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Al-Qaeda, alternatively spelled al-Qaida, al-Qa`ida or al-Qa`idah, (Arabic: ; al-qāʿidah; translation: The Base) is an international Sunni Islamic movement founded in 1988. Al-Qaeda have attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, the most notable being the September 11 attacks in 2001. These actions were followed by the US government launching a military and intelligence campaign against al-Qaeda called the War on Terror.
Characteristic techniques include suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets. Activities ascribed to it may involve members of the organization, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to Osama bin Laden, or the much more numerous "al-Qaeda-linked" individuals who have undergone training in one of its camps in Afghanistan or Sudan but not taken any pledge. Al-Qaeda's objectives include the end of foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. Reported beliefs include that a Christian-Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam, and that the killing of bystanders and civilians is Islamically justified in jihad. Its management philosophy has been described as "centralization of decision and decentralization of execution. Following 9/11 and the launching of the War on Terrorism, it is thought al-Qaeda's leadership has "become geographically isolated", leading to the "emergence of decentralized leadership" of regional groups using the al-Qaeda "brand name.
Al-Qaeda has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General, the Commission of the European Communities of the European Union, the United States Department of State, the Australian Government, Government of India, Public Safety Canada, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan's Diplomatic Bluebook, South Korean Foreign Ministry, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service, the United Kingdom Home Office, Pakistan, Russia, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the Swiss Government.
Osama bin Laden explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni in October 2001:
The name 'al-Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri established the training camps for our mujahedeen against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp al-Qaeda. The name stayed.
Saad Al-Faqih, a Saudi expert in al-Qaida, has stated that the name al-Qaida, "...originated from a documentation system in the Bait al-Ansar guesthouse back in the 1980s." The United Kingdom politician Robin Cook, who served as the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons described Al-Qaeda as meaning "the database" and a product of western miscalculation. Cook wrote, "Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians."
The name al-Qaida could have been introduced to the U.S. intelligence community by Jamal al-Fadl, who had been providing the Central Intelligence Agency with intelligence about bin Laden since 1996. The defecting Al-Fadl was debriefed by the CIA's Bin Laden Station ("Alex Base"). In the 1998 United States embassy bombings, al-Fadl testified that al-Qaeda was established in either late 1989 or early 1990 to continue the jihad after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. He said during the war against the Soviets, bin Laden had been funding a group called Maktab al-Khadamat, which was led by Abdallah Azzam. This organization was based in Pakistan and provided training, money and other support for Muslims who would cross the border into Afghanistan to fight. According to al-Fadl, the Maktab al-Khadamat was disbanded following the Soviet withdrawal, but bin Laden wanted to establish a new group to continue the jihadist cause on other fronts. Al-Fadl testified that al-Qaeda's leader was initially Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi, who was later replaced by Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, but that both of these leaders nevertheless "reported to" bin-Laden. Al-Fadl claims the group initially went by two different names "al-Qaeda" and "Islamic Army", before eventually settling on the former. A meeting was apparently held in Khost, Afghanistan to establish the new group, which al-Fadl claims to have attended. Al-Fadl's recollection was that this occurred in either late 1989 or early 1990.
Journalist Peter Bergen argues that two documents seized from the Sarajevo office of the Benevolence International Foundation show that the organization was established in August 1988. Both of these documents contain minutes of meetings held to establish a new military group and contain the term "al-qaeda". Author Lawrence Wright also quotes this document (an exhibit from the "Tareek Osama" document presented in United States v. Enaam M. Arnaout), in his book The Looming Tower. Notes of a meeting of bin Laden and others on August 20, 1988 indicate "the military base" ("al-qaeda al-askariya"), was a formal group: `basically an organized Islamic faction, its goal is to lift the word of God, to make His religion victorious.` A list of requirements for membership itemized "listening and obedient ... good manners" and making a pledge (bayat) to obey superiors. According to Wright, "[t]he name al-Qaeda was not used," in public pronouncements like the 1998 fatwa to kill Americans and their allies because "its existence was still a closely held secret. Wright writes that Al-Qaeda was formed at a August 11, 1988 meeting of "with several senior leaders" of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, (Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and others), Abdullah Azzam, and Osama bin Laden, where it was agreed to join bin Laden's money with the expertise of the Islamic Jihad organization and continue jihad elsewhere after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.
In April 2002, the group assumed the name Qa'idat al-Jihad, which means "the base of Jihad". According to Diaa Rashwan, this was "...apparently as a result of the merger of the overseas branch of Egypt's al-Jihad (EIJ) group, led by Ayman El-Zawahiri, with the groups Bin Laden brought under his control after his return to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.
The origins of the group can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The United States viewed the conflict in Afghanistan, with the Afghan Marxists and allied Soviet troops on one side and the native Afghan mujahedeen on the other, as a blatant case of Soviet expansionism and aggression. The U.S. channelled funds through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to the native Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation in a CIA program called Operation Cyclone.
At the same time, a growing number of foreign Arab mujahedeen (also called Afghan Arabs) joined the jihad against the Afghan Marxist regime, facilitated by international Muslim organizations, particularly the Maktab al-Khidamat, whose funds came from some of the $600 million a year donated to the jihad by the Saudi Arabia government and individual Muslims - particularly wealthy Saudis who were approached by Osama bin Laden. Maktab al-Khidamat was established by Abdullah Azzam and Bin Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1984. From 1986 it began to set up a network of recruiting offices in the United States, the hub of which was the Al Kifah Refugee Center at the Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue. Among notable figures at the Brooklyn center were "double agent" Ali Mohamed, whom FBI special agent Jack Cloonan called "bin Laden's first trainer, and "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, a leading recruiter of mujahideen for Afghanistan.
The Afghan Mujahedeen of the 1980s have been alleged to be the inspiration for terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia. According to Russian sources, the perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 allegedly used a manual allegedly written by the CIA for the Mujihadeen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives.
Al-Qaeda evolved from the Maktab al-Khidamat (Services Office), a Muslim organization founded in 1980 to raise and channel funds and recruit foreign mujahadeen for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was founded by Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Palestinian Islamic scholar and member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Maktab al-Khadamat organized guest houses in Peshawar, in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international non-Afghan recruits for the Afghan war front. Azzam persuaded Bin Laden to join MAK, to use his own money and use his connections with "the Saudi royal family and the petro-billionaires of the Gulf" to raise more to help the mujahideen. The role played by MAK and foreign Muslim volunteers, or "Afghan Arabs", in the war was not a major one. While 250,000 Afghan Mujahideen fought the Soviets and the communist Afghan government, it is estimated that were never more than 2000 foreign mujahideen in the field at any one time. Nonetheless, foreign mujahedeen volunteers came from 43 countries and the number that participated in the Afghan movement between 1982 and 1992 is reported to have been 35,000.
The Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. To the surprise of many, Mohammed Najibullah's communist Afghan government hung on for three more years before being overrun by elements of the mujahedeen. With mujahedeen leaders unable to agree on a structure for governance, chaos ensued, with constantly reorganizing alliances fighting for control of ill-defined territories, leaving the country devastated.
One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda, formed by Osama bin Laden with an initial meeting held on August 11, 1988. Bin Laden wished to establish nonmilitary operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military campaigns. After Azzam was assassinated in 1989, the MAK split, with a significant number joining bin Laden's organization.
In November 1989, Ali Mohamed, a former special forces Sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, left military service and moved to Santa Clara, California. He traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and became "deeply involved with bin Laden's plans.. A year later, on November 8, 1990, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of Mohammed's associate El Sayyid Nosair, discovering a great deal of evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers. Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane on November 5, 1990. In 1991, Ali Mohammed is said to have helped orchestrate Osama bin Laden's relocation to Sudan.
Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had put the country of Saudi Arabia and its ruling House of Saud at risk as Saudi's most valuable oil fields (Hama) were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in Kuwait, and Saddam's call to pan-Arab/Islamism could potentially rally internal dissent. In the face of a seemingly massive Iraqi military presence, Saudi Arabia's own forces were well armed but far outnumbered. Bin Laden offered the services of his mujahedeen to King Fahd to protect Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi army. The Saudi monarch refused bin Laden's offer, opting instead to allow U.S. and allied forces to deploy on Saudi territory.
The deployment angered Bin Laden, as he believed the presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina) profaned sacred soil. After speaking publicly against the Saudi government for harboring American troops, he was quickly forced into exile to Sudan and on April 9, 1994 his Saudi citizenship was revoked. His family publicly disowned him. There is controversy over whether and to what extent he continued to garner support from members of his family and/or the Saudi government.
Zawahiri and the EIJ, who served as the core of al-Qaeda but also engaged in separate operations against the Egyptian government, had even worse luck in Sudan. In 1993, a young schoolgirl was killed in an unsuccessful EIJ attempt on the life of the Egyptian Interior Minister, Hasan al-Alfi. Egyptian public opinion turned against Islamist bombings and the police arrested 280 more of al-Jihad's members and executed six. In 1995 an even more ill-fated attempt to assassinate Egyptian president Mubarak led to the expulsion of EIJ and not long after of bin Laden by the Sudanese government.
After the Soviet withdrawal, Afghanistan was effectively ungoverned for seven years and plagued by constant infighting between former allies and various mujahedeen groups.
Throughout the 1990s, a new force began to emerge. The origins of the Taliban (literally "students") lay in the children of Afghanistan, many of them orphaned by the war, and many of whom had been educated in the rapidly expanding network of Islamic schools (madrassas) either in Kandahar or in the refugee camps on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
According to Ahmed Rashid, five leaders of the Taliban were graduates of a single madrassa, Darul Uloom Haqqania (also known as "the University of Jihad",) in the small town of Akora Khattak near Peshawar, situated in Pakistan but largely attended by Afghan refugees. This institution reflected Salafi beliefs in its teachings, and much of its funding came from private donations from wealthy Arabs, for whom bin Laden provided conduit. A further four leading figures (including the perceived Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar Mujahed) attended a similarly funded and influenced madrassa in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Many of the mujahedeen who later joined the Taliban fought alongside Afghan warlord Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi's Harkat i Inqilabi group at the time of the Russian invasion. This group also enjoyed the loyalty of most Afghan Arab fighters.
The continuing internecine strife between various factions, and accompanying lawlessness following the Soviet withdrawal, enabled the growing and well-disciplined Taliban to expand their control over territory in Afghanistan, and they came to establish an enclave which it called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In 1994, they captured the regional center of Kandahar, and after making rapid territorial gains thereafter, conquered the capital city Kabul in September 1996.
After Sudan made it clear that bin Laden and his group were no longer welcome that year, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan—with previously established connections between the groups, a similar outlook on world affairs and largely isolated from American political influence and military power—provided a perfect location for al-Qaeda to establish its headquarters. Al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense, although only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions are alleged to have trained militant Muslims from around the world. Despite the perception of some people, al-Qaeda members are ethnically diverse and connected by their radical version of Islam.
An ever-expanding network of supporters thus enjoyed a safe haven in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan until the Taliban were defeated by a combination of local forces and United States air power in 2001 (see section September 11, attacks and the United States response). Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are still believed to be located in areas where the population is sympathetic to the Taliban in Afghanistan or the border Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
On February 23, 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, along with three other Islamist leaders, co-signed and issued a fatwa (binding religious edict) under the banner of the World Islamic Front for Combat Against the Jews and Crusaders (al-Jabhah al-Islamiyya al-'Alamiyya li-Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin) declaring:
[T]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah'.
Neither bin Laden nor al-Zawahiri possessed the traditional Islamic scholarly qualifications to issue a fatwa of any kind; however, they rejected the authority of the contemporary ulema (seen as the paid servants of jahiliyya rulers) and took it upon themselves. Assassinated former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko alleged that the Russian FSB trained al-Zawahiri in a camp in Dagestan eight months before the 1998 fatwa.
Though the current structure of al-Qaeda is unknown, information mostly acquired from Jamal al-Fadl provided American authorities with a rough picture of how the group was organized. While the veracity of the information provided by al-Fadl and the motivation for his cooperation are both disputed, American authorities base much of their current knowledge of al-Qaeda on his testimony.
Osama bin Laden is the emir and Senior Operations Chief of al-Qaeda (although originally this role may have been filled by Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi), advised by a Shura Council, which consists of senior al-Qaeda members, estimated by Western officials at about twenty to thirty people. Ayman al-Zawahiri is al-Qaeda's Deputy Operations Chief and Abu Ayyub al-Masri is possibly the senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The number of individuals belonging to the organization is also unknown. According to the controversial BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, al-Qaeda is so weakly linked together that it is hard to say it exists apart from Osama bin Laden and a small clique of close associates. The lack of any significant numbers of convicted al-Qaeda members despite a large number of arrests on terrorism charges is cited by the documentary as a reason to doubt whether a widespread entity that meets the description of al-Qaeda exists at all. Therefore the extent and nature of al-Qaeda remains a topic of dispute.
Its rank and file has been described as changing from being "predominantly Arab," in its first years of operation, to "largely Pakistani," as of 2007. It has been estimated that 62% of al-Qaeda members have university education.
"Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working ... but this has the hallmark of that approach.... Al Qaeda clearly has the ability to provide training ... to provide expertise ... and I think that is what has occurred here."
What exactly al-Qaeda is, or was, remains in dispute. In the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, writer and journalist Adam Curtis contends that the idea of al-Qaeda as a formal organization is primarily an American invention. Curtis contends the name "al-Qaeda" was first brought to the attention of the public in the 2001 trial of Osama bin Laden and the four men accused of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa. As a matter of law, the U.S. Department of Justice needed to show that Osama bin Laden was the leader of a criminal organization in order to charge him in absentia under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as the RICO statutes. The name of the organization and details of its structure were provided in the testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, who claimed to be a founding member of the organization and a former employee of Osama bin Laden. To quote the documentary directly:
The reality was that bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri had become the focus of a loose association of disillusioned Islamist militants who were attracted by the new strategy. But there was no organization. These were militants who mostly planned their own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance. He was not their commander. There is also no evidence that bin Laden used the term "al-Qaeda" to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the term the Americans had given it.
Questions about the reliability of al-Fadl's testimony have been raised by a number of sources because of his history of dishonesty and because he was delivering it as part of a plea bargain agreement after being convicted of conspiring to attack U.S. military establishments. Sam Schmidt, a defense lawyer from the trial, had the following to say about al-Fadl's testimony:
There were selective portions of al-Fadl's testimony that I believe was false, to help support the picture that he helped the Americans join together. I think he lied in a number of specific testimony about a unified image of what this organization was. It made al-Qaeda the new Mafia or the new Communists. It made them identifiable as a group and therefore made it easier to prosecute any person associated with al-Qaeda for any acts or statements made by bin Laden.
Some have argued that "without the writings" of Islamic author and thinker Sayyid Qutb "al-Qaeda would not have existed. Qutb preached that because of the lack of sharia law the Muslim world was no longer Muslim, having reverted to pre-Islamic ignorance known as jahiliyyah. To restore Islam, a vanguard movement of righteous Muslims was needed to implement Sharia and rid the Muslim world of any non-Muslim influences, such as concepts like socialism or nationalism. Enemies of Islam included "treacherous Orientalists" and "world Jewry", who plotted "conspiracies" and "wicked[ly]" opposed Islam. In the words of Mohammed Jamal Khalia, a close college friend of Osama bin Laden: Islam is different from any other religion; it's a way of life. We [Khalia and bin Laden] were trying to understand what Islam has to say about how we eat, who we marry, how we talk. We read Sayyid Qutb. He was the one who most affected our generation.
Qutb had an even greater influence on Osama bin Laden's mentor and another leading member of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zawahiri's uncle and maternal family patriarch, Mafouz Azzam, was Qutb's student, then protégé, then personal lawyer and finally executor of his estate - one of the last people to see Qutb before his execution. "Young Ayman al-Zawahiri heard again and again from his beloved uncle Mahfouz about the purity of Qutb's character and the torment he had endured in prison. Zawahiri paid homage to Qutb in his work Knights under the Prophet's Banner.
One of the most powerful effects of Qutb's ideas was the idea that many who said they were Muslims were not, i.e. they were apostates, which not only gave jihadists "a legal loophole around the prohibition of killing another Muslim," but made "it a religious obligation to execute" the self-professed Muslim. These alleged apostates included leaders of Muslims countries since they failed to enforce sharia law.
Two fatwa are said to have been appointed by the most theologically knowledgeable of al-Qaeda's members, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, aka Abu Hajer al Iraqi, to justify the killings according to Islamic law. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim referred to the thirteenth-century scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, much admired by Wahhabis. In a famous fatwa, Ibn Tamiyyah had ruled that Muslims should kill the invading Mongols, and so too Salim said al-Qaeda should kill American soldiers. The second fatwa followed another of Ibn Tamiyyah's, that Muslims should not only kill Mongols but anyone who aided the Mongols, who bought goods from them or sold to them. In addition the killing of someone merely standing near a Mongol was justified as well. He ruled these killings just because any innocent bystander, like the Yemenite hotel worker, would find their proper reward in death, going to Paradise if they were good Muslims and to hell if they were bad. This became al-Qaeda's justification for killing civilians.
In 1993, Ramzi Yousef used a truck bomb to attack the World Trade Center in New York City. The attack was intended to break the foundation of Tower One knocking it into Tower Two, bringing the entire complex down. Yousef hoped this would kill 250,000 people. The towers shook and swayed but the foundation held and he succeeded in killing only six people (although he injured 1,042 others and caused nearly $300 million in property damage).
After the attack, Yousef fled to Pakistan and later moved to Manila. There he began developing the Bojinka Plot plans to blow up a dozen American airliners simultaneously, to assassinate Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton, and to crash a private plane into CIA headquarters. He was later captured in Pakistan.
None of the U.S. government's indictments against Osama bin Laden have suggested that he had any connection with this bombing, but Ramzi Yousef is known to have attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. After his capture, Yousef declared that his primary justification for the attack was to punish the United States for its support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and made no mention of any religious motivations.
On November 13, 1995, a van containing a hundred pounds of Semtex explosive blew up near the communications center for the Saudi National Guard in downtown Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where some American military contractors and Army officers had been training the Saudi National Guard. Seven people were killed, and sixty people were injured. The Saudi government arrested four men, "torturing confessions" out of them that they had been inspired by bin Laden's speeches and trained at al-Qaeda's camp in Afghanistan, and quickly executed them. It is unclear if they had anything to do with the crime. As with many bombings suspected to be the work of al-Qaeda, bin Laden praised the attacks but denied authorizing the attack or training the bombers.
The U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, resulting in upward of 300 deaths, mostly locals. A barrage of cruise missiles launched by the U.S. military in response devastated an al-Qaeda base in Khost, Afghanistan, but the network's capacity was unharmed.
Bin Laden then turned his sights towards the United States Navy. In October 2000, al-Qaeda militants in Yemen bombed the missile destroyer U.S.S. Cole in a suicide attack, killing 17 U.S. servicemen and damaging the vessel while it lay offshore. Inspired by the success of such a brazen attack, al-Qaeda's command core began to prepare for an attack on the United States itself.
The attacks were the most devastating terrorist acts in American and world history, killing approximately 3,000 people. Two commercial airliners were deliberately flown into the World Trade Center towers, a third into The Pentagon, a fourth, originally intended to target the United States Capitol crashed in Pennsylvania.
The September 11 attacks were conducted by al-Qaeda, acting in accord with the 1998 fatwa issued against the United States and its allies by military forces under the command of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and others. Evidence points to suicide squads led by al-Qaeda military commander Mohammed Atta as the culprits of the attacks, with bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Hambali as the key planners and part of the political and military command. Messages issued by bin Laden after September 11, 2001 praised the attacks, and explained their motivation while denying any involvement. Bin Laden legitimized the attacks by identifying grievances felt by both mainstream and Islamist Muslims, such as the general perception that the United States was actively oppressing Muslims. Bin Laden asserted that America was massacring Muslims in 'Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir and Iraq' and that Muslims should retain the 'right to attack in reprisal'. He also claimed the 9/11 attacks were not targeted at women and children, but 'America's icons of military and economic power'.
Evidence has since come to light that the original targets for the attack may have been nuclear power stations on the east coast of the U.S. The targets were later altered by al-Qaeda, as it was feared that such an attack "might get out of hand".
As a result of the United States using its special forces and providing air support for the Northern Alliance ground forces, both Taliban and al-Qaeda training camps were destroyed, and much of the operating structure of al-Qaeda is believed to have been disrupted. After being driven from their key positions in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan, many al-Qaeda fighters tried to regroup in the rugged Gardez region of the nation. Again, under the cover of intense aerial bombardment, U.S. infantry and local Afghan forces attacked, shattering the al-Qaeda position and killing or capturing many of the militants. By early 2002, al-Qaeda had been dealt a serious blow to its operational capacity, and the Afghan invasion appeared an initial success. Nevertheless, a significant Taliban insurgency remains in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda's top two leaders, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, evaded capture.
Debate raged about the exact nature of al-Qaeda's role in the 9/11 attacks, and after the U.S. invasion began, the U.S. State Department also released a videotape showing bin Laden speaking with a small group of associates somewhere in Afghanistan shortly before the Taliban was removed from power. Although its authenticity has been questioned by some, the tape appears to implicate bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the September 11 attacks and was aired on many television channels all over the world, with an accompanying English translation provided by the United States Defense Department.
In September 2004, the U.S. government commission investigating the September 11 attacks officially concluded that the attacks were conceived and implemented by al-Qaeda operatives. In October 2004, bin Laden appeared to claim responsibility for the attacks in a videotape released through Al Jazeera, saying he was inspired by Israeli attacks on high-rises in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon: "As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.
By the end of 2004, the U.S. government claimed that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda from 2001 were in custody (including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Saif al Islam el Masry, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) or dead (including Mohammed Atef). Despite the capture or death of many senior al-Qaeda operatives, the U.S. government continues to warn that the organization is not yet defeated, and battles between U.S. forces and al-Qaeda-related groups continue.
In the meantime, autonomous regional branches of al-Qaeda continue to emerge around the world.
With the rise of "locally rooted, globally inspired" terrorists, counter-terrorism experts are currently studying how al-Qaeda is using the Internet – through websites, chat rooms, discussion forums, instant messaging, and so on – to inspire a worldwide network of support. The bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings, some of whom were well integrated into their local communities, are an example of such "globally inspired" terrorists, and they reportedly used the Internet to plan and coordinate. A group called the "Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe" claimed responsibility for the London bombings on the Al-Qalah website, which was subsequently shut down.
The publicity opportunities offered by the Internet have been particularly exploited by al-Qaeda. In December 2004, for example, bin Laden released an audio message by posting it directly to a website, rather than sending a copy to al Jazeera as he had done in the past. Al Qaeda turned to the Internet for release of its videos in order to be certain it would be available unedited, rather than risk the possibility of al Jazeera editors editing the videos and cutting out anything critical of the Saudi royal family. Bin Laden's December 2004 message was much more vehement than usual in this speech, lasting over an hour.
In the past, Alneda.com and Jehad.net were perhaps the most significant al-Qaeda websites. Alneda was initially taken down by American Jon Messner, but the operators resisted by shifting the site to various servers and strategically shifting content. The U.S. is currently attempting to extradite an information technology specialist, Babar Ahmad, from the UK, who is the creator of various English-language al-Qaeda websites such as Azzam.com. Ahmad's extradition is opposed by various British Muslim organizations, such as the Muslim Association of Britain.
A variety of sources - CNN journalist Peter Bergen, Pakistani ISI Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, and CIA operatives involved in the Afghan program, such as Vincent Cannistraro and Milton Bearden, deny that the CIA or other American officials had contact with the Afghan Arabs (foreign mujahideen) or Bin Laden, let alone armed, trained, coached or indoctrinated them. These sources argue that there was no need to recruit foreigners unfamiliar with the local language, customs or lay of the land since there were a quarter of a million local Afghans willing to fight; that Arab Afghans themselves would have no need for American funds since they received several hundred million dollars a year from non-American, Muslim sources; that Americans could not train mujahideen because Pakistani officials would not allow more than a handful of them to operate in Pakistan and none in Afghanistan; and that the Afghan Arabs were almost invariably militant Islamists reflexively hostile to Westerners uninterested in the fact that some Westerners were helping the mujahideen.
According to Peter Bergen, known for conducting the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, the idea that "the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden ... a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. ... Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. ... The real story here is the CIA didn't really have a clue about who this guy was until 1996 when they set up a unit to really start tracking him. But as Bergen himself admitted, in one "strange incident" the CIA did appear to give visa help to mujahideen-recruiter Omar Abdel-Rahman.
Noman Benotman, a former Afghan Arab and militant of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, went public with an open letter of criticism to Ayman al-Zawahiri in November 2007 after persuading imprisoned senior leadership of his former group to enter into peace negotiations with the Libyan regime. While Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the affiliation of the group with Al Qaeda in November 2007, the Libyan government released 90 members of the group from prison several months later after "they were said to have renounced violence.
In 2007, around the sixth anniversary of September 11, Sheikh Salman al-Ouda, a Saudi religious scholar and one of the fathers of the Sahwa, the fundamentalist awakening movement that swept through Saudi Arabia in the '80s, delivering a personal rebuke to Osama bin Laden. Al Ouda addressed Al Qaeda's leader on MBC, a widely watched Middle East TV network, asking him
My brother Osama, how much blood has been spilt? How many innocent people, children, elderly, and women have been killed ... in the name of Al Qaeda? Will you be happy to meet God Almighty carrying the burden of these hundreds of thousands or millions [of victims] on your back?
In 2007, the imprisoned Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, an influential Afghan Arab, "ideological godfather of Al Qaeda", and former supporter of takfir, sensationally withdrew his support from al Qaeda with a book Wathiqat Tarshid Al-'Aml Al-Jihadi fi Misr w'Al-'Alam ("Document of Right Guidance for Jihad Activity in Egypt and the World").
Usama Hassan, an Imam in London and former supporter of Al Qaeda who traveled to Afghanistan to train as jihadi was alienated by the July 2005 bombings in London and now preaches against bin Laden and helped launch the Quilliam Foundation.
According to Pew polls, support for Al Qaeda has been dropping around the Muslim world in recent years. The numbers supporting suicide bombings in Indonesia, Lebanon, and Bangladesh, for instance, have dropped by half or more in the last five years. In Saudi Arabia, only 10 percent now have a favorable view of Al Qaeda, according to a December poll by Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington-based think tank.


