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JUST POSTED: Holland America, too, pulls ship from Alaska. Click HERE for details.
Princess Cruises disclosed today that it plans to pull another cruise ship from Alaska in 2011, leaving the line with just six vessels in the state.
Princess is the biggest cruise operator in Alaska and has had eight ships in the region in recent years. But the line already had announced plans earlier this year to reduce its Alaska footprint to seven ships for the summer of 2010.
Princess revealed the latest reduction as it announced that one of its smallest vessels, the 710-passenger Royal Princess, will be leaving the fleet in early 2011. Princess' parent company, Carnival Corp., has decided to transfer the eight-year-old ship to Princess' sister line in the U.K., P&O Cruises.
RELATED ITEM:Carnival-owned cruise lines likely to pull more ships from Alaska
ALSO ONLINE:Latest draw for a cruise ship in the Caribbean: Sexual Chocolate
ALSO ONLINE:Two-year-old Azamara Cruises to relaunch with new name, focus
"With the transfer of Royal Princess there will be one less Princess ship in Alaska for the 2011 season, though full details are not yet available," Princess says in a statement.
The move comes less than three months after the head of Princess' parent company, Carnival Corp. Chairman and CEO Micky Arison, told Wall Street analysts that it was likely to pull more ships out of Alaska over the coming year due to the rising cost of doing business in the state.
The parent company of Carnival, Princess and Holland America already is reducing capacity in Alaska significantly for 2010, as is Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line.
Arison and other industry executives say it has become increasingly difficult to make money in Alaska due to growing fees, taxes and regulations imposed on cruise companies by the state, and they say that other destinations such as Europe now hold more appeal for their ships.
"The brand will decide to put the ship where there is the best return and the most profitable returns," Arison told analysts in September. "They have to put it in the context that they already have seven ships in Europe or they already have two ships in Australia, but they will model it out, and if it pays to pull a ship from Alaska and put it in Europe or ... the Far East they will do that."
Arison noted that Alaska is a summer destination, and there are plenty of alternatives during the summer. "You're talking the peak July and August period where we can make a lot of money on a lot of different itineraries, and (because of rising fees and taxes) we can't make a lot of money in Alaska."
Arison's comments came just a few days after an association that represents the nine major lines sailing in Alaska filed a lawsuit challenging the state's recently added $50 tax on vacationers arriving on large cruise ship.
Carnival Corp's decision to transfer the Royal Princess to its UK-based P&O Cruises fleet will result in the cancellation of five Princess sailings in the Pacific scheduled for April and May of 2011. Princess says a new, 26-day cruise to Fort Lauderdale departing from Papeete, Tahiti on April 6, 2011 will replace the sailings. The Royal Princess then will go into a drydock in the Bahamas to change its livery to P&O Cruises.
Cruise Loggers, share your thoughts below.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BREAKING NEWS ALERTS: Want to hear about breaking cruise news as it happens? Follow the Cruise Log on Twitter at twitter.com/CruiseLog.
Photo of Royal Princess with godmother Lorraine Artz courtesy Princess Cruises


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At this Section of my site, you are free to suggest what would you want me to Blog next, such as about MAC OS, IDEAL LAPTOP SPECIFICATIONS or anything that is related to olivertechblog essence. please feel free to drop a comment below and as long as i can, i will try to grant you your request. Thank you.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balmès, Jaime Luciano
|←Balmerino, James Elphinstone, 1st Baron
|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 3
Balmès, Jaime Luciano
|Balmoral Castle→
|See also Jaime Balmes on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
BALMÈS, JAIME LUCIANO (1810-1848), Spanish ecclesiastic, eminent as a political writer and a philosopher, was born at Vich in Catalonia, on the 28th of August 1810, and died there on the 9th of July 1848. Having attacked the regent Espartero and been exiled he founded and edited on his return the El Pensamiento de la Nacion, a Catholic and Conservative weekly; but his fame rests principally on El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo en sus relaciones con la Civilisacion Europea (3 vols., 1842-1844, 6th edition, 1879; Eng. trans. London, 1849), an able defence of Catholicism on the ground that it represents the spirit of obedience or order, as opposed to Protestantism, the spirit of revolt or anarchy. From the historical standpoint it is of little value. The best of his philosophical works, which are clear expositions of the scholastic system of thought, are the Filosofia Fondamental (4 vols., 1846, Eng. trans. by H. F. Brownson, 2 vols. New York, 1856), and the Curso de Filosofia Elemental (4 vols., 1847), which he translated into Latin for use in seminaries.
See A. de Blanche-Raffin, Jacques Balmès, sa vie et ses ouvrages (Paris, 1849); E. Bullón Fernández, Jaime Balmès y sus oberas (Madrid, 1903).


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One of the coolest new features coming in ES6 Harmony is support for iterators and generators (learn more). If you aren't familiar with the concept, generators create iterable sequences of elements that aren't evaluated until they are iterated through. Generator functions, through the use the yield operator, are similar to coroutines in that they can pause execution and yield control to another part of the program.
A very simple example of a generator in action is:
var countToThree = function* () {
yield 1;
yield 2;
yield 3;
var iterator = countToThree();
iterator.next(); // 1
iterator.next(); // 2
iterator.next(); // 3
Another important feature of generators is that a caller can also send values back into the to-be-resumed generator function. With this in mind, it was soon realized that when used in conjunction with Promises (representations of "asynchronous values," standardized in the Promises/A spec), generators could be used to mitigate the "callback hell" that comes as a result of JavaScript's single threaded nature. The result is vastly cleaner and more straight forward code.
Generators will allow for code like:
// imagine that 'do' is a function that automatically resumes execution of a generator
// once a promised value has been resolved.
do(function* () {
var userId = yield $.get(findUserByNameUrl, { name: "John Doe" });
var birthDate = yield $.get(getBirthDateByUserUrl, { userId: userId });
Over today's:
// We could also use the "promises" that jQuery returns in "today's" version, but
// either way, it's not as clean as the generator + promises version.
$.get(findUserByNameUrl, { name: "John Doe", function (userId) {
$.get(getBirthDateByUserUrl, { userId: userId }, function (birthDate) {
This is great! I really can't wait until more browsers start implementing this feature (Node.JS users can get this now by enabling ES6 mode).
But alas, this has already been covered much in depth on several other blogs. There are also many libraries out there that support this. Task.js has been around since October 2010, faithfully waiting until the day that generators are consistently supported in the major browsers. Q.js, which is one of the most fully featured implementations of the Promises/A spec also supports this through its Q.async and Q.spawn utility methods.
At any rate, I think this is a pretty cool concept. How far can we push it?
Combining Web Workers with Generators + Promises
Late last summer, I wrote a small utility/proof of concept called SimpleWorker (@GitHub)that allows for easy, inline definitions of Web Workers. Additionally, it uses Promises to represent the asynchronous results of the computations from the web worker threads.
That said, it should now be apparent that this should allow us to easily delegate computationally expensive work out to web workers.
First, let's define a naive recursive implementation of the Fibonacci series using SimpleWorker. If this were run in the main thread, it would most definitely lock up the UI as it is CPU bound.
var fibonacci = SimpleWorker(function (n) {
var fib = function (n) {
if (n === 0 || n == 1) {
return n;
return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
return fib(n);
Now, let's use it with Q.spawn:
$('form').submit(function () {
var $form = $(this),
$input = $("#input"),
$output = $("#output");
Q.spawn(function () {
var n = parseInt($input.val(), 10),
result = yield fibonacci(n);
return false;
You can try it out for yourself on this jsfiddle (Firefox only). If you enter a sufficiently large number (n=45+ on my laptop) your CPU will start churning away at the result – but notice that the UI is still fully responsive and animations continue to run smoothly while it's doing so.
This is a pretty simple example, but it just goes to show once again how absolutely versatile Promises can be in JavaScript. And when paired along with generators, they are only that much easier to use.
At the time of this post, Firefox is the only browser that has support for generators. Chrome Canary also has support for generators, but the setting must be enabled in about:flags explicitly.


