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Today, the third day, the dog was gone. Then he was back. Then he was gone again. Maybe she was hallucinating. Even though she was well known for enduring things others could not, for persevering through heat and cold and all manner of punishing climate and topography-even though she was one of the most accomplished endurance runners in the world-she still had her limits. On the third day, in the hidden canyon, her body broken, she discovered them.
And then the dog was back, and now he was coming closer, and now he was lapping at the puddle, her only water source, and she couldn't help it, she yelled at him. It was the only water she could reach. Couldn't he find another puddle? Bad dog!
No one knew where she was. It would be dark again, and cold. No one could hear her scream. No one was coming. Today, her third day on the rock by the puddle, she allowed herself to see the truth.
She had won the Pikes Peak Marathon four times. She had raced up all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks in less than 15 days, faster than any woman in history. She had competed in 441 endurance events (races that took from an hour to 10 days to finish) since 1995 and finished in the top three in 390 of them. Three times she was part of a four-person team that won one of the most punishing endurance events in the world, Primal Quest, a 400-mile trek over land and water, mountain and desert terrain. She had earned six "U.S. Athlete of the Year" titles in four different endurance sports. She had kept going when others had told her she had to stop. Now, she couldn't move.
It was midafternoon on a Friday. She had degrees in biology and kinesiology, and as much as she had invested, personally and professionally, in the awesome power of the human spirit, she also possessed grim knowledge regarding the limits of flesh and bone. It was 10 days before Christmas. That's when Danelle Ballengee, just 35 years old, prepared to die. That's when the runner who never gave up, gave up. It really was a beautiful spot. She felt peace. And then she heard another sound. And it didn't make sense, either.
Two days earlier, on Wednesday, December 13, Ballengee had spent the early part of the morning e-mailing with sponsors, writing articles, answering questions from clients who had hired her as a personal trainer. She left her house on Cliffview Drive in Moab, Utah, at 10 a.m. She had landlord duties to attend, too. She owned three rental properties in Colorado, and she rented out space in her Moab house, and one of her tenant's friends had stolen some money, so she had to go to the bank to file a fraud report. Only then could she begin the highlight of her morning--the run.
With her dog, Taz, a 3-year-old reddish-brown mutt with a long jaw and a broad chest, she climbed in her white Ford Ranger truck, her kayak on top of the roof. She stopped at a Burger King for a chicken sandwich and French fries and a large coffee, because she had forgotten to eat breakfast. The dog got a bite, because the dog always got a bite. She had spoiled him since the day she got him from the pound, when he was just a few weeks old.
It was a good day for a run, cloudy but not too cold. She listened to "Beautiful Day," by U2. She thought about the guy she had met a few weeks earlier at a race in Leadville, Colorado, and smiled because she thought there was potential. When she got to the parking area at the Amasa Back Trail, five miles out of town, she kept driving, continued a quarter mile north on the road to a turnoff near a cliff. She did it because she wanted to shave a quarter mile off her run. The endurance runner was feeling lazy.
She put on a pair of cheap orange sunglasses, grabbed her MP3 player and a large plastic bottle filled with water and a raspberry-flavored energy gel. She wore running pants, a fleece hat, silk long underwear, a polypropylene shirt, and a thin fleece jacket. The temperature was in the 40s, but she wanted to be prepared. She invested as much in preparation as she did in the power of positive thinking. Just before she locked her wallet and cell phone in the car, she spotted a fanny pack in the backseat. She had forgotten it was there. She grabbed it, stuck her water bottle in, and took off.
Her plan was to run and hike an eight-mile loop. She would start on the Amasa Back Trail, popular among bikers and hikers, especially in spring and fall. But she would veer off of it after just a few miles, just before the top of a mesa, where she would follow a seldom-used jeep trail known to the locals as the Mine Sweeper and into a hidden canyon, then she would scramble up the rocks of that canyon, toward Hurrah Pass, onto another seldom-used jeep trail, through another canyon, up some more rocks, and she would eventually land back on another jeep trail that would take her back to a road that led to her truck. Taz ran alongside her, panting happily. An hour in, she had covered five miles. She had drunk half her water bottle. She was scrambling up the rocks in the first hidden canyon, Taz just behind her. It really was a beautiful day.
If you stopped to think about the things that could kill you, you could drive yourself crazy. Another second in an intersection. Another inch on a highway. One misstep on some ice-covered slickrock. Or maybe it was just slippery lichen.
One second she was one of the best endurance runners in the world, out for a late autumn loop in the high desert, breathing in the soft, juniper-scented air, barely paying attention to the low, grayish clouds scudding by. One second she was a world champion out for a light workout.
And then the second was gone. Now she was sliding, like a kid down a giant water slide. That's what she thought at the time, that it felt like a water slide. Past lichen, past rocks, past sand. She slid on her butt, hit "a little bump," then "another little bump." Then she came to "a little ledge."
People hear Primal Quest and they see adrenaline junkies. People read about Danelle Ballengee and they think risk seeker. But in her kayak, she steered clear of white water. On skis, she descended carefully, avoided steep out-of-bounds areas. She had no interest in bungee jumping. Other adventure racers yipped with glee at sections that demanded hanging from ropes. That was the point in the race when Ballengee frowned and gritted her teeth.
She kept picking up speed. According to a newspaper account published a week after the accident, she flew off a cliff and plummeted the equivalent of two stories, landing on her feet. The reality was messier, and more plain. She ended up halfway down the hill, prone. She caught her breath. She had once survived eight sun-baked days in the Morocco Eco-Challenge, a race equally as fearsome as Primal Quest. A leech had attached itself to her eyelid in another race, given her a corneal ulcer, blinded her for three days. That was punishing. This was just a nasty tumble. But she was smart, and careful. She had her two degrees from the University of Colorado. She would be methodical. She put her right hand on her right leg, her left hand on her left leg. Whew. That was the word she thought. Whew. She wasn't paralyzed. This was her next thought: Man, it's gonna be a long walk out of here. A moment later she realized she couldn't stand up.
She would crawl 30 feet to the bottom of the canyon. She would drag herself over rocks and through scrub. Then she would crawl the three miles to the Amasa Back Trail and hope that someone would see her. It was noon when she started.
Her left leg wouldn't move. She scooted forward on her right knee, balanced, then reached back with both hands and pulled her left leg forward. She knew things were broken. She knew she was in trouble. When she reached the bottom of the canyon, she looked in her fanny pack to see if there might be something to help. She found another pack of raspberry energy gel, a shower cap, and two ibuprofen. She swallowed the pills, kept crawling. She crawled through sand and brush and some snow--the canyon floor was not just sand--and by the time she arrived at a flat rock, and a sinkhole filled with water, the air was getting cold and shadows in the canyon were lengthening. It was 5 p.m. She had crawled a quarter of a mile, and it had taken five hours.
She lay down on her back, drank the remaining half of her water bottle, put her hands between her legs because they were so cold. She decided she would refill the water bottle from the sinkhole--she didn't care about parasites. But it hurt too much to turn over. So she reached backward over her right shoulder and filled the water bottle without looking.
