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The Development of Silicone Breast Implants for Use in Breast Augmentation Surgeries in the United States
In the 1960s, two plastic surgeons from the United States, Thomas Dillon Cronin and Frank Judson Gerow, collaborated with the Dow Corning Corporation, which specialized in silicone products, to create the first silicone breast implant. Surgeons used the implant, named the Cronin-Gerow implant, to improve the look of a woman's breasts, by correcting for asymmetry, augmenting the size, or creating a more uplifted profile.
Format: Articles
Subject: Technologies, Processes
Nelson v. Planned Parenthood Center of Tucson (1973)
The 1973 case Nelson v. Planned Parenthood Center of Tucson established the legality of abortion in Arizona. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the Arizona Revised Statutes 13-211, 13-212, and 13-213, collectively called the Arizona abortion statutes, were unconstitutional. The statutes had made illegal receiving, providing, or advertising abortions. After the Arizona Appeals Court heard the case, it decided that the Arizona abortion statutes were constitutional. However, two weeks later the US Supreme Court decided in Roe v.
Format: Articles
Subject: Legal
Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Cerebellum Development
Prenatal exposure to alcohol (ethanol) results in a continuum of physical, neurological, behavioral, and learning defects collectively grouped under the heading fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the most severe combination of these defects under this heading, and is characterized by pre- and postnatal growth deficiencies, facial abnormalities, and defects of the central nervous system (CNS).
Format: Articles
Subject: Disorders, Reproduction
The British Doctors' Study (1951–2001)
From 1951 to 2001, researchers at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, conducted the British Doctors' Study, a study that examined the smoking habits, disease rates, and mortality rates of physicians in Britain. Two epidemiologists, scientists who study occurrence and distribution of disease, Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill, initiated the study, and statistician Richard Peto joined the team in 1971. The objective of the study was to assess the risks associated with tobacco use, and its relationship to lung cancer.
Format: Articles
Subject: Experiments
Pearl Mao Tang (1922– )
A licensed obstetrician and gynecologist, Pearl Tang worked to improve the health of women and children in Maricopa County, Arizona, during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her work with the Maricopa County Health Department ranged from immunizations to preventing cervical cancer. Tang obtained federal grants and community support to establish various child and maternal health clinics throughout Maricopa County as chief of the Maricopa County Bureau of Maternal and Child Health.
Format: Articles
Chernobyl Heart (2003)
In 2003, HBO Original Programming released the documentary Chernobyl Heart. Maryann De Leo directed and produced the film, which is about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident and how the radiation from that accident has affected people living in the area. Side effects have included mental disabilities, physical disabilities, and genetic mutations.
Format: Articles
Subject: Outreach
Edward Charles Dodds (1899-1973)
Edward Charles Dodds researched the function and effects of natural and artificial hormones on the endocrine system in England during the twentieth century. Though he first worked with hormones such as insulin, Dodds focused on the effects of estrogen in the body and how to replicate those effects with artificial substances. In 1938, along with chemist Robert Robinson, Dodds synthesized the first synthetic estrogen called diethylstilbestrol.
Format: Articles
Subject: People
Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories (1980)
Sindell v. Abbott Laboratories was a 1980 California case that established the doctrine of market share liability for personal injury cases. For such liability, when a drug causes personal injury and the manufacturer of the drug cannot be identified, each producer is responsible for paying the settlement in proportion to the percentage of the market they supplied. Judith Sindell and Maureen Rogers brought the case against the producers of diethylstilbestrol (DES), which their mothers had taken during pregnancy to prevent miscarriage and other complications.
Format: Articles
Subject: Legal
Paternal Sperm Telomere Elongation and Its Impact on Offspring Fitness
Telomeres are structures at the ends of DNA strands that get longer in the DNA of sperm cells as males age. That phenomenon is different for most other types of cells, for which telomeres get shorter as organisms age. In 1992, scientists showed that telomere length (TL) in sperm increases with age in contrast to most cell of most other types. Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of DNA strands that preserve chromosomal integrity and contribute to DNA length and stability.
Format: Articles
Subject: Theories
"Transfer of Fetal Cells with Multilineage Potential to Maternal Tissue" (2004), by Kiarash Khosrotehrani et al.
In 2004, a team of researchers at Tufts-New England
Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, investigated the fetal
cells that remained in the maternal blood stream after pregnancy.
The results were published in Transfer of Fetal Cells with
Multilineage Potential to Maternal Tissue. The team working on that
research included Kiarash Khosrotehrani, Kirby L. Johnson, Dong
Hyun Cha, Robert N. Salomon, and Diana W. Bianchi. The researchers
reported that the fetal cells passed to a pregnant woman during
Format: Articles
Subject: Experiments, Reproduction
The Human Genome Project (1990-2003)
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific effort to sequence the entire human genome, that is, to produce a map of the base pairs of DNA in the human chromosomes, most of which do not vary among individuals. The HGP started in the US in 1990 as a public effort and included scientists and laboratories located in France, Germany, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom.
Format: Articles
Subject: Organizations
Boris Ephrussi (1901-1979)
Boris Ephrussi studied fruit flies, yeast, and mouse genetics and development while working in France and the US during the twentieth century. In yeast, Ephrussi studied how mutations in the cytoplasm persisted across generations. In mice he studied the genetics of hybrids and the development of cancer. Working with George Wells Beadle on the causes of different eye colors in fruit flies, Ephrussi's research helped establish the one-gene-one-enzyme hypothesis. Ephrussi helped create new embryological techniques and contributed the theories of genetics and development.
Format: Articles
Subject: People
Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia (1974- )
Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia is a nonprofit organization that began in 1974 as a joint endeavor by Reginald and Catherine Hamlin and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia promotes reproductive health in Ethiopia by raising awareness and implementing treatment and preventive services for women affected by obstetric fistulas. It also aims to restore the lives of women afflicted with obstetric fistulas in Ethiopia and eventually to eradicate the condition.
Format: Articles
Subject: Organizations, Reproduction, Outreach
Evelyn Lorraine Rothman (1932–2007)
Evelyn Lorraine Rothman advocated for women's reproductive rights and invented at-home kits for women's health concerns in the late twentieth century in Los Angeles, California. Rothman provided women in the Los Angeles area with the means to perform self-examinations, pregnancy tests, and abortions on their own without assistance from a medical professional. Along with Carol Downer, Rothman cofounded the Federation of Feminist Health Centers in Los Angeles, California, and spent her career educating women on reproductive health.
Format: Articles
Subject: People
Jeffrey Keenan (1961- )
Jeffrey Keenan is the Director of the Southeastern Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine and the main developer behind the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Knoxville, Tennessee. This non-profit organization focuses on embryo donation and embryo adoption.
Format: Articles
Subject: People, Reproduction
Bernadine Healy (1944–2011)
During the twentieth century in the United States, Bernadine Patricia Healy was a cardiologist who served as the first female director of the National Institutes of Health or NIH and the president of both the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. Healy conducted research on the different manifestations of heart attacks in women compared to men. At the time, many physicians underdiagnosed and mistreated coronary heart disease in women. Healy's research illustrated how coronary heart disease affected women.
Format: Articles
Subject: People
"Vietnam Veterans' Risks for Fathering Babies with Birth Defects" (1984), by J. David Erickson et al.
In 1984, J. David Erickson and his research team published the results of a study titled 'Vietnam Veterans' Risks for Fathering Babies with Birth Defects' that indicated that Vietnam veterans were at increased risk of fathering infants with serious congenital malformations, or birth defects.
