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Live updates London Elects say delay is due to manual entry In a statement they say: The final constituency is Brent & Harrow. 2012 Mayoral election: Boris Johnson ahead as the count begins Boris Johnson appears to have a strong lead, as counting begins in the London Mayoral election. Ballot papers have begun to be processed for five of the 14 constituencies, Bexley and Bromley, Croydon and Sutton, Greenwich and Lewisham, Havering and Redbridge, and Merton and Wandsworth. The chart below, published by London Elects (the body that organises the elections), shows the percentage of votes for each candidate in the ballot papers counted so far. Detailed results can be found on their website. Boris Johnson appears to have a strong lead, as counting begins. Credit: London Elects.	dclm-gs1-103920000
Embers #3 - Hollow Cage Facebook / embersembers.com Manchester's Embers returned yesterday to remind everyone just why they sent so many blogs into hyperbole overdrive after the release of their initial demo tracks a year or so ago, new track "Hollow Cage" is without doubt their best yet and will blow anything else you've heard this week out of the water, recorded live in a dimly lit Manchester Monastery (full marks to the director for final video quality) "Hollow Cage" is groundbreaking, a seven minute journey beyond comprehension that is truly, truly stunning. Joined by an orchestra and backing choir who add sweeping strings and ethereal harmonies to the bands cinematic soundscapes the track creeps along majestically from quiet, ambient beginnings to reach a conclusion as grandiose on scale as anything you'll hear, murky keys and shimmering guitars become more and more saturated until they explode upon a cataclysm of shattering emotions, turning the beauty conveyed before into a deafening cacophony as instruments and voices merge under the crashing of colossal drums and skyscraper sized guitars. I'll say it again, truly, truly stunning. Come down south soon please lads.	dclm-gs1-103930000
Actions from Bill McCloud Movable Type Pro 4.38 2012-06-16T13:25:39Z Commented on 'Eternal' Mural on Broadway Meets Its Makers in Departures Columns,2012:/socal/departures/landofsunshine//1488.47230#41019 2012-06-16T20:25:39Z Bill McCloud That is not preservation of the mural. That is called a SUPERGRAPHIC. That is disgusting. Why not hire some actual muralists to actually repaint the mural? If SPARC or the muralist are too old to get up there and repaint, why not hire some young, talented and hungry(literally) artists to do the work. That is such as scam. I can't believe the way the writer of this article dances around the fact that a digital print is not a mural. I guess SPARC told you it was so you believed them?	dclm-gs1-103940000
Water Motion Lab Name of Corresponding Unit Plan: Archaeological Documentation Grade Level: 5-12 Common Core Standards: Content Areas: Science Recommended Length/Duration: 45-60 minute period Learning Goals: In this activity students will observe how water currents are produced and behave in a closed system. 1. Have students read in advance the article about Moving Water or another text describing convection currents. Discuss how gravity, temperature, and wind create water motions in natural systems. Describe how the class will attempt to create, observe, and record the motion of water in a lab setting. 3. Fill a large container with water (aquarium, large baking pan, plastic mixing tray, small swimming pool). Sprinkle an insoluble, neutrally buoyant material into the water to aid observations. 4. Move the container back and forth, in a circular motion, or up and down to try and create different current patters. Have students draw the patterns they can see on their lab sheet. Have them identify specific terms as appropriate (e.g. current, seich, wave). 5. Use a fan or blower try and create the same or new current patterns by passing the air stream over the surface of the water. Have students record their results on their lab sheet. 6. Have student summarize their findings in a discussion about the different ways they were able to influence the flow of water in the system. Materials/Resources: Water Motion Lab Sheets (pdf), Large Container, Water Special Considerations: Students should wear lab glasses. Care should be taken to ensure the safety of electrical cords near the water. Students may want to learn more about currents in the oceans, atmosphere, and Earth’s crust. Ocean waves can be both fascinating and terrifying. Interested students might want to do a mini-research project about storms as sea, surfing, “Rounding the Horn”, etc. Students may want to explore the behavior of a more viscous liquid like oil, maple syrup, liquid soap.	dclm-gs1-103960000
From the Super Mario Wiki (Redirected from King Grambi) Jump to: navigation, search “I owe thee so much.” Grambi, Super Paper Mario Grambi (called "Grams" by Queen Jaydes) is a character from Super Paper Mario, where he is introduced as the king of The Overthere. He is also Luvbi's father and although he appears grumpy at times, he still cares a lot for his daughter. His name is a portmanteau of "Grampy" and "Nimbi". Just as Jaydes is based on the ancient Greek lord of the underworld, Grambi may be based on Zeus, the god of the sky and ruler of Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. Additionally, as The Overthere also borrows from Christian theism, certain aspects of Grambi are shared with God, such as his position as chief of the angelic Nimbis and his conflict with Bonechill (whose story greatly resembles that of Lucifer), however Grambi is not credited with creating the world or life and is not omniscient or omnipotent. When Mario escorts Luvbi to The Overthere from The Underwhere, The Overthere is found under siege by Skellobits, with a majority of the Nimbis (the inhabitants of The Overthere) and Grambi being trapped in ice. Grambi was confronted by Bonechill when Mario and co. arrived at his shrine, and they have to defeat the villain. It is then revealed that Luvbi was in fact the eighth and final Pure Heart, which was entrusted to Grambi and Jaydes, and she returns to her true form after a tearful goodbye with her parents. After the player completes the game and returns everything back to normal, the player can go back to Grambi's temple in The Overthere, where they can find him standing there with Queen Jaydes and Luvbi. It is unknown how Luvbi returned to her Nimbi form. Catch Card[edit] Grambi's Catch Card. Card Type: Uncommon Card Description: This elder Nimbi rules The Overthere. He deeply cares for Luvbi and misses her greatly... Names in other languages[edit] Language Name Meaning Japanese グランエル Guran Eru Gran Eru,Gran from Grand, Eru from El, God in Hebrew Spanish Yayobí Yayo is a way to call a grandfather. French Papibi Grandpabi German Opapi Grandpapi Italian Granbì Pun on grande (great) and Nimbi	dclm-gs1-103980000
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Only Losers Win The Lottery It's that time of the year again Bucks fans. I'm Hugh Jass, recently back in Milwaukee after a nice vacation in the subcontinent, just in time for the annual gathering of the NBA's doormats in Secaucus, New Jersey. Of course, I'm talking about the NBA Lottery - that glorious day where ping-pong balls allow the masterminds that make up the front offices of the NBA's worst teams to decide the fate of the current crop of collegiate and international elite. The Bucks are lined up at lucky number seven in this year's lottery and are guaranteed a top 10 pick, although they cannot get four, five or six. They have less than a 5% chance at the first or second pick and about a 6% chance of landing at number three. The smart money (a 60% chance) has them staying at seven but they also have a 24% chance of slipping to eight or nine. Although the Bucks aren't a stranger to the lottery, it's a new deal for recently hired general manager John Hammond. That's generally how it goes when you're part of an organization that makes the playoffs every year - during Hammond's seven seasons with the Pistons they made the playoffs each year, never posting less than a 50 win season. So Hammonds is on his way to Jersey to participate in his first lottery as a Bucks G.M. For the Bucks it will be their 12th appearance and their third in the last four years. (The Bucks last two lottery picks have been Yi Jianlian with the 6th overall pick in 2007 and Andrew Bogut with the 1st overall pick in 2005.) I for one have confidence in Hammond. He seems like a sharp guy and he's spent many years in a winning organization. We're about to find out how lucky he is. 1 comment: Michael Seff said... I don't know that much NBA but nice blog and you sound like a disgruntled Bucks fan. Which I can sympathize with, I'm a disgruntled Wizards fan.	dclm-gs1-103990000
Kon'wa minna! Yes, if anyone has the new Britney Spears CD you recognize the title. I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep when the idea hit me. At first, I thought it could be for Usagi and Mamoru, but then decided that it would be better for Ami and Ryo [Greg]. This takes place after Ami meets Ryo. Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon! Disclaimer: I do not own the song "Dear Diary"! <><><><><> Title: Dear Diary By: Danie-chan Rating: G Email: [email protected] <><><><><> Ami walks into her homeroom and sees a new student sitting in a seat near the back. She glances at him then sits down in her seat and pulls out a book. The bell rings 15 minutes later. The teacher takes roll. After calling out Urawa Ryo she introduces him to the class. Ami looks at him and blushes slightly. The class goes on as usual, even Usagi coming in late. <><><><><> "Who is that new guy?" Makoto asks. "He is Urawa-kun." Ami tells her. "He transferred here. His dad travels a lot." "Do you like him or something?" Makoto inquires. "No, he just told the class that." Ami tells her, her cheeks a bit pink. "Ami-chan do you have a crush on Urawa-kun?" Usagi asks seeing that her friend is blushing. "NO!" Ami just about screams. <><><><><> Ami came home and put her bag down on her neatly made bed. She then went into the kitchen to get her after-school snack. She gets out some bread and some peanut butter. After making her sandwich she gets a glass of milk and goes back to her room. She takes out her Algebra and History books and sets them on her desk. She takes out a pencil and sits down to do her homework. After doing her homework she takes the empty glass back to the kitchen. She comes back and pulls out a notebook from a draw in her desk. She opens it up and begins to write. Dear Diary, Today I saw this boy, And I wandered if he noticed me. He took my breath away. Ami finished writing and put the notebook back were it belonged. She then put on her pajamas and when to bed. <><><><><> Ami walked into her homeroom to find Urawa sitting in the same seat as he sat in the day before. She again walked past him and sat down in her seat and pulled out a book. Later, the teacher called on Ami and she was daydreaming. Everyone thought that this was weird, the girl-genius daydreaming? <><><><><> "Ami-chan, are you alright?" Usagi asked her friend. "What?" she asked dazed. "Yeah, I'm fine." "Ami-chan, it's not like you not to be paying attention to the teacher, or Usagi-chan, for that matter. What's up? You can tell your friend, Mako-chan, any time." Makoto told Ami. "Mako-chan, what does it feel like when you're 'in love'?" Ami asked. Usagi either fell out of her seat or fainted, they couldn't tell. "Ami-chan are you saying that you have a crush on Urawa-kun?" Makoto pushed. Mean wile Usagi go up and sat back down. "Not entirely," she started. "Well... it's nothing." "Nani? You can tell us anything." Makoto reassured her. "Well, I don't have any time for a boyfriend anyhow. I mean, I have all my extracurricular activities, school, homework, and studying! How could I possibly go out with a guy?" she told them. <><><><><> Ami came home and put her things down on her bed and got her after-school snack. She came back and got out her homework. After doing her homework she took the dirty plate and glass to the kitchen. She came back and put everything away, except her pencil. She got out her notebook from the draw. She opened it and began to write. Dear Diary, I can't get him off my mind And it scares me 'cause I've never felt this way. No one in this world knows me better than you do, So Diary I'll confide in you. She put the notebook away and put her pencil in her bag. She then put on her pajamas and went to bed. <><><><><> Ami waked into her homeroom and everything was just the way it always is. She sat down and looked over at Urawa. He looked at her and smiled. She then pulled out her book and began to read. <><><><><> She was walking to her 3rd period class when she passed Urawa in the hall. He smiled at her and she smiled in response. <><><><><> "So, Ami-chan, how's Urawa-kun today?" Makoto asked. "He's fine, I guess, I wouldn't know, we don't talk," she stuttered. "Ami-chan, why don't you go over there and tell him how you feel about him," Usagi told her, pointing to the table he was sitting at, all alone. "I couldn't. Like I told you yesterday, I don't have time for a boyfriend," she told them. "Ami-chan, we know you're shy, but common," Makoto pushed. "Common, I'll go with you if you want me to," Usagi reassured her friend. "No. I'm much more worried about my grades. And what about the rainbow crystals? We also need to be looking out for the princess, and the silver crystal," Ami told her friends. "True, but that's not an excuse for not having a boyfriend," Makoto told her. "I don't care!" she yelled. <><><><><> Ami walked into the temple. Rei was sitting in front of the fire. About five minutes later Makoto walked in and the three of them waited another half an hour for Usagi to show up. "I schedule the meeting for a day when you don't have detention and you're late, Ondango Attamatta!" Rei scolds. "This time it isn't all her fault," Luna says as she comes out from behind Usagi. "I forgot about the meeting." "Well, let's just get to business," Ami says. The girls talk about the rainbow crystals and about finding the princess. They also talk about what has been happening around school, which brought up Urawa-kun. <><><><><> Ami came home and got her snack. Then went in her room and did her homework. After doing her homework she took out a notebook with 'Scout Business' written in the corner very neatly and small. She opened it up and wrote down the info she had learned about the Negaverse. After putting that notebook away she took out the other and began to write in it. Dear Diary, Today I saw that boy. As he walked by I thought he smiled at me. And I wandered if he knew what's in my heart? I tried to smile, But I could hardly breath. Should I tell him how I feel Or would that scare him away? Diary, tell me what to do, Please tell me what to say. She put the notebook away and went to bed. <><><><><> It had been a few weeks since Urawa transferred. Ami and him had become friends. <><><><><> Ami ran to the closed amusement park. She was meeting Urawa there. As she ran up she saw him standing by the Farris wheel. "Urawa-kun!" she called to him as she ran closer to him. He turned around and started walking toward her. "Mizuno-chan, I need to tell you something," he told her when they were standing next to each other. "Nani? Is something wrong?" she asked. "Not really, um, my dad got transferred again. We're leaving tomorrow night," he told her. He looked into her eyes and looked down. "I'm sorry. Is that why you asked me to meet you here?" she asked. "Yeah. Look, Mizuno-chan, I hoped I could have gotten to know you better, but..." "I understand. It's alright." "Mizuno-chan, there is something about you that I can't explain. Whenever I think of you it's like a fore I can't explain goes through me." He paused and a tear rolled down his cheek. "Mizuno-chan, I want you to meet me at the train station tomorrow at 6:00 if you could?" "I'll try to be there." She looked down at her watch. "Do you want to go to the caf頡nd get a shake?" "Sure, that would be great." The two ran off towards the caf鮊<><><><><> Ami came home and got out her notebook and pencil. Dear Diary, One touch of his hand. Now I can't wait to see that boy again. He smiled And I thought my heart could fly. Diary, do you think that we'll be more than friends? I've got a feeling we'll be so much more Than friends. She put the notebook away and picked up the phone and called Usagi. She told her about Urawa leaving. After hanging up she put on her pajamas and went to bed. <><><><><> Ami looked over at her clock, it was 4:30. She grabbed her jacket and a school photo and left to go to Usagi's house. <><><><><> Usagi and Ami got to the train station right before the train left. "Urawa-kun, matte!" Ami called after him. He turned around and saw Usagi and Ami through the crowd. He began to walk back towards them. "I thought you weren't going to come," he told Ami. "I couldn't miss saying bye to you," she told him. "Here's a picture of me, it's one where I don't have my mouth open." She handed him the picture. "By the way, you can call me Ami- chan." "I have nothing for you, I'm sorry. An you can call me Ryo-kun." "Well, here's my phone number and email address, if you ever want to say hi." She handed him a piece of paper. "I'll call or email to give you mine." "If you are ever in town let me know." "Ja ne, Ami-chan." "Ja ne, Ryo-kun." The two hugged and kissed on the cheek. Ryo stepped on the train. A tear fell from the corner of Ami's eye. Ryo looked out the window just in time to see her brush it away. Ami looked up and saw him she waved good-bye as the train began to leave. Ryo waved back to her. Ami began to cry when she could not see him anymore. Usagi saw this and wrapped her arms around her friend. Though the two didn't know each other for long they had a very strong relationship in which they didn't have to say anything. "Do you want to go get a drink at the arcade?" Usagi asked. "Sure," Ami replied meekly. The two friends walked out to the street and towards the caf鮊<><><><><> Ami walked into her homeroom and saw that everything was back to normal, almost as if Ryo was never there. <><><><><> "Ami-chan, I'm sorry about Urawa-kun. I know you liked him, maybe the two of you will be able to be together another time," Makoto told Ami. "Arigato, Mako-chan," Ami replied. "I hope so to." <><><><><> <><><><><> So... what did you think? Was it better than the last? Please let me know, I LOVE email. <><><><><> I know I didn't follow the episode that this took place in, but I didn't want to go through ALL my unmarked blank tapes... and I couldn't find a basic summary online, although, I know if I looked I would have found one. The reason why Ami and Ryo don't use their fist names at first is because the first name is only used in good friendships, or in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. So, I wrapped the last line of the song "I've got a feeling we'll be so much more than friends," into what happens to Ami. And them using their first names suggests that, and that is what happened at the end of the original episode. Well that is about all I have to say. Ja ne!	dclm-gs1-104000000
Mr Langshaw's Square Piano Mr Langshaw's Square Piano A clue inside a neglected square piano made in 1807, leads Madeline Goold on a quest to uncover the identities of the people who had owned and played it. This biography of a now almost-forgotten instrument, which once held pride of place in drawing-rooms throughout Britain and its Empire, is a journey through two centuries of musical lives. The author travels back in time and enters the musical world of Georgian England to meet the people who built and played the square piano that she found two hundred years later. M.Clementi, Sonata Op.25, No. 5, First Movement (1790) Javascript and Flash are required to play the recordings She discovers that the original owner was a north-country musician, struggling to make a living and educate his children in the early years of the Industrial Revolution; Mr. Langshaw's Square Piano - (ISBN 0954325591, Hardcover, Corvo Books, £13.99) traces the story of his square piano and sets it and Mr. Langshaw and his remarkable family, against the broader musical and social history of their time. "It really carries the reader along and brings history alive. Great." "…a tale that really draws the reader in…" In his youth John Langshaw met and studied with some of the most celebrated musicians in Georgian London. He returned to his home town in the north of England with first-hand knowledge of the square piano, a new keyboard instrument that was taking the capital by storm, and he spent the next fifty years teaching music and distributing pianos on behalf of John Broadwood, the most successful English piano maker of the day. Mr. Langshaw brought music to a part of the country where no one before him could even play Handel's Lessons, let alone teach them; in doing so he also brought the social change that accompanied the piano. Mr Langshaws Square Piano Mr Langshaw's Square Piano Square Piano Square pianos, sometimes called box or table pianos, are not square but oblong. They were the earliest pianos and for sixty years from the time of their first appearance in London in 1768 they dominated the piano market. Small and elegant, they reflected the finest furniture of the period. They had little leather hammers that struck rather than plucked the strings as in so many other keyboard instrument of the time. What was really novel was that they could be played soft and loud, piano e forte. The square piano became a link between the keyboard instruments of the eighteenth century and the modern piano and bridged the time when only the very wealthy could afford a keyboard instrument to the mass production of the mid-nineteenth century. Website design Site design by Daniel McEwen Leaves © Copyright 2015 Madeline Goold	dclm-gs1-104010000
Job interview answers for why you want the position Target Senior Merchandiser, Lauren Glasenapp, left, welcomes prospective Target Senior Merchandiser, Lauren Glasenapp, left, welcomes prospective candidate Daniel Martinez, 20, as hundreds of prospective candidates interview for job openings at a Target job fair in Los Angeles. (Jan. 10, 2013) Photo Credit: AP advertisement \| advertise on newsday DEAR JOYCE: You recently gave some very good answers to what job seekers being interviewed can say when asked why they have been out of work for so long. Can you give sample answers for when an interviewer asks why a person wants the job? -- J.G.L. advertisement \| advertise on newsday A reader interviewing for an office cleaner's job recently asked me how to answer a similar question: "Why do you need the job?" Other than a suspicion that the interviewer is trying to find out how desperate you are and how cheaply you can be hired, this question suggests an inept interviewer. Here's what I told the reader to say: "I need this job to earn an honest living. I want this job because I'm a hard worker who enjoys keeping things neat and clean, and because I hear this is a good place to work. I have excellent references. I live nearby. I learn fast. Assuming you pay market rate, when can I start?" TAILOR YOUR ANSWERS. Use the question of why you want the job to restate your credentials, enthusiasm and commitment, as these examples suggest. 1. This company is a place where my qualifications can make a difference. As a finance executive well versed in the new financial regulations law, I see this position as made to order. It contains the challenge to keep me on my toes and promises rewards for top performance. That's the kind of job I like to anticipate every morning. 2. I want this job because it's tailored to my competencies, which include marketing and sales. In a previous position, I created an annual growth rate of 22 percent in a flat industry. Additionally, the team I would work with looks terrific and tuned into success goals I share. 3. I well understand that this is a company on the way up. Your website says the launch of several new products is imminent. I very much want be a part of this business as it grows. 4. Having worked through a college business major by building decks and porches for neighbors, this entry-level job for the area's most respected home builder has my name on it. 5. As a dedicated technician, doing essential research inspires me. Being part of your breakthrough team is an experience I'd love to repeat. 6. This job is a great fit for what I've been interested in throughout my career. It offers a satisfying mix of short- and long-term activities. My short-term accomplishments keep me cranked up, and my long-term accomplishments make me feel like a billion bucks. 7. Although some companies are sending American jobs offshore, your company is standing tall, remembering that prosperity begins at home. Your successful strategies, excellent reputation and shared values make it head and shoulders above its competition. I want to be part of your success team. 8. I'd fit right in as a counter clerk in your fine drycleaners. I have observed that the counter clerk position requires competence at handling several activities in quick order -- customer service, payments, bagging and phones. I like multitasking and, as a homemaker, I have a lot of practice in keeping all of the balls in the air. 9. The work I find most stimulating allows me to use both my creative and research skills. The buzz on your company is that it rewards people who deliver solutions to substantial problems. 10. I enjoy learning and I look forward to staying current on new trends and technologies, as well as systems and processes. As my academic record shows, I master new skills and information quickly. This is a perfect job opportunity for me. MISTAKES. Don't say the company is in an industry you've always wanted to try. Don't say that you need to get your foot in the door so you can move to another job in the company in a year or so. And don't say that you need several more quarters for your Social Security. Such reasons are akin to telling a prospective buyer that you want to sell your house because the heating bill is too high. You also may be interested in:	dclm-gs1-104020000
Jury chosen for 'cannibal cop' trial Gilberto Valle, a six-year veteran of the New advertisement \| advertise on newsday A gender-split jury of six men and six women was chosen on Tuesday to hear the upcoming federal trial of the NYPD "cannibal cop" charged with conspiring to kidnap and eat women. After three days of jury selection, prosecutors and lawyers for accused police officer Gilberto Valle finally agreed on a panel that includes a lawyer, an endurance athlete, a couple of video gamers, the son of a state judge, a teacher, a bus driver and a coin collector. Valle, 28, is accused of hatching a plot online with other devotees of kinky sex websites to abduct women and deliver them for sexual abuse before being cooked. Prosecutors contend that he also conducted surveillance of some targets and misused a police database. The trial is to begin Feb. 25 in federal court in Manhattan. Defense lawyers argue Valle was turned on by fantasizing and pretending to be planning such acts, but never actually did anything and never intended to do anything. Jury selection was complicated by the likelihood that testimony will delve into a variety of aberrant sexual practices discussed at websites Valle visited, and evidence may include explicit and disturbing pictures downloaded to his computer. After jurors were exposed to some of the material in a questionnaire distributed last week, nearly one-third of a panel of 90 were excused based on complaints that they found the content nauseating, offensive and infuriating. The panel seated Tuesday included five suburbanites from Westchester or Putnam counties, and five jurors who said they live alone. They ranged in age from a 22-year-old Manhattan actuary who watches "The Daily Show" to a 61-year-old retired customer service rep from Westchester who collects antiques. Jurors who were not picked mostly said they were relieved, but some allowed that the trial would not be boring. "It would have been interesting," said Ingrid Dixon, a legal assistant from Westchester County. "Different strokes for different folks." You also may be interested in:	dclm-gs1-104030000
Can a space heater lower heating bills? Don't Waste Your Money Space heaters advertise lots of warmth and lots of savings. You may have seen full-page ads in the newspaper for "miracle" heaters that claim they can "slash your heating bills." But can they really do that? Why Many People Don't See Savings Jim Nanni of Consumer Reports said what the ads don't tell you is that you will have to keep most of your home cold to lower your bills with a space hear. Consumer Reports says despite what the ads claim, most space heaters give off identical amounts of heat since they are all rated at 1,500 watts (the maximum allowable with home wiring). But Consumer Reports says don't count on any space heater to slash your heating bills. That's because electricity is more expensive than gas. Natural gas costs have fallen in recent years, while electric rates have risen. Electricity typically costs 20 percent more than gas to heat the same 1,000 square foot space. If your furnace burns heating oil, however, the costs are more comparable. How It Can Save Some Money Consumer Reports says for a space heater to save you money, you need to keep the main thermostat for your house at 60 degrees or below (which is chilly for most people). Then, move the space heater from room to room with you: from the kitchen, to the living room, etc. This will lower your heating bills as you're heating only 200 square feet at once. Top Rated Model Many $300 heaters claim to be best, using terms like "infrared," "convection," or even, yes, "miracle." But Consumer Reports gives its top rating to an inexpensive baseboard electric heater, a $75 model from Honeywell, sold at Lowes and Home Depot. As always, don't waste your money. "Like" John Matarese on Facebook Follow John on Twitter (@DWYM) Print this article Back to Top	dclm-gs1-104040000
Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 20:52:39 EDT From: Subject: The Castaway Hotel-book 6, chapter 17 Legal Notice: The following story contains descriptions of graphic sexual acts. The story is a work of fiction and has no basis in reality. Don't read this story if: You're not 18 or over, If it is illegal to read this type of material where you live, *Or if you don't want to read about gay/bi people in love or having sex. The author retains copyright to this story. Placing this story on a website or reproducing this story for distribution without the author's permission is a violation of that copyright. Legal action will be taken against violators. I wish to extend my thank you to Ed for his editorial assistance with this chapter, and Art for his additional input on each chapter. E-mail responses to the stories, story suggestions, or other 'constructive' comments or advice may be sent to: * * * * * * * Although the boys in these stories have unprotected sex, I strongly urge all of you out there to be smart and protect yourselves from various sexually transmitted diseases by using condoms when having intercourse. * * * * * * * * The Castaway Hotel-Book 6-by BW (Young-Friends). Copyright 2000 by billwstories Chapter 17 - Pomp and circumstance. November 2002 The next thing on our calendar was Mark's graduation, the second weekend in May. I had sent his mother a plane ticket, telling her we'd meet her there, as I knew her money situation, though improved, was still not that good. Seeing our local school wasn't out yet, I didn't think all the boys needed to make this trip, so I was the only one to accompany Mark to his graduation. He told me later that he actually preferred it that way, as it made him feel as if his father were accompanying him to his graduation, and made him feel that he wouldn't be so different from the other graduates in attendance. Even though Mark is now an adult, and is graduating from college, the pain and disappointment associated with growing up without a father has never seemed to have left him. For that reason, I was glad I could at least serve as a substitute on this occasion, and ease some of the hurt he had borne for many years. However, my part in this would be small, because his mother would also be there, and she had been his whole world for most of his life, so my importance would probably end, once she joined us. On the plane, Mark was very talkative, and he told me several things I doubt he had ever shared with anyone else before. Even though he remembered next to nothing about his father, he did have many strong emotions still tied to those early years, when he and his mother were on their own. He told me how they had struggled to survive after his father left, as his mother didn't have many skills and therefore had to accept very low-paying jobs just to pay the rent and have enough left over to buy food with. Then she would work a second low-paying job, to make enough money to provide what clothing they had to wear, and to cover the utilities and other bills. He told me how their church helped them get other things, including a few simple luxuries they were able to enjoy, and how the pastor brought them a Christmas basket for several years, just to make sure they wouldn't have to suffer through the holidays without something special to look forward to. This basket would contain food for their Christmas dinner, a few sweets, a little something for Mark's mother, and some sort of a game or toy for him. He said they always appreciated that gift basket, but as he grew older, Mark became embarrassed that they had to accept a handout like that. As soon as he was old enough to work, Mark started taking jobs mowing lawns, raking leaves, babysitting, running errands, and eventually delivering newspapers. He then offered the money he made to his mother, trying to make things easier for her, but she wouldn't accept his earnings, so he began to buy his own things, so his mother wouldn't have to. He bought his own clothing, his own school supplies, and what few additional things he wanted, so his mother could use the money she would have spent on him to purchase things for herself. He told me he didn't think his mother ever did that, instead saving that money up, so she could buy him more for his birthdays or for the holidays. He told me that as he grew older, and progressed to the middle grades, his mother began to take courses at a two-year college. While he was in high school, she graduated from college, and received her two-year degree. At that point, she was able to secure a much better paying job, though she still continued to work two jobs, trying to put away some money for Mark to use for college. She emphasized many times that the key to his success and future would be a good education, so he worked hard in high school, and then at college, so he could repay his mother for all her sacrifices. During those more plentiful years, Mark continued to work, but he would save all his money now, and add it to his college fund money. When it was time for him to attend college, he used that money, combined with what financial aid he was able to secure, loans he took out, and the money he made by working part time jobs to pay for his tuition, room, and board. His mother still continued to send him money, to help cover the costs of books and other expenses that would pop up, and now he was looking forward to doing something special to repay her for all of that. At this point I began to question him about her, finding out what she did, what she was like, and whether or not she'd be willing to relocate. He looked kind of surprised when I asked him if she'd be willing to move, and I guess he had never considered this option. I then explained to him that, seeing he was working in Pennsylvania and didn't plan on returning to the area where his mother lived, I wondered if she might be willing to move closer to him, so they could still be together. That way he could help take care of her and see her on a regular basis, without having to find another job. After thinking this over with him, he agreed it was a wonderful idea, and he told me he'd discuss it with her after the graduation ceremony was over. He thanked me for the suggestion, telling me it was something he might not have thought of on his own, but he considered it a perfect solution for this situation. Mark and I discussed many other topics after that, including his burning desire to have a father he could do things with, especially when he was younger. When he was little, he longed to play catch with his father, go places with him, or just have his father show him some affection. He said for years it hurt him so much, because he didn't have anyone to fill that role, that he would often lie in bed at night wondering what he had done to make his father leave him. Just when he thought he was over all of that, I came along and fulfilled some of his dreams. He told me that after we met, he would tell his friends about me, when they asked him about his father, and he fantasized that I had been there for him all his life. He told me he knew it was a childish thing to do, though I tried to reassure him it was not, and that many people fantasize about various things in their lives. He told me that thinking of me this way made him finally feel like he belonged somewhere, and it also made him feel so good to be able to think that he actually had a father he could count on. He told me he hoped I didn't mind him doing that, and I told him, if anything, I was flattered. I assured him he could feel free to use me as his surrogate father, and I'd love to help him in any way I could. He informed me that just coming to his graduation with him, and sending his mother money for the ticket was more than enough. He explained that she had been using all her extra money to help pay for his education, so it was still rough for her financially, but he knew she would have scraped the money together somehow, so she could be there when he graduated. Since I sent her the ticket, she could still be there, but it wouldn't cause her any financial hardship. He explained the best part about it was, because the ticket came from me, she didn't dare refuse it and send it back. She had told Mark that she didn't want to take the chance that she would offend me, if she refused the ticket, especially after all I'd done for him, like helping him get a good job. I laughed at the fact that I had inadvertently intimidated his mother, and then I told him I have always been glad to help in whatever way I could, and I would be doing more for him in the future. At that point, he hugged me and whispered in my ear. "Thanks, Dad. You're actually better than I ever dreamed you'd be." I was deeply touched by that comment, and after a few tearful moments together, we settled back to enjoy the rest of the trip. When we arrived at the airport, I picked up the keys to the rental car, and then we waited for his mother's plane to arrive. Her plane was scheduled to touch down about forty-five minutes after ours, so we decided it would be best if we waited there for her, rather than wandering off. During the interim, I took Mark to have a beer with me, sort of a congratulatory drink, but also to help him settle down. Between his upcoming graduation and seeing his mother again, he was pacing about like an expectant father, and he had the nerves of a bridegroom waiting for the wedding to begin. Seeing there was still more time before she arrived, we had a second drink, but we kept our eyes on the arrival-departure screen, as we wanted to know the exact moment her plane landed. Mark was actually the one who saw the screen change, denoting his mother's plane had touched down, so we rushed to the luggage area to meet her. Once he spotted his mother, Mark ran over to her and began to hug and kiss her, before he lifted her off the ground and swung her around, like some sort of dance move. When he finished that excited greeting, he set her down again, and then he dragged her over to meet me. Although I knew he'd do that, I was surprised by what he said. "Mom, I'd like you to meet my new dad, Josh Currie. And, Dad, this is my mom, Susan Williams." The two of us looked awkwardly at each other for a few seconds, and then she broke the silence. "It's Sue, and I'm glad that Mark has finally found someone he can trust and rely on as a role model." She smiled at me. "And I'm Josh, and I'm pleased to meet you too. Thanks for the compliment, but I'm pretty fond of this young man. He's done a tremendous job handling my personal accounts, and those of our foundation, and he's also become a valued addition to my family. My boys all think the world of him, and it's been a pleasure to have him with us, for the past couple of summers." "Well, I know he's enjoyed it too," she responded, "and I'm glad he's had such a caring family to spend time with." After we had exchanged a little more small talk, Mark picked up his mother's luggage and took it to the car. We drove over to the motel first, so we could check in, as I'd reserved a room for her, and another for Mark and myself. I wanted us to be able to go to our rooms, so we could clean up quickly, because I wanted to take them both out to dinner tonight. The graduation ceremony wasn't until the following afternoon, and this would give us time to get to know each other better. Although Mark's mother was hesitant to let me do this for them, she finally gave in, and we went out and had a great time. The restaurant was nice, the food was excellent, the wine was delicious, but the conversation was more than outstanding. I let Mark and his mother carry on the conversation at first, as he filled her in on everything he'd been doing, told her about his new girlfriend, and then he brought up the topic of whether or not she might be willing to move, as it looked like he'd be staying in Pennsylvania. He told her he loved his job, made good money, and couldn't see returning home, and she looked a little sad when he first told her that. After a brief pause, for her to take some time to consider his proposition, she finally responded. "Mark, the only thing I have in this world that's important to me is you, so if that is where you plan to live, I'd be happy to live there too. That is, if you want me to live that close to you." "Want? I need you to be there, so I don't have to worry about you or miss you all the time. Then I'll have my mom and dad in the same place." She glanced at me again when he said that, so I decided it was time for me to say something to Mark, about how he referred to me. "Mark, I don't think your mother feels comfortable with you referring to me like that. Maybe you should just call me Josh." Now he looked at me, and then at her, but she responded before he had a chance to say anything about my comment. "It's not that it bothers me, Josh, but I was afraid it might bother you. I know how badly Mark has always wanted a father in his life, and it always pained me that I couldn't do anything to help him in that respect. I was happy to learn that he thought that much of you, and that he wanted you to fill that void for him, but I wanted to make sure that was all right for you too. I didn't want him pressuring you into anything you weren't ready for or didn't want." "That certainly is not the case here," I tried to reassure her, and Mark. "I'm honored that Mark feels this way about me, and I couldn't be any prouder of him, even if he were my biological son. I have many adopted sons, as you're probably well aware, but there is always room for one more. I'm very willing, and very happy to be a surrogate father for him, if that's what he wants, and, of course, if it meets with your approval." "Are you kidding? It's been a secret dream of mine that Mark would find someone to fill that role in his life, and ease his pain. I just want to thank you for being there for him." "It is certainly my pleasure, and he's done as much for my family and me, as I could ever do for him. No, he's probably done more, but I shall try to make up to him for that." At that point, his mother stood up, and walked toward me. As I stood to be polite, she embraced me with every ounce of strength she had, and then she kissed me on the cheek. When I looked down at her, her eyes were filled with tears, though I knew they were tears of happiness, and she thanked me once more, telling me that Mark had made an excellent choice. After that we sat and talked a little more, over coffee and dessert, and then I even asked her to dance with me, as there was a small dance floor and a three-piece band. I think Mark got a big kick out of this, seeing his mom and dad dancing like that, maybe fulfilling another of his fantasies. All in all, it was a very nice evening. When it was over, we went back to our rooms and turned in for the night, because we had another long day ahead of us tomorrow. The next day I drove everyone to Mark's graduation. Almost as soon as we got there, he went off to join his class, and he looked extremely handsome in his cap and gown. After he left, his mother and I went off to find our seats, trying to select a good vantage point to watch this from. As we sat and waited, we watched the other proud parents enter and make their way to their seats, and this brought back memories of when my own children graduated from college. It wasn't much longer before the ceremony began, and we both stood and applauded when Mark received his degree. We were both amazed to learn that he had graduated summa cum laude, which meant he graduated with second highest honors, as he had not indicated to either of us that he had done so well. We were both busting at the seams, waiting to see him in person and congratulate him. We both gave him hell for not informing us beforehand about his receiving honors, but then we praised him for how well he had done. He responded to our chiding by informing us that he wanted to surprise us, and then he left it at that, which was typical of Mark. After enjoying a celebratory meal after the ceremony, we all got our things and headed for the airport, to catch our flights. Before we parted ways, we informed Mark's mother to start packing once she got back home, as she'd soon be moving nearer to us. I told her I'd arrange for her to stay with friends, until she had a chance to select a place of her own, and then we'd help her find a job, which shouldn't be too difficult, considering her field. She was a dental hygienist, and there always seemed to be a constant demand for individuals with that training, at least right now. She thanked us both, kissed her son good-bye, and then we all headed to the gates our flights would be leaving from. Although we talked a little more on the flight home, we spent most of our time sleeping. We arrived home Sunday morning, picking up our car and driving from there. I had already talked to Mark about holding his graduation party the following weekend, in conjunction with Frankie's graduation, and he didn't seem to have any problem with this, seeing we had celebrated it with his mother while we were there. Now, we would hold one big party for the college graduates, and then another big party the following weekend for the high school graduates, but everyone seemed fine with that plan. Even though Mark's graduation might have been more prestigious than Frankie's two-year degree, I knew it would probably be Frankie's only degree, so I wanted to make a big deal out of that too. Besides, Mark didn't know that many people in our area, at least not to invite to something like this, and this would allow the family to come for just two, instead of three parties. I think it was actually for the best, even though some people would only be able to make it for one of the parties, but they would congratulate everyone at that time. When it came time for Frankie to graduate, we all went to the ceremony, as it was close to home and would only last a couple of hours. Although Frankie wouldn't be graduating with honors, or anything like that, it was quite an accomplishment for him, seeing school was not one of his favorite things in life. Frankie had always had to work hard to get through his classes, and he did well, though not outstanding. Knowing his personality and how he applied himself, I knew he would do well in his chosen field, as he was a worker and didn't give up easily. I'm not exactly sure what he is planning to do, now that he had his degree, but I know it will be something to do with law enforcement. I have offered suggestions to him, trying to help him identify what would be best for him, but I'm sure he'll bring a certain amount of compassion with him to any job, as well as his tenacity. His graduation took place on Friday night, so we all went out to dinner before the ceremony. I had told the restaurant what the occasion was, when I reserved our usual room, and I knew there would be many other families going there to celebrate as well. When we arrived, we discovered that the staff had decorated the place with the college's school colors, and there were mortarboard silhouettes and diploma scrolls decorating the wall. This would honor all the graduates who came there to eat, but there was something more they had done, something specifically for us. When we entered the dining room, we noticed they had hung a special sign there, which read, ' A special congratulations to graduate Frankie Currie.' Frankie blushed a bit when his brothers pointed this out to him, and of course that was part of the reason he was blushing. His brothers could be unmerciful at times, especially when they thought they could embarrass one of the others over something, and this sign was one of those opportunities. Although they were proud of his accomplishment, they would not pass up this chance to make sport of him. "Should that be graduate Frankie Currie, or Officer Frankie Currie?" Pat teased. "It probably should have read, 'brownnoser' Frankie Currie," Ricky responded, "as I'm sure that's the only way he could get through some of those classes." "Hey, that's not fair," Sammy said, coming to Frankie's defense. "Frankie isn't dumb. He probably just threatened his professors, telling them he'd beat them up, if they didn't pass him." Frankie knew better than to respond to any of these comments, as that would just encourage his brothers to keep going. Instead, he just smiled, nodded, or made a slight face at their barbs, letting them know that he could take whatever they had to dish out. This seemed to work, as the boys stopped needling him a few minutes later, unhappy that they couldn't get more of a rise out of him from their efforts. Now we just sat down and prepared to order. The dinner went smoothly, and everyone enjoyed himself, and I was just preparing to ask for the bill, when the staff brought out a cake, in Frankie's honor. I looked at Jake, and he shrugged and looked at me, and now I knew neither of us had ordered this little surprise. I signaled to the manager, and he came over, quickly informing me that this was just a little something from the restaurant, to thank us for our continued patronage. I thanked him, had Frankie thank him, and then we were all served a piece of cake. After that I told him to give a piece to the other graduates dining there, from what remained of the cake after we had our share. He smiled, thanked us, and I paid the bill, leaving a nice tip for their efforts. The ceremony was the typical graduation variety, except Frankie probably had the largest cheering section of anyone there. As he strode up to receive his degree, all his brothers stood up and whistled, cheered, or clapped when he accepted it. I thought this might embarrass him again, but this time he merely looked in our direction, raised both his arms above his head, his diploma clutched securely in one fist, and he smiled, and let out a sort of war whoop. I think this stunned the college president, who had just awarded him his diploma, but he smiled too, as Frankie pointed to all of us, and held his diploma proudly in front of himself. He had certainly earned the right to celebrate a little. Due to the fact that it would be late when the ceremony concluded, we had decided to hold the party late Saturday afternoon instead of tonight, and then let it run into the evening. It wasn't going to be a fancy sort of a get together, instead being more like one of our cookouts. Jake had offered to man the grill for us, to whip off burgers, hot dogs, sausages, and chicken, but there would also be a table set up, with other selections on it. There would be large pans of potato and macaroni salads, another of coleslaw, and one with baked beans, but that wouldn't be all. There would also be bags of chips and pretzels, pickles, olives, hot peppers, other condiments, and two large cakes, one for Mark and one for Frankie. There would also be plenty of soda, and a keg of beer, for those old enough to drink, although I planned to allow Frankie to celebrate with a couple of glasses of beer, if he wanted. On Saturday afternoon, the party kicked off, and the guests began to arrive. Both boys were very proud of their accomplishments, and welcomed the congratulations of those in attendance, and made their way through the gathering, to speak to each and every one there. As the day continued, everyone seemed to be having a really good time, and our guests found a variety of ways to entertain themselves, and each other. The party went on until well after dark, as no one seemed overly anxious to see it come to an end. I did notice that Cody turned in before the party wound down completely, and he did look quite tired, but I knew we'd all had a pretty exhaustive day, so I wasn't overly concerned. Who could blame him for tiring out after such a long day? After the party broke up, and our guests had left, we picked up the area quickly, planning to finish up cleaning the rest of the mess the next day. Jake and I went around the house before we turned it, to check on things and make sure everyone was all right. When I went in and checked on Cody, he seemed fine. He and Graham were cuddled up together, and he was sleeping peacefully, maybe just a little warm, but that could have been just because of the body heat the two of them were generating together. As there didn't seem to be any problems, Jake and I turned in too, looking forward to a little rest of our own. On Sunday, after we went to church and I took everyone out to brunch, we began making plans for the following weekend's graduation party. It would be for the three high school graduates, Pat, Ricky, and Jay. All of them had already been accepted into college, but their majors were as varied as their personalities. As you know, Ricky planned to go into marketing, as we joked it was either that or his becoming a con-artist, but Pat planned to major in electrical engineering, while Jay wanted to become an architect. The following week actually passed pretty quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to honor our next set of graduates. This ceremony took place Saturday afternoon, on the football field, and we all piled into the bleachers to watch them come out. As the graduates came marching out to take their seats, I recognized something immediately, and I knew Ricky had been responsible for this. As soon as they sat down, I could read the message on their graduation caps, that is the caps that Pat, Ricky, and Jay were wearing. Each cap contained one word, which when put together made a statement. In order, from left to right they read, 'We're', 'Outta', 'Here'. It wasn't grammatically correct, but we understood what they meant, and there was no doubt in my mind that Ricky was behind this farewell message. I had been asked to hand out the diplomas, as Superintendent, but I bowed out, explaining that I would rather be with my family at this time, so the school board asked the high school principal to do the honors. He seemed pleased and accepted the responsibility, using the vice-principal to assist him, freeing me up to be just another parent in the crowd. The ceremony proceeded quite quickly, for a high school graduation, including the keynote speech, which was given by a local state senator. After the speech concluded, the diplomas were presented, and Pat was the first of the trio to receive his diploma. He was very happy to be receiving his diploma, as was indicated by the huge grin on his face, and his actions were very dignified, as he did everything as he had been instructed to. Ricky was next, but of course he did a little showboating after he received his sheepskin. After shaking the principal's hand, he turned and waved at us, but that wasn't all. Before he left the platform, he did a cartwheel, letting us all see that he had obviously shed the pants he was wearing when we arrived. He now had on a pair of shorts, but you couldn't tell beforehand that he had been wearing them under his gown. His little shenanigans drew a few chuckles from the audience, and a look of disgust from the principal. I'm glad I hadn't been the one handing out the diplomas at that point. Jay came up after Ricky, to receive his diploma, but he wasn't as demonstrative as my blond-haired whirlwind. After he was handed his diploma, Jay merely did a little celebratory dance across the stage, obviously having been encouraged by Ricky's performance. He also lifted the bottom of his gown, showing that he too was wearing shorts at that point, but the show of Jay's knobby knees and skinny legs brought a little chuckle from the audience. Jay's parents were sitting in front of us, and they were a little surprised by Jay's little outburst, but not upset by any means. We all knew our boys, and this really didn't shock any of us. It was just another example of the type of things our free-spirited mischief-makers enjoyed pulling on the unsuspecting, in this case, those in attendance. Of course I knew my 'Puck' was most likely the instigator in this case, although I knew Jay followed him willingly, and knowingly, down all the winding roads he led him over. Once the ceremony was concluded, Jake and I left to go get things ready for the party, taking some of the younger boys with us. We left the Suburban with the older boys, so they could drive Pat and Ricky back home, once they got through clowning around with their friends. Jay's parents would be coming to, bringing Jay with them, but they were going home first, to pick up some things they were going to provide for the party. We had planned to hold this jointly, as the two boys were almost like twins most of the time anyway, and we knew they'd enjoy it more if they didn't have to worry about running to the other one's party. Besides, that would leave more of us to help keep things from getting out of control, not that we were really worried about that. Actually the party went very smoothly. Some of their friends came early, but told the boys they'd be back later, after they made their rounds, and some had arranged it so they would come here last, so they could spend more time. The boys actually left for a couple of hours, during the middle of the party, to check out some of the other bashes going on, but we explained that fact to everyone, and they all understood. We all knew the boys would have to visit their friends' parties too, if just for a short time. The party at our house continued on into the evening. We had already seen many of the boys' friends and their parents, and we'd seen many of their teachers too. We had talked to all the other graduates when they arrived, finding out what plans they had, now they were out of high school, and we were surprised by the variety of responses we got. Of course many were going on to college, but some were looking for jobs, while still others planned on joining various branches of the armed forces. A couple of the more adventurous grads planned on taking some time off from studying, and doing some traveling in the interim. They said they'd reconsider their other options, once they were tired of seeing other parts of the country. Our extended family also had a good time being together again, and they quizzed the boys about their plans as well. The boys were more than happy to fill them in on what they were going to do, telling them where they planned to go and what they planned to study. If the questioner seemed really interested, they'd even explain why they chose that area in the first place. These three could be quite well spoken when they wanted to be, and when they didn't see a chance to torture, embarrass, or get even with someone else as a more appealing option. Although the party continued on, Cody came up and said good night to me some time between 10:00 and 11:00. I asked him if everything was all right, and he just told me he was a little tired, so he was going to go to bed. Graham was saying good night too, as he was going to go with him, so I kissed both boys on the forehead and wished them sweet dreams. I made a mental note to check on him later, though I wasn't really that concerned, because I knew we'd all had another long and hectic day. Our party didn't break up until after midnight, as everyone seemed to be enjoying himself so much and we had decided to let it continue until the guests determined they had had enough. The topics discussed and the things we did were varied, and we enjoyed them so much, that we were all surprised at how late it had become, before the party did begin to break up. Many of my former pupils were among the graduates, and they each came over to speak to me personally, at some point, often telling me some little anecdote about their time in my school. It was quite enjoyable, and brought back many memories, and there was only one student whom I didn't have totally fond memories of, but he had seemed to change his ways, as he grew older. He and I also had a pleasant conversation, and I was quite surprised to learn that he planned to go on to college, as academics was never his strong suit when he was in my school. He thanked me for not letting him get away with some of the things he had tried to do, and for standing by him, when some of the teachers wanted him suspended or expelled. He told me if that had happened, he might have turned out differently, and given in to the other side of his personality. He then told me he might have even been in jail by now, if I hadn't had some faith in him and tried to show him that he could do better. I was touched by that comment, and I told him I was glad to see he had grown and matured, adding that if I had any part in that process, I was pleased I was able to help. We talked a while longer, discussing his future, and then he actually hugged me before he left. I guess there are some rewards educators receive that can help to make up for the lack of monetary gains. When the party finally broke up, Jake, I, and the boys picked up only the things that had to be dealt with on a timely fashion, such as the food, but we let everything else go until the following day, when we'd have more time, and the strength to do it with. Before I turned in, however, I did go in and check on Cody again. He and Graham seemed to be sleeping peacefully, wrapped up in each other's arms, and I placed my hand on his forehead, just to see if he had a fever. He temperature felt normal to me, so I didn't wake him, and he looked peaceful enough, so I let them both be. I'd check on him again in the morning, but everything appeared to be fine for now. * * * * * * * * If you have enjoyed reading this story, you will find other stories by me by clicking on the Nifty author link and scrolling down to "BW". This will give you the links for everything I have posted there. E-mails may be sent to:	dclm-gs1-104050000
