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News Archive - May 2000by Paul Motter
- New Sea Of Cortes/Baja Cruises
- Weekend Cruise News
- Royal Caribbean Expands 2001 Alaska Program
- Disney Offers Weddings At Private Island
- Charges Dropped in Rape Accusation
- Nieuw Amsterdam Catches Fire
- Weekend Cruise News
- Royal Caribbean Europe Expansion
- Busy Hurricane Season Predicted
- New Royal Caribbean Orlando Package
- Weekend Cruise News
- NCL's New 2001 Itineraries & Programs
- Record Quarter for People Cruising
- P&O Acquires Festival Cruise Lines
- Crew Members Charged With Rape
- Windstar to Reposition to New Zealand
- Debut of New Columbia Queen
- Weekend Cruise News
- Vancouver To See One Million Cruisers
- New Ship In Troubled Waters
- Ship Run Aground, Passengers Rescued
5-29-00 New Sea Of Cortes/Baja Cruises Cruise West announces new Sea of Cortes/Baja Mexico itineraries scheduled during the winter 2000/01 season ranging from three- and four-night getaways to seven-night explorations of Baja's Pacific and Sea of Cortes coasts and of the Mexican mainland between Guaymas and Los Mochis. The new itineraries visit small towns including Guaymas, Los Mochis, Loreto and Mulege. Isla Espiritu Santo, Angel de la Guarda and Tiburon Islands are a few of the islands accessible only by small ship that are visited. Two Cruise West ships carrying no more than 100 passengers each, the Spirit of Endeavour and Spirit of '98, will be based in Cabo San Lucas during the Mexico cruise season. Voyages from Baja ports -- Cabo San Lucas and La Paz -- combine beach time with wildlife viewing and visits to small (and very old) port communities that give travelers a more genuine, up-close experience of Mexico's history and culture than is available at mainland tourism centers. Reservations and additional information may be obtained by contacting your travel agent. Cruise West's web site is: www.cruisewest.com. Back to Top
5-26-00 Anne Campbell's Weekend Cruise NewsPremier's OceanBreeze began sailing under new ownership May 20, 2000. Imperial Majesty Cruise Line completed the purchase of the classic liner from Premier for a total of $16 million including the purchase price and planned upgrades to the vessel which will take place this fall.
Bookings have opened for Royal Caribbean's 2001 Alaska season. Vision of the Seas will continue to sail the Sunday, Inside Passage itinerary. RCI's newly formed Royal Celebrity Tours will offer Alaska tours in conjunction with Rhapsody of the Sea's Vancouver-to-Seward cruises and those of Celebrity's Mercury.
Society Expeditions of Seattle is waiting for the final report on the condition of its ship, the World Discoverer, which was beached in the Solomon Islands earlier this month to avoid sinking after striking an uncharted reef. The Alaska season has been officially cancelled but the company hopes to resume operations in the fall.
Carnival Destiny's ongoing propulsion problems forced the cancellation of the 4-day cruise from Boston last Monday. Destiny has undergone repairs and sea trials this week and is expected to sail Friday on an altered itinerary as she will not be able to make all ports. The incident is the latest in a series of power problems which saw the vessel adrift in the Caribbean in February and altering its itinerary in April due to reduced speed.
Vision of the Seas, another diesel-electric powered ship also experienced propulsion problems last month and was forced to miss the port of Hilo on its voyage from Acapulco to Honolulu.
Holland America's new Zaandam offers a different kind of on board amenity; dental services are now available for passengers upon request. The new Sea Dentist services will be charged to the passenger's on board account and include fillings, bridge repair, appliance adjustments and crown re-cementing. Emergency dental care only is provided for passengers on HAL's nine other ships and regular dental care is provided for the crew. Back to Top
5-26-00 Royal Caribbean Expands 2001 Alaska Program In 2001, Royal Caribbean will offer an expanded Alaska program with the addition of a third ship, the new Radiance of the Seas, and launching a comprehensive ground program for pre- and post-cruise excursions. The 88,000-ton Radiance of the Seas is a new class of Royal Caribbean ship, with glass elevators facing the sea and rising 12 floors, floor-to-ceiling windows in many public areas and 70% of outside cabins with private verandas. The new ship will join Rhapsody of the Seas and Vision of the Seas next summer in on-going Alaska cruises. Radiance of the Seas and Vision of the Seas both sail on seven-night itineraries round-trip from Vancouver; Rhapsody of the Seas cruises on one-week voyages between Vancouver and Seward and Vision of the Seas
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises passengers seeking a pre- or post-cruise ground tour will find new private rail cars with 360 degree viewing, a restaurant and wheelchair accessibility to the dome level. Wilderness lodges will be used in overnight stays, including the new Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, Denali Bluffs and the Westin Aleyska's Prince Resort. Reservations and additional information may be obtained from travel agents.Back to Top
5-25-00 Disney Offers Weddings At Private Island Disney Cruise Line will offer weddings at Disney's private Bahamian island, Castaway Cay, or a renewal of vows aboard Disney Wonder and Disney Magic. Per couple package fares begin at $4,444 for a three night cruise, $4,644 for a four-night cruise and $5,224 for a seven night land and sea vacation or a seven-night eastern Caribbean cruise. Packages include a three, four or seven-night cruise; dinner for two at a Walt Disney World restaurant (land/sea packages only); an officiant to perform the ceremony; private limo service to and from Cape Canaveral; personalized selection of fresh flowers for a bouquet; wedding memento from Disney Cruise Line; "romance" basket delivered to couples' stateroom; a two-tier cake and champagne; musician for ceremony; Disney wedding/vow renewal certificate; dinner at Paolo, the adults-only restaurant aboard ship and assistance of a wedding counselor. The packages may be booked through travel agents. Back to Top
5-24-00 Charges Dropped in Rape Accusation The charges have been dropped against two former Carnival Cruise Lines employees who were accused of rape on May 3rd. Details about what led prosecutors to drop the charges were not made available, but a U.S. Attorney's spokesperson said that all of the evidence had been reviewed and that the department concluded that pressing charges would not be appropriate.
The two crew members, Desmond Abraham (Dominica, West Indies) and Julio Delgado (Nicaragua) were accused of the attack by two female passengers while the cruise ship was docked off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The names of the women were not released. The workers were fired by the Miami-based cruise line on the day the attack was reported, and the FBI arrested the pair after the ship arrived in Los Angeles on May 7 at the end of the seven-day cruise.
The ship's doctor, Jamie King, examined the women and said in an affidavit that he did not detect any bruising, bleeding or traces of semen. The two crewman said the women approached them in a ship hallway and began kissing them. Both denied having sex with the women.
Even though the charges have been dropped, Carnival said the firings for the two crewmen will stand because of a company rule that forbids crew members from fraternizing with passengers, according to Carnival spokesperson Jennifer de la Cruz. Back to Top
5-24-00 Nieuw Amsterdam Catches Fire A fire broke out aboard the Holland America cruise ship, Nieuw Amsterdam, as it steamed through Glacier Bay National Park carrying nearly 1,700 passengers and crew on Tuesday morning. It burned for about 45 minutes and caused extensive damage according to the Coast Guard and cruise line officials.
The ship was in the northwestern end of the bay when the fire was reported at about 9:40 a.m. The blaze was confined to the rear section of the ship, in the crew quarters and below the main passenger deck. All the passengers assembled at the lifeboat decks as a precaution while the crew fought the fire. One person sustained minor injuries that were attributed to the fire. "A passenger was disoriented, fell and hit his head," according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Mitchell Fletcher.
None of the ship's 1,201 passengers and 566 crew members were seriously injured according to Holland America spokesperson Erik Elvejord. Elvejord said 10 crew cabins needed to be repaired and that some crew members will likely be displaced by damage to their cabins, but the cruise line planned to finish the ship's voyage across the Gulf of Alaska to Seward.
After the fire was put out, the Nieuw Amsterdam continued under its own power to dock at Bartlett Cove, which is within the park, the Coast Guard said. "They're going to stay there until the Coast Guard completes its investigation," said Petty Officer Darrell Wilson.
A four-person team, including a vessel inspector, an investigator, a fire fighting expert and a park ranger, was dispatched to the ship to investigate the blaze, the Coast Guard said.
The ship carried 1,169 passengers and 542 crew members, Wilson said. How long the investigation will take and whether the passengers will be transferred to another vessel was unknown Tuesday, he said.
The Nieuw Amsterdam is one of the oldest ships in the Holland America fleet, and it is scheduled to be transferred to the new United States Line (owned by parent company American Classic Voyages which also owns America Hawaii and Delta Queen Steamboats) in October to be renamed the "The Patriot" and to sail year-round from Honolulu. Back to Top
5-19-00 Anne Campbell's Weekend Cruise News A report on the NCL's Norwegian Dream's collision with a container ship in the English Channel last year indicates that the incident was caused by an over burdened bridge officer on the Norwegian Dream. The full report, which will be released shortly, found that information overload and overwork led directly to the mistake which caused the collision.
P&O Cruises' newest ship, Aurora, is back in service after a mechanical problem forced the cancellation of the inaugural voyage 18 hours after it left port. The bearing failure which resulted in an overheated propeller shaft, was repaired in Germany where Aurora was built. Aurora sailed last Monday on a 12-day Canary Islands cruise with 1,800 passengers on board.
The Viking Serenade will head for Europe in 2001 under a new name. She will be the first ship to operate for a new cruise line being started as a joint venture between Royal Caribbean and First Choice Holidays, one of the U.K.'s largest tour operators. The new line will target the mass-market European vacationer. The name of the line and its first ship have yet to be named. Summer cruises will be offered in the Mediterranean and winter cruises, in the Caribbean.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will cruise to Cuba in November on the inaugural Nassau'-to-Havana voyage of the newly formed Cuba Cruise Corporation. A select 400 guests will be aboard the m.v. La Habana on November 16, 2000 when it sails on the historic cruise. For the first time since 1963 regularly scheduled departures to Cuba that are legally accessible to American citizens will be offered by the new company. In Havana on the night of November 17, a festive outdoor concert will bring cruise passengers together with Cubans for a special celebration.
Premier Cruises is consulting with travel agents regarding the future of the Rembrandt, the former Holland America liner, s.s.Rotterdam. "Premier Red" or "Holland America Blue" is the question being asked. The company announced last November that Rembrandt would become the Big Red Boat IV in November 2000 but fierce opposition to the decision has stalled plans for the transition. The legendary liner, built in Rotterdam in 1959 for the transatlantic run, is one of the finest ships of that era still afloat.
The Regal Princess and sister, Crown Princess, have undergone "Millennium Makerovers" to bring them in line with Princess's "Grand Class" cruising concept. The multimillion dollar renovation includes a new 24-hour restaurant, 2, 000 square foot dedicated youth center plus brand new interior decor.
Radisson Seven Seas Cruises will place an order for a new ship within the next two weeks. The 700- passenger, all-suite luxury vessel will be a sister to the Seven Seas Mariner, presently under construction in France and scheduled for delivery next February.
Celebrity will sail from Tampa for the first time with the deployment of Zenith in the Gulf port for the 2001/2002 season.
Royal Caribbean's former Sun Viking suffered damage from a fire which started in the theatre. Now called the Hyundai Pongnae. she sails for Hyundai Merchant Marine between South and North Korea. The ship was at dock in the North Korean port of Chongjin at the time of the fire. The 18,455 grt vessel sailed for Royal Caribbean from 1972 to 1998.
Star Cruises is continuing its program to develop the infrastructure of its ports-of-call in Asia. A new terminal and jetty have been opened in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam. The new building consists of a 100 foot jetty with link bridge to the terminal building, concrete walkway and umbrella-shaped shelter.Back to Top
5-19-00 Royal Caribbean Europe Expansion Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the world's second-largest cruise operator, said it will invest about $300 million in First Choice Holidays Plc and start a European cruise line with the U.K. tour operator. Targeting middle-class European cruisers, the new company's first vessel will be Royal Caribbean's 1,500-passenger Viking Serenade The Viking Serenade will be renamed and put into the new cruise line, Royal Caribbean said. The vessel will sail in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, beginning next year. The new cruise line has yet to be named. Back to Top
5-17-00 Busy Hurricane Season Predicted The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that it expects an above-average hurricane season this year, with at least seven hurricanes. The agency predicts that three of them will be major hurricanes, with maximum sustained winds of more than 110 mph. Hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Back to Top
5-15-00 New Royal Caribbean Orlando Package Royal Caribbean will compete with Carnival and Disney by adding it's own pre- and post-cruise Orlando theme park vacation package. RCI has launched a seven-night "Orlando Experience" package, a seven-night program featuring a four-night Sovereign of the Seas cruise from Port Canaveral, accommodations at the Portofino Bay Hotel a two-day pass to Universal Studios, $20 meal voucher at Hard Rock Cafe, one-day admission to the Guinness World Records Experience attraction and a 15% discount on Alamo car rentals. The "Orlando Experience" package starts at $968 per person, double occupancy. Reservations and additional information may be obtained from local travel agents.Back to Top
5-12-00 Anne Campbell's Weekend Cruise News An overheated generator in the engine compartment of the Crystal Harmony ignited soot that was in the smoke stack creating a fire as she sat in in the harbor in Victoria B.C. Shipboard and local firefighters were able to contain and extinguish the fire within a few hours and since most of the passengers were already ashore there was no need to evacuate the ship.
Commodore Cruise Line is planning a 7-night cruise beginning November 25 to the Western Caribbean featuring New Orleans cuisine from the city's reknowned chef Dickie Brennan of the city's Palace Cafe. Wines by Mondavi vineyards will also be featured.
Didn't get enough Millennium last December? Crystal Cruises claims the real Millennium is January 1, 2001 and will give its passengers another big gala on the Dec. 20, Harmony and Dec. 22, 2000 Symphony voyages, complete with $100,000 worth of decorations and lots of bubbly.
Oooops! During a January 19, 2000 surprise health inspection, ship inspectors from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gave Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 a very non-regal score of 79. CDC considers 86 a "passing" score.
Princess Cruises will return to Bermuda in 2001, again with the Pacific Princess sailing round-trip from New York to Hamilton, St. George and West End.
P&O Cruises of Britain its forming an alliance with Festival Cruises (marketed in the U.S. as First European Cruises), joining its Princess, P&O and Aida with Festival's four cruise ships. The company said that P&O will pay a mixture of cash and shares of up to $400 million.
The State of Alaska has reached an accord with cruise lines and won't be levying a $50 tax on each passenger. The cruise lines will monitor air pollution in ports and has agreed to sewage-discharge inspections.
