Scotts Mall Wood

Cabinets usually have one or more doors on the front that are mounted with door hardware and occasionally a lock; they may also contain drawers. Short cabinets often have a finished surface on top that can be used for display, or as a working surface such as the countertops found in kitchens.

A cabinet intended for clothing storage is usually called a wardrobe or an armoire (or a closet if built-in). In previous centuries, such a cabinet was also known as a linen-press. In British usage, a wardrobe occasionally was referred to as an oakley, because of the oak wood used in its construction. In India, a cabinet is often referred to as an Almari.

Cabinet Knobs

Myrtle Beach Resort

The Hotel Ca Sa Padrina in Palma de Mallorca It is an automatic hotel that works without a receptionist.

The highest hotel rooms are in the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, the highest floor being at around 350 m.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) –
"Titanic" director James Cameron's "Avatar," a 3-D extravaganza hyped as a giant leap in cinematic prowess, earned an estimated $73 million during its first weekend at the North American box office, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Sunday.

The opening for the costly sci-fi film fell short of industry forecasts in the $85 million range. But the News Corp unit said the tally beat its internal projections, and noted that an enormous snow storm along the East Coast crippled business for all movies.

The weekend haul ranks as merely the sixth-biggest of the year in the United States and Canada. The 2009 record was set last month by "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," with $143 million. The all-time record of $158 million was set last year by "The Dark Knight."

On the other hand, ticket sales for "Avatar" were inflated by premium pricing for screenings in venues equipped with 3-D technology. Such venues accounted for 59 percent of the total cinema count and 71 percent of sales, Fox said.

The film also earned $159.2 million from 106 foreign markets. Individual-market tallies were not immediately available.

"Avatar" garnered almost as much attention for its reported budget of at least $300 million budget as for its eco-friendly tale of a soldier from Earth sent to infiltrate an alien race of 10-foot (3 meter)-tall blue people in order to save the polluted planet.

It marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titanic," the biggest film of all time before accounting for inflation. He spent the intervening years waiting for moviemaking technology to catch up with his vision for the follow-up. Production took two years.

The film won breathless reviews from critics. "You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else," said the Los Angeles Times.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; editing by Doina Chiacu)

GENEVA (AFP) –
The International Cycling Union (UCI) Hein Verbruggen and former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Dick Pound said Thursday that they had settled a lawsuit over allegedly injurious comments by Pound.

Verbruggen and Pound released a joint statement closing the litigation in a Swiss court over comments by the outspoken Canadian founding head of WADA.

Verbruggen and Pound often clashed when they were both in office and Pound was vocal in questioning the UCI's efforts in tackling doping at the height of some of biggest scandals to hit cycling.

"Richard Pound acknowledges the fact that some of his comments reported in the media might have seemed excessive if they were interpreted to mean that the UCI and Hein Verbruggen were doing nothing to combat doping," the statement said.

"This applies to an even greater extent to the allegation of collusion which was never formulated as such," it added.

Pound also recognised that the UCI had put in place new testing procedures.

"Richard Pound acknowledges the fact that the UCI is doing good work to eliminate cheats from their sport."

Meanwhile, the cycling body declared that it would carry on with the anti-doping measures.

"However, it remains the duty of the bodies responsible for combating doping, including the WADA, to note any inadequacy on the part of any agency whatsoever with a view to making this fight more effective," the statement added.

Each side agreed to pay its own costs.

The UCI lawsuit launched in March 2008 accused Pound of "continual injurious and biased comments" and WADA had leapt to their former chief's defence.

