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21 Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID Yo-Ping Huang1, Yueh-Tsun Chang2, Wei-Po Chuang2 and Frode Eika Sandnes3 1Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, 2Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Tatung University, 3Faculty of Engineering, Oslo University College, 1,2Taiwan 3Norway 1. Introduction Many countries, including Taiwan, have over the last few years been actively promoting digital archives programs. Recent advances in information science and computer technology has opened up novel new means in which the general public can enjoy and be educated on historical and cultural relics that are important parts of a country's national heritage. New technologies has led to a growing number of extensive digital databases for artifacts such as pictures and visual art, writings, records, and other cultural objects. Researchers have therefore started to explore new ways in which these digital databases can be associated with the actual relics such that the knowledge and understanding of these objects can become more accessible to the general public. Open Access Database www.intechweb.org Currently, many exhibition centers employ professional guides that explain the objects on display, answer questions and provide guided tours. Although such services are effective, pedagogic and promoting social interaction, it is limited by the human resources available and is therefore usually offered during peak hours and for groups with a minimum number of participants. Exhibition centers and museums therefore often provide self-service prerecorded audio guides to increase accessibility. Visitors carry portable audio players, on loan from the museum, and listen to the prerecorded guide through headsets as they walk through the exhibition. Such guides usually provide sufficient information about the objects on display. However, the static nature of the prerecorded guided tours means that the visitors need to view the exhibitions in a particular order and this restriction leaves little room for visitor participation and interaction [3]. Furthermore, visitors have different expectations and interests, and some visitors may be too impatient to complete their tours. Some museums employ digital audio devices that allow the users to enter a set of digits matching digits displayed next to an artifact. This allows users to manually control the playback order. More advanced audio guides have been proposed, such as Sotto Voce [21], which promotes social interaction where visitors eavesdrop others' personal audio guide. This study targets indoor guides, as outdoor guides pose different challenges [20, 23]. Source: Development and Implementation of RFID Technology, Book edited by: Cristina TURCU, ISBN 978-3-902613-54-7, pp. 554, February 2009, I-Tech, Vienna, Austria www.intechopen.com 400 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a wireless communication technology that has been successfully applied to various fields such as transportation, distribution, supply chain, telemedicine, etc. RFID technology was used during World War II to identify airplanes as friend or foe, but was then forgotten for many years. Because the electronic tags have been expensive, RFID technology has not until recently become widely embraced. In 2003, Wal- Mart, the leader of retail business in United States started using RFID technology and incorporated an extensive RFID system in their storehouse and circulation. This event was picked up by others resulting in the RFID market rising rapidly and catching wide attention. The price of electronic tags is decreasing, and the RFID technology is now widely applicable and about to become acceptable for all kinds of fields. RFID systems can be classified as non-contact and automatic identification technology that consists of two components – RFID readers (also called interrogators) and electronic tags (also called transponders). Unlike traditional bar-code system, RFID systems can carry dynamic as well as static data. According to different kinds of electronic tags, the functionality and memory size vary. Traditional bar-codes are reliant on an unobstructed label face of the codes because they need to be scanned to identify the digital data, and it takes a while to identify the traditional bar-codes. On the other hand, with RFID systems, tags can be hidden and there is no need to pay attention to the label face. As long as the tags are in the range of the radio wave that the RFID reader sends out, the information in the tags can be accessed and identified, and they can be identified rapidly through the radio wave. If there is more than one item, traditional bar-code must be scanned sequentially. In contrast, multiple tags can be read simultaneously. We propose a novel interactive mobile guiding environment, where PDA's and both UHF and HF RFID technologies [6] are used to overcome the static nature of prerecorded guides and the code-entry effort of older interactive digital audio guides. In addition, the interactive learning infrastructure includes a wireless network and the system makes use of data mining and information retrieval technology [4]. The combination of RFID and wireless connectivity also allow remembering tools [22] to be realized such that visitors can review their visit remotely via the web at a later time. The proposed system allows an art museum to provide all its related artifact data or questionnaires to the visitors by equipping each artifact with an electronic tag. The long-distance RFID reader allows art galleries to promote exhibitions and attract visitors to the "hidden treasures" of less popular areas [8]. The system also recommends viewing routes for visitors. These recommendations are obtained by performing Apriori-like collaborative filtering on the individual viewing records [13, 14]. Our system is different to previous RFID-based guide systems [16, 17, 24] as two separate RFID systems that employ the HF and the UHF frequency bands respectively are used in parallel. The HF RFID system is used to increase personalization service and to attract visitors to specific artifacts [9]. The visitors do not have to wait long for the system to respond once they approach the target artifact as the HF tag instantaneously communicates with the system such that the related information is provided to the visitors without intervention [5, 11]. The long-distance UHF RFID reader, positioned at a strategic location within the museum, reads the UHF tag attached to the PDA of the visitors and is used to promote less-known artifacts. The HF frequency band RFID system is based on ISO 15693 passive electronic tags, RFID readers and middleware. The passive ISO 15693 tags are not reliant on power. Consequently, there is a limited transmission distance, which makes them readable within a www.intechopen.com Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID 401 given radius of an artifact. Furthermore, passive tags are especially suitable for exhibitions because of their ubiquitous attributes – namely, compact size, long life, no need for maintenance, and low cost [12]. Visitors' PDAs are equipped with electronic EPC class 1 UHF tags. UHF frequency band RFID readers are installed at strategic locations throughout the exhibition venue. These are typically locations that receive fewer visitors and need to be actively promoted. Information read from an EPC class 1 electronic tag, attached to a visitor PDA, is immediately transmitted to the server middleware. Next, the middleware determines which visitor the tag belongs to and then delivers promotional information about the given exhibition via the wireless network to the visitors' PDAs. 2. Exhibition recommendation The exhibition centers generally group artworks according to themes or type, such as photographs or Chinese ink-water paintings, in different sections. Occasionally, artworks are put together for a particular artist for his/her commemoration or to present a retrospective angle of the artist. Data mining is an emerging technology that extracts useful information or patterns from large databases, data warehouses or other storage repositories. Data mining is also a field bringing together techniques from machine learning, pattern recognition, statistics, databases, and visualization, etc. 2.1 Mining association rules Association analysis involves finding association rules from data stored in databases. Association rules relate the associations of attribute-value frequently appearing in the given dataset. A traditional example of association rule mining is the market basket analysis. The process finds associations from grocery selection of a customer in the basket and then discovers the purchase behavior of customer. Normally, two steps are required to extract the association rules from databases. 1. Find the sets of large itemsets: The first step is to find all the itemsets and supports of these itemsets must be larger than a predefined minimum support (threshold). The minimum support is usually defined by domain experts and is case dependent. 2. Generate strong association rules from large itmesets: By applying both support and example, the rule "item_C ⇒ item_D [support = 25%, confidence = 50%]" means that 25% confidence values to the large itemsets, strong association rules can be solicited. For of transactions show that both item_C and item_D were bought together, and there are 50% of chance that if people bought item_C then they will buy item_D too. The Apriori algorithm [14] can be applied to get large inter-itemsets. However, the processing cost of the first two iterations (i.e., obtaining L1 and L2, representing large 1- itemset and large 2-itemset, respectively) dominates the total mining cost. The reason is that a low minimum support induces a very large L1, which in turn results in a huge number of itemsets in C2 (i.e., candidate 2-itemset). This problem is even more severe when mining inter-transaction association rules. Tung et al. proposed the FITI algorithm that first finds the frequent intra-transaction itemsets and then generates the inter-transaction itemsets from the frequent intra-transaction itemsets. The work reduces the number of candidates and therefore improves the mining efficiency [25]. Lu et al. employed EH-Apriori to reduce www.intechopen.com 402 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology the number of candidate inter-itemsets [26]. Pei et al. [27] employed a projection scheme in the PrefixSpan algorithm where the customer sequences (transactions) were projected into overlapping sets called projected databases such that all the customer sequences in each set have the same prefix that corresponds to a frequent sequence (itemset). The underlying principle of the PrefixSpan is that, instead of projecting sequence databases by considering all the possible occurrences of frequent subsequences, the projection is only based on the frequent prefixes. This holds because any frequent subsequence can always be found by growing a frequent prefix. The advantages of the PrefixSpan algorithm are (1) no candidate sequence needs to be generated; and (2) the projected databases shrink [27]. The visitors' viewing history is continuously recorded as visitors browse the exhibition using the mobile guiding system. Information stored in the database includes timestamps for the various viewing events, the particular contents viewed, and the details browsed for particular artifacts [14]. Once a substantial amount of data has been collected a data mining algorithm is used to discover association rules between artifacts and the artists. These association rules are subsequently used to suggest useful exhibition-related information to future visitors. For example, assume the system generates an association rule as follows: If "Little Flying Phoenix (Sculpture, Yang Yuyu)" and "Suckling Lamb (Sculpture, Ju Ming)," then "Field Laboring (Print, Yang Yuyu)." Then, if a visitor inquires information about the 'Little Flying Phoenix' by Yang Yuyu and the 'Suckling Lamb' by Ju Ming, the system automatically recommends the information about the 'Field Laboring' by Yang Yuyu to the visitor as shown in Figure 1(a). (a) The user can select different (b) The other recommendation mode. recommendation modes. Fig. 1. Exhibition recommendation. 