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B.J. Hoeptner Evans
Manager, Communications
Phone: (719) 228-6800
E-Mail: email@example.com
@USA_Volleyball - @USAV Beach – USAV Facebook
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 28, 2012) – U.S. beach volleyball player Will Montgomery (Santa Barbara, Calif.) introduced some cool customers to some fun in the sun a few weeks ago when he developed a workout for NHL players.
The five hockey players – Rob Scuderi, Matt Greene, Davis Drewiske, Jeff Carter and Kyle Clifford – are all members of the Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings. All are training with Troll Subin at The Yard Fitness Center in Hermosa Beach, Calif., during the current NHL lockout.
On Fridays, Subin likes to give the players a "wild card" workout to provide some variety.
One day Subin approached Montgomery, who also trains at The Yard along with several other U.S. beach volleyball players, about creating a beach volleyball workout for the Kings players.
"It was a cool gig," Montgomery said. "They are all athletic guys and they were all up for the challenge.
"You could tell they are ready to get after it. They had played a little (beach volleyball) before. It was cool to see the hockey athleticism on the sand and how they move and how athletic they are."
Montgomery, who also played indoor volleyball at UC Irvine, said he took the NHL players through a "basic conditioning and volleyball workout.
"Something that we might finish a day of training with to finish hard. That's all Troll wanted. He wanted it to be fun and competitive and volleyball related to get their minds off hockey."
Montgomery, who has medaled in the last three NORCECA Beach Circuit events, will try for a gold medal "hat trick" on Nov. 30-Dec. 2 when he will compete with Avery Drost (Hawthorne, Calif.) at the final tournament of the season.
Montgomery won gold medals at the last two NORCECA beach events in St. Lucia (with Jon Mesko) and Trinidad & Tobago (with Tony Ciarelli). He took the silver in Chula Vista, Calif., the weekend of Sept. 28 with Tri Bourne (Aiea, Hawaii).
On the women's side, the No. 1 U.S. team will be two-time NORCECA medalist Summer Ross (San Diego, Calif.) and Tealle Hunkus (Girard, Ohio). Ross won the silver medal in Chula Vista with Morgan Beck (Coto de Caza, Calif.). She won gold last weekend in Trinidad & Tobago with Emily Day (Torrance, Calif.). Hunkus took silver in Trinidad & Tobago with Traci Weamer (Upland, Calif.).
The second U.S. women's team will be Stevi Robinson (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) and Kirby Burnham (Newport Beach, Calif.) while the second men's team will be Matt Motter (Encinitas, Calif.) and Derek Olson (Eugene, Ore.). Both No. 2 U.S. teams are making their NORCECA debuts.
The double-gender event consists of brackets of two sixteen teams that will compete under a double-elimination format with a US$5,000 total purse per gender.
At the conclusion of the Aruba's event, the NORCECA Confederation will present a US$5,000 prize of per gender to the 2012 top-ranked countries per gender.
The United States has secured the top place in the men's division with an insurmountable 1,260 points but Canada (1,250), United States (1,240) and Mexico (1,080) are still in contention for the women's top-ranked place.
The men's field for Aruba includes Cuba's Karell Peña and Sergio Gonzalez, winners in Chiapas, México and also at home in Varadero, as well as Mexico's Juan Virgen, who won in Toluca with Lombardo Ontiveros, after finishing second in Chiapas with Aldo Miramontes.
The strong women's field features Mexico's two-time winner Bibi Candelas who claimed the titles of Cayman Islands and Toluca with Mayra Garcia, combining now with Martha Revuelta, whom she paired to win the bronze in Chula Vista.
Other strong teams are the Puerto Rico-A of Yarleen Santiago and Yamileska Yantin, who won in Boca Chica and Mayaguez and Costa Rica-A of Ingrid Morales and Natalia Alfaro, who ended second in Boca Chica and Saint Lucia and came out third in Trinidad & Tobago.
U.S. beach volleyball players Traci Weamer (Upland, Calif.) and Sarah Day (Huntington Beach, Calif.) will compete Nov. 30-Dec. 2 in an FIVB exhibition tournament in Xinhui District, Jiangmen City in China.
A film capturing the key moments from the 2012 FIVB SWATCH World Tour is now available for viewing on FIVB Web TV.
All 11 men's and 12 women's events are summarized in the 26-minute film, which also features interviews with top players and a Road To London segment about the 2012 Olympics.
To view the video, click here.


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Elinor Carucci
A couple of rosemary sprigs are all you need to flavor each whole trout. Serve with tabbouleh.
- Yield
- Makes 4 servings
- Active Time
- 15 minutes
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes (preferably assorted colors), halved
- 1 large shallot, chopped
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary plus 8 large sprigs
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Coarse kosher salt
- 4 10- to 12-ounce whole trout, gutted, boned, heads removed, if desired
- Mix tomatoes, shallot, vinegar, and chopped rosemary in bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon oil. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
- Open trout like book on work surface. Sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Place 2 rosemary sprigs on each; fold over to close.
- Divide 3 tablespoons oil between 2 large nonstick skillets. Place over medium-high heat. Add 2 trout to each skillet. Cook trout until brown outside and just opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to plates. Spoon sauce alongside.

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm not sure what even those of you with giant-sized monitors would need it for given the PC performance curve these days, but NVIDIA's Geforce GTX 680 is here and preliminary reviews are calling it a barn-burner. "Burner" only figuratively speaking this time of course: Those same reviews report NVIDIA's latest graphics card is not only the fastest single-chip GPU on the planet, but it's significantly cooler and quieter than the competition as well as its immediate predecessor, the GTX 580.
Let's start with AnandTech, my personal favorite (arguably the most thorough of the deep-dive tech portals). The site writes:
…this has ended up being a launch not quite like any other. With GTX 280, GTX 480, and GTX 580 we discussed how thanks to NVIDIA's big die strategy they had superior performance, but also higher power consumption and a higher cost. To that extent this is a very different launch –the GTX 680 is faster, cooler, and quieter than the Radeon HD 7970. NVIDIA has landed the technical trifecta, and to top it off they've priced it comfortably below the competition.
(MORE: Intel Core i7-3960X Review Roundup: It's Full of Expensive)
Maximum PC says the GTX 680 "offers superb graphics horsepower, but requires only two 6-pin PCI Express power connectors," concluding:
The GTX 680 looks to regain Nvidia the performance crown briefly held by AMD, and is priced lower, to boot. What's most intriguing, however, is that Kepler likely has some headroom for even greater power consumption, which may allow Nvidia to ship an even higher-end GPU when needed.
X-bit labs, also no slouch in the details department, calls the GTX 680 "quite a success" and writes:
…with the new Kepler architecture, the GeForce GTX 680 graphics card has proved to be somewhat faster than the AMD Radeon HD 7970 across all the tests. It is also considerably quieter, more energy-efficient, smaller and lighter … Most importantly, the recommended price of the new card is set at $499, which is $50 cheaper than the recommended price of the AMD Radeon HD 7970.
Tom's Hardware weighs in, describing the GTX 680 as a "hunter" that "scores a kill" and writing:
GeForce GTX 680 is now the fastest single-GPU graphics card, and not by a margin that leaves room to hem or haw … Make no mistake—AMD's Radeon HD 7970 serves up better frame rates than Nvidia's outgoing flagship at lower power. That's a recipe for superior performance per watt, and our index demonstrates AMD's success versus GeForce GTX 580. But then GeForce GTX 680 steps up with enough speed to outpace every other single-GPU card out there. And it only requires a pair of six-pin auxiliary power connectors. We can't quite corroborate Nvidia's claim that it improved on Fermi's performance per watt by 2x. But real data does suggest it gets 72% of the way there, which is still pretty crazy.
As noted at the top, I can't imagine anyone who actually needs one of these for single-monitor gaming, even if you're an enthusiast with a ginormous screen who likes to play at the highest detail levels and resolutions. There's simply not enough available on the PC, game-wise, that'll take advantage of the card at this point (there's still little that does NVIDIA's outgoing flagship, the GTX 580, frankly). But as my colleague Jared Newman reminded me recently, some of you are multi-monitor fiends, in which case the GTX 680 sounds like a dream — albeit an expensive one at $499 — come true.
MORE: Mass Effect 3 Review Roundup: Pleasing Even the Usual Critics