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Then, one hot August night, Sarah comes home to hear the phone ringing. When she picks it up, a child's terrified voice whispers, "Mommy, help, come and get me . . ." The call is cut off, but not before Sarah's heart goes into overdrive: she is sure the voice belonged to Lexie. Five-year-old Lexie. Though seven years have passed, she sounds exactly the same.
Frantic, Sarah turns to the police, the FBI, and her co-workers at the County Prosecutor's office, none of whom takes the call seriously. The only person she can count on to help her is Jake Hogan, her closest friend in the world, the man who has provided a strong shoulder for her to lean on throughout the long search. A former FBI agent, Jake is now a P.I., and though he is skeptical about the authenticity of the call, the attraction he feels for Sarah pushes him to help her. He is convinced someone is deliberately tormenting the grief-stricken mother.
Their long friendship explodes into a romance as they try to figure out who, and why - and what happened to Lexie. When the torment escalates to murder, Jake is the only one who can keep Sarah safe. Together, they are caught up in a nightmare search for Lexie that just might end with Sarah's death.
(P)2006 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
I enjoy listening to great detective mysterie & also great thrillers. I enjoy books also by Vince Flynn, David Baldaci including assasins.
"A GREAT story with a GREAT ending."
It was a mystery, romance and some thriller all in one.
The author brought the plot and the character all in a full circle. A very smooth but yet mysterious journey.
Saving Sweet Pea from the gator!!
A great author. This was my first. I will listen to more of Karen Robard's books.
"Great listen"
This is the first book I listened to by Karen Robards and I couldn't put it down. A credit well spent. I will definitely buy more from her library.
"good story"
sex scenes were brief but a bit too detailed. it was easy to fast forward through them.
"Entertaining but ending not quite satisfying"
I found the story to be entertaining and it kept me listening to the very end. However I found the ending seemed to be clipped short. The story had very great detail in almost everything except when it came to the ending. I don't like loose ends. There should have been an epilogue or something to give a more satisfying look into what happened after the fact. I did enjoy it over all but would not be a read over (or listen over) as some books are.
"A Sad Bodice Ripper"
The book's heroine is deep in grief. Her colleague is in love with her. I listened to find out what happened to the little girl, but even that plot didn't hold together too well.
"Needs a good editing"
I'm only partway through the book; at the point of trying to decide if I'm going to continue or not.
The writing suffers from an abundance of non-essential details, and the author uses three descriptors where one would have been sufficient. I'm a dog person, and even I found her multiple descriptions of Sweetie Pie tedious. And, I'm starting to count the number of times she uses "the thing is".
I would have been much happier if the narrator had used her normal voice for the character "Jake" -- her growly, constricted voice has me hating the guy.
Retired former magazine editor who is working harder than ever as Mr. Dad to his 12-year-old daughter.
"Average story that will pass the time"
This tale was predictable and replete with an interesting cast of characters. It was not too difficult to figure out where the story was going but its predictability did not really detract from the listen. A few of the minor characters were a stretch but nonetheless interesting. The story ended where one would anticipate it ending. If you are need of a relaxing listen, this book may be for you.
Nyoka Mullins
I found this book to be a tear dropper and I could feel the pain for the Mother, I know it's only a book, but I found myself being in the same position, it's like I was there in the book. Good one, I recommend it.
"Not worth the credit or my time"
No thank you
The story was okay. Seemed like 25% of the book was full of meaningless details. The narrators character voices were AWFUL!! I cringed when she started talking, and hoped it would grow on me or I would at least get use to it as I listened longer. Terrible...terrible...terrible.
Join me on GoodReads too!
"I Am Torn!"
I liked it in general, yet I was annoyed the whole way through.
The scenes were SO LONG it made me wonder what the book was ultimately supposed to be about. A shooting at the convenience store? A kidnapping? A murder plot? A ghost story? A courtroom drama? A love story? WHAT!!!!! Plus there was WAAAAY TOOOO MUUUUCH emphasis on what everyone was wearing all the time. Ugh! Spare me! Who cares!
I was never sure which tangent was the "a-story" and which one was the "b-story". You kind of assume that if an author goes into that much detail and spends that much time on any given scene it's because it matters and has a direct link to the main story, but in this book I was never sure about the ultimate plot. It felt like a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing.
The ending felt stereotypically silly - yet I doubt anything would have pleased me by that point! Still, I cared enough about the characters to see how it all would end up. I was curious (to various degrees) about all the storylines so I suppose I have to give it a pass!
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Moderators: Tonyblack, Jason, Toothy
Del wrote:No M cant raise a finger.. its assault and she is technically an adult and would be charged as such. And the ex would have a field day with my parenting skills.
The Mad Collector wrote: Girls can be so much nastier than boys unfortunately
The Mad Collector wrote:It does say 'can' rather than 'are' Dotsie.
Catch-up wrote:Oh Del. I feel absolutely sick for H. That was just heartbreaking to read. I'm so glad you caught it and are going to the school with it. I hope those girls are shamed by the school and their parents. Let us know what happens.
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Most Populous Cities of the World
The following tables lists the most populous cities in the world. Data includes the most recent figures available.
NOTES: "c" = census figure; "e" = estimated; "p" = preliminary census figure.
*Refers to the city proper, as opposed to an urban agglomeration, which would also count the surrounding urban areas in the total.
Source: CIA World Factbook
Information Please® Database, © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Most Populous Cities of the World from Infoplease:


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Find the perfect hotel in Leeds using our hotel guide provided below. Explore our guide for inexpensive and discount hotel/motel rates in or near Leeds, AL for your upcoming personal or group travel. We show the best Leeds, Alabama motel and hotel rooms. Browse the Leeds area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Leeds hotels. Coordinating a group? Get Leeds Group Hotel DiscountsThe Leeds center point is about 2 miles from Barber Motorsports Park and 2 miles from Bass Pro Shop.
Leeds Hotels & Accommodations
Next 20 Leeds Hotels > [1 - 20 of 50]
Next: See My Leeds Hotels with Pricing >
Below are reviews of the city of Leeds, AL from an actual visitor's perspective.
|Greg G., from
|Date of Review:
|Score of City:
5.0 / 5
"Barber Motorsports Park and Museum"
Barber Motorsports Park was a great attraction.


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Alumni Spotlight on Rebecca Manning
In the Spotlight: Alumna Becky Manning
IMAGE: Becky Manning
Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School CEO and Kent State alumna Rebecca "Becky" Manning has come full circle. "Sometimes you can follow your dreams and go through the backdoor," says the administrator who has seamlessly combined her leadership abilities with her love for music, theatre and dance. Manning, who once dreamed of becoming an actress, earned a bachelor's degree in speech and special education from Kent State University after starting at Kent State University at East Liverpool. Although she immensely enjoyed theatre and speech, jobs were scarce and she decided to specialize in special education. Due to Kent State's excellent program, Manning became a guru in the field.
"Because of the background I gained at Kent State, I was able to advance in special education and become an administrator," she says of the education she received. "People were impressed when I said I had a degree from Kent State. The program was well known." Manning taught special education for 27 years in the East Liverpool, Ohio, City School District, and served three years as its Supervisor of Special Education.
In 2003, Manning used her experience to take on the role as Director of Special Education at The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. She blazed the trail and set the standards for the delivery of special education instruction in an online environment. The successful program is a model for other cyber schools. In 2006, Manning's love for music, theater and dance, coupled with her leadership skills, proved invaluable when Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School was opened. The school, comprised of 500 of Pennsylvania's most talented and gifted high school students in performing arts, has achieved national recognition. It is a model for other performing arts charter schools.
Under Manning's guidance, the school has numerous partnerships with businesses, colleges and universities, including Kent State University through the Columbiana County Campuses and the College of the Arts. Through this collaboration, Kent State faculty and students have held numerous performances and master classes at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School. In addition, ensembles from Lincoln Park regularly perform during the Salem Symphonious Series. Currently, the charter school offers its students various associate degrees through the Community College of Beaver County. Talks are underway to look at the possibilities of Lincoln Park students continuing their education at Kent State University.
Manning added that every year a few students from Lincoln Park choose to attend Kent State University. Due to the partnership, she is learning of more and more students who are considering attending her alma mater. Listening to her students talk about Kent State and visiting the campus from time to time brings back memories of her college days. "I truly enjoyed the student theatre," Manning says, fondly recalling her tryout for "Dancing Donkeys." "The director asked me what I was going to sing, and I said I was trying out for a non-speaking part," she laughingly recalls. "She then told me that these parts were just for guys!" Manning said she sang the only song she knew, and ended up landing a part. Although she didn't become a famous actress, Manning performs a cameo in each of Lincoln Park's plays or musicals and receives so much enjoyment watching her students on the stage.
In addition to earning a bachelor's degree in speech and special education from Kent State University, Manning holds a master's from the University of Dayton with certification in secondary administration.


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The refuge also protects important mangrove ecosystems that provide habitat for different marine species. A picturesque fishing village nearby supports staff of the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) in protecting and managing the thousands of sea turtles that swim to its shores to nest every year.
The park is located in Tonosí, Los Santos province, south of the Azuero Peninsula on the Pacific coast, covering an area of 2,200 hectares.
How to arrive
- Car: From Panama City, drive for about four hours on the Pan-American Highway to the city of Chitré, and from there to the city of Las Tablas in the Los Santos Province. It is then about another two hours to reach the town of Cañas in Tonosí. At the small pier in Cañas, board a boat for a 10 minute ride through a mangrove canal towards the picturesque village of Isla Cañas.
What to bring
- Water bottle
- Sunscreen
- Insect Repellent
- Sea turtle watching
- Hiking on trails around the island
- Boat rides


