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Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems
Our Mission and Vision
IMS is internationally recognized as the leader in predictive analytics and industrial big data modeling for life cycle performance of industrial systems. As the world pre-eminent NSF Industry/Univerity Cooperative Research Center, IMS is often the first to introduce new concepts and technologies to the research and industry communities. It is also a leader in the discovery of new methods to assess machine degradation and predict the health of industrial systems including e-manufacturing, e-maintenance, cyber machine systems, cloud-based machine monitoring and manufacturing, intelligent cyber machine systems, etc. These discoveries translate into a useful methodology and tools for the development and deployment of prognostics and health management of industrial systems.
The Center envisions the future of maintenance as a system that enables equipment to achieve and sustain near-zero breakdown performance with self-maintenance capabilities (self-aware, self-predict, self-compare, and self-configure), and ultimately to realize the autonomous transformation of raw data to useful information for improved reliability, productivity, and asset utilization.
IMS is focused on frontier technologies in predictive analytics including prognostics and health management technologies, cyber physical systems, industrial big data analytics, and intelligent decision support tools. The center has coined the trademarked Watchdog Agent® prognostics tools and Device-to-Business (D2B) predictronics platform for e-maintenance applications. (View IMS Brochure)
Our Perspectives and Operations
IMS Introduction | IMS Organization, Benefits and Collaboration Mechanisms | NSF I/UCRC Brochure
IMS Perspectives and Goals: English, Japanese, Chinese
IMS Overview
Stay Connected


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Christina Aguilera: Hotel Checkout with Max
Christina Aguilera leaves the SLS Hotel with her son Max on Tuesday (October 26) in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The 29-year-old singer was followed closely behind by assistants that wheeled away bags of luggage. It looks like Christina has been shacking up at the hotel lately.
Earlier in the day, Christina entered the hotel after attending a meeting.
Over the weekend, the newly single mother performed at the Justin Timberlake & Friends benefit concert in Las Vegas, Nevada.
FYI: Max is wearing a polo shirt from The Original Happy Car.
10+ pictures inside of Christina Aguilera checking out…

subset: commoncrawl


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An elderly Stillman Valley couple were found dead in their home Monday morning in what appears to be a murder and suicide.
Jack E. Bond, 85, and his wife Dorothy F. Bond, 86, were pronounced dead inside the house at 4238 N. Armour Rd., approximately three and one-half miles southeast of Stillman Valley.
Ogle County Sheriff Michael Harn said Dorothy Bond died of a gunshot to the head, and Jack Bond died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
"Investigators believe this is an isolated incident and that there is no danger to the general public," Harn said in a press release.
Autopsies were performed Tuesday.
Sheriff's police and the Stillman Valley ambulance were called to the residence just before 11 a.m. Monday.
Harn said deputies found the couple dead when they arrived on the scene.
Ogle County Coroner Lou Finch and the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Unit assisted at the scene.
The investigation is continuing pending the results of lab tests.


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Peak Academy of Dance is becoming more than just a dance studio.
The studio in Aspen Park is working to become a nonprofit that will be called Peak Performance Company, according to owner Danielle Heller.
Working with local businesses and performers, Peak has raised enough money to fill out the necessary paperwork to file for 501(c)3 status from the Internal Revenue Service and is on its way to realizing its dream to offer dance scholarships and be a community-wide performance arts center.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Canyon Courier, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
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January 26, 2018, 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM
St. Louis County-Crossings at Northwest Job Center, 715 Northwest Plaza, St. Ann, MO
Would a recently acquired certificate look good on your resume? Developed by ACT, at the request of employers. The WorkKeys exam can lead to a National Career Readiness Certificate, an effective marketing tool for job seekers. Demonstrate to employers your level of job skills in the areas of Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information, and Locating Information.
(314) 615-6010


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Scientific name: Pieris rapae
A small strong-flying butterfly, common and widespread throughout Britain and Ireland.
Brilliant white wings with small black tips to forewings and one or two wing spots. Undersides creamy white. Large White is similar but larger and has larger spot in tip of forewing that extends down wing edge.
Size and Family
- Family: Whites and yellows
- Size: Medium
- Wing Span Range (male to female): 48mm
Conservation Status
- Butterfly Conservation priority: Low
- European status: Not threatened
Caterpillar Foodplants
Cultivated brassicas are used, especially cabbages, and Nasturtium (Tropaeoleum majus) in gardens. Wild crucifers, including Wild Cabbage (Brassica oleracea), Charlock (Sinapis arvensis). Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), Hoary Cress (Lepidium draba) and Wild Mignonette (Reseda lutea) are used to a lesser extent.
A common butterfly found in a variety of habitats particularly gardens and allotments where cabbages are grown.
- Countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
- Widespread throughout Britain and Ireland
- Distribution trend in Britain since the 1970s = -7%


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He made the announcement in an interview in Singapore, where he was conducting a clinic for youthful golfers.
Unless he makes a quick change of mind, he'll skip the Farmers Insurance Open, taking place Jan. 24-27 — a surprise, because Torrey Pines has been his favorite playground, where he's won six times with total winnings of nearly $5.75 million.
Should he return sometime to play at TP, golfing rival Phil Mickelson will be cooking up a few north course adjustments. Mickelson's design company has been selected by the city of San Diego's Golf Operations department to renovate the course.
The $7 million project will include 18 new greens, renovated bunkers and tees, improved irrigation practices and possibly some new tees for tournament play.
Mickelson has played many times at Torrey Pines, starting at an early age, and as a pro he's won the tourney three times.
Reportedly, Woods likes to play in Abu Dhabi's "land of plenty," where they sweeten the pot with promotional incentives. He tied for third last year.
Woods' game has improved, winning three times on tour, though he finished 125th on the tour's money list.
This will be the 61st year a PGA Tour event will be held in San Diego (46 times at Torrey Pines). It began as the San Diego Open in Chula Vista in 1952, and two years later, La Jollan Gene Littler won as an amateur. The pro winner that year, Dutch Harrison, won $3,700. This year's winner can pocket nearly $1.1 million.
Practice rounds begin Jan. 21, with the pro-am starting two days later. The defending champion is Brandt Snedeker, who beat Kyle Stanley last year in a two-hole playoff.
When we start to fall asleep, most of us think we're tired because our bodies need rest. More accurately, scientists define the reason as circadian rhythms that affect our bodies at the level of individual organs and even genes.
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness in an organism's environment.
They are found in most living things, including animals and plants.
Scientists at the Salk Institute have determined the specific genetic switches that sync liver activity to the circadian cycle. Their findings give insight into the mechanisms behind health-threatening conditions like high blood sugar and high cholesterol.
"We know that genes in the liver turn on and off at different times of day and they're involved in metabolizing substances such as fat and cholesterol," said Satchidananda Panda, co-corresponding author on the paper and associate professor in Salk's Regulatory Biology Laboratory. "To understand what turns those genes on or off we had to find the switches."
Surprisingly, they discovered that among those switches was chromatin, the protein complex that tightly packages DNA in the cell nucleus. While chromatin is known for the role it plays in controlling genes, it was not previously suspected of being affected by circadian cycles.
Panda and his colleagues report their results in the December issue of Cell Metabolism.
"His Girl Friday," John Guare's adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's "The Front Page" and Rex Picket's "Sideways," have been added to the La Jolla Playhouse's 2013-14 season. They'll kick off the season in June and July in the Mandell Weiss Theatre.
— Johnny McDonald is a longtime writer and columnist for the San Diego Community Newspaper Group. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Utah holds off late run, beats USC
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Delon Wright scored 20 and hot-shooting Utah kept Southern California in the Pac-12 cellar by holding off a late run Thursday night for a 79-71 victory in Galen Center.
The win, Utah's third straight, moves the Runnin' Utes (17-7, 6-6) into a tie for seventh in the conference with Washington. For the Trojans (10-14, 1-10), it was their fifth straight loss and 10th in their last 11 games — all in the Pac-12.
Utah broke the game open to start the second half for a 56-39 lead on 8-of-11 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. The Utes never trailed in the second, although USC cut its deficit to 71-67 with 3:15 left.
Wright, playing in his hometown, also led Utah with nine rebounds while Jordan Loveridge added 19 points.
Byron Wesley led the way for USC with 20 points.
Utah led 60-44 with 10:15 left in the game only to see USC claw back on a 23-11 run to trail 71-67 on a Nikola Jovanovic jumper with 3:15 to go. But that was as close as the Trojans could get.
Loveridge made the play of the game, hitting a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 1:32 left to give Utah a 76-68 lead.
USC jumped out to a 21-14 lead in the first 10 minutes; the Trojans looked as if they were determined to escape the league cellar on this night. A win here would have pushed them past Washington State (2-10) into 11th place.
But Wright led a 14-2 run that turned the momentum and gave Utah a 36-31 halftime lead.
USC went with a new starting lineup featuring two players who had yet to start a game this season — D.J. Haley and Brendyn Taylor — and Strahinj Gavrilovic, who had started just once. It helped for a while and gave the Trojans nine first-half scorers.


