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June 1863 saw a repetition of what had occurred earlier in the American Civil War - the president involving himself in military matters in the field and trying to override his generals. In this case Lincoln wanted the Army of the Potomac to pursue the army of Robert E Lee who was seemingly fleeing Richmond. The Union's General Hooker wanted to press home his attack against Richmond, much to the annoyance of Lincoln.
June 2nd: General Lee decided to move north his Army of Northern Virginia. His hope was to draw General Hooker's Army of the Potomac after him and away from Virginia. Lee did not want a battle with Hooker as his motives were entirely defensive but he also realised that a further defeat for the Army of the Potomac would be a serious blow to the Union. So while Lee wished to be defensive, he also prepared to be offensive.
June 3rd: The Army of Northern Virginia left Fredericksburg and moved north - 70,000 men with 300 artillery guns. Hooker's Army of the Potomac was 120,000 strong. Hooker also had the advantage of intelligence as two Confederate deserters had given themselves up to Union forces and had told them about the planned movements of Lee's army.
June 4th: Rationing was introduced in Vicksburg for the besieged population - soldiers and civilians.
June 5th: A rearguard Confederate force at Fredericksburg clashed with probing Union forces in what was called the 'Battle of Franklin's Crossing'. The Union force learned that the defences of Fredericksburg were strong, while the Confederate force, commanded by General Stuart, decided that the 'attack' was merely a demonstration of strength to unsettle the remaining Confederate defenders.
June 6th: President Lincoln and General Hooker clashed over what to do with Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lincoln wanted Hooker to pursue Lee (as Lee himself had hoped for) while Hooker wanted to take the opportunity to attack what was now a poorly defended Richmond. Not for the first time did the President, as Commander-in-Chief, clash with his generals. In this case, Hooker's desire was warranted as Lee had already decided that if Richmond, at any time, was threatened he would call of his march north and return to the Confederate's capital. This was the one opportunity when Hooker could have attacked Richmond when it was poorly defended. Lincoln wanted a more aggressive campaign.
June 9th: Union cavalry attacked General Stuart's cavalry force near Brandy Station. Some 22,000 men fought here - the largest cavalry clash of the war. Both sides were evenly matched and the Union force, commanded by Pemberton, nearly defeated Stuart's men but news of advancing Confederate infantry convinced Pemberton that withdrawal was his best option rather than continuing the fight. Stuart's men had a high reputation among Pemberton's men, so this near victory did a great deal to boost Union morale, especially among the cavalry.
June 11th: Two 10-inch artillery guns arrived at Vicksburg for Grant's army. They greatly boost the Union's ability to destroy the defences there. Citizens in Vicksburg took to living in caves to ensure their safety from the artillery bombardment.
June 12th: Rumours of an invasion by Lee's men led to many fleeing their homes in Union areas near to the 'border' with the South. Few responded to a call by the Pennsylvania governor for volunteers for a state militia.
June 14th: A Unionist force tried to end the siege at Port Hudson. While Northern troops were doing the besieging, they were suffering acute medical casualties as a result of the dire environment they were in. The attack was an attempt to end all this. It failed and the Confederate defenders held out. The Union lost 4000 men in the attack.
June 15th: The Confederates captured Winchester. They took 4,500 men prisoner along with 200,000 rounds of ammunition, 300 wagons and 300 horses.
June 17th: The South lost one of its ironclads, 'CSS Atlanta'.
June 20th: The citizens of Baltimore started to build defences around their city fearing an attack by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Cavalry units from both Lee's and Hooker's armies clashed almost on a daily basis.
June 27th: Hooker resigned as commander of the Army of the Potomac after one argument too many with his superior General Halleck. Hooker believed that Halleck was deliberately undermining his authority by refusing to allow him to do as he wished with the men under his command. Hooker's resignation was accepted and General George Meade replaced him.
June 29th: Meade immediately ordered the Army of the Potomac to hunt out the Army of Northern Virginia. Whereas Hooker wanted to wait and see what Lee intended, Meade wanted to engage him as soon as was feasible.
June 30th: Lee's scouts kept him well informed as to where the Army of the Potomac was. He ordered his men to march on Cashtown. A unit of Confederate troops was sent to Gettysburg where it was believed a stash of military boots was kept. The men, from III Corps, came across Unionist troops from Brigadier-General Buford's cavalry division and withdrew.
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April 1863 saw the start of the third year of the American Civil War. The economic plight of the South was taking a heavy toll.…


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One of the things I usually remember about our various posts is the travel in the region. There was the time when we drove with several friends into a part of Russia where we only ate blini — Russian version of French crepes — for three straight days (vegetarian choices were limited off the beaten track). There was the time when we took a smelly, overnight train to Bukhara and a scary plane ride to Khiva (in Uzbekistan). There was the time when we had breakfast in France, lunch in Monaco and dinner in Italy. And there was the time when we saw Iguazu falls from both the Brazilian and the Argentine side.
These experiences were all very different but there is one thing that unites them — the opportunity to see things we may have not been able to see had we not been posted in the region. Every time we find ourselves expatriated to a country, we always look around. What can we see in this country and in the countries that surround it? What experiences are available to us?
To the dismay of our family and friends back home we almost never go home while living elsewhere. Instead we prefer to explore our surroundings. When, if not then, will we have this opportunity? And that's why taking this chance to explore and Travel within the region of your post is the T for the A to Z of Successful Expatriation™.
Where have you traveled lately?
Any other T's out there?
For all the letters in the A to Z of Successful Expatriation™ click here.
Check out our Expat Club: 10 Weeks of Wisdom Program. It has been specifically designed around expatriate issues and concerns and it'll help you feel supported, encouraged, and inspired. If you ever thought of getting an expat coach and didn't get the chance/finances/courage to do it, this Club is your opportunity to try a virtual coaching environment. Register for it here.
Copyright © 2010 by Global Coach Center. If you'd like to reprint this, please do so but make sure you credit us (with a live link)!

subset: commoncrawl


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For information on property A10928487 contact us right away, properties are often times removed because they are no longer available, but this is not always the case.
To get the latest information about MLS ID: A10928487, inquire below for the full status update or for listings very similar to it.
Souza Estates , Luxury Real Estate
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I love the look of embroidery and had been wanting to try and get that effect on a cake topper for a while. I knew that I wanted to use jimmy sprinkles for the "thread" and possibly have it on a royal icing disk but I couldn't decide on a pattern. I doodled a few designs and then got sidetracked by other recipes and projects and forgot about it all together.
It wasn't until I came across the Polka and Bloom blog that I was remembered the cake idea. She has great designs that are so pretty, modern, and colourful. I wrote to her asking if I could use one of her patterns for a cake topper and she was nice enough to agree (which is good because my own attempts at embroidery patterns for the cake were pretty sad).
I had to go out and buy jimmy sprinkles but I could only find the colours that I wanted in mixed jars. Sorting them was tedious. Normally I don't mind sorting, cutting, and other repetitive tasks that I can do while watching TV... but the sprinkles were hard to pick up and my tweezers had decided to hide themselves never to be seen again. Next time I see single colour jars of jimmies I am buying one of each.
Laying out the actual design was much more fun and I am really happy with how it looked in the end. I plan on trying out another design and taking some step by step photos in case anyone else wants to try making a similar cake.
The cake itself is pink lady cake made with pureed raspberries instead of strawberries and lemon swiss meringue buttercream. The cake was delicious but the icing was not really what I wanted. Cream cheese icing or a sharper buttercream would have been better.
On a completely unrelated but equally sweet note: We have solved our cat-hair-on-the-furniture issue. Wellington sheds like nobodies business and he would literally coat the furniture with fur. Daily vacuuming required.
Not anymore. We gave him a shoebox that he seemed interested in and now he doesn't sleep anywhere else. He has a serious love affair with this slightly too small orange shoe box. We can just pick it up and carry it around and he's happy to sleep wherever it is.
Aww. Cats and cakes (and sunshine..finally) are always a good weekend combo.


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Transit added extra stop to Route 72. Commons I & II will start service 10/26/2020
Lost and Found
Items found on Transit Services buses are submitted to the Liberty University Police Department after the bus is cleaned. After 2 business days, those items should be logged in at the LUPD office where they will be available for pickup. Lost and found is located in Green Hall next to the Human Resource Department in the main LUPD office. If you have lost something within the last two days, please call Liberty Transit Services at (434) 592-3640 or contact the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company at (434) 455-5080. View the LUPD website for office hours and contact information.