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The Fourth of July is right around the corner, which means it's time to start thinking about where the best and biggest celebrations occur around the country.
Here are 12 U.S. cities known for their big pyrotechnic celebrations. The cities are ranked based on their celebrations' attendance, amount of explosive material and length of show.
Take a look at the biggest fireworks celebrations across the U.S.
12. Aurora, Colo. -- Light Up The Night. A 20-minute drive from Denver, Aurora draws 100,000 visitors for its 25-minute show.
11. Nashville, Tenn. -- Let Freedom Sing. This 30-minute show shoots 13,460 pounds of fireworks for an estimated 125,000 attendees each year and features a variety of concerts in Riverfront Park.
10. St. Louis -- Fair St. Louis. This celebration attracts half a million viewers every year for a 20-minute show that some compare to a 3-D laser show because of how the fireworks reflect off the stainless steel legs of the Gateway Arch.
9. Seattle -- Seattle's Family 4th Celebration. When this celebration was almost cancelled in 2010 after its main sponsor, Washington Mutual, collapsed, the community raised $500,000, enough needed to put on the show. This year, they did it again.
8. San Francisco -- Fisherman's Wharf Fireworks Extravaganza. When this 21-minute-long show, which expects a good 600,000 attendees every year, is over, go dancing – live entertainment is offered in the Pier 39 Entrance Plaza.
7. Philadelphia -- Sunoco Welcome America Celebration. Philadelphia's show, which follows a full week of celebrations that costs the city up to $2.1 million, attracts 500,000 viewers every year.
6. Lake Tahoe, Calif. -- Lights on the Lake. This celebration receives around 100,000 visitors every year for its 23-minute show of 5,000 fireworks, which are shot from a barge in the middle of the lake.
5. Washington, D.C. -- A Capitol Fourth. This show on the National Mall shoots 66,000 pounds of fireworks for its 500,000 visitors and is set to a soundtrack by The National Symphony Orchestra.
4. Boston -- Boston Pops Firework Spectacular. Boston's show is easily one of the most well known, and, at $2.5 million for the entire show, one of the most expensive. Over 20,000 pounds of fireworks are set off as 500,000 revelers look on.
3. Addison, Texas -- Kaboom Town! Addison's 30-minute show, which can be seen from anywhere in Addison, is a three-decade old tradition that attracts a good 500,000 viewers.
2. Atlantic City, N.J. -- Atlantic City Firework Spectacular. Atlantic City's show has two parts, making it one of the longest in the country. The first 22-minute show over the Marina is followed by a 24-minute display along the beach and boardwalk.
1. New York -- Macy's Firework Spectacular. By far the biggest in the country, Macy's annual firework show over the Hudson River regularly attracts around 2 million people. The 26-minute show, which sets off approximately 75,000 pounds of fireworks, begins between 9 p.m. and 9:20. Vantage points are scattered all over the West Side and New Jersey.
To read more about these celebrations, go to Travel.AOL.com.
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Oyster, 44 mm, steel and Everose gold
Choose your material
Yacht-Master II
Oyster, 44 mm, steel and Everose gold
The Yacht-Master II is designed to meet the needs of professional sailors. This regatta chronograph features the world's first programmable countdown with a mechanical memory. It provides precise synchronization with the crucial starting sequence of a yacht race.
Model case
- Model case
- Oyster, 44 mm, steel and Everose gold
- Oyster architecture
- Monobloc middle case, screw-down case back and winding crown
- Diameter
- 44 mm
- Material
- Everose Rolesor - combination of 904L steel and 18 ct Everose gold
- Bezel
- Rolex Ring Command (bidirectional 90° rotatable interacting with the movement) in 18 ct gold with blue Cerachrom insert in ceramic and numerals coated in gold
- Winding crown
- Screw-down, Triplock triple waterproofness system
- Crystal
- Scratch-resistant sapphire
- Water-resistance
- Waterproof to 100 metres / 330 feet
- Movement
- Perpetual, mechanical, self-winding, regatta chronograph
- Calibre
- 4161, Manufacture Rolex
- Functions
- Centre hour and minute hands, small seconds hand at 6 o'clock. Programmable countdown with mechanical memory and on-the-fly synchronization. Stop-seconds for precise time setting
- Precision
- Officially certified Swiss chronometer (COSC)
- Oscillator
- Paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspring
- Winding
- Bidirectional self-winding via Perpetual rotor
- Bracelet
- Oyster, flat three-piece links
- Bracelet material
- Everose Rolesor - combination of 904L steel and 18 ct Everose gold
- Clasp
- Folding Oysterlock safety clasp with Easylink 5 mm comfort extension link
- Dial
- White


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What's Dinosaurland?
It's the only place in the world where you can view and even touch over 1,500 dinosaur bones all in their original resting place at Dinosaur National Monument.
Dinosaurs are not all Dinosaurland has to offer… camping, hiking, biking, boating, swimming, rafting, petroglyphs, museums and so much more are what makes this area loved by those that live here and vacation here.
Dinosaurland is home to 3 State Parks – Steinaker & Red Fleet Reservoirs and The Utah Field House of Natural History-Dinosaur Museum.
So, Welcome! We hope you enjoy your experiences here!! Get out and play in Dinosaurland, Vernal Utah. You'll want to stay forever…THE DINOSAURS DID!


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Physical Therapy Equipment
Power Systems supplies the commercial grade physical therapy equipment and accessories necessary for functional rehab and physical therapy. At Power Systems, you will find a selection of rehabilitation and recovery equipment to aid in physical therapy, sports injury recovery and preventative exercises. We offer affordable physical therapy equipment, products and programs to promote stretching, stabilizing, strengthening, and stimulating your musculoskeletal system.
Now displaying all 47 products


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Recarved Plant Scroll with Snakes and Bird Heads
These four reliefs show some of the characteristic features of Late Antique Egyptian sculpture and the ways in which some examples were reworked in modern times. The carving of the panel showing a lion attacking an antelope appears to be ancient, although the surface has certainly been cleaned of any traces of paint. The same appears to be true of the scroll design enclosing birds and grapes. The other two scroll designs, however, must have been damaged in antiquity. They have been "restored" in the twentieth century: one with a clumsily posed human figure and an unconvincing lion's head, the other with a pair of snakes and bird heads. Snakes and partial representations of animals very seldom appeared in Late Antique Egyptian sculpture. However, such "renewals" as these may have given more adventurous carvers the idea of creating the entirely new sculptures seen elsewhere in this exhibition.
This text refers to these objects: ' 86.226.27; 67.176.2; 68.3; 40.302
- Medium: Limestone
- Reportedly From: Behnasa, Egypt
- Dates: Ancient, recut in the 20th Century C.E.
- Dimensions: 10 1/16 x 20 1/16 x 4 1/4 in. (25.5 x 51 x 10.8 cm) (show scale)
- Collections:Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Museum Location: This item is not on view
- Accession Number: 68.3
- Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
- Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY
- Caption: Recarved Plant Scroll with Snakes and Bird Heads, Ancient, recut in the 20th Century C.E. Limestone, 10 1/16 x 20 1/16 x 4 1/4 in. (25.5 x 51 x 10.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 68.3. Creative Commons-BY
- Image:
- Record Completeness: Good (73%)


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CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – Holland boasts some of the most charming and beautiful sites in Europe. Armchair travelers can sample that appeal in "Discovering the Dutch" — the final installment in the Wilson College 2011-12 World Travel Film and Dinner Series on Tuesday, April 3.
DATE: March 15, 2012
CONTACT: Kathy Lehman, Director of Conferences and Special Events
Phone: 717-262-2003
Email: email@example.com
The evening includes a buffet dinner of dishes representative of the area at 6 p.m. in Laird Hall, followed by the film, Discovering the Dutch, and lecture by documentary filmmaker Sandy Mortimer at 7 p.m. in Thomson Hall's Alumnae Chapel.
The film explores nine of Holland's 12 lowland provinces, each with its own unique culture and origin. One of the first stops is the vital and colorful city of Amsterdam, with its historic churches, Royal Palace and museums, Anne Frank house, Lizard park and canal tours. Viewers will also visit the historic capital of Haarlem, a lively cheese market in Edam, castles and the enormous Alsmeer flower auction. Other stops include the remains of the Dutch internment camp, Camp Westerbork; Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe; the Delft chinaware manufacturer; fishing villages; farms; and prehistoric megaliths called Hunebedden that were built before the pyramids
The dinner menu includes: Dutch cucumber salad, smoked gouda risotto, gestoofde vis (poached whitefish), navy beans and snap peas, and Dutch apple pie.
Reservations are required for the dinner and tickets must be purchased at least one week in advance. Tickets for the dinner are: $18.25 per meal for adults, senior citizens and students ages 10 to 18; and $11 for children under 10.
Tickets to the film and lecture are $6.75 for adults, $5.75 for seniors, $2.75 for children ages 10 to 18; children under 10 get in free. Seating is unreserved, but attendees are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance. If seats are available, additional single tickets for the film can be purchased at the door Thursday evening.
Call the Wilson College Office of Conferences and Special Events at 717-262-2003 to make reservations or order tickets.
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a liberal arts college dedicated to the education of women. Affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located in Chambersburg, Pa. Wilson offers bachelor's degrees in 30 areas and master's degrees in education and the humanities. The college's 2011-12 enrollment in the College for Women and the Adult Degree Programs is 746 and includes 21 students from 10 foreign countries.