Format: Articles
Subject: Publications
The Jackson Laboratory
The Roscoe B. Jackson Laboratory, known commonly in the scientific field as the Jackson Laboratory, was founded by Clarence Cook Little in May 1929. The lab has been pivotal in research with in vitro fertilization, teratomas, gene replacement therapy for birth defects, and more because its researchers have focused from the beginning on developing the mouse as a model organism. Mice were chosen by researchers at Jackson as the best available model for genetic research, and today genetically uniform strains of mice developed at the lab are used in laboratories all over the world.
Format: Articles
Subject: Organizations
In re Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation (1979-1984)
In the legal case In re Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation of the early 1980s, US military veterans of the Vietnam War sued the US chemical companies that had produced the herbicide Agent Orange, and those companies settled with US veterans out of court. Agent Orange contains dioxin, a chemical later shown to disrupt the hormone system of the body and to cause cancer. As veterans returned to the US from Vietnam, scientists further confirmed that exposure to Agent Orange caused a variety of cancers in veterans and developmental problems in the veterans' children.
Format: Articles
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
The purpose of regenerative medicine, especially tissue engineering, is to replace damaged tissue with new tissue that will allow the body to resume normal function. The uniqueness of tissue engineering is that it can restore normal structure in addition to repairing tissue function, and is often accomplished using stem cells. The first type of tissue engineering using stem cells was hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), a surgical procedure in which hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are infused into a host to treat a variety of blood diseases, cancers, and immunodeficiencies.
Format: Articles
Subject: Technologies
"In vitro Experiments on the Effects of Mouse Sarcomas 180 and 37 on the Spinal and Sympathetic Ganglia of the Chick Embryo" (1954), by Rita Levi-Montalcini, Viktor Hamburger, and Hertha Meyer
"In vitro Experiments on the Effects of Mouse Sarcomas 180 and 37 on the Spinal and Sympathetic Ganglia of the Chick Embryo" were experiments conducted by Rita Levi-Montalcini in conjunction with Viktor Hamburger and Hertha Meyer and published in Cancer Research in 1954. In this series of experiments, conducted at the University of Brazil, Levi-Montalcini demonstrated increased nerve growth by introducing specific tumors (sarcomas) to chick ganglia. Ganglia are clusters of nerve cells, from which nerve fibers emerge.
Format: Articles
Subject: Experiments
Retinoids As Teratogens
Vitamin A (retinol) is an essential vitamin in the daily functioning of human beings that helps regulate cellular differentiation of epithelial tissue. Studies have shown that an excess of vitamin A can affect embryonic development and result in teratogenesis, or the production of birth defects in a developing embryo. Excess intake of vitamin A and retinoids by pregnant women often results malformations to fetuses' skulls, faces, limbs, eyes, central nervous system.
Format: Articles
Subject: Disorders, Reproduction
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak's Telomere and Telomerase Experiments (1982-1989)
Experiments conducted by Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak from 1982 to 1989 provided theories of how the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres, and the enzyme that repairs telomeres, called telomerase, worked. The experiments took place at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute and at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and at the University of California in Berkeley, California. For their research on telomeres and telomerase, Blackburn, Greider, and Szostak received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.
Format: Articles
Subject: Experiments
The Hedgehog Signaling Pathway in Vertebrates
The hedgehog signaling pathway is a mechanism that regulates cell growth and differentiation during embryonic development, called embryogenesis, in animals. The hedgehog signaling pathway works both between cells and within individual cells.
Format: Articles
Subject: Theories
Marshall Henry Klaus (1927–2017)
Marshall Henry Klaus was a scientist and pediatrician who studied maternal-infant bonding in the twentieth century in the United States. Maternal-infant bonding is the psychological and chemical attachment between mother and infant. Klaus cofounded DONA International, an organization that trains birthing aides, called doulas, to provide physical and emotional support to laboring mothers. He also studied the differences between the layouts and quality of care provided in nurseries and birthing centers in different countries and compared them to those found in the United States.
Format: Articles
Subject: People


text:
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Yunel Escobar had an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Tampa Bay Rays rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.
James Loney had a one-out single off Bruce Rondon (0-1). Pinch-runner Sam Fuld went to second on Wil Myers' single, and after Luke Scott struck out, both runners advanced on a wild pitch.
Escobar won it for the Rays with a line drive that sailed over the head of center fielder Austin Jackson.
Scott tied it at 3 on a solo homer with one out in the eighth off Tigers starter Justin Verlander, who allowed three runs, nine hits and four walks over a season-high eight innings. Verlander is winless in his last four starts.
Detroit's Miguel Cabrera went 1 for 4 with a walk, but his major league-leading batting average dropped two points to .375. He has a 14-game hitting streak.
Cabrera appeared to yell toward the Rays' dugout after striking out against Fernando Rodney (3-2) in the 10th. The Rays closer, who worked two scoreless innings, threw an in-tight 1-2 pitch that backed him off the plate.
Rays slugger Evan Longoria was out of the starting lineup for the first time this season due to a sore right foot. The third baseman, who left Friday night's game, is also expected to sit out on Sunday against the Tigers.
Jackson hit an opposite-field solo homer to right, and Jhonny Peralta had a two-run single off Chris Archer that put the Tigers ahead 3-0 in the third.
Archer gave up three runs, five hits, three walks and had three strikeouts in five innings.
Loney had an RBI single during the fifth to get the Rays within 3-2. Verlander avoided further damage by getting a double-play grounder from rookie Myers with two on and one out.
Loney grounded into a double play with runners on the corners and one out in the seventh. Myers hit an inning-ending flyball with two on in the first.
Tampa Bay's Desmond Jennings tripled and scored on Ben Zobrist's grounder in the third.
NOTES: Detroit RHP Anibal Sanchez (right shoulder strain) will pitch Monday in Florida for either Class A Lakeland or the rookie level Gulf Coast League Tigers. ... Loney extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a single in the first. ... The Rays recalled INF Ryan Roberts from Triple-A Durham and optioned RHP Alex Colome to the International League club. ... Home plate umpire Dan Iassogna remained in the game after he appeared to get hit near the right wrist by a pitch from Rodney in the ninth that partially deflected off C Jose Molina's glove.
Escobar's walk-off single lifts Rays over Tigers in extra innings
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Yunel Escobar had an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Tampa Bay Rays rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sheriff Oddie Shoupe is a name you should know. He is a "law" enforcement officer in White County, Tennessee. And he just ordered deputies to murder an unarmed man because he wanted to protect a few patrol cars from being damaged.
Last April, police in Smithville, Tennessee decided to pull over Michael Dial over a suspended license. When Dial didn't pull over, police kept trailing him. None of the cars ever reached a high speed; instead, deputies said it proceeded at a "funeral" pace. Eventually, deputies tried to use the patrol cars they were driving to stop Dial.
That's when Sheriff Shoupe got involved, telling deputies to shoot and kill Dial. Officers shot the man in the head, killing him instantly. The entire time, he was unarmed. When one of the deputies became visibly upset over Dial's murder, Shoupe attempted to reassure him, saying "I made the decision... You done exactly right." Shoupe then explained that he authorized the deadly shooting because he didn't want officers to damage their cars.
That's right. He's saying a car's cosmetics are more important to him than a human being's life.
Unbeknownst to him, a body cam was capturing every word he was saying. Here's some of what it caught:
This is a person who has sworn to uphold the law. To protect the community. To serve the community. And he has just revealed himself to be a trigger-happy, violence-loving abuser of power. He is not safe to have on our streets. Sheriff Shoupe must be fired immediately!
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text:
As long as it can be done right with minimal impact to the historic community, that is great news for Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods.