She did crunches with her head and neck to keep warm. Her knees were bent, and she tapped her feet on the rock. She rubbed her hands together. She reached for the shower cap in the fanny pack, but she couldn't find it. Taz curled up next to her. He put his chin on her stomach and looked at her. The temperature dipped into the 20s. She lay on her back, freezing, exhausted, and looked at the moonless sky. She saw the Milky Way and shooting stars. She had never in her life seen so many shooting stars.
She wondered what the guy in Leadville was doing. She wondered if someone would see that her truck was missing from her house. Then she realized how dumb that was. She loved working with others in the endurance challenges, but she hadn't told anyone where she was going. And what she was most famous for was enduring. Why would anyone worry about her?
It was so cold. She didn't want to die. She couldn't die. There were friends and family she wasn't ready to leave. She continued her crunches, her feet-tapping, her finger-curling.
At first light, she saw Taz playing with a stick. That cheered her. She ate one of the energy gels. She tried to refill her water bottle, but the water in the sinkhole had frozen. She reached over her shoulder and broke through it with the cap of the bottle.
She decided that today she would crawl out of the canyon. She tried to roll over, to get on her hands and knees, and she screamed. She felt pain radiating down her legs, up her back. Taz licked her face and she lay back down, on her back, to gather her strength. And she screamed for help, in case anyone could hear her, and when she looked up, Taz had gone.
Then it was 3 o'clock and he was back. She wasn't sure how so much time had passed, but it had. The temperature had risen into the 40s, and that felt good, but it would be dark again soon, and the cold would come. She screamed for help, even though she knew no one was coming. That's when she saw the shower cap--it was just a couple feet away. It was too far. She raised her head, lowered her voice. She looked at Taz.
"I'm hurt," she said. He looked at her and tilted his head, first to the left, then to the right. She knew it was ridiculous, but it looked like he understood.
"Taz," she said, "you know, maybe you could go and get some help for me."
He tilted his head again, didn't move. She told herself not to be stupid, that he was a dog. Just a dog. And then Taz ran away again, down the hidden canyon.
Now it was 4 o'clock. She had to get the shower cap. She would need it for the night, to keep what meager body heat she still had. Two feet. It took an hour to get it.
And now the sun had left the hidden little canyon, and it was getting colder again, and she felt a swelling in her midsection, a lump the size of a water bottle, and she knew she was broken inside. Then Taz was back, which was comforting, but it meant that he wasn't magic, he didn't understand English, he was a good dog, but he was just a dog. No one would be coming down the hidden canyon to rescue her.
She started the crunches again, the feet-tapping, the hand-rubbing. Taz refused to curl up next to her. Was it an animal's instinctive recoiling at imminent death? Did he want softer ground? It made no sense to her. Every so often, though, he would place a paw on her chest, lick her face. "Good dog," she would say.
It got colder, and colder, and darker. She gazed up, looking for shooting stars, for the Milky Way, for evidence that the world hadn't ended. That she hadn't ended. She saw only stripes. Long, white stripes slicing through the black night sky. She knew her body was shutting down, her brain malfunctioning. She was seeing things. She cried. She cried for her family and her friends and the nascent romance with the guy from Leadville that would never go anywhere. She is not religious, and she did not pray. What she did was plead.
"Please," she pleaded. "Please, somebody, notice that I'm gone."
Dorothy Rossignol is 76 years old, a "nosy neighbor" by her own account. Others in Moab call her a "piece of work," a "little old lady," and "the busybody of the neighborhood." She is childless, a widow since 1990. She loves mining, and if there is a town in the American West that ever produced a significant amount of any valuable mineral, whether gold, silver, or lead, she can name the town, along with its mineral. Chances are she lived there with her husband, Robert, who mined it. "My husband would rather mine than eat," she says. They first came through Moab in 1957, a young bride and her husband, a miner looking for work during the uranium boom. They returned in 1969 and settled there for good. Moab was something in the boom years. "Parties you wouldn't believe," she says, "...dancing girls from Spain."
Life is slower now, nights quieter, days longer. She volunteers at the Dan O'Laurie Museum, eats lunch four days a week at the Moab senior center ("I'd eat there five days, but they're closed on Thursdays"), tends to the five peachcot trees (peach trees with apricot fruit grafted on) in her yard. Rossignol liked the young woman who moved next door five years ago, which is saying a lot. "I don't rush over to meet new neighbors right away," she says, "because you don't know what kind of people they are."
But the young woman seemed nice, and quiet, and she bought a puppy who jumped over the little metal fence separating the yards so often and scratched at the widow's door so relentlessly that she finally gave up and bought a bag of dog biscuits. Every day Taz would come over, and every day Rossignol would give the mutt two biscuits. He'd eat one there and take the other one home. Ballengee was gone a lot--"training for one of those adventure things"--so Rossignol fetched her mail, made sure her pipes didn't freeze in the winter when she was traveling.
They would do yard work together and chat "about everything in general and nothing in particular." As nice as Ballengee was, she wasn't so great on following leash laws. "So when I see the police or the dog catcher," Rossignol says, "I tie him up."
Taz didn't come to visit on Wednesday, December 13, and that night Rossignol looked outside and saw that Ballengee's truck wasn't there. She also saw that Ballengee had left her drapes open, her lights on. She saw Ballengee's laptop computer on. She knew that Ballengee was a free spirit, that when she wasn't training or visiting her parents in Evergreen, Colorado, she sometimes left to visit friends. She knew that Ballengee sometimes didn't tell anyone where she was going. The widow didn't exactly approve of all that gallivanting. On the other hand, she had to admit, she admired it. They weren't all that different, the endurance runner and the miner's widow. Self-sufficient women in a man's world. Rossignol might have been a nosy neighbor, but she wasn't a scaredy-cat. She would feel foolish calling the police if her young neighbor was out just having fun. She went to bed.
On Thursday afternoon, Rossignol looked again and saw the open drapes, the blazing lights, the computer. That's when she called Gary and Peggy Ballengee, in Evergreen, Colorado. She told Danelle's parents she was worried.
She was so tired. And cold. What was the point of tapping her feet? No one was coming down the hidden canyon. She stopped tapping. Then she heard a strange voice, commanding her. She knew she was alone. She knew there was no one telling her anything. She didn't believe in God. She knew there couldn't be a voice. But there was. And it wouldn't shut up. Keep tapping, the voice said. She kept tapping.
Word had spread through town, along with rumors, and someone from the bicycle shop called someone else who called the guy from Leadville. "I promise," the guy told Ballengee's parents over the phone. "I did not take your daughter to Mexico. I don't know where she is."
Police spent three hours inside Ballengee's house that Thursday. When they arrived, Rossignol was waiting. She told them her neighbor was in trouble, that they should be looking for her truck, and her dog. She told them she would show them where things were inside the house, where to find important clues. When they refused her entry, she stood on the sidewalk outside. She stood on the sidewalk for three hours.
One of the police officers was a woman. She listened to the widow's requests and suggestions and urgent entreaties. Then the officer gave her a card. It was dark now. If Rossignol heard anything, the cop said, feel free to call. Then the cops left.
