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The battle within the Republican Party continues as Maine National Committeeman Mark Willis has officially entered the race for Republican National Committee chair. Since the announcement, as reported by Undercover Porcupine in "Maine National Committeeman Willis Running For RNC Chair", the race has heated up.
Willis, a veteran of the United States Army who was endorsed by the Ron Paul campaign, successfully defeated Hayes Gahagan at the Maine State Republican Convention last May to become National Committeeman.
Now the race heats up as Reince Priebus and his supporters aim to maintain control, as the race begins to look more and more like the tumultuous 2012 Republican presidential primary. Like former Congressman Ron Paul, National Committeeman Mark Willis is considered a longshot with little chance defeating Priebus. It would appear, that like former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the current Chair will win re-election. So why the battle?
In an article from the DailyCaller titled "Drama in RNC election as Ron Paul supporter makes run for chairman", various members of the Republican National Committee have questioned Mark Willis on an issue from the general election. As Republicans cry about rehashing the past, California National Committeeman Shawn Steel does just that in pointing out Willis was a write-in candidate for Vice President in Maine, on a ticket with former Congressman Paul.
Evidently, National Committeeman Steel and others at the RNC have not done their research into Maine law. This comes as little surprise as the RNC was incapable of even doing research into their own bylaws under Reince Priebus.
In a letter to members of the RNC, National Committeeman Steel said this:
I learned that Mark Willis was listed as an official and "declared" write-in candidate on the state of Maine's 2012 general [September] election ballot – serving as Ron Paul's Vice Presidential running mate – and standing against the Republican Presidential nominee and Vice-Presidential running mate. The following link will take you the State of Maine Secretary of State's Office listing of declared write-in candidates for the November 2012 ballot. Mark Willis is the second name on the list, listed as Ron Paul's running mate. In the "Date Filed" column it shows that the required forms were filed with the Maine Secretary of State on September 24, 2012 – almost a full month after the Republican National Convention where we officially nominated Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan.
Now we know National Committeeman Steel and the Republican National Committee can read. But can they research? Here is some simple detective work.
In the State of Maine, the law states that four presidential electors must nominate a ticket for it to become official. This means that four presidential electors must file paperwork with the State, confirming their consent to the ticket, in order for it to become valid for the general election. The filing paperwork, found here, does not, however, require candidate consent. This means that while the Ron Paul/Mark Willis write-in ticket was valid in Maine, it was entered in by four presidential electors without consent from former Congressman Paul or National Committeeman Willis.
This is exactly what the Maine National Committeeman told the DailyCaller, when he stated he had "nothing to do with it."
While Mark Willis continues to tell the truth, his colleagues on the Republican National Committee continue to resort to the dishonest tactics that led them down a dark road in 2012. It was the smearing and dirty tactics against even their own that turned off so many Americans in the November elections, when many rejected the Republican Party.
In response to the criticism that he did not disavow it, Willis told the DailyCaller that he made a "judgment call." When faced with how to respond to it, he decided that the right thing to do would be to ignore it. "I made the judgment call to just not do anything, keep it quiet, don't talk about it, don't draw attention to it." Drawing attention to it, of course, would result in increased attention and likely see more Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, and disaffected Republicans shifting away from the Romney/Paul Ryan ticket.
Mark Willis is a former counterintelligence agent in the Army who worked with the United States Army Intelligence And Security Division (INSCOM). Ideally, working in intelligence, he is an intelligent thinker. He knows how to get things done and be smart about his tasks at hand. Becoming a write-in candidate, a ticket with zero chance of winning Maine, would be political suicide with no gain, all loss. It makes no sense. So why would Willis do this? Perhaps some believe the U.S. Army is full of incompetent individuals, but hopefully this is not the case.
Bottom line is, you're welcome, Priebus and Co. For doing the right thing and helping protect the Republican ticket, the Republican National Committee Chairman and his supporters are attacking National Committeeman Mark Willis. Should Willis had drawn attention to the write-in ticket, further resulting in a damaged Republican ticket? This seems to be what Priebus, Steel, and others endorse.
There's your next headline everyone: "Priebus, RNC criticize Willis for Protecting Romney/Ryan; Sought Publicity for Paul write-in Candidacy."


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My name is Mel Chua; I'm part of Red Hat's Community Architecture team, and this page describes the Fedora-related projects I'm working on. Feel free to contact me with any comments, questions, or ideas you might have, or check and see if I'll be traveling near you sometime soon.
Quick reference
You might be looking for...
- My talk page - for leaving me a message.
- My projects - to see what I'm working on, have worked on, or should/would-like-to work on.
- Daily reports - what I've been doing
- My braindumps - Thoughts in progress that are not yet fully formed or ready to go to main wiki. Probably inaccurate, half-baked, or some combination of the two. You have been warned.
- /Templates - things I've made that may be useful for wiki-users.
- /Sandbox - for playing with wiki syntax.
- /Newcomer convo - an example of a student's first IRC chat.
I come to Fedora via my work at OLPC, where my interest in community-based QA and support began. As someone with an (electrical and computer) engineering background with a passion for self-directed learning, my strongest interest is in bridging the worlds of undergraduate and graduate education (particularly for engineering and business) and open-source practice. In addition to hacking code and hardware, I also enjoy building university-based programs, running (and speaking and teaching at) conferences, unconferences, and hackathons, wrangling wiki pages, mailing lists, documentation, and curricula, and whatever else it takes to get the job done.
Current goals and projects
- Red Hat's education strategy. Specifically, driving the Professors' Open Source Summer Experience program, and getting university-level classes from various academic disciplines involved in Fedora as part of that.
- my tickets on marketing trac
- my tickets on infrastructure trac
- my bugzilla tickets

subset: commoncrawl


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Workers at Oyster Creek Generating Station will move a 200-ton transformer from a barge on the canal surrounding the station to the plant's property on Sunday, Feb. 15.
FORKED RIVER N.J. (Feb. 14, 2009) - Workers at Oyster Creek Generating Station will move a 200-ton transformer from a barge on the canal surrounding the station to the plant's property on Sunday, Feb. 15. The transformer will be moved to the station via Finninger Farm and briefly cross Route 9 directly in front of the Oyster Creek's main entrance.
Traffic flow will be restricted as the transformer crosses Route 9 to station property. The transformer will be transported on a specially-designed truck and trailer that is 98 feet long. Station personnel will begin moving the transformer across Route 9 at approximately 6 a.m. Sunday and expect to conclude the move around 6:30 a.m. the same morning in an effort to minimize the impact of the move on the station's neighbors that use Route 9.
Exelon Nuclear has obtained all the proper permits and will comply with all requirements associated with moving this large, heavy piece of equipment.
Since 2000, Exelon has invested more than $100 million in the Oyster Creek's systems, components and structures to establish the platform for 20 more years of safe and reliable operations for the Garden State. Oyster Creek is about 60 miles east of Philadelphia in Ocean County, New Jersey. The plant produces 636 net megawatts of electricity at full power, enough electricity to supply 600,000 typical homes, the equivalent to all homes in Monmouth and Ocean counties combined.


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The KPMG Global Automotive Executive Survey is an annual assessment of the current state and future prospects of the worldwide automotive industry.
This report looks at the current challenges facing the auto industry...
This year, 800 auto executives from 38 countries gave their insights to KPMG on topics such as business model disruption, connectivity and digitalization, customer data, new products and who will be the winners or losers in the auto industry. To give further insights and 'reality checks' to the industry, for the first time we surveyed over 2,100 customers from around the world.
According to the survey findings, major business model disruption is extremely likely for around 10 times more of the auto executives surveyed this year compared to last year—82 percent of the auto executives surveyed estimate a major business model disruption in the next five years to be extremely likely or somewhat likely.
Download the report by clicking here (PDF: 3,15 MB)
Key highlights from the report:
Disruption ahead
Executives who ranked connectivity #10 in our 2015 survey moved it up to #1 this year, with 50.1% rating it as extremely important. For the last three years, the top concern was growth in emerging markets and that has dropped to #4
How to cope with disruption
Service and data driven business models pave the way towards owning the customer relationship. OEMs need to transform into becoming consumer oriented service providers.
Who's best prepared
- Last year's owner of the top spot, Hyundai, has fallen to fourth place this year with 50 percent of respondents expecting an increase in market share. Hyundai is followed by Ford at number five with 49 percent. In general, most auto executives responding to the survey are optimistic and only few expect a decrease in any of the OEMs market share.
- For many of the OEMs, respondents see stability in their future. For instance, while 34 percent of respondents expect Daimler to have an increase in market share, 53 percent expect them to remain stable. Similarly, 'new player' Tesla, is expected to increase in market share by 37 percent of respondents yet remain stable by 52 percent of respondents.
- BMW and Toyota will also be the leaders in the fields of e-mobility and autonomous driving. They are also ranked in the top spots as being the most groundbreaking innovators in the future followed by Honda, Ford and Tesla.
© 2020 KPMG P/S, a Danish limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.