Pound stepped down from his WADA post in November 2007, while Verbruggen stood down from the UCI presidency in 2005 but stayed on as vice president until 2008.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A teenage Dutch sailor who made headlines when she went to court to fight for the right to sail solo around the world has gone missing, police said Sunday.
Laura Dekker's boat, Guppy, is still moored at its usual berth and the 14-year-old appears to have left her father's home on her own, Utrecht police spokesman Bernhard Jens told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"We do not believe this is a crime," Jens said.
Utrecht District Court refused in October to let Dekker embark on her attempt to become the youngest person to sail alone around the world, and placed her under the supervision of child care authorities.
Jens said Dutch authorities have alerted neighboring countries to monitor airports.
"That happens with missing minors — if she is seen somewhere else or tries to leave via an airport or something like that, authorities know we are looking for her," he said.
Dekker has joint Dutch and New Zealand citizenship because she was born on a yacht in New Zealand waters. She said earlier this year she might try to go there if Dutch authorities refused to let her sail.
Jens would not comment on a report in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that Dekker withdrew euro3,500 ($5,000) from her bank account a few days ago.
"We are doing everything we can to make sure we can get her back," Jens said. "We are certainly concerned about her health — we are talking about an underage girl."
Dekker's spokeswoman Mariska Woertman did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) –
IPhone app developer Tapulous says its sales have approached $1 million a month, providing fresh evidence of the growing success of start-ups designing programs for Apple Inc's mobile device.

Tapulous -- with a mere 20 employees -- said its "Tap Tap Revenge" game series has now been installed more than 20 million times, with more than 600 million total games played.

Earlier this year, research group comScore said the game had been installed by one-third of Apple app users.

The company says it's profitable, but it won't reveal precise sales data. Tapulous' chief executive said he expects it to ride a wave of exponential growth in mobile app commerce in the next two years, similar to that seen recently by social gaming companies like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom.

Playfish was recently acquired by Electronic Arts for $275 million in cash.

"It's going to be big and all of a sudden people are going to say, 'holy cow, where did those guys come from?'" said CEO Bart Decrem.

The install base for app developers is growing fast. Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones and iPod touches, which use the same software.

Tapulous raised $2.8 million from investors, which include such notables as Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.

Tapulous generates sales by charging for some games, through ads, and by selling songs through its games.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Editing by Gary Hill)

The Mozilla development community has rolled out the latest beta of its Firefox 3.6 browser.

In addition to the usual round of bug fixes, Firefox 3.6 beta version 5, comes with a number of new features and performance enhancements. The browser offers the ability for users to easily reskin the browsers with a new visual theme. The new version can also run scripts asynchronously, which should speed load times of pages that have multiple scripts.

The new release also aims to Web Open Font Format, a compressed file format for fonts.

Firefox 3.6, code-named "Namoroka," is based on the Gecko 1.9.2 layout engine. Over 70 percent of the Firefox third-party add-ons have been upgraded to work with 3.6, Mozilla officials report.

While Firefox 3.5.6. is the current recommended version for day-to-day use, users interested in testing the beta can download it from the Mozilla site. Those who already have the Firefox 3.6 beta should have the next version automatically downloaded and updated shortly. Feedback is encouraged.

A corset is a garment worn to mold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes (either for the duration of wearing it, or with a more lasting effect). Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though women are more common wearers.

Normally a corset supports the visible dress, and spreads the pressure from large dresses, such as the crinoline and bustle. Sometimes a corset cover is used to protect outer clothes from the corset and to smooth the lines of the corset.

Plus Size Lingere

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
Republican lawmakers Wednesday presented President Barack Obama with their plan to tackle unemployment, proposing a freeze on tax hikes until the jobless rate falls below five percent.

Obama hosted both Democratic and Republican lawmakers at the White House to discuss the economic situation and unemployment, a day after he announced a plan to use funds left over from the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to help tackle unemployment, which stands at 10 percent.

Republican oppose the dispersal of the public funds, which were originally set aside to rescue financial institutions, and want Obama to instead put the unused money towards a budget deficit that stands at 1.3 trillion dollars.

The number-two Republican in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, presented Obama with the "No-Cost Jobs Plan," which suggests freezing tax increases and halting some public spending.

The plan also calls for more domestic production of energy, including oil, as well as corporate tax cuts intended to encourage firms to repatriate earnings collected abroad and the approval of pending free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Obama pledged Tuesday to tackle the "continuing human tragedy" of unemployment and gird a small improvement in the jobless figures this month with unused TARP funds.

He also renewed a pledge to reduce the federal budget deficit by half by the end of his first term in early 2013.