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Forward: What you are about to read is a true story. It's also almost unbelievable, and a little shocking. Please don't attempt anything you'll read about from here on in, in this article. For the sake of this article, names will be withheld.
Strange isn't it, how one car can change your mindset? Change your entire life? For me, that car is the car pictured above. Well, okay, maybe not the exact car pictured above (more on that later) but a combination of the car, the owner of said car, and the car it is based off of. What you see above you, is a rendering (One that I did, I might add) of the "Blackbird" Porsche 911 Turbo.
The Basis:
In the mid 1980's, street racing, and highway racing especially, became very prominent in Japan. People who couldn't afford the rising land prices bought themselves a car to display their personal tastes, and then took that one step further to modify it to suit their needs. In the form of expressway racing, the "Mid Night Club" had just formed (I'll save that story for another time) and was making its rounds as the up and coming kings of Wangan Bayshore racing, on the venerable C1 Loop of Tokyo's expressway system. These men were very serious about their races, and indeed remained serious until the end. For a long time, the leader of the pack, and the fastest man in the group, drove an (originally black) 930 Turbo with a full Auto Garage TBK Body kit. This car was later to be known as the "Yoshida Specials" 911.
The owner, originally practicing to become a doctor, had instead chosen the field of car sales to make his money. He took over his fathers family business, and this business remains up until this day. His seriousness about keeping his family name going, as well as his seriousness on the road, gave credence to his nickname behind the wheel:
It was him that Michiharu Kusunoki decided to base his book off of, and his ongoing rivalry with the son of a friends shop, famous for its red Z demo car; Air Breathing Research (ABR) Hosoki.
Their ongoing rivalry transcended the course of years, with both the Blackbird and the Z being tuned and retuned time and time again, in order to keep up with one another. By the time the club had disbanded in 1999, the Z was making 680HP on a L30ETT custom setup, and the Blackbird was making well over 700HP on a stroked 3.6 Liter Turbo flat six. Both cars had gotten rid of almost half their weight through extensive weight savings research and development, and both were capable of not just achieving, but maintaining, a 350km/h speed through the Wangan straight stretch, for well over 15 minutes at a time in the mid 1990's.
To give you some idea of how impressive this is, take a look at the 1991 Lamborghini Diablo. A fast car, by any means, it topped out at 202MPH or 325KM/H. When it hit that speed, it was really stretching itself to get there, and could only keep that speed for about 3 minutes before the engine overheated.
Even the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 can maintain its top speed of 400KM/H for about 12 minutes before it runs out of gas.
These men were building hyper performance cars, by today's standards, that were capable (through the use of catch tanks and other methods) of not only achieving the top speeds seen in today's hypercars, but maintaining them for longer than probably even most cars of today would. They were also doing this reliably, time and again, night after night.
To say that the Mid Night Club was a huge source of innovation in the tuning and development of cars as a whole would be a serious understatement. These were the big dogs, and a game changer for top speed enthusiasts the world over, and they still are.
In any case, this was how the Blackbird story came to be; Through the rivalry of the ABR Hosoki Z, and the Yoshida Special's 911 Turbo.
The Real Car:
When the time came for Kusonoki-San to make a "Wangan Midnight" movie in 1991, he gave up his own personal car for the lead role: A 1987 Porsche 930 Turbo.
Upon giving it up, it was thoroughly modified by DORF and Promodet (both big names in Japanese Porsche Tuning) to make 400HP. It then raced, side by side, in the movie, with the "Devil Z" (based off the ABR Hosoki S130Z), which was a blue S30Z. This car would see huge fame, which is rather ironic, since it was the Blackbird that would ultimately beat it (as it did in real life) and would also be the more powerful of the two.The character (just as in the real person on whom he was based) was a Surgeon, that of the Cardiac variety, who mourned the loss of his old friend who had died in the blue S30Z. Because the S30Z was incapable of having any owners without killing it, and thus was cursed, it was nicknamed the "Devil Z". Tatsuya Shima, as the doctor was called, was a cold, vindictive, and reclusive individual, who maintained a very honest, forthright demeanor. This character analysis of him is achingly true to real life, as after having met and spent some very serious talk time with the man responsible for the real Yoshida Porsche, I can attest that he does take life and racing very seriously, and rarely smiles. He himself gave me the urge to pursue medicine, to which I did in later years of University.
When Mr. Kusunoki finished with the 911 Turbo in the movie, he found it too difficult to drive. Scared of its immense (at the time) new power, he sold it to a friend, who's hands it remains in to this day. Effectively, while the Yoshida Porsche is in fact the original Blackbird, it's this 'secondary' Blackbird from the movie, that is even more awe inspiring and unique then the first.
The Stats:
The 1987 Turbo 930 from the movie was thoroughly reworked in the hands of its new owner (name withheld as well). It was taken apart piece by piece, and built to create an exact replica of the final variation form of the Manga version of the "Blackbird". It became tube framed, with carbon composite body panels, a full Rauh Welt Begriff Widebody kit (6mm wider than the original and molded in instead of riveted on as per most RWB cars). The owner also attached a full Auto Garage TBK body kit with 964 corner lights and taillights (expensive and very very rare, meant to mimic the 935KR Porsche factory race car), a GruppeM spoiler, a fully built 6 speed adjustable sequential transmission, an uprated 3.6 Liter turbo engine from a 1994 Turbo S, a custom suspension setup with magnesium control arms, and the Pièce de résistance: A single turbocharger taken from Ayrton Senna's own world championship winning MP4/4.
With these modifications, the car makes 600HP at 8000RPM. The torque and power is built high into the rev range, and the owner does in fact use it for top speed. Power delivery is immediate, with the Turbo building in heavy boost at under 2000RPM. By the time the car reaches its 9000RPM limit, the turbo hasn't even had time to breathe yet; it was developed for a car capable of 14,000RPM. Because of this, the "secondary" Blackbird has incredible power delivery even at the top of 6th gear, and with the exception of only aerodynamics, can continue to accelerate very viciously over 300KM/H. So much so in fact, that it can push your back into the seat with another wallop as the throttle is stomped on.
Sadly, the owner rarely takes it out on Wangan anymore, and instead prefers to take it to circuit events where he can race with other highly competitive cars. Still, with a theoretical top speed of 400KM/H (under the right gearing) this monster sits, somewhere in the world, waiting for its next pray.
Which is exactly why I think it deserves the title for the most hands down, crazy, street 911 Turbo to date.
Oh and by the way... The owners goal over the next few years?
Let that sink in.
400km/h on the expressway.
Disclaimer: I'm one of the foremost authorities of the Mid Night Club on the internet. If you seek information on them, or any of the cars pictured, feel free to email me, or to check out the 7Tune page on Facebook, which is closely associated with them as well. There are only a few English speaking folks with the connections to the club however. If you have any questions, and would like a serious response with valid proof that I do in fact associate with said group, feel free to email me at email@example.com and I'll get back to you. Please do not inquire about names, addresses, locations, or other such private information on the group. Thank you.


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Bolivia judges balk at setting NY man free
A two-judge appeals panel on Tuesday refused a plea to immediately release a New York businessman who has been jailed for 18 months without charge despite strong evidence he was fleeced and extorted by corrupt prosecutors.
Instead, the two judges sent the money-laundering case of Jacob Ostreicher back to the trial judge, ordering her to reconsider favorable evidence she previously threw out at the urging of a powerful judicial official who is now under arrest.
"This is all a joke. This is literally a circus," Ostreicher, 54, told The Associated Press by phone after Tuesday's hearing, the 28th in his case. "They are talking about this investigation as if it were a real investigation. But the whole investigation is illegal."
One of his lawyers, Jerjes Justiano, said the judges "washed their hands," though empowered to throw out the case. Instead there will be another hearing, in as early as five days.
Ostreicher is weakened from a liquids-only hunger strike and was moved to a private clinic on Halloween after the actor and activist Sean Penn intervened on his behalf.
Penn accompanied Ostreicher, in a wheelchair and wearing a bullet-proof vest, in a packed courtroom in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, capital of the state where Ostreicher was trying to salvage a rice-growing venture when he was arrested in June 2011.
The evidence that the judges on Tuesday ordered the trial judge to reconsider include a Swiss report that Ostreicher says affirms the legitimacy of millions invested by his Swiss partners in the venture.
Ostreicher was never charged with any crime, and the people who led his prosecution, including the No. 1 legal adviser in the Interior Ministry, are now themselves in jail, accused of belonging to a shakedown ring that authorities say preyed on people deemed to have deep pockets.
The Orthodox Jew, who has a flooring business in Brooklyn, N.Y., complained from the start that he was being fleeced. His case had come to light after he accused the venture's original manager, a Colombian woman who is also jailed, of defrauding investors and falling in with a Brazilian drug trafficker.
Ostreicher says prosecutors and government employees illegally sold 18,000 metric tons of the venture's rice and stole equipment and demanded $50,000 to get him out of jail.
The AP drew attention to the case beginning last year and a U.S. congressman, Chris Smith of New Jersey, began this year to lobby for Ostreicher's release.
But the U.S. government has little clout with Bolivia's leftist leaders. Only after Penn interceded with President Evo Morales on Halloween eve did authorities move vigorously against the extortion ring.
Eight people, including two prosecutors, are among eight alleged members of the ring arrested in the past two weeks.
Penn was at Tuesday's hearing but did not comment.
Ostreicher said he'd been granted an eight-day extension in the private clinic.
Frank Bajak reported from Bogota, Colombia