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Yes. People often worry about the legality of making their will online but provided the will is correctly worded, signed and witnessed it is just as legal as if it were prepared by a solicitor.
We ensure it is correctly worded through our checking process and provide you with specific instructions on how to correctly have it signed and witnessed.
Therefore our will service is able to provide you with a perfectly legal will without the time and expense required in visiting a solicitor.How it works


text:
So Dezba, you look majestic enough to be a general and we would think your name is appropriate but then we hear that you give your family hugs and nibble at their earlobes and we are all jealous because you are such a loving and cute girl. We love that picture of you lying on your back and showing off your impressive tail.
We send greetings to picturesque Goslar and hope you have a wonderful party today with Dyani and your humans.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The two top Republicans in Congress explicitly endorsed Mitt Romney on Tuesday to be their party's presidential nominee, as party leaders continued consolidating around their all-but-inevitable candidate in hopes of quickly focusing attention on ousting President Barack Obama in this fall's election.
The public embraces offered by House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came the same day that several House conservatives expressed support for the former Massachusetts governor, though some seemed more enthusiastic than others.
"If you're not sure about wanting to support Mitt Romney, whether you're liberal, whether you're very conservative, you ought to be excited because he's been on your side at one time or another," Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said during a forum that conservative lawmakers staged on Capitol Hill.
The statements of support by Boehner, R-Ohio, and McConnell, R-Ky., came a week after former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania ended his bid for the GOP nomination, in effect ceding the field to Romney.
Both leaders' remarks came in response to reporters' questions. Aides for each said there was no coordination between the two and that the timing simply reflected their return to Washington after Congress' two-week spring recess.
"I think Mitt Romney has a set of economic policies that can put Americans back to work and, frankly, contrast sharply with the failed economic policies of President Obama," Boehner told reporters. "And I will be proud to support Mitt Romney and do everything I can do help him win."
Hours later, it was McConnell's turn.
"Yeah, I support Gov. Romney for president of the United States, and he is going to be the nominee," he said. "And as you notice, the party is in the process of unifying behind him. And I think it's going to be an incredibly close, hard-fought race."
Boehner said he had not embraced Romney publicly before because as chairman of this August's Republican National Convention, he wanted to treat all the contenders fairly.
McConnell had previously said Romney would likely be the nominee and that the party needed to rally behind the probable nominee. Tuesday was the first time he specifically said he supported Romney.
At Tuesday's gathering of around a dozen House conservatives — most of them were tea party-backed freshmen — there was a pause of several seconds when a reporter asked whether they were excited over Romney. Many voiced support for him, but some seemed driven more by pragmatism than passion.
"We're excited about the opportunity to defeat Barack Obama more than anything," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a veteran leader of House conservatives.
"I'm excited about our candidate," said freshman Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who had backed Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "Face it, we got the best candidate we could out of the process" to defeat Obama.
Another freshman, Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, said conservatives should be motivated by preventing Obama from winning a second term in which he could do things like appoint a liberal majority to the Supreme Court.
"It's high time for conservatives to start getting excited, to start working for the nominee," Labrador said.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Given my pitch count at the end of the eighth inning (104), I was expecting to go back out there in the ninth. I think, given my pace up to that point, it would have been normal to go back for the ninth inning, but the manager came in and spoke to me and said that, given our big lead, go and get some rest.If he had finished the game, Matsuzaka would have been the first Red Sox pitcher since Tim Wakefield (2005) to throw back-to-back complete games and the first since Roger Clemens (1996) to win consecutive complete games.
Doris Kahn, 100, threw out the first pitch before the afternoon game. Gordon Edes writes:
She came to Boston on the Lusitania, arriving from Liverpool in 1909, and remembers the Sox winning the 1918 World Series. That's impressive, but no more so than this: She's still working. She's in the accounting department of Riemer and Braunstein, a Boston law firm, where she has worked for 37 years.Last night's loss was the Red Sox's worst shutout loss since May 25, 1990 (Twins 16-0). Atlanta also set a franchise record with 12 extra-base hits. ... Kevin Youkilis's hitting streak is now a career-best 12 games.
Jon Lester pitched 3.2 innings for Pawtucket last night in Ottawa, allowing one hit, one walk and no runs, while striking out two. He retired the last 10 batters he faced. ... Mike Timlin might throw off a mound on Monday.
The Lancaster Jethawks, Boston's Single-A team in the California League, lost 30-0 to the Lake Elsinore Storm on Friday. (box)


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Ladies, if you want to be ballsy in business, you need to invest in a pair.
This isn't about stuffing a lumpy pair of socks down your Marks and Sparks knick knocks, rest assured, it's about utilising the golden snitches of business – golf balls.
For golf, says Adrienne Wax, author of Even Par: How Golf Helps Women Gain the Upper Hand in Business, is a critical tool in building and retaining client relationships which then translate into new business opportunities. The problem is that "women don't seem to have got the 'memo' about how effective a career tool the game is," she tuts.
Some 90pc of 500 Fortune chief executives play golf, which proves Wax's first point, but 481 of this Fortune 500 are men, proving her second. And I need not remind you of the recent hoo-hah at Augusta National Golf Club to hammer home that the green is perceived male territory.
Georgina Casas, a 35 year-old director at Hays Recruitment company, is putting paid to all that, founding the first 'Golf for the Girls' networking programme in London. The programme of tutorials and practice rounds in partnership with City Golf on Coleman Street have been so popular that the first inaugural women's golf day went ahead this week at the world class Wentworth golf club in Surrey.
"We wanted to set up something across all sectors to engage female talent and we were inundated with applications when we first came up with the idea in September 2012," she says. "There are 65 clients from retail, investment banking, professional services, finance, technology and wealth and asset management who join forces and meet up at 7am before work on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning for monthly lessons.
"All ladies here are really sporty but none had played golf before. The first couple of lessons were frustrating and I thought 'this is really hard.' But then the penny dropped and now I can't get enough of it."
Windlesham golf club: Our game is not stuffy, exclusive, nor reserved for middle-aged men
Historically women have seen the relationships men have developed on the golf course, she says. "There's over 500 staff at Hays and a ratio which is roughly 60/40 men to women. It's heavily male-dominated. I would find it hard and pressured to play with a group of males but maybe now I would be comfortable playing in a mixed group.
"What we've proved is we can certainly hold our own on the golf course. It's been a real eye-opener that, OK, we can do it. Move over boys."
The results are tangible. Maybe the appeal lays in the forgiving handicap system that allows clients of differing ability to play together competitively. Charlotte Wheeldon is a corporate partner at law firm Wallace and says it's a fantastic way to build contacts and strengthen existing relationships. "A lot of my clients are keen golfers, and eighteen holes on a great course is often far more appealing to them than a business lunch."
Similarly Wax, a former senior level advertising executive, says that some of her most important clients were golfers. "Not once did we discuss business during the entire day. As a result of our day of golf, we ended up becoming fast friends and golf buddies." The hard bottom line? "They spent lots of money with us," she says in her book.
But Condoleezza Rice (pictured), former US secretary of state, took up the sport when she was 50 and says she savoured the 'strategy' of the game and that it taught her patience. That kind of personal development is clear to see on the Hays programme. "Having given up a few very early, very dark, very cold mornings over the past few months for networking with a difference, I definitely have a greater appreciation of the sport and to some extent myself," says Penny, an investment banker.
"I now appreciate the erudite ability, physical and mental strength, concentration and the personal battle that is undertaken with every stroke.
"There is a metaphor in there relating to my career in the city that I am sure many women will relate to."


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Microsoft earnings dip despite Windows 8 lift
- Earnings down 4%25%2C despite steady Windows 8 sales
- EPS of 76 cents%2C down from 78 cents from a year ago
- Total revenue up 3%25 from last year to %2421.5 billion
SAN FRANCISCO — Software giant Microsoft offered investors a mixed bag of results that dinged its stock late Thursday.
Shares of Microsoft slipped 1.4%, to $27.25, in after-hours trading following its second-quarter results. Although Microsoft topped earnings estimates, it fell short on revenue.
Microsoft said net income slipped nearly 4%, to $6.38 billion, or 76 cents a share, from $6.62 billion (78 cents) in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose 3%, to a record $21.46 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimated Microsoft would earn 75 cents a share on revenue of $21.53 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31.
The software giant reported weaker sales in its business and entertainment divisions, though revenue in its core Windows business rose 24%, to $5.88 billion, from the same period in the prior year, the company said.
The fiscal first-quarter results are the first to include revenue of the company's new Windows 8 operating system and its Surface tablet. Both launched in late October. Microsoft, however, did not reveal unit shipments or sales for Surface and Windows 8.
(In November, Microsoft said it sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses, outpacing the adoption rate for Windows 7.)
Microsoft, whose software is used in most traditional PCs but is under siege from the fast-growing mobile market, is betting big on Windows 8, which runs on both PCs and tablets. The software giant hopes Windows 8 can reverse a trend of weak PC sales.
The company's foray into the tablet market has been tepid: Market researcher Chitika says Surface generated just 0.13% of all tablet traffic in early December.
Microsoft did get some good news from partner Nokia earlier Thursday. The struggling smartphone company scratched out a profit in the past quarter, compared with a loss of more than $1 billion in the same period last year.