The strange voice had stopped. The stripes were gone. It was light and she was alive. But the water in the puddle was frozen again and Taz was gone. She broke through, filled her bottle. She ate the other raspberry energy gel, the last one. No one was coming. She estimated she couldn't make it more than a few feet an hour, and wondered if it was worse to die trying or to die next to her little puddle. She started crawling.
She dragged herself off the rock, and her pants came off, because she couldn't lift her pelvis off the ground. She found herself in a shallow depression. She was stuck. She saw the stupidity of her decision and crawled back onto the rock. A round trip of four feet. It took two hours. Now she was hyperventilating. Now she felt the ball of clotted blood and swollen flesh moving inside her. And now it was 1:30 p.m. She would never leave this hidden canyon. Why had she wasted hours, and time, and precious energy to go four feet? Why hadn't she told someone where she was going? Why hadn't she told more people she loved them? And where the hell was Taz? What was wrong with that dog?
Craig Shumway grew up in Moab, dug in its soil for uranium during the last years of the boom. He loves the high desert, the wide-open spaces. He has been in law enforcement for 17 years, a Moab detective for four. On Friday morning, December 15, he was sitting in his office at the police department on East Center Street when Sergeant Mike Wiler walked in and sat down.
Wiler told Shumway there had been a missing-person report the previous night. He said it looked like someone had left a house unsecured. He said he had given the information to the Grand County Sheriff's Department and that they would be checking trailheads to see if the truck might be there. In the meantime, Moab police had put out an Attempt to Locate (ATL). In Moab, a magnet for the young, the adventurous, and the risk-seeking, an ATL is not exactly a red alert. "You just don't jump out and go look for every one of 'em," Shumway says.
Shumway nodded, plowed through some paperwork, then decided, before lunch, he would take a drive. No one was too alarmed about the missing woman--people took off for days without telling anyone all the time in Moab, and she was a world-class athlete. And it wasn't his job. It wasn't his jurisdiction, either. But he knew how big the desert was, how many trails crisscrossed the canyons and rivers of Southern Utah. First he stopped at Ballengee's house, took a quick look. Then he drove 10 miles north to the Sovereign Trail and checked the trailhead, and found nothing.
Law enforcement officers often talk about intuition and gut feelings and how important it is to recognize them. On the way back to Moab, though, Shumway felt something unfamiliar.
He drove down Kane Creek Road, to the parking lot of the Amasa Back Trail. He's not sure why, but he passed it, kept going, to the top of the hill, to the little spot near the cliff. That's where he saw the white Ford Ranger. He wanted to document things, in case there had been a crime. He pulled out his eight-megapixel Canon digital camera and took pictures. Later, he would look at the receipt that the runner had left inside the car. It was from Burger King, for a chicken sandwich and large fries and a large coffee. It was dated Wednesday, December 13, at 11 a.m. Now it was 1:30 in the afternoon, two days and two cold nights later. Shumway had another feeling, a bad one.
It was the effort she had expended crawling into and out of the little depression. It was her body shutting down. It was fear. She knew she needed to stop hyperventilating. She forced herself to breathe more slowly, and it worked. She breathed. She didn't know where her dog was, and soon it would be cold and dark, and she was broken and bleeding inside, and no one was coming, but at least she was breathing. So she breathed. She breathed and she waited to die.
By midafternoon, when the grand county Search and Rescue team gathered at the Amasa Back trailhead, they knew who they were looking for. John Marshall, the officer in charge of the team that day, had met Ballengee once before, when he worked as a volunteer at the 2006 Primal Quest in Utah. When he had first seen her then, she had just finished a 46-mile trek across the desert. The temperature had been 105 degrees. She had been without water for the past four hours. Her feet were more blisters than flesh. Marshall suggested an IV drip that day. Ballengee declined. She was in a hurry.
And now she had disappeared. "I'm thinking," Marshall says, "this was a world-class, I-eat-nails-for-breakfast person we're looking for. I'm thinking she's been out there for two nights.
"I'm thinking she didn't twist an ankle. I'm thinking there's something very, very serious going on."
As soon as Marshall and the others got near Ballengee's truck, they saw the dog. It was running in circles, "going a million miles an hour." Marshall suspected it was the runner's dog.
"Most dogs won't leave their master as long as their master has a pulse," he told a newspaper reporter. "To see that dog was a truly saddening sight."
He called Taz, tried to coax him over. But Taz wouldn't come. The dog circled Marshall and the others, then dashed toward town. Marshall thought they should try to grab him, but no one could. Then the dog stopped, looked back over its shoulder. Then the dog was gone.
Marshall sent Melissa Fletcher, a team member who works as a backcountry mountain bike guide, running up Jackson's Trail, a narrow, steep, single track, because it was the most difficult and she was the most fit member of the team. He stayed near the truck to coordinate the search. Though he wasn't a Search and Rescue team member, Craig Shumway had, after calling his discovery in, gone home, changed into hiking clothes, and trekked up the Cable Arch trail to make sure Ballengee wasn't there. She wasn't. Marshall sent two men and a woman up the Amasa Back Trail in ATVs. Riding the second ATV were Mike Coronella and Barb Fincham. In the first ATV was a 60-year-old commercial heating and refrigeration installer named Bego Gerhart.
Gerhart is 5'8" tall, weighs 180 pounds. He has a full gray beard and piercing blue eyes and a potbelly. He looks like he'd be more at home in front of a cheeseburger than driving an ATV through the backcountry, looking for a woman about to die. He hitchhiked to Moab in 1970, a onetime California Eagle Scout with no particular direction. A Moab cop asked him for identification, and Gerhart asked if the cop knew anyone looking for work. That's how he ended up as a trucker, "with guys who had 200-word vocabularies, and 100 of 'em were obscene."
Gerhart has volunteered for the Grand County Search and Rescue squad for 11 years. He rigged ropes in New Zealand for filmmakers shooting Vertical Limit in 1999. He served as a consultant to a television show called I Shouldn't Be Alive in 2006. In 2003, he was on the team that hiked into Blue John Canyon, where he winched a boulder and retrieved the hand of Aron Ralston, who had hacked it off in order to free himself. Others might have broader shoulders and younger legs, but of the 91 calls that went out to the Grand County Search and Rescue team in 2006, Gerhart responded to 88 of them, more than anyone else.
A lot of men and women who run (and hike and bike) in wilderness-rich areas like Moab speak of the majesty of the outdoors, the intoxicating consequences of fresh air. Many submit that the majestic sweep of the sky and the exquisite desolation of the desert serve as prima facie evidence of a loving spirit. But those tend to be the younger, leaner runners. Gerhart sees things a little differently.
"What happened to someone like Danelle is pretty good evidence against the existence of a benevolent God," he says. Regarding the secret to survival, he says, "It's all about knowing how to suffer."
Gerhart was a mile down the Amasa Back Trail, puttering along in his ATV, when his two-way radio sputtered to life.
"The dog! The dog!" It was Marshall. Taz had come back. He had sprinted up the trail, passing Coronella and Fincham's ATV. Fincham had gotten out of his ATV to follow the dog on foot, and the dog had promptly disappeared.