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Ollicial Newspapei Village of Freeporl • Reeporl School District • Baldwin School District THE '*~RH:EPOF^-P f\^^MOR;./v ^Waferfronjjg^leoefe**! f-.fr^'^"!~ V Pull-Out In This Issue ^ • ^^S^i;Si*S!iKi-S>S?»«!:>»5^flfclSfe W?»S{i5=*i5r5.<i<i .X FREEPORT. NEVy YORK, OCTOBER 17,1985 51st YEAR. No. 26. » DERRICK m • "^""'^•'' PRICE 2 5 * PER COPY 6 FHS Seniors Win Nolional Honors Dr. Jones Praises Baldwin's ''Honors'' Named Commended Siudenfs In Nierif Program • FREEPORT- Six students at Freeport High School have been . designated Commended Students in the 1986 I^ational Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). Seniors Jonathan Breier. Robert Ennis, Rebecca Frein, Erik Saarmaa, XXX, and Glenn White will receive Letters of Commendation in honor of outstanding acadeAiic promise, demonstrated by plac- "40,000 Pairs Of Eyes" Program Receives State Funds FREEPORT - The village's' "40,000 Pairs of Eyes" crime watch program has been awarded $10,000 under New Tfork Sute's Neighborhood . _ Preservation Crime Prevention Act (NPCPA), according to Assemblywoman Barbara Falfon. In announcing the grant, Mrs. PaUon.— a resident of Freeport . — noted that "October is. Crime Prevention Month and-this grant is a fitUng way to recognize the accomplishments andlj efforts of local volunteers worEing to make our neighborhoods safe." The 15-year-old "40,000 Pairs of Eyes Program" had applied " for the annual state grant twice" before, but had not been chosen. This lime, the, application prepared by Melba Howard, chairperson of its Advisory. Board met with success. The funds will be used for general community ay^areness programs. When informed that the program would receive state funding, Mrs. HoA-ard expressed her pleasure and said,''"the effectiveness of our police-civilian pro-gram'has long been proven and I am sure that its continuance under state funding will be a positive ste'p for all the citizens'of Freeport." •Mrs. Howard thanked Mayor Dorothy Story and the village's legislative representatives in Albany for their "strong support," adding the advisory board is also grateful for "the warm fen- • dorsements given our application by District Altomey Denis Dillon, Nassau County Police Commissioner Samuel Rozzi and Town of •Hempstead Presiding Supervisor • Thomas Gulolla. The entire advisory board joins me, she said, "In recognizing the efforts of Freeport Police Chief Anthony Elar and Abe Hammer in found- (Cont. on Page*6) Audience Questions Vary in Topic and Tone by Joan Delaney. BALDWIN - At the Wednesday evening, October 9th Baldwin Board of Education meeting, residents heard statements regarding many aspects of education in Baldwin, including comments by Superintendent of Schools Rolland Jones, and various members of the audience. Dr. Jones outlined a broad and comprehensive' lisf of student achievements over the past year ' .' . •which included iicadmic, musical, athletic and extra-curricular activities as well as the professional achievements of staff and district. He noted that it was an "active and productive" year, but one in which academic excellence was only part of the story. The - fiill list of these achievements will be included in the' next issue of the Baldwin School News. A future Board meeting will also be devoted to announcing and explaining the results of various standardized lests," which were described as "embarassingly good." Also included in Jones' remarks was thanks to community residents, particularly' members of the Baldwin Fire Department for the cooperation and work involved in preparing for and . coping 'with. Hurricane Gloria. Jones added that there was approximately S5,000 to S6,000 worth of costs indirred by the' School District, primarily in overtime, but he said the benefits of the cooperative effort far outweighed any monetary costs. He noted the benefit of "people pulling together" to combat a mutual problem and said that the District has learned much regarding preparation for any ^ture emergencies. Statement On Baird During audience questions, residents heard comments from Bill Baird of the Bill Baird Institute in Hempstead. Baird read from a prepared statement which he indicated he had sent to the press. He offered his opinion that an ad, which had appeared in the Baldnin Senior High School's newspaper, "The Golden Wave," showing support for Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon and including the words, "Stop the Killing," m-as libelous. Baird said that the ad angered his staff and he rioted that neither he nor his staff had.ever been in- - dieted, for anything. He then made statements and allegations regarding Dillon. .Baird also referred .to incidents during last year's Human Resources Day - controversy,- when the school district allegedly' received threats if Baird were to appear. He described a letter, which he said he had written to the-sehool distria when his invitation to appear at the school's Human Resources Day was cancelled. Baird said that he had ' been "deprived of free speech." He also noted that cases he has brought before the courts affirm - youngsters rights to abortions and birth control information adding that there were a great number of teenage pregnancies in Baldwin, with the Long Island area the highest in the State. He concluded by saying that an apology is owed to him and his staff. In attempting' to ascertain the school district's position, THE LEADER was told that there was no comment at this time. It' should be noted, however, thai the stated opposition lo Baird's presence at the Human Resources Day by community residents, including. many inter-faith leaders, was based on what they alleged lo be his documented anti-Catholicism. At that time, members oP various pro-life groups said that they were not objecting to the subject of abortion being included in the human resources program, but rather to the inclusion of Baird. The questfon of whether or not Baird himself was in fact invited, a confusion tasting over a month, was concludeii with an apology (Com. on Page S) ing in the top five percent of over one million participants in the 31st annua] National .Merit Scholarship Program. An officer of NMSC, which administers the program, stated that "being named a Commended Student in the extremely competitive Merit Program is a credit to these young men and women and to their schools, which play an important role in the development of academically talented youth. "The high test performanci; of Commended Students is indicative of ex-. ceptional scholastic ability, which is essential in a nation thai prides itself on cultivating individual excellence. Yfe hope the hondr these students have earned will provide motivation for them lo use their talents to the fullest-and also will serve as an example for other aspiring young citizens." Participants entircd the current Merit Program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT in October 19S4, when most of them were juniors. Jonathan Breier JonathaivBreier, one of the stu- . dents, would like to attend the University of -Penn^lvania or Cornell Uni\'ersity as a pre-med major. His high school activities include Select Chorale, National Honor Society, Yearbook staff and tutoring through the Volunteer Tutoring Committee. Outside of school, Jon does volunteer work at ' Lydia Hall - Hospital and has been a substitute teacher at a local Sunday School. . Robert Ennis Robert Ennis is the Editor-in- Chief of Flashings, The Free Press of Freeport High School. He has also been its photo editor. An avid skiiet, Robert is a member of the Ski Club, and has played on the varsity lacrosse .team and been on the sniniming teams. When not involved in school activities. Robert works for New York- State Senator Norman Levy as well as being a lifeguard " with the Freeport Recreation Center. Robert would like lo attend Columbia University as a Journalism major. Rebecca Frein ' Rebecca Frein plans to major in either Math or Science and attend Yale or Harvard. A. member of the National Honor Society, Vice President of the Ski Qub and a member of the Key Oub. Rebecca also competes on the cross country, spring track, gymnastics and soccer le^ms^ She is the recipient of the George Washington University Medal in Math and Science. Erik Saarmaa Erik Saarmaa was elected to the National Honor Society in nth grade and is currently serv- (Cont.onPage16) COMMENDED STUDENTS. Letters of Commendation In honor of outstanding academic promise are being sent to Freeport High School students (front row, 2nd 1. to r.) Rebecca Frein, Glenn While, Robert Ennis; (rear row, 2nd i. to r.) Jonathan Breier, Erik Saarmaa and Erik XXX. With the students are FHS Principal William McElroy (rear row, r.), and Guidance Counselors Carmen Sunden (front row, I.) and Paul Katz (rear row, I.) (Story this page.)
Object Description
|This is a Newspaper distributed locally within the Village of Freeport and Baldwin.
|Linda Toscano
|L & M Publications, Inc.
|Scanned by Imaging & Microfilm Access, Inc. (Bohemia, NY 11716)
|Freeport Memorial Library
|United States
|This digital image may be freely used for educational uses, as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this image is permitted without written permission of the Freeport Memorial Library, 144 W. Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520 or email: email@example.com
|This is a Newspaper distributed locally within the Village of Freeport and Baldwin.
|Linda Toscano
|L & M Publications, Inc.
|Scanned by Imaging & Microfilm Access, Inc. (Bohemia, NY 11716)
|Freeport Memorial Library
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Faculty Members Exhibit Works of Art and Photography
Our distinguished faculty members are scholar-practitioners with years of industry experience and research acclaim. Nearly 90% of our professors hold PhDs or the highest degree in their discipline. They stay active in their fields and are passionate about bringing their expertise to the classroom. St. Edward's University faculty members garner recognition near and far. Their latest art and photography exhibits from the 2010-2011 academic year include:
Donald Haughey, assistant professor of Art, had three watercolors dealing with the Texas missions accepted for the juried art show sponsored by the Austin Diocesan Fine Arts Committee for the fourth Sacred Art show at the Austin Pastoral Center. The show ran from Aug. 21, 2010, to Feb. 18, 2011. The three paintings are titled A Moment of Solitude, San Jose Mission, San Antonio; Peaceful Garden at San Jose Mission at San Antonio; and Nuestra Senora del Espiritu at Goliad.
Professor of Art Stan Irvin was awarded two separate awards in March 2011 for his ceramic artwork. At the University of Dallas Regional Juried Ceramic Competition (an eight state regional exhibition), two of Stan's works were selected for the exhibition. Approximately 300 artists submitted work and 65 pieces were selected. Stan received an "Award of Merit" for one of his pieces in the show.
Irvin also received the Third Place Award for his work in The Best of Texas Clay, a juried exhibition sponsored by the Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild of Ft. Worth.
In Fall 2010, Irvin was accepted into the 18th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National held in Lancaster, Penn. The ceramic piece was a combination slab constructed and hand built teapot with layered ash and shino glazes. Only 109 works were selected from almost 1,000 entries from potters across the United States. The juror was noted potter, writer, and educator Bill van Gilder. The exhibition ran from Oct. 1 to Nov. 14, 2010, and is available for viewing online at strictlyfunctionalpottery.net/exhibit.html.
Bill Kennedy, associate professor of Photocommunications, has 19 of his football stadium photographs included in an exhibition, Hot Dogs, Football and Ouagadougou, at the PDNB Gallery, Dallas, that started on Sept. 4, 2010. Furthermore, Texas A&M University Press has requested a book proposal based on his football stadium photographs this summer. It is currently under consideration for publication.
He exhibited a large selection of his photographs on water, entitled Gallinas, at the Burris Hall Gallery at Highlands University in Las Vegas in November 2010.
This is the fourth of five blog entries that will highlight faculty accomplishments compiled for the May Board of Trustees meeting. The series will containfaculty members who have published books and book chapters, journal articles and poetry, papers, art and photography exhibits, awards and recognitions.