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On Wednesday, the New York Times posted an extensive report called "In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad," which dives into Apple's supply chain and examines, as the title suggests, the human cost of making gadgets.
It's not the first time Apple's global assembly line has come under fire, nor is it the first time an American company has taken heat for using cheap outsourced labor — Nike's sweatshops being the most famous, perhaps — promoting terrible working conditions to make a buck.
What's interesting here, however, is that the New York Times also published the piece in Chinese, and it's translating the responses from Chinese readers about the issue. Between Apple's response, the report and the comments from Chinese readers, the dialogue created here is painting what's probably the most complete portrait of what it takes to fuel the world's gadget addiction.
If you haven't read the seven-page NYT piece by reporters Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, check it out here. It's well worth it, and it digs deep. From the article: "The reporting is based on interviews with more than three dozen current or former employees and contractors, including a half-dozen current or former executives with firsthand knowledge of Apple's supplier responsibility group, as well as others within the technology industry."
The Bad Apple
Apple, like many other companies around the globe, looks to China for cheap, bulk labor. At the heart of this system is Foxconn, the world's largest manufacturer of tech goods (an "estimated 40 percent of the world's consumer electronics," NYT reports) that employs 1.2 million workers and supplies the likes of Nintendo, Amazon, Samsung, Nokia and more. Foxconn is also usually at the heart of Apple controversies in recent years.
Spare living spaces ("20 people to a three-room apartment"), harsh work schedules ("employees laboring more than six days a week"), dangerous conditions ("over a hundred workers injured by toxic chemical exposures") and a deadly factory explosion have led to investigations, criticism and workers protesting — by threatening a mass suicide in protest, for example. "Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms," according to the report, and some details sound straight out of 1984-inspired dystopian science fiction:
Shifts ran 24 hours a day, and the factory was always bright. At any moment, there were thousands of workers standing on assembly lines or sitting in backless chairs, crouching next to large machinery, or jogging between loading bays. Some workers' legs swelled so much they waddled… Banners on the walls warned the 120,000 employees: "Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow."
The picture painted is obviously grim, and it boils down to this: Apple, which still manages to post record profits and sits on some $90 billion in cash has a lot of money and brings in a lot more. As the report puts it, for the world's suppliers: "When news arrives that Apple is interested in a particular product or service, small celebrations often erupt. Whiskey is drunk. Karaoke is sung." Apple's interest can make or break you as a supplier, the gains are great, the demands are enormous and it sounds like a lot of corners are being cut in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
"We're trying really hard to make things better," said one former Apple executive who spoke to the New York Times but didn't want to be named, "but most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from."
Pictured: The aftermath of a factory explosion in an area where Foxconn puts the final touches on iPads. Four were killed, eighteen injured. (Credit: Color China Photo/AP, via NYT)
What Apple's Doing About It
Apple has had a code of conduct for its suppliers since 2005. This code is public, and the company lays it all out on its website here. The gist: it "requires suppliers to provide safe and healthy working conditions, to use fair hiring practices, to treat their workers with dignity and respect, and to adhere to environmentally responsible practices in manufacturing." This, of course, sounds like it's at odds with the section preceding this one.
More than the code, Apple also audits its suppliers annually, and has even started to audit its suppliers' suppliers. This auditing process, which saw its first publicly published report in 2007, has not only found severe violations, but violations that show up year after year. Apple's 312 audits over the span of 2007 to 2010 found workers plowing through double-long shifts and working more than 60 hours a week, evidence of "involuntary labor, under-age workers, record falsifications, improper disposal of hazardous waste and over a hundred workers injured by toxic chemical exposures," and even that some workers "received less than minimum wage or had pay withheld as punishment." The most serious infractions, such as employing under-aged labor, are called core violations.
Then, last year's audits, of which the company carried out 229:
There were slight improvements in some categories and the detected rate of core violations declined. However, within 93 facilities, at least half of workers exceeded the 60-hours-a-week work limit. At a similar number, employees worked more than six days a week. There were incidents of discrimination, improper safety precautions, failure to pay required overtime rates and other violations. That year, four employees were killed and 77 injured in workplace explosions.
It's clear that change could come about if Apple wanted it to. While Apple doesn't directly own these other companies, its influence over them isn't all that different than if it did. Talking to a consultant from Business for Social Responsibility (or BSR), a company that has worked with Apple and Foxconn to improve conditions, Apple's influence is painted as absolute: "We've spent years telling Apple there are serious problems and recommending changes… They don't want to pre-empt problems, they just want to avoid embarrassments."
He went on: "We could have saved lives, and we asked Apple to pressure Foxconn, but they wouldn't do it… Companies like H.P. and Intel and Nike push their suppliers. But Apple wants to keep an arm's length, and Foxconn is their most important manufacturer, so they refuse to push."
The most cut-and-dry analysis in the report once again from within Apple:
"If you see the same pattern of problems, year after year, that means the company's ignoring the issue rather than solving it," said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. "Noncompliance is tolerated, as long as the suppliers promise to try harder next time. If we meant business, core violations would disappear."
For its part, Apple's CEO Tim Cook fired back at the report with a lengthy, company-wide email that promised diligence and denied that Apple turns a blind eye to its supply chain workers.
From the email:
We know of no one in our industry doing as much as we are, in as many places, touching as many people… At the same time, no one has been more up front about the challenges we face. We are attacking problems aggressively with the help of the world's foremost authorities on safety, the environment, and fair labor. It would be easy to look for problems in fewer places and report prettier results, but those would not be the actions of a leader.
Questions abound: Is it fair to blame Apple? Should Foxconn take the heat exclusively? Could or should Apple do more? Is our gadget lust part of the problem, or is this too large of a problem to pin it on any one thing? (Or even too large of a problem for Apple to handle?) None of these questions have solid answers — yet. As you'll see in the next section, they're certainly on the mind of many.
Image credit: Kin Cheung/AP (via Wired via CNET)
China's Response
Because the report was also published in the Chinese business mag, Caixin, Chinese readers have been able to weigh in, too. The New York Times then translated these responses into English, posting them up here.
Plenty of readers are upset:
I read this story and I'm saddened. It's not only Apple that should be blamed, but also the system that tolerates its existence. Made-in-China should not be synonymous with the blood and sacrifice of young lives. — Evita
For some readers, it's business as usual:
By the way, construction workers and farmers are also living a harsh life in China, shall we also boycott housing and grains? — Zhou Zhimei
Apple's business is a good thing:
If people saw what kind of life workers lived before they found a job at Foxconn, they would come to an opposite conclusion of this story: that Apple is such a philanthropist. — Zhengchu1982
Some see Apple as a necessary evil:
Without Apple, Chinese workers will be worse off. I hope China can some day soon have dozens of its own companies like Apple, who (only) work on high-end research and development and send manufacturing lines to Africa. — Anonymous
And some saw it as a problem far larger than just Apple and Foxconn:
Even though Apple should be ethically condemned, the key point is: whether the working conditions inside the factories are supervised by law. This (supervision) is the duty of judicial officers and labor unions. Now everything is driven only by G.D.P., so which government official would dare supervise those companies? They (the governments) have long reduced themselves to the servant of the giant enterprises. — Occasional Think
Pictured: Protesters in China dressed as Foxconn workers and Steve Jobs. (Credit: Reuters, via The Atlantic


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So, as some of you may know, my brother recently moved to the Los Angeles, California area. Some of you may also know that my brother is an avid fan and player of "soccer" (football), by pressing play below you can see a local insurance ad that he and his teammates were asked to "stand in for." (he is the dude in orange flipping the coin and the only guy form his team to actually be in the ad. (he was a very lucky man for this, as you will see.))
The crazy part is not that my bro was asked to be in a local commercial in L.A., but rather that the piece of paper he signed in compliance with California's unionized laborforce of Actors ended up entitling him to over $3000.00 in "suprise" checks in his mailbox for his unexpected "role" as a "principle" for 2 seconds in the resulting local auto insurance company ad. Amazing. (the ad IS slated to air over 2000 times on cable in California/WestCoast markets, but still seems like a nice chunk of change for 2 hours "work" 🙂 to me!)
While this is clearly an example of some rather unlikely "right place at the right time" luck and seemingly outrageous pay for 2 hours of "work" :), I also see this as just one small example of how a nationwide/trade-wide return to the American tradition of Unionized Labor membership may soon help all working Americans regain fair value for their labors and hopefully a "LIVING WAGE" for anyone willing to work 40+ hours every week. The point I want you all to see is that what happened to my brother here would never have been possible were it not for the long history of hard work, stubborn willpower, and years of sacrifice and organizing of thousands of people for many years. People who had the courage, the optimism and the self-respect to fight for their own financial rights in the face of overwhelming structural/legal forces that have long been fostered to boost corporate profits at the expense of worker wage/living incomes.
The "Union-made" rule/regulation by which the corporation/production company/insurance company had to play by in California in this case is what allowed for my brother, the "worker" to be paid so handsomely for his "work."
Filed under: Tennessee | Tagged: "Up next on 'Sick Sad World'!...", Act in Commercials, Actor's Actor's get paid, Actor's pay, actor's union, Add new tag, Americans deserve more pay for their work, auto insurance, average income is too low, buying power, California, CEO millions, close income gap, closing the income gap, common man survival, corporatacracy, Corporatism, facism, fair days pay for a fair days work, fair pay, federal regulation can close the income gap, footbal, futbol, get paid more, God Bless America, good luck, help American workers, income gap, labor unions, life, living wage, Los Angeles, loss buying power, luck, lucky, Mercury Auto Insurance, Mercury Insurance Ad, minimum wage, minimum wage reaches 50 year low, my brother, paid for work, poor get poorer, reduce tax burden, return to worker's rights, rich get richer, S.A.G., soccer, soccer commercial, true buying power at lowest levels in 50 years, U.S. income gap largest, union ensure fair value for work, unionized labor, Unions raise wages, Vector Auto Insurance Ad, Wobblies, worker's rights, workers verses corporations | Leave a comment »


