My 3½ year old recently became enamored of a Hawaiian shirt I bought for him at Goodwill, so I decided to make some similarly loud shirts for him myself.  My own fabric stash has little appropriate for a boy, so we trekked to JoAnn Fabric for the 'half off clearance fabric' sale to find more.  The plan was that I'd choose various prints and let him choose from those; we managed to pick out a spider print that way, but, while I was searching for more choices, he picked out these prints entirely on his own:

Hmm...well...the green, sure, but the other...?  Not something I would have chosen.  (Not now, at least, although I do suspect, had it been 1997, I would've been much more enthusiastic...)  He was insistent, and it takes only a yard to make a shirt for him, so, sure!


( To Husband's and my surprise, it turned out to be a great shirt print. )

All of you who have girls, you have so many more options for cute kid sewing!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/motherjones/main/~3/T_mvZZDYbc8/code-for-america-jen-pahlka-interview

When you consider city governments these days, you're apt to think of budget cuts and glacial bureaucracy—traits like "innovative," "responsive," or "tech-savvy" seldom spring to mind. Enter Jen Pahlka, a whip-smart web guru on a mission to change the way we relate to city hall. Not long ago, Pahlka left behind her rock-star status in the computer-gaming world, where she organized key conferences, ran Game Developer magazine and the website Gamasutra, and helmed the industry's biggest trade group. Hitting up Google, Microsoft, and major foundations for funding, she launched Code for America, a fellowship program that places talented programmers, web designers, and project managers with cash-strapped cities, where the young'uns help resuscitate aging databases and build apps to conquer residents' problems. In 2011, CFA sent 19 fellows—364 applied—to four cities for a year of public service that resulted in innovations like an online school-bus locator and a potentially lifesaving app called Adopt-a-Hydrant. This year there were 550 applicants, and CFA is expanding to eight cities. I caught up with the 42-year-old Oakland resident in a rare moment between fundraising and speaking jags.

Continue Reading »

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/motherjones/main/~3/DrXWhmoy-50/mitt-romney-gina-mccarthy-climate-change

As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney championed what he called a "no regrets" policy on climate change. He came into office vowing to eliminate the state's SUV fleet and to close its dirtiest power plant. In 2004, his administration outlined a sweeping long-term vision for cutting the state's emissions, improving efficiency, and promoting sustainable development that was considered among the most aggressive in the country.

That was then. As with his positions on other hot button issues, Romney's stance on global warming shifted after he started making plans to enter the 2008 presidential race. He went from stating that global warming is real and "human activity is a contributing factor" to declaring "we don’t know what's causing climate change." So what does the presumptive GOP nominee really believe? And how would he address climate change if elected president? One person who may well know is Gina McCarthy, who Romney tapped for top environmental posts in Massachusetts. But these days she's not talking—presumably because she's working for President Barack Obama as a top-ranking political appointee at the Environmental Protection Agency. Yes, Romney once handed his state's environmental portfolio to a woman who now handles climate change matters for Obama.

As the assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, McCarthy is the top air quality regulator in the Obama EPA. In that post, she has been behind some of the administration's toughest policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, smog, and mercury pollution.

A Boston native, McCarthy worked under four previous Massachusetts governors before Romney. Shortly after taking office, he elevated her role, promoting her to undersecretary for policy at the Executive Office for Environmental Affairs. When Romney combined that agency and others into a "super agency" known as the Office for Commonwealth Development, he chose McCarthy to serve as its deputy secretary of operations.

In that role, McCarthy excelled, according to environmentalists in the state. "She was terrific—plainspoken, smart, and very aggressive," says Jack Clarke, the director of public policy and government relations at Massachusetts Audubon and a member of several advisory panels to the Romney administration.

Continue Reading »

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/motherjones/main/~3/oea4P5IsfDo/dust-fire-explosions-OSHA

Small fires were a part of the job at the Hoeganaes Corporation metal powder plant in Gallatin, 30 miles northeast of Nashville. By early 2011, some workers later told investigators, they had become practiced in beating down the flames with gloved hands or a fire extinguisher.

The company's own product—a fine iron powder sold to makers of car parts—fueled the fires. Sometimes, powder leaked from equipment and coated ledges and rafters. Under the right conditions, it smoldered. Wiley Sherburne, a 42-year-old plant electrician, sometimes told his wife how this dust piled up everywhere, she recalled. On quieter weekend shifts, he said he could hear the telltale popping sound of dust sparking when it touched live electricity.

