text: Description: This GPS tracker TK905 is working based on existing GSM/GPRS network and GPS satellites,it can locate and monitor any remote targets by SMS,APP and internet.It adopts the most advanced technology of GPS and AGPS dual positioning.Besides,with built-in powerful magnet,it can be installed Frequency(850/900/1800/ 1900Mhz) can work perfectly around the worldwide. Feature: 1.SMS Tracking:this tracker can reply the position information to the admin number with google map link. 2.GPS,AGPS and LBS positioning. 3.Admin number setting:after setting for the admin number,all SMS operations to the device will just can under this number. 4.Movement alarm:once you set this function,the tracker will send alarm information to the admin number when the movement distance up to 500 meters. 5.Geo-fence. 6.Built-in powerful magnet,easy to be hidden and installed. 7.Check the history of route:the web server for thie device can save half year history data,you can download it as xls format document. 8.Voice monitor. 9.Lifetime free web tracking platform and APP. 10.Overspeed alarm. 11.Shake alarm:after set this function,if the tracker keep stationary for 5 minutes, this function will start working.Then once the tracker get shocked,it will send a SMS 'sensor alarm.'to the admin number. 12.Low battery alarm:tracker will send alarm information to you when the voltage lower than 3.5V. 13.Sleep mode by time and shoke sensor gps logger. Sleep mode by time:for example,you can set the time interval as 5 minutes,then the tracker will only work for 5 minutes after being waked up and back to sleep mode again.Besides,under this mode, GPS will shut off and GSM will work under low consumption mode.The SMS commands and incoming call can wake up the tracker.Sleep mode by shock sensor:after you set this mode,if the device has no shock for 5 minutes it will work under'sleep by shock 'mode automatically,the GPS will shut off and GSM will work under low consumption mode. The SMS commands,incoming call and vibration can wake up the tracker. 14.Real-time online tracking via web server and APP. 15.Waterproof IP65 design. 16.U-blox GPS chipset. 17.Super large built-in 3.7V 5000mAh rechargeable Li-ion battery,the standby time can last around 90 days. Login: 1.The login Page:www.mytkstar.net 2.Select 'Log in by IMEI'on the botton of screen. 3.IMEI NO.:On the back side of cover 4.Password:123456 Note: 1.Only GSM SIM card works in this GPS locator model. 2.Please make sure GSM SIM card supports making call,sending messages,GPRS network. 3.Please make sure GSM SIM card is with sufficient balance gps tracking. 4.Please make sure the GSM card has opened the call show and turned off the call transfer. 5.Please insert the GSM phone card correctly. 6.Please use the normal SIM card for the tracker,not Micro SIM or Nano SIM. Package Included: 1 X TKSTAR GPS Tracker 1 X USB Charging Cable 1 X English User Manual Specification: Dimension 90mm*72mm*22mm(3.54'x2.87'x0.83') Weight 168g Network GSM/GPRS Band 850/900/1800/1900Mhz GPS Sensitivity -159dBm GPS Accuracy 5 meters Time To First Fix Cold status 45s Warm status 35s Hot status 1s Wall Charger 110-220V input 5V-1A output Battery Chargeable 3.7V 5000mAh Li-ion battery Stand by 90 days Storage Temp -40 to 85 centigrade degree Operation Temp -20 to 55 centigrade degree Humidity 5%-95% non-condensing


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Publications \ The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener \ Winter 2003/2004
The Gonsalves Live "Within Their Harvest" in Their Straw Bale House
By Joyce White
Beautiful and sturdy, the Gonsalves' straw bale house fits snugly, organically, into its cleared niche between forest and brook with a sense of permanence and belonging. If the idea of a house of straw should conjure images of it being blown away with a huff and a puff from the big, bad wolf, seeing this real, lived-in straw bale house would quickly dispel any notion of impermanence or fragility.
Strawberries – A Good Crop for Northern Growers
By John Fuchs
New England growers rarely have an advantage over southern and western growers, but strawberries offer a delicious example of a crop that is better suited to the cool, moist climate and acidic soils of New England than to the heat of the south or the dry, alkaline conditions prevailing in many Western states. New Englanders should exploit their advantage.
'Matchbox' Peppers: Finishing the Breeding of 'Super Chili'
By Tim King
In late September, my glossy green 'Matchbox' peppers, with their heavy load of waxy red and yellow chilies, were like decorated Christmas trees. We used to grow 'Super Chili' before we grew 'Matchbox,' because 'Super Chili' deserved its All America Selections award when it was released over a decade ago. Its short, dense plants never failed to yield a hundred or more fruit, whether the weather was too hot, too cold, too dry or too wet. But like all good commercial hybrids, 'Super Chili' was in everyone's catalog, and then, within five years of release, became initially hard to find and then, briefly, disappeared.
MOFGA's [email protected]
By Jean English
In September, the MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee, with funds from Maine Initiatives, the Unity Foundation, two Empty Bowl suppers and several private donors, brought four delegates from the Chalatenango department of El Salvador to Maine to visit farms, markets, colleges, a high school and activists in the area and to participate in the Common Ground Country Fair. Chalatenango is home to some 130,000 residents and is about the size of Waldo County. The delegates, who represented two nongovernmental organizations that are sistering with MOFGA, gave two talks in the Agricultural Demonstrations Area of the Fair, and delegate Juvelina Palma gave a keynote speech at the Fair. (A translation is provided in this MOF&G.)
Farming Across Generations: A Business Model
By Alice Torbert
Something is seriously rotten in the state of Maine agriculture. We may fly a flag with a farmer on it, but farmland acreage is steadily shrinking, and less than 1 percent of Maine's people live on farms. Wisconsin cows are causing our cows some serious trouble, and Frito-Lay prefers Idaho variety #X129W to a good old-fashioned Kennebec. (Well, you know what they say – there's no accounting for taste.)
Greenhouse Pest Management
By Colin Stewart, Ph.D., University of Maine Cooperative Extension Homeowner/Greenhouse IPM Specialist
This article discusses many lower toxicity pest control measures, including biological controls. The key to using biologicals successfully is to monitor your greenhouse regularly to detect and correctly identify pests and to introduce the correct biological control agent before large numbers of pests are present.
Cooking with Celeriac
By Jean Ann Pollard
What's so round, so firm, so – strangely hairy? If you've never seen celeriac, you couldn't guess. The literature has few references to it – at least in America. It's a root vegetable that's been around for about 4000 years, but its lack of publicity wouldn't tell you so. In Europe, however, this member of the Umbelliferae family, related to parsnips (Pastinaca sativa), carrots (Daucus carota) and parsley (Petroselinum crispum), has long been revered.
Edible Flowers
By Ellie MacDougall
Soon after I began to grow vegetables, I realized that flowers have a place in the same garden. In fact, I don't have a 'vegetable garden' or 'flower garden' any more, but just 'the garden,' and everybody seems to get along fine. Even more, some flowers, such as marigolds, not only taste good but help their companion vegetables grow stronger and healthier.
Harvest Kitchen: Green Soybean Succotash
By Roberta Bailey
This summer I trialed 10 varieties of green soybeans for a local seed company. I planted and labeled each variety carefully, then took notes at various stages of development. The crowning event was the edamame (green soybean) taste-off. I steamed each variety separately, then shelled them into individual bowls. All of them had the delicious, nutty taste of green soybeans, but three were a little sweeter: 'Sayamasume,' 'Beer Friend' and 'Shironomai.'
Grow Your Own Soybeans/Edamame
By Roberta Bailey
Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote an article for The MOF&G entitled, "What is tofu?" At the time tofu was not available in convenient, pre-packed cartons on any grocery store shelf, but could be found in a 5-gallon pail in the cooler of the local food co-op, or you could make your own. Francis Moore Lappe's message of a vegetarian "Diet for a Small Planet" was just taking hold. Many of us were learning to pass up the beef and cook with rice and beans, tofu, tempeh and miso. But very few were using edamame.
Blue Cohosh
By Deb Soule
Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), a member of the Berberidaceae family, is a long-lived herbaceous perennial that is native to the moist woodlands of the upper Appalachian Mountain Range. This plant is sensitive to light and therefore must grow in the understory, preferably of a mixed hardwood forest. It prefers a slightly acid forest loam (pH 5 to 6) that is moist and cool. I have seen beautiful large stands of several hundred blue cohosh plants growing in the southeastern corner of Ohio and in Vermont, but never in Maine.
Heritage Turkeys Increasing, but …
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy conducted a census of turkeys in the winter of 2002-2003. The results are encouraging – and concerning. Populations of standard varieties of turkeys are increasing, but the number of hatcheries actually breeding standard turkeys is declining. While standard turkeys are being brought back from the brink of extinction, they are not yet safe from peril.
Interesting New Studies
By Eric Sideman
In the fall I attended the 100th anniversary, annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences in Providence, Rhode Island. The ASHS has a good mix of members representing university researchers, Extension educators and industry who study all aspects of crop production. The reports covered very basic plant science to practical aspects of farming. The small sample below gives you an idea of some of the work that ASHS does.
Tips & Tidbits
$40,000 an Acre from Raspberries – Maybe
An Easy Berry Bush
Backyard Berries Make Easy Edible Landscape
Diesel Starting Tips
Hard-Working Wasps Help Protect Apple Crops
Incorporate Manure Quickly to Reduce N Losses
Pesticides Quiz and Info Online
Pruning Tips
Tips for Starting a CSA
Thwack Potato Beetles into Buckets
MOFGA Should Accept Art
Sludge Stance Appreciated
MOFGA Sludge Policy
After several months of investigation and discussion at the request of many members, MOFGA's Public Policy Committee has developed a revised policy on sludge, which was approved by the Board of Directors on October 19, 2003. MOFGA's previous policy, incorporated in its certification standards, banned the use of sludge on certified crop land but did not address the issue of application of sludge to land generally.
It's All A Jumble Sometimes, by Russell Libby, MOFGA Executive Director
The best part of being MOFGA's executive director is getting to see what all of you are doing, and sometimes to get a glimpse of how all the pieces fit together. Of course the hardest part of the job is figuring out how to get some of the pieces to fit when they seem to be going in different directions. I thought I'd give a brief overview of how a few parts are going now.
A Few Words on Frank Eggert
Frank Eggert, MOFGA board president in 1981 and 1982, died at the age of 83 in late October.
Civilization: Seeking the Multipliers
By Jean English, Editor, The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener
My middle-school-age son is studying the transition of humans from nomadic hunter-gatherers to stable agrarian societies. I benefit by learning once again (or even for the first time) about events that contributed to human civilization: the discovery of metals; development of language; learning how to cultivate crops and domesticate animals; and so on.
Sourcing Good Goods for the Country Store
The Complete Guide to Making Great Garlic Powder, by Herrick Kimball
Guide Helps Farmers and Ranchers Transfer Land to the Next Generation
Turning to Earth: Stories of Ecological Conversion, by F. Marina Schauffler
Voices from the South Debunk GE Myths
Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, by Sandor Ellis Katz
News & Events
Board of Pesticides Control
Volunteer Profile
Country Store Coordinators Lisa and Roy Miller
MOFGA Notes
A Delicious and Relaxing Fundraiser
Fundraiser for Laughing Stock Farm
Organizational Development Work: By-Laws Changes
Goodbye to Keith Zaltzberg
Hello to Andrew Marshall
Fair News
Thanks for Another Great Fair
Exhibition Hall Prizes
Food Area Ribbons
Donkey and Mule Show
Fleece Show Results
Livestock Awards
Oxen Scooting
SPA Awards
5K Foot Race Results
Common Kitchen 2003