KD River Cruises of Europe is offering "Exclusive" service on two Elbe itineraries, with a gala dinner, complimentary wine with dinner, free use of bicycles and gourmet snacks. Sailing between Prague and Magdeburg through Oct. 2000 is the 124-passenger Clara Schumann.Back to Top
5-12-00 NCL's New 2001 Itineraries & Programs Few cruise lines are launching the extensive changes in on-board programs and new itineraries as Norwegian Cruise Line. "Freestyle Cruising", scheduled to begin on Norwegian Sky in several weeks and extend to all vessels during the year, is an innovative program. NCL will eliminate formal nights and clothing will be casual/informal. More significantly, passengers will find single, open seating available in all restaurants aboard ships enabling them to dine when and with whom they please. New 2001/02 itineraries include:
- Norwegian Wind -- Starting September, 2001, cruises to Asia will be featured aboard Norwegian Wind in 2001, including a 21-day Northern Circle cruise sailing from Vancouver to Beijing (China), an 11-day China Highlights cruise, and a series of Southeast Asia cruise tours operating on a triangle between Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. Five different cruise tours ranging from 12-21 days also include hotel stays. In 2002, Norwegian Wind will offer a 19-day Holiday cruise from Singapore to Sydney, followed by cruises to Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific and Hawaii.
- Norwegian Sun -- The newest member of the NCL fleet, the 2,012-passenger Norwegian Sun will debut in the fall 2001 season with a 16-day "Path of the Vikings" maiden voyage on September 10, 2001, sailing from London to New York. Following a series of 12-day Canada/New England cruises round-trip from New York, Norwegian Sun will sail a 14-day cruise on November 3 from New York to Miami, where the ship will offer seven-day Western Caribbean cruises throughout the winter season.
- Norway -- On April 15, 2001, the Norway will begin offering year-round two- and five-day cruises to the Bahamas/Western Caribbean. Sailing round trip from Miami, the two day Friday-to-Sunday Bahamas cruises visit NCL's private island, Great Stirrip Cay and five day Sunday-Friday voyages add stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel.
- Norwegian Sea -- Beginning in January 2001, Norwegian Sea will offer alternating three- and four-day Bahamas itineraries round-trip from Miami through April 27. Norwegian Sea will then reposition to New York to offer a series of four seven-day Bahamas itineraries, followed by 15 New England and five Canada/New England cruises. A 15-day Colonial America cruise on October 21 will reposition the ship back to Miami, where the three- and four-day itineraries will resume
- Norwegian Dream -- From December 23, 2000 through March 4, 2001, Norwegian Dream will cruise in South America, featuring a series of Cape Horn/Straight of Magellan itineraries alternating from Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Valparaiso (Chile). Following a series of three special cruises beginning March 18 -- a 15-day "Southern Discovery" from Valparaiso to Miami, a 16-day Springtime Trans-Atlantic cruise from Miami to Italy, and a 12-day Springtime Western Europe cruise from Italy to England, the ship Norwegian Dream will reposition to Dover (England), where it will begin a "Baltic Capitals" series on April 30, 2001. At the conclusion of the Baltic itineraries, Norwegian Dream will offer a fall series of Mediterranean and Ancient Holy Lands cruises alternating from Athens (Greece) and Istanbul (Turkey), until early December, when the ship will resume its South America itineraries.
- Norwegian Majesty -- Beginning December 17, 2000, Norwegian Majesty will offer seven-day alternating Aruba/Exotic Southern Caribbean cruises round-trip from San Juan. On April 29, 2001, Norwegian Majesty will reposition to Boston, where the ship will resume its series of round-trip cruises to St. George's (Bermuda), through mid-October. At the conclusion of the Bermuda season, Norwegian Majesty will reposition back to San Juan to resume its Southern Caribbean itineraries.
5-11-00 Record Quarter for People Cruising During the first quarter of 2000 a record 1.7 million people went on a cruise vacation, an increase of 16.5% over the same quarter last year and the most active quarter ever. Capacity for the same period, generally considered to be the number of beds available "on the floor" -- usually two per cabin -- increased approximately 8%.
Jim Godsman, president of the Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA), told reporters at a press conference in New York City yesterday that the cruise industry has a good record of being able to fill new capacity. He noted that from 1990-99 the cruise industry was able to fill 87.8% of new capacity, and that in the last three years it has been able to increase that to 90%.
CLIA projects that for the year 2000 there will be an increase in capacity of 9.9% while the historical increase of new passengers per year is usually near 7.9%. However, the figures for the first quarter indicate that the cruise lines are out-pacing the average and filling the new capacity at a record rate.
Godsman noted that the increase in capacity has created a situation where the cruise lines are forced to lower prices in order to fill the ships. Indeed, 2000 is shaping up as the year of the bargain for cruise consumers. The benefit of the current "tactical pricing" is that the industry is able to convince the "fence-sitters" to take a cruise, according to Godsman, and that convincing people to take their first cruise is a boon to the industry since the majority of people who take one cruise go on to take many more. It was also noted that word-of-mouth from cruisers who return home and "talk up" their vacation to as may as 10 to 15 people is a significant factor in convincing people to take their first cruise.
According to CLIA research, nearly 75 million North Americans say they are interested in cruising in the next five years, and over 41 million say they "definitely" or "probably" will. "More than enough to fill the existing fleet -- and any newcomers on the scene," concludes Godsman. Back to Top
5-11-00 P&O Acquires Festival Cruise Lines P&O Cruise Line of Britain (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co) announced this morning in London that it has acquired European cruise firm Festival in a deal worth up to $400 million. Festival was the largest independent European cruise company and the owner of the new ship Mistral, it is marketed in the United States as First European Cruises. P&O is also the parent company of Princess Cruise Lines.
The acquisition is a combination of stock in P&O and cash. Festival is marketed mostly to Europeans and is based in Genoa, Italy. P&O chairman Jeffrey Sterling has stated his confidence in the strength of the burgeoning European cruise market and sees Festival as a strong brand name in that market. P&O also recently acquired a 51% stake in German cruise operator Arkona Touristik to create a new cruise operation called AIDA.Back to Top
5-10-00 Crew Members Charged With Rape Two crew members of Carnival Cruise Line's Elation have been charged with raping two female passengers during a Mexico cruise. The women allege that on May 3, 2000, they reboarded Elation in Puerto Vallarta drunk and the two crew members followed them to their cabin where they were assaulted. After one of the alleged victims phoned her father, the FBI stepped in and arrested both crew members, who deny the charges, claiming that while they did kiss the girls, they never raped them. Elation's physician immediately examined both women and in a signed affidavit, report no evidence of bruising, bleeding or semen. Carnival has fired the two crew members and is cooperating with the investigation.Back to Top
5-9-00 Windstar to Reposition to New Zealand Windstar Cruises has announced that Wind Song will be repositioned in New Zealand, sailing on 10-day cruises. In New Zealand, the vessels will sail from Auckland or Christchurch, New Zealand on alternating itineraries from December 2001 through May 2002. The Oct.. 20, 2001 repositioning cruise between Athens, Greece and Auckland are planned in 14- and 18-day segments: Oct. 20, 2001, an 18-day cruise from Athens to Bombay, India; the Nov. 7, 2001 18-day voyge from Bombay to Bali, Indonesia; the Nov. 25, 2001 sailing from Bali to Carins, Australia and the Dec. 9, 2000 14-day cruise from Carins to Auckland, New Zealand. For additional information, contact Windstar Cruises at their web site: www.windstarcruises.com Back to Top
5-8-00 Debut of New Columbia Queen On May 26, 2000, the first river boat built specifically for exploring the Pacific Northwest will begin her inaugural season of eight-night voyages. Delta Queen Steamboat Company has constructed the 161-passenger Columbia Queen for cruises along the Columbia, Snake and Willamette rivers, a 1,000-mile journey from Portland, Oregon to Astoria, Oregon (near the Pacific Ocean) and to Lewiston, Idaho, the gateway to Hells Canyon.
Built in Jennings, LA, Columbia Queen is American registry with all-American staff. The decor is 19th century with cherry paneling, sweeping mahogany staircase with brass trim and an authentic Tiffany chandelier. Passengers dine in the Astoria Room, which also serves as a dancing lounge at night. There are two main lounges/cocktail bars and the Back Porch, the setting for alfresco dining at breakfast.
Staterooms aboard Columbia Queen are 69% outside; category AAA measure 235 sq. feet with French balconies; AA cabins are 220 sq. ft. with French balconies; 37 standard A cabins are 165 sq. ft.; cat B inside staterooms are 143 sq. ft. and the one single occupancy inside cabin is 91 sq. ft. There is one wheelchair-accessible category A cabin. All staterooms have TV, VCR, radio, hairdryer, iron/ironing board, twin beds that convert to a king size bed.
The eight night Columbia Queen vacations begin with an overnight stay in Portland, and a visit to Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument. Highlights of the itinerary include the Columbia River Gorge; Washington State's wine region; a jet boat ride along the Idaho boarder into Hells Canyon; a visit to the top of 6,000-ft. Mt. Hood, the Lewis and Clark memorial and several Indian reservations and national parks.
Rates start at $2,100 in value season, $3,100 in peak season; fares are per person, double occupancy including port charges. Advance purchase discounts of $500 are available for those who book early. For a brochure call The Delta Queen Steamboat Company at (800) 297-3960. Back to Top
5-5-00 Weekend Cruise News Orient Lines' passengers cruise for soft adventure so it's fitting that the godmother of its newest vessel, the Crown Odyssey, will be Lady June Hillary, wife of the famed explorer and Mt. Everest conqueror, Sir Edmund Hillary. Lady Hillary christened the 1,050-passenger ship May 8, 2000 in Istanbul, accompanied by her husband who will join her in inaugural festivities ��Cruisers under 21 sailing aboard Carnival Cruise Line ships can now purchase a card for unlimited fountain drinks during their cruise. The costs is based on length of cruise: three days, $8; four days, $11; seven days $18. Simply sign up for the card at any time during the cruise..... Princess has renovated its Fairbanks lodge and added 125 additional rooms, renaming the property Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. Located on the Chena River, the $125 million refurbishment includes a new outdoor deck and 100-seat covered dining area .... Princess Cruises has refurbished Crown Princess and Regal Princess, adding 24-hour restaurants, a youth center, new sculptures, murals and art pieces ..... Gavin MacLeod (a.k.a. Captain Stubing) will welcome the original Love Boat, Pacific Princess, to New York on Sunday, May 7, bidding her embarking passengers bon voyage as they sail on the ship's inaugural cruise to Bermuda. Pacific Princess will sail every Sunday through Oct. 22, 2000 ..... Commodore Cruise Line's Enchanted Isle will offer a "Magical Halloween Cruise" on the Oct. 28, 2000 departure from New Orleans, complete with magicians, costume parties, lectures on magic, horror movies and pumpkin carving contests.... The largest collection of tall ships ever assembled sets sail from Cadiz, Spain on a race for Bermuda. More than 100 sailing ships are entered in the race, a celebration of the millennium. Following a stay in Bermuda the ships will spend a month touring the west coast including a 4-day stay in New York with special July 4 celebrations ... A highlight of Holland America's new Zaandam, which arrived in Ft. Lauderdale April 28 is a guitar collection signed by such famous musicians as the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, glam-rock group Queen and Iggy Pop; and a saxophone signed by President Bill Clinton ..... During 2001, Delta Queen Steamboat Company has scheduled 33 Big Band cruises aboard Mississippi Queen and American Queen on cruises leaving New Orleans, Louisville, Nashville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Memphis and St. Paul. Back to Top
5-5-00 Vancouver To See One Million Cruisers During 2000, the port of Vancouver will see a million cruise passenger due to the big influx of new ships. In total, 25 vessels from 12 cruise lines will make 335 sailings this year, up from 309 in 1999. The number of Port Vancouver's revenue passengers is expected to grow by 10 percent. In 1999, Port Vancouver welcomed more than 947,000 revenue passengers. Port Vancouver adds four new ships to its roster: Holland America's Volendam with a passenger capacity of 1,440, Princess Cruises' Ocean Princess with a passenger capacity of 1,950, Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Sky with a passenger capacity of 2,000 and Radisson Seven Seas' Seven Seas Navigator with a passenger capacity of 490. Add to this is the addition of a three- to four-day ``pocket cruise'' between Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle on Royal Caribbean International's Vision of the Seas. This unique shorter route offers the uninitiated a chance to sample a cruise for the first time.Back to Top
5-3-00 New Ship In Troubled Waters Shortly after a gala christening by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, P&O's new 83,775-ton Aurora set sail on troubled water. But just one day into her inaugural cruise, the ship broke down and limped back to port. Built at a cost of $320 million, Aurora's propeller shaft overheated, resulting in a return to Southampton for repairs. Some 1,800 passengers found their cruise cancelled; they will receive a full refund. P&O, which is the parent company of Princess Cruises, says that the ship's second voyage, scheduled to depart May 15, 2000, will proceed as normal. Back to Top
5-01-00 Ship Run Aground, Passengers Rescued The MV World Discoverer, a 3,724-gross ton double-hulled liner built to withstand the ice-laden waters of Antarctica, was intentionally run aground onto a beach on Guadalcanal in order to disembark its passengers late Sunday afternoon. The ship was run aground according to a decision made by the captain of the vessel after striking a rock or uncharted reef off the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean 20 miles north of the Solomon's capital of Honiara.
As the ship began taking on water it soon developed a list of 20 degrees. At that point the captain decided it was best to run the ship aground in order to prevent it from taking on any more water and to safely disembark the passengers. According to Michael Lomax, president of Society Expeditions, which runs the World Discoverer out of Seattle, ``The ship is in that position right now.''
There were 112 passengers and 80 crew members on-board and all were taken off the ship in lifeboats safely and very quickly, according to Lomax. The passengers included about 50 Americans, 50 Germans and 8 British citizens. The local police commissioner reported that most of the passengers have lost most of their belongings, but that the mood of the group still appears to be reasonably cheerful. The survivors were put up in three hotels on Honiara, on the main island of Guadalcanal, and would board a chartered flight for Brisbane later on Monday. They were due to arrive about midnight (1400 GMT).
A spokeswoman for the Honiara Hotel, where most crew members were sent, said the World Discoverer's captain had stayed with his ship while an investigation team was being organised. Society Expeditions said it had cancelled the rest of the current voyage, which began in Fiji on April 23 and was to have ended in Guam on May 11 after visiting Papua New Guinea. Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp radio said about 50 ships, including Japanese and American battleships as well as Australian and New Zealand warships, lay sunk in the area of the accident, which is known as Iron Bottom Sound.Back to Top