News Article Wii Storage Solution - Not as good as it sounds? Posted by Anthony Dickens Nintendo announce a "direction" of what they will do to fix the Wii's memory problem, but is it actually any good? It's probably been hard for Nintendo to ignore the issue, the media and owners have been banging on about it for a long long time, finding it hard to understand why we can't just load directly from SD cards. After last weeks announcement a huge amount of websites and blogs have reported this as the "solution" to the problem, we here at Nintendo Life beg to differ, if you look at what Nintendo actually said it's not that great. Firstly, as it is going to be a software update it is horribly late, probably a good 18 months over due. Secondly if you look at what they say, you STILL won't be able to play directly from the SD card, you'll have the same limited memory for "channels", they're just saying it'll be "easier" (one click) to move something to the internal memory... basically speeding up the process, but not fixing it. I guess if they really really don't want gamers to play directly from SD it should feature some form of memory overflow stacking, so that whenever you download something new it'll always save to the internal memory and then if required, move the least accessed (or games that haven't been accessed recently) onto the SD card, at least then you won't have to move stuff around unless you want to play something you've not touched in a long time. Hmm, I don't think this will be the end of it. From the web User Comments (5) motang said: Now that I took a deep breath and read what they really said, I understand it. Thanks Nintendo we really know how it works. Too bad it wasn't what I was thinking, where you can just download to the SD card and play off of that. Why not make it so we can save game data and load saved game data off the SD card. That should free some memory as well, right? Zenman said: um...that looks like it just covers wiiware and VC games,which can already be moved to an SD card. what i want to know is what about regular games like Okami and Wario Ware that take up similar space? antdickens said: Yeah, they didn't even mention how it will handle save game files... being able to load saves directly from SD would help, and it wouldn't break their "security". SuperMarioX said: It doesn't sound to bad... no it's terrible. Why didn't they come out with a Hard Drive or something like NORMAL developers? The X360 and PS3 have better ways of storage solutions. Nintendo your not in next-gen at all Leave A Comment	dclm-gs1-104060000
Collapse bottom bar Deer of the Day Non-Typical Trophy Bucks Shane Frost Buck: 216-Inch Non-Typical Trophy by Clay Newcomb \| April 22nd, 2013 0 Twenty-eight feet high in a lock-on stand sat a lone bowhunter, as still as a stone, with nervous palms grasping his weapon. Seven yards beyond the perched hunter, a 28-point, drop-tined swamp monster with antlers as massive as a cluster of young cypress knots, swaggered in behind a group of does. Without warning, the buck stopped and snapped his glare directly into the hunter’s leaf-barren tree. With squinted eyes, Shane Frost, of Paragould, Arkansas, in a motionless reflex, prayed a silent prayer that the monarch wouldn’t bust him. Within seconds, fate would choose its path. “I could have let an arrow fly,” Frost said, “but I just wasn’t going to take a marginal shot at a buck like this.” Shane would not see the buck again until November 2011. Hunting the huge river bottoms is difficult because there aren’t many topographical features to funnel deer into predictable travel patterns. In mountainous or hilly country, terrain features make deer movement predictable. In flat land, deer travel is nearly impossible to predict. In Arkansas, it is legal to hunt over bait, and in situations like this, it’s a extremely helpful if you want to be consistently successful. Hunting for a mature buck over supplemental feed is much more difficult than many people think. Deer quickly become extremely skittish, and mature bucks rarely visit these areas in the daytime. Fall 2011 “At least the buck was still alive,” Frost said, “but, after that, everybody knew about the buck.” Word spread quickly that a giant non-typical was roaming the Black River bottoms and, according to Frost, “in the fall of 2011, the deer started to get pressured from all around the property.” The summer and fall ranges of the buck spread through several different properties, and numerous hunters had pictures of the giant. The buck summered about one mile away from the 1,700-acre property that Frost hunts and hadn’t shown up on his hunting ground until early December the previous year. Through the late summer and early fall, he checked his cameras often, hoping to get a clue about the monarch’s return, but nothing surfaced. Then, one day in early November during the Arkansas Youth Season, an amazing find surfaced at the camp. Eight-year-old Cooper Lutz and his father were walking through the timber towards their stand when Cooper spotted a huge, broken antler. Upon inspection, Frost and several others from camp thought it might be the big non-typical. However, no one had a single picture of the buck in the fall of 2011, so they didn’t know what his new rack looked like! They could only guess that it was his antler. “The buck was getting pressured so hard in early 2011 that I think he had become extremely skittish and wouldn’t come near feeders or cameras,” Frost said. No body was getting pictures of the deer, but he must have been there all November. He had just gone totally under the radar. With eager anticipation, Frost hoped the buck would show up on a camera. Every late-season hunter knows a buck’s pattern changes dramatically once the rut is over and he starts to focus on recovering from the stressful rut. Biologically, the buck would have to gravitate back towards a consistent feeding pattern, and Frost just hoped the buck would be stay on the property. Thirty-one long days clicked by in December and the buck was still a no-show. Neither hide nor horn of the buck was seen as the days shortened and winter set in. It wouldn’t be until early January that the spectacular images of the broken-beamed non-typical illuminated Frost’s computer screen as he checked his cameras. As soon as he arrived, the hunt was on. Around January 20, the buck disappeared from the original spot Frost was hunting. Following his instinct, he had a strong suspicion that the buck was feeding in the area where he had placed the second camera. He hadn’t checked it in 10 days, but on January 25 the wind was perfect and he decided to hunt the stand for the first time. “I got into the stand around 3 p.m. and about 30 minutes later, I saw two young bucks stand up in the brush, 75 yards away,” Frost recalled. As the bucks came to 40 yards, he noticed they were becoming very skittish, and he saw a group of does coming towards the stand. Trailing behind the does, coming up out of slough, was the huge non-typical! Frost’s gut feeling was right! The 100-grain Shuttle T-Lock broadhead struck the giant high and slightly back. The beast bolted and Frost watched as the buck crossed a small slough. He knew the hit was lethal, but he was convinced it wasn’t the best shot. He was certain he hit liver and a least one lung. In most situations this wouldn’t be reason for concern, but in this swamp country blood trailing a deer can be difficult. After finding his arrow, he backed out until the next day. Unfortunately, Frost’s daughter was scheduled to have sinus surgery early the next morning. Being the family man that he is, he and several friends didn’t make it back to the woods until 2 p.m. the next day. “The dried blood was difficult to follow after he crossed the slough,” Frost recalled. The group trailed the buck into the night, searching with flashlights, but couldn’t find a strong blood trail on the other side of the water. Things then got worse when a strong rain blew in over night—literally a blood trailer’s worst nightmare. Frost knew the blood trail would be gone and their efforts would be spent walking and looking for the buck. Regardless, the buck’s Boone and Crockett score is phenomenal, and in reality, this is the largest non-typical buck ever taken with a bow in Arkansas. The keys to this hunt were persistence, smart hunting and not pressuring the buck too much. Combine this with a last minute “home-run swing” to switch stands and get closer to the buck’s bedding area and you have an extraordinary hunt. That being said, it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving, persistent and hard-hunting Natural State bowhunter. back to top	dclm-gs1-104070000
Netball: Colling unconvinced by lift's long term value By Adrian Seconi of the Otago Daily Times Former Silver Ferns captain Belinda Colling is not entirely convinced netball's lineout-style lifting manoeuvre will prove that successful in the long run. Northern Mystics goal keep Anna Harrison's acrobatics have been the talk of the sport since the game against the Melbourne Vixens on Saturday. Former Otago defender Harrison (nee Scarlett) was able to bat away or grab several shots at goal after getting some assistance from her team-mates, who hoisted her in the air to give the former beach volleyball representative the extra elevation she needed. The "chairlift", as it has been dubbed, proved crucial in the Mystics' 49-45 win over the Vixens in Melbourne. But the tactic has divided the netball community. Some feel it gives the defenders too much of an advantage and should be outlawed in a similar way to basketball's goal tending rule. In basketball, the ball can be swatted away on its upward path but not its downward trajectory. Others, Colling included, believe it is a skillful innovation which adds to the spectacle. "To be honest I didn't see it because I was driving during the match," Colling said. "But I have seen it practised for a long time. It is innovative and I think it will be interesting to see how teams react to it. "Quite simply, there is two defenders involved in it so all you have to do as an attacker is pass off. "And it is a difficult thing to do for a defender. I've seen this being performed and it was practised when I was in the Ferns. So it has taken them this long to actually get it right in a game. It is not quite as easy as you think." Should teams start grouping defenders under the net and using the tactic with more accuracy, then Colling believes a rule change may be required. "I would hate to see defenders not defend anything else except stand under the goal posts and lift someone up. If it got to that point, then they would address it." Dame Lois Muir was very much in the Colling camp. She was impressed by Harrison's athleticism but believes the tactic will only be useful when both shooters are close to the post. "It couldn't have been anyone else but Anna because she has that marvelous standing jump and great timing," Muir said. "But it is only useful if both shooters are close to the post. You couldn't do it to Maria Tutaia because she shoots from further out. "[Sunday] was a prime example of the other shooter standing there with her mouth open. Had she moved aside or been available for the ball, the lifting defender wouldn't have been able to do it because she would have been drawn away." Dunedin-based international umpire Jono Bredin said as long as the defender did not interfere with the post, net or hoop, then the manoeuvre was within the rules. As for whether the rules will need amending if teams become too adept at it, Bredin said he could not comment. Steel defender Demelza McCloud had an interesting take on the situation. "Do you know how gutted I am that that happened in that game when, honestly, right back to under-21s, Mo'onia Gerrard and I used to practise lineouts all the time?" she said. "At the Thunderbirds we also used to practise getting into a squad position and someone jumping off your quads. But no-one actually had the balls to try it on court." Now the genie is out of the bottle, McCloud believes other teams will adopt the tactic. "You've still got to stop the ball getting that close to the posts, so we can't get too wound up in it. But I think any innovation like this is unreal. "If the shooters play smart they can baulk the shot and wait for the jump to happen and it will become irrelevant. "But attackers have all the advantages and this is the first time, really, a defender has come up with a tactic which is exciting and different." - Otago Daily Times Your views Get the news delivered straight to your inbox © Copyright 2015, NZME. Publishing Limited Assembled by: (static) on production apcf01 at 06 Oct 2015 12:57:41 Processing Time: 592ms	dclm-gs1-104080000
Find better matches with our advanced matching system —% Match —% Enemy 24 Chicago, IL Man Similar users I’m looking for • Women • Ages 21–30 • Near me • Who are single My details Last online Jul 9 6' 2" (1.88m) Body Type Agnosticism and laughing about it Doesn’t want kids English (Fluently), German (Somewhat) My self-summary Write a little about yourself. Just a paragraph will do. My goal in life is to tell people about all the cool ideas I have. Turns out, excitedly rambling for hours on end wasn't really impressing anyone. And so, I started writing. What I’m doing with my life I work in the meat department of a certain organic grocery chain that shall remain nameless. So, I suppose if you have moral objections with meat-eating, this miiiight not work. Your diet is your business as far as I care, but it'd be a bit like a D.A.R.E. officer hanging out with a drug dealer. Really though, I'm just making my way towards being free of student loans, as my ultimate goal of aimless adventuring/travel is harder to do when loan sharks are staring menacingly at my kneecaps. Figuratively speaking, of course. They're really staring more towards my kidneys. I’m really good at I once managed to tie my shoes while wearing mittens. Ladies . . . I'm available. Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food Help your potential matches find common interests. So, about books. Growing up, I think I actually read more words than I spoke. That ought to paint a pretty clear picture. My favorite authors include Lovecraft, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Asimov, Jim Butcher, Fritz Leiber, A. Lee Martinez, and Jack Vance. I read comics too, although I usually stick to the one-shots or short series. Some of my favorite movies are Clue, The Naked Gun series, The Marx Brothers movies, and generally anything touched by Mel Brooks. I'm quite the sophisticate. Also, any movie with Rifftrax becomes instantly watchable, if not enjoyable, to me. Any movie. As far as shows go, the list of things I want to watch is a considerable bit longer that what I actually have. My favorites are MST3K, Bob's Burgers, Psych, Futurama, Whose Line is it Anyway, QI, and Monty Python. I'm all over the place, musically. To drop some names: Muse, System of a Down, MC Frontalot, K.Flay, Cake, Rhapsody, Van Canto, Lupe Fiasco, Symphony X, The Glitch Mob, The Dear Hunter, The Creepshow, Infected Mushroom, KMFDM, Queen, That Handsome Devil, Five Finger Death Punch, Dan Bull, Supercommuter, I Fight Dragons, Sabaton, The Atomic Fireballs, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Iron Maiden, and if we're being completely honest here, Lady GaGa is pretty goddamn catchy. There's not much I won't eat as far as food is concerned. I'll try anything. Except olives. Olives can go straight to hell. On a typical Friday night I am One of the great joys of working in retail is that Fridays tragically hold no special meaning anymore. Tragic. But when whatever currently passes for a Friday rolls around, I'm usually hanging out with friends. As for what we do, well, this is a long shot here, but it might just involve alcohol. Past that, the sky's the limit. The most private thing I’m willing to admit I’m an empty essay… fill me out! Awkward moments in shows and movies make me wince. Hard. People find this more entertaining than than I would like. You should message me if Offer a few tips to help matches win you over.'re creative, and want someone to talk ideas with.'re adventurous, and want someone to explore with. love talking about literary theory, mythology, folklore, philosophy, the mind, or just love having discussions in general. saw this profile, and thought, "dang, this guy is amazing/a genius/dead sexy/hilarious/the most charming man on the face of the earth/mildly interesting." I get that all the time. I swear.	dclm-gs1-104090000
Find better matches with our advanced matching system —% Match —% Enemy 29 Rockville, MD Woman Similar users I’m looking for • Men • Ages 23–35 • Near me • For new friends, long-term dating My details Last online Feb 6, 2013 5' 5" (1.65m) Body Type Atheism and laughing about it Doesn’t have kids My self-summary Write a little about yourself. Just a paragraph will do. Things I like: Nightly walks in the woods Asking old people questions Color coding things Old westerns Anything done the right way (especially food) Finding new ways to sneak into the pool (I don't even really like the pool that much) Building fires Setting up my hammock absolutely anywhere and everywhere Bulleit bourbon I am out of my element right now; spending weekdays in Cumberland for my studies. BIG culture shock. (More so than many exotic locations I've visited.) Learning to be more accepting of people who have very traditional values and lifestyles. I really like nice things, but I am working toward being content without a lot of possessions. In desperate need of someone who likes to cook... I want to learn to prepare a wider array of meals. I spend a lot of time skipping. (Sometimes I gallop, but only when I feel fairly certain that no one's watching.) I shaved my head 3 years ago. I had dreadlocks in college. My bedtime reading is usually some sort of textbook. I am relatively bossy and most likely a huge pain in the ass. What I’m doing with my life Doing a technical forestry program Mon-Fri and working during the weekends. Trying to focus my interests in a forestry-related field, whether it be the park or forest service, research and data, private consulting, etc. Or just experiment with all of those for awhile. Pretending to fall out of my chair. Trying to decide where I want to move once I finish my program. (Can I live 5 places at once?) Enjoying an apartment to myself but listening to a lot of TEdTalks. It's too quiet here. Learning how to be a good mother to my joint-custody kitten Making A's in my classes while still maintaining class clown status. I’m really good at Reading people. Noticing little things. Embarrassing myself to cheer someone up. Interacting with animals. Finding the good in people. Choosing the perfect song for any given moment. Absorbing information. Breaking a barrier with a stranger. Identifying trees. Spotting critters. Packing and planning. Speaking up for myself. Also I'm a gear nerd and an outfitting extraordinaire. Things I wish I could be good at: Startling people Getting up in the morning Playing banjo The first things people usually notice about me I’m an empty essay… fill me out! My eyes, and whichever fanny pack I'm wearing. (If I'm wearing a fanny pack.) Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food Help your potential matches find common interests. Books: Eloise Movies: Best in Show Shows: Summer Heights High Music: See me directly. Food: oysters The six things I could never do without Good food. GPS. Barefoot shoes. My pruners. A headlamp. I'm going to combine my last few things into one because I feel like it: NPR, my ENO hammock, my brother, Dr. Bronners I spend a lot of time thinking about My next trip, cross cultural birthing practices, donuts, cave art, intentional communities, coming-of-age ceremonies, surviving on a desert island, farming On a typical Friday night I am Making inappropriate jokes. You should message me if Offer a few tips to help matches win you over. You are patient You can teach me something You don't mind eating the rest of my asparagus (I only like the heads) You are gentle You want to learn/try new things with me You are good at fixing things	dclm-gs1-104100000
Aerobic Exercise Fitness Aerobic Exercies Fitness Benefits Of Aerobic Exercise Different Types Of Aerobic Exercises Wading In Water Aerobics Aerobic Breathing Aerobic Dance Aerobic Equipment Aerobic Kickboxing Step Aerobics Aerobics For Kids The Best Types Of Aerobics Aerobics During Pregnancy Aerobic Equipment The Beauty Of Aerobic Exercises The Need For Aerobics Even there is no sales page or sales template included at all but you get private label rights with this product. Isn't a good chance taking it as your weapon on content creation? Private Label Rights License Terms: Can be edited. Can put your anme as the author. Can be broken down into articles. Can be used as web or e-zine content. Can be added into membership sites. Can be sold Can be packaged. Can be sold on auction sites. Can sell resell rights. Can sell private lable rights. Can be published offline. No, can NOT be given away free. Add to Cart: Please Choose: Your IP Address is: Copyright © 2015 onebuckebook.com. Host Gator	dclm-gs1-104110000
'Pompeii' review: Disaster movie destroys ancient city, modern patience Emily Browning, left, and Kit Harington in "Pompeii." (Caitlin Cronenberg/TriStar Pictures/MCT) Follow on Twitter on February 21, 2014 at 7:00 AM, updated February 21, 2014 at 7:10 AM In a world where a mighty empire holds millions in its grasp, where wars are fought in both the arena and the bedroom -- and the rumblings of discontent are now echoed by the grumblings of a volcano -- comes one man, made for this time. No, that ad campaign doesn't really work, does it? You might think that a volcanic eruption that destroyed a thriving city of about 20,000 would be enough to hold the camera's attention. You witless barbarian. No, lava isn't enough for "Pompeii." We have to have earthquakes. Tidal waves. And a collision of '70s bad-movie cliches so shameless, all that's missing is Charlton Heston as a brave centurion or Richard Chamberlain as an evil Roman architect. (Or at least George Kennedy as a lovable old gladiator.) Instead, we get Kit Harington from "Game of Thrones," who looks like Eric Bana's much duller kid brother, and Emily Browning, who doesn't look like much of anything. Neither young star gives this dusty relic any life at all, even though Browning has trouble keeping her toga modestly arranged. The surrounding players, low on star power, don't help much. Jared Harris and Carrie-Anne Moss play the mild maiden's parents; Kiefer Sutherland is the sibilant and hissable Roman villain. Audiences will have a harder time doing that, particularly when the director, Paul W.S. Anderson, gives in to his cheap action-movie roots and love of excess. It's a spectacle, all right -- but mostly just of a lot of people, some of whom should know better, making an utter ash of themselves. -- Stephen Whitty Grade: D Rating: PG-13 Running time: 105 min. Cast and crew: Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Jared Harris, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kiefer Sutherland, Jean-Francois Lachapelle, Rebecca Eady; directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. The lowdown: Utter nonsense, with bland hero Kit Harrington and bland heroine Emily Browning dodging lava and cliches in the ancient world. It's a tossup as to which ultimately proves fatal. The film contains violence and sensuality.	dclm-gs1-104120000
Computer technology has the power to transform the face of education, the government believes — that's why it's spending £1.8bn in the six years from 1998-2004 on information and communications technology for schools. But those at the sharp end of educating children believe it will take much more than computers and money. To an incredulous audience at the British Education and Teaching Technology Show today in Olympia, London, education secretary Estelle Morris ran a video of the government's vision of future schools: a Jetson-like, computer-simulated utopia featuring 'buildings specially designed to provide light, space and flexible use of ICT... an environment where learning is encouraged... and class sizes varying according to need'. "No school in the country looks like this yet," said Morris, acknowledging the sniggers of the assembled teachers and ICT suppliers. "But there's nothing in the video which isn't already being done in one school or another. "It's important to know now where we want to be in 10 or 15 years time," added Morris, formerly a teacher herself. "I want ICT to close the attainment gap between the achievement level of the children of the wealthy and the achievement level of the children of the poor." As part of the government investment programme, Morris earmarked a further £50m to provide free laptops for head teachers in addition to the £50m announced for this initiative last November. The government's big picture is of an egalitarian wired educational community linking pupils, teachers and parents. But those responsible for supplying and buying computers for schools are less grandiose in their vision. "Wireless classrooms? Very amusing," said one deputy head at the show, adding that it's a hard enough job stopping kids nicking the few computers he does have. The government has already provided 50,000 teachers with PCs through various schemes over the last few years. But to provide every teacher in Britain's schools with a free laptop would cost billions of pounds.	dclm-gs1-104140000
Skip Nav How to Avoid Germs at the Gym The cold temps are moving in and it's that time of year for colds and the flu. To prevent getting the sniffles, sore throat, and achiness, you've got to avoid the germs. It's not enough to watch out for germy places in your home. You've also got to beware of places that are shared by tons of people, and for FitSugar readers, that means the gym. Yours may seem neat and clean, but that doesn't mean it's germ-free. So here are some ways to avoid the invisible creepy crawlies that can make you sick. • Spray down all equipment before you use it with disinfectant spray. It may be a rule at your gym that you have to clean equipment after you use it, but who knows if the person before you remembered, or how thorough they were. Wipe down everything you touch including handles on weight machines and dumbbells, yoga balls, and buttons on the displays. • Purchase your own mat for yoga, Pilates, or strength training. They're sweat on by many, and rarely get washed. • If you're a major germaphobe, pack along other equipment like weights and resistance bands. • Bring your own towel from home to wipe off your sweat or to use after you shower. The gym towels are supposedly clean, but you never know. Keep reading for more tips on avoiding gym germs. • Refrain from touching your mouth, nose or eyes while working out. • Wash your hands often, or use hand sanitizer. • Keep a towel between you and the seat in the sauna. • Fill up a reusable water bottle at home, and bring it to the gym. Germs can pass easily from a person's mouth, to their water bottle, then to the fountain tap and back to another bottle, and to another person's mouth, if people hold their bottles against the tap when filling them. Gross. • Shower immediately after working out to get rid of germs. If you can't, be sure to wash your hands and face, place your sweaty clothes in a plastic bag, and put on a clean outfit. • Wear flip-flops in the shower to avoid picking up athlete's foot. Image Source: Getty Latest Fitness	dclm-gs1-104150000
Kara Dalkey, Author Kara Dalkey, Author Tor Books $25.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-312-89071-1 Reviewed on: 02/01/2001 Release date: 02/01/2001 Reality and fantasy collide in this engrossing tale of two warring clans vying for power, prestige and the chance to influence the man who sits on the chrysanthemum throne. Setting her tale in Japan during the last days of the Heian period (roughly 1153-1185 C.E.), Dalkey (Blood of the Goddess) deftly uses her knowledge of Japanese culture, mannerisms and bloodthirsty politicking to chronicle the wars of rebellion and counter-rebellion that end in the death of the emperor and the rise of the first Japanese shogun. Two rival clans, the Taira and the Minamoto, clash numerous times over a period of 30 years, with each clan calling on the aid of demons or gods to gain superiority and power. Did demons and gods play a part in the brutal wars of competing emperors and the rise of the Japanese shogunate? Dalkey dramatizes the tantalizing possibilities of what might have been if they had. While she succeeds in bringing the history, customs and traditions of Japan to life, her many characters maintain a remoteness that will keep most readers from caring about any individual. In addition, the fantasy realm of the demons and gods that she posits is rather intangible and distant. But even so, the book, which reads more like a historical novel of political intrigue than a fantasy, boasts a strong story that holds the attention. (Feb. 12) The Best Books, Emailed Every Week Tip Sheet!	dclm-gs1-104160000
Julia's Chocolates Cathy Lamb, Author Cathy Lamb, Author Kensington Publishing Corporation $14 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1462-1 Reviewed on: 04/30/2007 Release date: 05/01/2007 The quirky debut romance from Lamb opens as Julia Bennett flees the Boston altar where her blueblood abuser fiance, Robert Stanfield III, awaits her. She leaves her wedding gown in a North Dakota tree, and arrives in the tiny town of Golden, Oregon to take refuge with her beloved Aunt Lydia. As Julia slowly returns to a semblance of normalcy, Lydia's eccentric friends soon become Julia's near and dear as well: minister's wife Lara, psychic Caroline and abused wife Katie all have their own hidden pains, to which Julia can relate. Robert, who hit her and made her feel bad about her body, is never far from her thoughts, nor is her incapacitating ""Dread Disease""-a feeling of panic she can't name. The dialogue is funny and bawdy: ""Don't cry, love! You escaped a life's prison sentence with King Prick."" Julia's struggles with people's interest in her chocolate-making, and in her person, make her a winningly flawed heroine, and there is well-deserved come-uppance for abusers of all types. The Best Books, Emailed Every Week Tip Sheet!	dclm-gs1-104170000
Case Sensitive Kate Greenstreet, Author Kate Greenstreet, Author . Ahsahta $16 (130p) ISBN 978-0-916272-89-0 Reviewed on: 07/31/2006 Release date: 01/01/2006 Greenstreet's quirky, sometimes vague debut feels less like one book than like a collection of five chapbooks, each with its own set of obsessions and themes, held together by an aesthetic consciousness that prizes immediacy, sincerity and open space. Part one, "Great Women of Science," considers the appeal of independence and the contrary draw of nostalgia, for a woman setting out on her own. "[SALT]" treats its titular mineral's properties (e.g., "[on icy streets makes winter travel safe]") as jumping-off points for questions about human nature: "Can you shut the eye with something in it and continue?" The passionate "Book of Love" and its sometime sequel "Where's the Body?" read like scrambled excerpts from smart diaries mixed with bits of murder mystery: "Why are we ashamed when someone hurts us?"; "The trouble comes from keeping a secret." Each of these four named segments reaches toward, and does not quite select, its own governing metaphor for the fluidity of the poet's inner life. The fifth segment, "Diplomacy," becomes both a fragmentary whodunit and a meditation on the poet's house, as if to ask where the self really resides. If this debut hints too much and reveals too little, it also marks Greenstreet as a poet to watch. (Sept.) The Best Books, Emailed Every Week Tip Sheet!	dclm-gs1-104180000
4th and Goal: From the Gridiron to the Boardroom and Back— The Inspirational True Story of Coach Joe Moglia Monte Burke, Author Monte Burke. Grand Central/Business Plus, $26.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4555-1404-5 Reviewed on: 06/04/2012 Release date: 09/18/2012 Forbes writer Burke combines snappy magazine prose with the natural drama of football coach Joe Moglia’s unlikely career arc to make this a captivating biography. Raised in a rough New York City neighborhood in the 1950s, the former stutterer became a successful high school and college coach, with an eye on eventually leading a major college program. But when Moglia realized he needed to provide greater financial stability for his family, he walked away from football and took an entry-level job at Merrill Lynch before eventually becoming CEO of TD Ameritrade and changing the way Wall Street operates—all with no formal financial training. Then, 25 years later, in 2011, Moglia walked away again, once more in search of the head coaching job that had always eluded him—it was with the Omaha Nighthawks of the fledgling United Football League—and was later hired as head coach at Coastal Carolina University. Burke previously profiled Moglia for Forbes and here provides extensive insight from Moglia, family members, friends, and former colleagues while navigating the sports and financial worlds with ease. Agent, Richard Pine. (Sept.) The Best Books, Emailed Every Week Tip Sheet!	dclm-gs1-104190000
Quantum Simulations About Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education Resources Understanding AI Technology Image of a frustrated studentMoving from Passive Observing to Active Learning A common trend in education and distance learning today is to take what is available in textbooks and convert it to a digital format. While convenient and affordable, this approach can create a passive learning experience because students spend most of their time reading and observing, not engaging and doing. Using AI Technology to Achieve Breakthrough Learning Image of an excited studentAt Quantum®, our artificial intelligence (AI) technology is designed to actively engage students at a deeper, intellectual level where "breakthrough learning" takes place. We have all experienced it before. We wrestle with a difficult problem until we think we have exhausted every possible solution but still can't determine the correct answer. Then, we have that magical moment of transformation where what seemed to be such a confusing concept or unsolvable problem now becomes so obvious and easy to understand. By working through the problem ourselves in a very personal way, we improve our comprehension and critical thinking skills at a higher cognitive level than if an instructor had just simply given us the answer. That is exactly what Quantum's tutoring and assessment software is designed to do — give students the opportunity to solve problems in an encouraging environment where they are free to explore, try new ideas and even make some mistakes along the way without fear of embarrassment. Just like working with an excellent instructor or tutor, the software is always there to coach the student. Unlike human tutoring, however, students can use the Tutors anytime, anywhere for as little or as long as they want. Helping Students Understand Why an Answer is Right or Wrong Image of a lightbulb on a monitorMost homework systems only tell a student if their answer is "right" or "wrong" and may give canned responses that are not related to the student's actual work. This doesn't help the student understand what to do next or how to go about solving the problem. With Quantum®, students receive detailed step-by-step instruction and feedback based on their own work and receive immediate answers to their questions. The Tutor interprets and understands their work and coaches the student through the solution based on their individual needs and conceptual understanding. The goal is to teach the student to think about strategies, concepts and questions to solve problems based on critical thinking, not memorization. Improving Student Performance Research shows that the Quantum Tutors® can improve test scores by as much as 50%. In addition, more than 80% of students prefer Quantum® over working with a human tutor because of the self-directed pace. Accessed over the Internet, Quantum® has Tutors for Chemistry, Mathematics and Accounting. Image of an instructor	dclm-gs1-104200000
Login \| Reward Club Discount \| Checkout \| Track Your Order \| Product Search \| Wish List RCS provided a great product at the lowest price with the best service--no reason to look elsewhere for optics. Thank you! Dan K Cash Rebates Check for active Product Rebates here. Selecting a pair of binoculars Click here for things you should know before you buy. RCS Optics helps you to make an informed purchase. Long Range Hunting Long Range Hunting Success Tips By Randy Heying There is no denying that hunting costs money. The cost of gas, ammo, tags, and other miscellaneous expenses can certainly add up. Book your hunt with an outfitter and your outlay increases even more. Time away from home and family can be an additional cost. Make sure that your experience is memorable for all the right reasons because you certainly have an invested interest. Here are a few of the right reasons- you can undoubtedly add to this list as well: 1) A safe expedition. 2) Improving your skills. 3) Camaraderie with your hunting buddies. 4) Most importantly, not going home empty handed. There are several techniques and skills that are essential for long range hunting success. Your ultimate goal is to successfully and ethically drop your target with one shot. When you take into consideration any unfamiliarity with the hunting area, terrain variations, temperature, humidity, cross winds, your shooting stance, your skill, knowledge and comfort levels with the tools (rifle, optics, range finders, etc) available for your use, ammo lots, as well as the distance to the target, the odds can quickly stack against you. It is the challenge to overcome these variables, achieving the goal, and getting back to camp safely that makes for great campfire stories. Planning and Preparation Your hunt should start well in advance of the actual hunting trip. Preparation and planning are essential. Safety in the wilderness is critical. Be comfortable with all the tools that you have at your disposal; know how to use them thoroughly so that you do not have to rely on an instruction manual in time of need. Be comfortable with your gun and shooting at longer distances than what you normally encounter. Spend some time at the range verifying the bullet drop for your preferred cartridge so that you can make correct adjustments in the field. If you are serious about the sport and feel your time is worth anything then be sure that the optics that you are depending upon don’t let you down. You need the ability to connect at long range and unless you can drive tacks with iron sights your success depends to a large degree upon quality optics properly mounted and sighted. Quality optics are mission critical. If the hunt is in an area that you are unfamiliar with, then get a topographical map of the area. It will help you to understand the terrain, as well as the location of features such as lakes, streams, and rivers. Most importantly, it shows elevation variations of the area. You might be tempted to skip the map thinking that a GPS unit would do the same thing but a map spread out on the kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon with your hunting buddies makes planning much more effective, builds excitement for the trip, and gives everyone a better sense of the area. Check out the USGS map store to obtain maps for your desired area. For more information on reading topographical maps, see the RCS Optics article, Reading a topographical map. Scouting the Area Scouting methods vary widely, however there are a few basics that should be followed to insure your success. As much as possible, move slowly and keep the wind in your face. You do not want your quarry to see or smell you first. Your ears are your second line of offense and they serve you best when you are motionless. Cracking of branches or rustling of leaves when there is no wind or other distracting noises helps you to zero in on your quarry. “Glassing the area” is simply surveying the area with a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope. Glassing is accomplished at a preferred vantage point that allows you to use your binoculars or spotting scope to cover a larger area than what can possibly be covered by foot. When looking through binoculars it is common to look at the open areas, however your focus must not only be the animal that you are hunting but also for indicators that suggest the animals are indeed even in the area. It is during this time that the features depicted on the topographical map that you purchased and studied with your hunting buddies also start to come to life. Natural water sources such as lakes, streams, rivers are visible as well as land formations such as ridges, peaks, and valleys. While glassing it is important to look at everything in the line of sight, force yourself to look into the shadows. Look for and identify all the indicators such as bedding or feeding areas and for the trails that the animals take. Scrapes and rubs are additional indicators; however they may be only discernible with spotting scopes that have higher magnification. When looking for the animal, you need to look for parts- not the whole; perhaps his tail or his antlers or even something as subtle as breath steam. Look for any movement as you slowly and methodically scan left to right and then right to left as you work up the hillsides. As we alluded to earlier, the use of quality optics cannot be overstated here. The heart of any sports optic whether riflescope, binoculars, or spotting scope, is the glass. Experiencing the view through quality glass, especially during the twilight times of dawn and dusk is when the value of high quality optics is apparent. High quality optics can effectively increase your shooting time as you do not lose the opportunities that present themselves in the first or last few minutes of the legal shooting window each day of the hunt. Quality glass will also help differentiate the animal’s natural camouflage from their surroundings. Range Finding Technology Very simply explained, range finders determine the measured distance by measuring the time it takes for the laser pulse to reach the target and reflect back to the unit. The laser beam must return (reflect) back to the unit in order for the distance to be measured. All range finders are not created equal. You get what you pay for is very true in this product sector. The most prominent range finding format is a monocular style with low magnification options. Measuring distances can vary from 200 yards up to 1600 yards. Actual performance may be lower as the maximum ranging distance is based on a reflective surface. Since animal hide is not very reflective the manufacturer may typically have a disclaimer such as “1600 yards reflective, 500 yards deer”. There are also riflescopes and binoculars that have a laser range finder integrated into them. Carl Zeiss Sports Optics Victory RF binoculars displays a true 1,300 yard range followed by a hold over value for your cartridge. Zeiss also makes the Diarange rifle scope that displays ranges up to 999 yards and includes the Rapid Z bullet drop compensating reticle for accurate placement and includes compensation marks for full value 5 and 10 mph cross winds. Another example is the Burris Eliminator. Its effective range is limited to about 600 yards however a small indicator lights up in the reticle (1/3 moa) representing the correct holdover point. Fujinon has binoculars with a mil-dot reticle and compass built into them. There are also many other range finding products out there. Many handheld rangefinders can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars however it is important to remember and understand their range limitations on targets of true interest- not something that just happens to be reflective. Anytime you can combine functions means that you are packing and carrying less weight- something that you will be happy about while out hunting. It also means that you do not have to switch tools to gather the needed ranging information. There are many instances when your window of opportunity is five seconds or less. That can often be the difference between a successful encounter and one of disappointment. Ranging reticles Laser rangefinders have for the most part made the range finding reticle obsolete- that is until the range finders batteries have died. You are probably glad that you learned your multiplication tables in elementary school and you still depend upon them today as a calculator may not always be available. The point is learning how to use a range finding reticle is good back up insurance and you always want to be prepared for the unexpected. Every long range hunter should be proficient using a mildot reticle, and knowing the potential sources of error that can get introduced which could impact your ranging result is just as important. They include: 1) Not knowing the actual target size used as a reference. 2) Incorrectly reading the mil size in the reticle. 3) Calculation errors under the pressure of time constraints If you are going to use a range finding reticle to establish distances, then you will need to do a little math and know the size of the target that you are ranging. The Mil-dot reticle is a very versatile reticle that provides ranging capabilities, bullet drop compensation, cross wind compensation as well as the capability to lead a moving target. The Mil-dot reticle is not cartridge dependant which means it works with any bullet weight, any velocity, at any elevation. It is also a good idea to establish a few target reference points in your field of view that you can determine the ranging distance to- a watering hole, a dirt road, or a fence post. Just be aware that sometimes an animal may seem to appear near a reference mark but could actually be some distance away. To compute range distance in yards with a mil-dot reticle… Take the known size of the target in inches times 27.78 and then divided by the number of mil dots the target covers. For example, let’s say a deer’s brisket to backbone measures 18 inches and it covers 1.5 mils in the reticle. Its distance away is 18 x 27.78 ÷ 1.5 = 333 yards. Once you validate the target height you can simplify this even more. Since the target size is going to be pretty much constant, for example, for whitetail deer you can simply use the value of 500 ÷ mils = distance in yards. Now in this case the 500 comes from 18 times 27.78. If the deer’s brisket to backbone measurement varies from 18 inches then use that value instead. For example, in a different part of the country it may measure 16 inches, then the formula would be 444 ÷ mils = distance in yards (since 16 times 27.78 = 444). To compute range distance with an MOA reticle… the equation is size of target in inches times 100 divided by the number of Minutes of Angle that the target is covering in the reticle. For example, let’s say an elk’s brisket to backbone is 24 inches and it covers 4 MOA in the reticle. Its distance away is 24 x 100 ÷ 4 = 600 yards. For more information on Mil-Dot reticles, see the RCS Optics article, Using a Mil-Dot Reticle. Shooting at Angles Take note of any elevation differences between you and the target. If a correction to the ranging distance is not made on shots made at an incline or decline, you will end up shooting higher than intended. To calculate the adjusted range for a shot at angles simply multiply the ranged distance by the factor in the table below. You will need to measure or estimate the angle of the shot from horizontal. There are some laser range finders that will compensate for angle shooting situations. Sniper Tools Design Co manufactures an angle cosine indicator (ACI) that mounts directly on your rifle and indicates the factor directly- no table needed, however you still need to do the math to adjust the range. For example, let’s say that your target is 450 yards away in a valley below you and the angle between the target and horizontal is 30 degrees. If the range finder does not compensate for the decline then you will need to multiply the 450 yards by .87 =392 yards true horizontal distance away. Angle from horizontal Factor 10 .98 15 .97 20 .94 25 .91 30 .87 35 .82 40 .77 45 .71 50 .64 55 .57 60 .50 65 .42 70 .34 75 .26 80 .17 Crosswind Estimation A ten mph cross wind can affect your bullets intended point of impact particularly when shooting at distances beyond 200 yards. As your bullet is in flight, it loses velocity and the effect of cross winds (and gravity) increases proportionately. Having an anemometer (wind meter) is a good tool to have to help develop your wind speed estimation skills. Look at nearby branches at elevations no higher than ten feet above grade for signs of wind or feel the wind on your face and guess the wind speed as you measure it- then read the meter to see how close you are. Do not look at tree top movements as the wind at that elevation will most likely be different than at ground level. Over time you skill at reading the wind will improve. Keep in mind that down range wind speeds can be significantly different from the wind speed at your location. A second method to estimate wind speed down range is by reading mirage. See the RCS Optics rifle wisdom page ( to view a video from the NSSF on estimating cross winds by reading mirage. Alternately, Ward Brien presents a good discussion on reading mirage in his book “Precision Shooting 1”. Taking the Shot This is the moment that you have prepared for- your trophy awaits; so be sure that your position does not compromise the opportunity before you. The position you hold during the shot is critical. Keep in mind that out in the field, there is always uneven ground, rocks, sticks that can cause uncomfort when holding a position. The best position is prone with the rifle supported by your backpack or a bipod. This is the best position that keeps your profile minimized with the need for little or no movement. The second best position is kneeling or sitting with some kind of support against a tree, rock, or hillside. Fatigue and wind can affect your stability so only use standing positions for short range shots. If you are forced to take a shot standing be sure that your magnification is set on the lower side of the range to ensure that you have a wide angle view. Outfitters provide a vast array of services beyond the hunting ground that they own or lease. They may also provide additional amenities that provide value for your time so that you can focus on the hunt rather than the side tasks that need to be addressed, such as preparing meals, packing lunches, etc. Other amenities could include horseback guides, field dressing & processing your kill for you, as well as freezer storage during your party’s hunt. A good guide is worth his salt. He should know the terrain, where the animals feed and bed, and when and where they move. Do not assume that a guide is a replacement for long range shooting skills because stalking your quarry closer than 300 yards can take a significant amount of time and energy depending upon the terrain you are hunting and whether you are on foot or horseback. You always increase the risk that you will be detected as you attempt to stalk closer. A good guide can lead you to the animals but your success still depends upon your skills. Field Dressing Depending upon the quarry, the terrain, and your hunting party will determine what extent you go beyond the basic field dress to protect the meat that you have just earned. Large animals such as elk will need to get quartered after field dressing, particularly if you are on foot. You will also need to protect the meat from other scavenging animals such as coyotes or in some areas, bears. Three rules cover proper meat protection- keep it clean, keep it dry, and keep it cool. Be Prepared Part of being prepared means that you do not leave anything to chance. As we noted earlier in this article, safety in the wilderness is critical. Here is a checklist of items that should be considered as necessary equipment especially if you are hunting an unfamiliar territory. Maps and a compass Flashlight with spare batteries GPS unit with spare batteries Protein bars and water First aid Kit Pocket knife Sharpening stone 2 way radios Cell phone Protractor Heat patches (drug store) Extra socks Matches in waterproof container Cotton balls coated with vasoline (tinder) Poncho and gloves Whistle Wire saw Candle Cap or hat E blanket Plastic bags Mirror Sewing kit 9x12 plastic sheet Mason string Super glue Aluminum foil Fishing kit Can opener flares There is absolutely no substitute for skill and proficiency; however technology can reduce human error and also help accelerate learning. To be consistently successful you should heed the old axiom “practice, practice, practice. Spend time at the range improving your skills and challenge yourself by joining a local gun club that has competitions throughout the summer. It is a time to network with other hunters and sportsmen (male and female alike). Also each hunt will present new variables that will test your skills and knowledge. For additional information, check out the Rifle Wisdom page at RCS Optics for additional resources to improve your knowledge and skills. There are embedded videos from the NSSF on topics such as wind estimation, shooting at angles, understanding MOA, understanding milliradians (mil-dot reticles) for more information. Alternately you can read other articles by RCS Optics on Binocular Selection or Mil-Dot Reticles, or Reading Topographical Maps. Finally check out these long range rifle scopes Now get out there! Precision Shooting 1- Sniper Tools Design Carl Zeiss Outdoor Passion User Guide for Mil-Dot Equipped Optics, Remington Military Products Division The Outward Bound Map & Compass Handbook NSSF Videos Customer Price Set Customer Price Set riflescopes available at RCS Optics Certified iSafeSite Member Home About Us Contact Us Shipping Privacy Feedback Copyright © 2008-2015 RCS Optics™, All rights reserved	dclm-gs1-104210000
