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[FONT=Comic Sans MS]CENSORED X 5[/FONT]CENSORED X 5
Thanks KIDD takes the hassle out of the morning runs now if that AT TE gunner would show up on there I'd be very happy.
Good eye, Kidd!
i owe you one Kidd! (haha) the clone pilots are sold out but i was still able to pick up a few clone commanders. thanks once again.
it's good to see that the figures are becoming a little easier to get. i just need to get 41-44. but i prefer the hunt, rather than just simply ordering them. except for exclusives, which usually require ordering. but this is good for those that are unable to find them in stores.
[FONT=Century Gothic]That day in Theed I feel so far from what I was. When I came to rest all I could see was you. But I rose from my ruin to find myself greater. And all the days since have been to your end! - Maul [/FONT]
Online Portfolio | Thracian | SW Action Figure Checklist
So much for the clones.
I'm glad I go mine at Kohls a couple weeks ago, but this does not bode well for whenever they put 41-44 on the site - considering 2 out of 4 will likely be bought up in 5 minutes by army builders (as I'm assuming they were tonight, considering they couldn't have been up there for more than a couple hours). I'd love to know when amazon actually put them up, cuz I checked earlier today and there was no sign of them. Does this mean we'll just have to keep on checking randomly, or is there some set time when they put up new items for sale?
Last edited by tagmac; 04-26-2005 at 11:05 PM.
Ordered mine and I am looking forward to it.
Yes I know it is a new paint job but I really want a Purple MACE Starfighter (seen in the Clone Wars Volume 2).
**Yes I did place a review there also.**
Last edited by Val Da Car; 04-28-2005 at 09:12 PM. Reason: update of stuff
Collect 2 Collect (if you see someone damaging stuff kick them in the shorts!)
Great Traders Slicker,KIDD,Rebo's_Guitarist,TURBOWARS,OC47150,
bobafrett,Jay86,Lman316 & Dark Marble!
It is all sold out now.
I followed the link posted here and saw the ad for TRU and..wow! IT IS INVISIBLE! I mean of course there's no image available because Anakin uses the Force to become invisible....JOKING...Why do people post ads w/o pics and trust us to buy them?
Maury: The DNA evidence has come back.... and LUKE.... He is your father!!!!
Luke: NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!
Red Guard for those who need him.
"Woke up at 9.55am. Soon as I woke up, I looked at Suzanne and she looked at me. I said, 'Did I tell you about the immune system?' Suzanne starting laughing, I said, 'it's amazing.' She said, 'Not now.'"


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BMC Racing Team's Tejay van Garderen finished 10th in Wednesday's individual time trial at the Tour de France – 1:51 off the winning time – after posting the best time among the earlier starters.
Change Of BMCs Helped
Van Garderen clocked 53:24 in somewhat rainy conditions on the 32-kilometer course that featured two categorized climbs. His time stood – partly helped by stronger rain showers for many riders after him – until eventual fifth-place finisher Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) arrived in a time 81 seconds faster. Van Garderen said a planned switch from his BMC teammachine SLR01 to the BMC timemachine TM01 at the top of the final climb definitely helped. "We thought it would be faster to switch bikes and it was," he said. "I'm satisfied with my result. I wanted to go out for myself and have a good ride today. It's been somewhat of a disappointing tour for me." Chris Froome (Sky Procycling) took the stage win in 51:33 to increase his lead and defeat runner-up Alberto Contador (Saxoff Bank-Tinkoff) by nine seconds.
Evans Going For Stages
BMC Racing Team's Cadel Evans announced before the time trial that he would not be "going flat out" and Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said the past Tour de France champion's result – 167th, 8:04 behind – was not a concern. "The plan was not to go for it, to lose time – maybe a little bit voluntary," he said. "We wanted to make an easy time trial and not to take any risks in the downhill and then concentrate on the next three mountain stages." Evans said he has had to revise his original goal to do "a reasonable giro and a very good Tour" after a third place at the Italian race in May. "At this point, it looks like the Giro took a lot more out of me than I first thought," he said. "It's something that we tried knowing that there was a certain element of riding the Giro and the Tour. I could have not done the Giro and maybe come here fresher but not as good and still perform poorly so that was a decision we made back in March."
Listen to complete comments from Evans, Lelangue and van Garderen on the BMC Racing Team's Tour de France Audio Line:

subset: commoncrawl


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Transfer students seeking either their first or second bachelor's degree in nursing are invited to attend an information session to learn more about Stevenson's two-year upper division nursing program. This full-time traditional program accommodates fall starts only. Representatives from the Nursing Department and Admissions Office will be available to discuss the Bachelor of Science degree with students wishing to become a nurse. (Please note: Current RN's or students currently in an associate-level RN degree program who are interested in the accelerated RN to BS option should contact an admissions counselor at 1-877-683-6066.)
The information session will take place from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the St. Paul Companies Pavilion on the Greenspring Campus.
*Free parking in the rear of the campus, and light refreshments will be available.
Recommended: Please bring copies of transcripts from all colleges attended (unofficial are sufficient for discussion purposes). WES or AACRAO evaluations are required of all foreign universities.
For more information about all of the nursing program options at Stevenson University, including the new Master of Science degree with a major in Nursing, please visit our website.