The dog dashed by Gerhart's ATV, and it stopped. It looked at Gerhart, then it dashed off the trail, up to a little mesa. Gerhart clambered out of the ATV, walked up the mesa, where the dog was waiting. Gerhart stared at the dog. The dog stared at Gerhart. And the dog was gone again.
People journey into the desert without enough water or the proper clothing every year, and people die. People slip, and they never rise. People get lost, and they stay lost. Search and Rescue team members do their best, but when someone is gone for three days and two nights, on the fringe of winter, help often consists of a recovery mission. It often includes a body bag. Less than a month earlier two men had died near Moab. They had frozen to death. Both were wearing heavier clothes than Ballengee. Gerhart knew all that. But he had a feeling. Gerhart is not a sentimental man, nor prone to a lot of religio-mystical mumbo jumbo. This is about as close as he gets: "My mind said, Follow the dog."
But the dog was gone. So Gerhart backtracked to where he had first spotted Taz. A few years earlier, he had taken a tracking course from U.S. Marshals, and now he studied the ground. He looked for dog tracks, next to footprints of a woman runner. When he saw them, he followed them, away from the main road, down a little spur, toward a hidden canyon. He saw that the trail got rockier and more and more rugged. He hopped into his ATV, and he drove toward the hidden canyon, the sounds of his engine echoing off the red-rock walls. And he drove, and drove some more. And then he stopped. He thought he had heard something.
The dog had been disappearing all day. this time, when he got back, he ran straight to the puddle and he started drinking. And he drank and drank. And as much as the runner loved the dog, as inured to pain and loss as she was, she was still human. Bad dog! She yelled at Taz, "Can't you drink out of another pothole?"
And there they lay, less than a week before the shortest day of the year, a woman broken and bleeding inside, a dog lapping up her precious water. She cried. She thought again of the people to whom she hadn't said, "I love you." And then something shifted. It wasn't the dog's fault. It wasn't anyone's. Is this what acceptance felt like? She wasn't angry anymore. Now, she was ready to die. Now, she was at peace. And then she heard a sound that didn't make sense.
Later, a lot of people would invoke divine mysteries, seek answers in the supernatural. Shumway would reflect on the strange feelings that led him to search for the missing truck, the inexplicable and powerful urges that guided him up the Kane Creek Road and to the little patch of dirt on top of the hill, near the cliff. "You can call it whatever you want," he says. "Call it coincidence, or fate, or whatever. I'm a God-fearing person and I can't explain it. It was a sense of urgency. I had never felt it before." Marshall would ask out loud how someone with virtually no body fat could possibly live through two cold nights in the high desert, "how her internal metabolism defied the laws of physics." People referred to the entire episode as a "Christmas miracle." When it came to myth-making, though, no one beat the dog lovers. In the news accounts and stories of the accident, Taz morphed into a furry genius, a four-legged phantasm, a kind of barking, galloping Gandalf. Some
Search and Rescue team members talked about how, in hindsight, it looked like Taz had planned the rescue the whole time. "It was like he was trying to get us to pay attention to him, so when he showed up later, he could lead us to her," Marshall says. (Marshall is a dog lover.) Even academics sang the praises of the wonderdog. Marc Bekoff, a biology professor at the University of Colorado and author of The Emotional Lives of Animals, says there's a good chance Taz knew what he was doing. "I don't know what his doggy brain was saying, but it was probably something like, 'There's something novel, there's something new here.' I bet you that dog was just going, 'This is new, this is different, I gotta do something.' There's no doubt that [Ballengee's] scent was changing. At some point, he was picking that up. At some point, I'm sure the dog realized there was some opportunity to save her. I know people will laugh at me, but I don't care. I believe that."
But that was all later.
First, Gerhart had to drive toward the sound. That's when he saw them. There, on a rock, in the little hidden canyon, was a woman on her back. And there, lying next to her, with his snout on her chest, the mutt.
"I'm so glad to see you," Ballengee cried, weeping.
"I'm glad you're glad to see me, and that you can say so," Gerhart replied. At least that's the way he tells the story. The way he remembers, she was lucid, but emotional. He was amazed she was so articulate, but he was concerned about keeping her core temperature from falling, so he fetched from his ATV a heavy sleeping bag with Velcro straps, what Search and Rescue team members call Doctor Down. The way he remembers it, he kept her talking, even as he was radioing for help, scanning the landscape for a place where a rescue helicopter might safely land, shoving her hands into heavy gloves. All of that, according to Ballengee, is accurate, but incomplete. The way she remembers it, Gerhart was weeping, too.
Taz ran to Gerhart and licked him. Then the commercial heating and refrigeration installer said something to the runner that people have said to other people as long as there have been pets. "You got one heck of a dog," Gerhart said.
She didn't sleep well last night. Every time she shut her eyes, she was tumbling down the slickrock, picking up speed. Every time she opened them, she was on her back, halfway down the steep wall, cold and alone, broken and bleeding inside. And if she did sleep, then what? She was afraid of the nightmares. She didn't want to find herself back in the hidden canyon, cold and alone and dying.
It was midafternoon, January 23, almost six weeks after she fell, and she was tired, and she hurt, and though she was lying on the couch in the basement of her parents' house in Evergreen, and they were upstairs, and she was safe, and though Taz was lying on the floor next to her, and even though she and her dog had been on the Today show, even though she and Taz had ascended in the popular consciousness to Christmas Miracle and Wonderdog status, the reality was messier, more difficult.
She didn't have complete control of her left hand. She wasn't sure if she ever would. Her feet felt as if she were standing in an icy stream. She wasn't sure if they would ever feel differently. Both were consequences of frostbite.
She was taking six Neurontin pills a day to help reduce the pain. She was taking three 600-milligram tablets of ibuprofen for inflammation, four 30-milligram iron pills to help increase her red-blood-cell count, and Percocet for more pain. And antianxiety pills, for the nights she had trouble sleeping, like last night. And stool softener. Until a few days ago, her father had been injecting her every day, in her stomach, with a drug to lessen the chances of her blood clotting. After she complained about the pain, her doctor finally relented. Now she was taking 325 milligrams of aspirin daily.
She is almost 5'5" tall, and weighed 120 pounds before the accident. Now she weighed 100. She has dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and anyone who has spent any time around her comments on her impishness and how she can't stay still. Today, she was squinting with pain and exhaustion. Her pelvis had broken in four places. At one spot, it splintered into too many pieces for doctors to count. She cracked three vertebrae. She lost a third of her blood. Doctors at Denver Health medical center had operated on her for six hours, inserting a titanium plate in her pelvis. When the Today show called afterward, she wasn't all that interested. Of course she was grateful to be alive, but in the hospital, she hurt, and she was tired, and hungry and--truth be told--scared about what the injuries would mean. Then the Today show people said they wanted Taz on the air, too. She hadn't seen the dog since the Search and Rescue helicopter had lifted her into the sky, right after she scratched him behind the ears and said, "It'll be okay, boy," and Taz had gone home with John Marshall, who couldn't live with himself if he let animal control take the dog. If agreeing to be interviewed by the Today show meant she'd be able to see Taz, she was on board.