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Home › Classroom Resources › Calendar Activities
Calendar Activities See All Calendar Activities
Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students. View by day, by week, or by month.
August 26, 2020
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote in 1920.
A representative from the local chapter of the League of Women Voters is invited to talk to students about voting rights and what they can do to be active in politics.
Grades 5 – 8
Types of Calendar Activities
Authors & Texts
Birthdays, publication dates, and more
Historical Figures & Events
Notable people and happenings in history
Holidays & School Celebrations
Special days and how to observe them
Literacy-Related Events
Celebrations that promote and encourage literacy


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More of Accessories , Necklaces , Short necklaces , Jewellery
From Paris with Love! 20s Silver Collar necklace
Sorry! This size has sold out and won't come back in stock :-(
Unfortunately, this item is sold out completely and will not be back in stock again.
20s Silver Collar necklace by From Paris with Love!. With this shiny silvertone collar necklace you can create various looks in a minute.
An absolute fashion must-have this season, so, don't miss this!
Very limited stock!
Also available in gold and snakeprint!
- Free shipping within UK, NL, BE, DE, AT, FR & LU
to all other countries free shipping on orders over € 250
- Mo - Fri ordered before 9 pm CET = same day shipping within the Netherlands, in all other countries before 3.30 pm CET
Germany ordered before 12 am CET, delivery within 48 hours
- Customized fit advice!
Every item is measured and tried on
- 30-Day return within receipt
Money back if not satisfied!
- Everything about return policy, international shipping fees
Care & Product details
- Nickelfree
- Silvertone base metal
- Avoid contact with water/parfum/cleaning agent


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Transgender-Inclusive Benefits for Employees and Dependents
Share this
Read HRC's White Paper on Transgender-Inclusive Health Care Coverage and the Corporate Equality Index.
Medically necessary treatments and procedures, such as those defined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders, should be included in employer-provided healthcare and short-term disability coverage.
Transgender people face many forms of discrimination in the provision of health insurance. Employers, as consumers of group health insurance products, can advocate on behalf of the transgender people insured on their group health insurance plans. Employers should work with their insurance carriers or administrators to remove transgender exclusions and provide comprehensive transgender-inclusive insurance coverage.
The American Medical Association joined the movement to end discrimination in health insurance for transgender people by passing the following resolution at their annual meeting in June 2008:
"RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association support public and private health insurance coverage for treatment of gender identity disorder as recommended by a physician."[1]
Businesses are increasingly addressing this discrimination:
|Fortune 100
|Fortune 500
|Fortune 1000
|AmLaw 200
|56 (56%)
|140 (28%)
|165 (17%)
|81 (41%)
|1 (1%)
|1 (0%)
|1 (0%)
|1 (0%)
What is the Problem?
- Health Insurance Plans Generally Discriminate Against Transgender People
Discriminatory trans gender insurance exclusions in insurance contracts cause coverage to be denied for non-transgender care and care related to sex affirmation or reassignment.
Does Your Health Insurance Discriminate?
- Steps for Employers to Determine Whether their Insurance Plan is Inclusive
Includes specific questions for benefits and human resource professionals to ask their insurance administrators or brokers to find out whether their health plans provide inclusive coverage.
- Questions for Employees to Ask to Maintain Privacy
Questions employees should ask before they ask whether their health insurance provides inclusive coverage.
Countering Misconceptions About Transgender Medical Care
- Treatment is Medically Necessary, Reconstructive and Not Cosmetic
Treatments and services related to sex affirmation or reassignment are medically necessary when following the internationally accepted standards of care.
- World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care
The WPATH SOC version 7 from 2011 are the most commonly used standards.
- World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care
- Treatment is Not Expensive
Includes available cost and utilization data demonstrating that costs of treatments are inexpensive and utilization of benefits is low.
- Businesses Can Change their Benefits
Percentage of Fortune 500-ranked businesses with inclusive coverage. Inclusive self-insured and fully-insured plans are available and attainable (see "Finding Inclusive Health Insurance Plans" below).
- Corporate Equality Index: Businesses with Inclusive Benefits
418 businesses rated in the CEI 2014 had provided insurance with at least minimum coverage for sex affirmation or reassignment treatments and services.
- Corporate Equality Index: Businesses with Inclusive Benefits
- Coverage for Medically Necessary Services is Not Taxable
Fixing the Problem: Making Health Insurance Plans Transgender-Inclusive
- Communicating the Availability of the Benefit to Employees
Employers need to communicate that the benefit is available.
- Finding Insurance for Transgender-Related Healthcare
- Ending Stigma & Achieving Full Inclusion: HRC's Task Force to Address Insurance Industry Practices
Case Studies and Data
- San Francisco City and County
A detailed look at cost and utilization experience as well as plan evolution from 2001-2006, including official City and County data.
- Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant
The company's made its fully-insured health plans inclusive in all the states in which it operates.
Transgender people also face discrimination in the provision of healthcare. Unless an employer operates its own healthcare centers or clinics for employees, it has relatively little control over the provision of healthcare. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, in collaboration with the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, provide resources for hospitals on transgender inclusion in patient non-discrimination policies and cultural competency training through the Healthcare Equality Index.
- Healthcare Equality Index
- Transgender-Inclusive Health Care Coverage and the Corporate Equality Index
[1]"H-185.950 Removing Barriers to Care for Transgender Patients," American Medical Association, GLBT Advisory Committee, 2008. Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/glbt-advisory-committee/ama-policy-regarding-sexual-orientation.shtml.


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I use Emacs for development in C. I was trying out some algorithms and I had used some functions from math.h. I had included the header of course. However, when I wanted to compile I knew I would have to use the
my compilation command looked like the following.
-lm flag to include math.h in the compilation. I use
M-x compile for compilation. It usually asks me to enter the name of the executable to be built. In that same line, I added the
CFLAGS=-lm part to the end of that line and the compilation worked fine. So instead of
make -k application
my compilation command looked like the following.
make -k application CFLAGS=-lm


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Do you #lovemaps? Welcome home.
The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) is an enjoyable society of map enthusiasts. We have yearly meetings and we work on a variety of projects and publications which promote map making. We hope you'll drop by and be a part of our collegial community.
NACIS was founded in 1980 and is comprised of specialists from private, academic, and government organizations along with people whose common interest lies in facilitating communication in the map information community.Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter Get Involved - Nominations for NACIS Board


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by Beth
Bowser Costume Photo 4 of 10
Rate this costume:
18 votes
|2 comments · add a comment
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|Costume type:
|Costumes for Boys
This homemade costume for boys entered our 2013 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Lee, the 'Bowser' costume creator:
Each year for Halloween we create a new costume design that my son dreams up. This year it was Nintendos Bowser Game character. The process starts out with a brainstorm session that lists out all... Read more »
Similar costumes:


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Extraterrestrial life is life that exists and originates outside the planet Earth, the only place in the universe currently known by humans to support life. Its existence is still hypothetical as there is currently little, if any, evidence of other planets that can support life, or actual extraterrestrial life that has been widely accepted by the scientific community.
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Produkt + FrontRite Present
De La Swing + Paskal Daze
#Produkt15 Holiday Party
Sunday, December 15 2019
NOTICE: The transfer or re-sale of tickets is strictly prohibited. The person purchasing the ticket must present their ID and credit card at the event to gain entrance. If the person purchasing the ticket is not present or does not have their ID and credit card, the tickets will not be honored and refunds will not be issued. DO NOT purchase this ticket through a third party, as it will not be honored at the event.
BUYER BEWARE: Electrostub is the ONLY authorized online ticket seller for this event. If you buy a print-at-home-ticket or hard ticket from an unauthorized vendor or source (ie: Craigslist, Kijiji, StubHub) we cannot guarantee that it is a valid ticket. Electrostub, New City Gas and Produkt are not responsible for any counterfeit tickets and cannot provide support for any third party purchases.
Having trouble buying tickets?