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About Jeff Masters
Cat 6 lead authors: WU cofounder Dr. Jeff Masters (right), who flew w/NOAA Hurricane Hunters 1986-1990, & WU meteorologist Bob Henson, @bhensonweather
By: Dr. Jeff Masters , 2:21 PM GMT on October 24, 2012
Hurricane warnings are flying for Jamaica and Eastern Cuba, as an intensifying Hurricane Sandy plows north-northeast at 13 mph towards landfall. The Hurricane Hunters are in the storm, and measured surface winds of hurricane strength--75 to 80 mph--in the storm's northeast quadrant near 9:25 am EDT. Sandy's pressure at the time of the 9:28 am center fix was 973 mb, and the temperature in the eye had warmed 2°C since the 7:48 am fix, a sign of strengthening. Intermittent rain squalls from Sandy have been affecting Jamaica since Monday night, and Kingston, Jamaica has picked up 2.12" of rain from Sandy as of 9 am EDT. Winds in Jamaica have been below 20 mph as of 10 am EDT, but will start to rise quickly in the next few hours. The Hurricane Hunters found a large 55 mile-diameter eye that was open to the WNW this morning, and it is likely that Kingston will receive high winds of 55 - 65 mph from the western eyewall, which will cause considerable damage to Jamaica's capital. The eastern tip of Jamaica will likely see the eye pass overhead, and will receive the strongest winds. The eye is beginning to appear on visible satellite loops, and Sandy is showing an increasing degree of organization as it closes in on Jamaica. Sandy is the tenth hurricane of the 2012 hurricane season, which is now tied for eighth place for most hurricanes in a year since record keeping began in 1851.
Figure 1. Morning microwave satellite image of Tropical Storm Sandy taken at 8:45 am EDT. The large 55-mile diameter eye was just south of Jamaica. Image credit: Navy Research Lab, Monterey.
Near-term forecast for Sandy
Wind shear is forecast to be in the moderate range and ocean temperatures will be a warm 28°C through Thursday morning, which will favor intensification. However, Sandy doesn't have much time left over water before it encounters the high mountains of Jamaica this afternoon, which should interrupt the intensification process. The strongest Sandy is likely to be at landfall in Jamaica is a 90 mph Category 1 hurricanes. After encountering Jamaica, Sandy won't have time to re-organize much before making landfall in Eastern Cuba near 10 pm EDT tonight, and the strongest the storm is likely to be then is a 90 mph Category 1. Passage over the rugged terrain of Cuba should weaken Sandy's winds by 20 - 30 mph, and it will be difficult for the storm to regain all of that lost strength in the face of the high wind shear of 20 - 30 knots it will encounter Thursday and Friday. I expect that Sandy will be a 60 - 70 mph tropical storm as it traverses the Bahamas.
Figure 2. MODIS satellite image of Tropical Storm Sandy taken at 11:45 am EDT Tuesday, October 23, 2012. At the time, Sandy had top winds of 50 mph. Image credit: NASA.
Sandy: a potential billion-dollar storm for the mid-Atlantic and New England
On Friday, a very complicated meteorological situation unfolds, as Sandy interacts with a trough of low pressure approaching the U.S. East Coast and trough of low pressure over the Central Atlantic. The Central Atlantic trough may be strong enough to pull Sandy northeastwards, out to sea, as predicted by the official NHC forecast, and the 06Z GFS, 00Z UKMET, 00Z Canadian, and 06Z HWRF models (00Z is 8 pm EDT, and 06Z is 2 am EDT.) However, an alternative solution, shown by the 00Z ECMWF, 06Z GFDL, and 06Z NOGAPS models, is for Sandy to get caught up by the trough approaching the Eastern U.S., which will inject a large amount of energy into Sandy, converting it to a powerful subtropical storm that hits the mid-Atlantic or New England early next week with a central pressure below 960 mb and sustained winds of 60 - 70 mph. Such a storm would likely cause massive power outages and over a billion dollars in damage, as trees still in leaf take out power grids, and heavy rains and coastal storm surges create damaging flooding. The full moon is on Monday, which means astronomical tides will be at their peak for the month, increasing potential storm surge flooding. A similar meteorological situation occurred in October 1991, when Hurricane Grace became absorbed by a Nor'easter, becoming the so-called "Perfect Storm" that killed 13 people and did over $200 million in damage in the Northeast U.S.
Figure 3. The Wednesday morning 06Z (2 am EDT) run of the GFS model was done 20 times at lower resolution with slightly varying initial conditions of temperature, pressure, and moisture to generate an ensemble of forecast tracks for Sandy (pink lines). These forecasts show substantial uncertainty in Sandy's path after Friday, with a minority of the forecasts taking Sandy to the northeast, out to sea, and the majority now predicting a landfall in the Northeast or mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. The white line shows the official GFS forecast, run at higher resolution.
When might Sandy arrive in the mid-Atlantic and New England?
The models vary significantly in their predictions of when Sandy might arrive along the U.S. coast. The 06Z NOGAPS model predicts Sandy's heavy rains will arrive on North Carolina's Outer Banks on Saturday, then spread into the mid-Atlantic and New England on Sunday. The 00Z ECMWF model predicts that Sandy's rains won't affect North Carolina until Sunday, with the storm making landfall in New Jersey on Monday night. The GFDL model is in-between these extremes, taking Sandy ashore in Delaware on Monday morning. The trough of low pressure that Sandy will be interacting with just moved ashore over the Western U.S. this morning, and got sampled by the 12Z (8 am EDT) set of land-based balloon-borne radiosondes for the first time. One of the reasons the models have been in such poor agreement on the long-term fate of Sandy is that the strength of this trough has not been very well known, since it has been over the ocean where we have limited data. Now that the trough is over land, it will be better sampled, and the next set of 12Z model runs, due out this afternoon between 2 pm - 4pm EDT, will hopefully begin to converge on a common solution. I'll have an update this afternoon once the 12Z model runs are in.
Figure 4. Morning satellite image of Tropical Storm Tony.
Tropical Storm Tony forms in the middle Atlantic
Tropical Storm Tony formed Tuesday night in the middle Atlantic, becoming the nineteenth named storm of this very busy 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. Tony has a modest area of heavy thunderstorms, as seen on visible satellite images, but is battling dry air , wind shear, and ocean temperatures that have fallen below 26°C. Tony will not threaten any land areas, and will likely be dead by Thursday night.
Tony's place in history
Tony is the Nineteenth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, tying this year with 1887, 1995, 2010, and 2011 for third busiest Atlantic season since the HURDAT historical data base began in 1851. With five more weeks left before the November 30 end of hurricane season, 2012 is likely to move into second place for most named storms before the year is out, as all six prior Atlantic hurricane seasons with nineteen or more named storms have had at least one named storm form after October 24. Here, then, is a list of the seven busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record:
2005 (28 named storms)
1933 (20 named storms, according to a new re-analysis)
2012 (19 named storms)
1887 (19 named storms)
2010 (19 named storms)
2011 (19 named storms)
1995 (19 named storms)
It's pretty remarkable that we've now had three straight years with nineteen named storms in the Atlantic. But how many of these storms might not have been counted in the pre-satellite era (before 1960)? Here's a list of weak and short-lived storms from 2010 - 2012 that stayed far out sea, and would likely have gone unnoticed in the pre-satellite era:
Tropical Storm Joyce
Tropical Storm Oscar
Tropical Storm Tony
Tropical Storm Jose
Tropical Storm Franklin
Tropical Storm Gaston
Even if we correct for the possible over-count of approximately two named storms per year during the 2010, 2011, and 2012 hurricane seasons, compared to the pre-satellite era, there is nothing in the HURDAT data base that compares to the type of activity we've seen the past three years. One likely contributor to the unusual string of active years is the fact hurricane season has gotten longer, perhaps due to warming ocean temperatures. I discussed in a 2008 blog post that Dr. Jim Kossin of the University of Wisconsin published a 2008 paper in Geophysical Research Letters titled, "Is the North Atlantic hurricane season getting longer?" He concluded that yes, there is a "apparent tendency toward more common early- and late-season storms that correlates with warming Sea Surface Temperature but the uncertainty in these relationships is high".
Jeff Masters
The views of the author are his/her own and do not necessarily represent the position of The Weather Company or its parent, IBM.
Cat 6 lead authors: WU cofounder Dr. Jeff Masters (right), who flew w/NOAA Hurricane Hunters 1986-1990, & WU meteorologist Bob Henson, @bhensonweather