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Creative people know that no idea that gets cut from a project ever goes in the trash can. It just gets tucked away for some later use.
That's what happened with the story of the new Cars 2 film, which hits movie theaters next month. At a press event on Tuesday, John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Disney and Pixar–and the new film's director–explained that the idea for the new plot came from a scene that ended up on the (digital) cutting room floor during the first Cars film.
That first film, which came out in 2006, includes a romantic scene between hero Lightning McQueen and sweetie Sally Carrera. Initially that scene was set at a drive-in (get it–cars going out for a date at a "drive-in"?). On the screen at the drive-in, Lasseter said, was a spy movie starring a British James Bond-type car, called Finn McMissile.
The Cars team eventually took that scene in a different direction, setting it on a cruise instead. But when it came to plotting Cars 2, Lasseter dusted off the drive-in film, which had been partially story-boarded as a film within the film.
"I never forgot about it and always thought that would be really fun to do," Lasseter said, adding he himself is a big spy film buff. As a kid, he said, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was his favorite TV show.
Hence the new movie: a spy story set at a series of races around the world. As Lightning McQueen, the race car hero of the first film, competes in the races, Mater, his rust-bucket, tow-truck sidekick, gets embroiled in an international espionage plot of some sort, and Finn McMissile (pictured above, right)–a sleek vehicle that looks like a cross between a Jaguar and an Aston Martin, liberally doused with 1960s British cool and brilliantly voiced by Michael Caine–comes to the rescue.
The rest of the movie, Lasseter said, was inspired by the director's own experience of traveling around the world, doing publicity for the first Cars movie. As he manuevered through foreign cities, he found hmself imagining how the characters in his film would have reacted to the various driving cultures, like driving on the wrong side of the road in England and Italy's casual attitude toward traffic rules. The new film is set in Europe and Japan.
[Images: Pixar]
E.B. Boyd is FastCompany.com's Silicon Valley reporter. Twitter. Email.


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Instead of being breaded and fried, these pork loin chops are pan-fried and topped with a light sauce.
In a small bowl, whisk together the jam and mustard.
In a large, nonstick frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the pork chops and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes a side. Top each pork chop with 1 tablespoon of the jam-mustard mixture. Cover and cook for 2 minutes more. Transfer the pork chops to warmed plates.
Cool the frying pan to a warm — not hot — temperature. Pour wine vinegar into the pan and stir to remove the bits of pork and jam. Pour the vinegar sauce over each pork chop. Sprinkle with pepper and garnish with orange slices. Serve immediately.
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Tag Archives: mini pumpkins
Looking for an activity to celebrate Fall with your Little Pnuts? How about a pumpkin hunt? This is a super easy and inexpensive activity that has lots of potential for fun and playful learning!
What You Will Need
- A bag of miniature pumpkins and gourds, preferably in a variety of shapes and colors (often sold in the produce section of your grocery store during the season)
- Somewhere to hide them – we used a nearby playground, but even your backyard would work!
- A bag for each Little Pnut to collect his/her pumpkins
Let's Begin
To set up, simply hide the pumpkins and gourds around the designated area while your Little Pnuts are engaged elsewhere.
Let's Play
When the pumpkins are all hidden, give each child a bag and have them collect the pumpkins. Once they've all been collected, bring them all together to investigate and compare. Talk about the different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures of the pumpkins and gourds. Help your child sort the pumpkins by various attributes (bumpy and smooth, round/not round, etc.). Slightly older Little Pnuts may enjoy a turn hiding the pumpkins for the adults to find! You can also work on expressive language by having the children give you verbal directions to help you find the hidden pumpkins.
Developmental Milestones:
This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for your Little Pnuts:
Problem Solving, Reasoning, Fine/Gross Motor Development, Receptive/Expressive Language, Sensory Development
—Stephanie Haass, Little Pnuts Early Childhood Activities Expert & Blogger, founder of www.two-daloo.com


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Are you tired of writing (use extras data-structures utils srfi-69 files ports srfi-1 srfi-13 srfi-14 yaddda yadda this that and the other)? Do you have enough of endlessly having to figure out the right library units you need?
Not anymore. Because now there is
This extension provides a convenience wrapper for the following library units:
data-structures extras files ports posix regex utils tcp srfi-1 srfi-4 srfi-13 srfi-14 srfi-18 srfi-69
CHICKEN 4.2.6 or higher is required.
This code is in the public domain
Version History
- 0.4
- added regex dependency
- 0.3
- hacked around syntax-reexport problem
- 0.2
- fixed typo in setup script
- 0.1
- Initial release


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Mendor Announcing Partnership with A. Menarini Diagnostics in Sweden
18 Dec, 2012, 08:00 GMT
ESPOO, Finland, December 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Mendor, the Finnish diabetes technology company, continues rapid growth and is happy to announce yet another international partnership. Mendor has signed a distribution agreement with the Swedish affiliate of a major pharmaceutical company, A.Menarini Diagnostics. A. Menarini Diagnostics Sverige will continue the work Mendor started earlier in 2012 in Sweden, in the Västra Götaland Region, to make the all-in-one glucose meter Mendor Discreet™ widely available to Swedish diabetes patients.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121218/582979 )
A.Menarini Diagnostics is an international company actively operating in the blood glucose monitoring market. Headquartered in Florence, the company was founded in 1976 as a division of A. Menarini Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite of Florence, Italy, a multinational healthcare company with annual revenues of over 3 billion Euros. More information on: http://www.menarinidiagnostics.com/
Mendor's CEO Kristian Ranta comments: "This is fantastic news! We have worked hard to establish the business in Sweden and it is great to be able to give the distribution rights to such an excellent company as Menarini Diagnostics. I am positive that this partnership will become an enabler of better diabetes care for a lot of people in Sweden with diabetes."
Founded in 2006 in Helsinki, Finland, Mendor designs, develops and markets innovative diabetes management products. Mendor's first product, a blood glucose meter the Mendor Discreet™, has received high praise from clinicians and diabetologists all over the world. The meter contains all the necessary components for daily blood glucose measurements: the meter, 25 strips and a lancing device in an integrated, all-in-one device the size of a cell phone. Mendor Discreet™ is designed to simplify the lives of people with diabetes who regularly need to test their blood glucose levels.
With the Mendor Discreet™ blood glucose meter, the patient gets a license for the Mendor Balance™, an advanced internet based self-care application. The Mendor Balance™ empowers the diabetic to see the full picture of their treatment, and helps in recognizing and setting possible improvement targets. The information produced by the application gives health care professionals a solid platform for discussion with the patient for improving the treatment.
For more information, visit: http://www.mendor.com
Images available upon request.
Media Contact:
Kristian Ranta - CEO, Co-Founder
Mobile: +358-45-673-3313
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Mendor Oy
Keilaranta 16
02150 Espoo
SOURCE Mendor


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By RICH FOLEY
Years ago, I read about chess players who carried on games with opponents from all around the world by mail. Each would set up a board, and the player having the first move would mail their play to the opponent. That player would move the appropriate piece on their own board, make his own move and mail it back. Months later, there would be a winner.
That's kind of the approach behind Words With Friends, except technology allows you to play as fast as if you were in the same room with your opponent, if you and they are using the application at the same time. If not, the game could still seemingly drag on forever. Plus, I'm sure many chess players consider the game to be beneath them. That's their problem.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Words With Friends is quite similar to the Scrabble board game many of us grew up with. The game board, number of letter tiles, and point values are the same. Your original seven tiles are randomly assigned to you and replaced as needed as you make words. The score is kept automatically for you.
I got started playing after my friend Hank challenged me to a game. He won our first game 489-212. He has a pretty good vocabulary for a car salesman. After a few games, I started to learn a few tricks.
Unlike Scrabble, which penalizes you for playing a word not allowed by the rules if challenged by an opponent, Words With Friends warns you that a word isn't allowed before you send it to your opponent. There's apparently no limit on the number of bad words you can submit, so, if you can't find a real word, just make up arrangements of letters that could be words until one is accepted.
This feature has added a new group of "words" to those I already knew, even if many of them aren't in the dictionary. Bract? Hoy? Smalts? Eery? Coted? Hoer? Doven? Mels? Curn? Cony? Feist? Kine? Kora? Lota? Kana? Even spell check on my computer is questioning most of these, but Words With Friends let them all through as acceptable.
Maybe even odder are some of the two and three-letter words that get the seal of approval. Hie? Vig? Neb? Aa? Ae? Gi? Oe? Ef? Hin? Za? Rin? Nu? Qi? Noh? Feh? Xu? Pe? Ret? Ka? Moa? Jow? Ere? Lin? It's almost as if I'm playing in a foreign language.
No wonder Hank kicked my butt so thoroughly at first. Eventually, I started to get the hang of the game and actually stayed even or slightly ahead of him in a recent match until he scored 99 points in successive turns to go ahead, then pull away to another win.
We're currently playing two games at once and he's ahead at this stage by 29 points in one game and 73 points in the other. Finally beating him will make my day, but I'm not holding my breath.
Since I'm playing several other people, I have managed to win a few games. I recently started playing a local woman and we're almost evenly matched. In the two games we have going right now, she leads by 12 points in one and I'm up by a single point in the other. That's more fun than embarrassing the other player and certainly more fun than getting embarrassed.
Plus, she plays quickly and is usually available, so we can get several moves in during my limited time at the library computer. Some of my playing friends aren't around when I'm online, so we each make one move every day or two. It's not unlike those chess players mailing their plays.
An entry in Wikipedia says that several marriages have occurred among people who met through the game's feature that allows you to play a random opponent instead of a friend. You might even be matched against one of the celebrities who play the game.
I'm trying to see if Alec Baldwin will play a game with me. He was in the news last December after getting kicked off an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles. He was having so much fun playing Words With Friends that he refused to shut off his iPad when requested by flight attendants.
Eventually, he was removed from the flight, an event he later spoofed on Saturday Night Live and a television commercial for the Capital One credit card. The more I think about it, though, I probably wouldn't stand a chance against Baldwin. After all, he has a whole family of out-of-work actor brothers to help him make up words. I'd better stick to the opponents I know.