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Power and flexibility in a POS management system.
SiteWatch® for Car Wash
Power and flexibility in a Windows based POS Management system -- that's SiteWatch. We've designed our newest product so it can be configured to meet the specific demands of any business, from the single-location car wash to the multi-profit center chain. With SiteWatch, you can run a quick lube, car wash, and other profit centers on a single computer system.
Have a multi-unit chain? SiteWatch lets you transfer sales, labor and customer history data across your entire organization over the Internet using secure, encrypted methods. Now you can customize your POS system to reflect the way your business really works.
SiteWatch Makes Customers Feel Better About Visiting Your Car Wash.
- 1. Time
- FastPass® completes transactions in less than three seconds. Website Connect™ saves time by allowing customers to pre-pay for washes on your website.
- 2. Recognition
- Reward special customers with Dedicated FastPass® express lanes, and exclusive menu screen on the XPT® for club customers.
- 3. PC Case
- 4. Control
- SiteWatch® Xpress Pay Terminal® (XPT®) self-pay station puts customers in control of transactions and lets them make purchase decisions without feeling pressured.
- 5. Simplicity
- Selling Monthly passes with SiteWatch® Automatic Recharge Module® (ARM®) provides an easy worry-free car washing option.
- 5. Relaxation
- Sitewatch® reduces stress, starting with our reliable XPT® pay staions (nothing is as stressful as an out-of-order sign), and our easy-to-follow transaction flow. The XPT's ergonomic "strike zone" puts everything within easy reach.
- Reduces Time Pressure – With more Americans than ever reporting that they feel rushed, saving time is critically important to your customers. That's why they're sure to appreciate the fact that SiteWatch FastPass® completes transactions in less than 3 seconds. Busy customers will also value the convenience of being able to buy wash services anytime from home with SiteWatch Website Connect™.
- Gives Customers a Sense of Control – Many of today's independent minded consumers feel more comfortable controlling their own transactions. The SiteWatch Xpress Pay Terminal® (XPT®) puts customers in control and lets them make purchase decisions without feeling pressured. Customers also feel more secure paying with a credit card at the XPT, since it doesn't leave their sight.
- Simplifies Life – Customers who sign up for monthly pass plans with the SiteWatch Automatic Recharge Module® (ARM®) find it easier to manage their budgets and plan their car washing routine. Studies have shown that this sense of predictability is often more important than saving money to customers who join unlimited monthly plans for health clubs, video rentals and phone service. The same principle applies to car washing too.
- Makes Customers Feel Appreciated – Everyone likes to be recognized; and SiteWatch gives you a variety of ways to acknowledge your best customers, from dedicated FastPass™ express lanes for prepaid customers to special menu screens on your XPT for VIP customers who join your club through the Loyalty Promotion Module.
- Creates a Stress-Free Buying Experience – Few things cause as much stress in consumers as an out-of-order sign! The dependability of the XPT, which was designed for a car wash environment, and the rapid response of our professional Support Team makes SiteWatch extremely reliable. Other stress-busters include the XPT's easy-to-follow transaction flow and its ergonomic "strike zone" which puts all critical functions within easy reach of customers.
Additional SiteWatch Components
- Alerts and Bulletins - Manage your business remotely, control costs, and increase your revenue by using Alerts & Bulletins to view key statistics and errors. Comes standard with SiteWatch® 2006.
- Xpress Card Clearing® - Save your customers time by clearing credit card transactions in less than 3 seconds with this SiteWatch option.
- Intelligent Receipt Messaging - Turn your receipts into selling tools. SiteWatch has very powerful and flexible receipt capabilities. Take a stroll through the various intelligent receipt examples.
- Multi-Site Replication - Quickly and smoothly transfer data between the home office and your multiple sites.
- QuickBooks® Interface - Save time and reduce errors by using the QuickBooks interface to SiteWatch® for your general ledger and house accounts.
- SiteWatch® Quick Lube Pro - Run your multiple quick lube operations as an interconnected enterprise.
- Wash Code At Pump (WashCAP) - Increase revenues by selling washes from fuel pumps with this SiteWatch option. Pumps can be on your site or at a service station owned by someone else.
- Automatic Recharge Module
- CarPics®
- FastPass®
- Loyalty Promotion Module
- Outdoor Touchscreen Terminal
- Portable Touchscreen Terminal
- Prepaid and Wash Book Control
- SiteWatch®
- SmartCodes®
- StatWatch®
- Tablet Touchscreen Terminal™
- TunnelWatch®
- Vehicle Profile Detection™
- Wash Code At Pump (WashCAP)
- Xpress Card Clearing®
- Xpress Pay Terminal®
- Additional SiteWatch® Components
Proven Performance In The Real World
Watch a successful car wash operator talk about SiteWatch at a multi-profit center.
Additional Information
- SiteWatch for Car Washes
(2.2 Mb pdf)
Related Products
- SiteWatch for Quick Lube
POS System for Quick Lubes
- TunnelWatch®
Tunnel Controller


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From the Manufacturer's Label:
Pyruvate is a key metabolite of carbohydrate metabolism that is needed to begin the citric acid cycle, the process by which cells produce energy in the form of ATP.
Manufactured by NOW® Foods.
NOW® Foods
Calcium Pyruvate 1000 mg
1000 mg / 90 Tablets / Item #088280
From the Manufacturer's Label:
Disclaimer: This scientific independent research is provided by Aisle7 and is for informational use only. Puritan provides this information as a service but does not endorse it. Likewise, Aisle7 does not recommend or endorse any specific products.


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UFC Welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has been muttering vague hints that he's considering retirement for a while now. According to a tweet from MMA Nouvell there may be more to it than just muttering:
@arielhelwani Firas just told @tvasports that if GSP does not have the motivation after Hendricks fight, he will retire.
9:30 AM - 10 Oct 2013Firas is GSP's head trainer Firas Zahabi of Tristar Gym. GSP is set to face Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 in November.
This is a slight change from what Zahabi was telling the press this spring:
"If he fights Hendricks, I think (GSP) could fight for longer. He could have more fights after that. If he fights Anderson Silva, I could really see that being his last fight. He'll retire after that because there won't be a bigger fight for him to do, I think, anymore in his career."


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View the sunrise on one ocean and see the sunset over another, walk through a 'desert' in a tropical country or visit one of the greatest engineering feats of the world, the Panama Canal, are just some of the attractions the country offers.
We will provide details for each of the reasons to visit.
1. Today in the Pacific, tomorrow in the Caribbean
Crystal clear waters, coral reefs, thousands of aquatic species or enjoy a sunrise over the Pacific and sunset over the Caribbean. The Panama isthmus covers an area of 75,517 km2 and has hundreds of kilometers of beach on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.
On the Pacific coast, just one hour from Panama City, is a series of beaches named Punta Chame, Gorgona, Coronado, Rio Mar, Santa Clara and Playa Blanca, the most popular spots for tourists and locals. Although those who want to be get further off the coast will find an authentic paradise and a haven of peace at Pearl Islands, just 50 km from the coast.
However, those who prefer to explore forts with pirate stories or practically virgin islands inhabited by indigenous communities should discover Bocas del Toro, another paradisiacal archipelago characterized by its colorful architecture of wooden houses, wide porches and raised stilts over the Caribbean Sea.
2. Vibrant and pure nature
Coiba Island in the Pacific is one of the most extensive marine parks in the world, providing 7% of Panama's natural reserves. Its geographic isolation has made this destination to be practically virgin, both for forests and seabed. A day on the island is a treat for the senses of the more adventurous traveler.
Those who want to be surprised should not miss Sarigua National Park, an area in the Azuero Peninsula that has experienced a salinization process that gives it a desert aspect. Once a pre-Columbian settlement, about 11,000 years old, it now attracts exotic flora and fauna with small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and migratory birds.
In Chiriquí, in the northern part of the country, after a thrilling climb up Barú Volcano and at an altitude of 3,500 meters, it is possible to view the two oceans that bathe Panama: the Atlantic and Pacific. In the Highlands there are coffee plantations, vegetable fields and extraordinary landscapes. The National Park named after Barú Volcano is declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has biodiversity that is unique to the world and a contrast of landscapes that tell the story of its last eruption.
Just two hours from Panama City is Antón Valley, in the central province of Coclé, regarded as the place of eternal spring in Panama. It is a paradisiacal place with a pleasant climate where hikers will find trails, exuberant vegetation, abundant waterfalls, and endemic species like the golden frogs and square trees. The Valley is in the crater of a volcano, which is why there are so many hills and volcanic rocks around the area.
3. Air connections
Its location on the American continent has made Panama the largest platform for air connectivity in the Americas, with over 60 direct flights throughout the continent, but also with Europe, served by Iberia, KLM, Avianca, Condor, Delta and United. Up to a dozen airlines unite Spain with the Latin American country throughout the year. There are direct flights or with stopovers, for all budgets.
4. Multiculturalism and hospitality
A mixture of peoples, Panama is a melting pot. Africans, Europeans, mestizos, mulattoes and up to seven indigenous groups that still maintain their language and customs: the Gunas (in San Blas, Caribbean), the Embera and Wounaan (Darién Province), Ngobe and Bugle (in Chiriquí, Bocas del Toro and Veraguas) and Teribes and Bokotas (Bocas del Toro). Handicrafts, textiles, sculptures, music and native cuisine constitute the business card of a country that receives tourists with open arms.
5. Panama City
Panama City, evidence of the development the country has experienced in recent years, has been ranked by The Economist magazine as the city with the fifth largest economy in the world and a unique shopping destination full of stores in shopping malls where you can find all kinds of items for all budgets. To this can be added the urban development of the city, a skyline worthy of admiration, and a wide availability of luxury hotels with representation from the major international hotel chains on the banks of the Panama Canal, a world-class work of engineering.