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Downloading the Source
The Android source tree is located in a Git repository hosted by Google. This document describes how to download the source tree for a specific Android code-line.
Installing Repo
Repo is a tool that makes it easier to work with Git in the context of Android. For more information about Repo, see the Developing section.
To install Repo:
- Make sure you have a bin/ directory in your home directory and that it is included in your path:
$ mkdir ~/bin $ PATH=~/bin:$PATH
- Download the Repo tool and ensure that it is executable:
$ curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo $ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo
For version 1.17, the SHA-1 checksum for repo is ddd79b6d5a7807e911b524cb223bc3544b661c28
For version 1.19, the SHA-1 checksum for repo is 92cbad8c880f697b58ed83e348d06619f8098e6c
For version 1.20, the SHA-1 checksum for repo is e197cb48ff4ddda4d11f23940d316e323b29671c
For version 1.21, the SHA-1 checksum for repo is b8bd1804f432ecf1bab730949c82b93b0fc5fede
Initializing a Repo client
After installing Repo, set up your client to access the Android source repository:
- Create an empty directory to hold your working files. If you're using MacOS, this has to be on a case-sensitive filesystem. Give it any name you like:
$ mkdir WORKING_DIRECTORY $ cd WORKING_DIRECTORY
- Run
repo initto bring down the latest version of Repo with all its most recent bug fixes. You must specify a URL for the manifest, which specifies where the various repositories included in the Android source will be placed within your working directory.
$ repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest
To check out a branch other than "master", specify it with
-b. For a list of branches, see Source Code Tags and Builds.
$ repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.0.1_r1
- When prompted, configure Repo with your real name and email address. To use the Gerrit code-review tool, you will need an email address that is connected with a registered Google account. Make sure this is a live address at which you can receive messages. The name that you provide here will show up in attributions for your code submissions.
A successful initialization will end with a message stating that Repo is initialized in your working directory. Your client directory should now contain a
.repo directory where files such as the manifest will be kept.
Downloading the Android Source Tree
To pull down the Android source tree to your working directory from the repositories as specified in the default manifest, run
$ repo sync
The Android source files will be located in your working directory under their project names. The initial sync operation will take an hour or more to complete. For more about
repo sync and other Repo commands, see theDeveloping section.
Using Authentication
By default, access to the Android source code is anonymous. To protect the servers against excessive usage, each IP address is associated with a quota.
When sharing an IP address with other users (e.g. when accessing the source repositories from beyond a NAT firewall), the quotas can trigger even for regular usage patterns (e.g. if many users sync new clients from the same IP address within a short period).
In that case, it is possible to use authenticated access, which then uses a separate quota for each user, regardless of the IP address.
The first step is to create a password with the password generator and follow the instructions on the password generator page.
The second step is to force authenticated access, by using the following manifest URI:
https://android.googlesource.com/a/platform/manifest. Notice how the
/a/ directory prefix triggers mandatory authentication. You can convert an existing client to use mandatory authentication with the following command:
$ repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/a/platform/manifest
Troubleshooting network issues
When downloading from behind a proxy (which is common in some corporate environments), it might be necessary to explicitly specify the proxy that is then used by repo:
$ export HTTP_PROXY=http://<proxy_user_id>:<proxy_password>@<proxy_server>:<proxy_port> $ export HTTPS_PROXY=http://<proxy_user_id>:<proxy_password>@<proxy_server>:<proxy_port>
More rarely, Linux clients experience connectivity issues, getting stuck in the middle of downloads (typically during "Receiving objects"). It has been reported that tweaking the settings of the TCP/IP stack and using non-parallel commands can improve the situation. You need root access to modify the TCP setting:
$ sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=0 $ repo sync -j1
Using a local mirror
When using several clients, especially in situations where bandwidth is scarce, it is better to create a local mirror of the entire server content, and to sync clients from that mirror (which requires no network access). The download for a full mirror is smaller than the download of two clients, while containing more information.
These instructions assume that the mirror is created in
/usr/local/aosp/mirror. The first step is to create and sync the mirror itself. Notice the
--mirror flag, which can be specified only when creating a new client:
$ mkdir -p /usr/local/aosp/mirror $ cd /usr/local/aosp/mirror $ repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/mirror/manifest --mirror $ repo sync
Once the mirror is synced, new clients can be created from it. Note that it's important to specify an absolute path:
$ mkdir -p /usr/local/aosp/master $ cd /usr/local/aosp/master $ repo init -u /usr/local/aosp/mirror/platform/manifest.git $ repo sync
Finally, to sync a client against the server, the mirror needs to be synced against the server, then the client against the mirror:
$ cd /usr/local/aosp/mirror $ repo sync $ cd /usr/local/aosp/master $ repo sync
It's possible to store the mirror on a LAN server and to access it over NFS, SSH or Git. It's also possible to store it on a removable drive and to pass that drive around between users or between machines.
Verifying Git Tags
Load the following public key into your GnuPG key database. The key is used to sign annotated tags that represent releases.
$ gpg --import
Copy and paste the key(s) below, then enter EOF (Ctrl-D) to end the input and process the keys.
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v18.104.22.168 (GNU/Linux) mQGiBEnnWD4RBACt9/h4v9xnnGDou13y3dvOx6/t43LPPIxeJ8eX9WB+8LLuROSV lFhpHawsVAcFlmi7f7jdSRF+OvtZL9ShPKdLfwBJMNkU66/TZmPewS4m782ndtw7 8tR1cXb197Ob8kOfQB3A9yk2XZ4ei4ZC3i6wVdqHLRxABdncwu5hOF9KXwCgkxMD u4PVgChaAJzTYJ1EG+UYBIUEAJmfearb0qRAN7dEoff0FeXsEaUA6U90sEoVks0Z wNj96SA8BL+a1OoEUUfpMhiHyLuQSftxisJxTh+2QclzDviDyaTrkANjdYY7p2cq /HMdOY7LJlHaqtXmZxXjjtw5Uc2QG8UY8aziU3IE9nTjSwCXeJnuyvoizl9/I1S5 jU5SA/9WwIps4SC84ielIXiGWEqq6i6/sk4I9q1YemZF2XVVKnmI1F4iCMtNKsR4 MGSa1gA8s4iQbsKNWPgp7M3a51JCVCu6l/8zTpA+uUGapw4tWCp4o0dpIvDPBEa9 b/aF/ygcR8mh5hgUfpF9IpXdknOsbKCvM9lSSfRciETykZc4wrRCVGhlIEFuZHJv aWQgT3BlbiBTb3VyY2UgUHJvamVjdCA8aW5pdGlhbC1jb250cmlidXRpb25AYW5k cm9pZC5jb20+iGAEExECACAFAknnWD4CGwMGCwkIBwMCBBUCCAMEFgIDAQIeAQIX gAAKCRDorT+BmrEOeNr+AJ42Xy6tEW7r3KzrJxnRX8mij9z8tgCdFfQYiHpYngkI 2t09Ed+9Bm4gmEO5Ag0ESedYRBAIAKVW1JcMBWvV/0Bo9WiByJ9WJ5swMN36/vAl QN4mWRhfzDOk/Rosdb0csAO/l8Kz0gKQPOfObtyYjvI8JMC3rmi+LIvSUT9806Up hisyEmmHv6U8gUb/xHLIanXGxwhYzjgeuAXVCsv+EvoPIHbY4L/KvP5x+oCJIDbk C2b1TvVk9PryzmE4BPIQL/NtgR1oLWm/uWR9zRUFtBnE411aMAN3qnAHBBMZzKMX LWBGWE0znfRrnczI5p49i2YZJAjyX1P2WzmScK49CV82dzLo71MnrF6fj+Udtb5+ OgTg7Cow+8PRaTkJEW5Y2JIZpnRUq0CYxAmHYX79EMKHDSThf/8AAwUIAJPWsB/M pK+KMs/s3r6nJrnYLTfdZhtmQXimpoDMJg1zxmL8UfNUKiQZ6esoAWtDgpqt7Y7s KZ8laHRARonte394hidZzM5nb6hQvpPjt2OlPRsyqVxw4c/KsjADtAuKW9/d8phb N8bTyOJo856qg4oOEzKG9eeF7oaZTYBy33BTL0408sEBxiMior6b8LrZrAhkqDjA vUXRwm/fFKgpsOysxC6xi553CxBUCH2omNV6Ka1LNMwzSp9ILz8jEGqmUtkBszwo G1S8fXgE0Lq3cdDM/GJ4QXP/p6LiwNF99faDMTV3+2SAOGvytOX6KjKVzKOSsfJQ hN0DlsIw8hqJc0WISQQYEQIACQUCSedYRAIbDAAKCRDorT+BmrEOeCUOAJ9qmR0l EXzeoxcdoafxqf6gZlJZlACgkWF7wi2YLW3Oa+jv2QSTlrx4KLM= =Wi5D -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
After importing the keys, you can verify any tag with
$ git tag -v TAG_NAME
If you haven't set up ccache yet, now would be a good time to do it.