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Gregory Mocks LaPierre for Proposing Armed Guards, but Sends Kids to High-Security School
Daniel Halper
"You proposed armed guards in school. We'll talk about that in some detail in a moment. You confronted the news media. You blamed Hollywood and the gaming industry. But never once did you concede that guns could actually be part of the problem. Is that a meaningful contribution, Mr. LaPierre, or a dodge?," asked Gregory.
Later the host suggested that guns don't prevent violence in schools (he cited the mass shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech). "But you would concede that, as good as an idea as you think this is, it may not work. Because there have been cases where armed guards have not prevented this kind of massacre, this kind of carnage. I want you would concede that point, wouldn't you?," Gregory pleaded.
The NBC host would go on the rest of the segment to suggest that armed guards might not be effective in preventing mass murders at school. Which is perhaps an interesting theoretical argument.
But when it comes to Gregory's own kids, however, they are secured every school day by armed guards.
The Gregory children go to school with the children of President Barack Obama, according to the Washington Post. That school is the co-ed Quaker school Sidwell Friends.
According to a scan of the school's online faculty-staff directory, Sidwell has a security department made up of at least 11 people. Many of those are police officers, who are presumably armed.
Moreover, with the Obama kids in attendance, there is a secret service presence at the institution, as well.
It's safe to say the school where Gregory sends his kids is a high-security school. It's just odd he'd want it for his kids, but wouldn't be more open to it for others.


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Prince William and Princess Catherine released their first family portraits yesterday. The photos are meant to be informal, in keeping with the "modern monarchy" style they've played so beautifully. Kate leaves the hospital not concealing the fact that she still has a significant bump. Will drives his wife and baby home. And now they're posing casually in the garden at Bucklebury for grandpa Middleton, not a professional photographer, and they're criticising his decision to shoot into the light, but, really, who the f-ck cares?
The pictures are lovely. They look so happy. Lupo is hot in the sun with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, like move it along you f-ckers, I have to go piss on my grandmother's rosebush now, and Tilly, the Middleton's dog doesn't give a sh-t because she's napping in a beam of light. So what does it matter that there's shadow on their faces? Is this the Kardashians or are these the Cambridges?
And how is this worse than what Charles and Diana did…with the BOOZE IN THE BACKGROUND!?!
The only thing that would have made these portraits better is if Prince Harry had photobombed them while streaking across the lawn.


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It's here—Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5, along with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, are shipping and ready for you to create expressive applications across leading device platforms!
We've really focused on mobile development for this release, offering developers one tool, one development framework and one codebase to build mobile applications on Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS. Flash Builder 4.5 also helps developers make these applications ready to deploy for an app store/market. You can immediately develop applications for Android, and support for BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS will be available through free Flex and Flash Builder updates in June.
For you PHP developers out there creating RIAs across mobile, web and the desktop, Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP software is also now available from Adobe and Zend Technologies. The software features an integrated development environment (IDE) to create Flex and PHP applications, where developers can deliver Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS applications while sharing code from web apps. This helps reduce time and cost for development and maintenance.
But "seeing is believing!" If you happen to be at BlackBerry World this week, be sure to stop by Adobe's booth to see some cool demos for Flash Builder 4.5-created applications. To get a sense of what you can do with Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5, check out what one of our evangelists, Greg Wilson, put together to track locations and arrival time predictions for San Francisco's MUNI transit system.
We're pretty excited about the response from developers so far. Here's what a few of them had to say about these new releases:
Adobe vice president of developer tooling Ed Rowe also has a great example of how to build an online shopping cart, showing us how Flex 4.5 and Flash Builder 4.5 help developers use the same codebase across Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS devices:
Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 stand out as one of the great, new capabilities and features in Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection—also available today. Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 offers one suite for building expressive applications for mobile, web and the desktop.
Want more? Here are a few resources to get you going:
Build your First Mobile Application in Flash Builder 4.5
Build your First Flex 4.5 Application
Mobile development using Adobe Flex 4.5 SDK and Flash Builder 4.5
As you get started with CS5.5, Flex Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5, be sure to keep us posted about some of the cool projects you're working on to create great digital experiences across major smartphones and tablets!


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The Wagner Society of New Zealand is an incorporated society of approximately 400 members sharing a common interest in the life, works and influence of Richard Wagner (1813-1883), conductor, critic, designer, writer, inventor of music drama, and composer of some of the greatest music ever written.
The Wagner Society of New Zealand was established and incorporated in June 1994. Founded originally in Auckland, the Society now also has branches in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The Wagner Society of New Zealand is affiliated to the worldwide network of Wagner Societies and aims to extend knowledge and appreciation of the life and works of Richard Wagner, his times, his artistic contemporaries, and his successors.
Through activity and performances associated with this aim, it is hoped to bring about greater musical enjoyment of Wagnerian music-drama and a deeper understanding and appreciation of the ideas that brought it to birth as a unique type of art, from which we can still draw much that is of great value today. The Society also believes in the long-lasting values of musical understanding and enjoyment amongst nations, and aims to promote these in its own region, and in partnership with all the countries covered by the world's Wagner Societies.
Regular meetings and newsletters keep members in touch with each other, and there are frequent opportunities to share performances of Wagner's music, "live" when possible, and in recorded presentations. The Society also encourages interest in all aspects of Wagner's music by other musical organisations.
As with other Wagner Societies, the WSNZ acts as a focus for information regarding travel and the obtaining of tickets for various Wagner-related musical and dramatic festivalsl. From time to time, the Society also arranges its own travel parties and study-tours to such events.
If you are interested in joining the Society then click here for further information.


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Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 / Bombay)
» Click to list general statistics » OR, select a date :
The Song Of The Old Guard
Know this, my brethren, Heaven is clear
And all the clouds are gone--
The Proper Sort shall flourish now,
Good times are coming on"--
read more >>
- Hits: Number of visitors who read the poem on the given date.
- Posts: Number of visitors who posted the poem to a friend (via e-mail) on the given date.
- Dates that have "0" hits may not be shown on the list.
- Dates, poems and poets that have "0" hits may not be shown on the list. Statistics are generated daily.


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Police Chief Ed Flynn addresses sheriff's call to arms
Milwaukee's police chief weighed in for the first time Thursday on Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's controversial call to arms.
"With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option," Clarke said in a public service announcement.
Clarke's radio ad encouraged citizens to learn to use firearms to protect themselves.
Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn challenged Clarke's claim that police aren't the best line of defense in an emergency.
"The last thing I want to do is be on the long list of people the sheriff is having a feud with, OK? I just want to make the point I think he could have successfully advocated for gun owners' rights without undermining the confidence of the citizens of Milwaukee County in their local law enforcement agencies," Flynn said.
Clarke has appeared on national news programs to defend the ad. He's been in California and unavailable for local interviews.


text: It appears that WordPress has recently changed the way in which they deliver blog statistics through their API. This change caused the WordPress Statistics Windows Gadget that I created to break. I have submitted an update to the Windows Live Gallery and it is currently pending approval. From my experience it usually takes about one or two days for it to be approved. Please click here to check the gallery over the next few days to get an updated version of the gadget.