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Job Details
Southwest General
Middleburg Heights, OH
Nursing-Physical Therapy
Associate's Degree
1+ to 2 years
There is great care happening at Southwest General and we are receiving a lot of national recognition for it. Southwest General has excellent physicians and staff that allow us to provide the personalized care that you deserve, and we also offer something else that few hospitals around the country provide -- clinical outcomes that have ranked us among America's 100 top hospitals. We have an excellent opportunity for a qualified Staff Nurse.
Job Details:
FULL-TIME / Nights / 7:00 PM -7:30 AM
The Staff Nurse is a professional care giver who plans, provides and directs patient care and teaching, utilizing the nursing process in accordance with patient care standards and physician's orders. He/she assists in the orientation process of new personnel, and may participate in health center and department committees. The staff nurse must be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to age groups according to specific chronological age, developmental age, and/or psycho-social maturity.
Minimum Qualifications:
Education: Graduate of an accredited school of nursing. Required Length and Type of Experience: Previous department experience preferred.
Required Licensure, Certification or Registry: Registered nurse with current Ohio licensure required.
Please Apply through: http://www.swgeneral.com/careers/current-career-opportunities
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The Importance of Ergonomics
Ergonomics has quickly become an important factor for office based businesses around the world. The habits of office workers have a cumulative effect, as these habits are maintained for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. When I first entered the work force in 1997, I had a healthy back. I was a college wrestler, and anything that I wanted to do physically, I could do. As far as I knew, my body had no limitations. But once I started working for 40 hours a week, sitting at a desk, typing away at a computer, it was this lack of movement that started to really wreak havoc on my back.
I learned the hard way just how important it is to consider ergonomics. Only when I got my first ergonomic furniture did things start to turn around. Here's some recommendations that you can use to save yourself the hardship of recovering from the effects of bad posture.
Ergonomic Recommendations
1. Get an ergonomic chair
An ergonomic furniture that helps to foster a healthy posture will save you from pain and injury in the long run. If you're used to sitting with poor posture, at first an ergonomic chair is going to be uncomfortable. The goal is to get you to sit upright and straight so the bones of the spine can align on top of themselves, this requires a little work from the muscles, which you might not be used to. This certainly was a challenge for me when I first started taking care of my back.
One of the most popular ergonomic chairs is the kneeling chair, also known as the knee stool. The kneeling chair is designed to give more space to the hips which provides relief to the muscles of the lower back. Highly recommended for those having a hard time remembering to sit up straight and who have pain when doing so.
2. Position your monitor
You want your eye level to be directly in-line with the middle of your monitor. This prevents your neck from creeping forward and your upper back rounding. My chiropractor told me that this is the easiest, and quickest fix I could make to my office setup. And its true. I felt better after a week of making this simple change.
3. Take frequent breaks
When I was an athlete, aside from a few bruises and scrapes, I never had any pain in my body. Definitely not anything skeletal related. It was sitting at the computer in a fixed position that really started to mess up my body. I started setting a computer alarm to remind me to get up, walk, and stretch every 30 minutes. This has been extremely helpful in staying loose and pain free.
BOSS B248 – Kneeling Chair Product Review
The Boss B248 ergonomic kneeling stool has been one of the most popular options among customers since it was introduced. We first found it on the popular Facebook page for KneelingChairHQ. One of the aspects that have made it a favorite is the fact that it is available for a reasonable price. This is a significant advantage considered the level of comfort and quality ergonomics it offers. Boss has created a unique kneeling chair that is quite easy to use. This review highlights the features that make this stool a great choice.
Product Highlights
In terms of comfort, the Boss B248 ergonomic kneeling stool is impressive. It has a black fabric seat and it comes with a knee platform designed to offer comfort for extended periods. The material used for the seat helps to enhance comfort. The stool has adequate padding to allow you to enjoy extra comfort when using it. The padding used is malleable and soft without compromising on durability. This kneeling chair is ideal for users with big and small bodies. One of the best things about t the padding is that it will remain in good condition even after prolonged use. You will be able to use this chair for a few years without worrying that it will wear out.
A kneeling chair has to be adjustable to allow you to enjoy good ergonomics. You should be able to position yourself well on the chair to suit your specific body type and the kind of desk setup you are using. The Boss B248 ergonomic kneeling stool comes with an adjustable knee platform. You can adjust the height on the platform to suit your preferences. This means that the chair can accommodate multiple users. It has a pneumatic gas lift to make it easy for you to adjust the platform.
Its ergonomic design helps to ease your hip forward and encourage you to maintain a straight posture. It aligns your back, neck, and shoulders to relieve any strain on your lumbar muscles. This product has everything that you need in a kneeling stool.
If you are looking for a kneeling stool that is appropriate for a professional environment, this is a great choice. Its design matches well with office settings. It can even be used in dental offices. Most of the kneeling stools tend to have an awkward design but this product has a professional look. It has a black tubular frame made of steel, making it very sturdy. For those who are looking for professional kneeling stools, look no further than this product. The use of black also makes it easy to match it with any décor.
This chair gives you value for your money considering the unique design that is highly durable. It is available at a very affordable price. You can actually save about 51% if you purchase this product right now. To enjoy this discount, take advantage of the offer available on Amazon, where you can get it for nearly half the list price. This is a great bargain considering the level of comfort and ergonomics that you will enjoy with this product.
Features of the Best Curling Wand
Women from all over the world love to keep their hair clean and smart all the time. Fortunately, new hair gadgets are encouraging more women to invest in their personal beauty because of the reliability and affordability of new beauty gadgets and devices. In the United States, women are heavily investing in health and beauty spas for both young and old women. The recently launched curling wand seems to be promising because it exhibits excellent features. The best curling wand brands have the following features.
- Heat settings
This feature helps in maintaining the hair`s curl because it deals with the hair`s texture and thickness. Excellent models ensure that the heating process is effective and efficient to ensure that the hair is not burnt or un-moisturized.
- Design
Some of the best curling wand comes in different shapes and sizes in order to create unique hair curls for different women for different occasions. In US, professional stylists are purchasing styling tools that have a wide range of heat settings and multiple curling styles needed for different women.
- Materials
The best curling wand is made of ceramic and tourmaline materials. This has been made possible because of nanotechnology. Ceramic and tourmaline are much smoother and evenly distribute heat throughout the hair. These materials provide negative ions in the hair which cancels out positively ions initiated by the static electricity in the hair.
- Safety features
Women are advised to purchase heat resistant glove as a precautionary measure. This is because the trimming the hair to the desired shape and size takes a long time. Women and hair stylists are advised to always use the auto-shut off feature which automatically disconnects power after an hour. This is the best safety measure because people no longer need to worry about accidents or unwanted hair burns. Cool tips and barrel stands are an additional safety, stability and control features.
These gadgets are sold in online shopping stores and in retail stores all over the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China and Japan.
Outdoor Digital Signage Hardware Protection Review
Any digital signage hardware that is intended to be installed in either a hostile area or an outdoor location, protection is needed. Otherwise the hardware is open to abuse and failure, so let us look at how the digital signage can be protected.
So what options are there for digital signage protection?
There are 3 options for locating digital advertising equipment, the first is to put the hardware in a location that is protected from all types of weather and any possible vandalism. The second solution is to purchase dedicated outdoor hardware and the third solution is to use protective housings.
Protected outdoor location
Look for a location that has a roof and 2 walls on 2 side, such as in a rail station to make sure the hardware is protected from direct access from rain and snow. Mounting the hardware is important, so a theft resistant mount is required that can be locked, to prevent hardware theft.
Third party protective housings
These are steel, protective enclosures that provide a sealed, waterproof housing that prevents water ingress and resists vandal attacks. The electronic hardware is situated inside the housing on the internal mounting bracket, the unit that was tried was from a company called DOOH Limited (www.lcdenclosure.co.uk) and the housing came with both cooling and heating solutions. The viewing window was made of toughened glass and the door was secured with 2 high security locks.
Most audio visual displays will fit into these protective housings, from regular displays to commercial grade AV displays.
Dedicated outdoor hardware
There are many manufacturers of outdoor grade advertising hardware, so the best thing to do is shop around as the prices may vary widely, the hardware is usually encased in a protective housing, that provides all the weather and vandal protection necessary in a remote or hostile environment.
At the end of the day, the choice is yours and depends on the budget you have.


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Customer Reviews
3 Item(s)
- Storm is my favorite Review by Kimberley
Price Value Quality
I originally got this compact as part of a big make-up kit put out around Christmas 2010. I am hooked! A must have, cannot live without! I only use the top row (the darker smoky colors), but they look amazing on my eyes (blue eyes, blonde, fair). There is a lot of options to use with this compact if you are so inclined. For me, I really wish that Glo offered the "storm" as an individual color, but since they don't, I am willing to buy the full compact, even though it offers more colors than I need/use. This is a must have compact, with great colors and endless options. I am buying 2 today for fear that it will only be offered on a limited basis.
(Posted on 5/17/12)
- Love this shadow collection! Review by Claire
Price Value Quality
I got this on bloom.com, and I paid a fraction of this price. It is no longer available at bloom.com. This is beautiful, highly pigmented long lasting eyeshadow. The metallic colors are amazing, and they are silky smooth. They are worth the high price. Th compact is also very nice. It is slim, and functional.
(Posted on 3/15/12)
- Great collection of colors Review by Sam
Price Value Quality
I love the Alloy Eyes Collection. The colors are really nice - excellent for getting the smokey eye look. The quality of the shadows is excellent (as all glominerals products are). I would love it if this came in a larger size. Highly recommend!
(Posted on 11/23/11)
See More Reviews
3 Item(s)


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Featuring more than 100 quick-fix recipes that are both tempting and satisfying, Quickies in the Kitchen will leave you wondering why you ever spent so much time cooking. Whip up a delicious meal in 30 minutes or less and leave that apron behind! Some favorite "Quickies" to try: Chicken Tortilla Soup, Crunchy Potato Fries, Skillet Lasagna, Chicken Pasta Primavera and Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits. 5 1/4" x 8 1/4". 128 pages. Made in America.
- Item #: 1-CQ-7002