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The scar on my forehead? I was four. My brother Michael has me by the ankles, spinning me around and around the kitchen, singing "Fly Me to the Moon." I feel the rush of air, glimpse the blur of linoleum floorbam!my head nails the counter edge. I see stars. Bawling. Three stitches. This scar right here on my upper inner thigh? Five years old. I scale a built-in bookcase to steal the Red Hots my sister Mary hid behind John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage, grab them victoriously, fall, catch the tender flesh on the curved metal pull of a drawer I'd opened to aid my ascent. Screaming. Five stitches.
The gnarly knee scar? Thirteen. I'm running downhill through the woodsa shortcutlate for a babysitting gig, trip, and land hard on a rock. Cursing. Seven stitches.
The red scar near my left nipple? Three months ago I walk into a bank, make a deposit, see the flash of a gun, take a bullet for the teller. Fainting. Eleven stitches.
You're not buying it? Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it, because the real storymammogram, biopsies, complications, weeping, 11 stitchesis...icky.
I'd never given my breasts much thought, but now the one is all I think about. When an old college beau says he's coming to New York to see me, my friend and neighbor Marlena Kowalski, a Polish Sophia Lorenlike beauty, is, as usual, full of heavily accented advice: "Whatever you do, don't bring up you-know-what." What? "You know. The tumors!" she says. "The scar. That stuff freaks men out. Trust me. They don't want to know. It's not a turn-on, it's turn-off. I'm telling you, Holly, this is the truth." More advice: "Don't go to bed with him. This would not be good message. Too easy. But if you must," Marlena continues, "wear fancy bra and leave it on. He will think so sexy. This is the truth, Holly, I'm telling you."
Jim shows up, looks familiargreat, actually. Twenty-five years have passed, and I realize if I don't see him for another 25, one of us will likely be dead. I pop an Ativan and the cork on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. We reminisce about things I can't recall, and I'm about to crack wise about a "senior moment" when an apparition of Marlena appears shaking her head, No!
We go to my favorite restaurant, Rosa Mexicano, and I eat too many chips and order another margarita. Jim asks what's new in my life, and I blurt, "Tumors," because at this point I'm bloated from the salt, not feeling sexy, not wearing a fancy bra, and have discovered he's come from Philly to bring his daughter to a bat mitzvah sleepover, making me, I suppose, a good layover plan. I can hear Marlena screaming for me to run like the Russians are on the corner.
I run and catch the first flight to San Francisco to find Jane and Jean Ford, the twin creators and founders of the Benefit cosmetics company, which makes Dr. Feelgood complexion balm, Lemon Aid color-correcting eyelid primer, She Laq makeup sealer.... Surely these raven-haired sorceresses can stir up something to erase surgical scars.
In a pink lobby a woman sits behind a desk with a plaque stating her job title: DIRECTOR OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS. (True.) I tell her I'm a Beauty Adventuress who's trekked from Manhattan in search of...relief. So she leads me down candy-color corridors, past desks topped with candy jars, to a candy-filled corner office where the twins offer me a seat and Skittles and M&Ms and Cheez-Its. Clearly, I am among my people.
Sitting on an overstuffed couch, stuffing myself, it strikes me I've seen these ladies beforeundressed. Calgon, take me away.... They're the twins in the '70s Calgon Bath Bead commercials! "Quel correct," says Jean, popping a Skittle in her mouth. Their trip into and out of the tub began when, after graduating from Indiana University, the six-foot-tall identical twins moved to New York to model, supplementing their I.Magnin and Macy's catalog work with sales clerking and apartment cleaning. In 1973, they packed up their station wagon and moved to San Francisco. "I came to find a husband," Jane admits. Confesses Jean, "I came because I'd burned every bridge with my partying. Oh, honeyreckless abandon. I loved every minute of it. Whatever happened to Quaaludes?" She sighs. "Those were great days. And disease-free." Jane concurs: "The world had no panties on."
A year after moving, the brunettes scored the national Calgon campaign. "They'd wanted blond twins," Jean says, "and couldn't find any that could talk. So they showed us a script and said, `They can speak! Sign them up!' It was a major gas."


text:
Trains, Planes and AutoTories
Guido pointed out writing about Sir Alfred Sherman R.I.P.
After doing an economic analysis of British Rail Sherman concluded that the best thing to do would be to tarmac over the railways and turn them into private autobahns. Mrs Thatcher found it a teensy bit too radical. Unacceptable politically, but practical and right because it would have saved billions in subsidies.
As the independent Transport Watch proves that is still the only sensible policy, so it is no surprise that the Tories are doing the opposite..
Telegraph Blogs: UK: David Millward: September 2006: Margaret Thatcher never loved trains
Politicians seem to be falling in love with the railways.
High-speed trains: the politician's friend
Earlier this week the Conservatives sent out a press release announcing that not only Chris Grayling, the party's transport spokesman, but also George Osborne had taken a train journey.....
the party now seems to have gone full circle. Chris Grayling is making his mark as a huge supporter of the industry, lambasting the Government not for spending too much on the railways but for what he sees as its inability to cope with growing demand.
In many ways the Conservatives appear more excited by the whole concept of high speed rail travel than Labour
Perhaps the bottom line is that trains are an ideal backdrop for a photocall for any politician.
But then William Huskisson, MP for Liverpool, also thought it a good idea to be seen on the railways. Unfortunately he was killed when he was run over by George Stephenson's rocket.


