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Reduce Your Energy Costs with Energy Efficient Windows
Understanding a Window's Performance
Understanding all of the factors in a window's energy efficiency can be difficult.
What do terms like Energy Star,
Here's a brief overview of the important factors in energy efficiency.
Thermal Performance of the Entire Window
ENERGY STAR was created by the United States Department of Energy to establish a program for evaluating the thermal performance of windows and their suitability for different geographic regions of the country.
Windows must be tested to the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) standards. Windows must be certified by an independent third party as meeting the NFRC test standards and unbiased criteria set by ENERGY STAR.
Seaway offers a variety of glass configurations, including those that meet the criteria for each ENERGY STAR region.
All Seaway windows with low-E glass meet & surpass these criteria and are available to meet ENERGY STAR criteria in all climate zones.
The U-Factor indicates how easily heat will flow through the window, whereas R Factor indicates the opposite: how well the window will resist heat flow. The lower the U-Factor, the better a window insulates.
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) is the amount of solar radiation admitted through a window. The lower a window's SHGC, the less solar heat is transmitted into the house and the easier it is to keep your house cool in the summer. On the other hand, in northern climates, a higher SHGC can provide beneficial passive solar heating in the winter. Seaway offers a variety of high-performance glass coating packages with varying SHGC ratings to suit your needs, based on your climate.
Seaway's spectrally selective glass coating packages have been designed to enhance a window's thermal performance by blocking ultraviolet and infrared light, and in turn, block some visible light as well. Clear glass blocks about 20% of visible light.
The amount of air that can pass through the seals of a window's operating sashes, measured by a fraction of cubic feet per minute per square foot of window at 25 mph winds.
Not All Low-E is Created Equal
Seaway's high-performance Low-E is our standard
Seaway's high-performance Low-E has a clear appearance with minimal tint, yet it can keep the summer heat and the winter cold outside, giving you year-round comfort.
Intercept™, Ultra InterceptTM and Super Spacer®
Seaway uses advanced Intercept™and Ultra InterceptTM technology as a standard to create insulated glass with a warm edge around the perimeter. The edge of the glass is typically the coldest spot on the window and can be prone to condensation.
Other windows utilize glass panels with rectangular aluminum spacers, which conduct the heat away from the inner pane of glass resulting in a cold edge. Intercept spacers, instead, use a thin steel U channel that reduces conductivity and keeps the edge of the glass warm.
Seaway also offers Super Spacer®, a non-metallic structural foam spacer, as an option for the absolute finest in warm edge spacers.
Super Spacer blocks heat
Gas Fill
All Seaway windows with high-performance Low-E glass receive argon gas fill between the panes of glass. Krypton gas fill is available as an optional upgrade. Argon and krypton are harmless and odorless rare earth gases that are found in minute amounts in the air.
When concentrated, argon and krypton gas are more dense/viscous than air, reducing the convective heat loss from between the glass panes and have lower thermal conductance, thus reducing conductive heat loss through the glass unit itself. Many companies charge extra for argon gas, or use less of it to save costs, but Seaway uses a minimum 90% fill level and includes it in all our standard high-performance Low-E packages.
Seaway's Insulated Glass Packages
All Seaway windows are offered with a wide assortment of high performance of glass packages. You can choose the glass package and thermal glass performance that best suits your climate and comfort needs.


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Hi!!! My name is Samal, I am new in town looking to have some serious fun. I am friendly, fun & very playful,and pretty. I am gentle, passionate & always sensual. Prepare yourself for a sensual experience like you have never had before. EVERYONE NEEDS TO FEEL SPECIAL... Call me right now for an exquisite experience together!
SAMAL - Istanbul Escort

subset: commoncrawl


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Technology plays a big role in modern life, even when you're driving. In the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander, plenty of standard and available technology features work to keep you and your passengers connected and safe while on the road.
With the available Smartphone Link Display Audio system, you can stream your favorite music, connect your phone through Bluetooth®, access certain apps, and view vehicle information via the seven-inch touchscreen. Add in the available Android Auto™ and Apple CarPlay™ features and you can have access to features like Google Maps™, hands-free calling, Apple Music, Siri, and more.
Today's in-car technology plays a big role in improving safety. With the Outlander, there are numerous available advanced safety features. Adaptive Cruise Control uses radar technology to monitor the vehicle in front of you and maintain a safe following distance by slowing down, when necessary. In addition, features like Rear Cross Traffic Alert, a 360-degree camera system, and Blind Spot Warning help monitor your surroundings like an extra set of eyes.
And, perhaps the best safety feature of all is the available Forward Collision Mitigation, which can automatically apply the brakes to reduce the impact and minimize the likelihood of an accident occurring.
Come check out all of the great technology available in the 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander by visiting Bell Mitsubishi today.


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Wading in together/
A cruel irony of mid-stage parenting is that--just as we hit these wonderfully and woefully more complicated years--the opportunities to get together with other parents dry up. We tend to get more isolated just when we need others more. What's up with that?! No more helpful reality checks via playground chats with fellow parents while we watch the kids play. No more playgroup lunches, comparing notes and dishing out equal parts advice and reassurance. Instead, life seems to speed up. While every single stage of parenting is loaded with ups and downs (potty training, anyone? tantrums? sleep schedules?), what makes the tough days tougher during this particular phase is that we can feel so utterly alone in it.
That's why we hatched this little blog--to say "hey, you're not the only one." We really aim to celebrate the wonders and beauties of this stage and, at the same time, we want to acknowledge the reality that there are pitfalls--not in a heavy, negative way but in a supportive, I-hear-you one. (This is a no-guilt zone, folks!)
With that in mind, we've added a new feature* over on the sidebar over there ----> so you can chime in with your own thoughts and concerns. Do you have a question that you'd love to ask other seasoned parents? A suggestion for a topic to start a discussion here? Send them in and we'll pass them along (anonymously, if you want) via Facebook and on future posts, inviting other nest&launchers to chime in. We definitely don't have all the answers but we really do love mulling over the questions. Pull up a virtual park bench and think of it as our own version of those leisurely playground chats of days gone by.
*thanks, Andrea, for the suggestion!


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Have you finished 'All About the Hype' and been left with burning questions about Jessie, Johnny, and the rest of the Jeffersons? We'll you're in luck.
Paige Toon will be taking charge of @maximumpopbooks on Thursday at 7pm to answer all your questions for a whole hour!
We'll be pestering Paige about seeing more of the Jeffersons in the future (PLEASE?!), Jessie's glamorous life in LA and the awesome research Paige does for her books. What about you?
Tweet your questions to @maximumpopbooks using the hashtag #ToonTakeover to join in the fun.
Grab your copy of 'All About the Hype' right here!
Tell us which of Paige's books is your favourite at @maximumpopbooks
- The one you've been waiting for… 'Empire of Storms' plus MORE fab new releases!
- Quiz: Which 'Harry Potter' spell should you cast on your crush?
- Win! We've got 50 copies of 'Broken Sky' for you to catch up on this explosive series!
- TINDER: Are the cast of 'Nerve' hot or not? Cast your vote now!
- The Graces? Lydia? Which September cover will MP!ers choose as the favourite?
- SWIPER: Can you beat NERVE?
- Get the look from one of the hottest covers of the summer! Plus see behind the scenes of the shoot!
- Quiz: How popular are your 'Harry Potter' opinions?


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A new video gives a clear view of the punch Orlando Bloom landed on Justin Bieber. Was it over Miranda Kerr?
Orlando Bloom and Justin Bieber ran into each other in a hip celebrity packed restaurant in Ibiza. Orlando Bloom landed a punch on Justin Bieber. The reason for it is not clear, but it could be about Bloom's ex model Miranda Kerr. A video published yesterday about the incident did not show the blow, but now another cellphone video clearly shows Orlando Bloom punching Justin Bieber. Bieber's bodyguard though managed to deflect some of the blow.
See the short video published Norwegian VG.TV below.
That the fight was about Miranda Kerr is supported by the fact that Justin Bieber posted a sexy pic of Miranda Kerr on his Instagram after the fight and then quickly deleting it according to TMZ.
Justin Bieber got to know Miranda Kerr at the 2012 Victoria's Secret show. If anything happened between them is not known. Orlando Bloom on the other hand was sen with Selena Gomez earlier this year.
Australian model Miranda Kerr does not care about either one of those guys anymore.