This is a slightly different tone that that of Cobble Hill community members just up the road who have been fighting with SUNY Downstate to save LICH from shutting down for the last year.
It took a court order from the Brooklyn Supreme Court to protect that hospital, while the state Department of Health came to the aid of Interfaith Medical with $33 million to keep the doors open.
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick has reportedly been one of the few hospitals to see a surplus in 2012, roughly $3.8 million, after struggling to dig out of millions in deficits.
And the situation hasn't been much better in Queens, which lost St. John's Hospital a few years ago, and rumors abound that it faces losing a struggling hospital in the Rockaways, potentially leaving isolated community without a major health care facility.
While Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to continue longstanding hospital subsidies, in most cases it seems as though the state is comfortable allowing downsizing in the midst of budget cuts.
Although Cuomo wrote a letter to the Health and Human Services back in May asking for a full amendment of New York's 1115 Medicaid waver in order to "reinvest in the state's health care system, pave the way for implementation for national health care reform and continue to make New York a national health care reform model," hospitals may still be on the chopping block next year.
"Due to a rapid deterioration in the financial status of essential components of the health care services system in Brooklyn, if nothing is done within the next 12 months, the outcome will be disastrous," Cuomo wrote.
It's time for the state – and the city as well - to get serious about thinking in the longterm when it comes to the state of health care in the five boroughs, and not just use band-aids and short-term fixes when it becomes an emergency situation.


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After rolling out the Android 4.0.4/Sense 4.1 update for the AT&T One X, the International One X and the HTC One S, the Taiwanese maker has started rolling out the Android 4.0.4/Sense 4.1 update for the Sprint EVO 4G LTE.
The update for the Sprint variant of the One X bumps the software version to 2.13.651.1.710RD, and brings along a minor in the Android OS and Sense version of the handset as well. The Sense 4.1 update for the EVO 4G LTE brings with it much needed performance and stability improvements, along with the removal of some unneeded 3D transitions to speed things up.
Like the update for the AT&T and International One X, post this update, EVO 4G LTE owners can re-map the capactive Recents app button on their handset to act as a Menu key or vice-versa. The update also contains many other minor new tweaks and goodies, but first and foremost brings a major improvement in the performance of the device.
Sprint is rolling out the OTA update in batches so EVO 4G LTE owners might need to wait until a couple of weeks before the software update notification hits their handset.
Via – Phandroid


text:
Get support, access resources, and explore products and services at centurylink.com.
Discover the top things to consider as you make your data center colocation choices.
Colocation services may seem like nothing more than a commodity: a data center is a data center. However, what appear as just minor differences between providers can have a major impact on the overall performance of your business. With applications supporting your key customer interactions and business functions, all aspects of your IT infrastructure, including your colocation provider, need to be scrutinized. Whether it is an improved customer experience, 100 % uptime for your critical applications or better alignment of IT with your business priorities, careful consideration of your colocation services provider will impact your ability to achieve these goals.
From physical location to network integration, there are important elements to consider when placing your hardware with a colocation company. Asking the right questions can ensure an optimal deployment. Any latencies or points of failure need to be eliminated or minimized to ensure the performance of your business applications.
From physical location to network integration, there are important elements to consider when placing your hardware with a colocation company.
Redundant systems ensure your business will continue to operate and serve your customers, no matter what unforeseen events may arise. And, having a secure environment protects your business from intrusions that can have a devastating impact on your business. Each business's needs are slightly different, and you should bear in mind the operational dynamics that make your business unique.
That said, the six considerations discussed in this paper are relevant to all colocation environments that clients deploy. These are the essential building blocks of a colocation program, and it is critical to select a provider that can deliver on all of these attributes.
Having the option to expand from colocation services to managed hosting in the same provider data center can ease migration complexities and offer fast deployment of flexible solutions.
Like most companies today, you're probably considering moving some IT environments to the cloud - or you've already made that move. That means you need to consider how your cloud strategy will impact your choice of colocation provider. Clients leaning toward hybrid cloud solutions need the ability to manage and move workloads between self-managed environments, provider-based private clouds and public clouds. Different services don't always work together seamlessly; having these environments within the same data center, or dispersed across data centers that are owned and managed by the same provider, can help your organization begin to integrate cloud services with a controlled, systematic process.
For most companies, colocation is only one part of a bigger IT picture - you shouldn't think of it in isolation. Consider your selection of a colocation provider in the context of how your entire IT infrastructure impacts your business. In addition to colocation services, many companies require capabilities like managed hosting, and are developing cloud solutions. A partner that can offer all of these services, one with expertise across the entire portfolio, can help you achieve a flexible, better-performing infrastructure.
For example, companies that begin with basic colocation services often find they can benefit from using other services from their provider like managed storage and security. Providers with expertise in these areas can help companies ensure they have the specialized skills required to manage these capabilities. Many companies that utilize colocation also decide that, for some environments, it makes sense to have their provider manage the hardware while they retain management of applications.
Cloud services will continue to grow as part of the IT solution set,
but many organizations will continue to have a need for colocation
as part of their infrastructure. The future will likely see many
side-by-side colocation and cloud environments. Your colocation
provider should understand the capabilities of a cloud-based
system and be able to work across both types of environments.
While a range of colocation providers now offer cloud services,
make sure your provider has the experience and knowledge to
work with you across all these service areas and can provide
unbiased advice and consultation for your specific requirements.
In addition to offering this broad range of capabilities, look for
a provider that can be flexible on the terms and conditions of
your contract. The market and what's available are constantly
changing, as are your business's needs. There is great value
in working with a provider that enables you to move across
different environments, allowing you to flexibly meet your
contractual commitments if you want to move from colocation to
managed, or even to cloud. Migrating to a new, more advanced
or more efficient solution should not trigger a financial penalty.
A data center that is close to your company's offices is a
common requirement for companies shopping for colocation services. But the advantages go well beyond providing easy access for your staff. Proximity to your location can help improve the performance of your IT infrastructure. If you are sending large volumes of data from your primary site to your colocation environment, distance matters. A site that is physically close reduces data replication issues. Minimizing latency delays has always been important for application performance. As chatty applications - meaning those applications that wait for server acknowledgment or perform a number of small transactions - continue to become widespread, any latency issues become exacerbated and can severely impact performance.
Proximity can help reduce the effect these latencies have on your applications. In addition to having a center close by, the ability to tap into a network of other centers can help make your IT more resilient. Look for a provider that has a data center near you and also has multiple options to provide locations that are as far away as required from your primary site.
When you can deploy colocation environments across geographies to back up data, run additional instances of applications and circumvent local weather or power disruptions, you have a solid foundation for business continuity planning. If you need to deploy colocation environments in other locations, a provider with a global footprint will more likely be present in the major markets you need to serve.
When it comes to the availability of physical space, make sure that the provider has additional capacity in case you need to build out your environment. Having the option to expand your space in the future can save you significant time and costs, compared with deploying with a different provider or moving to another data center. Look for providers that are well funded to invest in additional build-outs for the data center. Providers that do their builds on a modular basis keep a tighter control on costs but are ready to expand to meet client needs.
Colocation is more than just racking and stacking your equipment in a data center and adding a network connection. Without highly reliable and redundant network connectivity, your IT performance will suffer. A provider with a full range of connectivity options can ensure all your locations get the access they need to your colocation environment and can provide networking between all of your company's locations.
A provider that owns and operates its network end-to-end can provide full visibility across the network, allowing you greater control to optimize infrastructure performance. Such a provider can deliver integrated network and colocation solutions, which enable a superior IT environment for your applications.
