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Palestine set out to nullify and counter the defending champions in much the same way as Jordan did five days earlier in the Socceroos' shock 1-0 loss.
"It took a bit of time to get things going but as I said after the Jordan game, when you lose, you learn," Arnold said.
"We learnt a lot about that game and we went on the training pitch, we worked hard to fix that issue if teams play with a packed defence.
"Now it's all about the Syria game. We'll get back to the training field, we'll recover well and we'll go out in the Syria game with all guns blazing, expecting to win.
"I think we will get better and better as we go. There's been a lot of changes with the team, a lot of changes to the staff, so we're a new team and we're still growing."
As a collective the refinement was clear to see, but the breadth of individual displays was also promising.
Jamie Maclaren, Awer Mabil and substitute Apostolos Giannou all scored, Tom Rogic provided one assist and Chris Ikonomidis the other two.
Ikonomidis was one of two tactical changes to Arnold's line-up, the 23-year-old replacing Robbie Kruse on the left wing while Hull City midfielder Jackson Irvine slotted in for Massimo Luongo.
Rhyan Grant was a forced change to cater for Josh Risdon's injury, though the Sydney FC right-back strongly pressed his case for retention.
"Jackson Irvine was a tactical decision, Massimo Luongo has been playing fantastic but it was more about Jackson is great in the air and also on the set pieces," Arnold said.
"Chris Ikonomidis had a fantastic game. He was excellent today. It was a very young front line with a lot of energy with Mabil and Jamie and Tommy Rogic."
Arnold also praised Rogic for a tremendous shift despite playing with a broken hand and ankle sprain sustained against Jordan, while also carrying an existing knee injury.
"Tommy, that's how much pride he has in playing for the country," he said.
"He loves playing for Australia. He's very proud to play for Australia.
"He's gone through a little bit with obviously the hand situation but he was fantastic today."
Arnold must now mull some selection issues, with Trent Sainsbury suspended for copping his second yellow card of the tournament and Andrew Nabbout potentially fit to return up front.
Boise is a vibrant, bustling little city. And now there is finally a children's picture book that does it some justice. Written almost like a love letter, this little book is a deeply sweet and thoughful tribute to the city and what makes it home. Elisabeth Sharp McKetta teaches writing for Harvard Extension School. She is the author of Energy: The Life of John J. McKetta Jr., The Fairy Tales Mammals Tell, The Creative Year: 52 Workshops for Writers, and Poetry for Strangers.
Having just won his second Best Director Oscar for helming Life of Pi, a few months ago Ang Lee signed on to direct his first television project, the pilot for Tyrant, a drama about an American family who gets caught up in the turmoil of a Middle Eastern nation.
Alas, Lee eventually had to bow out of the project, so now another high profile director has stepped in.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, David Yates has now signed on to direct the pilot for Tyrant. Yates is best known for directing four Harry Potter movies (including the two-part finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2), but he's not completely new to the world of television, having been nominated for an Emmy for the 2005 HBO film The Girl in the Cafe.
Much of his early output was for U.K. television, too, including all six episodes of the mini-series State of Play, which was remade in the U.S. as a feature starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.
Tyrant has been shepherded by some equally high profile names in cable TV: Gideon Raff and Howard Gordon, executive producers of Showtime's acclaimed counter-terrorism thriller series Homeland, and Craig Wright, writer-producer for HBO's Six Feet Under. Raff is said to have created Tyrant and will be taking on main writing duties with Gordon and Wright developing. Wright will be serving as showrunner if FX picks up the series.
It may seem like losing Ang Lee was a blow to the project, but having Yates on board - a sure-handed director whose well-received Harry Potter films propelled him onto the A-list - is likely to inspire confidence in the pilot. The premise is intriguing and sounds like it'll approach the same territory as Raff and Gordon's live-wire saga of the morally gray world of domestic terrorism while staying grounded in the kind of family drama Wright knows so well from his work on Six Feet Under.
Yates is primarily known for helming the final chapters of the story of the boy wizard and bringing a darker and more mature tone to the material, which matches that of the corresponding novels. The U.K. version of State of Play also covered similar, political thriller ground ('a London politician's research assistant is found dead, prompting an examination into his personal life, with all kinds of secrets being laid bare').
Lee and Yates are directors who have certainly developed their own personal styles, and it'll be interesting to see the final result with Tyrant. Yates' approach will be different, to be sure, but no less interesting.
There are no details about casting or a potential production schedule, but with Yates' live-action Tarzan on hold until (supposedly) early 2014, expect to hear more news about Tyrant as the last half of 2013 winds down.