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A shipping cock-up at US retailer Target has seen a handful of lucky gamers get their hands on Microsoft's Xbox One console way ahead of its official November 22nd launch date. And, naturally, they've spilled the last remaining secrets of the console all over the web for us all to dissect.
Twitter user @moonlightswami has been the most loose-lipped of all early Xbox One owners, revealing plenty of previously unknown details about the console.
According to the nocturnal yogi, the console boots up from off in 17 seconds -- a fairly lengthy boot up time in this SSD age but, considering the console has been designed with a low power draw in mind and to be left on at all times, that may not be too big a deal. Upon first powering up the machine, a 500MB patch download is required, assumed to be in part needed to reverse Microsoft's controversial early Xbox One policies.
Potentially more of a problem is the game download sizes. Ranging from 8GB for FIFA 14 to a gigantic 43GB for NBA 2K14, game installs and digital downloads on the console may cause the 500GB hard drive capacity to fill up fast. Thankfully, a large download can be played once the game has hit 50 per cent of its total download size, so gamers can get playing sooner rather than later.
Though Kinect has many detractors, the early reports on the sensor's voice recognition systems seem overwhelmingly positive, with @moonlightswami reporting that he was able to have a Skype-calling pal control the Kinect, so capable was its microphone.
Less impressive were the console's DVR features, which were described as merely "alright". Game capture video quality didn't appear very high, and @moonlightswami's postings to YouTube (which have since been pulled) caused Microsoft to bring the ban hammer down on the prematurely released machine. Microsoft claim that's because features are still being refined in the run up to launch, which may or may not mean that DVR features could still be in line for a quality boost before the shelf date hits. [Engadget]


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Nextrend Furniture's New Stock Has Just Arrived
Now is the perfect time to upgrade the furniture in your restaurant, cafe, club, or hotel.
Our new stock is all available for immediate dispatch.
You can even enjoy great savings because our free freight offer is still ongoing for deliveries to Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.
Check out pre-approved financing worth $25,000 from SilverChef.
So what are you waiting for? Request a free quote now! Call 1300 559 965 or fill up our online quote cart.


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Admin Know-IT-All Question #6
Admin Know-IT-All Question #6
Were you correct?
- HAL 9000, 2001 A Space Odyssey
Today's Know-IT-All answer is:
d. Use the command-line tool IISRESET
Learn more:IISRESET is a command-line tool in Windows 2000 that stops, unloads, reloads, and restarts the IIS process and all its attendant components on demand. It is useful as a way to kill and relaunch IIS in many circumstances: as part of a regularly-scheduled batch operation, as a way to insure that Registry and Metabase changes take hold, and as a response to performance monitor alerts in the event of an extreme memory leak.
Using IISRESET is simple enough. Type IISRESET from a command line, followed by a machine name or IP address if you are resetting a machine remotely. The program will respond with prompts that tell you the progress of the reset, which can take up to a couple of minutes in some cases. The default timeout period is 20 seconds for a restart, 60 seconds for a stop, and zero for a reboot, although you can modify these parameters.
If this quiz has left you yearning for a little more information, please check the links below for related articles and tips:
>> Serdar Yegulalp's full article entitled IIS memory leak? Use IISRESET.
>> SearchWin2000.com's recent featured topic, the IIS security toolkit.
>> Read this recent exclusive article to answer the question Can IIS 6.0 take the heat?.
Do you have an idea for an admin Know-IT-All question? Let Mr. Know-IT-All know!


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Go blue:
The benefits of blueberries
This small fruit makes a big splash: Anthocyanins, the pigments behind blueberries' hue, may fight skin cancer and wrinkles while helping brain cells fire faster, so you stay sharp—all with 4 grams of filling fiber per 84-calorie cup! Try these five delicious ways to polish off a pint.
Blueberry Waffles
Serves 4 (369 calories, 12.3 g fat per serving)
Berry Parfait
Serves 4 (243 calories, 1.7 g fat per serving)
Turkey Roll-ups With Blueberry Salsa
Serves 4 (145 calories, 5.5 g fat per serving)
Sweet and Spicy Salmon
Serves 4 (319 calories, 12.4 g fat per serving)
Blueberry-Basil Granita
Serves 4 (64 calories, 0.3 g fat per serving)
Photo Credit: Condé Nast Digital Studio


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Sally and Jim have a good income but if something were to happen to either one, the family would be in a very difficult financial situation. They are thinking about buying life insurance but don't know what kind or how much to buy.
This couple each have financial responsibilities. They can't predict the future and they want to make sure the family is provided for should either pass away prematurely. The first step is to determine if they really need life insurance or not. Not everyone does. If the couple has significant assets and/or a low cost of living, they might not need as much life insurance as they think. If they do need life insurance I often suggest they consider term life. It is far less expensive than other alternatives.
Do you have enough life insurance? Why not talk to Neal and find out.
This case study is for general information only. This is not intended to be used as the basis for decision-making. You should speak to a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.


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If you have no idea why anyone would think Jar Jar Binks is the most devious Sith lord in the Star Wars canon, then do wesa have a surprise for you. The internet is convinced that Jar jar Binks is a Sith Lord.
A little more than a month ago, Reddit user Wumpawarroo posted a Star Wars fan theory which not only argued that Jar Jar Binks is "a trained force user," but a "knowing Sith collaborator" who "will play a central role in The Force Awakens." It sounds ridiculous – especially since Jar Jar Binks is considered a poor comic relief character at best by Star Wars fans – but Wumpawarroo dissects Jar Jar's actions throughout the movies to make a surprisingly compelling hypothesis. Not only did readers react kindly to the theory, but Star Wars fans across the internet began pulling apart the prequel trilogy to see if there were any other clues that might point to Jar Jar having been the true "Phantom Menace" all this time.
So why is it that fans everywhere have bought so hard into this theory? To answer that, we'll have to put forth a few theories of our own.
For those who have yet to dive into the Jar Jar theory, Wumpawarroo first posits that Jar Jar Binks exhibits uncanny strength and agility throughout the Star Wars prequel trilogy. While the audience may interpret Jar Jar as erratic in combat, many of his movements mimic "Zui Quan" martial arts. Zui Quan, also known as Drunken Fist wushu, is a fighting style that utilizes unpredictable momentum to surprise and attack opponents after they've let their guard down. By assuming Jar Jar Binks is indeed using this fighting style, it establishes the possibility that Jar Jar is not the bumbling buffoon we've been led to believe he is.
The theory goes on to speculate that Jar Jar not only shows hints of using the force, but in fact utilizes mind control akin to Jedi and Sith masters. Star Wars fans criticized Jar Jar's presence in Episodes II and III for seeming out of place and unrealistic, but these qualms would be reconciled by believing Jar Jar was in fact manipulating everyone around him. For instance, when Jar Jar receives promotions as a Bombad General and Senate member, he can be seen visibly waving his hands – the usual tell tale sign of mind control. Jar Jar is also seen with Palpatine even well into Episode III, despite having no obvious reason to keep his acquaintance. Fans of the theory take this as a sign that Jar Jar and Palpatine are actually co-conspirators, and knowing both characters hail from Naboo further strengthens this argument.
You may be asking yourself: how plausible is this theory anyway? On one hand, significant figures involved in Star Wars have certainly fanned the flames of this conspiratorial fire. George Lucas has called Jar Jar Binks "the key to all of this" in behind-the-scenes footage of Episode I, and the actor who played Jar Jar even recently tweeted "I will say this, it feels really good when the hidden meaning behind the work is seen. No matter how long it takes.
#TPM." On the other hand, The Force Awakens producer Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that Jar Jar would not be appearing in the upcoming movie, which dashes the idea that Jar Jar would soon be revealed as a Sith master. This does not necessarily mean the theory is wholesale incorrect, but fans will be left guessing its validity for at least a few more years.
Yet the real question here isn't whether or not the theory is real, but why so many on the internet have been vigorously discussing its plausibility to begin with. While it's hard to speak for absolutely everyone, the theory shows that the character of Jar Jar Binks could have been redeemed in spite of his widespread hatred in the Star Wars fandom. Many consider the prequel trilogy to be a blight on the Star Wars canon, yet fans have since admitted that Episodes I-III were much more entertaining to watch with this theory in mind. The idea that such a major plot point could be hidden beneath the surface suggests the work of a genius, and revealing that the most reviled aspects of these movies were in fact deliberate clues and misdirection would be the greatest redemption story in cinema history. Yes, we may hate on these movies with every chance we get, but we don't want to hate on these movies either. Finding a way to appreciate these films in spite of the pop culture ridicule in the past decade is a minor miracle in itself.
In the end, was Jar Jar Binks really a Sith lord all along? It's certainly far fetched, but we may never know unless George Lucas tells us himself. Yet does it make for entertaining discussion and speculation? You bet! Star Wars would be nothing without the fandom supporting it for all these years, and watching fans find a way to "fix" movies in the franchise shows just how revered this series is. Perhaps the Gungan joker will never cross lightsabers with the heroes of Star Wars, but we'll never forget the possibility of what-if.
Gemr is a social platform for collectors and enthusiasts. Users can buy, sell, organize, or just show off whatever it is they're passionate about. From Funko Pops to fine art, or antiques to anime, we have unique communities waiting for you to share your stuff. Sign up now for free, and download our iOS and Android mobile apps!