2.2 Collaborative filtering Information about visitors is used to perform collaborative filtering [2]. Recommendations are created according to groups of visitors with similar and related interests and preference. www.intechopen.com Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID 403 Item-based filtering is a strategy where the connection between items is identified according to visitors' selections, preferences, and browsing patterns. This technique is commonly employed on e-commerce web sites where, for example, warehouse retailers collect information about products purchased by customers. Next, the connection between purchased products and customers' purchasing habits are then estimated. Finally, the warehouse retailers can recommend additional and relevant products when the customer purchases certain items. Big Pot Square Dish Revolve Soul-box II Moon Bowl Visitor A 1 1 0 0 1 Visitor B 0 1 0 1 1 Visitor C 0 0 1 0 0 Visitor D 1 1 0 0 0 Visitor E 1 0 0 1 0 Table 1. Collaborative filtering example. Table 1 shows an example of collaborative filtering where artifacts viewed by a visitor are assigned 1 and artifacts that are not visited are assigned 0. In this example, the viewing patterns of visitor A and visitor D have the highest similarity. Therefore, artifacts viewed by visitor A that has not yet been viewed by visitor D should be recommended to visitor D. The similarity between visitors and artifacts, and the most suitable information of the exhibition for recommendation can be calculated as follows [15] where the similarity of viewing patterns between two visitors a and b is denoted by sim(a,b): ∑ j=1( paj − pa )( pbj − pb ) N sim(a, b) = corrab = ∑ j=1( paj − pa ) 2 ∑ j=1( pbj − pb ) 2 , (1) N N N is the total number of exhibitions, paj is visitor a's rating on the exhibition j, and pa is visitor a's average rating on all exhibitions. Let H = {h1, h2 ,..., hm } be the set of visited exhibitions by visitor c. The query likeness score QLS(c,j) of visitor c on a new exhibition j is ∑ ( pij − pi ) × sim(c, i) determined by [15]: ∑ sim(c, i) QLS (c, j ) = i∈H . (2) i∈H When viewing artifacts in one section, visitors may miss artworks of interest on display in other locations of the museum or artwork currently not on display at all. Museums usually have limited real-estate to display artifacts, and therefore have to rotate the artifacts on display during different exhibitions. The recommendation system therefore emphasizes exhibitions from different sections that have been viewed by other visitors during previous exhibitions. These exhibitions may be in different styles but from the same creator or exhibitions with the same style but in a different category [7]. Artifacts not on display can therefore be viewed on the PDA via the recommendation system as shown in Figure 1. www.intechopen.com 404 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology The system also provides a directory map to help visitors easily navigate to the recommended item when recommended artifacts are on display in different locations to where the visitors presently are (see Figure 2). Fig. 2. Exhibition directory map. 3. System implementation The architecture of the mobile guide system is illustrated in Figure 3. The mobile guide infrastructure comprises PDA clients, RFID readers, a wireless network and EPC class 1 electronic tags. Each exhibition sign in the exhibition center is fitted with a unique ISO 15693 passive electronic tag. These tags are read by the PDA RFID readers allowing the artifact to be identified. Detailed content associated with the identified item is then downloaded via the wireless network and presented on the PDA together with a FAQ or a questionnaire. In addition, the electronic tag read by the RFID also identifies the whereabouts of the visitor allowing their movements to be tracked [1]. The back-end server is managed by exhibition centre personnel who have to update the database each time an exhibition is changed. They also provide answers to questions posted by visitors. Traditional prerecorded guides require the visitors to follow prewritten scripts and fixed routes around the items on display. This is problematic for visitors who are unable to keep up with the explanations, visitors who wish to deviate from the tour and explore the exhibition on their own, and sometimes, visitors are unable to find the exhibitions because they are unfamiliar with the floor plan, misunderstand the guides, or the museum is so crowded such that physical movement and vision is restricted. The user-friendly interface helps overcome these limitations and difficulties as it provides a more convenient environment for the visitors to browse the artworks and exhibitions. www.intechopen.com Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID 405 Fig. 3. The architecture of the RFID guide system. 3.1 RFID guiding The digital content is prepared by the exhibition center staff. The multimedia contents include textual explanations, digitally recorded audio, graphical illustrations and short video clips. Each entry in the content database is linked to the identifier of the encased electronic RFID tag that is attached to the sign of the physical artifact on display together with RFID guiding marks that help visitors know where to point the RFID reader. Visitors simply move the RFID equipped PDA close to the RFID guiding mark to read the discernment code of the electronic tag. The middleware identifies the content associated with the discernment code which then can be displayed in the PDA as shown in Figure 4. Visitors do not need to input textual queries. Text input is particularly difficult, error-prone and time-consuming on handheld devices [18, 19]. Further examples from an art gallery in Taipei county are shown in Figures 5-8. Museum may employ multiple RFID-tags and guide marks around popular artifacts that attract many simultaneous visitors. For instance, RFID-tags could be placed on both sides and beneath a wall mounted piece, or in all four directions, or more, around some items on a pedestal. www.intechopen.com 406 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology (b) (a) (a) HF RFID reader. (b) ISO 15693 passive electronic tag. Fig. 4. The RFID-based guide system. Fig. 6. The visitor moved the handheld Fig. 5. A painting with a RFID-enhanced computer close to the information plate. The information plate. RFID-reader picks up the ID of the painting. www.intechopen.com Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID 407 Fig. 7. Information about the painting is Fig. 8. The visitor browses the downloaded downloaded from a server via the wireless information. network. 3.2 Discovering "Hidden Treasures" with UHF RFID The mobile guiding system is designed to help visitors explore the exhibitions freely according to their personal interests and preferences. The system allows visitors' viewing patterns to be recorded and these records can subsequently be analyzed by the exhibition staff such that future exhibitions can be improved. The layout of the exhibition can be changed by placing popular and famous objects at strategic locations such that visitors have to walk past and discover lesser known objects, in a similar manner to which merchandise are strategically placed in modern supermarkets. However, we also exploit UHF RFID to actively attract visitors to less popular objects. Imagine for instance a painting on display in the exhibition depicting two people touching hands on a shadowy background. Uninformed visitors may only catch a brief glimpse of the painting, judge the painting unimportant and then move on. However with the UHF RFID installed, the system could for instance raise the visitors' attention by delivering the message "What is it in their hands?" as they walk past the painting. When visitors are in the vicinity of a less popular artifact with an UHF RFID reader installed, the UHF RFID reader identifies the UHF electronic tag attached to the PDA device carried by the visitor and transmits the information to the back-end server. The server identifies the wireless network IP address of the PDA with this particular tag. Then the message can be sent to the PDA and reported to the visitor as shown in Figure 9. Consequently, visitors are more likely to discover that the two people in the painting are holding a dandelion in their hands and to realize that the painting is conveying the happiness associated with the arrival of spring. 3.3 Multimedia streaming Multimedia presentations, such as video and audio, are presented to the visitors on their PDAs (see Figure 10). However, most PDAs have limited storage capacity and the multimedia content is therefore hosted on the server, instantly encoded and streamed over the wireless network before it is decoded and presented to the visitors on their PDAs. This www.intechopen.com 408 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology also simplifies maintenance of the system as only the server needs to be updated and not each of the individual PDAs. In addition to admiring the beauty of the artworks, the visitors may also gain insight into additional relevant information through the presentations, such as the complexity of the creation process. Hopefully, this makes learning more entertaining and fun. Fig. 9. RFID promotion. Click! (a) The video streaming function. (b) Playing the video. Fig. 10. Multimedia streaming. www.intechopen.com Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID 409 4. Evaluation and analysis An evaluation experiment was set up to assess the effectiveness of the mobile guide. The purpose was to examine the stability of the system, to acquire users' opinions about the system and to identify potential problems. HF electronic tags were attached to the back of photographs of historical and cultural relics. After having completed the interactive guided tour the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire. In addition, the proposed system was compared to existing guide systems. 4.1 Results of the experiments A total of 133 questionnaires were collected. The results of the six-part questionnaire can be summarized as follows. (1) 82.7% of the users think that the system is interesting. (2) 78.1% of the users enjoy learning using the mobile guiding system. (3) 75.9% of the users believe that it is suitable to use such a system in exhibition centers. (4) All users agree that it is uncomplicated to manage this system and do not require any prior learning for operation. (5) 84.2% of the users liked the recommendation function. (6) Some parents suggested including artifact-related games for children to promote fun learning. Other observations include: (1) The RFID guiding function can correctly read and respond to 100% of the information delivered from the exhibitions. (2) There was a system delay of approximately one second after an RFID electronic tag was read. (3) The RFID recommendation system yields a success rate of 94.7% in recommending interesting exhibitions to other visitors. (4) Without the multimedia streaming technology, it takes on average three seconds to download a two-minute video before it can be played. The multimedia streaming technology efficiently partitioned the video such that the perceived downloading delay diminished. The ubiquitous nature of RFID technology allows RFID tags to be successfully read although they are hidden out of sight. Consequently, the visual appearance of artifacts on display are not affected or disturbed as they are with conventional signs and posters [11]. There is an interaction distance of approximately 15 centimeters between the HF RFID tag and the reader and this was found to be a reasonable distance. If the distance is too large, the reader may simultaneously detect multiple tags and the system will be unable to resolve which artifact the user is actually browsing. However, the reading distance of the UHF frequency band RFID is much larger. If there are two, or more, visitors within the interaction range, there will be a collision between the UHF electronic tags. Furthermore, during the experiment we found that the UHF frequency band RFID is affected by moisture. Most visitors put the UHF RFID tickets in their pockets. These tickets did not operate accurately when they were too close to the human body and were affected by human moisture. The UHF electronic tag was; therefore, attached to the PDA instead. This has greatly improved the operational accuracy of the UHF subsystem, but it also helps reduce costs as the UHF electronic tags can be reused. 