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Carter G. Woodson's Group preserves Black History
Carter G. Woodson's Group preserves Black History
Daryl Scott: Black People Care About History
By Maya Rhodan
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NNPA) — For 97 years, the Association for the Study for African American Life and History has been commemorating the accomplishments of African Americans through Black History celebrations.
In 1915, Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and sought to expand the understanding of Black history beyond slavery.
What began as a weeklong celebration that coincided with the birthdays of Frederick Dou-glass and Abraham Lincoln has developed into a highly anticipated month of events, television programs, headlines, and lectures that connect the trials and triumphs of African Americans to the people of the community.
"From the beginning, Carter G. Woodson was of the opinion that a lot of Black people did not have a great enough appreciation of who they were because they didn't know what they had accomplished," says Daryl Scott, president of ASALH. "But today, Black people care more about history than any other people in America. The fact of the matter is Americans don't care about history at all."
It's true. In general, Americans don't know the basics of the nation's history.
In a 2009 national survey by the American Revolution Center, more Americans could identify Michael Jackson as the person who wrote and sang the song "Beat It" than could identify the Bill of Rights as a part of the U.S. Constitution.
After the adoption of No Child Left Behind in 2001, which some says ushered in a period of "teaching to the test," if it didn't appear on a standardized test, it didn't get taught in many schools.
Consequently, some fear students graduating from high school today may know how to pass a test but lack the knowledge that makes them well-rounded citizens.
Among children, according to the 2010 Nation's Report Card presented by the National Center for Education Statistics, only 20 percent of fourth graders, 17 percent of eighth graders and 12 percent of 12th graders perform at or above "proficient" levels, meaning they obtain more knowledge than basic levels, in U.S. History.
In a land where history is not deemed as important, how does an organization based on the idea that history, specifically Black history, is of the utmost importance stay relevant?
Scott says it does because it must.
"[African Americans] are the only ones who really tell the story of American history on a consistent basis," explains Scott. "We promote American history in a serious way."
He adds, "One of the downsides of the age in which we live is that new media favors the talking head, the person, the celebrity who can send out a tweet. There's a way in which, no matter how much tech we have, until people meet with people the problems we have will not be addressed. We're not going to tweet our issues away, it's only going to change with human-to-human contact."
The mission of ASALH is to promote research, preserve and disseminate information about Black culture to the world. The organization publishes three journals on African American life and is housed at Howard University.
Scott, who is also a history professor at Howard, remains unapologetic about the work he does with ASALH.
"You can't celebrate Black History without American history and vice versa," says Scott. "Unless you think that our freedom came out of a box than not through struggle, then you know that it was through an experience. You can't understand the state of America without understanding the struggles between Blacks and Whites."
Every year since 1926, the year of the first Black History celebration, ASALH has also set the themes for the month. This year's theme is "At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington."
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington.
"These events are like parables because the lessons we learn from them are simple, but very potent and powerful," says Scott. "Freedom did not come to us with the stroke of a pen. We had to strike out and search for our freedom."
The lessons from these events and the act of "striking out and demanding freedom" have played a key role in events as recent as the re-election of Barack Obama.
"We've witnessed ourselves on the verge of disenfranchisement," Scott says. "It stunk of the need of people of African descent to stand up for rights to make sure they always have those rights."
As Black History Month begins, so does the "busy season" for ASALH which includes countless events and culminates with a luncheon in Washington, D.C. However the goals of the organization will remain the same as they approach their centennial in 2015.
"My goal is to lay the foundation so association the is able to sustain itself for another 100 years," says Scott. "That means engage the community in a better way to make history increasingly relevant."


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Diplomat Airs Benghazi Attack Details
In Riveting Account of Libya Raid, Official Knocks Administration Response
WASHINGTON—A high-ranking American diplomat delivered an emotional reconstruction Wednesday of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, providing the first detailed public account from an American official who was on the ground in Libya.
The testimony from Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 U.S. official in Libya at the time, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also drew new attention to key questions about the attacks, and how the administration handled the aftermath....


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Sunday, October 13, 2013
The big day is here!
The big day has finally arrived – my parents' wedding day!
Again, many newspaper articles talked about the big day. The next page of the book has a few included – I love how the event is described in such detail.
Here's a close up of the first article.
The mystery of the handkerchief is solved! The hankie I wrote about here was carried by my paternal grandmother, Loraine Gunzendorfer Levy.
And a close up of the other article.
Look at that – another mention of the hankie adding that it was also carried by my great grandmother, Bertha Schwartz. And I know that it was, indeed, 56 years prior to my parents' wedding that my great grandparents, Bertha Schwartz and Abraham Gunzendorfer, were married on September 9, 1894. You can read about it here.
And here's the happy couple.
It will be fun to compare the photos with the description in these articles. Stay tuned for more!
Posted by Debi Austen at 4:13 PM
2 comments:
What an absolutely beautiful wedding that must have been. I love reading descriptions of the gowns and flowers. As a kid, I always looked forward to the Sunday newspaper just to read the wedding announcements. Now where I live, YOU pay by the line - and pay heavily!! As a result, there are very few wedding announcements, and even those are just the most important facts. I'm looking forward to the next articles to get my wedding fix.ReplyDelete
Lovely photos & a very special day. Like Wendy our area newspapers also charge high fees for wedding announcements today. I did, however, splurge on a long article when our daughter was married. :) Looking forward to your next post about this wedding.ReplyDelete
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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Latin American bishops' council (CELAM) have signed an agreement to develop a universal Spanish-language Bible translation designed to reach Spanish-speaking Catholics in the Americas. Father Sidney Fones of CELAM said the new translation will serve the majority of Spanish-speaking Catholics who cannot understand current Spanish translations of the Bible because they are based on linguistic traditions in Spain rather than Latin America. A group of 30 experts have been assembled to assist with the translation. Sections of the new translation are to be completed by the beginning of next year, and the full translation is to be done by 2015. The USCCB has pledged $1 million to the project over 10 years.
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.


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MyLowe's: Managing DIY Projects and Dreams
This is a test: What type of filter does your furnace or air conditioner require? What is the paint color of your living room walls? What is the finish of that paint—is it eggshell, semi-gloss, satin, flat or high gloss? What is the square footage of your kitchen? Your bathroom? Where is the warranty for your refrigerator or the owner's manual for your Kobalt circular saw? What size light bulb does your ceiling fan require? How many bulbs does it need?
Such household details are not meant to remain top-of-mind. But when you are shopping to replace that air filter, or pick up another gallon of that living room color, or find a new blade for that circular saw, these details become paramount.
One of the best introductions at Lowe's this fall may well be its innovative home management platform, MyLowe's—an online service designed to help customers manage their projects, purchases and home improvement dreams in a more practical and serviceable way.
By registering at MyLowes.com, Lowe's customers can create a personalized home profile, monitor purchases made in-store and online, upload floor dimension measurements, maintain paint formula tracking, and file product manuals and warranties. It also enables users to create shopping lists accessible during their next store visit. It can even remind them about air filters and other regularly purchased products. With the swipe of a keychain FOB at checkout, all purchases are recorded and updated automatically.
In addition to providing a valuable service to consumers, Lowe's believes the online management tool will improve customer service also, since sales associates will be able to access information to better assist in product recommendations and advice.
The launch of MyLowe's on Monday is not entirely coincidental, as it dovetails with the company's new brand strategy, "Never Stop Improving." According to Lowe's Katie Cody, "[myLowe's] is part of our commitment to never stop improving our customer service, our business and our communities."
You can find out more by visiting one of the more than 1,728 Lowes stores, or going online at MyLowes.com.


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I would like to hire an Artist
Presupuesto £1500-3000 GBP
10 freelancers están ofertando el promedio de £1986 para este trabajo
I completed my Graduation and Post Graduation from Govt. College of Art & Craft, Calcutta University 2004. I worked more than 10 years in 2d animation & illustration field. I can create easily
Hello, Can i create one sample for you ? Thanks Ananta--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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U.K. Motorhome Thefts Decline; Wrecks Up 40%
November 1, 2010 by RVBusiness · Comments Off on U.K. Motorhome Thefts Decline; Wrecks Up 40%
Thefts of and from motorhomes in the United Kingdom have fallen for the first nine months of the year, new figures show.
Research from insurance specialist Caravan Guard show that claims for theft of and from motorhomes fell by almost 50% between January and September when compared to the same period last year, according to a news release.
The company attributes the fall to increasingly vigilant and security conscious motorhome owners as well as ever improving security products available to motorhome owners such as high tech tracking devices and alarms.
Director Chris Nettleton added, "It's great to see theft falling. We encourage our customers to invest in security – we offer up to 35% discount for various security devices including 30% off for tracking devices.
"We are also seeing a rise in motorhome owners improving the storage conditions for their motorhomes by fitting driveposts or locked gates at home or choosing high security storage sites."
At the same time the company has seen a 40% plus increase in accidental damage claims since last year – driveway scrapes, hitting low walls and bridges just a few unfortunate instances observed.
Nettleton added, "Accidental damage claims are by far the most costly types of claim in motorhome insurance. Accidents can happen to even the most experienced of drivers and it's our job to get people back on the road as quickly as possible – almost 90% of our customers rate our overall claims service as exceptional or above average so we must be succeeding."
He continued, "We do however, reward owners with an insurance discount for fitting reversing cameras or sensors which may just help to avoid a few minor bumps."