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Zunino continues to impress
SEATTLE -- When the Mariners called up Mike Zunino barely a year after taking the catcher with the second-overall pick in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft, they raised a few eyebrows. But he has proven to be ready for the rigors of being an everyday starter in the Major Leagues, rapidly improving both offensively and defensively.
During Seattle's current homestand the youngster is 6-of-16 at the plate, and has earned praise for his ability to handle Seattle's pitching staff and for his defenss. On Friday, he threw out the speedy Mike Trout as he attempted to steal second base. It was the fourth time Trout has been caught in 25 attempts this season.
"I knew my main goal was to catch the pitching staff, and right now I feel like I'm at the point where I'm comfortable with them and continuing to learn about them," Zunino said. "At the plate, I'm just trying to go have quality at-bats."
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Zunino's rise is the way he's been able to handle the wear and tear of catching every day at the Major League level.
"I don't think [our former catchers] were conditioned like Michael is," manager Eric Wedge said. "That's the thing. They weren't conditioned to play every day and he is."


text: HPI Racing is proud to have been a part of the recent RCX convention in Anaheim California. The exhibition took place between the Friday 23rd April and Sunday 25th April and was a huge success. HPI Racing will not be beaten by anybody when it comes to size and horsepower and to prove this we have sponsored the conversion of a full-sized monster truck, giving us the biggest Savage ever!!


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If there were any doubt that charities have had difficulty raising funds in recent years, these should be dispelled by a new report on 2011 fundraising performance by the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Urban Institute.
The 2012 Fundraising Effectiveness Report showed that gains of $1.1 billion in gifts from new, upgraded current and previously lapsed donors were offset by losses of $1.1 billion through reduced gifts and lapsed donors.
This meant that every $100 gained in 2011 was offset by $100 in losses through gift attrition—even though there was a tiny positive $1 million net growth-in-giving.
The study further determined that gains of 1.3 million in new and previously lapsed donors were offset by losses of 1.4 million in lapsed donors. That is, every 100 donors gained in 2011 was offset by 107 in lost donors through attrition.
Growth-in-giving performance varied considerably depending on organization size (based on total amount raised), with larger organizations performing much better than smaller ones:
- Organizations that raised $500,000 or more had an average 10% net gain.
- Charities that raised $100,000 to $500,000 averaged a net gain of 0.8%.
- Those in the under $100,000 groups had an average net loss of 9.6%.
The largest growth in gift dollars and donors came from new gifts and donors, with the pattern most pronounced in charities with the highest growth-in-giving ratios.
Conversely, lapsed new gifts/donors accounted for the greatest losses in gift dollars/donors, particularly in organizations with the lowest growth-in-giving ratios.
In previous years of the study, particularly in 2005–2007, the offset ratios looked better. In 2005, $81 was lost for every $100 raised; in 2006, $93; and in 2007 $86.
The 2012 Fundraising Effectiveness Project report summarized data from 3,184 survey respondents received as of February, covering year-to-year fundraising results for 2010–2012.
The report noted that the report was intended to make it possible for fundraisers, management and boards of nonprofit organizations to compare not only the performance of their organization from one year to the next, but also with the performance of other organizations in terms of total dollars raised and total number of donors in a variety of categories.
These organizations can then make more informed, growth-oriented decisions about where to invest increased resources and effort to improve their fundraising effectiveness, it said.


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We're all counting our pennies pretty carefully right now. In these economically uncertain times, it's tempting to daydream. What if you had unlimited funds? A swimming pool filled with champagne? Pillows stuffed with genuine dodo down? What if you won the lottery, or an eccentric, distant and obscenely wealthy relative left you everything?
More importantly, what treasures would you add to your bookshelf? If you answered "Ptolemy's first Atlas printed in Germany, from 10 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue," (Cosmographia, pictured left), you'd be in for a bargain, at a cool $1,800,000.
If you're the Queen, the Donald, or otherwise rolling in riches, these valuable volumes could be yours.
Fancy some Hemingway to add to your collection? Well, if it's a first edition, first printing of The Sun Also Rises you're after, this copy inscribed by Hemingway himself, will run you $175,000. What else could you do with $175,000? You could buy five diamond solitaire rings, set in platinum, from Tiffany & Co. and outshine the sun itself, with enough money left over to purchase a brand new family sedan. But what would you read?
If you're an ornithologist or a regular old birdwatcher, a complete set of the Natural History Works of John Gould in 51 Volumes should loosen your purse strings. Containing everything you ever wanted to know about the regional birds, as well as 3,267 hand-colored lithographs, this gorgeous, leatherbound set costs a paltry $3,9,000,000. You could spend the same on 80% of a brand new, basic model Lear Jet (or if you're on a budget, buy a used Lear jet for three million, and spend the remaining on flying round trip from New York to London 54 times - first class). Birds never had it so good.
And what do you get for the bibliphile who has everything? Why, the book before the book, of course. This large clay cylinder details King Nebuchadnezzar II's Royal Proclamation of his efforts to perfectly rebuild the Temple of E-Barra/E-Ulla in ancient Babylon. And not to worry - if you're not fluent in cuneiform pictographs, it comes with documentation and a full translation. Add some papyrus, and you could have yourself an ancient book club. It can be yours for $1,750,000. If you already have a cuneiform clay cylinder from King Nebuchadnezzar II, for the same money, you could buy Barack Obama's suburban Chicago home, and still have $100,000 left to play with, and live like a king.
Bound in original full calf leather, with ornate copper hinges, corners and emblems, this first edition (1611) printing of the King James Great Bible (called the He Bible because of the misprinting in Ruth 3:15 "and he went into the city" rather than "she") will set you back as much as a month long trip for you and 20 friends to Israel - or anywhere, really.
Here's another gem for the bird enthusiast. This first edition is one of only 175 printed. In reference to the art throughout, the description states: "[t]he colouring was done with opaque watercolours with touches of egg-white for parts of the feather requiring sheen" All that for only $325,000.00. Think that's for the birds? You could instead opt for a decent two-person helicopter, and take flight yourself.
Looking to add mystery, intrigue and suspense to your life - and your bookshelf? Originally published in novel form in 1930, The Maltese Falcon is a classic tale of corruption, greed, and the consequences of each -but Sam Spade is on the case. This gorgeous copy is a first edition, first printing, still complete with dustjacket after 78 years. A mere $125,000 and it's yours. Rather get off the sidelines and into the game? For the same money, you could procure enough GPS tracking systems, listening devices, disguises, walkie-talkies, grappling hooks, black outfits and ski masks to let you start your own counter-espionage outfit, with enough left over to pay your bail/hospital bills as needed (probably).
If your collection includes books on genetics and evolution, this first edition, first issue from the Father of Evolution is a must have. It was published in 1859, and in a true testament to survival of the fittest, is in handsome condition 149 years later. It's one of only 1250 copies issued. For only $179,000 and change, it would be a fantastic addition to any library. However, if you want to study the species a little more intently, you could put your cash toward 140 life-sized, hand-finished, fully flexible model human skeletons.
The second of Jane Austen's full-length novels, Pride and Prejudice is now the author's best known and best loved work. Detailing the characters of independent and witty Elizabeth Bennet and her suitor Fitzwilliam Darcy, the story follows the equally stubborn and headstrong couple's reluctant descent into love, digging in their heels all the way. This fantastic example of a 1st edition in three volumes is bound in contemporary half russia, with marbled boards and engraved armorial bookplates. If no amount of money could convince you to marry - you could take the cost of this book and take a solitary trip jet-setting around the globe, instead.
This atlas includes the first printed maps of any English or Welsh county, by the father of English cartography, and especially noteworthy for its remarkably vivid original color. Its publication date is an astonishing 1574. Commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I, each map bears the Royal Arms as a symbol of her supervision and endorsement. While this volume may sound the epitome of pricelessness, it does have a price - $750,000.00. For the same, you could fly first class to Wales, purchase a 5 bedroom, Victoria townhouse within walking distance of Pontypridd, and a 2008 Ferrari 599, to explore England and Wales yourself, in style.
And of course, what list of ridiculously expensive and collectible books would be complete without the boy wizard? Given that the publication date is almost in the 21st century (1997), while the pricetag of $30,517.78 may seem like a paltry sum in terms of this compilation, it's still an astronomical figure for a children's book published only 12 years ago. For those who live under a rock, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series tells the story of an 11-year-old boy, unhappy and unloved, whose world changes drastically when he learns he comes from a family of wizards and witches, and he is whisked off to Hogwarts, a boarding school for magically gifted children. This first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone can be yours, or you could buy 300 crystal balls retail, and practice.