4.2 Guide system comparison Most guide systems can be categorized as being either designated guide systems or active guide systems. A designated guide system includes stationary components such as exhibition labels and information kiosks. Exhibition labels contain simple and general exhibition-related textual information. On the other hand, an information kiosk is a www.intechopen.com 410 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology powerful multimedia workstation which can be placed in each section to provide interactive responses to exhibition inquiries. Although, a kiosk is a powerful information resource it somewhat is inconvenient, as users must move away from the artifact in order to use the kiosk. Active guide systems include professional guides, brochures, prerecorded audio, and digital mobile guide systems. Professional guides are individuals that have been trained by the exhibition center to escort visitors around the exhibition while explaining the details of the artifacts on display. Due to limited budgets and few staff professional guided tours are often only provided during certain peak hours or need to be pre-booked. Brochures and booklets that contain information about the exhibition are often distributed to visitors when they purchase tickets or enter the exhibition centers. Prerecorded audio guides force the visitors to view the exhibitions in a particular order. Digital mobile guide systems, such as digital voice players or PDAs, provide enhanced interaction to users. Visitors can obtain exhibition- related content by entering the artifact name or ID number into the system as they move to each exhibition on display. Table 2 presents a comparison of the different strategies discussed herein according to five key objectives, variable cost, and the simplicity of updating the information. Assigned RFID-based Pre-recorded professional Brochures guide system audio guides Response Low (Self- Very high High Lowest instantaneity searching) Dynamic High Very high Lowest Low interaction User-friendly High Very high Lowest Low interface Abundant in Very high High Low Very low content Information Very high Low Lowest Very low gathering Fixed costs High Very high Low Very low (training, etc) Cost for each Very low Very high Low High service Update Very high Very low Low High simplicity Table 2. Comparisons of guide systems. 5. Conclusions An integrated interactive RFID guide system based on information retrieval, association rules, and personalized recommendation that assists visitors browsing an exhibition centers was presented. Visitors retrieve exhibition-related multimedia information by using RFID equipped PDAs. Recorded visitor viewing patterns can be subsequently analyzed and used to improve the exhibition to achieve more effective learning. www.intechopen.com Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID 411 The database needs to be maintained such that it accurately reflects the physical artifacts on display at any given time. In addition, the question-and-answer function did not offer suitable answers to all questions. Thus, there are two directions for further improvements: Tailored content: Users have different levels of knowledge and the contents of the exhibitions should be designed accordingly. Thus, contents tailored for different visitor groups such as children, young adults and senior visitors could greatly help improve the overall user experience. On-line oracle: A computer system is no substitute for a real human expert. One can therefore use the wireless infrastructure to connect visitors to a real guide which can offer visitors an immediate remote on-line one-to-one guiding service. 6. Acknowledgment This work is supported by National Science Council, Taiwan under Grants NSC94-2745-E- 036-001-URD, NSC94-2745-E-036-002-URD and NSC94-2213-E-036-021. 7. References [1] P. Bahl and V.N. Padmanabhan, "RADAR: An in-building RF-based user location and tracking system," Proc. of IEEE Computer & Communications Societies, Tel-Aviv, Israel, vol. 2, pp.775-784, Mar. 2000. [2] D. Billsus and M.J. Pazzani, "Learning collaborative information filters," Proc. of Int. Conf. on Machine Learning, Madison, WI, USA, pp.46-54, July 1998. [3] M. Derntl and K.A. Hummel, "Modeling context-aware e-learning scenarios," Proc. of the 3rd IEEE Int. Conf. on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshop, Kauai Island, HI, USA, pp.337-342, Mar. 2005. [4] K. Facer, R. Joiner, D. Stanton, J. Reid, R. Hull and D. Kirk, "Savannah: mobile gaming and learning," Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, vol. 20, no. 4, pp.399-409, Sept. 2004. [5] J. Hightower, R. Want and G. Borriello, "SpotON: an indoor 3D location sensing technology based on RF signal strength," UW CSE 00-02-02, Department of Computer Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, Feb. 2000. [6] Y.-P. Huang and T. Tsai, "A fuzzy semantic approach to retrieving bird information using handheld devices," IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 20, no. 1, pp.16-23, Jan./Feb. 2005. [7] R.J. Mooney and L. Roy, "Content-based book recommending using learning for text categorization," Proc. of the 5th ACM Conf. on Digital Libraries, San Antonio, TX, USA, pp.195-204, June 2000. [8] L.M. Ni, Y. Liu., Y.-C. Lau and A.P. Patil, "LANDMARC: indoor location sensing using active RFID," Proc. of the IEEE Conference of Pervasive Computing and Communications, Vienna, Austria, vol. 10, no. 6, pp.701-710, Nov. 2004. [9] S. Poslad, H. Laamanen, R. Malaka, A. Nick, P. Buckle and A. Zipf, "CRUMPET: Creation of user-friendly mobile services personalized for tourism," Proc. of the 2nd Int. Conf. on 3G Mobile Communication Technologies, London, UK, pp.28-32, Mar. 2001. [10] R. Baeza-Yates and B. Ribeiro-Neto, Modern Information Retrieval, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, USA, 1999. www.intechopen.com 412 Development and Implementation of RFID Technology [11] R. Want, "Enabling ubiquitous sensing with RFID," IEEE Computer, vol. 37, no. 4, pp.84- 86, Apr. 2004. [12] R. Weinstein, "RFID: a technical overview and its application to the enterprise," IT Professional, vol. 7, issue 3, pp.27-33, May-June 2005. [13] S. Zadrozny and J. Kacprzyk, "An extended fuzzy Boolean model of information retrieval revisited," Proc. of The 14th IEEE Int. Conf. on Fuzzy Systems, Reno, Nevada, USA, pp.1020-1025, May 2005. [14] J. Han and M. Kamber, Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2001. [15] C.Y. 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Davies, "The role of adaptive hypermedia in a context- aware tourist GUIDE," Communications of the ACM, vol. 45, no. 5, pp.47-51, May 2002. [21] P.M. Aoki, R.E. Grinter, A. Hurst, M.H. Szymanski, J.D. Thornton and A. Woodruff, "Sotto voce: exploring the interplay of conversation and mobile audio spaces," Proc. of SIGCHI Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA, pp.431-438, Apr. 2002. [22] M. Fleck, M. Frid, T. Kindberg, E. O'Brien-Strain, R. Rajani and M. Spasojevic, "From informing to remembering: deploying a ubiquitous systems in an interactive science museum," IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 1, no. 2, pp.13-21, Apr.-June, 2002. [23] K. Cheverst, N. Davies, K. Mitchell, A. Friday and C. Efstratiou, "Developing a context- aware electronic tourist guide: some issues and experiences," Proc. of SIGCHI Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems, The Hague, The Netherlands, pp.17-24, Apr. 2000. [24] D. Raptis, N. Tselios and N. Avouris, "Context-based design of mobile applications for museums: a survey of existing practices," Proc. of 7th Int. Conf. on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices & Services, Salzburg, Austria, pp.153-160, Sept. 2005. [25] A.K.H. Tung, H. Lu, J. Han and L. Feng, "Efficient mining of intertransaction association rules," IEEE Trans. on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 15, no. 1, pp.43-56, Jan./Feb. 2003. [26] H. Lu, J. Han, and L. Feng, "Stock movement and n-dimensional intertransaction association rules," Proc. SIGMOD Workshop Research Issues on Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, vol. 12, pp.1-7, 1998. [27] J. Pei, J. Han, B. Mortazavi-Asl, J. Wang, H. Pinto, Q. Chen, U. Dayal and M.C. Hsu, "Mining sequential patterns by pattern-growth: the PrefixSpan approach," IEEE Trans. on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 16, no. 11, pp.1424-1440, Nov. 2004. www.intechopen.com Development and Implementation of RFID Technology Edited by Cristina Turcu ISBN 978-3-902613-54-7 Hard cover, 450 pages Publisher I-Tech Education and Publishing Published online 01, January, 2009 Published in print edition January, 2009 The book generously covers a wide range of aspects and issues related to RFID systems, namely the design of RFID antennas, RFID readers and the variety of tags (e.g. UHF tags for sensing applications, surface acoustic wave RFID tags, smart RFID tags), complex RFID systems, security and privacy issues in RFID applications, as well as the selection of encryption algorithms. The book offers new insights, solutions and ideas for the design of efficient RFID architectures and applications. While not pretending to be comprehensive, its wide coverage may be appropriate not only for RFID novices but also for experienced technical professionals and RFID aficionados. How to reference In order to correctly reference this scholarly work, feel free to copy and paste the following: Yo-Ping Huang, Yueh-Tsun Chang, Wei-Po Chuang and Frode Eika Sandnes (2009). Enhancing the Interactivity of Learning-Guide Systems with RFID, Development and Implementation of RFID Technology, Cristina Turcu (Ed.), ISBN: 978-3-902613-54-7, InTech, Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/development_and_implementation_of_rfid_technology/enhancing_the_inter activity_of_learning-guide_systems_with_rfid InTech Europe InTech China University Campus STeP Ri Unit 405, Office Block, Hotel Equatorial Shanghai Slavka Krautzeka 83/A No.65, Yan An Road (West), Shanghai, 200040, China 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Phone: +385 (51) 770 447 Phone: +86-21-62489820 Fax: +385 (51) 686 166 Fax: +86-21-62489821 www.intechopen.com
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Read Will Here
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I was privileged to participate in Next Design Leadership Institute's Beautiful Diversion. We were asked to comment on Bruce Nussbaum's article "Are Designers the enemy of design?" It was a really great exercise, and I'm humbled by the company I share in the document. The contributors are: Sir George Cox, Tony Fry, John Thackara, Elizabeth [...]
Tags: Publications
"WPF/e" is Silverlight
April 16th, 2007 3 Comments
Yesterday at NAB, Microsoft announced Silverlight. I for one am really excited for this. This is the first step towards the public unveiling of Silverlight. While I can't go into technical details at this point, what I can say is that Silverlight (it feels so good to say that versus 'WPF/e'!!) renders a subset of [...]
Tags: Announcements · Microsoft
Hear Will Here
April 9th, 2007 Comments Off
I hope you'll forgive the wordplay – I just couldn't resist. It's amazing what sleep depravation will do to one. In my case, it seems to be a predilection for word puns. Anyhoo… I did a podcast with Chris a week ago. I launched on Friday. Many thanks to Steve Portigal, our host, and to [...]
Tags: Podcast
The process works: Expression is now part of MSDN Premium
April 4th, 2007 Comments Off
I'm really happy to announce that MSDN Premium will now include Expression Web and Expression Blend (once released). This had been a point of some contention both within Microsoft's UX community, as well as within the overall developer community. The great news (and one of the things that makes me happy to be at Microsoft) [...]
Tags: Announcements · Microsoft
Meet me in Vegas…
April 4th, 2007 Comments Off
MIX07 is SOLD OUT I hope you got your tickets already – if not, there's a waitlist for hopeful. It's going to be a great show. Looking forward to seeing you all there! For those of you who can't make it, visitmix.com will be showing content from the conference starting April 30th.
Tags: Announcements · Conferences · Microsoft
Boot Camp 1.2
April 4th, 2007 1 Comment
For all of you out there using Macs (myself included), Apple has just released Boot Camp 1.2. Vista on my MacBook has always been very fast (faster than my Tablet PC, but that's a story for a different post). The biggest challenge has always been hacking the old XP drivers into working on Vista. There [...]
Tags: Apple
MIX07 is coming
April 2nd, 2007 Comments Off
As I'm sure you know, MIX07 is coming up soon. We're going to have a bunch of great sessions. Be sure to check them out! I'm looking forward to Lou Carbone of Experience Engineering, GK VanPatter and Elizabeth Pastor of NextDesign Leadership Institute, Bill Scott of Yahoo!, Roger Black, and Kip Voytek of RGA. All [...]
Tags: Announcements · Conferences · Microsoft
Anecdote from the road
April 2nd, 2007 Comments Off
So in my recent trip to southern California, we (inevitably) ended up meeting with one of our media and entertainment customers. As we're sitting in the lobby of this org, surrounded my more italian marble since I was last in Rome, a gentleman walked over to us dressed in a very nice suit. "Are you [...]
Tags: Microsoft