The plot thickens: Lexington tales make good reading ADDRESS: 713 Lexington Avenue ASKING: $470,000 BUILDING: 1,840 fin. sq. ft., 600 unfin. LAND: 0.17 acres NEIGHBORHOOD: North Downtown CURB APPEAL: 7 out of 10 LISTED BY: Gigi Harold at Assist2Sell 979-1223 Every house has a history, some more intriguing than others. It's easy to imagine that narratives of lives lived in the houses along Lexington Avenue between Park Street and Locust Avenue could one day make a fascinating short-story collection. Consider the "squirrel house"– a big yellow stucco place on the U-turn where Lexington becomes Evergreen. Not so long ago, a visionary owner paid a chainsaw artist to carve a tree stump into a giant squirrel to stand guard over a corner of the sloping front yard. Everyone in the neighborhood has a theory about the stucco house a little farther up the street, the one with the pink door. What's that about? Or, how about the curious corner house with the rose-colored cement-block walls and the Japanese lanterns blowing in the wind? Then there's the leprechaun– all part of the lore of Lexington. This house fits right in. While a casual visitor might note the unusual sloped roof dormer over what appears to be almost a front-porch addition (in actuality, it's a sunroom), sharper eyes will fall upon the curious "gazebo" off the kitchen. Constructed of cinderblocks and lattice, with a cement floor and trellis roof (festooned with some sort of evergreen vine), it served in days gone by as the waiting room of a beauty shop domiciled in what is now a den/family room at the back of the house. One gets a little thrill thinking of the stories exchanged out there by ladies waiting their turn in front of the Aquanet nozzle. (Those can be part of the short-story collection.) The inside of the house continues to spur the imagination. Where a wall once stood between the front sun-porch (with its own door adjacent to the front door on the entrance stoop) now there's merely a long gap in the unusual inch-wide oak flooring. The owners report, however, that an under-eaves attic wall of the same material can be the source of replacement boards. Lovely casement windows flank the brick fireplace in the living room (but they're the only casements in the house). A brick surround that the owners explain was once painted pink with snow-white mortar accents is now white. There's a small kitchen – awkward at the end of the front hall– with a cut-out opening providing a view through to the dining room between the living room and the former beauty parlor space at the back. A fun little spice cabinet is tucked into the wall off the entrance hall, and a narrow staircase leads from the kitchen to the surprisingly spacious cellar with washer and dryer, which convey. Although– like every other house downtown– the basement gets wet when it rains, it's nevertheless useful storage space if you keep stuff up high. On the second floor, three bedrooms circle a strangely configured central hall and the biggest drawback in the place, a claustrophobic antiquated bathroom. Figuring out how to remedy that problem will undoubtedly be a new owner's first task. (There's a modern, if tiny, half bath off the former beauty parlor downstairs.) The full walk-up attic, while unheated and lacking electricity, has huge potential because it's bright, and– because the house sits higher than its neighbors– offers sweeping views of the neighborhood. Out back, a typical city yard, fenced on all sides, provides space for a garden. There's a former garage that provides ample covered (but unlocked) storage. Another shed could present some problems, as it appears to encroach on an adjacent property. An interested buyer might want to clear up that issue before signing a contract. One silver lining, however, is that any ensuing negotiations will undoubtedly provide grist for the "713" chapter of the Lexington Avenue story collection.	dclm-gs1-104220000
VIDEO – Jon Voight at RNC: Obama Is A Marxist, And Here’s Why Actor Jon Voight drew a crowd today at the Republican Convention in Tampa. Among the many questions he answered was the following (ht RevealingPolitics). Voight answers the question of whether President Obama is a Marxist: “Well his father was a marxist. Of course he was influenced by his mother who led him toward his father’s Marxism, yes! His mentor as a child who was a fellow by the name of Frank Marshall Davis, he was a communist. And of course his alliances from that time on. His mentor, his acknowledged mentor Saul Alinksy was a communist agitator.” He was asked the follow-up question “so he’s a Marxist?” To which Voight replies, “figure it out.” Get Alerts	dclm-gs1-104230000
Lewis is a young genius inventor who lives at an orphanage and makes inventions that constantly scare off would-be adoptive parents. One day, deciding his biological mother is the only one who loves him, he builds a memory machine to locate her, and keeps his room mate, Michael "Goob" Yagoobian awake all night causing him to fall asleep during a Little League Game. Taking his invention to the school science fair, he meets Wilbur Robinson, a time cop claiming to be from the future. He takes Lewis to the year 2037 only to discover that Wilbur is his son and his own time machine was stolen by a grown up Goon, after his game loss 30 years ago caused him to become depressed and bitter. Lewis, key to getting back to his own time and restoring the future version of his dysfunctional family is to get the time machine back.	dclm-gs1-104240000
My morning-train reading: • Financial Television & The Culture of Charade (Above the Market) • Wall Street’s New Housing Bonanza (DealBook) • World risks deflationary shock as BRICS puncture credit bubbles (Telegraph), see also As China’s Economy Slows, the Pain Hits Home (NY Times) continues here Category: Markets 7 Responses to “10 Thursday AM Reads” 1. RW says: When corporations are healthy but the economy is not then junk can outperform equities …at least for awhile. HY bond market weathering the storm 2. rd says: There are trees growing north of the Arctic Circle where the climate is warm enough to sustain them. Trees have a hard time rooting themselves in permafrost. There have also been previous discoveries of very large fossilized leaves in the Arctic, incidcating that they grew in a warm climate above the Arctic Circle where there is abundant sunshine in the summer and none in the winter. If the world is warm enough to melt the ice caps and eliminate near surface permafrost, we would have the potential for trees everywhere on the planet. Who knows, maybe the next big farmer migration will be to Antarctica (the North Pole is sea water, so it would need to be hydroponic only).. 3. rd says: This is a neat map that may be the best single indictor of where the wealthy live and travel in the US: 4. hue says: The Food May Be Fast, but These Customers Won’t Be Rushed (NYTimes) “I don’t eat fast food. I just come here to hang out and deal with my mail.” Happy New Year: A Beautiful Map of the World’s Largest Annual Human Migration (Slate) Why Twitter Is So Big in Saudi Arabia (the beeb) The New York Times’ Most Popular Story of 2013 Was Not an Article (The Atlantic) 5. hue says: sorry wish there was an edit function, missing quote mark, like a scene in Swingers (the beeb)	dclm-gs1-104260000
Back Home Button The Rush Limbaugh Show Excellence in Broadcasting RSS Icon The Limbaugh Immigration Plan RUSH: The first thing I would do is whatever it takes to stop illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. That's the first thing I would do. Whatever it takes, fence, what have you. Look, especially with what I know the Senate's trying to do, this Hagel-Martinez bill. I think there's a legal way. We have legal immigration established. There is a way for this country to grow by way of immigration and I have no intention to shut that out. My desire is not to stop immigration. It's to promote it with the proper assimilation, with the right numbers that we could absorb economically and so forth, and then I would elevate the number of qualified immigrants who could get into this country, high-tech graduates, specialists and so forth, I would double that. As to what I would do with the 11 or 12 million or whatever that are here now, I'd recognize they're here. I wouldn't talk about deporting them. I would do what's necessary to fine them and put them through a process that makes them legal, hoping that would be the last time we'd have to do it. If we get tough on the border, there aren't going to be 11 or 12 million the next 20 years or 200 million the next 20 years. We'll have some control over it. If you don't have a border you don't have a country, and if we're not going to enforce our borders we're not worried about having a country. After I did all that, then I would go to Washington during the daytime only -- I'd leave every night -- to find out what the hell is really behind the asinine thinking that's been going on with this issue for 20 years, aside from the obvious "we need votes, the Democrats need victims, we want to try to show the Hispanic community, Latino community we don't hate them." There's something more to this than all of that and I want to find out what it is. I don't know how I could, but I mean that's the last thing I would do. It might have to be the first thing I would do in order to establish the other two planks of my platform. But I think given 9/11 and everything else, the security of the border and getting that handled is project number one. I think if you did that, people who are, you know, roiled and upset about the 11 to 12 million illegals in the country, you'd have a lot of easier time in dealing with them and solving that if the border was secured. You'd have a much easier time coming up with an enforcement plan that people would go along with. As long as that border remains a sieve and there's no end in sight to an 11 or 12 million always here, always illegal, it's going to continue to be an issue that they're not satisfied with. That's off the top of my head, that's that's my ideal situation. Rush 24/7 Audio/Video Listen to the Latest Show Watch the Latest Show Listen to the Latest Show Watch the Latest Show Most Popular EIB Features	dclm-gs1-104270000
Strong earthquake shakes central Chile — A strong, magnitude-6.7 earthquake rocked central Chile late Monday, prompting authorities to order a preventative evacuation of a stretch of coastline, causing hundreds of people to flee buildings in panic and shaking up the visiting prime minister of Canada. The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the quake's magnitude at 6.5 but later raised it to 6.7. Its epicenter was 26 miles (42 kilometers) northeast of Valparaiso, and it had a depth of 23 miles (37 kilometers). It struck just minutes before midnight local time Monday (3:50 Tuesday GMT). The Chilean navy's hydrographic and oceanographic service discounted the possibility of a tsunami, but authorities maintained an order for people to move to higher ground along a roughly 500-mile (roughly 780 kms) stretch of coastline running from the city of Constitucion to Tongoy, north of the capital. Visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was awakened by the earthquake, but was not hurt. "The prime minister and his wife were at the hotel when the earthquake happened," said Andrew MacDougall, Harper's director of communications. "All members of the Canadian delegation, including the prime minister, and his wife, Laureen, are just fine." Still, the event shook up delegation travelling with Harper at the end of a four-day trip to Colombia and South America. On his Twitter page, Canadian Parliament member Randy Hoback wrote, "With PM in Chile. Just experienced Earthquake. Everything A ok! Just freaky!" The Associated Press	dclm-gs1-104280000
Q: Adjusted for inflation, where does the Dow stand? Q: What other factors are involved? Q: And what have bonds been doing? A: For the most part, the rally in stocks has been accompanied by a rally in bonds as the Fed has pledged to keep rates low and the stimulus flowing until the U.S. economy is fully recovered. Yields, which move inversely to bond prices, have been edging up recently though, suggesting that the rally may be over. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which rose two basis points Tuesday to 1.90 percent, is lower than the dividend yield of about 2.1 percent on the S&P 500, which measures the ratio of annual dividend payments to stock prices. Q: Does the stock rally still have legs? A: That depends on who you talk to. The bulls say that, based on many valuations such as stock prices compared to earnings, many equities are cheap compared to historical averages and are far more attractive investments than bonds, which are trading close to record highs. The bears will tell you that worries about growth in Europe and China still linger and bickering in Washington could still derail the rally. Also, economic growth, while steady, is nothing to get excited about. “We have a euphoric spirit in the market and that’s always a point of vulnerability,” Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Group’s advisory services unit, told Bloomberg Television. “Too much of the money has gone into the stock market. Not enough of it has gone into the real economy. Companies don’t have pricing power. The economy is only growing at 2 percent real, 4 percent nominal, and I think we could see a margin squeeze and some disappointing earnings.” Q: How much would I have made if I’d gotten in at the bottom? A: An investor who put $1,000 into the stock market on March 9, 2009, the day Dow bottomed out after the Great Recession, would now have $2,406. That’s a total return of 140.6 percent, including stock gains and dividends. Q: Why doesn’t the exuberance on Wall Street show up on Main Street? A: Wages are stagnant and incomes are shrinking. Unemployment is at 7.9 percent. The weak job market is limiting pay. With so many applicants to choose from, employers need not compete for workers by boosting salaries. Median household incomes fell 4.8 percent between June 2009 and June 2012, after adjusting for inflation, according to a report by Sentier Research, which crunches census and other government data. Meanwhile, Americans are paying down debt. That leaves fewer dollars available for spending. And despite recent gains, hiring remains slow. Q: What about global stocks? A: Global equities also rose Tuesday as China pledged to support economic expansion with a 10 percent jump in fiscal spending. Many markets in Europe and Asia were trading at multiyear highs, too, in part because of Wall Street’s rally. U-T writer Roger Showley, Bloomberg News & TheStreet contributed to this report.	dclm-gs1-104290000
The 25-year-old convention center is in need of new revenues to pay for repairs to the aging facility. The 25-year-old convention center is in need of new revenues to pay for repairs to the aging facility. — K.C. Alfred The San Diego Convention Center, facing more than $40 million in deferred maintenance and operational expenses, is looking into a naming rights deal to raise revenues. The Cleveland, Ohio-based Superlative Group has been hired by the Convention Center Corp. to explore not only corporate naming rights but also sponsorships and the naming of different parts of the center. The company, which has experience selling such rights to ballparks, stadiums and arenas and other municipally-owned assets, will spend the next 90 days exploring what potential value the center has for sponsorship and naming partnerships. Possible opportunities beyond naming the entire center are partnerships with automotive, banking and insurance companies, for example, who could advertise their businesses on signage within the center, explained Kyle Canter, Superlative's chief operating officer. "The goal is to maximize and leverage these highly valued opportunities while being tasteful," he said. "In our business, we say that you don't want to 'NASCAR' it up (like a NASCAR vehicle) with a bunch of stickers. There's a fine line between leveraging highly valued opportunities and going overboard because then you devalue everything." The move to pursue a naming rights deal is fueled by the center's growing tab for repairs, most notably the need to replace the fabric structure of the upper level Sails Pavilion. "The Sails Pavilion is 25 years old, and its useful life is 20 years, so it's rotting and likely to fail anytime soon," said center spokesman Steve Johnson. In addition, the center no longer has the funds to maintain an operating reserve, a concern raised repeatedly by the city's independent budget analyst. The center is largely self-supporting through the revenues it gets from leasing the bayfront facility, although it does receive an annual city subsidy of $3.4 million, $1.9 million of which goes to the Tourism Authority staffing for booking large conventions. Meanwhile, the city's plans to substantially expand the center remain in limbo in light of a Friday ruling by an appellate court panel that the financing mechanism for the $520 million project is unconstitutional. The city is seeking to use a special hotel room tax to pay for the bulk of the expansion. No decision has been made yet on how to proceed. Once Superlative completes its research phase, the next step will be for the Convention Center Corp. to decide on how it wants to proceed and then pursue actual sponsorship and naming rights deals. Under the corporation's contract with Superlative, the firm would receive a commission of 12.5 percent of annual naming rights and sponsorship revenues, up to $1 million, and 10 percent over $1 million, Johnson said. The entire process could take from 18 months to two years, he said. Although there are few major cities with centers that have been branded with corporate names, the demand for such naming rights revenue is growing, said Canter. Among those who currently have partnered with corporations are centers in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Bakersfield and Madison, Wisconsin.	dclm-gs1-104300000
PTA stands for parent-teacher association. Based at a local school, each PTA chapter is affiliated with the National PTA and, often, a state PTA. Members pay dues, some of which go to the national and state-level organizations. In return, individual school units receive resource materials, training, and other services. A PTA is a type of parent organization.	dclm-gs1-104310000
Every Galaxy an Active Galaxy? Quasar 3C 273 3C 273 is no ordinary 13th-magnitude 'star.' It's the sky's brightest quasar, visible in a 6-inch backyard telescope 2 billion light-years away in Virgo. As this pair of images from the Hubble Space Telescope shows, the quasar is the extremely luminous nucleus of an ordinary galaxy. Left: The quasar as imaged by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Right: The Hubble's ACS camera has coronagraph capability; a small occulting disk can be positioned to block an overpowering source of light. With the glaring 'headlight' of the quasar blocked, a surprisingly ordinary-looking galaxy disk around it pops into view. Note the hints of reddened spiral dust lanes. Does every galaxy nucleus go into hyperdrive sometime in its life? Courtesy NASA / STScI. Quasars. Blazars. Seyfert galaxies of Type 1 and Type 2. Even some professional astronomers have trouble keeping the actors on the active-galaxy playbill straight. Some of these enormous beasts spew jets of plasma at near-light speeds. Others flicker and flare with stupendous luminosities that outshine the Milky Way's energy output hundreds of times over. But they all have the same basic makeup, Yale University astrophysicist C. Megan Urry told members of the American Astronomical Society during its Nashville meeting on Monday. In the consensus view today, every active galactic nucleus (AGN) contains a supermassive black hole feeding on gas from a tightly wound accretion disk encircling it, with a much larger, bloated torus (doughnut) of opaque material surrounding this "central engine." What the object looks like depends primarily on whether our line of sight is blocked by the opaque, puffy torus or goes through its "doughnut hole" to reach the bright center. When we get a clear views of the central engine, we see a classical quasar. Radio galaxies and some Seyferts hide their central engines from our view with their dusty doughnuts. A rare view straight down a jet's nozzle creates the appearance of an erratically variable blazar. Most galaxies are relatively tame ellipticals or spirals with inactive cores. A case in point is our Milky Way, whose central black hole is very dim. But like responsible adults keeping mum about their wild youth, these inactive galaxies probably all had a phase of violent nuclear activity. "Apparently every galaxy goes through an active phase," says Urry. Her Grand Unification theory posits a deep connection not just between active galaxies, but between the formation of galaxies, their supermassive black holes, and their stars. As a sign of this connection, Urry noted that quasars were most prevalent at roughly the cosmic era when star formation peaked: some 10 billion years ago (about 3 billion years after the Big Bang; around redshift 2). Many other forms of galaxy-core activity must be going unseen at such great distances, or may be hidden by the thick dust that often obscures vigorously star-forming galaxies. If every galaxy once had an active nucleus, every galaxy today should retain a central black hole. And indeed, in the past few years astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes (with masses of a million to several billion Suns) in scores of ordinary galaxies. Apparently every galaxy with a central bulge has one. Moreover, the mass of the hole scales up with the mass and brightness of the bulge. Urry and others hope to gain further insights into the growth of early black holes and galaxies when the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) joins the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the XMM-Newton X-ray satellite in orbit later this year. The instruments are to join forces in pursuit of star-forming galaxies and hidden active nuclei in the distant universe. With a multiwavelength attack, Urry and others plan to watch all the steps of galactic growth, and hopefully learn how and when dust doughnuts set apart the actors on the extragalactic stage.	dclm-gs1-104320000
Laquoshea Fitzhugh 3 results found for Laquoshea Fitzhugh Potential Matches We found these potential images for Laquoshea Fitzhugh Fun Facts and Statistics Statistics for all 3 people named Laquoshea Fitzhugh Income average Our wealth data indicates income average is $57k. Average age 45 yrs Our ethnicity data indicates the majority is African-American. Interesting Facts about Laquoshea Fitzhugh Fitzhugh family name, ancestry, and history "son of Hugh" (patronymic) Wikipedia info Fitzhugh is an English Anglo-Norman surname originating in Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.. It is patronymic as the prefix Fitz- derives from the Latin filius, meaning "son of". Its variants include FitzHugh, Fitz-Hugh, Fitz Hugh, fitz Hugh, and its associated given name turned surname Hugh.... Tag Cloud Potential Email Matches Popular email services and username matches	dclm-gs1-104330000
Please upgrade your browser for the best possible experience. Chrome Firefox Internet Explorer End game spec, Tionese & Blackhole gear recommendations STAR WARS: The Old Republic > English > Classes End game spec, Tionese & Blackhole gear recommendations FeelFlow's Avatar 01.04.2013 , 04:36 PM \| #1 Hello all, I've dinged 50 and wondered if any of you could give me some advice. I'm looking to remain very much a casual player and run hard-mode Flash points with maybe a few operations. This being so, should I stay tank specced or move to DPS? Obviously that has implications re. gear. Finally, do the mods retain the set bonuses i.e. so I don't have to look rather silly with Tionese or BH gear! Thanks in advance everyone Elizar_Naki's Avatar 01.05.2013 , 06:26 PM \| #2 I'm not exactly an expert, but I'll throw my two creds' worth in since nobody else has yet. Which spec you choose really depends on which role you do better playing and have more fun with. If you're looking for overall usefulness, get a feel for your server's role balance before making a decision; my main server (Jedi Covenant) seems pretty dps heavy to me, so more tanks are always welcome. As for set bonuses, the only PvE sets that have the set bonuses attached to the armorings are Campaign and Dread Guard; Tionese, Columi, and Rakata all have the set bonuses attached to the armor shells themselves, and BH gear doesn't contribute to set bonuses at all. Fortunately, you can also use BH comms to buy just the Campaign armorings now, allowing you to keep the look you like and get the endgame set bonuses a little earlier than you used to. The armorings cost anywhere between 36 and 44 BH comms each, depending on the body slot you're buying for. "The Force isn't supposed to be a quick solution to every problem...although it does help." "Peace through fear and suppression of freedom isn't peace worth having." FeelFlow's Avatar 01.06.2013 , 02:15 PM \| #3 Many thanks got this. I'll take a look around and see what spec seems best for end game in my server. Thanks also for the tips about the and hand armour and mods!	dclm-gs1-104340000
Syracuse's 1995-96 team went on a magical run to the NCAA title game (No. 5) Mike Waters \| By Mike Waters \| The Post-Standard Follow on Twitter on May 12, 2014 at 11:59 AM, updated May 12, 2014 at 1:04 PM NO. 5: 1995-96 TEAM Overall record: 29-9 Conference record (finish): 12-6 (2nd in Big East 7 division) Postseason: Lost to Kentucky NCAA tournament championship game Best player: John Wallace 0322 SUGEORGIA 9.JPGJohn Wallace hit this 3-pointer in overtime to lift Syracuse past Georgia in the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16. As a senior, John Wallace had one of the finest seasons in Syracuse history. He averaged team-highs in both scoring (22.2 points per game) and rebounding (8.7). What most people forget about Wallace that year is that he improved so much even though he was already very good as a junior. Wallace increased his scoring average by 5.4 points per game. That's a huge leap for someone who averaged 16.8 points per game as a junior. His rebounding went up slightly. And Wallace, who attempted just 14 3-point shots as a junior, went 37-for-88 from beyond the arc as a senior. That's a .420 shooting percentage. Wallace also had a career-high 90 assists in his senior year. Unsung hero: Otis Hill The 1995-96 team had a lot of unsung heroes. Lazarus Sims, a fifth-year senior, started for the first time in his career, taking over when Michael Lloyd left school the previous summer due to academic reasons. Marius Janulis made 41.6 percent of his 3-point shots off the bench. J.B. Reafsnyder, the backup center, averaged 5.4 points in just 14 minutes per game. But this goes to Otis Hill, the undersized center who manned the middle for Syracuse. Hill was the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 12.7 points per game. He also pulled down 5.4 rebounds per game. Most memorable game: Georgia Syracuse's 83-81 win over Georgia in the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 out in Denver remains one of the most dramatic tournament victories in school history. Syracuse trailed by two points near the end of regulation. Wallace took the ball out of bounds just beyond halfcourt. Wallace fired a long, cross-court pass to Jason Cipolla, who was on the baseline on the opposite side of the court. Cipolla caught the ball and hit a baseline jumper to send the game into overtime. In the overtime, Wallace put Syracuse ahead 80-78 with an inside basket off a feed from Lazarus Sims with 15 seconds left. Georgia hit a 3-pointer to take an 81-80 lead with roughly 5 seconds to go. Syracuse inbounded the ball. Wallace dribbled over halfcourt and launched a three from the top of the key. The shot went in. Georgia had just enough time to get the ball back to its offensive end and get a shot, but it was no good. Wallace finished the game with 30 points and 15 rebounds as Syracuse advanced to the Elite Eight. Why I ranked this team No. 5 This ranking is a combination of the team's outstanding regular season and it grit in getting to the Final Four. Syracuse won its first 11 games and then lost to No. 1 Massachusetts in the finals of the Rainbow Classic. Syracuse then lost five of its first eight games in Big East play. And people sort of forgot about Syracuse. The Orangemen recovered to go 8-1 down the stretch. Syracuse won two more games in the Big East tournament, but an 18-point loss had people dismissing Syracuse yet again. Syracuse played great in the NCAA tournament, beating Montana State, Drexel, Georgia, Kansas and Mississippi State on the way to the title game. Severely out-manned, Syracuse stayed with Kentucky for the game's first 38 minutes before Wallace fouled out and Kentucky pulled away for a 76-67 win.	dclm-gs1-104350000
Yushchenko sacks government amid corruption scandal - Taipei Times Fri, Sep 09, 2005 - Page 7　News List Yushchenko sacks government amid corruption scandal Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko yesterday dismissed his government amid allegations of corruption against some of his closet aides. Yushchenko said the Cabinet and top aides lacked a spirit of cooperation. The break-up of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's fragile coalition of former opposition leaders was an attempt to resolve the greatest crisis to face Yushchenko in his seven months in power. "I knew that there were definite contradictions between those people ... I hoped that there would not be enough time for intrigues," Yushchenko said. "Those were my hopes." Ukrainian television later began broadcasting Yushchenko's prepared statement. Yushchenko appointed lawmaker Yuriy Yekhanurov, a former economics minister who now heads a parliamentary committee on industrial issues, as acting prime minister. Yushchenko also accepted the resignation of Petro Poroshenko, the head of the Security and Defense Council, and parliament quickly voted to strip him of his legislative seat. Poroshenko stepped down yesterday after two other high-level officials quit, accusing him of corruption. Yushchenko had spent the past three days huddled in meetings with Poroshenko and Tymoshenko, reportedly trying to find a way out of the crisis. Yushchenko said in televised remarks that he gave Poroshenko and Tymoshenko significant power, but the conflicts between them "became the everyday agenda." "The president must not be a governess who has to settle relations between them," he said, adding that the trust between his partners "was zero." Earlier yesterday, Vice Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko became the second top official to step down in a week, accusing Poroshenko, among others, of corruption. "I have realized that some people steal and others resign," Tomenko, who left his post in charge of humanitarian affairs, told a news conference in Kiev. "I don't want to bear common responsibility for people who have created a corrupt system." Yushchenko had ordered a probe into the allegations, and Ukraine's Security Service yesterday ordered a special commission to be set up to investigate all corruption allegations against high officials -- a sign that the government, which took power on a pledge to end the corruption that tainted former president Leonid Kuchma's rule, was intent on fulfilling its promise. Yushchenko rose to power on the back of last year's massive "Orange Revolution" protests. Zinchenko and Tomenko played key roles in organizing the protests, and Poroshenko, a tycoon, helped fund and publicize them through his TV channel. This story has been viewed 3648 times. TOP top	dclm-gs1-104360000
ORCA Ocean Research and Conservation Association January 8, 2011 Mission Blue: Waiting On Weather We've been WOW: Waiting On Weather. So much of what we do at sea is dependent on the weather, or more specifically the sea state. We have three- to four-foot seas at the moment, which is smooth sailing by some standards, but too bumpy for submersible operations. A submersible is fine strapped to the deck or tooling around beneath the waves. It's just that transition through the air-water interface that's the problem. That's when things get dicey. A 6,000-pound sub dangling on the end of a cable on a rolling ship makes for a heck of a pendulum. The same goes for big nets or Remotely-Operated Vehicles (ROVs), which together with subs are the primary tools available for studying life in the deep ocean. I have often dreamed of a deep sea lab like the one in the movie The Abyss, where you can enter and exit through pressurized hatches the way they do in space. But in space, the pressure difference is only one atmosphere, about 44 pounds per square inch. That's the weight of a five-gallon bucket filled with water. Imagine holding that on top of your head--not comfortable, but you could do it. The hatch on a spaceship must be able to withstand that force from the pressurized interior pressing outward toward space. But now imagine you're down in the ocean at 5,000 feet, the approximate depth of the Gulf oil spill. At that depth, we're talking about the weight of more than 50 buckets of water--more than 2,200 pounds--per square inch pressing inward. That hatch would have to be a pretty amazing piece of engineering. The submersibles and ROVs we send to that depth must be carefully designed to withstand such enormous pressures without imploding. The deep sea's inaccessibility and its inhospitableness to humans aren't the only challenges faced by those trying to study life there. There's also the puzzle of how to study that life without disturbing it, or worse, scaring it away. Submersibles and ROVs have noisy thrusters and bright lights that can be highly disruptive. Camera systems left on the bottom are much quieter, but most still use bright lights that can literally blind deep sea dwellers that have sensitive eyes adapted for seeing the very dimmest of downwelling light or bioluminescence. These are the challenges that ORCA's Medusa were designed to meet. The Medusa is an unobtrusive camera system that uses far red light, which is invisible to most deep sea animals. It is a lander platform,which allows it to be deployed in much worse sea states than those required for submersible ops. Ultimately, the Medusa is a new tool for observing life in the deep sea,capable of being deployed to depths of 6,000 feet and recording unobtrusively for up to 60 hours--a perfect complement to the submersible operations planned for this mission. The Medusa was supposed to make a series of deployments along a transect approaching the Deepwater Horizon spill site, while the submersible operated at shallower depths collecting video and sediment samples. But as today has worn on the weather forecasts have grown increasingly dire, with predictions of 60-knot winds and 12- to 16-foot seas. So we are no longer WOW--we are running for shelter! With only two surface-to-bottom-and-back deployments of the Medusa, we must abort the lander's portion of the mission. All of us on this expedition have spent a lot of time at sea, forcing us to become philosophical about such occurrences. A mission scrubbed because of bad weather is not a first for any of us, but it is still a tremendous disappointment. These challenges of working on and in the ocean have made assessing the extent of the damage done by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill extremely difficult and have contributed to conflicting reports in the media. Our understanding of the complex web of life in the ocean is still limited by our all-too brief visits, which can be cut short at Neptune's whim. We must continue to seek new and better ways to explore, monitor, and protect life on our ocean planet. Back to NatGeo Blog January 7, 2011 Mission Blue: Seafloor Dramas Unfold Before the Medusa’s Eye On our second full day at sea, the Mission Blue: Survivors of the Spill team departs Roughtongue Reef for quieter waters near the head of the submerged Desoto Canyon. We drop the marine observatory Medusa to the bottom for the second time. Edie Widder of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association discusses what Medusa sees in the sea, and how. After the first dive yesterday, we were thrilled that Medusa came back, and it's generally working. There are the usual little tweaks that need to be made, and that was the point of this first deployment. But we can see stuff in the video Medusa captured: fish, a lobster, angelfish… I always get a big kick out of observing the animal life down there unobtrusively. I think this is the most unobtrusive we could possibly be, so I feel as if I'm really peaking into their world and seeing how they live their lives when we're not down in the water messing things up. This morning’s deployment was at the head of Desoto Canyon. That's where a lot of deep water sweeps up, possibly with some of the oil and dispersant in it. We have adjusted a few things and hope we'll get a sharper image and the best quality data that we possibly can. It's a learning process, learning a new way of deployment from the ship. It was nice when we could take a device down with a submersible and line it up exactly on the area that we were interested in. But the point of this is to find a lower-cost way to have more access to the ocean. We're getting a big dose out here of just how difficult access to that environment really is, especially for submersibles, because they've got a very limited sea state in which they can operate. But even with a system like medusa that you basically kick over the side of the ship there are still a lot of limitations, and it's frustrating. When we were watching the team recover it yesterday, I was thinking of all these clever ways that we could have to recover it that would be much more efficient, but would require more money. That's always the problem. The need for monitoring is huge. A lot of the damage that's been done in the ocean would not have happened if we'd had the kind of monitoring that we need. We have to know how our life support systems are being affected by what people are doing in pulling the very last fish out of the ocean at the same time that we're filling it up with our toxins and plumes. Earth is a spaceship traveling through space. If you were going on a long space mission, the first thing you'd want to do is find out what your life support systems could withstand for the length of your trip, and you'd sure want to have the best monitoring possible to know that they were being maintained at peak performance the whole time. We're not doing that, and we really need to find ways to do it. The Medusa is another way of trying to see into a world that is very resistant to our seeing into it. The Eye in the Sea camera system, Medusa's predecessor, has been very exciting, far beyond my wildest dreams. I had this feeling that there had to be a lot of animals and behaviors that we weren't seeing because of the ways we were trying to observe. If you drag nets behind ships, there are a lot of animals that can outrun nets, that can see them coming. If you go down with submersibles and remote-operated vehicles, they have bright lights and noisy thrusters, and some animals are going to stay away from them. How many animals are there in the ocean that we don't even know about because we've been scaring them away? If you think about it, the only reason we even knew that giant squid existed, something that enormous, was because they happened to float when they die. What about the stuff that doesn't float? We have no way of knowing that it's down there. That was the point of the Eye in the Sea. Initially, I couldn't get any funding for it, because the funding agencies don't want to fund something unless you can tell them what you're going to discover with it. That was the point: I had no idea. I had to put the first systems together from bits and pieces, different funding sources. It actually started out as an undergraduate engineering project for the Harvey Mudd Engineering Clinic. We gave them pieces and they kludged it together. I got some funding from NOAA to put it in an underwater housing. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute paid for the battery and some of the early tests, which were critical. Once we had something that was sort of working, we brought it out here, very near where we are right now. It was actually the Brine Pool, and I thought that's kind of like an oasis on the bottom of the ocean where I figured large predators might patrol. The Brine Pool is one of the magical places on the planet that ought to be on everybody's bucket list, if only we could have submersibles for everybody! It's a lake underwater. You have to keep reminding yourself that you are underwater looking at a lake underwater, because it's this pool of brine that's so heavy it forms a pool on the bottom of the ocean. This one is quite large, and it's got a coastline. It's surrounded by clams and mussels. There are symbiotic bacteria that can live off the methane that bubbles up through the Brine Pool. If you go down with a submersible and try to penetrate the surface, you can't, because it's too dense. You can push the manipulator arm through it, no problem, and it creates waves that sort of lap up against the shore. It's surreal, something straight out of science fiction. Anyway, we put Eye in the Sea down there for the first time, and I had its camera programmed to go for four hours of background recording. Then we had this electronic jellyfish lure that I had developed that imitates certain bioluminescent displays. I had it imitating the pinwheel display of a deep-sea jellyfish. It's called the burglar alarm, and it's meant to attract the attention of large predators. If the jellyfish is caught in the clutches of a predator, its only hope for escape may be to attract something bigger that will attack its attacker. It's the same reason that birds and monkeys have fear screams: They're meant to attract the attention of large predators. So four hours into the deployment, we activated the pinwheel display for the first time. 86 seconds after it came on, it recorded what was probably a six-foot-long squid that's so new to science it can't even be placed in any known scientific family. I certainly couldn't ask for any better proof of concept than that! On the basis of that experience, I went back to the National Science Foundation and said this is what we'll discover, and they gave me sufficient funding to make the unit that went into the Monterey Canyon last year as the world's first deep-sea webcam. We actually have a year's worth of data from that webcam that we are hoping to have students help us analyze, because there's so much of it, we can't look at it all. And now we've got the Medusa. The original Eye in the Sea could go down to 1,000 meters, about 3,000 feet. The Medusa can go to twice that depth. This gives us an opportunity to do monitoring in some of Sylvia Earle's "Hope Spots." We need to find out, first of all, the places that are worth protecting, that need to be protected in order to make the Gulf healthy again. We can't do it all with submersibles, as we're dicovering out here. Remote-operated vehicles certainly help, but they're going to be scaring a lot of the animals away. If we want to understand the ecosystem, we need to look at it in as minimalistic a fashion as possible. That’s what the Medusa does. Back to NatGeo Blog January 5, 2011 Mission Blue: Medusa To Deploy To Bottom Of The Gulf By Edith "Edie" Widder I've brought the Medusa deep sea observatory. It's a lander system that you can just throw off the back of the ship. It floats down to the bottom and settles there, and then it can record for two to three days. It uses the same principle as the Eye in the Sea camera system that I developed. It uses far red light that's invisible to the animals. The idea is to be able to see without being seen. In this particular instance, one of the things we're hoping to see is six-gill sharks, because we've seen a lot of six-gills in the past using this kind of unobtrusive recording. I'm very curious to see how they're doing, given the impacts of the oil spill. One of the things that we discovered using the Eye in the Sea is that they feed by slurping sand up from the bottom sometimes. That sand would likely have a lot of oil in it now. To be able to record for hours and hours may seem long-term: With submersibles, we have incredibly brief visits that are fairly disruptive to the animals, because the white lights and noisy thrusters scare them away. This is better, but it's still not nearly long enough. That's the hardest thing to make people understand: With these very brief visits it's hard to get any kind of a sampling of what it was like before and what it's like now. The system is stationary while it's on the bottom: It better not move, at least, unless there's a six-gill pulling on it--which actually has happened. That was with the old Eye in the Sea. We had a number of instances where we found that it tipped over, and we thought it was some kind of current. But no, now we realize that it was probably six-gills, because they can be fairly tenacious once they find the bait. Wanting to yank it, they yank the camera over with it sometimes. Here's the great thing: The Medusa can go down to 2,000 meters. So we can go down to the depth of the spill site. The question is whether we will or not, because we have a lot of concerns about the currents and how bad they're going to be. It takes a long time for the Medusa to get down--it can take almost two hours. It could drift along the way, so we have some concerns. There's a certain amount of trepidation associated with throwing $70,000 worth of gear off of a perfectly good ship and just hoping you're going to see it again. The way we retrieve it is we send an acoustic signal, and there's a transponder on the Medusa that responds by dropping a weight. We have 75 pounds of steel that will turn to rust and basically disappear eventually. We leave that on the bottom, and then it pops to the surface with its own floatation. We have a satellite beacon on it, so if we don't happen to be in quite the right place we can still find it. The Medusa takes video, and it also has a CDT--so it's measuring conductivity, temperature, and depth. And it's got a light meter on it so it's measuring a profile of light penetration as it goes down. This is the first time I've worked with this unit in the field, so there's more than a little trepidation. We deployed it once in a lagoon at very shallow depths just to work the kinks out. But this is its first open ocean deployment. We are going to put it in at a depth where, if it didn't come back, the Deepworker could reach it and hopefully help retrieve it. That gives us a sense of reassurance for this first deployment. Back to NatGeo Blog -Alexandra Cousteau Ocean Conservationist	dclm-gs1-104370000
Transportation Category Winner, "Create the Future" 2007 Design Contest Winner of an HP Workstation Internally Radiating Impulse Structure (IRIS) Engine Corban Tillemann-Dick Tendix LLC Denver, CO The vast majority of internal combustion engines we use for transportation and commerce run at approximately 25% efficiency. Tendix LLC has developed a new family of engines that dramatically enhance fuel efficiency, effectively prolonging the viability of global petroleum reserves, and significantly reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. ImageThe Internally Radiating Impulse Structure (IRIS) overcomes many of the underlying shortcomings of modern engines by fundamentally changing the geometry of the combustion chamber. The IRIS changes the combustion chamber’s design from one piston in a cylinder to six “chordons,” which act as expanding walls. Existing chamber designs become longer during combustion. In contrast, the IRIS chamber expands in diameter. This design innovation means the vast majority of the IRIS’s surface area reacts productively to the forces of combustion, generating torque throughout each combustion cycle. Surfaces exposed to combusting gases in an engine can react either productively, by moving, or wastefully by heating. In traditional engines, an average of less than 25% of the combustion chamber’s surface area is productive. In an IRIS, that average skyrockets to more than 70% of the chamber’s surface area. Furthermore, because so much of the chamber is productive, gases can expand further than in an ordinary engine before opening the exhaust valves. This means that an IRIS engine also captures energy that previously flowed out the exhaust pipe. IRIS engines avoid the shortcomings of alternative systems such as hybrids, electrics, or fuel cells. These systems offer only marginal increases in efficiency; negatively impact weight, range, and power; or rely on infrastructure and technology that are still decades from viability. IRIS engines are substantially smaller, lighter, and more fuel efficient. They are compatible with existing infrastructure, and are built with conventional materials and machining. In the future, it can be adapted to run on alternative fuels such as biodiesel, natural gas, or hydrogen. IRIS technology can also be utilized to create dramatically more efficient pumps, compressors, and medical devices. For more information, visit www.irisengine.com, or contact the inventor at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..	dclm-gs1-104380000
English to Farsi Translation The Translation People translation services are regularly approached by local authorities and housing associations who have a high demand for Farsi translation and interpretation. In addition Farsi is the principal language of Iran, which exports and imports various products and resources, including oil, to and from Europe. In light of this there is also a demand for Farsi translation in the private sector as well. Our English to Farsi translations are produced by our translation experts in a wide range of fields, including technical, legal, pharmaceutical, and financial. All our Farsi translators translate exclusively into their native language and have extensive professional translation experience in their specialist field. Our project managers are on hand to advise you on any queries you may have with regards to Farsi translation. They will ensure that your technical documents are only translated by translators experienced in the specialist area required. Farsi translation The Translation People’s Farsi translation services are respected for quality, tight turnarounds and our experience with a variety of technical media. The Translation People specialises in both Farsi to English and English to Farsi translation. Our Farsi typesetters are native speakers and are able to typeset your Farsi translations into your original English artwork. The Translation People is able to typeset Farsi into most design packages currently on the market including the popular Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign. If you have a Farsi translation project, request a quote or contact us now. Farsi language – Did you know? Farsi, spoken by approximately 60 million speakers worldwide in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and nearby countries is a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. There is some discussion with regards this language’s name. In England the word ‘Farsi’ is becoming more and more common place. However, the Farsi language is also referred to as Parsi and Persian. Farsi is a transliteration of the name of the language, however, in recent years it has been Arabised from Parsi. In Arabic there is no “p” sound and so the Arabs changed the original name of Parsi to Farsi when they invaded Iran. However, some argue that Farsi is a limited description as it only refers to certain dialects such as the Persian of Iran as opposed to Tajiki, the Persian of Tajikistan or Dari, the Persian of Afghanistan. The title “Persian “is actually preferred by the International Standards Organisation and also by the Academy of Persian Language and Literature. This debate is sure to continue well into the future. Why use us for Farsi Translation? • Our use of translation memory software can reduce lead times and costs of your English to Farsi translation. • Our English to Farsi translators are professionally qualified linguists and translate exclusively into their native language. English Farsi Pronunciation Good morning صبح بخیر Sobh bekheyr Good afternoon عصر بخیر Asr bekheyr Good night شب بخیر Shab bekheyr	dclm-gs1-104420000
Mel Gibson/Oksana's Lawyers Talked Leaks 7/1/2010 8:30 PM PDT BY TMZ STAFF Lawyers for Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva spent lots of time in court today talking about how the secretly-recorded tapes of Mel were leaked ... TMZ has learned. Sources tell us ... Oksana's lawyers "vehemently denied" that she was the leak. The judge never determined where the leaks came from. The judge made it clear to everyone to put a lid on it, stat. The restraining order prohibiting Oksana from releasing the tapes is still in place. Lawyers for both sides were mum when they left court.	dclm-gs1-104430000
New Action Plan Trip Start Dec 14, 2011 Trip End Jun 10, 2012 Loading Map Map your own trip! Map Options Show trip route Hide lines Flag of United States , Texas Friday, June 8, 2012 Is it my imagination or am I starting to look a little bit weird????... Is it my imagination or am I starting to look a little bit weirder???? The tow truck driver has a point. I can replace the car - but I cannot replace my life, legs, arms or head. He has seen it all - people whose's guts have spilled out all over the front of the car; people with missing legs, people with missing arms, people with missing heads - decapitated. People have a lot of blood and they bleed a lot - it is very messy... I didn't bleed.... The most important thing is that I am alive - it is the only thing that really matters - everything else is incidental and of secondary importance - and that is what I am going to have to focus on... That is what I am going to have to focus on - what is important in my life - being alive is what is important... Have rented a Jeep Van, have loaded all of my stuff from my wrecked car into the Jeep Van, have taken care of business, have gotten a little taste of Texas and I am on my way again... They say that if a horse bucks you off - you should get right back on again as if nothing has happened. I am applying that principle to my car... I do have experience in these matters - this is not the first time that I have totaled a car... There was a number of challenges involved in what would appear to be fairly simple matters. And I got to experience a little bit of what Texas is like. It is like a furnace in the summer time... The USA is the most obese nation in the world with 30% of its population in the obese category.. Mexico is second with 24% of its population in the obese category... In the USA, most people from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho are not obese. People in southern Texas make up for the people in those states that are not obese. Most southern Texans tend to be very obese. The Tow tuck driver's son is 24 years old, very obese and has sugar diabetes and is on insulin... Most southern Texans have an aggressive, hostile, suspicious attitude....not nice people. I was at a talk by a Buddhist on peace walks in America... He mentioned that sometimes the people in the peace walks got beaten-up and in some cases even killed/murdered. I asked if this was because people were against peace walks. He said no - it was because some people just do not like having outsiders in their neighborhood or they just do not like people that are different - like people who are dressed like Buddhist monks - this is like the people in Southern Texas. I personally would be in more danger from Texas Red Necks and bigots than I ever was from Mexican drug gangs, bandito's or desperado's. What is Southern Texas like - Dilley the small town that I was stuck in has a population of about 3,000 people - 75% are Hispanic, 10% are blacks, 10% are whites and 5% are others... I noticed that the tow truck driver had a shotgun leaning against the side of his desk in his office and another shotgun leaning against the wall just inside the front door of his house..I probably should not start making assumptions and generalization based on a few observations... Noticed several Pawn and Gun shops - I know what a Pawn shop is - but what is a Pawn and Gun Shop.... A real man would never pawn his gun - maybe instead of pawning your possessions for money, you pawn them for a gun... sounds a little bit scary to me.... Noticed at the entrance to restaurants and bars the notice - the penalty for having an unregistered firearm on the premises is up to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.. Guess it is okay to have registered firearms on the premises.... One restaurant that I ate in had about 15 mounted deer heads on their walls.... San Antonio, a city of about 1.5 million is 2/3's Hispanic, 25% white and about 9% other. Texas, south of San Antonio, is about 75% Hispanic.. The tide of Hispanics is slowly (maybe not that slowly) moving North.... No car rentals in Dilley, no out of town bus service, hotel rooms are full almost every nite and expensive - there is an oil boom going on in this part of Texas - place is full of oil workers. Oil companies have booked all of the rooms in some of the motels for the whole summer... Oil workers tend to be very loud and get drunk every nite... I am going to try to drive a little more carefully in my rental Jeep and I am going to try to pay a little more attention to driving than changing the CD`s in the car`s CD player, drinking cokes and eating chocolate bars. May not buy any more chocolate bars for a while - if I do not eat them immediately, they turn into puddles of chocolate mush inside their wrappers (life can be a living HELL!!!) Don`t think that I will drive at night anymore - there are good reasons for not driving at night. During the day you have a lot more points of reference and are much more orientated and it is easier to stay awake when you are driving during the day night time there are very few points of reference, visibility is limited, and I find it harder to stay awake at night time... Note: I am only on the internet when I stop for a break at a MacDonald`s and get onto the internet through MacDonald`s wireless internet on my laptop computer and at nite - usually after 9:00pm when I stop and get a motel room, also with wireless that I get onto the internet with my laptop computer...Usually am putting in about 12 hours a day on the road from about 8:00am/9:00am in the morning to about 8:00pm/9:00pm at nite....At nite, in the motel room I am usually very tired and not up to doing very much.... Bruised and Dazed But Still Alive Slideshow Report as Spam Gord on So how did the accident happen? What did you hit? Did you get charged for anything? Add Comment Use this image in your site Copy and paste this html:	dclm-gs1-104440000