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Shards of a Reputation...Herod the Great Mar 27, 2013 10:53:23 GMT -5
Post by shira on Mar 27, 2013 10:53:23 GMT -5
Shards of a Reputation
By AMOTZ ASA-EL
Herod the Great: The King's Final Journey
Israel Museum
Through Oct. 5
King Herod (73 B.C.-4 B.C.), the last great king of the Jews, has no airport, train station or even cul-de-sac named after him anywhere in what is now Israel, the land where, in ancient times, he reigned for 33 years of peace and prosperity. Instead, he's been reviled as a tyrant, murderer and collaborator who "cast a dark shadow upon the Jewish nation," as Heinrich Graetz, the father of modern Jewish historiography, saw it.
"Herod the Great: The King's Final Journey," at the Israel Museum here through Oct. 5, does not ignore this record. "It is better to be Herod's pig than his son," reads a quote from the Roman philosopher Macrobius splashed across a wall in the exhibition's central space, an allusion to the police state of a paranoiac who executed the most beloved of his 10 wives, their two sons, another wife's son, a high priest and prominent sages while crushing any real or imagined threat to his authority. Even so, this celebration of archaeological effort and historical exploration crowns a 53-year-old scholarly endeavor to temper Graetz's damning verdict.
The exhibition, of more than 30 tons of excavated rock and 250 unearthed artifacts, starts by evoking the Jericho palace where Herod died and ends at the long-lost—and now partially re-created—mausoleum where his plan to be buried in a way that would immortalize him collapsed along with his legacy. In between, we pass through three spaces, each dedicated to one of Herod's main legacies: as builder, leader of the Jews and ally of Rome.
Entering through a panorama of the Judean Desert where Herod wintered, we turn left into the restored throne room where he was laid out on a golden bier, crown on head and scepter at hand, as his funeral began. After walking past fresco fragments and slivers of paintings, visitors reach a video reconstruction of Jericho's royal retreat. As pillars, domes, pools and aqueducts spring from today's ruins, we learn that the throne room was tucked in a vast complex of three palaces.
A glimpse of the luxury that surrounded Herod is afforded across the floor, where his bathtub stands near his spa's black-and-pink inlaid tile. While such regal trappings meant nothing to the ordinary person, this cannot be said of Herod's projects in Caesarea and Jerusalem.
In Caesarea, as seen in a dedicated video space, Herod built from scratch a harbor and a city that became Judea's maritime gateway and commercial heartbeat. In Jerusalem, he used 10,000 workers to construct the Roman world's largest religious center, the renovated Second Temple, a campus whose great size is vividly conveyed through a mural that depicts its main plaza's depth and its colonnades' height, dwarfing the people under them.
A massive Ionic capital hanging from the hall's ceiling and a chunk of limestone on the floor—a typical Herodian "brick" the size of a small refrigerator—explain why Herod was called "the great." An ossuary's Hebrew carving that reads "Simon the builder," a Greek inscription honoring a donation for a temple pavement, a Hebrew road-sign pointing "To the Place of Trumpeting," and slivers from the Temple's ceiling and entrance all evoke the commotion that filled Herod's Temple.
A collection of imports on display—including apple jars, wine vessels, an amphora for fish sauce and a sliver of ceramic reading "Property of Herod King of Judea"—attests to lively culinary traffic between Rome and Judea. A headless statue from Samaria believed to be Augustus' and a beautiful marble basin apparently presented by him to Herod hint at Herod's diplomatic success.
Herod's political skill in transferring his loyalty from the dead Mark Antony to his archrival, and later securing Rome's defense for embattled diaspora Jews, calls into question his reputed insanity. "There was no one after Agrippa [Augustus' Number Two] whom Caesar held in greater esteem than Herod," reads a quote from historian Josephus Flavius.
The harmony with Rome stretched Herodian Judea's borders into current-day Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Judaism was practiced freely, the borders were safe and the construction frenzy boosted employment. Then again, Herod's Roman orientation was also cultural. Hippodromes, pagan temples and foreign advisers abounded, as did amphitheaters where beasts were unleashed at convicts—"a barefaced impiety," wrote Josephus. Cultural tension boiled over when Herod planted Rome's golden eagle atop the Temple's entrance, an abomination to Judaism that made people tear it down—only to be caught and burned alive.
It was in this conflicted setting that Herod turned to his last project, a mausoleum that would be visible from afar and last for ages. The site, the flattened conical mound called Herodium between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, was always known. What vanished was the tomb.
In 2007, following 40 years of digging, archaeologist Ehud Netzer unearthed the foundations of an elaborate mausoleum, and then the fragments of three sarcophagi. In a bizarre twist of fate, Netzer later fell to his death there, at age 76. The exhibition is dedicated to his memory.
Thanks to Netzer's research we now know that the mausoleum was an 82-foot tower. The bottom level entombed two unidentified people, while Herod lay in the story above surrounded by a circle of columns. A 1,150-foot stairway climbed from under the hill to the tower.
An amphitheater had earlier stood on the site, along with a royal lounge where Herod and his guests enjoyed private shows. Frescoes found there, one depicting a naval battle and the other a sacred landscape, have been reconstructed and are displayed within their restored walls in the exhibition's last station. The amphitheater was preserved because Herod buried it under tons of earth so the mausoleum would sprout from a smooth slope.
Entering the exhibition's final room, visitors pass through the amphitheater's seven pillars and reach the mausoleum's partially reconstructed ring of massive, decorated stones resting on pillars, within which lies the restored sarcophagus. If there is a monument to archaeological imagination and resolve, this is it.
By A.D. 70, the mausoleum had been razed. The sarcophagus was found so splintered that it must have been deliberately shattered, co-curator David Mevorah said. And so, between the Temple's torching by Roman troops and the mausoleum's defacement by Jewish rebels, Herod's legacy came tumbling down.
One Herod biographer, Hebrew University's Abraham Schalit, wrote in 1960 that the king's successors "were weaklings," and that the spiritual elite, the Pharisees, "were too introverted to appreciate all that was useful about the great king's legacy." And the university's current authority on this era, Daniel Schwartz, says Herod's "balancing act" between Rome and Judea reflected his belief that Rome was "here to stay," and that it fostered peace, tolerance and prosperity. That is why Herod built both Jerusalem and Caesarea, "in effect giving the country two capitals and positing a separation of religion from state," Mr. Schwartz said.
Yes, none of this justifies Herod's violence. But, then again, confronting Rome brought even more violence.
For its part, the Israel Museum avoids judging Herod. "Our role is merely to look at history through artifacts," says Director James Snyder. Thanks to this well-crafted exhibition, judging Herod's place in history becomes even more challenging than it already was.
Mr. Asa-El, the former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, is a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
A version of this article appeared March 27, 2013, on page D5 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Shards of a Reputation.


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Razorbacks Host Open Practice at Bud Walton Arena
Men's basketball team opens practice to public
The Razorback men's basketball team is getting prepared for the 2013-14 season, and on Tuesday they opened the doors at Bud Walton Arena to the public for an open practice.
It was the first of two opportunities fans will get to see the Hogs in action during the month of October. The second will be during the Red vs. White Game on Sunday, October 27.
Arkansas posted a record of 19-13 last season, including a perfect 9-0 record at home during Southeastern Conference play. They were eliminated in the first round of the conference tournament by Vanderbilt, ending their season.
Head coach Mike Anderson has a career record of 237-125 in eleven seasons, including 37-27 in two years at Arkansas.
The Razorbacks have two starters returning, senior guards Rickey Scott and Mardracus Wade.
Nine players return from last year's roster, along with four newcomers: freshmen Moses Kingsley, Bobby Portis and Manuale Watkins, and Keaton Miles, who transferred during the off-season from West Virginia. Miles will sit out the 2013-14 season due to NCAA transfer rules.


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Power Keys to Writing Essays on Ambition
Power Keys to Writing Essays on Ambition
"Hide your ambitions," "You are too ambitious" or "You are not ambitious enough" – people can hear these words every day. There are so many talks about ambition! Still, it is quite difficult to define this human trait as 100% positive or negative.
You can try to do this while working on your essay on ambition. However, a mere speculation on this topic is not the best option for ambition essays. Even if you have a strong position on the matter, you need several vivid examples to prove it.
So, depending on the position you want to demonstrate in the ambition essay, the following examples can be useful.
Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, and Julius Caesar in ambition essays


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White Gold Camo Rings
If you're looking for White Gold Camo Rings ideas, from colorful center stones and vintage-inspired designs to mixed metal settings, personalized beauty is what's hot right now in White Gold Camo Rings designs. You can choose rings with different shapes and forms accommodating different personalities and styles. Most importantly, try on different rings and see which shapes and styles look best to you. Which rings design is your favorite? You can share the White Gold Camo Rings images on Twitter, Facebook, G+, Linkedin and Pinterest.
Look at www.yavkino.club gallery to get White Gold Camo Rings designs inspired, or check out our showcase of Elegant White Gold Rings, Princess White Gold Rings, Gold White Gold Engagement Rings, White Gold Halo Rings and Sapphire White Gold Rings.4972