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The Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Target Field in Minneapolis on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010. (Pioneer Press: Nathan Berndt)
The shop floor of Modern Manufacturing & Engineering, Inc., in Brooklyn Park, Mn. MME is a precision CNC machining company and is a registered Smll Disadvantaged Business. Milling: MME utilizes 25 horizontal and vertical machining centers that allow us to offer our customers the latest in technology giving them the c...


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The world's poorest struggle to survive day to day, living with almost no safety net. This makes them particularly vulnerable to financial risk. They are one illness or one injury away from losing their businesses or defaulting on a loan. When that happens, families go hungry and children are pulled from school.
Insurance is not something generally available to the poor, who arguably need it most. It is generally viewed as a luxury financial product, and financial institutions have shown little interest in creating insurance products to meet the needs of the poorest. But that is starting to change. Innovators such as MicroEnsure (an organization I first wrote about in a World Politics Review article last summer) are now working to provide small, affordable levels of insurance for the poor to help them better manage financial risk and move out of poverty. It is estimated that since 2009, the number of poor people covered by microinsurance has increased nearly four times, growing from 135 million to almost 500 million people worldwide.
I recently participated in a panel at Women's World Banking's 10th Annual Capital Markets Conference with Peter Gross, business development manager in Africa for MicroEnsure. Gross discussed how MicroEnsure is rapidly expanding microinsurance throughout Africa, parts of Asia, and the Caribbean.
MicroEnsure has achieved notable success in Ghana. Of Ghana's 25 million people, almost 30 percent live below the international poverty line of $2 a day. Insurance has existed for decades in Ghana, but over the past 50 years only about a million Ghanaians had bought life insurance. In just 14 months, MicroEnsure signed up one million life-insurance customers. The organization estimates that 85 percent of those customers did not previously have insurance. The rapid uptake of MicroEnsure's product can be attributed to their work with local partners, particularly the mobile phone telecommunications company Tigo.
With the help of MicroEnsure, Tigo offers an automated enrollment program: Tigo Family Care Insurance. Tigo customers, in good health and between 18 and 69 years of age, can simply register for this life insurance plan and expand it to include family members. The concept is simple. The more Tigo airtime used the more insurance coverage received. Each month the policy is automatically renewed and either increased or decreased, depending on monthly airtime usage. Not surprisingly, given the financial and childcare burdens women face, this program has been especially popular among women, who make up 63 percent of the subscriber base.
So far, MicroEnsure has paid out roughly 600 life insurance policies through Tigo, with an average payout of $300 per claim. Although this amount does not even cover average funeral costs in the country (which are among the most expensive in the world relative to income), it makes an important contribution, and helps generate awareness and understanding of the value of life insurance. MicroEnsure recognizes that it is building a market: its goal is to expand from simple life insurance to simple health insurance and ultimately to more complex health insurance.
One of its biggest challenges in providing affordable insurance products is in tackling the inefficient cost structures of local insurance companies. Gross estimates that in Ghana, for every $10 an insurance company receives in premiums, it pays out only $2 in claims. The rest of the money goes to brokers' fees and the insurer's operating expenses and profit. MicroEnsure recognizes that to provide affordable financial products for the poor, it has to help squeeze costs out of this inefficient business system.
Currently, MicroEnsure works as an insurance broker. Its best partners have been telecommunications companies, such as Tigo in Ghana. But it is also increasingly working with banks to sell "savings-linked" insurance products. Traditionally, the interest paid on savings accounts has not been a sufficiently strong motivator to encourage the poor to maintain and grow savings accounts. However, when savings accounts are paired with insurance policies, the poor tend to save higher amounts. Similar to the Tigo life insurance program, the more money saved in an account, the more insurance is earned. Launched in June 2011 in Ghana in partnership with Women's World Banking, the scheme increased deposits in participants' savings accounts from 750,000 Ghanaian Cedis (roughly $399,315) to 2.3 million Ghanaian Cedis (approximately $1,224,500).
Through innovative business models and partnerships, MicroEnsure is expanding access to financial services for the poor. Next up are affordable products providing agriculture and property insurance. To truly transform the industry, it anticipates that it will ultimately have to evolve from being just a broker today to bearing financial risk in providing insurance for the poor. This could put it in head-to-head competition with some of its insurance partners, although traditional companies have thus far shown little interest in serving MicroEnsure's poor clientele. As it expands in emerging markets around the world, MicroEnsure is an innovative organization to watch.


text: David Onda's Oscars Diary: Day 8 By: David Onda on February 27, 2012 in * Homepage Cover Module, Awards, Movies, Oscars XFINITY Entertainment Editor David Onda wraps up his Oscars week with an inside look back at the Academy Awards and his experience at the MAXIM after-party. Which stars did he see partying in Beverly Hills? Find out after the jump. Continue Reading


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Housing-Starts Forecast for 2014: Past Is not Prologue
Blame it on rising interest rates.
The U.S. Census Bureau announced Friday that housing construction starts totaled an estimated 923,400 units for 2013. That's less than many analysts' initial forecasts for the year and well below the long-term annual average of roughly 1.5 million starts.
Home builders, economists and analysts long have pointed to several factors that crimped the supply of new homes in the U.S. last year, including scarcity of buildable lots and tight labor markets in some regions. But many say the bigger culprit was weakened demand due to the 1-percentage-point rise in rates from May to September.
"I suspect that builders could have built up to 1 million units even with the supply issues they were facing," said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "They didn't, only because consumer demand weakened a bit as buyers saw mortgage rates rise."
Not that anyone needs help remembering at this point, but the rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage jumped to 4.57% in September from 3.35% in May, according to Freddie Mac. The rate since has retreated a bit from that high to 4.41% this week, but it was the speed of the May-September rise that spooked buyers.
That resulted in 2013 construction starts coming in below what many economists expected earlier in the year. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. predicted 1.04 million starts for 2013. Barclays forecast 1.1 million. Those predicting less than 1 million starts, but still overshooting the final 2013 figure, include Zelman & Associates (995,000), Deutsche Bank (959,000) and Wells Fargo & Co. (990,000). NAHB economists came quite close with a prediction of 932,000 starts.
Among the few conservative forecasters, UBS predicted 900,000 starts in 2013. UBS economists were "somewhat concerned about rates" when they set the estimate in January 2013, UBS chief U.S. economist Maury Harris said.
To be sure, it's challenging to accurately predict a moving economic indicator like housing starts a year in advance. That's why most economists continually update their forecasts as the year progresses and new factors emerge. To that end, some economists say that any initial forecast that ends up within 100,000 units of the final number a year later ultimately was a decent estimate.
Several factors hampered new-home demand in 2013, but not to the same extent as the rate increase. Last year's squabbling in Washington, D.C., over the debt ceiling and the two-week government shutdown in October over the budget fight didn't help. In addition, investors and buyers fretted through much of the year about how and when the Federal Reserve would begin tapering its $85 billion-a-month bond buying program aimed at keeping rates low. It started doing so slowly in December.
"The whole interest-rate move and Fed taper discussion happened about one to two quarters ahead of what we previously thought," said Michael Gapen, senior U.S. economist for Barclays. "We were expecting policy to remain more accommodative."
On Friday, Census said that housing starts in December registered a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000. That is 9.8% less than the revised November rate of 1.1 million, but it's 1.6% greater than the December 2012 rate. The 2013 total of 923,400 starts amounts to an 18.3% increase from the full-year tally for 2012.
Census added that home-building permits issued in 2013 totaled 974,700 units, up 17.5% from 2012.
Many economists predict a better year for home construction this year than last. The NAHB has forecast 1.2 million starts for this year. Zelman predicts nearly 1.06 million. J.P. Morgan, nearly 1.08 million. Barclays, 1.2 million. Even UBS has made a relatively bold bet of 1.15 million starts.
Mr. Gapen, the Barclays economist, foresees personal disposable income for U.S. households posting gains this year. He sees home prices appreciating by 7% to 8% on top of last year's gains of 11% to 12%. He expects that more buyers will enter the market when banks slightly loosen credit-qualification guidelines.
Most important, Mr. Gapen foresees job growth continuing at a healthy pace of roughly 200,000 new positions each month. "All of the factors that we think influence housing activity are supportive of further gains in starts," he said. "The mortgage rate is the one variable that could move against starts."