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— — — — — — Diacriticals to Use (in search box): ą Ć ć ę Ł ł ń ó Ś ś Ź ź Ż ż
— — — — — — just copy/paste the above text characters as necessary in your search
Stanczyk, was talking about the interactive 16th century map of Polish Crown-Lands the last blog article.
We were talking specifically about a zoomed in search of Pacanów:
Now the last article mentioned:
- zoom / scale tool (lower left)
- search box (upper left which is closeable )
- map features like the square box being the parish, etc.
In this article I want to talk about a few more user interface / user experience (UX) elements:
- toolbar
- panel, with tabs [far right]
- tab, check boxes (for more details) [far right]
- "Materials" menu [upper right]
Here is the image (clickable) I will be addressing:
The place name search box has been hidden so we can see more of the map under the search box.
For the toolbar we find the following icons (top to bottom):
Show/Hide Panel (to show hide the layers/legend tabs), max zoom-out, previous map, next map, zoom at selection, zoom-in, zoom-out, pan, info on selected map object, select rectangluar region to zoom in on, tool tip, measure (distance, area), query editor, refresh map. Now I want to emphasize a few of the toolbar tools. Just hover over a toolbar icon to see the name of each tool. Click on an icon to select the desired tool (before interacting with the map).
The Show/Hide Panel tool at the top is to show or to hide the right-most area known as the Layers/Legend Panel (that contains the two tabs, "Layers" & "Legends". This is again a way to show more of the map. I also like the Measure tool. The measure tool allows you to draw either a line or a polygon shape. Drawing a line will give you the distance between two points. Drawing a polygon will give you total area and the length around the polygon edges. To draw a line click on measure tool (3rd from bottom) and drag your mouse to the second location and double-click (to end line drawing). So if you select the measure tool you will see an info box in lower right corner of your screen that gives the distance/area. So if you click on Pacanów and double-click on Biechów, the distance shown should be approximately 7 km (roughly 4.2 miles) between my grandfather's village and my grandmother's village. You can clear the distance info in the bottom corner and redraw your line(s) as necessary. The Pan tool (shown as a hand) is necessary to drag the map up or down or right or left to pan the map. You need to click on the pan tool before trying to move the map (or you will be doing whatever the last selected tool was). The last tool I wanted to mention is the, Tool Tip tool. The tool tip is a very nice tool that provides info on a village as you hover over its square/dot).
Panel / Tabs / Checkboxes
The Panel is the right-most part of the map and you can toggle on or off the showing of the panel via the top tool in the toolbar. There are five layers for this 16th century map available (from the underlying data). The panel has two tabs, "Layers" and "Legend".
Each layer has a box with a '+' in it that you click on to expand (the box then contains a '-' which you click on to close). For this article we are only interested in "Ecclesiastical Borders". This layer allows us to show the checkboxes for the boundaries for a parish or a deaconate (aka deanery) or a diocese. The two that can be most helpful for studying your ancestors are the parish boundary and/or the deaconate boundary. In the above map, I checked both parish and deaconate boundaries. Now keep in mind that these church boundaries are the way they were back in the 16th century and not for the current times and in most cases also do not match the 18th/19th centuries either. These borders can point out the relationship between nearby parishes and also show which set of villages make up a parish. Both of these visual clues are helpful to the genealogical researcher.
The checkboxes when checked show the boundary and when unchecked do not display the boundaries.
Materials Menu
The Materials Menu is near the upper right corner (above the map area) and it allows you to switch between collections whose data are map based. It shows the same map but the layers change to show the new details that can be displayed through the user interface.
I particularly found the "Libraries of Wislica", "Protestant Communites 16th-18th centuries", and "Religions / Confessions 18th century" to be VERY interesting !
Now using the Layers tab and the Info tool can be most useful. The objects on these maps open up rows of data via the info tool to show a lot of useful material that you must see to believe. This is one of the best uses of a spatial (i.e. map) user interface that I have yet seen. It may take some time to master the user interface, but I assure it is worth it if you want to go much deeper in your understanding of your family history in Poland. If you are looking for old synagogues or to find minority religious denominations that are uncommon this site is a treasure trove of help.


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For emerging artists and art enthusiasts alike, the Art-A-Fair showcases a taste of a different kind of media.
This year, the Art-A-Fair has a daily interactive game for visitors. Spectators can look for "Arty," a commemorative "46 emblem" hidden daily in plain sight. Those who find him win a prize.
Compared to the Sawdust Art Festival and Festival of Arts, the Art-A-Fair is more intimate with a smaller number of artists who are juried into the show.
While traditional art is present at the Art-A-Fair, the festival also hosts modern designs. Jon Parks' exhibit features abstract and colorful furniture, which look like something from a Tim Burton film. The pieces, including a multi-colored and abstract dresser, are unique.
"The different colors and combinations are what drives me," said Parks, an Art-A-Fair first-timer, in a phone interview. "If you're not unique or different, you just blend in with everything else. I want to be different from anything else."
One of the most interesting exhibits comes from Michael Crook, whose hand-carved and hand-painted wildlife portraits appear 3-D. From rare and extinct animals to portraits of African people, Crook's work displays a range of images.
For those who seek an interactive experience, look no further than Darcie's "Rebus" exhibit. According to Darcie, a Rebus is a riddle in which pictures represent words or phrases. Darcie's paintings combine unrelated things to invite viewers to "solve the puzzles." One of the paintings includes a glass of orange juice and Bart Simpson, which when combined representsO.J. Simpson.
Since 1967, the Art-A-Fair aimed to become one of the most outstanding fine arts shows in Southern California. Volunteers have worked to improve the show each year. The festival now features adult workshops each day of the week and music livens up the space each weekend.
The Art-A-Fair's 2012 season ends Sept. 2. The Art-A-Fair, 777 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach, is open to the public Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Season admission tickets are $7 for adults; and $4 for students, military and seniors. Children under 12 and Laguna Beach residents with valid ID are free.
For more information about the Art-A-Fair festival, visit art-a-fair.com.
Twitter: @coastlinepilot


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Wooden shoes, Zaandam, The Netherlands
Exif: F Number: 16, Exposure Bias Value: -0.33, ExposureTime: 1/125 seconds, Flash: did not fire, compulsory flash mode, ISO: 200, White balance: Manual white balance, FocalLength: 110.00 mm, Model: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Uploaded on 10/19/2012 5:42:44 PM
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Jim Zuckerman. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
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[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]
Guest post from Georgina – Ed.
BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour arrived in Warsaw on a sunny Tuesday, attracting developers not only from Poland but from all over Europe, including Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy. About 100 students from the BlackBerry® Academic Programs at Gliwice, Katowice and Bielso-Biala universities were among the 500 registered participants. There are now five universities that have the BlackBerry Academic Program (BAP) as part of their curriculum, which provides resources and training courses for administering and supporting the BlackBerry solution, in addition to developing apps for the BlackBerry platform. This large group of students joined hundreds of Polish developers from around the country to learn about developing for BlackBerry® 10. The event attendees included developers already enjoying success on the BlackBerry platform, such as the creators of Cooklet, a globally popular recipe app for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet which was awarded best Adobe® AIR® app at BlackBerry World™ 2012.
We are excited by the passion and enthusiasm of the Polish students about BlackBerry 10. David Keane, Senior Country Manager in Poland commented: "The response to BlackBerry 10 in the Polish developer community has been amazing and we are glad that so many students are interested in developing applications for the new platform. We are already very proud of our cooperation with these academic institutions from different parts of Poland and we are looking forward to developing the program further with new partners this year. We believe that among the students participating in BlackBerry 10 Jam, there are future leaders of successful and globally popular apps for BlackBerry."
The students see BlackBerry 10 as a strong platform that provides them with different tools for creating powerful applications that appeal to local and international audiences. Adam Cholewa, a coordinator of BAP at Gliwice University, explained why they decided to get up at 3 a.m. to attend BlackBerry 10 Jam Warsaw: "We have been running the BlackBerry Academic Program for over one year, enabling our students to not only get resources and support from RIM, but also participate in important events with other developers. In February we attended BlackBerry DevCon in Amsterdam, and today we are in Warsaw. These events give our students a chance to gain knowledge about BlackBerry 10 and learn from developers already creating apps for the BlackBerry platform, providing hands-on experience and important skills for the future."
The students attending the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour event in Poland gave very positive feedback on the event: "The Jam was very successful", said Olek Sławiński, a student from Silesian Technical University. "During the conference I learned a lot of interesting tips that might be useful in the future, and everything was presented in a clear and understandable way, from the initial state of developing to uploading an application in BlackBerry App World.
"BlackBerry 10 is incredibly interesting, especially because it enables to develop in different ways, such as in Cascades™ and BlackBerry® WebWorks™. When using native SDKs, QT4 is very useful and enables achieving our goals in a simple way. Another thing that I like a lot about BlackBerry 10 is its graphic features – it automatically creates animations linked to particular elements of our application. And in case of any problems, we can always count on the support of the BlackBerry developer community."
It is difficult to believe, but what these students are most looking forward to is the end of holidays! They want to start the BlackBerry Academic Program in autumn so they can get started on building their apps for BlackBerry 10. Truly inspiring. Thank you, Poland!


text: Ever since defendants have historically been entitled to bail, courts have considered community ties as a factor in determining whether to release the defendant and on what conditions. Community ties continue to be an important consideration in the state and federal courts of this nation.1 It is how community ties are defined which is undergoing an evolution in the courts of the United States. In these days where we are becoming a global community, mobility within the United States is frequent and vast. It is now easy to find individuals by use of the Internet and easy to transfer individuals from one state to another or from federal district to another for trial. All the prosecutor needs to prove is that there is a valid charge against the defendant in the seeking jurisdiction.2 While historically, courts considered ties to the community in which the defendant was charged as important to ensure his presence at trial, that historical basis is now subject t


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I am sure people who know this snack would at least drool at its name once! A deep fried snack enjoyed anytime of the day ;) Few days back I saw these crispy vades on Chitra Amma's Kitchen and Naale maadthiya ? (will u make them tomorrow?) haan! was my hubby's reaction :D . Added to this already mounted temptation a friend of mine told me that she made M.Vades during our regular harate (chat) and I was all ......J, so I went upon making them. Thanks to my friends Viji, Mayura and also Chitra Amma for their crispy maddur vade recipe. Here is how they looked like..(they were my share of vades ;) )
Rice Flour: 2tbsp
You need the following to make these delicious fried snack :
Onions : 1 cup (onions are chopped into small pieces) (1 cup holds 100ml water)
Green chilli paste : 1 tsp (u can add more if u need spicier vades)
Curry leaves : 5-8 (chopped)
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp (chopped)
Maida/All purpose flour : 1 cup (1 cup holds 100ml water)
Chiroti rava/semolina: 1/2 cup
salt as required
Hot oil : 1/4 cup
Oil for deep frying
1.Mix all ingredients given above using a spoon.Caution : Do not use your hands to mix the flour at this stage as hot oil might burn your fingers.
2.Leave the mixture aside for 15 minutes. The moisture in onions will wet the flour at this stage.
3.If do not intend to deep fry at this stage do not mix the flour with water. You can mix it with water when you want to deep fry. You can also mix partial flour with water and leave the other part. This small tip helps prevent the dough becoming soggy. This is an important step.
4.Heat oil over low flame. When oil is warm start with the next step.
5.If you wish to deep fry vades, sprinkle water over the flour and mix to make dough. The dough here at this stage resembles soft chapathi dough.
6. Pull a small lemon sized dough and pat it on a greased non sticky paper or laminated paper (food wrapping paper in Singapore can be used) to make a nice circle.
7. Transfer these to your fingers (hold it on 4 fingers) and slide them over to hot oil. Be careful.
8. Fry them till they are red and crisp. Drain them on a kitchen towel. Enjoy hot hot vades with coffee or tea.
9. I made masala chai/tea with hot hot vades. If you wish to learn more about Masala Chai you can visit this page : Cooking Station-Masala Tea
Mint flavored maddur vade ..