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You would hardly notice the entrance to the Summer Factory. It is three miles up through the woods along the twisty road of Little Noyac Path from Deerfield Road, on the right hand side, a little gravel road with a tiny sign at the entrance that reads "Summer Factory LLC." It's been there for many years and most locals know of its existence. But this is the first time anyone from the media has been invited up. Charlie Vanderhoff, the manager, was giving an exclusive interview to Dan's Papers.
It is after a mile down this gravel driveway that the woods gives way to a group of old farm buildings in a clearing. I had read that this was an old 18th century farm purchased by some locals in the early part of the 20th century, soon after the railroad came through and tourists began to come out to the Hamptons for the summer.
It's the place where summer resides when winter comes, and it's already leaping into action as some of the people there, as I could see, were already bustling around from barn to barn, bring it to life to prepare for the upcoming season.
Vanderhoff was out on the front porch of the main farmhouse, smiling at me, as I pulled up in my Tahoe. He's a big man with blond hair that falls over his eyes. He was wearing a plaid shirt, suspenders and jeans, which were tucked into high boots. He saw me looking at the boots.
"What size are you?" he asked.
"Ten. Why?"
"You're going to need them. It's the mud of March and we'll be going from building to building. But I've got a bunch for you to choose from inside. Just put on what you need. Care for something to drink? I've got apple cider."
"That would be great."
Ten minutes later, with me now fully booted, we went out the back door into the fields and toward some of the barns. In the main farmhouse, I had seen rows of employees sitting at tables working the phones. They were making their daily calls to the real estate brokers to get a sense of the upcoming rental season, Vanderhoff told me. It was going to be a doozy.
They were also working the celebrities, who would be coming and who would not.
Out here in the back, the first thing I saw were rows and rows of white lifeguard stands almost as far as I could see. Teenagers were giving several of them a fresh coat of paint.
"They've been in one of the barns all winter," Vanderhoff said. "We're airing them out now and sprucing them up."
"How many are there?"
"All of them? About 90 of them."
The doors to the nearest big barn were open. Inside, we saw more teenagers painting scenery.
"Bay Street, Guild Hall, Westhampton Beach Performing Arts, they all get ready here."
"Who are these teenagers?" I asked.
"Locals. We get them from the high schools. They get credit for putting in time here."
In the room in the back, I could hear a band rehearsing a John Phillip Sousa march. Vanderhoff said this was the band that would play at the big wooden bandstand on the green in Westhampton Beach on Sundays.
Along the far wall of this barn—I confirmed that it had been here the lifeguard stands had been stored until just last week—there was a table about 100 feet long manned by more teenagers who were furiously writing on small tags. They had big baskets on the floor next to their chairs and with each tag marked up they would throw it into one or another of them.
"The kids are marking up all the prices of all the merchandise in all the stores for the summer," Vanderhoff grinned.
"How do they know which prices to write in?"
"They don't. They just make up all different prices. It's when they go to the stores that they match things up."
"They go to the stores?"
"Not all of them. But most of them. It's done during the night of May 28, just before Memorial Day Weekend. Every kid here goes out with a basket, one to a store. Everything is marked up higher by morning."
"It's quite an operation."
"It certainly is. Practically every kid in the Hamptons participates."
We went out the back and into a field toward one of the other barns. Several polo ponies were being walked around by field hands in this field and you had to watch where you step. Vanderhoff motioned to them.
"These five were flown in to East Hampton Airport from Argentina this morning," Vanderhoff said. "They're the first ones. We get them through jet lag and the change in the time zone here. But they'll be ready."
"Where do they stay?"
"Behind this barn is a stable," Vanderhoff said.
We went in to this second barn. To the right of the entrance, there was a heated room separated from the rest of the barn by a glass wall and glass door. Eight older men and women were seated around an oval table. Papers were scattered everywhere. They were talking animatedly.
"What's in here?" I asked.
"These are writers," Vanderhoff said. "Keep your voice down, we don't want to disturb them."
"What are they doing?" I whispered.
"They're working out some of the summer scenarios."
"I was here earlier," Vanderhoff said. "The one they're working on today is about a famous Hamptons celebrity couple who, after getting here for Memorial Day, will go into a vicious divorce battle. They will accuse each other of various things. Spying. Infidelity. Bad habits. Mental illness. Wearing wigs. Prostitution services. Stuff like that. It will be very public. But then, just before Labor Day, they have a reconciliation and they're all lovey dovey again. Everybody is supposed to forget every nasty thing they said about each other."
"And who is this going to be?"
Vanderhoff grinned slyly. "You'll see," he whispered. We walked past.
The entire rest of the barn was filled with racks and racks of clothing—bathing suits, evening wear, hats, tuxedoes, it went on and on from front to back of the barn.
"Most of this just arrived from our sister factory in Palm Beach," Vanderhoff said. "We've got another barn filled with postcards, suntan lotion, surfboards and volleyball nets and stuff. I don't need to show you that."
"Palm Beach?"
"No. Maui."
Out the back of this barn were rows of greenhouses that Vanderhoff told me were filled with exotic flowers and bushes. They've been under cultivation here all winter. We walked past them through the mud and soon were in an open field where I saw the most amazing thing: Seven 200-foot-long luxury yachts up on scaffolding in dry dock. They were all in a row.
"This is what?" I asked.
"These are those giant yachts you see adjacent to Long Wharf in Sag Harbor every summer."
"And they are here? Inland? Six miles from the water?"
"Some get taken to Monte Carlo. Others get taken to Boca. With these six, the owners just wanted them kept here during the winter and then put out at Long Wharf for the summer. Too much hassle taking them elsewhere."
"One is called THE ROYAL REDICULOUSNESS."
"That's one of our dot-com billionaires.
"The one next to it is MONEY TALKS."
"Wall Street. I really can't say any more."
Beyond this field, we entered a smaller farmhouse.
"This had been a bunkhouse for the farmhands in the old days," Vanderhoff said.
Inside, there was a hallway with three rooms leading off it, also a flight of stairs going up. One room had a little print shop in it. Several men were operating a press from which were being printed up beach stickers. There were tables with cardboard boxes and people packing them up.
"Each town a different color," Vanderhoff said proudly. "We see to it they don't match."
A second room had bicycles and sticks with chalk on the end along one wall, yellow vests on racks on a second wall and light tan traffic police uniforms lined up on it. There were no people in this room.
"No explanation necessary," Vanderhoff said. "When the kids come home from college, they come straight here to suit up."
The third room was a surprise. It was a conference room. There was a big mahogany table with a teleconferencing phone in the center, a dozen plush chairs all around and along one wall, a rolling cart with lots of liquor bottles on it.
"It's for when our board of directors meet," Vanderhoff said. "They meet monthly in the winter, weekly in the summer." He paused. "Wall Street people, mostly."
"Where do you work?" I asked.
"I have an office upstairs. A secretary, computers, printer, fax machine, files. The usual."
Vanderhoff looked at his watch. "I think we have to wind this up," he said.
"I really appreciate this," I said. "And I know our readers will too."
"Well, just hold off publishing it until June. I think it might be more appreciated then."
He walked me to the door.
"Just a few things we missed," he said. "But I can tell you about some of them. We have a little chef cooking school in one of our buildings. Some indoor tennis courts in another. And in there we also have a whole exercise studio for people who want to get in shape before the summer. There's a dietician in there, too."
"For the summer people?"
"Oh no, the locals. It's free. And then one more thing," he said, and he opened a door off the hall that opened to a room filled with heavy coats, wool caps, scarves and mittens.
"A lot of the locals just started swinging by here and leaving off all their heavy coats. Began last week when the weather broke. We'll be full up by April 15, I'm sure."
"Why do they bring them here?"
"I don't know. But what they say is, after Superstorm Sandy and the five winter nor'easters and other storms we've gone through, they're just leaving them here for luck. They plan to pick them up again next fall. It's a first. Nobody's ever done this before here."
"I think it's a testament to what you do," I said. "You can do so much."
"I didn't tell you. We're being funded to create a computer research center that might be able to alter the weather patterns over the Hamptons."
"The Board has told me about it. We've got one more unused barn in the back and a whole slew of chicken houses. It's about to be some kind of public offering."
We shook hands goodbye. I walked out to my Tahoe and was all the way down Little Noyac Path before I realized that I was still wearing the heavy boots Vanderhoff had fitted me with.
And he still had my sneakers. Well, maybe one of the beach boys would be my size.