subset: commoncrawl


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Choice Organic Teas, Organic Decaffeinated Green Tea, 16 Tea Bags, 1.1 oz (32 g)
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Choice Organic Teas, Organic Decaffeinated Green Tea, 16 Tea Bags, 1.1 oz (32 g)
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Expiration Date
The length of time for the expiration date or "best used before" date depends on the type of product, as well as the brand.
Perishable items (such as flax oils or certain probiotics) generally have shorter expiration dates. Although our warehouse is fully air-conditioned, these more fragile items are put in cold storage (freezer or refrigeration unit) for maximum freshness.
Our receiving department does its best to verify and then enter the correct expiration dates for all incoming products. However, discrepancies do occur from time to time. This being said, the exceptionally high turnover at iHerb ensures that our inventory is among the freshest in the industry.
Shipping Weight
The Shipping Weight includes the product, protective packaging material and the actual shipping box. In addition, the Shipping Weight may be adjusted for the Dimensional Weight (e.g. length, width & height) of a package. It is important to note that certain types of products (e.g. glass containers, liquids, fragile, refrigerated or ice packed) will often require protective packaging material. As such, these products will reflect a higher Shipping Weight compared to the unprotected product.
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Total: $17.86
Combo Discount: -$3.16
Together: $14.70
Product Overview
Delight the best of both worlds with a cup that's both decaffeinated and flavorful. This crisp green tea grown in the mountains of India is gently decaffeinated using carbon dioxide, the only certified organic method. Enjoy the true essence of this refreshing and wholesome tea, day or night.
Perfectly Balanced Tea
Since 1989, our mission has been to improve the world one cup of tea at a time. As the first exclusively organic tea crafter in the United States, and later, the first to offer Fair Trade Certified tea, we craft the world's finest teas with conservation of the planet and its creatures in mind. Let's chat over a cuppa.
Savor Every Moment
There's so much good in a cup of tea. It clears our mind and boosts our spirit. Tea brings us closer to friends and family looking to share the day's stories and it connects us to all those around the globe who cherish this timeless ritual. Whether it's a hearty mug that gets your morning started, or a relaxing cup that helps you unwind and reflect on your day, we thank you for enjoying Choice Organic Teas.
Boil fresh water, cool momentarily, steep tea bag in 8 oz water for 2-3 minutes and enjoy.
Iced Tea Is Easy!
Just brew double strength.
Decaffeinated organic green tea*.
*Fair Trade Certified


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As part of the Nanticoke River Jamboree Celebration we wish to give visitors to Handsell a chance to explore the entire Indiantown area by both land and water by providing paddling and biking opportunities for all ages. The event is in part a fundraiser for the Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance, a non-profit all volunteer organization. We have contracted with highly experienced local outfitters, Adrenaline High to make your trips enjoyable and educational.
Come to the Jamboree and rent a kayak to explore the beautiful Chicone Creek to see where the native Nanticoke people lived before English settlement. Before your trip, be capitvated by Daniel Firehawk Abbott, native American interpreter as he takes you back to life along the Chicone as you learn of his ancestors, the Nanticokes. Take an hour from the day at the Jamboree and rent a kayak–you will be amazed by what is hidden behind the hard-wood swamps of the Chicone Village area.
Bikes rentals will also be available for the day! Explore the Indiantown on two wheels!


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You will find plenty of good things about internet dating websites plus they provide the perfect chances to satisfy singles in California and Sacramento who've similar reasons, to discover someone attractive who attracts them plus they feel there is a reference to. A web-based dating website allows you take the time to search through customers profiles and photos awaiting getting in touch, next first email continues to be sent then your greatest hurdle has ended. Emails may then be sent backwards and forwards to construct a rapport between you before any meet-up needs to be organized. Singles forums are a good spot to talk to a number of people and discover anybody who appeals.
Free internet dating sites offer a good way of developing associations and also to find romance. Easy to use it takes merely a couple of minutes to join up online, then enter your zipcode and you can get a database with 1000's of other singles living nearby. Dont waste anymore time, sign up for free local dating today and start the quest for your future partner.


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Old Clockmaker's Riddle
Break the spell cast upon a tiny town!
Play Now!
Break the spell cast upon a tiny town by solving the Old Clockmaker's Riddle in this fascinating Match 3 story! When the clock of a prosperous and happy little town starts running backwards, the place suddenly falls into decay. Play over 50 tantalizing levels - matching three gems in a row - to remove the curse and return the town to its former glory!
- Over 50 amazing levels to play
- 25 adorable houses to save from ruin
- 25 challenging mini-games to master
- 12 powerful upgrades and five magic tools
- Two game modes: relaxed and timed
- Game Center Support
- New iPad Retina Display Support
Requirements: compatible with iPad 1,2,3, 4.3+ firmware
Languages supported: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Old Clockmaker's Riddle © 2013 - 2015 DAVA INC. Published by G5 Entertainment AB. G5 Games and G5 Entertainment are registered trademarks of G5 Entertainment AB. Apple, the Apple logo, and iPod are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
All Rights Reserved.
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More than 25 years ago I was involved in the effort to promote grazing management. During the early years, grassland management for feeding beef or dairy cows was not promoted by the agricultural universities, or most of the conservation agencies at the federal, state or local levels.
Pasture was old style farming and the Ag. Professors were pushing the new and improved model of farming. Universities utilized grant money from chemical and fertilizer companies to do studies, so they towed the company mantra of bigger is better, get big or get out, keep the cows in the barn, and use our latest new and improved product to improve your bottom line, which was really the salesman's and the company's bottom line. The times haven't changed for many products!
The times have changed for pasture though. Here it is, 25 years later and grazing management has been accepted by many farmers to improve their bottom line. Grazing grass reduces manure handling costs and energy costs, improves soil health and herd health by getting the cows out of the barn and on grass pastures where nature intended them to be in the first place.
I recently attended two grazing meetings, one in Essex County, NY and the other in Wells, Vermont. At both meetings, grassland production was based on quality soils and the benefit of having abundant organic matter to supply nutrients and energy to growing plants.
Grazing consultants, including myself, have a variety of options on how to graze.
For reseeding and establishing clover, there are times when nubbing the grass down to the dirt and drilling or spreading clover or perennial ryegrass seed works. Letting the cows push the seed and organic matter into the soil with their hoofs gets the job done. Drilling into sod works also, BUT, it must be done when the grasses are nubbed down, and there is plenty of moisture to allow the young plants to get established. If the grasses get too high, they will shade out the clovers that are trying to grow.
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To The Dark Wanderer
Written by Selena / Oct 10, 1999
Lie back with your cock sticking straight up, I want to sloooowly slide it down my throat until my nose touches your throbbing balls. I want to inhale the heat of you, smell the heat rising from those swollen balls, see how big they are. I want to think of how much cum that there is in them, soon to FILL my shaved, bare, cunt.
I want to feel your hot cum flooding my cunt, filling me to overflowing! I will slide my mouth up and down until your balls swell up, and your cock is ready to explode!!
Then I will straddle you, reaching down and open my cunt WIDE open then SLOOOOOOOOWLY slide down over cock, still holding my cunt open until I'm all the way down: with your cock DEEEEEP in my womb.
When you're ALL the way in I'll rock back and forth until I can drape my cunt lips around your balls, then I'll slowly rock back and forth, working you deeper and deeper into me.
As I WORK YOU DEEPER I'll look my husband in the eyes, letting him see how good you are.
When you finally explode, I'll push down so you can feel my cunt milking the cum from your balls, sucking it DEEP up into me, not letting you go until you're empty.
Then I'll sloooowly slide off holding my cunt closed, to keep all of your cum inside of me.
Then I'll have Billie lay under me and let him suck all off your hot cum out of my cunt. As he is licking and sucking , I will suck your cock until you're stiff and hard again, and your balls are full again.
Then I'll sit on Billies cock sliding it deep up my ass, then I'll lean back and guide you into my hot dripping wet, sucking cunt.
Then I'll bounce back and forth between your cocks until you both explode deep inside me.
What would we do then?
Please visit our new video site at slutwives.com!
2015 DarkWanderer.net All Rights Reserved


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What's in Heather Morris's Makeup Bag?
Heather Morris (Brittany) is getting prettier and prettier. Has anybody else noticed this? Is it the fame? The side effect of having a cute boyfriend? As a matter of fact, no. Heather totes around a few key beauty items in her makeup bag. Usmagazine.com managed to get their hands on its contents, so now we know what products she uses to stay so fresh-faced and glam. We may never be quite as pretty... but we sure can try!
Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm ($7, burtsbees.com)
"I put on lip balm first thing in the morning and always use it before I swipe on my red lipstick."
Flirt! Opening Line Liquid Liner in Ebony Edge ($12, kohls.com)
"I can't live without my dark plum eyeliner. I use liquid because it's easier on my eyes."
Mason Pearson Rake Comb ($18, beauty.com)
"I found Artie's magic comb — just kidding!"
Find out what else she carries in her makeup bag here!
Can't get enough Gleetastic goodness? "Like" us on Facebook!