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Bob Cliffe has announced he is running for another term as supervisor in the Town of Wheatfield.
A small business manager for 40 years, Cliffe is a former town justice, vice president of the Wheatfield Lions Club, as well as past member of the Niagara-Wheatfield Board of Education, treasurer of the Wheatfield Blades and manager of the N-W High School hockey program.
Cliffe is the only endorsed candidate on the Republican line for Wheatfield supervisor, running in a primary on Sept. 10.
"Four years ago, I was elected to return the town's financial condition to good health. I am very proud to say that we have done so," Cliffe said. "I inherited deficits exceeding $663,000, and now have fund balances over $2.2 million."
The town's independent auditor stated this week that "Town finances are right where they should be."
"In every budget I passed, we have reduced your town taxes. Check your own town tax bills over the past five years. Take away the county items, add up the three or four town items and you will see that the trend is down for each of the budgets I've produced. Yet we have still maintained all vital services," Cliffe said.
Cliffe noted that the town has made major upgrades with youth programs, done major improvements with drainage concerns and has started working on new projects, such as the Town Center, improvements at Fairmount and Mario parks and the Greenway Trail.
"With West Nile virus now at our doorstep, but we all know that spraying from the sky is an ineffective and expensive method of mosquito control," Cliffe said. "I am asking for Niagara County to partner with the towns and cities to offer a complete mosquito control program. We cannot do it alone, but working with the county and other towns, we may be able to get some excellent results."
"Responsible, responsive leadership is my focus as we move forward together," he said. "I thank you for your continued trust."


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Basic Info
Model NO.: 9903
Transmission Medium: Cable
Lightning Protection: With Lightning Protection
Condition: New
Impedance: 50 Ohm
Net Weight: 1.2kg
Product Keyword: Dual Band Signal Booster
Installation Type: Wall Installation
Product Type: Dual Band Signal Booster
Specification: CE
Type: Signal Repeater
Standard: Standard
Certification: ISO, GS, RoHS, CE
Bandwidth: Wide Band
Dimensions (D*W*H ): 198*182*20(Mm)
Operating Temperature: -10°c ~ 55°c
Sub Product Keyword: Dual Band Signal Repeater
Power Consumption: <20W
Trademark: Dual Band Signal Booster
Origin: China
Product Description
High Power GSM 3G Repeater 900 / 2100 GSM Dual Band Signal Booster
dual band repeater gsm parameter data :
|Model No
|Parameter data
|Frequency Range
1920-1980 MHz
2110-2170 MHz
|Output Power
|20 ±2dBm
|20 ±2dBm
|65 dB
|Wide Band
|Automatic Gain Control
|Ripple in Band
|Intermodulation Products
|≤ -36 dBm
|≤ -30 dBm
|Spurious Emission
|≤ -36 dBm
|≤ -30 dBm
|Noise Figure @ max. gain
|≤ 6 dB
|>50000 hours
|Power Supply
|AC:90~265V, 50/ 60Hz;DC:12V 2A
|Power Consumption
|50 ohm
|Mechanical Specification
|RF Connector
|Heatsink Convection cooling
|Dimensions (D x W xH )
|198*182*20 mm
|Installation Type
|Wall Installation
|Environment Conditions
|< 90%
|Operating Temperature
Why we should buy mobile signal repeater/ signal booster/ GSM /WCDMA amplifier :
Cell phone becomes especially helpful when people get into critical situations. In case of emergency a timely call can save somebody's life.
Unfortunately, there are still some places where one can find themselves "out of coverage". Usually those places are either too far from the cell phone base station or located inside underground constructions, for example:
· Parking lots, tunnels
· Big stores, office buildings
· Cars, boats etc.
· House in remote areas etc
How is mobile phone signal repeater GSM/DCS/ 2G/3G/4G WORKING ?
The outside antenna catches the low signal from the mobile base station and delivers it to the cell phone
amplifier through the connection cable (coax).
After the signal is accepted by the phone amplifier, the device amplifies it.
Then this amplified signal goes through the connection cable (coax) to the inside antenna.
And after that, the amplified signal transmits to the cell phone.
A regular repeater GSM 3G consists of:
9dB outdoor antenna
5dB indoor antenna
RG6-50 OHM indoor Coaxial Cable-5m
RG6-50 OHM outdoor Coaxial Cable-10m
mounting accessories
AC power supply
user manual
|Whole Package Weight
|Whole Package Size
|300x200x200mm(L x W x D)
Features of mobile phone signal amplifier
A. High-gain linear power amplifier
B . ALC and AGC function technology ,
C. Ultra-low noise receive amplifier
D. There is no interference to the base station ,right after the opening of the original system and the base station without the need to adjust parameters ,
E. Stable and reliable electromagnetic compatibility design .
F. The base station dose not cause an increase in background noise ,but will not lead to a decline in the quality of the base station communications
G. With full-duplex communication mode .
H. dispel the heat effective reasonable ,the structure is pretty ,the volume is suitable .
Signal repeater Installation diagram (very convenient and easy to install)
How should you install repeater (very easy and simple):
Step 1: Use your mobile phone to test signal strength outside house or on roof, -70dbm is the basic requirement (full bar).
Step 2 Install outdoor antenna in that location and keep adjusting, point it to signal tower station, try to get best signal.
Step3: Run outdoor coaxial cable into building in a convenient location to connect with signal repeater.
step 4: Mount your indoor antenna with signal repeater
step5: Power up signal repeater device to check the signal inside, moving outdoor antenna until you get satisfied signal.
Note: Connect outdoor (BTS) port with outdoor antenna, connect indoor ANT(MS) port with indoor antenna, outdoor antenna is mounted at a higher position. Both antennas should be 10 meters far away from each other at least.
Indoor and outdoor antenna must be separated by wall.
After- Sales Service
We have 12 months quality guarantee for all customers, you can return goods to us when receive defective repeater, but air freight charges should be responsible by buyer.
Signal problem & installation technique supporting
1.If still weak signal receipt after installation, please check if outdoor antenna point to signal tower correctly or elsewhere has stronger signal and confirm signal strength achieve-70DBM.
2.If still have no signal after installation, please check our device power adapter whether connected perfectly? And connectors connect well.
3. If strength is not steady, please check if outdoor and indoor antenna is too close; please ensure outdoor antenna has distance of 10 meters at least, with a barrier and not in a same horizontal line.
4. Packed the outdoor connector by waterproof glue, otherwise wet reduce the signal cover area.