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Searching for possible military service of my great uncle, Lewis M. Davis was not straightforward. My first go to for Civil War service is the National Park Service database of Soldiers and Sailors [http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm]. I've not used the site for quite a while and was greeted by a complete makeover since my last visit. I searched soldiers for "Lewis M. Davis" and "New Hampshire" with no result. Broadening the search I sought "Lewis Davis" and "New Hampshire with the following result:
Who is this Lewis F. Davis serving in the 16th NH (middle entry). Could this entry have been miss-read by someone who interpreted the letter "M" as "F"?
Since I'm not physically located near a repository with the microfilm of New Hampshire service records, I needed to try another Online search tool. I turned to Ancestry.com. Ah Ha! Lewis M. Davis was located in the database "U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865. Like his brother-in-law, he had enlisted in Company E, New Hampshire 16th Infantry Regiment [Ancestry's source: Register of Soldiers and Sailors of New Hampshire].
I found it interesting that this abstract indicates that Lewis M. was mustered out on the 20th of August 1863 at Concord, NH and died one day later.


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Allan Quatermain, a professional big game hunter, is approached by English aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis and his friend, Captain John Good, late of the Royal Navy. They need his help finding Sir Henry's brother, who was last seen traveling north into the unexplored interior in search of the fabled King Solomon's Mines. On their perilous journey, they encounter such characters as the evil witch-woman, Gagool, and the terrifying King Twala and his mighty army. The award winning Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air brings this classic tale to life with a full cast, music score, and thousands of sound effects.
©2008 The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air. (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
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"Timeless Story"
This story is a timeless adventure story. Colonial Radio Theater is tru to H Rider Haggard's story-no romantic female but a lot of action and excitment. CRT picks the best literature to dramatize!
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"The armed Syrian opposition, in all of its disparate glory, has long talked of a revolution after its revolution to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a period when scores would be settled between various anti-Assad groups…. Elements of all of these various fault lines had become frontlines during isolated bouts of rebel infighting over the past year or more, but the decision by so many different groups to take on ISIS at the same time, and in so many locations, was surprising. What was also surprising was how quickly ISIS was initially routed from some areas."
It was bound to happen, this uprising within an uprising against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a transnational ultraconservative Islamist group that ostensibly fights alongside Syria's disparate rebel groups but more often intimidates, antagonises, or opposes most of them, including other conservative Islamists.
Long brewing tensions between ISIS and manyother rebel groups exploded on 3 January in fierce clashes that have quickly spread across northern and northeastern Syria. It's a localised, extremely fluid fight, with some groups like Jabhat al-Nusra (JAN) opposing ISIS in some areas while trying to mediate between it and other rebels in different locations. The fight has rallied an unlikely motley group of rebel brigades against ISIS while also testing the cohesiveness of some groups.
ISIS has been a thorn in the Syrian revolution since the group's inception in April 2013, when its leader, the Iraqi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the merger of his Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) with a group it spawned, Jabhat al-Nusra, headed by the Syrian Abu Mohammed al-Golani.


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Web Stories
Paintings to be exhibited in Robertson Hall, April 12-29
Posted April 8, 2004; 04:05 p.m.
"Various Gods of Wrath" is one of the paintings by Catherine Yi-yu Cho Woo on view in the Bernstein Gallery of Robertson Hall April 12-29.
Woo is an accomplished painter, poet, composer, teacher and writer and the first Asian American woman to serve on the National Council on the Arts. Her paintings have been shown in galleries and museums throughout Asia and the United States, including at the United Nations, the Sackler Museum at Harvard University and the National Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan.
The artist will talk about her work at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 29, in the East Room of Murray-Dodge Hall. Hours for the exhibition, sponsored by the International Center and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs , are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Contact: Tom Bartus (609) 258-3601