You Don't Know The Half Of It 7. Tanya Rating 5/5 Word Count 2257 Review this Chapter The next morning, well, let's say it came quickly. After putting Lila to bed, Carlisle and Esme left, claiming Carlisle had an early day at work. Emmett, Jasper, Alice and Rose hung around til about ten and then headed out. Emmett said something about seeing me tomorrow. After they left, all I could do was tread off to my bed and collapse onto my covers. I was awoken by small hands touching me cheek. I opened my eyes and saw Lila, in her Little Mermaid pajamas, standing on the side of my bed touching me face to wake me up. She smiled when my eyes opened. She looked excited. "I saw you in my dreams!" She told me. "How nice for you." I muttered. It was mean, I know, she was just a little kid. But it was seven in the friggin morning! I never got up before eleven, unless I was catching a plane. "Did you see me in your dreams?" She asked, struggling to pull herself up on my bed. I finally gave in and lifted her up so she was sitting next to me on my comforter. I honestly couldn't recall anything from my dreams. I beleive I was in too deep a sleep to have dreams last night. "I didn't have any dreams." I sighed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "That's not true." She shook her small head. "I heard you. You were sleep talking. Mommy does it all the time. You said 'Bella, Bella, Lila.' See, I was in your dreams! And mommy too!" said that? I didn't take Lila for a liar, so I simply shook it off and got up to take a shower. When I was dressed and in my kitchen, I found Lila sitting at the counter, holding a book. She jumped up when she saw me. "I almost forgot!" She cried. "Mommy said to give this to you when I got here. She said it would explain everything."I nodded, eager now, and took the small black book. I told Lila to go watch TV and I sat at my table and opened the book. There, inside the cover was a small peice of paper. I read it, schocked to see what was on that page. Dear Edward, I know that you honestly had no idea you had a daughter. I didn't know until my fourth month when I started to blow up like a freakin balloon. I'm sorry I just left her with you, but I seriously had no other choice. Jack was in a car accident and is in Emergency Care in Tenessee. The hospital doesn't want kids under ten hanging around, and I had no where else to turn. My mom is with Jack and I, Dino couldn't care less about her (Not that I would ever leave Lila with that idiot) and I haven't got a clue where my dad is. I know you were never great with kids, but I have a good feeling you'll be great with Lila. She's always wanted to meet you. You may not really know Lila, but you will. And you'll love her. I trust you, Edward. No matter how conceited you are, you've always been good about taking care of the people you love. This book is a diary I kept while I was pregnant with Lila. It has my innner most personal thoughts. I think you might enjoy what you read. Remember, Edward. Take good care of my baby. I love her. And beleive it or not, I love you too. Ps: Say hi to Alice for me. Oh, and Lila, being the mini me that she is, hates shopping. So, don't have Alice dragging her all around the mall. Pss: She doesnt like to be alone. She's just like you, in that way. Oh, right! In Lila's suitcase there are eight videos. There all about Lila. Watch them if you'd like. I couldn't fathom it. She loved me. She really, truly loved me. It couldn't be true. She had said unspeakable things to me that night. Horrid, nasty insults that I frankly never beleived Bella had in her. I mean, she could be a good a bitch as any, but she was sweet underneath it all. I flipped to the first page in the book. June 6 Oh my god. No, seriously. God, why do you hate me? Why? I was a good girl. I admit, I never really went to church regularly, but I went on Easter! That has to count for something! You know I'm all alone. Why, oh why, are you doing this? I can't be pregnant. I just can't. Mom is going to kill me. I mean, I'm only seventeen. I can't raise a child! I can't provide a stable enviorment for a little kid! I don't have enough money for an apartment, all my money went to college. I guess I could move in with Jack...but would he want a baby crawling around? I can't stay home. Not with Dino on his drunken rages and mom always at work. I don't have freinds. Well, besides Alice. But she's Edward's sister! This is too frustrating! Damn. This means Yale is DEFINATELY out of the picture. I had to chuckle at Bella's first entry. I could see her now, getting all flustered. Her nose scrunching, her breathing picking up into small frustrated huffs. She was so cute when she was angry. I snorted as I thought this. If I thought she was cute when she was angry, I must have been hyptonized by her beauty the day after I got her pregnant. She was beyond furious that day. I sauntered into the living room, grinning like a mad man. Lila was on the couch, watching something called Dragon Tales. What in hells name was that? I grabbed the remote off the coffee table and switched it to ESPN. Lila whined. "I was watching that!" She protested. "Well, I'm watching that!" I told her, pointing at the TV. "That wasn't very nice." She pouted. "It wasn't mean either." I agreed. "Yes it was!" She exclaimed.The phone rang. I sighed as Lila changed the channel when I got up to answer it. "Hello?" I asked. "Edward, Tanya's here to see you." John sounded more then unpleasant. I glanced nervously at Lila. She was smiling as a small pink dragon lifted a girl with brown hair into the air and flew. I sighed. I might as well get it out of the way. "Go ahead and send her up."I went back into the living room and turned the TV completely off. Lila groaned. "Why'd you do that?" "My," insert throat clearing here "friend will be here in a minute. I need you to go to your room." "Who is he?" She asked. "It's a she." I corrected her, fixing the pillows and putting the cereal away in the kitchen. Lila's eyes narrowed. "Mommy said you have a lot of girlfriends." She accused. "Well, your mommy is right. Now go." I answered. "She's always right." Lila nodded. "I find that hard to imagine." I disagreed, though I knew it was true.Lila stared at me with cold, distant eyes. "Just go answer the door." She ordered, before stomping off to her room. I almost had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't Bella stomping away. A second later, the doorbell rang. I suppose Lila inheritated her pyshic abilities from her aunt. And Jack, come to think of it. I opened the door and grinned when I saw the bleach blond hair and bright blue eyes. "Eddie!" She sang, throwing herself into my arms. Lila Swan I heard the door open and a voice that sounded like you shoved peas up her nose. I opened my door and looked in the hallway. Daddy was making a kissy face at a barbie looking woman. She had blond hair, blue eyes and looked like she lived in the Malibu Dream House. I almost gagged when Daddy leaned in and kissed her. It was gross! This wasn't supposed to happen. I always wanted to meet my daddy. I saw him in singing videos sometimes, and on the TV but never in person. When Uncle Jacky got in the car boom, and mommy sent me here, I was soooo excited! But now I'm mad. Why was daddy making those slurpy noises with that lady? Mommy says it gross when you chew with your mouth open and that's what it sounded like they were doing. What did Uncle Jacky call it? Swapping spit? Ew. I huffed and crossed my arms. Mommy says I have her daddy's angry face. I guess that makes me happy. I never met mommy's daddy and mommy only knew him for ten years. But still, I've always wanted to see him too. Grandma says I have his mouth. Whatever that means. I was still in my jammies. I mean, it was only nine o'clock! Why this lady here so early? I went to my dresser, where Auntie Alice put my clothes away in. I pulled out my favorite dress. It was green like my eyes. I put it on and brushed my hair just like mommy showed me. When I was all finished, I went out in the hallway. Barbie lady and daddy were still making those noises and didn't see me. I glared at the back of that lady's head. She was wearing a short red dress, that didn't cover her butt. You could see her underwear! Did her underwear rip? It was just a string. I didn't have any string undies. Mommy said those were for old, mean girls. Was this lady mean then? She had a lot of cakey stuff on her face. I think it was called make up. I had some play make up at home. Grandma got me it for my birthday! Mommy said I looked very pretty, but this lady didn't. Uncle Jacky said there was a word for girls like this. What was it? Skunk? No, no that's a yucky animal. Skonk? No, that doesn't make sense. But it was a funny word. I giggled. Daddy leaned away from the woman and looked over her shoulder. "I told you to stay in your room!" He made a hissy noise at me like Dino's cat. Mommy said not to call Dino grandpa. He wasn't my grandpa.The mean lady turned around and looked confused. She had bright, sticky looking red stuff on her lips. Oh no! Did she know her boobies were falling out? I don't think she did. Hey! I remember what that word was now! "Who are you?" She asked with her pea nose voice again. It was annoying. "I'm Lila." I said, staring at her weird sparkly eyes. "Eddie, why is she here?" The sparkled eye lady asked. "His name is Edward, not Eddie." I told her, before Daddy could say anything. "And that's my daddy." The lady's mouth fell open. She had red stuff on her teeth. "You have a daughter?" She seemed mad. "Tanya, I just found out." Daddy said, looking worried. Tanya? Is this daddy's girlfriend? "My Uncle Jacky said there's words for lady's like you." I told her. Her eyes got all small. "What words?" "A skank. And a whore. Oh, and a gold digger!" I remembered. "I digged for gold at the beach once. I couldn't find any." The lady made a gaspy sound and grabbed daddy's hand. "Eddie! Don't just stand there! Do something!" She had a serious voice. Like mommy does when Jacky and I do something bad. "Like what?" Daddy asked. He was smiling, and looked like he wanted to laugh. At Tanya's cakey face? "I don't know! Hit her!" Tanya looked mad. Hey, wait! Hit me? I could take her. Uncle Jacky showed me how to punch. I gave a girl who called me poor a black eyes once! Mommy wasn't happy about that. "Tanya, she doesn't even know what those words mean." Daddy wasn't smiling anymore. He looked mad. "Eddie, she called me a whore!" She made a stammery noise like when mommy's CD player doesn't work right. "You are a whore." I made a growly sound that I heard daddy make before. "Alright, alright. Lila, go to your room. Tanya, go on out to the living room. I'll be there in a second." Daddy told her, as he lead me to my room. "What's a whore?" I asked when he was inside the room and shut the door. "A not nice word." He answered. He grabbed a marker from my desk I was coloring at last night, and wrote something on my mean words list. I looked at it. Gold Digger "But Uncle Jacky says those words and he's not mean!" I made my pouty face. It always works on Grandma and Uncle Jacky. "There mean words when little girls say it." Daddy looked at the door. "I'm a big girl." I huffed. "Well, be a big girl and stay in here until Tanya leaves." He told me, with a serious face. He looked kind of mad again when he looked at the door. "It won't be long." "Are you and her having a play date?" I asked, sitting on my big bouncy bed. "No. Tanya has to go home." He said, before he went out and shut the door. Oh well. Maybe I can color daddy a picture.	dclm-gs1-104450000
Donate Tickets Easter Fun-Day For Women's Tennis April 8, 2012 Box Score COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ( - - The 52nd-ranked UNLV women's tennis team closed out the road portion of its schedule on Sunday with a 4-3 victory over Boise State in a neutral-site match played at the Air Force Academy. The Lady Rebels improved to 14-8 overall and 4-2 in the conference while the Broncos dropped to 8-11 and 2-4. For the second consecutive day, UNLV had to rally after dropping the doubles point. The only Lady Rebel duo to win was on court one as Aleksandra Josifoska and Nives Pavlovic downed Marlena Pietzuch and Manuela Pietzuch 8-5. In singles, however, UNLV won four matches in straight sets to earn the team victory. Lucia Batta continued her sensational spring by downing Sonia Klamczynska 6-2, 6-3 at the top of the lineup. The win improved the super soph to 29-8 overall, 19-2 in dual matches and 6-0 vs. MW opponents. Josifoska defeated Marlena Pietzuch 6-1, 6-3 at the second spot; Pavlovic swept Sandy Vo 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3 and Anett Ferenczi-Bako breezed past Kaitlyn Brown 6-1, 6-1 at No. 6. UNLV will close out its regular season on Saturday when it hosts San Diego State on Senior Day starting with doubles play at 10 a.m. Admission is free of charge. April 8, 2012, at Colorado Springs (USAFA Courts) Doubles Competition 1. Josifoska/Pavlovic (UNLV) def. Pietzuch/Pietzuch (BSU) 8-5 2. Basil/Vo (BSU) def. Batta /de Lanlay (UNLV) 8-5 3. Klamczynska/Brown (BSU) def. Ferenczi-Bako/Bourchier (UNLV) 9-7 Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2 Singles Competition 1. Lucia Batta (UNLV) def. Sonia Klamczynska (BSU) 6-2, 6-3 2. Aleksandra Josifoska (UNLV) def. Marlena Pietzuch (BSU) 6-1, 6-3 3. Nives Pavlovic (UNLV) def. Sandy Vo (BSU) 6-1, 6-4 4. Morgan Basil (BSU) def. Manon de Lanlay (UNLV) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 5. Manuela Pietzuch (BSU) def. Ella Bourchier (UNLV) 6-4, 7-6 6. Anett Ferenczi-Bako (UNLV) def. Kaitlyn Brown (BSU) 6-1, 6-1 Order of Finish: 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	dclm-gs1-104460000
The University of Texas at Austin; College of Liberal Arts Early Indo-European Texts Winfred P. Lehmann and Jonathan Slocum from Ennius' Annals, Sections 80-100 Curantes magna cum cura tum cupientes Regni dant operam simul auspicio augurioque; ..........in monte.......... Remus auspicio se devovet atque secundam solus avem servat. At Romulus pulcher in alto quaerit Aventino, servat genus altivolentum. Certabant urbem Romam Remoramve vocarent. Omnibus cura viris uter esset induperator: exspectant, veluti consul quom mittere signum volt, omnes avidi spectant ad carceris oras quam mox emittat pictis e faucibus currus. sic exspectabat populus atque ora tenebat, rebus utri magni victoria sit data regni. Interea sol albus recessit in infera noctis. Exin candida se radiis dedit icta foras lux. et simul ex alto longe pulcherruma praepes laeva volavit avis, simul aureus exoritur sol. Cedunt de caelo ter quattuor corpora sancta avium, praepetibus sese pulchrisque locis dant. Conspicit inde sibi data Romulus esse propritim auspicio regni stabilita scamna solumque. Then with very great care and desiring the supreme power, they turn their attention at the same time to watching and to divination by the flight of birds ... on a hill. Remus devotes himself to the auspices and by himself looks for a favorable bird. But handsome Romulus searches on high Aventine, and looks for the high-flying kind. They contested whether they would call the city Rome or Remora. There is anxiety among all the men to see which of the two would be supreme chief. They are expectant, as when the consul will give the signal, and all look eagerly at the boundaries of the area to see how soon he will send out the chariots from the painted jaws. So the people were waiting and holding their tongues, looking forward to see to which of the two the victory of great authority would be given by the events. In the meantime the white sun has gone down to the depths of night. Then the clear light thrust out with its rays; and at the same time from far on high a most beautiful prophet of a bird flew at the left, at the same time as the gold sun rose. Three or four holy birds fly down from the heavens, and establish themselves on places that are auspicious and beautiful. From that Romulus sees that the established seat and throne of supreme power have been given to him as his own.	dclm-gs1-104470000
Main Content Leader Reflection and Planning Meet with your co-leaders after the session to reflect on how it went. How was your mix of discussion and action? Have you successfully found ways to involve all youth fully in your sessions despite any limitations they might have? Do youth have a basic understanding of some of the difficult ideas connected with spirituality? Do they also understand that spirituality is as simple as sitting and looking up at the stars with wonder? If not, how can you help them to such understanding? Look ahead at Session 13. Decide who will lead which activities, and who will be responsible for which supplies. Share, Print, or Explore For more information contact	dclm-gs1-104480000
Culture is Corrosive I’ve been trying out the local coworking scene for the past month, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Thursday I had lunch with the woman who is responsible for putting all of the pieces together. I had a lot of fun talking about startups, entrepreneurialism, and financing. We reached the point that I’ve seen many times when talking to local folks about startups. The “Silicon Valley” moment. “People say that we couldn’t be another Silicon Valley, but I don’t believe that,” she said, “we could make it happen here” This made me both very sad and happy at the same time. Sad: we have a better chance of teaching pigs to be ballerinas than creating another Silcon Valley in sleepy little Southwest Virginia. Happy: it’s a worthy cause, and even by “failing” we could end up helping a lot of people. Sign me up, coach! I tried to explain these things, but probably did a very poor job of it. I told her about Y Combinator, how it now has thousands of folks who have gone through their training. Many of them are still in the area and they all help each other out. I talked about how SV success stories are usually willing to take their time to try to help the next generation out. They’re not in it just for the money. There is a spirit of cooperation. I talked about how “failure” is not a bad thing: people work hard and stick with an idea until it either works or they pivot. I talked about how people share and support each other because even the success stories know what it’s like to be plugging away at something that doesn’t appear to be working. I mentioned how tough it was for people who did well in one startup to recapture the magic — and how that was okay. I told her that both chance, preparation, and tenacity play a big part in startups, perhaps chance more than preparation and tenacity, but you had to have all three. About how important the team was compared to the idea. There’s a lot of things to understand about startups. I kind of felt like a parrot. All I was doing was repeating what I’ve heard much better people say. But then I hit it, a way of capturing this huge hunk of important information into something more like a slogan. Culture is corrosive. You take somebody just out of school who doesn’t know any better. If they’re in a team of friends who are able to execute and stick it out, they have the greatest chance of success. Why? Because they don’t know any better. They’re not indoctrinated in what “winning” and “losing” looks like. They’re willing to try anything. They understand sharing and how being open and sharing with each other helps everybody out. Take those same guys, put them in a corporate job for a few months? It’s like night and day. Suddenly “work” and “life” are two different things. You’re not supposed to like work, you’re supposed to want more free time. You have your team and other people have theirs. You don’t help the other guys. You measure success in dollars. There are rules and ways to do things. You stick to these in order to reduce or eliminate risk. Culture is corrosive. When we talk about forming new Silicon Valleys, there’s a lot of things to get our head around, but this is the big one. This is the enemy we fight. Culture is corrosive. Leave a Reply * Copy this password: * Type or paste password here:	dclm-gs1-104490000
Apr 8, 2014 Baby eels are making their annual migration from Long Island Sound to rivers across Connecticut, but along the way, they're encountering one persistent obstacle: river dams. Now, one man in Greenwich is working to make the eels' journey a little easier. "Adults go out to sea to spawn. What we get coming back upstream are juvenile eels, little baby guys." Joe Cassone When you think about fish migrating, your mind probably pictures one image: salmon jumping upstream, pushing against the current to lay their eggs. "But eels do the opposite," explained Joe Cassone with Greenwich's Conservation Commission. "They spend their adult lives in fresh water. The adults go out to sea to spawn. What we get coming back upstream are juvenile eels, little baby guys." Historically, those "little baby guys" would travel from Long Island Sound upstream into Greenwich's watershed. They'd grow up, bear eggs, and swim back into the ocean to spawn. Then dams started getting in the way. Baby eels captured in a bucket. Last year, Cassone collected around 500 eels. This year, he hopes to boost that number into the thousands. Credit Town of Greenwich A map highlighting the dozens of dams on Greenwich's Byram River. Dams can hinder a juvenile eel's ability to safely travel upstream. Credit Town of Greenwich On Greenwich's Byram River alone, there are 43 of those dams. This reporter met Cassone at the first of them, a vertical monolith about 40 feet tall. That's a big hurdle for a baby eel between one and four inches long. "Trying to climb over a dam like this, the flow is obviously so strong it'll knock them down," Cassone said. "So they end up piling up down below. There's almost a logjam of eels below the first dam." But eels are adept climbers. Amazingly, Cassone said some lucky eels would be able to make it up that 40-foot-tall dam if they stuck to the edges, where the current is less strong. "They have so much surface area and they have a mucus coating that they can actually, if this is damp, climb right up this wall," Cassone said. "There's enough roughness on there that they can serpentine their way up. So that's kind of how our project works. It takes advantage of that, There's something in my way, I'll climb over it behavior the eels have. We use it to collect them and help them on their migration." At the base of the dam is Cassone's eel trap. It's one of two in the city's watershed. (The other is at the Mianus River.) It's homemade: a gigantic collection tank with a PVC tube extending into the river. "My volunteers and I affectionately call it 'Eelbot,'" Cassone said. "At one point, we had solar panels down here, and it was quite an operation. We use a pump to supply flowing water. That water we use two different ways... First, we use the majority of the flow to fire into the standing water, to attract the eels. After all, they're looking to go upstream. That's called our attraction flow." The pitter-patter of the water tells eels, "Hey, here's something interesting! Don't go towards the big scary dam, come check this out." "Then we use a small portion to keep water circulating through the tank to keep it fresh for the eels," Cassone said. "As we circulate that water, it comes out smelling like eels. So it's more attraction." Cassone's Byram River trap includes a collection bin, pictured above, that's outfitted with an electric-powered water pump that circulates and disturbs ambient water to attract eels. Credit Patrick Skahill / WNPR Extending out of the PVC pipe is a piece of trawling. Think of it as a kind of "eel ladder" leading from river to collection tank. "Picture a little eel working its way through here." Cassone said. "It's like a kid in a cargo net. It comes right up." Once the eels are caught in the collection bin, Cassone said his network of volunteers carry the eels up and over the dam, and distribute them upstream at a number of points. "Greenwich Audubon Society has been a great partner for us," Cassone said, "and let us have access to all of their properties in the watershed. It really helps redistribute the eels more evenly throughout their historic range." During his first year, Cassone said he collected about 500 eels. This year, he hopes to boost that number into the thousands. Once those eels grow up, they'll head back out to sea. People have never witnessed eels spawning, and no one is quite sure where they do it, but the current theory is that the Greenwich eels may eventually swim as far as the Bermuda Triangle to lay their eggs.	dclm-gs1-104500000
American photographer Steven Kazlowski has spent the past 15 years following bears in Alaska He has captured glorious images of North America's grizzlies, black bears and polar bears The continuing fight for life of North America's bears has been captured in spectacular style in a series of dramatic pictures. Grizzly, polar and black bears are pictured in the wilds of Alaska scavenging in bins, stripping a whale carcass and scrapping over the best fishing spots. Photographer Steven Kazlowski has spent the past 15 years living in bear country and capturing the most intimate, hilarious and adrenaline-fuelled moments of his furry subjects. The series by the 43-year-old also features the more fun side of the creatures. Cubs are seen play fighting, scrapping over food and cuddling up together. One stunning picture shows a rare blond bear wrestling a more common brown grizzly at Katmai National Park in Katmai, Alaska. His favourites have now been compiled into a new book called Bear Country. He said one of the highlights was capturing the blond bear on camera. The American said: 'A blond grizzly bear is an extremely rare occurrence. 'What we see in the pictures is an even rarer-sight of a blond coloured grizzly bear interacting with a standard brown coloured grizzly bear. 'They are actually not fighting, but are playing on a huge tidal mudflat. 'This went on for several hours until the afternoon sun eventually set. 'They then went from playing to fishing for food.' 'People find it unbelievable that I have had these experiences and captured these images. 'They often cannot imagine being in that situation, and I feel my images allow a window into my experience.' Among the other intimate moments caught on camera are a polar bear appearing to wave at the camera and a pair of male grizzlies going head-to-head as they fight for territory. One particularly stunning picture shows a mother black bear and her two cubs walking past a glacier. Mr Kazlowski said: 'All of these images strike a deep chord within me as they all represent a high level of nature and wildlife photography. 'Every image has a story behind it. 'The stories are explained visually in the book - with great composition, great lighting, great behaviour and action. The most common species is the black bear, with over a million believed to survive in the wild. Grizzly bear numbers are thought to total 200,000 and are not at risk of extinction at this time. Polar bears, however, are endangered. There are currently only an estimated 25,000 polar bears left in the wild as the ice they depend for hunting continues to disappear. Nature-lover Mr Kazlowski said he wanted to release the book to reveal the softer side of the creature that is normally hidden from view. He said: 'My message is pretty simple - it's that these animals are not cold blooded killers. 'We can peacefully coexist with bears, and enjoy a richer world with the diversity in species they offer us. 'My goal is to create awareness and promote conservation of natural environments by making striking images that connect people to places and animals. 'Telling stories like these through book projects is a basis for educating people about animals and their environments.' Steve's book, Bear Country: North America's Grizzly, Black and Polar Bears is available in Hardback for £12, from Amazon. To view bears in the wild, visit Steve's website at: Responses to "Photographer's stunning images capture beauty of America and Canada's real bear country" 1. Anonymous says: Magnificent ,ty 2. Anonymous says: Great pictures of these's MAGNIFICENT creatures...will be buying the book after seeing these pictures...Feed Black Bears in Pa. for years...sure brings back lots of "GREAT MEMORIES" RGM 3. Black Bears tend to be more mysterious and hide from man, but there cousins the Grizzlie or Brown Bear are terribly territorial and bow to no human......they will fight. 4. I think all the Bears fall under the living fossil genre. Wolves and Bears share a common ancestry they once were known as the Beardog then throughout time branched out in evolution. Eventually branching out to different wilds of the world. While some places remain remote and dangerous like Alaska cause if you go out there and get lost there is no telling if you can be found but the Arctic and constant weather changes can affect the polar bear. If only he was adaptable as the grizzlies and the black bears then he will have a fighting chance. 5. Anonymous says: Again I say if we do not take care of the animals on this planet, we will end up going the way of the dinasaurs-extinct!! Write a comment Google Friend Followers	dclm-gs1-104510000
Edit Article Want to add some text to your image/photos? It's very easy with Photoshop. Try this and next time you don't need to ask your geek friend to do it for you. 1. 1 Choose your image file. 2. 2 Open the image with Photoshop. (For Windows user, right click on the photo >> Open with >> Select Photoshop.) 3. 3 Select the 'Type tool' . Commonly it is in the left side of your screen on the tools window. 4. 4 Click on the image where you want to add the text. 5. 5 Write the text with your keyboard. 6. 6 Select 'Move tool' from the tools window. Re-position your text if you want. 7. 7 Open the 'Character' window from dropdown list under 'window' menu. You can change font style, font color, font size etc. there. In order to format your text, you'll need to highlight it before making your desired changes. 8. 8 Go to 'File' menu click on it and choose 'save as' from the dropdown list, or you can simply press 'ctrl+shift+s' to open 'save as' window. Select the location on your drive where you want to save the photo. Now give a sweet name to your photo. Choose the file format from the dropdown list and click on save. Your new photo with text is saved in that location. 9. 9 • Learn to use layer styles of Photoshop to add styles to your text. • When choosing the file format on the 'save as' window, it is preferable to use the most common formats like .jpeg .png etc. • If you want more options when it comes to saving your image, click on the 'Save for web and devices' option in the 'File' menu, instead of simply using 'save as'. This gives you more flexibility regarding format, quality, etc. • This article is written for Windows user, Control options for other operating systems may be different. • You can directly save the document after completing the editing. But it will replace the original document. So it is better to use 'save as'. Related wikiHows Article Info Categories: Adobe Photoshop In other languages: Español: agregar texto a una imagen en Adobe Photoshop, Italiano: Aggiungere il Testo a un'Immagine in Photoshop, Português: Adicionar Texto a uma Imagem no Adobe Photoshop, Русский: добавить текст на изображение в Photoshop Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 137,969 times. Did this article help you? Yes No an Author! Write an Article	dclm-gs1-104520000
Edit Article Two Methods:Eliminating the Root CauseThings to Do at Home Believe it or not, human beings aren't the only animals that can suffer from dandruff. Cats can also get dried-out skin that flakes off when rubbed or petted — just like people. While this is rarely a serious issue, it's nice to know what to do when you notice that your cat has this problem (especially if it ends up being the result of a skin allergy).[1] Luckily, treatment usually just takes a few simple steps. Method 1 of 2: Eliminating the Root Cause 1. 1 If the cat is allergic to fleas, treat them. For most cats, one or two fleas aren't a serious problem. However, in the rare case that your cat has a flea allergy, even a few small bites can lead to dry, irritated, and flaky skin.[2] A vet can help you determine whether or not your cat has an allergy. If your cat has an allergy, the vet can also recommend treatment options. • Common remedies for fleas include pesticide shampoos and ointments. If your cat is at risk for an infection, the vet may also recommend antibiotics. Luckily, most cats recover quickly with flea control treatments.[3] 2. 2 Change your cat's diet if it is allergic to its food. Just like people, cats sometimes have allergies to the things that they eat. If you can't find an obvious cause for your cat's dandruff, this may be the explanation. Your vet can help confirm your suspicions. • If your cat does have an allergy, you may need to switch to a different food at your vet's recommendation. If this keeps the cat from getting nutrients it needs, dietary supplements may be necessary. • In some cases, switching dry food for wet food and adding a little fish oil to each meal can help keep a cat's skin moisturized.[4] 3. 3 Keep your cat out of hot, dry weather. It may not seem like a risk that's worth worrying about, but cats can have their skin damaged by the weather. This is especially true for cats with thin coats (or none at all). Hot, dry conditions can lead to dried-out skin and even sunburn, so let your cat stay indoors when it's scorching out. • Drier winter months can also be a source of flaky skin, even if there's less of a risk of sunburn. 4. 4 Avoid bathing your cat too often. Cats aren't like people in terms of bathing needs. They're quite good at keeping themselves clean, so they only need to be bathed very infrequently. Unless your cat's coat is visibly dirty, oily, or matted, you won't usually need to bathe it more than a few times per year.[5] Bathing the cat more often can strip the essential oils from its skin, leaving it dried-out and flaky. 5. 5 Take your cat to a vet for a medical diagnosis. The causes for dry skin above are just a few of the most common possibilities. A wide variety of medical conditions (some serious, some not) can also cause dry skin. Only a vet can rule out these causes, so don't hesitate to get professional help. Just a few other causes for dry skin include:[6] • Diabetes • Seborrhea • Hyperthyroidism • Ringworm • Malassezia Method 2 of 2: Things to Do at Home 1. 1 Give the cat a hot towel wrap. The gentle, warm moisture from a hot towel can help soothe dried-out skin and leave the cat feeling refreshed. Follow the steps below: • When your cat is in a calm, approachable mood, find a clean towel or rag and soak it in hot water. The water shouldn't be too hot for you to hold your hand in. • Once it's soaked, take the towel out and wring it until it is not dripping wet anymore. • Drape the towel over the cat where the dandruff spots are. Gently keep the towel in place while you hold the cat. Let it sit this way for five minutes while you offer it petting and affection to keep it calm. 2. 2 Slightly increase the fat in the cat's diet. Sometimes, a cat simply isn't getting enough of the right nutrients to keep its skin healthy. In this case, its diet may call for a little more fat. Try switching to a slightly fattier cat food or adding more fat to its meals yourself. • One healthy way to do this is to offer the cat fish, which contains healthy Omega 3 fatty acids. You can also try adding healthy oil supplements to 3. 3 Ensure the cat is getting plenty of water. Dehydration can also cause dry, flaky skin. Most cats don't need a lot of water, but since it's important for the cat's health and it doesn't contain any calories, there's no reason not to provide your cat with plenty of clean water every day. • Change its bowl frequently to ensure it always has good water to drink. It's also a good idea to wash the water bowl from time to time to kill any bacteria in it.[7] 4. 4 Give the cat a gentle brushing. An occasional brushing can remove dead skin flakes, reducing dandruff. Use a gentle cat brush and stroke in the direction of the hair. Don't use too much pressure — you want to stroke, not scrub. • Always brush gently and stop right away if you notice irritated skin or signs of pain. 5. 5 Use a gentle ointment. Believe it or not, there are moisturizing lotions and topical ointments designed for cats with dry skin. Your best chance for finding these will be your local pet store, but if you can't find any there, your vet may be able to recommend some. You can also easily find these products available online. • Only buy well-regarded, quality products for use on your cat. The best products will have lots of positive reviews from happy cat owners. • Only use lotions, shampoos and conditioners designed for cats — never for people. Human bathing supplies can be too harsh for a cat's skin and may dry it out further. • Weight disorders can sometimes lead to dry, flaky skin as well. If your cat is especially heavy or light for its breed and age, it may be a good idea to help it gain or lose weight to get it closer to the "norm." A good guide to ideal pet weights is available here.[8] Article Info Categories: Grooming Cats \| Feline Health In other languages: Español: tratar la piel seca en un gato Did this article help you? Yes No an Author! Write an Article	dclm-gs1-104530000
Edit Article This move is a good way to avoid hurting your leg muscles when you land from a jump. It's not very hard and doesn't require a lot of practice. 1. 1 Find a place to jump from. 2. 2 Jump up. 3. 3 While you are in the air, bend your legs. 4. 4 While you are coming down, put your hands forward and above the shoulder of your stronger arm (if you are right handed, above your right shoulder) with your fingers forming a triangle, as if you were catching a football. 5. 5 Land with your toes. Don't lock your knees but allow them to bend to absorb some of the energy. 6. 6 Let your weight go forward 7. 7 Bring your triangle-formed fingers downwards to make contact with the ground. 8. 8 Brace your arms to let them take the impact. 9. 9 Push your upper body forward and roll. 10. 10 Jump again from a higher place. • When you roll, roll with your shoulder, not your head. • Remember to never lock your joints. • After your toes hit the floor, bend your knees and ankles to take pressure of your hips and shins and prevent injury such as hyper-extension and bone breaks. • Practice the rolling motion. • Move gradually from a small height to higher up. • Be ready for the impact with the ground. • Don't get frustrated. • Careful how far you jump from, especially on your first couple jumps. • Don't use your head when rolling. • You could get seriously injured. • This might cause injury if not done correctly. Things You'll Need • A place to jump from. Article Info Categories: Athletic Jumping In other languages: Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 69,589 times. Did this article help you? Yes No an Author! Write an Article	dclm-gs1-104540000
Lessons from the Crisis: Ask the Chairman Phil Angelides, chair of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on The Brian Lehrer Show, Phil Angelides, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission chairman, continued to unpack the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission findings on the reasons behind the economic meltdown. Phil Angelides, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission chairman, is a weekly guest on The Brian Lehrer Show for the month of February. This week he continued to explain the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission findings on the economic meltdown by looking at the Republican dissent to the Commission's findings. Six members of the Commission signed onto the group's final conclusions. Of the six, five were Democrats and one was an independent. Two of the three Republicans on the committee issued a dissent, saying that they believe the crisis was caused not by under-regulation of shadow banking systems on Wall Street nor the mortgage-backed guarantees of subprime borrowers. Instead, they blamed a global credit bubble which engulfed housing and lending. For evidence, they pointed to Europe's similar crisis. Angelides agreed that a credit bubble was taking place, but thinks a credit boom shouldn't necessarily spell disaster. There was, in fact, a lot of money sloshing around in the system. There was foreign capital coming into the US looking for safe real estate assets. There were credit bubbles and housing bubbles in other countries. But…just because you have a lot of capital in the system does not condemn you to the fate of the kind of crisis we’ve now suffered… When you know you have that kind of capital available, you have to take the steps…That will make sure you don’t have an extreme bubble and then an extreme collapse. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has said policy should not be to pop a bubble, but Angelides thinks in this case he was mistaken. Canada, he said, also had a large flow of capital, but had tighter regulation and did not experience the same sort of crash. The presence of well-priced capital, lots of available capital, need not be a disaster for that country. That money, instead of being channeled into mortgages that were wholly toxic…could have been channeled into the production of jobs, enterprises, wealth for the society as a whole, so broadly available capital can be a good thing. Angelides said he also finds it interesting that no one has gone to jail for fraud in the subprime and lending industries. He said the commission had a legal obligation to turn over any evidence they found of potential violations of law to the attorney general, and they have done so. In the wake of the Savings and Loans crisis, about a thousand S&L executives were convicted of felonies. In this instance, there’s been very little law enforcement. There’s activities around the country focused on mortgage fraud at the borrower and mortgage broker-level, but very little has been done, if anything, in terms of the systemic fraud that may have existed in the system. I will say this — in our report we lay out exactly what happened. We’ve done our job, the prosecutors need to do theirs. And I do think there’s a sense in this country, that there hasn’t been justice. There hasn’t been accountability for what’s happened. Though there have been civil settlements, Angelides said they have been very light, pointing to a case in which a $140 million gain from financial maneuverings only cost the defendant $40 million in penalties. While he would not say that the investigators had dropped the ball, he does think people have concerns over the appropriateness of law enforcement’s investigatory response. I just think the prosecutorial arm of the American government owes it to the American people to pursue cases where there are cases, and I think there’s a sense in the country that in the wake of this massive breakdown… people expect an aggressive effort and they haven’t seen it. The chairman conceded that there are both federal and state level prosecutions to pursue, and said he understands that these things take time. Nonetheless, he said, “it needs to be pursued, and people need to feel there’s a sense of real justice.” With so many banks still holding toxic assets, and some lingering questions about who ultimately bears responsibility for unscrambling collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), Angelides predicts continuing difficulty in clearing up who owes what in the housing market. While he said the involvement of so many parties will make for a difficult process, Angelides said he thinks the administration needs to have a much more aggressive program to help people stay in their homes. It’s a great irony that the machine that was built in order to create millions and millions of mortgages in the 2000s is now proving extraordinarily difficult to unwind...It’s making it extraordinarily hard to modify mortgages so that people can stay in their homes. It’s hurting the housing market very badly…We need a massive effort in that regard. A caller asked about situations in which the booming housing market led people to take out loans using the increased value of their home as collateral, only to see that value plummet. Angelides said that the commission investigated that and found that a law that made consumer loans non-deductable, while keeping mortgage interest deduction in place, led people to increase borrowing against their homes for credit. He blames wage stagnation for the consumer needs that ramped up the borrowing for items such as car-purchases or catch-all expenses. In addition, he said the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 was the result of a long erosion of regulation in banking and certainly influential in the crisis. The classic example of a bank that got in trouble through its securities business was Citigroup. I mean, at the end of the day, Citigroup built up about a $55 billion dollar exposure to subprime mortgage securities, and they incurred tens of billions of dollars in losses, and had Glass-Steagall been in place for some separation, that banking institution wouldn’t have been threatened. I don’t know that it was the cause, but it did add some fuel to the fire. In regards to a question about the practice of securitizing student loans, Angelides ventured a guess about the future. I will tell you this, if unemployment stays high, if the foreclosure trend in this country stays steady, it will be a consistent drag, and of course these all have ripple effects… all these are continuing threats both to the economy and the financial system. I don’t think we’re out of the woods by any means at this point in time.	dclm-gs1-104550000
Aim higher, reach further. Samsung Sees Tough Second Half for Components SEOUL—The Samsung Electronics Co. executive who will lead its newly merged component-manufacturing businesses said that the second half of the year is going to more difficult than the first. The two businesses—producing semiconductors and flat-panel displays—last year provided 70% of Samsung's operating profit, but both are experiencing... Popular on WSJ Editors’ Picks	dclm-gs1-104560000
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 I am very tired. My legs hurt at practice. Left ankle => still feeling pain, not bad but its just there. I fell on the ice Monday before practice and now I have a nice cut on my knee as well as a big bruise. And my knee started hurting tonight while lifting! This is just freaking great. Reasons I feel this way: 1. I didn't drink enough water today or yesterday 2. My body needs a little rest Today I did hurdles again - we have another meet this Saturday. My events will be = 55m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 4x400m relay. I just felt tired today - I am hoping that tomorrow will be better. Yesterdays practice = 1200m warm up 2x450m paced with last 50m all out - rest 10 minutes after each 300m at 80% pace rest 30 seconds after then 5x 40m repeats with 30 seconds rest in between cool down 400m Tuesdays workout + Mondays workout = probably why I am tired I just hope that there is nothing wrong with my ankle. The pain hasn't gotten worse but it isn't totally disappearing either. I don't want to go to the trainer because I don't want to get pulled from competition but I also don't want to do serious damage. : ( **Times from practice - First 450m = 84 seconds, Second 450m = 87 seconds, 300m = 55 seconds. N.D. said... Hey take a break so things don't get worse!!! Sounds like you need it !! The Happy Runner said... It definitely sounds like your body needs some rest! Take it! NiC said... Give your body rest girl! Two weeks of rest could keep bad things from happening. Consider two weeks of rest or the rest of the season from competing? Jocelyn said... Ice your ankle like whoa! Frayed Laces said... yikes! listen to your body girlfriend! Julianne said... Sorry you fell! Ouch.. Give those sexxxxy legs a rest, ok?? ;-) D10 said... Take it easy and ice that ankle. Don't push yourself, listen to your body. Marlene said... Aw, I hope you can give yourself a little break before the meet. And here's hoping your ankle starts to improve. RICE! Amy said... Yikes a fall! That sucks... hopefully you'll get some rest and be feeling tip top for your meet this weekend! Marcy said... YIKES!! Rest up my dear. Sounds like you're in desperate need of it. Lacey Nicole said... oooh it's def better to know what's wrong! you should go see the trainer! and ice ice ice...	dclm-gs1-104570000
Skip to main content About your Search the union because of president obama's re-election. another 19% said they weren't sure whether their state should secede or not. that means leave america, become something else. it isn't just people tell anonymous pollsters. in many states people were signing in open public marketplaces, out in the street, petitions to leave the country. in seven states the petitions have received enough support to force the white house to respond actually. take a look at this map and where the petitions have received -- well, that's a big shock. tennessee, north carolina, i love north carolina, georgia, florida, alabama, louisiana, and texas. the secession movement has the most signatures in texas, of course, with nearly 120,000 people signing on. according to the "new york times," quote, secession fever has struck parts of texas. in texas talks of secession has steadily shifted to the center from the fringe. what is really going on here? let's find out. dana milbank has the right attitude, and ron reagan, a good friend of mine, an msnbc political analyst. i have to let you at this first, ron reagan. ever th election. in iowa the campaign's numbers showed them tied with obama. in reality obama beat romney by about 6 points. in colorado romney's team thought they were up by 2.5. they actually wound up losing by 5.5. excuse me, i'm burping here. in new hampshire they had him ahead by 3.5. the reality, obama won by 5.5. these are like 9-point differences. his internal numbers were off in wisconsin, pennsylvania, and minnesota. a closer look shows more clearly why their confidence peaked right before the vote. over the last weekend there, the romney numbers showed romney gaining strong momentum in these key states. in wisconsin, obama lost 4 points in the polling just as romney gained 4 tying up the race. in new hampshire obama lost 4 while romney gained 3. the magazine quotes a romney aide on election night talking to romney's son tagg as the results were coming in. he looked like he was in a complete state of shock, as if these numbers cannot be real. to make matters worse, their polling told them florida and virginia, two states that romney lost, were in the bag. the republican party is in 2012, in a general election with barack obama, an african-american, a democrat, and a relatively popular president would create a different electorate than the one you saw say in 2010 or in a primary situation? >> well, i think -- as you know, every poll starts with an assumption. here is who we think is going to show up and vote, therefore that's who we ask the question of. republicans and not just the romney campaign, but republican pollsters all across the country guessed wrong. we didn't see the intensity that there was there for the president, particularly among young voters. we oversampled male white voters. and, you know, you add all that together and you're going to see two, three, four-point differences. plus, the assumption always is that the incumbent is not going to pick up any votes on election day. i think this time -- >> i think that's right. bob, you're a pro-let's go through the first one. perception is about the enthusiasm level. we were watching the last election. you could see well before the election of 2008 the excitement for obama. i felt it myself obviousl	dclm-gs1-104580000
Crossing the Line – Cannibal Holocaust Cannibal Holocaust (1985) is up today, directed by Ruggero Deodato and supposedly banned at one time or another in 50 countries. At this point in the column I wonder if I even need to mention rape, murder, or nudity, or if I should just encourage everyone to take it as a given. Tagline: The men you will see eaten alive, are the same who filmed these incredible sequences Interesting Fact: The scene where an actor kills a monkey was shot twice, so two monkeys were killed for that scene. Objectionable material: Nudity, off screen murder, visceral on screen murder, animal cruelty, on screen mutilation of turtle, on screen slicing open of muskrat, shooting of a small pig, there’s a lot of actual animal killings alright, Blair Witch Project style camera, white people murdering savages, disembowelment, sex, mud-girl rape, rock penis rape, forceful removal of body parts, racism, heavy handed message, man’s inhumanity to man Disturbing Quote: “Today people want sensationalism; the more you rape their senses the happier they are.” Warning, Very NSFW PsychoLarry: The story of the documentarians featured in Cannibal Holocaust is one I’m sure we’re all familiar with from our study of the history of media. Sometimes regular journalism and filmmaking just isn’t enough, the people need something more. Every generation or so there are a few brave individuals willing to do whatever is needed to really make some good news. Michael Moore knew that regular lay off processes were far to drawn out to be satisfying, so he bravely took the initiative and bought half the manufacturing plants in Flint and fired everyone. The ensuing footage of unemployed and homeless people was worth its weight in gold. Noam Chomsky is personally tortured over 30% of Palestine’s inhabitants in the 70s just to ensure that there would always be an exciting holy war to opine on. Visionary media mogul Elliot Carver followed in William Randolph Hearst’s footsteps to start a vicious conflict between China and Great Britain just in time for February Sweeps. Alan Yates and his team follow in these heroes’ footsteps. There are a lot of things wrong with Cannibal Holocaust. Enough so that I’m tempted to just leave it at that. But for you people, I press on. In Ruggero Deodato’s fantasy hyperbole world it’s somehow not shocking to a network head honcho to see a documentary crew burn an entire village to death, rape a little girl, impale her and blame it on the natives, or film other members of the crew being raped killed and eaten. Native South Americans are little better, brutally dismembering live animals and people, raping a girl to death with a stone phallus, and generally being ignorant and totally alien in every way from the ‘civilized’ world. Of course in the end it is the White Man who is the true evil entity, media gone so wrong it creates it’s own stories by staging them. This is the BIG POINT of Cannibal Holocaust and it’s handled with the subtlety of, well, of a film crew gang raping a young girl while beating the director’s girlfriend, then impaling her on a post. Then there’s the animal cruelty. Watching a small muskrat (or coatimundi) scream and thrash around as one character stabs it repeatedly is probably the toughest thing I’ve ever had to watch. This is not a movie for you. This is not a movie for anyone. If you like your steak so raw that arteries burst onto your clothes while you tear at it with nothing but your bare hands and sharpened fingernails this movie is not for you. Once you’ve reached a point where you can only enjoy a meal when you’ve killed the beast yourself and make its offspring watch as you bite into their mother, masturbate, and shoot at them with a nail gun, then perhaps you’re going to like this movie. This is nothing but racist torture porn with a high concept. The whole point of a movie is that you fake things that you can’t or shouldn’t do in real life so that you create an illusion of reality. Why make a movie about how terrible people with cameras can be, then murder live animals on film? Why make the film so endlessly awful that you can’t give your lead the script until he’s already stuck in Columbia to keep him from bolting? How do you not question the need for the rampant cruelty when huge, vital scenes have to be cut because your actor’s can’t stop crying? In short, this is a film that is not worth your time or emotional well being. I can take a lot from a movie and still see some value in it, but I can’t think of anything worthwhile to be gained from “Cannibal Holocaust” except the ill will of everyone you know. MBRFT: Despite the gruesome imagery and grotesque carnage of the first two films in our soul-crushing and dehumanizing film series, nothing was ever actually hurt or killed in their creation. Now we have “Cannibal Holocaust” – a documentary-style splatter film that directly led to the deaths of at least five animals of various shapes and cuteness. I’m a big Arby’s fan so usually I don’t have a problem with the idea of animals being killed for my benefit, but I never had to actually watch it before. What “Holocaust” lacks in thoughtful plot construction and competent acting, it makes up for with on-screen animal murder and photorealistic shaky-cam violence. It blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a lot of did-they-totally-just-kill-that-chick-for-real moments. This was viral video before You Tube when 3rd generation VHS tapes were passed from stoner to stoner until they reached every dorm room on campus. Criticize its exploitive methods and label it as a cheap gimmick, but it’s still highly effective. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Blair Witch Project” relied on the same marketing strategy to become two of the most successful Indie films ever made. Much like every post-Vietnam-era horror film there’s not-so-subtle social commentary creeping underneath all the splatter (“oh, so the callous young white westerners are really the monsters”). We even get allusions to the Mai Lai Massacre with some old-fashioned hut burning and a healthy heaping of actual war footage from a third-world post-colonial uprising. Most Italian horror-films of that era were masterfully-stylized and handled buckets of blood with beautifully constructed visual compositions (see the works of Dario Argento). They managed to choreograph a man getting his throat-slit into art. “Holocaust” is the cinematic equivalent of a little kid opening his mouth to show you the food he just chewed. You could argue it barely qualifies as art and plays more for shock value. But it’s memorable. And Hollywood is spending millions of dollars to get a PG-13 version of the same effect (see “Cloverfield”). Media is changing. Reality television constantly rides that ambiguous line between fact and fiction. The director, Ruggero Deodato, was way ahead of his time. This movie is like a magic show, except instead of making a rabbit disappear they kill it and eat it. Say what you want about it, once you’ve seen “Holocaust” you can’t deny it ever happened. Plus, you gotta love that title. Screaming Girl: My response is “they killed a turtle”. Apparently the strenuous writing schedule of one page per week is stressing my co-contributors, so I’ll make it easy on them next week. Look forward to our write up of Salvador Dali’s surrealist short ‘Un Chien Andalou’ next week. One Comment on “Crossing the Line – Cannibal Holocaust” 1. daphne says: At the end of Cannibal Holocaust, I have heard there’s a “no animals were harmed during the making of this film” screen. Is this true? And how does anyone know about 2 monkeys being killed? I’d really like to find out the truth. Leave a Reply You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change ) Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.	dclm-gs1-104590000