text:
PerformanceWalls.org, presented by APA – The Engineered Wood Association, is your leading resource for building safe, durable and code-compliant walls that are energy-efficient and cost-effective.
This site compiles APA's extensive library of free wall-construction content—including design recommendations, how-to instructions, CAD details for wood-frame construction, and more—into one convenient location. View the Additional Resources page for a summary of available resources.
Browse current wall-construction topics in the menu at left, or scroll down to view Performance Walls News & Updates for our latest recommendations.
For answers to your questions about wall bracing systems and engineered wood products, contact the APA Help Desk for free product support.
APA also offers continuing education opportunities, including training and consultation on wall construction topics. If you are interested in scheduling a live or online presentation for your group, contact your local APA Engineered Wood Specialist.
APA and AIBD (American Institute of Building Design) partner to present a five-part webinar series on wall bracing. Series presenters Bob Clark, Roger Roatch and Bryan Readling are APA Engineered Wood Specialists with a combined 63 years of experience providing engineered wood product building and design support and recommendations. APA has collaborated with code bodies since the 1950's to improve wall performance and reduce the risk of catastrophic home failure through the development of prescriptive wall bracing techniques that specify plywood and OSB wood structural panel sheathing.
Wall Bracing I: Why wall bracing and wall bracing strategy
This webinar was broadcast live on June 26, 2014. A recording of the program is now available to view. Note that at this time, AIBD continuing education credits are not offered for viewing pre-recorded programs.
Prescriptive wall bracing is a method of handling the lateral forces that act on a house. Applying wall bracing correctly per the IRC requires knowledge of the system and a strategy for identifying and meeting the various options available within the code. This webinar also covers the history of wall bracing and how loads are handled through braced wall lines and braced wall panels.
Wall Bracing II: Meeting the code through prescriptive wall bracing
This webinar was broadcast live on July 22, 2014. A recording of the programis now available to view. Note that at this time, AIBD continuing education credits are not offered for viewing pre-recorded programs.
With sixteen different types of braced walls included in the IRC, as well as various tables, exceptions, alternates, and connection requirements, meeting the IRC bracing requirements appears to be a very complex task for homebuilders and designers. This webinar will break down the general wall bracing requirements and show how to use the tables within the IRC to determine if braced wall lines meet those requirements.
Wall Bracing III: Simplified wall bracing and what to provide the building official
This webinar was broadcast live on August 21, 2014. A recording of the program is now available to view. Note that at this time, AIBD continuing education credits are not offered for viewing pre-recorded programs.
Due to the many complex options in the wall bracing section of the code, the IRC has created a "simplified method" for wall bracing. This webinar will focus on the IRC's simplified method, as well as an alternate simplified method developed by APA. The new APA Wall Bracing Calculator, an online tool for showing IRC bracing compliance that provides a compliance report to builders and building officials, will also be demonstrated.
Wall Bracing IV: Seismic-related provisions and tips to meeting them
This webinar was broadcast live on September 18, 2014. A recording of the program is now available to view. Note that at this time, AIBD continuing education credits are not offered for viewing pre-recorded programs.
Many of the bracing provisions in the IRC are intended for regions in higher seismic zones (above seismic category C). This webinar will focus on the options for meeting bracing requirements in higher seismic zones, including the "irregularity" rules in chapter 3 of the IRC.
Wall Bracing V: Building Wood Framed Structures for High Wind Resistance
This webinar was broadcast live on October 16, 2014. A recording of this program is now available to view. Note that at this time, AIBD continuing education credits are not offered for viewing pre-recorded programs.
Prescriptive wall bracing is limited to homes in regions with wind speeds less than 110 mph. This webinar will provide a top to bottom overview of wind-resistant construction methods for wood frame structures located in higher wind zones. Topics of discussion include lessons learned from natural disasters, structural load-path continuity, and recent evolution in shear wall and uplift-resistant design.
APA outlines an efficient, cost-effective construction solution for using wood structural panels with raised-heel (or energy-heel) trusses in a new System Report, Use of Wood Structural Panels for Energy-Heel Trusses, Form SR-103.
Conventional trusses can compress insulation, diminishing its R-value and creating a cold area in the building envelope at the point where the truss meets the top wall plate. Energy-heel trusses provide sufficient space for full-depth insulation without compromising the effectiveness of the attic insulation R-value. For this reason, construction with raised-heel trusses is an increasingly popular practice.
Because the International Residential Code (IRC) requirements for attaching raised-heel trusses are complex, APA System Report SR-103 provides a pre-engineered solution to this problem: combine raised-heel trusses with wood structural panels to resist loads that act on the truss connection. The construction method outlined meets the lateral load and wind uplift load requirements of the IRC without additional cutting or blocking, and strong, stable wood structural panels are very easily joined to the building.
APA System Report SR-103 is available for free download in PDF format or purchase from APA in print format for $1.00.
A new illustrated guide, co-published by the International Code Council (ICC) and APA—The Engineered Wood Association, provides tips and recommendations that help builders construct energy code-compliant wood walls using continuous wood structural panel wall sheathing. IECC Compliance Options for Wood-Frame Wall Assemblies, Form P320, describes how energy performance is measured in exterior wood wall assemblies and how to improve wall thermal performance to meet energy code requirements.
The 20-page publication details several wall assemblies that comply with the R-20 and R-13+5 prescriptive requirements for many of the climate zones included in the 2009, 2012, and 2015 editions of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Also provided are recommendations for reducing material costs by increasing use of lower-cost cavity insulation, optimizing material usage with easy-to-apply advanced framing techniques, and boosting thermal performance with insulated headers and siding.
IECC Compliance Options for Wood-Frame Wall Assemblies, Form P320, is available for free download in PDF format or purchase from APA in print format for $2.00.
The APA Wall Line Bracing Calculator is currently in development and will be available via this website later this year. This online tool will provide assistance with the design of residential wall bracing for compliance with the 2009 and 2012 International Residential Code. To learn more about the International Residential Code prescriptive bracing provisions, refer to A Guide to the 2012 IRC® Wood Wall Bracing Provisions, co-authored by APA and the International Code Council.
Advanced Framing: Meet Structural Code & Energy Requirements is a video from APA that provides an introduction to advanced framing concepts. Additional information about these concepts is available in the advanced framing section of this website. Several specific advanced framing techniques—including 2x6 wood framing spaced 24 inches on center, insulated three-stud corners and two-stud corners with ladder blocking, single headers and insulated headers, and multiple options for wall intersections—are highlighted in the Advanced Framing Construction Guide, Form M400, as well as free CAD details from APA.
Builders don't have to compromise on strength to meet the bracing provisions of the International Residential Code (IRC). The APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method offers an affordable, flexible, streamlined approach to meeting wall bracing requirements for single-family homes. The APA method expands on the 2012 IRC simplified wall bracing provisions (IRC Section R602.12), increasing the applicability of the IRC provisions to as much as four times as many house plans, including those with multiple window and door openings on the front and rear elevations.
APA's new brochure, Performance Walls: Simplified Bracing Method Streamlines Design, Form P310, provides a summary overview of the APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method, including how to use the method in four steps, the key benefits to the method, and a comparison with a traditional approach to wall bracing. The six-page brochure is available as a free downloadable PDF or a printed copy can be purchased for $1.00.
Learn more about the APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method.
Twenty new CAD details highlighting advanced framing techniques have been added to APACAD.org, APA's online resource for building designers and construction professionals in search of CAD (Computer Aided Design) details for wood-frame construction. The new details were adapted from figures in APA's Advanced Framing Construction Guide, Form M400.
The addition of the new details boosts the total number of free CAD details featured on APACAD.org to 257, including 30 Spanish-language details. All of the details are available to download free of charge in four file formats: DWG, DWF, DXF and PDF. The details are adapted from some of APA's most frequently requested publications and can be searched for by title or browsed for within several defined product and construction-system categories, such as Panel Roof Construction and I-Joist Floor Framing.
APA Engineered Wood Specialists Bob Clark and Karyn Beebe, P.E., LEED AP, presented a seminar on advanced framing to a crowd of more than 200 at the 2013 International Builders Show in Las Vegas on January 23.
The presentation, Advanced Framing: Time to Green-up Your Structure, presented for the second year at the show, focused on methods to increase cavity insulation to meet more stringent energy codes and the thermal bridging requirements of Energy Star 3 without compromising the strength and durability of homes. Advanced framing with 2x6 wood studs spaced 24 inches on center, combined with wood structural panel sheathing, is one of the most cost-effective solutions for builders trying to balance increasingly stringent energy codes with structural building code requirements.
Many of the details presented in the seminar are featured in the Advanced Framing Construction Guide, Form M400, an APA publication now available for free download. Clark recently sat down with Rob Heselbarth, Editorial Director of Residential Design + Build magazine, to discuss that publication and the benefits of advanced framing. That interview is featured at www.forresidentialpros.com.
Based on a multi-year research and testing initiative carried out by APA, the APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method expands on the 2012 International Residential Code Simplified Bracing Method (IRC Section R602.12) to provide an approach to bracing that is even more valuable to builders and building officials by, in many cases, decreasing the amount of required wall bracing and the minimum length of braced wall panels. In addition, the APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method increases the applicability of the IRC simplified wall bracing provisions to as much as 4 times as many house plans, including those with multiple window and door openings on the front and rear elevations.
The APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method is detailed in System Report SR-102, originally published in September 2012. Recent updates to SR-102 expand usability of the APA method even further, increasing applicability to basic wind speeds of up to 100 mph and to Wind Exposure Category C regions. The updated System Report SR-102 also permits partial credit for shorter wall segments in continuously sheathed walls.
"These changes were requested by builders and code officials to further increase the usability of this simple approach to wall bracing," said Tom Kositzky, APA Director of Field Services. "Builders, especially regional or national builders, need solutions that work in less than 90 mph and 100 mph wind zones, as well as with different wind exposure categories. The update brings the APA Simplified Bracing Method closer to being a universal solution for builders and designers."
A new illustrated book, co-published by the International Code Council (ICC) and APA—The Engineered Wood Association, provides an explanation of the lateral bracing provisions of the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC). The Guide to the 2012 IRC Wood Wall Bracing Provisions, the third edition in the series, details the correct application of the code-bracing requirements, explores the history and theory behind wall bracing, and provides real-world bracing examples. The book is now available in hardcopy and digital format.
A Guide to the 2012 IRC Wood Wall Bracing Provisions addresses bracing options available to the builders and designers, the amount of bracing required with adjustments and variations, rules for the use of bracing, the new simplified wall bracing provisions, whole house bracing considerations and many other related topics. The full-color book features numerous specific examples and more than 200 figures, tables and photos.
A Guide to the 2012 IRC Wood Wall Bracing Provisions is available for purchase in hardcopy for $42.00 ($33.50 for ICC Members, Product ID #7102S12) or digital PDF form for $39.95 ($31.95 for ICC Members, Product ID #8799P12) directly from the ICC. The 2009 edition of the guide is also available. Visit www.iccsafe.org for more information.
Read more.
Following a multi-year research and testing program carried out by the Association, APA has published a new System Report detailing a simplified wall bracing method using continuous wood structural panel sheathing. APA System Report SR-102 provides building officials, builders and designers with an approach and the supporting technical information to more easily meet the requirements of the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC) Simplified Wall Bracing (Section R601.12). In developing the System Report, APA's technical staff modified the IRC Simplified Wall Bracing to increase its applicability to a greater percentage of home designs. To provide greater architectural latitude, the SR-102 method calls for continuously sheathed wood structural panel bracing with an increased sheathing thickness and a closer nailing schedule on the first story of a two-story structure. APA staff will be educating builders, code officials and designers on the use of the simplified wall bracing method through meetings, webinars, and the website.
Download a free PDF copy of the APA System Report: APA Simplified Wall Bracing Method Using Wood Structural Panel Continuous Sheathing, Form SR-102. Printed copies of the report and educational training programs on the use of the new method are also available. Contact APA for more information.
APA's new publication, the Advanced Framing Construction Guide, Form M400, highlights advanced framing techniques that residential contractors can employ to produce energy-efficient, code-compliant homes with lower material and labor costs than conventionally framed houses.
The 24-page guide details several advanced framing techniques, including 2x6 wood framing spaced 24 inches on center, insulated three-stud corners, two-stud corners with ladder blocking, wall intersection options, single headers, single top plates and eliminating unnecessary materials. Continuous wood structural panel wall sheathing is recommended to provide the structural strength necessary to safely withstand the forces of nature.
Damage observations conducted by APA after the April 16, 2011 tornados in Eastern North Carolina and the powerful EF-4 and EF-5 storms that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27 found that a lack of attention to detail along the uplift load-path often leads to weakness on the route through which high-wind forces must travel within the framing and into the foundation. Following a review of the findings, the Association has published a set of construction recommendations for improving tornado or hurricane resistance in light-frame wood construction. The damage assessment report, Tornados of the South: Structural Performance of Newly Constructed Homes in North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, Form SP-1154 and the design recommendations, Building for High Wind Resistance in Light-Frame Wood Construction, Form M310, are both available for free download from APA.
Read the full story.


text:
State Staircase.
The odd thing about this was when I was there in 1967 this was all we saw. At the end of the tour in 2005 we left through the mirror image of this staircase, but it was only bare red brick and wooden stairs. You could see pencil marks all over the walls left there from the 1800's.


text:
"How many more days until my birthday?"
"How many more days until we go to Nana's?"
"How many more days until Christmas?"
"How many more days until _____________?"
And so, in order to save my sanity, and provide her with some answers we made up our own personalized monthly calendars. She checks it off every day and counts down until the next exciting thing in her life. I love that every time she asks one of the "how many..." questions I can just tell her to go count for herself.
It was also great practice for her writing her numbers, counting, reviewing the seasons, and more.
And very effective at eliminating all those pesky questions. (Did I just write that out loud?)
Now onto mastering the whole clock and time thing...