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ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia's governor says he hasn't made a decision on legislation allowing concealed handguns on the state's college campuses.
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WASHINGTON (AP) - A measure of U.S. home prices rose only modestly in October, adding to signs that prices have stabilized after experiencing big gains earlier this year
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress is racing toward renewing a 25-year-old prohibition against firearms that can evade metal detectors and X-ray machines, just days before the ban expires. But with 3-D printers increasingly able to produce plastic weapons, many Democrats, gun control advocates and law enforcement officials say the restrictions must be tightened.
NEW YORK (AP) - Retailers got Americans into stores during the start to the holiday shopping season. Now, they'll need to figure out how to get them to actually shop.
NEW YORK (AP) - Amazon.com is working on a way to get customers their goods in 30 minutes or less - by drone.
An icy storm that started in the West and is blamed in at least 10 fatal accidents was bringing a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain to parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas on Monday as it trudged eastward in the run-up to Thanksgiving.
DALLAS (AP) - A half dozen Irish soldiers toting guns with brilliantly polished bayonets formed a guard of honor outside the U.S. Embassy in Dublin as the U.S. flag was lowered to half-staff in one of several solemn ceremonies planned Friday to mark 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - On a gloomy November afternoon, I helped carry the inexpensive wooden casket of Lee Harvey Oswald to a grave on a slight rise dotted with dying grass.
LONDON (AP) - He's been turned down by planes, trains and even a cruise ship in his quest to return home - and his family says it's because of he has been deemed too fat to travel. Now Frenchman Kevin Chenais' long and fitful journey is coming to an end.
BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) - Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist who targeted blacks and Jews in a cross-country killing spree from 1977 to 1980, was put to death Wednesday in Missouri, the state's first execution in nearly three years.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Annmarie Chiarini's long-distance boyfriend was goading her to pose nude. The pictures would be for his eyes only, Chiarini recalls him saying, because she was so beautiful and because he missed her so much. He promised, she said, they would be stored on a compact disc and hidden in his drawer.
BOSTON (AP) - Former Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger was sentenced to life in prison Thursday at 84 for his murderous reign over the city's underworld in the 1970s and '80s, accepting his punishment with stone-faced silence even as a judge castigated him for his "almost unfathomable" depravity.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's governor delayed the execution of a condemned child killer to consider the inmate's unprecedented organ donation request, acknowledging that it's "uncharted territory" but expressing hope that the man might help save a life before losing his own.
ATLANTA (AP) - It's a cold morning in North Georgia.
ATLANTA (AP) - New phones issued in metro Atlanta will no longer come with the 404 and 678 area codes.
NEW YORK (AP) - Last Thanksgiving Day, Kimberly Mudge Via's mother, sister and nieces left in the middle of their meals to head for the mall.
Page 116 of 248