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Former Planet Hollywood co-founders Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone collaborated briefly in 2010 for the surprise hit "The Expendables." Now that Arnold is now longer governor, they've made a more serious commitment to each other.
Schwarzenegger and Stallone are officially on for "The Tomb," reported Deadline. Stallone will play a man who designs a maximum security prison, and is then set up for a crime he did not commit and is sent to his own prison, from which he then plans to escape--essentially pitting himself in a battle fo wits against himself. Schwarzenegger will play a fellow inmate.
"The Tomb" is being directed by Mikael Hafstrom, best known for the horror thrillers "1408" and "The Rite." Hafstrom will be working with a script from originally written by Miles Chapman ("Road House 2") that was subsequently re-written by Jason Keller ("Machine Gun Preacher," "Mirror, Mirror").
U.S. & World
This of course will come after the macho men are fully recovered from their respective shoulder surgeries.


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Adobe Czech Republic in cooperation with youngsters conference JuniorInternet (by Together CZ) opens innovative contest for Czech and Slovak developers to celebrate mobile versions of Flash Player 10.1 and AIR for Android. Enter and win Google Nexus One or Creative Suite 5!
What can you win
1st Place – Google Nexus One (Froyo) + goodies
2nd Place – […]


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By Dennis Noll
The San Antonio Area Foundation is bringing together diverse groups to discuss how San Antonio can improve the quality of education in our community.
We are bringing nationally renowned education reformer Geoffrey Canada
in to share his unique experience transforming education in a 97-block, low-income area of New York City. Mr. Canada will speak at a luncheon at the Grand Hyatt on Tuesday, March 20. Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone is based on helping children from an early age with the active engagement of adults around them who understand how to help them succeed in school, higher education and the job market.
The Area Foundation launched its High School Completion grant program last year. Our focus is to support nonprofits that provide quality out-of-school-time programs for middle school students, an age group that our research has found to be both critical and underserved.
We are thankful for the sponsors who have made this program possible, including The Ewing Halsell Foundation, George W. Brackenridge Foundation, Hixon Properties Inc., Rackspace Hosting and George M. Rapier III, M.D.
We hope that this event will start an ongoing dialogue. Although there are many schools of thought on how to achieve quality education, we are committed to energizing those with differing viewpoints to work together toward a common goal – better educational outcomes for all the children of San Antonio. Together, we can help our children, and ultimately our community, succeed and thrive in the competitive world around us.
For more information about or to join us at this important event, please click here.
Dennis Noll is President and CEO of the San Antonio Area Foundation.


text: AbbeyBrooks.com is home to the horniest blonde ever witnessed on this planet! She is so great looking you may have a heart attack! She likes her sex rough so when you join you can be sure the videos are insane! With her huge boobs and great skills Abbey Brooks is probably the best girl you'll ever see!


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What makes the travel industry in China unique?
TravelSky is a dominant player. The company retains an inherent monopoly on the handling of flight transactions and information in China.
Since few foreign travel companies have sufficient scale or influence in China, there is value in partnering creatively with TravelSky to tap into the rapidly growing Chinese marketplace.
In the era of globalization, Chinese airlines face challenges in streamlining and modernizing their Passenger Service System (PSS) provided by TravelSky to interact with their customers via a variety of channels. Air China is the first of TravelSky's airline clients to migrate to the new generation PSS. This is the modular, web-based applications based on open technology and industry standards to make it easier to add new applications or integrate with other systems.
What trends are disrupting the aviation industry in China?
The world is turning digital. Chinese consumers are highly digital and mobile. And they will switch airlines to get what they want. The battle for direct-to- consumers is particularly fierce in China given OTAs' wide reach and established digital presence.
How is digital impacting the aviation and travel industries in China?
Given the growing popularity of social media and mobile technology, traditional marketing may not always be effective in China, and companies must find new ways to make an impact. For example, WeChat is one of the "must-have" mobile commerce platforms for these industries to succeed with their marketing campaigns in China.
How do you see the travel Industry evolving in China by 2020?
China is rapidly becoming one of the most important outbound tourism markets in the world. To secure and gain value share in an increasingly competitive environment—and amid unfavorable macroeconomic conditions—many leading players have already taken steps to consolidate their foothold in the travel industry via mergers and acquisitions, as well as through continuous investment.
What opportunities do travel companies have in China?
Chinese travel companies have historically relied on travel agents. This has given travel agents a particularly strong hold on Chinese travelers, which poses increasing risks and complexities for travel companies.
As a result, Chinese travel providers have collectively started to approach consumers directly in recent years. Direct strategies will be the key for sustainable growth. However, travel companies must innovate while striking the right balance between competing and collaborating with travel agents. It's about being persistent and proactive in building capabilities and addressing barriers.
Tell us about your journey in Accenture.
I joined Accenture Hong Kong in 1995 through campus recruitment. After joining, I went to the SAP Solution Center in Cincinnati to be an apprentice for six months. I supported several SAP projects in Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, China, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
In 2010, after my first son's birth, I became a managing director. Now I am the Greater China Travel Industry Lead. I work with organizations including Cathay Pacific Airways, Asia Miles, Melco-Crown Entertainment, China Eastern Airlines and HNA.
How has your definition of success changed over time?
Success is the result of hard work, sustained focus, and learning from failure.
How do you juggle work-life balance as a working mother?
I have three sons—my oldest is six years old, and my twins are four years old. Each day, if I don't need to travel, I try my best to come home to have dinner with them and to talk to them.
I treasure quality time with my family—even if that is a few hours at the end of the day. We make the most of quality time together. No matter how busy my schedule is, I make sure to attend all school meetings and events to show my children that they are the ones I care about the most.
Why is diversity good for businesses?
Our clients are extremely diverse in terms of gender, culture, ethnicity, personality, work style—across all parameters. So a diversified team is more likely to understand their needs and have good team chemistry.
What advice do you have for women entering the workplace?
Be yourself. Know your own leadership style and embrace an inclusive mindset about different leadership styles. Appreciate and accept the differences, and find ways to leverage them.


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Solemn, hopeful Sandy Hook vigil in D.C.
WASHINGTON -- As a choir sang the lilting, poignant hymn "My Beautiful Town," hundreds of people lit candles in the darkened nave of the National Cathedral on Thursday to mark the national vigil against gun violence on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown.
The song, written by Newtown music teacher Jim Allyn and performed by the all-female World Children's Choir, set the tone for what Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., summed up as a "very peaceful, moving, hopeful" service in which speakers from around the United States talked about the loss of their loved ones as a result of what one speaker called "the epidemic of gun violence."
The somber onset of the service was defined by three minutes of a slow-cadenced bass gong of the largest bell in the massive and majestic medieval cathedral that still had expanded seating in place from a memorial service on Wednesday for Nelson Mandela, the late South African liberation leader.
The Rev. Mel Kawakami, senior minister of Newtown United Methodist Church, one of the conveners of the service, said, "We gather to remember those who have lost their lives to gunfire," and noted the Scripture teaching, "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted."
He urged the audience "to work toward a world where there are no more school shootings. We gather to say, `No more.' "
He also cited the work of first responders, those "who run toward danger."
Gilles Rousseau, father of slain Sandy Hook first-grade teacher Lauren Rousseau, 30, said the common goal of the audience was making the world safer. "I will remember," he concluded, and the audience replied: "We will remember."
The service also heard singer Carole King, accompanying herself on the piano, perform "In the Name of Love," the U2 song.
The Rev. Kathleen Adams-Shepherd, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown, convened a group of young people as they took turns telling of their own encounters with gun violence, with each expressing the hope that laws and U.S. culture would fight gun violence.
The audience included Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both D-Conn., as well as Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., chair of the House task force on gun violence.
Another speaker, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate in the House, praised Esty for her work against gun violence. The service was "the national vigil" on the anniversary of Sandy Hook, she said.
Among the 13 clergy representatives at the interfaith gathering were the Rev. Sam Saylor, pastor of Blackwell Memorial AME Zion Church in Hartford, Muadh Bhavnagarwala of the Al Hedaya Islamic Center in Newtown, and the Rev. Matthew Crebbin, senior minister of the Newtown Congregational Church.
The service is the only Sandy Hook memorial in Washington marking the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. White House officials say President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama will commemorate the anniversary on Saturday with a moment of silence.
The service was arranged by the Newtown Foundation and the Newtown Action Alliance, with support from Sandy Hook Promise, Connecticut Against Gun Violence Education Fund and the McDowell-Jewett Communications firm in Hartford.


text: Margo is my neighbor and my muse. We live in the middle of nowhere so it is nice to have a neighbor and a muse all rolled into one. I started photographing her as soon as she moved up here, she is breathtakingly beautiful. What I didn't know is that she can write like a house on fire. And she has stories to tell. Oh, the stories she has to tell. One day she handed me a manuscript and I read one line. The first line. And I knew right away, this girl can write. Each week we sit down and write together for an hour. We do this three times a week. Each time I am blown away by her brain. Amazing. Never sat across from a writer like Margo. Wow. I always count my blessings out here, there are so many things I appreciate and Margo is at the top of the list. The Modern Love essay that was posted in the paper today is just the tip of the iceberg. Can't wait for the book!