Obama's proposal will need to be approved by Congress, and the Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, said Tuesday that the plan could cost between 75 and 150 billion dollars and legislation would take between 30 and 40 days to prepare.

Obama said Wednesday he wants to work with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to tackle the country's jobless rate, which many Americans fear will not recover even as other economic indicators begin to show improvement.

"It's no secret that there's been less than full bipartisan support for the recovery act and some of the steps that have broken the freefall of our economy," Obama said.

"But my hope is, is that as we move forward, we can do so together, recognizing that we have a shared responsibility to meet our economic challenges on behalf of all Americans."

"Spurring hiring and economic growth are not Democratic or Republican issues, they are American issues that affect every single one of our constituents," the president said after the meeting.

"I'm confident we can put our economic troubles behind us, but it's going to require some work and cooperation and a seriousness of purpose here in Washington and I hope that... the leaders that I just met with will feel the same way."

But in comments after the meeting to Fox News, Cantor said "what we heard is an insistence that somehow we need to keep spending money that we don't have.

"That's really where the difference lies between the two approaches here in Washington," he added.

US unemployment figures remain at levels not seen since the beginning of the 1980s, despite improving slightly from 10.2 percent in October to 10 percent in November.

NASA has finally revived its most powerful Mars orbiter from
its months-long slumber due to a computer glitch.

The spacecraft, NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter, slipped into a protective "safe mode" in late
August, stalling its science observations but safeguarding the $720 million
probe from further damage. Instead of rousing the orbiter within a few days, as
in past glitches, NASA engineers spent months trying to find the source of the
probe's inexplicable computer
rebooting malfunctions.

"The patient is out of danger, but more steps have to
be taken to get it back on its feet," said Jim Erickson, the spacecraft's
project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

JPL engineers beamed the 4-year-old orbiter a vital software
upgrade last week to patch a potentially mission-killing scenario in the
spacecraft's onboard computer. That scenario, the unlikely occurrence of
back-to-back computer reboots, could have sent the powerful Mars
orbiter offline for good, mission managers said.

The satellite's resurrection began Nov. 30 with the software
update, and new commands are being sent this week to check the spacecraft's
science operations. Actual science observations may resume in earnest next
week, mission managers said.

Computer glitches have plagued the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter this year. In addition to the latest computer reboot in August, the
probe suffered similar malfunctions in February and June. Engineers initially
thought they were caused by cosmic rays or solar particles interfering with the
probe's electronics. In August, the orbiter also unexpectedly switched to a
backup computer, a different kind of malfunction, for a short while.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is NASA's youngest
spacecraft orbiting the red planet and the most powerful probe ever to observe
the Martian surface. The orbiter launched in 2005 and arrived at Mars in 2006.
Since then, it has beamed more data and images of the planet to Earth than all
other Mars missions in history combined.

The spacecraft completed its primary mission in late 2008
and is currently in the middle of an extended mission that runs through
mid-2010.

It is not the only Mars probe to encounter difficulties this
year. NASA's Mars rover
Spirit has been stuck wheels-deep in Martian sand since April. Engineers at
JPL have been trying several methods of extricating it, but have been waylaid by
wheel stall and tilt issues.

Video
- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
SPACE.com
Video Show - Rover Tracks on Mars
Get to Know
MRO: 10 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Facts
Original Story: NASA Finally Resurrects Sick Mars OrbiterSPACE.com offers rich and compelling content about space science, travel and exploration as well as astronomy, technology, business news and more. The site boasts a variety of popular features including our space image of the day and other space pictures,space videos, Top 10s, Trivia, podcasts and Amazing Images submitted by our users. Join our community, sign up for our free newsletters and register for our RSS Feeds today!