subset: commoncrawl


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October 23, 2011
Lt. Delbert Schmid's grand niece, Beth Wilson, right, stands at the memorial to Schmid (pictured left) dedicated last month in France. With her are French citizens Mr. and Mrs. Alain Wahrenberger, who helped arrange the memorial.
Stories this photo appears in:
Mokane WW II pilot honored with memorial in France
For many years the family of 2nd Lt. Delbert E. Schmid of Mokane believed he died when his Army Air Corps plane was shot down by Germans in France during World War II.
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The Sinclair 8000 Series Uniformers are precision ground from one solidpiece of tungsten carbide, so there is no need to worry about changing thedepth of cut. These cutters will cut the primer pocket to a uniform depthand also square the bottom of the pocket in relationship to the case head.Uniformers are available in five sizes, one for large rifle, small rifle and/orsmall pistol, large pistol primer pockets, PPC/BR primer pockets, and BMGprimer pockets.
Mfr Part: SNC480011
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Boys Twin Beds
Boys Full & Queen Beds
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Boys Loft Beds
Boys Headboards
Boys Beds with Storage
Boys Iron and Metal Beds
Modern Boys Beds
All Boys Beds
River Kids Bed by Country Cottage
The River Kids Bed features sturdy construction that will last in your kid's room for years to come. This vintage inspired panel bed boasts a sleek structure that will go perfectly in any kid's bedroom. Add the beading for a more intricate and charming appearance. If you choose the twin size bed, add the optional trundle for a complete look that will also provide extra sleeping space for overnight guests.
The River Kids Collection offers pieces with solid structure and tailored clean lines. Its timeless masculine details make this collection especially popular amongst the young men in your family. In this collection you will find ball feet, ball finials and random wood planking. Girls can enjoy this collection as well; just choose a more feminine distressed finish!
By combining old world inspiration and modern day quality, Country Cottage has been able to provide its customers with superior furniture and home decor since 1976. Choose from several different timeless collections and finishes to match your kid's room or nursery perfectly. Some available finishes are more detailed and complex, and additional time and resources are required to achieve the desired look. If you select one of these "Inheritance Finishes", the price of the piece will increase by 17.5%. Each distressed piece features sanded edges and is custom made upon order with the best materials and highest standard of craftsmanship. Find a piece or entire collection especially for you!
This item is custom made especially for you upon order.
SIZE: Twin: 54"H x 44"W x 83"L Full: 54"H x 59"W x 83"L Queen: 54"H x 66"W x 88"L
Category: Furniture, Complete Boys Bed Collection
Size:Please ChooseTwinFull $(+200.00)Queen $(+400.00)
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Finish Type:Please ChooseStandardInheritance for Twin Bed $(+297.50)Inheritance for Full Bed $(+332.50)Inheritance for Queen Bed $(+367.50)
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May 2, 2016
Eastern Carolina loves its sports... baseball, basketball and especially football. And you can certainly add hockey to the list.
One place you can see the excitement, and feel the chill in the air is any ice skating rink in Eastern Carolina. At Bladez on ice in Greenville, children of all ages, adults, and everyone entering the rink are feeling the cold of hockey in the heat of our summer. Hockey is the sport everyone is talking about, and now starting to play.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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New to bicycling and don't know where to start? Have a cycling story you are dying to share and only your fellow bicycle enthusiasts would appreciate? Willing to divulge your cycling secrets and expertise? We have just the place for you - visit goDCgoBikeForum.com to discuss all your biking needs.
The forum is sponsored through goDCgo's partnership with BikeArlington and allows for cycling to grow throughout the region as a common form of transportation. The District and Arlington County have joined forces through many venues, including the recent launch of Capital Bikeshare, and now happily host this forum to encourage the sharing of ideas and wisdom for bicyclists throughout the region.


text: Video: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Eddie Campbell surprised his daughter Aiko Campbell and son Nolan Campbell while they were in class at Orion Elementary School on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Thursday. Tech. Sgt. Campbell had recently returned to Alaska after his 7th deployment, a five-month temporary duty in Southwest Asia.


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Official Scrolls Trailer
The first official trailer for the fantasy game scrolls, from Mojang the creators of the indie sensation Minecraft.
Show All
Show All
Scrolls is Mojang's next game and offers a new and unique game play where you fight to outmaneuver your opponent on the battlefield using the destructive powers in your collection of magical scrolls. Tear your opponent limb from limb with the might of your summoned armies, lay waste to the defenses with the obliterating power of your siege weapons or open up the very skies and let bolts of lightning shower his minions until only ash remains. The road to victory is yours to choose. Obtain the powerful scrolls and decide which ones you will take to battle as you fight to become the mightiest Magician of all.
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- 08-30-2011
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text: Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus Rosenbach (ATCC® 43300™) Strain Designations: F-182 / Type Strain: no / Biosafety Level: 2 General Information Characteristics Culture Method History Documentation Print Email Share Share this product Facebook Twitter Google+ Permits And Restrictions View Permits Strain Designations F-182 Application Evaluation of Mueller-Hinton agarResistant to methicillinResistant to oxacillinSusceptibility disc testingSusceptibility testingDrug discoveryEnteric Research Isolation Clinical isolate, Kansas Biosafety Level 2 Biosafety classification is based on U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines, it is the responsibility of the customer to ensure that their facilities comply with biosafety regulations for their own country. Product Format freeze-dried Storage Conditions Frozen: -80°C or colderFreeze-Dried: 2°C to 8°CLive Culture: See Propagation Section Preceptrol® yes Type Strain no Antibiotic Resistance Resistant to methicillinResistant to oxacillin Comments Absence of pvl gene confirmed by PCR. Medium ATCC® Medium 18: Trypticase Soy Agar/Broth Growth Conditions Temperature: 37°CAtmosphere: Aerobic Name of Depositor C Thornsberry Isolation Clinical isolate, Kansas References Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Disk Susceptibility Tests; Approved Standard - 9th Edition. Wayne, PA. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; CLSI M2-A9. Protocols for Evaluating Dehydrated Mueller-Hinton Agar; Approved Standard. Wayne, PA. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; CLSI M6-A2. Methods for Dilution Antimicrobial Susceptibility Tests for Bacteria that Grow Aerobically; Approved Standard - 7th Edition. Wayne, PA. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; CLSI M7-A8. Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Disk and Dilution Susceptibility Tests for Bacteria Isolated from Animals; Approved Standard - 2nd Edition. Wayne, PA. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; CLSI M31-A3. Baker CN, Tenover FC. Evaluation of Alamar colorimetric broth microdilution susceptibility testing method for staphylocci and enterococci. J. Clin. Microbiol. 34: 2654-2659, 1996. PubMed: 8897159 Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing; Sixteenth Informational Supplement. Wayne, PA. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; CLSI M100-S20, 2007 Evaluation of Lots of Dehydrated Mueller-Hinton Broth for Antimicrobial Susceptibility testing; Proposed Guideline. Wayne, PA. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; CLSI M32-P. Medical microbiology -- Susceptibility testing of microbial pathogens to antimicrobial agents -- Part 81: Microdilution; Special requirements for testing of non-fastidious bacteria. Berlin, Germany: Deutsches Institut fur Normung; DIN 58940-81: 2002 MicroScan Dried Gram Positive Panel QC Set. Dade/Siemens. BD GeneOhm MRSA ACP. BD Becton Dickinson. BD GeneOhm StaphSR. BD Becton Dickinson. BD MAX™ MRSA Assay. BD Becton Dickinson. BD MAX™ StaphSR Assay. BD Becton Dickinson. Cross References Nucleotide (GenBank) : AF298796 Staphylococcus aureus translation elongation factor Tu (tuf) gene, partial cds. Permits These permits may be required for shipping this product: Customers located in the state of Hawaii will need to contact the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to determine if an Import Permit is required. A copy of the permit or documentation that a permit is not required must be sent to ATCC in advance of shipment. Basic Documentation Product Sheet Certificate of Analysis SDS


