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Thread: Michigan radio system
New radio system is full of bugs
$221 million state project was supposed to link police
By Mike Martindale / The Detroit News
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
A Michigan State Police radio tower stands at 32 Mile and Dequindre.
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A new statewide digital radio system that replaced aging World War II technology was intended to help state police and other public safety agencies communicate seamlessly across Michigan.
But a decade after it was first envisioned, the 181-tower, $221 million radio system has failed to deliver on that ambitious promise. And in some cases it just doesn't work.
"It's like they built a racehorse and are still trying to get it to walk," said Mark A. Porter, attorney for the State Police Troopers Association.
A situation could easily escalate into a tragedy if police and other emergency workers can't communicate with each other, said Porter and others.
Even the most staunch defenders of the Michigan Public Safety Communications System, completed last September, admit it's not without wrinkles.
"No radio system will provide you with 100 percent coverage 100 percent of the time," said State Police Captain Tom Miller, who supervised the system for four years. "If you have something that does, it's financially impractical."
Among reported problems:
* Dead zones, where radio transmissions are impossible, are still common.
* Portable radios that are part of the system are useless in buildings.
* The system still is unable to deliver computer data, as once promised.
According to a Feb. 19 document obtained by The News, the entire radio system in southeast Michigan crashed on Feb. 10 and full signal was not restored for nearly eight hours. For 400 troopers serving several posts from the Ohio border to Oakland County, that meant switching over to the backup radio system supplied by their respective municipal police agencies.
But several dozen troopers without backup radios, including Wayne and Oakland freeway patrols, were "left without any communication, posing a clear and present danger to all personnel," according to the grievance filed with State Police human resources division by the 2nd District Association.
"No contingency or backup plan was available to any personnel," according to the grievance, which recommended "all troopers be provided with independent radios capable of maintaining contact with law enforcement dispatch centers apart from the MSP 800-megahertz system ..."
"They were left hanging," Porter said. "They had no choice but to return to their posts until it came back up. They had no way to get information and no way to give it back.
"It also happened up in the Upper Peninsula three months ago."
The system is so unreliable some police, including state troopers, carry Nextel cell telephones in cars for backup. On Feb. 10, that was the only form of communication available to many troopers.
But state officials contend the old system was much worse and needed to be replaced. It was so outdated it included towers that didn't meet construction codes and couldn't even be climbed by technicians, Miller said.
"We would have loved to have had a system with in-building coverage everywhere, but it would have easily cost two or three times more," Miller said. "We would probably still be planning it today."
In a related development, a proposed bill sponsored by State Rep. John Pappageorge, R-Troy, which would permit local units of government to hang radio transmitters on existing state police towers, moved out of committee Tuesday and will go to the full House for possible vote later this week. State police have resisted such efforts, concerned it would interfere with their radio transmissions. Local governments argue they should be able to use any facilities supported with tax dollars at their respective costs providing they don't disrupt signals. A similar bill, introduced by State Senator Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, may be discussed this week or next in the state senate.
The system is optional for local police and fire agencies. But as more counties upgrade dispatch and 911 emergency response, many smaller departments, especially outstate, have found it necessary to sign on rather than fund their own dispatch centers.
There is a basic, one-time fee of $25 per radio to departments and an annual $200 per radio, per year, Miller said. But additional requirements can run into the millions. A 500-foot tower, which some communities have built for better reception, costs about $1.5 million, he said.
Livingston County erected a tower; and a Genesee County Consortium of 31 agencies is looking at an $11 million investment that includes four new towers.
Washtenaw County developed its own police-fire radio network because the state system was not unsuited for their needs and unreliable inside buildings.
Miller said some initial problems have been corrected, including unreasonable expectations that technology would bring "flawless coverage everywhere."
"The beauty in our system is if a local agency wants to come on they get a good picture of what they're buying before they spend one dollar," Miller said. "They know if they have to add or if what they're are getting will be enough. We believe we're providing a standard level of coverage."
Fowlerville Police Chief Gary Krause had no choice. His whole county, including the 911 system, joined the state system.
"The system might be great for the state, but for some of us it's been trouble," Krause said. "If you don't sign on, you have no connection with dispatch."
Krause found out "that once you got out of your car, you weren't 100 percent sure if you would get a signal on portables."
A chief concern among law enforcement groups is the system was designed only for the radios mounted in cars, and not the portable radios upon which many fire and police agencies rely, especially in emergencies. Portable radios are clipped to belts with a small microphone that extends to the uniform's shoulder for hands-free use.
Many agencies find themselves tied to a system they can't depend on to communicate with their own officers.
One Fowlerville officer had problems with his portable radio outside one of the city's buildings while struggling with a suspect. He was unable to radio for backup.
"He was rolling around on the ground with a suspect," Krause said. "Fortunately a couple citizens came along or who knows what would have happened?"
"To be fair, portable service was never guaranteed," he said. "But you're inside a building and need help, what do you do?"
Krause said fear of getting "bonked" -- the resulting radio sound indicating no signal is available -- has his department relying on an old radio system for major community events.
"Our old radio system is crisper, more reliable and we can even connect with the DPW or school buses," Krause said. "We can't call up to northern Michigan like with the new one but what do we need that for anyway?"
Metro Detroit agencies have shown little interest in the state system, outside of having a few radios in the event of an emergency. But others have faith in it. Miller notes there are now 9,465 users from 268 agencies across the state -- about 14 percent of 1,850 potential user groups statewide.
The majority -- 7,053 mobile and portable radios -- are used by state agencies, chief among them the state police (4,885). But 59 radios are in use by federal groups, including the FBI (44 radios) and local usage ranges from some police and fire departments using only one radio to the Lansing Fire Department which has 209 radios.
The Motorola-built system was initially funded at $187 million, but another $34 million in upgrades were added, Miller said.
"The contract specifications called for state-wide coverage of 97 percent mobile radio, but we believe we're actually receiving 99 percent," said Miller, adding user satisfaction is high.
Miller noted how Shelby Township, the only Macomb County community to join up, didn't add anything. Shelby Township is near a 500-foot radio tower built by the state, and agencies located near such towers don't report any problems.
Miller said the state system is still being worked on. Computer-delivered data would be possible with about another $11 million in upgrades.
He said the system has some shortcomings, especially in the post 9-11 era.
Poor radio communication was partly blamed for the large number of deaths of emergency workers at the World Trade Center tragedy in New York City.
You can reach Mike Martindale at (248) 647-7226 or email@example.com.
Kalamazoo, MI - Cell-phone interference is wreaking havoc with Kalamazoo's new police radios and has prompted the city to spend nearly a half-million dollars on tower upgrades.
Just four months after the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety flipped the switch on a new, $1.8 million radio system, the City Commission on Monday reluctantly approved spending an additional $458,777 on tower equipment.
Portable radios that officers carry outside their cars are failing at alarming rates to get their signals through, with officers encountering numerous "dead spots," particularly inside buildings, Public Safety Chief Dan Weston told commissioners.
"On several occasions, officers have been in foot pursuit, and no one has been able to hear their radio traffic," the chief said in a memo. "At other times, officers have attempted to call out for help while wrestling with a dangerous offender, and we have not heard their attempts to communicate with our radio system."
The city in November activated the new, 800-megahertz digital radio system and signed onto the Michigan Public Safety Communications System, a network of Michigan State Police towers that allows different public-safety agencies to communicate with one another.
The portable Motorola radios were tested at more than 300 sites in Kalamazoo in December 2002 and produced what Weston said was "very acceptable" coverage.
But big problems became evident immediately after the new radios went into use last November. State and Motorola engineers attribute the difficulties to the rapid proliferation of cell-phone towers and usage, Weston said. Cell-phone signals, also on the 800 MHz band, sometimes drown out signals from the 3-watt, portable radios that officers use, he said.
The fix involves adding a signal repeater and other equipment to an existing KDPS tower at station No. 6 at Howard Street and Oakland Drive, as well as upgrading state towers near Plainwell and Vicksburg that serve Kalamazoo's radio system.
"Instead of us being overwhelmed by the cell phones, it is going to allow us to overwhelm the cell phones," Weston told commissioners.
The tower work is expected to take about three months to complete.
Weston said that once the towers are upgraded, Motorola will guarantee radio coverage from inside buildings through 95 percent of the city. "There is not 100 percent coverage with any radio system ... there will still be some dead spots, (but) it is going to greatly enhance our ability to communicate," he said.
The project will cost $555,744, with the local share reduced by state contributions of $96,967 in equipment and labor. Local funding will come primarily from federal grants.
City commissioners expressed frustration with the added expense but unanimously approved the contract-change order.
"We have to do this. We can't leave our people vulnerable," Commissioner Don Cooney said.
Other communities have had similar problems with 800 MHz radios. Ionia and Monroe are among other Michigan cities that have encountered serious difficulties with interference since going on the state radio system, Weston said.
The federal government is working on a plan to move cell-phone frequencies farther away from frequencies used by police, fire and other public-safety agencies, Weston said.
City Manager Pat DiGiovanni cautioned, though, that the tower upgrades aren't necessarily a last fix for radio interference. "We may need another tower someday," he said. "We can expect more and more interference within the airwaves."
- Join Date
- Dec 2000
- Posts
- 1,719
Re: anyone in Monroe?
Originally posted by ffexpCP
Ive been working on my scanner programming when I noticed each station in the county has a talkgroup for fireground. Someone PLEASE tell me these digital radios are NOT being used for fireground use. If theyre not (which I hope is the case) what freq. is used for fireground? Is the pager freq. the only analog channel used now?