INDIANAPOLIS – Andy Pettitte is staying with the New York Yankees, agreeing to an $11.75 million, one-year contract.
The deal Wednesday represents a raise for the 37-year-old left-hander, who made $10.5 million last season and helped the Yankees win their 27th World Series title.
His agreement was confirmed by two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.
Pettitte became the first pitcher to start and win the clincher in all three postseason rounds. After beating Minnesota and the Los Angeles Angels in the AL playoffs, he defeated the Philadelphia Phillies on three days' rest in the sixth and final game of the World Series, earning his fifth championship ring.
Pettitte was 14-8 with a 4.16 ERA in 32 regular-season starts, and 4-0 with a 3.52 ERA in five postseason starts. His 18 postseason victories are a major league record.
He had a $5.5 million base salary last season and earned $3 million in bonuses based on innings and $2 million for staying on the active roster the entire season. He missed $750,000 bonuses for 200 and 210 innings, finishing with 194 2-3.
New York originally offered him $10 million last December but cut the guaranteed amount after it agreed to big-money contracts with CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira.
The move was the third of the winter meetings for the Yankees.
They reached a preliminary agreement to acquire center fielder Curtis Granderson from Detroit as part of a three-team, seven-deal deal sending right-hander Ian Kennedy to Arizona, and lefty reliever Phil Coke and outfield prospect Austin Jackson to Detroit.
New York also dealt reliever Brian Bruney to Washington for a player to be named — the first pick in Thursday's winter meeting draft.

Diabetic Test Strips

Adequate treatment of diabetes, as well as increased emphasis on blood pressure control and lifestyle factors (such as not smoking and maintaining a healthy body weight), may improve the risk profile of most of the chronic complications. In the developed world, diabetes is the most significant cause of adult blindness in the non-elderly and the leading cause of non-traumatic amputation in adults, and diabetic nephropathy is the main illness requiring renal dialysis in the United States.

The classical triad of diabetes symptoms is polyuria, polydipsia and polyphagia, which are, respectively, frequent urination, increased thirst and consequent increased fluid intake, and increased appetite. Symptoms may develop quite rapidly (weeks or months) in type 1 diabetes, particularly in children. However, in type 2 diabetes symptoms usually develop much more slowly and may be subtle or completely absent. Type 1 diabetes may also cause a rapid yet significant weight loss (despite normal or even increased eating) and irreducible fatigue. All of these symptoms except weight loss can also manifest in type 2 diabetes in patients whose diabetes is poorly controlled.

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Martha Coakley will square
off against Republican Scott Brown in a special election early
next year in Massachusetts for the late Edward Kennedy’s U.S.
Senate seat.

Coakley, the state’s attorney general, defeated three
rivals in yesterday’s Democratic primary. With virtually all of
the votes counted, she had 47 percent, according to the
Associated Press. U.S. Representative Michael Capuano ran second
with 28 percent, followed by Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen
Pagliuca, with 13 percent, and Alan Khazei, founder of a Boston
youth service program, with 12 percent.

Brown, a state senator, trounced attorney Jack E. Robinson
in the Republican primary, 89 percent to 11 percent, according
to the AP vote count.

The winner between Coakley, 56, and Brown, 50, in a Jan. 19
special election will serve the rest of Kennedy’s term, ending
in January 2013. The new senator will replace Paul G. Kirk Jr.,
a Kennedy friend and former head of the Democratic National
Committee who was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick on Sept.
24 to temporarily fill the seat.

Kennedy, 77, died Aug. 25 after a 15-month battle with
brain cancer. A Democrat, he had served in the Senate since
1962, when he won the seat once held by his brother, President
John F. Kennedy.

Democrats must hold the seat to keep control of 60 Senate
votes, enough to shut off Republican delaying tactics.

‘Coast to Victory’

Jeffrey Berry, a political scientist at Tufts University in
Medford, Massachusetts, predicted last night that Coakley would
“coast to victory.”

“It’s a consequence of where we live,” he said, referring
to the preponderance of registered Democrats in Massachusetts.

Speaking to supporters in Boston last night after her
primary win, Coakley said she was “honored and humbled to have
the opportunity to follow Ted Kennedy.”

She said Kennedy was the first to call her “several years
ago when I won the Democratic nomination” in a local district
attorney’s race. Kennedy widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, was the
first to call her yesterday to wish her well, Coakley said.