While some providers may route your traffic over the open Internet, which may be fine for some uses, make sure the provider you select gives you the option of using a highly secure, private network for your critical business data.
Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities are important as well, as they allow you to fine-tune your traffic prioritization and ensure the high quality transmission required for voice, video and other performance sensitive applications. For example, a provider that has its data centers "on-net," or fully integrated into their network, can provide a direct connection from your locations to the data center. This reduces latencies, increases application performance and provides a better user experience for your customers, suppliers, partners and internal users.
Such Tier 1 connectivity can directly connect you to the global Internet without making multiple hops through different providers. The
result is superior peering, speed and interconnectivity, so your users are served content more quickly.
Look for a provider with an advanced global IP-based MPLS network, so you have the highest levels of reliability across the core network. MPLS allows you to integrate across all of your sites, even if you are using legacy protocols at some locations. Fast re-route capabilities make MPLS networking perfect for high transaction processing environments. To ensure security, make sure your provider can support Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Having an integrated network and colocation services provider can also speed incident resolution. With a single operational support team, you do not have to work multiple escalation paths at different suppliers and can have a single service manager as point of contact for all your requests.
It is also critical that your provider has carrier diversity at their data centers if you are running applications that have this requirement to ensure reliable and redundant network connectivity. Make sure your colocation provider can offer you advanced networking capabilities so you can meet your application performance and uptime requirements. Dynamic routing allows you to rapidly adapt the flow of your traffic across carriers and routes to efficiently manage multiple network providers. Burstable bandwidth enables you to immediately scale the connectivity to your colocation environment to help you efficiently handle surges in usage, and can provide a huge boost to customer experience and internal user satisfaction. Dual paths increase redundancy and prevent outages due to circuit failures.
As you design your environment to be secure, don't forget the importance of physical security measures in the data center. Your provider should use current technologies like biometric scanners, card readers and video monitors, as well as mantraps, to prevent unauthorized access. Installing your own cameras with the ability to remotely monitor the activity in your colocation cage not only enhances security but is also an efficient way to better control your environment - and that should be something your provider can enable. People add a layer of security, too; providers that staff their centers 24/7 with trained security personnel, instead of relying solely on automated systems, offer an important extra level of protection.
Beyond the physical security of the center, look for providers than can augment your security with services like DDoS protection, network security and threat detection. Professional services that can test, evaluate and remediate security vulnerabilities can help you increase your ability to withstand intrusions.
Your provider should also be compliant with any regulatory requirements for your industry and know the ins and outs in a continually shifting regulatory environment. The data centers should be compliant with SSAE 16 service controls. Publically traded companies should seek providers that meet SOX. Any company providing ecommerce needs to meet PCI security standards. If you are in an industry that requires specific compliance credentials, such as FISMA in financial services, or HIPAA for healthcare providers, make sure your provider can meet these stringent requirements.
If you need colocation services in a geographic location that has high risk factors, make sure your provider has addressed them. For example, if you are locating resources in an area prone to earthquake activity, the data center you select should use seismic-compliant construction techniques.
Providers that simply give you space and an electrical hook-up may seem, at first glance, to provide a lower cost structure, but they will require you to staff up or pay for services that full colocation service providers include with their offering. Make sure you examine the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of each of your alternatives. In a true colocation services environment, the provider should address security, provide power and cooling, perform facility management and be able to deliver these services with a Service Level Agreement (SLA). An SLA imposes financial penalties on the provider if they fail to meet agreed-upon service metrics.
On-site support that is available 24/7 provides quick response for emergency re-boots or other issues when your staff is not in the center, and can help prevent minor incidents from escalating into larger issues. These types of remote hands are sometimes offered on a premium basis that guarantees specific service levels; the availability of such services can help you meet your response time requirements.
Many, if not most, companies find it takes time to stand up their environment and migrate applications.
Look for a contract that gives you the option to fill space over a period of time. This can reduce costs and allow you to adapt to changing business conditions - so you can increase or decrease the speed at which you deploy into the center
Providers that offer services to help you move in, and can assist with hardware racking and stacking or cabling, can help make your deployment go smoothly and reduce migration time. Structured cabling programs provide installations that meet standards for design and testing, ensure better performance of your infrastructure and enable future changes to be made quickly. If you are a mid-sized or large company, you know that "one size fits all" does not apply to your IT needs.
Find a provider that understands the complex relationships of your specific business processes, IT governance model, application stack and security needs. Your provider should operate in a way that is consistent with your internal controls, the processes you utilize for change management and how you respond to incidents.
How closely these processes are aligned can make a big difference in how well a provider will meet your colocation needs on a day-to-day basis.
The experience of the on-site data center staff will have a
significant impact on the level of support you receive when you
need it. Data center management is a complex task that requires specialized skills across a wide number of domains, such as security, power distribution, networking and hardware and software management. Make sure your provider has the skilled staff for all of the key data center capabilities, and they do not simply manage vendors that come in to service the data center systems. Engineers and technicians who are highly trained and certified, with extensive experience in data center management will provide you with dependable service that improves your uptime. Providers that offer managed hosting and cloud services are often better suited to help with your colocation needs, as their data center staff is trained and experienced to support complex environments.
Make sure your provider has standard, documented processes and practices in place for all their activities, like maintenance and change management. Such standardization drives better performance and uptime. A provider with a portal that supports trouble ticketing and reporting can help you better manage your environment. Remote management increases your IT staff's efficiency and also enables you to be proactive and resolve incidents before they affect the performance and availability of your applications.
Setting up a new environment is a complex undertaking, and missteps can reverberate for years. Providers that have the expertise to assist you in the design of your new environment, and can customize an installation based on your needs, ease the installation process and simplify future maintenance.
Details matter: having a cooling expert involved in the initial design can greatly improve cooling efficiency by using optimal rack design and other techniques. A provider can help you reduce power consumption by suggesting ways to move to configurations driven by green IT principles, such as improving server density during the design phase of your environment. Given that your staff may be spending significant time at the data center, look for a provider that offers workspace, lounges and conference rooms where your staff can connect laptops or take a conference call. These amenities provide a comfortable work environment and keep your staff productive.
Power is a critical data center element, so look for a provider that has a 100 % uptime SLA for power and redundant power systems. Providers that can offer this assurance have engineered their N+1 systems with concurrently maintainable power resources, so they provide uninterrupted power during both routine maintenance, and when any power source is brought off-line. The provider should be able to not only deliver the power you need today, but the power to meet your future needs.
Providers that cannot adequately power their space will limit your options as you seek to grow your colocation installation or migrate to new servers with higher power requirements. Your provider should offer transparency and detail in its billing. Providers that offer options for billing your power based upon distribution of power circuits, or metered power, can help reduce your costs, depending on your configuration and power requirements.
Server power demands are increasing, and so is the power consumption in today's high-density server environments. It is important that the center has efficient cooling systems, and the provider continues to invest in new cooling technologies to protect your hardware. Look for cooling techniques like hot and cold aisles that provide a front to back cooling profile with blanking plates. Also, proper air containment designs and cooling walls promote cooling and can help avoid hot-spots in your cage. Improved cooling can also extend the life of your equipment and improve performance by reducing hardware failures. Make sure the center meets your required standard ranges for temperature and humidity. A provider that can participate with you to integrate cooling techniques into the design, operation or upgrading of your environment, can help you promote the green initiatives of your company.
As described in each of the six considerations, there are significant differences in colocation service providers - from staffing to connectivity to geography. With the availability and performance of your business applications riding on the selection of a provider, make sure you select one that can help you meet your goal of 100 % uptime. Colocation is a long-term commitment, and the cost and business disruption that comes from moving installations makes the right selection critical.
