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Small business faq revised december 2021
SBA Offers Last Call for a Key Covid-Era Small-Business Aid Program Those who've received Economic Injury Disaster Loans are getting emails from the Small Business Administration asking them to apply for more. Here's what you need to know.
SBA Legal requirements checklist 1
4 Things You Need to Know Before Requesting an EIDL Loan Increase | Inc.com
Super 7: The 7 Best Free Sources for Business Plan Help
I was asked by a budding entrepreneur how to get started on their business plan, and I thought I'd share the answer as to my 7 favorite spots for getting started. All are free, whether for the planning materials or the help offered.
Business Plan Templates
(These show you how to craft a plan)
1. SBA has some good free guides at www.sba.gov/content/templates-writing-business-plan.
2. SCORE also has some at http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html
Online Business Plan Makers
(These ask you the questions and format your responses)
3. Purdue's Agricultural Innovation & Commercialization Center at https://www.agecon.purdue.edu/planner/
(click on 'start here' on business planner).
4. My Own Business offers free and for-fee services at http://www.myownbusiness.org/course.html (scroll down and click 'Free Access to online Course).
Note that all of these are pretty high quality sources, although they do have slightly different outlines of what goes in and where it goes. It is up to you to decide if every single entry is needed (hint: it usually isn't), but if in doubt, it is better to leave it in (or even better, get free advice from the sources below.
Good Free Advice on Business Plans
(They will offer you advice about your plan.)
5. SBDCs (Small Business Development Centers) have the most offices nationally, so they are your best chance for local advice. You can find them through you can find at http://www.sba.gov/content/small-business-development-centers-sbdcs.
6. SCORE.org offers free advice from over 300 local offices nationwide, or even via email.
7. And don't forget the original first source of help, the US Small Business Administration at SBA.gov and at district offices in every state.
With these resources at your side, you are sure to get a great business plan going.


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I just got back from a two day girl's trip to Sarasota, Florida. I'll be writing about it soon and taking you all on a video tour. Before I get to that point, though, I might be found curled up in the fetal position sucking on my own toe for comfort (someone else's toe would be disgusting). I don't know yet whether my eyes will be wide open and staring off into some vague distance or squeezed shut to keep reality out.
You see, my problem is that I want to be a professional everything (at least everything that I love) and I love a lot of things. I decided for this trip that I wanted to make an awesome travel video. I watched countless hours of YouTube videos on how to make it happen. I took notes; I re-watched videos; I was determined; I was excited– now I'm home and there are what seems to be 500 video clips scattered between my camera and my phone. It may turn out to be dozens of man hours to go through them all, clip, edit and arrange with music. Am I ungrateful?
What makes matters worse for me is that I'm looking at the clips and they look nothing like the ones I envisioned myself having. Wtf? I'm a professional videographer. I've clocked in the YouTube hours to make it so. Why does some of this stuff look like it was created on my phone? Yes, much of it was, but it's not supposed to look like it. And what is a professional videographer supposed to do when it's high noon and there isn't a single cloud in the sky and it's so bright that I can't even tell whether or not my camera is in focus as I pan the horizon? I should know these things. YouTube didn't prepare me for that one.
You know how in the movies a woman will be in her house and the door bell will ring and she'll answer it only to find that no one is there. And then someone will clear their throat and she'll look down and find some kid trying to sell cookies? I'm the woman and that kid is my expectations. I was expecting it to be up here and it had to clear it's throat and tell me to look down.
Have you ever felt like you would be way more successful at something only to end up staring at the half-formed product wondering where the hell you went wrong? It's such a surreal feeling .
What's important for me to keep in mind, what's going to get me through the dark days ahead, is remembering that we all have to start somewhere. If I never pull out my camera to make videos, I'll never go through the learning process and make improvements. I'll have no material to study. I won't learn which areas I'm strong in and which areas I suck at. It sucks to watch the suckiness, but it's a necessary step for me to improve. Studying my own work instead of just the work of other people will be like having a tutor working one on one with me as opposed to sitting in a lecture hall of 200 people. When watching YouTube tutorials, concepts and practices will become less vague.
For example, I remember as a teacher telling my students that doing such and such on an essay wasn't a great idea. Then I would assign them an essay and half of them would do that thing I said not to do and the other half would not do that thing I told them they should do. Then we'd review. In every student's mind, they did what I had asked. Then I'd hand back the essays and be specific.
"Did you remember to do this," I would ask. I'd get lots of head nodding.
"Look at your paper and highlight where you did it."
Very few highlighters would move and looks of confusion would start sweeping across the faces of the students. They knew what they should do; they thought they had done it, and yet it was nowhere to be found. I think some of them would even check to make sure that they were holding the right paper.
My point is learning comes through action. We get better by doing stuff. It might be a long, dark, wet and rocky road. We may keep catching glimpses of others doing it well and making it look effortless, but remember that there's no moving forward without moving.
Last year I went to Thailand with some friends and made this video which I split in two because of software limitations. I didn't realize that I should always hold my phone horizontally to film, but I learned better for this time. Hopefully, when I add my next travel video to YouTube, it'll be far better than this one. Whatever you're striving to accomplish, just keep at it. Laugh and maybe shed a tear when it doesn't meet your expectations, but keep taking action to get better.
Here we've got spicy food, Thailand New Year and an attempt at snorkeling with a bit of hyperventilating.
Here we have Maerim Elephant Sanctuary and more street food.
What's a skill that you're working on improving? Is it going as smoothly as you've hoped? Have you forgotten about it until just now? Let's hear all about it!
My name is Lyz-Stephanie and I want to inspire you to be more connected to yourself and the world, to find beauty in simple pleasures, and to have more adventures. Every day we can do something to make our lives happier and richer, make our minds more active and engaged. I'm on the journey. Will you join me?
Instagram I Twitter I Pinterest I YouTube

subset: commoncrawl


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All of those questions, messages, and stern commands that people have been whispering to Siri are stored on Apple servers for up to two years, Wired can now report.
Yesterday, we raised concerns about some fuzzy disclosures in Siri's privacy policy. After our story ran, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller called to explain Apple's policy, something privacy advocates have asking for.
This is the first time that Apple has said how long it's keeping Siri data, but according to Nicole Ozer, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who first brought these Siri privacy questions to our attention, there's still more that Apple could do.
According to Apple's Muller, the company takes steps to ensure that the data is anonymized and only collects the Siri voice clips in order to improve Siri itself. "Our customers' privacy is very important to us," she says.
Here's what happens. Whenever you speak into Apple's voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple's data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number -- not your Apple user ID or email address -- represents you as far as Siri's back-end voice analysis system is concerned.
Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple "disassociates" your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes.
"Apple may keep anonymized Siri data for up to two years," Muller says "If a user turns Siri off, both identifiers are deleted immediately along with any associated data."
But Nicole Ozer says Apple should go further. She'd like to see Apple link to its Siri Privacy policy on its Siri FAQ so that consumers can figure out what's going on before they buy an Apple product. Right now, you can only find it within the Siri Settings section of your iPad or mobile phone.
"There is no good reason for Apple to not include information about privacy practices on their Siri FAQ page," Ozer said in an email message.
Also, even if the Siri data is not linked directly to users, people should be careful about what they say to their personal digital assistant. Transcripts "of what you say to Siri could reveal sensitive things about you, your family, or business," she added. "Siri works for Apple, so make a note to yourself to really think before you speak."
Correction: This story originally misidentified Apple's spokeswoman. Her name is Trudy Muller.


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I picked this book off my TBR pile because I could have sworn it was a middle grade Cybil nominee. Apparently, I have lost my mind (not a surprise if you know me) because it is not a nominee. However, it must have been fate because boy, am I glad I read Eve Yohalem's gripping novel, Escape Under the Forever Sky! I am always looking for great adventure novels to hand to my students and this one is perfect for middle grade readers. I finished it during reading workshop today and immediately handed it off to a student.
Thirteen-year old Lucy's mom is the American ambassador to Ethiopia. At first, living in Africa sounds great to Lucy. She is a budding conservation biologist and dreams of spending her days on game drives and observing wildlife. Instead, she is practically held prisoner in the ambassador's residence because her mother thinks the city and the country are too dangerous for Lucy to travel through. Instead, she is forced to go to boring state dinners and can only go on game drives every two weeks. So when she and her friends cut out of school to go to the city market, she knows she is asking for trouble. Her mother completely flips out when she catches Lucy in such a dangerous place and grounds her for a month. No game drives, no friends, no going out. Nothing but sitting on the verandah and sending sporadic emails to her friends.
Lucy is angry and resentful, so she plans an escape to a local coffee shop with her best friend Tana. She even manages to send her "babysitter" home with the promise not to do anything stupid. But when Lucy is kidnapped by Tana's new driver, she realizes that her mother might have been right about the dangers she could face on her own.
Beaten and left to drink parasite-filled water, Lucy knows her only hope is to use her gymnastics training and her knowledge of the African bush to escape. Otherwise, her kidnappers plan to kill her. When she does manage to get away, she is alone and injured in the African wilderness and must avoid almost-certain death from a variety of means. I could not put this book down and found myself on the edge of my seat the entire time. Lucy is a normal 13 year old in an extraordinary situation. However, Yohalem makes it believable.
Readers will find themselves fascinated by the information about Africa and Ethiopia. I can see myself sharing with with adventure lovers and animal lovers alike. At a little more than 200 pages, this is a quick read that will keep students interested and on the edge of their seats. Highly recommended for classroom and school libraries!
This would also make a great read aloud because each chapter ends on a cliffhanger or leaves the reader wondering. The action-packed pages will keep even the most dormant reader's attention and students will be left wanting to know more about Ethiopia and the African bush.
*Review copy purchased from Scholastic Book Clubs
Filed under: Africa, animal stories, books, reviews | Tagged: escape under the forever sky, great read alouds for middle school |