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Students applying to the Pharmacy Technician Program must complete the Test of Adult Basic Education (T.A.B.E.) The Testing Department at the Medical Campus is located in room 1303. Please call the Testing Center at 305-237-4375 for a testing schedule or contact any of the Testing Centers at any of the MDC campuses for their testing schedule.
Applicants must have a high school diploma or G.E.D. Students who have earned an Associate Degree, or higher degree or have passed the C.P.T. on their first attempt are exempt from the T.A.B.E. Test.
For the Pharmacy Technician Program the scores that are required are:
All Medical Campus students must complete the FDLE Waiver and Statement form.This form is to authorize dissemination to Miami Dade College - Medical Campus of any national criminal history record that may pertain to you.
In addition, all program students must complete a "background check" through the identified MDC agent https://ibrinc.com/mdc/submit and cleared by the 1st day of class. Depending on your program of study an additional background check may be required. In addition, prior to entry into a clinical site, some clinical sites will require more frequent background checks and clearance.
Successful completion of the MDC level two background check process or completion of a MDC nursing/health sciences program does not guarantee a graduate's eligibility for participation in the professional credentialing process or for related employment. Credentialing agencies and health care employers may have additional eligibility criteria not required by an educational institution. Individuals who have been arrested or convicted of any felony crime during the last 15 years are strongly urged to inquire directly of the licensing board in the jurisdiction in which they intend to practice.


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Six@Six is a new community lectures series sponsored by Northern Kentucky University's Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement. Think of this as your chance to go to college, minus the tuition, the morning classes and the pressure of grades.
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Find out more about how your privacy is protected.


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Friday, July 22, 2011
Advanced MRI pinpoints prostate tumors
By providing insight into tumor activity, an advanced prostate MRI exam can help doctors select appropriate treatment.
Compared with conventional and diffusion-weighted
MRI images (left) DCE (dynamic contrast enhanced)
MRI images (right) provide additional information that
helps doctors locate and understand prostate-tumor
One in six men will be affected by prostate cancer in their lifetimes, according to some estimates. As with most cancers, early detection and appropriate treatment are critical to successful outcomes.
To provide doctors with the most accurate information, Massachusetts General Hospital Imaging is now providing advanced prostate MRI exams. These exams use a special form of MRI called DCE (dynamic contrast enhanced) MRI, which looks at how your body's tissues absorb a contrast material over time. Because tumors act differently than normal tissue, this can help to pinpoint and characterize tumor activity. Sophisticated image-analysis software helps radiologists to interpret the MRI results.
The exam helps radiologists to better understand prostate tumors—their size and shape, how they change over time, and most importantly whether they are benign or malignant. This detailed information helps your doctor select the most appropriate and effective treatment, which may range from adopting a wait-and-see approach to taking more urgent action.
Prostate MRI exams are conducted at Mass General Imaging - Chelsea, Monday through Friday from 9:15 am to 2:30 pm. The Chelsea location has free parking, and we also offer a free shuttle van service to and from the main Mass General campus. A doctor's order is required to schedule an exam.
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text: Instead of re-sculpting the heck out of everything, perhaps they should just re-release some stuf. Who would object to a COMMTECH Stormtrooper, or the "new" sandtrooper being released in quantity on a POTJ card? They could even alter them slightly so they wouldn't be the same fig. No battle damage, or a white/ orange pauldron, respectively, for example.