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Introduction to EV Charging (Pile) Station Standards
Learn an overview of global standards and common subsystems within Level 1, 2 and 3 public and residential EV charging (pile) stations.
EV Charging (Pile) Station Subsystem Analysis
While an EV charging station (pile) might seem like a straight forward design, there are many challenges to consider when needing to safely control the power delivery. This training module will provide further insights with a subsystem analysis alongside solution examples that help you mitigate commonly overlooked subsystems including public user interfaces, an authentication mechanism and residential communications in EV charging (pile) stations.
AC and DC Charging (Pile) Station Design Considerations
Gain a deep dive into common design consideration for a Level 1, 2 or 3 EV charging (pile) station and explore the service equipment block diagram for each.
EV Charging Station System Solutions
Explore EV charging (pile) station system solutions from TI's design library.
This section covers wireless network trends, key technologies, and problem statements for smart grid IoT.
System-Level Examples for Wireless Networks on Smart Grid IoT
This section covers system-level examples for wireless networks on smart grid IoT. We will provide software- and system-level details for two system examples: 6LoWPAN-Contiki and sub-1GHz sensor to cloud industrial IoT gateway reference design.
This section summarizes the wireless network challenges and solutions for a smarter grid IoT training series.
Tune in to learn more about meter tampering, why it is a problem for utility providers and some common ways a meter is tampered.
Detecting case tamper attacks using inductive switches
The first line of defense against tampering by bypassing current, reversing connections, and disconnecting leads is the meter case. Due to this, it is common for utilities to require some form of intrusion detection system to detect when someone opens a case. In this section, we will cover how to detect someone trying to open the case of a meter.
Detecting magnetic tampering using hall-effect sensors
For anti-tampering, it is common to try to detect the presence of a strong magnet. In this section, we will cover the use of hall sensors for low-power detection of strong magnetic fields in three dimensions. Details on our magnetic tamper detection reference design, TIDA-00839, will be provided as well as some of the design considerations that were kept in mind when creating this reference design.
Hardening a meter against magnetic tamper attacks
In this section, we will cover how to harden a meter against these magnetic tamper attacks by using shunts for current sensors. For poly-phase implementations, I will go over how to use isolated delta sigma modulators to add the necessary isolation to use shunt current sensors and create magnetically immune poly-phase energy measurement systems. The TIDA-00601 and TIDA-01094 reference designs, which show how to implement a poly-phase isolated shunt measurement system, will be discussed as well as the associated AMC1304 high-side power supplies used in these designs.
In this section, a summary of the entire Anti-tamper Techniques to Thwart Attacks on Smart Meters training series will be covered. This summary includes the Detecting Case Tamper Attacks Using Inductive Switches, Detecting Magnetic Tampering Using Hall-effect Sensors and Hardening a Meter Against Magnetic Tamper Attacks sections of the training series.
Electrical Fundamentals and Need for power systems protection
Welcome to the world of Power Systems. The first part of the session focuses on Introduction to Power Systems, Goal of Power systems protection, fundamentals of Electricity, AC or DC, Importance of electricity, Power system voltage levels and consumers of electricity. Need and Complexities in protection of power system primary Equipment like Generators, Motors, Transformers and Circuit Breakers and finally analysis of what can go wrong on a transmission line.
Introduction to Protection Relay and Power Systems Faults
Second part of the session explains use case for protection relay, the sequence of events during a fault, Fault Types and the approach for fault analysis. The Session also explains commonly used protection relays and application of different relays along the grid for protection of Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Industrial equipment, Evolution of protection relays from traditional mechanical, static and the current generation digital relays.
AC Analog Input Module Architecture (AIM)
The third part of the session provides details on the need to focus on AC analog input module and its use cases in different types of protection relays, Different types of current sensors and the use cases for these sensors including key advantages and dis-advantages. Explains AC analog input module architecture including block diagram showing the critical products and EERD with different subsystems identified showing different approaches for designing an AC AIM.
Selection of Key Components (ADC, Signal Conditioning Amplifier) for AC Analog Input Module (AIM)
Fourth part of the session explains representation of Voltage or Current waveforms in Time and frequency domain and also looks at the customer use case for application of Time or frequency domain Analysis. The session also explains different sampling approaches like Simultaneous sampling, Coherent sampling, Oversampling to improve system performance, criteria for ADC selection and choice between SAR and Delta-Sigma ADCs. There is a list of TI products that can be considered during the design of the AIM and finally provides overview for Focus ADCs for this session.
Design Details for TI design TIDA-00834 High Accuracy Analog Front End Using 16-Bit SAR ADC with ±10V Measurement Range Reference Design
Fifth part of the session will focus on providing detailed information on TIDA-00834 TI design. The initial slides cover Design Overview, Features, Key Components, test Setup, market differentiators, Block Diagram with links to relevant TI Designs, EVMs and TI product used in this design. Circuit representation and detailed description for ADC interface, Voltage and Current measurement and Power supply are provided. Graphs for Voltage and Current measurement accuracy are shown; along with collaterals and TI design links that can be referred by customers during design.
Introduction to mechanical water meters and EN ISO 4064
This section covers the basics of mechanical water meters and the principle of operation for impeller based water meters. There are multiple standards for water meters around the world; the EN ISO 4064 is relevant to all European countries and has been adopted under a different name in some other regions as well.
Inductive sensing with TI FemtoFET and CC1350 Wireless MCU
Water and heat meters share multiple system building blocks, such as the metrology sub-system and the application sub-systems, the Wireless communications part, the InfraRed optical port or the power solution. In this section, we will cover a new ultra-low cost single-chip LC-sensing solution utilizing the CC1350 Wireless MCU and its Sensor Controller Engine. Two external LC-tanks with a TI FemtoFET device each implement two rotation detection sensors, which measure the rotation of a half-metal/half-nonmetal disc, often used in mechanical water meters.


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Microsoft on Wednesday started limited beta offerings of Windows Live file and photo sharing services.
Along with others that have recently been rolled out, they will be part of a suite of services making up the second generation of Windows Live, said Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live at Microsoft.
Windows Live Folder, available to select beta users Wednesday, is meant to allow file sharing without relying on e-mail, external USB devices or public sharing sites.
On the Live Folder page, users first create a new folder and then choose from a list of contacts or enter an e-mail address of a person with whom to share a file. Next, the user adds a file, such as a video or document, to the folder. Clicking on "send a link", opens up an Outlook Mail message that includes a link to the file online. Users can then send an e-mail to the person with the link.
While the service uses e-mail to share a link, users don't actually send the files in order to share them because the files are stored and accessed online. In addition, it restricts viewers only to invited guests, as opposed to public sites where users may post video, for example, that can be seen by anyone.
As part of the beta, users will be able to share files up to 50Mbytes and will have 500Mbytes of free storage. Users can allow others to alter the shared files or restrict them to read only.
Other online services offer similar functionality, sometimes as part of online storage offerings. Xdrive LLC, Box.net and Omnidrive all offer services that let users store content online and share the content with invited guests by e-mailing them links to it.
Microsoft is also launching a controlled beta of Windows Live Photo Gallery, a photo service that upgrades the photo gallery capabilities in Vista, Hall said. One new feature is the ability to stitch photos together into a panorama. In addition, Windows Photo Gallery users can more easily share photos via Windows Live Spaces. Rather than hitting an upload button and scrolling through folders to choose a specific photo, users can select the photo in a file and quickly share it to Live Spaces.
For now, the betas are only available to users Microsoft has invited. The company plans a more open public beta in the third quarter.
The services will be part of the second generation suite of Windows Live services that will all become available in the fourth quarter. The goal of this new generation of services is to offer a cohesive feel for Windows Live, Hall said.
Key to all the second-generation services are allowing users to share content, access content anywhere and feel confident that the services are secure, he said.
These new Windows Live services, which also include Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Writer, embrace Microsoft's "software plus services" vision. That's because they combine software components with online services.