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Crafting each sound from scratch with unapologetic, exacting precision, Holy Ghost!'s penchant for in-the-studio perfectionism has delivered hit after hit to the dancefloor. This analog approach to "electronic" music heavily informs the band's third album Work coming June 21, 2019 on West End Records.
Available for pre-order today, Work features the brand new song "Escape From Los Angeles"(out today) plus previously released songs Anxious" and "Epton On Broadway (Part I & Part II)". It follows the group's two previous albums, 2013's Dynamics and 2011's eponymous debut (both via DFA) and isfirst full-length LP to come out on the iconic West End Records label in more than 30-years!
A return to the heady ethos that drove Holy Ghost!'s earliest releases, Work sees New York City natives Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser revisit the freedom from expectations that suffused their 2011 self-titled debut full-length. It was a situation that stemmed partly from circumstances: They dismantled their basement Brooklyn studio and moved to a small room that a few musician friends were renting above a doctor's office (incidentally the same address where they mixed Holy Ghost!). Due to space limitations, they pared their extensive gear collection down to just two synths, a Yamaha CS80 and a Mini Moog. "Not necessarily the bare necessities, but what would make for the most interesting limited palette," says Millhiser. "David Bowie didn't have every fucking synthesizer on earth to make Low. He had two. And that's one of my favorite synth records of all time."
The 12-song collection features the buoyant but bittersweet, "Do This" which interweaves ambient chatter from a studio session with a Nile Rodgers-esque guitar, "Nicky Buckingham's" Fleetwood Mac-inspired riffs and swelling strings are eerily danceable, whereas "Heaven Knows What" – the band's slowest track to date – showcases an emotional depth and range only hinted at in past releases. Featuring the talents of musical peers including Sinkane's Ahmed Gallab, Juan Maclean and LCD Soundsystem's Nancy Whang, Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Paul Simon, David Bowie) and Alex Epton (Neon Indian, David Byrne), Work transcends its physical constraints to capture a spectrum of vibes that remain true to Holy Ghost!'s reverence for the art and craft of dance music.
Work Tracklist:
Epton on Broadway Part I
Epton on Broadway Part II
Heaven Knows What
Nicky Buckingham
Do This
One For Pete
My Happy House
Heaven Forbid
Slow Burn
Escape From Los Angeles
Upcoming Holy Ghost! Live Shows:
04-26 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
04-27 Los Angeles, CA – Globe Theatre
05-03 Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
05-09 Guadalajara, México – Corona Capital at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
06-21 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom (Album Release Show)


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Higher Fuel And Food Costs Drive Wholesale Prices Up
There was a 0.8 percent increase in wholesale prices from August to September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.
Much of the gain was due to higher costs for fuel and food. Without those two volatile sectors, prices went up 0.2 percent.
As Bloomberg News says, the news could stoke inflation fears: "Wholesale prices in the U.S. rose more than forecast in September, boosted by gasoline, food and trucks, indicating inflationary pressures continue to bubble up the production line."
Over the past year, wholesale prices have risen 6.9 percent.
The bureau is due to report on the September change in consumer prices Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Product Description 2012 xKink 146 Wakeboard:
The xKink Wakeboard has a new fin design for added performance and also has a slider base bottom for the rails. The fins have been re-designed so you can use other CWB fins to change the performance and ride of the xKink wakeboard. The new fins for 2012 are a little more wake friendly. The wing tail has been updated this season to allow the xKink wakeboard to sit deeper in the water. A large center spine still runs down the middle of the xKink wakeboard to give this board soft landings behind the boat.


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There is still no timeslot for 'My Dear Heart'.
Although the inspirational family drama is expected to replace 'Till I Met You' come this Monday, ABS-CBN has yet to reveal its official timeslot as of today. There are three factors as to why the network is having a hard time figuring out its upcoming timeslot.
1. Ang Probinsyano Continues to Rate Well In the 7:50 Timeslot
Traditionally, ABS-CBN's value-oriented family dramas are placed after 'TV Patrol', which is around 7:50 p.m. Series such as 'May Bukas Pa', '100 Days to Heaven', 'Honesto' and 'Nathaniel' attracted huge audiences during their respective runs, mainly because it is catered to all audiences and families.
However, ABS-CBN broke the mold when the action-oriented 'Ang Probinsyano' premiered on September 28, 2015. The break from tradition did not affect the viewership at all, as 'Ang Probinsyano' constantly scored ratings of 35% or better during its ongoing run.
2. Second Slot on Downward Trend
Looking at the second slot post-'Dolce Amore', it is clear that the slot is on a downward trend ratings-wise. Neither 'Till I Met You', 'Magpahanggang Wakas' nor 'A Love to Last' reached the 30% mark, citing various formulas that keep on repeating itself.
If ABS-CBN places 'My Dear Heart' to the second slot, they can only hope that it breaches past 30% right away. After all, the series is expected to be just as hugely popular as previous dramas like 'May Bukas Pa', but with 'Ang Probinsyano' blocking the first slot, there is no way to go but second.
3. Primetime Bida's Third Slot is For Teens and Adults Only
The third slot of ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida does not bode well for 'My Dear Heart'. Viewership at the 9:20 slot is typically lower (around 10-15%) at this point since most young children either go to bed or finish their studies to prepare for the following school day.
That said, the third slot is usually reserved for either light dramas (see 'On the Wings of Love') or more sensual series (see 'The Legal Wife'). There is no way ABS-CBN will place 'My Dear Heart' at the third slot given its family-friendly tale.
With all these factors in play, the most logical timeslot for 'My Dear Heart' will be the second slot after 'Ang Probinsyano', after which 'A Love to Last' will move to the third slot. 'Ang Probinsyano' is already a lock for the leadoff position, and with the desire for the second slot to regain its past luster, 'My Dear Heart' appears to be the perfect fit.
Still, this is only a prediction. It will be up to ABS-CBN to decide the timeslot of 'My Dear Heart'.
'My Dear Heart' will star Heart Ramos, Bela Padilla, Zanjoe Marudo, Ms. Coney Reyes, Joey Marquez, Loisa Andalio, Sandino Martin and Rio Locsin, among others. It will be directed by Jerome Chavez Pobocan and Jojo Saguin.


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Most up-to-date designs, micro-niche focused, 100% mobile-friendly, SEO optimized, powerful theme options and most popular plugins included.Discover More
Great template options, great support and I was able to get a very high page speed score. You can see the template in use at: www.missoulapediatricdentistry.com
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A new book released by Oxford University Press - Breaking Rules: The Social and Situational Dynamics of Young People's Urban Crime , by Per-Olof H. Wikström, Dietrich Oberwittler, Kyle Treiber, and Beth Hardie - reports on the findings of a study that followed the lives of 700 English teenagers for five years.
The study, which is hailed as providing findings that will be of major importance for crime reduction policy and policing, reveals that a mere 4 percent of teenagers were responsible for half of all youth crime in the cohort group studied.
Head of the study, Cambridge Professor Per-Olof Wikstrom, is quoted in today's Independent on Sunday newspaper (p.6):
"The idea that opportunity makes the thief – that young people will inevitably commit crime in certain environments runs counter to our findings."
Here, then, is important and solid empirical evidence that supports the theoretical arguments - published as a peer-to-peer article on the excellent Best Thinking website in "Opportunity Does Not Make the Thief". In that article I present a logical case for why Crime Opportunity Theory is irrational and so cannot be a cause of crime. Moreover, I produced an earlier and identical argument, to that made by the authors of the Cambridge 700 Study, that current
USA and policing
practice and crime reduction policy, based on Crime Opportunity Theory, results
in ineffective crime reduction methods. UK
While Crime Opportunity Theorists are notorious for paying scant regard to dis-confirming evidence, hopefully, police and policy makers will now begin take notice.