text:
DVD (2 Discs)
In 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul described one of the central problems facing humanity in every age: people fail to see Christ for who he is. Even those who have caught a glimpse of him do not see perfectly, says Pastor John Piper. But it is important that we not only learn to see Christ but to delight in him and the truth of the gospel.
This DVD set explores the meaning and significance of these ideas in a guided group study. Each of Piper's six, 30-minute presentations will equip you in directing people's understanding so that your group will learn to behold and delight in Jesus more than anything this world has to offer.


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Robotics teams get ready for competition
Look at the schedule.
No, wait, don't look at the schedule. The schedule is just a plan. A template. An ideal.
But the schedule says all this work was supposed to be done a week ago. By now, students on the Toledo Public Schools robotics team were to be testing. It was to be a week of tweaking, of perfecting, of fine tuning.
"Oh, this isn't bad," Bruce Vanisacker said two weeks ago. Mr. Vanisacker is a senior designer at the Dana Technical Resource Park in Ottawa Lake, Mich. It's the night before the Tech Fusion Team 279 must send its robot to regional competition, which runs tomorrow through Saturday on the Eastern Michigan University campus in Ypsilanti.
Six weeks ago, the folks at FIRST Robotics Competition announced this year's rules to teams around the world. FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - is the brainchild of Segway creator Dean Kamen.
Initially, the Toledo group met a few times a week. But this is crunch time. No one has had a day off in 16 to 17 days. On weekends, 17-hour days are normal.
But Mr. Vanisacker has been through this seven times before.
It's only hours to deadline, but it's too early to panic.
"We've had years where we put parts in a box and finished building at the competition."
Mr. Vanisacker is one of 13 adults working with 18 students from the Toledo Technology Academy and Rogers High School to create a robot that will move faster, scoop up foam balls better, and shoot with sharper accuracy than all contenders in a three-on-three robot basketball game. Winners go to nationals in Atlanta.
The Ottawa Lake Dana facility isn't the only place where students are losing sleep. Over at a Dana facility in Maumee, a group from Sylvania's Northview High School scramble over their robot, Darkside.
"We're lacking in experience. We're lacking in manpower," says Andy Roth, the Northview chemistry teacher leading the Sylvania team. But he's still feeling pretty good about their chances.
Back at the Ottawa Lake facility, the TPS students stay focused.
Mark Frazier, 15, exudes an off-hand confidence. He's a sophomore at the Toledo Technical Academy. Two weeks ago, he sat on the floor in a Dana lab creating machine parts with an advanced computer-assisted design program.
Today, though, Mark is wedging his shoulder inside the robot, clipping the ends off plastic tabs that hold corrugated plastic boards in place.
"I spent three weeks designing a metal thingy" - Mark is too absorbed in the chore of the moment to come up with a better name - "and now, it's not even here." The metal thingy, a metal plate, was purged in the effort to create a robot that weighs less than 120 pounds. Under such pressure, metal thingies vanish.
"No big thing," Mark says.
Ericka Bilby, a sophomore at the technical academy, and Andy Breed, also sophomore there, devoted a lot of time to robot weight reduction. That meant drilling a swiss cheese of holes into nearly every metal piece on the robot.
Even the plastic clipping Mark engages in now is part of the team's near-manic effort to reduce weight.
"You don't need to do that," a team mentor says. Little plastic strings don't add even grams.
Patrick Berning, a technical academy junior, gives him a half-serious look.
"Too much weight," he declares, and Mark keeps clipping.
Next, the team hoists the robot onto a wagon. Their creation looks like no robot Hollywood ever imagined. Picture instead a large white box with sundry metal parts protruding.
"Let's roll, we're running out of time," exhorts Jim Smith, an engineer at Dana. The students trot down the hall to the practice field.
The robot hulks at midcourt, maybe 12 feet from its target, a 30-inch hole in a vertical board some 6 feet off the ground. Kris Bahnsen, a senior at the technical academy, starts the robot.
A ball rises on a conveyor inside the robot, slow but steady. Just before the ball reaches the firing arm, it hangs up.
Three times they try to fix it.
Finally, on the fourth try, after many adjustments, three balls shoot in quick succession. Two go through the target.
There is no shouting. No celebration.
Then a belt breaks.
No one moans.
Instead, students race the robot over to the scale.
"It's 130," Patrick Berning says. "We're 10 pounds over."
"Take the battery out," Mr. Vanisaker says. Battery weight doesn't count. "You guys are killing me."
"118," Patrick calls.
"All right guys!" Mr. Vanisacker calls out.
The students rush down the hall with the wagon-loaded robot.
The students swarm around it. It's going to be another long night. There will be more testing. More practice. More work.
No one is complaining.
This is how they learn, Mr. Vanisacker says.
"If you want to be champions, you can't do that in your leisure time," he says.
Contact Jenni Laidman at:
or 419-724-6507.


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text:
|What Can You Say to Help Someone with Cancer?
|News Releases - Health, Medicine & Nutrition
|Written by Ginny Grimsley
|Tuesday, 29 October 2013 08:25
Psychotherapist Therapist Shares Her Patients' 4 Favorite Boosts
This year alone, 238,000 men will be diagnosed with new cases of prostate cancer, the most common incidence of the disease. More than 234,580 men and women will learn they have breast cancer, the second most common today, according to the National Cancer Institute.
All told, about 13.7 million Americans are living with cancer or a history of cancer.*
Chances are, you know one or more of them.
"Friends, family, co-workers – they can all play an important role in helping a cancer patient's recovery simply by providing emotional support," says pioneering cancer psychotherapist Dr. Niki Barr, author of "Emotional Wellness, The Other Half of Treating Cancer," (canceremotionalwellbeing.com)
After a diagnosis of cancer, people have a greater need for social support, which has been shown to influence health outcomes, according to a National Institutes of Health report. Of the nine types of social support, the report says emotional support is among the most important.
"Even if you're not among the person's closest friends or family, you can help far more than you imagine simply by being encouraging and supportive," says Barr, who works exclusively with cancer patients and their loved ones.
"I understand people don't always know what to say to someone who's just been diagnosed or is in the midst of treatments and yes, sometimes they do say the wrong thing," Barr says. "I remind my patients often to refuse to listen to cancer 'horror stories,' so please, don't tell those!"
While everyone is different, Barr says that she's found a few things her patients consistently say benefit them:
When a person who's going through what may be the most difficult, stressful event of their lives knows that you care, it makes a difference, Barr says.
"If you're truly at a loss for words, it never hurts to simply say, 'I'm thinking about you."
*as of Jan. 1, 2012; National Cancer Institute
About Niki Barr, Ph.D. (@NikiBarrPhD)
Niki Barr, Ph.D. founded a pioneering psychotherapy practice dedicated to working with cancer patients in all stages of the disease, along with their family members, caregivers and friends. In her book, she describes an "emotional wellness toolbox" patients can put together with effective and simple strategies, ready to use at any time, for helping them move forward through cancer. Dr. Barr is a dynamic and popular speaker, sharing her insights with cancer patients and clinicians across the nation.
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Colin Walker left this review about Tobago
The exterior of this pub with its very in your face sign shows live music and cabaret. According to the website http://www.thwaitespubs.co.uk/tobago-blackpool/ the place is well known for our popular live entertainers and drag DJs. My visit during the day was that inside is a tradional pub selling Thwaites beers.
On 29th July 2014
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Taboo is now called Tobago
On 18th April 2011
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text:
Sacrifice is a word that Narbonne quarterback Troy Williams grew to understand this season.
Williams didn't quite put up the same numbers that he did as a junior. But that just made his selfless play more impressive.
Williams put aside his personal pride in place of team glory. The result was a more efficient, more dangerous and more motivated Williams.
And for that, Williams was the 2012 Daily Breeze Offensive Player of the Year. | VIDEO
"It was absolutely worth it. We were winning games," Williams said. "There were times I got frustrated, but I let the coaches coach and the other players play, and I tried to let the flow come to me. "
Williams, already at the University of Washington, delivered in a big way.
Williams threw for 2,881 yards, 39 touchdowns and just six interceptions. And he did it on 191-of-266 passing, an impressive 71.8 completion rate. Williams was also a ground threat with 94 carries for 396 yards and 10 touchdowns.
"That 70 percent rating is ridiculous, especially when you play the likes of Mater Dei, Long Beach Poly and Serra, and the teams in our league," Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas said. "You want a quarterback who can manage a game, to be part of the game plan, not someone who's just going to take it over.
"This year Troy might have done more with less opportunities."
With Williams in a good frame of mind, Narbonne embarked on a journey that included eye-opening nonleague wins over Palos Verdes, Long Beach Poly, Serra and Mater Dei. It included a run through the Marine League and a win over Crenshaw in the final for its second straight City crown.
"This year, I tried to be more of a leader," Williams said. "I tried to make sure everyone was doing the right things.
"Whenever it was time to make plays, I was ready."
His best feat came with his feet in the CIF State Regional against Centennial of Corona.
Williams took the team on his shoulders and rallied it from a 28-8 halftime deficit and tied the game in the final minute before ultimately succumbing.
"We never hang our heads because we know he's going to pull through," Narbonne linebacker Marquise Lomax said. "He's versatile. He can do it all. Against Centennial, he was running like there was no tomorrow.
"He's just a good dude."