Brown, in comments at his victory party in Newton,
Massachusetts, signaled he would seek to depict Coakley as a
rubberstamp for Democratic leaders in Washington.

“We can send another partisan placeholder to the United
States Senate or we can try something new,” he told supporters.
“We can elect an independent voice for all of Massachusetts.”

No Attacks

Personal attacks and negative ads were absent from the
more-crowded Democratic primary campaign largely because the
four candidates were ideologically similar, said Jim Gomes,
director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise at
Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

“In a race like this, where all four were basically from
the same wing of the Democratic Party and where everybody agrees
on the issues, you can try negative campaigning but it’s hard to
do it with a straight face,” said Gomes.

Pagliuca, on leave as a managing director from the buyout
firm Bain Capital LLC, spent $5.4 million of his own money on
the race, more than any other candidate, according to spending
reports filed Nov. 18 with the Federal Election Commission.
Coakley raised the most in contributions, $4.1 million so far,
according to the reports.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Tom Moroney in Boston at
tmorrone@bloomberg.net

These garments are placed on the newly-baptized immediately after coming up out of he waters of baptism (the Orthodox baptize by immersion, even in the case of infant baptism). As the robe is being placed on the new Christian, the priest says the prayer: "The servant of God, N., is clothed with the robe of righteousness; in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." and the choir sings: "Vouchsafe unto me the robe of light, O Thou who clothest Thyself with light as with a garment, Christ our God, plenteous in mercy."

A wide variety of practices are found in the spectrum of Protestantism. Some main-stream Protestant churches practice infant baptism, and thus make use of the christening gown; while others encourage or practice exclusive adult baptism. In some of the latter churches, special white clothing may be worn by both the person being baptized and the person performing the baptism.

Girls Christening Gowns

DENVER – Federal officials have agreed to review air pollution standards for oil and gas operations to decide if they need to be updated.
The proposed settlement of a complaint by two environmental groups calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to start the review in January 2011. The settlement needs court approval.
WildEarth Guardians and the San Juan Citizens Alliance filed a complaint in January saying the EPA hasn't updated air quality standards for oil and gas development despite increased activity. The groups also want the EPA to set standards for pollutants not currently regulated, including greenhouse gases.
The Denver-based Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, a trade group, says the industry has worked hard to reduce its emissions.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida defensive end Carlos Dunlap has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence, just days before for the top-ranked Gators play their biggest game of the season.
Dunlap, a junior from North Charleston, S.C., is awaiting an initial appearance at the Alachua County Jail. He was arrested at 3:25 a.m. Tuesday.
According to police, an officer was dispatched to check out reports of a reckless driver near campus. When the officer spotted a car matching the description of the reports, he found Dunlap asleep at the wheel. The officer woke up Dunlap, who failed a field sobriety test, refused a breath test and was booked.
Dunlap, the defensive MVP of last season's Bowl Championship Series national title game, has started every game this season for the defending champs. He has 35 tackles and is tied for the team lead with seven sacks heading into Saturday's Southeastern Conference championship game against No. 2 Alabama.

LONDON (Reuters) –
Five Britons have been detained in Iran after their racing yacht may have inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday.

The yacht was stopped by Iranian naval vessels on November 25, he said in a statement. Race organizers said the vessel had reported problems with a propeller en route from Bahrain to Dubai.

The Volvo 60 class yacht, called Kingdom of Bahrain and owned by the Sail Bahrain project launched by the Team Pindar sailing team, was due to have reached Dubai on November 26 to take part in a 360-mile Dubai-Muscat race, local media said last week.

British television identified the five sailors as Oliver Smith, Sam Usher, Oliver Young, Luke Porter and David Bloomer.

Race organizer Louay Habib told BBC radio from Dubai: "The shore crew for Team Pindar Kingdom of Bahrain contacted us on the 25th of November in the afternoon here, reporting that they had problems with their propeller.

"There was no wind at the time and they told us they were organizing for a tow to come and get them."

Habib said the yacht had no tracking device and at the time of the call was about 60 miles from Dubai and 20 miles from Iranian waters.