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DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Defiance College Men's Basketball team picked up a 69-59 victory over Anderson University Wednesday night to snap the Yellow Jackets' (9-3, 4-1 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference) two-game losing skid and keep DC undefeated at home in conference play.
The Yellow Jackets found scoring all over the floor against the Ravens (1-11, 1-4 HCAC) with eight players contributing to the scoring column for DC, including three players in double figures. Defiance also picked off a season high 11 steals in the contest to help DC to its fourth conference win of the season.
Ryan Hicks (Port Clinton, Ohio/Port Clinton) led the way for the Yellow Jackets, scoring 22 points. It was his fifth 20+ point effort of the season and also extended his double-figure point streak to seven games. The senior picked up 12 of those points in the first half on 6-of-9 shooting. Hicks also had a pair of assists and steals in the half to help DC work 12-point halftime lead.
Bernard Edwards (Detroit, Mich./Warren Cousino) joined Hicks with 12 points in the first half and also pulled down six rebounds. Edwards went on to finish one rebound shy of a double-double, recording 19 points and nine rebounds in 33 minutes of action. Edwards' nine rebounds were a season-high for the junior.
Defiance slowly and methodically opened up the gap on Anderson in the first half by shooting 52 percent from the floor, while limiting the Ravens to 37 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes. The Yellow Jackets also forced seven Ravens turnovers on five steals while giving up just one turnover.
In the second half, the Yellow Jackets started with a 7-2 run to open up its largest lead of the game. At 17:27 remaining in the second half, Mason Roth's steal and fast break layup gave DC a 17-point lead at 46-29.
Roth (McComb, Ohio/McComb) was the third Yellow Jacket in double figures on the night, shooting 4-of-5 from the field with four more points from the free-throw line for 12 total on the evening. Roth also chipped in a pair of assists, steals and rebounds for the Purple and Gold.
Anderson was able to work the gap back to nine points with just over 30 seconds remaining in the game, but Defiance connected on its free throw opportunities late to seal the victory for DC.
The Yellow Jackets' bench combined for 11 points on the evening. Kent Tietje (Deshler, Ohio/Patrick Henry) was a dominant presence on the boards as well. Tietje broke his season and career highs with eight rebounds on the night to go along with six points in 23 minutes of action.
Noah Reed (Huntington, Ind./Huntington North) also came off the bench to score four points for DC.
Travis Schomaeker (Ottawa, Ohio/Ottawa-Glandorf) made just one three in the game for DC, but the junior contributed five assists on the evening to match a career high.
Wade Wooley (Wauseon, Ohio/Wauseon) grabbed five rebounds for DC in the game and the Yellow Jackets improved to 8-0 all-time in conference play when the sophomore reaches the five-rebound mark.
Wooley also had one of DC's three blocks in the game. Hicks had the other two blocks for Defiance.
The Yellow Jackets will now set their sights on Rose-Hulman in a clash of HCAC leaders as both teams sit at 9-3 overall, 4-1 in conference play. DC and Rose-Hulman will tip at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the second game of a double header inside the Karl H. Weaner Community Center.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
The statistics are alarming.
According to a community report released by the John R. Oishei Foundation's Mobile Safety-Net Team, poverty in Niagara Falls is growing, while the city's population is shrinking. The number of Niagara Falls residents living in poverty has grown 2 percent since 2000, a significant change when put in context of the city's overall population decline of 9 percent since 2000.
Approximately 10,900 Niagara Falls residents, or more than 20 percent, live on incomes below federal poverty levels, identified as $23,550 for a family of four.
Child poverty alone is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $500 billion annually in lost productivity, increased health care costs, and higher criminal justice expenditures.
Addressing those statistics was the focus of the second annual Poverty Conference held at Niagara University March 7.
A 150-person cross-section of elected officials, block club delegates, nonprofit partners and foundation representatives convened in Dunleavy Hall to discuss this year's theme, "Governmental Role in Addressing Poverty - Moving from Policy to Action."
The Rev. James J. Maher, C.M., Niagara University president, welcomed attendees by reiterating his, and the university's, Vincentian commitment to act as bridges to the world of the poor and marginalized.
"At Niagara, we are fully committed to engaging our faculty, staff and students to serve whenever and wherever we are most needed," he said. "Our students provide more than 1,000 hours of meaningful community service to the surrounding areas every week. I want them to do more."
Maher continued by emphasizing his eagerness to collaborate with service organizations, stressing poverty is a community-wide responsibility and, thus, all must lend a helping hand to those on the margins of society.
"Every person in this room is making a great effort to advocate for those who need it most. We will walk with you on this journey," he said.
The conference was presented by the Niagara County Coalition for Services to the Homeless in co-sponsorship with Buffalo/Niagara Falls and Erie/Niagara Counties Continuum of Care and Niagara University.
The theme commemorated the 50-year anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson's State of the Union address, during which the former U.S. president introduced legislation pertaining to the country's "war on poverty." The coalition realizes the need to examine poverty's impact within the community and that addressing poverty is the responsibility of all sectors in society.
Robert D. Gioia, president of the John R. Oishei Foundation, served as the keynote speaker. The Oishei Foundation released a Niagara Falls community report in February. It is part of a larger, multi-year effort being undertaken by the Mobile Safety-Net Team, a task force created to study issues related to poverty throughout the region.
During his 45-minute presentation, Gioia highlighted the foundation's strategic plan, part of which emphasizes the importance of higher education.
"We can invest billions into our community, but if we don't create a curriculum and we don't create an opportunity for these young men and women to be able to cycle into a paying job, then we've failed," Gioia said. "I have to give credit to the administrators of the 21 colleges and universities in our region who are sitting down together to really talk about how to redefine and redesign the college curriculum to meet the needs of the future."
A panel discussion on the legislative role in addressing poverty included State Sen. George Maziarz, NU Class of 1976; Assemblywoman Jane Corwin; Assemblyman John Ceretto, '75, M.S.Ed.'78; Lockport Mayor Anne McCaffrey; and Niagara Falls City Council Chairman Charles Walker.
Several afternoon workshops allowed attendees the opportunity to learn about programs facilitating change in the community, especially those that improve economic stability and advancement for individuals living in poverty.
The event was coordinated through the Rev. Joseph L. Levesque, C.M. Institute for Civic Engagement, which was established in 2011 to reinforce Niagara University's commitment to the region by strengthening existing community partnerships and forming new town-gown relationships.
"We are proud to represent the university on this important initiative," stated Dr. David Taylor, director of the Levesque Institute. "This conference speaks to the heart of our Catholic and Vincentian mission by serving the community and seeking solutions to reducing poverty and the systemic conditions that are created by it."
For more information on the Levesque Institute, call 716-205-0074 or visit www.niagara.edu/ice.


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"Absurdly enjoyable! About as guilty as pleasures get!"-
The New York Times
"Raucous and outrageous fun!"-
The Las Vegas Sun
"The real deal! A cranked-up crowd-pleaser!"-
The New York Daily News
"Insanely fun! Rock and comedy in perfect proportion!"-
Time Out New York
"Dazzling vocal pyrotechnics! The audience erupts in an emotional frenzy."-
Chicago Tribune
"So cleverly staged and impressively performed, it's irresistible."-
New York 1 News
"BROADWAY'S 'BAD BOY' HIT! Flanked with a panties-covered set, a cast with amazingly toned abs, and a score full of the best '80s songs, this powerhouse Broadway musical defies the conventional stay-in-your-seat theatergoing experience, and transforms it into a sex-soaked rock concert that melds sincerity with parody; beer and shots are proffered in the aisles, rock posters dress the walls, and audience revelry is encouraged and inevitable. This bad boy breaks the rules, and it's working."-
Blackbook Magazine
Have you experienced the face-melting awesomeness that is ROCK OF AGES?
Share your review, and it could be featured on our site.
"ROCK OF AGES is unbelievable. I loved it. I'm tellin' ya, I didn't know what to expect! … I went in thinking 'Oh, this is going to be fun. It's just going to be like listening to music, or whatever.' But after the third song, I was weeping—which is ridiculous, because it's a comedy—but they were singing 'Sister Christian,' and I love that song! ... I just loved the story, such great actors, super talented people. Go check out that play."-
Jimmy Fallon on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" @jimmyfallon
"I had three shots of whiskey and two Pabst Blue Ribbons during the show. I LOVED ROCK OF AGES!"-
Neil Patrick Harris, on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" @ActuallyNPH
"Love 80s rock and loved this play…If you grew up in the USA in the 80s and even vaguely know this music genre - see this play. It is mandatory."-
Bjorn P on Yelp
"Rock of Ages is a rolling, rocking trip down hair metal memory lane enmeshed in a hilarious but heartwarming coming of age story… A serious treat for lovers and non-lovers of 80s hair metal alike!"-
Pete S on Yelp
"This show absolutely rocks! If you are looking for a serious Broadway production this is not for you. If you are looking a hard rocking good time then Rock of Ages is a must. We had a great time and totally enjoyed every minute."-
Phil H on Yelp
Everybody in the whole entire world everywhere should see Rock of Ages on stage!!!!! It was amazing fun. I sang and cheered and CANNOT WAIT TO SEE IT AGAIN!-
Michelle C on Yelp
"Really enjoyed this show. The music and cast had the audience rockin' through the whole performance."-
Momcat1959 on TripAdvisor
"If you grew up during the 80s, or like 80s music put this on your 'must do' list… this was a great play with a very talented cast. The singing and music was incredible ... it will have you saying 'I want my MTV' all over again."-
Jeff_1475 on TripAdvisor
"What a great show, the band rock hard and the performers belt out classic rock songs effortlessly. great laughs and a true fun night out."-
FBCroft on TripAdvisor
"Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. This show has everything. Fantastic music, great comedy and a tight script guarantees a great night out."-
Stanleythemanly on TripAdvisor
"#rockofages is a total riot! Cast are fantastic, costumes are great, music is brilliant! Women are drop dead gorgeous too!"-
@martinmchendry on Twitter


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Like OS X Lion, when Mountain Lion launches later this month it will be sold via the Mac App Store. However, unlike Lion, which would download even if your Mac didn't have the spec to support it, it seems that the Mac App Store will assess your Mac's suitability for the new operating system before it lets you download, and pay, for it, according to 512 Pixels.
Mountain Lion has the following specs. It requires OS X 10.6.8 or later, 2GB RAM and 8GB available space.
The following Macs are supported: iMac (from mid 2007 model); MacBook (from late 2008); MacBook Pro (from late 2007); Xserve (from early 2009); MacBook Air (from late 2008); Mac mini (from early 2009) and Mac Pro (from early 2008).
Mountain Lion to ship in July for just £13.99
Apple's Mountain Lion launch may follow financial results on 24 July
Latest Mountain Lion beta ramps up security features
Improved iWork file sharing coming in Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion features you may have missed
Mountain Lion to ship in July for just £13.99
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion review
Apple demonstrates Mac OS X Mountain Lion with Voice Dictation, Power Nap, and Glass Dock at WWDC
Macworld Feature: Mountain Lion