Now she was talking about how after the shooting for the Today show was done, and how after Taz had gone home with Ballengee's sister, Michelle, to her home in Denver, a quarter mile from the hospital, the dog had escaped, and how her sister knew where he was going, so she walked to the hospital, and there was Taz.
She was a miracle, and Taz was a hero. Cards came from all over. One day, a box filled with dry ice arrived. It was from a woman in Michigan who had seen the Today show. Inside were five pounds of hormone-free aged rib steaks and a red-and-white Christmas stocking with a stuffed Santa inside. On the top, embroidered in green, was the name of the intended recipient--Taz.
Ballengee had visitors--including the guy from Leadville--and heard from friends and relatives and strangers. She wouldn't make the same mistake again--this time, she told everyone how much she loved them. There were a lot of them. And love was great, and maybe she was a Christmas miracle, but she was still human, and this was life.
She couldn't walk. She stayed in the hospital for 15 days, and the first week, her biggest accomplishment was forcing herself to sit up in bed without passing out. Ten seconds was a good day. Just a week ago, she tried to get out of bed to use a portable commode that was just a few feet away, and fainted. Now she could make it to the bathroom, using a wheelchair, by herself. That was a big deal. She couldn't afford all the medical bills. At the moment, the bill from Grand Junction, where she had been taken by the helicopter, totaled $45,000, and the insurance policy that had sounded so good when she bought it turned out to be not so good, and she hadn't even received her bill for surgery or her Denver hospital stay yet. She had managed a lap and a half around a West Denver mall in her wheelchair yesterday, and that had felt great, "just to get the blood flowing," and runners and endurance athletes she had competed with were holding fund-raising events for her, and that was great, too, but she knew she wouldn't be able to walk for at least two months, and after that, it would be another few months before she could run, and then it would be "how to run fast, then how to run aggressively. On trails and up and down mountains. Whether I'll be able to do it at the levels I used to--I'm gonna try. But if I can run again at all, I'll be so happy."
She works hard at planning to be happy. But she is scared, too, and she has nightmares.
She talks about those nightmares, and about Bego Gerhart (whose name, when she first heard it in the canyon, she thought was Bagel, "probably because I was so hungry.") She talks about Dorothy Rossignol who, unbeknownst to Ballengee, has promised that when the runner moves back to Moab, she will be watched with special vigilance--even for a nosy neighbor--and nagged about where she's going, "even when it's just a trip to the mailbox." She talks about how much she misses being outside, "just being with Taz, running through the woods."
She talks a lot about Taz, how people ask if he gets extra treats now, or extra attention. He doesn't. "He's always been spoiled," she says. "I treated him pretty well before."
Mostly, she talks about her days in the hidden canyon, and the cold, and how she was sure she was going to die, and about the way she saw the white stripes in the sky, and heard the strange voice that commanded her to keep tapping her feet.
Daniel Smith, author of Muses, Madmen, and Prophets, a book on auditory hallucination, says the strange sounds Ballengee experienced were likely caused by "the abuse the body takes and the exhaustion. [They] often occur in that twilight moment between sleep and wakefulness."
Ballengee knows that. She earned degrees in biology and kinesiology, after all, not philosophy and religion. But she's not sure. "As far as I'm concerned," she says, "I'm going to be the best person I can...I'm okay without an answer."
She has been watching movies at night. She recently watched Touching the Void, the story of a man who had to crawl his way off a mountain in the Peruvian Andes and through a crevasse with a broken leg, and Eight Below, the tale of eight sled dogs who face death by freezing in Antarctica. A visitor suggests a few comedies, considering the nightmares.
Then Taz starts barking. He sees a squirrel outside. Ballengee's father walks down the steps when he hears the barking and tells his daughter he'll take her mutt for a walk.
"He's kind of dumb," Gary Ballengee says, patting Taz on the head. "Brilliant at saving lives, but he'll chase that squirrel all day. He's just kind of dumb."
Her father and her dog are behind her, and it's not easy to turn her head, but that's what Danelle Ballengee does. She's done more difficult things. She turns and looks first at her father, who doesn't notice, then at her dog, who tilts his head and looks back at her. He tilts his head first to the left, then to the right, side to side, just like he did that terrible afternoon when Danelle Ballengee lay dying. And then the runner smiles at her dog and she puts her head back on her pillow, and she rests.


text:
Shipping Insurance – Do I Need It?
Millions of packages get shipped all over the world. Every day. They cross all over the globe, sent from point A and arriving at point B. Whether you've sent a package or anticipated the arrival of one, one thing that is universal to the world of shipping is the proverbial "misplaced" package. Coming in at a close second to this phenomenon is the "damaged in shipping" package. While it may seem totally acceptable within the context of how packages are actually transported for delivery to expect an occasional late arrival or damaged en route item, the truth is once you've sent your item you really have no power or control over its safety or location. To avoid disappointment and instill a feeling of positivity you can simply insure your package against damage or loss.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Difference between revisions of "6JSC/IAML/1"
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Supports proposal but acknowledges that further discussion is required on the specific instructions.
Supports proposal but acknowledges that further discussion is required on the specific instructions.
Latest revision as of 13:19, 26 July 2013
6JSC/IAML/1 Revision of RDA 188.8.131.52, 18.104.22.168 Designation of Edition, addition in Chapter 2 of a core element for Format of Notated Music Statement …
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General comments
Response to 6JSC/IAML/1 from the Music Library Association
Sept. 28, 2012
Prepared by Beth Iseminger, Chair, MLA Bibliographic Control Committee
Summary: The Music Library Association (MLA) does not support the IAML proposal regarding the music format statement for the following reasons: 1) MLA believes the proposal does not harmonize RDA and ISBD. In attempting to harmonize RDA and ISBD, the proposal would cause RDA to fall out of harmonization with FRBR. 2) MLA believes that library users as well as music catalogers are better served through the RDA simplification of including edition, music format statement, and statements of responsibility relating to edition or format (such as vocal score) together in the edition area. 3) In order to solve the dilemma of multiple edition statements in a single field or subfield, MLA references the pending revision of MARBI 2012-05 by MLA and LC.
FRBR Problems
- In aligning RDA with ISBD by making the music format statement a separate attribute, this proposal would dis-align RDA with FRBR, since the music format statement is not a separate FRBR attribute.
- Music format statement is not a FRBR entity. The closest thing in FRBR is 4.3.16 Type of Score (Musical notation), but this is an expression level attribute.
- While this proposal goes to great lengths to show that music format statements are not part of the edition attribute, it does not state what attribute the music format statement does belong to.
Harmonization of RDA and ISBD
- MLA agrees that RDA and ISBD are out of synch with the music format statement. The problem that MLA sees is not that the proposal attempts to break out the music format statement (ISBD 3.2) from the edition statement (ISBD 2.1), but that it goes beyond the ISBD standard.
o Under ISBD 2.1.1, a statement indicating the version, arrangement, etc., would appear in the statement of responsibility. In this RDA proposal, however, such a statement would be considered a music format statement.