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A/N: Jov's spent the past week-ish without net access, and has houseguests this week as well. So, due to her complete inability to pre-plan posts, she's relying again on Mr Jov to provide content for today.
So last time when Jov was taking a break, I wrote you all from the other side of the fence about all those things healers do that drive tanks crazy. But, thankfully, all is not doom and gloom when it comes to Tank – Priest relationships. Over the years I've had the opportunity to witness (and be the beneficiary of) some good themes that keep the fire burning so to speak. With that in mind, may I offer you Simple Things A Healer Can Do to Keep The Tank Happy.
- Please don't die. This sounds so cheesy, but as I alluded to in episode 1, we tanks have a huge complex when it comes to healer death. So, more so than for selfish reasons, please do exercise caution. We would much rather die first – at least that way we did our jobs – than be standing there with a dead healer on our hands. Remember always that you are special, and with great specialness comes great responsibility – to choose life.
- Show the love. I have stressed that tanks are sensitive. We understand. We are the "strong silent type." We're the friend you would come to if you woke up in the morning and found yourself in a raid with 23 other people staring an angry ancient power from the dawn of time. "We get eaten so you don't have to" would be written in Latin on the Tanker's Union sign if we had a sign and enough brain cells left over from our beatings to conjugate an irregular verb in the future perfect tense. Because really, a little /hug or /flirt can brighten the spirits, but when it comes from a healer it means so much more. DPS just doesn't have the same touch as a healer. The warlock may have a pretty face, but we know that it is just skin deep. Do I have to mention the self-destructive tendencies? Seriously, Life Tap? So not cool.
- Remember the Tank off the job too. Whether it is going to a heroic or dressing down on an alt, remember that your tank isn't just there for raiding. Nothing shows genuine appreciation more for a tank than getting an invite somewhere from one of their healers. It can be hard to trust a PuG group as a tank because the cost of failure is so high (and unlike the DPS, we can't grind out money like it is going out of style), and going somewhere with a healer you trust makes a real difference. How much of a difference? Having the healer you know along with you as a tank is like the difference in a fight between having a broken bottle and an AK-47. This is even true if the tank is not on the tanking character at the time.
- Try tanking yourself. This is not an invitation to pull agro, but give tanking a try by either respeccing for a little while or trying it out with a test realm pre-gen. Most tanks (myself included) consider our job to be the hardest in the raid group and we get a big boost out of knowing our fellow raiders have at least tried to walk a day in our heavy plate boots. Who knows, you might even like it. But, at least you will appreciate more the challenges of tanking – particularly when it comes to working with your healers. If you haven't done it, I guarantee you'll look at your tank differently next time you're in a raid together. Perhaps better yet – they will look at you differently too.


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- Yield
- Makes 6 servings
- Nonstick vegetable oil spray
- 1 2-pound turkey breast half with bones
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 red bell peppers, cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips
- 2 yellow bell peppers, cut into 1/3-inch-wide strips
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, divided
- 3 tablespoons drained capers
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray. Brush turkey breast with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on prepared sheet. Roast until thermometer inserted into thickest part of turkey registers 170°F and juices run clear when pierced with fork, about 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes (internal temperature of turkey will increase to 175°F).
- Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers and onion; sauté until tender and brown around edges, about 10 minutes. Add thyme; stir 2 minutes. Mix in 2 tablespoons vinegar and capers. Season with salt and pepper.
- Remove bones from turkey. Thinly slice turkey crosswise. Transfer to platter and keep warm. Place baking sheet over 2 stove-top burners; add remaining 3 tablespoons vinegar to baking sheet and bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Pour vinegar over turkey. Arrange bell pepper mixture around turkey and serve.
Per serving: calories, 214; total fat, 8 g; saturated fat, 2 g; cholesterol, 46 mg; fiber, 2 g


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In Canada You Need Wait‐List Insurance!
Governments love to promise benefits. But politicians prefer not to have to raise the funds necessary to provide the promised services. The result for nationalized medical systems is political rationing … and long waiting lists. The Mackinac Institute, located in Michigan, has produced a series of videos on Canadians speaking about how their system works. The British Columbia Automobile Association even developed medical access, or wait list, insurance, before abandoning the program under pressure.


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Pittsburgh abortion protester to stay farther away from clinics
Meredith Parente, of Penn Hills, settles lawsuit over incident near Planned Parenthood clinic
An abortion protester has agreed to stay 25 feet further away from the entrance to a Pittsburgh abortion clinic to settle a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit which claimed she pushed two volunteers who were escorting women into the downtown facility.
Lawrence Paladin Jr., the attorney for Meredith Parente, says the 56-year-old Penn Hills woman continues to deny pushing anybody.
She settled the suit Thursday by agreeing to stay 40 feet away from clinic doors. A city ordinance already requires protesters to stay at least 15 feet away.
Federal attorneys sued Parente last year, seeking $5,000 in damages for the volunteers and a $15,000 fine.
Paladin says Parente settled the case -- in which she doesn't acknowledge wrongdoing -- to avoid the risk of those penalties at a trial that was to begin next week.


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Lean Cuisine Spring Rolls - HOORAY for quick, crunchy, guilt-free finger food! These new Casual Cuisine items from LC -- in Fajita-Style Chicken, Thai-Style Chicken, and Garlic Chicken -- make a fun app or hot snack. A 3-roll serving only has 200 calories, 7 - 8g fat, 580mg sodium, 20 - 24g carbs, 1 - 2g fiber, 3 - 4g sugars, and 10 - 15g protein (PointsPlus® value 5*). We'll be grabbing the Garlic Chicken ones when we don't feel like making these guys (such similar ingredients!)...
Weight Watchers Coffee Cake - Before you tear into these individually wrapped snack cakes, here are three things to know... One, they're a tad on the small side. Two, they're REALLY delicious (as in hard to stop at just one). Three, if you're gonna have one with your coffee, pair it with some fruit (PointsPlus® value 0*) to keep you from getting hungry and grabbing another pastry. Each cake has 120 calories, 3.5g fat, 150mg sodium, 25g carbs, 5g fiber, 11g sugars, and 2g protein (PointsPlus® value 3). P.S. The filling tastes AMAZING.
Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta - You love regular pasta but aren't nuts about its low nutritional value and high stats. Shirataki noodles don't do it for you. What's a carb-lover to do? Try out these white-style noodles, enriched with calcium, vitamin D, and fiber! A 2-oz. uncooked serving has 180 calories, 0.5g fat, 5 - 15mg sodium, 43g carbs, 7g fiber, 1g sugars, and 6 - 7g protein (PointsPlus® value 5*). And there are SEVEN varieties, like Elbows and Extra Wide Noodles. We LOVE options!
While it can seem like a hassle to order food items, some things are so worth it. These are our latest picks... Lucero Flavored Balsamic Vinegars - We'll admit it: We're suckers for fancy vinegars. So much flavor + so few calories = true love. With 25 calories per tbsp., Lucero serves up five INSANELY amazing flavors: Blueberry, Fig, Peach, Red Apple, and Wild Cherry. They're sweet and slightly tart, in a very good way! And since a little bit goes far, a bottle will last a long time. Try 'em drizzled over berries or some grilled veggies. And check out this sampler pack of mini bottles! New Varieties! Bagel Spice - Despite the "Spice up your life!" labels, these virtually calorie-free seasoning mixes have no affiliation with the Spice Girls. We previously mentioned the salt-free original blend, but now there's a Zesty Jalapeño version AND one with sea salt. Bagel flavor without bagel carbs! Mmmmm... FiberGourmet Light Lasagna Noodles - MORE PASTA NEWS... There's now a middle ground between calorie-packed lasagna noodles and slabs of veggies as swaps. A 2-oz. uncooked serving of these fiber-loaded pasta sheets has 130 calories, 18 GRAMS OF FIBER, and a PointsPlus® value of 4*. Wow. FiberGourmet, you never cease to amaze us.
Healthier Food Hits the (Wal)Mart After years of being better known for its low prices than commitment to nutrition, Walmart has announced plans to significantly reduce the sodium and added sugars in its packaged foods by 2015. PLUS, the company's committing to lower the prices of fresh fruit and veggies as well as "better-for-you" packaged items that are often higher priced. High five, WM! Calorie Counts Are Just Around the Corner Corner Bakery Cafe's "100 combos under 600 calories" thing is pretty groovy... and it just got groovier! This quickie calculator makes it WAY easy to put together a special two-item combo meal and get the total calorie count. A Turkey Frisco sandwich on Asiago Cheese Bread with Three Lentil Vegetable soup? Why, that's 505 calories. A California Grille Panini on Whole Grain Harvest Bread plus a Side Mixed Greens Salad? Only 430 calories. We could go on, but we won't...
On the hunt for 60-calorie sugar-free caramel pudding snacks to use in recipes like last Tuesday's... or just to snack on? Here's a tip: Although Jell-O no longer makes its Creamy Caramel variety, the brand's Dulce de Leche stuff is delicious and full of caramel flavor! Handi-Snacks has a 45-calorie Creamy Caramel option, and Snack Pack's Sugar Free Caramel version also fits the bill. And now you know... ***Need help picking the best cut of raw meat? Coming in 2012, many popular cuts of meat will actually list nutritional info on the packaging. Finally! ***Hope you're in the produce aisle... According to new research, that 5-a-day recommendation might not be enough. In order to cut the risk of heart disease, EIGHT servings of fruits and veggies could be needed. That's inflation for ya. ***On the good side, a recent study indicates that eating a mere cup of blueberries or strawberries per week might cut down a person's risk for high blood pressure. We LOVE berries, so we have no problem trying this out. ***Another thing that might lower your blood pressure? Faster lines at Starbucks. (Kidding... kind of.) Download a free app, and pay for your SB java using only your smartphone. After standing behind that person digging for correct change (or occasionally BEING that person), we welcome this. ***Guess what! This Saturday's episode of the Hungry Girl TV show is ALL ABOUT CHOCOLATE! Click here to see the preview, and tune in to Cooking Channel this Saturday (2/5) at 4pm ET/1pm PT for the full episode! And that's all we've got. HG out!
Your buddies do so much for you! The least you could do is click "Send to a Friend" to pass along this fun email.
Today, January 31st, is the last day of National Bread Machine Baking Month... and we didn't once use a bread machine. Oh well. Bring on the 100-calorie flat buns!
SmartPoints® value not what you expected? Click here for more info on how the values are calculated, plus more FAQs about PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® values on our website.