text: Strict Standards: Redefining already defined constructor for class XML_Parser in /home/sites/www.americanpoems.com/web/store/aom/includes/os.php on line 1188 Strict Standards: Declaration of XML_Parser::raiseError() should be compatible with PEAR::raiseError($message = NULL, $code = NULL, $mode = NULL, $options = NULL, $userinfo = NULL, $error_class = NULL, $skipmsg = false) in /home/sites/www.americanpoems.com/web/store/aom/includes/os.php on line 1604 Strict Standards: Declaration of XML_Unserializer::startHandler() should be compatible with XML_Parser::startHandler($xp, $elem, &$attribs) in /home/sites/www.americanpoems.com/web/store/aom/includes/os.php on line 3503 Strict Standards: Declaration of Cache_Lite_File::get() should be compatible with Cache_Lite::get($id, $group = 'default', $doNotTestCacheValidity = false) in /home/sites/www.americanpoems.com/web/store/aom/includes/cache.php on line 1020 American Poems: Books: Leaves of Grass (Tantor Unabridged Classics) Home Apparel Appliances Books DVD Electronics Home & Garden Kindle eBooks Magazines Music Outdoor Living Software Tools & Hardware PC & Video Games Search All Products Apparel Appliances Arts & Crafts Automotive Baby Beauty Books Computers DVD Electronics Gourmet Food Grocery Health Home & Garden Industrial & Science Jewelry Kindle eBooks Kitchen Magazines Miscellaneous Mobile Apps MP3 Downloads Music Musical Instruments Office Products Outdoor Living Pet Supplies Photo & Camera Shoes Software Sporting Goods Tools & Hardware Toys VHS Video On Demand PC & Video Games Watches Wireless Wireless Accessories Advanced Search Sitemap View Cart Checkout Location: Home » Books » Leaves of Grass (Tantor Unabridged Classics) Leaves of Grass (Tantor Unabridged Classics) enlarge Author:Walt Whitman Creator:Mel Foster Publisher:Tantor Media Category:Book List Price: $95.99 Buy New: $76.57 as of 12/29/2014 11:47 EST details You Save: $19.42 (20%) In Stock New (1) Used (3) from $75.66 Seller:THE-BEST-BOOK-SOURCE Sales Rank:8,255,304 Format:Bargain Price Language:English (Published) Media:Audio CD Number Of Items:13 Edition:Unabridged,Library - Unabridged CD Shipping Weight (lbs):1 Dimensions (in):7.1 x 6.9 x 1.8 Publication Date:August 3, 2010 ASIN:B007MXU2YW Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days Also Available In: Audio CD - Leaves of Grass (Tantor Unabridged Classics) Editorial Reviews: SynopsisAbraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." And Ralph Waldo Emerson found Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed," calling it a "combination of the Bhagavad Gita and the New York Herald." Published at the author's own expense on July 4, 1855, Leaves of Grass initially consisted of a preface, twelve untitled poems in free verse (including the work later titled "Song of Myself," which Malcolm Cowley called "one of the great poems of modern times"), and a now-famous portrait of a devil-may-care Walt Whitman in a workman's shirt. Over the next four decades, Whitman continually expanded and revised the book as he took on the role of a workingman's bard who championed American nationalism, political democracy, contemporary progress, and unashamed sex. This volume, which contains 383 poems, is the final "Deathbed Edition," which was published in 1892. CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Brought to you by American Poems Categories •Apparel •Appliances •Arts & Crafts •Automotive •Baby •Beauty •Books •Computers •DVD •Electronics •Gourmet Food •Grocery •Health •Home & Garden •Industrial & Science •Jewelry •Kindle eBooks •Kitchen •Magazines •Miscellaneous •Mobile Apps •MP3 Downloads •Music •Musical Instruments •Office Products •Outdoor Living •Pet Supplies •Photo & Camera •Shoes •Software •Sporting Goods •Tools & Hardware •Toys •VHS •Video On Demand •PC & Video Games •Watches •Wireless •Wireless Accessories Subcategories United States •African American •Asian American •Hispanic American •Native American Related Categories •Criticism & Theory History & Criticism Literature & Fiction Subjects Books •Poetry Genres & Styles History & Criticism Literature & Fiction Subjects •United States Regional & Cultural Poetry Literature & Fiction Subjects


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"Overall, reports of serious crime were down 2.8 percent," said Marlin. "It's an encouraging indication that the rest of the year will see a continuation of this positive trend in which crime has decreased in six out of the last seven years."
Marlin said reports of arson decreased 8 percent, robbery declined 7.1 percent, burglary was down 6.1 percent, and criminal sexual assault fell 4.7 percent. Aggravated assault/battery declined 3.2 percent and murder declined 3.1 percent, while motor vehicle theft and theft were down 2.3 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
"Every category of serious crime dropped," Marlin said. "It is significant because fewer crimes translates to less pain and suffering and elevated quality of life for Illinoisans."
The report also includes totals of supplemental crime statistics -- crimes against children, domestic violence, hate crimes, and crimes against school personnel.
January thru June 1998 January thru June 1997 Percent Change Crimes Against School Personnel 1,169 1,170 -0.1% Crimes Against Children 18,971 18,975 0% Domestic Violence 64,725 66,366 -2.5% Hate Crimes 188 205 -8.3%


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Announcing The Power User's Guide to Google Analytics Hacks, Tips and Tricks [1]
Google Analytics (GA) is undoubtedly the most popular web analytics tool on the planet. If you're a search marketer, blogger or online business owner, you likely use Google Analytics on a daily basis to do some basic traffic and performance analysis.
But like many, you're probably not harnessing the full power of Google Analytics. So to help you get even more out of GA, we reached out to 17 Google Analytics experts to create The Power User's Guide to Google Analytics Hacks, Tips and Tricks [6].
The guide features a variety of advanced user features from our all star lineup of Google Analytics Hacks Panelists, including Aaron Wall [7], Vanessa Fox [8], Joost de Valk [9], David Harry [10], Will Critchlow [11], Brian Clifton [12], Justin Cutroni [13], Bryan Eisenberg [14], Bas van den Beld [15] and many more analytics experts.
Hope you enjoy it!


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Division of Child Support
Veterans News/Events Archive
Want a simple but meaningful way to let our brave service members, veterans, and their families know how much we care? The Red Cross has you covered. The holidays are an especially important time to let these men and women know that we are grateful for their service and appreciate the daily sacrifices that they and their loved ones make for all of us. Follow this link to find out more: http://www.redcross.org/find-your-local-chapter/#W
WDVA Olympia Service Center
hours, Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm.
Call 1-800-562-2308 or visit www.dva.wa.gov
Veterans, their families and survivors receiving disability compensation and pension benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs will receive a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase in their monthly payments beginning January 1, 2014. Find out more�
For the first time, payments will not be rounded down to the nearest dollar. Until this year, that was required by law. Veterans and survivors will see additional cents included in their monthly compensation benefit payment. For Veterans without dependents, the new compensation rates will range from $130.94 monthly for a disability rated at 10 percent to $2,858.24 monthly for 100 percent. The full rates are available at http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/rates-index.asp
Sept. 27 & 28, 2013
8:00 am - 4 pm each day
Wenatchee National Guard Armory
1230 5th Street
Wenatchee WA 98801
Thurston County Veterans Court celebrated its third-year anniversary on July 22. It was the first Veterans Court in the Pacific Northwest and only the 12th in the nation. Both Seattle Municipal Court and King County modeled their Veterans Courts after Thurston County's.
The Thurston County Veterans Court was a response of Thurston County District Court, Prosecutor's Office and the Office of Assigned Counsel to the growing number of veterans and service members who become involved in the criminal justice system. A significant portion of these veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, brain injury and other impacts of their military service.
Veterans Affairs and WDVA formed a partnership with the Thurston County District Court to provide a Benefits Coordinator and an Outreach Coordinator on-site during each hearing. Qualifying defendants, whose mental illness must be connected to the commission of the crime charged, appear regularly in court to discuss their treatment programs, work, education and other issues important to their successful rehabilitation. Defendants meet with program staff outside of court for monitoring and referrals.
In order to graduate, the veteran must complete all recommended mental health, chemical dependency, domestic violence treatment, anger management or parenting classes. Random urine analysis is a requirement for everyone in the program along with regular check-ins with court social workers and weekly court hearings. Successful completion of the program takes approximately 2 years.
Thurston County Veterans Court is held every Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Thurston County District Court, Building 3, at the Thurston County Courthouse in Olympia. Gary Bierman, Olympia DCS Veterans Liaison, normally attends sessions and/or is available via phone to program court staff outside of court on participant's child support issues.
Veterans Court also established in Spokane, Pierce and Clark counties with DCS participation.