Command will be on one of the "Emergency Scene" talkgroups since each of the so-called Fireground talkgroups are only accessible to that particular department.FTM-PTB-DTRT
- Join Date
- Mar 2002
- Location
- Posts
- 142
We did the switch to 800, but must keep old radios because of mutual aid requirements. Scanner must have digital to hear traffic. A good resource for talkgroups and frequency numbers is www.radioreference.com
It is free to sign up and well worth it.
communicate with one another.
Granholm recently obtained approval from the Michigan Legislature to provide $13 million in supplemental appropriations to finance maintenance of state police radio towers for the system, which critics say is inefficient and outdated.
In April 2004, the state drew $12 million from the Commercial Radio Suppliers fund, a special 911 surcharge fund to aid technology enhancements for all mobile phone users.
Such withdrawals during belt-tightening times anger Robert J. Daddow, deputy chief executive in Oakland County, which is building its own $42 million radio system and won't rely on the statewide one.
"There have been problems with the state system since they started, and it doesn't seem like anything is changing -- except for taking more money to do who knows what," Daddow said. "They're marching forward on a system which is obsolete. It's troubling."
In June 1995, Michigan lawmakers, faced with a crumbling, outdated radio system, approved funding. Federal, state and local public safety agencies were invited to sign onto the system for a one-time activation fee of $25 per radio and a $200 per-radio annual fee.
There are now about 16,000 radios in use, half by state agencies. But several public safety agencies have shunned the system because it does not support handheld radios, commonly used both outside and inside buildings.
The state radio system, initiated by the Michigan State Police a decade ago and run for the past two years by the state Department of Information Technology, is designed as a mobile car radio system.
Some users, such as Kalamazoo police, have said cell phone interference causes major reception problems. It will cost more than $500,000 to build a tower to overpower current interference, said Kalamazoo Police Chief Dan Weston.
"The main problem is all these cell phone companies are putting up antennas as fast as they can," Weston said. "We're in a valley in Kalamazoo, and we need another tower, probably on one of our fire stations, for better reception."
Robert Tarrant, director for the state radio system, insists it is a good system. He said the recently obtained $13 million will fund upgrades to accommodate new users in southeast Michigan.
"It was built for mobile, and if you are relying on handheld radios and inside buildings, you will have to have some additional support, like adding towers," Tarrant said. "But it's a wonderful success story of how the state and local agencies can work together."
You can reach Mike Martindale at (248) 647-7226 or email@example.com.
The system was down in the UP today. Great news with all of the wildfires.
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Originally posted by ffexpCP
Robert Tarrant, director for the state radio system, insists it is a good system. He said the recently obtained $13 million will fund upgrades to accommodate new users in southeast Michigan.
I have a feeling most of it will be going to the new Detroit simulcast system though...FTM-PTB-DTRT
I think I heard the tower site down there (Dundee?) has been quite problematic or more so than other sites. Heck, back home I can SEE the tower at my house and sometimes not hear a thing.
- Join Date
- Mar 2000
- Location
- Sitting in my chair, listening to the scanner while the young kids respond
- Posts
- 375
I didn't want this thread to get off the first page.
I am on the list to get an 800 Mhz portable radio next month thru homeland security grant. I'll let you know how it works.
Question: Any updates on Monroe county?
Stay safe,
PetePete Sinclair
Hartford, MI
IACOJ (Retired Division)
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
- Location
- Posts
- 6
Allegan County made the switch a cuple months ago. At first there were alot of bugs that needed to be worked out. The fire side is toned on UHF, but are radios are on the new 800 system.
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Re: Bump
Originally posted by pete892
Question: Any updates on Monroe county?
- Join Date
- Jan 2005
- Posts
- 4
I'll tell ya, I use the 800 system every day I work. So far, there has been only 1 instance as to where I could not get out. Our dept. was one where it was assumed we would have some of the worst reception, due to the building make-up. So far things have worked well for us. Before, when we were using the old VHF system, we could not hear our portables 3 blocks from the station. Bur PLEASE keep in mind. this is a completely new system for Monroe County. There are sure to be bugs to be worked out. WHen we were training on the new system, we had "older" members who did not attend, so now, they are the 1st to complain about the system, bot knowing all of the ins & outs of how it works. So remember, giveit time to work everythng out. It is the same as an ambulance or fire truck. IF IT IS MANMADE, SOMETHING CAN & WILL BREAK, OR CAUSE PROBLEMS.
Radio performance improved - 07/15/2005
The emergency communication system's performance has improved since Thursday, when technicians replaced an amplifier on the E. Dunbar Rd. tower.
By ANDY ROGERS
The county's new digital 800 MHz emergency radio system is back to full power after Motorola technicians discovered and repaired damaged equipment on the system's E. Dunbar Rd. tower, county officials said this morning.
"Hopefully, it's fixed and the system will perform flawlessly like it should," Monroe County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Oley said.
The damaged tower top amplifier was to blame for the $9 million system's recent performance problems, Motorola engineers told the county. The equipment is designed to sound an alarm when it fails, but the alarm was not triggered. A physical inspection of the amplifier revealed no apparent signs of damage, but testing proved that it was not working properly.
The radio system's performance improved dramatically once the amplifier was replaced Thursday, Mr. Oley said this morning. Signals were especially strong in downtown Monroe where the system's performance has drawn criticism from public safety officials, including Monroe police Chief John Michrina. Portable police radios taken inside downtown buildings could receive communications from Monroe County Central Dispatch, but did not have a strong enough signal to send signals, creating a major safety concern, Chief Michrina told the county board Tuesday.
That problem, however, appears to have been fixed, according to Mr. Oley, who said the county plans to work with Chief Michrina to organize a test of the repaired system to validate preliminary tests conducted Thursday night.
"They went downtown in the city last night and went into some buildings and walked along the streets, went into some businesses and even went into a basement, and everything tested great," Mr. Oley said.
"The checks they performed last night, they actually took their portable radios and transmitted back to Central Dispatch and all of the communications were loud and clear."
The fix also appears to have improved radio communication from inside the Monroe County Courthouse, where officials were considering purchasing extra equipment to boost performance. Similar equipment, called a bi-directional amplifier, already has been installed at the Monroe County jail.
The Dunbar Rd. tower where the malfunctioning amplifier was found is one of four towers that makeup the 800 MHz system. It is the closest tower to the City of Monroe.
Coverage problems with the new system also have emerged in areas of southern Monroe County, including Erie and Bedford townships. Monroe County Sheriff's Office Lt. David Thompson was traveling to Erie this morning to see if the Dunbar Rd. tower repair improved the radio system's performance there, too.
"They think it's going to be an improvement in the Luna Pier area, too, because of the way that tower is" Mr. Oley said. "Who's to say if it was lightning hit or if it was a mechanical failure or just an equipment failure. It could be any one of those three things."
Copyright © 2005 Monroe Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved
Last updated 07/15/05 - 01:24:41 pm EDT
Lightning damages dispatch system
Lightning damages dispatch system
Police, fire stations use portable radios instead
Sunday, July 17, 2005
News Staff Reporter
A lightning strike knocked out the microwave communications system used by police dispatchers across Washtenaw County on Saturday, forcing them to use less-reliable portable radios to talk with officers on patrol.
The strong thunderstorms also dumped heavy rains in some places. A weather station in Ann Arbor recorded 2.4 inches of rain and two streets in Milan closed for almost an hour because of flooding in the afternoon.
A DTE Energy spokesman said sporadic electrical outages were reported in Washtenaw and Livingston counties but all power was expected to be restored by today.
On Saturday night, officials were still unsure about the extent of the damage to the microwave communications system, which is also used by some fire department dispatchers. The damage was caused by a lightning bolt that struck the Ann Arbor police station at about 9:30 a.m. Emergency 911 service was not affected.
The station houses key pieces of microwave equipment that effectively boosts the signals of portable radios used by emergency personnel and allows dispatchers in police stations across the county to monitor emergency transmissions in multiple communities.
"There are areas of the city tonight where I'm confident cops can't talk to dispatchers,'' Ann Arbor Police Chief Dan Oates said Saturday evening.
Because of the damage, the signals of the portable radios are limited, so there are dead zones - such as inside thickly-walled buildings - where police officers cannot reach their dispatch centers using their radios.
Police were also hampered in calling for assistance from other communities. The microwave system lets a dispatcher in one community instantly talk with a dispatcher in another community. With the system damaged, the dispatcher had to pick up a phone, which is slower.
"That's precious seconds,'' said Saline Police Chief Paul Bunten. "If an officer is in a very serious situation that could mean an awful lot.''
Although police departments used to rely on the portable radios, Bunten said, "That's 25-year-old technology and it's certainly not something the public deserves.''
When Ypsilanti Police pursued a suspect in the daytime robbery of a video store on Saturday, the Washtenaw Sheriff's Department learned of the unfolding chase by phone. The suspect was arrested and the Sheriff's Department did send deputies to help Ypsilanti Police.
"Our ability to provide assistance to other agencies in a timely fashion is severely hampered,'' said Sheriff's Commander David Egeler, adding: "Our dispatch center was talking with theirs by phone without having that instant ability.''
Until the microwave system is fixed, police cannot record the radio transmissions between officers, firefighters, ambulance workers and dispatch centers. Those recordings are occasionally used in court.
"It sort of cuts the police officers off at the knees,'' said Amber Van Amburg, business manager for 800 MHz Consortium, a publicly funded entity that provides communications for the county.
Van Amburg said no damage estimate was available Saturday evening.
Oates said the lightning strike exposed the limitations of an antiquated system. Some of the equipment, he said, is outdated and irreplaceable.
Fire and police chiefs in the county are backing a proposed 0.25-mill property tax that goes before voters on the November ballot to pay for a new emergency radio system.