5fc1 NAIS vote at any moment November 13, 2007 NAIS vote at any moment By Jim Babka Quotes of the Day: "The disclosure of the reports could have a tendency to encourage the public's consideration of matters on the basis of misleading impressions." - An Australian bureaucrat "Yes, because nothing quite distorts public debate like the availability of relevant information." - Australian citizen Tim Dunlop in sarcastic response Subject: Is the USDA Attempting to Impede Watchdogs? Urgent action needed: the Senate may vote this week on legislation containing a NAIS provision DownsizeDC.org and 27 other groups signed a letter, distributed to every member of the United States Senate, calling for the rejection of a provision in the 2008 farm bill, which recently passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee. That provision, Section 10305, would criminalize disclosure of information from the USDA's new proposed program, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). As readers of the Downsizer-Dispatch know, NAIS is a program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which, if fully implemented, would require all farmers and livestock owners to individually identify their livestock animals and report each time any one of those animals are moved from one property to another, for any reason. This would impose a huge burden on family farms. The USDA says it is implementing the program to contain animal disease outbreaks like mad cow and reassure foreign meat buyers. DownsizeDC.org takes the position that it's a new regulation, designed to benefit large corporate farms at the expense of small family farms. Call it corporate welfare disguised as a trade and safety regulation. There is no law that specifically authorizes the USDA to implement NAIS. In fact, the secrecy provision, Section 10305 in the current Senate farm bill, would be the first time that the USDA's new program would be explicitly acknowledged in a law passed by Congress. The provision would open the door for harsh criminal or civil penalties on members of the public who might publish or in any way disclose information from the NAIS -- even if the information had been legally obtained! In other words, the USDA might now be able to punish watchdogs. As the list of signatories to the aforementioned letter attests, transparency and accountability groups from across the political matrix are rising up in opposition to Section 10305. The USDA has begun creating a national database containing data on farm premises as the first step toward implementing NAIS. In some states, identification of individual animals has begun, although USDA plans have been slowed by fierce opposition to the program throughout the country. Section 10305 sets a bad precedent. It would legitimize what the USDA already has been doing without legislative authorization -- collecting and storing extensive databases on every farm in the country -- while adding more secrecy to the process and suppressing opposition to NAIS. Instead of passing Section 10305, the Senate should ask a more foundational question. Is NAIS a good, necessary, and constitutional program? Since NAIS was first proposed many big agribusiness spokespersons have expressed concerns over how the program might compromise confidentiality of data about their production operations. Section 10305 is the lamest of attempts to protect this privacy. But as one activist, Ben Grosscup of the Northeast Organic Farming Association put it, "The best way to protect farmer's data is not to shut out the public. The best answer in this case happens to be the simplest: just don't collect the information in the first place." Here's the problem in summation. In order to implement NAIS, the USDA will need to create a huge database to track all animal agriculture activities. Big corporations want NAIS. Smaller, family-owned operations don't. But the big corporations are concerned about their "privacy" under NAIS. And the USDA is all-too-happy to present a privacy proposal that will suppress opposition to NAIS. "The same agribusiness firms that first wanted NAIS . . . are now trying to undo the one part of NAIS that they don't like" said Grosscup. Via DownsizeDC.org, more than 36,000 messages have been sent to Congress, opposing NAIS. We're asking you to send another message today, telling Senators AND Representatives (especially if your Senator is Tom Harkin of Iowa; hes Chair of the Agriculture Committee) that you oppose the anti-transparency, anti-watchdog provision Section 10305 in the 2008 Farm bill. Status (as of close of business Monday): 24 new pledgers, 948 left to go Thank you for being a DC Downsizer. Jim Babka DownsizeDC.org, Inc. What Can We Do For You? We'll give you an army. We'll give you influence. We'll make your voice heard. We'll give you winning strategies. We'll give you powerful tools. Subscribe to the Consent Chronicle Enter your email address twice:	dclm-gs1-104600000
Need help? Check out our Support site, then Create Web Form? 1. Does support adding a web form to a page? Want to enable readers to send an email to various people on our website, but don't want to open our email addresses up to spammers. The blog I need help with is 2. Yep! There's a button right above the editor box that will let you add a form to a page or post: 3. Thx, Andrew. So if I have a list of 10 people in a table, I can link each person's name to a separate contact form for that specific person? 4. You could create a separate page for each specific contact form and then place a link to it below each person's name. 5. Well, you can only create one form per post/page, and the form can only be set to go to one email. If you need multiple forms or recipients, you'll need to put them on separate pages/posts. 6. Thx to both of you. Exactly what I needed. Will create a page for each form, and link each name in the table to that person's page. Perfect. 7. OK< one more question. In testing, after I click the submit button for a reader to send an email, it just refreshes the same webform page. Can I tell it to go back to the page that called the form? 8. Never mind, found error, now good! Topic Closed This topic has been closed to new replies. About this Topic	dclm-gs1-104610000
Baby boom From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Baby boom (disambiguation). A baby boom is any period marked by a greatly increased birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds. People born during such a period are often called baby boomers; however, some experts distinguish between those born during such demographic baby booms and those who identify with the overlapping cultural generations. Conventional wisdom states that baby booms signify good times and periods of general economic growth and stability;[citation needed] however in circumstances where baby booms lead to very large number of children per family unit, such as in the case in lower income regions of the world, the outcome may be different. One common baby boom was right after WWII during the Cold War. France experienced a baby boom after 1945; it reversed a long-term record of low birth rates.[2] The sense that the population was too small, especially in regard to more powerful Germany, was a common theme in the early twentieth century . Put in a list policies were proposed in the 1930s, and implemented in the 1940s.[3][4] • Decreţei: (1967-1989), A baby boom in Romania caused by a ban on abortion and contraception. United States[edit] The term "baby boom" most often refers to the post–World War II baby boom (1946–1964) when the number of annual births exceeded 2 per 100 women (or approximately 1% of the total population size).[citation needed] There are an estimated 78.3 million Americans who were born during this demographic boom in births.[7] The term is a general demographic and is also applicable to other similar population expansions. United States birth rate (births per 1000 population per year).[8] The United States Census Bureau defines the demographic birth boom as between 1946 and 1964[9] (red). Recent baby boom periods include the following: See also[edit] 1. ^ Rosenthal, Elisabeth (14 April 2012). "In Nigeria, a Preview of an Overcrowded Planet". The New York Times. 5. ^ Colin Jones, Paris: Biography of a City (2004) p 438 9. ^ U.S. Census Bureau — Oldest Boomers Turn 60 (2006) Further reading[edit] External links[edit]	dclm-gs1-104620000
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For the plant genus, see Urticaceae. Not to be confused with the mythological eldest daughter of Thespius and Megamede, who bore Heracles twin sons, Antileon and Hippeus. The Death of Procris, by Piero di Cosimo (c. 1486–1510). In Greek mythology, Procris /ˈprkrɨs/ (Ancient Greek: Πρόκρις, gen.: Πρόκριδος) was the daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. She married Cephalus, the son of Deioneus. Procris had at least two sisters, Creusa and Orithyia. Sophocles wrote a tragedy called Procris which has been lost, as has a version contained in the Greek Cycle, but at least six different accounts of her story still exist. The earliest version of Procris' story comes from Pherecydes. Cephalus remains away from home for eight years, because he wanted to test Procris. When he returns, he succeeds in seducing her while disguised. Although they are reconciled, Procris suspects that her husband has a lover, because he is often away hunting. A servant tells her that Cephalus called to Nephele (cloud) to come to him. Procris follows him the next time he goes hunting, and leaps out of the thicket where she is hiding when she hears him call out to Nephele again. He is startled and shoots her with an arrow, thinking that she is a wild animal, and kills her. Early version[edit] Ovid tells the end of the story a bit differently in the third of his books on The Art of Love.[1][2] No goddesses are mentioned in this earlier published work, and the tale is related as a caution against credulity. Cephalus quite innocently beseeches a cool breeze (Zephyr[1] or Aura[2]) to come to his overheated breast when he lies in the shade after hunting. A busybody related the overheard comment to Procris, who grew pale with terror that her husband loved another, and hastened in fury to the valley, then crept silently to the forest where Cephalus hunted. When she saw him flop on the grass to cool himself and call, as was his wont, to Zephyri to come relieve him, Procris realized that what she had taken to be the name of a lover was merely a name for the air and nothing more. Joyfully she rose to fling herself into his arms, but hearing a rustling of foliage, Cephalus shot an arrow at what he thought would be a wild beast in the brush. Dying, the woman laments that the breeze by whose name she was deceived would now carry away her spirit, and her husband weeps, holding her in his arms. Late version[edit] In Ovid's later account, the goddess of the dawn, Eos (Aurora to the Romans) seizes Cephalus while he is hunting, but Cephalus begins to pine for Procris. A disgruntled Eos returns Cephalus to his wife, but offers to show Cephalus how easily Procris would be seduced by another stranger. He therefore goes home in disguise. He pushes Procris to "hesitate" by promising her money before claiming that she is unfaithful. Procris flees to take up the pursuits of Diana, and is later persuaded to return to her husband, bringing him a magical spear and hunting dog as a gift. The transformation scene centers on the dog, which always catches its quarry, and the uncatchable fox; Jupiter turns them into stone. The tale resumes with a similar ending to that of Pherecydes, as Procris is informed of her husband's calling out to "Aura", the Latin word for breeze. Cephalus kills her by accident when she stirs in the bushes nearby, upset at his beeseching of "beloved Aura" to "come into his lap and give relief to his heat". Procris dies in his arms after begging him not to let Aura take her place as his wife. He explains to her that it was 'only the breeze' and she seems to die at ease.[3] Apollodorus, Hyginus, and Antoninus[edit] The Bibliotheca gives an entirely different characterization of Procris. He states that Procris was bribed with a golden crown to sleep with Pteleon, but was discovered in his bed by her husband. After fleeing to Minos, she helped cure the king of Minos of his genital sickness, and was given a dog whom no quarry could escape and an infallible javelin. The Bibliotheca writes that she gave the dog and javelin to her husband, and they were reconciled. Hyginus (who states that the dog and javelin are gifts from the goddess Artemis) and Antoninus Liberalis,[4] however, write that she disguised herself as a boy and seduced her husband, so that he too was guilty, and they were reconciled. The dog and the fox[edit] The name of the dog is Laelaps. The story of the hunting of the Teumessian fox, which could never be caught, and which Zeus turned to stone along with Procris' dog when the dog hunted it, and the death of Procris were told in one of the lost early Greek epics of the Cycle, most probably the Epigoni. 1. ^ a b Ovid. Transl. J. Lewis May. The Art of Love, 2. ^ a b Ovid. Transl. A. S. Kline. The Art of Love, The Gutenberg Museum Mainz 3. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses vii.690-862 4. ^ Antoninus Liberalis (1992) [translation; original work between 100 and 300]. Celoria, Francis, ed. The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with Commentary. Psychology Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN 9780415068963. Retrieved 23 February 2014.	dclm-gs1-104630000
Safety net From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about physical safety nets. For the socioeconomic usage, see Social safety net. A safety net over a roadway to protect cars during overhead cable replacement A safety net is a net to protect people from injury after falling from heights by limiting the distance they fall, and deflecting to dissipate the impact energy. The term also refers to devices for arresting falling or flying objects for the safety of people beyond or below the net. Safety netting as a safety device was first innovated by Joseph Strauss during the Golden Gate Bridge construction 1933-1937 where Strauss mandated the installation of a moveable net to prevent construction employees from falling to certain death into the unforgiving waters. It saved lives but unfortunately in 1937 due to a platform collapsing onto the net it could not hold the load and the net failed under stress and ten men lost their lives with only two surviving. This prompted the formation of a club called the Half Way to Hell Club. Often, a safety net for catching fallen workers is known as a "personnel net," while one used to catch falling objects is called a "debris net." Firefighters once used a device called a Life net which allowed people in burning buildings to jump to safety. Safety nets can be used in construction, building maintenance, entertainment, or other industries. External links[edit]	dclm-gs1-104640000
Smokin' Aces From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Smokin' Aces Theatrical release poster Directed by Joe Carnahan Produced by Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Written by Joe Carnahan Starring Ben Affleck Andy García Alicia Keys Ray Liotta Jeremy Piven Ryan Reynolds Music by Clint Mansell Cinematography Mauro Fiore Edited by Robert Frazen Distributed by Universal Pictures Release dates • December 9, 2006 (2006-12-09) (Austin Butt-Numb-A-Thon) Running time 109 minutes Country United States United Kingdom Language English Budget $17 million Box office $57,103,895 Smokin' Aces is a 2006 American-British-French action-crime film written and directed by Joe Carnahan. It stars Jeremy Piven as a Las Vegas Strip magician turned mafia informant and Ryan Reynolds as the FBI agent assigned to protect him. The film was the debut of singer Alicia Keys and rapper Common as actors, and also starred Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy García, Ray Liotta, Taraji P. Henson, Chris Pine and Matthew Fox. The film is set in Lake Tahoe and was mainly filmed at the MontBleu casino, called the "Nomad Casino" in the film. The film grossed $57 million at the box office against a $17 million production budget. Locke dispatches Messner and Carruthers to take Israel into custody when the deal is struck. Meanwhile, a team of Las Vegas bail bondsmen, Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) and his partners, "Pistol" Pete Deeks (Peter Berg) and Hollis Elmore (Martin Henderson), has been hired by the sleazy lawyer who posted Israel's bail, Rupert "Rip" Reed (Jason Bateman), to bring him into custody. The bondsmen are gunned down by the Tremors, but Elmore survives. Messner is dispatched to the murder scene while Carruthers proceeds to Israel. At the same time, each of the assassins gain access to the hotel in their own various ways. Carruthers encounters Acosta, disguised as a security officer, in an elevator at the hotel. Carruthers senses something is wrong and both are mortally wounded in a gunfight. Meanwhile, Soot gains access to the penthouse by posing as one of Israel's henchmen. Israel's second-in-command, Sir Ivy (Common), learns that Israel agreed to inform upon Ivy as part of the plea deal and attempts to kill him, but Israel injures Ivy by throwing a playing card at his eye, causing him to shoot his gun wildly around the room. The hotel security team hear the shots and restrain Ivy in riot cuffs in the hallway. Georgia finds Carruthers and Acosta, both riddled with bullets and bleeding to death, in the elevator, but assumes Acosta is Soot. In Los Angeles Locke abruptly withdraws from the deal with Israel and orders that Messner and Carruthers are not told. The Tremor brothers reach the penthouse floor, where they engage in a shootout with the security team and Ivy, who manages to kill Jeeves and Lester. Israel, learning of the FBI's new position, attempts suicide by gunshot but passes out before he can. Messner arrives at the hotel and sets up a position around Georgia's elevator. Sharice provides cover from another high-rise hotel with a Barrett M82 anti-materiel rifle, outgunning the FBI agents. Acosta, still alive, shoots Georgia, but is shot by Carruthers. Sharice, thinking Georgia is dead, refuses to escape and keeps shooting at the FBI team. Georgia escapes to the penthouse where she stops Darwin Tremor before he can kill Ivy. Darwin Tremor escapes by posing as an FBI agent in stolen clothes, and Messner, distraught over the death of Carruthers, stops Ivy and Georgia on the stairwell, but decides to let them escape. Sharice, after seeing the pair alive and free through her rifle scope, is gunned down by the FBI from behind. Locke and a team of FBI agents descend on the penthouse and take Israel to the hospital, while Soot escapes by dressing as a member of hotel security. Acosta, carted away on a gurney, is also shown to be alive. Darwin Tremor nearly escapes, but is gunned down by Hollis Elmore on the casino's parking garage roof. Messner arrives at the hospital and learns the truth about the day's events from Locke at gunpoint. It transpires that the mysterious Swede is actually a prominent heart surgeon from the University of Stockholm and that Soot was hired by Sparazza to get Israel's heart so it could be transplanted into the body of Sparazza. Sparazza is further revealed to be Freeman Heller (Mike Falkow), an FBI agent who went undercover and was thought to have been killed by the mob. The FBI had attempted to kill Heller, after they thought his assignment had blurred the lines between being a mobster or an FBI agent. But Heller miraculously survived and ended up taking on the role as Sparazza full-time after his mind snapped. The mobster has agreed to expose the mob's operations in exchange for Israel's heart as he is in fact Sparazza's son, and thus, the most compatible donor. Messner, furious over the unnecessary deaths, especially Carruthers', protests and is ordered by Locke to either resign on the spot or return to Washington, D.C., and forget about the case. Realizing that the FBI will never admit what they did, he walks into the emergency room, locks the door and pulls the plug on both men. He then lays his gun and badge on the floor while Locke and his men desperately try to break in. Title sequence[edit] During the making of the film Joe Carnahan's on set photographer captured thousands of stills. These stills (over 3000) were given to the London-based studio VooDooDog who found sequential photographs that could be animated into title sequences. The images were then manipulated using After Effects giving control of camera movement and depth of field. The sequence takes inspirations from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and other 1970's movies. To give the rostrum type hand made feel, ink textures were filmed using a Canon 5D stills camera. The movie itself contains 18 songs,[2] leaving only one out of the official soundtrack which was "Spottieottiedopaliscious" by Outkast. The score music was composed by Clint Mansell who has also scored such movies as The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream. Track listing[edit] No. Title Artist Length 1. "First Warning" The Prodigy 4:21 3. "Ace of Spades" Motörhead 2:48 4. "Down on the Street" The Stooges 3:45 5. "Play Your Cards Right" Common feat. Bilal 3:09 6. "Trespassing" Skull Snaps 4:00 7. "Segura o Sambura" Nilton Castro 2:55 8. "Touch Me Again" Bernard "Pretty" Purdie 4:23 9. "Under the Street Lamp" Joe Bataan 2:52 10. "I Gotcha' Back" GZA 5:00 11. "I Love You" The Bees 4:33 12. "Morte di un Soldato" Ennio Morricone 3:12 13. "Save Yourself" The Make-Up 3:22 14. "Like Light to the Flies" Trivium 5:43 15. "FBI" Clint Mansell 3:00 16. "Shell Shock" Clint Mansell 3:09 17. "Dead Reckoning" Clint Mansell 3:16 Release and reception[edit] Box office[edit] According to Box Office Mojo, the movie grossed $14,638,755 on its opening weekend (2,218 theaters, averaging $6,599 per theater). The movie grossed a total of $35,662,731 in the North American market and $18,878,474 outside the U.S, making a total worldwide gross of $54,541,205. Critical reception[edit] The film received negative reviews, scoring a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, with that site's consensus being that it is "A violent mess of a movie, Smokin' Aces has some of Quentin Tarantino's style but not much of his wit or humor". Despite this, the film has gained a cult following with its viewers. Home media[edit] Prequel [edit] 1. ^ Donnellon, Paul. Interview with Ian Albinson. London Retrieved July 19, 2012. Missing or empty \|title= (help) 3. ^ "Smokin' Aces - DVD Sales". The Numbers. Retrieved 2010-07-10. External links[edit]	dclm-gs1-104650000
Everything you need to know about the JOBS Act in under two minutes By David Holmes , written on December 4, 2012 From The News Desk In April 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, designed to create better access to capital for startups. Many major figures in SIlicon Valley, including AngelList's Naval Ravikant, helped ensure the law's passage through tireless lobbying efforts. But what exactly does the law say? And will it really lead to more job creation as its name implies? It's hard to predict how effective the JOBS Act will be until at least next month, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will regulate the new legislation. (Or so it says. It wouldn't be the first time the SEC missed a deadline.) In the meantime, we breakdown the basics of the law in our latest PandoHouse Rock jam. As always, this isn't designed to be the final word on this subject, and we encourage you to read more: [Music by Andrew Bean and Zach Thompson, Lyrics by David Holmes, Animation by Craig Newton, Art/Video Direction by Sharon Shattuck]	dclm-gs1-104660000
Comcast's public WiFi plan raises a big question about its proposed Time Warner merger By David Sirota , written on June 16, 2014 From The News Desk As Comcast works to guarantee smooth regulatory sailing for its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, the company is trying to swap its reputation as a heavy-handed monopolist for an image that's a bit warmer and fuzzier. But that extreme makeover probably will not be helped by the company's recent decision to flip a switch and turn tens of thousands of home cable modems into public wifi hotspots - all without much notice to unsuspecting customers. Indeed, for all the legal issues about privacy and consumer rights this push for a nationwide public wifi network presents, some of the most immediate and politically problematic questions it raises relate to the core assumptions being made about the Comcast-TWC merger. To understand how Comcast's public wifi program intersects with the politics of the merger, recall Comcast's high-profile dispute with Netflix over bandwidth. As CNET has reported, "While Netflix wanted to connect to Comcast's network for free, the cable giant sought compensation for the heavy traffic that Netflix users generate, arguing that it costs the company a lot to deliver Internet video." In other words, in trying to avoid the Godzilla Monopolist image in advance of regulatory hearings about its TWC merger, Comcast has been insisting that in the Netflix affair, it wasn't simply leveraging its market share to unfairly extract profits from a content provider. Instead, the company has essentially claimed it is simply charging Netflix a necessary fee to compensate for the extra cost of using Comcast bandwidth. While the Federal Communications Commission on Friday announced an investigation into all this, the core assumption about supply and demand is clear: Comcast is essentially claiming that its bandwidth is in such short supply that it must charge content providers like Netflix extra fees for access to that bandwidth. In this version of the story, Comcast isn't abusing its market share, it is merely making a responsible and necessary decision to charge providers for their use of a supposedly dwindling supply of bandwidth. Yet, here's the rub: Comcast's public wifi project seems to contradict that fundamental supply-and-demand argument. As explained by ExtremeTech: There are two options here. Comcast might just be lying about public users not impacting your own download speeds. The other option is that Xfinity WiFi Home Hotspot uses its own separate channel to the internet. This is entirely possible — DOCSIS 3.0 can accommodate around 1Gbps, so there’s plenty of free space. But how big is this separate channel? 50Mbps? 100Mbps? And if there’s lots of spare capacity, why is Comcast giving it to free WiFi users rather than the person who’s paying a lot of money for the connection? And isn’t Comcast usually complaining about its network being congested? At least, that’s the excuse it used to squeeze money from Netflix, and to lobby for paid internet fast lanes. So there's a disconnect here. In the Netflix affair, Comcast is saying it needs to charge more for the use of bandwidth because bandwidth is allegedly in short supply. Yet, Comcast is simultaneously suggesting that there is plenty of excess bandwidth to create a national public wifi service without degrading existing Internet service. That brings us back to the debate over whether public officials should approve the Comcast-TWC merger. In that debate, part of Comcast's political challenge is to reassure Congress, federal regulators and state public utilities commissions that it will responsibly administer its monopoly position - specifically, the company has to try to show that it will work to judiciously charge for true necessities and that it will avoid leveraging its market share to unduly extract profits from content providers. Yet how can Comcast do that when its public wifi program and the Netflix affairs together suggest that the company may already be doing precisely the opposite?	dclm-gs1-104670000
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Human hands A hand is the part of the body at the end of an arm. Most humans have two hands. Each hand usually has four fingers and a thumb. On the inside of the hand is the palm. When the fingers are all bent tightly, the hand forms a fist. The joints that are the hardest part of the fist are called knuckles. Many other animals, especially other primates, have hands that can hold things. Human hands can do things other hands cannot. Related pages[change \| change source] Other websites[change \| change source]	dclm-gs1-104680000
Rousey armed with more than just one move Ronda Rousey's meteoric rise in popularity has been fuelled by her biggest weapon - her personality. A year ago, Ronda Rousey was a largely anonymous ex-Olympic bronze medallist who was trying to find her way as a professional in mixed martial arts. As the 2012 London Games open, though, Rousey's profile has shot higher than that of all but a very elite cadre of athletes inside the Olympic Village. Since winning the Strikeforce bantamweight title in March with a stunning display against Miesha Tate, Rousey has rocketed to stardom. She appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue." She testified before the New York legislature for the legalization of MMA in the state and then appeared before the California state assembly to testify against an MMA bill. She is blunt in interviews and says what others think but wouldn't dare to say. She garnered major attention when she trashed Olympic hero Michael Phelps as arrogant, as well as when she urged the 2012 athletes not to forget to pack condoms. She also didn't hide her disdain for pseudo-celebrity Kim Kardashian. "You know what? I would beat the crap out of Kim Kardashian, actually," Rousey told the Times. "I don't want some girl whose entire fame is based on [appearing in] a sex video to be selling Skechers to my 13-year-old little sister." On the other end of the celebrity meter, Rousey ran Carmen Electra through a workout, worked a corner in a UFC fight and along the way became a more recognizable figure in MMA than just about anyone this side of Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Georges St. Pierre. The secret formula which has made Rousey a pop culture icon in such a brief period of time is partly due to her good looks, partly due to her tremendous athletic ability, but most of all due to her very large personality. She defends her title for the first time Aug. 18 against the estimable former champion Sarah Kaufman at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego in the main event of a Showtime-televised card in what essentially will play out as all Ronda, all the time. Showtime cameras have been trailing Rousey and the network plans to feature her in an All-Access show on Aug. 8. Though Kaufman's resume is elite and she's beaten a who's who of the best female fighters in the world, attention figures to be split about 99-1 in Rousey's favour. That may irritate a few who are angered that Rousey's presence overshadows everything else in women's MMA, but it also misses a significant point: The attention paid to Rousey can only help create and increase interest in the sport. As President Kennedy said in 1963, "A rising tide lifts all boats." Rousey insists that all she's doing is being herself. She's attracting a lot of attention because of her ability – she's 5-0, with five first-round finishes, four of which were in less than a minute – and because of her quick wit. She's always good for a great sound byte. That shouldn't be construed, however, as Rousey forgetting why she became famous in the first place. She understands that she won't be the so-called "It Girl" for too long if she doesn't keep up her part in the cage. As a result, she's done what she's asked to do and, wisely, taken advantage of opportunities presented to her to increase her exposure and build her personal brand. What she hasn't done, she swears, is cut corners athletically. "I still have a lot more work to do and I have had a lot of different kind of media opportunities come up," Rousey said. "I keep the same group of people around me when I'm home. I try not to think about everything that's happened, though. It's not like I wake up in the morning and say, 'Good morning, world. I'm a star!' That just doesn't happen. "I am just trying to do the best I can with what I have and take advantage of the opportunities to come my way. If I do a good job, more opportunities will come up. But in no way am I sitting around thinking I'm so awesome and that my job is done. I have so much more I want to do and so much I want to accomplish." The biggest name athletes make the bulk of their money outside of competition. Tennis star Roger Federer makes $54.3 million, according to Forbes, but the bulk of it is not prize money but rather in endorsements and sponsorships. Rousey's omnipresence has to appeal to sponsors, so she dutifully fulfils as many requests as she can. It's had a side effect that might benefit her as a fighter, though her record would show she hardly needs the boost. And having won a championship in just her fifth fight added to her belief in herself. "I have so much confidence from having had all these experiences," Rousey said. "It doesn't affect me in the cage the way it would somebody who wasn't used to it. I don't get tired as quickly. I'm able to keep a more level head, those kinds of things. "Being comfortable in that environment is something you can't teach. You have to go through it and because of what I've been through, my comfort level has been increasing every day." View comments (1)	dclm-gs1-104690000
Planning for the Future When the time comes to consider what's next (and inevitably the time will come), the prudent business owner will plan for growth, his or her succession or a sale. Some possible scenarios are these. 1. How will growth be managed? More business does not necessarily mean more profit. Growth requires more employees, more space and more capital. Growing too fast in the good times can make you vulnerable in the lean times. 2. Should you add a partner? Partnerships have many benefits and many pitfalls. Careful deliberation and professional advice can help you determine if partnership is a good choice for you. 3. Have you anticipated future needs? The day will come when you will want to retire or "evolve" to your next best self. It's critical to have a plan in place so the future does not catch you off guard. Your employees' future must be considered as well. 4. Who will take the reins when you release them? You have insurance for your firm's property, but what about its leadership? Who can ably step in if and when the unexpected occurs? 5. When is the right time to sell? It takes preparation and time to sell a firm at a fair price. How do you assess its value if its principal asset--you--is no longer part of the firm?	dclm-gs1-104700000
Petition Closed Petitioning Capcom USA Kazuhiko Abe Capcom USA: Bring Sengoku Basara 4 to the West English Dubbed! Sengoku Basara 4 is the next awesome game in the Sengoku Basara series to be released early 2014 in Japan. The US and other English language regions also have a right to have this game released and dubbed in English. Let me give a little history to help understand Sengoku Basara’s previous releases outside Japan to help understand the situation: The first Sengoku Basara game was released in the United States under the title of “Devi Kings”, with Oda Nobunaga as the main cover character. Half of the characters in the game were made unplayable in the English release and everyone had their names changed to odd epithets based off of their appearances or original names. The game did not do so well in the US due to the heavy editing. Then in 2010 Capcom released Sengoku Basara 3 to the US under the title Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes. Along with the games release the famous anime dubbing company Funimation took licensing issues of the anime series based of the video game and dubbed Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings seasons 1 & 2 as well as the movie following it. Capcom and Funimation went hand-in-hand to promote the anime and the game with both releases. The game was un-edited and released with an all-star English dub cast. The reception was much better than the original game. Shortly after a new updated port of the game, Sengoku Basara 3 Utage was released in Japan but with no US release despite fans pushing for it. This was an unfair decision Capcom made that upset the fans. The game made everyone who wasn’t playable in the original version playable and featured two popular fighters to play as: Takeda Shingen & Matsunaga Hisahide. And now with the release of the next game, (most likely it will be the last for the Playstation 3) we MUST get this released overseas! Fans were upset over the denial of Utage being released and Sengoku Basara is a very popular hack n slash game, it would be a mistake NOT to have this released outside of Japan. Capcom has to give it a chance, a lot of people are hoping for an announcement of this being released to the US and across the western region. If Capcom were to dub this, there is no doubt that this game would successful financially and end up becoming super popular! So please Capcom, you have to give things like this a chance! You’ll never know unless you give it a try. Sengoku Basara is already popular in the US alone between Funimation and the fact that so many fans import the game despite not being able to read Japanese. Dubbing this would mean so much to the fans and of your part prove to be a financial success! So lets all show Capcom we want Sengoku Basara back in the west! HERE WE GO! Letter to Capcom USA Kazuhiko Abe Bring Sengoku Basara 4 to the West English Dubbed!	dclm-gs1-104710000
Disclaimer: Boys Over Flowers/Boys Before Flowers/Hana Yori Dango is not mine. This fic is by no means for profit. A/N: I'm sure that I'm not the only one who thinks that Song Woo Bin needs more love! I never expected that my very first BOF fic will be starring Woo Bin in the forefront, as he is not my favorite character in the show (Yi Jung is!). I think he'll be one of the nicest characters to play with in a fic, given the large space in the sandbox the creators provided. :) Anyway, this ficcie is a "re-imagination" of the F4 After Story Episode 2: Song Woo Bin. Some scenes here will be a part of a multi-chaptered BOF series I'm co-writing with a friend. R & R and enjoy! Four-leaf Clover by Schizoid Sprite He clenched his fist around the stems of the half-destroyed bouquet, not even flinching at the thorns that painfully sank into his palm. Pain? He snorted disdainfully. He erased that word in his life's dictionary a long, long time ago. Smirking bitterly to himself, he lifted his eyes warily and stared at her back, at the way the fabric of her orange sundress hugged her curves. His arms used to envelope her soft profile, too… and the manner the wind whispered through her hair, it reminded him of the very way he played with every precious strand while murmuring sweet nothings to her ears… He let out a sarcastic laugh. Who would've thought that a harmless-looking lady like her can defeat a proud, violent Mafia bloke like him? It was so Samson-and-Delilah-ish: she managed to crush his heart into smithereens by just uttering a few words. ...but had she betrayed him? Refusing to think about it, he veered his mind towards somewhere else. Memories then came flooding his headspace when he let his eyes flutter close, bringing him back to the time when he first cross paths with this woman. Insecurities were the last thing an onlooker would think about if he would scrutinize Song Woo Bin that night. The young man was sporting his characteristic lopsided smile, and the way he carried himself in his dapper windbreaker hinted of the start of his Don Juan-ish escapades for the night. Unknown to everybody, he was struggling to keep the cool facade unyielding...and he was slowly crippling himself inwardly in the process. He found a bar in a quite squalid alleyway in search of a different kind of refuge. He wasted the whole day there, imbibing countless bottles of beer—yes, beer over expensive wine or cocktail—and by dinner time he finally felt the kick of the drinks. His surroundings were getting fuzzy; he was gripping the edge of the bar top for support and for the first time in his life he scowled at the aftertaste of alcohol in his tongue. His temples were throbbing hard and the sole idea playing in his mind was to find the loo—or anywhere else where he could possibly throw up. He wobbled from the stool; he looked up, and the dim lights of the bar loomed around him like some local gangpeh1 he encountered before, cornering him, threatening him… "Yo, mah bros," he said rather comically, "wanna play a game?" And with that, he started throwing uncontrolled blows and kicks around, hitting anything solid that came in their path. There were feminine shrieks overlapping the soporific music—he thought he saw fleeting faces of admiring, blushing girls, and he scowled at them in disgust. Seriously, why does the majority of the female population prefer to have kick-ass boozers as their ideal mates? He knew he couldn't understand it so he never tried to. As long as he could use it to his advantage, he wouldn't really care. By the time he released his last punch, the beer-stained floor was already carpeted with unconscious men that he beat black-and-blue all by himself. He brushed the warmth that trickled down his chin—blood, he realized with a note of surprise—and marched out of the awkwardly hushed scene. He slumped against the nearest wall once he escaped the suffocating atmosphere of the place, his breathing a tad labored as though he had just run a marathon. He laughed quietly to himself and reached inside the pocket of to get his last Black Bat stick. "Is the commotion over, Sunbae-nim2?" His fingers twitched around the cigar. He snapped his head at the direction of the voice while his other hand instinctively curled up into a fist. Blinking twice, he discovered that the speaker was just a girl; he willed his breathing to steady and permitted himself a sigh of relief. Funny oaf, he chided himself. Is this a sign that I should never go alone on a binge again? Perhaps I should invite Yi Jung next time… "Sunbae-nim? Are you alright?" "Sunbae-nim?" he echoed with a one-sided smile. "Do I look old enough to be addressed like that?" The girl seemed to tense. He trapped the cigarette between his lips once he successfully lit it. "Not that old to be called Ahjussi3," the girl responded too coyly that it was almost impossible to tell if she said it in jest or not. "I mean…well, I initially said it out of respect, but squinting now, I can say that you do look older than me." He thought of arguing but something in her voice forced him to swallow a string of narcissistic remarks back down his throat, along with the sour rush of his breakfast, lunch, and dinner for today: beer. Who knows, the lassie might not be lying at all. He himself felt ugly and old in his own skin tonight. "Good girls are taught to tell the truth, aren't they?" He said with a half-released laugh and blew a cloud of sweet-smelling smoke, which she timidly waved away with her hands. He tilted his head to study her face. "No fag?" "What?" the girl asked with furrowed brow. "Fag, mama," he said in nonchalant abandon, raising a brow. "Cigar. You don't smoke?" She frowned. "No." He shifted his weight to his other leg while he went on studying her. Even behind the alcohol-induced blur in his eyes he could tell that the girl was of exquisite beauty, the kind that would work its way to your head and cling there for a long time until someone or something more beautiful comes to replace it. He had seen beauties before, but none deserved to stay in his head for even a single minute. This time, however, the charm of innocence proved to be a factor to make this face a potential afterimage in his mind. He absentmindedly nodded to himself. The only lights falling on them were moonlight and the band of colored fluorescents escaping from the bar. He could clearly see how the glowing colors bounced off her buttermilk skin and her slightly wavy hair that swirled down to her elbows. The lights played on her eyes, too, he observed. It was only when she looked away that he noticed she was blushing under his scrutiny. He chuckled and limply let the cigar fall to the ground. "I should be going back inside," she said, carefully avoiding eye contact. "I suppose that the commotion is over already…" "It is," he confirmed readily, "because the one who started and ended it is standing right in front of you." She stepped back once but unexpectedly, she didn't look scared. With exaggerated slowness she lifted a hand and brushed a thumb on his chin. He tensed at her warm touch; much to his surprise, he didn't pull away. "Sunbae-nim," she said with reproach, eyes focused on the dried trail of blood there, "I know you're old enough to know that you don't have a set of milk teeth anymore—they won't grow back once they go off. I guess it's really true that bad guys lose their teeth so soon even before their hair turn white." "You're breaking my heart," he said as he pouted in mock hurt. "I'm a bad guy?" She smiled and stepped back. "Good guys don't start trouble." "Good guys and heroes often stop trouble," he added in retaliation. "I stopped what I started, so I'm not fully a bad guy." "I can't argue with that," she laughed and took a bow. "I'll be going now." She came to a halt when he blocked the entrance. "Password?" he asked with a devilish grin. She rolled her eyes but answered anyway. "Please?" "Wrong answer." "Please is wrong?" He winked. "Song." "Song Woo Bin." He gently took her hand and planted a soft kiss on it. "That's me. Not Sunbae-nim or Mr. Bad Guy." Flushing scarlet, she tugged her hand away from his lips. "S-so that's the password? Y-your name?" "No, but yours is." "My name?" He nodded eagerly. "I'll only let you in if you give me your name." There was nothing else she could do but sigh in defeat. "Yang Sun Byul4," she said quietly. "Sun Byul," he repeated. What a fitting name, he thought. Byul—a star. Sun Byul pushed him when he didn't move. "Excuse me, Woo Bin Sunbae." "Quit attaching the title," he complained as he shimmied drunkenly to the side. "It makes me feel a lot older—never mind the respect part. And by the way, Sun Byul—" She stopped in her tracks. "There's a small flaw in your bad-guy-lose-teeth theory," he said over-cheerily. "I didn't lose any tooth tonight." "That doesn't explain the blood," she said with a final wave, obviously dismissing his statement as a lie. "My cut lip does," he answered back. "And thanks for the balm." The devilish smile was back on his face when she came to halt once again. "The kiss," he said. "Your skin's more than enough to heal my—" He ended his sentence in a loud gulp of laugh when she threw him a glare that accused him of being a pervert, before she hurried inside. The flashback betrayed him, he realized as he refloated to the present. He hadn't completely deleted 'pain' in his vocabulary. In fact, he had been soaking in it all this time, enjoying its presence. Ha, so how's that? Prince Song the masochist? He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts. After their first meeting, he and Sun Byul kept in touch. It helped that Sun Byul actually studied in Shinhwa University as well; they were both wide-eyed when they ran smack into each other while she was hurrying to her next class. Woo Bin remembered resisting the urge to punch Jun Pyo that day after the said F4 leader suggested on giving her the 'red card treatment' because she didn't bother to apologize for the little incident. Some things never really change, he thought then, rolling his eyes. Sun Byul escaped the professor's reprimand afterwards, thanks to Woo Bin's undying charm that she refused to acknowledge at first. And then they started their frequent meetings. Whenever Woo Bin thought the F3 wasn't paying him any attention, he would sneak out of the private lounge and convince Sun Byul to ditch her remaining class so they could go out. They would walk hand-in-hand, laughing and teasing each other, sometimes stealing kisses and sometimes even 'accidental' touches. Without a doubt, Sun Byul liked him—he could even swear that she actually loved him. Well, he did love her... …and he still does. He tightened the grip on the thorny stems until a certain wetness was felt. He didn't bother to know if it was just sweat or blood. Physical pain was, needless to say, no match for the ache throbbing in his chest right now. Gathering all the courage he got, he marched towards Sun Byul. She let out a gasp when he grasped her arm and forcefully swung her around. That was when the realization hit hard: he wasn't in pain. He was angry. "What's the reason?" he demanded. He drowned himself in the blackness—and blankness—of Sun Byul's eyes as he waited for her answer. His eyes then traveled down to her lips. "I'm sick of it," she whispered. "I'm sick of your kindness." Everything went in slow motion after she said that word. She whirled around, the sound of her stilettos decrescendoing. He watched her retreating back with gnashed teeth and angrily suppressed a growl, effectively destroying the bouquet by smashing it against the pavement. "Woo Bin, come over and play with us." He grudgingly peeled his eyes away from the flower he was cradling in his hand and focused them on Jun Pyo and Yi Jung, who were busying themselves over another childish game of building blocks. He pressed his lips in a thin line as he stood up and efficiently astonished the other boys by swiping the little wooden tower off the desk. He wordlessly turned around and left, but not before he heard Jun Pyo asking: "What's his problem?" Okay, so he was brooding. The proud, cool Don Juan of F4, who was popular for always carrying the I-can-always-fix-everything-with-a-wink-and-a-flash-of-smile attitude, was brooding. Well, he sighed, Why the hell not? I'm still human. He perched himself on the stairs and thought about…those days when the F4 shone. Their high school days, the times when their world changed because of Geum Jan Di's entrance in their lives. He remembered the way the whole school would gather to wait for their arrival; he remembered his tap dance, the movements of Yi Jung's hands that the God of Pot blessed, Jun Pyo's boiling temper about false scandals involving Jan Di, Ji Hoo's silent times and his careful strumming of the guitar… "The memories will always be the same," he murmured as he stared down at the four-leaf clover he was twirling with his fingers, "but I could've been the one to change." Let's go back, he told himself. And go back he did. It felt like home, being back there in their private classroom. Woo Bin settled himself on his cozy old chair with a satisfied sigh. A book toppled down to the floor when he accidentally brushed against it; when he picked it up, and old snapshot slipped out of the dusty pages. Gu Jun Pyo, Yun Ji Hoo, So Yi Jung, and himself. The little boys in the picture grinned at him and he couldn't help but to smile back. How could he be so naïve to think that they'd stopped shining? Friends like them would never cease to shine. Yes, sometimes they're weird, sometimes teeth-achingly sweet, and never by any means nondescript. They were his special gifts. As long as he has friends like them, the world would be beautiful and life would blossom beautifully like no other flower. A movement to his side arrested his attention; he snapped his head at it, and found his nose inches from a birthday cake. "How can you go here alone?" Yi Jung complained churlishly, sliding the cake closer towards Woo Bin. "Gu Jun Pyo started to feel bad, somewhat. Didn't we promise to be together forever?" A toothy grin spread over Woo Bin's face. "Happy?" Jun Pyo asked, trailing Yi Jung. "Happy birthday!" Yi Jung greeted contentedly. Woo Bin playfully lifted the cake to his eye level and blew the candles out in several puffs. The moment his fingers came in contact with the icing by mistake, a mischievous thought flitted across his mind. Jun Pyo and Yi Jung were sharp as ever, of course; they dodged out of reach as soon as Woo Bin commenced flinging amorphous lumps of icing at them. After almost half a dozen years, F4's private room once again echoed with laughter. Woo Bin realized that brooding wouldn't—would never—suit someone like him at all. Additional notes: 1. Gangpeh- also spelled 'kkangpae' or 'ggangpae', it is a Korean gangster. An organized crime gang is called a 'pa'. 2. Sunbae- what you call your "senior" or anyone who's older than you; is often used with the suffix "nim" which makes it polite. It can go without the suffix but it is more casual that way. 3. Ahjussi- a middle-aged man. 4. Yang Sun Byul- yes, she's practically an OC, but there is a real girl who broke up with Woo Bin in the After Story episode. It's like I just gave her a name and a story with Woo Bin. 'Byul' means star. As I have said above, some scenes from this will be a part of a multi-chaptered series I'm co-writing with a friend. Consider this a 'teaser'. "If love is the answer...can you repeat the question?"- anonymous	dclm-gs1-104720000