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Updated at: 03/16/2013 4:39 AM
By JON GAMBRELL
(AP) LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria's foreign ministry has summoned a top U.S. diplomat to explain why its embassy posted critical comments on Twitter over a presidential pardon given to a former governor convicted on corruption charges.
A statement issued Friday night said Nigerian officials filed an urgent request to speak to the U.S. deputy chief of mission over what it described as "meddlesomeness."
In messages Friday on Twitter, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria said it was "deeply disappointed" over the pardon issued this week to former Bayelsa state Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached and later convicted in Nigeria. Investigators said he likely stole millions of dollars while in office.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan once served as Alamieyeseigha's deputy and pardoned him. His impeachment marked the start of Jonathan's rise in Nigerian politics.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Our vision is to make data and analytics accessible to all
About BitYota
BitYota was founded in late 2011 on the guiding principle that data is a critical asset for all companies. Today we need to identify problems as they happen to make critical business decisions frequently and quickly, driven by data. We are data geeks by nature. We have over 35 years of Big Data experience at Yahoo!, Oracle, Informix, Veritas/Symantec, BMC, Tibco, Twitter and Salesforce.
Our vision is to make data and analytics accessible to all. There's a revolution underway and we're taking sides. We want to create a data platform that enables everyone – from data scientists and engineers to SQL savvy analysts, business and product users, to understand their data, to build better products/services, and create new avenues of growth and productivity. Ultimately, we want us all to live in a better world.
Dev PatelCEO Dev was VP at Yahoo! for six years managing several ad products and data systems. Dev was the former CEO of Whereonearth, the company Yahoo! bought in October 2005 for its geo targeting needs. Prior to Whereonearth he was in the Corporate & Business Development team at Racal Electronics, a major Telco and Defense conglomerate in the UK. Prior to the Corp Dev role, he was at Racal Labs and in academic research as a Research Fellow and PhD student.
Graham SummersCOO Graham is an entrepreneur with a proven track record of successfully leading high growth technology businesses. He was the founder and CEO of PCL, one of the UK's leading technology services businesses as well as Chairman or CEO of several venture funded software businesses including Whereonearth, Mediasurface and weComm. He has been an investor in numerous software businesses and an advisor to a number of VC firms. He is a board member at BitYota responsible for all commercial aspects of the company including sales, business development, strategic alliances and channel partnerships.
Harmeek Singh BediCTO Harmeek brings 15+ years of experience in building database technologies at Oracle, Informix/IBM. At Oracle he was a lead architect in the server technology group that implemented partitioning, parallel execution, storage management and SQL execution of the database server. Prior to BitYota, he spent 2+ years at Yahoo! working on Hadoop and Big Data problems. Harmeek holds 10+ patents in database technologies.
Poulomi DamanyVP Product Poulomi brings 15+ years of Product Management Experience in Enterprise Data. Prior to BitYota, she led global product and engineering teams delivering Yahoo's custom ad targeting, listings recommendations and branded experiences. Prior to Yahoo!, she ran Product Management teams for the High Availability & Disaster Recovery product lines at Symantec/Veritas.
Paresh GoswamiVP Engineering Paresh brings 12+ years of experience of building data technologies. Prior to BitYota he was at Yahoo! where he led the development of a user segmentation platform built on user click stream data. Prior to Yahoo! he spent 9+ years at BMC Software managing teams responsible for development of recovery solutions for major database products like DB2 UDB, Sybase, Informix and led development of new backup and recovery solution for DB2 UDB.
And seasoned individuals including Maynard Webb, Jerry Yang, and Sharmila Mulligan.


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Posted at: 07/02/2013 10:01 PM
Updated at: 07/03/2013 6:01 AM
If you are looking for something fun to do with your kids this summer, the Rochester Museum and Science Center has a new exhibit that might spark their interest. Visitors of the Electricity Theater experience bursts of lightning, accompanied by musical tones.
"What we've brought is a pair of solid state tesla coils," said Joe DiPrima of ArcAttack, the company that runs the exhibit. "The idea is that the lightening bolts actually generate musical notes, so when the arcs are forming, they can actually play melodies."
ArcAttack began posting videos of the musical lightning on YouTube in 2006. It was so popular that it eventually became the exhibit that is now permanently on display at the RMSC.


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Gallup tells us that Americans oppose Obama's handling of health care by a 49-43 percent margin; only 35 percent of Independents approve (down from 55 percent just a month ago).
Sen. Diane Feinstein is miffed at the White House's heavy-handed political organizing efforts.
Sen. Claire McCaskill doesn't think it's right to call the health-care protesters racists.
Those citizen protests at town halls are gaining admirers: 34 percent of respondents say they've made them more sympathetic to health-care opponents, 21 percent less so. Independents are more sympathetic by a 2-1 margin; 51 percent say "angry attacks" are "democracy," while 41 percent say it is "abuse." Why it's almost as if Americans approve of voters taking matters into their own hands.
Could it be they are spending too much money? "The federal deficit climbed higher into record territory in July, hitting $1.27 trillion with two months remaining in the budget year."
The New York Times is agitated that Karl Rove played a role in removing a U.S. attorney who was not prosecuting corruption and voter fraud cases in New Mexico. An outrage! But wait. It was a bad thing to insist prosecutors do their job? Pretty soon we'll be demanding that the Justice Department throw the book at voter intimidation.
Mickey Kaus wants the president to just say no to rationing. Perhaps if Obama hadn't spent trillions already this year, people might not be so cost-conscious. But now cost matters, and in a government-run plan without tort reform, rationing is the only way to control costs. So rationing is not just an uncomfortable subject of discussion; it's the heart of ObamaCare.
Daniel Henninger observes that "to an independent voter or moderate Democrat, President Everyman is starting to look like a salesman for the superstate. One keeps waiting for the president to give this swath of his non-statist constituency something to hang onto. Instead, they see liberal Democrats pistol-whipping the Blue Dog dissenters with nary a peep of objection from the world's most reasonable man."
Alice Rivlin doesn't think we should be popping champagne corks yet: "If you have lost your job, the worst may not be over for a long time. If you have a job, you may still lose it. The main reason for optimism is that the rapid deterioration of the economy has slowed down. Production and sales may even start increasing gradually in the next few months. For many businesses, the worst may be over. But don't expect a bounce. Scared consumers are hanging on to their cash, bemoaning the lost value of their houses and trying to reduce their debts. They won't rush back to the mall to buy things they don't absolutely need. Employers will be cautious about hiring until they are sure the recovery is robust, so unemployment will remain high for several years." Several years?
So maybe we should dump cap-and-trade once and for all. "The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) released a study Wednesday that found under a high-cost scenario the House global warming bill could reduce economic growth by 2.4 percent and cost 2 million jobs by 2030."
Michael Barone on health care: "When a politician tries to stop debate, it's a sign he's losing the argument. Obama seems to have let the House Democrats overplay their hand. He ignored the fact that in our system neither party ever has all the advantages."


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Punkrock.org API
Punkrock.org is a online social hub for information about punk rock music. The community offers access to a variety of media (videos, pictures) community polls, personal and band blogs, current event listings, forums and an avenue to promote your band through the site. The social aspect of the site allows you to "like" favorite bands and tracks as well as groups and businesses involved with the community. Using POST and GET calls, The Punkrock.org API allows developers an opportunity to create apps for the community that access site held information about: users, friend, mail, notifications, and photos. You need to request an API token for access to services. Returns are formatted in JSON.
API Token
Followers (1)
Developers (0)
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API Mashups (0)
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Related Articles
API Spotlight: In2era, MagPlus, and the Nike API
API Spotlight: In2era, MagPlus, and the Nike API
Punkrock.org: Never Mind the Bollocks--Get the API!
Punkrock.org: Never Mind the Bollocks--Get the API!
Source Code
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Can we get an evil queen scream if you already have your Snow White and the Huntsman tickets?!
It's no secret we've been dying over this flick since day one (seriously, we have the trailer memorized), and we know all you loyal fans of Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth are ready to flock to theaters to get your fairy-tale fandom on.
The midnight release is tonight and the flick officially hits theaters June 1, so pull out your sword, put on your crown and get ready to feel like the fairest of them all. Here are 10 things you need to know before you hit the box office:
READ: Snow White and the Huntsman: Review Roundup—Is It the Fairest Summer Movie of Them All?
1. This Is Not Your Average Fairy Tale: We've said it before and we'll say it again: SWATH is dark, creepy and downright effed-up. If you're looking for a basic Disney princess makeover, then stick to the PG Mirror Mirror. You're in for a totally twisted take on the classic fairy tale as Snow White gets a deliciously dark makeover. You've been warned: Don't go see this movie if you're looking for a lighthearted fantasy. Leave that to the animated original.
2. Charlize Theron Is The Best Queen Ever: If you had any doubt Charlize Theron would disappoint, then may we suggest you take another look at one of the wickedly cool trailers. Charlize is enchantingly evil, and it's so refreshing to see the Oscar-winning actress take on a completely different role. Not sure whether it's the sinister stare or the killer creepy voice, but we couldn't think of a better Queen Ravenna. Sorry, K.Stew, but Queen Charlize has stolen our hearts and we're officially obsessed.
READ: Snow White and the Huntsman Soundtrack: Is Florence + the Machine Team Kristen Stewart or Charlize Theron?
3. SWATH Is a Huge Production: Charlize Theron recently said that this is the biggest production she's ever been a part of, and as silly as that may sound coming from such an accomplished actress, it's totally true. The flick had a big-time budget, and the stars have been busy with weeks of endless promotion. It's your classic mega-scale summer flick, and based on early reviews, it just might be the fairest film of this season.
4. Get Ready for Wicked Special Effects: The CGI is insanely impressive, the enchanted forest is completely captivating and, like Kristen said, the land takes you to a place that's otherworldly. Get amped for the stunning setting, the crazy special effects and a totally effed-up fantasyland—the magical world will not disappoint.
5. This Snow White Is Perfect for K.Stew: For all you critics who are complaining about Kristen's awkward mannerisms, take a deep breath and realize that her unfeminine nature is actually spot-on for this Snow White. Snow's been locked in a prison, with absolutely no concept of her beauty or strength. Sounds a bit like the K.Stew we know and love, right? Yep, we say parfait for the part.
MORE: Kristen Stewart—I'm Ready for a Snow White and the Huntsman Sequel!
6. The Soundtrack Brings You a Breath of Life: So we may be a little biased considering we are equally obsessed with Florence + the Machine, but the soundtrack for SWATH is a beautiful mix of Florence Welch's vocals and a breathtaking score by James Newton Howard. Can't you just picture the gorgeous K.Stew frolicking in the fantasyland with those sweet tunes in the background? Absolutely magical.
7. The Badass Stars Got Pretty Banged Up: Charlize pulled a stomach muscle screaming. Kristen Stewart punched Chris Hemsworth in the face. And Kristen learned how to swing a sword better than most men. Consider these stars totally badass—they are completely unafraid to get down and dirty, which, no doubt, is only going to make the film that much better.
8. Wait, There Was Another Snow White? Sorry, Lily Collins, you were cute as a button in Mirror Mirror, but seriously, SWATH puts that fantasy flick to shame. If you've got a 5-year-old in tow, then SWATH probably isn't your best bet, but otherwise, Snow White and the Huntsman is definitely the fairy-tale flick to see. Don't worry, Lil, you'll get 'em next time—perhaps in Fifty Shades of Grey?!
READ: Lily Collins Talks Kristen Stewart, Snow White Rivalry
9. The Supercool Cast Is Close as Could Be: We can't stop gushing about this wickedly cool cast, and we're just so obsessed with how close they have all become. Whether it's Charlize gushing over the "awesome" Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth making a happy birthday Youtube video for Kris or K.Stew talking about how Charlize is the most amazing actress, this cast is clearly obsessed. And don't even get us started on their Moviefone Unscripted or their Fifty Shades reading. We're totally convinced: Best. Cast. Ever.
10. Girl Power to the Max: One of our favorite things about this flick is the killer leading ladies—Charlize and Kristen are hardly your desperate women who can't take care of themselves. Seriously, these bitches are fierce and don't need a man to come save the day. We love the girl-power message the movie sends and cannot wait to see Char and Kris kill it on the big screen.
So there ya have it, Awful readers, 10 fairy-tale facts to get you ready for the fantasy flick. Sound off below with your thoughts on the film and let us know if you think it's the fairest flick of this summer!
(E! and Universal Pictures are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)