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10.14: Evolution of Simple Cells
Who was the ancestor to us all (and I really mean us ALL)?
If we trace all the evolutionary lineages (humans, sponges, slime molds, etc.) back, at some point there would be one organism that is the ancestor to all of the others. This organism is referred to as LUCA, which stands for the "Last Universal Common Ancestor." LUCA lived 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago.
Simple Cells Evolve
Simple organic molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids eventually became complex organic substances. Scientists think that the organic molecules adhered to clay minerals, which provided the structure needed for these substances to organize. The clays, along with their metal cations, catalyzed the chemical reactions that caused the molecules to form polymers. The first RNA fragments could also have come together on ancient clays.
E. coli (Escherichia coli) is a primitive prokaryote that may resemble the earliest cells.
For an organic molecule to become a cell, it must be able to separate itself from its environment. To enclose the molecule, a lipid membrane grew around the organic material. Eventually the molecules could synthesize their own organic material and replicate themselves. These became the first cells.
The earliest cells were prokaryotes (Figure above). Although prokaryotes have a cell membrane, they lack a cell nucleus and other organelles. Without a nucleus, RNA was loose within the cell. Over time the cells became more complex.
A diagram of a bacterium.
LUCA was a prokaryote but differed from the first living cells because its genetic code was based on DNA. The oldest fossils are tiny microbe-like objects that are 3.5 billion years old. Evidence for bacteria, the first single-celled life forms, goes back 3.5 billion years (Figure above).
To learn more about LUCA's characteristics, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_ancestor.
This animation begins with the Big Bang, which will be discussed in Concept Beyond the Solar System, and goes through the history of life on Earth: http://www.johnkyrk.com/evolution.html.
The earliest life forms did not have the ability to photosynthesize. Without photosynthesis what did the earliest cells eat? Most likely they absorbed the nutrients that floated around in the organic soup that surrounded them. After hundreds of millions of years, these nutrients would have become less abundant.
Sometime around 3 billion years ago (about 1.5 billion years after Earth formed!), photosynthesis began. Photosynthesis allowed organisms to use sunlight and inorganic molecules, such as carbon dioxide and water, to create chemical energy that they could use for food. To photosynthesize, a cell needs chloroplasts (Figure below).
Chloroplasts are visible in these cells found within a moss.
Importance of Photosynthesis
In what two ways did photosynthesis make the planet much more favorable for life?
1. Photosynthesis allowed organisms to create food energy so that they did not need to rely on nutrients floating around in the environment. Photosynthesizing organisms could also become food for other organisms.
2. A byproduct of photosynthesis is oxygen. When photosynthesis evolved, all of a sudden oxygen was present in large amounts in the atmosphere. For organisms used to an anaerobic environment, the gas was toxic, and many organisms died out.
What were these organisms that completely changed the progression of life on Earth by changing the atmosphere from anaerobic to aerobic? The oldest known fossils that are from organisms known to photosynthesize are cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria were present by 2.8 billion years ago, and some may have been around as far back as 3.5 billion years.
Cyanobacteria were the dominant life forms in the Archean. Why would such a primitive life-form have been dominant in the Precambrian? Many cyanobacteria lived in reef-like structures known as stromatolites (Figure below). Stromatolites continued on into the Cambrian but their numbers declined.
These rocks in Glacier National Park, Montana may contain some of the oldest fossil microbes on Earth.
Modern cyanobacteria are also called blue-green algae. These organisms may consist of a single or many cells and they are found in many different environments (Figure below). Even now cyanobacteria account for 20% to 30% of photosynthesis on Earth.
A large bloom of cyanobacteria is harmful to this lake.
- A prokaryote has a cell membrane but otherwise organelles are loose within the cell.
- Photosynthesis allows organisms to produce food energy with oxygen as a by-product.
- Cyanobacteria, which are still around today, were the earliest known photosynthesizing organisms.
Use this resource to answer the questions that follow.
1. What are cyanobacteria?
2. When did cyanobacteria dominate the Earth?
3. How does a prokaryotic cell differ from a eukaryotic cell?
4. What are cyanobacteria responsible for?
5. Where are cyanobacteria found?
6. What are stromatolites?
7. What is a heterocyst? What does it do?
8. What is an akinete? What is its function?
1. Why does there need to be a LUCA and how can scientists learn about it?
2. Why was the development of photosynthesis so important to the evolution of life?
3. What is the role of modern, primitive photosynthesizing organisms?
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Missing boy found asleep in wrong vehicle
Boy thought he was in his gradmother's car
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - There were some frightening moments for the family of a 12-year-old boy who went missing at a baseball field in Eau Claire.
Police say the child's grandmother dropped him off at the ballpark Monday night and went looking for a parking spot. When she returned to the field, the woman thought her grandson had gone to the nearby park to play. After a short time passed, the grandmother began to worry and started looking for her grandson.