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Just a reminder that tonight is the opening reception for "Bowie in the Basement", the David Bowie tribute gallery show at the lovely Thunder-Sky, Inc. gallery. I talked about the show here and showed the two pieces I contributed. I still had the finished pencil drawing comps laying around so here are those, too (horrific quality, I know, I snapped them as I as walking out the door rather than scanning). The varied artwork at this show is going to be stunning and just about very piece I have seen has put a big smile on my face. Come on out to the show and grab a burrito at The Comet next door! Also, the show runs through June 25th if you can't make the opening.
Comments are closed.
November 2019


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The houseplant hobby is experiencing something of a renaissance as of late. With their popularity on various social media platforms, easy to grow plant species and their cultivars are experiencing a level of popularity they haven't seen in decades. One genus of particular interest to houseplant hobbyists is Sansevieria.
Despite their popularity, the few Sansevieria species regularly found in cultivation come attached with less than appealing common names. Mother-in-law's tongue, Devil's tongue, and snake plant all carry with them an air of negativity for what are essentially some of the most forgiving houseplants on the market. What few houseplant growers realize is that those dense clumps of upright striped leaves tucked into a dark corner of their home belong to a fascinating genus worthy of our admiration. What follows is a brief introduction to these enigmatic houseplants.
The Sansevieria we encounter in most nurseries are just the tip of the iceberg. Sansevieria is a genus comprise of about 70 different species. I say 'about' because this group is a taxonomic mess. There are a couple reasons for this. For starters, the vast majority of Sansevieria species are painfully slow growers. It can take decades for an individual to reach maturity. As such, they have never really presented nursery owners with much in the way of economic gain and thus only a few have received any commercial attention.
Another reason has to do with the fiber market during and after World War II. In hopes of discovering new plant-based fibers for rope and netting, the USDA collected many Sansevieria but never formally described most of them. Instead, plants were assigned numbers in hopes that future botanists would take the time needed to parse them out properly.
A third reason has to do with the variety of forms and colors these plants can take. Horticulturists have been fond of giving plants their own special cultivar names. This complicates matters as it is hard to say which names apply to which species. Often the same species can have different names depending on who popularized it and when.
Regardless of what we call them, all Sansevieria hail from arid regions of Africa, Madagascar and southern Asia. In the wild, many species resemble agave or yucca and, indeed, they occupy similar niches to these New World groups. Like so many other plants of arid regions, Sansevieria evolved CAM photosynthesis as a means of coping with heat and drought. Instead of opening up their stomata during the day when high temperatures would cause them to lose precious water, they open them at night and store CO2 in the form of an organic acid. When the sun rises the next day, the plants close up their stomata and utilize the acid-stored carbon for their photosynthetic needs.
Often you will encounter clumps of Sansevieria growing under the dappled shade of a larger tree or shrub. Some even make it into forest habitats. Most if not all species are long lived plants, living multiple decades under the right conditions. These are just some of the reasons that they make such hardy houseplants.
The various Sansevieria appear the sort themselves out along a handful of different growth forms. The most familiar to your average houseplant enthusiast is the form typified by Sansevieria trifasciata. These plants produce long, narrow, sword shaped leaves that point directly towards the sky. Many other Sansevieria species, such as S. subspicata and S. ballyi, take on a more rosetted form with leaves that span the gamut from thin to extremely succulent. Still others, like S. grandis and S. forskaalii, produce much larger, flattened leaves that grow in a form reminiscent of a leaky vase.
Regardless of their growth form, a majority of Sansevieria species undergo radical transformations as they age. Because of this, adults and juveniles can look markedly different from one another, a fact that I suspect lends to some of the taxonomic confusion mentioned earlier. A species that illustrates this nicely is S. fischeri. When young, S. fischeri consists of tight rosettes of thick, mottled leaves. For years these plants continue to grow like this, reaching surprisingly large sizes. Then the plants hit maturity. At that point, the plant switches from its rosette form to producing single leaves that protrude straight out of the ground and can reach heights of several feet! Because the rosettes eventually rot away, there is often no sign of the plants previous form.
If patient, many of the Sansevieria will reach enormous sizes. Such growth is rarely observed as slow growth rates and poor housing conditions hamper their performance. It's probably okay too, considering the fact that, when fully grown, such specimens would be extremely difficult to manage in a home. If you are lucky, however, your plants may flower. And flower they do!
Though there is variation among the various species, Sansevieria all form flowers on either a simple or branched raceme. Flowers range in color from greenish white to nearly brown and all produce a copious amount of nectar. I have even noticed sickeningly sweet odors emanating from the flowers of some captive specimens. After pollination, flowers give way to brightly colored berries, hinting at their place in the family Asparagaceae.
As a whole, Sansevieria can be seen as exceptional tolerators, eking out an existence wherever the right microclimate presents itself in an otherwise harsh landscape. Their extreme water efficiency, tolerance of shade, and long lived habit has lent to the global popularity of only a few species. For the majority of the 70 or so species in this genus, their painfully slow growth rates means that they have never made quite a splash in the horticulture trade.
Nonetheless, Sansevieria is one genus that even the non-botanically minded among us can pick out of a lineup. Their popularity as houseplants may wax and wane but plants like S. trifasciata are here to stay. My hope is that all of these folks collecting houseplants right now will want to learn more about the plants they bring into their homes. They are more than just fancy decorations, they are living things, each with their own story to tell.
Photo Credits: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]