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Below is the poem entitled God, Who I Do Adore which was written by poet
Horn. Please feel free to comment on this poem. However, please remember, PoetrySoup is a place of encouragement and growth.
Read Poems by
James Horn
Some of God's love to me did lend
So this poem I started and will send
Once, all of it, I do complete
About morning when God and I did meet.
Early at sunlight is when I began
Waking up and quivering was right hand
Another new poem it wanted to write
Which I now am doing with pure delight.
Temptation to write continued to grow
While words came out and continued to flow
And, as if, I were some wise old sage
I pleasantly put them down on this page.
Each day God seems to be inviting
By giving me an opportunity to start writing
And continue on and complete one more
Poem I promised God who I do adore.


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(skip this header)
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
In honor of International Tiger Day on July 29, here are 30 photos of tiger cubs around the world doing what they do best: being adorable.
STR/AFP / Getty Images
One-day-old Indian Royal Bengal tiger cubs play with their mother in their enclosure at the Assam State Zoo in Guwahati, India, on Nov. 6, 2005.
© 2015 The Hearst Corporation


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Stock Photo:
Beautiful Caribbean tropical beach with white sand and green ocean, suitable background for a variety of designs. FOCUS on edge of waves rolling onto the beach
- Image ID: 23366680
- Copyright: Olga Bogatyrenko
High quality images curated from over 150 countries.
Over 50 million photos, vectors, illustrations, and more.
Simple and flat pricing by image or by month.
Over 230,000 images downloaded every day.


text:
Fidelis E. Satriastanti & Arientha Primanita
The Forestry Ministry has so far this year issued permits to convert more than 300,000 hectares of forest into plantations, an official said on Tuesday.
Tri Joko Mulyono, the ministry's director for forest area zoning, said permits were issued for 342,709 hectares so far this year, compared to a total of 4.9 million hectares in 2009, 8,613 hectares in 2010 and 366,259 hectares in 2011.
"The area of concessions granted decreased drastically in 2010, almost stopping due to the moratorium on the conversion of forest areas, but then it rose again the year after that," he said.
Even under the moratorium, Tri said, there were exceptions to allow conversion of forested land for strategic purposes, including for developing geothermal energy, oil and gas exploration, electricity generation and cultivating rice and sugarcane. Conversion can also be approved for ecosystem restoration, he said.
"The forestry minister [Zulkifli Hasan] has already allocated 300,000 hectares for food areas and 300,000 hectares for sugarcane this year," he said. "The minister has already issued a letter so regional heads can allocate this land for food crops and sugar cane, but many [companies] still prefer to use it for palm oil."
Tri said that once the letter of release was issued by the minister, the land fell under the jurisdiction of the National Land Agency (BPN), and in the event of a dispute, the ministry would not be involved.
"Once the forest area is released, its management becomes the responsibility of the land institution," he said, referring to the BPN.
He said only convertible production forests (HPK), which total 20 million hectares, could be converted into plantations, and companies were also required to get another permit from the ministry to use it.
"Forest areas also can't be released unless they're swapped with other forest areas. They should have a replacement," Tri said, without elaborating on the replacement forests.
The increase in the amount of forest land converted for plantations comes as the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pushes for greater efforts to attain food self-sufficiency.
"Indonesia should become increasingly self-sufficient in food," the president said at a meeting with Agriculture Ministry officials on Monday. "Not only in rice, but also corn, sugar, meat and even soybeans."
He acknowledged that changes to the environment proved a growing challenge for food production. "It will be our challenge because of climate change and the long drought. There have been warnings from international institutions that global food prices could rise," he said.
He asked all government institutions to be ready to confront the challenges and to step up food resilience.
Yudhoyono also called for more land availability, pointing to a recent BPN study that indicated that as many as 7.2 million hectares of land across the country had been abandoned by concession holders and were therefore going to waste.


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KY Dates Requests Generate Discussion
The frustrations of those involved in Kentucky horse racing surfaced Oct. 11 when a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission committee considered requests for 2012 racing dates from the state's five Thoroughbred and three Standardbred tracks.
Dr. Foster Northrop, a veterinarian whose livelihood is tied to Kentucky racing, agreed with Ludt.
"The basic date system is the same and the basic date system is not working," Northrop said. "I was hoping that from last year (when dates were considered) to this year there would be something different and I'm disappointed that it is the 'same-old same-old.'
Churchill Downs president Kevin Flanery said one reason the tracks race the number of days they do is because "there is an issue of how many times you can ask the customer to come to your facility."
Ludt also asked the racetrack executives to "throw something controversial" at the dates' committee to try some new approaches in how they conduct their business.
Flanery said July 4 has historically not been a large wagering day at Churchill Downs, even when it falls on a weekend. With a midweek holiday this year, he said it made more since to everyone involved for Churchill to end its meet on the preceding weekend.
Copyright © 2015 The Blood-Horse, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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Sunday, August 1, 2010
Hell's Kitchen Westies
20 comments:
- Naturedigital said...
I m sure the pig has a lot to say.
He could see all those going in and not coming out.
Great night shot.
- August 2, 2010 at 12:54 AM
- LD said...
Great photo and Hells Kitchen lore. Hope it wasn't Rudy who got whacked.
- August 2, 2010 at 1:18 AM
- bARE-eYED sUN said...
And, er, uhm, uh, . . . Rudy's has the best dirty water dogs in town.
Rudy's has always been a microcosm of the City, from Ragz to Tuxz . . .
o'course its been looking a little more like KEG 101 lately.
the ole Juke ain't what she used to be, but still a stop on the annual circuit, for ole times sake.
p.s. always thought of Rudy's as Ruby's (Coney Island) city cousin.
p.s. s. LOVE the flaky paint on your last post. wonderful texture. always enjoy your work.
- August 2, 2010 at 6:02 AM
- Birdman said...
Rudy's seems quite ruby. After your story, the coloring is symbolic as hell.
- August 2, 2010 at 6:25 AM
- B SQUARED said...
How the times have changed.
- August 2, 2010 at 7:37 AM
- jamr said...
Very good picture, and I had a look at your blog and I like what I've seen. Congratulations, keep it up. In fact, I think I'll follow your blog.
- August 2, 2010 at 9:13 AM
- RedPat said...
Love the sign and the red glow of the 'hood.
- August 2, 2010 at 11:02 AM
- Ken said...
I am a glutton for images like this. It does not boar, but makes me squeal!
- August 2, 2010 at 7:35 PM
- altadenahiker said...
Oh damn, I was going to say that pig don't squeal, but this Ken character is spilling everything.
- August 2, 2010 at 7:55 PM
- Kitty said...
oh who doesn't love Rudys? The free hot dogs, the condom machines at the bathrooms?
Such a Hell's Kitchen staple.
- August 3, 2010 at 8:32 AM
- Cloudia said...
Thanks for taking me back to where East coast pieces of my soul remain!
Aloha from Honolulu :)
Comfort Spiral
- August 3, 2010 at 4:34 PM
- Rob said...
Interesting history, hows' the BBQ?
- August 4, 2010 at 7:58 AM
- Curlykale said...
I'll bet that piggie told some whopping 'pork pies'
- August 4, 2010 at 10:45 AM
- The Photo Huntress said...
I love red in the photo... it kind of fits with whole history of the place. Or do I just have a vivid imagination. lol
- August 4, 2010 at 2:17 PM
- Jean Spitzer said...
Love the way you composed this.
- August 4, 2010 at 6:04 PM
- Goggla said...
Rudy's is the best...I have never NOT come out of there drunk, lol.
- August 4, 2010 at 9:13 PM
- Oakland Daily Photo said...
If he could, he'd be in Witness Protection.
- August 4, 2010 at 11:13 PM
- BANJO52 said...
As in ruby-red blood?
- August 7, 2010 at 3:26 PM
Good dispatch and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you for your information.
- August 10, 2010 at 8:11 AM
I would like to exchange links with your site greenwichvillagenydailyphoto.blogspot.com
Is this possible?
- August 14, 2010 at 12:57 PM