Miliband said the five were still in Iran and were understood to be safe and well and their families had been informed.

Foreign Office officials "immediately contacted the Iranian authorities in London and in Tehran on the evening of 25 November, both to seek clarification and to try and resolve the matter swiftly," the statement said.

"Our ambassador in Tehran has raised the issue with the Iranian Foreign Ministry and we have discussed the matter with the Iranian embassy in London.

"I hope this issue will soon be resolved. We will remain in close touch with the Iranian authorities, as well as the families."

CRISIS FEARS

Oil prices rose by more than $1 on fears of a diplomatic crisis after news of the detention was made public.

Tension has dogged relations between Britain and Iran in recent years over a range of issues from Tehran's nuclear program to Iranian allegations of British involvement in post-election violence in June this year.

Britain protested to Iran over a speech by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the wake of the June protests, in which he called it "the most treacherous" of Iran's enemies.

In March 2007, Iranian forces seized eight British Royal Navy sailors and seven marines, in the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that separates Iran and Iraq.

They were freed unharmed the following month as a "gift" from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who scolded Britain for not being "brave enough" to admit they had made a mistake and strayed into Iranian waters.

Three Americans who crossed into Iran from northern Iraq in July this year are still detained and face spying charges. Their families say they were hiking and strayed across the border accidentally.

On Sunday, Miliband was among several world leaders to condemn Iran's announcement that it planned to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants in a major expansion of its atomic program. Miliband accused Iran of choosing to "provoke and dissemble" rather than engage in talks.

(Additional reporting by William James; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AFP) –
Disgraced former athletics star Marion Jones has been training with the Women's NBA San Antonio Silver Stars with a view to making a comeback in basketball for European and US teams at age 34.

The one-time hero of the 2000 Sydney Olympics was released from a federal prison in September of last year after serving a six-month sentence for lying about taking performance-enhancing drugs and her role in a check fraud plot.

Jones denied she was a dope cheat for years before finally confessing in federal court that she took once-undetectable steroids in 2000 and 2001, which led to her being stripped of three gold medals and two bronzes from Sydney.

Jones, a sprint star before her doping revelation, told the New York Times she had been working with the assistants to Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes since October with hope of playing in Europe soon and the Women's NBA next year.

"I thought it would be an interesting journey if I decided to do this," Jones told the newspaper. "It would give me an opportunity to share my message to young people on a bigger platform.

"It would give me an opportunity to get a second chance."

Jones played college basketball at North Carolina, starting at point guard on the Tar Heels' 1994 US college championship squad.

"It's important for people to know that it's possible to make a mistake in your life, but it's what you do after the mistake that people are going to remember you by," Jones told the Times.

"Are you going to make whatever negatives that happened in your life a positive? Are you going to disappear? That has certainly never been in my horizon."

Snow skiing is a group of sports using skis as primary equipment. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding. Skiing can be grouped into two general categories. Nordic skiing is the oldest and includes sport that evolved from skiing as done in Scandinavia. Nordic style bindings attach at the toes of the skier's boots but not at the heels. Alpine skiing includes sports that evolved from skiing as done in the Alps.

Alpine bindings attach at both the toe and the heel of the skier's boots. As with many disciplines, such as Telemark skiing, there is some crossover. However, binding style and history tend to dictate whether a style is considered Nordic or Alpine. Therefore, in view of its lack of a locking heel, and its roots in Telemark, Norway, Telemark is generally considered a Nordic discipline. To use common known sports as examples, since examples make the concept, cross country skiing is Nordic whereas downhill skiing is Alpine.

Thanksgiving Ski Racing Camp

The Nation -- As world leaders start gathering next week in Copenhagen, the people hit hardest by the climate change crisis -- the global poor -- will continue to be systematically excluded from formal discussions of how to address problems like water shortages and crop failures stemming from global warming.

Meanwhile, the world's major corporations have been dominating international and domestic climate policy -- as they did in the international trade policy arena. Carbon-trading and carbon offset projects have already allowed these polluters to avoid cutting emissions and to expand their markets into poor countries, accelerating corporate take-over of the world's resources at the expense of local and indigenous communities.