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi, Howdy... Hello!!
This week over at the Paper Cupcake's Challenge Blog; There's Magic In The Air; which you can find HERE. Gloria Westerman brings us our challenge in which she would like everyone so "Just Say Hello". So, another wards make a card/project to a new teacher, neighbor, friend...etc. anybody you want to just say hello to..... So that is exactly what I did using the freebie this week by Paper Cupcakes. The image is called "Greetings" and will only be available for free for 48 hours, so make sure you stop by and grab this cute image and play along with the challenge!
August 20, 2012
Magical Monday - "Just Say Hello"
Posted by Nina at 6:12 PM
3 comments:
- wannabcre8tive said...
Love the pretty papers and the added butterfly. I like how you colored your little guy and gave him the dotted bandana.
- August 21, 2012 at 10:37 AM
- Kathy Bradley said...
Your little guy is just the cutest. I love how you did his body and the blue topper. The DP is awesome and the littlebows and butterfly are awesome!!
- August 21, 2012 at 5:43 PM
- ddazzled71 said...
Nina your card is so lovely with its gorgeous combination of color and patterns and I especially love the wonderful detail you have added to this cute little grub! xx
- August 25, 2012 at 10:56 PM
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What happens in the elevator stays in the elevator? Sorry, Luke Bryan. That's not exactly true. Because, you know, surveillance cameras and the Internet and all that. So we saw what you did in that elevator with Florida Georgia Line on Wednesday night (June 4). And, we loved it.
Bryan and the duo's Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley put their own spin/spoof on the infamous elevator fight between Beyoncé's sister Solange Knowles and Jay Z that happened after the Met Gala in New York City on May 5.
While the country singers were inside the elevator, the grainy black-and-white image was captured of the three pushing and shoving. Kind of like fighting, but classier than the Knowles/Jay Z attack. (By the way, why was she so mad? It really makes you wish elevator cameras recorded audio.)
But the whole time Bryan, Hubbard and Kelley were going at it, the CMT Music Awards host Kristen Bell waited patiently for her elevator. Once the doors opened, the singers stopped fighting, and Bryan turned to Bell and said, "What happens in the elevator stays in the elevator."
It was all in jest, of course. Later in the show, Bryan and Florida Georgia Line's "This Is How We Roll" won the fan-voted award for best collaborative video. In his acceptance speech, Hubbard said, "I want to thank our fans, and I want to thank Luke Bryan for being part of this amazing ride with us and for letting us be a part of his ride."
The comic clip was part of a video skit poking fun at the fact that Bell had to host this year's show alone.Check out the full opening segment from the 2014 CMT Music Awards.


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NEW YORK, N.Y. – A year ago, Facebook was just testing the waters of mobile advertising, causing plenty of headaches for investors ahead of its massive initial public offering.
It has since eased those worries.
On Wednesday the world's biggest social networking company said nearly a third of its advertising revenue came from mobile in the first three months of the year, helping to push total revenue up 38 per cent to surpass Wall Street's expectations.
"They are making the transition to mobile faster than anyone anticipated," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "It seems like they are delivering."
Facebook Inc. said Wednesday that its net income was $219 million, or 9 cents per share, in the January-March period. That's up from $205 million, or 9 cents per share, in the same period a year ago, when it was still private.
Revenue grew to $1.46 billion from $1.06 billion, above analysts' expectations of $1.44 billion.
Excluding special items, mainly related to stock compensation expenses, Facebook earned 12 cents per share, matching the average of analyst expectations, according to FactSet.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook said that its mobile advertising revenue was 30 per cent of its total ad revenue in the first quarter, amounting to $375 million. That's up from 23 per cent, or $306 million, in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter — the first time it disclosed such figures — the company generated 14 per cent, or $153 million, of its advertising revenue from mobile.
Investors had been worried about Facebook's ability to grow mobile revenue since before its initial public offering in May 2012. That's because although the number of people who access Facebook on smartphones and tablet computers has been growing quickly, Facebook didn't begin showing ads to those users until last year.
David Ebersman, Facebook's chief financial officer, said most advertisers did not specify that their ads be shown only on desktop computers or only on mobile devices, "rather they put their ads into our system and allow us to show the ads on whatever device where the ads will perform best."
Bhatia thinks Facebook will fare even better on mobile devices once Zuckerberg firms up its plan to make money from the growing audience checking into Instagram, a photo-sharing service that the company bought last year for $521 million. The analyst believes Instagram will play a bigger role in Facebook's business next year.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said the results are likely to quiet skeptics who doubted Facebook's ability to mine its growing mobile traffic for revenue. He was particularly impressed by the 23 per cent increase in Facebook's mobile ad revenue, even though the company's overall ad revenue for the period dipped 6 per cent from the final three months of last year.
"Their mobile business is probably bigger than any mobile business on the planet other than the (wireless telecommunications) carriers and Google," Pachter said.
Facebook started showing mobile advertisements in early 2012. In the third quarter of last year, the company generated 14 per cent, or $153 million of its advertising revenue from mobile. In the fourth quarter mobile ads represented to 23 per cent, or $306 million.
Research firm eMarketer says Facebook's share of the U.S. online advertising market is growing. This year, the company is expected to take a 6.5 per cent share of U.S. online ad spending, up from 5.9 per cent in 2012. Still, that figure is far behind Google Inc.'s 41.6 per cent.
On the mobile front, eMarketer expects Facebook to take a 13.2 per cent share of U.S. ad revenue, up from 9.5 per cent in 2012, the first year it made any money from mobile ads. Though Facebook is No. 2, it is far behind Google in U.S. mobile advertising. EMarketer expects the online search leader to take a 54.7 per cent share of U.S. mobile advertising revenue this year.
The company also grew its user base during the quarter. This has also been an area of some concern to investors amid chatter of "Facebook fatigue," especially among younger users, surfacing in recent months. But Facebook said its monthly user base grew to 1.11 billion accounts as of the end of March, up 5 per cent from 1.06 million at the end of December.
The number of users who access Facebook every day, on average, grew 8 per cent to 665 million in March, from 618 million in December.
Gartner Inc. analyst Brian Blau said the ongoing growth of daily users suggests that the service is a tough habit to break.
"The network remains in full force," Blau said. "You have to give them a lot of credit."
That doesn't mean there won't be concerns about some Facebook users, especially teenagers, migrating to other mobile applications and digital outlets to hang out with friends and share slices of their lives, said Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott.
"There is always going to be something new in social," Elliott said. "The question is how much of it is a threat to Facebook? All Facebook can do is keep those users coming back and make money off those users. And Facebook seems to be doing both of those things reasonably well."
Instagram now has 100 million monthly users, up from 22 million when Facebook agreed to buy the company in April 2012.
Facebook's stock rose 12 cents to $27.55 in after-hours trading. The stock closed down 34 cents on Wednesday. It is up 3 per cent since the beginning of the year compared with an 11 per cent increase for the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Facebook went public on May 18, 2012, at $38 per share, a price it hasn't hit since.
AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this story.


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Tiger moths
Amata phegea
In all of Europe we only have six species of the Amata Genus - if we step up to the Tribe where Amata belongs, we get 3 additional Dysauxes species . In Africa below Sahara there are over 100 known Amata species.
Amata phegea (2)
Did you know?: The Amata Genus is mimicking the Zygaena ephialtes, which is poisonous.


