsified. True the Vote, predictably, called this "a final, desperate attempt to deny citizens their right to observe elections."?

But Democrats remained sort of worried that the True the Vote crew would show up anyway. The people on the forms didn't pick up when I called. They didn't show up in east Columbus. A Democratic poll watcher, Phil Hart, sat sketching a table while a Republican poll watcher, Chris Walsh, was checking his phone. They'd both heard the True the Vote "falsification" rumor and found it amusing. "Wouldn't that be ironic!" Hart said. Neither of them was challenging any voters.

We're going to see more paranoia before this ends. I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh as I drive, and he's informing listeners that a test page put up at Cincinnati.com, a list of early votes that was just written for fun to check the system, is possibly legit. "It has Romney up by 90,000!" Limbaugh said. True the Vote may be wasting the precious time of Tea Partiers who could be getting out the vote. Limbaugh's at least serving as a distraction.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=ec88659a1b9a0a984c4cc5ef11f4744e

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Virtual Vegan Potluck Post-Game (now including a Contest ...

PeptoIt?s one of those things?you hate to see it end, but there is also a huge feeling of relief. ?Sigh.

The VVP November 2012 is now a part of vegan history. ?Yet it will live forever (or perhaps not something quite so permanent) thanks to the (ahem) links you?ve all updated to point directly to the relevant blog posts. ?(You did that, right?) ?All one now has to do is visit Vegan Bloggers Unite! or the VVP webpage to revisit the Potluck over and over and over? We can all daydream about the wonderful appetizers, drinks, soups, salads, breads, main courses and desserts that we will be making. ?Just in time for the holidays

We had a few glitches and I?ll not whine about it, though part of me really, really wants to whine. ?Somer and Lidia did a tremendous job helping me herd a few cats for most of November 1. ?And that?s all I?m going to say about that.

So?Thank you first and foremost to all of the wonderful bloggers ? old friends and new ? who make the Potluck what it is. ?Once again, I am awed by your enthusiasm and creativity. ?Big hugs to my cohorts, Jason, Somer and Lidia who spread the word and gave me much-needed love and support at the exact needed moments. ?Like when I published my post 12 hours early. ?Finally, gratitude to our sponsors who for some unknown reason, agreed to help by Tweeting, blogging and posting about an event that takes place in the ether by people they?ve never met and where no actual food is shared. I hope they will stick with us through many Potlucks to come. ?Everyone: give yourselves a big pat on the back.

What?s next? ?For starters, we are holding a contest to pick the favorite recipe from each category ? and you all are the judges. ?All you have to do is email me your pick from each course ? remember just one recipe per course. ?It?s going to be a really difficult decision because everyone did a great job at sharing truly good recipes. ?I?ll tally the results and the winner from each category will get a Virtual Vegan Potluck t-shirt (now in the design and production phase?). ?The winning recipes will be posted on the VVP website ? with permission from the authors, of course. ?Rules of the contest are:

1) please vote only once ? choosing one selection from each course;
2) if you participated in the Potluck, please do not vote for your own recipe;
3) VVP participants, blog readers and total strangers welcome to vote;
4) please do not vote for An Unrefined Vegan?s amazing recipe?no matter how much you want to ? I happen to know the person giving out the t-shirts. ?I will, however, cast my votes for your recipes;
5) voting closes at midnight (U.S. Mountain Time) on November 12; winner announced November 13.

Did I say VVP t-shirt?? ?You read that right. ?I?ve got my immense and talented staff of artists, designers and printers working overtime on a fabulous, cruelty-free and plant-based tee. ?I?ll be making those available on the website soonish.

But wait! ?There?s more!? We?ve rolled out a blog on the VVP website ?- the first post is already up ? which will include our sparkling and witty commentary about the mundane and trivial along with guest bloggers, giveaways and recipes. ?You?ll want to follow the blog, because soon we are going to be giving away a gift certificate from our sponsor, forAnima. ?They?ve?generously donated $50 so one lucky person can shop their heart out for cruelty-free goodies. ?More on that and other giveaways in the weeks to come. ?P.S. Please welcome forAnima as well as Global Looking Glass ? our newest sponsor ? to the VVP team.