Whatever happens among the officials gathered in Copenhagen, where 192 nations will come together to try to negotiate a new international climate treaty, climate activists are using the occasion to explore new directions.

Expected to be one of the largest international gatherings ever, with about 15,000 delegates and diplomats working behind the prime ministers and presidents who will make the final decisions, the Copenhagen talks will also be met by a counter-summit featuring tens of thousands of activists, scores of planned protests and talks by people like author and Nation columnist Naomi Klein, author and climate campaigner George Monbiot and the Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva.

Leading up to the Klimaforum09, the alternative "people's summit", is today's Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis. Organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice, the day's actions include demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience in nine US cities one week before the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen open, and on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization protest in Seattle.

Check out a map of today's actions and a list of ways you can help support future activism at www.actforclimatejustice.org, read and forward Grist's Top 25 reasons to give a damn about climate change, and watch TheNation.com for a special "Cop15" blog featuring running dispatches from Copenhagen during the duration of the talks.

For a recent post on ways you can join the growing global movement against climate change, click here.

PS: If you have extra time on your hands and want to follow me on Twitter -- a micro-blog -- click here. You'll find (slightly) more personal posts, breaking news, basketball and lots of links.

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court did all it could Monday to lock up forever some incendiary photos that show U.S. soldiers abusing foreign prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan .

Yielding to Congress and the White House , justices took the expected but formal step of reversing a lower court's order that the pictures be released. Using its budget powers, Congress already had moved to keep the photos secret.

In a brief, unsigned decision issued Monday without elaboration, the court cited a provision in a Homeland Security funding bill that President Barack Obama signed Oct. 28 . The provision permitted the Pentagon to block the public release of the pictures in question, as well as others deemed to "endanger" U.S. soldiers or civilians.

"Disclosure of those photographs would pose a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American troops and coalition forces," Solicitor General Elena Kagan had warned the Supreme Court .

The Justice Department's brief noted that one picture shows "several soldiers posing near standing detainees who are handcuffed to bars with sandbags covering their heads while a soldier holds a broom as if sticking (its) end ... into the rectum of a restrained detainee."

Another photo shows a soldier who appears to be striking an Iraqi detainee with the butt of a rifle. There are at least 21 color photos in question, depicting U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan .

Technically, the one-paragraph ruling kicks the case back to the New York -based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals , which is all but certain to follow orders not to release the pictures.

"We continue to believe that the photos should be released, and we intend to press that case in the lower court," said Steven R. Shapiro , the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union . "No democracy has ever been made stronger by suppressing evidence of its own misconduct."

Some lawmakers had joined with the ACLU in arguing that releasing the pictures would be better for the United States in the long run. The ACLU filed the original Freedom of Information Act request on interrogation and detention practices, which so far has produced more than 100,000 documents.

"Our repeated mis-targeting of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan , along with our continuing and expanding military presence in Afghanistan , provide our enemies with far better recruiting tools than the photographs in question might ever provide," Rep. Rush Holt , D- N.J. , contended during debate in the House of Representatives .

After first pledging to release the pictures, the Obama administration reversed course and aligned itself with Bush administration arguments that the photos would endanger all U.S. troops. An appellate court had rejected this argument as too broad.

"It is plainly insufficient to claim that releasing documents could reasonably be expected to endanger some unspecified member of a group so vast as to encompass all United States troops, coalition forces and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan ," the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals reasoned in September 2008 .

Justice Sonia Sotomayor , formerly a judge on the 2nd Circuit, didn't participate in the Supreme Court's decision Monday. No vote was released.

Though expected, in the wake of the White House and congressional action, the Supreme Court's order went further than some civil liberties advocates wanted. By vacating the 52-page decision that the 2nd Circuit issued, the high court erased a potentially precedent-setting victory for those seeking the release of documents through the Freedom of Information Act.

A trial judge originally had ordered the release of the pictures four years ago, in a 50-page decision that said the Bush administration was "inattentive for many months to the obligations imposed on it by FOIA."

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