Oates said the existing system has gone down temporarily 10 times since last August. A new system would be more capable, Oates said, providing a single communications system for the county and allowing it to join with a network of 60 other counties in Michigan.
"If one particular tower were to get struck, and we're members of the new coordinated statewide system, the impact on the county would be significantly less,'' he said.
Reporter Dave Gershman can be reached at (734) 994-6818 or email@example.com.
© 2005 Ann Arbor News. Used with permission
- Join Date
- Feb 2001
- Location
- Sturgis, MI. U.S.A.
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- 198
800 radios are currently on order for command staff here too. It will be patched to our VHF. I have never heard much good about 800 and the fire service. The sad news is that all those bells and whistles on the 800 band are available in digital VHF. And you still get the "punch" of the VHF when youre in the basement.
Ive been told NFPA will soon pass a guideline that "No trunked radio systems should be used inside hot zones."
Somebodys gonna have some serious explaining to do on why the new million dollar super system cant page the departments, or be used on the fire ground.
OMG!! Im agreeing with NFPA!
- Join Date
- Dec 2000
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- 1,719
Detroit switched over to the MPSCS yesterday. I can't hear it very well down south here but their old VHF dispatch channel came in loud and clear most of the time.
Just wondered if anybody from Detroit Fire or EMS has any comments on the 800 system yet.FTM-PTB-DTRT
- Join Date
- Feb 2001
- Location
- Sturgis, MI. U.S.A.
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Up on the 800
I got my new 800 from dispatch yesterday. Got bonked twice at a roll-over this morning but was able to get through most of the time. Going to give it my best shot.
If anyone wants to listen...
- Join Date
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- Sitting in my chair, listening to the scanner while the young kids respond
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Any updates?
It's been about three months since Detroit Fire switched to the new system.
Anyone have updates on how its working in Detroit?
Stay safe,
PetePete Sinclair
Hartford, MI
IACOJ (Retired Division)
- Join Date
- Feb 2003
- Location
- Monroe MI USA
- Posts
- 3
I live in Monroe Mi and as you might know we have switched over to the 800 sys. it does work as far as I am concerned. the biggest prob. is it can not page our depts out so we have to maintain our old paging syst. there are some building that have serious trubl getting out. but it is a new syst and will take time to get all bugs worked out. The loder guys dont like change and this is the biggest change that they have ever had to deal with as a county. But I believe it is for the best.
- Join Date
- Jan 2005
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- 4
Amen Brother. I am one of the OLDER guys, but I still agree to the change. I can actually talk to the other guys on my dept. I do think this is the best thing to happen to Monroe County firefighting since I do not know when.
If the dissenters do not like the system, I suggest it is time to retire and get out, or get with the 21st century. Do not screw with my safety becuase you are too hard headed to change.
- Join Date
- Nov 2003
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- 54
Our dept. just wrote a grant to switch completely to the 800mhz system. We too will be keeping out 154.430 pagers for tone outs and our radio service is telling us that our dispatch center will be able to patch whatever channel we want. All we have to do is provide them with a copy of our current frequency list and they will have the ability to link up for us, in cluding to neighboring counties, i.e. Vanburen, St. Joe, Calhoun, and Cass Counties. Our LE is currently on the system and they love it. Hopefully we will too.
The 800 system works great with fire departments in livingston county. Central dispatch can simulcast on VHF for the tone pages and over 800. When central talks on main fire it is broadcast on VHF and 800, when anyone else talks it is only on the type of frequency for their radio type. ie: a FF talks on a VHF radio, only heard on VHF, on 800 only heard on 800.
800 works nicely because it has multiple talkgroups which you can designate for specific emergency scenes. Also, we can be patched to a VHF frequency for example when we need to talk to Survival Flight or Med Flight.
- Join Date
- Feb 2001
- Location
- Sturgis, MI. U.S.A.
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- 198
We gave up on it
The fire service in our county has abandoned the 800 radios. Our area is one of the weakest for 800 coverage. Enter a building and you have no communications on 800. I used it to communicate with dispatch on a few occasions but it was not safe for fire ground operations.
The 800 system has its purpose and properly setup can be a dependable communications system. I dont agree with the rest of the chiefs that we shouldnt use it at all. I think the problem in our county was that it was perceived to be the fix to our VHF problems when it actually created more. Our patch between the 800 and VHF sucked. The VOX operated patch would ping pong between the 2 bands. Without a buffer, short transmissions on VHF would be over before the 800 ever keyed up.
Bottom line, if you have good tower coverage and understand how to use the radio, it will do just fine. Try to get by with some hodgepodge home built patch combining it with an already clustered VHF system, and it will only give you heartburn.
- Join Date
- Jun 2008
- Posts
- 5
I am a firefighter in van burren and a dispatcher in kalamazoo. the 800mhz system works great for police and ems. but not to well for fire. the minute you get into a structure you can lose signal. portible coverage is not very good. command might be just outside, but just like a nextel, if you don't have signal, you can't talk to the guy sitting right next to ya. good theroy but not reliable enough. plus radios are 3000+ dollers and 200 dollers per radio per year for service fees. and the state will not allow individuals to get them programed. they have to be uunder the dept. name. soo overall its a good theroy but not very practicle for the fire service.
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08/06/2012 Cross Country UpdateCheck out the two new bridges at Percy Warner Park and read about the continued development of the cross country program. 04/04/2012 VU nominees for McWhorter and Davis scholarshipsJones, Hannallah nominees for McWhorter; Fann, Washington nominees for Davis 04/03/2012 The art of the three-season athleteby Ashley Crosby 02/09/2012 Four named to All-Academic listVanderbilt ties for second-most from an institution on USTFCCCA's list 11/28/2011 Wake up, Coach Keith!Record-breaking season in review 10/31/2011 2011 SEC ChampionshipsVanderbilt won the 2011 SEC Women's Cross Country Championship. 10/18/2011 Wisconsin Adidas InvitationalPictures from Wisconsin Adidas Invitational 10/14. Women's XC placed 2nd in a field of 44 schools. (Photos by Mike Scott) 09/30/2011 XC 2011 Fun RunThe women's cross country team brought a camera along on one of their runs. Personal Records: 2011 Cross Country:Finished fourth for the Commodores, 46th overall at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational with a time of 20:56, helping lead team to second place finish and No. 3 national ranking ... Clocked a time of 14:06.57 at the Belmont-VU Opener for a third-place finish. 2011 Track:Placed 11th overall at the Kentucky Invitational with a personal best time of 4:57.96 in the mile, tied at 11th best in Vanderbilt history ... Competed in the 3,000 meter and 5,000 meter events at the SEC Championships, placing 11th and 9th overall, respectively ... 5,000 meter time of 17:10.52 at the SEC Championships was good for fourth best in Vanderbilt history, as well as a personal best ... Set a personal best in the 3,000 meter with her time of 9:41.67 at the Arkansas Invitational, placing sixth overall in the meet as she slid into Vanderbilt's record books at fifth best in the event. 2010 Cross Country: Did not compete in the first two races of the season ... Posted a time of 17:54.23 at the Louisville Invitational, good for 41st overall ... Clocked at time of 21:39.9 in the Blue Race at Pre-Nationals ... Finished 21st overall at the SEC Championship meet with a time of 21:41.69 ... Clocked in at 20:47.59 at the NCAA South Regional. 2009 Cross Country: Recipient of the Most Improved Award for the 2009 XC season... Finished 28th individually at NCAA Regionals and helped Vanderbilt to a fifth place finish, running a personal best 21:22.12 in the 6k... Was team's No. 2 runner at the SEC Championships, clocking a 22:27.51 in the 6K, good for 27th place... Finished sixth out of 148 runners in the 5K race at the Commodore Classic, clocking a 18:47.35... Was the team's No. 4 runner at the Belmont-Vanderbilt Opener. 2009 Track: Competed in the mile run, 3,000 meters, and the distance medley indoors... Best mile run indoors was 5:06.91 at Iowa State... Best 3,000 meters was at the Kentucky Invitational with a time of 10:07.31... Member of the VU distance medley team that ran an 11:40.28, good for fourth place at the SEC Indoor Championships... Top outdoor 1,500 of 4:43.97 came at the Ole Miss Invitational... Also ran 5,000-meter personal best of 17:30.6 at the prestigious Penn Relays. 2008 Cross Country: Placed among the top-seven qualifiers for Vanderbilt in every race... Crossed the timeline in 15:26.29 in collegiate debut at the Belmont/VU Opener (4K)... Ran a 19:15.31 at Commodore Classic in first collegiate 5K... Finished 66th (18:44.18, 5K) out of 265 racers in the Greater Louisville Classic... Completed the Pre-Nationals White Race (6K) in 23:19... Ran 6K PR 23:00.40 at the SEC Championships ... Qualified 71st (23:08.61) out of 156 runners at the NCAA South Regional. High School/Prep: Received 10 varsity letters in HS ... Served one year as team captain ... Cross country team won county/regionals ... Also played junior varsity soccer. Personal: Louise Marie Hannahllah ... Nicknames are "Lu," "LuLu" and "Weez" ... born Dec. 13, 1989 ... Parents are Penny and Medhut ... Double majoring in cognitive psychology and child development ... Has an older sister and a younger brother ... Enjoys reading, working with children and playing soccer and basketball. Off the Course with Louise: |
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For those who want to experience the Caribbean, Jimmy Buffet-style, it's hard to beat the "sun sand and sips" ambience of a Windjammer sailboat. The second vessel in Island Windjammers' fleet, 125-foot Sagitta ...
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As we sit here in St. Maarten having breakfast overlooking the Caribbean at the Royal Passanggrahan guest house, we are ...