CenturyLink has been providing colocation services to large clients for more than 15 years, and has deep expertise and a strong track record of delivering high performance IT environments.
As a full service provider, CenturyLink brings the flexibility required to deliver the solutions you need today and the vision to help get you where you need to be in the future.
Our assets include over 50 global data centers, a global network that delivers high levels of security and availability, and a seasoned team of professionals who deliver IT solutions that improve business performance. Our areas of specialization include colocation, managed services, cloud, security and networking.
CenturyLink, Inc. is the third largest telecommunications
company in the United States. Headquartered in Monroe, LA,
CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included among the
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Business delivers innovative private and public networking and
managed services for global businesses on virtual, dedicated
and colocation platforms. It is a global leader in data and voice
networks, cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for
enterprise business customers.


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It's a date.
Playboy emperor Hugh Hefner, 84, and fiance Crystal Harris, 24, will tie the knot at the Playboy Mansion on June 18, a rep told both Us Magazine and People.
"It will be intimate with a close number of friends here at the mansion," Hefner said of the ceremony, Us Magazine reports about the marriage ceremony. "No big blowout affair. Something very personal." Reportedly, the mansion will host less than 300 guests.
In addition to picking invitees, the Playmate has been preparing for the nuptials by shopping for cakes and dresses, including trying on two dresses by designer Romona Keveza. A New Yorker reporter who followed Harris to the boutique said she particularly like a strapless blush pink gown.
Around the time of time of the wedding, Playboy magazine will publish a photo special of the former Miss December.
"It's kind of just a romantic, roaming-around-the-mansion type thing," Harris told The New Yorker about the spread.
Hefner announced the engagement via Twitter in December, first hinting that he had the young blond "a ring" on Christmas and later confirming he had proposed.
A playmate who definitely won't be at the mansion for the big day is Hefner's ex-girlfriend, Holly Madison. She told PopEater's Rob Shuter that if she was on the guest list, she would skip the event.
"I feel like the attention should be on them," Madison told Shuter. "It shouldn't be about ex-girlfriends showing up and what are their reactions and stuff like that. I think it should be about them.
Selected Reading: Us Magazine, People, PopEater
Hugh Hefner and Crystal Set Date for Summer Wedding
It's a date.


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Casey Kasem, host of radio's 'American Top 40,' dies at 82
Weekends were never the same after Casey Kasem stopped counting down the "American Top 40."
Mr. Kasem died Sunday at a hospital in Gig Harbor, Wash., surrounded by family and friends. He was 82.
Although Mr. Kasem retired from radio in 2009, he was frequently in the news in the past several years as his wife, actress Jean Kasem, and his three adult children battled in court and in public over control of his health care. In 2013, his children filed a legal petition for control, alleging that Mr. Kasem was suffering from advanced Parkinson's disease and that his wife was isolating him from friends and family members. Mr. Kasem also suffered from Lewy body disease, a form of dementia.
A judge in May temporarily stripped his wife of her caretaker role after she moved him from a medical center in Los Angeles to a friend's home in Washington. Jean Kasem said she moved her husband to protect his privacy and to consult with doctors. Mr. Kasem developed a severe bedsore while in Washington and was in critical condition by the time he was hospitalized in early June. As recently as this weekend, TMZ and other entertainment news outlets were projecting that Mr. Kasem's widow and adult children would continue squabbling over Mr. Kasem's body after his death.
A comforting presence
It was a sad, startling end for a man whose voice had entertained and informed music lovers worldwide.
Mr. Kasem's weekly pop music countdowns, which ran on hundreds of radio stations for almost four decades - usually on Sunday mornings - may have been built around insignificant pieces of band trivia, generic sound bites about chart positions and long-winded long-distance dedications, but they were always there.
From Mr. Kasem, we got comfort and we got information, long before the Internet began providing us with minute-by-minute rankings of everything in our culture, including pop music. Even as the songs - and the world at large - changed week after week, you could depend on him to be there to remind you, as he did at the end of every broadcast, to "keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!"
Throwback appeal
Part of Mr. Kasem's appeal was that he always sounded a generation or two removed from the moment - in his pullover sweaters, tidily groomed hair and mildly upbeat intonations, he was a throwback to a more genteel time, a fatherly figure detached from the unwholesomeness of real life that was often depicted in the songs between his restrained segues - a kind of Lebanese American Dick Clark, if you will.
He hosted his first "American Top 40" program on July 4, 1970, crowning "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)," by Three Dog Night as his first No. 1 hit. His last countdown was in 2009, with Shinedown's "Second Chance" making the top of that final list. Along the way, he took sidesteps into other categories, such as an adult contemporary countdown and the spinoff "Casey's Top 40." Before MTV made it on air, Mr. Kasem hosted "America's Top 10" on television, helping to popularize music videos. But the format and the host never wavered.
Mr. Kasem's success inspired an industry of countdown programs, and maybe even a little bit of our current countdown culture with its headlines like "32 Animals Who Think They're People" and "15 Things You Didn't Know About Chick-fil-A," but his posture was impossible to replicate.
When Ryan Seacrest took over as host of "American Top 40" in 2004, the show lost its sense of folksy familiarity. It became just another syndicated radio show, there to sell a few more singles, downloads or Seacrests.
Peak of his popularity
Mr. Kasem hit the peak of popularity in the late '70s and early '80s, when full-length albums were trampling singles in sales and public affection. His dedication to rigidly counting down the Billboard pop charts in a four-hour block every week made every song matter. Regardless of genre or trends, he brought it all together in one place, making it easily digestible for Middle America.
Before 24-hour news channels, Twitter and Facebook, his shows carried a sense of relevance that is now impossible to measure. When Mr. Kasem would reveal the No. 1 song on "American Top 40," it wasn't just about the song - it was about the communal experience.
For nearly as many years as he hosted the countdown show, Mr. Kasem was also the voice of the cartoon character Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo," Robin on "Batman" and assorted letters of the alphabet on "Sesame Street," as well as thousands of commercials and even the entire NBC TV network from 1977 to 1981. He was a constant in our lives, yet we knew so little about him.
Mr. Kasem, born Kemal Amin Kasem in Detroit in 1932 to parents of Lebanese descent, first developed the idea for his countdown show while he was a disc jockey in Oakland.
The legend goes that one night he discovered a book of statistics and information on musicians in the studio's wastebasket and used it to develop his famed "teaser and bio" technique for introducing songs: He would hint about the track coming up before a commercial, then reward listeners with a bite-size piece of trivia after the break. It was a formula he adhered to for his entire career.
Voice for Arab Americans
He was a vegan, animal rights advocate and antinuclear activist. He was also an infamous perfectionist, whose profanity-laden cutting-room floor outbursts became viral sensations on YouTube. Mr. Kasem was also a tireless advocate for greater understanding of Arab Americans - both on political issues involving the Mideast and on arts and media issues.
"Arab Americans are coming out of the closet," Kasem told the Associated Press in 1990. "They are more outspoken now than ever before. People are beginning to realize who they really are, that they are not the people who yell and scream on their nightly newscast."
"They are going to be playing Shaggy and Scooby-Doo for eons and eons," Kasem told the New York Times in 2004. "And they're going to forget Casey Kasem - unless they happen to step on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I'll be one of those guys people say 'Who's that?' about. And someone else will say, 'He's just some guy who used to be on the radio.' "
Chronicle news services contributed to this report. Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle's pop music critic. E-mail: email@example.com Twitter: @MusicSF


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I will have a landing running from the back door, then four or five steps to ground. Do I need to place metal flashing where the landing attaches to the house, or some other means of protecting the house from moisture intrusion? The landing and stairs will be of poured concrete.