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Achieving the dream of homeownership could be more attainable than you have anticipated. If you are concerned about the affordability of purchasing a home, it is important to know you have options when it comes to loan programs. One popular government loan is USDA Rural Development.
The program was originally created to boost the development of land in more rural areas of the country. Back when it was created, the USDA program's sole purpose was to make rural living more achievable so that people who live in major cities could live within their means in the country, and ultimately help boost the economy in these areas as well. The program has grown significantly and is now able to help lower income families or individuals purchase homes in rural areas. We asked our very own Laura Leonhard, who is the #3 USDA lender in the nation, some common questions about this program. Here is what she had to say about USDA financing:
Q: What makes USDA different from other loan programs?
LL: USDA offers 100% financing. They also add in closing costs and any prepaid items. Another great bonus is that home repairs can be added to the loan as long as the appraised value comes in high enough.
Q: What are the benefits of going with USDA Loans?
LL: Many of the features that make USDA different are benefits of this loan program. Also, no money down, which is huge for some people. There is also reduced mortgage insurance premiums.
Q: What are the downfalls?
LL: The guarantee fee is a downfall to the USDA loan program, but that will be reduced this coming September!
Q: Is this program a good choice for first-time home buyers?
LL: Absolutely. With the no money down and many other great benefits, this would be perfect for first-time home buyers who may not have a lot of combined household income.
Q: What documentation is required when applying for USDA loans?
LL: The documentation requirements are the same as any other loan, unless there is a tougher credit situation. Then, there might be additional documentation required that will be disclosed by your loan officer.
Q: How do I know if I am eligible for USDA?
LL: A pre-approval will tell you if you are eligible for a USDA loan. You, as well as the location of the home you plan to buy, must be USDA eligible to qualify for this loan. This loan program does have income limits for the county the home is located in as well as the number of people in the household.
Q: Do USDA loans exclusively go towards the purchase of a home?
LL: No, it can also go towards refinancing. However, you can only refinance with a USDA loan if your original home loan was also USDA.
Now that you know a little more about the USDA program, feel free to contact me to see if you, your family, and the house you want to purchase qualify. Let Inlanta Mortgage help you make your dream of homeownership a reality!


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The Full Hogburger might be the best football food item around
Football food is far from idyllic. In general nonleague clubs serve better and cheaper football fare. One of the best food items is served at Met Police football club. They play in Esher at Imber Court and participate in Evostik Southern League Premier South and are well worth watching .
They have recently started serving The Full Hogburger. For £5 you can have a superb burger cooked properly in a toasted bun. But on top there is a large sausage cut in half , cheese, onions and a thick slice of back bacon. Tasted delicious. They do not serve chips but there again you hardly need them. If there is a criticism it is that the burger is huge and not so easy to eat. This is a real meal! Football league clubs might learn here