- This document may harmonize with ISBD in the separating edition and music format statement, but does not follow ISBD for details.
- There is no loss of information by not having a music format statement in RDA. That information will be present in the Extent and can also be present as its own element as indicated in RDA 7.20. We concede that this could be a loss of granularity.
- RDA simplifies the recording of data by putting music format statement, edition information, and certain statements of responsibility (such as vocal scores) together in the edition area. The AACR2 way of separating the information was complicated for both catalogers and library users. As long as these bits of information can still be separately parsed in some way, having a single edition area is a helpful development.
- The combined edition/music format statement is flexible. It can describe just the manifested format (miniature score, large print edition), the expressed work (vocal score, corrected edition), or something in between (parts, high voice, score in C).
- While music format statements are not exactly like edition statements, they are treated similarly in RDA in that they are both transcribed statements from the piece which describes some aspect of the content or format but isn't part of the title or statement of responsibility, and both may or may not be present on the item.
Specific criticisms
- MLA does not agree that the difference between music format statement and edition is as striking as the IAML document suggests.
o The FRBR definition of edition as cited on p. 2 of the document stresses differences between related manifestations. However, neither music format statements nor edition statements necessarily depend on the existence of related manifestations. For example, it is often the case to have a statement for a first edition, while no second edition is ever issued.
o Edition statements have historically indicated potential changes in content (added or deleted content, etc.), changes in how content is presented (large format, re-set type, etc.), or a combination of the two. The music format statement fits this idea of edition.
- The proposal should use the RDA/ISBD name for the area (Music Format Statement, not Format of Notated Music).
- The scope statement at 2.X.1.1 is nearly identical to RDA 184.108.40.206. It should go further in addressing how the elements are different.
- The statements in 2.X.1.1 (2nd paragraph), 2.X.1.2.c, and 2.X.1.2.d are not in harmony with ISBD.
- Sections 2.X.4 through 2.X.5.3 are not compatible with ISBD and should not be included in RDA.
- Statements of responsibility – if persons are not associated with music format statements, instructions relating to statements of responsibility are not necessary.
o The proposed change to 18.6 is not needed.
o The final two glossary definitions are not appropriate (Parallel Statement of Responsibility Relating to the Format of Notated Music , Statement of Responsibility Relating to the Format of Notated Music).
I am sympathetic to the concerns raised by this discussion paper (and thus am not completely in agreement with the MLA position above). This proposal is part of the harmonization effort between RDA & ISBD: "Records valid under one of the standards should be capable of being mapped to either of the other standards." I think there's no question that RDA and ISBD are out of synch with the musical presentation (now musical format) statement. By not having a separate element for musical format, round-trip mapping is not possible between RDA and ISBD. RDA 7.20, Format of Notated Music, is a recorded (not transcribed) element, so that's not the same thing as ISBD's 3.2 Music Format Statement.
The larger problems with this paper, as MLA notes, are that 1) the proposed changes go beyond ISBD, with the inclusion of 2.X.4 through 2.X.5.3; and 2) the creation of new RDA elements for format of notated music would throw RDA out of synch with FRBR. The JSC will need to decide whether harmonization with ISBD or with FRBR is more important at this point in time.
- Glennan (PCC) 9/28/12
Constituency responses
CCC: Text of response
Unable to support these proposals at this time.
Would prefer to see more discussion and demonstration of how increasing RDA's granularity by the addition of the Format of Notated Music statement will support the ISBD and ISMN communities. There continue to be unresolved issues between FRBR, ISBD and RDA in regards to edition, format of notated music and musical presentation statement.
ACOC: Text of response
Supports proposal but acknowledges that further discussion is required on the specific instructions.
DNB: Text of response
Agrees with this proposal and recommends, that the element "Musical presentation statement" should become a core element for music resources.
A controlled vocabulary for format of notated music could be reasonable for data exchange.
LC: Text of response
Does not support. We do not believe it is necessary to separate out the feature of certain manifestations of notated music that ISBD calls music format statement and AACR2 calls musical presentation statement.
RDA achieves a simplification by absorbing it into 126.96.36.199 Recording Other Distinguishing Characteristic of the Expression, and into 220.127.116.11 Details of Format of Notated Music.
CILIP: Text of response
Does not agree with the proposal.
Thinks the concept of "edition" in RDA is intended to include format of notated music. Thinks the interpretation of the FRBR statement on edition or issue designation is too narrow; the word "normally" allows for the exception of a single manifestation edition or format of notated music designation. Asks JSC to clarify this in the RDA instructions.
Notes that there is no glossary entry for "edition" and thinks the current wording of RDA will continue to be misinterpreted.
Suggests that the requirement for a separate element for format of notated music statement can be met by treating it as a sub-type of the RDA element Edition Statement.


text:
Flag-a-Tag USFTL Triple Flag Football Belt
Item # 3479550
|Eligible for Free Shipping on Orders $39 or More! (see promotion details)
|Members of The League get 5% back when you spend $100! (see promotion details)
Product Details
New and improved with heavier-weight vinyl flags and reinforced stitching, the Flag-a-Tag triple-flag football belt is built to last. It is adjustable with a quick-release clip so the entire belt comes off when the flags are pulled.
- Heavier-weight vinyl flags with reinforced stitching
- Belt is adjustable with a quick-release clip
- Available with red, yellow, blue or green flags to designate teams


text:
2013 - The Year In Musician Obituaries
Paul Redmond/FilmMagic December 30, 2013 6:00 PM
Inevitably, every year we lose some of our most talented and/or famous music people. Let us pay tribute to those who have left the building. There are many more than those listed here. But this is a good start for pausing and reflecting.


text:
Rebates and Savings
Enter your zip/postal code to view rebates and savings(US and Canada only)
Sheet metal ducts shall be clean, dry and sealed tightly prior to insulating with CertainTeed Marine Duct Wrap. To ensure installed thermal performance, CertainTeed Marine Duct Wrap shall be cut to "stretch-out" dimensions. This requires measurement of the duct perimeter, then cutting the duct wrap to the dimensions (perimeter + add-on) indicated in the stretch-out table on the Marine Duct Wrap Insulation specification sheet (30-35-015). A 2" piece of insulation is removed from the facing at the end of the piece of insulation to form an overlapping stapling and taping flap. CertainTeed Marine Duct Wrap is installed by wrapping the insulation around the perimeter of the duct with the facing out. Adjacent sections of duct wrap are tightly butted with the 2" taping flap overlapping. Seams shall be stapled with outward-clinching staples on approximately 6" centers. Where a vapor retarder is required, all seams, joints, tears, punctures and/or other penetrations of the duct wrap shall be sealed with a pressure-sensitive vapor retarder tape that matches the facing, or a suitable mastic system. Where rectangular ducts are 24" in width or greater, CertainTeed Marine Duct Wrap shall be additionally secured to the bottom of the duct with mechanical fasteners spaced 18" on center to prevent sagging. For additional installation details, consult the National Commercial and Industrial Insulation Standards (current edition) published by the Midwest Insulation Contractors Association (MICA).