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It is not often that we get to combine our passion for music, good design, green technologies, and hot 1950′s classic vehicles, so we take any opportunity that we can get. Neil Young recently released his latest album "Fork in the Road", which is dedicated to the Lincvolt project that transformed his classic Lincoln Continental into a hot zero emissions vehicle that gets 100mpg. To celebrate the release of his latest album has released four videos which he would like to share with everyone. After all, if a 1959 vehicle can be green, what is stopping all current vehicles from achieving the same goal?
"She was born to run on a proud highway" sings Neil Young while driving his hybrid Lincoln Continental, and we are happy to sing along with him here at Inhabitat. As with any of Neil Young's albums, this one is loaded with political meaning and protest. Neil's goal with this project is to raise awareness of the available technologies that can turn pretty much any car into a fantastic green vehicle. To showcase his car, Neil will be driving to Washington on the hopes that he can impress lawmakers to promote green vehicles and technologies.
The electric-biodiesel vehicle achieves around 100 miles per gallon, emits practically no emissions, and looks better than anything else on the market today. Nothing beats good design, I think that we can all agree – except for perhaps good music. "Just singing a song won't change the world" he sings. It seems to us that he is taking his own advice to heart.
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BACK TO SCHOOL GIVEAWAY: Enter to Win a HP Pavilion dv6 Laptop and Green Prize Package (Worth $1155!)
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Jill FehrenbacherDid you know that there are wolves living near you in almost every state in the country? Sadly most of these wolves are not living in the wild, but in wolf sanctuaries, which are conservation organizations set up to protect them and help grow their populationREAD MORE >
Yuka YonedaNamba Parks was conceived when Osaka Stadium closed down, presenting a great redevelopment opportunity for a new commercial district right next to the Namba Train Station, which is just one stop away from Kansai Airport. Since it's one of the first placesREAD MORE >
Beth BuczynskiTop image: A child is put to work at a militia-run mine in Watsa. © Marcus Bleasdale/National Geographic Captured during a 2004 visit to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Bleasdale's images "tell the story of the country's mineral resourceREAD MORE >
Jill FehrenbacherYou've all heard the tired mantras about changing your lightbulbs and recycling at home in order to save the planet - are you yawning yet? Many consumers think that going green is a gesture of self-sacrifice that often comes at great expense and inconvenienceREAD MORE >
Yuka YonedaBANANAS You might have heard that bananas are favored by athletes because they contain potassium and it's that same reason that makes them great hangover cures. When you're hungover, your body has lost a lot of potassium that needs to be replenished, so eatingREAD MORE >
Yuka YonedaImages © Graham King "The shopping cart tree symbolizes both generosity and abundance, as well as acknowledging those less fortunate where their whole world may be housed in a cart. We see shopping carts every day and take them for granted. IndividuallyREAD MORE >
Jill FehrenbacherTIP 1: Wrap Your Home in Insulation - "The More, The Better!" Proper insulation is probably the most important factor you can control in creating an energy-efficient home. I always say insulation is like chocolate, the more you have, the better! On average,READ MORE >
Kestrel JenkinsWhile conjuring up comfort in the home seems like a basic principle, it's a far more complex process for architect & remodeling guru Sarah Susanka, who believes that comfort can significantly influence the sustainability of your personal abode. WithREAD MORE >
Lidija GrozdanicTwo architects, Jos Burger and Wouter Keijzer of BK. Architecten, in charge of the renovation of the old church decided to preserve the atmosphere of the existing place with a spatial intervention that preserves its historical value. The three new floors wereREAD MORE >
Morgana MatusFor centuries, the Dutch have manipulated the landscape to move water away from their dwellings. Instead of battling the elements, Netherlands-based firm Waterstudio just announced plans to construct the world's first floating apartment complex in 2014! TheREAD MORE >
Tamsin Woolley-Barker, PhD.The Biomimicry Manual: What can We Learn About Resilience, Weight Loss, and Kidney Disease from the Grizzly Bear?I'm off to the wilds of Montana this week, doing some in-person, up-close biomimicry research, and I've got my fingers crossed I'll see a grizzly bear. But you know, over there, not over here. With five inch long claws, massive muscular shoulders and forearms,READ MORE >
Bridgette MeinholdINHABITAT: How does the term Colorfast describe your latest show? R Nelson Parrish: The term Colorfast originally is a textile industry term derived at the beginning of the last century. It defines how a color cannot fade, wash out, or be diluted over time,READ MORE >


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Why Paint?
For an artist living in our democratic society, the answer to this is not so simple.
What to Paint?
For thousands of years artists worked for patrons, patrons who used to help further the political and religious agendas of their societies.
What now?
Today we are "free" to create what we please. But today we not only have to produce the paintings, but also the concepts, the social commentary, the marketing, and the audience... We end up making art about our lives and art about art, because most of us never get truly tested by a public audience. This is because most of us are not beholden to a patron, or sponsor or client who demands a specific message, and who expects our work to communicate that message. (Or they won't commission us.)
I have decided to dedicate my artwork to the problem of investigating things which are emotionally significant to me personally. I have at times felt disenfranchised from our larger society, and am continually searching for ways to express my emotional world. The landscape suggests a passage of time, and an anticipation of future action, the possibility for resolution and redemption. The landscapes that I paint are often based on real places. Some are from childhood memories, some are from dreams, most are from places in Minnesota where I grew up and went to boarding school.
When something in life gets me emotionally excited, I am intrigued by the possibility of using it as a subject for a painting. For instance, the fantasy of catching a world record fish really brings up a lot of issues about survival, desire, power, and self-reliance. This subject became the inspiration for the "The Ultimate", where two fishermen are reeling in gigantic pike with no way to really land them. The fulfillment of their fantasy becomes hellish, frightening, out of control. The landscape here represents the subconscious desires, and the fish symbolize fear and repressed emotions.
In "The Lesson", I used the figure of a man to represent my ego, and the figure of a girl to represent my intuition. They are guiding each other through a forest. A forest is a place that can transform so easily from a tranquil, serene paradise, to a terrifying, suffocating, claustrophobic hell. The difference in perception is created by whether or not you have your bearings.
Last year, when my wife Laura was diagnosed with cancer, I was so stunned, so numbed, and I felt so helpless. I resolved to make some paintings that would revive some of the perfect moments of our relationship. "Campers" resulted, as did others. These pieces reminded me of our moments of love and bliss. After several months I suddenly began some new pieces, "The Wrong Way", and "Substation IV". Both are about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I realized later that these pieces were about my anger about Laura's cancer, the health insurance system, and social injustices. For me, painting is a path to self-awareness, and is a way to develop an awareness of how society shapes us as individuals. And I hope in some way my work can communicate to others something relevant about the times we are living in.
February 1996
Ed Rath


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KVAL, Soroptimist International of Eugene, Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity, and Food for Lane County wish you Happy Holidays!
PSA Holiday Greeting #6
By: kato49Subscribe Channel: Out & About Location: Eugene, Oregon
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Senate Confirms Julie Carnes to Eleventh Circuit by 94-0 Vote
The U.S. Senate in a 94-0 vote late Monday confirmed U.S. District Court Chief Judge Julie Carnes as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta.
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Randy Aldridge
Evangelism Strategist and Church Planting Strategist
Ministry Experience:
Randy has 23 years of experience in the pastorate in Georgia & Virginia. He has served 5 years as a Church Health Strategist with SBCV & is currently serving as Church Planting Strategist for the Southwest region. Also, Randy is lead planter of Christian Life Fellowship in Jonesville, Va.
Life Verse:
"Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24


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Description: A documentary/fiction film about the origin of men's muscle magazines in the 1950s which follows the career of Bob Mizer, photographer and the creator of the Athletic Models Guild. As an avid admirer of the male form, Miser groomed beefy boys to star in short films and photo layouts, and in doing so, gave shape and style to the male pinup industry as a popular cultural form.
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Saturday, December 20, 2014
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As the 10th anniversary of September 11th approaches, many individuals have banded together to memorialize victims in special ways. NY1's Tetiana Anderson filed the following report.
Erin Jackman and her family last heard from her sister on a voicemail message left on September 11th nearly 10 years ago.
"She was one of the last phone calls out," said Jackman.
Jackman and others gathered Friday in advance of the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center to share their stories. They all say they're trying to keep the memories of their loved ones alive by linking their names with good works.
"We founded the Brooke Jackman Foundation in memory of my sister Brooke. She wanted to become a social worker and she loved to read, so we combined those two and we did it for her creating and supporting literacy programs throughout the New York area," said Jackman.
Mary Fetchit co-founded the Voices of September 11th project after losing her son Brad.
The organization's mission is vast.
"To provide information support services, connect families with resources, information on scholarships, to help advocate for the identification of remains and work on memorial plans. So, we've evolved. We're over 13,000 families that we're working with," said Fetchit.
Michael DiMinicio didn't lose a loved one on September 11th, but he used his gift as an artist to paint portraits to memorialize those who lost their lives.
"I took out a notice in The New York Times just saying I intended to do, it if you don't want me to paint, I won't, if you want an alternative image, because at that time all I had were the thumbnails that were in the portraits of grief in The New York Times, and I got a very positive response," said DiMinicio.
He said he's completed 1,100 of what will eventually be about 2,500 paintings.
"I'm a painter and I've always been a painter, so from that perspective frankly there's a fairly substantial emotional burden that goes with it," said DiMinicio.
In the end, they all say there is comfort sharing fond memories of those who died.
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My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare may almost be over.
Both Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are willing to annul their marriage. They merely differ over who is to blame:
When it comes to the annulment, it looks like the couple have come to a standstill, with each side demanding that the other admit to fraud, reports TMZ.
Kim insists that the pair agreed to reside in Hollywood, until Kris later pushed for her to move to Minnesota.
However, the basketball star claims she never intended for them to stay together. It looks like money could be an issue too. Humphries reportedly wants $7 million, but Kim isn't giving in.
- LA Times
We have a simple solution to propose. How about both Kim and Kris both admit that they committed fraud... not only on each other, but on all the viewers of the viewers of Kim's Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event. Then they both agree to annul the wedding, and everyone walks away happy.
What do you guys think?
The US Weekly magazine cover can be found here.