text: Top-secret janitor. Pollster to the spies. Classified comic book artist. Any organization sufficiently large is bound to have the odd job opening within it. But few organizations are as freakin' colossal as the U.S. military intelligence industrial complex, with an estimated 4.9 million Americans holding security clearances today. Which means there are thousands of unconventional positions to fill at any given moment. Here are some of the wilder military and intelligence "help wanted" ads we found online. Some classifieds are for truly wacky jobs. Others are for slightly more standard positions -- but presented in an odd way. If you find more, let us know in the comments, on Twitter or on Facebook. We'll post some of the best suggestions. Above: Military-Industrial Artist Let's face it, your artistic talent is going to waste working for minimum wage at that coffee bar. And you're not exactly using your top-secret security clearance either, brewing up mochaccinos. Luckily, there's a job that combines your comic book skills with your remarkable ability to make it through art school while only barely hitting the bong. Virginia-based Pentagon contractor TASC is looking for a graphic artist to join their "Global Systems Business Unit." There you'll design "creative artwork" that can "communicate mood, emphasis, insight, viewpoint, and similar visual impressions" through brochures, emblems, and posters. That's like band and gig posters, right? Sure, if you think of "gig" in terms of engineering support for the Pentagon's fleet of spy satellites. (You'll also have to clear a polygraph test.) And not to worry. While the corporate culture of the military-defense industry can be a little square, TASC wants to use satellite data to "move from reporting historical location information to predicting events," company vice president Robert Horback told Geospatial Intelligence Forum. Hipster credibility is based on knowing what's cool in advance of everyone else, so it's a perfect job, really. Photo: Newton Free Library/FlickrTwitter Stalker Security firm Archimedes Global wants a "Cyber Counterterrorism Persona Targeting Analyst." The title sounds great at parties, for one. But basically, it comes down to stalking people on Twitter. Aside from using a required top-secret security clearance to access computer systems maintained by the FBI and the Pentagon's cybercrime center to "support cyber [counter-terrorist] activities," a big part of the job involves using "social media analysis (to include Twitter, Facebook, and organic native language social media) in order to establish a pattern of life study of the 'target' and obtain information and positive attribution of subjects." And they pay you for it. It's also not the only job available along these lines. Data analysis firm Semantic Research -- not to be confused with the anti-virus company with a similar name -- is seeking a "Social Media Intelligence Analyst" to track "criminal activity ... in support of active federal law enforcement investigations." The six-figure income is more than cops make, too. Photo: Transportation Security AdministrationRussian Counter-Espionage Expert Three months ago, the FBI pounced on a group of Russians who appeared to be legitimate business executives, but who were allegedly seeking to smuggle high-tech electronics used in all kinds of nasty weapons systems, from targeting computers to detonation triggers. Now here's your chance to join Team America and bust up more of Moscow's espionage plots -- including sultry spies like Anna Chapman, pictured above. Private intelligence firm Pluribus International is seeking an analyst to "identify and counter foreign intelligence threats" that are trying to steal sensitive military research and technology. "[Counter-intelligence] analytical experience involving Russia is preferred," notes the job posting, and a security clearance is required. There's also the opportunity to parlay with some of the top national security folks in Washington, including criminal investigators with the Army, Navy, Air Force and the State Department. You'll be ensuring that "senior [Defense Department] leaders and Congressional staffs are routinely briefed on significant activities," while hunting down and stopping "adversarial operations." But note this isn't James Bond spycraft for you adrenaline junkies -- it's a lot more subtle than that. Photo: Victor Boyko/Getty ImagesYiddish Linguist If you can tell a schlemiel from a schlemazel, one of Washington's spookiest intelligence contractors has a job for you. CIA contractor MVM, Inc. is looking for part-time Yiddish linguists with "native or near native oral and written communications skills" including the ability to "comprehend slang and colloquial expressions." Once the main language of Jews until the mid-20th century, Yiddish has since gone into steep decline with the revival of the state of Israel and the Hebrew language. Today, Yiddish is mainly spoken by certain ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects and a handful of revivalists. Now the question is: What in the world is a CIA-linked firm trying to translate from Yiddish? Or who is speaking it and getting snooped on? By the way, the job also involves working -- er, translating -- during nights and weekends. Photo: irinia slutzky/FlickrMexican Drug War Instructor Apply for the job now, ask questions later. That's the attitude CIA contractor MVM is looking for, as it recruits "teachers" for a little gig down in Mexico. And according to a company job posting, it's hiring teachers who also happen to be former U.S. law enforcement officers who speak Spanish, have at least 15 years experience in counter-drug intelligence work, and have knowledge of Mexican, Central American and South American "drug trafficking activities including personalities, organizations and trafficking routes." Interested? MVM doesn't specify who you'll train, and the location isn't specific beyond "throughout Mexico," so you should be a get-up-and-go kind of worker. The length is between two and five weeks. It also helps if you have experience writing counter-drug "targeting packets." MVM doesn't say who or what will be on those packets. But you're not the type to ask too many questions, are you? Photo: APBio-Weapons Hunter For our sake and that of our children, you better know what you're doing when you apply for this job, because you'll be chasing biological weapons in the former Soviet bloc and beyond. Defense firm Millennium Corporation is looking for a program manager to help out the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency in preventing "the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction ... and should that fail, reducing the impact of their use." The specific job focuses on biological weapons, and a big part of it involves managing one or more contracts at more than 14 exciting locations including Russia, India, Africa, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. The company also states it will provide you with a passport for travel, and for your office in Lorton, Virginia: "a laptop computer, a desk phone and a chair." They're warming it up for you right now. And you better hurry, because there's anthrax to uncover. Photo: ArmyGallup Pollster The pollsters at Gallup, Inc. kind of crapped the bed this presidential election season -- first picking Mitt Romney to win, then raging at statistical guru Nate Silver for poking fun at the company's flawed performance. But despite a rocky 2012, Gallup insists that it is still "the most trusted name in survey research, with a national reputation for efficiently [meeting] the informational needs of government agencies." And that's where you come in. Gallup needs a researcher in its government division -- to do what, the company doesn't explicitly say. But a high-level, Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance is "preferred." In other words: even if you screw the job up, Nate Silver will never know a thing about it. Photo: nikolai36/FlickrTop Secret Janitor It's hard to pinpoint the oddest part about this job listing. Maybe it's "anonymous employer" offering the gig. Maybe it's the fact that they appear to be looking for a top-secret cleaning man. Or maybe it's the gratuitous exclamation points. In any event, this online classified ad is so bizarre, we decided just to present it in its full glory: TOP SECRET SECURITY CLEARANCE - CUSTODIAL – JANITOR – PEST DESPOSAL – PEST CONTROL – WASTE DESPOSAL – PAINTER – SNOW REMOVAL – INDOOR PLANT SERVICES – GENERAL LABOR – TRASH REMOVAL – SNOW PLOW – HOUSE PAINTING A Personified Confidential Client is hiring for multiple positions within the Northern VA area. If you have previous experience in any of the following positions, then we want YOU to Apply Now! Custodial Services – Pest Control – Waste Disposal – Painting – Snow Removal – Indoor Plant Services We offer: • Competitive Wages! • Job Stability! • Professional Growth Opportunities! • Competitive Benefits Package! • Culture that values and holds outstanding safety record! • Large Company Opportunities, Small Company Feel! Read the Requirements below and APPLY NOW for immediate consideration We will be contacting you via email, so make sure to check your account regularly! Requirements: • Must have Top-Secret Security clearance or higher • Must have 3 years of experience in particular position OR certification for position/skill Responsibilities: • Typical of the particular position o These will be discussed in further more detail when you speak to a hiring manager Photo: will engelmann/Flickr