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VIDEO DOWNLOAD - Pro Wrestling Guerrilla - The Musical
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla: "Pro Wrestling Like No Other"
All the top wrestling stars from all over the country collide in the one promotion thatyou must be adequately prepared to rock!
This show features the famous 30 minute match between American Dragon and Samoa Joe in what some are calling a potential "Match of the Year" candidate.
- American Dragon vs. Samoa Joe
- Chris Bosh & Quicksilver vs. S.B.S. (Excalibur & Super Dragon)
- Lit & Deranged vs. Hardkore Kidd
- B-Boy vs. Christopher Daniels
- The Thomaselli Bro. vs. X-Foundation
- Disco Machine vs. Scorpio Sky
- Apolo Kahn vs. Ricky Reyes
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The word of the day, ladies and gentlemen, is "shitty." And we have Senators McCaskill and Levin to thank for that.
The inspiration was an email a Goldman Sachs supervisor sent to Daniel Sparks, referring to "a shitty deal" they pushed on their clients anyway. Sparks was being questioned at a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing, where the two Senators liberally quoted from that email. And now it even has a Twitter hashtag — although the New York Times still can't say it. Luckily, McCaskill and Levin have no such qualms.
Senators Can't Resist A Few Bad Words [NYT]
Levin Repeatedly References "Sh**ty Deal" at Goldman Hearing [CBS]
Breaking: Senator Clair McCaskill Breaks The "Shitty" Glass Ceiling [Mediaite]


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We're not talking about huge budget deficits, mass transit issues, or even overdevelopment. Think: what is the one thing that is missing in your everyday life? An official city apple, of course!
Yes, amid the very important business before the City Council at their stated meeting Monday afternoon, which included a vote on the rezoning of the Broadway Triangle in Williamsburg and a law to make stores replace their metal roll-down gates with transparent replacements, was a resolution calling on New York to name the Newtown Pippin the official city apple.
What is a Newtown Pippin exactly, you ask? The Newtown Pippin was an apple first grown in Newtown, NY, (now Elmhurst, Queens) in the early 1700s. George Washington scarfed them down like an anorexic at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and the Newtown Pippin was the absolute fave apple of Thomas Jefferson, although as far as we know the Constitutional Convention didn't include a resolution singing the fruit's praises.
And if that's not good enough for you, then how about the fact that Dave Matthews – yes, Dave Matthews of The Dave Matthews Band! - planted some Newtown Pippins at his house, apple trees that in turn inspired the songs "Ants Marching," "One Sweet World," and "The Dreaming Tree." According to legend, it was chewing on a sour Newtown Pippin that gave Dave Matthews his distinctive, donkey-like vocal styling.
However, this is very serious business indeed, and we are glad that one of our elected officials decided to finally address the matter of our glorious city – The Big Apple, hello?! - lacking an official apple. Now, when people ask what kind of apple The Big Apple is, you won't have to say a crime-infested, graffiti-covered, crowded mess. No, instead you can say a Newtown Pippin.
It's not exactly the the toughest-sounding apple is it? Sounds more like a ten-year-old ragamuffin in a Dickens novel. Granted, not as wimpy as the Granny Smith, but not as emotive as Red Delicious or as exotic as Fuji.
But, darn it, it's our apple, and if it was good enough for the Founding Fathers and Dave Matthews of The Dave Matthews Band, it's good enough for us here at Pol Position. Apparently, you can still buy Newtown Pippins at the city's greenmarkets, and we plan on making it a top priority of ours to track some down, post haste.


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Pawtucket Events, Coupons, Reviews!
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818 South Central Expressway, Suite 1 Richardson, TX 75080
Although Mother's Day has just passed I really wanted to share with you a beautiful Mothers ring I was able to pick out to review from Mama's Jewelry.
About Mama's Jewelry
They are a family operated business born out of a passion for creating jewelry from gold, Sterling Silver, platinum and diamonds. They are proud of their jewelry they sell and give their customers a lifetime warranty of any piece of jewelry they buy. They love jewelry and want their passion for it to be evident in any piece they offer.
What is the Mama's Jewelry Advantage? Simple. They care.
I was pretty excited to choose a ring from Mama's Jewelry because I needed to update my ring now that I have 5 children. Browsing their site was pretty easy and I liked looking at all the pretty jewelry they offer. I chose the NANA Lucita Ring in Sterling Silver. They do offer the ring in 10k, 14k white, yellow or rose gold as well (Each option costs more). This particular ring can hold 1 to 6 stones.
After choosing my stones I found the size I needed and ordered my ring. *NOTE* If your ring size is anything besides a size 7 you have to pay more. The cost ranges from $10 extra to $20.
My ring arrived fairly quickly even though it was a busy time of year for them. It came in a really nice ring box and I was very happy with how pretty the ring was when I opened up the box.
Everything looks well crafted and the ring fits very well. My younger children love asking me to show them which stone represents their month of birth. I'm very happy with my ring.
To learn more and purchase visit mamasjewelry.com.
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Get ready for an adventure on the Fraser Coast. Swim alongside humpbacks in the whale-watching capital of the world, Hervey Bay, spot wild dingoes on the world's largest sand island and buckle up for four-wheel driving along the beach.
The world's largest sand island is bursting with family-friendly activities. Swim in sparklingly clear freshwater lakes and creeks, like Lake McKenzie and Eli Creek, or go sand dune hiking around Lake Wabby. Go four-wheel driving through rugged bush tracks or along the beach, then pitch your tent and camp right on the sand. Swim in the fizzing waters of the Champagne rock pools, spot wild dingoes and inspect the rusting hulk of the 80-year-old Maheno shipwreck.
In Hervey Bay, you can cruise alongside migrating humpbacks as they make their way from Antarctica. Hear their clicks, whistles and pulsed calls with the help of special microphones and witness spectacular displays of breaching and tail flipping. For a truly unforgettable experience, find a tour where you can jump in the water and swim with them.
Track trevally in the flats of the Sandy Straits, fish on artificial reefs created by shipwrecks or tackle the open ocean with a deep-sea fishing charter. Show me more fishing options.
Step back in time and into the birthplace of a literary classic. Maryborough dates back to the mid-1800s and was the birthplace of P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins. The town hosts an annual festival dedicated to the beloved nanny each June/July.


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Ginn's "Library of Magic" on Video 5 & 6 include. Balloon Bunny, Neck Twister, Olympic Ring Toss, Movie Posters, Shrinking Glove, Alfred the Card Spider, Banana Bunny, Instant Rubik Cube, Hot Book Warm-up, Pac Man 20" Century, Vanishing Rabbit, Juggling Blowtie Production, Jumbo 3 Card Monte, and more.
Do you own this product? Write a review.


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ชื่อสมาชิก :
รหัสผ่าน :
Gibson Les Paul Tribute '70s
The Les Paul '70s Tribute captures the look, feel, and tone of a heavy sounding evolution of this legendary single-cutaway solidbody, the Les Paul of the 1970s. Like many Les Pauls of the era of heavy rock, the Les Paul '70s Tribute carries a pair of high-output humbucking pickups for unparalleled overdrive tones, along with the characteristic '70s neck profile with volute. Gibson's most acclaimed hardware set ensures smooth playability and offers precise tuning and intonation.
Built in the image of the world-beating Les Pauls of the 1970s, the Les Paul '70s Tribute starts with the classic tonewood combination of a mahogany body with solid carved maple top. When paired, these woods offer a tonal depth and complexity unmatched by any single-wood construction, with warmth and richness from the mahogany, and superb clarity and "snap" from the maple, all of which translates to surprising breadth and articulation within the guitar's scorching amped-up sound.
The mahogany back is strategically weight relieved to both lighten your load and improve resonance. A solid mahogany neck is glued into the body in Gibson's time-tested tradition, and carved to a characteristic medium '70s profile that measures .810" at the 1st fret and .930" at the 12th, with period-correct volute to strengthen the back-angled headstock. It is topped with a genuine rosewood fingerboard that carries 22 medium-jumbo frets and traditional trapezoid inlays. In keeping with the stripped-down ethos of this powerful performer, both body and 'board remain unbound, and there's no pickguard to obscure the finish. A PLEK-cut nut made from black Corian™ subtly complements the black witch-hat knobs with silver inserts and black pickup rings, while enhancing resonance and sustain. The headstock is silkscreened with a gold Gibson logo and Les Paul Model.
The Les Paul '70s Tribute takes its firepower from a pair of Gibson's mighty Dirty Fingers™ humbucking pickups, a legendary component of '70s firepower, and among the two hottest pickups that Gibson has ever designed. These scorching humbuckers include powerful ceramic magnets and over-wound coils for a sizzling, sustainful sound that nevertheless remains clear and articulate. The traditional wiring complement of an independent volume and tone control per pickup plus a three-way toggle selector switch allows a broad range of sonic variations.
To anchor it all down, Gibson USA loads in a Tune-o-Matic bridge and Stopbar tailpiece, with a set of genuine Grover™ kidney button tuners, a hardware set that partners up for solid sustain and precision tuning. Put it all together, and the Les Paul '70s Tribute presents the perfect celebration of the Les Paul's advancement into the age of heavy rock, wrapping it all into a great guitar that brings the look, feel, and sound of a high-output humbucker-loaded Les Paul to the hands of players of today.
Mahogany body with solid carved maple top
Mahogany neck with medium '70s profile
Rosewood fingerboard with trapezoid inlays
Pair of high-output Dirty Fingers™ humbucking pickups in the neck and bridge
Grover™ Kidney button tuners


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I have Atahualpa 3.4.4 installations on two different sites and in each installation (WordPress 3.0 beta2) Auto Draft shows up in the Body Title Single Pages and Body Title Multi Post Pages by default. This is driving my clients nuts because Auto Draft then appears in place of the Post Title on the blog.
How can I remove this default in the Body Title Single Pages and Body Title Multi Post Pages so they don't have to remember to remove it to get the actual Post title to display?
I have Ataluahlpa 3.4.4. running on several other sites without this problem (WordPress 2.9.2) -- please don't tell me I have to reinstall WP!!!
Thank you.