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- Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building - http://inhabitat.com -
Ford Releases List of Top 25 Electric Vehicle Friendly Cities
Posted By Brit Liggett On April 14, 2011 @ 12:53 pm In automotive,Green Transportation,Innovation,News,Policy | No Comments
Ford Motor Company just released a list of the top 25 electric vehicle [1] (EV) friendly cities in anticipation of the release of their Ford Focus Electric [2] later this year. The list was compiled by researchers at the company and digs deep into what makes one place more EV friendly than the next. The company decided that EV infrastructure reaches far beyond public charging stations and into the policies [3] and procedures each city has in place for the no-emissions vehicle market. Is your city on the list?
"As more and more electric vehicles [1] come to market, it's incredibly important that cities develop action plans including infrastructure development and permitting solutions to ensure these vehicles are a viable solution for citizens," said Mike Tinskey, Ford's manager of Vehicle Electrification and Infrastructure. It makes sense that a company selling a new product — in this case the EV — would want to make sure the market was ready for it but the interest in this report is how deep it digs.
Ford went through each city and rated it not only on the amount of public charging stations but also the number of corporate charging stations, quick charge stations, availability of online permits for speedy approval for installing consumer and commercial charging stations, comprehensive urban planning approach to EV infrastructure and the amount of cooperation between the different concerned parties on the EV city of the future. The company released the list in alphabetical order so as not to choose a favorite EV-ready city but Tinskey hinted that San Francisco is one of the leaders of the pack. Among the other cities mentioned are Boston, New York [4], Washington DC, Philadelphia, Houston, Baltimore and Phoenix.
+ The full list is available here [5]
Via Gigaom [6]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/ford-releases-list-of-top-25-electric-vehicle-friendly-cities/
URLs in this post:
[1] vehicle: http://inhabitat.com/automotive/
[2] Ford Focus Electric: http://inhabitat.com/ces-2011-ford-unveils-the-all-new-focus-electric/
[3] policies: http://inhabitat.com/policy
[4] New York: http://inhabitat.com<a href=
[5] + The full list is available here: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=34429
[6] Gigaom: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/fords-top-25-cities-paving-the-way-for-electric-cars/
Click here to print.
Copyright © 2011 Inhabitat Local - New York. All rights reserved.


text: Life in the Delta River League is tough. Folsom High's varsity softball team has yet to win a league game, as they enter spring break with a 0-5 record. Coming off a three-game sweep during the Bulldog Classic on April 9, the Lady Bulldogs started last week feeling pretty good, but ended with a 9-0 loss to Oak Ridge on Friday, preceded by a 3-1 loss against Pleasant Grove on April 13. Folsom didn't face Pleasant Grove's ace pitcher, Ally Carda, and was able to make the game against the Eagles a close one. The Lady Bulldogs managed five hits against Celina Matthias, two coming from Alex Preddy and one each by Nicole Clark, Vronica Idrogo and Kaylan Jackson. Clark scored Folsom's only run on Idrogo's RBI. Preddy also pitched a strong game for Folsom, allowing two earned runs on six hits, while striking out five. "Pleasant Grove threw their younger pitcher and we were able to get on base and that gave us some momentum and helped the girls keep their effort up," Folsom assistant coach Chelsea Camous said. "Alex pitched a great game and our defense was pretty solid. We learned that as long as our offense is productive we can play stay with teams." The offense, however, did little against Oak Ridge on Friday, managing only a single by Preddy in a 9-0 loss in a game that served as a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. "We just told the team to put that loss behind them and rest during spring break and come back ready to play hard and finish the season," Camous said. "It was an incredible turnout for the game and it was nice to be apart of it. It was for a great cause."


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* [[Headlights2013/Payments|Payments]]
* [[Headlights2013/Payments|Payments]]
* [[Headlights2013/DigitalArchiving|Digital Archiving]]
* [[Headlights2013/DigitalArchiving|Digital Archiving]]
Revision as of 15:57, 5 December 2012
To bring the Web to its Full potential W3C needs to be constantly thinking about the next major area of focus. Continuously, Domains are refreshing where they put existing resources, but at least once a year (at Woods), W3M needs to explore major re-allocations of resources to ride and drive the latest trends.
To ensure a thoughtful discussion at Woods it is required that ideas be widely socialized in the Team (and Membership) and that everyone has opportunity to contribute. Preferably, the ideas have been developed beyond the sound bite level to reasonably defined proposals.
This is the wiki for the Team to create ideas for discussion in 2013, part of the headlights process instituted in 2011.
- Create a new page in this wiki for each proposal. The content of the page should follow the template below.
- Add a link to your topic in the list of proposals below.
- W3C will choose a subset of submissions for further development over a period of months. It is not the objective to do all of this work prior to submission – January submissions are supposed to be lightweight. However, the template should be sufficiently inspiring that W3M will want to choose your idea for further exploration.
List of Proposals
NOTE: Team please put proposals in internal wiki.
Simplified 2013 Template
To use this template, please copy the following subsections to the wiki page for your idea and complete them.
Name of idea
Submitter name
This idea is (CHOOSE ONE):
- An area of web standardization that arises from the increased application of web technology to a new business segment (e.g. entertainment, publishing, health, energy, government).
- A trend in information technology that requires new standardizations (e.g. cloud computing, social networking, a search platform, a gaming platform)
- A specific technology area that requires new standardization (e.g. structured vocabularies, privacy, REST)
- A new scope of work for W3C for an existing technology area (e.g. education, testing, validation, certification, profiles)
- None of the above
One Hundred Word Description of the Idea
Benefit(s) to W3C
Which of our stakeholders would be the most enthusiastic in supporting
Template for commenting on Proposals
The team may provide input for each proposal, answering at least these questions:
- Why they think it is a good idea
- Why they think it is a bad idea
- If they are interested in participating to develop the idea further.


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- Follow Therese on these partner sites:
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- Today's Mama
I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, "The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit."
This directive not only applies to those depressed and anxious persons whose therapists have told them that they smell … you know, like my therapist did a few years ago. But also to folks who need to trick their brain into believing that they feel great!
Taking care of yourself—starting with soaping up your skin and shampooing your hair—is usually a no-brainer when you're feeling good. Not so when getting out of bed feels like completing an Ironman at age 85. But that first effort—of putting your left foot on your bedroom floor followed by the right foot—can thrust the momentum in the right direction, so that your brain starts to follow your body toward good health.
Thus, showering and scrubbing your armpits is one way of "faking it til you make it," and it's been my experience that after you fake serenity and sanity for a few 24 hours, your limbic system, the brain's emotional center, begins to chill out a tad.
Until your next shower … which is … a day later?
Previous Posts
Seven Ways to Get Over an Infatuation
posted 12:46:43pm Feb. 19, 2014 | read full post »
When Faith Turns Neurotic
posted 10:37:13am Jan. 14, 2014 | read full post »
How to Handle Negative People
posted 10:32:10am Jan. 14, 2014 | read full post »
8 Coping Strategies for the Holidays
posted 9:30:12am Nov. 21, 2013 | read full post »
Can I Say I'm a Son or Daughter of Christ and Suffer From Depression?
posted 10:56:04am Oct. 29, 2013 | read full post »