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SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County supervisors slapped the San Jose Fire Department with big penalties for its 911 medical response times, which have been so slow that crews have been showing up late to emergencies about once per hour over the last year.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to pull funding from the Fire Department but offered it a chance to shape up and get the money back.
The city gets about $2.1 million in county funding per year, which is equivalent to the operation of one fire station. But the money is contingent on crews responding to at least 90 percent of emergencies within eight minutes, a mark the department has failed to meet for 14 straight months.
The money will be cut off starting with about $700,000 that was due from four months last year, and placed in a trust fund. If the city meets the 90 percent target for three straight months and submits an improvement plan, the city will get the money back as long as it doesn't start to slip again.
"That might provide the incentive that's necessary to get the city to perform," said county Supervisor Joe Simitian, who has led the charge on the issue. "There's a point at which you say, 'We just can't let this go on a little longer.' "
San Jose officials declined to show up and defend themselves at the meeting for the second time in as many months, which dismayed county leaders to the point where they considered pulling the contract with the city altogether. That would lead county ambulances to respond to medical emergencies first instead of San Jose firefighters, an option the county will now begin studying.
"The silence from the city just is deafening," said county Supervisor Ken Yeager. "I don't have a lot of confidence that the city of San Jose is going to be able to meet the minimum requirement anytime soon. I don't know how that could happen."
In written responses before the meeting, the Fire Department said it's seeking additional funds to hire more crews and prevent engine brownouts and is hiring a firm to implement a new traffic system that would more effectively allow emergency vehicles to navigate crowded streets.
They're also sending far fewer trucks to homes, freeing up more resources for medical calls. When a fire alarm goes off in a residential building, only one truck will respond — down from four before, while alarms that ring at "dangerous" buildings will merit two trucks instead of five.
But it's unclear if the city has the money to fund these efforts, or whether the smaller response to home fire alarms could be dangerous.
After San Jose initially met the county's performance standards when the new five-year county ambulance contract took effect in 2011, it hasn't met the 911 response time target for a single month since summer 2012. By comparison, no other department in the county has fallen short of the eight-minute mark for even one month.
In the first six months of last year, San Jose fire crews responded to medical emergencies within 8 minutes only 88 percent of the time. The rest of the county fire departments under contract — from Mountain View to Gilroy — met the response time target a combined average of 97 percent.
Even then, San Jose fire officials have since conceded that they incorrectly reported their data during the last year and a half and were actually about 1 percent to 3 percent slower than first thought. The result has been crews showing up late to emergencies about once per hour over the past year.
San Jose over the last half-decade has trimmed its staff by about two dozen firefighters to deal with budget cuts even as the number of medical emergencies it's responded to has shot up 36 percent, to 55,000 a year. City officials blamed the cuts on soaring costs for employee benefits, especially retirement which tripled over a decade and continues to rise.
Like all fire departments in the county except Palo Alto, the county reimburses San Jose when its firefighters respond to emergencies first, within 8 minutes, to stabilize patients before county ambulances arrive later, typically within 12 minutes. But the $2.1 million in annual county funding it receives represents only about 1 percent of the Fire Department's yearly operating budget.
Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at Twitter.com/rosenbergmerc.


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Roccett- I Fuccs Wit U
Young Roccett of CTE West does a video for one of his most popular songs "I Fuccs Wit U" be sure to check him out on myspace.com/roccett
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
UN experts to probe alleged Syria chemical attacks
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. experts will travel to Syria as soon as possible to investigate three alleged incidents of chemical weapons attacks, the United Nations announced Wednesday.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the green light for the investigation followed "the understanding reached with the government of Syria" during last week's visit to Damascus by U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane and the head of the chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom.
The announcement caps more than four months of behind-the-scenes talks aimed at getting chemical experts on the ground to investigate more than one alleged incident. Whether any signs of chemical weapons use remain at the three sites months after their alleged use remains to be seen.
The mandate of the investigation team is to report on whether chemical weapons were used, and if so which chemical weapon, but not to determine the responsibility for an attack.
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed to a U.N. investigation in March, he said the announcement "should serve as an unequivocal reminder that the use of chemical weapons is a crime against humanity."
Nesirky said Sellstrom's team will visit Khan al-Assal, a village on the southwestern outskirts of the embattled city of Aleppo, which was captured by the rebels last week and was under attack by government forces Wednesday. The government and rebels blame each other for a purported chemical weapons attack on the village on March 19 that killed at least 30 people.
Nesirky did not give any details of the other two incidents to be investigated. A well-informed U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions on the issue have been private, said Sellstrom is expected to choose the two other sites based on the technical and scientific information the U.N. has received from governments, doctors, alleged victims and others.
Syria asked the secretary-general to investigate the Khan al-Assal incident and balked at a broader investigation sought by Ban after Britain, France and the United States sent the U.N. information about other alleged attacks in Homs, Damascus, Aleppo and elsewhere.
U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council last week that the U.N. has received 13 reports of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.
"The secretary-general remains mindful of other reported incidents," Nesirky said Wednesday, "and the mission will also continue to seek clarification from the member states concerned."
The diplomat stressed that the chemical weapons experts ought have access to all 13 sites in the future. Last week, the Syrian National Coalition, the Western-backed opposition group, told members of the U.N. Security Council that it would provide access to a U.N. investigation team to any sites they control, the diplomat said.
Britain and France initially raised allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations in Khan al-Assal and the village of Ataybah in the vicinity of Damascus on March 19 and in Homs on Dec. 23.
On June 13, the United States said it had conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack Obama had called a "red line" and prompted a U.S. decision to send arms and ammunition to the opposition, not just humanitarian aid and non-lethal material like armored vests and night goggles.
In a letter to the secretary-general the following day, then-U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States had determined that the nerve agent sarin was used in the March 19 attack on Khan al-Assal and also in an April 13 attack on the Aleppo neighborhood of Shaykh Maqsud. She said unspecified chemicals, possibly including chemical warfare agents, were used May 14 in an attack on Qasr Abu Samrah and in a May 23 attack on Adra.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said earlier this month that experts from Russia, Syria's closest ally, determined that Syrian rebels made sarin and used it in the March 19 attack on Khan al-Assal. The U.S., Britain and France reiterated at the time that they have seen no evidence to indicate that the opposition has acquired or used chemical weapons.
Churkin told reporters after delivering an 80-page report to the secretary-general that Syria asked Russia to investigate the attack after the U.N. team of chemical weapons experts was unable to enter the country because of the dispute over the probe's scope.
Churkin later gave copies of the report to the British, French and Americans who discovered that several pages were missing.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's deputy information director, Maria Zakharova, told AP that "there are in fact several pages missing which contain scientific technical information not having direct relation to the results of the analysis conducted by our experts that were presented to the U.N. Secretariat."
"These pages were intended for 'internal use' and did not influence the conclusion of the report in any way," Zakharova said. "The conclusion, as we have already stated, is that the munition filled with chemical warfare agents was produced and used on March 19 in the vicinity of Aleppo by non-governmental forces."


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Distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp's shares fell as much as 8.5 percent after the "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" failed to match the sky-high expectations of some box office forecasters despite a chart-topping domestic debut.
The second installment in the series starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, the skilled archer who becomes a beacon of hope for the oppressed residents of the fictional nation of Panem, opened to a box office of $161 million in the United States and Canada - a record for November.
Continue Reading Below
The U.S. debut came in below the levels of the most bullish box office forecasters, Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan wrote in a note.
The sequel, however, topped the $152.5 million opening weekend for the first "Hunger Games" movie in March 2012.
"When you have an estimate that sets the expectation level at $180 million and the movie actually comes in at $160 million, despite the fact that is a very significantly large number, there could be some disappointment," Ascendiant Capital Markets analyst Marla Backer told Reuters.
It is the movie's international performance which will really matter to Lions Gate's results and enable it to raise their outlook, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co analyst Benjamin Mogil wrote in a note.
The movie grossed $307.7 million around the world.
Shares were trading at $31.49 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday morning, after dropping to $30.87.


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As human beings, we're curious creatures and have sought ways to achieve inhuman feats, whether it's deep-sea diving, breaking sound barriers, or flying. For the daredevils that dream of wings at night, the one feat that has been too dangerous for skydivers has been the feat of landing a jump without the use of a parachute. But it can be done, and Gary Connery has proven it. Recently, the English skydiver and stuntman became the first in the world to land without the help of a parachute.
From 2,400 feet above the earth at Temple Island Meadows, Connery leapt from a helicopter in a customized wingsuit, likened to the look of winged squirrel, and tailored particularly for this occasion. While in reality his landing would be cushioned by a 350-foot long, 50-foot wide and 12-foot high cardboard box landing strip, an extraordinary amount of preparation was required to avoid an otherwise certain death. Connery is a seasoned pro and has to his credit, over 880 skydives and 450 base jumps. He also boasts Hollywood stunt-double experience in the Indiana Jones films, Die Another Day, Batman Begins and others.
We've all had dreams of flapping our wings or soaring with the birds, and according to Connery his preparation had in fact been inspired by the flying habits of kite birds. His decent and landing mimicked the bird's flight. To survive his jump, he had to slow his gliding speed to 50mph from his 80mph free fall, while slowing his vertical landing speed to a comfortable 15mph.
Humans are pushing the limits of what we're physically capable of. James Cameron recently set the record for traveling to the deepest part of the earth in a solo dive, while later this year, Felix Baumgartner and Red Bull are preparing for his attempt to break the record for the world's highest skydive (currently set at a whopping 102,000 feet). Connery is among these men who are looking to push our human capabilities, and while it's crazy, you can't help but to respect these people for their commitment to see just how far a human being can go. To an extent, they're hacking life.
Check out the video of the jump below.