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All Reviews for Windows Defender
Sort by
Defender has gotten better over the years.Microsoft defender has gotten steadily better over the years. It is now able to boast a record similar to other leaders such as Avast and Norton.
What are the pros?Free, run by Microsoft, already installed in Windows
What are the cons?A higher false-positive rate that some other industry tools.
Poor DetectionIt is built in and is "free" with Windows. Detection is barely adequate. There are better free AV tools and all paid ones are better in terms of detection and management. I can't rate the support because I can't find that there is any.
What are the pros?Free but you get what you pay for.
What are the cons?Independent reviewers rate it as one of the poorest at detecting malware.
Pretty good for a freebieLet's face it -- on personal devices, end users usually can't be bothered with things like installing AV software, and Windows did us all a solid by including this. It's not the most robust out there, but it does a good enough job, and it comes pre-installed OTB. Hard to fault it for much there.
What are the pros?- OOTB functionality - Cost - Definitions Updates
What are the cons?- Not as much granular functionality as you'd like to see on an enterprise level.
An adequate protection tool for your device.Windows Defender has gotten much better over the years and can serve as a decent first layer of defense for you computer. I would pair another service with it though.
What are the pros?Built in and free.
What are the cons?Not as robust as some other products.
Better in Windows 10The past iterations of Defender have been sub-par at best. The new version in Windows 10 is much better. I have watched it catch viruses on drives we had plugged in, specifically a variant of Crypto. I would recommend this if you're on Windows 10 over Avast, AVG, Mcafee and the like as the free versions of those apps are just bloatware now.
Meh its averageWell its free which is good but it only really does half a job which isn't good in the long scheme.
What are the pros?It's free, it stops many types of malware but only old outdated virus which is no use really.
What are the cons?It doesn't usually notice new types of malware it has legit no protection to ransomware so i would recommend getting a anti virus like Sophos, or if you can trust yourself then use SandBoxi.
Very Good if you use the latest Advanced Threat Protection with itThe product has come a long way since the first release. It doesnt slow down the PC and have regular updates. Can get tricky to handle when deployed to large environments if you do not use SCCM to manage it. But when using SCCM and the advanced threat protection this becomes and really good AV tool.
What are the pros?Easy to use. Doesnt slow down PC's
What are the cons?Really tricty to manage in large environments if you do not have SCCM
Not the best but better than nothing!I am supporting about ~90 workstations and 23 of them are using Microsoft Windows Defender. I really like the idea of embedded AV solution and I am wiiling to help MS to get a better baseline protection of Windows OS.
What are the pros?Free and embedded in OS.
What are the cons?Better virus/malware discovery and frequent updates.
A step in the right directionAfter years of development this product is starting to meet some standards. Some of the new features added with the Windows 10 Creators update have made this a more useful product. They added fresh start, device performance and health and an easier method to make exceptions in the firewall. Like most anti-virus programs it will never protect against uniformed users who are click happy.
What are the pros?Fresh start feature, the interface is clean, it uses minimal system resources, and its affordable(free).
What are the cons?Anti virus is a pretty reactive technology. Sophos product probably does a better job with ransomware, but none of the AV products are user proof. If they added an edge extension that would sandbox edge, without requiring Windows 10 Enterprise. In fact they should make a sandbox add on for all the popular browsers, Firefox, Opera and chrome.


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ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal et al v. Bowen et al
Filing 5
PRO HAC VICE APPLICATION and PROPOSED ORDER submitted by ProtectMarriage.com - Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal, National Organization for Marriage California - Yes on 8, Sponsored by National Organization for Marriage for attorney Sarah E. Troupis to appear Pro Hac Vice. (Chandler, Timothy)
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.


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- Prayer and Worship
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- Bible
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- About USCCB
Source: NCCAC Updating List 2009
Source: AOS National Director's Annual Report 2010
Source: PCMR Transition Report 2007
Source: People on the Move Coordinator's Report 2007
Sources: USCCB Office for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, African and Caribbean Catholics in the United States and Ethnic Apostolate Annual Report 2006
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Reserve your vehicle online for £99!
Use our online 'Reserve & Collect' service today.
Your safety is our number one priority and reserving online allows you to buy from us at a distance with the same great service.
Please enter a valid postcode
You can now navigate our website quickly and easily using Nicole!
A member of the Renault family for decades, Nicole is an intelligent voice recognition service we've developed to help ease the navigation of our website. She's constantly learning and developing her vocabulary, but you can reach parts of our website using phrases such as:
"Show me new Renault Clio offers"
"Nicole I'd like to book an MOT"
"Nicole can you show me used Renault Megane's"
Since Nicole uses some of the latest technology available, she isn't compatible with all current web browsers. Google Chrome works on desktop, tablet and mobile devices and can be downloaded here. It goes without saying that as Nicole uses voice recognition, you obviously need to have a microphone attached to your device. You may also be prompted by your browser for permission to use the microphone, once clicking on "Ask Nicole".
So what are you waiting for - Nicole's here to help, just ask…
Please plug in and allow access to your microphone, then reload the page to use this feature.
Nicole uses voice recognition to help you navigate our website and you need to have a compatible browser and a microphone.
Unfortunately, your browser isn't compatible with this technology. You can use Nicole with Google Chrome which is available to download here - you'll also need to make sure you have a microphone.


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Preferred provider: Who to call when a tree falls
On the night of August 27, during a thunderstorm Donna DeGroat describes as "furious," an 80-foot white pine fell almost parallel to one side of her house. A gate was destroyed, and a fence, some guttering, and one part of the roof were damaged.
When DeGroat reported the incident to State Farm at 5am on August 28, Hurricane Isabel was still three weeks away. Plenty of time to repair that kind of damage, right? Think again.
DeGroat had the tree removed, but claims she didn't see an insurance adjuster until September 10– even though she says she called the claims agent she'd been assigned to, Jonathan Jones, "several times." By then, 12 days had elapsed, and Isabel was only nine days away.
DeGroat agreed to use State Farm's "Premier Service" plan, which, as Jones stated in a letter he wrote her on September 16, "is designed to enhance our claims service"; State Farm's website asserts that the Premier Service plan will "help you get your damaged building properly repaired."
Under the plan, the policyholder chooses from a list of participating contractors, and State Farm then notifies the contractor. The contractor provides an estimate, and the policyholder authorizes the contractor to begin the work. State Farm pays the contractor directly, minus any deductible, and repairs are covered by a five-year warranty.
The alternative is for State Farm to simply issue a check based on their estimate of the damage, after which the policyholder is on his or her own. Premium Service purports to save headaches, time, and possibly money; participating contractors can get certain materials at a discount. DeGroat, however, now believes that she might have done better without Premier Service.
According to DeGroat, the firm that Jones suggested that she use was ARCAM Construction of Waynesboro. She says ARCAM made plans to inspect the damage, but cancelled on three different occasions.
Isabel blew through Virginia on September 18. Suddenly, compared to what happened to many homeowners, DeGroat's late-August damage seemed pretty modest. DeGroat claims she called ARCAM numerous times, only to be told "You're pretty much low priority– other claims are bumping you down."
In the end, DeGroat ditched Premier Service, accepted a check from State Farm, and set out on her own to find a contractor. If she'd done that in late August, of course, the repairs might have been history by the time Isabel hit. As it is, three months have gone by– and she's still waiting.
"One of my concerns," she writes, "is that with all this time passing, additional damage may have occurred. This may come to haunt me if the estimate from [the new contractor] is much higher than the initial State Farm quote."
When I spoke with Courtney Lowe in State Farm public relations, I was struck by the fact that as soon as I mentioned the Premier Service plan, Lowe immediately said, "These people are not employed by State Farm." I have to wonder: If the plan's everything it's cracked up to be, why would State Farm be so quick to distance itself from participating contractors?
When I talked to Mary Beth Kramer, a spokeswoman in the Charlottesville regional office, I asked whether anyone at State Farm had followed up on DeGroat's complaints. She later reported that the situation had indeed been investigated, and ARCAM remains on State Farm's list as a "preferred provider."
As for ARCAM, I called on Friday, November 21, and was told that I would not be able to speak with Wayne, the employee DeGroat had dealt with. Instead, I was told to speak with the president, Lanny Campbell, who would be back the following Tuesday. When I called on the appointed day, however, the woman who answered the phone said Campbell "had nothing to say at all." When I tried to check the spelling of his name, she hung up on me.
Perhaps phone manners aren't a requirement for staying on State Farm's list.
Do you have a consumer problem or question? Email the Fearless Consumer, write her at 100 Second Street NW, 22902, or call 295-8700 ext. 406.


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Pro Cyclocross Rumors & Rumblings Week of August 5th, 2011
The summer months really are winding away but the high temperatures of August are showing no signs of relenting anytime soon. With a little over a month before the season gets under way, the rumors and rumblings are starting to get juicy. And, how do we know that? Well on Twitter, Veldrijden_info is no longer silent. So, the big news of the week is Tom Vannoppen's drug bust. But that really shouldn't cloud other good 'cross news like Nicole Duke joining the Cannondale–Cyclocrossworld.com team. Nys double flats at the London test event and would rather take an Olympic Medal over the 'cross World Championships. Tim Johnson heads to the high country for a week of epicness, how will the former "roadie" handle seven days of mountain bike racing? In this week's Working Man's Edition a new working man's 'cross team comes to Colorado featuring Spencer Powlison, Grant Holicky and Scott Tietzel.


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La Petite Robe Noire
by Baccarat and Kuntzel+Deygas
A bottle designed by Artists for an ultimate concentration
Bottle 75 ML
Indisponible -
While the launch of La Petite Robe Noire celebrated the iconic heart-shaped bottle by Guerlain, some vintage bottles in Baccarat crystal were found intact in the House archives. These little treasures were entrusted with designers Kuntzel+Deygas, who reinvent the mischievous Parisian woman revealed by La Petite Robe Noire. In an irresistible leap, she spins around and takes off her dress, step by step, on the three sides of the bottle, leaving only her long black train behind her. Then, the craftsmen of the Baccarat ateliers took over to give life to the drawing by carefully applying black enamel pigments to the bottle. A technique carried out exclusively by hand for a tailor-made outline.
Only 37 numbered bottles worldwide.
In its Extract form, La Petite Robe Noire is more charming than ever. Black tea, patchouli and black cherry strut by, audaciously escorted by a bold guerlinade. This intensified drydown enhances the richness of iris, the velvety nature of vanilla and the addictive indulgence of tonka bean with its almond accents
Founded in 1764, Baccarat played a decisive role in the art of manufacturing crystal perfume bottles. In 1912, the crystal manufacturer developed the iconic heart-shaped bottle for Guerlain. 100 years later, it fine-tunes its original creation with a sublime handcrafted black enamel decoration, heated in the oven and then polished in its ateliers.