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Natural Security: Helping Communities Implement Sustainable Water StrategiesFederal Policy Recommendations
Federal Policy Recommendations
Clean water is essential to our health, our communities, and our lives. Yet our water infrastructure – drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, dams, and levees – is seriously outdated. In addition, we have degraded much of our essential natural infrastructure – forests, streams, wetlands, and floodplains. Global warming will worsen the situation, as rising temperatures, increased water demands, extended droughts, and intense storms strain our water supplies, flood our communities, and pollute our waterways.
We need to fundamentally transform the way we manage water. A 21st century approach recognizes "green infrastructure" as the core of our water management system. Green infrastructure is the most cost-effective and flexible way for communities to deal with the impacts of global warming.
Top 5 Steps Congress Can Take
1. Climate legislation. It is essential that the Senate pass a climate bill and that Congress finalize climate legislation for the President's signature. Any climate legislation should not only address greenhouse gas pollution but also include funding to help states, communities, and water utilities adapt to the coming impacts to freshwater systems by prioritizing and creating incentives for green infrastructure and non-structural approaches.
2. Restore Clean Water Act Protections. Protecting supplies of clean water and making sure that drinking water sources remain pristine is critical for communities to adapt to climate change. To that end Congress should pass the Clean Water Restoration Act (S. 787) to re-affirm protection of the freshwater systems that sustain clean water supplies and the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) to preserve the streams and wetlands which defend downstream communities from flooding.
3. Federal infrastructure funding. The nation's water infrastructure is crumbling and in desperate need of more investment – but we should invest in wiser, greener strategies not simply rebuild 19th and 20th century designs. Congress should make green infrastructure and water efficiency strategies a centerpiece of all federal infrastructure investments for drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater treatment and flood management. Congress can take these immediate steps:
- Reauthorize the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs with strong priority and incentives given to projects that include substantial green infrastructure and water efficiency investments.
- Pass the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 3202) to establish a clean water trust fund to support efforts by water systems to increase energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigate the impacts of climate change and to establish a national water infrastructure research, development, and demonstration program, among other provisions.
- Lay the groundwork for other authorization bills to include substantial investments in green infrastructure. Unlike energy, transportation, agriculture, and other national priorities, there is no single authorization bill that addresses water resources. Instead, Congress must plan to include elements of a new vision for water in a variety of upcoming legislative vehicles, including the Transportation Bill, the Farm Bill, and the Water Resources Development Act.
4. Reform federal flood management. Flood costs continue to spiral upwards in spite of the billions spent on levees and flood control projects. To stop the flood loss cycle, the federal government must protect and preserve floodplains by adopting federal policies that discourage development and other destructive and degrading activities in floodplains. Congress should enact comprehensive reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program to encourage better floodplain management, reduce property loss and costs to taxpayers, protect and restore critical ecosystems, and improve public safety. These reforms should NOT include expanding the NFIP to include wind insurance, which would further destabilize the program. Congress should also support the efforts of the Administration to modernize the principles, standards, and procedures for federal water resource projects, including flood management projects.
5. Invest in key programs that support smarter water management decisions. Irresponsible management of water resources and the destruction of natural systems such as wetlands and floodplains make communities more vulnerable to climate change. Congress can take these immediate steps to support smarter water management in FY 2010:
- Authorize EPA's WaterSense program, a voluntary water-efficient product labeling program (included in H.R. 2454 and S. 1005) and appropriate at least $10 million.
- Appropriate EPA's Section 319 program $250 million to reduce polluted storm water runoff.
- Appropriate the USGS' National Streamflow Information Program a minimum of $28.5 million to provide critical science based water data.
- Appropriate the U.S. Army Corps Restoration programs (sections 1135 and 206) at least $25 million each and the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program $45 million to restore damaged wetlands.
- Appropriate NOAA's Habitat Restoration Center a minimum of $40 million annually to restore critical riverine and coastal systems.
- Provide FEMA $500 million to protect communities from flood disasters through the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, Repetitive and Severe Repetitive Flood Claims Program, and the National Pre-Disaster Mitigation Fund.


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Original Link: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2492
GeForce 9800 GTX and 3-way SLI: May the nForce Be With Youby Derek Wilson on April 1, 2008 9:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
Yes, NVIDIA leads the way in performance. They own the fastest single GPU card, the fastest multiGPU single card, and the fastest multi card configurations. People who want the best of the best do pay a premium for the privilege, but that isn't something everyone is comfortable with. Most of us would much rather see a high end card that doesn't totally depart from sanity in terms of actual value gained through the purchase. Is the 9800 GTX that solution? That's what we are here to find out.
We've gotten a lot of feedback lately about our test system. Yes, at the very high end we haven't seen what we would have expected if all things were equal between all platforms. But the fact is that making a single platform work for apples to apples comparisons between CrossFire and SLI is worth it. With this review, we aren't quite there, as we just uncovered a HUGE issue that has been holding us back from higher performance with our high end hardware. We do have some numbers showing what's going on, but we just didn't have time to rerun all of our hardware after we discovered the solution to the issue. But we'll get to that shortly.
The major questions we will want to answer with this review are mostly about value. This card isn't a new architecture and it isn't really faster than other single card single GPU solutions. But the price point does make a difference here. At about $400, AMD's Radeon 3870X2 will be a key comparison point to this new $300 part. With the 8800 Ultra and GTX officially leaving the scene, the 9800 GX2 and 9800 GTX are the new top two in terms of high end hardware at NVIDIA. The price gap between these two is very large (the 9800 GX2 costs about twice as much as a stock clocked 9800 GTX) and the 3870X2 falls right in between them. Does this favor AMD or NVIDIA in terms of value? Does either company need to adjust their price point?
Things are rarely straightforward in the graphics world, and with the crazy price points and multi-GPU solutions that recently burst on to the scene, we've got a lot of stuff to try and make sense out of. Let us take you through the looking glass...
The 9800 GTX and EVGA's Cards
The 9800 GTX is a 128 shader, G92 based card (yes, another one) that comes in at 675MHz core, 1.69GHz shader clock, and 2.2GHz (effective) memory clock. This puts the raw power of the card up over the 8800 Ultra, but there is one major drawback to this high end part: it only has a 256-bit memory bus hooked up to 512MB of RAM.
The added memory might not come into play a lot, but the fact that the 8800 Ultra has essentially 50% more effective memory bandwidth does put it at an advantage in memory performance limited situations. This means there is potential for performance loss at high resolutions, high levels of AA, or in games with memory intensive effects. While we get that $300 US puts this card in a different class than the 8800 Ultra, and thus NVIDIA is targeting a different type of user, we would have liked to see a card with more bandwidth and more memory (especially when we look at the drop off in performance between Crysis at 19x12 and 25x16).
9800 GTX cards are capable of 3-way SLI with the two SLI connectors on the top. Of course, NVIDIA requires that we use an NVIDIA motherboard for this purpose. We are not fans of artificial technical limitations based on marketing needs and would much prefer to see SLI run on any platform that enables multiple PCIe x16 slots. With normal SLI, we do have the Skulltrail option, but NVIDIA has chosen not to enable 3-way capability on this board either.
We wanted to be able to include 3-way SLI numbers in our launch review (which has been one incredible headache, but more on that later), and EVGA was kind enough to help us out by providing the hardware. We certainly appreciate them enabling us to bring you numbers for this configuration today.
We were also able to get our hands on a C0 engineering sample 790i board for testing. Let's just say that the experience was … character building. Running a QX9770 and 1333Mhz DDR3 at 9:9:9:24, we had what could best be described as a very rough time getting 3-way and even quad SLI with two 9800 GX2 boards to work in this system. We were lucky to get the numbers we did get. Let's take a look at what we tested with
The Test
Once again we used the Skulltrail system for most of our comparisons. We've added on the 790i board for 3-way SLI performance scaling tests.
I didn't believe I would be saying this so soon, but our experience with 790i and SLI has been much much worse than on Skulltrail. We were plagued by power failure after power failure. With three 9800 GTX cards plugged in, the system never got up over 400 W when booting into windows, but after a few minutes the power would just flicker and cut out.
It didn't make sense that it was the PSU size, because it wasn't even being loaded. We did try augmenting the PSU with a second one to run one of the cards, but that didn't work out either. The story is really long and arduous and for some reason involved the Power of the Dark Side, but our solution (after much effort) was to use one power supply for the system and graphics cards and one power supply for the drives and fans. Each PSU needed to be plugged into its own surge protector and needed to be on different breakers.
The working theory is that power here isn't very clean, and the 790i board is more sensitive to fluctuations in the quality of the power supplied (which is certainly affected by the AC source). Isolating breakers and using surge protectors was the best we could do, and we are very thankful it worked out. It seems likely that a good quality 1000-1500 VA UPS would have been enough to provide cleaner power and solve the issue, but we didn't have one to test with.
Once we handled this we were mostly able to benchmark. We could get a good 15 minutes of up time out of the system, but after repeated benchmarking instability crept back in and we'd need to wait a while before we tried again. The majority of these problems were on 3-way and Quad SLI, but we did have a hiccup with a two card SLI configuration as well. We didn't have any trouble at all with single card solutions (even single 9800 GX2 solutions).
Before anyone says heat, we were testing in an open air environment in a room with an ambient temp of about 15 degrees C, with one 120mm fan blowing straight into the back of the GPUs and another blowing through the memory (we did take care not to interfere with the CPU HSF airflow as well). The graphics cards did get warm, but if heat was the issue here, I'd better get a bath of LN2 to run this thing submerged in ready.
It is very important that we note one more time that this is the C0 engineering sample stepping and that NVIDIA explicitly told us that stability might be an issue in some situations. The retail C1 stepping should not have these issues.
Here's our test setup:
|Test Setup
|2x Intel Core 2 Extreme
QX9775 @ 3.20GHz
|Intel D5400XS (Skulltrail)
|Video Cards
|ATI Radeon HD 3870
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2
|Video Drivers
|Catalyst 8.3
ForceWare 174.74
|Hard Drive
|Seagate 7200.9 120GB 8MB 7200RPM
|2xMicron 2GB FB-DIMM DDR2-8800
|Operating System
|Windows Vista Ultimate
64-bit SP1
Crysis, DX10 and Forcing VSYNC Off in the Driver
Why do we keep on coming back to Crysis as a key focal point for our reviews? Honestly because it's the only thing out there that requires the ultra high end hardware enabled by recently released hardware.
That and we've discovered something very interesting this time around.
We noted that some of our earlier DX10 performance numbers on Skulltrail looked better than anything we could get more recently. In general, the higher number is usually more likely to be "right", and it has been a frustrating journey trying to hunt down the issues that lead to our current situation.
Many reinstalls and configuration tweaks later and we've got an answer.
Every time I set up a system, because I want to ensure maximum performance, the first thing I do is force VSYNC off in the driver. I also generally run without having the graphics card scale output for my panel; centered timings allow me to see what resolution is currently running without having to check. But I was in a hurry on Sunday and I must have forgotten to check the driver after I set up an 8800 Ultra SLI for testing Crysis.
Low and behold, when I looked at the numbers, I saw a huge performance increase. No, it couldn't be that VSYNC was simply not forced off in the driver could it? After all, Crysis has a setting for VSYNC and it was explicitly disabled; the driver setting shouldn't matter.
But it does.
Forcing VSYNC off in the driver can decrease performance by 25% under the DX10 applications we tested. We see a heavier impact in CPU limited situations. Interestingly enough, as we discussed last week, with our high end hardware, Crysis and World in Conflict were heavily CPU and system limited. Take a look for yourself at the type of performance gains we saw from disabling VSYNC. These tests were run on Crysis using the GeForce 9800 GX2 in Quad SLI.
We would have tried overclocking the 790i system as well if we could have done so and maintained stability.
In looking at these numbers, we can see some of the major issues we had between NVIDIA platforms and Skulltrail diminish. There is still a difference, but 790i does have PCIe 2.0 bandwidth between its cards and it uses DDR3 rather than FB-DIMMS. We won't be able to change those things, but right now my option is to run half the slots with 800 MHz FB-DIMMS or all four slots with 667 MHz. We should be getting a handful of higher speed lower latency FB-DIMMS in for testing soon which will we believe will help. Now that we've gotten a better feel for the system, we also plan on trying some bus overclocking to help alleviate the PCIe 2.0 bandwidth advantage 790i has. It also seems possible to push our CPUs up over 4GHz with air cooling, but we really need a larger PSU to keep the system stable (without any graphics going, a full CPU load can pull about 700W at the wall when running 4GHz at 1.5v) especially when you start running a GPU on top of that.
Slower GPUs will benefit less from not forcing VSYNC off in the driver, but even if the framerate is near a CPU limit (say, within 20%) performance will improve. NVIDIA seems more impacted by this than AMD, but we aren't sure at this point whether that is because NVIDIA's cards expose more of a CPU limit due to their higher performance.
NVIDIA is aware of the VSYNC problem, as they were able to confirm our findings yesterday.
Being that we review hardware, it is conceivable that this issue might not affect most gamers. Many people like VSYNC on, and since most games allow for the option it isn't usually necessary or beneficial to force VSYNC off in the driver. So we decided to ask in our video forum just how many people force VSYNC off in the driver, and whether they do so always or just some of the time.
More than half our 89 respondents (at the time of this writing) never force VSYNC off, but 40% of the remaining respondents admitted to forcing VSYNC off at some point, half of these always forcing VSYNC off (just as we do in our testing).
This is a big deal, especially for members who want to play Crysis and have lower end CPUs. We didn't have time to rerun all of our numbers without VSYNC forced off in the driver, so keep in mind that these numbers could benefit a lot by doing so.
Scaling and Performance with 3-way SLI
As we've explained, we had a great number of issues in testing 3-way SLI and Quad SLI on our 790i board. We couldn't even get 8800 Ultra Tri SLI to work, as it draws so much power in addition to being finicky in the first place. We were able to get some numbers run on Crysis and Oblivion.
Here is a look at performance scaling with both; we'll look at comparative performance further below.
These numbers were run on the 790i system and we absolutely did leave VSYNC on its default setting. Performance differences between one, two, and three 9800 GTX cards were more compressed when we force VSYNC off in the control panel.
Here is how Crysis stacks up in a direct comparison with the major competition (except for the 8800 Ultra configuration which we could not run).
9800 GTX 3-way is absolutely playable at 1920x1200 with Crysis when using Very High settings. Clearly Quad SLI leads the way here, but for $300 less, that's not a bad deal if what you want to do is play Crysis at 1920x1200.
The delta between Tri and Quad is lower here. In both cases, two 9800 GTX cards outperform a single 9800 GX2. While the 9800 GX2 can be plugged into any system, NVIDIA still wants to sell 790i platforms. If you've got or want an NVIDIA based platform, you get higher performance for the exact same price by going with two 9800 GTX cards over a single 9800 GX2.
With the hassle of huge power supplies, cooling, etc. associated with Tri and Quad SLI, our money for maintaining value with a high end solution would have to fall to the 9800GTX SLI set up. 3-way seems to have some problems at the moment as well, as we ran into one large issue in one of the only two games we tested. Oblivion has some graphical issues that we document here on YouTube.
Once Again, The Rest
For those of you who want the rest of the data, here it is. We ran the same list of games from our previous article on the 9800 GX2 Quad SLI. This time we do have the 8800 Ultra SLI numbers in the mix as well to round out the comparison.
Power Consumption
Final Words
So, now that we have the 9800 GTX in the mix, what has changed? Honestly, not as much in terms of performance stack as in price. Yes, the 8800 Ultra is better than the 9800 GTX where memory bandwidth is a factor, but other than that the relationship of the 9800 GTX to the 3870X2 is largely the same. Of course, NVIDIA would never sell 8800 Ultra below the 3870X2 price of $400 (the binned 90nm G80 glued on there didn't come cheap).
The smaller die size of the G92 based 9800 GTX takes away one victory AMD had over NVIDIA: the more expensive 8800 Ultra was slower than AMD's top of the line. Without significantly improving (and sometimes hurting) performance over the 8800 Ultra (because they didn't really need to with the 9800 GX2 in their pocket), NVIDIA has brought more competition to AMD's lineup, which is definitely not something they will be happy about.
It is nice to have this card come in at the $300 price point with decent performance, but the most exciting thing about it is the fact that picking up two of them will give you better performance than a single 9800 GX2 for the same amount of money. Two of them can even start to get by in Crysis with Very High settings (though it might offer a better experience with one or two features turned down a bit).
While our very limited and rocky experience with 3-way SLI may have been tainted by the engineering sample board we used, the fact that we can get near 9800 GX2 Quad SLI performance for 3/4 of the costs is definitely a good thing. The fact this set up MUST be run in an nForce board is a drawback, as we would love to test in a system that can run every configuration under the sun. We're getting closer with Skulltrail, and we aren't missing the fact that there are concerns among our readers over its use. But we're confident that we can push performance up and turn it into our workhorse for graphics, especially now that the VSYNC issue has been cleared up.
While testing this group of cards has been difficult with all the problems we experienced, we are very happy to have a solid explanation for what was causing our decreased performance we were seeing. Now all we need is an explanation for why forcing VSYNC off in the driver causes such a huge performance hit.