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When it comes to treating Hamstring injuries, there is way too much misinformation provided online. Don't start with stretching and exercise, they are for after you've started healing. Don't take pain meds. And be careful of reinjury or you could be headed into a lifetime of chronic injury. BFST® treatments are extremely important. Doing BFST® treatments at the correct times during the day will not only aid in the recovery process, but will also help you avoid re-injury.
Professional athletes regularly choose BFST.
We know you don't have the time or the desire to rest your injury for weeks on end. We know you want to get back to doing the activities you love as quickly as possible. While resting can help you avoid further injury, it won't be enough to accelerate the healing process. If you want to get rid of the pain and heal your Hamstrings in a reduced amount of time, you need a professional solution. You need our ColdCure® and BFST® Leg Wraps.
Do this and your Hamstring Injury can truly heal - finally.
You can heal your Hamstring Injury and get back to your usual activities in a reduced amount of time. You simply need the right treatment. You need to stimulate additional blood flow to your injured Hamstrings. You need Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy® (BFST®).
BFST® Wraps bring oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the injured area of your Hamstrings - a requirement for the body to heal itself. Unfortunately, a Hamstring injury at rest often has restricted blood flow, which in turn limits the body's ability to heal. Physical activity will promote blood flow but all too often it also results in small but frequent re-injury, which extends your healing time and greatly increases the amount of scar tissue that develops. With a King Brand® BFST® Leg Wrap, blood flow can be stimulated in your Hamstrings while you are at rest. With improved blood flow and without physical activity and the risk of re-injury, you can recover from your Hamstring Injury at a surprisingly rapid rate.
The BFST® Wrap stimulates blood flow through your Hamstrings while you are at rest. This is very important because while at rest, the blood flow to your Hamstrings is seriously impeded. It is the oxygen and nutrient-rich blood that enables the healing process, so adequate blood flow is required for your Hamstrings to heal properly and quickly.
Almost as important as the promotion of blood flow is the reminder of your injury. The reminder is what helps you move with care so you don't end up overdoing it and re-injuring yourself. Avoiding re-injury is fundamental to rapid recovery. That's why we recommend that you keep wearing your BFST® Leg Wrap between treatments. It's designed to be worn even when turned off to help protect your Hamstrings from re-injury. This will go a long way towards shortening your recovery time.
BFST® treatments feel great. They're very pleasant and relaxing. People often feel a warming sensation and a slight tingling sensation from the increase in blood flow. For optimal results, do 3-4 BFST® treatments per day. Since the effects of each 20 minute treatment last for up to 4 hours, it's best to spread your treatments out over the course of your day. An ideal treatment regimen would be one treatment first thing in the morning, another treatment in the afternoon, a treatment in the evening, and the last treatment of the day right before bed.
Hamstring Injuries can be extremely painful and debilitating, causing you to rely on painkillers for relief. Analgesics and NSAIDs such as ASA, acetaminophen or ibuprofen are often used to treat the pain but these drugs do nothing to treat the actual condition. In fact, analgesics and NSAIDs are known blood thinners and make the bleeding worse for fresh tissue injuries. Typical pain medications actually interfere with the healing process. They do not promote healing of the injury and put you at a very high risk of further injury.
All painkillers do is mask the pain. They don't do anything to address the injury causing that pain. This can cause a false sense of ability that will lead to a worsened condition and much longer recovery time. If you have to take painkillers, try to restrict them to times when you're at rest. You can use painkillers to help you sleep. Using them when you are active is a recipe for permanent damage.
ColdCure® Wraps are a safe, effective alternative to painkillers. Actually, they're superior to painkillers in every way. The ColdCure® Leg Wrap does an amazing job of relieving the pain and swelling associated with a Hamstring Injury, without any of the negative aspects of painkillers. ColdCure® Wraps also work much faster than painkillers. As soon as you apply the wrap to your Hamstrings, you will feel the cool, soothing relief as it absorbs the pain.
For controlling the swelling and pain associated with a Hamstring Injury, nothing works better than cold compression.
ColdCure® gel packs were designed to address the need for a cold compression device that does not cause cold burns. Our gel packs pose no threat of freezing your skin or underlying tissue. This makes them much safer to use than other products that use ice, which can cause the skin to freeze, leading to permanent damage. ColdCure® gel packs are completely safe to use for extended treatment durations, meaning faster relief of pain and swelling. Our ColdCure® technology is a huge improvement on regular ice packs.
The ColdCure® Leg Wrap is made entirely of very soft, stretchy material. It comes with 3 swappable cold packs that contain our unique XC RigiGel® formula. XC RigiGel® is firm yet flexible, meaning it always stays in place. Unlike gooey blue gel that migrates to other areas of the pack, our gel won't flow away from your injury. It conforms to your Hamstrings for an even, consistent treatment every time. The gel packs are inserted inside the wrap one at a time, so you can have the other two charging in the freezer to keep your therapy going. Do your ColdCure® treatments in 20 minute intervals throughout the day, or as long as you need the relief.
When you're not doing treatments with your BFST® or ColdCure® Wrap, your injured tissue becomes vulnerable to further damage. You don't want to re-injure your already fragile tissue and make your Hamstring Injury worse. Apply KB Support Tape to your Hamstrings between your BFST® and ColdCure® treatments. This will provide your injured tissue with additional support and protection.
Our skin is soft and elastic and can stretch much more than the tissue underneath. When you apply KB Support Tape to your skin, it becomes a much more rigid surface than before, serving to limit how much the skin can stretch. The Tape makes your skin a source of outside support to hold your tissue in place, helping to prevent re-injury. That's why we call it armor for your injury.
KB Support Tape provides your injury with lightweight, comfortable compression to relieve your swelling throughout the day. It also prevents re-injury by providing support and protection for your injured tissue.
KB Support Tape comes in 2 different styles: Pre-Cut Strips and a Continuous Roll. These 2 styles come in 4 different colors: Pink, Blue, Black & Beige. There's no functional difference between the colors, they just allow you to express your personal style.
The Pre-Cut Strips of KB Support Tape are perfect for people who want to use their tape on-the-go. Since they're already cut into ready-to-use strips, you can apply and go! Each roll of Pre-Cut KB Support Tape contains 20 individual strips. Each Pre-Cut Strip is 2 inches wide and 10 inches long.
The Continuous Rolls of KB Support Tape are ideal for you if you're looking for a more customizable Tape. You can cut the Tape into a variety of different shapes and sizes to achieve a completely unique application for your injury. Each box contains 1 Continuous Roll of KB Support Tape that is 2 inches wide and 16 feet long.
Part of the above application was applied over clothing for demonstration purposes only. When using this application, apply it directly to your skin.
While we found the above application to be effective for Hamstring Injuries, it's only an example. We encourage you to try different applications for your given injury to find the one that works best for you. Also, remember to listen to what your body is telling you. Use the pain as a guide. If you feel the pain in a specific area of your Hamstring, apply the tape there.
What sets KB Support Tape apart from the rest? It's not athletic tape, it's medical tape. This means our Tape is manufactured to ISO 10993 standards, which ensures that our Tape is made from extremely safe, biocompatible materials. Our Tape is actually made from materials that are safer than most baby products, including diapers, toys and clothing. Don't let the big brand tapes fool you. Most of them are made from toxic materials, because there are no standards for athletic tape. Some big brand athletic tape glues even contain carcinogenic ingredients. At King Brand®, your health and safety is of utmost importance, which is why KB Support Tape is manufactured to such high standards.
When you entered our site, a Leg ColdCure® medical device, a Leg BFST® medical device, and a roll of KB Support Tape were automatically put into your shopping cart. What's in your cart now are the three things you need to stop the pain and speed the healing of your Hamstring Injury. You may go to the checkout at any time or please continue to learn more about treating Hamstring Injuries by exploring our site. You can also find products to treat other injuries and ailments in our shop.
Every BFST® and ColdCure® Wrap purchased comes with the free professional consulting services of our King Brand® Advisors. This added benefit is extremely valuable. One of our Advisors will contact you 2-3 days after your order has been delivered to see how your treatments are going and answer any questions you may have. Our Advisors are highly knowledgeable when it comes to treating Hamstring Injuries. They have also been thoroughly trained on BFST® and ColdCure® technology and treatments. One of our Advisors can even help you create a personalized treatment plan that's specific to your schedule. Our Advisors truly care about your recovery. While one of our Advisors will follow up with you directly, you are welcome to contact us if you need any assistance. We're here for you through every stage of your recovery.
Combination Therapy means using ColdCure® and BFST® in combination by alternating treatments, as well as using KB Support Tape between your treatments. Combination Therapy is much more effective than using just one product or the other. This is because you're getting the pain and swelling relief of ColdCure®, the healing benefits of BFST®, and the protection and re-injury prevention of KB Support Tape, resulting in the absolute best treatment for your Hamstring Injury.
Use the ColdCure® Wrap several times a day to help reduce not only the visible swelling you may see on the surface, but also the inflammation you may have and cannot see, deep down in the soft tissue.
Avoid using the BFST® Wrap until your inflammation and swelling has subsided. Start your BFST® treatments on Level 1. For maximum benefit, please take into consideration that each 20 minute treatment optimizes your blood circulation for an average of 4 hours. We recommend 3-4 treatments daily, spread throughout the day. During the day, do a BFST® treatment every 4 hours or before any type of physical activity. This can include anything that puts a strain on the injured area (running, jumping, etc). This can also be used for preventative measures after a full recovery to optimize your blood flow.
Do a ColdCure® treatment any time you experience a pain flare-up or after any physical activity to prevent further injury and reduce swelling and inflammation. Wait 30-45 minutes after your ColdCure® treatment before doing a BFST® treatment. This time will allow the blood flow and body temperature to regulate again. Refrain from using ColdCure® within the 4 hours following your 20 minute BFST® treatment. This will counteract the treatment. If necessary, use the ColdCure® Wrap for pain control, then follow up with another BFST® treatment.
Any time you're not doing a BFST® or ColdCure® treatment, wear KB Support Tape on your Hamstring Injury. More Tape means more support, so if you're doing something physically demanding, you may want to apply an extra layer of Tape. If you're taping and doing multiple BFST® treatments throughout the day, do your first BFST® treatment before the Tape is applied and your last treatment after it has been removed at the end of the day.
BFST® Wraps are Class II FDA Registered medical devices. They comply with hundreds of pages of regulations and standards that are in place to keep you safe and ensure effective treatments. BFST® devices are designed and tested to extremely high standards of quality, safety and performance. Consumer grade products aren't - because they're not FDA Registered.
The Blood Flow Stimulation Therapy® (BFST®) Wrap is designed to promote blood flow in injured tissue below the dermal (fat and skin) layer. Utilizing our proprietary Energy Web®, specially controlled and incredibly safe, low levels of EMR energy envelop your Hamstrings (also known as the Biceps Femoris, Semitendinosus and Semimembranosus) and stimulate blood flow in the soft tissue deep beneath the skin. The resulting stimulation brings oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the injured area, accelerating the healing process.
BFST® Wraps come with a 3 level power controller. Everyone should start their treatments at Level 1 and work their way through the levels gradually as their Hamstring Injury heals. Proceeding immediately to Level 2 or 3 will not speed up the healing process. You need to condition the body first.
During your first treatments on Level 1, you may feel a slight warming sensation deep within your Hamstrings. This is because, at first, your circulation is poor. The more treatments you do, the better your circulation will become, and the less warmth you will feel. This is good. As the warmth lessens from treatment to treatment, this is an indication that your circulation is improving. Better circulation means blood flow all the time, not just during treatments. This is the goal. When you feel almost no warmth during a treatment, it is time to move up to the next power level. Don't rush it though, more heat doesn't mean better treatment. In fact, less heat means better treatment, so take your time moving up in levels.
BFST® Wraps are far superior to heating pads. BFST® Wraps work to actively heal your tissue damage. Heating pads can't do this. BFST® Wraps stimulate healthy blood flow in the area of your injury, deep below the skin. This creates an ideal environment for healing. All heating pads do is bring blood to the surface of your skin, making it hot to the touch. The difference between a BFST® Wrap and a heating pad is huge.
The Energy Web® of the BFST® Leg device is enclosed inside a soft, comfortable neoprene wrap. The Wrap molds the Energy Web® around your Hamstrings to ensure that the entire injured area receives an even distribution of energy. The straps attached to the wrap make it easy to find the right fit. You don't need to remove the BFST® Wrap once your treatment ends. Simply unplug the controller and keep wearing it to act as a reminder of your injury.
You need to keep doing BFST® treatments even after the pain is gone, because the pain ends long before you've finished healing. The entire healing process is very complex and takes much longer than most people realize. (You can click here for the full story.) The key thing to remember is that long after the pain stops, your Hamstrings are still healing. This means you need to continue doing BFST® treatments in order to complete the healing process. Doing regular BFST® treatments for several months after the pain is gone is extremely beneficial. Do a BFST® treatment prior to any physical activity to warm up your circulatory system. You should also continue taping your Hamstrings to prevent the risk of re-injury.
ColdCure® Wraps are FDA Registered Class I medical devices. They exceed all government and health agency regulatory requirements for cold therapy, specifically for use in treating soft tissue injuries. When applied, ColdCure® Wraps immediately reduce the risk of further damage from excessive swelling. Doctors and Therapists agree that controlling swelling is a fundamental part of reducing long-term permanent damage resulting from soft tissue injuries.
ColdCure® RigiGel® packs are much safer and more effective than ice and products that use mushy blue gel. Why? Because RigiGel® packs are like ice, but they stay at 0°C. While they may start at about -20°C straight from the freezer, after a few minutes they will go to 0°C and stay at 0°C for a long time. This is the ideal temperature for cold therapy, because it's cold enough to relieve your pain and swelling, but safe enough to not cause cold burns. Ice and blue gel packs will also start out at -20°C and rapidly go to 0°C, but then their temperature will keep rising quickly, instead of staying in the safe, effective zone of 0°C. The XC Gel® danger zone is very small, but the benefits are huge.
While XC Gel® packs are designed to be stored in the freezer, you can store them in the fridge if you find them too cold from the freezer. Not all freezers are the same. If you find that the gel is too stiff from the freezer, leave it out for 1-2 minutes before inserting it inside the wrap. When the pack is soft enough to bend, it's ready to use for treatment.
Many people use the RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation - method when treating a soft tissue injury such as a pulled Hamstring. What most of these people probably don't realize is that using ice can be very dangerous. The truth is that ice can actually freeze your skin and numb your nerves, causing 'cold burns' and even permanent damage to your skin and underlying tissue. The proper solution is RCCE® - Rest, Cold, Compression & Elevation. We don't want to apply ice, we want to apply cold that is just above freezing. Yes, you want cold, and lots of it - but not so cold that it is below the freezing point of water.
XC Gel® packs provide the best in coverage and cold power. They contain 10x more gel per lb than other products, for complete coverage of your Hamstrings. When stored in the freezer, our XC Gel® packs have
3x more cooling power per lb than other products. This means faster, more effective relief of your pain and swelling. It also means longer treatment times without having to get up and swap the packs as often.
ColdCure® Leg gel packs are custom designed to mold to your Hamstrings. This ensures that the entire injured area receives an even distribution of cooling power. We don't just use one common gel pack with all of our wraps. All of our gel packs are specially designed for a specific part of the body. Every body part is uniquely shaped, which is why every one of our gel packs is uniquely shaped too. This product has 100% been designed to treat Hamstring Injuries.
While regular gel packs have hot and cold spots, our gel packs have an evenly balanced cold temperature. Our unique
XC RigiGel® formula eliminates hot spots by distributing the cold energy evenly throughout the pack. This means your Hamstring Injury will receive the cooling power of the entire gel pack during every treatment. The amazing temperature-balancing power of XC RigiGel® can only be found in a ColdCure® Wrap.
XC Gel® packs have 2 different colored sides: a white side and a gold side. Both sides have all the same benefits that our outstanding XC RigiGel® formula has to offer! XC Gel® packs can be inserted inside the pack with the white side facing towards your hamstring or away from your hamstring since they're not side specific.
King Brand® soft tissue rehabilitation medical products are the #1 choice by top Athletic Therapists and Medical Practitioners worldwide. We provide guaranteed results and customer satisfaction. Like all King Brand® products, there simply isn't a better performing option. All King Brand® products come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Try our products and if you are not completely impressed, you can send them back for a full refund. We know you will love them though because thousands of people already use them and rave about the results.
King Brand® BFST® and ColdCure® Wraps are FDA Registered medical devices. They have also passed the Health Canada, ISO 13485, ISO 10993 and IEC 60601-1 3rd Edition approval processes. ISO 10993 in particular is significant in terms of material safety - it means that our products are manufactured with biocompatible materials. These materials are safer than the materials used to make diapers, baby clothes and baby toys. These are not simple consumer goods. These devices are designed to prevent, treat and cure soft tissue injuries and chronic conditions.