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- Willamette
- Athletics
- News Archive
- 2007
- May
- Bearcats Selected for National Championships
Track and Field | Sunday, May 20, 2007
Bearcats Selected for National Championships
INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced its selections for the 2007 NCAA Division III National Track and Field Championships. Willamette University will be represented by two members of the men's team and six members of the women's squad, plus both women's relay teams. The National Championships will be held May 24-26 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
"We're really excited because ... we're bringing a large group, a fine mix of newcomers with veterans," Willamette University track and field Head Coach Matt McGuirk said. "It should be a very fun weekend. And, after not having any men's team members with previous experience at nationals, we had two guys get into the meet, so that's exciting, too."
Leading the list of selections for the Bearcats is Sarah Zerzan (Jr., San Carlos, CA/Notre Dame HS). Zerzan, who won the NCAA Division III individual women's national championship in cross country this past fall, achieved the top time among all athletes selected to compete in the women's 5,000-meter run. Her qualifying time of 16:28.54 also set Willamette University and Charles Bowles Track records.
Zerzan, who also earned an automatic qualifying time in the 1,500-meter run at 4:31.52, will be competing only in the 5,000-meter run at the National Championships. Likewise, Ellen Davis from Wesleyan College, who led Division III with a time of 16:28.22 in the 5,000-meter run during the regular season, is entered only in the 10,000-meter run at the National Championships, and is seeded 10th at 36:20.77.
Mariah Hanson (Sr., Poulsbo, WA/North Kitsap HS) will compete in the 400-meter dash. Her qualifying time was 56.86 seconds. Jordyn Smith (Jr., Henderson, NV/Green Valley HS) will run for the Bearcats in the 800-meter run, after registering a qualifying time of 2:10.87. Smith also qualified in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:02.34, but will concentrate on the 800 at the National Championships. She is seeded sixth in the race.
Other individual competitors set to compete for the Willamette women's team next weekend are Maddie Coffman (So., Boise, ID/Boise HS) in the 1,500-meter run, Andrea May (Sr., Bellingham, WA/Sehome HS) in the 100-meter hurdles and Jena Winger (So., Bonney Lake, WA/Sumner HS) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Coffman's top time in the 1,500 was 4:32.99. May qualified in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.72 seconds, while Winger registered a time of 10:52.71 in the steeplechase to set a Willamette record and qualify for the National Championships.
Both of the Willamette women's relay teams will compete in Oshkosh for national titles. The 4 x 100-meter relay team of Autum Schmeck (Fr., Beaverton, OR/Aloha HS), Lydia Marsalli (Fr., Klamath Falls, OR/Klamath Union HS), Kaitlin St. John (Fr., Bend, OR/Mountain View HS) and May earned its entry with a time of 48.19 seconds at the Western Oregon Last Chance Meet. The time set a new Bearcat record.
"Three-quarters of the relay (4 x 100) is freshmen," McGuirk said. "It's great for them to get in .. to be in their first year and be going to nationals."
WU's 4 x 400-meter relay team includes Hanson, Jennifer Luecht (Fr., Milwaukie, OR/Rex Putnam HS), Marsalli and May. Willamette's qualifying time in the 4 x 400 relay was 3:50.19 during the Western Oregon Twilight Meet on April 27.
The actual makeup of the relay teams will be determined by McGuirk and his assistants later in the week. Any of Willamette's female athletes who have already been selected for the National Championships may run in one or both relay events. Also, Katie Klein (So., Forest Grove, OR/Forest Grove HS), a sprinter who has participated on Willamette's relays this season, will make the trip to the National Championships as a relay alternate.
Grant Piros (So., Newberg, OR/Newberg HS) in the javelin throw and Julio Vieyra (Sr., Salem, OR/McKay HS) in the 1,500-meter run will represent the WU men's team at the National Championships. Piros is seeded seventh in the javelin with a throw of 199' 3". Vieyra qualified in the 1,500 by achieving a time of 3:52.57.
Willamette has an outstanding history in track and field competition. The men's team has benefited from the efforts of 25 All-Americans in NCAA Division III. Willamette's men tied for third at the National Championships in 2004 and finished fourth in 2005. The Bearcat men have won nine individual national championships in Division III to go with five individual national titles in the NAIA.
The Bearcat women's team has included 33 All-Americans in Division III. Willamette's women tied for 11th at the National Championships in 2005. WU athletes on the women's team have claimed one individual national title in Division III plus four individual national titles in the NAIA.
Willamette's National Championship Entries:
Grant Piros, Javelin Throw, 199' 3"
Julio Vieyra, 1,500-Meter Run, 3:52.57
Mariah Hanson, 400-Meter Dash, 56.86
Jordyn Smith, 800-Meter Run, 2:10.87
Maddie Coffman, 1,500-Meter Run, 4:32.99
Sarah Zerzan, 5,000-Meter Run, 16:28.54
Andrea May, 100-Meter Hurdles, 14.72
Jena Winger, 3,000-Meter Steeplechase, 10:52.71
Women's 4 x 100-Meter Relay (Autumn Schmeck, Lydia Marsalli, Kaitlin St. John, Andrea May), 48:19
Women's 4 x 400-Meter Relay (Lydia Marsalli, Jennifer Luecht, Mariah Hanson, Andrea May), 3:50.19


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Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 05/16/2012
Successful therapies that help minimize postnatal scar formation can be realized through understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of fetal regenerative wound healing. These insights will have implications not only for cutaneous wound healing, but also potentially for any disease process characterized by excessive fibroplasia.
© 2015 M3 USA Corporation. ALL Rights Reserved.


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Archive for White Pelican
Another Beautiful Cruise in ParadisePosted by: | Comments
Our Captiva Cruises boat pulled up to the shore of Cayo Costa at low tide around 1:30 yesterday …
Within minutes, Rachel (KS) found 4 LETTERED OLIVES, 2 FALSE ANGEL WINGS, and AUGER and the colors of the rainbow in JINGLE SHELLS.
Leanne (PA) strolled along the shore to find a true ANGEL WING and a few other goodies…
Ahhhhh. It was so good to get back to Cayo Costa!
I had the pleasure of meeting so many beautiful shellers while on the boat and walking the beach like sisters Beth and Barb (KY) who found SAND DOLLARS, WHELKS and OLIVES. Barb told me they have been hanging out with iLoveShelling.com since the very beginning… almost 4 years ago! She said she still has it bookmarked on her computer under my first blog name "My Shelling Blog". Ha! I felt like I knew them already!
Patti and Tim (FL) were delightful! While Patti was shelling her heart out, Tim was photographing and videoing their whole day. What a good team!
Nancy and "Babe" looked like they were in heaven together all day. She was glowing! Then I found out why. Cameron had surprised her with the cruise for her birthday and she was thrilled. Happy Birthday Nancy! You guys are so stinkin adorable! (heehee his name is Cameron but I just kept hearing Nancy say "Good find, Babe!" …. "Oh! Come here, Babe!" so cute)
John (MA) started out his trip to SW Florida as a birder but found that looking for different species of shells was just as much fun as looking for different species of birds. Here's John picking up his first BABY'S EAR…
Boating was so much fun to0 as we got to see a BALD EAGLE in a nest, OSPREYS catching their fish lunch from the water, DOLPHINS playing…
And seeing that the WHITE PELICANS are back on the islands…
When we arrived back on Captiva, we had a little Shell 'N Tell so we could share some of our shells and finds. Sharon was a joy to meet !
She picked up WHITE CRESTED TELLIN on Cayo Costa. I only see these on Cayo Costa. I dont think Ive ever seen one on Sanibel.
I'm so happy I got to meet Jan (KY) since I think she must be an artist as well. Jan showed me one of her favorite finds which was covered in BARNACLES and other animal growth marks. I love that kind of stuff too!
Jerry found some really nice WHELKS on our trip but he told me also found a really large 10 inch empty WHELK at Blind Pass on Wednesday. He couldnt believe it because he thought he had stepped on a big rock in the water at low tide… then reached down and pulled up that huge LIGHTNING WHELK. WAHOO!
I was amazed at all the true ANGEL WINGS, FALSE ANGEL WINGS and even FALLEN ANGEL WINGS we found this time. Awesome!
The MANATEES even came over to send us off with well wishes…
It was a beautiful shelling cruise in paradise with a beautiful bunch of people.
Join us on the next iLoveShelling cruise! CLICK HERE FOR DATES.
Before you go….
We have TWO Winners to announce for the Shelltastic SW FLorida Vacation Giveaway!
Drum Roll Please! …..
Our first winner for the Sealife By Congress stunning sterling silver Starfish Reef Pendant is………
Kathie Porter!
The Grand Prize Winner for 4days/3 nights stay in Fort Myers Beach is…..
Denise Stahl (AS, FL)!
Congratulations to you both! Sealife By Congress will be contacting you Kathie and Pointe Estero will contact you as well, Denise. So hold tight until you get your info! Thank you all for participating!
White Pelican Rescue On Sanibel's Out IslandsPosted by: | Comments
We are so fortunate to see spectacular WHITE PELICANS when they migrate to SouthWest Florida every year in the fall. Unfortunately, we found one injured or sick WHITE PELICAN while boating around the Out Islands of Sanibel and Captiva yesterday on New Year's Day. Clark found him washed up to the shore line and saw he wasn't even strong enough to flap his wings.
Poor thing! But our friend John completely took charge and checked the bird for visible injuries or obstructions like fishing line caught in his feet or wings. You can see just how big this bird is while John inspects his wing. White Pelicans have an average wingspan of 10 feet.
We could not see any physical injuries to his wings, neck or feet so we called Sanibel's CROW (Clinic for the Rehabilitation Of Wildlife) to see if they could help. CROW First Responder Gareth wanted us to bring the bird (we named him "Whitey" by this time) in to see if they could help save him. So the rescue began… John held Whitey safely in his arms to get him back to the boat.
We wrapped a towel over the Whitey's head and back to keep him calm and safe so Captain Clark could drive the "rescue" boat to a dock in Captiva…
It was nice to have CROW volunteers meet us at the dock to bring a large cage to safely carry Whitey the rest of the way in my car to the clinic on Sanibel…
Jane (John's wife) and I admitted Whitey to CROW as their 4th patient of the new year where they took him immediately to the exam room to give him fluids and meds to stabilize him.
We really don't know for sure what made him sick or if he was just an old guy (or girl… we really dont know that either). All we know is that we tried to save him and John was the hero. On the boat ride back to the dock, we sang the song "Johnny Angel" to John and changed some of the words to "Johnny Rescue".
Mother Nature will now decide his fate while the compassionate caregivers at CROW do their best to help him. I am so thankful he was only one out of the hundreds of healthy and stunning WHITE PELICANS we saw flocking around our islands yesterday who come back every year. They are a sight to behold!
Write From The Beach GiveAway!Posted by: | Comments
I have been combing the beaches all my life finding seashells and beach treasures, viewing sea life and beach birds. This summer I was so inspired by all of these beautiful beach creatures I photograph and blog about that I decided to pick up the paint brush again. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had 16 designs that I packaged into notecard gift packs with FUN FACTS about each sea creature for a fun twist. Check a few out…..
They really do! Half of their brain sleeps while the other half is awake…. so the half that's asleep- the eye closes.
They are HUGE!
Here's what the front of the Sea Life box looks like…
There are 4 designs (2 each) in each 8-pack box of Seashells, Beach Treasures, Sea Life and Birds.
So now you know what I've been up to when I'm not blogging. I am very excited that some of my favorite retailers already have them in their stores- check them out!
AND now for the GIVEAWAY!……
A WINNER HAS BEEN CHOSEN- congrats to Karen Wells!
Win 4 boxes of Write From The Beach notecards as a "thank you" for your inspiration….
- i Love Shelling Seashells
- Sea Life
- Hello, Birdies
- Beach Treasures
- Free Shipping in U.S. (outside U.S.?- We'll work something out)
Here's how to win……
Go to WriteFromTheBeach.com to look at all 4 boxed notecards and photos of each individual card, then come back here to make a comment HERE ON THIS POST (comments on Writefromthebeach.com will be disqualified-sorry!). Just tell me which ones you like best…or any comment will do because the pick will be random.
That's it! Just make a comment HERE on or before Friday, September 3, 2010
If you don't know how to make a comment- Click on the Title of this post (Write From The Beach GiveAway!) and scroll to the bottom then follow directions. Or you can click on the number in parenthesis (for example (1) or (0) ) after where it says "By pam – Comments" under the post title.