Typically, concrete steps are set onto a slab and not physically attached to the building. There should be about a quarter to half inch gap between the step unit and house. In most installs, a piece to flashing or ice & water shield is placed under the threshold down to the foundation, then covered with a 3/4" trim board. This protects the house from water invasion and also gives a nice look, as the trim can be painted to match the siding etc. The steps are then rested near the trim board. I use pressure treated lumber for the trim board. If you put the steps hard up against the trim or house, expect rot in a few years if it is not pressure treated.


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It's a PJ kinda week/month.
Second album to review by Harvey, and I am still floored by how good she is. It wasn't like that at first. I thought this album was kinda weird.
Then again, I've listened to lots of albums that were weird and they ended up being some of my favorites. Let England Shake has really grown on me. It might like it better than To Bring You My Love. In fact, I think it is.
Stylistically, it's much different from her past work. It's sedate, refined, and apocryphal. She uses a lot of imagery that evokes WWI, and war in general. It's sort of folky and protesty, but not really. Most of the songs feature jangly guitar and piano, and it feels very minimalistic and bare bones (in a good way). Harvey's voice goes high here, soaring way into the soprano ("On Battleship Hill"). That husky voice of albums past is mostly gone here, and the range really shows her versatility.
The lyrics and mostly somber attitude of the songs make this a contemplative album. The albums carry themes of death, and they lyrics are downright chilling. ("The scent of thyme carried on the wind/Stings my face into remembering/Cruel nature has won again/Cruel nature has won again").
Harvey's lyrics here are at her best, in my opinion. She captures the sadness of how pointless all wars seem years after they happen. Wars always seem so important to the people fighting them at the time. It is only looking back, years later, that we wonder what it was all for. The wise among us wonder what it is all for now. It makes me wonder how future generations will judge all the conflicts our political leaders lead us into; the same way, perhaps, we judge the conflicts of WWI as pointless and futile in retrospect?
I will definitely be listening to this a lot more. PJ has release perhaps her greatest treasure with this one. It's rare that an album makes me think as much as this.


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Reasons to Keep Change Management in a HIPAA Compliant Cloud
Using "Cloud" applications allows companies to subscribe to software applications and outsource back-end infrastructure operations to a vendor (such as Amazon Web Services) that can do the job much more cost effectively.
Using "Cloud" applications allows companies to subscribe to software applications and outsource back-end infrastructure operations to a vendor (such as Amazon Web Services) that can do the job much more cost effectively. Large cloud vendors have the technology, security know-how, and economies of scale that even many Fortune 100 companies do not. As a result, companies can spread their IT budget across many more applications to support and grow their business operations, which will in turn contribute to higher profits.
Today, many security breaches are announced every day. It is an excellent security precaution to use a cloud change management system that is HIPAA compliant. Even if your business is not required to be HIPAA compliant, you can reduce risk by keeping your IT change management process in the cloud and selecting a vendor that is HIPAA compliant.
Benefits of IT Change Management:
- Automates the submission, tracking and approval process for IT changes
- Increases visibility into IT changes before implementation
- Boosts cross-functional communication with real-time reporting
- Increases employee productivity through higher infrastructure uptime
- Enhances IT department productivity by providing automated workflow and escalation
- Decreases support costs by lowering change-related failures
- Reduces support calls by increasing the number of successful changes
- Speeds business decisions by delivering accurate, real-time reports
- Minimizes business risk by ensuring Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory compliance through audit trails of IT-related changes
- Identifies opportunities for business process improvement by providing trend analysis reporting for successful and unsuccessful IT-related changes
- Ensures standardized methods, processes and procedures are used for all changes
- Facilitates efficient and prompt handling of all changes
- Maintains the proper balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of changes
Here are five reasons to keep your change management application in the cloud:
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership
- Quick Setup
- Easily Integrates with REST-based APIs
- Improved Customer Support from IT Cloud Vendors
- Cloud Vendors Are Seasoned
Additional Whitepapers
IT Help Desk Whitepapers
- How Does Your Help Desk Measure Up? - A Help Desk can cut costs and enhance productivity. Is yours meeting the mark?
- Considerations for Outsourcing: Service Desk - A guide to improving your Service Desk and Service Delivery performance through outsourcing
- Looking Beyond the Sticker Price - "What it really costs to operate a call tracking system" - Summary of Acquisition and Lifetime Costs
- How Does the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) Impact the Hospital and Healthcare Industry


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Cuts could make USA a second-rate power, Panetta warns
- An extra 100%2C000 soldiers could be cut if sequester cuts take effect%2C Panetta says
- Less money would limit military%27s ability to act around the world
- The Pentagon is already scheduled to cut %24487 billion over the next decade
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Friday the United States would become a "second-rate power" if Congress and the White House fail to reach a budget deal that would avoid an extra $500 billion in military budget cuts over the next 10 years.
The Army would be forced to slash its ranks by an additional 100,000 soldiers over 10 years if the process called sequestration went into effect, Panetta said in an interview with USA TODAY. That reduction would be in addition to the 80,000 soldiers it plans to shed over the next five years to a force of about 490,000. The Marine Corps will drop about 20,000 troops under the current plan, which calls on the Pentagon to reduce spending by $487 billion over the next decade.
Congress has until March 1 to reach a deal to stop the cuts, which were created in a summer 2011 deal between Congress and President Obama to raise the nation's debt ceiling.
"We are the world's most powerful military, and we use that to promote peace and stability in the world," Panetta said. "It would be a shameful act of irresponsibility if Congress just stood to the side and let sequester take place. It would turn America from a first-rate power into a second-rate power."
With the smaller force — coupled with mandatory reductions in training and maintenance — the military would be able to handle its commitment in Afghanistan and forces in the Middle East but little else, he said.
"When we're called upon to do other crises, whether it is in Syria or Mali or North Africa or elsewhere, we may not be able to respond," Panetta said.
Panetta made his remarks on the budget in an exit interview from his office at the Pentagon. He plans to leave office soon, assuming Chuck Hagel, the former senator from Nebraska, wins confirmation to succeed him.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution, said the troop cuts envisioned by Panetta sound plausible. America becoming a second-rate power may, however, be an exaggeration, he said.
"The world will suffer from a weaker (U.S. military) long before we become a second-rate power if the cuts are made this unwisely," O'Hanlon said. "So the spirit of his comments is correct, even if the literal argument can be contested."
The cuts would have a major impact immediately, he said. The Pentagon is about halfway through its budget year, which began Oct. 1. It would have to absorb $46 billion in cuts to its $535 billion budget before Sept. 30.
The armed services have begun planning for budget reductions and warning in documents about programs that will be affected. The Air Force will throttle back on flight training, and Navy ships won't steam as often, and the Army will reduce utility costs at its posts.
"If sequester goes into effect, there is no question that it will create a critical readiness crisis in the military," Panetta said.


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Extra Large Water Holding Stand
Extra Large Water Holding Christmas Tree Stand from The Christmas Forest, ideal for 11 to 12ft Christmas Trees, keeping them fresh throughout the festive season.
Christmas Trees continue ... more
We aim to make your Christmas time as joyous as possible, so we offer a delivery service bringing your tree and decorations straight to your door London and Nationwide, helping you tick off another thing on your 'to do list'. For our London customers we also have an affordable London Christmas Tree Installation service available to make festive planning easier.
Our Christmas trees range in size from 3ft to 12ft however, If you require a tree over 12ft (3.7m) we have them, so please call us on 020 3953 8794 to enquire.