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For the five short years of my childhood that I actually lived under the same roof of my much older brother, BJ, I always remember him as being a prankster. Once I sat with him and his friend at our kitchen table at our small house in St. Louis, where he was able to lie so convincingly, that he tricked his friend into eating a fake, plastic grape from the centerpiece on the table. My brother also enjoyed chasing me around the house in his most terrifying of Halloween masks. One Halloween he took me trick or treating, where we posed together in our costumes, him as a grotesque monster and me as a pretty, pretty princess.
I spent most Halloweens when I was young, tricking or treating in my life long friend, Amanda's neighborhood. Her neighborhood had so many kids, what seemed like hundreds at the time. They would pile out of their houses in droves for trick or treating (or to chase down the ice cream truck). One of her neighbors had decorations so scary it was intimidating to walk to the front door. I loved trick or treating with Amanda, because I was painfully shy and couldn't even bring myself to say trick or treat. So I got to hide behind her, let her do all the talking, and could still reap the spoils. When we returned, we would sort out our loot, making trades and bartering with each other.
The year the lion king was released my mom had me a custom lion costume made. It was adorable, but by the time I finished trick or treating, I had lost the tail. My mom always uses this incident as an example of my clumsiness and my penchant for losing things.
When I was in middle school, I ended up hanging out with two friends on Halloween, who I didn't usually hang out with, and I can't remember how. One was an acquaintance of mine from school. He was a kind, albeit small for his age boy. Sometimes when I would walk to the library after school, I would end up playing soccer with him in his front yard. I had a slight crush on him in the way you have a crush on any boy you spend any amount of time with at the age, when you are just starting to be interested in the opposite sex. Somehow we ended up at a Haunted House on Halloween night. I had limited experience with Haunted Houses, due to being a big old scardy cat. Once my mom paid for me to visit a Haunted House at our local mall, and before she could sit down and relax, I ran out the entrance terrified. But at this haunted house with my crush, I was bound and determined not to look like a wussy. With my heart pounding, we entered the house. And I did look like the brave one as my companion was squealing like a girl, and hanging on to me through out the entire experience, until we were finally chased out with chainsaws.
When I was a seventeen year old senior in high school, my friends and I went for a last trick or treating hoorah, even though we were most definitely way too old. We dressed up, I was a Black Eyed Pea. An easy enough costume, you just blacken your eye with eye shadow, and put on a shirt with the letter P. The neighbors got a kick out of our age, and we opened one door to the chorus of, "Man, forget the candy, do you guys want a beer?"
The best haunted house experience I ever had involved the Haunted House that took place in the basement (a.k.a laundry room) of my freshmen dorm, Callaway Hall. Only because that basement has always been plagued with rumors of being haunted. Callaway Hall was used in the civil war as a hospital for wounded soldiers. The basement supposedly being the morgue. Even my own friends, have claimed to hear a ghost whistling Dixie late one night when they were washing their clothes. The basements darkness and decoration made it disorientating, and knowing the history made it terrifying. All my friends and I really were happy to make it out without losing control of our bladders.
And in an non-haunted moment, I about lost my mind once in that basement when a black cat unexpectedly jumped down from the rafters, while I was waiting for the elevator, scaring the bejeezes out of me.


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Tag Archives: Phobias
BWRT® in the news!
BrainWorking Recursive Therapy (BWRT ®) was featured in today's Daily Mail Health section, click here to read the full article. This fantastic new therapy is starting to make waves. As one of the very first practitioners in the world I … Continue reading
Posted in BBRS, Blog posts, BWRT, News, Phobias Tagged BBRS, Brainworking Recursive Therapy, Buckinghamshire, BWRT®, Health, Life Insight Therapy, Mental health, News, Phobias Comments Off on BWRT® in the news!
BrainWorking Recursive Therapy™ (BWRT®) at Life Insight
I am an Advanced Practitioner of BrainWorking Recursive Therapy™ (BWRT®) which means that I am trained to the highest standards and am able to offer it to my clients to address a wide variety of issues (see below). I am … Continue reading
Posted in Anxiety, BBRS, Blog posts, BWRT, Counselling, Mood, News, Phobias, Research, Self Esteem, Stress Tagged Anxiety, BBRS, Beaconsfield, Brainworking Recursive Therapy, Buckinghamshire, BWRT®, Counselling, Depression, Fear, Flackwell Heath, Great Missenden, Happiness, Health, Life Insight Therapy, Mind, Mood, News, Phobias, Stress, Wellbeing, Wooburn Green Comments Off on BrainWorking Recursive Therapy™ (BWRT®) at Life Insight
Anatomy of a Phobia
Many people come to see me seeking help in overcoming phobias; I have worked with a wide range of phobias, some of which may sound unusual, but which have caused very real difficulties for the person affected. A true phobia … Continue reading
Posted in Blog posts, Health and wellness, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Phobias Tagged Fear, Health, Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, Phobias, Wellbeing Comments Off on Anatomy of a Phobia