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It's almost time for another Digi Day Challenge Event over at our SNR Group
Our Theme this month will be Birthday.
So get those creative thinking caps on...
-You will need to create a project of any type using Digital Delights or CDS Creations by Louby Loo images.
-Incorporate the Birthday Theme.
-Upload your project to the SNR gallery and tag it digitaldelightsbirthday10
After you have completed uploading your project, you will receive an adorable exclusive FREEBIE Digital Stamp from Digital Delights! This Digtal Stamp will be revealed on Thursday evening at 7PM CST when the challenge officially begins! The challenge will end on Thursday April 15th at midnight. One random winner from all of the entries will receive a $10.00 Gift Certificate to the Digital Delights Store!
See you Thursday night for more details and some fabulous Design Team creations!
Scroll down to see our second post of the day!!


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Definition of GROWING OATMEAL
An HG recipe for old-fashioned oatmeal in which the amount of liquid and the cook time for standard recipes are DOUBLED, yielding enormous portions with impressive nutritionals. Often indulgent; always super filling and crazy delicious. We can't get enough growing oatmeal! Check out our latest concoctions, plus a no-holds-barred recipe roundup...
Entire recipe: 312 calories, 9.5g fat, 525mg sodium, 53g carbs, 7g fiber, 15g sugars, 8g protein -- PointsPlus® value 8* Chocolate-covered bananas, caramel corn with peanuts... This recipe has all the flavor of beloved carnival treats, minus the absurd calorie counts (and sticky hands)!
Ingredients: 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats 1 no-calorie sweetener packet 1/8 tsp. cinnamon 1/8 tsp. salt 1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze 1/4 cup mashed extra-ripe banana (about 1/2 large banana) 1 1/2 tsp. fat-free, low-fat, or light caramel dip 1 tsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 tsp. chopped peanuts Directions: In a nonstick pot, combine oats, sweetener, cinnamon, salt, and Almond Breeze. Mix in 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook and stir for 10 minutes. Add banana and mix well. Cook and stir until thick and creamy, 2 - 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and let slightly cool and thicken. Top with remaining ingredients, and enjoy! MAKES 1 SERVING
Entire recipe: 270 calories, 7g fat, 343mg sodium, 46.5g carbs, 7g fiber, 13.5g sugars, 6.5g protein -- PointsPlus® value 7*
Craving a sweet, bursting-with-blueberries muffin, but in need of something a little more filling? This breakfast bowl is the best of both worlds!
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
2 tsp. brown sugar (not packed)
1 tsp. sugar-free French vanilla powdered creamer
1 no-calorie sweetener packet
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
Dash cinnamon
Dash salt
1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
1/2 cup fresh or thawed-from-frozen blueberries (if frozen, drained and blotted dry)
In a nonstick pot, combine all ingredients except blueberries. Mix in 1 cup water.
Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook and stir until thick and creamy, 12 - 15 minutes.
Stir in blueberries, and transfer to a medium bowl. Let slightly cool and thicken. Enjoy!
HG Alternative! If you can't get your hands on Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze, use light vanilla soymilk in its place. Just increase each recipe's calorie count by 30 calories or so.
Click here for the original bowl that started the craze. As seen on season 1 of Hungry Girl -- our classic Growing Oatmeal Bowl! By popular demand, we created a multi-serving pot of oatmeal. Grab a carton of Almond Breeze, and whip up HG's Big Batch of Growing Oatmeal. Fruit fanatic or chocolate chomper, this email has you covered. Check out our Fun-in-the-Sunrise Piña Colada Oatmeal and Salted Caramel Cocoa Oatmeal Bowl! Here's a nutty idea... CHILL your oatmeal, and layer it up with tasty treats! Skeptical? Try out this Fruit Salad Oatmeal Parfait, and prepare to be amazed. More oatmeal parfaits, more oatmeal parfaits! Click here for a Banana-choco-rama Oatmeal Parfait and a Peaches 'n Cream Oatmeal Parfait. Click here for our Berry 'Nana Oatmeal Parfait and our Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Parfait! Hip hip, PARFAIT! For NINETEEN growing oatmeal recipes and EIGHT oversized oatmeal parfaits -- not to mention 623 other awesome recipes -- grab a copy of HUNGRY GIRL TO THE MAX! Do it now, you!
Bet your buddies could use these incredible b-fast recipes! Click "Send to a Friend" ASAP.
Happy National Fettuccine Alfredo Day, also known as February 7th. Ever had our AMAZING 99-calorie Fettuccine Hungry Girlfredo? The time is now!
SmartPoints® value not what you expected? Click here for more info on how the values are calculated, plus more FAQs about PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® values on our website.


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Tyson Gillies, one of three prospects acquired from the Phillies in the Cliff Lee trade last offseason, was arrested in Clearwater early this morning and charged with felony cocaine possession, the Pinellas County Sheriff Department confirmed. Bond was posted and he was released.
Assistant general manager, player development and scouting Chuck LaMar read a statement on the team's behalf.
"We are aware that Tyson Gillies was arrested today on a drug possession charge arising out of out of an incident that is alleged to have occurred this past June," he said. "Because this is an open criminal case, we will not comment further at this time."
According to the St. Petersburg Times, which first reported the story, the 21-year-old outfielder was arrested at 1:10 a.m. and released at 10:52 p..m. on $2,000 bond.
He's been batting .238 while playing only 26 games for Double-A Reading. Bothered much of the year with a hamstring injury, he was in Florida on a rehab assignment in June and was back in Clearwater on a separate rehab assignment when the arrest occurred. He played two games for the Gulf Coast League Phillies last week.
Gillies, along with righthanders Phillippe Aumont and J.C. Ramirez, was acquired from the Seattle Mariners in the controversial trade that sent Lee to Seattle last December.
He batted .341 with 44 stolen bases for Class A High Desert in 2009. At the time of the deal, most of the stories centered on the human interest angle that Gillies was succeeding in baseball despite being legally deaf.
--Paul Hagen


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That is my planet.
I gaze lovingly at the surface with its boundless and beautiful colours. How many times have I explored its borders as the dawn immortalises its curves, glowing in an indescribable light-blue that is perfectly outlined by the light of iridescent mesospheric clouds: the colour of infinite patience.
Shrouded in silence I look out: I feel our planet's heart beat as I watch the vital water run along infinite veins across the land, nourished and protected by the clouds that cover Earth's surface like the cloak of a vestal virgin. Its breathing is calm and eternal like the tides but large as ocean waves. It holds the power of winds that sweep sand from a hundred deserts to the tops of a thousand mountains in one breath.
In a few hours, all this will be a memory. My spaceship is quiet and dark in waiting, but soon it will turn into a dramatic theatre when we return to Earth. Everything that has a beginning must come to an end: this fragility makes each experience unique and even more valuable.
I try to fill my eyes, my mind and my heart with the colours, nuances and sensations so that my memories will be witness to the experience. Underneath me on Earth, lands merge: country boundaries are non-existent when you look down from up here in the Cupola. I observe the lands of men.
I always feel the irresistible attraction of the sky and stars when I look up on Earth. I encourage my mind to lose itself in the infinite and the unknown. It is in our nature, our Ulysses gene. Nonetheless, Ulysses returns to Ithaca after many travels: his island always in his dreams. If I had been born in the interstellar darkness, if I had spent my entire life traveling far from our world, I would look back at our bright-blue waters and diverse continents with the same admiration. Every sunrise and every sunset would instil the same sense of awe. I would dream of sinking my feet in the warm sands, to feel the cold embrace of snow and the caress of the salty sea-breeze that blows towards land. I would wonder how it feels to bathe in its waters, to bask in the warmth of the Sun.
But I am lucky: I was born there.
That is my planet. That is my home.