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You are currently browsing the daily archive for May 10, 2008.
It is recipe day and today's recipe is a dessert, a first here at The Day After An Inconvenient Truth. It is a chocolate, rice crispy ice cream pie, because summer is just around the corner.
What You Need
1/2 cup organic chocolate syrup
1/3 cup organic semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups organic crispy rice cereal
1 quart {4 cups) of your favorite organic ice cream
(F.Y.I. – The links to organic products are just suggestions of products I have used and recommend, but you can use any organic brand.)
What to Do
Butter a 9 inch pie pan
Mix the chocolate syrup semi-sweet chocolate chips in a pan over medium heat and stir until smooth. Remove and set aside 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture and put it in a small bowl. Add cereal to remaining chocolate mixture, stirring until well coated. Let it cool slightly.
Then using the back of spoon, press mixture evenly on bottom and up sides of prepared pie plate to form crust. Place the pan in freezer 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is firm. Spread one-half of ice cream into crust; spoon chocolate sauce over the first layer. Then top with scoops of the remaining ice cream. Cover and return to freezer until serving time. Drizzle with additional chocolate syrup just before serving.
You have no idea how good this is on a hot day.
Reason 85 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Clog up your arteries on a diet loaded with saturated animal fat and cholesterol year after year and you risk having a heart attack or stroke. You can opt to avert these afflictions with an expensive, though now-routine, operation known as angioplasty. Performed with a balloon-tipped catheter, it works to flatten plaque against artery walls, thus opening up passageways for blood to flow. A whole-foods vegan diet, along with regular exercise, can have the same effect.


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Josh loves a good adventure and some of his favorite wedding and engagement shoots have involved "getting crazy" or going somewhere special to the couple.
Josh is a Texas native and long time Pflugerville resident. He started his photography business in 2009 and has never looked back. His photo business even allowed him to be daddy-day-care before his two sons reached school age. Over the years his business has expanded to include just about every type of photography including automotive, editorial portraits, corporate events, sports and food. Through it all, he has continued to love wedding photography for genuine moment, the fast pace and the diversity of subjects it offers. Josh is a co-founder of North Austin Pfoutographic Society and a resident instructor at Precision Camera & Video in Austin, Tx.


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From beach themed bedspreads to Southwestern ensembles, these bed coverings will enrich your signature look, whether you draw inspiration from the coast or the desert. Themed bedspreads augment a wide variety of styles with their becoming patterns and colors. Add a scorching accent with a bedspread depicting earthy reds, and let a pop of deep blue grant a refreshing quality. Or, allow your seaside theme to soak up the cheerful pastels and oceanic elements featured on a coastal bedspread. Dip into the many hues, designs and sizes available with our themed bedspreads, and play up your favorite decorating approach.
Transform an ordinary bedroom into a relaxing destination, when you decorate with beachy bedspreads. Wavy, horizontal bands capture the motion of ocean waves with some bedspreads; beach theme bedspreads also depict scallop, conch and nautilus shells on block-quilted backgrounds. Finally, for an eye-popping effect, choose a bedding ensemble with vermicelli stitching and striped patterns. Embroidered scallops, starfish, coral and seahorses add a sprightly impression to your decor. Beach themed bedspreads with curtains to match will garner a coordinated appeal that will make your boudoir that much more fashionable.
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Hermantown Forward Chris Benson Wins 2013 Class A Boys Herb Brooks Award + Four Hawks Named to the All-Tournament Team
It was a bittersweet end to to the high school hockey career of Hermantown Hawks forward Chris Benson on Championship Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Benson was named the 2013 Class A Boys recipient of the Herb Brooks Award and he, along with three of his teammates were named to the 2013 All-Tournament Team.
Named after legendary coach Herb Brooks, the award is given to the Minnesota state hockey tournament player who most strongly represents the values, characteristics, and traits that defined Herb Brooks. Upon receiving the award, Benson emotionally thanked his teammates and the fans watching from the stands at the Xcel Energy Center and at home on television. Benson joins fellow Hawks winner Chad Huttel who earned the award in 2007.
Benson joined Neal Pionk, Travis Koepke and Adam Smith in being named to the 2013 All-Tournament Team. All-Tournament Team members are selected based on exemplary performance through the MSHSL State Hockey Tournament.


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TALENTSOFT, a limited liability company with a share capital of 2,693,462 euros (€), registered at the Nanterre Trade and Companies Register under number 497 941 377, intra-Community VAT number FR87497941377, and registered office at 8 Rue Heyrault – 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
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The Tigers win the Pennant
The title pretty much says it all. With such a roller coaster ride in the regular season, it's very gratifying to see the Tigers win the pennant and go back to the World Series. Although the bats were broke out in game 4, it was the starting pitching that really got this team here. The Yankees are not easy opponents, and two of the three games were won in extra innings. Yes I wanted the sweep, I wanted a route, but not because I'm a Yankee hater or anything. I simply respect the fact that they have the talent that can win, no matter what the score or the series. If the Tigers let up one bit, the Yanks might have extended this series. The 8-1 win gave Tiger fans a chance to relax just a little, and enjoy the road to the World Series in this one game. Of course the Tigers couldn't have done it without a few former Whitecaps that worked their way up the chain to the big team's roster. In yesterday's game Avisail Garcia went 2-5 with an RBI, Omar Infante went 2-5 with two runs scored, and Andy Dirks was 3-5. Granted, without Miggy's monster shot, Jhonny's two homers, and the ACLS MVP Delmon Young, Detroit wouldn't be celebrating tonight, but it's still fun to see the young guys help out. At this point it looks like another showdown with the St. Louis Cardinals is destined…and remember, it's the Tigers turn.
Photos courtesy of the Associated Press(top)/USA Today(bottom)