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around her left eye, earned during a boxing class the previous weekend. "Couldn't stop the right hook," ...
OSU Extension Annual Conference
https://web.cvent.com/event/b8b77c11-e5c4-46bc-bb72-8d177d5e0f6a/summary_blank Image Slide Gray ...
National Rural Health Day
comes to health care services, 50% of Ohio counties are designated as Governor's certified shortage ... areas. There are 44 counties, or regions within counties, considered underserved. Rural communities do ... not see the same health advancements as urban counties. Within these areas residents face ...
Time and Change: The Ohio State Campaign
which, the Kunz-Brundige Franklin County Extension Building, has opened. That will be followed by the ...
Celebration of Youth Raises Over $100,000 for 4-H
The Hocking County 4-H alumna and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer shared the impact 4-H ... group in Ohio 4-H history to the Summit. All event proceeds benefit two funds: The Ohio 4-H Foundation ... Endowment, which supports new and existing Ohio 4-H programs at the county and state levels The Nationwide ...
Ohio AgrAbility in Action: Fitness for Farm Life – Two Stretches for Harvest Season
these stretches to loosen up your neck and shoulders. Shoulder Circle Shrugs Start either in a standing ... or seated position, sitting upright and hands to your sides. Begin by moving your shoulders forward, ... with your shoulders down and back, and shrug forward. Repeat 10 times. Neck stretches Start either in ...
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The house of Serge Lutens in 2014 released a diverse perfume - with black bottle and a golden plate tagged on - that is the first member of subsequently enlarging collection named Section d'Or. Honestly since it's a Serge Lutens, and for the titles, and even the unspoken notes, the collection met me on my highest curiosity level. So I get the samples and randomly tried and tried. Finally Cannibale, with no discrimination to others, is the first from the row I'm dealing to write about.
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Portrait of a gentleman: Monsieur by Frédéric Malle
Few months ago the French perfume house of Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle announced for their latest release, Monsieur, that sooner or later hit the markets all around the world in their stores. Bruno Jovanovic, the tailor behind the release, borrows the concept of creation from Alfonso de Portago, Mark Birley, Jose-Luis de Vilallonga and Gianni Agnelli, the main seducers of the 20th century.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Exquisite leather, part II: Parfums MDCI Cuir Garamante
Even for many historians who worked on northern African cultures, the name Garamantes* is a shady legend buried under layers of sand of Sahara. For me the first time I heard the title was when I was researching on ancient Roman architecture and Opus Africanum stone masonry that I faced this name in a corner of a book. Skipped over like all those caravans who neglected the ruins of a missing civilization swallowed by history, but the short and unfit-to-English-literature word impacted like a fine poem you enjoy repeating in mind. Garamante, what a nice word to pronounce!
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Smell my gun chamber: 1805 Tonnerre by Beaufort
By suggestions and kindness of a friend in Paris I currently discovered the house of Beaufort with their two fragrances 1805 and East India (which I was going to write first but 1805 Tonnerre interrupted with very powerful statement and spoiled the game, so I'm now on his court)!
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Smoked whiskey, leather sofa and cigar: Fumoir by Arte Profumi
Fans of hardcore birch leather perfumes take note. A prestigious branch of leather fantasy is devoted to classical Cuir de Russie compositions orchestrated around birch tar, leathers and soil tincture or tobacco, to enhance the effect of birch-tar-cured leather armors of Russian soldiers*. Fumoir is a member of this fashionable leather club. A perfume that concertizes palatial smoke of cigar, leather seats, and wood and velvet furniture in gentlemen's club.
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Opinion – Last week we posted an article entitled "Analysis: Has Intel found the key to unlock supercomputing powers on the desktop?" in which I discussed several facets of a potential Intel technology without going into too many of the technical details. At the time of our posting, Intel had not yet publicly released the paper describing the technology, which prevented me from going into certain details. However, you can now find published papers using a model Intel is calling "EXOCHI" or Exoskeleton Sequencer C for Heterogeneous Integration. For example, here's a good link that takes you directly to a page with a PDF written by Perry H. Wang, et al, from Intel.
This PDF is available for download and explains the inner workings of EXOCHI and will answer many of the questions raised in the reader comments. But I have taken some time to address some of the key concerns raised in our original article.
It seemed to me that one of the most horrific fears found in those posting responses was that Intel is in someway trying to undo the OS industry or introduce something new which operates outside of the OS. While the Exoskeleton software layer definitely exists outside of the OS and would, by acting as a type of executive layer of sorts, operate almost entirely outside of OS control or driver library support, the OS interface is still a requirement. While I personally believe this strict non-OS ability would be a great solution, it's just not the one Intel is offering.
What Intel would like to do is make the process of using heterogeneous cores as painless as possible for all involved. The company's solution includes a software model that will target as many operating systems as possible, but without tightly bound OS drivers or requirements outside of minor patches to increase the amount of data captured during a task switch.
A picture included in Intel's paper demonstrates that a software layer will still be required. However, if you look closely, it is OS independent in both operation and function. It will provide a single binary that will communicate with the application running within the OS for all OS-related service requests, thereby requiring only that the application have special knowledge of the Exoskeleton software layer, not the OS.
As you can see, the EXOCHI model removes the need for an OS-coupled device drivers. This still allows a CHI runtime library to exist and be linked to your application. To allow for a more traditional approach when creating applications for Exo-sequencers, a software developer would write code for the runtime library requirements. That runtime library would then, in turn, handle all of the actual instrumentation and stream scheduling.
To the applications programmer, the new Exoskeleton software layer will be a black box with only the API provided by the CHI, should it be used. The exposed API can, therefore, be nearly as straight forward as it is today. The only real differences is it won't have the OS dependency or the abstraction layers seen in today's GPGPU model. This simplifies things greatly for the developer while targeting as many operating systems as possible right out of the gate.
My personal opinion is that this could turn out to be a brilliant move by Intel, and one which keeps any new facilities of hardware extremely close to hardware, but with the added flexibility of physically being a software layer that is non-OS dependent. This speaks to one of the proposed technology's greatest strengths.
Another common response in was that the real problem isn't addressed, that of software models or developer skill sets. Several comments indicated these are the real issues with multi-thread programming and that nothing Intel is adding will solve those current problems.
Today's requirements of multi-thread programming are extremely OS dependent. The application starts a new thread and, depending on what platform the OS is running on it will either schedule the new thread in the application's allotted time slice, or allow it to run on a new core, or some combination thereof. All of this is required because we're working on homogeneous cores where each core can only do one thing at a time.
With the Exoskeleton software layer and the Exo-sequencers, we will now have the ability to have many instruction streams running at the same time. The advantage of not having strong OS dependency is that the OS is already burdened enough with task scheduling on homogeneous cores. If it were to attempt to schedule tasks on heterogeneous cores, the results would be a much more complex tasking model for every OS.
Intel's solution addresses that weakness by providing to the application developer a model which would allow them to schedule threads themselves, without OS support, and with a much smaller learning curve due to the strength of Intel's EXOCHI tools in the Exoskeleton software layer and Exo-sequencer hardware layers.
The only thing the OS has to worry about is storing some additional task switching information. This results only in a slightly larger memory block being switched out each time a task switch occurs. The result is a software model which, so far as the main OS is concerned, is still a single-threaded app (or, if it's already multi-threaded, then it's a multi-threaded app). Any new threads launched on the Exo-sequencers happen without the OS knowing about it. There is still an OS layer, of sorts, which is not the main OS. It is the Exoskeleton software layer's communication protocols with the calling apps so that multiple tasks, multiple threads and multiple callers are all handled correctly.
All of this means that what Intel has done is basically introduce a new OS which is transparent and serves only one function, no matter what platform its running on.
It does, via software, what the OS would otherwise have to do in a specific-to-every-OS model, though it does it one time for all by having a software layer which exists closer to hardware than the OS. This benefit cannot be explained heavily enough. Intel is offering a way to create multiple threads on disparate pieces of hardware outside of OS awareness. If your application, for example, compiles correctly and runs under Windows and uses the Exo-sequencers properly, then because everything is specific only to your app and the x86-hardware layer its running on, then the same code will immediately port to Mac OS X, Linux, UNIX, Solaris, anything that runs x86. It will not require, from a straight-forward processing point of view (one outside of GUI requirements, for example), any changes. The software you write once, once recompiled and put into appropriate binary form, will work on all x86-based platforms.
This new ability means that software developers will see a notably smaller learning curve. Developers will no longer have to turn to OS-specific models, or books on theory only to then apply them to specific OSes. They will now be able to target the hardware itself from their point of view. While it will physically be implemented in a more virtual manner, from the developer's point of view they now only have one thing to address to use any added Exo-sequencer. The developers of today who can look at the x86 ISA and use it will be able to write impressively engineered multi-thread code which can take advantage of disparate hardware solutions.
The software knowledge requirements will still be there, but the target for understanding will be much smaller and much more easy to code for. And therein lies its strength.
Read on the next page: So, what problem does this solution really solve?
Some posters asked the question about what does this solution really solve? How would its availability in software provide real speedups for common operations like encoding and decoding. I believe the MIMD (Multiple Instruction Multiple Data) would address that. Accelerator hardware could be used simultaneously to the CPU-based portion in codecs. This would allow workloads to be "shunted" to the accelerator hardware, thereby utilizing high-speed resources for computation while minimizing the CPU requirements.
Intel's EXOCHI paper by Wang, et al, indicated a 141% to 1097% speedup in video and image processing tools. While this kind of integration is possible today using current software models, the limitations of this technology again stem back to driver support. With Intel's proposed solution, the ability to include all required technology directly within x86-based binary executables result in a single-source solution which will operate on any platform.
Intel's EXOCHI PDF lays down a solid explanation for the benefits and pitfalls of the EXOCHI model. It introduces or extends some existing basic concepts which allow the heterogeneous nature of disparate cores to work easily within the x86 ISA and with minimal OS intrusion. These are briefly explained here. For a full understanding, please refer to the 10-page PDF file, section 3.0.
First is the Exoskeleton. The Exoskeleton is a type of hardware wrapper which enables x86 to work with the accelerator solution using a different internal architecture or ISA. This allows the accelerator to communicate back and forth between the x86 CPU via various instructions. The advantage here is that it's done directly by the application and not through OS service requests.
Next is an ability which enables the accelerators to process data on relevant blocks which the CPU itself might also be working on simultaneously. This is the Address Translation Remapping (ATR) mechanism. This device allows shared, virtual memory to be mapped correctly to physical memory via a translation mechanism between the CPU's Translation Lookaside Buffers (TLBs). The mechanisms which keep the virtual addresses in synch are designed to work correctly, however there are no mechanisms for cache coherency between the accelerator and the x86 CPU. It is still the responsibility of the application developer to maintain cache coherency on critical sections or whenever cache coherency might become an issue. I believe mechanisms which address this will eventually be present in the architecture, though not initially – due primarily to development and testing time.
Lastly, we have Collaborative Exception Handling (CEH). With CEH the main x86 CPU will receive and process all interrupts caused by the accelerator hardware. This allows any fault occurring on the accelerator to be directed back to the x86 ISA for proper handling. The mechanics of how this operates are similar in scope to exception handling models today. The primary difference being that any replaying of the faulting instruction are handled by proxy through the CEH module from the x86 CPU's exception handler algorithms.
The overview of this communication between the x86 CPUs and accelerators is shown here:
In closing, the information Intel has now released publicly about this technology answers a lot of questions. It also raises a few more.
Intel has been able to demonstrate a working prototype using Core 2 processors coupled to a Graphics Media Accelerator X3000. Their tests provided a minimum of 41% speedup on video and image processing, with a maximum of 1097% speedup. These tests were conducted on non-integrated hardware which was emulating or mimicking the abilities EXOCHI will finally see, if implemented in hardware. As a result, we should see even greater speedup potential for all kinds of graphics-based algorithms, heavy FP computational algorithms and anything including workloads which can be broken down in parallel.