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One Simple Trick: How To Keep Sand Out of the House | Apartment Therapy Chicago.
One Simple Trick: How To Keep Sand Out of the House
It seems like an inevitable part of summer — at some point, sand will get tracked inside. Then it will find its gritty way absolutely everywhere. When a friend recently shared her aunt's secret for getting sand off everyone before they come inside, I knew I had to try it for myself.
Her aunt's trick is to make pouches out of flannel, fill them with cornstarch, and use them to wipe down sandy legs and hands. She keeps one in her car for beach trips and another by her backdoor for trips to the park and sandbox.
Since I remembered the tip right before my friends came in from the beach, I improvised quickly, cutting out the pockets of an old, stained work shirt, filling them with cornstarch, and rebuttoning. They worked perfectly and the sand brushed right off.
If you only have a piece of fabric, rather than a pocket, don't worry — it's a quick sewing job. Just cut out a square of flannel, sew up the sides, twist the top and tie it off with some ribbon so you can refill later. It works best if you use a single layer of flannel, so the cornstarch can come through easily. Of course, craftier people can also make refillable drawstring pouches like this one from Skip to My Lou.
Either way, it's a lot better than hauling out the broom or vacuum after every beach trip.
Images: Kathleen Luttschyn
8 Tips For A Cool Night's Sleep (Without the AC!)
After a collection of heat-wave-days getting a good night's sleep can be almost impossible. Even if it cools down in the evenings, some homes remain infected with a lingering warmth, making dream time a bit of a nightmare. Here are a few tips I've picked up to help me cope, but please share your own —for the summer has only just begun!
Clearly, there is no A/C in my humble apartment, so scratch that from the list. What I have done to beat the heat is the following:
- • Use 100% cotton bedding, preferably the crisp vintage kind.
2. • Wear loose cotton PJs, or none at all.
3. • Take a quick cool shower before bed.
4. • Fill a bucket of cold water to dip my (clean) feet into periodically throughout the night (and to water the garden with in the morning).
5. • Wet washcloths or hand towels with cold water and drape them over the hot spots. (Does anyone else's lower back seem to emit an inordinate amount of heat?) Recharge the cloths in that bedside bucket of water.
6. • Keep widows open and unobstructed. I will sacrifice the privacy of curtains for max air flow on the hottest nights.
7. • Bring on the fans. I actually subbed out an overhead light in the bedroom for a simple stainless steel fan. As hard as it is to navigate the room in the PM, I certainly do not regret the decision!
8. • Floor-fan fort: Okay, this is a bit ridiculous, but on one of the hottest days last year we rigged a floor fan at the foot of the bed and clothes-pegged the sheet to the top of it, creating a billowing bedding wind-tunnel. Not entirely practical, though the cats rather enjoyed this approach!
Related Post: 9 Tricks To Beat the Heat Without Turning Up the A/C
(Image: Tina & Lizzy Sawdon for Apartment Therapy)


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A prosthesis is a device designed to replace a missing part of the body, or to make a part of the body work better. The metal prosthetic device in knee joint replacement surgery replaces cartilage and bone which is damaged from disease or aging.
Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa | 1000 4th Street SW Mason City, IA 50401 | 641-428-7000


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"Safe Routes to Schools has been a priority of the Visalia City Council,†said Visalia Mayor Bob Link. "In partnership with the Visalia Unified School District, these monies will allow us to make the streets safer for our school children.†Craig Wheaton, superintendent for the Visalia Unified School District, said, "Visalia schools and Visalia Police Department have worked hard to create safe conditions for our kids throughout the community. This grant will allow us to keep kids out of harms way while walking to and from school and serve to protect all pedestrians!â€ÂÂ
Lighted crosswalks, including ADA compliant pedestrian ramps, pole-mounted flashing beacons, signage and striping will be installed at the intersection at Sunnyside Avenue and County Center Drive at Crestwood Elementary and at the Hurley Avenue and Marcin Street intersection at Hurley Elementary. Grant funding awarded for these two intersections was $48,740. The second project involves the construction of curb, gutter, sidewalk and a bicycle lane along the east side of Quail Drive adjacent to Fairview Elementary School, and the City received $49,680 in state funding.
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) awarded $24.2 million statewide for 85 Safe Routes to School projects to help reduce injuries and fatalities among children in grades K-12 who walk and bicycle to school
( View PDF )


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Birthday Wishes to a Grown-up Daughter
Years have rushed by and you are no longer by my side,
But I remember those days when you had secrets to confide.
Your dolls and toys are kept away,
I don't get to play those games with you every day.
But my love, I look at you and I know,
That our love does not need to show.
Today, is your Birthday and I wish you a hundred more…
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Home > Career Center > Get Started
Get Started
Your New Career is just a few steps away.
For your convenience, here is a summary of the steps you will go through during the recruiting process:
Step 1 - You can begin by searching Artech's open positions in our GEM database and submit your resume online. We will contact you when your skills are a match for an available job. If you do not see an open position that meets your interests, we recommend that you still submit your resume. When a position becomes available that does fit your qualifications, we will be able to contact you.
Step 2 - We will conduct a telephone and/or in-person interview with you to share details about Artech, our clients, and potential job opportunities. We will also discuss your background and career goals.
Important Note: Some of our clients require us to ask you for your partial or complete social security number during the interview in order to proceed. Speak to the recruiter if you have any questions about this.
Step 3 - If required by the client, we will ask you to complete technical testing for qualification.
Step 4 - You will then have the opportunity to meet our client through an on-site or telephone interview.
Step 5 - When a decision is made, we will contact you immediately.
Step 6 - Before you are hired, we will conduct a confidential background check and employment eligibility verification.
Step 7 - Once hired, and as part of the on-boarding process, we will provide you with everything you will need for your first day at work.
Go to the Job Posting page to search and apply for jobs
Go to the GEM Jobs page to receive automated job opportunities via an RSS feed
Create a Job Agent that will automatically send matching job opportunities to your email
GEM Jobs
GEM, which stands for Global Enterprise Management System, is Artech's easy to use employment database that allows you to submit your resume and search for available jobs.
Artech employees receive competitive rates for top notch positions at over 60 Fortune 500 companies. Highly qualified contingent and temporary employees are often offered full-time jobs with our client at the end of their contracts, so start your search now!
For a complete listing of open job positions available at Artech and its clients, search GEM Jobs.
You may refine your search by Job Type and Location and enter keywords to help narrow your search.
Stay informed on the latest job opportunities that match what career you are looking for. You can have jobs sent to you directly by a Job Agent or RSS Feed. Visit our GEM RSS Feed Set Up Page to set up your notifications by Job Type, Location, and Number of Jobs.


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|Merriam Report Focus List highlights stocks that may be potentially undervalued or overvalued based on
changes in the balance-sheet, cash-flows and earnings quality.
Focus List reports provide powerful and accurate analysis to help investors avoid the "herd"and be
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period reported).
Merriam Report research offers robust, in-depth analysis presented in a clear and concise format. Focus List
reports feature enhanced graphics, trend analysis of key financial statement items, fair-value estimates,
goodwill, accrual analysis and much, much more.
|Focus List Updates (Free)
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in single, five or ten units.
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text: Reuniting Public Enemy's original members and production posse, Chuck D & Co. bring the noise on their best album in years. PE demonstrate they can still drop a hooky single (the title track) and take on Big Issues (like corrupt shoe companies) with panache. Most importantly, their beats still—as Flavor Flav's track is titled—''Shake Your Booty,'' proving rap's notorious polemicists are back in the game.


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The Tewaaraton Award goes to the player of the year, and that includes the postseason. So why are the finalists announced before the postseason begins? Isn't the committee asking for trouble? Do we want to rely on luck to get it right?
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UMass took down Army 12-9 in an early season D1 game. Tommy Gilligan was there to take in all the action and catch it on film. Big time D1 lacrosse photo gallery!