Yesterday at the White House, President Donald J. Trump and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reaffirmed their support for a strong, broad, and enduring strategic partnership based on a shared interest and commitment to the stability and prosperity of the Middle East region. They directed their teams to explore additional steps across a broad range of political, military, security, economic, cultural, and social dimensions to further strengthen and elevate the United States-Saudi strategic relationship for the benefit of both countries. U.S. and Saudi officials intend to consult on additional steps to deepen commercial ties and promote investment, and to expand cooperation in the energy sector. The President and the Deputy Crown Prince noted the importance of confronting Iran’s destabilizing regional activities while continuing to evaluate and strictly enforce the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The President expressed his strong desire to achieve a comprehensive, just, and lasting settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to continue the two countries’ consultations to help reach solutions for regional issues. More broadly, the President and Deputy Crown Prince noted the ongoing security and military cooperation between the two countries in confronting Daesh/ISIS and other transnational terrorist organizations that pose a threat to all nations.
The two countries announced their determination to strengthen their cooperation in the economic, commercial, investment, and energy fields, with the aim of realizing growth and prosperity in the two countries and the global economy. President Trump provided his support for developing a new United States-Saudi program, undertaken by joint U.S.-Saudi working groups, and its unique initiatives in energy, industry, infrastructure, and technology worth potentially more than $200 billion in direct and indirect investments within the next four years. The President also provided his support for United States investments in Saudi Arabia and the facilitation of bilateral trade, which will result in sizable opportunities for both countries. On energy, the two countries affirmed their desire to continue bilateral consultations in a way that enhances the growth of the global economy and limits supply disruption and market volatility.
The two countries highlighted that expanded economic cooperation could create as many as one million direct American jobs within the next four years, millions of indirect American jobs, as well as jobs in Saudi Arabia. The Deputy Crown Prince reviewed Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program for the President and agreed to put in place specific bilateral programs to help both countries benefit from new opportunities created by the Kingdom’s implementation of those new economic plans.
Obama’s response to hurricane praised: day 5 obama’s ray of hope.
Today’s Good News for Obama: Although the Obama camp has said Hurricane Sandy cleanup is “not a time for politics,” Obama’s response to the crisis has played well politically. On Tuesday, 77 percent of likely voters said Obama’s response to the hurricane was either “excellent” or “good,” according to a Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll released Wednesday. Additionally, the federal government got a 73 percent net positive rating. Fair or not, Romney has fallen short in people’s estimation. Only 44 percent rated Romney’s response as “excellent” or “good,” while 21 percent rated it “not so good” or “poor.” It’s been a bad week for the East Coast, but it may be a good week for Obama to make a closing pitch about the role of government.
It’s always about this time of year—when the first air-sucking, clothes-wilting, soul-smothering heat wave hits a big swath of the country—that people who rarely think about climate change start to worry. Never mind that a single sweltering summer can never be traced directly to global warming. Hot weather causes even some of the noisiest climate-change deniers to start to get serious.
And it’s at that point too that the big ideas—the quick, imaginative fixes that could reverse the climate change crisis and spare us all that grown-up bother of getting off fossil fuels and switching to clean, renewable energy—start to get trotted out. Couldn’t we just plant a trillion trees? What about seeding the oceans with iron to encourage carbon-eating plankton blooms? How about putting giant mirrors into orbit to reflect some sunlight back into space?
This week, another of the perennials got a good, close look when a study by the Carnegie Institution and the Indian Institute of Science explored the idea of seeding clouds to make them whiter and more reflective—essentially the mirror idea but without the actual mirrors. The good news: It works! The bad news: You’d better like monsoons.
Rain clouds…tend to be grey and absorb sunlight, whereas clouds with smaller droplets tend to be white and fluffy and reflect more sunlight to space. In practice this could be done by shooting a fine spray of seawater high into the air, where the tiny salt particles would create condensation nuclei to form small cloud droplets.
The researchers chose to alter only oceanic clouds for two reasons: Since most of the clouds would have dumped their rain on the water and not on the land, the fact that they’d be stopped from raining at all wouldn’t meaningfully affect world precipitation levels. What’s more, preventing sunlight from reaching the ocean as opposed to the land gives you the greatest bang for your temperature-moderating buck, since the oceans’ dark color gives them a low albedo—or reflectivity—which means they absorb heat and light especially well.
Monsoons occur when air masses over land are warmer than air masses over the ocean, and this draws in cool, moist air from over the ocean which then drops rain over the land. Our basic result calls into question previous assumptions about the impact of this geoengineering scheme. It merits further investigation.