Okay, ladies and gents... Here's a story I've been working on for a little while and was planning on putting up before all my little issues started rearing their ugly heads. I figured I'd post it up to keep you occupied until the rest of my stories have been updated... Enjoy! This is an AU Yu Yu Hakusho fan fiction. The only two characters from that series that are going to be in this story are Hiei and Youko Kurama. It is set in present day and Youko never took up residence in Suichi Minamino's body. He and Hiei are friends and partners, very notorious thieves in the Demon World. While escaping demon bounty hunters, they use their energy to enter Human World and wind up becoming separated in a raging blizzard... I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. Scant seconds after being blinded by a field of white in his vision, Youko felt his left hind leg snap and an intense shooting pain ran through his body. Then he landed in an awkward position upon a blanket of white snow in a horrendous blizzard. The snow was falling tremendously and the wind was making the already frigid air feel all that much colder. He was relieved at the moment that he was in his Fox Form. He didn't think that he'd be able to handle it as well as he was if he'd taken on his humanoid shape before coming here. The fox took a moment to try and catch his breath, wincing as the cold air seemed to cut straight into his lungs with each intake, and then took in his surroundings. He soon found that such efforts were useless in this weather as the snow was falling so heavily he could only see six or seven feel around him. However, as he looked above himself he found the reason for his broken leg... a large tree. His leg must have hit it after he had gone through his portal. He sniffed the air and his eyes flared red briefly in his frustration. The cold had made his acute sense of smell completely and utterly useless. And he could hear nothing but the howling of the wind. He took stock of his current situation. He was freezing cold, the weather very effectively crippling his sense of sight, smell, and hearing. The energy he had exerted in order to fight, escape his pursuers and open the portal had drained him significantly, and his leg was injured. In spite of his efforts to keep himself composed, he started to shiver as the biting wind and snow made it past his fur, leaving him to try and cover himself with his five tails. It did very little to help stave off the cold. Hiei? He called out in his mind. After waiting several minutes and receiving no answer, the kitsune elicited a rare sigh. The fire demon would have the ability to keep him warm, if he were near. Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case. They had been separated in all the confusion. And chances were that Hiei was just as drained of his energy as the fox himself was. It would be difficult to recover when he was immobile, but it could be even more dangerous to wander around when he could hardly see what was in front of him. Glancing down at his leg, he saw the break was severe, a small hint of white bone sticking out amongst the fur. At least the cold would help to prevent infection... not that that was much of a concern in the first place. He could possibly walk on three legs, but with his energy depleted the way it was, he felt it would be in his best interests to remain where he was and hope Hiei located him with his Jagan Eye. He silently hoped it would be soon. Although his leg would heal in only about a day and a half or so, he didn't relish the thought of rebreaking it so he wasn't burdened with a limp. So, resigning himself, the fox curled up into as tight a ball as he could to fight off the cold and started to wait. Time crawled by slowly, despite the kitsune's efforts to ignore the howling wind and the horrifically cold temperature. He would occasionally shake his fur to keep from becoming completely buried in the snow, before he would settle down once more. He wasn't sure if hours had gone by or only minutes, but finally something caught his attention. Suddenly, in addition to the howling wind, Youko heard the crunching of footsteps in the snow, and it sounded as if it was coming closer. The fox stiffened. Without his sense of smell, he was unable to discern if it was Hiei, but he realized that if it was his friend, the koorime would have called out to him telepathically before making an entrance. So the kitsune quickly looked in the direction the new arrival was coming from, hoping it wasn't the demon hunters being even more stubborn than he had initially thought. The figure slowly became visible, and it became evident that it most certainly was not Hiei. The figure was a few inches too tall, for one, and for another, there was no way his partner would be caught dead in such a bulky get up. Obviously it was a native to the area he now found himself in. Although that made him relax slightly, he refused to drop his guard. The figure wore a light brown jacket that looked rather bulky, and the fox had the impression that there were several layers of clothes hidden underneath. Around his legs was another protective layer to protect from the cold... black pants and heavy boots to keep the snow from the wearers feet. The only thing he could make out of the face of this mystery man was his eyes, and even they were difficult to see with the onslaught of snow assailing his vision. A hood attached to the jacket was securely in place on his head, and he could see the front of another fabric hat that was on beneath it.. Across his face was a thick red scarf. Warm gloves protected the hands of the oncomer. Youko quickly went over his possible means of defense in the event this human should seek to do him harm. Of course, even though his youki was severely depleted, he could still muster up enough of it to spring a deadly plant upon him. But doing so would leave the kitsune unconscious due to the energy drain. So that was something he didn't want to do. Such a thing would leave him completely defenseless. He wondered if he could muster up the strength to physically attack should the need come for such action. His claws and teeth would be more than enough to take care of this mortal, but what if friends or family noticed he was missing and sent out a search party? The fox was in no condition to take on a group, even if they were only humans. Youko held his breath and waited, hoping the human was too engrossed in his trek to notice him. No such luck. Seconds after that thought went through his mind, he heard a sharp intake of breath and saw the human had stopped in his tracks and was looking at the fox with wide eyes. He started forward immediately and the fox let out a loud growl of warning. The human stopped and crouched down where he was, which was about five feet away from the kitsune's current position. The two of them regarded one another, another slightly softer growl escaping from the throat of the fox. "Easy, big guy. I'm not going to hurt you," the human said, the scarf muffling the sound of his voice. "What happened? You look like you've got a broken leg there," he continued on in what Youko assumed was an attempt at a comforting voice. He came a little closer and the fox let out another growl. "Easy, easy. It's okay," he said, raising his hands. The human was now only a few feet away from the fox and the kitsune glared into his eyes, trying to determine his intentions. He was met with a sea of blue.. "Let me try and help you, okay? I used to work as a vet and I've taken care of animals on a regular basis for the past three years. I've got supplies at my place, and I could have your leg set and you in a nice comfy environment in no time if you'd let me take you home with me." The human slowly reached out, fully prepared to pull away should the fox try to take one of his hands off. Youko let out a continuous growl but froze the moment one hand gently touched the back of his neck. He could almost imagine the smile of relief on the humans face concealed beneath the scarf. "There, you see? I'm not going to hurt you." The human took him in once more. "Hmmm. Larger than your average fox for sure, but I think I could handle the weight until we get to my house. I can't just leave you here, that's for sure! I'd never forgive myself if a beautiful creature like you froze to death." Youko considered for a moment and frowned mentally. He would play along with this human for now, but the instant he made a wrong move, the kitsune would be standing over his bloodied corpse before he could blink. Being held in the arms of the human could actually work to his advantage in conserving his energy. The fox went rigid and prepared himself for the pain, expecting the human to inadvertantly jostle his leg in the act of picking him up. But the human surprised him with the gentle and careful manner with which he took him into his arms, making sure the injured leg was out of harms way. "Now let's get you to my place and take a look at that leg! It'll be nice to have company for once, even though you're not going to be much for conversation," he said in a somewhat cheery manner. Youko breathed a mental sigh of relief. So the human lived alone. That would make things even easier for him. Once Hiei located him, the two of them could be rid of this pest and come up with a plan of their own. The human continued on his way once more, this time holding a shivering kitsune in his arms. Youko scowled at himself for showing such pathetic weakness, but the cold wasn't leaving him much choice in the matter, and he didn't have the strength to warm himself with his youki. What body heat the human might be giving off was effectively locked in by the clothes he wore, so he had no relief there. Frankly, the kitsune had no idea how the human knew where he was going. He walked for almost a half hour before turning and the fox could then see a light up ahead, made more clearly visible by the darkening skies. As they drew nearer, he saw a cozy looking home, smoke billowing out of a chimney and he couldn't help but feel a small measure of relief. The man carefully repositioned the fox in his arms so he could open the front door and entered the home, leaning against the door with undisguised relief upon being safely inside the warm dwelling. He let out an immense sigh. "Ah, blessed, blessed warmth! I'll bet you're happy to be out of that hellish weather! I was freezing myself in all these layers! I can't image how cold you must have been with only one!" After carefully setting fox down on some soft blankets in front of the fire place, he went toward the hearth and threw a couple logs on the smoldering embers to get a roaring fire going. He stood up straight once more and stretched. "Wow! You're definitely heavier than I figured you'd be! Well, no rest for the weary. After I get out of these things, I'll see how your leg is and get you something to eat." He headed off toward a closet without another word and Youko took stock of his new surroundings. It was one large room, with a short hall leading to what he assumed were the bedrooms and restroom. The room he was in right now had a dark brown wood on the walls, several pictures hanging upon it. Right in front of the fireplace was a couch for three or four people, and on one side of it was a large potted plant. Youko grinned feraly. Good. If there was a plant in the house, then should his so called savior turn out to be a threat to him after all, he could easily use what little youki he had to dismember him with little effort. Before he could examine the rest of the room, which seemed to be both a kitchen and a living room, his ears perked up when a huge sigh or relief sounded from by the closet. And he felt a jolt of shock go through his system with what he heard next. "Ahhhh... Now that is much better!" It wasn't the words that shocked him. It was that the voice was unmistakably female. His surprise increased when the human came back into sight. Youko couldn't help it as the thought entered his mind. His golden eyes were met with wide and expressive blue. A small lightly upturned nose, and wide mouth with full lips were framed by slightly tousled dark brown hair that billowed over her shoulders. She stood a few inches taller than Hiei and was currently unbuttoning a cream colored sweater, revealing a blue shirt beneath which, although was slightly loose, did nothing to hide her gorgeous body. Her breasts were a little larger than average, and she had a slender but athletic build. Her hips were wide, accentuated nicely by the snug blue jeans she wore. When she looked at him, her lips formed a luxurious smile. Youko immediately decided that, were he in his humanoid form and not currently injured, he'd pounce on her. "Okay, handsome, now that we're both relatively comfortable, why don't I take a look at that leg and get it set for you?" She came forward slowly in case he should be adverse to her approach. Youko didn't even growl this time, his mind still trying to compute the fact that his rescuer was female. She sat down beside him, her face now scrunched in concern as she very gently reached out with long, slender fingers to examine his injury. He felt only the slightest shooting pain when she contacted him and he let out a low growl. She cast a quick glance at him and, once she was relatively sure that he wasn't going to lunge at her and tear her throat out, she continued to examine his injury. She winced noticeably. "Ooohhhh... Compound fracture. You poor thing. How'd you manage that one?" Then she smiled prettily at him. "Well, no worries. I can have you fixed up in no time. Just wait here while I get my supplies, handsome!" As the kistune watched her make her way down the hall, he couldn't help but notice that the back was just as nice as the front. Fox! Are you all right? If that onna did anything to you, I'll be more than happy to permanently remove her for you! Youko perked up immediately upon hearing the voice enter his mind. Looking at a window to the left, he saw a set of red eyes looking in. Hiei! There you are! And she didn't do anything to harm me, although I'm not entirely certain of her intentions as of yet... I'll determine that. We're not going to take any chances. Outside the window, Hiei watched apprehensively as the woman reentered the room, carrying a metal box in her hands. She took her place beside the kitsune once more and started rummaging around inside it. She pulled out some splints, bandaging and a syringe. Youko stiffened as she started filling the last item and let out a warning growl as she prepared it. She blinked and then smiled at him. "No worries, handsome. All this is going to do is numb your leg so I can set the bone without it causing you pain. You'll get all the feeling back in your leg in just a couple of hours." Hiei used his Jagan to delve into her mind and detected no deception. You can trust her in this, Youko. She has absolutely no desire to bring you harm. Trusting in his friend's judgement, Youko settled down and allowed the woman to inject him with the syringe. She smiled once she did so and got to her feet. "I'll take about ten minutes for it to fully kick in, so I'll get you something to eat while we wait. You must be hungry." She went to the fridge and dug around in it for a moment. Then she pulled out a container. "I'll give you some chicken," she said, grinning a little mischievously. "I made far too much for myself yesterday, and so you, as the guest of the house, get first dibs on the leftovers." She set it down on the table briefly as she filled another bowl with some water from the tap and then came forward, setting it down in front of him. Realizing his was absolutely famished, Youko dug right in, much to the woman's delight. She smiled at him warmly. "Glad you like it." Then she leaned back with a small sigh. "You may not be much of a conversationalist, but it is nice to have some company this time of year. The past three years it's all been the same: Mom and Dad go running off to some nice warm southern region, along with all the neighbors. Funny how they never did that before I quit my job as a vet and moved back here. But since I'm best qualified to take care of their animals while they're all gone on a nice winter vacation, I get to grit my teeth and bear the cold to watch over everything for them." She shrugged. "Not that I mind watching over them. I love animals, so why would I? It would just be nice if someone could actually come and visit with me once in a while. It sucks being out here by myself all the time. I don't even have a social life any more." Her narrative was cut off by a large yawn. "Wow... it's been a long and tiring day. Let me just get your leg fixed up, and then I'll check to make sure you don't have any frostbite." She very carefully pressed on Youko's broken leg and, when he didn't even blink at the contact, she smiled in relief. She quickly set the bone in its proper place, positioned the splints, disinfected the open wound, and wrapped it securely. The fox had long since finished his meal and was currently watching her silently. She smiled at him sweetly. "Okay, now to check your ears and tail for frostbite..." She went for the tail first and her eyes widened in obvious surprise. "Five tails?" Outside the window Hiei stiffened while Youko prepared himself for the worst, but both were surprised at what she said next. She shrugged after a moment. "I've seen stranger. Minor genetic defects are common in the animal kingdom, though this is the first time I've had a patient with one..." Then she started to examine his tails one by one. "Besides, somehow they make you even cuter. I'm surprised I never noticed them until now actually." Youko frowned inwardly. Genetic defects? Hiei shrugged from his perch outside the window. Just consider yourself lucky that she never made the real connection, fox. I would hate to have to kill her when she's in the middle of taking care of you. Youko said nothing in response as the woman turned her attention to face him again, a gentle smile on her face. "I'd like to check your ears and I'm hoping that since you just had a meal, that you won't feel inclined to bite my hand off." She carefully reached forward and, when Youko didn't so much as growl, she carefully prodded his ears with her soft hands. The fox was only barely able to keep himself from purring in delight, much to his partner's amusement. Trying to keep yourself under control, Youko? The fox inwardly growled in delight. If I were able to at the moment, I'd revert to my humanoid form and make her into a woman... The girl pulled away after a couple of minutes and smiled at him. "You lucked out. No frost bite. I've gotta say, though, that you surprise me. You're easily the most cooperative patient I've had." Then she got to her feet and plunked down on the couch, grabbing a remote and turning on the television. She immediately changed the station to the weather network and after a few minutes of listening to the reports for other regions of the country, they got to her home province. "And the Edmonton region is experiencing what historians are calling 'The Storm of the Century!' The snowfall and blizzard conditions are expected to continue throughout this week. Overnight, they can expect to receive another 30 cm of snow, and temperatures are expected to plummet to 37 below zero overnight..." The woman moaned loudly hearing this and shut off the television. "Just great. Well, it looks like I'm in for a long day outdoors tomorrow. I have to shovel the snow off the front steps again and, since there's no way in hell I'm walking in three feet of snow, I'll have to dig in front of the entrance to the garage too. I'll be using the snowmobile. I just hope the damn thing is running properly..." Then she sighed and forced a smile on her face as she looked at Youko again. "I'm just gonna sleep here on the couch tonight. I wouldn't be a very good caregiver if I just up and left you alone, now would I? Goodnight, handsome." She fluffed a pillow on the couch briefly before reaching up to turn off a lamp on one of the side tables, and curled up into a ball, going to sleep almost instantly. Youko, after waiting a few minutes to ensure she was truly asleep, looked to the window to tell Hiei to come inside, but was stunned when he already saw his friend leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. His head band was off, leaving his Jagan Eye exposed. "She won't wake up. My Jagan will make sure of that. So, why don't you tell me what happened, fox? How the hell did you wind up in the company of this woman?" Youko shrugged mentally. She came across me while I was injured and lying in the snow. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know she was a female until she removed her clothes once we got here. She seemed genuinely concerned from the moment she saw me, and after considering the option of staying there, I decided to take a chance. After all, if she turns out to be a threat in the future, I can easily make use of that plant there and take care of her permanently. Although to do something like that would be a sad waste of a beautiful woman... Hiei rolled his eyes. "You foxes and your hormones. If you want to fuck her, then it will have to wait until your energy is restored, and that won't happen until tomorrow night. Are you willing to play the dumb fox until then? Then we can get rid of her and get out of here." Youko rolled his eyes. And go where? The hunters are probably still looking for us in Demon World, and we know next to nothing about Human World. The woman has proven herself trustworthy thus far... Why don't we reveal ourselves to her tomorrow night, tell her our situation and see if she can't be 'persuaded' to help us? Hiei stared at him. "You're willing to put that much trust in some ningen onna after being with her for only a couple of hours? Have you lost your mind, fox?" The kitsune looked at him evenly. Hey, if she doesn't want to go for it, or if she goes for it and proves to be less than honorable, then we'll just kill her and be done with it. It's not like someone like her will prove a challenge. And it's not like she knows how to get into contact with the hunters that were after us in the first place, so what can she do? Hiei considered this for a moment. "I suppose you do have a point. But at the first sign of deception on her part, I'm lopping off her head." He looked at the sleeping woman for a moment, and then turned his attention back to the fox. "You realize she's going to be terrified of us." Youko grinned. That fear will pass... provided SOMEONE isn't threatening to send her head rolling from the get go... or brandishing his sword in her face. Just leave the majority of the talking to me and things should go all right. Hiei shrugged. "Hn. If you say so. Just hope you're not making a mistake, kitsune." Youko didn't bother to reply as he carefully curled up into a ball, wrapping his tails around him, and went to sleep. K, I'll put up the next chapter tomorrow. Tell me what you think!	dclm-gs1-104730000
Hi! This is my first Thirty-Nine Clues Fanfic, so of course I'm excited! I was looking through the archives, and I realized there are only two Jonah and Sinead stories- unless someone has updated since I last checked... Anyways, I know they're not the most popular couple, but they are really underdone, so I decided to write this. Please enjoy! :D Jonah walked down the steps of the University- Harvard, he thought it was called? Then again, he hadn't been paying attention. He was too excited to pay attention. Today he was handing in the Shakespearian papers to the English teacher he had met on the clue hunt. She had since told him to call her Bernice. *Sorry, I couldn't remember the English teacher's name so I just made up one... I know, probably wrong, but I don't own the books and I didn't find anything when I Googled it- if anyone knows, leave a review and tell me please and I'll change it, but until then... she's named Bernice! ;) It was going to be such a relief to give the papers in, a weight off his shoulders, he had felt so bad... Now, he hoped, everything was going to be better. No more guilt. He walked through the prestigious gateways of Harvard until he finally reached the right building, a lecture hall. He knocked on the door, waiting for a response but after no avail, he stepped in. The lights were off but enough light shone throught the windows for him to make out the countless seats and the front of the room were the professor would no doubt give their lectures. It was so massive, he felt small and insignifigant in comparison- he took a deep breath and walked down to the front, clutching his papers tightly. It was a peculiar feeling, he wasn't use to feeling insignifigant... "Hello?" he called out to no one in particular. He heard a muffled voice that he could barely make out. "One second!" Bernice emerged from a door that led to a small little office. Her face lit up when she saw Jonah. "Jonah Wizard! Long time no see," she said, walking over and hugging him. "What brings you here?" He shrugged. "I, uh, finished the Shakespeare report." She smiled. "Jonah, you didn't have to come all the way over here for that!" "But I wanted to! I've felt really guilty ever since ruining your vacation..." "Oh, you didn't ruin it. Just made it a tad more interesting." Out of lack of anything else to say, he handed her the papers. She smiled. "Thank you, I'll be sure to read them. Would you like to come into my office for some tea?" "Oh, uh, sure, that sounds gangsta." He stepped into the office, oriental rugs and antique furniture suddenly making his gold chains, baggy blue jeans and leather jacket feel oddly out of place. She guestured to a old seat with a faded flower pattern. "Take a seat Jonah, I'll only be a second. I have to deal with a student..." She stepped out of the office, leaving Jonah by himself. He awkwardly fiddled with his zipper and waited for her to come back, not touching anything or looking at anything too intensely in fear it might crumble. After a few moments that felt like an eternity, Bernice came back with tea. She eased it down on a table and sat across from Jonah. "Well, Jonah," she said, pouring two cups of tea. "How's life?" "Cool. Starting a new tour, just got out a new album, platinum already... How 'bout you? At Harvard now, huh? What happened to that high school you taught at?" She smiled smugly to herself. "What can I say? I went back to school and got a PhD because I realized you're never too old to learn... that's partially because of you Jonah." "...Cool?" he said uncertainly. She chuckled to herself. "Yes. Very cool. Then everyone was impressed with me, and now... now I'm a professor. A Shakespeare Professor." "Oh, awesome," he said, grinning. "Yes," Bernice said, picking up the tea and sipping it. Jonah did the same and tried not to spit it out when the bitter liquid burned his tongue. Bernice laughed. "Sugar dear. Add sugar." He guessed he didn't hide his disgust as well as he thought he had. He added the sugar and sipped it again- much better. "When I Googled you and saw that it said you worked at Harvard I was sure it was a different person, but apparently not." "No, Google was right." Jonah laughed a breezy laugh that tended to make girls' hearts melt and break any ice in the room; suave and confident. But now it did nothing. He sipped at his scaulding tea tentatively. Bernice smiled. "So... did you like writing the reports?" He smiled. "Oh yeah man, they were great..." He was cut off by a subtle knock on the door- timid, quiet. Bernice smiled. "Sorry dear, I have to get this, no doubt it's one of my students..." Jonah smiled and nodded. "Oh yeah, go ahead." Bernice sat up and got the door. Jonah looked away; if it was a girl he was sure she would recognize him, and he didn't want that. Maybe if he just didn't make eye contact he/she wouldn't recognize him... He heard Bernice talk to the college student. "Oh, hello dear. Can I help you?" The next voice was eager, young, and most certainly female. "Yes, I have my papers for the extra credit project I'm doing..." "Oh yes dear, come in. One moment, I just need to grab your folder." "Of course." Jonah sat in his chair for a moment, waiting. The girl didn't recognize him though, or even acknowledge his existence... What? Who was she if she didn't even know who he was? He knew he shouldn't care, that was, afterall, a good thing. But he couldn't resist... afterall, who didn't recognize him? So, he turned around to see who it was. Sinead Starling sat in her dorm room, petting Flamsteed tentatively as she woke up. She blinked groggily; oh god, she couldn't believe how late she had stayed up the night previously. But then again, she had had those papers she had needed to finish. And she had read it over about fifty times, so she knew it was A+ quality. But then again, everything she did was. She stretched, her amber hair hanging unruly at her sides- uggh. She got up and showered, getting ready to meet up with her professor. She put on a warm sweater that fit her slim frame perfectly along with her favourite pair of blue jeans, applying extra coverup underneath her eyes to cover the bags she had from not getting any sleep the night before. That along with her usual mascara and eye shadow made her feel much less self-conscious She grabbed her papers and ran to her car, driving to her university. She got out and went into the building, where she knocked on her professors door. "Oh, hello dear. Can I help you?" "Of course." Sinead stood there, waiting for her professor to come back; oh, she was with someone. Who was it? She stole a quick glance and realized it was Jonah Wizard. She winced internally to herself. Oh God, what was he doing here? No, he had everything! He better not be planning on trying to get into her favourite course, that would just ruin it. Even though she only minored in English, she loved it. She stared at the ground, hoping that if maybe she didn't look, he wouldn't see her. Then, much to her horror, he turned around looked at her. "Sinead?" She groaned. "Hey Jonah," she whispered, horrified. He didn't pick up on her horror. "Hey, what's up Dog?" She let out an annoyed breath. "Oh, uh, just handing in my, uh, papers." Jonah raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Whoa, you go to Harvard?" She shrugged. "Oh yeah, I guess so." "That's so gangsta!" he exclaimed. Sinead raised her eyebrows, annoyed. "It's not 'gangsta'. It's an intellectual acheivement." Jonah drew back, offended. "Wha-? Are you pissed at me or something?" Sinead drew in a sharp aggitated breath. "I'm not pissed, I just find it really hard to respect you. You have an amazing mind but you waste it on this rapping nonsense; and the worst part is that everyone freakin' adores you but you do nothing! It's not fair..." She drew in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "Whatever Jonah, I just really don't want to talk to you." Jonah was shocked; he especially wasn't used to not being publicly adored. "But-" Sinead raised a hand, silencing him. "Whatever Jonah. I seriously don't want to talk to you." Jonah frowned, slightly hurt and slightly confused. Bernice then came out with Sinead's folder. "Here you are, Ms. Starling-" "Thanks," she said, dropping her papers into the folder before quickly walking out. Jonah watched her as she walked away, still shocked. Bernice noticed. "You know her?" Jonah quickly recovered from his still present shock. "Oh yeah, she's like..." He didn't know how to phrase it. "A family friend." Bernice smiled. "I know, it's a small world. I'm sorry Jonah, but I'm going to have to ask you to come back later; I have a class starting soon..." "Of course dog, I'm staying in a hotel around here; I'll come back later." "Alright, Jonah. Bye." "Later yo," Jonah said as he walked out of Bernice's office and back into his stretch limo. He sat in the back of the limo, leaing back, still confused. Why was Sinead annoyed with him? His music... it was good, wasn't it? He sighed and leaned back in his limo. He'd never understand women. Okay, so please review... I'll update when I get a bunch. So please, lots! Oh, and hope you enjoyed! :)	dclm-gs1-104740000
Sam et l'ours, by Lagas Sam et l'ours Lagas was the pen name of Belgian comic artist Denis Pierard. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège in 1961 and started his cartooning career as the apprentice of Mittéï for Tintin. Besides several independent gag strips, he also created gags starring the caveman 'Ptyht-Thett' between 1966 and 1969. By 1968 he became a regular in Spirou, creating 'Sam et l'ours' for the magazine's mini-books section with Paul Deliège. Ptyht-Thett by Lagas The series about the endless efforts of a hunter called Sam to catch a bear, was eventually also featured in Spirou's normal pages, where it remained a regular feature until 1983. In the 1983-1984 period, Lagas returned to Tintin with short stories starring a new character called 'Rody'. He then left the field of comics and became a designer and illustrator for wishing cards, advertisements and illustrations. Rody, by Lagas Denis Piérard alias Lagas (en français) Laatste update: 2014-05-06 Series en boeken door Lagas op voorraad in de Lambiek Webshop:	dclm-gs1-104750000
Quick Links Masters of Arts The Department offers Master of Arts (MA) degree ins: Physical and Health Education Pedagogy Physical and Health Education Pedagogy is a broad area that addresses issues of teaching-learning in a variety of settings in which physical activity and other health behaviors are involved. This area is also concerned with the facilitation and promotion of healthy lifestyles across the life-span, with a particular emphasis on childhood and adolescence. Current research in the Physical and Health Education Pedagogy program draws upon educational, developmental, psychosocial and health promotion perspectives to investigate topics such as the impact of participation over time in physical education and sport activities on the health and development of children and youth. Other topics being currently studied include the role of perceptions of relatedness to others in the internalization of physical activity values and behaviors in children and youth and the promotion of physical activity during adolescence by bringing together school, family, and community resources. MA Admission Requirements Adapted Physical Activity The graduate program broadly emphasizes motor learning, control, performance, and development of persons with developmental disabilities. Developmental disabilities include those with autism, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and coordination problems. Most research is applied in nature to real world physical activity settings, but with a clear theoretical foundation. Specifically, the research lines of inquiry have two main thrusts: • Motor Behavior of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Studies have investigated the motor development and skills of individuals with autism, motor planning, physical activity leisure interests, aspirations as viewed by parents, and the benefits of a variety of instructional interventions. • Motor Learning and performance of Children with Developmental Disabilities: These studies have explored skill acquisition of children who have coordination difficulties from a cognitive psychology perspective; more specifically self-regulation while learning a motor task. Self-determination models have guided several research projects including a Pictorial Motivation Scale, a study of choice making, and a scale to investigate the use of self-determination techniques by physical education teachers. MA Admission Requirements Sport and Exercise Psychology What is Sport and Exercise Psychology? In Canada, Sport and Exercise Psychology is an interdisciplinary field that is acknowledged as a core discipline within Kinesiology and Physical Education programs. Sport and Exercise Psychology involves the scientific study of people and their behaviours in sport and exercise contexts and the practical applications of that knowledge. Most people study sport and exercise psychology with two objectives in mind: (1) to understand how psychological and social factors influence an individual’s behavioural outcomes (e.g., sport performance, exercise motivation) and (2) to understand how participation in sport and exercise influences psychological and social development, health, and well-being (Weinberg & Gould, 1999). Sport and exercise psychology can be applied to a broad population base, such as elite or recreational athletes, youth, physically and/or mentally disabled, older adults, and chronic disease. Why Sport and Exercise Psychology at McGill? Since Sport and Exercise Psychology are regarded as two separate sub-disciplines, McGill University offers distinct concentrations within the graduate degree. A graduate degree in either sport or exercise psychology will help prepare you for a range of truly stimulating career options in teaching, research, coaching, consulting, and/or application of knowledge to the field of kinesiology and exercise science. McGill University is situated in the downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which is a major cosmopolitan city. McGill is rated among the top universities in the world, and Kinesiology and Physical Education is a multidisciplinary department with internationally-recognized faculty. McGill's graduate program in Sport and Exercise Psychology (M.A., Ph.D.) can offer you a number of distinct advantages, including development and strengthening of knowledge and skills in your interest areas through strong faculty mentoring. In addition, a 5:1 student-faculty ratio will ensure that you will receive personalized attention. Finally, advising focused on the selection of courses, research topics, and practicum experiences will help advance your career goals. Sport Psychology Emphasis focuses on coaching psychology, youth involvement and development, sport-specific personality, motivation, arousal, anxiety, stress, aggression, group cohesion, psychological skills, and gender issues. Exercise Psychology Emphasis focuses on exercise and physical activity issues associated with epidemiology, barriers and motives, social influences and social support, community, group, and individual interventions, self-esteem, body image, stress and coping, emotional well-being, quality of life, and special populations. MA Admission Requirements in Sports and Exercise Psychology	dclm-gs1-104760000
Super Typhoon Hits in the Philippines Popular tourist destinations face hard hitting storm. 3:00 \| 11/09/13 Coming up next: Skip to this video now Now Playing: More information on this video Enhanced full screen Explore related content Related Extras Related Videos Video Transcript Transcript for Super Typhoon Hits in the Philippines We turn, now, to the supertyph supertyphoon, one of the most powerful storms to ever hit land, destroying homes and taking lives in the philippines. One of the worst-hit spots, popular tourist destinations for americans. Ginger zee is on the story right now. We're going to hear from a tourist that was struck there. Couldn't get out. But a lot of the streets in the villages and other spots look like this. Debris-filled and a mess. As the supertyphoon is pulling off to the west, the philippines are trying to figure out what happenedbehind this epic storm. Wading through after being washed away. What does it look like? Washed out. The buildings, the house, everything. Reporter: We know at least 100 are dead. The central philippines this morning, devastated by what will likely go down as the most powerful typhoon in recorded history to make landfall. It was those wild 195-mile-per-hour winds, the chaos it caused, waves over 20 feet. Watch this guy, just barely outrunning it. Norm shriver, an american, who was trapped in a hotel, was forced to ride it out. The tin roofs fly off. They're like projectiles. And the winds got to the point where you had to brace yourself. It was blowing you around. Reporter: As the compact typhoon screams toward vietnam, our gloria riviera, is behind it in the philippines. It's tents, blankets, food, it's water. This is the only kind of aircraft that can get where it needs to go. Reporter: With power and communication out for millions, there's so much left to learn about exactly what has happened behind haiyan. How are the people? The people they are outside. Where are the people who are dead? Are they just in the streets? They are all -- I can't -- thank you so much. So thankful to survive. And a lot of other folks feeling that way. And bracing in vietnam. It does diminish. But category 2. It's taken a northern track. Going to be winds above 74 miles per hour, gusting to 100. And quite a bit of rain. Landslides, mudslides possible. More in today's weather. {"id":20838049,"title":"Super Typhoon Hits in the Philippines","duration":"3:00","description":"Popular tourist destinations face hard hitting storm.","url":"/GMA/video/super-typhoon-hits-philippines-20838049","section":"GMA","mediaType":"Default"}	dclm-gs1-104770000
Thursday, September 17, 2009 Court of Appeals Strikes Down Indiana's Voter ID Law Indiana Democrats have been at war with Indiana's Voter ID law since the day it was enacted. It's a simple requirement that a voter present a photo I.D. when they appear in person at a polling place to cast their vote. The federal courts affirmed the constitutionality of the law under the U.S. Constitution. Today, a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals (all Democrats) decided the Indiana Constitution imposes a higher standard on the uniformity of election procedures than does the U.S. Constitution and struck down Indiana's Voter I.D. law. The Court focused on the differing requirements for persons who vote absentee as opposed to those who vote in person: We fail to see how the Voter I.D. Law's exception of those residing in state licensed care facilities, which happen to also be a polling place, would be a uniform or impartial regulation. Furthermore, the Voter I.D. Law treats in-person voters disparate from mail-in voters, conferring partial treatment upon mail-in voters. Read more here at the Indiana Law Blog. Check out the spin Indiana Democrats are putting on this decision: "Today's decision is a victory for elderly, disabled, and poor Hoosiers, and more importantly our democratic process. "By declaring that this law is not uniform or impartial, the court has recognized the very real barriers that Governor Daniels and Secretary Rokita had placed between voters and the ballot box. "We should all be interested in preserving the legitimacy of our electoral process, but to do so through disenfranchisement is simply unacceptable. From the outset, this law created more harm than good, and did little to address the vulnerabilities in our democratic voting system. "As with Governor Daniels' recently announced changes to the identification requirements of this state, it appears that some elected officials remain blind to the effect their policies have on voters in Indiana. "I hope that Secretary Rokita takes this opportunity to reevaluate how he can put partisanship aside and find a solution that protects all Hoosiers equally." Uh, sorry to burst your bubble, Dan, but today's decision has nothing to do with protecting the rights of the elderly to vote. The Star has Gov. Daniels' reaction to the decision, which is very sharp and to the point: Gov. Mitch Daniels, who said he had not read the ruling but had been briefed on it, called the result "preposterous" and "an act of judicial arrogance." He said it would be appealed and, he predicted, overturned. He noted that the voter ID law already had been approved by other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld it last year in a 6-3 opinion. "The legislature had every right to write that law. This decision will be a footnote to history," Daniels said. Doug said... That is fairly stupid spin by the IN Dems. They should focus on the disparate treatment between in-person voting and absentee voting because: 1) that's what the case was about; and 2) in my mind, that's the weakest spot for the ID law's proponents when they insist that this legislation was about stopping voter fraud. Rich (aka: Francisca) said... Because, you know, in this day and age, we'd never, ever, want to do more than just the minimum required. Nope. Keep to the lowest common denominator, all in the name of "equality". This is about preserving the ability of dead people to vote. Advance Indiana said... Doug, There are two problems Voter ID didn't address. Voter registration--anybody can get registered to vote in Indiana, including illegal aliens. Hell, our BMV workers systemmatically registered illegal aliens for years under the Bayh-O'Bannon administration with a wink and a nod. The voting franchise has little meaning if we don't make people present evidence of their citizenship as a condition to registering to vote. Secondly, is in the area of absentee voting. It's so easy for fraud to be committed in this area and Todd Rokita has completely ignored the problems there. We have no way of knowing who is completing those absentee ballots and mailing them in. The Bird said... Who were the three judges? Advance Indiana said... Riley, Kirsch and Mathias. Hoosier in the Heartland said... Doug's right. Absentee ballots require no "government-issued photo id". So, why require them for in-person voting? William Larsen said... An Indiana Court struck down the Voter ID Law even after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled it was constitutional. The problem that I tried to identify years ago when this was being proposed was that it violated some people’s individual rights. I know personally two people who are denied Indiana Driver’s licenses and State ID’s because they do not have a social security number. I also identified to the state of Indiana that the Voter Registration law does not require a Social Security Number and that it could not require it under Federal Statute. The state attempted to circumvent Federal Statutes concerning the SSN by requiring a State issued ID. A U.S. Passport is a valid photo ID for voting, but it costs over $100 to obtain. The U.S. State Department cannot require the person have a SSN to obtain a U.S. Passport. If the state were to require a SSN they would be imposing a hardship on people who do not have a SSN, violate 5 USC 552a *e)(3)(A) and subsection 7 of the Privacy Act, as well as violate the Social Security act and its subsequent amendments. There is no federal law that requires any U.S. Citizen apply and use a SSN. 26 USC 6109 Identifying numbers (IRS code) requires under section c, to assign an identifying number to any person. In section d, the IRs is allowed to use only those SSN that have been issued, but does not authorize the IRS to deny TIN's to any person who is eligible for a SSN, but who has not been issued one. See Larsen v Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service, 5631-06. A year later I was told that absentee ballots could be sent without the photo ID to the voter’s address under certain circumstances; health reason, out of the state at the time of the election and military. When I said this did not cover all circumstances I was told the county does not verify the request is valid, but simply sends the absentee ballot out. William Sherman Smith used valid names and SSN’s to obtain 149 different Indiana Driver’s licenses. The Social Security Online Verification System verified the name and SSN matched, but cannot identify if a driver’s license had already been issued and Indiana’s BMV could only verify if a driver’s license had been issued using that SSN. As long as you had someone’s SSN and name who had not obtained an Indiana ID or driver’s license (use out of state ID’s), the Indiana BMV issued these types of identifications without question. Indiana began using photo recognition programs and found numerous people like William Sherman Smith who had obtained multiple ID’s. So how well did asking for a SSN work? It did diddly squat for fighting Identity Theft, while infringing on the RIGHTS of U.S. Citizens. What is the answer? How many times will a person performing a repetitious task make an error? From my experience and what others have found, people will make an error 5% of the time. Therefore, requiring a SSN and utilizing this one ID, that has no method of being traced to the particular person presenting it as ID, will result in errors of 5%. Now what happens when you ask for more than one ID that must be verified? With each subsequent person looking at the information, there is less chance the error will go unnoticed. We know that photo recognition worked better than using the SSN. However, photo recognition is not fool proof and can be manipulated fairly easily. When you fill out the voter registration card, they should take a photo of you and issue a voter ID card. Every time you move, you need to obtain a new card. Voter registration already assigns a unique number to the individual. How hard is it to track the replacement, issue and movement of a person if a unique secure number is used? We are chasing a ghost. With each advance in technology, the identity thieves or voter fraudsters will use future technology to continue to steal and violate laws. Criminals have been around since day one. We are treating everyone now as a potential criminal instead of a citizen. Advance Indiana said... Mr. Larsen, I've worked as an election judge at my precinct. Many of the people I know from my neighborhood, but there are others that I've never seen before. The photo ID is a minimalist approach to verifying a person is who they say they are. Just because election fraud isn't prosecuted in this state very often doesn't mean it isn't occurring. The Democrats have always used predominantly black precincts to pull of their wholesale vote fraud. If a Republican judge dares to raise a question about someone being a legitimate voter, they scream racism and voter disenfranchisement and the muscle guys show up to intimidate the official. The Republicans no longer even attempt to stop the fraud in these overwhelmingly black, Democratic precincts. They are pretty much free to do as they please and they do. The voter ID is one simple way of helping check fraud at the polls, but the Dems steal many more votes through the absentee ballot process and there's nothing to put the brakes on that, except for the occasional prosecutor who is brave enough to tackle it. Those prosecutors have confirmed on several occasions the extent of this type of fraud in Indiana. William Larsen said... Advance Indiana, I am not saying voter fraud does not occur. What I am trying to say is that the requirements for a photo ID do not prevent voter fraud. Those who want to commit voter fraud or identity theft still do with no hindrance at all. My problem with the system is that every government agency uses the SSN to identify a person, yet the SSN is the most insecure ID there is. Why would any government agency use it to verify the identity of a person? If you think the State ID issued to a person identifies that person, you are wrong. In most cases it does, but the BMV found thousands with multiple ID's with different names and valid SSN's and they found them using photo recognition. The IRS routinely issued TIN’s to people, but did not verify the validity of the documents presented. They notified all 50 state BMV’s to stop relying on TIN’s for ID. Maybe we should use the simple method of dipping a finger in ink. At least this might limit each person to one vote. The next step would be to identify who is actually eligible to vote. Any thoughts? Advance Indiana said... I stated the need to go back to the registration point and verifiy citizenship at that stage. Voter impersonation is a cinch to pull off in inner city precincts where people are dropped off by the bus load and told where to sign their name in the polling book. This typically takes place late in the day when there is a rush to get everyone voted and on their way. If there is at least one honest poll worker, the voter ID requirement can really mess that gig up. William Larsen said... "I stated the need to go back to the registration point and verify citizenship at that stage." I agree 100% with this. The voter registrar is the responsible entity for determining eligibility, not the BMV.	dclm-gs1-104780000
taking triacana 1. taking triacana Hey guys, i just got me 100 tabs of triacana, Im not so sure how to take it per day! any help is appreciated Thanks! 2. how many mc are they,start out slow,real slow.its different for every,I usually started out slow and kept adding more until I was taking 4-5 dumps a day. Once you get to the part where you litterally crapping the food out 10 min after you eat it is when you back off a little and maintain it there. This stuff is no joke,do alot of research on it before starting. good luck,I dropped 25 lbs in less than 5 weeks on triact. edit...I just noticed your prolly not talking about real tricana wich is triactricol...That stuff is a joke compared to the real stuff.Just follow the bottle and let us know how it goes. 3. Thanks!! Thanks allot!!! i greatly appreciate it. 4. its triacana... TRIAC-TIRATRICOL Similar Forum Threads 1. Replies: 15 Last Post: 01-27-2003, 09:05 AM 2. Take Two.... By Lifeguard in forum Cycle Info Replies: 53 Last Post: 01-15-2003, 02:30 PM 3. Takeing 1 test before bed??? By noob in forum Anabolics Replies: 10 Last Post: 01-02-2003, 01:49 AM By windwords7 in forum General Chat Replies: 6 5. whats a good amount of milk thistle to take? By hamper19 in forum Anabolics Replies: 3 Log in Log in	dclm-gs1-104790000
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 'Chariots of Ire' Anger Southwark News: Restaurant owner's full-size chariot angers cyclists Just wait until my fwiend Biggus Dickus hears of this outwage TRT said... Ah, the classics. You owe me a new keyboard, by the way. Welease Wobin of Locksley said... He wanks higher than any in Wome! ranter said... Blimes, some peeps innit! HappyCampers said... Surely some copyright infringement going on there with the restaurant name and sign.....!	dclm-gs1-104810000
Sign up × My wife's iPad 2 is having a weird screen/touch issues. In a particular part of the screen (near the middle bottom on the left side if holding in portrait with the home button down), it just doesn't respond to touch, most of the time. Some things we saw were: • can not move icons above a fake 'line' on the screen, they just drop back to where they were or near by • When using a drawing app, you just would not get lines here (Paper actually thought it was more inputs, and kept doing that redo gesture) • Maps just stutters when you hit that point, but works fine The area seems to move/grow/contract, which is really odd. I feel like this is due to touch response in the app we are using, as in, icons on springboard are aligned to a grid, maps doesn't expect constant input, etc. At one point, the display seemed to loose its mind. It was registering multiple taps, responding to taps in areas we didn't tap, etc. I tried restoring the device, but that did not fix it. I figure this is a hardware issue, but not knowing too much about screens on the iPad, what would have to be replaced? Most of my searches just say 'take it to the Apple store', but I am looking to see what would have to be replaced and how much it would be, to determine if it would be worth repairing or just replacing. Update: Here is a video (not mine) that has almost the exact same issue share\|improve this question You knew someone was gonna say it, so I had to say the magic words.:) – bmike Dec 12 '12 at 19:37 Yeah, our store here is so annoying, id rather spend the money fixing it (or buying her a new one) than spending 5 nanoseconds at our genius bar for this. A phone call to ask the specific replacement cost was 'oh, I can't give you prices on exact repairs because only after a genius appointment do we know what we need to do'. Comment was made that we know what needs work, and they said 'well, I won't tell you, call AppleCare'. – jmlumpkin Dec 12 '12 at 20:33 Push back next time you call AppleCare. Ask what the replacement cost is for your model so you can decide whether to set up mail in service. Don't get into them thinking they have to diagnose it over the phone - say you know it's broken, it's not been crushed or physically damaged, but the screen doesn't respond to touch and ask for a quote to repair it assuming it's repairable. Also, if you get crappy service, ask for a survey and fill it out. If it's in store - ask for the email of the store manager and send them this link along with why you feel so unsupported. – bmike Dec 12 '12 at 21:03 Did you recently have the screen replaced? I have the same issue and it happened shortly after replacing my screen. Also, please let me know if and ho you resolved the issue thanks! – user56237 Sep 1 '13 at 5:31 Screen has never been replaced. Device pretty much sits and collects dust now unless the kid wants to play with it. Plan on possibly just selling it as slightly defective to make a few bucks off it. – jmlumpkin Sep 23 '13 at 14:23 3 Answers 3 Take it to the Apple store. They will not only help you be sure it's hardware but explain how they would get you an equivalent device for a known cost with Apple's warranty on the "repaired" iPad part. They might even be able to speculate if the case shows damage that might make a determination if it's more/less likely that you have a wiring or glass/digitizer issue. Then you can decide if you want to buy a used iPad and try to scavenge parts or buy a new digitizer and roll the dice to guess if it's the screen or the connector or the chipset on the main board that turns the raw signals into a touch event. Once you know your "official cost to replace" you can decide if you want a DIY project or perhaps pay someone that repairs iPads professionally to offer a repair that might be cheaper than Apple's but have less of a warranty than getting something factory made or factory refurbished. share\|improve this answer That is mostly what I was thinking, and may just end up scheduling something just to see what to do next with it. If anything I would keep it around as a spare for development or for our new son to play with. – jmlumpkin Dec 12 '12 at 20:35 If you have a screen protecter take it off and wipe the iPad with a damp rag. share\|improve this answer Replaced my screen with a aftermarket few years ago. Started losing touch around the edges and keyboard response slowed down. Progressively got worse.Installed new aftermarket screen of which have come down in price greatly. Seems like they somehow wear out as fixed the problem. Don't know if this can happen with factory screen but fixed my situation. share\|improve this answer Your Answer	dclm-gs1-104820000
Two men were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine in separate incidents in the Lower Valley Saturday night, police report. The first arrest resulted when police were called to a bar after a security guard reported a drunken disturbance. The responding officer found that the suspect had left the scene but was found walking in the 7900 block of North Loop. The man, identified as Guillermo Luna, 55, tossed an item to the ground as he walked away from the officer, police report. Luna was detained a few moments later and the item was recovered. The officer determined that the item was clear baggy with about a half gram of cocaine. The second incident happened during a traffic stop along the 7600 block of Parral. A Dodge Caravan was seen blocking traffic. During the ensuing investigation, police found that the driver, 31-year-old Ricardo Acosta, had two bindles of cocaine in his pants' pocket. The cocaine weighed about 0.8 grams. Both men were charged with possession of a controlled substance and were booked into the county jail. Luna had his bond set at $1,500 and Acosta at $1,000.	dclm-gs1-104830000
Tax the rich August 17, 2011 Warren Buffett has repeatedly called for higher tax rates for the rich, recently reasserting this view in an opinion piece he wrote for The New York Times. Tax cuts for the wealthy have been repeatedly justified as a means of creating jobs, but the evidence needed to support this assertion is lacking. These policies have been implemented under various administrations, and they have always contributed to significant deficits. The long-term consequences of these repeated deficits have been illustrated by the recent national debt dilemma and S&P's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. Future generations will have to pay for our nation's $14.3 trillion debt and more money will go towards paying interest on this debt as a result of the credit downgrade. Hopefully congress will listen to Buffett and the other proponents of repealing these tax cuts before America's citizens are saddled with an even greater burden. -- Charles L. Bovaird, Worcester, Mass.	dclm-gs1-104840000