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I need a script made for me if anyone is willing to do it for many people who also want it. I know there is already an integration between fresh desk and whmcs but this isn't good enough. I am looking for something where you can create tickets from within WHMCS and also view them from within WHMCS. You would't even need to go to freshdesk.com unless your an agent. It would be fully integrated with WHMCS just like kayako and zendesk and others have done. I know this can be done. I just don't have the skills or time to do this at the moment. Is anyone able to do this?
Thanks in advance.
WHMCS and freshdesk
Forum to require and offer php jobs. Are you searching for php developers to make or complete your php script ? This place is for you.
Moderators: egami, macek, gesf
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You are hereHome >
Making Health Care Work
HOLDING HEALTH INSURERS ACCOUNTABLE—CALPIRG is working to make sure health insurers are providing affordable, high-quality care, and not trying to increase profits at our expense.
After years of fighting for the right policies and fighting attacks on health care reform, the state's new health insurance marketplace has opened its doors. Covered California is now offering millions of Californians new choices for health insurance.
From the beginning, CALPIRG has worked to make sure the marketplace would use the buying power of millions of Californians to aggressively push insurers for better deals, more competition and changes in how we pay for health care. The plans announced in California are expected to reduce the cost of health insurance for most individuals, while often offering better benefits.
Thanks to new CALPIRG-supported consumer protections, Californians will not be denied coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions. Prices will not vary by gender. Insurers won't be able to set lifetime maximum dollars amounts for health care, and limits on maximum out-of-pocket costs will protect Californians from medical bankruptcy. All policies sold on the marketplace must cover preventive care, prescription drugs, contraception, medical screenings (e.g., mammograms) and other essential benefits, such as pediatric, mental health, maternity and rehabilitation services.
CALPIRG is continuing to work to provide consumers with access to high-quality, affordable care.
- Throughout 2013 and 2014, we plan to educate half a million Californians about our new health insurance options and consumer protections, now in place thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Check out our new health insurance guide for young people.
- In fall 2012, we launched our Health Insurance Rate Watch project to investigate rate hikes, and to push back against the industry when those proposed hikes are unjustified. See here for a recent victory for California consumers.
- We are fighting the high cost of prescription drugs.
- We are calling on the legislature to hold health insurance companies accountable for making sure they are reining in excessive prices and unnecessary paperwork, and to give state officials the power to prohibit insurers from increasing rates if they aren't.
Learn more about our priority campaign to end the pharmaceutical industry's scheme to delay cheaper drugs from entering the market:
- About
- Issues
- Healthy Living
- PIRG Consumer Watchdog
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- Consumer Defense
- Act Now
- Jobs
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Latest Reports
- California Health Insurance Rate Review: the First Five Years
- Health Insurance Rate Watch: Comments on the Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company Proposal
- Health Insurance Rate Watch: Comments on Blue Shield Rate Filing
- California Health Insurance Rate Review
- Comments on the Anthem Blue Cross Proposal to Raise Health Insurance Rates
Tools & Resources
Making the Right CallA Consumers' Guide to a New Cell Phone Plan
Paying Taxes, Safe and SoundCALPIRG Education Fund
Avoiding Identity TheftTips & Tools to Stay Safe From ID Theft
Register to Vote OnlineFall 2016 deadline is Monday, October 24th!
Mobile App Resource PageCALPIRG Education Fund
A New Direction In Driving TrendsOur Changing Relationship with Driving and the Implications for America's FutureCALPIRG Education Fund
SO YOU NEED HEALTH INSURANCE. NOW WHAT?Read the Health Insurance 101 guide below, or download the PDF here.CALPIRG Education Fund
CALPIRG Security Freeze and Identity Theft TipsCALPIRG Education Fund
Leading Groups Send Criteria for Evaluating VW SettlementSeeking Compensation for Consumers and Environment
Back to School ToolkitCampaign for Lead-Free SchoolsCALPIRG Education Fund
Lead Free Schools - Oakland Support LetterCALPIRG Education Fund
Get the Lead Out: Back to School ToolkitCALPIRG Education Fund
Letter to Dept of Pesticide Regulation about ChlorpyrifosPublic Comment in Support of Proposal to List Chlorpyrifos as a Toxic Air Contaminant
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Support us
We've got a chance to clean up the health care industry in California, but with lobbyists lining the halls of the state capitol, we need your support.


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The DC Bliss Marriage Seminar
Event Details
With over 10 years and thousands of participants, the BLISS Relationship Seminar is by far the most popular marriage program in the DC region. It's an incredibly entertaining way to a winning relationship.
Improve your marriage FAST. One of the first things you will be amazed to learn is not only how fun the program is, but how these same easy tools can help you with your parenting too!
The seminar is 7 weeks long, and each session is an independent blow-away experience. Participants may begin at any time and continue through the series until they have attended all 7 sessions.
Register now and get the 40 page work book which includes the Bliss Personality Test.
The Bliss Curriculum:
Bliss 1: Expectations
There is only one word you need to know that will turn around any relationship - no matter what state it's in!
You just won't believe it till you hear it.
Bliss 2: 50% divorce Rates do not mean the other 50% are in bliss
Being happily married is neither rocket science nor endless sacrifices, in fact everything needed to be happy is already known to you.
You just won't believe it till you hear it.
Bliss 3: What if you marry the Wrong Person?
Many people struggle with their marriage and parenting simply because they don't know their job definition. Once you understand what the job is, you will be amazed at how many problems evaporate.
You just won't believe it till you hear it.
Bliss 4: The 7 Misnomers of Marriage
They say love is blind, they say you can't define love. They haven't been to BLISS.
You just won't believe it till you hear it.
Bliss 5: The 7 Rules of an Argument
These simple concepts are going to change and smoothe the way you communicate with your spouse. These same techniques can also be used with your child and even at work!
Bliss 6: The one thing you need to enjoy Marriage & Parenting
Once you understand how love works, making it work is easy - you just won't believe it till you hear it!
Bliss 7: The Meaning of Intimacy
This highly charged session has it all. Everything you ever wanted to know!
More Details:
Location: The Bliss Seminar at the JCC of Greater Washington in Rockville: 6125 Montrose Road, MD 20852
Date: Every Thursday
Time: 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm


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I had the opportunity to speak at the New York Oracle Users Group (http://nyoug.org/info/metro_area_user_group/Metro_Area_User_Group_Meeting_Sep_2009_Agenda.pdf) today at Hotel New Yorker. I spoke about reucing the risk during the 10g to 11g upgrade using various tools and techniques available to us as a DBA. Here is the slide deck, if you are iterested.
Some of the technologies I have described during the talk have been explained in detail on various articles I have written. Here they are:
Database Replay: http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/08-jan/o18dbasereplay.html
SQL Performance Analyzer (SPA):
SQL Plan Management: http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/09-mar/o29spm.html
As always, I highly appreciate folks coming to me after the talk and provide the feedback. Please keep the feedbacks coming, via emails, phone calls, telepathy, whatever. I really look forward to them.
Confessions of an Oracle Database Junkie - Arup Nanda The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. They may not necessarily reflect that of my employers and customers - both past or present. The comments left by the reviewers are theirs alone and may not reflect my opinion whether implied or not. None of the advice is warranted to be free of errors and ommision. Please use at your own risk and after thorough testing in your environment.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Sepaking at New York Oracle Users Group
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Ooh! Columbia Pictures has released a first batch of official movie stills from The Amazing Spider-Man and I happen to think they look pretty promising. The newest of the Spidey series will star Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Emma Stone as Peter's other, blonde-haired love, Gwen Stacy (not the red-headed Mary Jane originally played by Kirsten Dunst). Let's take a gander through some of the film's publicity shots and decide what to think.
Here we have Spidey decked out in his Spidey Suit. Looks good and all, but what's with his fingers? Is Spiderman shaming the bad guy with his pointer finger or just harnessing his chi? Moving on...
Hey! What's the guy from The Social Network doing on the top of that subway car? Doesn't he know that it's totally unsanitary to touch the inside of a New York City train with your bare hands? Somebody give the man some antibacterial hand sanitizer, STAT.
Ah, now we're talking. To me, this sole image explains any questions in my mind about why, exactly, the two began to date in real life upon filming the movie.
Click any image to enlarge.
So what do you think? Are the steamy pix of this real-life Hollywood "it" couple enough to make you go out and see the movie — or are you longing for Tobey McGuire to get back into the Spidey suit? Or, if you're like me, are you "not that into" superhero flicks and find yourself waiting until Ryan Gosling to be cast in a reboot of, say, The Invisible Man? Just me? Okay, then.


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Smith: Erasing truth violates ideals
Among the rights we Americans proudly claim — the right to free expression, to bear arms, to avoid self-incrimination, and so on — should there also be a right to be forgotten? That is, to erase one's past in the pursuit of privacy?
It's an idea gaining traction in a world increasingly inventoried by digital databases accessible to anyone with a computer and a modem, but there's a long history to it.
Decades ago, when I was a young reporter in a small town, my beat included a daily visit to the local jail, where I would open a big log book and copy down the names of those incarcerated during the previous 24 hours. The sheriff was an old-fashioned guy, demonstrated, I thought, by the fact that his log entries weren't even written in ink. He used a No. 2 pencil.
One morning a prominent citizen's name appeared in the book, a result of failing to drive home successfully the night before from a local tavern. This would surely be a story that afternoon in my little local newspaper. Even when the unhappy gentleman showed up in the newsroom to argue that his long friendship with my publisher should earn him escape from public humiliation, I was unswayed. This was newsworthy.
But then the old sheriff called. He suggested that I come back and check the jail log right away. The jail was a three-block walk from the newspaper's back door. When I arrived, I found that the important fellow's name was no longer in the book. The eraser, it seems, was mightier than the press.
That leading citizen had been locked up; I was sure of it. But with no document to affirm what my eyes had seen in the sheriff's log, publishing what I knew to be true would have put my newspaper at risk of a libel suit. So I had to leave the tale to the local gossips, who doubtless also noted how unreliable the local newspaper had become.
Now the notion of official "truth" failing to reflect actual experience is a rising threat. During an event last week at the College of Saint Rose, Eve Burton, general counsel of Hearst Corporation (which owns the Times Union), thoughtfully laid out the issue: There's an increasingly pitched battle, Burton noted, between our First Amendment right to shine a light wherever truth may lie and the growing demand for privacy in the face of digital tracking of all we do. As citizens understandably push for privacy, some politicians are weighing laws that would sacrifice truth for a sanitized view of reality.
Burton, one of the nation's leading First Amendment experts, conceded that the digital revolution has presented questions that challenge our usual strict adherence to the principle of openness.
Consider, for example, the downstate school principal who called our newsroom not long ago to ask that we remove from our digital archives a long-ago story that listed his name. As a youth, he had attended a Grateful Dead concert in Albany and was charged with pot possession. Now that's hurting his credibility, he said, as he tries to convince students to stay away from drugs.
But the account in our files was a true picture of what happened that day in Albany. Does his embarrassment justify altering that snapshot of reality?
"We now live in a world where everything written is out there forever," Burton said. "But it's impossible to protect privacy in the digital age in a way that does not damage the democratic lifestyle we've come to cherish."
A number of states are weighing "erasure" statutes, which would remove from public databases any mention of certain crimes when defendants are cleared by the courts or charges are dismissed. Those dispositions don't mean the person wasn't arrested, of course. But if there's no record of any arrest, an account of it could be considered untrue.
Similarly, European nations are weighing "right to be forgotten" laws, which would require tracking down and removing from digital files millions of pieces of factual information previously made public. Beyond being impractical, it suggests that truth is malleable.
You can't be callous about the Internet's intrusion into privacy. When a teenager does something dumb, should that follow him around forever? What about a businessman who in a period of stress commits a financial crime, and after appropriate punishment leads an upright life? Must they be forever tarred by Google search results?
People deserve second chances. But real redemption arises from clear-eyed recognition that mistakes are human, rather than from vision shielded from the truth. Better to be rooted in reality, that is, than artificial turf. In the end, there's no right to erasure.
Rex Smith is editor of the Times Union. Share your thoughts at http://blogs.timesunion.com/editors