That, of course, is the scientist speaking, and a good scientist will always argue for further investigation since that way lies knowledge—even if it’s knowledge you wind up wishing you didn’t have. But good policymakers—let’s say, oh, Senators in Washington with a climate and energy bill idling in their chamber, for example—are required to make tougher, real world decisions that don’t involve magic bullets to make problems go away. What’s more, they can’t computer-model their yes votes to see how they play out at the polls. It’s time they just stood up and cast them.
In 2004, lying philanderer John Edwards was almost elected Vice President of the United States. In 2008, he ran for President while simultaneously hiding an affair with a campaign worker. He was conducting this sordid relationship while his wife was dying of cancer. After her illness was disclosed, he decided to continue with his campaign and the affair. When confronted with evidence of a love child, Edwards continued his lying ways. His actions were not only despicable, but most probably illegal for Edwards is accused of funneling $925,000 in payments to care for his mistress and their baby. Today, a federal grand jury in Raleigh North Carolina issued a six count indictment against Edwards, including four counts of illegal campaign contributions, conspiracy and one count of false statements.
It is quite a fall from power for a smooth talking attorney who was elected to the United States Senate and was on the threshold of the Vice Presidency. Edwards was caught not only in repeated lies about his affair and the resulting child, but in using campaign cash to cover up his messy personal life. He created an elaborate scheme to hide his mistress and her child and asked campaign aides to lie for him in the process. One top aide, Andrew Young, even lied about fathering the child in an attempt to cover up for Edwards.
Edwards might have been able to get away with this deception if not for the investigative work of the National Enquirer. This tabloid pursued the story with vigor while the liberal mainstream news media looked the other way.
The liberal media did not want to expose a fellow liberal so the allegations of the affair and child were not covered. In contrast, the National Enquirer exposed a secret hotel meeting between Edwards and his mistress and child.
Once the tabloid published the story and pictures, Edwards admitted to the affair, but not the child. Only later did Edwards admit to fathering a child out of wedlock. At this point, his wife Elizabeth Edwards decided to divorce her lying husband and died with the pain of his misdeeds providing an unfortunate burden in her time of suffering.
John Edwards tried to worm his way into the White House, hoping that the American people would not realize the details of his despicable, morally bankrupt behavior. In his unsavory quest for power, Edwards betrayed his wife and his family and destroyed whatever shreds of honor and dignity he possessed.
Fortunately, the American people now know the real story of John Edwards and will not have to worry about seeing his name on another political ballot. Edwards is no longer trying to get elected, he is just trying to stay out of prison.
LAWTON, OK (KSWO) –All of the teachers for Lawton Public Schools are deemed highly qualified, despite having a massive teacher shortage before the start of the school year.
In March 2015, the district was facing a massive teacher shortage that left them with more than 150 open positions to fill by August with qualified candidates. They received a letter from the state in recognition of their 100 percent highly qualified status during the last week of December.
For months, Jean Hastings says she received calls from potential teachers who were not qualified and parents who worried the district would hire anyone to fill the jobs.
"It was very disappointing for several people that called. We weren't desperate, we were just diligent," Hastings said.
"Someone that has a substantial background in the core area, those classes in their degree, they may have a physics degree but they didn't have the education degree, the pedagogues classes, the art of teaching…so they have the content, they just don't have the degree," Hastings explained.
The district hired 47 emergency teachers who still have to complete the teaching certifications, which consist of four exams, but the difference is they do it in a year time span while teaching in a classroom. The teachers are also assigned a mentor to help them with lesson plans and the administration is always watching to make sure standards are being met.
"Our instruction leadership through our principals they do a lot of walk through and time in the classrooms so they can identify strengths and weaknesses," Hastings said.
Hastings says their accreditation is directly tied to funding.
"Through the federal funding, which is in the most jeopardy if we do not meet highly qualified. That's $23.8 million, so that is almost a quarter of our funding that might be lost," Hastings said.
Money that is used for everyday tools in the classroom.
"The mimeographs, whiteborads, the software programs…all of them have a user fee that has to be paid each year. For our students that are unable to bring supplies each year in our Title I schools. For that to be there for them to have engaging instruction," Hastings said.
As of right now, there are currently six positions open for the 2016 school year. Hastings says she believes they will be filled no later than Tuesday.
If you are interested in a teaching position with Lawton Public Schools, just head to lawtonps.org.
Report on the Animals in the Built Environment Workshop – microBEnet: the microbiology of the Built Environment network.