And finally?I?m already scheming about VVP III?(a.k.a. Grandson of VVP) which will most likely take place in the Spring of 2013. ?Who?s coming?

One year ago today: Happy Birthday Luda Chocolate Banana Cherry Muffins

Source: http://anunrefinedvegan.com/2012/11/05/virtual-vegan-potluck-post-op-now-including-a-contest/

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DuPont unveils the new colour palette of DuPont? Corian? and ...

Innovative solutions for architecture, interior design, building, construction and infrastructures

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Dubai, UAE???November 4th, 2012 ??DuPont Building Innovations will unveil the new colour palette of DuPont? Corian? techno-surface and the new application area of exterior cladding at the Big 5 Exhibition ? Rashid Hall, Stand B197, Dubai World Trade Centre, 5 ? 8 November, 2012.? DuPont will showcase its range of products, solutions and technologies for architecture, interior design, building, construction and infrastructure, able to provide sustainable building solutions and superior performance in terms of design, and technical and aesthetic properties.

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?From innovative energy-saving systems to beautiful and long-lasting surfacing solutions, DuPont Building Innovations is able to deliver safety, durability, beauty and energy efficiency,?providing a major contribution to the modern built environment of United Arab Emirates and Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] ? including every kind of building and architecture, roads, bridges and other infrastructures,? said?Tony Azzam, DuPont Building Innovations, Regional Business Manager for Turkey, Middle East & Africa.

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?With a booming construction industry in GCC, we are very excited to launch the new colour palette of DuPont? Corian??techno-surface?and to promote among regional?architects and building companies?the exterior cladding applications of this ultra-versatile material from DuPont. The continuous efforts, the investment and the creativity of DuPont in research and technology, product innovation, new applications development have made DuPont? Corian? a design tool offering exceptional versatility and almost limitless possibilities for producing high quality, effective, functional and reliable solutions addressed to residential, public and commercial environments, both indoor and outdoor,? he added.

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The renewed colour palette includes 72 tones conceived to better meet the requirements of architecture and design professionals as well as those of an extremely wide range of furnishing companies. From new whites to greys, from classic colours to more trendy and colourful hues, as well as the solid tones range, DuPont? Corian? palette is able to respond to an almost endless variety of stylistical and aesthetical requirements.? The colour collection of DuPont? Corian? colour includes also some translucent tones, specifically developed for lighting applications.

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DuPont? Corian? techno-surface can be easily shaped and fabricated into virtually any design, joined with inconspicuous seams and combined with many other materials.? It is very hygienic and easy to clean, and withstands a lot of wear and tear while being also very resistant to UV.? Since its invention by DuPont over 40 years ago, its superior properties have enabled DuPont? Corian? to become a leading material in many industry sectors among which the building and construction one.

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DuPont Building Innovations includes?products for landscaping including DuPont? Plantex? GroundGrid? and DuPont? Plantex? Geoproma? for soil stabilization, DuPont? Plantex? RootBarrier for preventing invasive growth and damage by aggressive plant roots, and DuPont? Plantex Gold and Cocomat to protect gardens from weeds.? It offers a unique nonwoven structure of thermally bonded polypropylene filaments, which form a barrier to vegetation while allowing water to pass through. It has been successfully tested in application for more than 25 years, and its superior performance dispenses with the need for herbicides.