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If you want a demonstration of the speed at which the technology industry works these days just consider Sharp's thin TVs. The first time we heard about them was when the company unveiled prototypes in the middle of last year. At that time Sharp talked vaguely about them hitting the market sometime before the end of the decade. They seemed a little way away.
A couple of months later at the Ceatec show in Tokyo a couple of Sharp's competitors had their own thin TVs and at CES in January in Las Vegas still more thin sets appeared from competitors. Thin is apparently in and TV makers were starting to get bullish on the new designs.
Fast forward just a couple of weeks after CES and Sharp has shown its first commercial sets and set an aggressive launch schedule of March in Japan. With the speedy move Sharp, which was the first TV maker to fully embrace LCD technology, is determined to get a lead on the competition.
That this all happened in the space of six months is impressive to say the least and points to the fast pace at which new technologies are appearing on the market. Sometimes consumer will put off purchases a few months to wait for a particular feature to come to market but all too often when the desired feature is finally available there's another even better feature just around the corner.
It's how companies are getting us to spend money and replace products faster than ever before. For example, back in the 70s and 80s TVs lasted 10, 15 or 20 years but can you imagine keeping an LCD TV set for 20 years today? The set might work fine but will look hopelessly out-of-date after just a few years. When it comes to buying technology it pays to remember, there might never be a good time to buy but there's also never a bad time to buy.
Sharp thin LCD TV
Just a few months ago Sharp impressed with prototype LCD TVs that were just a few centimeters thick. Now they're products and coming to Japan in March. Sharp's new X-series models come in 37-, 42- and 46-inch screen sizes and are just 3.44 centimeters at their thinnest point and fatten slightly to 3.85 cm at the thickest point. That's less than half the thickness of sets in two other product lines that Sharp also introduced Thursday. Sharp has also separated the tuner unit into a VCR-sized box thus furthering helping keep the TV thin. Prices will range from US$4,520 for the 46-inch to US$3,290 for the 37-inch set. Sharp will be putting thin sets on sale overseas but it doesn't have a concrete plan at present, it said. Appearances will be further improved with the use of an optional wireless video transmitter than means just a power cable needs to be fed to the set. The wireless kit, which includes a transmitter and received, will cost US$845.
Sony Bravia handheld TV
Sony is packing its Bravia technology into a new handheld TV it plans to put on sale in Japan on April 10. The XDV-D500 has a 3-inch screen and includes the "mobile Bravia engine" digital image processor that seeks to improve the picture's color, contrast and brightness for an overall better image. The device can also record up to 10 hours of TV programs and comes with an AM and FM radio. It will cost US$355. By putting the Bravia name on the set Sony is hoping the device will get a sales kick from the substantial brand it has built up around the Bravia name. Sony will also sell a second portable TV set on the same day but it doesn't include the Bravia technology. The XDV-G200 has a 2-inch screen and will cost US$281. The OneSeg TV service is based on the ISDB-T standard that is only used in Japan so the sets won't work overseas.
Samsung fragrance-suggesting mobile phones
Samsung is unashamedly promoting calorie counting, shopping lists and fragrance prediction as killer-apps in three new mobile phones aimed at women. The phones are designed to appeal to women by being both stylish and functional -- functions defined by these three features. While the workings of the shopping list and calorie counter are obvious, the fragrance function works by suggesting a suitable fragrance through the user's favorite food and beverages, said Samsung. The L310 and L320 are tri-band GSM clamshell handsets and also have a 2-megapixel camera and Bluetooth. Both go in sale in February. The L310 will initially be available in Russia and Hungary and cost US$350, the L320 will be on sale in Russia and CIS and carry a US$321 price tag.


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To some degree, the rapprochement was a dinner party. In 1972, for the first time in 25 years, American and Chinese leaders convened to discuss normalizing diplomatic relations. Although high-level political discussions went on behind closed doors, people around the world were able to witness cultural events between the two countries -- like the banquet depicted in the photo above.
Large, round tables filled the hall where Americans and Chinese sat side-by-side with their counterparts. The press was also there, but very few American photographers were allowed to document the historic trip -- just six total, including LIFE's John Dominis. When not shooting photos he, too, was seated near his Chinese media colleagues.
At the Feb. 1972 banquet, President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai clinked glasses in celebratory toasts. Incidentally, Nixon had a known low tolerance for alcohol, and was advised by fellow U.S. official Alexander Haig to abstain from actually drinking the potent Chinese liquor, Maotai. In an unheralded political and cultural compromise, the president took small sips.
Back in the States, these dinners were -- and continue to be -- an endless source of fascination. They have been replicated at a New York restaurant and recreated on stage, while one of the menus has been studied by students in U.S. history classrooms.
More than 40 years later, Nixon's landmark trip to the People's Republic continues to provide food for thought.
Paulina Hartono is a student in the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley


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Converting Rational Numbers to Decimals (CCSS 7.NS.A.2d)
Fill in the gaps of your Common Core curriculum! Each ePacket has reproducible worksheets with questions, problems, or activities that correspond to the packet's Common Core standard. Download and print the worksheets for your students to complete. Then, use the answer key at the end of the document to evaluate their progress. Look at the product code on each worksheet to discover which of our many books it came from and build your teaching library! This ePacket has 5 activities that you can use to reinforce the standard CCSS 7.NS.A.2d: Converting Rational Numbers to Decimals. To view the ePacket, you must have Adobe Reader installed. You can install it by going to http://get.adobe.com/reader/.
Weiterlesen weniger lesen


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Obama to announce gun violence measures Wednesday
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is launching the nation's most sweeping effort to curb gun violence in nearly two decades, urging a reluctant Congress to ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines like those used in the Dec. 14 killing of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Conn.
The broad package Obama will announce Wednesday is expected to include more than a dozen steps the president can take on his own through executive action. Those measures will provide a pathway for skirting opposing lawmakers, but they will be limited in scope, and in some cases, focused simply on enforcing existing laws.
But Congress would have to approve the bans on assault weapons and ammunition magazines holding more than 10 bullets, along with a requirement for universal background checks on gun buyers.
Some gun control advocates worry that opposition from Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as the National Rifle Association, will be too great to overcome.
Obama will announce his proposals in a midday event at the White House, flanked by children who wrote to him about gun violence following the Sandy Hook shooting. Law enforcement officials, mayors from across the country and congressional lawmakers are also expected to attend.
The president's framework is based on recommendations from Vice President Joseph Biden, who led a wide-ranging task force on gun violence. Beyond the gun control measures, Biden also gave Obama suggestions for improving mental health care and addressing violent images in video games, movies and television.
The vice president's proposals included 19 steps that could be achieved through executive action.
Obama may order the Justice Department to crack down on people who lie on background checks; only a tiny number are now prosecuted. Such a step has support from the National Rifle Association, which has consistently argued that existing laws must be enforced before new ones are considered.
He also could take steps ordering federal agencies to make more data on gun crimes available and conduct more research on the issue, something Republican congressional majorities have limited through language in budget bills.
And he may order tougher penalties against gun trafficking and give schools flexibility to use grant money to improve safety.
White House officials signaled that Obama would seek to rally public support for the measures he puts forward, perhaps holding events around the country or relying on Organizing for America, his still-operational presidential campaign.


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Hiya! I came across this forum whilst researching the folklore of the bochan, I see that bochans get a lot of mentions on this group, and hello to 'Bochan Mor' if he or she is still using the forum
I'm curious to know if bochans are a part of the folklore of Kintyre? Most of the mentions I've found of them so far seem to be around Nova Scotia and The Isle of Lewis, and descriptions seem to vary a lot between ghosts, spectres, shape shifting creatures, and goat like creatures! Would love to know what bochans mean to the folks of Kintyre, if you'd be willing to tell me?
Down here in Northumberland we have brownies and brags but I don't think the bochan made it down this far unfortunately (or fortunately!)


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EWG News and Analysis
The latest from EWG's staff of experts >>
NPR: DuPont Under Fire for Teflon Fumes
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
From NPR's Morning Edition:
Teflon may make a great plate of scrambled eggs, but it also may make for a kitchen full of toxic fumes. That is the issue behind a class action lawsuit against the maker of the non-stick coating, DuPont.
Listen to full NPR broadcast here
Key Issues:


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1 - 10 of 26 Results
There were no documents that contained all of the words in your query. These results contain some of the words.
Hill country Kiwi sheep farm tour experience exclusive to SEEN AUCKLAND. Paerangi is a 1000 acre sheep and cattle farm, situated amongst picturesque hills and valleys of the north Waikato, just 90 minutes drive from Auckland City. Enjoy a hands on tour and authentic farm lunch complimented with…
tours » agricultural and farm tours
Modern accommodation just 8km from Auckland Airport and 13.5km from central Auckland. Accommodation options include Double Room with Private Bathroom, Luxury Triple Room, Twin Room with Private Bathroom, Deluxe Family Suite. All accommodation includes TV with satellite channels, refrigerator,…
accommodation » quiet accommodation
…in a World Heritage area. Range of ground floor, non-smoking units with excellent facilities. Room breakfast service. Close to lake, restaurants and shops. Comfortable day trip to Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. Tour bookings arranged. Friendly, helpful hosts keen to make your stay pleasant.
accommodation » motels and motor lodges
…or nature cruise is the ultimate way to see Milford Sound. You will be treated to photo opportunities and short walks that locals recommend, and an informative commentary throughout your trip. Travelling in luxury 18-seater Mercedes air-conditioned coach to Milford with local driver ensures comfort…
tours » scenic tours
Base yourself with us and explore all Fiordland has to offer. Located in central Te Anau with accommodation and facilities to suit all travellers, including families, backpackers, business visitors and groups; accommodation doesn't come any more comfortable and convenient. Family-run and…
accommodation » campsites and holiday parks
For a peek at some of Fiordland's birds that are difficult to see in the wild, visit the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary. It's a great place for children and families, and an easy 10 minute walk from Te Anau. The centre is open from dawn to dusk and can cater for guided tours if booked in advance.
attractions and activities » free visitor attractions
…status, seeing it from the air is an absolute Must-Do. From our spectacular Milford Sound scenic flight to getting off the beaten track with our Expedition Fiordland or landing in a hanging valley in Doubtful Sound, a scenic flight makes an unforgettable addition to your New Zealand vacation.
attractions and activities » adventure » heli activities
…3 suites are self-contained with king or twin beds, ensuite bathroom and kitchenette. At the end of your day, relax in our outdoor spa pool. After a night's peaceful slumber, awake to native birdsong and stunning mountain views. A full gourmet breakfast is included. Just a 5 minute stroll to town.
accommodation » bed and breakfast
…Te Anau. Located in spacious-surroundings 5mins walk to town-centre, restaurants and shops. BBQ area, children's adventure playground, wireless-internet available in all rooms and 12 channels of freeview TV. Excellent base from which to explore Te Anau, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound and Fiordland…
accommodation » motels and motor lodges
…Waiau River to the deserted shores of Lake Manapouri - named NZ's most beautiful lake - and walk in lush beech forest in Fiordland National Park. Travel through spectacular scenes from Lord of the Rings; see trout in crystal-clear waters; all while enjoying the innate fun a jet boat has to offer -…
attractions and activities » adventure » jet boating and jet skiing
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Home on the range
This year, I was lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving back home with my parents in central Montana. Holidays at home usually include the traditional trappings of board games, gravy boats and hungry dogs making cute under the table, followed by food-induced snooze fests in the living room. But what I most look forward to when I'm home for any holiday is an outing with my dad.
My dad is a funny guy. An ex-mountain climber and guide with degrees in English and education, he's kind of a philosopher-outdoorsman. When I was in high school, he would happily embarrass me in front of friends with recitations of "The Highwayman" or "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Growing up, I accompanied my parents on hiking and fishing trips into Montana's Beartooth and Pryor mountains. I wanted to be at the mall. But my dad convinced me that looking for fossils and horned lizards was way more fun.
Those jaunts also included arrowhead-hunting forays to local prairie dog towns and truck runs to the county dump to drop off our junk and comb through other people's discarded treasures. Some years ago, when my neighborhood was suffering a spurt of McMansion development, my dad and I also took clandestine monkey-wrenching trips to empty lots to "rearrange" real-estate signs and survey stakes -- just typical father-daughter stuff for us. This year's holiday outing, I soon learned, would involve that same enterprising spirit.
My dad said he'd "read somewhere" that the Bureau of Land Management was encouraging volunteers to install escape ladders for wildlife inside stock tanks placed on state-owned land. Though specifically designed to bring water to cattle, sheep and horses, stock tanks also attract birds, lizards, mice, skunks and other wild critters that are drawn to these concrete and plastic oases during summer months and periods of drought.
Unfortunately, thirsty animals often fall into the tanks, and without obvious escape routes, swim themselves to death. According to a technical bulletin from the BLM in Idaho, many small animals "become exhausted and drown if forced to swim more than 30 feet."
So this Thanksgiving morning, while my mom hauled potatoes and boxes of stuffing from the cupboard and started cooking, my dad and I hauled a makeshift ramp he'd made out of scrap wood to a stock tank on a coulee-cut sweep of rancher-leased state land near our house. The round trough sits at the end of a walking trail that my family frequents, and over the years, we've noticed a number of dead animals in the tank. Sometimes the creatures were floating, and sometimes, when the tank was empty, we'd peer in and see desiccated rodents or feathered bird skeletons plastered to the tank's grimy floor.
My dad and I climbed into the tank and positioned our ladder against its rim, securing the bottom step with a lichen-covered chunk of sandstone. As we worked, fiddling the ladder to a critter-walkable angle, I vividly recalled a time some years before when we'd found a raptor, face down, in the water-filled tank. Wind gusts ruffled its feathers and pushed it slowly around and around. Clusters of shiny orange and black carrion beetles sequined the bird's breast. The insects clung to the carcass like castaways to a lifeboat, though a few had jumped ship and thrashed madly at the tank's slick sidewalls. It was a morbid scene, but somehow beautiful, though not, perhaps, for a thirsty cow looking to refresh itself.
Indeed, according to a 2009 press release, Chuck Otto, manager for the BLM's Pinedale, Wyo., field office, said that "escape ladders are especially effective in stock tanks in remote areas, and not only prevent wildlife deaths but keep the water cleaner and healthier for livestock."
We finished the "install" and took a few minutes to admire our handiwork. "Well, maybe it will give the little critters a chance," my dad said. "But I think I'm gonna make another one, a better one." Sigh. My dad -- the constant carpenter.
A chilly wind rushed up the valley to greet us, buffeting our hair and the white-gold tufts of prairie grass that lined the trail. We took it as a sign to head back. As we walked, I thought about what our next Western-style adventure might be: metal-detecting behind the house, maybe, or spelunking local ice-caves. I realized, then, that I didn't particularly care what trips awaited us, so long as we continued to take them.
Marian Lyman Kirst is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org), where she is an intern.


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The Birth and Resurrection Parallels
In the first diagram the events stemming from the end of the 69th Week of Daniel are simply reversed forming a mirror image. As Jesus was raised from the dead seven days after the 69th Week, so also is the Church, both dead and living, seven days before the 70th Week. This also fits the Flood narrative of Noah being sealed into the Ark one week before the Flood/judgment.
The conception of the Church at Pentecost is then mirrored by the Revelation 12 Sign–a sign speaking of the near birth of the male-child, the nation to be born in one day–the corporate Body of Christ (Isaiah 66).
Here is the link:


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I am the owner of three raid ready resto druids, each of varying gear levels. One who is almost full BiS and raids progression 25 man raids. One who is in a mix of LFR and normal mode gear and putzes around in a one day/3 hour a week 10 man alt group that just started toying with heroics. And lastly one who is a mix of BoE, VP and LFR gear, whose raiding pretty much extends to one LFR per week. One of the most rewarding things to come out of all of these druids is that I get to experience raiding in different raid formats, and at different stages of gearing. This helps me to better understand the different struggles and limitations that druids experience in more diverse settings than my main raid, which helps me better understand is happening at different levels of play. However, one of the side effects of this is that I also have the opportunity to observe my own faults along the way as well.
This post is going to talk a little bit about my experiences with the latter.
I pretty commonly log every raid that I participate in, be it a PuG BH or a LFR experience, so that I can take a look at how I did and analyze my play to look for areas of improvement. Earlier this week, I did the back half of LFR in an attempt to acquire any of the following: A helm (for the LOVE OF GOD, could I please get a meta gem already?!), an off hand or a Maw. When I finished, I perused through my logs, and noted that I had fairly exceptional uptimes on LB and strong uptime with Harmony for each of the four encounters that I participated in that night. Which, in turn, got me to wondering if I was as cognizant of these things when I was raiding on Beru. So I took a look and here is what I found:
Aryas – LFR Warmaster Blackhorn
Beru – Heroic Warmaster Blackhorn
While I did a respectable job with maintaining both of these buffs on Beru, I did better with Aryas. And the parses I used for Beru in this post were from last night while I was making a more concerted effort to be diligent about these buffs in light of my Tuesday revelations (I'm not entirely sure how successful I was with that). What you see above was pretty consistently the case for all four of the encounters in the zone. I was better at monitoring my buffs with Aryas, than with Beru.
I needed to figure out why.
My first instinct was to tell myself it was because Hard Modes have so many additional things going on, that it was only natural that I would have slightly lower uptimes. But after a few seconds, I had to dismiss that as bullshit. I mean, yes, there are some additional mechanics and hectic healing that occur that might cause me to have slightly lower uptimes, but if I'm being really honest that isn't the crux of it. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the truth of the matter is that I'm a little more lazy on Beru because I can be.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm hyper-competitive on any character that I'm playing and I'm going to bust my ass to perform well regardless. However, it dawned on me that the reason that I'm so diligent with Aryas is because I have to be. I'm behind in gear comparatively, and I don't have a regen trinket. This means that I am extremely cognizant of doing everything I can to be competitive – which means maintaining both Lifebloom and Harmony to the best of my abilities.
Which brought me to question why I wasn't quite as diligent with Beru. I mean, if I can do it in one raid setting, why can't I do better at it in the other. I came to the conclusion that I think part of the reason with Beru is that I get greedy. "I'll cast this one more rejuv" or "It can wait for SM to come off cooldown" – which, when I think about it, is a bit counter productive. As such, I realized that I need to kick myself in the ass on Beru and prioritize stepping it up with regards to these two buffs.
Message received, Mini-Me. Message received.
The other thing that I found very educational was the freedom that I have with how aggressive I can be with Rejuv on Beru. It actually took me three LFR Ultraxions on Aryas before I finished the fight without running myself dry before the end of the encounter – the problem? TOO MUCH REJUV, DUMMY! One of the luxuries of better gear is the ability to push your limits farther, and it was really hard for me (especially on that fight in particular) to reign myself back in. The problem was also exacerbated by the fact that this is the only one of my druids not running a regen trinket.
However, one of the other things I did on Tuesday night was that I went ahead and took a look at my spell breakdowns for each character. Here are the top spells from those same Blackhorn parses (which are roughly consistent for all of the encounters throughout the night).
Aryas – LFR Warmaster Blackhorn
Beru – Heroic Warmaster Blackhorn
The thing that is immediately noticeable to me is the difference between how much of my healing, comparatively, was done with Wild Growth vs. Rejuv in each parse. While I had roughly the same number of WG ticks in each parse, I had significantly fewer RJ ticks on Aryas. And…this is a good thing! I was actually kind of happy with myself regarding this, as I ran myself dry on every encounter we did – but I made it to the end of the fight with my mana pool, which had not always been the case on some of the earlier forays into LFR. However, I do question if I can't get those RJ and WG numbers to balance out a little closer on Aryas, as that is where treecalcs tells me they should be – and I do think that a regen trinket would help me in achieving that goal.
Regardless, the lesson learned here was that Rejuv is a luxury that not everyone has and it is important to play smartly and find a good balance for utilizing it at all gear levels, and that balance will continue to change as you improve your character. So, thank you mini-me, for humbling me and reminding me that sometimes I have to take a step back in order to take a step forward.
In all honesty, having a mini-me has taught me so many things about my class that this one post isn't anywhere near enough to elaborate on all of them. But I would encourage anyone who is getting bored with their class, or even just with the game as a whole, to take on the project of creating a mini-me and experiencing things from the fresh perspective of player just starting out. You'd be surprised how much you learn, and just how much you take for granted.