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Bent exhaust tube 30° 1 3/4" SS (44,5mm)
Universal exhaust parts
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30 degree bend stainless steel exhaust tube.
Bent pipe with swaged end that can easily be connected to other exhaust parts and locked with a band clamp or exhaust clamp.
The swage can be cut away for use by other joints such as the V-band flange or weld flange.
You can also use a splice sleeve to get a clamping band as a joint at both ends of the tube.
You can use exhaust cones or stepped sleeve to connect exhaust pipes to other dimensions.
Example of suitable exhaust parts are linked.
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IBM Completes Acquisition of Star Analytics, Inc.March 19, 2013 No Comments
ARMONK, N.Y. – 19 March 2013: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has completed the acquisition of the software portfolio of Star Analytics, Inc., a privately held business analytics company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The combination of IBM and Star Analytics' software will further advance IBM's business analytics initiatives allowing clients to easily access financial information stored in their applications, allowing them to make more informed decisions faster.
Star Analytics software addresses a rising challenge for organizations — helping to automatically integrate essential information, reporting applications and business analytics tools across their enterprises, on premise or from cloud computing environments. The software removes typical custom coding for specialized sources that are hard to maintain, and eliminates manual processes that are cumbersome and time consuming.
"Applying analytics to a wide range of data requires organizations to democratize and speed sharing of critical information across an enterprise," said Les Rechan, IBM General Manager, Business Analytics. "Star Analytics' software advances IBM's efforts to deliver analytics that span all data sources directly into the hands of front line employees, and delivers a comprehensive approach to helping clients uncover new, untapped growth opportunities."
Star Analytics' software, combined with IBM's R&D and prior acquisitions in business analytics including Varicent, Algorithmics, Clarity Systems, OpenPages and Cognos, and recent investments in predictive analytics such as SPSS, will provide clients with a broad range of business analytics solutions. These acquisitions are part of IBM's larger focus on analytics, which spans hardware, software, services and research.
The news supports IBM's long-term growth strategy to expand the company's business analytics and optimization software and services capabilities, an area of IBM's business that is expected to reach $20 billion in revenue by 2015.
IBM has established one of the world's deepest portfolios of analytics and big data technologies and industry expertise, including almost 9,000 dedicated business analytics and optimization consultants, and 400 researchers. Nearly 500 of the patents from IBM's record breaking 20th year of innovation will serve as the building blocks for future analytics innovations that can help businesses and governments unlock the power of big data.
With the closing of this acquisition, it is expected that all Star Analytics employees will join IBM's Software Group.
For additional information, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/analytics/announce/star-analytics/
For more information about IBM and Analytics, please visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27163.wss
IBM YouTube Analytics Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ibmbusinessanalyticsDATA and ANALYTICS , News


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Feel the comfort of this heavenly soft bedding set!
So soft and heavenly, you'll wish it came in your size. The Heavenly Soft Crib Bedding so deliciously cozy, your child is sure to sleep comfortably all night long.
I bought this for my grandbaby! The ecru color is so beautiful and it is so soft. The texture on the blanket made a great backdrop for his announcement picture!


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Sid Caesar, pioneer of live television comedy, dies at 91
Television pioneer Sid Caesar died this week at his home in Beverly Hills after a brief illness; he was 91.
Sid Caesar, a television pioneer who reigned as the king of live TV sketch comedy in the 1950s with his inspired brand of mimicry, pantomime and satire on the classic comedy-variety series "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour," died Wednesday. He was 91.
Caesar died at his home in Beverly Hills after a brief illness, according to his biographer and friend Eddy Friedfeld.
A two-time Emmy Award-winning performer during his TV heyday in the `50s, Caesar has been hailed as "one of the great TV clowns," "one of television's most inventive performers" and "a genius at making people laugh."
PHOTOS: Sid Caesar | 1922 - 2014
"Television had its share of comedy geniuses," Times television critic Howard Rosenberg wrote in 1994. "Yet arguably none has been as uniquely gifted and inventive as Caesar. Watching him perform, you just know light bulbs are popping continuously in his brain."
With his flair for verbal and physical comedy honed while performing during his World War II service in the Coast Guard and in nightclubs and theaters after the war, Caesar burst on the national scene in 1949 as the star of the "Admiral Broadway Revue," a live, hourlong show from New York that aired Friday nights simultaneously on NBC and the DuMont network.
The Max Liebman-produced show, which was built around Caesar and teamed him with comedic actress Imogene Coca for the first time, featured guest stars, comedy sketches and large production numbers.
PHOTOS: Celebrities react to Sid Caesar's death
The "Admiral Broadway Revue" was a hit — so much so that it was canceled after less than five months when the Admiral Corp. withdrew its sole sponsorship: It reportedly needed to use the money it had been putting into the program to build a new factory to keep up with the skyrocketing number of orders for its TV sets generated by the show.
But the "Admiral Broadway Revue" was only a warmup for what Caesar later called the main event: "Your Show of Shows."
The live, 90-minute Saturday night show, produced by Liebman and showcasing the comic ensemble of Caesar, Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris, aired from 1950 to 1954 and won two Emmys for best variety show.
PHOTOS: The funny faces of Sid Caesar
Caesar later likened performing the 90-minute show live before a theater audience, without the aid of cue cards or TelePrompTers, to doing a new Broadway show each week. And they did it 39 weeks each season.
Out of that pressure cooker came innumerable classic comedy moments.
There were domestic sketches, including one in which Caesar and Coca are a married couple trying to decide how to tip at a fancy restaurant. In another, Caesar is a husband who is so anxious about a big meeting the next morning that he can't fall asleep. But instead of taking sleeping pills, he mistakenly takes pep pills.
PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2014
In one of the show's most memorable sketches, Caesar, Coca, Reiner and Morris wordlessly played the figures on a large town clock in Bavaria that appear with mechanical precision on the hour, until the clock goes on the fritz.
Caesar later said the key to the show's success "unquestionably was the writing."
Among the members of the "Your Show of Shows" legendary writers' room, in addition to Brooks, were Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen, Tony Webster, Joe Stein, Neil and Danny Simon, and Reiner (a self-described "writer without portfolio").
A complete obituary will follow at latimes.com/obits.
Shirley Temple Black, 85, iconic child movie star
Arthur Rankin, 89, stop-motion animation pioneer
Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, Oscar-winning actor
Must-read stories from the L.A. Times
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Subaru WRX / Forester (01-07): XB LED Side MarkersB-ASY-LF0625-HR
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Product Details
Done right: These should make you second guess simply adding LED bulbs to your stock housings. The XB LED Side Markers from Morimoto are well-built. Have a virtually infinite life span. An unbeatable warranty, and out-perform other options-- Easily making these the best WRX / Forester Side Marker Lights on the market today.
Brighter: You have already done an LED upgrade to the headlights, the fog lights, and the tail lights on your WRX / Forester, so does it make sense to keep the Side Markers stock? No way. Now you can complete the package and make sure everything matches both in terms of output intensity and purity in color with these assemblies. With high-powered Osram LED's behind the optical lens--they will be much more effective both day and night compared to the OEM setup.
Durable: Their UV-coated polycarbonate lens will resist the test of time, ensuring that they look good as new for many years to come. To save on cost, the cheap alternatives do not use a UV-coated PC lens and that will become obvious, quickly. We've seen them fade within a matter of months. Spend a few bucks more now, save yourself the hassle of swapping out later.
Plug-n-Play: Again, there is no comparison between the Morimoto's and the generic. When it comes to wiring, these are far better quality. The Morimoto LED Side Markers for your WRX / Forester are designed to work without any modifications. They will plug into the factory connectors. No error codes, no flickering, hyper-flashing, or radio interference. They can easily be removed and will not void your factory warranty.
OEM Plus: We live, eat, and sleep lighting upgrades. While the WRX / Forester Side Markers from Morimoto cost a bit more relative to other options in the aftermarket; as the saying goes "you pay for what you get". We've seen it all, and their fit and finish is far superior to everything else out there. Guaranteed.
HR Tested: Here at Headlight Revolution, we spend a lot of time installing and testing the products you'll find for sale. We don't favor any particular brand, so our commitment to you is that we'll deliver the best product for your application, period. To see all of the compatible lighting upgrades for your vehicle, use the Buyer's Guide on our homepage! Be sure to check out the HR YouTube channel for hundreds of helpful install and review videos!
Product Specs
What's Included
Side Markers: 2x (One Pair) XB LED Side Markers
Wiring: Plug and Play Harness
Warranty:2 Years (Click for Details)
Subaru Impreza WRX STI: 2002-2007
Subaru Forester: 2001-2005
Subaru Liberty: 2000-2003
Tech Specs
Input Voltage: 9-32V DC
Illuminates: Amber
Lens Treatment: Anti-UV Coating
Lens Color: Smoked