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While DuPont? Typar? geosynthetics are a recognised solution for today?s civil engineering and construction challenges worldwide.? Overtime, they have proven their high performance and resistance offering the highest quality to the civil engineering and construction sector.? DuPont? Typar? is a spunbonded non-woven fabric made of continuous polypropylene fibres: it has high tensile properties and excellent water permeability and is one of the most well-known and broadly used high-quality materials for road building, drainage systems, inversion roofing, and landscaping.? For further information on the range of DuPont? Typar geosynthetics please visit?www.typargeo.com

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Source: http://www.dxbbusiness.com/dupont-unveils-the-new-colour-palette-of-dupont-corian-and-new-applications-at-the-big-5/

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Indonesia a step closer to renewable energy

Kazakhstan News.Net Sunday 4th November, 2012

Two companies owned by the state, LEN Industri and Pertamina, have been working together to build a solar cell production plant in Bandung, which is only a few hours from the capital, Jakarta.

Antara news agency has reported that plant's construction should start around December of this year.

The new plant is expected to produce solar cells with a total capacity of 60 MWatts.

Indonesia does not currently have a renewable energy industry.

A presidential regulation issued in 2006 said that solar energy should account for between 0.2 and 0.3 precent of national energy usage by 2025; the equivalent of 1,000 megawatts per hour.

Source: http://www.kazakhstannews.net/index.php/sid/210536062/scat/9d7afd9766a94f28

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SPOKES4HOPE Rodeo Benefitting Children | MySouthlakeNews

Monday, November 5, 2012 By Department of Public Safety Community Relations

MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THE SPOKES4HOPE RODEO ? THIS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2012. The Spokes4Hope Foundation?s Annual Keller & Southlake Police Motorcycle Rodeo begins at 10:00 a.m. at Cabela?s.? Spokes4Hope benefits children of North Texas who are less fortunate or have suffered abuse. Last year more than 3,000 bicycles were purchased through donations, assembled by volunteers and given to some very special children.

Your donation of $75.00 will provide a bicycle, helmet and a teddy bear and will help?transform a child?s life this Christmas. You can donate individually or as a group. Along with your gift, each child will receive a card with your name or the name of your group.

Simply make your check out to Spokes4Hope (A 501.(c)3 non-profit organization) and drop? it off at our DPS HQ at 600 State Street, Southlake, TX or you can mail it in to the same?address, zip code 76092 c/o Southlake Police Officer Alton Wells.

For more information go to www.Spokes4Hope.com ?or contact: (817) 690-6272 Police Officer Alton Wells or Kevin Howell at (817)703-4853. And thank you for your generosity.

Spokes4Hope

Saturday, November 10, 2012 ? 10:00 a.m.?5:00 p.m.

Cabela?s at 12901 Cabela Drive, Fort Worth, TX

7:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m. ? Motorcycle Practice Run

10:00 a.m. ? Open to the Public

12:00 p.m. (Noon) ? Opening Ceremonies

2:00 p.m. ? Santa Bike Gifting

5:00 p.m. ? Trophies Awarded

Source: http://www.mysouthlakenews.com/2012/11/public-safety/spokes4hope-rodeo-benefitting-children

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Six Things You Didn?t Know About Survivor Series

Since its arrival in 1987, Survivor Series has been one of WWE's most momentous events, and in the 25 years that have passed, its historical importance has only grown. What began as a perhaps quirky, survival-themed pay-per-view that aired Thanksgiving night has evolved into WWE?s second longest-running event.

The fall classic has played home to major title matches and a wide assortment of dramatic twists and turns, not to mention a turkey of an idea or two. (Gobbledy Gooker, we?re looking in your direction.) Rediscover some of the lesser-known incidents, matches and moments that helped make Survivor Series among the most beloved and widely anticipated shows of the year.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/survivorseries/six-things-you-didnt-know-about-survivor-series

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Syria: Bomb hits near major Damascus hotel

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? Syrian state television reports that a bomb has exploded near a major hotel in the capital Damascus, wounding several people.

The powerful blast on Sunday shook the Dama Rose hotel and shattered much of its glass. The hotel in the past was used by U.N. observers visiting Syria.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-bomb-hits-near-major-damascus-hotel-100353860.html

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Must Have Information About Self Improvement | Valentino ...

How about taking a few minutes of your time in order to learn simple steps on improving the rest of your life? If you pay attention to what we have to say, that is what this article can do for you. Read the tips and tricks that we have provided for you, so that you can start to reach your true potential.