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Description: It is now time for another tutorial on a brand new character from Nickelodeon. The show is called "The Mighty B" and the character that you will be getting a lesson on is the main star of the animated series. So let me just say that you will learn "how to draw Bessie Higgenbottom from The Mighty B" step by step. The voice of Bessie is performed by the very funny "Saturday Night Live" comedian Amy Poehler. Now I have never watched the series but I am sure that it is wicked funny. I did however watch a brief episode and I did happen to chuckle a bit. Now from my understanding Bessie is a ten year old girl who is a Honeybee scout. Like other comical characters from animated series, Bessie is always forever wearing her Honeybee scout uniform and she is very motivated to earn Bee Badges more than any other Honeybee scout. Bessie has a very friendly face and even though she looks dimwitted, she is pretty smart. She wears glasses, has a lisp, and she also has four friends that she hangs with and they are; her new found dog Happy Walter Higgenbottom, her brother Benjamin Higgenbottom, and Penny. There are two other girls that are in the series as well like Gwen, and Portia. I think that the show will be a big hit over time because Nickelodeon always comes out with awesome cartoon shows. In the mean time let me start you off with this lesson on "how to draw Bessie Higgenbottom from The Mighty B" step by step. I'll be back in a bit with more drawing fun so stay tuned and enjoy yourself while you are surfing DragoArt.com. Peace out!


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Guess I'll have to go with "The Ides of Marzen" instead.
Quote from: erockrph on October 10, 2012, 10:54:35 PMGuess I'll have to go with "The Ides of Marzen" instead. You could make a Belgian Champagne-style beer and call it "Et tu Brut"
Mihalybaci, It's the first year they've used the name Red Hoptober. It's not the same as the previous 2 years fall seasonal either. Still has the harvest ale idea going for it, but different flavors, new hops I think.It's not a beer I'd go out of my way for, but it's a good one either way.


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Posts Tagged 'samsung pixon m8800'
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced to launch high megapixel camera phone – Samsung Pixon M8910. The company had already launched world's 1st 8 megapixel camera touch-screen phone – Pixon M8800.
In the competition of Sony Ericsson Satio which has 12.1MP camera feature, Samsung has also announced to launch 12-mega pixel camera mobile phone. Pixon M8910 will arrive in Europe in June. It has full-touch with 3.1-inch AMOLED screen.
Samsung Pixon12 enables users to take the best pictures quickly and easily. It has fast moving camera which allows users to next shot within around 2 seconds. It has innovative camera feature which provides the best photo quality. By touching fingers, users can simply select focus point.
Pixon M8910 has feature to upload images and videos to popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, MySpace, Photobucket, Friendster etc. Pixon12 has some memorable key features also – 3.1 AMOLED touchscreen display, 12 Megapixel autofocus camera equipped with Xenon, Power LED flash, 28mm wide angle lens, touch-focus, "Smart Auto", Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity, Dual-band UMTS/HSPA connectivity (900 / 2100 MHz), GPS, Bluetooth and FM radio with RDS. It will be available in Europe in June, 2009 and outside of Europe in August, 2009. Price of the phone was not announced.
Samsung Pixon M8910 will record video at 720×480 resolution at 30fps. It is included with HSPA and Wi-Fi. Images can be shot via a 28mm wide angle lens.
In the review of Pixon M8910 crave.cnet.co.uk writes, "It also includes a 28mm wide-angle lens and Xenon flash. As well as stills, the M8910 shoots 720×480-pixel video at 30 frames per second. Which all sounds great, but we'll wait until we've had a hands-on and seen some test shots before we get really excited — after all, there's still the matter of that tiny little phone-sized image sensor."
Overall, mobile phones are adopting newer technologies continuously. Samsung mobile is trying to give user's satisfactory products. In Samsung Pixon M8910, you will get higher and newer technology, especially in camera features.


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GHOP students 2007-2008/Martin Pecka
From Joomla! Documentation
< GHOP students 2007-2008(Redirected from GHOP students/Martin Pecka)
My name's Martin Pecka, my Joomla! forums nickname is peci1
I come from Jindrichuv Hradec (or Jindřichův Hradec with full diacritics) in the Czech republic (not Czechoslovakia - it split in 1993 and nowadays doesn't exist ;) )
I'm just finishing a grammar school in my city and then I want to study on the Charles University - The Faculty for Mathematics and Physics. I'm interested in maths, programming and web coding. Expect of these interests I love music (I try to play guitar and piano) and nature.
Since I was young I've been a scout - and I like it. It is a great life way for me. In the end, I spend some time with my gorgeous girlfriend, but the distance of about 300 km between us doesn't make it easy :) And finally, I like smiling =)
First I read about GHOP incidentally during an IT class. I saw a possibility how to earn some money and good experiences in my favourite activity. And the international certificate looked also very cool =) I searched for some tasks, but I'm not familiar with Linux projects and C. So I searched some PHP tasks... But the most of them was claimed, so I decided for a translation task - after all, I love english. Now I see I don't have enough time for completing 3 tasks, but the experiences from my only one are also very useful. Thanks for a project like this ;)
I learned that the translation to a brilliant language isn't easy. Even after two cycles of translating there reside many forms, that are translated, but sound very strange, in the document. I haven't known Joomla! before, in fact, I wrote some VERY simple CMSs for myself in the past. Joomla! looks like a very advanced one. Maybe I'll use it once in the future.
The only issue that would be done better is the advertisement. I'm interested in IT, but I found GHOP only incidentally.


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Top 5 Features Apple Didn't Announce at WWDC
There were a lot of new products and features announced at the WWDC 2012 Keynote presentation, including a refresh of the MacBook Air and Pro lines, a brand new iOS Maps application with 3D, and a more robust Siri. But there were also a lot of things that were left out of of the presentation. Could these omissions provide clues to future Apple releases?
No Retina display for MacBook Air or MacBook Pro
High definition Retina displays first came to the iPhone before making their way to the iPad. There was much speculation that this years WWDC keynote would bring Retina displays to both the Macbook Pro and MacBook Air. Instead, these these laptops remain at their previous resolution while a new computer, aptly called the MacBook Pro with Retina display, got the monitor upgrade.
People waiting for an 11-inch MacBook Air with Retina display will have to wait another year. If we had to guess, next year will bring Retina displays to the rest of Apple's laptop lines.
No Siri on MacBook Air or MacBook Pro
Siri, the digital personal assistant that premiered on the iPhone 4S, has arrived on the iPad. But she is mysteriously missing from the new OS X, Mountain Lion. Although the new MacBook Airs and Pros feature speech recognition, there's still no way to ask your computer questions and receive a helpful--or witty--response.
It's obvious that Siri will eventually be integrated into Apple's notebook lineup. The only question remaining is: when?
No Apple Television Set
Those waiting for Apple to revolutionize the television set will need to continue waiting. The 2012 WWDC keynote brought no news of the much-rumored, highly-anticipated Apple Television. For now, we'll just have to be content with Airplay, seamlessly viewing our iPhone, iPads, and OS X devices on our televisions.
The future of an Apple television set is uncertain but one thing is clear. The company hasn't revolutionized the TV industry just yet.
No Siri API
Unfortunately, developers still don't have access to the voice recognition power of Siri. Many were hoping that this year would bring an open Siri API, allowing apps to respond to audio inquiries. Instead, Apple brought a ton of new features to Siri, including Sports stats, restaurant reviews and reservation booking.
Maybe Siri isn't ready for the explosive innovation that would occur when her technology is made available to other applications. Whatever the reason, this just leaves another feature for us to wonder and guess about until the next developers conference next year.
No iPhone 5
Apple announced iOS 6, but there's still no word about the iPhone 5 just yet. Although Apple broke the tradition just last year of announcing new the new iPhone at WWDC events, there was still hope that we'd get even a preview of the new device. These rumors were supported by numerous leaks about potential new iPhone hardware from Apple's supply chain.
Alas, there was no new iPhone announced at this years WWDC keynote. We'll most likely see the new iPhone 5 in the Fall when iOS 6 is made available.