Police were called. Others joined in the search for the boy. Two hours later, another woman at the ballpark returned to her vehicle and found the child asleep in the back seat. The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reported the boy told police he was tired so he crawled in the back seat of a vehicle that looked like his grandmother's.


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The deal
1 set of bra and panty set for $17.90 (rrp. $49.90)
2 sets of bra and panty set for $29.90 (rrp. $99.80)
- Available in black or nude, and in bra size A, B, or C cup
Product specifications and features
Breathable adhesive bra
- Material: Nylon
Seamless panty
- Size: Free size
- Measurements: 60cm - 67cm (waist), 84cm - 90cm (hips)
- Material: Stretchable material


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By Tiernan Ray
After teasing last month that it had filed for an initial public offering, Twitter this evening filed the formal S1 prospectus, listing $317 million in revenue in 2012 and a $79 million net loss.
The deal, with a face value of $1 billion, is underwritten by Goldman Sachs, along with Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Allen & Co. and CODE Advisors.
For the six months ended this year, the company made $253 million revenue and $69 million in net losses.
We have experienced rapid growth in our revenue in recent periods. From 2011 to 2012, revenue increased by 198% to $316.9 million, net loss decreased by 38% to $79.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA increased by 149% to $21.2 million. From the six months ended June 30, 2012 to the six months ended June 30, 2013, revenue increased by 107% to $253.6 million, net loss increased by 41% to $69.3 million and Adjusted EBITDA increased by $20.7 million to $21.4 million. For information on how we define and calculate Adjusted EBITDA, and a reconciliation of net loss to Adjusted EBITDA, see the section titled "—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data—Non-GAAP Financial Measures.
87% of Twitters revenue came from advertising in the first six months, the rest being "data licensing."
Twitter notes that while it has had soaring engagement, the price of ads has dropped, largely because inventory has swelled:
The increase in advertising revenue per timeline view was primarily driven by a 199% increase in ad engagements per timeline view, partially offset by a 59% decrease in average cost per ad engagement in the six months ended June 30, 2013 compared to the same period in the prior year […] Average cost per ad engagement decreased 18%, 9%, 19%, 12% and 46% sequentially in the three months ended June 30, 2012, September 30, 2012, December 31, 2012, March 31, 2013 and June 30, 2013, respectively. The decreases in cost per ad engagement over these periods were primarily due to an increase in supply of advertising inventory available in our auctions, which was partially offset by increased demand for our Promoted Products. Supply of advertising inventory increased as we expanded the distribution of our Promoted Products to our mobile applications and additional markets outside of the United States in 2012. The increase in advertising inventory provided us with additional opportunities to place ads on our platform.
Through June of this year, Twitter had racked up an accumulated deficit of $418.6 million.
Regarding usage, the company remarks, "We have more than 215 million MAUs, and more than 100 million daily active users, spanning nearly every country." The company defines an active user as someone following 30 or more people.
Here's the chart of growth in monthly uniques since March of 2012:
The company also notes its success with mobile:
Mobile has become the primary driver of our business. Our mobile products are critical to the value we create for our users, and they enable our users to create, distribute and discover content in the moment and on-the-go. The 140 character constraint of a Tweet emanates from our origins as an SMS-based messaging system, and we leverage this simplicity to develop products that seamlessly bridge our user experience across all devices. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, 75% of our average MAUs accessed Twitter from a mobile device, including mobile phones and tablets, and over 65% of our advertising revenue was generated from mobile devices. We expect that the proportion of active users on, and advertising revenue generated from, mobile devices, will continue to grow in the near term.
The price of ads, Twitter notes,
As recently as early August, the company's stock was valued at $20.62 per share, Twitter notes:
We determined the fair value of our common stock to be $20.62 per share as of August 5, 2013 based on the subject company transaction method. We utilized the arm's-length transactions of our equity securities in the secondary market since our most recent common stock valuation date, May 15, 2013, to estimate the fair value of our common stock. Factors considered in this methodology included the number of shares sold, relationship of the parties involved, timing of the transactions in relation to the valuation date and our financial condition. The weighted-average transaction price of the recent secondary market common stock transactions was approximately $20.62 per share. Based on the valuation of our common stock completed in August 2013, the fair value of RSUs granted through September 5, 2013 was determined to be $20.62 per share.
Twitter competes for advertising dollars with social-networking giant Facebook (FB), as well as, of course, keyword-search advertising offerings from Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO).
CNBC's Kayla Tausche notes a short while ago that several insiders have large stakes in the company, including Jack Dorsey, executive chairman, has a 4.9% stake. Evan Williams, another founder, has a 12% stake. And Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital has a 6.7% stake in the company.
In case you think you may want to buy into the offering, consider mutual funds.