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This company thinks it's like the old Windjammer Barefoot cruises but falls short in a lot of ways. The service was ...
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My wife and I sailed with Island Windjammers on Sagitta in March 2014.
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We touched on a bunch of Nats-related subjects on this week's episode of The Baseball Show. Rob Carlin, Joe Orsulak and I looked at just how good Tanner Roark has been since debuting late last summer, comparing his stats to a fellow rotation mate who arrived with just a bit more hype than he did.
We also discussed Bryce Harper's torn thumb ligament and how long it might be before the 21-year-old outfielder is back in the lineup.
And Chase Hughes joined Rob to discuss Taylor Jordan's early season struggles, his demotion to Class AAA Syracuse and what the future holds for the young right-hander.
Enjoy the clips, and be sure to tune in to Comcast SportsNet every Thursday at 4 p.m. EDT for our weekly look at baseball on the local and national levels. If you miss the live show, it re-airs Thursdays at 11:30 p.m., Saturdays at 9 a.m. and Sundays at 11:30 a.m. …
- tcostant - May 2, 2014 at 1:31 PM
Head up to Philly tonight, half of Philly's dime.. Take over the park!
Enter "PHRIDAY" under promo code.
50% off with that promo code!
- tcostant - May 2, 2014 at 2:13 PM
One thing the Braves do well, is lock up there young players. Here is another:
- Faraz Shaikh - May 2, 2014 at 2:37 PM
he is hardly theirs and hardly young.
- David Proctor - May 2, 2014 at 2:51 PM
And hardly good. Last year was an aberration for him. He was the throw-in of the Chris Johnson deal for a reason.
- Ghost of Steve M. - May 2, 2014 at 3:03 PM
David, he was the throw-in on the Justin Upton deal but I think he has done well for them.
Arizona got the bad end of that deal.
- tcostant - May 2, 2014 at 3:11 PM
He played well last year, I agree he was a throw in. But to get him past free agency is at a light cost is smart. If he repeats just what he did in 2013, he'll be more than a bargin.
- Ghost of Steve M. - May 2, 2014 at 3:35 PM
When you breakdown the deal Johnson had 2 years of arb eligibility remaining so they bought out those 2 years plus 1 year of free agency + an option.
The question is whether they were premature to the cash register given his history. Always a high BABIP guy with a history of about 1 K per game.
- therealjohnc - May 2, 2014 at 7:00 PM
He is a high BABIP guy, but he's consistently been that and his batted ball profile (high line drive %) suggests it's not all luck. I've come around on him, he's a solid player.
- Ghost of Steve M. - May 2, 2014 at 3:09 PM
I'm still laughing about Braves accusations on spying. Harang was torched because Harang isn't the 0.85 ERA guy he was for 5 starts with lucky BABIP to what they thought they were getting which is a high 3's ERA guy who will pitch the occasional gem.
Harang celebrates his 36th birthday next Friday. Most pitchers are retired at that age.


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Holy Cross Hospital
Ingalls Hospital
Jackson Park Hospital
Looks at the number of clients who remain in a treatment program for the 3rd, 4th and 5th appointments.
Calculated By
The total number of clients who attend a 3rd session divided by the total number of clients who were admitted during the initial intake.
50 % of clients will keep their 3rd appointment.
Measures the number of treatment program sessions that are attended by a client versus the number of sessions that were scheduled for a client during a given period.
Total number of sessions attended divided by total number of sessions scheduled.
Clients will attend 50% of their scheduled sessions
Measures the percentage of clients that remain in treatment.
Total number of weeks each client remains in active treatment divided by the total number of clients admitted.
Clients will remain in active treatment and drug free for ninety (90) days (Hospitals and outpatient programs must establish and agree upon what constitutes active treatment.)
This is an extremely important measure as clients may have a high rate of engagement or attendance while they continue to use. This is most easily monitored or measured through urine drug screens and behaviors that would indicate relapse. This process must be inclusive of random drug screening when recommended by the Treatment Team
Total number of negative test results divided by total number of tests administered.
Client will remain drug free for ninety (90) days
Loretto Hospital
Norwegian American Hospital
Roseland Community Hospital
Upon hiring, all Nursing Staff shall undergo Orientation & Competency assessment by validated trainer (i.e., CADC) and must demonstrate a working knowledge of the following core curriculum:
Sacred Heart Hospital
None Submitted.
South Shore Hospital
St. Bernard Hospital
(In collaboration with Family Guidance Centers, Inc)
St. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital
Submitted recommendations for Recovery Support Services (Section IV)
Thorek Memorial Hospital
Established in accordance with ASAM criteria, Level IV-D, Medically Managed Intensive Inpatient Detoxification inpatient center. This level provides 24-hour care in acute care inpatient settings.
All detoxification services should firmly adhere to the standardized criteria set forth by Interqual. Interqual is the most widely utilized criteria in several states to-date. It has recently transformed from the long used Severity of Illness (SI) and Intensity of Service (IS) philosophies, to an integrated process focused on evidence-based measures. Particular attention should be focused on the following symptoms:
Patient is considered for inpatient detoxification also because of other medical conditions that would make admission to an outpatient program inappropriate. Inpatient care is considered also because of the specific treatments that may be administered based on severity of health problem. Because of the medications and treatments that some patients will need to be administered they cannot be served as outpatients. Some complications are COPD, HIV, seizure disorder, CHF-congestive heart failure, and diabetes and asthma patients.
Use the "facility home team" to direct patient to quality healthcare [CCEs] during recovery.
(In collaboration with Family Guidance Centers, Inc.)
Submitted recommendations in Section IV
Submitted list of Recovery Support issues in lieu of Alternate Service Setting.
After care referral resources must be specific to each client's needs. At Jackson Park Hospital a wide range of community or after care referral options exist. Examples are:
JPH makes every effort to maintain continuity of care where applicable and provides for referrals to support resources within the clients / patients community.
Submitted listing of providers for the following services:
Long term recovery treatment would primarily provide daily group meetings, community information, and recreations introducing patients to computer usage. Encouraging patients to seek employment. Providing information about expunging felony/criminal records.
This model espouses the belief that recovery from mental and substance abuse disorders is a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential. This model goes beyond the role of a 'sponsor.' The Illinois Division of Mental Health has over the past 5-7 years moved forward with this type initiative, and it merits further consideration and adaptation for the substance abuse recovery movement.
This model espouses the belief that recovery from mental and substance abuse disorders is a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.
This model goes beyond the role of a 'sponsor.' The Illinois Division of Mental Health has over the past 5-7 years moved forward with this type initiative, and it merits further consideration and adaptation for the substance abuse recovery movement.
Reference: S.A.M.H.S.A. News, Fall 2012, Volume 20, Number 3, provides an extensive conversation on this topic.


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- WND - http://www.wnd.com -
Why McCain is worse than Obama
Posted By Joseph Farah On 08/19/2008 @ 12:00 am In Commentary | Comments Disabled
Editor's note: This commentary, adapted from WND Editor Joseph Farah's newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year of the Ultimate Protest Vote." This is the first of two parts on why a victory by John McCain would actually be worse for America than a victory by Barack Obama. Part two runs tomorrow.
Today my newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year to Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," hits bookstores across America while I begin a media tour to promote it.
I will be talking about many reasons for rejecting both major-party nominees for the presidency this year. Among them:
These are some of the principles at stake in this election. But I'm not just expounding some theoretical principles with no care about the pragmatic. I actually believe that rejecting McCain and Obama is the right thing to do, the moral thing to do, even the most politically expedient thing to do.
Only twice in my lifetime has America experienced the kind of clear political choice for president that I would like to see routinely – that we should expect to see routinely.
The first time that happened was when Ronald Reagan captured the Republican nomination for the presidency and faced incumbent Jimmy Carter. The second time was when Ronald Reagan ran as an incumbent president in 1984.
What was it that set us up for that memorable choice in 1980?
I'll tell you what it was. It was four years of hapless Jimmy Carter. In 1976, Americans were tired of political corruption and incompetence and took a chance on an unknown governor from Georgia. He seemed like a breath of fresh air. He seemed honest. (At least he kept telling us he was honest.) He promised "change" – without providing too much in the way of specifics.
He got the Democratic Party presidential nomination and challenged unelected President Gerald Ford, who had been appointed vice president and successor by Richard Nixon before he resigned in disgrace. Carter went on to beat Ford.
But the change he promised was not the kind Americans had wanted. Jimmy Carter was a pushover for America's enemies. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, on a march they expected to make right into the Middle East, Carter's impotent response was to boycott the Olympics. When Iranian radicals took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, kidnapping U.S. personnel and holding them hostage for 444 days, Carter's response was his famous "Rose Garden strategy" – he would not leave the White House until the enemy capitulated. Needless to say, the enemy never did give up during Carter's term of office. Instead they watched an ineptly planned rescue effort go up in flames and praised Allah for their good fortune.
Meanwhile, during those four years of Jimmy Carter's presidency, Americans, for the first time in history, began measuring their distress and suffering. This may seem like satire for those too young to remember these days, but the Carter administration prompted something called "the misery index" to measure Americans' woes and anxiety.
For his part, Carter blamed the American people for being in a "malaise." Of course, they were in a malaise. They had to wait for another election to be rid of the bumbling rascal who had fooled them into thinking he had real answers to America's problems.
I present this history to you to make a point. I believe the best way to get another choice like we had in 1980 is for Americans to have the opportunity, if you want to call it that, of seeing someone very much like Carter back in the White House and working with a House and Senate dominated by his own party.