Add a unique touch to your home with trim products from CertainTeed. Explore your options with our interactive Trim-It visualizer tool.


text:
Looking at OTC archery elk trip, bivouac 10 day or so hunt with a buddy. Hunted half a dozen yrs. including once in CO and ID.
Looking for anyone willing to help with suggestions on unit(s)/areas. PM or otherwise.
Not looking for strictly trophy, but decent bull, 5pt on up. Of course prefer getting away from crowds, probably tough to do in CO. Ok with tough terrain and probably 4-6 miles in, no horses or mules avail.
Thanks and will return the favor
Sorry bro, never hunted either one. Elk hunting university on CO parks and wildlife has tons of info. Best of luck.
Look in Tex Creek, Pallasades ID, west side of the Resivoir is good
I don't Break the rules, I Modify them.
Hunt CO, wolves in ID have made it a much more difficult hunt in my opinion. More game in CO.
Horses/mules would be better for a hunt like that. Hot weather in bow season, and you'll be 4-6 miles in tough country. Two trips for two of you to get the meat out. More if you need to get camp gear out too. Can you do that without the meat going bad? You better be in great shape.
Both are good, I would probably choose Colorado because of the number of elk and 0 wolves. Musket Man makes a good point though, you can shoot wolves in Idaho.
A bad day in the woods is better than a good day at work.
Shoot the best, Shoot PSE!
I've hunted OTC DIY Colorado with success...also no worrying about grizzlies there.


text:
There have been many questions in the past on tapering rivers in Gimp... I stated in this tutorial on making rivers with a mouse in photoshop that Gimp didn't have tapered strokes
SO I wrote a little script-fu to do it!
This isn't so much a tutorial, as a posting of a new script. It ain't too fast, but it works
Just unzip the attachment at the end, and save the script into your normal spot.
Draw a path using the pen tool, then switch back to the paintbrush tool (the script strokes with the active tool, so you could even, for example, erase tapered strokes). The script registers under the Edit menu as "Tapered Stroke Path..."
The dialog allows you to select the start width, end width, spacing (20 percent is a good default, but by setting it to 100 you get a string of pearls effect), and a parameter called "Taper Exponent". This control the rate of taper. At 1, the taper is linear from the start to the end. At values less than 1 the taper changes faster, and greater than 1 the taper changes slower (nearer the end). I set the default at 5, which seems good for rivers.
Here is the result after stoking in black with the defaults. I have turned on the path visibility to show how it lines up:
And since I have one more attachment, here is the image:
Couple of things... It will only stroke the first segment of a multi (broken) segmented path. If there are no paths, the script will run but error out.
Hope people find this one useful!
-Rob A>


text: I have a client whose emails are configured on MAC System. This is an plain POP+SMTP. Now I decided to put the zimbra but would like to know how do I migrate the mails which are configured on MAC? Since they are not in PST wondering what is required to migrate the user's mail


text:
BAKER - Wheeling Central was right where it wanted to be, hanging with host East Hardy and the Cougars' potent, fast-paced offense during Saturday's first round of the Class A playoffs.
The No. 10 Maroon Knights trailed 22-20 at halftime, and tied the score at 28-28 in the third quarter on quarterback C.J. Burch's fourth touchdown run of the day. But on an afternoon where offense ruled much of the day, East Hardy's defense stepped up when it needed it.
The seventh-ranked Cougars forced four second-half turnovers - all of which led directly to touchdowns - and East Hardy scored 32 unanswered points in a 60-34 victory.
"It's a tough one to swallow," Maroon Knights senior Braxton Nolte, who led Wheeling Central with five catches for 64 yards, said "We came out fired up and did pretty well. We fought hard the whole game. They were just the better team. They made plays when they had to make them, and we didn't make them at times."
Wheeling Central (7-4) struggled all afternoon to stop East Hardy's offensive attack, but the Maroon Knights were kept in the game early by the play of Burch.
The senior scored three of his four rushing touchdowns in the first half, the third on an 8-yard run that gave Wheeling Central a 20-14 lead with two minutes to play in the first half.
Burch finished the day with 247 yards on 33 carries, including a 70-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and also passed for 131 yards on 11 completions. Burch earned the respect of East Hardy's coaches and players with his performance.
"I was thoroughly impressed with him," Cougars coach Chad Williams said. "He took a beating and just kept getting back up and running it again. He's a tough kid."
Wheeling Central's 20-14 lead - the Maroon Knights' only lead of the game - lasted just 13 seconds. Cougars senior Levi Beck took the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown to reclaim the lead for East Hardy.
While Burch was having a solid day on the ground, his counterpart, East Hardy quarterback Shawn Skovron, was having a field day against the Maroon Knights' secondary.
Skovron gashed Wheeling Central for 360 yards and five scores through the air, completing 18 of 26 passes. As if the gaudy passing numbers weren't enough, Skovron added 73 yards rushing and pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on the ground for good measure.
Saturday marked the fourth straight game in which East Hardy (10-1) had put up at least 58 points in a game.
"We've just come out on fire the last few games our offense is just clicking a little bit better every week," Williams said. "We're hot at the exact right time."
The Maroon Knights had a chance to retake the lead early in the second half as they marched down to the East Hardy 22-yard line, but Burch threw the first of three interceptions on a fourth-down attempt.
On the very next play, Skovron hit wide receiver Joshua Parker for an 88-yard touchdown strike to give East Hardy a 28-20 lead with 6:22 left in the third quarter.
After Burch's score tied the game at 28, Skovron and Parker hooked up again, this time for a 51-yard score to start a string of five consecutive touchdowns for the Cougars.
"(East Hardy got) a couple breaks that caused the momentum to change, and these are high school kids, so when the momentum changes all kinds of things can happen," Central coach Mike Young said. "We're disappointed, but the sun will come up (today) for us."
Parker was a popular target in the passing game for East Hardy, finishing with eight catches for 231 yards and three touchdowns. Parker also intercepted a pass and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown to give East Hardy a 48-28 lead with 6:21 to play in the fourth quarter.
Wheeling Central's John Nixon scored on a 2-yard run with 30 seconds remaining to set the final margin.
East Hardy will move on to face No. 2 Magnolia (10-1) next week in the second round of the playoffs.
Saturday's loss ends an otherwise successful season for the two-time defending state champion Maroon Knights.
"A lot of people counted us out, not even making the playoffs. We gave a great first half. I'm proud of our kids, proud of what they accomplished," Young said. "We were a little bit thin this year because of injuries, but we'll be back."


text:
(based on 15 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
5 Stars
4 Stars
3 Stars
2 Stars
1 Stars
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Best Uses
Reviewed by 15 customers
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(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
very good
By sims
from princeton il
About Me Auto Enthusiast
Comments about Seat Belt Strap Adjuster:
the seat belt is always rubbing on my knec and this product eally helps
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
Was this review helpful? Yes / No
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(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
Okay product
By Tip
from WS, NC
About Me Casual Driver
The upper portion of clip lifts up to easily and allows the shoulder strap to come loose.
Bottom Line No, I would not recommend this to a friend
By SUE
from WESTBURY,NY
Seatbelt adjuster
By Sammy
from Philly, Pa.