Grilled Chicken Salad With Spinach and Apples recipe December 26, 2007\|By DANA CARPENDER 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast Salt and pepper 1 small apple, diced 2 scallions, sliced, including a few inches of the green 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 teaspoons Splenda 1 small garlic clove, crushed 6 cups fresh baby spinach 4 tablespoons shredded Romano cheese (or Parmesan) Cut the chicken into 2 4-ounce portions. I put mine in a zipper-type plastic bag and pound it lightly to an even thickness, about 1/2 inch, but you can skip this step if you want. Salt and pepper both sides, then either throw the chicken into a hot skillet you've coated with a little nonstick cooking spray or olive oil, or toss it on your electric tabletop grill. While that's cooking, dice the apple and slice the scallions. If you're pan-grilling the chicken, flip it. Measure the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and Splenda into a bowl, and crush your garlic into it. Whisk together well. Put the spinach into a salad bowl, and pour on the dressing. Toss well, then pile the spinach onto two plates. Top each serving with half the apple and half the scallion. Now slice or cube the chicken. Top each salad with half the chicken. Scatter 2 tablespoons of shredded Romano over each salad, and serve. Serves 2. Nutrition information per serving: 440 calories; 28 g fat; 33 g protein; 18 g carbohydrates; 5 g dietary fiber. The Herald-Mail Articles	dclm-gs1-104850000
Human trafficking discussed in Wichita November 05, 2010\|By Rebecca Gannon \| KWCH 12 Eyewitness News (WICHITA, Kan.) — It's something you see in movies or crime dramas, but you'd never think it was on Wichita's streets. But Wichita is ranked as one of the top 5 cities in the US for human trafficking. Experts say teens leave Kansas (sometimes willingly, sometimes by force) and are then dropped hundreds of miles away. They are drugged and stripped of their money and identification, and then used for sex. A movie due out next year highlights the trend -- and puts the spotlight on a Wichita woman who is working to stop the sexual exploitation everywhere. It's not a Hollywood movie based on fiction. It's a documentary, highlighting a Wichita woman. "Sometimes I think it's just easier to turn our faces and say this doesn't happen here," said Karen Countryman Roswerm. "Because it's gut wrenching to believe that it does." She works with teenage runaways - and many told the therapist they were kept as sexual objects. In her 12 years of working with them, she's heard dozens of heartbreaking stories. She read one 14 year old's words: And she said, 'I guess I feel like nobody understands me. I feel like people look at me, and talk to me, like I am dirty and nasty. But I didn't do anything wrong. I am not a prostitute. I am just a girl. I am just a kid.' The statement goes on to say a pimp jumped out in front of the teen, threw her into his car, and drove her away. The then-12 year old was threatened to do what she was told, or she and her grandmother would die. Stories like that prodded Kansas City based filmmaker Susan Cook to action in a movie titled Hope Road. "The whole point of the film," said Cook, "is to film warrior women who are trying to stop this, exposing the johns, exposing the pimps. Countryman - Roswurm said its an uphill battle to get people in Wichita to consider sexual exploitation could be happening on the city's streets. "To believe that people who look just like you and I can be trafficked," she said, "and people who look just like our Dads or our husbands can be the johns, or the traffickers." Local authorities estimate as many as 400 teens from Wichita are at risk of sexual exploitation. That's the size of a graduating High School class in Wichita. And if you think it doesn't happen in this city --- it already has. Back in 2005, Wichita Northwest High Football standout Bobby Prince Jr. pleaded guilty to using two girls from Wichita for the sex trade in Oklahoma City. "Kansas is an originating state, Wichita is a originating city, meaning that traffickers come to Wichita and take our girls, or boys, elsewhere." Countryman-Roswurm said Oklahoma and Texas are prime destinations for teens taken from Kansas, thanks to the I-35 highway. "We're right in the center, we have easy access to highways. We're kind of a byway of just, kind of, get the young people, and get them out of here." The movie focused on Wichita, in part for the reasons above, and in part because of the Anti-Sexual Exploitation Roundtable Countryman-Roswurm founded. The movie suggests solutions - and the main one is for community members to work together to identify the problem, raise awareness, and try to stop it from happening. kwch Articles	dclm-gs1-104860000
YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsSentencing As Drug Debate Rages, Dealer to Be Sentenced Crime: Federal prison term awaits 'Freeway' Ricky Ross, who contends he is a pawn in a CIA conspiracy involving Nicaraguan Contras. SAN DIEGO — Legendary Los Angeles drug dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross is set to be sentenced to federal prison today amid renewed speculation about the international roots of L.A.'s crack cocaine epidemic. For more than a decade, there has been a heated debate about how crack became the devastating drug of choice in America's inner cities, and why the U.S. government was not able to stem the flow of cocaine from Latin America. Some critics charged that the United States was reluctant to control the drug because its military allies were profiting from the drug trade. This week, the San Jose Mercury News added to the debate with a series of articles asserting that a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Ross and leaders of other Los Angeles drug gangs during the 1980s and funneled the profits to Nicaraguan Contras. The Contras were mobilized and financed by the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1980s in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Nicaragua's socialist government. Repeated attempts to prosecute the Bay Area drug ring's kingpin were thwarted by the CIA, possibly to cover up ties between the traffickers and Contra leaders, the Mercury News suggested. The newspaper said federal agencies had largely stonewalled the requests it made for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. In Ross' San Diego trial, which ended with a conviction earlier this year, the federal government's star witness was a Nicaraguan citizen and convicted drug smuggler-turned-government informant named Oscar Danilo Blandon, who lives in San Diego and Miami. Under the toughened laws for drug dealers, Ross faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole. Blandon testified that he got into the drug trade to raise money for the Contras and that when he joined with Ross to dominate the Los Angeles cocaine market he was working under the supervision of the Contras' military commander, Col. Enrique Bermudez, who was later assassinated. Ross' attorney, Alan Fenster, sought to question Blandon about his ties with the CIA but U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff granted a request from prosecutors to block all questions involving the intelligence agency. "There is no question that the CIA was involved with Blandon, and now the government wants to cover up its trail," Fenster said Thursday. "This is the most outrageous conduct imaginable. There has been outrageous stuff before about the Contras, but this is over the edge." Assistant U.S. Atty. L.J. O'Neale, the lead prosecutor, said he objected to questions about the CIA because Blandon had no ties to the agency "and injecting a false issue would only inflame the truth-seeking process." Further, he said, defense lawyer Fenster had not followed a procedure outlined by federal law requiring attorneys to announce before trial whether they plan to ask about national security matters and then to prove to the judge that such questions are relevant. Ross, 36, widely considered to be the first crack-dealing millionaire to rise from the streets of South-Central Los Angeles during the 1980s, was quick to see a broader conspiracy in the possibility that Blandon was connected to the CIA. He said he did not know of Blandon's Contra connections until recently. "Basically, I was selling drugs for the U.S. government," Ross said Thursday in a telephone interview from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. "They exploited me and they made me exploit my community." Richard Millett, a Latin America scholar at Southern Illinois University, said allegations of a CIA-sponsored, Contra-managed cocaine pipeline from Latin America to the U.S. have "come up over and over" in recent years without resolving key questions of evidence. The unanswerable questions, he added, "are going to drive you nuts forever." "Did some people involved with the Contras deal drugs?" Millet asked. "The answer is yes. Did some officials in the U.S. government know about it? Undoubtedly. Did they sponsor or encourage it? That's an infinitely more difficult question. To say that if they knew about it, they must have sponsored it--that'll get you an F in freshman logic." CIA spokesman Rick Oborn noted that congressional committees have investigated allegations of CIA involvement with the drug trade and found no credible evidence to support them. "As far as the agency supporting or condoning drug operations, that's ludicrous," he said. In 1987 an operative for the Colombian cocaine cartel said that the Nicaraguan Contras made about $10 million by being the smuggling link between Colombia and the streets of Los Angeles and other American cities. The money-skimming trial of seven Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in 1990 was briefly interrupted by suggestions of a shadowy link between the CIA and drug-dealing Contras. Los Angeles Times Articles	dclm-gs1-104870000
YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollectionsBirth September 8, 2003 Re "All Americans Can't Grow Up to Be President," Commentary, Sept. 4: Robert B. Cox is wrong; his children can run for president. It's not where you were born but your status at the time of your birth that is relevant. A "natural born Citizen" is someone who has not been "naturalized" -- in other words, someone who is an American citizen from birth. If both your parents are U.S. citizens at the time of your birth, you are an American citizen, regardless of where you were born. The local American embassy will even provide you with an American birth certificate. July 11, 2011 What was the birth name of Oscar-winning actress Ginger Rogers, born July 16, 1911? Virginia McMath August 16, 1985 Re the snub of TV networks on birth control campaigns: The Dutch have practically no problem with teen-age pregnancy. They also provide condoms through ubiquitous vending machines. We, on the other hand, have more teen-age pregnancy than any other industrialized country, while allowing a vocal, "religious" minority to intimidate an entire media industry. SUSU LEVY Encino June 20, 1996 \| From Times staff and wire reports HIV-positive women who give birth more than four hours after the rupture of the fetal membranes--breaking of their water--are nearly twice as likely to transmit the virus to their infants as women who give birth less than four hours afterward, according to a study in the June 20 New England Journal of Medicine. November 27, 1990 An inexpensive and effective way to prevent child abuse and neglect would be to focus on the prevention of the birth of unwanted children. SANDRA SAVETT, Santa Monica October 18, 1987 I have just read Peter Steinfels' review of "Politics, Power and the Church" (The Book Review, Sept. 27) and it provokes a recommendation. You scrupulously identify your reviewer. Steinfels is the editor of Commonweal. When you are publishing a review of an evidently contentious and controversial book, ask the reviewer to tell the reader a few facts about the author. Who is Lawrence Lader? What else has he written? What are his qualifications--if any? Steinfels' half page critique finds nothing in Lader's work except bad logic and rampant bigotry. September 6, 2012 \| By Hilary MacGregor The first question is whether you want documentary evidence of childbirth. If the answer is yes, there are a few things to consider: Pros : Mothers can catch magical moments they missed during the event itself. Cons : Professionals say mothers must be careful who is invited into the birthing space. Maternal stress can hinder the actual birth. Cost : Jodie Myers ( charges $1,395 for raw footage of a home-birth, up to $3,500 for an edited, documentary-quality short film shot in the hospital. Los Angeles Times Articles	dclm-gs1-104880000
$3 Billion Cost Of War A Bargain -- So Far December 26, 2001\|By William E. Gibson Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON — The cost to U.S. taxpayers of the war in Afghanistan could reach $3 billion, a burst of unexpected spending far less expensive than major conflicts of the past but still a burden to the precarious federal budget. Each Tomahawk missile that swoops into the caves of Afghanistan costs about a million dollars. Each B-2 bomber costs $13,700 an hour to fly. Each "bunker-buster" bomb costs $145,000 -- about the same as the median price of an American home. These war costs are just the tip of the iceberg when measuring the price of terrorism and its consequences. The military operations overseas have been "cost-effective" compared to past wars, mounting to a mere $2.2 billion over the first two months, according to The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-partisan research group. Ongoing costs during a mopping-up phase could add another $200 million per month. That's all relatively cheap, compared to history's massive ground wars. But this cost does not count homeland defense, government bailouts of airlines, new security expenses at home, anthrax testing, postal inspections, insurance and countless economic spinoffs that have been loosely estimated at a billion dollars a day. The war abroad is the most obvious expense, but the mounting costs have not aroused controversy. The nation will simply have to bear these burdens, members of Congress said last week. "We were attacked at home. About 3,200 innocent citizens died. When you have to defend yourself in war, it's going to be a costly venture," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a member of the Armed Services Committee. "Our entire country and way of life is being threatened, and we will spend whatever it takes to defend ourselves." The military costs, though relatively efficient, further strain a federal budget already depleted by a big tax cut and a recession. Those costs will keep mounting as the war continues, in Afghanistan or elsewhere, forcing the federal government to run deficits, make deep cuts in domestic spending, or both. New kinds of costs This new kind of war has employed new kinds of firepower, some with daunting price tags. A Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in Pakistan cost $11 million. A Pave Low helicopter lost in Afghanistan was worth about $40 million. Yet the expensive technology has kept total costs down, partly by effectively striking key targets, military analysts say. "In the narrow sense, some of these weapons are very expensive, but in the broader sense they are more cost-effective than old gravity bombs," said Steven M. Kosiak, budget analyst for The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The absence of much resistance from Taliban forces, particularly in the air, has kept costs down, and the use of Northern Alliance ground forces has spared the United States the vast expense of deploying tens of thousands of troops, tanks and heavy artillery for a land invasion. The scale of the current conflict is substantially less than the Persian Gulf War, when the United States deployed roughly 250,000 troops in the region. U.S. forces in Afghanistan may reach closer to 2,000. "What you have is a whole new different kind of war, best symbolized by special forces personnel riding on horseback with the Afghan forces and calling in targets for pinpoint air strikes," Nelson said. "It's low-tech combined with high-tech -- a much more surgical-strike kind of war. That in itself is a lot less costly than a land-mass war. As you develop new technology that is more expensive, in the long run it is less expensive because you are using technology in place of large land armies." These costs bring potential economic benefits, including development of technology that can be applied to science and health care. But for the most part, this form of defense spending is unlikely to pry the sluggish economy out of the rut of recession, some economists and budget experts say. "This isn't like an old-fashioned war, not one where you build five ships a day and 4,000 new tanks and hundreds of new airplanes," said Robert Reischauer, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "We have more hardware than is necessary to fight the enemy that we confront. What is needed is intelligence and security measures, which stimulate the economy a little, but not in the same way as building masses of tanks and airplanes." Past war costs Historians generally credit the massive defense buildup during World War II for pulling the nation out of the Great Depression. Government spending and jobs programs under the New Deal helped millions of families survive hard times, but it took a great war to prompt an economic rebound. Munitions factories demanded workers, the armed services absorbed the young and able-bodied, and women joined the workforce en masse. World War II may be an exceptional case, however. Other major wars also stimulated the economy, but with dire results. Sun Sentinel Articles	dclm-gs1-104890000
How does Government exclude Resident Aliens when it's illegal for anyone else to do it? November 8, 2007 3:02 PM Subscribe My friend works as a federal contractor, and he is a permanent resident / legal alien / green card holder. The thing is, it seems more and more federal contracts are requiring US Citizenship, which I can understand for the FBI and NSA and stuff... How does the government decide that US Citizenship is required for a contract. Is there a book of regulations they follow that I can see? See the thing is, Executive Order 11246 specifically prevents government contractors from discriminating against resident aliens, but that doesn't stop the government from excluding them discriminating right in the contract language. I suspect it may have something to do with positions that are "sensitive" to some extent... I do work with IT, so maybe that's it... I have found some resources in my search: Memorandum from DoJ, EEOC, etc and EEOC. posted by joecacti to Law & Government « Older What is your opinion of Takoma... \| I work for a world-wide electr... Newer » This thread is closed to new comments.	dclm-gs1-104900000
Bush's "New" Iraq Strategy Revealed: More Troops, More War Comments for Bush's "New" Iraq Strategy Revealed: More Troops, More War at http://www.atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.atlanticfreepress.com Tue, 06 Oct 2015 16:25:57 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 verities http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/222--bushs-qnewq-iraq-strategy-revealed-more-troops-more-war.html#comment-166 There are only two verities worth mentioning, and you have violated one of them Chris, I am sad to report. The two are (1) it's about oil, and (2) Bush is a moron. You have fallen victim to the propaganda machine which promotes the idea that George W. Bush could actually BE the POTUS. Sorry, but he doesn't make decisions, he doesn't set policy, he doesn't even talk intelligibly or intelligently. This moron could NEVER in his miserable life ever have been able to decide anything beyond where to get drunk today, on the golf course or on the stream or in the fleshpots. He was CHOSEN as the candidate because he COULDN'T in his wildest dreams ever actually BE preznit. He has to do what he is told because he is totally incompetent to do any other bleeping thing. You blame him, but the real culprit is behind the scenes and may well get away scott free because no one wants to admit that such a monstrous practical joke has been played on the USA. George Witless Botch is pitiful and pitiable, but he can't be logically blamed for what his masters dictate. You are helping to promote the mistaken idea that while Georgie might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, he is just a wee bit dim, not out completely. WRONG. If this moron has ever in his miserable life had ONE cogent thought, no one has ever reported it, and no one ever will because BUSH IS A MORON. Blame the wizard behind the earpiece who puts the words in the fool's mouth, or blame the secret cabal who give Cheney his marching orders in his "undisclosed location," but please stop elevating this moron by blaming him for things of which he is totally incapable, because they require thought and logic. This man didn't use cunning to get to be President; THEY used his LACK of it to promote him into a position where they could shoehorn him into the White House over McCain who could have won it handily over Gore, but McCain was unacceptable, not because he couldn't win, but because he could, and would BE President. (I didn't say a GOOD one.) I don't know if they let him THINK he is actually in charge of something or not, but rest assured that he isn't and could not be under any circumstances. - SamSnedegar Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:54:20 +0100	dclm-gs1-104910000
Observation Techniques The cloud classification system [Back to introduction of more advanced techniques] 1. Lower level clouds 2. Cumulus 3. Stratocumulus 4. Stratus 5. Middle level clouds 6. Altocumulus 7. Altostratus 8. Nimbostratus 9. Higher level clouds 10. Cirrus and cirrostratus 11. Cirrocumulus 12. Combinations of clouds 13. Cumulonimbus Clouds can occur at any level of the atmosphere wherever there is sufficient moisture to allow condensation to take place. The layer of the atmosphere where almost all cloud exists is the troposphere, although the tops of some severe thunderstorms occasionally pierce the tropopause. Because of the large range in temperatures and air movement in the troposphere, clouds vary in structure and composition (a combination of ice crystal and water). Consequently, clouds are classified into three main groups: lower, middle and high level clouds. Certain techniques introduced earlier (that determine the heights and characteristics of clouds) are incorporated within this section to identify and categorise the different type of clouds. Lower level clouds Lower level clouds consist of those clouds in the lower layers of the atmosphere. Because of the relatively low temperatures at this level of the atmosphere, lower level clouds usually reflect lower amounts of light and therefore usually exhibit low contrast. The clouds at this level also appear not as well defined. When observed closely, it is easy to observe the turbulent motions and hence the ever-changing structure. Being closer to the ground, lower level clouds appear to move or progress faster than other clouds. The clouds generally move in the direction of the wind very similar to the direction of the wind on the ground. The most efficient method used to recognise lower clouds is when observed in conjunction with other clouds. The lower clouds will obscure part or all the view of the upper level clouds if they pass in between the observer's line of sight. In other words, all the observer can see is the lower clouds as well as parts of the higher level clouds through breaks of the lower clouds. What is observed will vary due to the different directions and relative wind speeds associated with the different layers of clouds. There are 3 main types of lower level clouds: cumulus, stratocumulus and stratus. Cumulus are cauliflower-shaped low level clouds with dark bases and bright tops. When observing cumulus, you are actually observing the condensation process of rising thermals or air bubbles at a certain level in the atmosphere known as the condensation level. The air rising above this level condenses and cloud is observed. Since the height of this level is fairly constant at any particular time, then the bases of cumulus are usually flat. The appearance of cumulus like other clouds can be illusive. If stratus formed at the same level as cumulus, the cumulus will appear different observed from different perspectives with respect to the sun's position. (If light from the sun must reflect to get to the observer, then the cloud will tend to appear brighter and display more contrast than cloud reflecting very little direct sunlight. In fact, the latter case indicates that the shadow area of the cloud is facing the observer). A similar situation may occur when observing cumulus below a much darker background such as a thunderstorm. The cumulus clouds appear as a uniform white or at least much lighter with little or no contrast. The same cumulus clouds observed away from this cloud band will appear darker, with more contrast. Cumulus can vary in size. I normally categorises cumulus in three main groups: small, medium or large. With practice, an observer can easily determine the size of cumulus clouds (or any clouds in general) by considering the following factors; their apparent distances, coverage of the sky (density), their angle of elevation (how much of their base can be observed), how much overlapping occurs, and their base to height ratio. Cumulus often occurs in conjunction with other clouds and may vary in appearance. If cumulus is observed below other clouds, the shadow effect of other clouds can decrease contrast of the cumulus. Back to top Stratocumulus are low clouds that generally move faster than cumulus and are not as well defined in appearance (recall the techniques of observing clouds). They tend to spread more horizontally rather than vertically. Like cumulus, the bases of stratocumulus are normally darker than the tops. However, they can vary in terms of characteristics. Depending on the weather conditions, stratocumulus can appear like cumulus since stratocumulus can develop from cumulus. They may also appear as large flat areas of low, grey cloud. Sometimes stratocumulus appear in the form of rolling patches of cloud aligned parallel to each other. Stratocumulus can also appear in the form of broken clouds or globules. The sun, moon and generally the sky can be observed through the breaks in broken stratocumulus clouds. Of course, this depends on how large the breaks are, how high the clouds rise and the angle of elevation of the breaks with respect to the observer. This generally applies to all clouds but is more notable with clouds in broken form. Stratocumulus mostly develop in wind streams moving in the direction of the wind similar to the direction of the wind at the surface. The friction created by the earth causes turbulence in the form of eddies. With sufficient moisture, condensation will occur in the lower layers of the atmosphere visible as clouds. The amount of stratocumulus covering the sky depends on the amount of moisture concentrated at that level of the atmosphere. The speed that the cloud moves varies according to the wind speed at that level. Stratocumulus cloud also can develop in the form of lenticularis. The only method that can be used to distinguish between these clouds is that stratocumulus will not appear as well defined, will tend to move more quickly. Sometimes they develop below cumulus or cumulonimbus which means that it must be low cloud. Back to top Stratus is defined as low cloud that appears fragmented and thin. It can also occur in the form of a layer or sheet. The sun, moon and generally the sky can usually be observed through stratus clouds, especially at a steep angle of elevation. Stratus lacks the vertical growth of cumulus and stratocumulus, and therefore lacks the contrast. This is more evident when observed as one layer as compared to patchy stratus. Being closest to the ground, stratus clouds normally move fairly rapidly in the direction of the wind depending of course on the wind speed. Like stratocumulus, stratus develops under several conditions or weather situations. Stratus mostly develop under the influence of wind streams where moisture condenses in the lower layers of the atmosphere. Wind changes during the summer months often lead to the development of stratus as the wind evaporates moisture from the ocean and condensing as turbulence mixes the surface air with the cooler air above. In these conditions, stratus develop in patches and gradually may become widespread forming into stratocumulus. On days with nimbostratus and rain, stratus cloud develop simply due to the amount of moisture in the air. With light winds, stratus are normally observed in sheets. In stronger wind conditions, stratus develops in patches, similar in appearance to stratocumulus. Both the direction and appearance of stratus can change rapidly with changing weather conditions. It can clear and redevelop several times during certain conditions usually appearing when rain approaches, and clearing as the rain clears. Being the lowest cloud layer, it obscures at least partially the view of stratocumulus or other types of clouds above. Stratus, like stratocumulus, can develop in weather conditions associated with thunderstorms and thunderstorm development. In this case, stratus is observed moving rapidly towards the storms and thickening in the region of the updraughts, especially those of severe thunderstorms. The stratus is only the visible condensed water vapour feeding into the thunderstorm. One good example of a thunderstorm illustrating this behaviour is the violent hailstorm that occurred on the 18th of March, 1990 in Sydney (This storm is not illustrated here). Earlier in the day, stratus had developed with a south to south-easterly change and was moving rapidly with the air stream. As the thunderstorms developed and approached, the stratus thickened to form stratocumulus. As the storm (which was a supercell) with the updraught region moved almost overhead, the stratocumulus cleared rapidly. The major rain band then moved through with strong winds, heavy rain and medium to large hail in some areas. Stratus can develop in the various types of weather conditions associated with stratocumulus discussed above. However, the characteristics of stratus do not vary as much as stratocumulus and therefore they are easily distinguishable. Therefore, there is no real need to discuss further the weather conditions associated with stratus clouds. Back to top Middle level clouds Middle level clouds are those clouds that develop in the middle layers of the atmosphere. These clouds are brighter and less fragmented in appearance due to their distance from the ground and the higher composition of ice crystals. Middle level clouds vary in thickness from relatively flat sheets of cloud to a more cumuliform appearance. In fact, the sun (and moon) can be observed through some thin middle level clouds. Middle level clouds tend to have apparent speeds slower than the lower level clouds. (Recall the larger radius and associated arc length that the higher level clouds must undertake). They move in the direction of the wind at that level which does not necessarily be the same of that at the surface. There are 3 basic types of middle level clouds: altocumulus, altostratus and nimbostratus. Back to top As the name suggests, altocumulus refers to the middle level cloud that exhibit to some extent the features normally associated with cumulus. This includes cumuliform tops and bases that are usually relatively darker than the tops. This cloud type can be widespread or patchy depending on the conditions. It can vary in appearance from broken to smooth, and vary in thickness. In its broken form, altocumulus can be confused with stratocumulus. To distinguish between them requires examining how defined the cloud appears, whether there other forms of middle level or upper level clouds present above the layer and the difference in brightness. Like stratocumulus, the breaks become more visible at a steeper angle of elevation. Altocumulus as viewed from above If conditions are unstable in the middle level of the atmosphere, the air will tend to rise in currents allowing areas of cumuliform turrets to develop. In fact, altocumulus can develop from dissipating thunderstorms during the morning and then redevelop during the day if the air remains unstable. Altocumulus clouds therefore in this form indicate unstable or unsettled conditions. Altocumulus can vary in its apparent movement (speed) depending on the wind and direction at that level. However, since altocumulus (like most other cloud types) represents an ever changing system, an observer must be careful in determining cloud motion. On some days, altocumulus continuously develop as it moves in the direction of the wind. Upstream, more altocumulus may develop giving the impression that the cloud is progressing slower than its actual speed. This process can occasionally create an illusion in terms of direction. Considering an example of altocumulus observed moving to the south east, because of development on the north and north-eastern side of the cloud band, the apparent direction may be more to the east. Altocumulus can develop in more than one layer and also in conjunction with other cloud types. The lower layer will obscure part or all of the higher altocumulus cloud layer. This situation also applies to higher level clouds. Higher level clouds will be obscured by the altocumulus. Lower level clouds, however, will obscure part or all of the altocumulus cloud layer. In fact, it may be impossible to observe altocumulus above a full stratocumulus, stratus or lower level nimbostratus cover. If a break occurs, altocumulus can only be distinguished by its different (slower) speed and direction of movement. Altocumulus also develop within the structure of cumulonimbus (thunderstorm producing) clouds. The appearance of altocumulus within thunderstorms vary depending on the structure, severity and the amount of moisture drawn into the thunderstorm. The altocumulus usually develops after the anvil (consisting of cirrostratus and altostratus) develops and becomes darker as the precipitation cascade approaches. However, on days where thunderstorms develop with widespread altocumulus conditions, the altocumulus obscures the thunderstorms and its development observed only through breaks in the cloud. If altocumulus develops into thicker layers, precipitation can develop. The intensity of rainfall most often expected from altocumulus is light to moderate rainfall. If large cumulus develop amongst the rain bearing altocumulus, then heavier rainfall will develop. On days when precipitation from altocumulus becomes widespread and continuous, the cloud forms a smooth lighter-grey shaded sheet and becomes known as nimbostratus (at the middle layers). Precipitation within altocumulus can develop rapidly at the rear even though the cloud may be moving fairly rapidly. This will obviously influence the duration of rainfall as well as the normally large cloud base. This situation often occurs before a cold front with unstable conditions. Thunderstorms can develop amongst the altocumulus band or they may develop after the cloud band clears well ahead of the actual change. As discussed in the case of other clouds, lower clouds may be present below the altocumulus layer but not producing the rain. The observer again must consider which cloud is producing the rain to determine in which direction it is moving. Another form of altocumulus is the lenticular type where the altocumulus appears in the form of a lens. They appear very smooth and flat, often displaying two or more layers. This occurs due to a wave effect in the air flow. This wave effect normally develops as a result of a mountain range on windy days. The wave effect forces air to rise above the condensation level and hence allows cloud to form. Due to the rise and fall effect (peaks and troughs), the cloud may only exist in areas of peaks and therefore appear patchy. The most striking feature of this cloud is that it tends to remain relatively stationary compared with the associated wind at that level. What is actually happening is that as the air begins to rise above the level of condensation, cloud forms. When the air falls below this level, dissipation occurs and the cloud disintegrates back to clear air. So long as the peak of the air wave remains stationary as compared to the ground, the cloud will develop and dissipate almost in the same position whilst the wind conditions persist. The direction of the wind associated with lenticular altocumulus can be determined by considering the sharpest edge as the end of the cloud where the air is flowing in and the opposite end where the air is flowing out. Sometimes this will be the longest span of cloud. The most efficient method of determining the direction of the wind is by closely examining the direction that the patterns and ripples within the cloud base move. The cloud will also be moving in the direction of the wind within the cloud region. Lenticular altocumulus is generally not associated with precipitation. The conditions associated with the development of this cloud involves more horizontal rather than vertical flow. The air masses are also more stable and drier. Lenticular altocumulus as viewed from above. Lenticular altocumulus mostly develop during the day when the atmosphere is most lively in terms of strong winds at that level. The wind conditions at the surface are often very similar to the direction of wind at the cloud level. In the case of Sydney, lenticular altocumulus tend to develop during the morning period and clear off the coast during the evening. Almost all lenticular altocumulus in Sydney develop under the influence of south westerly, westerly or north westerly air streams associated with cold fronts. Altocumulus can also develop in the form of ripples. In this case, the altocumulus cloud appears broken but lined as a result of minor wind wave ripples. In fact it develops in conditions associated with the development of lenticular altocumulus. This type of cloud obviously does not produce precipitation. Altocumulus can develop from the spreading out of the tops of cumulus. The spreading out occurs as the tops of the cumulus grows until it reaches an inversion layer (or stronger winds that cause divergence) situated in the middle levels of the atmosphere. Because the cumulus updraughts are not strong enough to pierce this layer, the tops begin to spread in the form similar to that of an anvil facing in the direction of the wind at that level. Occasionally, this situation may further develop into thunderstorm or thundery shower conditions. Back to top Altostratus refers to middle level cloud that appears as a flat, smooth dark grey sheet. These clouds are most often observed as large sheets rather than isolated areas. However, in the process of development, altostratus may develop in smaller filaments and rapidly develop to larger sheets. These types of clouds in certain conditions normally indicate an approaching cloud mass associated with a cold front, a trough system or a jet stream. Altostratus can develop into a thick or thin layer. As a thin layer, the sun can be observed through the cloud. In its thinner form, the developing altostratus can sometimes be confused with approaching cirrostratus. In its thicker form, the sun can only occasionally be observed through the thinner sections if not at all. Obviously, the thicker the altostratus, the darker it becomes. When observed closely, it becomes apparent that altostratus is not just one complete layer but a composition of several thin layers. Altostratus can produce precipitation. It will normally develop and then thicken. The precipitation is observed as relatively thick dark sections since precipitation cascades are very difficult to observe with the same colour in the background. In this situation, rain will develop as a light shower and gradually increase to showers, light rain or moderate rain. If the precipitation becomes persistent, the cloud then becomes known as nimbostratus. The duration of the precipitation is influenced by factors similar to those discussed with other types of clouds. >In certain conditions, altostratus will develop during the afternoon period and increase to cover most or all of the sky. By late afternoon, evening or during the night, precipitation will develop. This situation is the most common observation that occurs in Sydney. However, altostratus can develop at any time as well as the associated precipitation. As discussed above, altostratus can develop in conjunction with other clouds such as cirrostratus, altocumulus and stratocumulus. Obviously, the lower clouds will obscure the view of altostratus, appear to move faster and appear less defined. Although altocumulus is a middle level cloud, it will develop below altostratus. Sometimes, altocumulus can be observed developing from dissipating altostratus. cirrostratus can often be observed above altostratus when it does not cover the sky. On days where altostratus is observed above a stratocumulus cover, it may indicate a trough with possible rain or even thunderstorms either during the afternoon or within the next few days. Like altocumulus, altostratus also forms part of thunderstorms normally within or below the lower part of the anvil region. Of course this depends on the height of the thunderstorm anvil. Different structures of thunderstorms display various forms of altostratus. As the anvil of the thunderstorm passes overhead, the altostratus begins to appear normally with a grey base but becoming increasingly dark. Some altostratus develop in situations similar to the development of lenticular altocumulus. Altostratus in this form develops in large sheets and has a patchy base appearance. The cloud seems to be moving rapidly but because of its development at the rear actually progresses very slowly in the direction of the wind at that level. This type of cloud does not produce any rain. Back to top Nimbostratus can be described as a widespread light grey or white sheet of cloud that produces persistent rain or showers. Because of its light colours, nimbostratus lacks contrast and in fact is quite difficult to photograph. Being sufficiently thick to produce precipitation, the sun or moon can rarely be observed through nimbostratus. Because of its lack of contrast, it is difficult to determine the apparent speed and direction of nimbostratus. This speed can sometimes be determined by observing the movement of a break in the cloud or observing the cloud's motion against the occasional glimpse of the sun or the moon that is relatively motionless. Another method involves the observation of approaching intermittent showers although patterns of precipitation can sometimes change dramatically. Generally, precipitation associated with nimbostratus is long in duration. The intensity can vary from light to heavy depending on the associated conditions. Normally, light to moderate rain is associated with nimbostratus. However, the passage of strong lows and cold fronts can produce moderate to heavy precipitation. In Sydney, weather associated with flooding rains often contains thick nimbostratus layers. As discussed in earlier cases, nimbostratus can develop or occur with most other types of clouds. Stratus and stratocumulus will often develop below nimbostratus in its middle level form and obscure the view of the whole cloud base. With approaching precipitation regions, the lower clouds may appear darker or lighter than the nimbostratus creating some contrast. This depends on the intensity of the background nimbostratus. The movement of the lower clouds do not necessarily have to be the same as the nimbostratus. Although stratocumulus clouds can develop below nimbostratus, they can also thicken to develop into a nimbostratus layer with precipitation. This refers to nimbostratus in its lower levels of the atmosphere. It can be difficult to distinguish this from nimbostratus in the middle levels of the atmosphere. It often requires observation of the initial cloud (stratocumulus or altostratus) or the cloud that follow. Another useful method is measuring the apparent speed of the cloud if it can be observed. Of course, the lower the cloud, the less likelihood that lower clouds will be observed below the nimbostratus. Nimbostratus can develop from altostratus if it becomes sufficiently thick to produce precipitation. In fact, increasing altostratus cloud tends to lead to nimbostratus. Generally, the altostratus will become darker and gradually rain will develop. This sometimes leads to a lighter appearance of the cloud base although the cloud still remains reasonably thick. Lower level nimbostratus can develop below altostratus and partially or completely obscure it from view. However, if the altostratus layer develops into nimbostratus itself, the lower level nimbostratus will most probably become difficult to see especially if precipitation begins to fall. The weather conditions that produce middle level (and sometimes lower level) nimbostratus also lead to the development of higher level clouds. Nimbostratus developing or occurring below higher level clouds will obscure most or all of it from view. The higher clouds can only be observed through breaks of the nimbostratus if and when they occur. These breaks often occur when the cloud is decreasing in intensity and conditions are beginning to clear. Back to top Higher level clouds Higher level clouds represent the cloud in the highest levels of the troposphere. They mostly appear brilliant white because of the ice crystals at that level. They tend to develop at or just above the top part of the troposphere. Higher level clouds can vary in shape, thickness and cover. Sunlight can be observed passing through the higher level clouds most of the time. The amount of light that penetrates depends on the density and thickness of the layers. The thickness of such clouds are therefore relatively thin. In most cases, the direction of movement of the higher level clouds do not necessarily represent the wind direction at the ground level. In fact, the wind at upper and ground levels often differ. There are three main types of higher level clouds: cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus. Back to top Cirrus and cirrostratus Since the characteristics of cirrus and cirrostratus are similar, they can be discussed together including any differences. Cirrus clouds are higher level clouds that develop in filaments or patches. They are virtually brilliant white attributed to their ice crystal composition. However, they lack in contrast between the top and base. They occur in flat sheets with a low height to base ratio and are usually isolated with large breaks of sky. Cirrus also vary dramatically in 'shape' or patterns they portray but these represent the fluctuating wind flow at that level both in the horizontal and vertical direction. Cirrostratus represent clouds that are more widespread than cirrus but containing some similar features. Like cirrus, they are brilliant white and lack in contrast. Sunlight can pass through cirrostratus but this again depends on the varying thickness of the clouds. Both cirrus and cirrostratus clouds vary in thickness. The sun can easily be observed through both types of clouds although the intensity of light that is observed depends on the thickness of their layers. In their thickest form, cirrus and cirrostratus will allow a similar intensity of light to pass through to that of thin altostratus. They do not only develop in one complete layer. It may be difficult to observe because of the lack of contrast but these clouds can consist of several thin layers. Cirrus and cirrostratus tend to move in the direction of the wind at that level which differ to that at the surface. The most common direction of motion of these clouds are from a westerly direction. This varies with factors such as the latitude, weather conditions and time of the year. Their apparent velocities are relatively slow as compared to lower clouds. Both cirrus and cirrostratus can occur in conjunction with any of the other cloud types. Obviously, all the lower and middle level clouds will obscure the view of the higher level clouds, appear to move faster and appear less defined. They can only be observed above other clouds when breaks in the clouds occur. Any type of higher level clouds can develop simultaneously. Cirrus clouds tend to develop on days with fine weather and lighter winds at the surface. cirrostratus can develop on days with light winds but normally increasing in strength. Although both cirrus and cirrostratus tend to develop in fine weather conditions, they also acts as a sign of approaching changes in the weather conditions. Such changes could include any of the various types of cold front situations, thunderstorms or developing and advancing troughs of low pressure, normally with preceding cloud masses. Except in the latter case, cirrus and cirrostratus will typically precede any other types of clouds as part of a cloud band. In fact cirrus normally precedes cirrostratus. Nevertheless, the higher level clouds will persist until the actual change in the weather occurs. The higher clouds can develop from a few hours up to a few days before an actual change in the weather conditions occurs. They may develop during one afternoon and dissipate but redevelop the next day and so on until the actual change occurs. If the amount of moisture in the lower layers of the atmosphere increases, other lower clouds may also develop changing the appearance of the cirrus or the cirrostratus clouds as well as partially or totally hiding them from view. The same situation occurs in the case where cirrus develop ahead of thunderstorms. Cirrus normally precede cirrostratus which are then followed by the anvil of the approaching thunderstorm. In fact, cirrus and cirrostratus in this case are the remnants downwind of the weakening anvil. Both cirrus and cirrostratus can develop and persist after a change has passed through a certain location. In this situation, cloud will decrease within a few hours up to a few days following the change. If it persists for longer periods, a jet stream cloud mass may be involved. Another situation where cirrus and cirrostratus can be observed is when lower cloud breaks or clears during days with showers or rain. This case is far less common but can indicate a few situations. The higher clouds may be the remnants of the cloud mass that produced the actual wet weather. They can also be developing ahead of other cloud masses associated with another system, leading to the situation already discussed above. It all depends on the weather situation at that time but the observation of the movement of the higher level clouds can be critical in determining what weather may follow. Cirrus generally does not produce precipitation except when it results from dissipating thunderstorms. Precipitation from such cirrus usually consists of larger droplets and the cloud normally dissipates and vanishes completely. cirrostratus does not produce precipitation. Cirrus and cirrostratus can develop and persist at any time of the day despite the perception that it tends to occur during the day. This perception arises because it is much easier to observe cirrus during the day as compared to night time. The background darkness and the fact that the stars can easily be observed through cirrus and cirrostratus as thin layers allows them to camouflage from the view of the observer. Back to top Cirrocumulus is a higher level cloud that is brilliant white but with a spotty appearance created by the many small turrets. The turrets indicate vertical turbulence within the cloud. Despite this spotty appearance, cirrocumulus contains many features associated with cirrostratus discussed above. It moves in directions similar to that of the other higher clouds. In this photograph, white cirrocumulus globules can just be seen above the altocumulus. This cloud can develop in conjunction with any other clouds as well as with cirrostratus clouds. In Sydney, cirrocumulus is not as common as the other high clouds and mainly develops during the winter times with west to south westerly air streams. The development of cirrocumulus sometimes occurs in conditions similar to those associated with the development lenticular altocumulus. cirrocumulus clouds do not produce precipitation and are normally associated with fine weather. Back to top Combinations of clouds In the section on observing cloud types, the discussion also focused on the fact that more than one type of cloud can exist simultaneously with other cloud types. This included combinations of different clouds from the same group or from different groups. For instance, stratus clouds often may be found with stratocumulus above it (lower level group) or altostratus, nimbostratus or even. Another example is a combination of cirrostratus and altocumulus. These are just a few from hundreds of combinations of clouds. The different combinations of clouds occur depending on certain factors such as the current weather conditions at different layers of the atmosphere as well as the influence of topography. However, the best opportunity to observe combinations of clouds is when thunderstorms approach. The whole system of clouds associated with thunderstorms are together known as cumulonimbus clouds. Back to top The cumulonimbus cloud Cumulonimbus as viewed from above. The aeroplane had to rise above the cloud because of risk from turbulence. Cumulonimbus clouds, which are normally associated with thunderstorms, consist of a combination from some or all of the cloud groups. The heights of cumulonimbus clouds vary depending on the conditions but are typically of the order of tens of kilometres from the base to the cloud tops. As a general rule, the most severe type of thunderstorms known as supercells have tops that pierce the tropopause. Smaller thunderstorms do not rise to the tropopause. Thunderstorms are discussed in its own section. [Back to top] [More advanced techniques introduction] Document: class.htm Updated: 20th March 2008	dclm-gs1-104920000
Thoughts about bad holiday drivers December 26, 2011 Thoughts about bad holiday drivers If you must have your pet in the car, use a system that makes it safe for everyone. This system is sold by Volvo. There are a few things that happen around the holiday driving time that just infuriate the hell out of me. One of them is rude driving behavior, which just seems to increase despite tidings of comfort and joy. The other is bad driving behavior--which happens all the time. Of course, I'm qualified to determine what qualifies as each, and I think you are, too. This year when I personally experienced an offending, behaving-badly driver, I made a conscious decision to take a deep breath with the goal of lowering my blood pressure and my boiling point. It's a kind of personal release valve that has worked for me before. In the past, a Tourette-like outburst would fill the car, especially when an oblivious driver would pull a dangerous and half-assed stunt--yeah, I'm talking about you, pal, in the mall parking lot. (He was the tool who slid into the parking spot I was diligently--and properly--signaling to get into.) But this year, I cooled myself down, so its level of danger decreased significantly. Still, 'tis the season for giving, and I almost gave him a size-12 boot. . . . I didn't, and I found a better parking space closer to the door, anyway. See, I was rewarded for my composure: Karma. At least that's what I tell myself. Then there are the dangerous drivers whose behavior is near felonious, yet they don't know what their actions (read stupidity) can cause. We are not talking about a common lethal activity like driving while intoxicated. That is truly stupid. I speak particularly to the man or woman who clutches a cute and cuddly little ball of fluffy family pet on his or her lap while behind the wheel at speed. People want to take their cat or dog for a ride but do not realize the danger into which they put themselves and their animal. Don't believe me? If you've a lap dog--say it's only five or eight pounds--what happens if you must stop suddenly and your critter is not properly tethered? For an answer, go put a Shake Weight on your rear package shelf or up on your dash for real giggles, take it to 55 mph and slam on the brakes to experience the ensuing bedlam. How fair is it that you have little Spot on your lap and--bam!--the car in front of you stops suddenly and you rear end them and . . . oh, my: The exploding airbag that saved your life just made Spot a stain. Rest in peace, dear family friend, we knew you well. Make a resolution to not be either of those drivers this year. And be sure to share with those you do see who insist on putting a cat or dog on their laps while driving that they are exposing pets to a horrific death beyond Hollywood's most gruesome imagination. That might make them think twice. Dutch Mandel See more by this author»	dclm-gs1-104930000