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I have a rather lengthy question I need some help with.
I am working on setting up an office standard project template for a new company as they make the transition from CAD to Revit Architecture 2012. In their elevations (both interior and exterior), sections, and details they use material tags and a materials list. For example; an exterior elevation has a tag with the number 09 24 00 called out with a leader arrow pointing to the exterior facade. That Con-doc number is then referenced elsewhere on the drawing sheet in a materials list at 09 24 00 - Lath & Stucco.
This is the first time I have ever come across a company that notes there drawings in this way. I have am more familiar with calling out materials with a simple leader arrow and note.
My question is, is it possible to duplicate this material tag as well as create a schedule that lists these Con-doc numbers and their corresponding material? Does each material in Revit Architecture have spec section numbers built into it, or would I have to manually enter each Con-doc number into the individual materials?
If I understand correctly, what you are describing is keynotes. Please check Wikihelp for more information on that topic.
I just looked thru Wikihelp and it was not much help on this matter.
What I am looking for is a list of common materials (GWB, Metal Stud, Plywood) that would already have the keynote section filled in. Is this something each office needs to go thru during initial setup?
e-SPECS provides keynotes for MasterSpec and other commercial masters as well as management of master keynotes, automatic filtering for project specific list of keynotes, and advanced assignment and validation within Revit. Have you already checked into the e-SPECS keynoting functionality?
Yes, I am with InterSpec who develops e-SPECS. I am also hoping this functionality helps firms save time and money in coordinating their construction docs while reducing the extra manual steps required.
Seamus McGrady email@example.com www.e-SPECS.com
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"Come on," you say, "my employees aren't paying such close attention, are they?" Actually, they are. For entrepreneurs faced with a 4 percent unemployment rate, character is an issue as never before. Womb-to-tomb jobs are long gone, and today's employee is expected to hold between 12 and 15 jobs over a lifetime. And as companies wrestle with retention, the personal integrity and ethics of their leaders matter more than ever before. Your employees are watching you more closely than you think. "One guy I spoke with told me that the only thing he has to go on is that his boss is honest," Mason says.
The results of a 1999 study could be a wake-up call for CEOs everywhere: According to a joint Hudson Institute/Walker Information survey of roughly 2,300 full- and part-time employees working for government, business and nonprofit organizations, more than half (53 percent) thought their company leaders lacked integrity. "We were surprised at the perceived lack of ethics in the leadership of these organizations," says Marc Drizin, Walker Information's vice president of business alliances. Even worse, only 42 percent believed their organizations deserved their loyalty, and only one in four employees was considered "truly loyal" (defined as committed to the organization and planning to stay for more than two years). The survey also revealed the things that would make these workers commit for the longer term: fairness at work, care and concern for employees, trust, and reputation of the organization. This information points to the trend that today's worker is looking for meaning in the workplace beyond money and stock options.
Salary is no longer the sole satisfier, nor the key to employee loyalty. Instead, loyalty is tied to the feelings workers get from their workplaces, and the values and ethics that are transmitted from the leadership. Just like Tom Cruise's character in the movie Jerry McGuire, employees are seeking deeper meaning and inspiration from their work, evaluating their companies' ethics and searching for their own. The new workplace compact is based on fairness and trust, on knowing that procedures are evenhanded and that leaders have character. When employees realize their organization lacks these qualities, they start planning their exit. "When you ask your employees to compromise their values, they will move on," says Anne Pasley-Stuart, a Boise, Idaho, expert on ethics in the workplace. "It may take awhile until they actually go, but they will leave eventually."
Chris Penttila is a Washington, DC-based freelance journalist who covers workplace issues on her blog, Workplacediva.blogspot.com.
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This article was originally published in the May 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Actions Speak Loudest.


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Sleep is the Best Medicine
David Spero
June 10, 2010
Want to live longer? Get more sleep. A new study from the New England Research Institutes shows that waking more than twice a night to urinate increased mortality risk 50% among men and more than 30% among women. Nocturnal awakenings to use the bathroom also doubled the mortality risk in people younger than 65.
(You might ask, isn't everybody's mortality risk 100%? That's true, but "mortality risk" refers to the risk of dying within a set time, say one year.)
These findings confirm what has been reported many times before. This study from England found lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
In general, most people need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep a night for best health. Unfortunately, a July 2006 report in the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that the average American gets less than 7 hours of sleep nightly. That means many of us get even less. The study found that people with lower income slept less. Men slept less than women, and blacks slept less than whites. Black men averaged only 5.1 hours of sleep, which is classed as "sleep deprivation." Interestingly, these are the same patterns you see in overall health and longevity.
Of course, too much sleep is also a bad sign. But most people who oversleep don't do so out of habit. They sleep too much because they're already sick, depressed, ill-fed, or exhausted. But under-sleeping can make healthy people sick and make existing problems worse.
So why do people sleep too little, and what can we do about it? I recently started working with a new client. He's 66, with Type 2 diabetes. He plays two sets of tennis a day and eats pretty well, but his blood glucose still runs high. I think it's because he sleeps so poorly. He's up five times a night to go to the bathroom.
Getting up at night to urinate (nocturia) is one major reason for lost sleep. Doctors used to think that, in men, nocturia was usually caused by an enlarged prostate gland. Men had their prostates surgically reduced to treat nocturia, but many of these men got no relief.
It turns out that men and women are about equally likely to suffer from nocturia, so it couldn't be mostly about the prostate. Low-level infections and nerve problems in the bladder are among other urological causes of nocturia.
Nocturia is the most commonly cited reason for awakening by men and women alike, but that may be misleading. People may wake for other reasons and assume it was because they had to urinate.
Diabetes can cause broken sleep in two ways. High blood glucose leads to increased urination, while low blood glucose causes people to wake up from hunger. They may think they woke to urinate, when it was really the low blood glucose levels.
People with sleep apnea often think they are waking to urinate, when actually they are fighting for air. Having jumpy legs or "restless leg syndrome" is a neurological problem that can cause waking, which may be mistaken for nocturia.
The Web site Stop Being Tired (SBT) lists the following causes for waking up and suggests solutions.
I really want to stress this. Sleep is crucial to health, although we don't know all the reasons. If you're having nocturia, or if you're tired in the morning and don't know why, get yourself checked out for urinary problems and for sleep apnea. Consider the other possibilities listed here and see what you can do about them.
Check in with us and let us know what's working and what isn't. Sleep is a really important part of self-management.
Dear David You wonder then if the diuretic I am taking to reduce a slightly elevated BP is doing more harm than good. I try and take mine at 6 am(when I wake to pee) and hope that the effect wears off by the next evening, it does not entirely.
Posted by: calgarydiabetic | Jun 14, 2010 05:09 PM
This helped me understand why I get up in the middle of the night. I try to limit my liguid intake so I don't wake up. I will definitely try to get more sleep.
Posted by: Lorraine | Jun 15, 2010 02:40 PM
Dear David, I was having urinary tract infections, one after another. My glucose was high and I was waking up to pee 3 or 4 times a night. I have been taking a low dose of macrobid, watch my diet and my evening snack, and now wake up to urinate only once a night but when I do wake up, it is a race to make it to the bathroom in time. One problem solved, one problem to replace it. Never-the-less, it is an improvement! Linda, Montana
Posted by: linda garrow | Jun 16, 2010 03:44 PM
Great info! Sleep is so necessary for good health - no matter what other conditions you might have. sleep apnea can often be treated just by controlling one's weight. In my blog http://howtosleepinfo.com I have lots of info on sleep problems, such as sleep apnea, and getting a better night's sleep. Thanks!
Posted by: Wil Dieck | Aug 03, 2010 11:08 AM
Magnesium supplements really help me with nocturia I found this by accident. I was having very severe leg muscle cramps . Concurrently I was also having to get up 5 times a night to urinate. I took a dose of a magnesium powder supplement with magnesium citrate and amino acids. Because of the severity of the cramps I took four tspns of the powder instead of the recommended one. The cramps eased over the next few days and went away. That night I was amazed that I did not go once to the toilet. I slept all the way through!. Since then I usually go once. Recently I started going more frequently, as I haven't maintained the regime of taking the powder. I took it again, and the result was repeated. Wonderful!!!
Posted by: Michel | Aug 03, 2012 07:33 PM
Great tip, Michel. I'll try it and hopefully others will too.
Posted by: David Spero RN | Aug 06, 2012 12:41 PM
Disclaimer of Medical Advice:You understand that the blogs posts and comments to such blog posts (whether posted by us, our agents, bloggers, or by users) do not constitute medical advice or recommendation of any kind and you should not rely on any information contained on such posts or comments to replace consultations with your qualified health care professionals to meet your individual needs. The opinions and other information contained in the blog posts and comments do not reflect the opinions or positions of the Site Proprietor.


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Voice over IP has come a long way. A few years ago, the technology was dismissed as inadequate but there have been some great strides forward in the past couple of years and it has become a viable technology for the future-gazing enterprise. This White Paper looks at the background to VoIP and explains why now could be the time to switch.