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Seacoast Media Group, the parent company of the Portsmouth Herald, Hampton Union and Exeter News-Letter, on Sunday announced that it is endorsing Romney for the GOP presidential nomination.
In its endorsement, the company said Romney stands "head and shoulders above the rest of the field" and is the Republican candidate best suited to restoring "health and vigor to the American economy.":
The following are excerpts from the Seacoast Media Groups endorsement of Mitt Romney:
We believe the president's top priority for the next four years will be restoring health and vigor to the American economy, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate best suited to the task.Read the rest of the endorsement HERE.
Romney, who launched his presidential bid at the Scammans' Bittersweet Farm in Stratham, has proven his financial acumen at every step of his career. He mastered the art of the business turnaround at Bain & Co. in Boston and his success led to his founding of Bain Capital, a private equity fund now overseeing $65 billion in assets. Bain became a world leader by managing and investing in such well-known companies as Hospital Corp. of America, parent company of Portsmouth Regional Hospital; Burger King; Staples; Toys "R" Us; and Sports Authority, to name just a few.
When the Salt Lake City Olympics was in trouble, Utah's governor hired Romney to make the rescue. He took over an Olympic organization that was losing so much money so fast, it was considering scaling back events. Romney's leadership transformed the quadrennial games into a winner that turned a $100 million profit.
As George W. Bush famously stated, the president is "the decider." Having capable advisers is important, but once all the conflicting cases have been presented, the president needs to choose a course of action. We feel confident that, when faced with choices about the direction of our nation's economy and governance, Romney will make sound decisions. And there's no question Romney in the White House will instill confidence in our nation's businesses and financial markets.
I've found a couple of short videos from Romney's interview with the Portsmouth Herald Editorial Board in November:
Please check us out on Facebook and If you like what you see, please "Like" us. You can find us here.


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City To Appeal Ruling On Gamble House Demolition
Preservationists Hope To Save Historic Westwood Home
Cincinnati will appeal a ruling that clears the way for the demolition of the historic Gamble House in Westwood.
City Councilman Wendell Young said he was personally assured by Mayor Mark Mallory that the city would appeal the ruling, which gives the Greenacres Foundation permission to demolish the dilapidated home on Werk Road.
The foundation plans to turn the site into a park. The foundation says the house would be too expensive to rehabilitate.
Republican Charlie Winburn, Independent Chris Smitherman and three Democrats -- Laure Quinlivan, P.G. Sittenfeld and Chris Seelbach -- affixed their signatures to a motion asking City Manager Milton Dohoney to instruct Solicitor John Curp to appeal the ruling.
Curp has recommended against an appeal, saying it is unlikely to succeed.
Preservationists in Westwood say conditions at the home have deteriorated over time, but that it can still be saved and is worth preserving. The National Trust for Historic Preservation called the Gamble House "an irreplaceable national treasure."


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9 of 19
Tipsy Hazelnut Hot Chocolate
A boozy, hazelnut-cream-topped hot chocolate.
Some say bacon makes everything better; I say Nutella is the magic enhancer. And here, hazelnut liqueur enhances the flavors of the chocolate-hazelnut spread. You could also use a different nut liqueur like walnut, for double nuttiness.... Read More
View Recipe


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The O. Henry Prizes Stories 2008 continues to reward the same type of story theyve been championing for the past decade: conventional, hard-boiled tales told in the third-person.
What does hard-boiled mean when referring to short stories that are not of the crime fiction genre?
Thank you,
Hard-boiled = domestic/family drama?
Doesn't sound right at all to me.
I think it describes a writing style. What that style is I am not sure, but I'd like to find out.
Hi again, actually, if you google "o henry 2008" you will find a list of the winning stories and information about them.
I already know all about the O. Henry Prize Stories. That is not what I am asking about.
What I want is someone with some knowledge of literary criticism to define the term as it is used in the quote I provided.
Could it mean the style? Would the style of writing have anything to do with hard-boiled slang/writing (Raymond Chandler, etc) miskatonic.org/slang.html


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NEA praises legacy of education leader and scholar Braulio Alonso
NEA's first Hispanic president was also an international human rights activist
WASHINGTON - June 07, 2010 -
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel today praised the legacy of Braulio Alonso, an educator and human rights activist who died on Saturday at the age of 93. A high school teacher and later a principal, Alonso rose through the ranks of the Association, serving several terms as president of the Hillsborough County (Florida) Education Association and then the Florida affiliate of NEA. He became a member of the NEA Board of Directors and then was elected to the NEA Executive Committee. In 1968, Alonso became the first Hispanic to serve as president of NEA.
During his years in education, he led the effort to merge the National Education Association with the American Teachers Association—the historically Black teachers association originally founded as the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools. The NEA-ATA merger took place in 1966.
Alonso's impressive record of accomplishments spanned the globe. Here at home, he provided job training in his native Florida for returning World War II veterans. On the world stage, he led an effort to get European teacher organizations to join with NEA on an international conference to combat racism, anti-Semitism and apartheid. He also organized a campaign that saved the life of the president of the education association of Argentina, and he coordinated activities with the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Professions. A scholar as well as an activist, Alonso wrote extensively on the educational systems of Japan, Australia, the former Soviet Union, France, West Germany, Great Britain, Scotland, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba.
The following statement can be attributed to NEA President Dennis Van Roekel:
"Throughout his long and distinguished career as an educator, visionary and human rights activist, Dr. Braulio Alonso worked to provide a world-class education for every child without regard to race, creed, religion or place of origin. He spent his life advancing the cause of public education and the teaching profession with great humility and grace.
"While he received numerous accolades for his achievements, one of the finest was having a Tampa high school—Braulio Alonso High School—named in his honor in 2001.
"The thoughts and prayers of our 3.2 million members are with his family."
For additional information, please visit www.nea.org.
# # #
The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional organization, representing
3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.
CONTACT: Miguel A. Gonzalez (202) 822-7823, firstname.lastname@example.com


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Maximize Your Savings at a Warehouse Club
As I've mentioned many times before, my wife and I shop at Sam's Club. It's really the only warehouse club available to us easily (there are no BJ's around here and the only Costco is on the far side of Des Moines, almost an hour away) and it serves a lot of our needs.
I've been shopping there for several years and I've found several little techniques that really maximize your value in shopping there. You really can do much better on some items by utilizing a warehouse store, but you've got to follow a good plan. Here's how.
10 Tips for Maximizing Your Savings at a Warehouse Club
1. Take a look before you sign up.
Before you walk in the door and sign up for a membership, visit the store and look at the prices and the selection to make up your own mind. Warehouse clubs often offer one-day memberships, either in the newspaper or at the desk there. Give them a call and find out before you go.
If you can't get in using these methods, ask around your social network to see if anyone's a member, then ask if you can visit the store with them. This method is even better because you can make purchases when visiting with a full member, whereas with the short-term memberships, there's a 10% markup on prices.
2. Split a membership.
Find a close friend and split a membership with them. Just go to the store, sign up for a membership, put your friend down as the other card, and get membership cards for both of you. This will cost you each half the normal price of an annual membership, getting you in the door for a year for just $20.
You usually have to sign up at the same time, but warehouses are completely fine with you and your co-member having different last names, different addresses, and different phone numbers.
3. Bulk-buy in cooperation with friends.
Hesitant to buy a giant mountain of toilet paper? Talk to a friend of yours and agree to split the cost of that mountain. This way, your cost per roll on that toilet paper is very low, but you also don't have to deal with the storage of that much toilet paper.
There are lots of items you can purchase this way, from paper towels and fruit juice to diapers and bagels.
4. Only buy stuff you know you'll use up.
One of the big temptations at a warehouse club is to convince yourself that you'll use a huge amount of something that's perishable, whether it's salad greens or fresh fruits. You see the price per pound, recognize that it's much lower than it is at other stores, and talk yourself into it.
Ignore the cost per pound. Instead, you have to focus on the amount you'll actually use before having to chuck the rest – and that's a tricky thing. I usually figure on the very low end. On occasion, it's still a value even if more than half winds up in the compost bin, but most of the time, it's not really a bargain.
5. Make a price book.
Along those same lines, in order to maximize the value you get from a warehouse club, you have to have some sort of a price book.
A price book simply means that you have a list of prices of many of the common things you buy at various stores that you shop at. Maybe you just have the prices from your favorite grocery store on it. In any case, you simply take that list with you to the warehouse club and use that as a basis for comparison. So, an entry in the price book might be "3 rolls of Bounty – $3.33" and then you can use that to figure out whether twelve rolls of Bounty for $11 is actually a bargain (it is).
6. Use a shopping list.
Another important factor is to know what you actually need before you go. Thus, before you go, make a shopping list. Write down all of the things you actually need, then hit the warehouse club before you visit the grocery store.
Doing this not only helps to ensure that you get all the stuff you actually need, but sticking to that list goes a long way towards curbing impulse buys, since you're so focused on the grocery list instead of wandering down the aisles.
7. Look at gas prices.
Most warehouse clubs offer gas prices that are lower than other gas stations in the area. This savings varies a lot – in some areas it can be as much as a dime per gallon and in other areas it's only a penny or two. Our area seems to vary between about two cents per gallon and five cents per gallon.
Thus, whenever I have an opportunity, I fill up at Sam's Club. If I fill up there once a month, putting 20 gallons in my tank and saving five cents a gallon, that saves $12 a year. If my wife does the same, filling up there three times a month and putting 12 gallons in the tank, that saves $21.60. All told, we save $33.60 from the gas alone.
Two other areas where the savings were surprising for me were liquor (beer, wine, and hard liquor) and big-ticket electronics, like laptops and televisions. Their prices were very, very strong on these items.
8. Take note of the other benefits.
Most warehouse clubs offer other benefits beyond the cheap household stuff and the gas benefits. Take a careful look at the pamphlets that the club provides and see if any match your needs.
For example, Sam's Club offers a discount on car prices with certain cooperating dealerships. Thus, I can take that extra info into account when we make a car purchase and it might reveal a better car deal for me. That's a potential significant savings.
9. "Gap" your membership.
When your membership is about to expire, go to the club and stock up on all of the nonperishables you buy there – shampoo, toilet paper, soap, and so forth. Then allow your membership to expire for several months as you use your backlog of items. When you start to run out of your backlog, go in and renew your membership.
Let's say that you fall into a twelve months on, six months off pattern. Over the course of six years, you would reduce your membership buys to four, saving you $80 over that period.
10. Get your impulses in check.
This is perhaps the most useful tip for warehouse club shopping. You have to get your impulses in check before you go. If you don't, the benefits of the club will go away for you.
What do I mean? It's easy to see items at a warehouse club that you might use, and the price per unit is often very low. It becomes really tempting to throw it into your cart. However, if those buys are impulsive, not only is it something you wouldn't have otherwise bought, it's also something bought in an excessive quantity. That's a recipe for throwing your money away.
We save a lot of money each year by shopping at Sam's Club.