Don't get me wrong: I believe four years of Barack Obama will be terrible for America – in the short term. But the suffering we will experience as a result of his governance could prove to be very positive – in the long term. Why? For the same reason the Jimmy Carter years were terrible in the short term and positive in the long term.
Obama's policies of taxing and spending and clamping down on freedom in health care and other areas will prove massively unpopular when Americans see them fail as these discredited ideas always do. Obama and the Democrats will try to blame past administrations for the problems, just as Jimmy Carter tried to do. They will try to blame the people, just as Jimmy Carter tried to do. But with Democrats running Congress and the White House, it will be easy for Americans to see who is to blame.
I can almost promise you Barack Obama will not be elected to a second term. He will, in all likelihood, just like Jimmy Carter, pave the way for a real Republican president in 2012 – if indeed there is one in the wings.
On the other hand, let's pretend John McCain wins the presidency in 2008. In all likelihood, there will still be a Democrat-dominated Congress. While U.S. policies under McCain and a Democrat Congress will be nearly equally disastrous, it will be the Republican president who bears the brunt of the blame in 2012. Guess what we'll get then? We'll get Barack Obama anyway. Or, perhaps, Hillary Clinton.
In effect, by electing McCain, we are only delaying the inevitable day of reckoning. McCain won't change a thing. His election will only delay what almost certainly must come.
Politics is a cyclical business.
People forget the lessons of the past.
They need to relearn things that may appear obvious to some of us.
America has lurched toward socialism, again, as it was moving in the 1970s. There are only two things that will reverse that in the short term:
I don't know if there is a Ronald Reagan in the wings. I don't see him if he is there. But I hope you can see my point. If we are going to do better in the future, we must have higher standards for our politicians. Real standards can never be enforced when we routinely vote for the lesser of two evils.
Some will undoubtedly ask if I am suggesting a Barack Obama presidency will actually be better for America than a John McCain presidency. The shocking answer to that question is "yes." I do believe America will be better off with Barack Obama in the White House for the next four years rather than John McCain. Please understand I am not advocating voting for him. I could never do that. I could not affirmatively participate in that kind of evil. But I point this out simply to illustrate that voting for what appears to be the lesser of two evils can actually be detrimental to the health of the country.
That's why I believe the best thing Americans can do when they go to the polls this November is to vote for "None of the Above."
Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com
URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2008/08/72716/
Click here to print.
© Copyright 1997-2013. All Rights Reserved. WND.com.


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WEF Discussion Forums » Operation and Maintenance » Anaerobic capability
How do I determine an anaerobic system capability. I've read these are process capable from 0.02 - 0.05 lbs of VS BOS/ FT3 biomass/day. Is this a good benchmark for a single flow ground anarobic digester for a beef plant?


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A Body That Produces Ought To Know…
Loved it? Leave a tip!
10 Responses to "A Body That Produces Ought To Know…"
Hopefully-ness — is that the love-ness or the happy-ness?
Justin~ "Hopefully" –I think people around me were saying it, and then I was always feeling it and holding out, and then I just got tired.
So, maybe, it's when we see that something's going no where that we can be free. Like, you don't sing a song to get to the last note…
Just trying to be sitting in the Mercy seat.
Ahh — like "hopefully" we'll have heaven to be together in the future — "out-there" instead right here — ??
Yeah–I think 'time' is the issue here…. Just feeling my way through it
Thanks Joana, I loved your creative hopefully-ness.
Just posted to "Featured Today" on elephant culture.
Andréa Balt, editor elephant culture.
"Like" elephant culture on Facebook.
Follow @MindfulCulture on Twitter. -
Love it… "HOPEFULLY- NESS" …. the way u presented it is awesome
Best one yet girl! I love reading your words, paired with those images. X
Love your visual poetry, Joana.
Just posted to "Featured Today" on the Elephant Spirituality Homepage.
Valerie Carruthers
Please go and "Like" Elephant Spirituality on Facebook -
Wow Joana, beautiful and moving. your best work yet. I just put it out on Twitter. ~Tom Rapsas
[…] A body that produces ought to know […]


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Using Circulating Biomarkers for Cancer Diagnostics...
Researchers Discuss Strategies to Improve the...
Chemically Defined Media Achieve Consistency, not...
Two Faculty Members Share Insights and...
(Page 1 of 1)
Scientists at Arizona State University say that they have developed a gene detection platform made up entirely from self-assembled DNA nanostructures.
A recent breakthrough of making spatially addressable DNA nanoarrays came from work on scaffolded DNA origami. In this method, a long single-stranded viral DNA scaffold can be folded and stapled by a large number of short synthetic helper strands into nanostructures that display complex patterns.
"But, the potential of structural DNA nanotechnology in biological applications has been underestimated, and if we look at the process of DNA self-assembly, you will be amazed that trillions of DNA nanostructures can form simultaneously in a solution of few microliters, and very importantly, they are biocompatible and water soluble," says Hao Yan, Ph.D., a member of the university's Center for Single Molecule Biophysics and an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
"In this work, we developed a water soluble nanoarray that can take advantage of the DNA self-assembling process and also have benefits that the macroscopic DNA microchip arrays do not have," Dr. Yan adds. "The arrays themselves are reagents, instead of solid surface chips."
To make the DNA origami RNA probes, the investigators took advantage of the basic DNA pairing rules. By controlling the exact position and location of the chemical bases within a synthetic replica of DNA, Dr. Yan programmed a single stranded genomic DNA, M13, into nanotiles to contain the probes for specific gene expression targets. In a single step, the M13 scaffold system can churn out as many as 100 trillion of the tiles with close to 100% yield, according to Dr. Yan.
The research team designed three different DNA probe tiles to detect three different RNA genes along with a bar code index to tell the tiles apart from each other. The group used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to image the tiles at the single molecule level.
"Each probe actually contains two half probes, so when the target RNA comes in, it will hybridize to the half probes and turn the single stranded dangling probes into a stiff structure," explains Dr. Yan. "When it is stiffened, it will be sensed by the atomic force microscope cantilever, and you can see a bright line, which is a height increase. The result is a mechanical, label-free detection.
"Since the DNA-RNA hybridization has such a strong affinity," notes Dr. Yan, "in principle, a single molecule would be able to hybridize to the probe tile."
The study is published in the January 11 issue of Science.
Policy proposals to address the growing global problem of fake medicines include a global agreement, similar to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and stricter national laws to prosecute those who knowingly sell counterfeit medicines. Do you think these steps will be successful?
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Should early improvement be re-defined to better predict the maintenance of response in first-episode schizophrenia patients?
Article first published online: 8 SEP 2012
DOI: 10.1111/acps.12006
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Additional Information
How to Cite
Schennach, R., Riesbeck, M., Mayr, A., Seemüller, F., Maier, W., Klingberg, S., Heuser, I., Klosterkötter, J., Gastpar, M., Schmitt, A., Sauer, H., Schneider, F., Jäger, M., Wölwer, W., Gaebel, W., Möller, H.-J. and Riedel, M. (2013), Should early improvement be re-defined to better predict the maintenance of response in first-episode schizophrenia patients?. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 127: 474–481. doi: 10.1111/acps.12006
Publication History
- Issue published online: 12 MAY 2013
- Article first published online: 8 SEP 2012
- Accepted for publication July 12, 2012
- Abstract
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George Goodman, the U.S. writer and commentator who provided insights into Wall Street culture and made complex financial concepts simple to viewers of the 1980s TV series "Adam Smith's Money World," has died. He was 83.
The busiest subway stop in downtown Washington was until recently festooned with green banners and billboards warning of a terrible danger. One of America's great national symbols is under attack: the dollar bill.
We've all grown so accustomed to using little round pieces of metal to buy things, it's easy to forget that coins arrived quite late in the history of the world. For more than 2,000 years, states ran complex economies and international-trading networks without a coin to hand.
China Investment Corp. Vice Chairman Gao Xiqing said that central banks' quantitative easing policies are hurting the value of money just one day after the Federal Reserve maintained plans to buy $600 billion of Treasuries.
From the moment it was introduced in Congress in 1866, the 14th Amendment has inspired intense political and judicial controversy. Most has centered on the first section, which declares that any person born in the U.S. is a citizen and prohibits states from depriving such citizens of life, liberty, property or the equal protection of the laws. The second and third sections -- a complicated formula related to determining states' representation in Congress, and political disabilities imposed on former leaders of the Confederacy -- have fallen into abeyance.
St. Louis Fed's Andolfatto On Echoes of Bitcoin in Past (Audio)


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You are here: Home > Headline Details
The government has been urged to make swift reforms to the social care system after an inquiry uncovered basic breaches of human rights.
Already, of course, the government has pledged to review the social care system, with the results expected to be published in the spring.
However, in light of the new report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the coalition has been told to make the issue more of a priority.
Councillor John Merry, of the Local Government Association, told BBC News: "These results are symptomatic of a social care system that is under-funded and in need of urgent reform.
"The longer ministers procrastinate, the more our population ages and the worse things will become."
Earlier this week, Cynthia Bower, the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, explained that home care is one of the most difficult areas of social care to monitor.
She added that the operation of home care is not as transparent as that found in other sectors because the interactions usually happen behind closed doors.


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Monday, 30 April 2012
Colour burst
I'm not sure if it's because the sun has finally come out to play, or because festival season is almost upon us, but it looks like my wrists have decided to throw a colour party. Join the fun here and here.
17 comments:
- Anonymous30 April 2012 at 16:35
J'aime beaucoup ton top zara!!! C'est la collection actuelle.
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Honda Amaze Reviews
Read full details
User Reviews
Honda amaze petrol
Pros Space, look, comfort is very good
Cons Bluetooth was essential for music system
I have purchased a first petrol car, space, look comfort is amazing but petrol car slightly underpowered. I am sure about that. Average in Pune city is not more than 15 per km. The car has given me 17.2 on express highway.