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Latest Headlines
South African side could lift Champions League T20, 2010
Posted on 19 Sep 2010 by Suneer Chowdhary.
The Champions League T20 is 13 games into the tournament, and looks to have got to an interesting juncture. One of the four semi-final spots have been booked ad with every passing result, the seats are fast filling for the final three. All the live streaming and highlights of the Champions League T20 can be seen here. Saturday saw the first tied game of the tournament this year, when the Victor...


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By NEMS Daily Journal
Chocolate Brownies
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick melted butter or margarine
1⁄2 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1⁄3 cup cocoa powder
1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Beat eggs in a small bowl. Gradually add sugar and vanilla and beat well. Blend in melted butter.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually blend flour mixture into egg mixture until thoroughly blended. Stir in nuts if using.
Spread batter in a greased 8-inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies pull away from the edge of the pan. Cool and cut in squares.
Sausage French Bread Loaf
1 pound ground sausage
1⁄4 cup diced green bell pepper
1⁄4 cup diced onion
2 eggs
1⁄4 cup milk
1 loaf French bread
2 teaspoons soy sauce
11⁄2 cups shredded cheese
Softened butter
Brown sausage, pepper and onion. Drain and set aside.
Combine eggs with milk.
Slice bread lengthwise and pick out the soft insides of both sides of the bread. Combine pulled bread pieces with the egg mixture, soy sauce and sausage mixture. Add cheese and mix again. Spoon mixture back into the bottom bread shell. Put the top shell on and spread it with butter. Wrap in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Slice and serve. This is good for breakfast or as an appetizer.
Broccoli Salad
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 cup mayonnaise
2 bunches broccoli
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1⁄4 cup sliced olives
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 jar real bacon bits
Combine dry dressing mix and mayonnaise and set aside.
Cut broccoli into florets and discard stems. In a serving bowl, combine broccoli florets, mushrooms, olives and onions. Pour the dressing mixture in and mix well. Refrigerate. Add the bacon bits just before serving.
French Coconut Pie
1 stick butter
11⁄4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
3 eggs
11⁄3 cups coconut
1 unbaked pie shell
Melt butter. Add sugar, vanilla and vinegar. Beat eggs, add to mixture and mix well. Add coconut. Pour mixture until unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. Slide a double-edged knife sideways in the pie and it comes out clean, the pie is done.
Banana Pudding
1⁄2 cup sugar
1⁄3 cup self-rising flour
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1 package vanilla wafers
3 to 4 bananas, sliced
Meringue (optional)
3 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
In a saucepan, cook sugar, flour, salt, milk and egg yolks until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.
Line a serving bowl with some vanilla wafers and 2 sliced bananas. Add half the cooked pudding mixture, then repeat with remaining vanilla wafers and bananas. Top with remaining pudding. You can either crush a few vanilla wafers and sprinkle on top of pudding or top it with meringue.
If using meringue, beat egg whites, sugar, salt and vanilla until peaks form. Spread over pudding and bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes, until meringue is lightly browned.


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Web Stories
Electroacoustic music festival set, Nov. 17-18
Posted November 8, 2001; 06:34 p.m.
A festival of electroacoustic music will be presented Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17-18, at Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall, and the Woolworth Center for Musical Studies.
The event will feature concerts of compositions by faculty members and graduate students from Princeton, Dartmouth and Columbia as well as lectures and roundtable discussions. In addition, several outdoor installations will be set up in the vicinity of Woolworth.
The event is being sponsored by the Department of Music and the Friends of Music. For more information, click here or call 258-4239.
Contact: Marilyn Marks (609) 258-3601