Are you having a difficult time meeting someone that you want to share your life with? Use the net to jump start your search. Four out of ten couples meet online these days. You may find one that is looking for someone like you. These websites have their own pros and cons.

Begin today setting some money aside regularly for emergencies. For many people any unexpected expense results in more charges on their credit card. Set aside a certain amount from each check for an emergency fund. It doesn?t have to be a great deal of money, but be consistent. That fund can help us both in the short term and in the long term as our debt decreases instead of grows.

TIP! There is no way to make everyone in your life happy, so it is best to focus on first pleasing yourself. You are essentially responsible for your happiness; however, this don?t mean you should use people to get what you want.

Make a list of your priorities, and plan your life around these elements. Your life will be more peaceful, satisfying, and happy if you can stop obsessing over negative or meaningless things and concentrate your energy on what you really care about.

You should make personal development goals as defined as possible with specific ways to achieve them. The more specific your goals, the easier it will be to chart a course from where you are now to where you want to be in the future. You can face each challenge and move on to the success you desire.

You can try writing yourself a motivational speech. Take some time to write down a few of the good things that you love about yourself and keep it on a exotic postcard. Whenever you feel a lack of confidence, read it. You could also record a list of your positive traits and watch them on video. How will this help with your personal development?

TIP! Realizing your own self-worth is a crucial component of personal development. You need to be aware that you owe that to yourself.

Make sure the goals you set for yourself are small and manageable so you can easily achieve them and develop the lifestyle that will make you happy. Paying attention to your weaknesses by setting goals will allow you to improve on those areas.

One interesting trait the might be worth developing is called ?sexual capital.? It does not refer to using sexuality in a manipulative way. Instead, it is simply a method of recognizing and making the most of your potential to be charming. Good social skills, including a command of sexual capital, are not absolutely required, but they can take you further than you would get without them.

TIP! If you don?t take care of yourself, you won?t be able to take care of others. No matter your path, or whether you?re failing or thriving, take time out to restore and rest yourself.

You should find the information in this article helpful to you and to the people you care about. If you diligently apply the advice in this article to your own circumstances, then the changes you make will be profound and long-lasting. If you take the time and effort to utilize the advice from this article, it can help you to reap huge rewards.

P.S.-If you love personal development and would love to make an extra $1000/day blogging with it, find out how my 2 friends are helping thousands of people make money about their passions ===> Discover why this game-changer is the most bad-ass personal development plan in the industry?s history!

Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/valentinocrawford/blog/must-have-information-about-self-improvement/

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Charter schools amendment: Say ?no? to ed biz ?shamans? and ...

In the final stretch of the charter school amendment battle, I am going to run a few more pro and con pieces.

Here is the con from high school educator Ian Altman of Athens. Stay tuned for a pro piece shortly.

By Ian Altman

Georgia voters will decide next week on Amendment 1 and whether to allow a politically appointed commission in Atlanta to override elected boards of education. Hence, they will be deciding whether to let millions of their tax dollars evade the respectability of their provenance by enriching the lives and moral self-regard of the billionaire Koch brothers, professional disparager of teachers Michelle Rhee, and Walmart heiress Alice Walton, among other mega-donors outside of Georgia who are dissatisfied with the vintage of our state constitution.

The mellifluous promises of these white collared carpetbaggers would have us believe that the best interest of our kids is in the fragmenting of the public interest through the proliferation of for-profit charter school choices.

Their motivations are the same as those of the Milton Friedman shamans and Ayn Rand snake charmers and Lehman Brothers flat-earthers whom we assumed to know how to behave like adults, who would burn my salary in half a month?s worth of private jet fuel, and who left us high and baked in a desert economy from which they tell us we?ll never emerge if our students don?t learn the proprietary programming language to fix the pecuniary wings of our bumbling financial Icarus.