In the early morning of January 31, 2011, Sherburne was called to check out a malfunctioning bucket elevator. Near his feet, electrical wires lay exposed. When the machine restarted, the jolt knocked dust into the air. A spark—likely from the exposed wires, investigators later concluded—turned the dust cloud into a ball of flame that engulfed Sherburne and a coworker.

"He's burned over 95 percent of his body," doctors told Sherburne's wife, Chris, when she arrived at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center's burn unit. "He's not going to live." Wiley died two days later.

Continue Reading »

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/motherjones/main/~3/iwGOJSQa5i0/bank-of-america-outsourcing-call-center-philippines

Bank of America, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.

America's second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the Philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the Filipino press. The move, which includes a portion of the bank's customer service unit, comes less than three years after Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout.

Roman Romulo, deputy majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, bragged to the Manila Standard Today earlier this month that the Philippines "has secured its place as the world's fastest-growing outsourcing hub." Romulo pointed out that BofA is the last of the "big four" US banks to move their business-support network to his island nation, where the average family makes $4,700 a year.

A spokesman for Bank of America, Mark Pipitone, was unable to provide additional information about the bank's offshoring plans on Friday. "We have employees and operations where we can ensure that we best serve our customers and clients," he told me in an email.

Continue Reading »

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmadisOfGaul/~3/KTlk69qKTgA/chapter-57-middle-part.html

[Illustration for Bernger von Horheim's songs in the Codex Manesse.] 
 
+ 
 
Once the test of the sword had been finished by Beltenebros, as ye have heard, the King ordered the Queen and all the other ladies in the palace take the test of the wreath of flowers without any fear about what might happen. If a lady were to win, she would be more loved and desired by her husband, and if a damsel, the glory would be hers for being the most loyal of all.

Then the Queen came and put it on her head, but the flowers did not change from the way they had been. Macandon told her:

"My lady and Queen, if your husband the King won little with the sword, it seems ye have repaid him well."

She turned around ashamed with nothing to say, and next the very beautiful Briolanja came, Queen of Sobradisa, but she won no more than the Queen. Macandon told her:

"My very beautiful damsel, ye ought to be loved more than ye love, according to what ye have shown."

And then four princesses came forward, daughters of kings: Elvida and Estrelleta, her sister, who were very lively and beautiful, and Aldeva and Olinda the Discrete, on whose head the dry flowers began to become green, and so everyone thought she might win, but although they waited, they did nothing more. When she took it off, they became as dry as they had been.

After Olinda, more than a hundred ladies and damsels tried it, but none of them achieved what Olinda had, and to all of them Macandon said things of jest and amusement.

Oriana, as she watched it, had been very afraid that Queen Briolanja would win. And when she saw her fail, she felt great pleasure because her beloved would not think that Briolanja's love would be worthy, for she seemed extremely beautiful, more than any other lady or damsel she had seen in her life, and if she would not lose Beltenebros to her, then she would lose him to no one.

When she saw that now no one remained for the test, she gestured to Beltenebros to bring her forward, and when they came to the wreath, she put it on her head, and the dry flowers turned so fresh and beautiful that there was no way to know one side from the other.

And Macandon said:

"Oh good damsel! Ye are the one whom I have been seeking for forty years, even before ye were born."

Then he told Beltenebros to make him a knight and asked the damsel to give him his sword by her own hand.

"Do it now," he said, "for I can wait no longer."

Macandon dressed in white clothing that he had brought with him and donned the white arms of a new knight, and Beltenebros made him a knight according to custom and put on his right spur, and Oriana gave him an especially fine sword that he had brought.

When the ladies and damsels saw him, they all began to laugh, and everyone heard Aldeva say:

"Oh God, what an extraordinary young man and how extraordinarily well he looks, more than any other new knight! He must be very happy to be able to be a new knight for the rest of his life."

"Why do ye say that?" Estrelleta said.

"Because of those clothes," she said. "By their looks, they ought to last as long as he will."

"May God make it so," the damsels answered, "and keep him as handsome as he is now."

"My good ladies," he said, "I would not exchange my pleasure for any measure of yours, for I am more measured and youthful than ye are measured and modest."

The King was pleased by what he had said, for what they had said had not seemed proper.

When this was done, Beltenebros took his lady and said goodbye to the Queen. She said to her daughter, whom she did not recognize:

"Good damsel, since it is your will not to have us know you, I beg you to ask favors of me from wherever ye may go, which shall be gladly given to you."