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I know I know, JUST had a post extolling the greatness of commuting by bicycle to work and how it can save you SO much time in training that you can race the Pro/1 division while working a full time job.
Well I just quit my engineering job.
Alright just kidding…I didn't really quit, but am going on a "Leave of Absence" to focus on cycling and today is my last day.
This had been brewing for a long time. After a lot of discussion with family, friends (thanks for putting up with all my fretting), and co-workers I finally took the deep breath and had the talk. I had been going back and forth with work a few times about ways to make this work: through either part time, or remote work, but ultimately it was decided that LoA was the best route for everyone.
My co-workers/managers was actually very supportive of me taking time off (contrary to any nightmares I had before talking to them). They didn't find it that odd that I wanted to leave my engineering desk job to try my hand at being a professional athlete. I didn't want to have to describe how much less glamorous being a professional cyclist is than being say a pro baseball player, but hearing them say that made me feel pretty good regardless.
I'm really happy and excited about this, I'll really be able to focus on the cycling 100%.
I'm also pretty psyched to be doing it with the Smart Stop guys too. The team camp gave me a lot of good vibes about the guys on the team and the goals they're trying to accomplish.
So today is my last day in the cube farm for a while. Tomorrow I'm flying out to Arizona for the Tucson Bicycle Classic, then it's off to San Dimas, followed by Redlands!!


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Charlotte Mason Quotes About LearningQuotes about: Learning
Our aim in education is to give a full life. We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking - the strain would be too great - but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest.
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Charlotte Mason
- Born: January 1, 1842
- Died: January 16, 1923
- Occupation: Author
- Cite this Page: Citation


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City Beat
Fresno City Council to hear about river-water deliveries
Billions of gallons of water are coming to Fresno. The City Council on Thursday will figure out what to do with them.
The item before the council is simple: Should Fresno buy nearly 3,000 acre feet of water from Millerton Lake?
California, of course, is in the middle of a fourth straight year of terrible drought. Water is precious everywhere. Conservation is the name of the game. It's likely to be this way forever.
At the same time, the report going to the council from Public Utilities Director Thomas Esqueda sheds unexpected light on Fresno's water situation while raising a bunch of questions.
First, Esqueda's superb report.
Esqueda notes that Fresno meets the annual water needs of about 130,000 water customers (he calls them "accountholders"). This city of 510,000 people delivered 46.1 billion gallons in calendar year 2013 and 41.7 billion gallons in 2014.
Gov. Jerry Brown wants Fresno this year to cut its water consumption by 28% compared to 2013. As Esqueda notes, this means Fresnans this year must consume no more than 33.2 billion gallons.
At this point, allow me to put these figures into acre feet. An acre foot is about 326,000 gallons. It is the standard unit of measurement in local water debate:
▪ 2013: 46.1 billion gallons equates to 141,411 acre feet.
▪ 2014: 41.7 billion gallons, 127,914 acre feet.
▪ 2015: 33.2 billion gallons, 101,840 acre feet. (Our goal for the year; perhaps our new yardstick for decades to come.)
Fresno has entitlements to water from our two nearby lakes, Millerton and Pine Flat. When the lakes are full and there's a normal snowpack in the Sierra, we get about 60,000 acre feet from Millerton and about 120,000 acre feet from Pine Flat. Total: About 180,000 acre feet.
Obviously, 180,000 is a lot more than 141,411. It's nearly twice as much as 101,840. Let me emphasize that I know the 180,000 acre feet refers to normal rain eras, something we most definitely are not in now.
Esqueda and his recent predecessors at Public Utilities (Patrick Wiemiller and Martin McIntyre among them) have struggled to make full use of these 180,000 acre feet in a normal rain year. The reason for their woes is simple: River water is surface water (duh!), and surface water requires a higher level of treatment than groundwater (the aquifer) if it's to be consumed by humans.
You need a surface water treatment plant to make the quickest use of our river water. Fresno, for policy reasons too complex and contentious to go into here, had refused for decades to build enough treatment-plant capacity to make full and timely use of our river water.
Actually, for the longest time we refused to build any treatment-plant capacity.
Granted, another way to maximize our river water is put the stuff in ponding basins and let it percolate into the aquifer. The soil acts as a filter. We pump the water to the surface, give it a quick cleaning, then send it to consumers.
This is rather inexpensive and easy. It works fine as long as the aquifer is healthy.
And this is what Fresno has done. But we've never had enough ponding basins to handle 180,000 acre feet a year.
I hope you begin to get the picture as we develop the context for Esqueda's request Thursday to the City Council.
On the one hand, Fresno is blessed with lots of water in normal rain years. We've got a dandy (if overused) aquifer. We've got big mountains to the east that have magnificent rivers. We've got a legal hold on a lot of that river water. For the most part, we've met our water needs with relatively little trouble.
On the other hand, we couldn't bring ourselves for 120 years to build surface water treatment plants even when we knew it was the smart thing to do. We couldn't bring ourselves to build enough ponding basins. We let tens of thousands of acre feet of our water go downstream in normal rain years with nary a tear.
Things began changing early in the 21st century during the first term of Mayor Alan Autry. City officials knew the old ways had to end. The big day was Sept. 16, 2004 when local leaders dedicated the new Northeast Surface Water Treatment Plant, located near Clovis North High School.
The plant's capacity was about 20 million gallons a day. Today, its capacity is about 30 million gallons a day, although I get a sense from city documents that the plant's typical production is actually closer to the original 20 million gallons per day. Thirty million gallons is about 92 acre feet.
The city since then has also built a satellite surface water treatment plant on the east side of town, a plant that hasn't been used as regularly as the northeast plant. I gather from city documents that the satellite plant's capacity is four million gallons per day.
Let's assume the two plants can operate at the capacity of 30 million gallons a day (northeast plant) and four million gallons a day (satellite plant). Together, they could treat about 104 acre feet of river water per day.
Four things of note have happened in the last three months.
1.) The City Council on Feb. 26 approved a new rate plan to pay for a $429 million upgrade to the city's water system. The big-ticket item is a surface water treatment plant in southeast Fresno. The plant's capacity at some point should be 80 million gallons a day.
2.) Gov. Jerry Brown on April 1 issued an executive order mandating unprecedented cuts in water consumption by farmers and cities. That got state water regulators involved. Bottom line: Fresno must cut its consumption in 2015 compared to 2013 by 28%. Cities could face huge fines for failure to comply.
3.) The City Council on April 9 gave Wastewater Treatment Plant boss Steve Hogg the green light to build two satellite treatment plants, one near Granite Park in central Fresno, the other in downtown. These plants are several years from going live. When they do, together they'll produce up to 8 million gallons of recycled water per day suitable for landscape irrigation. The satellite plants are part of a sophisticated recycled water system that City Hall is just now getting off the ground. When completed, the system is expected to deliver 25,000 acre feet of recycled water per year to various institutional/commercial/industrial customers now using potable (drinking) water.
4.) Farmers on May 14 learned that they will get no regular deliveries from the Fresno Irrigation District. This is the first time in nearly a century that this has happened.
Where, you ask, am I going with this? After all, The Bee has reported these stories at length.
My point is simply to re-emphasize to you, the reader, key pieces of context as we head to Thursday's City Council meeting and Thomas Esqueda's report.
▪ Fresnans really and truly agreed to fund those $429 million of water-system upgrades (including more ponding basins). That $200 million-plus surface water treatment plant really and truly is coming. When built, it'll be working on our behalf every year for decades and decades.
▪ Fresnans in the very near future will be able to fully exploit, for their own benefit, all or nearly all of those 180,000 acre feet of river water we get in normal rain years. And, yes, the rains will return.
▪ Fresnans in the very near future will be blessed with a recycled-water system that will produce 25,000 acre feet of guilt free water. That's water that we've already used in our homes and businesses, sent to the sewer farm, then cleaned to a degree that enables us to use it again. In other words, we'll soon have at our disposal an estimated 205,000 acre feet of water every year that the rains come in decent amounts.
▪ Fresnans in 2013 when we were (in theory) water-wasters of the worst kind used only about 141,000 acre feet. We have been ordered by Sacramento to cut that usage to 101,000 acre feet this year. We've been ordered to permanently change our water-consumption habits. Government is now using its power to deem almost all greenery at single-family residences (especially if the homes are on big lots) as violations of civic duty. Gov. Brown wants suburban lawns to disappear. That means they will.
▪ Lots of other water consumers in the central San Joaquin Valley and throughout California aren't as fortunate as Fresno.
Back to Esqueda's report to the City Council.
Esqueda says Fresno this year is slated to get no water from Millerton Lake. However, he says city officials have been in talks with the Friant Water Authority and the federal Bureau of Reclamation. These talks have led to the proposed purchase of 2,990 acre feet of Millerton water.
The purchase is divided into two parts.
The first transaction is for 1,616 acre feet from the Friant Water Authority. The cost is $943,222.19. This works out to be $583.68 per acre foot. In a normal rain year, the city pays $64.19 per acre foot.
The second transaction is for 1,374 acre feet from the Bureau of Reclamation. The cost is $68,703.75. That works out to be $50 per acre foot.
Total things up and you have 2,990 acre feet to the price of $1,011,925.94, or about $338 per acre foot.
My first thought: It's always good to get more water in a drought.
My second thought: Do we still have to pay the Millerton Lake folks $21.40 per acre foot for 120,000 acre feet ($2,568,000) even in drought years when we don't get any regular deliveries? In other words, do we pay for nothing because we don't want to lose our entitlement to 120,000 acre feet when the rains return?
My third thought: Why is the Friant Water Authority water so much more expensive than the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water?
But there's more to Esqueda's report.
He also notes that Fresno this year is getting 24,400 acre feet from Pine Flat.
That seems like a lot water. Don't get me wrong — I'm not complaining. But I assumed we'd get zero from Pine Flat. Instead, we're getting a bit more than 20% of the amount we'd get in more normal times. How did this come to pass? And why are we getting 20% of our regular entitlement from Pine Flat (according to Saturday's Bee, the reservoir currently holds 232,396 acre feet) and nothing of our regular allotment from Millerton Lake (185,606 acre feet, according to The Bee)? Are the downstream fish getting most of the Millerton Lake water?
Let's say the City Council agrees to buy the Millerton Lake water. That means Fresno in the 2015 drought year will get a total of 27,390 acre feet of river water. That's nearly nine billion gallons of water.
The plan is to take delivery of Pine Flat water until Sept. 30, then begin taking delivery of the Millerton Lake water on Oct. 1.
I'd been thinking that Fresno's northeast surface water treatment plant and its satellite treatment plant would be mothballed this year because of no river water. Instead, it looks like they'll be working pretty much 24/7 until the late fall. To my way of thinking, that's a miracle.
It also seems possible our impact on the groundwater level this year won't be any more severe than it was in the recent drought years, or at least not as severe as first feared.
If we cut our consumption to 101,840 acre feet this year, that means the 27,390 acre feet of river water will work out to be 26.9% of our water consumption.
In 2014, 27,390 acre feet would work out to be 21.4% of that year's total water consumption.
In 2013, 27,390 acre feet would work out to be 19.4% of that year's total water consumption.
You know what? Fresno even in the fourth year of a historic drought has surprising access to large amounts of water. And every day we're doing a better job of making better use of that water.
Here's my final question: Other than the fact that the governor and Sacramento regulators insist that Fresnans conserve big-time this year, what difference does it really make how much water we use in 2015?
We're filthy rich when it comes to water in normal rain years. Normal rain years will return. If they don't, we're doomed and it doesn't matter what we do in 2015.
Fresnans, at the urging of Mayor Ashley Swearengin and the City Council, rolled the dice on a $429 million upgrade of the water system and a huge recycled water system that costs millions. These actions all but guarantee that a Fresno that will have access in normal rain years to more than 200,000 acre feet of river water and recycled water, yet uses even in extravagant times only about two-thirds of that amount per year, will replenish its aquifer in a relatively short period.
Let's say the full replenishment of our aquifer would be 15 years if we really sacrifice in 2015, and 16 years if we sacrifice only a modest amount in 2015.
I'm not sure the Fresnans of 2050, blessed as they will be with a full aquifer and a great water system and superb water-consumption habits, will care one way or another.
Maybe city officials on Thursday will enlighten us.
George Hostetter: (559) 441-6272, @GeorgeHostetter