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Cal remains in contention for Freedom High running back Joe Mixon, who announced his final four teams via Twitter on Tuesday.
In no particular order, Mixon, a five-star recruit (out of five), announced that UCLA, Cal, Wisconsin and Oklahoma are his final four teams, with Florida State and Washington off his previous list.
Mixon told Scout.com that Steve Sarkisian's move from Washington to USC will add the Trojans to his list if Sarkisian, as expected, recruits him.
Mixon repeatedly has talked about how much playing close to home would mean to him, which helps to explain why the Bears are still on Mixon's radar after a 1-11 season. He said his home visit with UCLA on Monday went very well. He has home visits this week with the other three, including Cal.
Mixon said he plans to announce his decision at the Army All-American Game on Jan. 4 in San Antonio. He is one of six finalists for the U.S. Army national player of the year award after rushing for 1,704 yards and 28 touchdowns in 11 games his senior year, including 470 yards and nine touchdowns in two North Coast Section playoff games. He had 4,281 rushing yards and 76 touchdowns during his three-year varsity career.
Girls volleyball
Branson d. St. Joseph Notre Dame: For the fifth year in a row, the Bulls are on their way to the California Interscholastic Federation Division V state championship game after a 25-16, 25-16, 25-20 sweep of St. Joseph Notre Dame in the CIF Division V Northern Regional final.
In a rematch of the section title game that Branson (35-6) won in four games, it was the Bulls who handled business from the start at the College of Marin. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead against St. Joseph Notre Dame, and in both of the first two games, Branson held a double-digit lead and finished with a nine-point win.
The third game was a different story, as the Pilots (32-10) started to string together points and had a 17-15 lead.
"Playing in a big match like this, you've got to get used to it," St. Joseph Notre Dame coach Edwin Chen said. "You've got to get in a rhythm, and we were finally able to get into one in the end there."
For Branson coach Michelle Brazil, this rematch was one she had hoped for.
"We kind of felt like we gave a little bit away last time, and it's kind of frustrating winning a championship that way," Brazil said. "Even though we won last time, we wanted to go out and play much better, and I feel like we did."
The Bulls were led by Sarah Wallace, who had 13 kills and 13 digs.
For the Pilots, Rebecca Langowski led the way with 12 kills.
She was followed by Emma Doud with eight kills, and Dana Pineda and Allie Oilar each had 11 assists.
— Brian Sanchez, Marin Independent Journal
Staff writer Jeff Faraudo contributed to this report.


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Week 4 of the Caine Prize blogathon. This past week (I'm late) the crew reviewed Melissa Tandiwe Myambo's "La Salle de Départ" [pdf].This post is a bit longer than usual (about 1500 words), so if you're pressed for time I summarize my argument in the first two and last paragraphs.
Of all the Caine Prize stories this year, the one I have the most mixed feelings about is Melissa Myambo's "La Salle de Départ." It took me a while to figure out exactly what my issue was with the story. It does a number of things so well: it's structurally adept, it doesn't condescend to its readers, it has some genuinely lovely prose. The story flows so immaculately it's practically unquotable. And I love what it represents: the flight of an African imagination around the continent, not limited to her own small corner of the world. (It reminds me in that way of the Pilgrimages project, another outstanding example of African writers engaging with different parts of the continent.)
But everything that the story does well it also undermines. At its core it's about a Senegalese brother and sister who are made distant by his emigration to the US. At that level it's touching, engaging, and perennially timely. But Myambo clutters up their story with so many details – faint social analysis, tired metaphors of roots and wings, inessential character traits, and so on – that she mars the story's beauty and blurs its message. At the same time she repeatedly takes aesthetic shortcuts that, I felt, were unworthy of a story that aspires to psychological depth. If I'm being harsher on this story than on any other, it's because it's too good a story to just let these flaws pass.
Brief summary: Two main characters. There's Fatima, the long-suffering sister whose education and freedom have been sacrificed for the sake of the family. Then there's her brother Ibou, the golden child who flew away to the US leaving Fatima behind. With an Egyptian girlfriend and an American salary, he's now perhaps irreparably distant from his family and their demands. But now Fatima wants him to take her son Babacar to America, returning the favor that the family did for him. Ibou, on the other hand, is ambivalent about who he's become in America and refuses Fatima's request. Most of the story is a conversation they have in the back seat of a battered taxi, taking Ibou to the airport to fly away yet again.
My problem with the story started at the level of character. In fiction there are some characters who exist in and for themselves, and then there are others who exist to illustrate a point. The irritating thing about a character like Fatima is that she pretends to be the former when she's really the latter. She herself sums up her raison d'être:
"'I am the one who waits always and watches others come and go. I am the one who always remains behind so that you can go.'"
I admire this sentence for its lyrical encapsulation of Fatima's character, but I'm annoyed at her character for being so easily encapsulated.
My problem isn't even that her character is simple, but that it appears to be complicated when in reality it's reducible to a single sentence. There an incredible amount of detail around Fatima – she has a child, she did well in school, she wears a long gold ring, she makes good pudding – but all of that is just mere information. It doesn't come from anywhere inside her, nor does it reveal anything about who she is as a person, nor does it affect the story's outcome. Here's the thing: all this random detail is supposed to produce the illusion that she's a real person. Real people aren't drawn from a single idea; they're constellations of many facts and facets that don't all fit together. So Myambo dutifully accumulates miscellaneous facts about Fatima in the hope that they'll make her look more like a real person. But they don't make her look like a real person, because they're too transparently a disguise for who she is: a well-drawn representative of a type. She's a long-suffering African woman. She's rooted in place. She's traditional. She yearns for freedom. She has hidden strengths. Underneath the lyrical smudges, that's what there is to her.
All the extraneous details and contrivances in Fatima's character can't hide the fact that she doesn't really have a single aspect that would mark her as an individual. But then of course the whole feint towards individuality is a distraction, because it's precisely the typicality of Fatima and Ibou's situation that anchors this story. As Ikhide puts it in his review,
"Every now and then one comes across a story that belongs in you, that should have come from you, that tells it exactly how you have been meaning to tell it, but you can't because well, you are the story."
In other words what gives this story its key to Ikhide's heart is how closely it encapsulates his own (and, he implies, many others') experiences as an emigrant from West Africa to the fraught freedom of the US. I don't share that experience and I wouldn't want to deconstruct or gainsay Ikhide's identification with the story. And if the story's power comes from its typicality, that doesn't necessarily make it a bad story.
But Myambo seems to have decided that in order to make the story speak to the experience of emigration she has to sacrifice real insight into a character as an individual, even while she clutters up the story with the putative marks of individuality. This is even more pronounced in the character of Ibou. Why, besides the bare fact that he's an immigrant, does he cry in the shower of his new American home? Why does he resent his relatives when they ask him for money? Why does he become the president of the African Students' Association? The only thing we know about Ibou before he moves to America is that he draws stick figures. Myambo may be pointing at some grand truth about Being an Immigrant, but why does Ibou have to be so depressingly vague?
Maybe it's better that the story takes shortcuts, leaving us to import the psychological depth that it gestures to without providing, because when we start asking the difficult questions about assimilation, self-loathing, deracination, gender oppression, and so on that Ibou seems to raise, we find a level of psycho-cultural analysis that's crushingly bland. To summarize: X is not America. America is cold, individualistic, lifestyle-oriented, mobile, and wealthy. X is warm, traditional, family-oriented, rooted in place, and poor. In X people live in intimate groups and they're suspicious of outsiders. In America anyone from anywhere can meet and fall in love with any other anyone from anywhere. To move from X to America is painful to a person, because a person winds up torn between being X and being American. This is painful to the family left behind in X as well.
Of course, X can potentially stand for just about anywhere that's "not America." It can be India in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. It can be the barrios of Chicago in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, or the ethnic suburbs of the same city in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, or Myambo's Senegal. What's important is that the nature of X doesn't really change, because it's pre-determined by the need to contrast it with the same old cold "America." Myambo doesn't add any new ideas to this framework, nor does she appear to question its validity, though to my mind it wants questioning. What she does instead is produce an italicized sensorium in which the framework can endure. She traces the yellow curlicues of the father's gray boubou, winces at the zing of the ataya, bumps along amid the lumps in Uncle Djiby's battered Renault. The pleasures of "La Salle de Départ" are tangled up in this rich, immediate sensory experience, which tries to disguise the fact that the story is a skillful presentation of very stereotypical ideas.
Ikhide's review made me feel that perhaps this is just not my story, and that I can't appreciate it enough because I'm not subject to the same kinds of displacements and separations that the story describes. It's just not enough about me to touch me deeply. And then I read it again, and again. And I realized that, really, the story should have touched me, but I was too irritated by its "literary" touches. I don't like the characterization that relies on random details rather than individual insights. I don't like the romance-novel similes – "the waves of hot, choking anger emanating from him, like the winds of the harmattan." I don't like the exotic details – why on earth does it have to be set during Ramadan? – that are dumped on top of the story like so much spice on boiled cabbage. I don't like the conventional signs that are supposed to illustrate churning psychological depths, like Fatima twisting her gold ring. And I don't like that the story points at important questions without opening up any way to understand them beyond our own imported resources. There's so much skill in this story, and so much disappointment.
Other reviews:
Black Balloon
Backslash Scott
Ayodele Olofintuade
Practically Marzipan