On October 7th and 8th 2014, we held a workshop at the University of California, Davis entitled Animals in the Built Environment. The aim of this workshop was to catalyze the study of the microbiology of built environments where animals live by bringing together experts in animal health, building science and microbiology to discuss why these systems are worthy of study and how research in this area might benefit both human and animal health.
Broad, discovery based studies of these microbial communities are needed.
Baseline data is needed to know who is there in these systems, including fungi and viruses as well as bacteria.
We know a lot about pathogens and not much about microbes that promote welfare.
There is a balance between what the public wants to see in places like animal shelters and zoos and what’s good for the animals. Cleaning less allows the animals to smell themselves and they may be happier and healthier.
In addition to basic necessities such as food and shelter, animal housing needs to give animals a choice, a lookout, a place to hide, and stuff to smell, among other things.
Gut microbiome responses to stress (and captivity) have potential for use as a diagnostic, may provide a rapid, detectable response to environmental change, and may have implications for wildlife conservation.
Exposure to microbes associated with domestic animals may benefit human health.
Denae Wagner, University of California, Davis, Animal health and facility design in animal shelters. Denae presented research showing how a relatively simple modification to cat housing in animal shelters reduce stress and respiratory illness. This research clearly demonstrates how building design affects animal health (as well as the importance of including animal health measures).
Angela Kent, University of Illinois, Aquarium (and Chicken Housing) Microbiomes. Angela described ongoing research on the microbial ecology of marine mammal housing in two aquaria that differ in seawater source as well as amount of diurnal temperature variation. She detected higher bacterial diversity (at the genus level) in ocean water and semi-closed seawater systems compared to closed (instant ocean) systems. In addition, Angela presented research showing differences in microbial diversity patterns in chicken housing units characterized as cage-free versus traditional housing for egg production.
Heather Lewis, Animal Arts, Reducing Stress with Good Housing. Heather is an architect who specializes in building animal shelters. She provided a lot of examples of how they are designing buildings to reduce stress and improve outcomes for shelter animals. Such design measures include separating waste elimination from space designated for eating and sleeping, as well as lookouts and places to hide.
Deb Niemeier, University of California, Davis, Transitioning from Production Farming: Organic and neighborhood scale poultry farmers. Deb described how chicken egg production in California has shifted towards lower density housing after the implementation of Proposition 2. She is using affordable, battery-operated sensors that can be built by undergraduates and placed in difficult locations to monitor environmental conditions in chicken housing in remote areas.
Jason Watters, SF Zoo, San Francisco Zoo’s Animal Wellness Program. Thriving zoo animals are key to meeting all aspects of the zoo’s mission. Jason described how the zoo’s Animal Wellness Program seeks to promote animal welfare. For example, recently they challenged undergraduate students to create new enrichment activities (Stanford University students designed a “Poop Shooter” for lions and a urine-soaked backscratcher for Floyd the giraffe).
Kevin Kohl, University of Utah, Taming the Wild: the effects of captivity on the gut microbiome of wild animals. Kevin described his work characterizing how captivity and diet affects the gut microbiome of different species of wood rats. He found that animals may lose critical microbes in captivity, which has important implications for programs seeking to rehabilitate and release wildlife. In addition, Kevin presented data showing that water is an important source for gut microbes in a captive amphibian.
Susan Lynch, University of California, San Francisco, Household Dust Exposure Modifies Gut Microbiome Composition and Airway Health. Susan described research in her lab demonstrating that exposure to dust from households with dogs alters the gut microbiome and provides a significant benefits to respiratory health in mice. She showed that greater microbial diversity in house dust is correlated with less wheezing and asthma. Further, she showed that Lactobacillus johnsonii isolated from this dust protects against viral infection.
We took a tour of the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital.
April 22, 2009 — Should Michael Johnston, a white, Harvard- and Yale-educated school principal who grew up in the ski town of Vail, really have a shot at being appointed to the state Senate in one of the most ethnically diverse districts in Colorado?
“That’s a very important and a very deep question, and I thought a long time about it before I made this decision, because I do think it’s important that there’s diverse representation in the Senate,” said Johnston, who’s vying to replace Senate President Peter Groff — the first African American to ever hold that position in Colorado.
Groff earlier this month was tapped by the Obama administration to head the U.S. Department of Education’s Faith-based and Community Initiatives Center. A 150-member Democratic vacancy committee will select Groff’s successor May 11. So far, three other candidates besides Johnston have emerged, according to the Denver Direct blog: Mateos Alvarez, Anthony Graves and Rosemary Marshall.