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Arctic drilling can be done safely, as long as the oil industry takes a balanced approach and works with local stakeholders and federal regulators, said the head of a federal panel investigating the issue.
"I'm not uncomfortable if it proceeds in a very balanced way and with a significant amount of oversight . . . and a lot of engagement with the local stakeholders," said Tom Hunter, the chairman of the federal Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee established after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The panel has submitted its final recommendations for boosting offshore drilling safety to the Interior Department, including a proposal for a permanent ocean energy safety institute and Arctic-specific standards governing oil development in the frontier area.
Hunter, the former director of the Sandia National Laboratory, made his comments during an interview on Platts Energy Week.
Although oil companies drilled some 30 wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska in the 1980s and '90s, there was a long pause before Shell launched a new round of drilling in those waters last year. The company drilled the first 1,500 feet of two wells, but its hopes to return this year depend on whether regulators approve the work and it can repair the Kulluk conical drilling unit that grounded on an Alaskan island on New Year's Eve.
Hunter said the work so far is proceeding on "a very measured pace." And, he insisted, that's a good thing.
Read more: Salazar cites 'troubling sense' about Arctic drilling mishaps
"If you keep the pace very measured — if you keep the activities on a balanced course, (including) starting initial operations in the early drilling season, which went on this last year, and then learning from that and improving our operations going forward — I think it can be done in a balanced way, and I think it can be done effectively," Hunter said.
Hunter said regulators need to be on guard and people in neighboring communities have to be engaged in the work.
Outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ordered a "high-level" review of Arctic drilling, following the Kulluk grounding and other mishaps during Shell's work last year, including the failure of its oil spill containment system during a deployment drill in Seattle and the drifting of its drillship Noble Discoverer before its trip to the Chukchi Sea.
Right now, there are no specific mandates governing oil exploration or development in the region — including guidelines for public review of spill response plans, the design of wells, what emergency equipment must be on scene and how pipelines should be constructed.
Hunter said the oil industry has come a long way since 2010, when engineers furiously innovated equipment to contain the runaway Macondo well on the fly. But, he said, there's still more work to be done.
Current technology "is adequate" for combating most drilling mishaps now, he told Platts. But the challenge is keeping up with industry as it moves into ever-more-challenging frontiers.
"As things become more complex, as drilling enters different environment, as depths become greater, as pressures become greater, there will be (more) need for ever-improving technology," Hunter said.