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Yaya - Model
I am submitting this as fan art because...well...I AM a fan...she is known as yayacosplay here in deviantart, and she is a very talented cosplayer, costume designer, and model. besides that, she is beautiful. the image I got this from was a perfect and screamed at me to be drawn. if you get a chance, check out her deviantart page or her website, www.yayahan.com


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Blue Agate Large Pendant Necklace
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PagodaWest Games Created Major Magnet from a Sonic Fan Remake
PagodaWest Games are soon to release their upcoming title Major Magnet, a physics-based platformer where players tap on magnets and swipe to jetpack around levels filled with orbs, cannons, and secrets, all in the name of getting high scores. It's a uniquely-executed concept, but one thing stands out when playing the pre-release build of this upcoming game, due in February: it's very much like the Sonic series.
The resemblance is not so much in gameplay as it is in terms of style: character designs, level backgrounds, even the fonts, all bear the kinds of hallmarks that the series has been known for. It's very familiar, yet somewhat new. And it was no accident, as PagodaWest Games was partially born out of the love of Sonic, as the team of Jared Kasl, Tom Fry, Khoa Ngol, and Tee Lopes explain in this interview about the game.
148Apps: How exactly did your team come together initially?
PagodaWest: Tom and Jared initially met through the fan game Sonic 2 HD. After only a short amount of time spent socializing outside of the project, it became apparent that besides the obvious love of classic Sonic, our philosophies on game design were perfectly aligned, and so a close friendship was born.
At what point did you folks decide to make a mobile game?
Before our time on Sonic 2 HD was over, we started discussing the idea of starting our own game company. Due to circumstances in both our lives, we were at a point where it felt right [to] start PagodaWest Games, so that's exactly what we did. With mobile gaming on the rise and the many game design possibilities a touch screen can provide, going mobile seemed like the way to go - added to which, the start up costs for development on a mobile platform were far slimmer than developing for home console or handheld.
Are there games besides the Sonic series that you feel are influences on Major Magnet?
As we were growing up, every so often a game would come along that would bring us pure joy the whole way through. We wanted to recreate this feeling in Major Magnet, so naturally the games that influenced us when we were younger have found their way through. Don't be surprised to see a hint of NiGHTS into dreams… or the old Kirby's Dreamland games as you make your way through Lastin Magnetic!
What kind of lessons from the Sonic 2 HD project were you able to apply to Major Magnet?
Shortly after we finished with Sonic 2 HD, we were able to reflect on what went right and wrong on the project. Even though it was just a fan game using an IP owned by SEGA, there were a few of us on the Sonic 2 HD team that tried to treat the project with a professional attitude.
We also learned, whether through ourselves or others, not to treat any piece of work too preciously. For example, there were some pieces of art that should have taken a matter of days to complete, yet they were taking months! With Major Magnet, we give ourselves a deadline for any feature, piece of art, or asset and plan accordingly to make sure it's finished on time.
One of the most important lessons we learned from Sonic 2 HD was to formulate a team of people we can trust and depend on. It's important to know if you ask for something to get done, you can trust that it's going to be taken care of in a timely manner and to the very best of their ability. We chose our team very carefully for Major Magnet, and so far things have gone off without a hitch!
How did the magnet gameplay mechanic come about? Was it a big part of the title initially, or did it become an important part of the game later on?
The concept of tapping button-like magnets within the level was conceived from the get go, working along the lines of Newton's law of universal gravitation for attracting Marv to a given point. However, it was the "swing ball"/"orbiting" mechanic which is now core to the gameplay that was refined and honed a couple of months into our prototype development.
We had initially planned a hybrid system that allowed the player to select between standard attraction to a magnet or forcing Marv into orbit by either tapping the magnet once or holding down on it respectively. Due to the fact that the game is rather fast paced and holding the magnet would not only require the player to "track" the magnet if the camera moved but also obscured the screen with their finger, we settled on a tapping and timing system using only the orbiting physics, solving these problems and streamlining the gameplay.
The animation for the game is very crisp and clean; is this just a case of high production values on your end, or does the Corona engine that you worked in have any effect on that?
With regards to the engine, our only base requirements when going into using Corona was that it could display sprites cleanly and plentifully without a loss in performance across a wide range of devices. Having satisfied these criteria with aplomb and having a clear idea of what aesthetic we were after, the rest of the power was indeed in the artist's hands.
For all of the character animation, every single frame (for which Marv's in-game sprite has roughly 200 alone) was painstakingly hand-drawn adhering to the strict principles of 2D animation that have been well established in the West for over 80 years. A few animations used for special effects like Marv's particle trail use a mix of "baked in" animation and real-time particle effects making the trail look rich and dense without stressing the CPU.
Major Magnet does appear to have a currency with upgrades, and there's the ability to buy additional currency. In a world where many retro-focused developers are eschewing IAP, was there any reason why you felt like this was an acceptable inclusion?
From the beginning of development we felt IAP could have a place in our game, but only if we really felt it added something meaningful for the player and would not hinder their experience in any way if they did not want to use the in-game store. Firstly, our system uses an in-app currency, Magnorbs, which you collect in the game's levels and mini-games. If you save up enough Magnorbs, you can spend these in the store to purchase useful items to help you along if you're having trouble - such as the Super Boost which can be used at any time during gameplay, freezing Marv indefinitely until the player swipe-boosts him in the direction they choose.
If the player chooses to rely on these items more frequently, they may wish to buy additional Magnorbs to purchase more items at their discretion. However, unlike freemium games whose sole income is from IAP, there is absolutely no obligation for the player to spend more money in Major Magnet in order to progress, it is simply a means to enhance their enjoyment of the game by saving them time if they ever come unstuck.
Thanks to PagodaWest Games for their time. Major Magnet is scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2013.