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Catalog: 1st Try Guarantee: 022 CA Personal Lines Broker-Agent, Codes and Ethics (32 HR Video) Class Online
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The minimum number of participating students for publication of achievement results is 10. The minimum number of respondents for the release of questionnaire results is six. The EQAO term for the application of these rules is "suppression."
N/R: "Not reported" indicates that the number of students participating in the assessment or responding to the Student Questionnaire is so small that the identification of individual student results might be possible; therefore, results are not reported.


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Request a Call Back Get a Quote Book Online0208 811 2416
Welcome to Go Chauffeurs UK in Manor Park E12
Go Chauffeurs one of the oldest and most established Chauffeur Companies in the London area. We offer a complete car service throughout the Manor Park E12 area, London areas and beyond, including airport transfers.
Go Chauffeurs UK in Manor Park E12
If you are looking for a professional chauffeur service in the Manor Park E12 area, please do not hesitate to contact us here at Go Chauffuers UK. We have a very helpful team at hand and are always ready to provide you an unparalleled service for all your needs including:
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The most convenient way to get around Manor Park E12 is to use a high quality chauffeur service like Go Chauffeurs UK.


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Liz Toolan's Homepage
The Holy Face Monastery
The Corporal Passion
Hi! I'm Liz Toolan.
I am using this site as
a jump off page for all my favourite web sites.
the Vatican Web Site
to end Abortion Worldwide
Please don't tell me it's been done before. I haven't encountered it myself but I'm sure it has. So I'm not the first. So who cares. It's not whether I'm the first that matters it's whether or not we do it. And by the way I'm not actually expecting an instant and sudden end to abortion just because I arranged a 24 hour rosary. It would be nice if I was the last one to have to do this, but I'm not holding my breath...
This is one answer - to set up a network of people around the whole world who pray the rosary to end abortion. And if we do it once - well what's to stop us doing it again.
Just for the fun of it - Let's see if I can manage a Blog to keep anyone who is remotely interested (and anyone else silly enough to click on the link) up to date with the latest Toolan News. Maybe I should call it the T. files.
Did your Liturgical Calender run out in 1999?
This site is currently under reconstruction - please be patient with me -


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FIFA: 3 Cuban soccer players defected in Toronto
Soccer's governing body says the three Cuban soccer players who disappeared before a World Cup qualifier against Canada have defected.
FIFA said in an email the players defected Thursday, one day before the game. U.S. Customs and Border Protection would not confirm reports the men tried to cross into the United States at the Niagara Falls border point.
Tom Rusert, a spokesman for the customs and border protection agency, said no arrests were made in relation to this case. He cited privacy concerns for not providing further information.
The defecting players left Cuban coach Alexander Gonzalez with only 11 players on his team. He said another player was ill and didn't make it to the game, which Canada won 3-0.
On Friday, Gonzalez lamented the departures of the missing players.
''As with any Cuban sport team that travels around the world, they're all chasing the American dream,'' he said. ''And it's difficult to try to keep the team together. ... Obviously it's a difficult situation for the team and it's tough for me to talk about it.''
Last January, two players with the Cuban women's team defected following a match against Canada in Vancouver.


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Nelson Products
for Arena
Dust Control
Nelson Irrigation offers several solutions for arena dust control.
Nelson Big Gun sprinklers can be mounted on the perimeter - away from the activities within the arena. The optional Quick-Coupling Valve provides extremely low friction loss, super smooth opening and closing and the ability to easily remove sprinkler after irrigation and cover valve box.
Another design consideration is to use a combination of S10 Spinners and MP Rotators. By using this type of system, the zone sizes can be designed to fit your water supply and you can have the option to run the perimeter and center zones separately. The use of more small heads in an environment like this will help to keep water out of overhead obstructions, and easily fit the shape of the arena while giving you the opportunity to match water application rates to reduce wet spots.
Market data provided by barchart.com


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Live Chat
Contact us
Sign in to MyChart
A baby born before 37 weeks of pregnancy is considered premature or born too early. The number of premature births in the U.S. is rising. Twins and other multiples are more likely to be premature than single birth babies.
Other terms often used for prematurity are preterm and preemie. Many premature babies weigh less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces. They may be referred to as low birth weight. Babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy are often called early preterm.
Babies born between 34 and 37 weeks of pregnancy are often called late preterm or near-term infants.
Premature birth may have a number of causes. Some things directly cause early labor and birth. Others can make the mother or baby sick and need early delivery. Sometimes the exact cause for a premature birth is unknown. This can be true even though the mother may have done everything right during the pregnancy.
Many women have no known risk factors for premature birth. But several things can make premature birth more likely.
Risks for the mother include:
Pregnancy risks include having any of the following:
Certain developmental problems can put unborn babies at higher risk for prematurity.
The following are the most common symptoms of a premature baby. But each baby may show slightly different symptoms. Symptoms may include:
The symptoms of prematurity may look like other health conditions. Make sure your child sees his or her healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
A baby born before 37 weeks of pregnancy is considered premature or born too early. Babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy are often called early preterm. Babies born between 34 and 37 weeks of pregnancy are often called late preterm or near-term infants.
Treatment will depend on your child's symptoms, age, and general health. It will also depend on how severe the condition is.
Treatment may include:
Premature babies are cared for by a neonatologist. This is a doctor with special training to care for newborns. Other specialists may also care for babies, depending on their health problems.
Premature babies are born before their bodies and organ systems have completely matured. These babies may be small. They may weigh less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces. They may need help breathing, eating, fighting infection, and staying warm. Very premature babies, those born before 28 weeks, are at the greatest risk for problems. Their organs and body systems may not be ready for life outside the mother's womb. And they may be too immature to function well.
Some of the problems premature babies may have include:
Premature babies can have long-term health problems as well. Generally, the more premature the baby, the more serious and long-lasting are the health problems.
More babies are surviving even though they are born early and are very small. It is best to prevent preterm labor if possible.
It's important to get good prenatal care while you are pregnant. Your healthcare provider can help find problems and suggest lifestyle changes to lower the risk for preterm labor and birth. Some ways to help prevent prematurity include:
Your healthcare provider may give you the hormone progesterone if you are at high risk for preterm birth. Progesterone can help if you have had a previous preterm birth.
Premature babies often need time to "catch up" in both development and growth. In the hospital, this catch-up time may involve learning to eat and sleep, as well as steadily gaining weight. Babies may stay in the hospital until they reach the pregnancy due date. They may be cared for in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and an intermediate NICU.
Talk with your baby's healthcare provider about when your baby will be able to go home. In general, babies can go home when they:
Before discharge, premature babies need an eye exam and hearing test to check for problems related to prematurity. You must be able to give care, including medicines and feedings, before your baby can go home. You will also need information about follow-up visits with the baby's healthcare provider and vaccines. Many hospitals have special follow-up healthcare programs for premature and low-birth-weight babies.
Even though they are otherwise ready to go home, some babies still have special needs. This includes things such as extra oxygen or tube feedings. You will learn how to take care of your baby if he or she needs these things. Hospital staff can help set up special home care.
Ask your baby's healthcare provider about a "trial run" overnight stay in a parenting room at the hospital before your baby is discharged. This can help you adjust to caring for your baby while healthcare providers are nearby for help and reassurance. You may also feel more confident taking your baby home when you know infant CPR and safety.
Premature babies are at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). You should always put your baby down to sleep on his or her back.
Tips to help you get the most from a visit to your child's healthcare provider:
Vidant Health can connect you to health care professionals to help you understand your condition and guide you through the treatment process. Let's chat.