But I am happy. I think this car should be 1300 cc for petrol.
The best newly launched sedan available right now.
Pros Great Looks,Good Performance,Great Interiors,Fuel Efficiency,Comfort,Best amongst the new availables sedans
Cons ,Lack of blu tooth in audio , automatic climate control , long waiting period
I just recd the much awaited Honda Amaze SMT petrol just few days back. Everything looks fine . Really it is a great pleasure driving it. Actually this is my fourth car. One was Hyundai and two were of Maruti. But really this was better for me than i had expected. Really Great efforts have been put by honda. They should have added some more features like automatic climate control, blu tooth in audio, better place of usb in two din system and dvd compatible for audiovideo etc
In short value for money and did not final good alternative to this car
Pros Great Looks,Good Performance,Fuel Efficiency,Good breaking system and gives great mileage. Very good boot space and has all required leg space
Cons Average Interiors,Driver seat head rest is not comfortable and sitting position is very low compared to its competitor
Overall good car but getting in and come out of the car is so difficult. One hidden advantage of this car is the brand value.You cannot see any taxi-Amaze on the road.If you see any yellow board amaze on road you can file a complaint against the car P and even though it has better leg room, 3 people cannot sit comfortably in the rear seat.it is very conjugated.
Honda Amazeeeee
Pros Good Performance,Fuel Efficiency,Comfort,
Cons Average Looks,Average Interiors,
Amaze has really amazed me by outperforming on the economy. the diesel vairant has sound under the bonnet but yet the performance & power of the car should be given importance. feel the S variant should have fog lights & double horn for sure.
amazing amaze - honda the best
Pros Great Looks,Good Performance,Fuel Efficiency,Comfort,
Cons Average Interiors,
I have just purchased a Honda Amaze Petrol SMT in Nagpur. After studying all options I could not resist booking the amaze even though delivery was not guaranteed immediately. I got the car after 14 weeks.I am amazed by all its features. An excellent city car in its size and price. Inspite of 1200 cc the ivtech engine is good, cooling is good,the transmission is smooth and good rear space.I have added accessories like alloy wheels, parking camera etc and overall its too good and amazing.
Other cars in this price range
Used Honda Amaze
- Honda, Amaze S MT(2013)
20000 kms, in New Delhi @ Rs. 5,75,000
- Honda, Amaze VX MT Diesel(2013)
19000 kms, in New Delhi @ Rs. 6,75,000
- Honda, Amaze EX MT Diesel(2011)
15000 kms, in New Delhi @ Rs. 6,00,000
- Honda, Amaze S MT(2014)
12500 kms, in New Delhi @ Rs. 5,75,000
- Honda, Amaze S MT Diesel(2013)
10311 kms, in New Delhi @ Rs. 6,50,000
Latest User Reviews
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Bajaj RE60The best sedan in India - no questions!
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Ford Endeavour- Hyundai Verna 4S


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Print Options
Tarragon Peas with Lemon-Thyme Butter Recipe
This recipe is an example of how the right combination of herbs can turn an ordinary dish into something extraordinary. Use any leftover butter on grilled fish, chicken and steak.—Katherine White, Clemmons, North Carolina
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1-1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
- 1-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups fresh peas
- 3 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
- 1. In a small bowl, combine the butter, lemon peel, thyme and salt. Shape into a 1-in.-thick log; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
- 2. In a large saucepan, bring 1/2 in. of water to a boil. Add peas; cover and cook for 5-8 minutes or until tender. Drain. Stir in tarragon and 2 tablespoons lemon-thyme butter.
- 3. Rewrap remaining butter; refrigerate for 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months. Yield: 4 servings.
Nutritional Facts
3/4 cup equals 139 calories, 6 g fat (4 g saturated fat), 15 mg cholesterol, 120 mg sodium, 16 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 6 g protein.
© 2015 RDA Enthusiast Brands, LLC


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Introducing the Pandigital Novel 6″ Personal eReader with white finish. Read. Surf. Play. The Pandigital Novel Personal eReader will change the way you curl up with a good book. With instant access to the Barnes & Noble online bookstore, the Pandigital Novel Personal eReader lets you read and carry hundreds of books, magazines, and newspapers with you wherever you go. Over 2 million books, magazines and newspapers available from the Barnes & Noble online bookstore; ePaper display is easy to read – even in direct sunlight and increases battery life; Play music and view photos; 2GB internal memory; Built-in rechargeable Li-Ion battery and AC adapter included. Available today at an incredible price only at Froobi.com
Warm and adorable…these Sock Monkey Hats and Mittens have funny colored faces, bright red mouths, cute ear flaps and colored pom poms.Sock Monkey Hats and Mittens are so warm and so much fun to wear. They are suitable for wearing as leisure or sportswear. The Hat part is approximately 9 "wide by 6 inches tall Mittens are approx 11 " Long. Available today only at Froobi.com. Have a Sock Monkey Day


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Study sheds light on the developmental origins of polycystic ovarian syndrome
...mation about their births, including birth weight, placental weight, and weight of their mothers at their last ...aternal weight in late pregnancy, birth weight and placental weight in relation to the symptoms of PCOS, or an existing or putative diagnosis of PCOS. Compared w...Link between maternal malaria, pregnancy history, and infant risk
...as of Africa become pregnant. Many of them develop placental malaria, a pregnancy-specific form of the disease,...n-access medical journal PLoS Medicine, found that placental malaria does raise the risk of malaria in infants. The researchers also discovered a surprising prot...Higher placental weight associated with increased maternal breast cancer risk
Women with a higher placental weight in prior pregnancies have an increased risk...ancer. Serum levels of estrogens, progesterone and placental growth hormones are many times higher during pregnancy than during other periods of life, and pregna...Pregnant women with abnormal placentas may have an increased risk of early cardiovascular disease
Women who have a maternal placental syndrome during pregnancy have a higher risk of pr...should be emphasised, state the authors. Maternal placental syndromes, include pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure during pregnancy, and conditions where the pla...Mother-to-child transmission of HIV
...en-access medical journal PLoS Medicine implicates placental microtransfusions in HIV transmission. Placental... ask whether there is a link between the extent of placental microtransfusions and the likelihood of HIV transmission. Kwiek and colleagues studied a group of ...Study uncovers placental microtransfusions lead to transmission of AIDS virus during childbirth
...hows strongly for the first time that what we call placental microtransfusions during birth are responsible for...umbilical cord blood samples -- a protein known as placental alkaline phosphatase as an indicator of maternal-fetal microtransfusion. "This enzyme, made in the p...Perinatal complications linked to eating disorders
...of hemoglobin in the blood), diabetes mellitus and placental infarction (death of part of the tissue of the placenta)--increased a child's risk of developing anorexia nervosa. Neonatal heart problems, hypothermia (low body temperature), tremors and hyporeactivity (a less than normal response to stimuli) also ...Induced labor has some benefits in cases of premature water break
...ton said. A pregnant woman's water breaks when the placental membrane ruptures at the start of or during labor....ho waited for labor to develop an infection of the placental membranes called chorioamnionitis. Middleton and colleagues calculated that one case of chorioamnion...Placental growth factor may help body repair heart attack damage
...h of new blood vessels and this over-expression of placental growth factor (PlGF) may help reduce damage to the heart muscle, according to a new study in the April 18, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "Because the degree of PlGF production released from the heart after a heart ...Sick of being pregnant? Inducing labor carries risks, Saint Louis University research finds
...f developing chorioamnionitis, an infection of the placental tissues and amniotic fluid, new Saint Louis University research finds. Elisabeth Erekson, M.D., a resident in obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, presented her research at the annual meeting of the ...Early estrogen exposure leads to later prostate cancer risk
...astics when heated, turns up in human blood and in placental and fetal tissues in even higher concentrations. In this study, a research team led by Dr. Gail Prins of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Dr. Shuk-Mei Ho of the University of Cincinnati exposed rats to low doses of estradiol, a natural estr...Study details why listeriosis rates are 20-fold higher during pregnancy
...trains of Listeria, adjusting the dose so low that placental infections resulted only half the time. When she e...ind that a single bacterium is sufficient to cause placental infection," Portnoy said, "but even more surprising to find that they (the bacteria) migrated from t...When preventing pre-eclampsia, a little carbon monoxide goes a long way
...rs have shown that carbon monoxide may prevent the placental cell death caused by oxidative stress injury, poss...mother and child. If maternal blood vessels at the placental barrier fail to remodel and adapt to the changing nutrient/oxygen needs of the growing fetus, the ma...New findings could lead to vaccine for severe malaria
... believed." Now that scientists know that several placental receptors are involved in the binding mechanism, attention will be shifted to the parasite itself, and whether it produces many different surface proteins or if one and the same protein is able to bind to many host receptors....Canadian study demonstrates medical induction of labor increases risk of amniotic-fluid embolism
...polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid), abnormal placental position or separation, and cervical laceration or uterine rupture. "Our findings confirm the hypothesis that medical induction of labour is related to an increased risk of AFE," added Dr. Kramer. "Although the absolute risk increase of AFE for wome...Aspirin use during pregnancy could reduce risk of pre-eclampsia
... the placenta, causing blood clots in and death to placental tissue. This can lead to activation of the platelets and clotting system and an imbalance between hormones which promote and slow blood flow. Antiplatelet agents such as aspirin are thought to prevent pre-eclampsia by redressing this balance. The a...


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When it comes to clairvoyant pastries, breaking apart a fortune cookie is much more dignified than digging through a jelly donut in search of a keychain magic 8 ball. Feast on your future with this Groupon.