After earning his master’s in education from Harvard and a law degree from Yale, Johnston returned to Colorado to help found the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA) in Thornton, where he’s currently the principal. MESA made national headlines when Obama visited the school in May and praised Johnston and his staff for graduating all 44 seniors and placing them in four-year colleges.
The school’s curriculum emphasizes the arts in teaching other core subjects to a student body from a largely poor and urban area with a high number of recent immigrants. Johnston said MESA is once again poised to have a nearly 100-percent graduation rate for its current senior class of 54, with most of them accepted to four-year colleges.
One of the reasons he cited for seeking the SD 33 seat is the recent failure in the Senate of a tuition equity bill that would have allowed undocumented students to receive in-state tuition. He would like to see that bill reintroduced next session and passed by the full legislature.
Johnston said he’d also like to continue the work of Groff and House Speaker Terrance Carroll — whom he said he’s worked with in the past on education issues — when it comes to school choice, innovative programs and the overall fight for more education funding.
“They’ve generally supported the idea of quality public school choice, the idea of being able to help create magnet schools or charter schools that really support kids who weren’t being successful in traditional schools,” said Johnston, a resident of Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood.
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See for yourself as Johnston wins at www.DenverDirect.tv.
State Rep. Themis Klarides in her office at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford in 2014.
A quarter-century has passed since that hot August day in 1991, when some lawmakers sold themselves and the rest of Connecticut residents outside the Capitol in Hartford on the notion that they would finally get our fiscal house in order and find a better way to pay for government.
After 53 bruising days of a budget stalemate over the implementation of the first income tax, the House of Representatives voted 75-73 on Aug. 22 (of that year) to pass Gov. Lowell Weicker’s plan. One of the final pieces of the puzzle that ended the fight was a promise to put forth a constitutional spending cap that would limit portions of the state budget to grow no more than personal income growth or the rate of inflation.
Now, 25 years later, a current generation of lawmakers and other policy specialists are debating just how to implement that spending cap. Ironic? No, pathetic. The spending cap has been shredded over the years to accommodate new spending that otherwise would not be allowed under the terms of that Grand Bargain of summer 1991. Or it has been set aside in cases of fiscal exigency when a fiscal crisis has been declared by the governor and accepted by the legislature.
There is plenty of blame to go around but what is unmistakable that in the ensuing years between 1991 and now, spending has rocketed up and the rhythm of deficits to tax increases continues on as far as the eye can see.
In 1991, Connecticut faced a $1.1 billion deficit on its $7 billion annual budget and the Democrat-controlled legislature pushed through Weicker’s income tax to fill that fiscal hole. In 2011, the Democrat-controlled legislature passed the largest tax increase in state history of $2.5 billion on virtually every source of income, commodity or service. Then they passed the second-largest tax hike in 2015.
Despite all that, today we are looking at another estimated $1 billion deficit as soon as the new legislature convenes in January. See a pattern here?
The deal was, implement a 4.5 percent income tax, reduce the sales tax from 8 percent to 6 percent and eliminate the capital gains and dividends and interest taxes.
But the big promise, the Grand Bargain that voters were given of a path to fiscal sensibility and the fairness of spreading the burden of paying for government, was clearly broken. The constitutional spending cap was approved by more than 80 percent of voters in 1992 and yet the group appointed this year to actually define it is not expected to deliver a verdict until after the November elections.
A sea change did occur in the aftermath of that long, hot battle. Nearly 50 House members chose not to return. They either retired for fear of losing the next election, or, out of fatigue, ran for something else or lost.
But spending continued unabated for a quarter-century to where that $7 billion we spent as a state in 1991 is now more than $20 billion. Rating analysts have repeatedly warned that Connecticut appears not able to pay its bills without borrowing huge sums for operating expenses. Recently, those agencies have downgraded our credit worthiness.
It was also pointed out recently that in just the last five years — the time just happens to correspond with Gov. Malloy’s term in office — our added debt due to bond premiums has exploded by $550 million. The repeated acts of putting the family grocery bill on the credit card is going to cost us and our grandchildren, dearly.
That is, had we not taken those premiums the bill to our children and grandchildren would be $550 million less than it will be. That additional money did not go to pay for schools or roads or water treatment plants. It went to pay for state employee salaries and Connecticut’s cost of doing business daily.
We anticipate the work being done by the Constitutional Spending Cap Commission this fall. Perhaps it will finally put real meaning to what the huge majority of state residents intended in 1992.
But it comes 25 years late. Our hope is, it is not too late for Connecticut.

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