Arizona Fishkeeping For Freshwater & Marine Aquarists Chocolate chip starfish care Sea stars, commonly known as starfish, are among the most sought after marine aquarium animals. It seems no tank is complete without one. However, they aren't the easiest of animals to keep alive and healthy. The chocolate chip starfish is the one species you are likely to have success with, but there are some things you should know about it first. Below we will talk about what to look for when buying one, how to acclimate it, and how to take care of and feed it. Untitled Document Untitled Document Untitled Document Untitled Document A few facts about the chocolate chip starfish Take a closer look at how the chocolate chip starfish comes to the surface. This is a great opportunity to provide it with some meaty food! How do I know if the chocolate chip starfish is healthy? Because they are popular, chocolate chip starfish are readily available, even at your "lesser" pet stores like PETCO. Not all pet stores are equal in how they care for their animals. The first starfish I ever purchased was from the above mentioned PETCO. They had not acclimated the group of sea stars correctly and so they were showing signs of disintegration. That's what happens to your starfish, they begin to dissolve, starting at the arm tips, and eventually getting to the body, killing it. Because, at the time, I was not aware of the signs, I made the purchase. You don't have to make the same mistake, because you will know what to look for. • Ask how long they have had the starfish in stock. If they have had them for a few days, that's all the better. Newer arrivals may not have had time to show signs of shock. • Look for any wounds on the animal. Don't be afraid to ask the employee to lift it up, turn it over, and give you ample time to visually examine the specimen. • Are there any signs of disintegration? If there are, don't buy the animal. You will also need to make a judgment if this represents a flaw in one animal, or if the entire group was poorly acclimated. Because chocolate chip starfish are common, you may consider leaving and going to a different shop. • Choose a medium sized sea star. Larger ones are older, and smaller ones may not be well enough established. By getting on in the middle you know that it has survived for a longer period of time, but not so long that its life in your tank will be short due to old age. How do I acclimate a chocolate chip starfish? As with all invertebrates (like shrimp, and urchins) sea stars should be carefully acclimated using the drip method for about 2.5 hours. Do not rush the acclimation period. We know you are excited to get your new animal in the tank, but rushing acclimation is likely to lead to an early death. Know before you buy the starfish that you will need a couple of hours when you get home to properly introduce the animal into your tank. If you don't have time right then, wait until you do to buy it. Because you will be enjoying our purchase for a long time to come, you will be glad you waited. Also, do not expose your chocolate chip starfish to air. This is for the same reason you should not expose sponges to air. The chocolate chip starfish has hundreds of pores, if air gets in them, it can't always be expelled, thus destroying the functionality of the pore. What do chocolate chip starfish eat? Chocolate chip starfish are scavengers, eating foods that have dropped to the bottom of the tank, but they are also predators and will eat corals, as well as killing and eating many small animals, even snails. You can feed your chocolate chip star fish meaty foods such as muscles, shrimp, and squid. There are a couple of ways to do this. 1. Place the food in the sea star's path and wait for it to crawl over it. This really isn't the best method because generally speaking it can't always find it, or some other tank dweller eats it first. 2. Pick the sea star up and put it on top of the food. This works pretty good, just be sure not to damage the animal when you handle it. 3. Most likely your chocolate chip star fish will come to the surface of the tank, and bend backward with a couple of arms on the surface of the water like in the video above. Place the piece of food on top of it gently and it will move it with tube feet to its mouth. This method is the one that has worked best for me. Is a chocolate chip starfish reef-safe? No. They eat corals, especially soft corals like zoanthus and corallimorphs (mushrooms). I've had some luck keeping them with anemone, xenia, and toadstool leather corals but had one eat two bright green mushrooms that I would rather kept alive. What are good tank mates for a chocolate chip starfish? Puffers are generally a bad choice. You will notice in the video above that I have a valentini puffer housed with a chocolate chip starfish. This smaller puffer never bothers the sea star, but you can't always count on that with larger puffer species. Large hermit crabs are also not a good idea. These aren't the small crabs, but the large species like Dardanus megistos, the shell-breaking hermit crab. Other than the above mentioned, most fish and shrimp will be fine. Discussing tank mates can be tricky because animals aren't all the same. I kept a green spotted puffer in a community tank for years, and it never bothered the other fish, but in most cases, they attack and eat other fish. Be observant and ask questions of the local shop worker. Because they are affordable, the chocolate chip starfish is a common beginner sea star. It is a relatively hardy species that is easy to keep and feed in your non-reef tank. Take the proper amount of time to drip acclimate your new purchase and you should be enjoying it for long time to come. Information contributed by: Chad Words to Eat, Internet Publishing	dclm-gs1-104940000
30 Naked People Play Miniature Golf for Charity, Set World Record They do odd things in the United Kingdom to raise money for charity. They’re the ones who started this whole “posing naked for a calendar” trend a few years ago. And now? They have people playing miniature golf . . . naked. A hearty group in Essex went out in what was described as “cold conditions” (shrinkage?) to raise money for a prostate cancer charity, raising nearly $5000. In the process, they also set out to set a new Guiness World Record for people playing with their putters naked. Apparently the number to beat will be 30, assuming anyone else wants to have naked people on their course. According to event co-ordinator Tracy Jones said: “With them having to bend down to retrieve the balls from the holes, it made for some interesting sights.” We’ll take your word on that Tracy. All though it does bring up a good question: where did they keep their scorecards and pencils? Mostly Safe For Work photos of the event at the link below. Source: BBC News	dclm-gs1-104950000
Nonfiction > Jacob A. Riis > Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen > XII. The Despair Of Politicians XII. The Despair Of Politicians WE had been summoned to the White House, my wife and I. I say, “summoned” on purpose, because we had carefully avoided Washington; it was enough for us to know that he was there. But he would not have it, and wrote threateningly that he would send a posse if we did n’t come. So we went. I do not think I ever saw a prouder woman than my wife when the President took her in to dinner. I heard her ask him if her smile reached from ear to ear because she felt like it. And I was proud and glad, for so it seemed to me that she had at last come to her rights, and I where there was nothing more to wish for. But withal I felt a bit unhappy. I had thought to do him the highest honor I could by wearing the cross King Christian gave me, but it turned out that among the dozen diplomats and other guests no one wore any decoration save myself, and I did n’t like it. The President saw, I think, that I was troubled, and divined the reason in the way he has. He slipped up behind me, at the first chance, and said in my ear: “I am so much honored and touched by your putting it on for me.” So he knew, and it was all right. The others might stare. 1 It is just an instance of the loyalty that is one of the traits in the man which bind you to him with hoops of steel once you are close to him. It takes no account of condition in life: good reason why his Rough-Riders worshiped the ground he trod on. When they ate bacon and hard-tack, that was his fare; and if there was any better to be had, they shared even. It was that trait that came out in him the night a half-witted farmer drove to Sagamore Hill on purpose to shoot him. He was in the library with Mrs. Roosevelt when the voice of the fellow, raised in angry contention with the secret service guard under the trees, attracted his attention. He knew the officer was alone, out of ear-shot of the others down at the barn, and he acted at once upon the impulse to go to his aid. Before Mrs. Roosevelt could put in a word of warning, he was out on the veranda in the moonlight, his white shirt bosom making a broad target for the frenzied man who had a cocked pistol in the buggy. He whipped up his horse when he saw the President, and made straight for him, but before he had gone a step the secret service man had him down and safe. I joined Mrs. Roosevelt the next day in demanding the President’s promise that he would not do it again, and he gave it good-humoredly, insisting that he had been in no danger. “But,” said he, “he was fighting my fight, and he was alone. Would you have had me hide, with him, perhaps, one against two or three?” It was a hard question to answer. We could only remind him that he was the President, and not simply Theodore Roosevelt, and had the whole country to answer to. 2 I think I never knew a man who so utterly trusts a friend, once he has taken him to his heart. That he does not do easily or offhand; but once he has done it, there is no reservation or secret drawback to his friendship. It is a splendid testimony to the real worth of human nature that his trust has rarely indeed been betrayed. Once his friend, you are his friend forever. To the infallible test he rings true: those who love him best are those who know him best. The men who hate him are the scalawags and the self-seekers, and they only distrust him who do not know him. He never lost a friend once made. Albert Shaw summed it all up in a half-impatient, wholly affectionate exclamation when he was telling me of a visit he had made to Washington to remonstrate with the President. 3 “I never knew a man,” he said, “to play so into the hands of his enemies. He has no secrets from them; he cannot bear a grudge; he will not believe evil; he is generous and fair to everybody; he is the despair of his friends. And, after all, it is his strength.” 4 And the reason is plain. Had I not known him, I would have found it long ago in his insistence that the America of to-day is better than that of Washington and Jefferson. A man cannot write such things as this he wrote of Lincoln without meaning every word of it and acting it out in his life: 5 “The old-school Jeffersonian theorists believed in a strong people and a weak government. Lincoln was the first who showed how a strong people might have a strong government and yet remain the freest on earth. He seized, half unwittingly, all that was best in the traditions of Federalism. He was the true successor of the Federal leaders, but he grafted on their system a profound belief that the great heart of the nation beats for truth, honor, and liberty.” 6 Now do you wonder that he is the despairing riddle of the politicians the land over, the enemy, wherever they meet, of all the after-us-the-deluge plotters? They have not the key to the man; and if they had, they would not know how to use it. The key is his faith that the world is growing better right along. In their plan, it may go to the devil when they have squeezed it for what there is in it for them. They can never comprehend that the man who believes in the world growing better helps make it better, and so, in the end, is bound to win; or why he is closer to the people than any man since Lincoln’s day. It is all a mystery and a nuisance to them, and I am glad it is. 7 Speaking of Lincoln, one of the few times I have seen Roosevelt visibly hurt was when some yellow newspaper circulated the story that he had had Lincoln’s portrait taken from the wall in the White House and hung in the basement, and had his own put up in its place. Ordinarily he takes no notice of attacks of that kind, except to laugh at them if they are funny; but this both hurt and saddened him, for Lincoln is his hero as he is mine. It was at the time the White House was undergoing alterations, and the pictures were hung in the basement to preserve them, or there would have been no pictures by this time. Some of the old furniture was sent away and sold at auction, as it had to be, there being no other legal way of disposing of it. Even the chairs in the cabinet-room his official family had to buy at five dollars each, when they wanted them as keepsakes. Among the things that went to the auction-shop was a sideboard from the dining-room, and promptly the report was circulated that it had been presented by the temperance women of Ohio to Mrs. Hayes, and that President Roosevelt had sold it to a saloon-keeper. Resolutions began to come from Women’s Christian Temperance Union branches East and West until Secretary Loeb published the facts, which were these: that no sideboard had ever been presented to Mrs. Hayes, but an ice-pitcher with stand, long since placed in a Cincinnati museum, where it now is. The sideboard was a piece of furniture bought in the ordinary avenues of trade during President Arthur’s term, and of no account on any ground. But long after the true story had been told the resolutions kept coming; for all I know, another one is being prepared now in some place which the lie on its travels has just reached. 8 I know what it was that hurt, for I had seen Roosevelt recoil from the offer to strike an enemy in the Police Department a foul blow, as from an unclean thing, though that enemy never fought fair. He does. “I never look under the table when I play,” he said, when the spoilsmen beset him in their own way at Albany; “they can beat me at that game every time. Face to face, I can defend myself and make a pretty good fight, but any weakling can murder me. Remember this, however, that if I am hit that way very often, I will take to the open, and the blows from the dark will only help me in an out-and-out fight.” “Clean as a hound’s tooth,” one of his favorite phrases, fits himself best. It was the showing that an honest man’s honest intentions were not accepted at their face value that saddened and hurt, for it smudged the ideal on which he builds his faith in his fellow-man. 9 It was only yesterday that a friend told me of an experience he had at Albany while Roosevelt was Governor. He was waiting in the Executive Chamber with, as it happened, a man of much account in national politics, a Federal office-holder occupying a position second to none in the land in political influence. The gentleman had come to Albany to press legislation for good roads, being interested in the manufacture of bicycles or automobiles, I forget which. While they waited, in came the Governor. There were but two other persons in the room, an old farmer and his daughter, evidently on a holiday. They were looking at the pictures with much interest. Mr. Roosevelt went over to them and engaged them in conversation, found out where they were from, said he was glad to see them, and pointed out one or two of the portraits especially worth seeing. Then he shook hands and bade them come back as often as they pleased. It was clear that they did not know who the friendly man was. When they went out he came straight across to the Federal official. 10 “Now, Mr.—,” he said, shaking his finger at him, “the legislature has appropriated every cent it is going to this year for good roads, and nothing you can say will change their minds or mine on that subject. So you can save yourself the trouble. It is no use.” And, turning to my friend, “Do you wish to see me?” But his amazement was so great that he said no, making up his mind on the spot to talk to the Governor’s secretary. The official had gone away at once. 11 I recommend this anecdote to the special perusal of the friends who think Roosevelt is playing to the galleries when he hails the plain man cordially. He does it because he likes him. They might have seen him one day in an elevated car, when we were riding together, get up to give his seat to a factory-girl in a worn coat. I confess that I itched to tell her who he was, but he let me have no chance. We were talking about a public institution I wished to see reformed, and he was anxious to know if there was any way in which he could help. “If there is,” he said, “let me.” But there was not, and I was sorry for it; for the matter concerned the growing youth and the citizenship of to-morrow, and I knew how near his heart that lay. 12 I have been rambling along on my own plan of putting things in when I thought of them, and I cannot say that I feel proud of the result; but if from it there grows a personality whose dominating note is utter simplicity, I have not shot so wide of the mark, after all. For that is it. All he does and says is to be taken with that understanding. There again is where he unconsciously upsets all the schemes and plots of the politicians. They don’t understand that “the game can be played that way,” and are forever looking for some ulterior motive, some hidden trap he never thought of. Bismarck, it is said, used to confound his enemies by plumping out the truth when, according to all the rulers of the old-school diplomacy, he should have lied, and he bagged them easily. Roosevelt has one fundamental conviction, that a frank and honest man cannot in the long run be entangled by plotters, and his life is proving it every day. To say that the world can be run on such a plan is merely to own that the best there is in it, the cynics to the contrary notwithstanding, is man himself, which is true and also comforting in the midst of all the trickery contrived to disprove it. 13 He compelled the corporations to pay just taxes, and though they swore to knife him for it, the Court of Appeals has said it was fair and just. I have heard some people blaming him hotly for interfering in the anthracite coal strike. Their cellars were full of coal that winter, but their factory bunkers were not; and, singularly, I remember some of those very men, when their pocket-books were threatened, predicting angrily that “something would happen” if things were not mended. And in that they were right; something would have happened. Perhaps that was a reason why he interfered. However, I shall come back to that yet. But where is there to-day a cloud on the diplomatic horizon because of the “impulsiveness” of the young man in the White House? When were there so cordial relations with the powers before—with England, with France, with Germany that sends the President’s personal friend to represent her here? Does any one imagine William of Germany seeks personal advantage in that? Then he is not as smart as the emperor. For the first time in the memory of diplomats, I imagine, they are able to discuss things, up at the White House, just as they are; yet they don’t take a trick, and they know it. 16 Roosevelt is as far as possible from being rash. When people say it I am always reminded of the difference between the Danish word rask and the English rash. Rask means quick, resolute. That is what he is. He arrives at a conclusion more quickly than any one I ever knew; but he never jumps at it. He has learned how to use his mind, and all of it, that is why. “I own,” writes a friend to me from Ohio, “that he has been right so far every time. But next time where will we find him?” Learn to think a thing out, as he does; and when you have done it, ask yourself, “Which, now, is right?” and you will know. Watch and you will see that the real difference between his critics and him is this: they chase all round the compass for some portent of trouble “if they do this or do that,” and in the end throw themselves headlong on some course that promises safety; whereas, he goes calmly ahead, seeking the right and letting troubles take care of themselves if they must come. That is the quality of his courage which some good people identify as a kind of fighting spunk that must be in a broil at regular intervals. I do not suppose there is a less emotional man in existence than Secretary Root of the War Department. He was the only one, the newspapers said, in the cabinet who would not give five dollars for his chair as a souvenir. He could put the money to better use, and he did n’t need the chair. But when he came to take leave of Roosevelt, this is what he wrote: “I shall carry with me unabated loyalty to your administration, confidence in the sound conservatism and patriotic unselfishness of your policy,… and I shall always be happy to have been a part of the administration directed by your sincere and rugged adherence to right and devotion to the trust of our country.” Blame me for partiality, if you will, but against Secretary Root the charge does not justly lie. He just spoke the truth. 17 I said Roosevelt had learned to use all of his mind. To an extraordinary degree he possesses the faculty of concentrating it upon the subject in hand and, when it has been disposed of, transferring it at will to the thing next in order, else he could not have written important historical works while he was Police Commissioner and Governor. Whether this is all the result of training, or a faculty born in him, I do not know. Napoleon had the same gift. I have sat with Mr. Roosevelt in his room at Police Headquarters and seen him finish his correspondence, dispose of routine matters in hand, and at once take up dictation of some magazine article, or a chapter in one of his books where he left off the day before. In five minutes he would be deep in the feudal days, or disentangling some Revolutionary kink in Washington’s time, and seemingly had lost all recollection of Mulberry Street and its concerns. In the midst of it there would come a rap at the door and a police official would enter with some problem to be solved. Roosevelt would stop in the doorway, run rapidly over it with him, decide it, unless it needed action by the Board, and after one nervous turn across the floor would resume dictating in the middle of the sentence where he had stopped. I used to listen in amazement. It would have taken me hours of fretting to get back to where I was. 21 One secret laugh I had at him in those days. The room was a big square one, with windows that had blue shades. When he got thoroughly into his dictation—during which he never permitted me to leave; he would stay any movement of mine that way with a detaining gesture, and go right on—he made, unconsciously, a three-fourths round of the office, and when he passed each window would seize the shadecord and give a little abstracted pull, bringing it down an inch or so, until by degrees the room was in twilight. By the fourth or fifth round he would acquire a game leg. One of his knees stiffened, and thereafter he would drag around with him a disabled limb to the end of the chapter, when he as suddenly recovered the use of it. I sometimes wonder if his game leg takes part in cabinet discussions. If it does, I will warrant the country will know of it, though it may not be able to identify the ailment. I give it as a hint to nations that may be meditating provocation of Uncle Sam. I should beware of provoking the President’s game leg. 22 Which reminds me of the time we plotted against him in Mulberry Street, putting in quarters at a raffle at an Italian feast. The raffle was for a sheep which we hoped to win, and to lead to Headquarters in procession, headed by the Italian band. We even took Mr. Roosevelt around and made him spend five quarters in his own prospective undoing. But we did n’t win the sheep. It was the Widow Motso on the third floor back who did; and when I heard her rapturous cry, and saw her hug the sheep then and there, and kiss its black nose, I was glad the plot miscarried. The widow killed the sheep the next day. Roosevelt never knew what he had escaped. It was all my way of paying him for calling sheep “woolly idiots,” whereas they are my special pets. There is no animal I like so much as a sheep. It is so absolutely, comfortably stupid. You don’t have to put sense into it, because you can’t. 23 I am tempted to tell you of more jokes, for he loves one dearly so long as it hurts no one’s feelings. Two timid parsons found that out who saw Mr. Gilder shake hands with him at a reception and express the hope that “he would not embroil us in any foreign war.” 24 “What,” cried the President, “a war? with me cooped up here in the White House! Never, gentlemen, never!” I wonder what the parsons thought when they caught their breath. Perhaps the man I met on a railroad train and told the story to, expressed it. “There, you see,” said he; “he says it himself. If he could get away he would start a fight.” His fun sometimes takes the form of mock severity with intimate friends. In the swarm of officials that came to wish the President a happy New Year were the Civil Service Commissioners, headed by John R. Procter, his old colleague, all men after his own heart. Mr. Procter still laughed at the recollection of that New Year’s greeting when I saw him last. 2 The President drew himself up at their approach and remarked with stiff dignity, loud enough for all to hear: 25 “The moral tone of the room is distinctly lowered.” 26 No one need ever have any fear that Roosevelt will get the country into an undignified position. If unfamiliarity with a situation should lead him off the track, take my word for it he will take the straight, common-sense way out, and get there. The man who in his youth could describe Tammany as “a highly organized system of corruption tempered with malevolent charity,” and characterize a mutual acquaintance, a man with cold political ambitions whom I deemed devoid of sentiment, as having both, but “keeping them in different compartments,” can be trusted to find a way out of any dilemma. 27 If he got into one, that is to say. I know him well enough to be perfectly easy on that score. It seems to me that all the years I have watched him he has tackled problems that were new and strange to him, with such simple common sense that the difficulties have vanished before you could make them out; and the more difficult the problem the plainer his treatment of it. We were speaking about the Northern Securities suits one day. 28 “I do not claim to be a financial expert,” he said; “but it does not take a financial expert to tell that, the law being that two small men shall not combine to the public injury, if I allow two big men to do it I am setting up that worst of stumbling-blocks in a country like ours, which persuades the poor man that if he has money enough the law will not apply to him. That is elementary and needs no training a financier. So in this matter of publicity of trust accounts. Publicity hurts no honest business, and is not feared by the man of straight methods. The man whose methods are crooked is the man whose game I would block. Those who complain know this perfectly well, and their complaining betrays them. Again, with honest money—I did not need any financier to tell me that a short-weight dollar is not an honest dollar to pay full-weight dollar debts with.” 29 I thought of the wise newspaper editors who had been at such pains to explain to us how Roosevelt was responsible for the “unsettled condition” of Wall Street. Their house of cards, built up with such toilsome arguing, was just then falling to pieces, and the news columns in their own papers were giving us an inside view of what it was that had been going on in the financial market, and why some securities remained “undigested.” Water and wind are notoriously a bad diet; and what else to call the capitalization of a concern at thirty millions that rated itself at five, would puzzle, I imagine, even a “financial expert.” 30 And has he then no faults, this hero of mine? Yes, he has, and I am glad of it, for I want a live man for a friend, not a dead saint—they are the only ones, I notice, who have no faults. He talks, they say, and I hope he will keep on, for he has that to say which the world needs to hear and cannot hear too long or too often. I don’t think that he could keep a scrap-book, if he tried. I am sure he could not. It is not given to man once in a thousand years to make and to record history at the same time. But then it is not his business to keep scrap-books. I know he cannot dance, for I have seen a letter from a lady who reminded him of how he “trod strenuously” on her toes in the old dancing-school days when the world was young. And I have heard him sing—that he cannot do. The children think it perfectly lovely, but he would never pass for an artist. And when the recruit in camp accosted him with “Say, are you the Lieutenant-Colonel? The Colonel is looking for you,” he did not order him under arrest or jab him with his sword, but merely told him to “Come with me and see how I do it”; which was quite irregular, of course, if it did make a soldier out of a raw recruit. Oh, yes! I suppose he has his faults, though all these years I have been so busy finding out good things in him that were new to me, that I have never had time to look for them. But when I think of him, gentle, loyal, trusting friend, helpful, unselfish ever, champion of all that is good and noble and honest; when I read in an old letter that strays into my hands his brave, patient words: “We have got to march and fight for the right as we see it, and face defeat and victory just as they come”; and in another: “As for what—say of my standing alone, why, I will if I must, but no one is more heartened by such support as you give than I am”—why, I feel that if that is the one thing I can do, I will do that; that, just as he is, with or without faults, I would rather stand with him and be counted than anywhere else on God’s green earth. For, standing so, I know that I shall count always for our beloved country, which his example and his friendship have taught me to love beyond my own native land. And that is what I would do till I die. 31 There is yet one side of Theodore Roosevelt upon which I would touch, because I know the question to be on many lips; though I approach it with some hesitation. For a man’s religious beliefs are his own, and he is not one to speak lightly of what is in his heart concerning the hope of heaven. But though he is of few public professions, yet is he a reverent man, of practice, in private and public, ever in accord with the highest ideals of Christian manliness. His is a militant faith, bound on the mission of helping the world ahead; and in that campaign he welcomes gladly whoever would help. For the man who is out merely to purchase for himself a seat in heaven, whatever befall his brother, he has nothing but contempt; for him who struggles painfully toward the light, a helping hand and a word of cheer always. With forms of every kind he has tolerant patience—for what they mean. For the mere husk emptied of all meaning he has little regard. The soul of a thing is to him the use it is of. Speaking of the circuit-riders of old, he said once: “It is such missionary work that prevents the pioneers from sinking perilously near the level of the savagery against which they contend. Without it, the conquest of this continent would have had little but an animal side. Because of it, deep beneath and through the national character there runs that power of firm adherence to a lofty ideal upon which the safety of the nation will ultimately depend.” 32 He himself declared his faith in the closing words of his address to the Young Men’s Christian Association in New York City the night before he surrendered his stewardship as Governor into the hands of the people; and so let him stand before his countrymen and before the world: 33 Note 2. Poor friend! As the printer brings me the proof of this, I hear of his death. There was never a more loyal heart, a more dauntless soul than his. The world is poorer, indeed, for his going from us. 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Sunday, May 4, 2008 Weekend Wings #17: First non-stop trans-Atlantic flight In the last Weekend Wings we spoke of the first trans-Atlantic flight by a US Navy flying-boat, the NC-4. It flew a five-leg course from Naval Air Station Rockaway, New Jersey, USA to Halifax, Nova Scotia; Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland; the Azores islands, in mid-Atlantic; Lisbon, in Portugal; and finally to Plymouth, England, arriving on May 31st, 1919. It was the only one of three aircraft to complete the journey. Even as the US Navy's effort was under way, others were preparing to attempt the crossing. They were attracted by the £10,000 prize (about $50,000 at then-current exchange rates, and worth about twenty times that today) offered by Lord Northcliffe, owner of the Daily Mail newspaper in England, for the first trans-Atlantic flight. It would be awarded to the first pilot(s) to cross the Atlantic in either direction between the North American continent and any point in the British Isles (including, at the time, all of Ireland). The flight had to take no longer than 72 consecutive hours, and the pilot had to finish in the same aircraft with which he started. After the end of World War I, the rules were modified to prohibit 'ocean stoppages' and bar 'former enemy aircraft' from entering. This meant that the US Navy's flying-boats were no longer eligible for the prize, and the large German bomber aircraft developed towards the end of World War I were also excluded. A number of teams were vying to win the Daily Mail prize (one of many aviation prizes awarded by that newspaper). The first attempt was launched from England. The Short Brothers aircraft company had produced the first prototypes of the Short Shirl torpedo-bomber towards the end of World War I. A Shirl was modified with extended wings and a huge external fuel tank to produce the Short Shamrock, of which only one was built. The underslung fuel tank can be seen in the photograph below. The Shamrock was powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engine, which was one of the most reliable aircraft engines of its day. Carrying a total of 435 gallons of fuel, it had a theoretical range of over 3,000 miles. On April 18th, 1919, the Shamrock took off from Eastchurch in England to fly across the Irish Sea to The Curragh, Ireland, on the first leg of its trans-Atlantic flight attempt. Unfortunately, the engine failed 12 miles out to sea. The pilot, Major J. C. P. Wood, attempted to glide back to land, but was forced to ditch the aircraft in the sea a mile off Anglesey. The aircraft remained afloat, and was towed to the beach, but could not be repaired quickly. After another team successfully flew the Atlantic, it was dismantled. An Australian aviator, Harry Hawker, and his navigator, Kenneth Grieve, were the next to try, flying a specially-constructed Sopwith Atlantic biplane. (Hawker was the chief test pilot for Sopwith, which would be succeeded by a company named for him and destined to become world-famous: H. G. Hawker Engineering. This later became Hawker Aircraft, makers of the famous Hurricane, Typhoon and Tempest fighters in World War II.) The Sopwith Atlantic became the first aircraft ever to fly in Newfoundland when it made its first test flight (following reassembly, after being shipped over from England) on April 10th, 1919. The Atlantic had an interesting feature. For the trans-Atlantic attempt, its tail wheels would be dropped after take-off, thus reducing aerodynamic drag and making the aircraft lighter. It would land on a tail skid. The detachable tail wheels are clearly visible in the photograph above. Hawker and Grieve took off from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, on May 18th, 1919, two days after the US Navy flying-boats departed from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland. They flew for fourteen and a half hours until their engine overheated, forcing them down in mid-Atlantic. Very fortunately for them, they ditched their aircraft near a passing Danish freighter, the Mary. She rescued them, but had no wireless transmitter, so could not advise anyone that they were safe. For six days, until the Mary reached Europe, they were classified as missing. England mourned, and the US aviators (having reached the Azores) were shaken by their supposed loss. Despite failing to complete their flight, Hawker and Grieve were awarded a £5,000 consolation prize by the Daily Mail. They met the US Navy aviators on their triumphant arrival in England, who were delighted to learn that they were safe. (An interesting memento of Hawker and Grieve's flight survives. A local fisherman recovered the tail wheels they dropped from their aircraft after taking off. They are preserved in the museum at St. Johns, Newfoundland.) Another team, from the British aircraft manufacturer Handley Page, under the leadership of Admiral Mark Kerr, planned to use a V/1500 'Berlin Bomber' to attempt the crossing. They intended to leave from Newfoundland, but persistent mechanical difficulties delayed their departure until it was too late to win the Daily Mail prize. Afterwards they tried to achieve a land record instead, and flew their aircraft to the USA. Unfortunately, it crashed near Cleveland, Ohio. The crew survived, but the aircraft was written off, ending the efforts of the Handley-Page team. The team that beat them across the Atlantic, and won the prize, was sponsored by the Vickers aircraft company. It had designed the Vimy bomber towards the end of World War I, although it did not see operational service during that conflict. It would eventually be used for three long-distance flights. As well as a trans-Atlantic crossing, it would make the first flight from England to Australia, and cover most of the distance from England to South Africa (although that trip was completed in another aircraft). Captain John Alcock would be the pilot for the trans-Atlantic attempt. Born in 1892, he had learned to fly before World War I. He saw active service with the Royal Naval Air Service in the Mediterranean during that conflict, shooting down several German aircraft before being shot down himself and taken prisoner in 1917. He also built a unique aircraft, the Alcock Scout, using parts from crashed aircraft. His navigator was Lieutenant Arthur Brown. Born in 1886, Brown served as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. He, too, was shot down and taken prisoner. While in prison camp, he taught himself navigation, but had very little actual experience of the art before the trans-Atlantic attempt. Vickers engineers modified a newly-built Vimy, replacing its bomb-bay and rear armament with a huge fuel tank. In this view of the aircraft (now in the Science Museum in London), the cotton covering the left side of the fuselage has been cut away, showing the enormous fuel tank. It starts near the front of the wing, just behind the cockpit, and extends far back towards the tail. The engineers also faired over the observer's cockpit at the front of the fuselage, and enlarged the pilot's cockpit to allow Alcock and Brown to sit side-by-side. The Vimy was then disassembled and crated, to be shipped across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. (The attempt would start from there because the prevailing winds blew from West to East, making a crossing in that direction easier and needing less fuel.) On arrival in Newfoundland, the aircraft was reassembled at Lesters Field. The photographs below show various stages in the process, which took 14 days. While this was being done, the field was being prepared for take-off. A surviving receipt from one Charles F. Lester to Captain Alcock shows a total charge of $1,345.10 for the work, including 2,079 hours of labor at 40c per hour and 330 hours at 25c per hour! It's interesting to compare those figures to today's minimum-wage legislation - they're not far off, in terms of relative value. The field was still very rough, and Brown wasn't sure that the heavily-laden Vimy could take off successfully. In an attempt to save weight and reduce rolling resistance, he removed a nose-wheel that had been attached to the front skid. This was to have interesting consequences on the other side of the Atlantic. Alcock had a stroke of luck during the reassembly process. The Handley-Page team (see above) were having trouble with what they thought was a defective radiator, which kept clogging. Alcock realized that the real problem was not the radiator, but the local water, which was heavily mineralized and carried a great deal of sediment. He promptly arranged that the water to be used in the cooling system of the Vimy's engines would be filtered several times, then boiled. This removed the sediment and minerals from it. The Handley-Page team were still waiting for their new radiator when Alcock and Brown took off! The preparations for the flight were marred by poor weather. There was no hangar to protect the Vimy from the elements, and curious sight-seers tried to take pieces of the aircraft as souvenirs. This was not very helpful. The ground crew had to mount constant guard over it, sheltering from the rain and bitter cold in the packing-crates in which it had arrived. The aircraft was finally ready. Locals gathered around for this photograph before departure on June 14th, 1919. It bears Brown's signature. Alcock and Brown got into their flying suits. They are shown here before departure. The Vimy took off on its long journey at 1.45 p.m. local time. Alcock and Brown carried a radio transmitter, and were supposed to radio their position regularly: but this malfunctioned three hours into the flight. For hours there was uncertainty as to whether or not they were safe, as this New York Times headline shows. During the flight, engine and wind noise make it almost impossible for Alcock and Brown to hear one another speak. Brown communicated navigation information to Alcock by writing it in his notebook, then showing the page to the pilot (using his flashlight at night to illuminate the page). An example of one such message in his notebook is shown below. The flight was long, arduous and very hazardous. After a few hours, fog appeared, and they had no choice but to fly into it. The fog was so thick that they couldn't even see their engines, and their sound was muffled. Alcock had no modern blind-flying instruments, as can be seen in this photograph of the Vimy's cockpit. Alcock had to fly as straight and level as possible, hoping for a patch of clear visibility now and then so that Brown could check their position. None appeared for some time. As darkness fell, the inner exhaust pipe of the right-hand engine split, spitting flames into the slipstream. To make matters worse, the batteries powering the electric heating elements in their flying suits ran down. Alcock later remarked that they "froze like young puppies", even more so because they could not move about in the cramped cockpit. Alcock tried to climb above the fog to enable Brown to get a sun-sight, but they found cloud above the fog. Entering a thick fog-bank, the plane dropped in a spiral almost to the surface of the sea before Alcock could regain control and climb once more. The fliers refreshed themselves with sandwiches, beer and whisky. At last Brown was able to get a shot of the setting sun, right behind them, so that they were reasonably confident that they were on course. They flew on into the night. Shortly after midnight Brown was able to get a few star sights, fixing their position again. They had covered 850 nautical miles, and had just over 1,000 still to go. They ate more sandwiches, and drank coffee laced with whisky. Alcock later commented, "I looked towards Brown, and saw that he was singing, but I couldn't understand a word." One presumes the singing was the result of high spirits, rather than the liquid variety! At about 3 a.m. they hit heavy weather once more, with thick cloud. The Vimy went out of control, falling towards the sea in a vertical dive. Alcock only just managed to level out before they hit the water. He commented, "The salty taste we noted later on our tongues was foam. In any case the altimeter wasn't working at that low height and I think that we were not more than 16 to 20 ft. above the water." Snow began to fall, building up on the wings and fuselage, and ice began to form on the engines, blocking the air intakes and carburetor air filters. According to Brown's later accounts, he made several trips out onto the wings to clear the ice and snow away from the engines. However, others have disputed this, noting that Brown never wrote of such efforts in his hourly log entries, and pointing out that he had a badly injured, partly crippled leg which would have made such movements all but impossible. Since Alcock died soon after the flight, there was no evidence to support or contradict Brown's subsequent claims. The controversy has continued to this day. Icing continued to bedevil them through the night. Daylight came at 6.20 a.m., by which time the lateral controls had iced solid. Alcock tried to take the Vimy higher, to allow Brown to get a sun sight and fix their position. At 7.20 a.m., at a height of 11,800 feet, he was able to do so, and reported that they were on course. However, it was imperative that they find warmer air to prevent the controls from freezing. Alcock took the Vimy down into the clouds once more. At 1,000 feet, the warmer air melted the ice, making flying easier. At about 8 a.m. they sighted Ireland, coming in over the town of Clifden near Connemara. They circled the local radio station, with an inviting green meadow nearby. They saw people waving from the radio station, which they thought was a welcome. In reality the waves were an attempt to warn them that the 'meadow' was not a meadow at all, but Derrygimla Bog, far too soft for them to land: but the fliers could not know this. Alcock brought the Vimy down on the bog at 8.40 a.m. It ran for only a short distance before the front skid (minus its wheel, which Brown had removed in Newfoundland) dug into the bog and flipped the aircraft onto its nose, breaking the lower wings and damaging the front of the fuselage. Brown reportedly turned to Alcock and asked, "What do you think of that for fancy navigating?" Alcock replied, "Very good!", and the two shook hands. Alcock and Brown became instant heroes. They traveled to England (not in their Vimy, which was retrieved from the bog and repaired), and arrived at the Royal Aero Club in London. There they delivered to General Holden, vice-president of the Club, 197 letters entrusted to them by Dr. Robinson, the Postmaster in Newfoundland. They carried stamps overprinted in Newfoundland to indicate that they were being delivered by air. The letters were rushed to the nearest Post Office, franked and forwarded. Those stamps and covers are today amongst the most valuable philatelic collectors' items, being the first trans-Atlantic air mail. (They're also among the most forged - fakes are rife.) Alcock and Brown were knighted by His Majesty George V, and received the £10,000 Daily Mail prize, presented to them by the then Secretary of State for War and Air, Winston Churchill. They also received a prize of 2,000 guineas (equal to £2,100) from the Ardath Tobacco Company, and another of £1,000 from Lawrence R. Phillips for being the first British subjects to fly the Atlantic. They gave £2,000 of their prize money to the Vickers and Rolls-Royce mechanics who had helped to prepare the Vimy for the flight. Their Vimy aircraft was repaired by Vickers, and donated to the Science Museum in London later that same year. It has been on display there ever since. One of the original propellers was not returned, however. It is today used as a ceiling fan in Luigi Malone's Restaurant in Cork City, Ireland. Sir Arthur Brown married soon after the flight, and he and his wife left for the USA on honeymoon. Sir John Alcock did not long survive the flight. He was killed in an aircraft accident at Cottevrard, France, on December 18th, 1919, and was buried in England. Brown never flew again. He survived World War II, dying in 1948 in Swansea, Wales. Alcock and Brown inspired those who followed them. Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo crossing of the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1927, said when he landed in Paris, "Alcock and Brown showed me the way." Sadly, in the USA, they are almost unknown today. Many Americans assume (or are misinformed) that Lindbergh was the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. He certainly made the first solo crossing, and the first between New York and Paris, but not the first non-stop Atlantic crossing. Alcock's and Brown's flight was re-enacted in 2005, when Steve Fossett and Mark Rebholz flew a replica Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Ireland. It was the third and last of the great Vimy historical flights to be re-enacted by this replica aircraft. Further details may be found on the Web site. The video clip below shows the replica Vimy in flight earlier this year. If it seems slow to you, remember that the Vimy's top speed was only 100 mph - no faster than many cars on our roads today, and slower than quite a few of them! Next week we'll look at those who followed Alcock and Brown in challenging the North Atlantic Ocean. You may be surprised by the next Weekend Wings. Fire Fox said... Very interesting, thanks! Anonymous said... I'm preparing some lectures and found your blog very helpful - many thanks. ian mclachlan.	dclm-gs1-104970000
Getting Started with Adobe After Effects - Part 6: Motion Blur Upload Image Close it Select File Career advice for the IT professional Browse by Tags · View All SQLServerPedia Syndication 194 SQL Server 60 2012/Denali 17 Career 17 Denali 14 SQL Server 2012 13 Archive · View All June 2011 20 August 2011 15 July 2011 15 March 2012 15 October 2011 14 September 2011 14 May 2011 13 November 2011 12 February 2012 11 April 2012 10 James Serra's Blog Can you query a SSAS cube while it is processing? Jun 29 2011 12:00AM by James Serra I have always wondered if queries against a SSAS cube while it is processing would be forced to wait the entire time the cube is processing, or just for a few minutes? Or would the query bomb out? Surprisingly, I found little information on the internet about this. Fortunately, with help from SSAS guru’s Chris Webb and Adam Jorgensen, they lead me to an old posting that explained it. Here is my summation: You can query a cube while it is processing. The worst that could happen is near the end of processing there is a brief period of time where your query could be killed or it might be queued, and it would be queued only for a short time, even if the cube processing takes hours. The reason is the way a cube is processed: When an cube object is processed a new version of the object is created and this new version is where the processing actually takes place. For example, the first time you process a dimension you will see in the dimension folder files with a name like 1.(All).astore where ’1′ stands for the version of the dimension. When you process the dimension again you will see files with version ’2′, so the above file will change to 2.(All).astore. When the processing is complete a “pending commit” lock is placed on the object that was being processed (and any dependent objects). If there are any current queries executing against the object in question they will be allowed to continue, and any new queries will be queued up until the current version can be swapped out for the new version. So the only time a cube query could be delayed is during this swapping, which could be anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending of course on the size of the object. After the commit operation the old set of object files are deleted and Analysis Server will start to use the new files. In this example if the dimension was called Reseller, the DDL definition of the Reseller dimension, which is kept in the Dim Reseller.1.dim.xml file, would be deleted and you would see a new file created called Dim Reseller.2.dim.xml. If you looked inside this file, you would see <ObjectVersion>2</ObjectVersion> There is an SSAS property called ForceCommitTimeout that specifies what happens to a query that is executing against the cube when the “pending commit” lock is placed, meaning these queries are blocking it from completing. ForceCommitTimeout is a signed 32-bit integer property that defines the timeout, in milliseconds, before a pending commit should cancel other commands that preceded the current command, including queries in process. The default value is 30 seconds (30000 milliseconds). If the ForceCommitTimeout has expired and there are queries still executing they are cancelled (the receive a “Server: The operation has been cancelled”) and the old version of the object is swapped out for the new one and any queries that were queued up are allowed to commence. This means that increasing the ForceCommitTimeout will give currently executing queries more time to complete. But it also means that queries that were executed soon after the “pending commit” lock was taken will be stalled for the timeout period before they even start to be executed. This will result in the perception of inconsistent performance as any queries executed during this window might take nearly twice as long to start producing results. The “pair” to the ForceCommitTimeout setting is the CommitTimeout setting, where you could cause the commit of the process operation to timeout and roll back, allowing currently executing queries to continue to completion. Seems unlikely you would want to use this as much as the ForceCommitTimeout as you are basically saying that queries are more important than the processing operation. The default value for this property is zero (0), which indicates that the server will not time out commit operations. This also leads to another question: If you process a cube and the processing bombs, will the users continue to be able to query the cube? If you fully process a dimension, such as after making dimension structural changes, but you don’t process the cube that references that dimension (or the cube bombs when you try to process it), the cube will be left in an unprocessed state and it will be unavailable for querying. Other than that particular case, the users will be able to query the cube. So if you decide to do a full process on the cube and it errors out, you don’t have to worry that you just made the cube un-accessible. James Serra 35 · 5% · 1664 Your Comment Sign Up or Login to post a comment.	dclm-gs1-104990000
Sign up × Note : Any answer to this question will not be (and should not be) taken as medical advice. One of my friends has allergic rhinitis and has been prescribed an oral vaccine. He is allergic to 3 different classes of substances and so, has been given 3 different types of vaccines. He has to place them below his tongue. I am curious about some of the procedures he has to follow. 1.How does a vaccine of this type work ? 2 He has been given 2 vials for each type of vaccine. First one is labeled SRS and other one as I understand is - it's allergen. So, What is SRS ? What's the requirement of it ? 3 It is written in the instructions that he should not eat anything one hour before and one hour after taking the vaccine. Why ? share\|improve this question SRS-A stands for slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis. It is a leukotriene which causes eosinophil chemotaxis and thereby causes allergic reactions in rhinitis. The described technique is called sublingual immunotherapy. I am not sure how it works (Cant find any article on that. Most articles are from medical journals which don't emphasize on mechanism). I shall find out and get back. – WYSIWYG Jan 23 '14 at 5:11 1 Answer 1 up vote 2 down vote accepted Rhinitis is irritation and inflammation of the mucous membrane inside the nose. Common symptoms of rhinitis are a stuffy nose, runny nose, and post-nasal drip. The most common kind of rhinitis is allergic rhinitis, which is usually triggered by airborne allergens such as pollen and dander [1]. Many questions regarding sublingual immunization still remain to be addressed, including the use of proper adjuvant and the optimization of vaccine formulation to further enhance the vaccine efficacy [2]. Sublingual immunization can induce both systemic and mucosal immune responses against a variety of antigens, including soluble proteins, inter particulate antigens, and live-attenuated viruses [2]. Sublingual immunization has been shown to be safe and highly effective in generating robust immune responses against the administered antigen. Moreover, it has been shown to confer protective immunity by simultaneously eliciting systemic IgG and mucosal IgA antibodies as well as cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in the peripheral lymphoid organs and mucosal tissues. Studies also suggest that sublingual immunization could be a better alternative to the traditional parental route of vaccine delivery against both genital and respiratory pathogens [2]. Although the s.l. mucosa does not allow passage of macromolecules into blood, s.l. immunization with ovalbumin, a model soluble protein antigen, administered alone or together with cholera toxin adjuvant, induces mucosal antibody responses as well as systemic immune responses in mice. The magnitude of serum antibody responses induced by s.l. immunization was in fact comparable to that seen after intranasal (i.n.) immunization and far superior to that after o.g. (oro-gastric) immunization [3]. Upon stimulation of mucosal surfaces by foreign antigens, dendritic cells among the antigen presenting cells are immediately processed and transport antigen via afferent lymph to draining lymph node for presentation to T cells. Subsequently they induce secretory IgA antibodies. This suggestive link between trafic pattern of dendritic cells and their functions led to the investigation of the chemokine responsiveness of dendritic cells during their development and maturation. It has been observed that type II mucosa tissues (e.g., skin, vaginal, and buccal), which are covered with stratiﬁed epithelia and devoid of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissues, mainly express CCL20, CCL19/CCL21, or CCL27/CCL28 individually [4]. CCR7 (chemokine receptor) expressed CD8α-CD11c+ cells ferry antigens in the sublingual mucosa, migrate into the cervical lymph nodes, and share the antigen with resident CD8α+CD11c+ cells for the initiation of antigen-specific T and B cell responses following sublingual challenge. The sublingual mucosa is one of the effective mucosal inductive sites regulated by the CCR7-CCL19/CCL21 pathway [4]. 1. Wikipedia, Rhinitis 2. Byoung-Shik Shim, Youngjoo Choi, In Su Cheon, and Man Ki Song. Sublingual Delivery of Vaccines for the Induction of Mucosal Immunity. 3. Cecil Czerkinsky, Nicolas Çuburu, Mi-Na Kweon, Fabienne Anjuere and Jan Holmgren. Sublingual vaccination. 4. Joo-Hye Song, Jung-Im Kim, Hyung-Joon Kwon, Doo-Hee Shim, Nirmala Parajuli, Nicolas Cuburu, Cecil Czerkinsky and Mi-Na Kweon. CCR7-CCL19/CCL21-Regulated Dendritic Cells Are Responsible for Effectiveness of Sublingual Vaccination. share\|improve this answer Your Answer	dclm-gs1-105000000

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