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Your week in health
Yes! It's Friday. Hope everyone had a wonderful week. Here's your roundup of health news.
The big news in the health care reform front was the preisdent's shifting stance on the so-called public option. On Monday, it seemed Obama was ready to cave to critics and drop the idea of a public insurance option. Then, the White House backtracked, saying it wasn't shying away. We admit it; we're confused. Also confusing is what might replace the public option -- nonprofit co-ops. What are those, you ask? Folks here , here and here offer a few explanations.
In other health care news, the Brits are defending their system against U.S. attacks. Others ask if it's even fair to compare the American system with Canada's and countries in Europe.
Remember the craziness over "death panels" last week? Well put that silliness aside and read this very well-done piece about how doctors -- specifically palliative care specialists -- navigate end-of-life issues.
Stephanie wrote earlier this week about swine flu, er, H1N1 vaccine trials in kids, who are among the five priority groups who would get the shot. But maybe those priority groups are all wrong, says a new analysis by Yale and Clemson researchers. Instead of health care workers and pregnant women, the vaccine should be given first to children 5-19 and their parents to be most effective, the study says.
Cake that's good for you? Sign me up. The American Cancer Society asked the baking society to come up with a more nutrious birthday cake. Recipes included.
You know what's not good for you? Zombies. But how does one prepare for say, a zombie invasion and a subsequent assault on public health? I know, this has been keeping me up at night too. Well, someone actually did the math. The folks at the WSJ's health blog explain.
And with that, have a healthy and happy weekend!
Wired magazine photo
Categories: News roundup


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My 1 week old is crying at night. Sleeps well during the day but is up at night. Is it normal at 1wk
Ive tried everything that everyone recommends (reading all other responses) but Ive noticed that the trend comes from newborns 2weeks or older. Also, its so confusing to know if its colic or not. I dont always listen to doctors because they are only giving opinions and are not always right. My son had colic and I was going in circles with thier recommendations. It was very frustrating. I just feel like I have a lot of questions still and need someone to talk to.
Posted: 03/25/2011 by Baby Amezquita
Mom Answers
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(acute abdominal pain (especially in infants) is the definition of colic. Now keeping that in mind....depending on your baby's doctor...they don't always agree with all the guidelines set even in their own profession. For example, My doctor said my son had colic at a week old...he will still say it was colic..because the definition is again ACUTE abdominal pain. He said to try gripe water. If it works..we have our answer. Gripe water saved me a whole lot of drama something they did not have 18 years ago when my daughter was born. Instead of giving him a full teaspoon however I gave him a half and it worked like magic. I am not saying however that your one week old has colic just that sometimes even the doctor's don't agree. It could be simply a mix up of days and nights, eating too much, etc. Run the vacuum during the day, make some noise. Your little one won't sleep as deeply and sometimes it takes a week or more for it to work. Or try gripe water first and if it works,GR8posted 03/26/2011 by TheUntamed
its not colic - that doesn't show up usually until around a month old. My daughter was the same way - up solid from 12-6am it was so hard. I am still not sure what we did to reverse her schedule but all of a sudden around 3 weeks old she just figured it out. We also started giving her a little more to eat (I had to pump all of the breastmilk b/c she refused to nurse) for a bedtime bottle, and that got her to sleep longer at the nighttime and she just 'fixed' herself. Good luck, I'm sorry you are feeling so lost :(posted 03/25/2011 by nbuchholtz
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