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Brock Jardine's father is a native of Canada, which helps to explain an aspect of the mixed-martial-artist's resume that stands out: His name.
When his parents went to name the youngest of their three boys – one of five children in the family – his father wanted a Canadian touch. He had been fond of a famous character in Canadian military history, British Maj. Gen. Sir Isaac Brock. In 1812, Brock led forces against Americans in the War of 1812, and he died in battle.
It's a fitting MMA name that wasn't intended to be.
"Some think it's like Brock Lesnar and Keith Jardine had a love child," Jardine laughed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
With recent fights, despite a near-miss on "The Ultimate Fighter 13" and some difficulty in finding opponents, Jardine has added more weight to his own name. Taking 50 total seconds to earn his past two victories, the 26-year-old Utah resident has run his record to 9-1 while leaving his full-time job as a piano mover to concentrate on his career.
Like the rest of his family, Jardine comes from a wrestling background, both at the high school and college levels. He began his MMA interest with post-wrestling practice jiu-jitsu sessions with then-teammate and later WEC champion Jamie Varner at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.
He won most of his early fights on part-time training before taking the sport more seriously after a win against WEC vet Dave Terrel in November 2009. With his commitment at The Pit Elevated Fight Team in Orem, Utah, Jardine is hoping to soon acquire an opponent for May's Showdown Fights show in Utah and continue his success with a solid win.
"In the past few years it's been, 'OK, it's time to get really focused,'" Jardine said. "I worked full-time until last year, but I felt like I had a real chance in this, so I needed to commit to it."
A wrestling focus
Jardine was raised in Front Royal, Va., by a father whose business helped to teach him about hard work. Jardine's father owned a business called Jack of All Trades (his name is Jack), which provided handyman and home improvement services.
Watching that, and following the example of two older brothers, Jardine learned about commitment and wrestling.
"My parents made us do our chores on Saturday no matter what our friends were doing or how nice it was outside," he said. "Now that I have a family of my own, I understand why."
Jardine's father, uncle and brothers wrestled before him. He started in the sixth grade, and he entered a community that embraced wrestling. By the time he was in high school, the school had raised money for a new wrestling room, because the sport was one of the most successful at the school.
In four years, Jardine became a three-time state qualifier and a state runner-up while compiling 123 victories. His college path took him to three schools, first a small school in Virginia and then Lock Haven in Pennsylvania and finally Utah Valley University.
Even after he left Lock Haven, Jardine kept the interest in MMA he gained from Varner in 2005 while at the school.
"I remember watching 'The Ultimate Fighter' with him and then having him help teach us about the sport," Jardine said. "We did the jiu-jitsu for fun, and none of us really knew what we were doing, so I definitely didn't know I would be using it later."
Taking it seriously
When Jardine finished his wrestling career, he reveled in the idea that there was no more training and no more struggling to make weight. After a few months, that wore off.
"Nine months later it was, 'Man, not competing sucks,'" Jardine said.
Remembering the after-practice jiu-jitsu training sessions at Lock Haven, Jardine entered a few jiu-jitsu tournaments. He joked that he was the stereotypical would-be MMA fighter who talked for months about getting his first fight, but then he made a move and traveled to Wyoming for his debut, a win.
While working and taking care of family, he wasn't able to continue steady training. He would fight and win, then go a few months without serious training. By the time he was 6-0, a slot opened up to fight Terrel at Throwdown Showdown 5 in Orem.
It was his biggest opportunity yet. After he earned the unanimous decision victory, he considered more commitment to his career.
He was able to stop working the moving job that had split his training between early morning and late at night and get a job at his gym. By the time "TUF 13" was casting, Jardine was becoming more notable. Despite his being cut during the interview process, the show called him back and said it might need to fill an unexpected opening, which raised his excitement.
"I was like 25 pounds over," Jardine said, "but for something like that, you're going to make weight."
But the day before the cast members left for the show, Jardine learned that while his teammate Ramsey Nijem was going to be part of the cast, he was staying home.
He responded with consecutive wins to run his record to 9-1 while hoping to gain more notable fights in the coming months.
"Tony Ferguson (Jardine's only loss) said I was his toughest fight, and I think I'm a tough fight for anyone," he said. "I just want to keep proving it."
Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly "Fight Path" column focuses on the
circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter
with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.


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The super-geniuses over at the Fraunhofer institute have dreamed up a way of turning a ceiling full of blinking LEDs into an 800mbps wireless network that requires only "a few additional components" worth of modifications.
As ISPreview tells it, the technology could be used in areas—like airplanes or hospitals—where radio signals are frowned upon. And Fraunhofer's Anagnostis Paraskevopoulos explains the process, which included the simultaneous transfer of four HD videos to four laptops, as such:
"The fundamentals of visible light communication (VLC) were developed together with the industry partners Siemens and France Telecom Orange Labs," said the expert. At HHI, the team of project manager Klaus-Dieter Langer is now further developing the new technology. "For VLC the sources of light – in this case, white-light LEDs – provide lighting for the room at the same time they transfer information. With the aid of a special component, the modulator, we turn the LEDs off and on in very rapid succession and transfer the information as ones and zeros. The modulation of the light is imperceptible to the human eye. A simple photo diode on the laptop acts as a receiver. As Klaus-Dieter Langer explains, "The diode catches the light, electronics decode the information and translate it into electrical impulses, meaning the language of the computer."
But the obvious problem here is that the LED source and its receiver needs to have a direct line of site to function within its 10 meter radius. Walls need not apply. [Fraunhofer via ISPreview via Slashdot]
Image via Flickr/Uncene


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Penny Pritzker on the Economic Consequences of the NSA Scandal
The secretary of commerce says the president is working to restore trust in the business community.
The Department of Commerce is a big place. It's home to the National Weather Service, the U.S. Patent Office, and the Census Bureau. But following last summer's revelations about NSA surveillance of American citizens, one bureau has gotten more than its usual share of the media's attention: the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which develops the encryption standards used by all public organizations and many private companies to protect their digital infrastructure.
Because of a legal requirement, the NIST had help from the NSA in creating these encryption recommendations, and in September, the bureau "strongly" advised that organizations stop using one part of their standard because of security concerns. While the head of NIST, Patrick Gallagher, testified that the organization is "not deliberately, knowingly, working to undermine or weaken encryption," outrage about NSA surveillance has put the bureau in an awkward situation: People aren't sure whether they can trust the digital security standards that NIST puts out.
That's why Penny Pritzker, the Hyatt hotel chain heiress and recently confirmed Secretary of Commerce, has been getting questions about national security, including at The Atlantic's forum on small business on Wednesday. A big part of the president's economic agenda is helping businesses use data in smarter ways, she said, and that means they have to trust data provided by the government.
"There's a national security approach, as well as an economic approach, to the 'How do we restore trust?' question," Pritzker said. "I put the national security issue in what I call protecting the digital flexibility" of companies.
Much of the media coverage of the NSA controversy has focused on privacy, highlighting concerns about how much access the government has to the phone calls and emails of regular citizens. But Pritzker's comments indicate another concern: If businesses in America and abroad are reluctant to rely on government tools like the NIST encryption standards, agencies like the Department of Commerce won't be able to help businesses as effectively. If the U.S. government has a credibility problem, U.S. businesses get hurt.
Pritzker said these concerns are "taken very, very, very seriously." She said "the president has called together" three separate commissions and review boards that are trying to address concerns about government surveillance, including two that are independent of the administration.
"We're making sure we restore trust," she said.


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Photo of the day: I SOLD ONE OF MY PHOTOS TO BE USED AS A GIANT MURAL IN A NYC LOBBY !!
Photo of the day: I SOLD ONE OF MY PHOTOS TO BE USED AS A GIANT MURAL IN A NYC LOBBY !! – Wow! Pinch me! I got an email several months ago from a design firm that saw this photo of mine on my web site and said it was perfect for their client, it was exactly what they were looking for. I didn't dare dream or think anything would come of it. Well – it did!
The photo called "West Side Story" is of fire escapes casting their shadows at sunset in the Soho district of New York. While editing the photo, it more and more made me think of the fire escapes used as logos for the classic American musical film "West Side Story." So as I played with the photo more and more, I reversed it into a negative image and tinted it the exact color of the "West Side Story" film poster and voilà! Obviously it appealed to someone, because it sold for a tidy $um and is going to be a giant mural in a lobby of a building !