The business of learning is to be transmogrified by high-rent holy writ into the learning of business. In 2007, as now, I?d rather have had impoverished kindergarteners, who at least remember our lessons about sharing, handle my money.

Accordingly, I decline to accept that there is no longer such a thing as a common good which finds among its highest expressions a public school system. Under the control of elected boards which are accountable to voters, our public schools have, when we account for variables such as poverty to compare apples to apples instead of to pepperoni, kept achievement standards just as high as Singapore, Shanghai, Finland, and any other place a charter school company stockholder will point to as ostensible proof of a crisis.

You will not hear that from them because without that crisis, their product sits on the shelf like an ineffably gaudy chandelier, spun out of the poor imagination of the Gates Foundation ? that Gatsby of educational theory ? and discarded because it?s not bright enough.

None of this is to deny that public schools have problems. I live with those problems every day and know them far better than any politician, think-tank analyst, or armchair sociologist. The issue, however, is that the problems the apostles of for-profit charter schools would solve are not those we actually face, which nearly everyone who is both honest and serious in education research knows to be caused by poverty and exacerbated by the other private part of the education industry: the ship-boarding privateer proprietors of our standardized tests like McGraw-Hill and NCS Pearson, the latter of which writes Georgia?s tests. Every year they bring out from their opaque autoclaves these testing instruments which are as monkey wrenches for the performing of brain surgery, and every year we struggle to analyze the results which any competent teacher could have predicted without the extra consultants? fees and the insult to our students? dignity.

What do these tests have to do with the charter schools amendment, you ask? The two issues are the two sides of a silver coin proffered to buy away our trust in the very idea of the public as such, complimentary acts of skullduggery that undermine on the one hand the project of public education and on the other the professionalism of its employees.

Students in my literature classes read Faulkner?s ?Barn Burning? and learn to separate the moral awareness of the narrator from the emotional awareness of the protagonist, understand the celestial rhetoric of Romeo and Juliet in relation to the earthy vulgarity of Mercutio, write analyses of the logic of competing editorialists? views of Arizona?s ban of ethnic studies courses, and reflect on the theft of history as rendered in August Wilson?s ?The Piano Lesson.?

Such learning is difficult, emotionally unsafe, politically unstable, necessary for the mold-breaking lives of free-thinking citizens in a democracy, and utterly unrelatable to the choice of A, B, C, or D on a sterile scantron sheet. Whatever it is those tests measure or purport to measure, it just isn?t that important.

Many for-profit charter school curricula are bought and paid for in accordance with the wishes of the industry that designs their assessments. In other words, they pay and are paid to institutionalize that anesthetizing practice which we in the public schools have tried so hard to resist: teaching to the test.

Students can watch a video of a lecture on a computer and spit answers back at a computerized multiple choice test without having a teacher at all. That is exactly the model some for-profit charter schools use, and those are the charter schools Amendment 1 is designed to attract, as evidenced by the many thousands of dollars those companies have poured into Georgia from outside to influence our vote. It is a high-tech version of a 2,000- year old practice, and it is meant to save money, not kids.

There are plenty of good charter schools in Georgia already, and more no doubt will be approved by local boards of education, but we do not need a commission to force communities to have for-profit charter schools designed to siphon Georgia taxpayers? money through proprietary canned curricula, textbooks, computer programs, and other materials specifically wedded to those curricula, and mind-numbing assessments, to companies outside of Georgia which will sell the package at a premium and call it a revolutionary success when it will in fact be the death of truly critical thinking.

Parents and voters need to realize what they?re really asking for if they vote ?yes? to Amendment 1. They will not like many of the results of these new choices, and many of their kids will languish horribly if the amendment passes. The real solution to our public school problems is two-fold. First, make responsible social policies that do more than pay lip service to fighting the vitiating academic consequences of poverty. Second, hire the best teachers with the best academic learning and pedagogical training available, pay us properly and give us the resources we need, and get out of our way.

Source: http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/11/02/charter-schools-amendment-say-no-to-ed-biz-shamans-and-snake-charmers/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog

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