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Simulink® Check™ provides industry-recognized checks and metrics that identify standard and guideline violations during development. Supported high-integrity software development standards include DO-178, ISO 26262, IEC 61508, IEC 62304, and MathWorks Advisory Board (MAB) Style Guidelines. Edit-time checks identify compliance issues as you edit. You can create custom checks to comply with your own standards or guidelines.
Simulink Check provides metrics such as size and complexity that you can use to evaluate your model's architecture and compliance to standards. A consolidated metrics dashboard lets you assess design status and quality. Automatic model refactoring lets you replace duplicate design elements, reduce design complexity, and identify reusable content. The Model Slicer tool isolates problematic behavior in a model and generates a simplified model for debugging.
Support for industry standards is available through IEC Certification Kit (for ISO 26262 and IEC 61508) and DO Qualification Kit (for DO-178).
Learn the basics of Simulink Check
Verify model compliance with safety standards and guidelines
Create Model Advisor checks and configurations, automate, and deploy for users
Collect model metric data and create custom model metrics
Identify modeling clones and patterns to transform model
Trace dependencies of ports, signals, and blocks, slice larger models into simplified standalone models
Use Simulink products to test models and code, check for design errors, check against standards, measure coverage, and validate the system
Qualify Simulink Check for DO and IEC certification


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About 2 months ago I started to listen to podcasts again. They are a convenient way to stay up to date on different topics on my way to and from work.
Although I'm a C# developer by day, I like to listen to podcasts about other programming languages and technologies, too. Here are my favourite software development podcasts:
- Software Engineering Radio: I highly recommend this podcast to every software developer. The shows are about every aspect of software development and the guests are first-class. New episodes appear every two to four weeks.
- Donau Tech Radio (in German, actually Upper Austrian dialect): An Austrian podcast by Thomas Einwaller and André Steingreß. They talk about gadgets, software development, and programming. New shows appear usually every one to two weeks. You have to understand German or, actually, the Upper Austrian dialect to follow the show.
- Herding Code: Hosted by K. Scott Allen, Kevin Dente, Scott Koon, and Jon Galloway. This show started as a .NET development podcast, but the episodes were about different technologies recently. The episodes don't appear on a regular schedule.
- JavaScript Jabber: A very interesting show for JavaScript developers. Every week there is a new episode about JavaScript programming.
- The Web Platform Podcast: A podcast about web technologies. Every week there is a new episode about topics like Flux, React, Polymer, Dart, WebRTC etc.
- Functional Geekery: Hosted by Steven Proctor, a highly recommended podcast about functional programming. New episodes appear about every month.
- Mostly Erlang: As the name suggests this show covers Erlang, but sometimes it's about other functional programming languages, too. There are about 2 episodes every month.
- The Cognicast: In this Clojure-oriented show Craig Andera talks with developers from different Lisp communities like Clojure, Scheme, or Racket. He publishes about 1-2 episodes every month.
- The Type Theory Podcast: Static type enthusiasts must like this new podcast. It is a podcast about type theory and its interactions with programming, mathematics and philosophy.
- The Scalawags: A podcast for Scala developers with very detailed show notes. About 1-2 episodes appear every month.
- .NET Rocks!: Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell do a very amazing show. The first show appeared on August 30, 2002 and they are already at episode #1042! As the name suggests the main topic is .NET development, but there are often other topics, too. Usually three (!) new episodes appear every week.
- Hanselminutes: Scott Hanselman hosts a show for developers about a broad range of topics. Every week he publishes a new episode.
Did I miss a great podcast? Leave a comment and tell me which software development podcast I should listen to!
Do you listen to podcasts, too? Use the comment form below and let us see your list of software development podcasts!


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Mill Street
Perth PH1 5HZ
Birmingham's world-famous reggae stars UB40 have announced a massive tour next year in 2019 to celebrate their 40th anniversary!
Featuring UB40's five founding members Robin Campbell, Brian Travers, Jimmy Brown, Earl Falconer and Norman Hassan, and long-time members Duncan Campbell, Martin Meredith, Lawrence Parry and Tony Mullings, the band will embark on their 40-date tour across the UK!
Fans can expect to hear UB40's greatest hits, including Food For Thought, One In Ten, Kingston Town, (I Can't Help) Falling in Love With You and Red, Red Wine amongst many, many others.


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Buy an Axon, Axon II, or Axon Mote and build a great robot, while helping to support SoR.
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some kind of analog transmitter like CB to handle it.
silabs based rfm22b with 100mw @432mhz has no problem with 2-5km.
If you're a technician, operating in the 70 centimeter band, you can theoretically use up to 200 Watts of power!
Not quite, at least in the US (Im not sure about Canada). Operation of model craft is limited to 1 Watt of output, but that can still get you to 20 miles or so with a nice antenna.
Right -- unlicensed! The idea was that if you got a Technician HAM radio operator's license, and your application falls within the permitted uses, then you can use Technician class transmission power in the 70 centimeter band, and I haven't found anything saying that the power limitation is less than 200 Watts in that case (except the normal "use no more than necessary to establish and maintain contact.")
§ 97.215 Telecommand of model craft.An amateur station transmitting signals to control a model craft may be operated as follows:(a) The station identification procedure is not required for transmissions directed only to the model craft, provided that a label indicating the station call sign and the station licensee's name and address is affixed to the station transmitter.(b) The control signals are not considered codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning of the communication.(c) The transmitter power must not exceed 1 W.