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Nalchik R5: Solid preparation and human drama
Chess is a difficult game. Not only because you have to make good moves, but also because you have to stay alert for many hours. However hard you've worked before, one tiny lapse of concentration can destroy hours of labour. This sadly happened to Gata Kamsky in the fifth round of the Nalchik Grand Prix against Vladimir Akopian. Of course, all over the internet people immediately reacted as if they didn't understand what had happened.
By Arne Moll
It's very common these days: as soon as the blunder's been made, people act as if it's the weirdest thing in the world. Using lots of question marks and exclamation marks, they are quick to point out the correct path and show their incredulity. Of course, it's especially easy to notice blunders when you've got an engine running in the background, but even without it, many chess fans on such moments seem to forget that grandmasters are still human, and that chess is still a human game.
The first to experience this was Vassily Ivanchuk. One of the pre-tournament favourites and definitely a favourite of the ChessVibes team, he just isn't making the right moves in this tournament. I'm afraid there's not much to say about the game. Playing a not too enterprising QGD with White, the Ukrainian badly blundered at move 22 against Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who finished him off within a few moves. Well, let's look at things from the bright side: at least the former FIDE World Champion is getting properly into the tournament now, moving to zones in the ranking where he belongs.
As we've already noted in a recent issue of ChessVibes Openings, the German GM Jan Gustafsson plays an important role in modern day opening theory. In Nalchik, he's Peter Leko's second. No wonder, then, that Leko came excellently prepared against Alexander Grischuk in Gusti's pet line, the always exciting Anti-Moscow Slav (once again showing, by the way, how untrue the stereotype is that Leko is a boring player!). To an outsider like me, all these games look pretty exciting - until you realize the guys have been following theory for 20 moves or so already. Not in this game, however, in which the Leko/Gusti team had apparently prepared a novelty at move 16 already. The move 16...c5 looked logical enough (even to me), and it led to a sharp position that seems not to have been out of balance, allowing Grischuk to hold on to his leading position in the tournament. I guess with hindsight it's easy to dismiss such games as uninteresting, but that is a gross underestimation of the amount of work that has gone into it. In my opinion, deep opening preparation is always interesting, even if the result is sometimes 'only' a solid draw.
Gusti's influence could also be felt in the game Alekseev-Aronian. In yet another Marshall Attack (also a speciality of Gusti's), the players followed for some time the game Volokitin-Gustafsson from last year's Bundesliga until Aronian deviated with the new move 16...Qf5!? instead of the usual Qh5. The idea of advancing the h-pawn to weaken g3 worked out excellently, and Aronian obtained an easy draw in the Marshall, as we're used to by now.
Sergey Karjakin is working together with Kasparov's ex-second Yuri Dokhoian and also came well prepared for his game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In sharp Taimanov Sicilian, his move 8.Qg3!? was already new (previously, 8.Bf4 had been tried), and led to an optically very pleasant position. It's not clear where Karjakin could have played better, because although his position looked extremely attractive despite having sacrificed his central e-pawn, Black defended excellently and comfortably cruised towards a draw. Sergey Shipov suggested 16.Ne4 (instead of 16.h4) as a natural way to gain advantage, and I think 15.Bf3 deserves attention as well. We'll probably see this line again some time soon!
Speaking of Kasparov, the opening in the game between Etienne Bacrot and Pavel Eljanov (a Zaitsev Ruy Lopez) reminded one of the great fights between Kasparov and Karpov. Bacrot chose the now-topical 12.d5 and for a long time, the players the game Carlsen-Navara from last year's FIDE Grand Prix in Baku. In this line, White wants to prove his bind on the white squares against Black's pair of bishops. Bacrot sacrificed his e-pawn to gain total control over the white squares and the diagonal a2-g8 in particular, but somehow there wasn't a forced win as Black got his game together just in time. Crazy sacs on f7 or h7 didn't work out for White, and in the end Bacrot had to settle for a move repetition.
Peter Svidler faced an extremely sharp and no doubt home-prepared line against Boris Gelfand but achieved a shaky draw in the end. What started as a quiet Moscow Slav soon turned into a tactical position where Gelfand unleashed the spectacular 18...Bh3!? setting lots of practical problems for White. Svidler handled it in a principled, but very risky way, exposing his king and ruining his pawn structure. It seems Gelfand missed a couple of excellent chances in the double rook ending, but in the position was drawn anyway.
Akopian and Kamsky at the press conference
Gata Kamsky, on the other hand, couldn't save his ending against Vladimir Akopian. Lovers of the French opening (a Tarrasch variation, to be precise) immediately recognized this as a classic and principled endgame in which Black trades some passivity and a minority on the queen's side for an extra centre pawn and a rocky solid king's side. Akopian handled the position with extreme skill, slowly gaining space and creating weaknesses in Black's position. I especially liked his move 31.g4! restraining the black king's side expansion. Black got stuck with a passive king and an roaming knight, and around move 50, Akopian could have gained a decisive advantage on several occasions.
However, he, too, wasn't the sharpest chess player in the world anymore after such a tough game, and Kamsky managed to stay alive and even missed a study-like draw where a single Knight draws against Rook + Bishop. The game went on mercilessly and Akopian got a position where KBR+P vs. KR had to be won by sacrificing the last pawn. As a result, Akopian reached a theoretically won KRB vs. KR endgame, but according to the tablebase he misplayed it at several points. Of course, such an endgame is always difficult, especially after all previous emotions, and at move 93 he allowed a simple stalemate which Kamsky then... missed as well, losing in a few more moves after all.
Of course, the moment will be recorded in the cabinet of chess curiosities, but please let's not be so surprised that this sort of thing happens in top tournaments as well. Anyone who's ever had to defend (or win) this particular ending (at whatever level) knows how extremely exhausting a job this is, especially when the pressure has been so high in the previous hours. So, let's applaud both Akopian and Kamksy for a marvellous and instructive game, reminding us once again that we're all human and that that is precisely why we love the game of chess so much!
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5 years 8 months ago
Excellent article indeed! Those of us who have played in tournaments of any length know chess fatigue! I remember a saying that goes something like "It is the player who makes the last mistake, not the most mistakes, that finally looses." of course, his/her opponent needs to be awake enough to capitalize on said mistake! Indeed, your point is well taken, this is the game we all love to play, and being human we are prone to error...Thank you, Gregory Odle
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Lol Great introdution, Arne! Even easier is your role, explaining all the "injustices", "misanderstandings", and ridiculous uses of question marks to everyone. :-) "I'm on the side of the Great", you seam to say. Great job!
This ironic protest said, I must say I respect and apreciate your general work, even on this article.
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I also post here my answer to Thomas, regarding this theme, on the R4 article
(He himself prefered the word "absurd")
I also read Shipov's comments.
Not knowing exactly your notion of "absurd", I must in any case stress something about my inicial comments:
I came to the live transmision very near the end. In fact I didn't think of the 80. …Rh5! defense,
(NOTE: Arne, this critical moment deserved atention on the game too)
but I saw the bad doble blunder 93.Be7?? Rb8+??, and then the (wrong) score 1/2-1/2. It felt like "WHAT??"
In any case, it was a bad BAD finish! By the reasons I told, and also by your complementing informations. In normal circunstances of a classic-time top chess game, all those blunders are not posible.
I think that last 3rd period shouldn't be allowed to be so… fast. Or at least these games shouldn't be taken for ELO purposes.
Now, I don't think the players are to blame! Of course they are human, and those are human-like blunders (even top-GMs). I just think it is a big big shame.
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So you see, Arne, not all of the "question mark-users" are that misanderstanding, nor that implicit auto-flattering. And surely I would never the one trying to compare chess skills to those of the Nalchik GMs! ;-)
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5 years 8 months ago
OH MY GOD. You saw those blunders??????
Cant believe my eyses they missed that moves.
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5 years 8 months ago
one mustn't forget kamsky has had quite a marathon in terms of the length of his games! he must have been quite fatigued at this point.
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Don't worry, Castro, my introduction wasn't inspired by your comment - which was rather mild compared to some of the ravings that could be seen on ICC and Playchess.
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:-) That I believe!
And you're right: Whenever GMs blunder, there are lots of people (usualy with engines) ready to "act as if it's the weirdest thing in the world".
I also did that this time but without engine running and because it realy looked "the weirdest thing in the world" those obvious blunders together, before I remember that 3rd blitz time period, and before the 1/2-1/2 score was corrected.
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5 years 8 months ago
Castro, it is hard to explain what _exactly_ I meant with "absurd" ... . In any case (this is not necessarily or specifically against you): I wonder how many of the Internet commentatos could demonstrate perfect play under the circumstances (after six hours of play, with limited time on the clock and of course no help from tablebases) in this ending, or even in slightly easier (?) ones such as queen against rook or bishop+knight against bare king .... .
Akopian's comment in the press conference is spot on: "There were many mistakes, computers would laugh at us but we are humans and we were tired." When he sacrificed his last pawn, I wonder whether he considered the ending objectively won or merely offering practical winning chances. Tablebases say the former, but obviously he didn't have one implanted in his brain :) because he went wrong on the very next move. Maybe he played on partly out of inertia and/or frustration [he was pressing throughout the game, and maybe he thought or even knew that he had missed an earlier win].
As I wrote before, I am not sure if 93.Be7 really deserves "??" under the circumstances - it may simply be a way to put an end to the game one way or another ... . Clearly white didn't see how to win this, but he may well have been "too proud" to offer a draw.
Another question (an academic one because Kamsky had an easier or certainly faster alternative): Could Kamsky also hold the endgame simply by keeping his rook on the seventh rank (as he had done since move 81)? After, say, 93.-Ra7 white can only try to make progress backtracking again with Be7-d8-c7 and Kd7!? [94. Bc5 Rc7+! =]. After all, the final position is won because white can give rook checks both (either/or) on the eight rank and on the a-file. If I am right, Kamsky's fatal mistake was automatically giving a few checks in time-trouble - "as one tends to do", but there are other examples (with more material on the board) where this is simply wrong ... .
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It looks like you were quoting Kamsky, rather than Akopian.
This endgame is indeed more difficult than Q vs. R, and much more than N+B+K vs K.
I played both sides maybe 10 times total, winning almost all "my wins", and I think loosing all "my draws" :-( The defense is far more difficult and extenuating. With more or less indecisions and repetitions, one almost always win.
All the conditions you said are important --- 6 hours of play, frustration for lost oportunities, limited time on the clocks... --- but I repeat it seems to me that the latter is the main "criminal", and the hardest to accept. After all these should be classic --- not rapid --- games. Too many obvious blunders in short time.
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