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I WOULD LIKE to start off today's column by thanking all the intrepid men and women involved in the production and delivery of today's newspaper. If you can read this -- and I don't mean online through Sunspot.net -- hug your carrier. I would further like to thank the three guys who stopped in the middle of my street yesterday at noon to give my snow-stuck motor vehicle a push into a position out of the way of traffic and the city snowplow that will -- in my dreams -- make it down my street some day this month. Good snows make good neighbors.
Thinking caps, everyone
This is as good a time as any -- maybe the best -- for the Dan Rodricks Winter Day Quiz. Answers will appear in Wednesday's newspaper. (How's that for optimism?) Please, no cheating, no looking up stuff, and please don't call the nice people at the Pratt for answers. Just sit there at the kitchen table and test your knowledge of Baltimore and other points here in the Greater Patapsco Drainage Basin.
1. Unscramble these letters to get to a Pulaski Highway delicacy: T F B E I P E.
2. His wife, Sharon, is the author of Safe at Home, a book about the life of a baseball wife.
3. He coached the Skipjacks here, and the Italian Olympic hockey team.
4. Homeland mom of children's book author and illustrator Mitra Modarressi.
5. The O-nly baseball player named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" of 2000.
6. The year I-83 linked Baltimore and Harrisburg.
7. Eighties rocker who played a beatnik in Hairspray, the John Waters film.
8. Born Mark Andrews, this "Thong" singer got his start with impromptu performances at The Fudgery in Harborplace.
9. In the 1958 All-Star Game played in Baltimore, Orioles pitcher Billy O'Dell retired the last nine National League batters. Name them. (Just kidding! This is a freebie -- and, for those of you who might have forgotten it, a repeat of a question from the 1994 Winter Quiz. They were, in the order O'Dell put them down, Johnny Logan, Willie Mays, Lee Walls, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Frank Thomas, Bill Mazeroski and Del Crandall.) Bonus: Name the Hall-of-Famers in that group.
10. His songs include "The Streets of Baltimore" and "Farewell Clonbur."
11. The year I-95 connected Wilmington and Baltimore. Hint: It was the same year the General Assembly voted to phase out slot machines in Maryland.
12. Without looking this originated-in-Baltimore word up in the Oxford, what's an "espantoon"?
13. The governor of Maryland wants an expert to study slot machines. What Baltimore radio sports announcer of fond memory said: "You know what an expert is, don't ya? A guy from outta town."
14. Another word scramble, this one Diner food: G S N F V Y E D I A R A R.
15. Downtown Baltimore gets nuked in this Morgan Freeman film.
16. A Raven: played linebacker at Air Force as a freshman before transferring to Brigham Young and becoming a tight end.
17. Its Latin name is Callinectes sapidus. Come now: In Maryland, if you eat it, you should know it.
18. Name the five athletes from the University of Maryland voted to the Atlantic Coast Conference's 50th Anniversary Top 50 Male Athletes list.
19. True or False: I once saw a sign in West Baltimore that said, "Steamed Females, $4 a dozen, no tricks."
20. In another Waters film, Kathleen "Serial Mom" Turner hated people who didn't do this.
21. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Patrick and Benjamin Binder, 1987. Name that medical feat.
22. What would you be doing in the Gunpowder River in Baltimore County if you reached for a caddis with trailing shuck?
23. Maryland statesman, middle name Spyros.
24. In East Baltimore -- it's blue, it's plastic and it's known as "Italian luggage."
25. The year they changed the name of Friendship Airport -- apparently because someone didn't like the connotation -- to Baltimore-Washington International.
26. Baltimore eatery with motto: "Our meatloaf is made, not accumulated."
27. The year I-95 opened between Baltimore and Washington. Hint: The same year Willie Don was first elected mayor.
28. Son of the former Rose Popolo.
29. Great one, buried at Sagamore Farm.
30. Exotic Baltimore dish: F C L F B A U R F.


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Imagine being stranded in a harsh, gun-crazy, pyramid-obsessed alternate reality with your immediate family — think you'd be in the mood for a little desert two-step while on the run for your lives?
And yet that's precisely what the opening credits for CBS' short-lived 1985 series Otherworld would have you believe, that after being sucked through a portal in the Great Pyramid at Giza into an unrecognizable parallel Earth called Thel, and getting hounded by a vicious government thug at every turn, the Sterling family would look on the bright side and kick up their heels.
Of course, now I totally want to watch this show.
(Via A Writer's Life)


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Zen is watercolor and watercolor is zen. Grabbed a few quick minutes last night to do this after Hub cut me some flowers and brought them in. He gardens; I don't, but I think he really loves it when I draw in my breath at something he brought in and immediately talk about mixing colors, hehe.
This was done in my journal, not on watercolor paper, and I know the perspective of the vase is way off. But flowers aren't as hard as they used to be, and I do enjoy drawing and painting them. Obviously, the goal is progress, not perfection, to quote a fellow blogging friend (thanks, Tom).
Happy Father's Day! 😀 Enjoy the day, dads! Maybe I'll post pictures of our gluten free crabcakes tomorrow. Never made them before, but I've got my fingers crossed! And I'll definitely share the recipe, if they turn out. 😉


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Bye bye dependancies
March 3, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments
Hello reader,
Today and yesterday I trawled through Jack's heavy codebase and removed all Wget and Curl dependancies. Instead, they have now been replaced with Hollywood 5's new Network Support commands. This is addition to yesterday's work on the new Download form available in the menu bar – making it easier than ever sign-up and get involved.
In regard to Jack itself – this was quite a lengthy job given that Jack uses a fair amount of network connectivity under the hood, here is a short list of areas effected by this changeover:
- Account Login and Sign-Up
- Account Password Management, i.e. Change Password/Forgot Password
- Featured Apps Page
- Rating Software
- Downloading of Applications/Software
- Uploading of your Knowledge-Base submissions
- Retrieving the OS4Depot software repository
Not got Jack yet? Click Download above, fill in the quick form to join the App-Store and away you go!


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Findings Show Promise in Battle Against Tinnitus
Nerve Stimulation Shown to Reverse Common Type of Hearing Impairment
Targeted nerve stimulation could yield a long-term reversal of tinnitus, a sometimes debilitating hearing impairment affecting at least 10 percent of senior citizens and up to 40 percent of military veterans, according to an article posted in today's online edition of Nature.
Researchers Dr. Michael Kilgard and Dr. Navzer Engineer from The University of Texas at Dallas and University-affiliated biotechnology firm MicroTransponder report that sounds paired with stimulation of the vagus nerve eliminated tinnitus in rats. A clinical trial in humans is due to begin in the next few months.
Described as a ringing in the ears, tinnitus causes mild irritation for some people but is disabling and painful for many others. The U.S. Veterans Administration spends about $1 billion a year on disability payments for tinnitus, said Kilgard, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UT Dallas and co-author of the journal article.
"Brain changes in response to nerve damage or cochlear trauma cause irregular neural activity believed to be responsible for many types of chronic pain and tinnitus."
Dr. Michael Kilgard
"Brain changes in response to nerve damage or cochlear trauma cause irregular neural activity believed to be responsible for many types of chronic pain and tinnitus," he said. "But when we paired tones with brief pulses of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), we eliminated the physiological and behavioral symptoms of tinnitus in noise-exposed rats."
The researchers are, in essence, retraining the brain to ignore the nerve signals that simulate ringing. They monitored the laboratory rats for several weeks after therapy, and the improvements persisted.
"This minimally invasive method of generating neural plasticity allows us to precisely manipulate brain circuits, which cannot be achieved with drugs," said Engineer, vice president of preclinical affairs at MicroTransponder and lead author on the study. "Pairing sounds with VNS provides that precision by rewiring damaged circuits and reversing the abnormal activity that generates the phantom sound."
"It's exciting that the National Institutes for Health has been so supportive of our efforts to move this work along faster, in hopes of providing effective treatments to tinnitus patients."
Dr. Navzer Engineer
The research team is developing parameters for a clinical trial in humans. Vagus nerve stimulation is currently used in humans for treatment of epilepsy and depression. "The translation from basic science to the clinic has been quite rapid," Engineer said. "It's exciting that the National Institutes for Health has been so supportive of our efforts to move this work along faster, in hopes of providing effective treatments to tinnitus patients."
Early in 2010, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted Kilgard and MicroTransponder $1.7 million to further investigate whether nerve stimulation offers a long-term cure for tinnitus.
The first patient could be treated in Europe early this year, Engineer said. The initial set of human participants will have the electrodes attached to the left vagus nerve in their necks as part of a short outpatient procedure. They will return to the clinic every weekday for a few weeks of treatment. At each session, they will experience VNS paired with sounds.
MicroTransponder, a neuroscience-based medical device company, was founded by UT Dallas Ph.D. candidate Will Rosellini and sponsored by the school's Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. MicroTransponder is developing a less invasive wireless medical device to stimulate the vagus nerve. The UT Dallas/MicroTransponder team also is studying how best to optimize the paired therapy for tinnitus patients.
Past research has shown that the severity of chronic pain and tinnitus is tied to the degree of plasticity in the brain's cortex. A previous study showed that repeatedly pairing sensory stimuli with electrical stimulation of a brain structure called nucleus basalis generates powerful and long-lasting changes in cortical organization. Since the vagus nerve is easier to access for clinical use, and is known to trigger the release of molecules in the brain that promote neural changes, follow-up studies were performed on the vagus nerve.
For the VNS study, the research team used a "gap detection model" to document tinnitus in rats that were exposed to loud noise for one hour while under anesthesia. Each of the noise-exposed rats used in this study exhibited a significant impairment in the ability to detect a quiet gap in a tone near their tinnitus frequency, but exhibited no impairment when the gap was placed in a higher or lower tone.
"Previous research showed that a frequency-specific impairment in gap detection is a likely sign that noise-exposed rats experience a mid-frequency tinnitus 'ringing' that fills the silent gaps," Kilgard said. "Though it isn't possible to evaluate the subjective experience of rats, this gap impairment has been taken as an indicator of tinnitus."
When the rats were exposed to VNS paired with sounds, the gap impairment was eliminated – indicating that the tinnitus was gone.
Today's therapies for tinnitus have limited success and frequently must be modified over time because they become ineffective. "The VNS treatment would be an improvement over current therapies involving medications or counseling because it offers a possible permanent end to the condition and doesn't appear to cause any significant side effects," Kilgard said.
Additional sponsors of the work include the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
The paper's other authors were UT Dallas neuroscientists Drs. Jonathan Riley, Jonathan Seale, Will Vrana, Jai Shetake, Sindhu Sudanagunta and Michael Borland. The article will be published in the Jan. 27 print edition of Nature."This minimally invasive method of generating neural plasticity allows us to precisely manipulate brain circuits," said Dr. Navzer Engineer.
"When we paired tones with brief pulses of vagus nerve stimulation, we eliminated the physiological and behavioral symptoms of tinnitus," said Dr. Michael Kilgard.
MicroTransponder, a neuroscience-based medical device company founded by UT Dallas Ph.D. candidate Will Rosellini (center), has found that sounds paired with stimulation of the vagus nerve eliminated tinnitus in rats.
Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].