Delivery starts from £20 depending on your postcode.
When you add your tree to your order you will be given a choice of date and time slot available to you.
Please Note: We will do our best to ensure your Christmas order is delivered during this time frame, however as we can't control the weather or unexpected traffic/accidents so, on very rare occasions the delivery may be postponed to the next day. Consequently if you need the tree or accessories for a special occasion we recommend you request your delivery a few days in advance.
Offering Quality and Premium Christmas Services at affordable prices. Our real Christmas trees are plantation grown and freshly cut for the Christmas season.
Premium Christmas trees, fresh festive greenery and stunning Christmas Lighting all offered at the best prices! We pride ourselves in not only on caring for our trees to generate the best quality, but in also offering convenient and hassle free Christmas services, from delivery to door nationwide to London Christmas Tree Light Installation.. Additionally we offer removal and recycling options making Christmas as enjoyable as possible.
Should you find a better price for exactly the same product and services, we will match it if not beat it! Check our our Guarantee section under the heading Information to learn more.
We look to ensure we impact the environment with the gentlest touch. Sustainability is a key topic for Christmas Forest.
Our real Christmas trees absorb a lot of Carbon emission in the air as well as emitting Oxygen for our planet. Within the Christmas period we strive for our emission to be Carbon neutral due to emissions from transportation and delivery vehicles being offset by the trees we are still growing at the plantations.
We are switching to organically grown Christmas trees, as pesticides can upset the ecosystem.
Our plan is to start using electric vehicles.
We sell LED power-saving lights which are more economically beneficial than incandescent bulbs.
We give back to the planet through our TREE AID collaboration with the charity that plants a tree for everyone we sell, having planted 232,725 trees in the Sahel region of Africa so far.
We replenish our Christmas trees every 7 days from our plantations. They are kept watered and given a fresh cut prior to delivery to your home.
Personally hand selected real Christmas Trees. All of our Christmas trees are chosen by our team prior to delivery. We only supply and deliver the best trees. Any trees that do not meet the standard are recycled because we only want you to provide our customers with the best quality possible.
Please refer to our TREE CARE advice to ensure you get the maximum freshness after your Christmas tree is delivered.
Pines and Needles and the Environment
Here is a list of the measures we take to ensure that we play our part in helping the planet:
- Pines and Needles is carbon positive for most of the year as our trees absorb Carbon and emit Oxygen. During the Christmas season Pines and Needles is Carbon Neutral as any emissions from transportation and delivery vehicles is offset by the trees still growing in our plantations.
- We mainly use British trees from sustainable forests - less air and land miles means reduced emissions!
- Pines and Needles mainly uses diesel fuel and has several LPG vans, but is endeavouring to replace its delivery vans with electronic vehicles.
- Increasingly Pines and Needles is switching to organically-grown trees. Pesticides can upset the balance of fragile ecosystems.
- Wherever possible we encourage the use of power-saving LED lights as these use a fraction of the cost of incandescent bulbs.


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The question was thrown out there a long time ago about how to re-invent the healing wheel so to speak. Right now the way healers work is the way they have always worked in pretty much every game I can think of (There are exceptions but they are far and few between). Healing has mostly been centered around the consumption, preservation and regeneration of mana or a similar in concept consumable resource. Since DnD (magic points), Magic the Gathering (mana from lands) etc, when you wanted to heal something you used your resources to cast the spell to heal the target. The concept of mana at this point is quite pedestrian.
The idea though is something that you can't really change. Its is a rock solid equation. Spend x to get y, changing some form of consumable resource into healing or health. So my thought is this, why try to reinvent the wheel when you can just paint it a different color?
So how do you change things up? Well to be honest it would not be that hard to implement different ways to heal.
Change resources
One of the simplest ways to change the healing game is to change the resource with which a healer spends to heal. Like we said, mana has been done to death in about every way possible. Altering the source of ones power makes perfect sense.
Lets take for example a Paladin. Paladins in tradition mythology are bastions of willpower and determination. Characters in stories that lead in martial prowess in the protection of others while channeling divine gifts to heal the weak or cow the masses of the enemy horde before them. These cavaliers could very easily be represented by that very concept, willpower. A diminishing resource that regenerates on it's own. It can easily be done similar to how a rogue's focus works now in WoW. It would make things a bit more interesting I think, and it would eliminate the need for mana pots, replenishment and MP/5. More importantly it changes the flavor of the class making it more interesting to some. This change could also facilitate further role playing opportunities.
You can see why this would be desirable for many people and the mechanics would be easy to work out.
Please also understand paladin was just a random choice here it could work for many other classes.
Change the way you earn those resources
Another way you can mix things up for healers is change the way they earn their consumable resource. Think of it this way, right now you just have mana right? You replenish it over time (and it is never really explained how which honestly I think it should be, but that is a post for another time.) you can regen it through MP/5, through the replenishment ability or various other class abilities. But you don't really earn them right? What if you change the model to include having to perform certain actions to generate the power to heal. This concept is not anything new and can be found in various other games such as Warhammer Online and Lord of the Rings Online. In both games you perform various tasks that supply you with the power to heal.
Joe's solution and example
The fundamental problem with any class that uses mana or any consumable resource in any game is that eventually that resource runs out. When the resource runs out two things happen.
- The class functionality essentially ceases to exist. Without that resource there is nothing left for you to do. You have to either use an external source to replenish that resource or wait for natural regeneration to give you enough of the resource to continue on. In WoW think of going OOM and having to drink, use mana gaining abilities such as mana tide totem or evocation, potions or innervates. MP/5 also counts as an external factor.
- When a support classes functionality ceases, it factors towards the termination of the groups momentum. In WoW terms this is akin to waiting for the healer to have mana before being able to continue on with whatever group task is.
What some people don't know is that I am an amateur game designer by desire. It is what I want to do with my life, I want to make games. Currently I am in the middle of making one game, with another planned after. If you're interested in details on it. I will be updating about it more frequently on For The Lore's website . What this means is I think about these things a lot. I am a gamer after all and I want other gamers to like my games when I make them right? So balance and renovation are always at the forefront when I'm making decisions.
In one of the games there are a couple healing classes. And I thought back on all the games I have played and participated in and thought about how I could mix it up and I came up with a couple answers.
To me the overarching answer is hybrids. I'm not saying you should get rid of pure healing classes but hybrid classes are an easy way to eliminate class functionality black holes. They are a pain to balance, but the reward is always worth it. Now I know when you think hybrid probably the first thing that comes to mind is the various classes considered hybrids in WoW (Paladin, shaman, priest, druid and DK). Truth is while those are hybrids, they are not true hybrids. To maintain full functionality for hybridization you need to completely respec. While this is more true in some cases than others it is what keeps them from being "true hybrids".
To me a hybrid class is one that can flow between multiple roles seamlessly and without respeccing. Perfect examples of this can be found in Warhammer Online (Battle Priest) and Lord of the Rings Online (Rune Keeper). Both games have hybrids that fill both roles period. No respeccing, no hassle. The mechanics of these vary, but you get the idea. So I'm going to share with you a little bit about two of the healer hybrid classes I have come up with for one of my games.
These will be short descriptions of each just to give you an idea, more in depth write-ups will be available on for the lore in class descriptions as I complete them.
Monks of zhi bde
The monks of zhi bde are peaceful in nature, tending to the weak and sick with care and gentleness. Their monasteries can be found throughout the land and all who seek shelter or enlightenment are welcome. The monks of zhi bde are however not blind to the world and know that daemons and men can often be found lurking in the shadow wishing to cause harm to those weaker than themselves. The monks have honed their fighting skills to defend innocents from both arcane and mundane threats.