Choose Between Two Options
- $16 for $32 worth of Chinese food
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Uncle Chen Restaurant
Drawing inspiration and flavors from Chinese cuisine, Uncle Chen Restaurant's chefs dedicate themselves to crafting a menu accessible to virtually any palate or diet. Crispy duck, shredded pork, and tender beef highlight a fair portion of the menu, but the pages also include more than 28 vegetarian-friendly entrees with tofu, vegetables, or housemade rice noodles in the same selection of aromatic sauces. Many of the meals incorporate onion, ginger, or mushrooms for their distinctive and savory flavors, but the chefs can also forge entrees with fiery doses of chili peppers.
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text:
Tabs too difficult? Try these video lessons and learn fast
#This OLGA file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation # #research. Remember to view this file in Courier, or some other monospaced # "Subterranean Homesick Alien" Radiohead (written by Radiohead)> [lyrics removed -- see diet-olga policy] INTRO: Dm - G# - D - C# G7 - G6 - Cm - G G7 - G6 - Cm - G VERSE: G7 G6 The breath... Cm G G7 G6 Cm G CHORUS: F C G They're all uptight... Dm - G# - D This is just so people can strum along with the CD. It's a great song, and I wanted to know how to play it, so I figured it out. Look for a tablature version of this song. I haven't seen one around. If you have one, send it to me and save me some time. Lyrics according to:
Submit corrections
Hard to play? Try these video lessons and learn fast


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chRootKit will help you identify any nasties you've got running on your machine. Highly recommended to run every now and again to make sure no rootkits are running, so that you can take appropriate action if they are.
To install, in SSH:
cd /root/
wget ftp://ftp.pangeia.com.br/pub/seg/pac/chkrootkit.tar.gz
tar -xvzf chkrootkit.tar.gz
cd chkrootkit-0.48
make sense
Then, when you want to run it, just SSH:
Run it every now and again
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The following post was written by Julie Johnson with Journatic News Service. The original publishing of the story can be read here.
ContinueAdded by Andrew Navolio on July 6, 2012 at 10:00am — 3 Comments
The Climate Policy Initiative has completed a study to measure and evaluate the impact of residential building energy codes on total household energy consumption, "Codes to Cleaner Buildings: Effectiveness of US Building Energy Codes", was released by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) of San Francisco, California on September 7, 2011. Conducted by Jeff Deason and Andrew Hobbs of CPI, the study was done to see if building energy codes make an impact on home energy use and greenhouse gas…
ContinueAdded by Andrew Navolio on September 28, 2011 at 2:30pm — No Comments
A new program by Xcel Energy, a utility supplier of electricity and natural gas to eight Western and Midwestern states, is racking up serious energy efficiency gains by targeting some of the biggest energy users around – large industrial customers.
The Process Efficiency program analyzes customers' total energy use – from manufacturing equipment to HVAC and lighting – and creates a custom plan to help them save on energy costs.
The initiative…
ContinueAdded by Andrew Navolio on September 12, 2011 at 7:30am — No Comments
DTE Energy helped Detroit's grocers keep their broccoli – and their billfolds – a little greener this year with its energy-saving Grocer's Incentive Program. The initiative won the 2011 Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance's Inspiring Efficiency Innovation…
ContinueAdded by Andrew Navolio on August 31, 2011 at 8:30am — No Comments
Home Energy Pros was founded by the developers of Home Energy Saver Pro (sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy,) and brought to you in partnership with Home Energy magazine.
© 2015 Created by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.


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Built in 1914, the Blue Ball Barn of Northern Delaware is the perfect location for your next banquet or meeting. Based in Alapocas Run State Park, the Blue Ball Barn offers a unique experience set in a historic setting that will make your next event one to remember.
For Pawpaw Folk Festival information, contact Wilmington State Parks. View Details


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Pacific Connection(英語)
OpenStreetMap: The Map that Anyone Can Edit
Last winter, Mikel Maron and Schuyler Erle traveled to India on behalf of OpenStreetMap, whose aim is to create a detailed online map of the world. Compared to Linux and Wikipedia―to cite two of the more accomplished Web 2.0 projects―OpenStreetMap is in its early stages. There is a lot of work to be done, and it is largely being done one mapping party at a time. A mapping party is the OpenStreetMap term for a workshop. You gather together people who know the local geography, teach them how to use a GPS, and then set them loose, often on foot or bicycle. Each GPS records a track or "trace," of where they've been and a notebook, audio recorder or camera is used to track location names and other landmarks. The tracks is uploaded to the OpenSteetMap site, which is sketched over with a drawing tool against a background that may include existing public domain maps of the area, and tagged by name and map feature―for example, a highway, road, or path. After your upload is rendered, a process done once a week, the OpenStreetMap map grows slightly more complete.
That's what Maron and Erle were doing in India. In Delhi, they met two students from West Bengal University who planned to be at the final mapping party workshop in Calcutta. "They were going to be taking the train from Delhi to Calcutta and asked if they could bring one of the GPS units with them to record all of the stations between the two cities, as well as the train line itself," Maron recalls. "That meant they were going to have to hold the GPS unit up to the window for 16 hours to get a signal. They said they had done crazier things and would trade off every hour. So there we were in Calcutta, starting the first day of the workshop, and they came walking in directly from the train station. It was 10am and they hadn't slept at all. They handed us the GPS, and on it, they had indeed recorded every station." For the students, it was the beginning of a road well traveled: they went on to adopt OpenStreetMap as their open source project for the 2008 Google Summer of Code.
It is sometimes said that Wikipedia doesn't work in theory, only in practice. OpenStreetMap has that same unlikely ambition. "When I first started with the project, I thought it was completely audacious," said Maron. "To produce a map of the entire world by individuals walking around with GPS units and some open source software sounded absolutely crazy, but I loved it. I thought it was either going to fail spectacularly or take over because it's such a good idea. I think it's the latter."
What are the chances that a group of volunteers can actually map the world one highway, street and path at a time? As with Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap is competing against better funded commercial project that have a head start. Google Earth and Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, AOL's MapQuest are in front of OpenStreetMap in terms of technology. In parts of the United States, for example, Google Maps can show you a street map, topographical map, current traffic conditions, associated satellite imagery and even a street-level view as recorded by a car with a 360-degree camera. OpenStreetMap makes no such claim. Other maps provide turn-by-turn directions.. OpenStreetMap does not.
So where can the OpenStreetMap volunteers hope to go where no commercial mapping service has gone before? First and foremost, the map they create is in the public domain, covered by a Creative Commons license. "If your project's mapping needs can be served simply by using the Google Maps API, all to the good," says the OpenStreetMap FAQ. "But that's not true of every project. We need a free dataset which will enable programmers, social activists, cartographers and the like to fulfill their plans without being limited either by Google's API or by their Terms of Service."
But the content itself is also a factor. OpenStreetMap has the potential to map well-mapped places more thoroughly than its commercial counterparts. OpenStreetMap can map some places for the first time, or at least get this "geo-data" into the hands of ordinary people. "With most maps, it's only economical to collect street data because of the scale of thing―driving around with a GPS is the only way to do it," says Steve Coast, who founded the OpenStreetMap project. "Whereas with OpenStreetMap, we have cyclists, hikers, people involved in geocaching, people who want to record the location of every tree in the city. The level of detail that people are recording is incredible. Our biggest community is in Germany, and they are now collecting every building in various cities, all on a volunteer basis." Hence another Wikipedia analogy comes to mind. Just as the Web 2.0 encyclopedia covers subjects that traditional encyclopedias omit, OpenStreetMap can record landmarks that traditional cartographers ignore.
Coast is quick to admit that, as a Web 2.0 project, OpenStreetMap hasn't proved itself like Wikipedia. But he also thinks that creating an online encyclopedia was "the lowest hanging fruit." Many articles, for example, can be researched online, without stepping away from the computer. Unless you are editing from Yahoo! satellite imagery or other public domain sources, OpenStreetMap requires field work―you need to be physically present―and have a basic understanding of how to use a GPS. That requires a lot of volunteers in a lot of places. "No company is going be able to pay for people to walk every footpath in the US, but that kind of project does scale to a community," he says.
Google has also recognized this potential. In June, the company launched Google Map Maker, which opens up selected countries, many of them in the Caribbean, to user-submitted maps. Google says the project was a labor of love by some Google engineers based in Bangalore. "The fundamental reasons for OpenStreetMap remain intact and if anything are now stronger," responds Coast on the OpenStreetMap blog. "At first glance it sounds like OpenStreetMap, until you realize that Google owns the data you give them, there's no community and you are unlikely to see use of the data in 'creative, productive, or unexpected ways'."
Coast began his career as an intern with Wolfram Research, maker of the number crunching application Mathematica. He went on to University College London, where he switched majors from computer science to physics, then dropped out to work for Credo Reference (then called Xrefer), an online reference library. It was there that he started OpenStreetMap, writing the first iteration in Java, the second in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails development environment. Most of his work is licensed under the GNU Public License, GPL. "The difficult problem was the server back end," he says. "There's lots of database stuff to do―servicing, rendering and all of those boring things nobody wants to do. Our community is heavily skewed in the same way that Wikipedia is―we have 40,000-plus editors out there going mapping, but very few people writing code, and very few of those wanting to do the boring bits. There's lots of cool, flashing animation associated with the maps, but making a database go in the back end is quite dull. As that was something I used to do a lot of, I got stuck doing all of it."