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Wow, it's my second Owls blog tour. This month's theme is Sanctuary and we are interpreting it through different anime.
Sanctuary – a sanctuary is a place of safety and stability. In anime, there are several different places and environments that characters call "home." For this topic, we will be discussing various locations and settings within certain anime series.
I guess when I think of sanctuary its a place where you feel comfortable with yourself. Where you can be yourself and not put up a front. Just like the anime I will interpret for this topic Called Watamote.
Watamote also known as "No Matter How I Look at it, It's You Guys Fault I'm not Popular" follows a girl named Tomoko Kuroki. She is 15 and about to enter high school. She was never popular growing up. Now that she will be entering high school, she decides to change her social status and try to become popular. You watch her many awkward encounters with people and her anti social ways.
Tomoko is a 15 year girl who is a loner and spends her whole days playing Otome Games and browsing the web. She has social anxiety and many of her encounters with people are very awkward. She is about to enter high school and decides she will change her unpopular status to being popular.
Tomoko suffers from social anxiety. She can not speak to anyone without freaking out. We see her at Wcdonald (Fake McDonald) ordering food. The clerk takes her order and Tomoko could barely speak. The clerk couldn't hear and asked her to repeat her reject and Tomoko freaks out.
One embarrassing moment Tomoko had was when she lost her underwear and didn't know where it was placed. She was in class thinking about where should could have lost it. She realizes it's super hot in the classroom and takes a cloth to wipe her face and to fan herself. A male student comes to her and realizes she is actually fanning her underwear around and they both freak out.
One day Tomoko was home and she was playing one of her Otome games and her mom walks in. Tomoko has the volume so loud on her headphones that her mother can hear the conversation with the male lovers from the game seducing Tomoko. Talk about embarrassing. 😂😂
One of the saddest and yet funniest scene is when she tried to dress up and look sexy and cute. It pretty much failed because she looked so bad. Even her brother didn't speak to her when he saw her in public. 😂😢
Throughout this series it was back to back awkward and embarrassing moments for Tomoko. Talk about bad luck for one person.
The only times you will see Tomoko be comfortable and be herself is when she is speaking with her brother Tomoki. He is her sanctuary.
Tomoki is Tomoko's younger brother. Unlike his sister, he has friends, is popular and a talented soccer player. He gets annoyed with his sister because she is always in his room asking for advice or just rambling. You usually see them two getting into fights.
As much as Tomoki gets annoyed with his sister, he would still be there for her to vent and release all her tension. She would blab about nonsense majority of the time and he would look at his sister like she is crazy, But you actually get to see Tomoko comfortably speaking with no problems. She knew she can speak with her brother and not be scared. Her anxiety never kicks in.
These times when she is being annoying to her brother when he wants to be left alone is when you see her at her best.
There are some people in life that are more comfortable speaking to certain people. Many people do not know how to interact with others. They are either too worried what others may think, too worried of trying to be something they don't want to be. There are so many factors played into this. Tomoko like many others have someone or someones that they can have a really comfortable conversation with then with others.
I had a guy in my class that passed out once when a girl spoke to him. He always freaked out when any girl spoke to him. He could barely ever look me in my eyes when I spoke to him. I've known him for a year now and he still can not feel comfortable. But when I see him talking to the guys in my Japanese school he is very comfortable and very open. But hey it happens.
When she is playing her Otome games this was her Sanctuary because she can escape the crazy world she was scared to face.
Otome games are usually geared toward females players. The goal of the game is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player and the many male characters in the game.
She played these games everyday. This was another sanctuary for Tomoko. She couldn't talk to boys in real life so she took to the games to feel like she was in a real relationship. These games made her feel like she was actually speaking with real guys. She felt special when the characters spoke to her. She just felt wanted.
I met a girl at Comic Com who had on an awesome Ciel Cosplay (Black Butler) I went over to tell her how awesome her costume was but all she did was look at me like she saw a ghost. She was with her sister and the sister said sorry she is a weirdo.
Many people in life teens, young adults and older adults can find their sanctuary in Anime, Manga, books, gaming, tv shows or series and movies. It is something that can take them away from the real world they do not like to face and be in a place they feel most comfortable.
Then what doesn't help is when you have others teasing these socially awkward people. Some people just need to be more caring and understand that not everyone can handle society the same way. Some just rather not deal with society and escape to something that can make them happy and comfortable.
All I can say is Tomoko is a great character that was written for many. As I said before there are so many people in real life that is like her. She had her sanctuary which was her brother and the Otome games. I know my sanctuary is hmmm I have so many but my main ones are my home, anime and partying. Hahah
Well I hope you've enjoyed.
If you will like to know more about the Owls and how you can join, please click link below. 😀
Also, don't forget to check out the other March blog Tours.
Rai https://raianimeblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/chuunibyou-a-disease-or-sanctuary-owls-march-blog-tour/
Anime review girl https://animereviewergirl.com/2017/03/01/sanctuary-according-to-ouran-high-school-host-club/
Matt in a hat https://matthew903.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/owls-blog-tour-sword-art-online-finding-sanctuary-in-gaming/
Lita Kino
Nice job breaking it, Hero
Sanctuary in ONE PIECE: Status VS. Nakama (OWLS Blog Tour)
Here is the future schedule for March
March 20th Lyn
March 22nd Eren
March 24th Hazelyn
March 25th Two Happy Cats
March 27th Nick
March 29th Katrina


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Images of the tenth-generation Honda Civic have been released ahead of its Paris Motor Show debut.
The new Civic is the result of the largest single model development programme in the company's history. Described as a core model for Honda in Europe, and one that many European customers see as synonymous with the Honda brand, the Japanese car maker targeted a dynamic rejuvenation of the Civic which 'demanded new thinking and new approaches to body construction, vehicle aerodynamics and chassis design'.
A 'purposeful silhouette' makes a confident statement about the Civic's sporty character, says Honda; Wider, longer, and lower than any of its predecessors, the new Civic has short overhangs and 'taut lines' that reference the aerodynamic efficiency. A sharp and aggressive front end, pronounced wheel-arches and sculpted front and rear intakes hint at the Civic's sporting character. New larger and wider wheels further emphasise the sporty stance.
Under the bonnet the new Civic is the first model in Europe to offer Honda's 1.0 litre three-cylinder and 1.5 litre four-cylinder petrol turbocharged engines. The new VTEC TURBO units are designed first and foremost to offer dynamic performance, says Honda, but also achieve 'highly competitive' fuel economy and efficiency. Both engines will be available with either a newly-designed six-speed manual transmission or a CVT automatic.
The three-cylinder 1.0 litre VTEC TURBO petrol unit delivers greater torque at low and mid-range engine speeds. Maximum torque of 200 Nm with the six-speed manual is available at 2,250 rpm, and 180 Nm with the CVT is available between 1,700 rpm and 4,500 rpm. Maximum power is 129 PS (95 kW) at 5,500 rpm.
The larger four-cylinder 1.5-litre VTEC TURBO petrol engine provides what Honda describes as 'substantially greater performance' – in power and torque – over the previous Civic's 1.8-litre VTEC. Maximum power is 182 PS (134 kW) at 5,500 rpm (at 6,000 rpm with CVT). With the six-speed manual, 240 Nm maximum torque is delivered between 1,900 rpm and 5,000 rpm. With the CVT, 220 Nm is delivered between 1,700 rpm and 5,500 rpm.
The new model has been engineered from the ground up to 'fulfil the promise of agile and rewarding dynamics'. A new platform is 16 kg lighter than that of the previous generation Civic, while offering 52 percent greater torsional stiffness. The new platform offers a lower centre of gravity while a new suspension system contributes directly to an engaging and fun driving experience, says Honda.
At the front, lower-arm-type front MacPherson strut suspension provides high lateral rigidity for linear handling, and low longitudinal rigidity for 'optimised ride compliance'. The rear suspension features an all-new rear multi-link suspension set-up and new rigid subframe delivering high stability for improved ride comfort and linear handling.
An entirely new interior features a simple, uncluttered layout, new technologies, improved refinement and high-grade materials with a lower seating position to offer the driver a 'greater feeling of connection with the car'. The second-generation of Honda's infotainment and connectivity system – Connect – incorporates Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration.
A new seven-inch colour TFT-LCD Driver Information Interface (DII) display makes up the largest central section of the reconfigured instrument binnacle. It includes a large digital tachometer and speedometer readout, and integrated into the DII display, is a large area in which the driver can switch between a variety of infotainment screens. This primary display is flanked by coolant-temperature and fuel-level gauges, again on TFT-LCD displays.
Boot space remains 478 litres, with the rear seats split / fold 60:40. A low sill height and wide boot opening (1,120 mm) combines with the flat boot floor to make the loading of heavy, wide and long items easy. A hidden underfloor compartment offers a further secure storage area (excludes Sport models).
Honda's SENSING suite of active safety and driver assist technologies will be specified across the new Civic range. It uses a combination of radar and camera information, plus a host of high-tech sensors to warn and assist the driver in potentially dangerous scenarios.
The new Honda Civic will be fully revealed at the Paris Motor Show which runs 1-15 October.