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Tag Archives: digital communications strategy
What brands need to know about Facebook timeline
Posted on12. Mar, 2012 by Lucy Wilton.
Facebook users spend an average of 7.5 hours each month on Facebook – so it's now more important than ever to ensure you are using the social network effectively. As the 30th March ticks down companies are (or should be) thinking how they are going to make the switch to Facebook timeline. Here are the new features and [...]
Continue Reading
Do you know how to use Pinterest?
Posted on27. Feb, 2012 by Lucy Wilton.
Pinterest is the fastest growing website of all time, having over 10 million users in 9 months. It's an extremely viral community with 80% of images being 'repined' – which is like re-tweeting on Twitter. The visual sharing capabilities on social networks are becoming more important as Facebook introduces timeline for users (and eventually for pages), Google+ uses a [...]
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Is Your Brand Leading The Way in Social Media?
Posted on03. Feb, 2012 by Shane Brien.
Creating a successful brand in today's information-overloaded social media landscape takes time, work, and believe it or not – courage. Brands that achieve success within the social space go beyond the boundaries of your typical online marketing strategies. Here are some tips on how to save your brand from becoming another face in the crowd. [...]
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Fear of Social Media: See no evil
Posted on27. May, 2010 by Lachlan Hibbert-Wells.
What's stopping you from including social media in your marketing plan? Is it a fear of the unknown? Many companies often react this way. It's a common human reaction to things that are considered new or unfamiliar. Moving your brand into a space that enables direct conversation and engagement with your consumers can be a [...]
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6 reasons why you need to factor social media into your FY11 budget
Posted on17. May, 2010 by Lachlan Hibbert-Wells.
Further to my earlier blog post last week and the questions I'm being asked in regard to community management, I thought it would be good to look at one of the questions I have been asking as I meet marketers across Sydney. That is, how much have you allocated to your budget for social media [...]
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Your social media marketing success starts now
Posted on30. Apr, 2010 by Lachlan Hibbert-Wells.
Just getting started in social media? While the concept of trial and error is accepted and even encouraged as you consider which channel works best for your business, it doesn't diminish the importance of first impressions. Here are three areas you need to get right first time and they're non-negotiable.
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Communities: to build or not to build
Posted on20. Mar, 2010 by Lachlan Hibbert-Wells.
Last week the Daemon Digital team attended ad:tech Sydney, a two day conference covering all things digital including advertising, PR, communications, eCommerce and everything in between. The speakers represented both agencies and brands who shared case studies, ideas and experiences that delivered conflicting results, once again proving that any marketer hoping for a cookie cutter [...]


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Hundreds attend Santa Paula boy's funeral
2-year-old killed while on 'threshold of life' is mourned
They gathered by the hundreds in a brownstone church in Santa Paula on Wednesday morning to say their last goodbyes to little Charles Goodrich.
"You have taken him unto yourself even as he stood on the threshold of life," the Rev. Pasquale Vuoso said as he prayed in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
The crowd included friends and relatives of the Goodrich family, as well as firefighters and police officers.
The 2-year-old boy was killed May 14 after a pickup truck hit him while he was being pulled in a wagon along the sidewalk by his mother.
Witnesses said the pickup hit the wagon hard after jumping the curb. The driver then drove back onto West Main Street and made a 360-degree turn before speeding away, they said.
Santa Paula police arrested two men in connection with the hit-and-run crash.
St. Sebastian's Church was nearly full by 10:40 a.m. when pallbearers arrived, carrying the small gray coffin. The boy's parents, Glen and Kathleen, and their four daughters took their seats at the front of the church.
"We gather here with such great sadness," Vuoso said. The apparent senselessness of such a death, coming to someone so young, might lead many to ask, "How could God have permitted this?" he said.
There are no easy answers, he said.
Friends of the boy's parents say the couple are devout Catholics and are finding solace in their faith.
Vuoso told the crowd that while their hearts are filled with grief, "little Charles Good-rich" is happy right now, "happier than any of us can imagine," being in heaven at God's side.
The boy's death touched many people in Santa Paula and beyond, he said, recalling how strangers have come up to him and asked about the Goodrich family.
"These parents return to you the child you gave them," he said in a prayer.
After Mass, the boy's body was taken to Pierce Brothers Santa Paula Cemetery for burial.
"God will comfort you," the Rev. Charles Lueras of St. Sebastian's told Charles' parents as they sat near his coffin at the cemetery.
Lueras recalled baptizing Charles when he was still a baby. Because the boy was baptized, Lueras said, he had no doubt the boy arrived in heaven "without sin."
Vincent Martinez of Skillin-Carroll Mortuary said the boy's death is a reminder of how fleeting life on Earth is. Given this, "it's important that you take every opportunity to tell others every day how much you love them," he said.
As he spoke, Kathleen Good-rich held her 4-month-old daughter, Jane, in her lap. She was carrying the baby when the truck hit the wagon, narrowly missing her and the infant.
In an interview after Wednesday's Mass, Santa Paula police Officer Larry Johnson, one of the first to arrive on scene, described how he had to put his feelings aside when he saw the severely injured child.
"I've seen a lot of things, but this one was really hard," Johnson said.
"You have to really set all of your emotions aside so you can take care of the child."
It was only later, after he arrived home, that the full weight of what happened that day hit him, he said.
Sonie Pearson, a parishioner at St. Sebastian's, said Kathleen Goodrich is known for her joyfulness and hard work.
She is not only a choir director at the church, but also its organist. In addition, she teaches piano.
The death of her son is a reminder to all, Pearson said, of how tragedy is often near and can strike "any of us."
"This is something that could have happened to me or you," she said as she stood in front of St. Sebastian's after Mass.
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Council's new voting registration options
Posted: September 01, 2008|
PLYMOUTH City Council has introduced an 0800 number and a web page to enable citizens to update their details on the electoral register without having to send back a postal form.
Residents' electoral registration forms, which have now been posted out, carry special security codes printed in the top right-hand corner.
By calling 0800 025 0923, or visiting www.elecreg.co.uk/plymouth, they can confirm that their address, and the number of people in their household, is unchanged since they previously registered, or notify the council of any changes.
Electoral services manager Nigel Spilsbury said: " We are keen to get as many residents registered as possible, and we hope that by offering these options more people will sign up and have their say."


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Celeb stylist James Corbett dishes on the hot new summer hair trends
with Paltalk's Diana Falzone to discuss what's hot in hair trends for summer 2011
hairstyles while answering user questions and tips about best products,
style tips, celebrity icons and even a little bantering about the
"Weiner" scandal.
Highlights of the interview included:
ADVICE: To avoid knots in your hair after washing: shampoo the roots of
your hair while massaging your scalp, shampoo will run through the rest
of your hair, preventing tangling and over-drying your hair. When
brushing your hair, work from the bottom, up. It's also easier if you
brush the hair in sections.
THEME FOR SUMMER 2011 HAIR: A bob can be sexy and stylish but sometimes
it does require slightly more maintenance. Consider accessorizing with
bigger earrings and makeup. Long hair with a center part is also in; the
styles are usually less styled and worn more casually.
PRODUCT TIP: Tangle Teezer is a great product that detangles hair while gliding through without damaging the hair shafts.
HOT HAIR TREND: Wearing feathers in your hair is in. You can have them
attached to your hair or for a more temporary solution, clip them in.
They come in a variety of colors and lengths.
BRIDAL TIP: Braids are beautiful and extremely versatile as they can be
all sizes and be interwoven with pearls.


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Thursday, July 30, 2015
16. - What if kids get caught with it?
Minors caught with marijuana face the same penalties as they did before I-502. If they are caught with less than 40 grams it's a misdemeanor with a mandatory 24 hours in jail and up to 90 days. For more than 40 grams, it's a felony that could cost $10,000 and five years in prison.
However, kids under 18 will go into the juvenile courts and likely, for first offense, end up in diversion or the same punishment they would get for being in possession of alcohol.
It's the adults between the ages of 18 and 20 that are truly in a tough spot. They can still be hit with the full weight of possession and its penalties and the added consequence of losing financial aid for college and so on.
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