Monks of zhi bde are tireless defenders of the weak. Through use of their sigils and martial arts they are able to take the fight to those that threaten the innocent while still supporting those they fight along side and those they protect. As they focus, they generate Ki that can then be released to heal the wounded.
In game:
This is a Healer/ DPS hybrid. The class revolves around a basic mechanic. As the monk buffs party members or attacks enemies through use of sigils and chants (a definable resource) they generate Ki(a second definable resource). That Ki can then be used to cast various support spells.
The sigils and chants are renewable and regenerate over time as they are used, Ki that is generated from the use of sigils and chants does decay over time if not used.
The idea is to keep the class mobile, always able to do something, whether it is buffing the party, attacking an enemy or healing the idea is to reduce downtime and keep the game moving allowing players to experience more of the game without having to stop and recuperate. There are non combat uses for the sigils for those that wish to purely heal in group environments.
This is similar to the model WoW has put in place with DK's runes and runic power. Honestly it's a great idea that I feel would benefit well the hybrid healer.
Field Medic
Where there is conflict and war there is suffering and death. For every army there are those that seek to mend the broken and save lives. Trained in both the arts of healing and the ways of war they stalk the battle field attempting to make their way towards the wounded, often fighting through enemies to get to their target. When confronted by an enemy they will fight with a martial prowess of a seasoned soldier in both melee and at range.
Each action is a measure of control that feeds into the field medics movements as they build momentum. Every army boasts a slew of field medics, but some serve no nation preferring to sell their services to the highest paying adventuring party or seeking glory.
In game:
This is a DPS / Healer hybrid and it is a true hybrid. They earn momentum which can shift from offense to defense. For example the more healing they do, the better that healing becomes but their damage dealing abilities are reduced. The more damage they do the better that damage becomes but the weaker their support and healing becomes. When the player shifts gears their momentum swings to the other extreme. When they stop casting all together their momentum is reduced to a state of equilibrium.
Instead of traditional consumable resource, the effectiveness of the class abilities is the commodity payed along with the cool-down of abilities. This is also used as a balancing point for the class as peak performance for either role is back loaded. This gives players free choice in the middle of an encounter to switch gears as needed and creates a more dynamic game play. While a field medic fully engaged in combat may be keeping up on DPS they are not removed from their ability to heal. It simply doesn't heal for as much as it would if momentum was in full heal mode.
This is similar to how rune keepers function in LotRO
Again these are rough ideas that will change as I work on the game, but you can see that my intention is to spice things up a bit for healers, and give some options to hybrid players. Again I'm not advocating the removal of pure healers, just offering up ideas on how to shake things up a bit and maybe make things a bit more interesting. It ultimately is still spend x to get y, but x is sometimes time and cool-downs, sometimes another resource entirely.
How would you mix it up if you were tasked with changing the way healing was done?
That's it for today, hope you enjoyed my musings. Until next time Happy Healing!


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LONDON, England (CNN) -- If you're graduating from school or university this year you might currently be cursing your rotten luck. The economy is weak, jobs are scarce and few companies are willing to take a chance on someone unproven.
"Literally the best time to graduate in 50 years," says Google's CEO.
But here's the good news -- according to the man who leads one of the world's most innovative companies, you are about to be entering the business arena at perhaps the best moment for half a century.
Why? Although global economic conditions are likely to remain tough into next year, Eric Schmidt, the chairman and CEO of web giant Google, told business school students, this is the ideal time for innovators and creators to get busy with new ideas.
"Change happens when things are hard," he said at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. "The economy and the situation that we're in now will create phenomenal opportunities that are before each and every one of you. If you think about it, this is literally the best time to graduate in 50 years. Assets are cheap, and expectations are set realistically."
The notion that the great businesses of the future often emerge from hard times is nothing new, particularly to business schools. It is notable, too, that even amid the financial crisis a series of top schools have begun expanding their faculty, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship.
According to Schmidt, who is also an adviser to the Obama administration, the huge shocks felt in the financial markets will lead to fundamental changes. "Whatever you think of the previous structure, it's just being corrected big time. And I mean big time. In one month, enormous aspects of our government are being redone."
What is the Google chief's tip for the future of business? He believes it is the field of "cloud computing", in which applications and data are stored remotely and accessed via the web, rather than kept on individual machines, for example with Google Docs or Flickr.
If you are a smart young entrepreneur, Schmidt believes, it's time to be thinking about how such data sharing can be expanded and used more effectively. "When television first came out, the first shows were radio shows on television," he said by way of comparison with early, limited efforts at cloud computing.
One likely future application could be in healthcare, both through systems which process thousands of individual pieces of data to provide early warnings of a spike in, say, flu cases, and also with a possible Wikipedia-type site for doctors to share information about treatments, he said.
"Can you imagine if you had the same thing about the financial world?" Schmidt added. "And we had been able to use that to monitor the things that happened over the past five years in the broad-based global financial industry? Think about how different we would be in terms of knowing where we are and what we have to do."
So, are you all fired up and ready to make your millions? How about a course in entrepreneurship first?
The latest chair in the subject has just been established at the U.K.'s London Business School (LBS), named after a couple who showed that business empires can sometimes emerge from the least likely sources.
In 1972, LBS management graduate Tony Wheeler and his wife Maureen dropped out of the business world to spend six months traveling overland to Australia. Arriving penniless they wrote a guide to how they made the trip, Across Asia on the Cheap, published by their own Lonely Planet imprint, which in the past 35 years has grown to become one of the world's leading travel book companies.
Now, the couple are funding the Tony and Maureen Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship at LBS.
"Entrepreneurship is the key to wealth creation in much of the world, and no more so than in the emerging economies, countries which were often the focus for Lonely Planet Publications' early success," Tony Wheeler said by way of explaining his decision.


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LG's New Tablet Strategy: Quit While It's Behind
LG Electronics says it's not too worried about Microsoft's new foray into tablets. But, then, it's not all that concerned with the tablet market at this point, anyway.
These days, LG is focused largely on its smartphone portfolio, and it's not expending very much effort on tablets — nor does it plan to, says company spokesman Ken Hong.
"We decided early this year to focus exclusively on building up our smartphone portfolio, which includes the category of large five-inch display and over devices, such as Optimus Vu, which we feel addresses many of the content consumption issues with traditional mobile phones," Hong told AllThingsD. "Down the road, we'll look at tablets again, but for now, our priority is on more 'pocketable' smartphones."
And at this point that's probably a wise move.
LG isn't exactly a big player in the tablet market. It's dwarfed by Android tablet maker Samsung, which is itself struggling for traction in a market in which Apple's iPad holds a 68 percent share, according to IDC. Better for LG to redouble its efforts in the smartphone market, where it actually has a reasonable chance of market share gains, than to struggle in an Apple-dominated market that's dashed the hopes of more than one consumer electronics manufacturer already.
And as for Microsoft taking hardware development into its own hands with Surface? How's that going over at LG? Well, since the company is taking a break from tablets, it's really not that big a deal. Said Hong, "Microsoft's announcement doesn't change anything here at LG."


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Browse: Home / getting things done
getting things done
Productivity, Getting Things Done and Mixed messages
By Ben Kepes on October 13, 2009
I received an auto email response from a friend just the other day. Said friend's response went thus; Thankyou for your email. I read my emails daily at 8,11 and 3pm. If your email requires urgent attention please phone me on XXXXXXX I had a chuckle when I received it. It seemed a typical reaction […]
Posted in General, Strategy | Tagged david allen, getting things done, GTD, productivity, social media consultant | 1 Response