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Fewer teachers. No school building. No heating bill. Same cost.
You'd think Pennsylvania's 16 cyber-charter schools, which teach home-based students via the Web, would spend a lot less per student than bricks and mortar schools.
Not so.
They collect as much money per student as the state's brick-and-mortar charter schools. Despite a call from Governor Tom Corbett to do otherwise, the state still doesn't ask how much it actually costs to educate students in cyber-charters to proficiency standards (nor does it, actually, for any of its schools).
Instead — as it does for brick-and-mortar charters — the state simply demands that school districts turn 70- percent to 80 percent of their normal per-pupil costs over to the cybers. (School districts are allowed to deduct certain expenses such as debt-service and transportation costs from their payments to charter schools.)
Those costs, of course, differ greatly from one school district to another. And since the state's cyber charters can take students from any of Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, they receive wildly different funding rates depending on a student's home base.
If a regular-education student from Lower Merion school district attended a cyber-charter in 2011-2012, Lower Merion (which then had a per-pupil expenditure of $22,140.70) sent the cyber charter about $17,000.
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If a regular-education student from the Philadelphia school district attended the same cyber-charter, Philadelphia (which then had a per-pupil expenditure of $12,351.74) sent the cyber charter about $8,500.
Same cyber school. Same cyber-education. Outrageously different price tag.
Tax forms
So how exactly are the state's cyber charters using this money?
That's the question Temple law professor Susan DeJarnatt set to answer in an article recently published in Urban Lawyer.
Parsing the tax documents for the 12 cyber charters for which information was available, she found that cyber charters carry large surpluses and spend what she considered a disproportionate amount of Pennsylvania tax dollars on advertising, travel expenses and contracts with outside management and service providers.
In her analysis, DeJarnatt breaks down cyber-charters into two categories.
Four of the twelve cyber charters were set up by the regional consortiums of public school districts called Intermediate Units (IUs). These are: 21st Century, Central PA Digital Learning Foundation, PA Learners Online Regional Cyber Charter, and SusQ-Cyber Charter.
The remaining "independent" cybers, DeJarnatt writes, "have no direct connection to any public school district." She calls five of these "mega-cybers" because they "enroll the largest number of students and tend to employ outside managers." She counts as "mega-cybers": Agora Cyber, Commonwealth Connections Academy, PA Cyber, PA Leadership Charter, and PA Virtual.
These schools, she writes, "tend to carry significant surpluses and have accumulated significant assets."
The 10 cybers with publicly available tax forms maintained a total surplus of $13,688,029 and held net assets of $35,900,476.
One IU-run cyber (PA Learners Online Regional) and one independently-run cyber (PA Cyber) did not have publicly available tax-forms.
Maintaining some sort of surplus is common in all public schools. State law requires Pennsylvania school districts to keep at least 5 percent of their annual spending in undesignated reserve funds to preserve bond ratings. According to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, as a whole, Pennsylvania's public schools have amassed $3.8 billion in surpluses.
"It's fiscally responsible for public schools to set aside funds for emergency purposes and unexpected expenditures," said PDE spokesman Tim Eller. "However, the proper amount of a surplus is debatable."
Follow the money
Comparing IU-run cybers with independently run cybers, DeJarnatt points out the stark disparities for expenses such as advertising, travel and management fees.
Analyzing 2009 and 2010 tax forms, DeJarnatt found that the three IU-run cybers for which data were available spent $397,031 on such expenses.
The seven independent schools for which data were available spent $54,464,226.
By paying such fees, DeJarnatt points out that independent cybers often send a windfall of Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars out of state.
She cites PA Cyber as a case in point.
PA Cyber, the nation's largest, is managed by a national non-profit organization of its own creation–the National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS). DeJarnatt found that PA Cyber "pays" NNDS over $30,000,000 annually for the rights to curricula that PA Cyber itself originally developed.
NNDS then can use those Pennsylvania taxpayer funds to complete its mission of providing "curriculum and management support to cyber schools across the country."
PA Cyber disputes DeJarnatt's characterization here, saying that "NNDS bought an infantile version of [the curriculum] from PA Cyber and invested into developing it into a robust, fully accredited, standards-based curriculum, which now features over 250 courses."
DeJarnatt says there hasn't been enough oversight to check if taxpayers are actually getting value for their money. "Somebody needs to look at it," she said. "That's my bottom line."
DeJarnatt also spotlights Agora Cyber.
Agora has a management contract with the national for-profit K-12 Inc. DeJarnatt found that Agora paid K-12 Inc. $14,967,243 in 2010.
"So a significant portion of the taxpayer money that goes to Agora to fund the education of the students at Agora is itself turned over to for-profit managers," said DeJarnatt. "There's nothing inherently illegal or wrong about that as long as the school is actually getting value for the money, but it's a question for me."
With so much money flowing to cybers, DeJarnatt says the "situation is ripe for potential abuse."
"Cyber schools are...more vulnerable to exploitation by self-interested individuals because the parent community is geographically dispersed and less able to easily meet to address concerns; the local school boards have no oversight authority; and the Pennsylvania Department of Education has not exhibited much concern about potential abuses," DeJarnatt wrote in the article.
PA Cyber Charter founder Nick Trombetta faces federal charges for allegedly siphoning more than $8 million from the school for personal benefit through a network of other profit and non-profit companies he controlled.
Of Trombetta's actions, United States Attorney David Hickton stated: "We allege this was a conscious, intentional scheme to steal money that was to be used to educate our children."
Agora Cyber Charter founder Dorothy June Brown is currently facing federal charges for allegedly defrauding four charter schools that she founded of $6.7 million. (Jury deliberations in Brown's case resumed today.)
DeJarnatt says these alleged abuses aren't necessarily the result of a lack of disclosure, but instead, a lack of resources devoted to oversight.
"There is ample disclosure in the form of annual reports to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, informational tax returns to the IRS, and occasional audits by the Auditor General," DeJarnatt writes.
"However, no agency is sufficiently staffed or funded to provide effective examination of the disclosures and to address the problems that the disclosures may raise."
Funding levels could be justified, critics of cybers say, if the schools evidenced great gains in student achievement.
A recent brief by the non-profit Research for Action found that for the 11 cyber charters that the state rated in its School Performance Profile evaluations, all scored among the lowest performers in the state.
No cyber charter with SPP scores attained the state average.
The study also found that the state's cyber-charters had high rates of student churn. The five cyber charter schools with enrollment data had higher average transfer-in and transfer-out rates than all brick-and-mortar charters with available data.
"It's troubling to think that entities with such poor outcomes are spending all these resources on self-promotion rather than on improving their services," said Education Law Center staff attorney David Lapp.
Lapp says DeJarnatt's study is "one more reason why Pennsylvania would be wise to institute a moratorium on cyber charter expansion until we see actual results."
The state granted four cyber charters for 2012-2013 school year.
The state rejected all eight that applied for 2013-2014 school year.
For the 2014-2015 school year, the state has heard another six applications. It will make its decision by the end of January.
In response to demand for cyber options, the Philadelphia School District opened its own virtual school at the beginning of this school year called the Philadelphia Virtual Academy. When Philadelphia students choose to attend PVA instead of one of the state's 16 cyber-charter options, the district estimates it saves 45-percent.
It costs the district $5,700 to educate students virtually, savings of over $4,000 per pupil compared to its own brick-and-mortar education.
Proponents of cyber education say DeJarnatt's article is "an all too familiar one-sided look at cyber education."
Jennifer Bradmon, executive director of PA Families for Public Cyber Schools, says the conversation about cyber-charter funding must be put into perspective.
"In Pennsylvania, cyber education accounts for less than 1-percent of the billions of dollars spent by Pennsylvania every year on public education," said Bradmon. "Nobody ever seems to look at that number, yet school districts use cybers as an excuse to raise taxes."
Bradmon also points out that most schools in some way contract with for-profit service providers.
"Are text books free for traditional school districts? How about desks? What about pencils?" she asked. "School districts spend billions on for-profit outside consultants and companies every year."
As far as advertising, Bradmon says cybers should be free to use taxpayer dollars in whatever way they deem most effective.
"I can tell you firsthand that my family did not know about public cyber schools until we heard an advertisement on the radio," Bradmon wrote. "Thank goodness we did. Cybers have been the best thing to happen to our daughters."
Instead of targeting the funding of cyber-charters, Bradmon says advocates should focus on fixing Pennsylvania's education funding system as a whole.
Tom Schaaf, school outreach communicator for the cyber-school Commonwealth Connections Academy, argues that cybers need to build up revenue surpluses to ensure financial stability.
Because they must renew their charters every five years, Schaaf says cybers have a difficult time borrowing capital.
"No one wants to lend to someone who's charter only exists for 5 years," he said.
Schaaf says Commonwealth Connections Academy spends about $9,500 per pupil.
"If we come up with more money than we anticipated, than great," Schaaf said, "we can use that money to better serve our families."
Pending legislation
Robert Fayfich, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Public Charter Schools, agrees that cyber charters are too often picked on.
Although he says it seems "logical" to look at the numbers and conclude that cybers are overpaid, "when you look at the detail of it, there's costs that the cyber schools have that the brick-and-mortars do not have that may offset that differential, and may not."
Cyber-charters must provide students with computers and internet access, must rent facilities for students to take standardized tests, and must budget for the multitude of expenses that come with educating a state-wide network of students.
But Fayfich agrees with DeJarnatt that "no one's done a good analysis" of how much it actually costs to educate students virtually.
A piece of pending legislation in Harrisburg, Senate Bill 1085, would set up a commission to do just that. (It would also cut cyber charter funding across the board by an arbitrary 5 percent.)
The legislation, known commonly as the charter-reform bill, would also provide more oversight, transparency and accountability for charter schools across the state–provisions that charter-advocates like Fayfich and traditional-public-education advocates like DeJarnatt both agree on.
Yet variations of such legislation have failed in the state legislature for the past three years.
Because they've been loaded with many other provisions (such as allowing colleges to authorize new charter schools) to which traditional public-education advocates object.
"About eighty-five-percent of what's in Senate Bill 1085 right now is non-controversial," said Fayfich. "Everybody supports its passage. It's that fifteen-percent of the bill that's causing all of the headache."
So why not pass a bill that reflects the provisions with which all sides agree?
As Fayfich says, that's just not how Harrisburg works.
"Part of the problem also is that everybody knows that if you get something passed, it's very unlikely that you're going to come back and be able to talk about those other things," he said. "In effect, from a political reality, if they're not discussed and agreed upon during this time, they probably won't be heard again."