Coast credits San Francisco programmer Tom Carden for the design of the OpenStreetMap interface. "Mikel, Tom and I were all in a pub thinking of ways to design it, and Tom just sketched it out," Coast said. Coast implemented it, with Mikel contributing the HTML and CSS. "It pretty much looks the same today," Coast says. "The interface is supposed to be analogous to Wikipedia. There's a view tab where you're looking at the map, then you click to edit and to other things like traces―it's all relatively simple."
From Albania to Zimbabwe―opportunities and barriers
The world is a big place and so far, OpenStreetMap aspirations are larger than the territory it has actually mapped. For example, Bangladesh, Albania, Pakistan and Vietnam are all OpenStreetMap projects, but, none have gotten very far. "Macedonia is almost a blind spot on the OSM map for now," says the project entry for that country. "This should be changed." The entry suggests editing be done by the aerial images donated by Yahoo!, but notes that in only one part of the country are those images sufficiently detailed. "So this is to all GPS owners in Macedonia, take your traces!"―meaning, record where you go and upload the results.
Some countries have put up legal barriers. China would seem like the OpenStreetMap project of a lifetime, but the project page warns would-be mappers that the country considers amateur mapping a threat to national security and warns visitors not to be too obvious with a GPS. Some countries aren't yet projects. If you want to map Cuba, Bolivia or Uganda or even the much tamer Liechtenstein, you are by default the project leader.
In India, Mikel Maron and Schuyler Erle held mapping parties in Pune, Mumbai, Trivandrum, Bangalore, Delhi, and Kolkata, hosted mostly by universities. "There are parts of the world with no digital mapping, and if they have paper mapping, it's out of date," says Mikel Maron. "In India, all the maps are controlled by the military and are considered military secrets. Yet especially in India with people moving from the countryside to the cities, there's a massive need for maps. This is the largest democracy in the world but in a lot of places you can't even get a map of what voting district you are in." He says that OpenStreetMap's advantage is that, with a GPS and an understanding of OpenStreetMap editing, anyone can be a map-maker. "It's always interesting to see what happens when you take a technology to some place where it wasn't developed. You get to see what kinds of biases are present in the technology; what sorts of assumptions were made. In India, people navigate differently. Some roads have names but many don't, and a lot of navigation is done by points of interest and landmarks. Those landmarks then become much more important than capturing the layout."
In the United States, the project got a running start because of the public domain TIGER map data from the U.S. Census bureau. In addition, Yahoo! donated its aerial imagery, which provides a lot of detail for the U.S. "Yahoo! gave a big boost to the project," Coast says. But even so, there are limits to what that imagery shows. A footpath in a meadow may be visible, but it disappears as soon as it re-enters the forest, and as is the case in Macedonia, the resolution may just be too low . "Most of the work is still with people mapping with a GPS. I thought it would happen by people taking a different route to work each day. Instead, it's people spending two hours mapping a matrix of, say, 10-by-10 blocks."
In urban Japan, the mapping problem is three dimensional. Consider a normal 16 story tower block, writes Tim Waters in his blog last May while he was holding a mapping party in Tokyo. A freelance geospatial developer and consultant, Waters says that a comparable building in London would probably contain offices on every floor―an easy mapping problem. But in Japan's larger cities, "such a building will have multiple uses: a lower basement containing "shops and retail units as part of the underground street, leading to subways," an upper basement that "may have restaurants and boutiques. Ground floor (1F) could be the building entrance, possibly a kiosk, and a bakery or cafe at street level. The remaining floors above ground: a university department, teaching area, library on two floors, three bars on another, restaurants on another. Offices on other floors, a nightclub on another. Space is used. But it's vertical. Even in smaller towns with shorter buildings, multiple uses on each floor is quite comm8on. Signs outside showing what's on each floor are provided - but it's still a bit weird going up four stories in a lift to a pub!"
But for all its challenges, Japan is one of OpenStreetMap's biggest success stories, thanks in part to Hiroshi Miura, who launched OpenStreetMap Japan last March. Miura, who corresponded with me in English by email, first learned of the project at a Koedo Linux Users Group meeting in August 2007 from embedded Linux developer Nobuhiro Iwamatsu. "He likes bikes and is interested in GPSs, so I asked him how enjoyable OSM mapping is. He answered that riding a bike is more interesting than drawing lines on a blank screen." But Miura was interested enough to buy a Nokia E61 phone and a GPS, and to sign up. He didn't find much activity: just three people active on the OpenStreetMap wiki and no Japanese mailing list. Miura figured that the language gap was a problem, and translated the OSM wiki into Japanese, which brought attention from the ITPro news site. After more people joined, Miura became convinced the Japanese project was at a tipping point, and so he started the site. OpenStreetMap Japan in turn has attracted more people, including more who are willing to map.
Among the potential benefits for OSM in Japan, says Miura, is the ability for more people to make informed decisions on how land is developed. "Also, there are many mappers who are interested in bicycling and hiking. They are unhappy with proprietary maps that are incomplete and not up to date with the kinds of information they need." OpenStreetMap, he says, transforms what might have been a regional hobby into a collective worldwide effort. Miura also sees parallels with Linux, which is especially true in Japan where most geographical data is proprietary.
In the first three months of OpenStreetMap Japan, Miura hosted three mapping parties. "The biggest one was in May, a mapping weekend in Kamakura town, which attracted 13 people, including some Linux users, a geographical researcher, and even a GPS shop owner. One of our members is a researcher in Tokyo University who studies natural environment and ecology. He and his colleagues are mapping mountain areas in a national park. He told me the work is quite valuable because proprietary maps don't show such detailed tracks." Miura knows it will take many people to map Japan's many roads. But with newer cell phones incorporating GPSs, more people will have the tools to get started right in their pocket. He sees OpenStreetMap as a central repository for data from people who don't yet know the project exists. As for his own plans, Miura sees a tie-in with his professional life, where he is helping build the open source business for system integrator NTT Data Corp. "As as I start an OSS business, I hope to eventually start an open geo business, as well. That's my dream."
Miura refers to "wikinomics," a term coined by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams to describe the intersection between the "croudsourcing" represented by OpenStreetMap and the for-profit commercial ventures that rely on that data. Mikel Maron and partner Andrew Turner have launched Mapufacture, which aggregates geospatial documents from around the Web. Users can use that data to build custom maps, while developers can use an API to build custom applications. The maps can also be incorporated in other applications using the Google Earth KML format, as well as GeoRSS, a means of encoding coordinate data in RSS and Atom feeds.
For his part, Coast and business partner Nick Black launched CloudMade in 2007. The company's first two products, still in pre-alpha release, are APIs for embedding maps in Web and mobile applications. Coast views the relationship between CloudMade and OpenStreetMap as comparable to that between Red Hat and Linux. "You have a bunch of guys coding kernel drivers and interfaces, and another bunch of guys who answer the phone and install service," he says. "Similarly, we have a large community―over 42,000 people―adding map data, which is valuable, but which many people wouldn't trust off the bat, the same way that they wouldn't trust Linux, because they want someone to blame when it goes wrong. We provide the goods and services so that people can feel comfortable using the data."
Sidebar: From GPS to OpenStreetMap
Mikel Moran tells the story of OpenStreetMap's first tag edit war, which pitted an expatriate Brit living in Northern Cyprus against a Greek Cypriot whose father came from a village that is now in Northern Cypress. "The expat Brit was using Turkish names for Northern Cypress because that's what they are called now, and the town signs use this. The Greek Cypriot took great offense to this and changed all of the names―street names, town names―in Northern Cypress into Greek. Then the other guy changed it back. It went back and forth and back like that until one of them complained by email and I got involved in trying to negotiate a settlement. It's silly. The database is fully localized so you can include as many names for places as you want in the local languages."
Indeed, the tagged geometry schema for OpenStreetMap is politically neutral. Maps are comprised of "data primitives," which are described by tags. A data primitive can be a one-dimensional "node"―that is, a coordinate (or, in GPS parlance, a "waypoint"). Two or more nodes can define a two dimensional "way." Ways are typically linear: a street, path, railroad line, or river, for example. A "closed way" is a way in which the first and last nodes meet―creating an enclosed space like a rectangle, which in turn can represent, among other features, a building, lake, forest, or golf course.
Data primitives are assigned tags which describe their properties, including the name and categories. To help keep categories uniform, the OpenStreetMap wiki lists an extensive set of "map features," including highways, waterways, railways, aerialways, amenities, sports facilities, stores, and much more. The tag can contain other attributes as well. A highway tag, for example, might contain these elements:
name=Pasadena Freeway
To refine or extend a map, you can simply pick some corner of the world and add intelligence. In an online video demo, Steve Coast does that with a random part of Bagdad, comparing the existing map with a satellite display and filling in the gaps. The other possibility is to get out in the world, record a track with a GPS, taking note of the names and notable landmarks along the way. You can upload the track and turn it into a way using OSM's online editor, called Potlatch, or work offline using the JOSM, the Java OpenStreetMap Editor. In a video demo, Coast puts JOSM through its paces by uploading a set of digital images he had snapped on a bicycle while simultaneously recording a track. By synchronizing the camera's clock with the GPS, he was able to show via a set of icons where on the track each of the digital images was taken.
Pacific Connection(英語)
- Charting the New World of Neogeography
- Threaded Building Blocks: Intel's James Reinders on writing parallel code for C++
- Sipping Cappuccino at 280 North
- Functional Programming on the Cusp of Commercial Success
- On Fedora's Fifth, Project Manager Paul Frields Looks Upstream
- Embedded Computing for the Rest of us: Project Sun SPOT
- Cloud Computing Vendors Reaching Out to Developers
- OpenStreetMap: The Map that Anyone Can Edit
- Magnatune: "Open Source" Music Turns a Profit
- Keeping it Loose at LugRadio Live USA