"My lady," Beltenebros said, "I know her as much as ye do, although I have traveled with her for seven days, but from what I have seen, I tell you she is beautiful and has such hair that it has no reason to be covered."

Briolanja told her:

"Damsel, I do not know who ye are, but from what ye have shown of your love, if your beloved loves you as ye love him, this would be the most beautiful thing that love has ever brought together, and if he is wise, it shall be so."

Oriana took great pleasure in what Briolanja had said. With that, they said goodbye to the Queen and rode off as they had come, and the King and Sir Galaor left with them. Beltenebros said to the King:

"My lord, take this damsel and honor her, who well deserves it, for she has honored your court."

The King took her horse by the reins, and Beltenebros spoke with Sir Galaor, who had no desire to hear anything about friendship with him, for he had already sworn to fight with him. When they had ridden a while, Beltenebros took Oriana and told the King:

"My lord, remain here with God, and if ye would have me be one of the hundred in your battle, I shall gladly serve you."

The King was very pleased by that, and embraced him and thanked him, saying that he would lose much of his fear to have him at his aid. And so he and Galaor turned back.

Beltenebros entered the forest with his beloved and Enil, who carried his arms, very happy that their venture had ended so well, with him bearing the green sword around his neck and she wearing the wreath of flowers on her head. So they arrived at the Fountain of the Three Streams, where they saw a squire on horseback come down a nearby mountain. When the squire arrived, he said:

"Knight, Arcalaus orders ye to bring this damsel before him, and if ye tarry and make him ride and get you, he shall cut off both your heads."

"Where is Arcalaus the Sorcerer?" Beltenebros said.

The man showed him beneath some trees, and another man was with him, and they were in armor with their horses beside them. When Oriana heard this, she felt so frightened that she could barely remain on her palfrey. Beltenebros came to her and said:

"My damsel, do not fear, for if this sword does not fail me, I shall protect you."

Then he took his arms and told the squire:

"Tell Arcalaus that I am a foreign knight and do not know him and have no reason to obey him."

When Arcalaus heard this, he was irate, and he said to the knight who was with him:

"My nephew Lindoraque, take the wreath that the damsel wears, and it shall be for your beloved Madasima, and if the knight defends her, cut off his head and hang her from her hair in a tree."

Lindoraque immediately mounted and left to do so, but Beltenebros, who had heard him, rode forward. Although he saw that the other knight was very big, for he was the son of Cartadaque, the giant of the Forbidden Mountain, and of a sister of Arcalaus, he held him as nothing for the great arrogance with which he came. Beltenebros told him:

"Knight, ye shall not pass further."

"Ye shall not make me fail to do what my uncle Arcalaus has ordered me to do."

"Now," Beltenebros said, "though ye are as arrogant as he is evil, try to do what ye can."

Then they met and struck each other so hard that their lances were broken. Lindoraque was thrown from his saddle, and he carried a piece of the lance in his flesh, but he got up promptly with great courage. He saw that Beltenebros was approaching to attack, so he tried to protect himself from the blow, but he tripped and fell on the ground, and the iron of the lance came out his back, and he died immediately.

When Arcalaus saw that, he quickly mounted to help him, but Beltenebros came at him and made him miss with his lance when they met, and as they passed, he struck such a blow with his sword that Arcalaus's lance and half his hand fell to the ground, and only his thumb remained. Seeing himself thus, he began to flee, with Beltenebros behind him, but Arcalaus threw off the shield from his neck, and with the great speed of his horse, got so far ahead that Beltenebros could not catch him.

So he returned to his lady, and ordered Enil to take the head of Lindoraque and the hand and shield of Arcalaus, and to go to King Lisuarte and tell him what had happened.

That done, he took his lady and went on his way, and rested a little at the spring. When night came, they went to Miraflores, where they found Gandalin and Durin, who took their beasts. Mabilia and the Damsel of Denmark met them at the wall at the entrance to the garden with great joy in their spirits, as those who, if some misfortune were to have happened, expected nothing but death.

Mabilia told them:

"Ye bring beautiful gifts, but I tell you that they were purchased with the great anguish of our spirits and many tears from our hearts. Thanks be to God for the good He did you."

And so they entered the castle, where they supped and rested with great joy and happiness.
+

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2197

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2196

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad could be here, right now.