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The Huge Impact of Technology on Education
Have you noticed what's happening in your child's school? Technology. There's rarely a lesson taught, be it math or science or health, that doesn't include some form of technology.
Education has changed to enhance its message, increase its reach, and improve its communication. If you haven't been in the classroom lately, drop by this week when you pick up your wonderful student.
There's likely to be a Smartboard (or some sort of interactive screen) on the wall, a pod of computers (if not 1:1 laptops) overflowing from a corner, maybe iPads on desktops or in a mobile cart, a digital camera and microphones to record events, and streaming video from the "Discovery Channel."
Those ubiquitous samples of student work that traditionally clutter the walls now include many created with computers.
How Technology Can Enable Innovation
Today's education happens by standing on the shoulders of technology innovation.
If you don't have a school-age child, take a peek at Cisco's VNI Service Adoption Forecast (VNI-SA) research. There's an uptick in the impact of technology on all parts of consumer life. According to the research the average home had four connected devices in 2011, and by 2016 that number will rise to nearly 7. But it's not just about the connectivity, it's what the connectivity means. These changes are all about connecting students to their future, empowering them with responsibility for their own education in areas such as:
- Access to learning
- Quality of instruction and education assessment
- Innovative learning models
- Decision making
- Reduced costs with administrative efficiency (not yet, but it's a good goal)
As a tech teacher, the new educational paradigm relies on either the United States' No Child Left Behind, the International Baccalaureate Organization's International IB educational guidelines, and/or the National Board of Governors state-driven Common Core Standards (already adopted in 46 states).
Interestingly, these education standards may (or may not) address technology, but only tangentially, as they contribute to core subjects. Many states have area-specific technology standards (though all don't, most visibly California). Others leave it to the International Society of Technology Education's well-respected NETS national technology standards.
As the tech teacher, I used to teach keyboarding and software. Now, depending upon my school's focus, it's laptops, iPads, online tools, websites, and problem-solving to increase independence.
Over the next months, I'll give you a peek into how today's classrooms are using this unprecedented access to the world's knowledge base. I'll start with keyboarding.
It's not your mother's typing class. First off, it starts in kindergarten. I bet most of you took typing in high school—maybe middle school if your school district was precocious.
What a wonderful time to be a student.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade and the creator of two technology training books for middle school and three eBooks on technology in education.
Join our team of VNI-SA bloggers (follow @CiscoVNI)
Do you have an interesting story of how technology has changed your community, your work, or your business? Is technology providing opportunities that impact the socio-economics of the world around you? Contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com if you'd like to contribute to this blog series.
What is VNI-SA? This is the Service Adoption forecast portion of our popular VNI research. It focuses on the worldwide end user adoption rates for a wide variety of services (e.g., SMS, mobile banking, online gaming, social media, location-based services). Read more at http://www.cisco.com/go/vnisa
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.
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SOURCE: Reed's, Inc.
May 05, 2009 09:00 ET
Company Launches New YouTube Channel, Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Site
LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - May 5, 2009) - Reed's,
Inc. (NASDAQ: REED), maker of the top-selling sodas in natural food
stores nationwide, announced today that it has launched a YouTube channel and is
aggressively expanding its Social Media Marketing efforts.
Reed's was recently chosen as an online Social Media case-study offered by Marketwire and
presented by Expansion + Internet Marketing PR Founder Sally Falkow. As
part of this case-study Reed's discovered that there is a vigorous online
conversation going on about their company and their brands. In addition to
participating in the study, Reed's, Inc. has directed IRTH Communications to add
strategic Social Media elements to their marketing program, which includes
the following:
-- A branded YouTube channel with content for consumers and stakeholders:
-- A purpose-built DEL.ICIO.US page: http://www.delicious.com/reedsinc
-- A presence on Facebook with a fan page:
-- A Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/reedsgingerbrew
Reed, Founder and CEO of Reed's, commented, "We have had local and
national TV coverage, a focus spot on more than one CNBC program, been a
question on Jeopardy and have been covered twice on the Food Network. Our
new YouTube channel contains these spots as well as several other videos
made by our fans."
Reed continued, "Social Media is new to us, but we are seeing the results
of participating in the online conversation already. We plan to continue
expanding our strategy with new ideas and feedback from our online fans.
Social Media is a key way for us to hear from our customers and create
areas of support and networking."
"Reed's is an ideal subject for the social media case-study," said Sally
Falkow, content strategist at Expansion +. "They have brand ambassadors
who talk about their products online, there are Mom bloggers who have a
strong interest in the health benefits of ginger and natural sodas, and
there are financial bloggers who are interested in the performance of the
company. Knowing this kind of information opens the door to many
Mark Moline, Managing Partner of IRTH Communications, LLC commented,
"Reed's is an incredible brand with a loyal and growing consumer following.
We believe the company is ideally suited to marketing online and
establishing a presence in the Social Media world. YouTube and Facebook
combined have over 500,000,000 users. We are exposing Reed's to a whole
new audience of consumers who may not have known about the company or its
brands prior."
About Reed's, Inc.
Reed's, Inc. makes the top selling sodas in natural food markets nationwide
and is currently selling in 10,500 supermarkets in natural foods and
mainstream. Its six award-winning non-alcoholic Ginger Brews are unique in
the beverage industry, being brewed, not manufactured and using fresh
ginger, spices and fruits in a brewing process that predates commercial
soft drinks. In addition, the Company owns the top selling root beer line
in natural foods, the Virgil's Root Beer product line, and the top selling
cola line in natural foods, the China Cola product line. Other product
lines include: Reed's Ginger Candies and Reed's Ginger Ice Creams.
Reed's products are sold through specialty gourmet and natural food stores,
mainstream supermarket chains, retail stores and restaurants nationwide,
and in Canada. For more information about Reed's, please visit the
company's website at: http://www.reedsgingerbrew.com or call 800-99-REEDS.
Subscribe to Reed's RSS feed at:
More information can be found at:
Some portions of this press release, particularly those describing Reed's
goals and strategies, contain "forward-looking statements." These
forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because the
context of the statement will include words, such as "expects," "should,"
"believes," "anticipates" or words of similar import. Similarly, statements
that describe future plans, objectives or goals are also
forward-looking statements. While Reed's is working to achieve those goals
and strategies, actual results could differ materially from those projected
in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risks and
uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include difficulty in
marketing its products and services, maintaining and protecting brand
recognition, the need for significant capital, dependence on third party
distributors, dependence on third party brewers, increasing costs of fuel
and freight, protection of intellectual property, competition and other
factors, any of which could have an adverse effect on the business plans of
Reed's, its reputation in the industry or its expected financial return
from operations and results of operations. In light of significant risks
and uncertainties inherent in forward-looking statements included herein,
the inclusion of such statements should not be regarded as a representation
by Reed's that they will achieve such forward-looking statements. For
further details and a discussion of these and other risks and
uncertainties, please see our most recent reports on Form 10-KSB and Form
10-Q, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as they may be
amended from time to time. Reed's undertakes no obligation to publicly
update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new
information, future events, or otherwise.
IRTH Communications, LLCMark B. MolineManaging Partner760-458-4899Email Contacthttp://www.irthcommunications.comhttp://www.twitter.com/irthcomm
See all RSS Newsfeeds
Reed's Founder and CEO Christopher Reed on CNBC's On the Money.
Reed's Founder and CEO Christopher Reed
View Image


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Popup Towing Products Debuting New Website
April 3, 2013 by RVBusiness · Comments Off on Popup Towing Products Debuting New Website
Popup Towing Products, a division of Chanute, Kan.-based Young's Products LLC, has launched a new website touting the company's line of gooseneck and fifth-wheel towing products.
According to a press release, the web portal has been redesigned with a fresh new look and offers updated information about the company's products and services.
Users can access hitch models through a current year application chart along with printable installation instructions. Other features include a "Find a Dealer" page, towing guidelines and FAQ'S to help customers determine which hitch is best suited for their towing needs.
The company noted that all towing products are built in the U.S. To view the new site visit www.popuphitch.com.