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CIA accused: Senator sees torture probe meddling
In an extraordinary public accusation, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee declared on Tuesday that the CIA interfered with and then tried to intimidate a congressional investigation into the agency's possible use of torture in terror probes during the Bush administration.
The CIA clandestinely removed documents and searched a computer network set up for lawmakers, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a long and biting speech on the Senate floor. In an escalating dispute with an agency she has long supported, she said the CIA may well have violated criminal laws and the U.S. Constitution.
At odds on major contentions, both sides noted the matter has now been handed to the Justice Department for further investigation and potential prosecution. The CIA's inspector general, David Buckley, first referred the matter to Justice, and the CIA's acting counsel responded by filing a criminal report about the intelligence committee staff.
"I am not taking it lightly," Feinstein said of the tit-for-tat investigations. "I view the acting counsel general's referral as a potential effort to intimidate this staff" in the interrogation investigation.
The dispute between the CIA and senators, which has been going on privately for more than five years, exploded into a public clash as the California Democrat offered a detailed account of the Senate's secretive dealings with the CIA in an investigation of post-Sept. 11 interrogation and detention practices.
More broadly, all U.S. spy agencies have drawn intense scrutiny since revelations last summer about surveillance of Americans by the National Security Agency. The Obama administration has struggled to rebuild public trust since former analyst Edward Snowden made the disclosures. Feinstein has been one of the intelligence community's most ardent advocates, arguing that the wide surveillance of people's electronic and telephone communications was a necessary counterterrorism tool.
In the current matter, a long-running dispute has centered on whether waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, and other harsh interrogation techniques were factors in aiding the CIA's antiterror efforts and helped the agency track down Osama bin Laden.
CIA Director John Brennan rejected Feinstein's accusations, insisting that the agency was not trying to thwart the committee's work and denying that it had been spying on the panel or the Senate. He said the appropriate authorities would look at the matter further and "I defer to them to determine whether or not there was any violation of law or principle."
Brennan said if he did "something wrong, I would go to the president and he would be the one to ask me to stay or go."
Brennan told Feinstein in a letter in January that he took responsibility for ordering CIA technicians to audit the computer systems used by the Senate staffers — to determine if there was a security breach.
In the letter, shared with CIA workers and obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Brennan said he asked for the review after finding that Senate investigators may have "improperly obtained and/or retained ... sensitive CIA documents" that the CIA had no record of sharing with them. He repeated his request for their return.
Feinstein insisted that her staff members acted appropriately in following an agreement worked out between her committee and then-CIA Director Leon Panetta in 2009.
But Feinstein and the CIA also have accused each other's staffs of improper behavior. She said she had "grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution," as well as the Fourth Amendment that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
She said she has sought an explanation and an apology from the CIA. Neither has been forthcoming.
Feinstein received a standing ovation from her Democratic colleagues at a closed-party lunch on Tuesday. Several Republicans also expressed their concerns, but the Intelligence Committee's top Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, wasn't one of them.
He indicated he disagreed with her on the dispute, without providing specifics. He called for a study "on what happened so people can find out what the facts are."
"We're going to continue to deal with this internally," he told reporters.
Other senators said the dispute had a chilling effect on congressional oversight.
"Heads should roll, people should go to jail if it's true," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "If it is, the legislative branch should declare war on the CIA."
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an outspoken critic of the NSA practices, shared Feinstein's concerns that laws were violated in an "unprecedented invasion by the CIA into computers used by Senate" investigators, and said misleading statements from intelligence leaders undermine their credibility.
It all goes back to 2009, when the CIA provided computers to congressional staffers in a secure room at a CIA facility in northern Virginia so the panel could review millions of pages of top secret documents in the course of its investigation of the agency's detention and interrogation practices.
After first turning in 6.2 million pages without any index or search function — what Feinstein called "a true document dump" — the CIA provided an electronic search tool and congressional staff could make copies on their computers. The committee discovered that about 870 documents or pages of documents that they had been able to access had been removed in February 2010, and roughly another 50 were removed in mid-May 2010.
The removal of the documents "was the exact sort of CIA interference in our investigation that we sought to avoid at the outset," she said.
A CIA official apologized for the removal of the documents on May 17, 2010.
Separately, committee staff had found draft versions of documents that Feinstein referred to as the "internal Panetta review." Feinstein said those documents were written by CIA personnel to summarize and analyze the materials that had been provided to the committee. She said the internal documents were unique for their "analysis and acknowledgment of significant CIA wrongdoing."
Those documents disappeared as well.
Jeremy Bash, former chief of staff for Panetta, said the director had asked CIA employees to draw up "concise summaries" of the documents made available to the Senate panel. Bash said neither Panetta nor any of his senior staff — including Bash — saw those summaries. To Bash's knowledge, the summaries "did not say or analyze what was being provided to the committee or ask the (CIA employees) to come to conclusions," he said. "Whether some people went beyond that ... I don't know."
Then, on Jan. 15 of this year, Brennan informed Feinstein and Chambliss that the CIA had searched the computer network. Feinstein said that search also encompassed the committee's network drive with its own internal work product and communications.
Two follow-up letters seeking answers on why the search occurred have gone unanswered, Feinstein said.
Feinstein did not name the CIA counsel who filed the criminal complaint, but two congressional officials identified the official as Robert Eatinger, who was involved in legal decisions involving agency interrogations during the Bush administration.
The officials commented only on condition of anonymity, citing the classified nature of the internal investigations.
Feinstein said the lawyer was the chief lawyer for the CIA's Detention and Interrogation program from mid-2004 until it was terminated by an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in January 2009.
Feinstein said the lawyer "was mentioned by name more than 1,600 times in our study. And now this individual is sending a crimes report to the Department of Justice on the actions of congressional staff." She added that the Senate report "details how CIA officers including the acting general counsel himself provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice about the program."
Brennan, who was questioned at an unrelated speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, "We are not in any way, shape or form trying to thwart this report."
"I am confident that the authorities will deal with this appropriately," he said. "I would just encourage some members of the Senate to take their time, to make sure they don't overstate what they claim and what they apparently believe to be the truth."
Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee completed their 6,300-page interrogation report last year and are revising it with CIA comments. Feinstein said she would ask the White House to declassify its 300-plus-page executive summary, and its conclusions.
When the report was first approved by Democrats on the committee in December 2012, Feinstein said her staffers came to the conclusion that the detention and interrogation program yielded little or no significant intelligence.
Noting that Obama has long opposed the CIA's use of torture, spokesman Jay Carney said the White House strongly supports the Senate panel's investigation, and that Obama wants the report's findings to be eventually declassified. Feinstein, too, called for public release of the Senate report.
Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Stephen Braun and Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.


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Various portions of the 2011-12 Plymouth-Canton school district's teachers' 2012 union contract are shaded light gray. The contract states on its first page: "The shaded areas are the employers' interpretation of the letter of understanding regarding Public Act 103 and does not reflect an agreement of the parties."[76]
Graphic 3 (below) is a page taken from the collective bargaining agreement. Of the eight paragraphs contained on this page, three are in gray. The portions in gray discuss the removal of "derogatory materials" in a teacher's personnel file, and the use of seniority to determine which teachers are subject to involuntary transfer.
Graphic 3: Page 29 of Plymouth-Canton's 2011-12 Teachers Union Contract
If graying out prohibited subjects of bargaining is sufficient to comply with the 2011 reforms, Plymouth-Canton would simply be one of many districts that chose to comply with the law in this way (although its description of what language highlighted in gray means, as mentioned earlier, is quite obtuse). However, in Plymouth-Canton's case, the contract also provides conflicting information about what language is still in effect and which is not.
The following sentence appears twice in the teachers' union contract: "All monitoring or observation of the work performance of a teacher shall be conducted openly and with full knowledge of the teacher." In one instance, it is highlighted in gray, apparently indicating that it is a prohibited subject of bargaining and presumably unenforceable. In another instance, however, it is not set off in any way, and gives all the appearance of being a regular part of the contract and fully enforceable.[77]


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Wednesday Farmers Market in Downtown Mount Clemens
Every Wednesday 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM through September 21
The Mount Clemens Farmers Market will be in Downtown Mount Clemens EVERY Wednesday from 2:00 PM until 5:00 PM through September 21. The Wednesday Market is located in the Roskopp Parking Lot at SB Gratiot and Macomb Place, adjacent to the Anton Art Center. Parking is FREE for market shoppers. Friday and Saturday Markets will take place from 7AM until 1PM at the traditional Mount Clemens Farmers Market location at North River Road between I-94 and Northbound Gratiot. The Mount Clemens Farmers Market offers a fine, fresh array of locally grown fruits and vegetables as well as bedding plants, perennials, shrubs and herbs.
Information: 586-493-7600 or visit the market website.


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Liberty News
Lynchburg celebrates Liberty hoops, anticipates NCAA tourneys
A crowd of Flames fans gathered outside the Craddock Terry Hotel in downtown Lynchburg Friday for a pep rally celebration as City Council and the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce congratulated Liberty University's men's and women's basketball teams on their recent Big South Conference championships and bids to the NCAA Tournaments.
In a proclamation by Mayor Michael A. Gillette, read by Vice Mayor Caesar Johnson, March 15, 2013, was announced as Liberty University's Men's and Women's Basketball Team Appreciation Day.
"Whereas both teams have earned tickets to the NCAA Tournament and whereas we are proud of these student athletes and their accomplishments and thank them for bringing March Madness to the City of Lynchburg … we wish the best of luck to the Flames, the Lady Flames, and their coaches, and advisors, and supporters, and cheerleaders, as they travel and compete in the Big Dance," Johnson said.
The news was met with applause and Johnson led the chant, "Go Flames go."
Rex Hammond, president and CEO of the Chamber, who facilitated the event, and Del. Scott Garrett (R-Lynchburg) were also in attendance.
The crowd heard from men's head coach Dale Layer and women's head coach Carey Green, as well as John Caleb Sanders, co-captain of the men's team.
"It is an honor for us to be here and to be recognized in this scenario," said Green, who is taking the Lady Flames to their 12th tournament in his 14 seasons. "It is definitely a privilege to represent the City of Lynchburg and the community as well as the state of Virginia."
Liberty is the only women's team in Virginia to have "punched its ticket" to the Big Dance, he said.
Layer talked about the character his players displayed in winning the BSC tournament after an 0-8 start to a rocky 15-20 season, a feat that has been praised by major media outlets, such as the New York Times. The Flames are only the second team in tournament history to earn a bid with 20 losses.
"There are a lot of men, grown men, men who have had great experiences, who would have folded up the tent and quit, and these guys did not," he said. "It is a testimony of who they are as human beings, it is a testimony of who Christ is … the character of our guys was revealed daily in the midst of struggle and turmoil."
Sanders shared his appreciation for Layer believing in the team and encouraging them throughout the season, good times and bad.
He reiterated Layer's motto for the team, which was key in bringing them success: "Work like it all depends on you, pray like it all depends on Christ."
During the rally, fans shared their support for the two programs, greeted players and took pictures with them, and watched Sparky, the Flames' mascot, bust some dance moves.
The men's team will learn its place in the brackets this Sunday at 6 p.m. on CBS. The Lady Flames will find out their destination and opponent for the Big Dance Monday on ESPN at 7 p.m.


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Here are the winners:
1st Place:
The Bakers saw that smart phones could serve as a mobile recording studio and as a tool to upload stories seamlessly to a private website. The app provides prompts and questions to encourage recording life stories and make them available for generations. It creates an easy way to connect families through the richness of voice and the warmth of storytelling.
For more information about Saving Memories Forever, go to http://SavingMemoriesForever.com
2nd Place:
Find-A-Record is a creation of John Clark and Justin York of Genealogy Systems LLC in Provo, Utah, USA. Clark spent the last 6 years working as a CTO and Founder at various startups. York has years of experience in web development. They share a passion for making genealogy research easier for everyone.
For more information about Find-A-Record, go to http://findarecord.com.
3rd Place:
PhotoFaceMatch allows users to select one or more photographs of a known individual and photos of a different individual to determine the likelihood that the two are the same person. This can be used as a tool to help identify unknown individuals. Perhaps most notable to genealogists is recognizing the same person at various ages.
For more information about PhotoFaceMatch, go to http://photofacematch.com