Holds my seatbelt securely in place without cutting into my neck. Nice product!
Problem solved
By The professor
from Athens,ga
I hated wearing my seatbelt! It was up under my ear all the time. Had even used a old clothes pin to try and fix problem. Now,no problem, this little gadget is permanently fixed to belt and keeps it where it should be.
An absolute must!
By Short and Secure
from Winston-Salem, NC
I recommend this little neck-saver to anyone who is shorter than 5'4". The first one I ever got was a gift. Now I am buying my 6th pair! and am giving some of them to my short loved ones! You do have to get used to jiggling the retractor and hooking the belt in place each time, but the relief from feeling strangled, and the awkwardness of having to unbuckle, stretch out, and rebuckle the seatbelt so many times on short and long trips, makes it all worthwhile!
Raw neck
By Mountain Mama
from Lake Arrowhead, Ca
Great help. I am small and this keeps seat belt from wrapping around my neck.
(3 of 3 customers found this review helpful)
Not as easy as it looks or sounds
By Mom in MA
from MA
If one is, shall we say on the heavy side and elderly, this product is really unusable, especially in winter when one has coats to deal with as well.
Easy to use
By Toni O
from Stillwater, MN
These little devices are the best thing ever for those like me that don't like seat belts putting pressure on my throat. I have one in every vehicle.
keeps my belt in place
By B the shopper
from Hartford CT
I keep these adjusters in every car/SUV we use in the family. Keeps the belt from rubbing against my neck. I use them, my husband doesn't. Never had one break.


text:
OK, let's see if I can articulate my issue(s):
We are trying to move off of Meeting Maker and on to Zimbra. It's going to take a while to do the testing and migration of our thousands of users so we have to run in parallel for a while. I've written a proxy for MM that allows a Zimbra user to subscribe to their Meeting Maker Calendar(s). It works like a charm. It even automagically shows up on my iPhone under my Zimbra calendars.
However, it appears that Zimbra, by default, removes any alarms from the incoming icalendar stream and opts to use it's own defaults for alerts through the web/java-client interface. You can edit a particular meeting and override it but that get's destroyed by the next sync. The affect of this is that our iPhone users don't get any alerts on their iPhones from meetings scheduled in Meeting Maker - which was one of the major points of this whole exercise.
Perhaps I'm missing something, but what would be great is an option when setting up the remote calendar to indicate whether or not to keep any alarms that come with the remote calendars. It would also be nice to have a more elegant way to have the remote calendars auto-sync in the backgound on the server so changes can be pushed to the iPhone without having to have the Zimbra web client open or having to write a cron job to do it.
Am I missing something? Is there a work-around? Would it be possible to come at this from the other way around and drop an .ics file into a user's calendar folder remotely from the proxy instead of them subscribing to it? If so, this would solve both the refresh and the alarm issues...


text:
May 25, 2016
Associated Press Release
REDDICK, Fla. (AP) -- Sheriff's detectives have a real whodunit on their hands after a north Florida woman came home and found her driveway missing.
According to deputies, the woman felt a "bump" when she drove onto her driveway Tuesday night. She got out of her vehicle and discovered about 300-square-feet of brick pavers were missing.
The Ocala Star-Banner (http://bit.ly/TQqZZu ) reports she told deputies the pavers were in place when she left home about 7:30 that morning.
A witness told deputies about seeing two men digging up the pavers. But the activity didn't seem suspicious because construction workers were building a barn on the property. The witness told investigators the men were driving an older model black pickup with a flat-bed utility trailer.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 352-368-7867.
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 email@example.com.


text:
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The final presidential debate is tonight. It will cover
foreign policy. The debate will likely focus on the recent attack on
the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya and Iran's nuclear program. Whatever happens, political
scientists say debates typically have little-to-no electoral impact. In
aggregate polling, Obama is up 2.2 points in Ohio and Romney is up 0.3 points nationally. Ohio is considered a must-win for Romney, and it could play the role of 2000's Florida. The debate begins at 9 p.m. It will be streamed live on YouTube and C-SPAN.
CityBeat will host a debate party tonight at MOTR
Pub in Over-the-Rhine from 7:30-10:30 p.m. Come watch the debate and live
tweet. Councilman Chris Seelbach will make an appearance. If you can't
show up, at least tweet if you watch the debate with the hashtag
#cbdebate. Check out the event's Facebook page for more information.
If Gov. John Kasich gets his way, 60 percent of bachelor's
degrees will be completable in three years by 2014. The move intends to
raise graduation rates and save money for students. Currently, very few
students graduate in three years. Only 1 percent of Miami University
students and 2 percent of University of Cincinnati students graduate
that quickly.
Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee, a new education
policy approved by Kasich that requires all students to be proficient in
reading in third grade before they can move onto fourth grade, could
cause 40 percent of students to be held back in some schools.
The policy is meant to encourage better progress and higher reading standards, but some studies
have found retention has negative effects on children.
The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati announced a merger and expansion into Dayton. The organization will now be called the Urban League of Southwest Ohio.
Greater Cincinnati home sales ticked up in September, but there was some slowdown.
The end of the Scripps trust that funded the Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Company could lead to the end of a few newspapers. But Ohio will not be affected; the company no longer owns newspapers in the state.
Plant identification has never been easier at Cincinnati parks.
University of Cincinnati researchers are using a $2.7 million grant to see if there's a difference between generic versus brand drugs for transplant patients. The study could potentially save money and lives.
Tired of traditional bridges? Meet the trampoline bridge.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
State Rep. Alicia Reece, a Democrat, is not happy with what she sees as another attempt at voter suppression. Reece claims a new billboard, which reads "Voter Fraud is a Felony," is meant to intimidate voters — particularly voters in low-income and black neighborhoods. The company hosting the billboards says there are 30 billboards like it in Greater Cincinnati and the sponsor of the billboards, who chose to remain anonymous, did not ask to target any specific demographic.
The second presidential debate is tonight at 9 p.m. All eyes are on President Barack Obama to deliver a better performance than he did in the last debate against Mitt Romney. The media was quick to jump on the post-debate bounce in polls Romney experienced a mere week after the debate, but political scientists say debates typically don't have much political significance in the long term. Still, the debate will be a good opportunity for Obama and Romney to flesh out their positions and show their abilities to reach out to the public. The full schedule of the remaining debates can be found here. The agreed-upon rules to the debates were leaked yesterday. One notable rule says the candidates may not ask each other any direct questions during any of the debates. Both the Romney and Obama campaigns made a fuss about tonight's debate moderator possibly asking follow-up questions.
But the debate isn't the only important presidential test
this week. While in Youngstown, Paul Ryan, Republican vice presidential
nominee, tried to show he can pass the dish washing test, but little did
he know that savvy media outlets were ready to call him out on his
dishonesty. Brian Antal, president of the Mahoning County St. Vincent De
Paul Society, said Ryan was only at the group's soup kitchen for the
picture and didn't do much work. The visit apparently angered Antal, who
said his charity group is supposed to be nonpartisan.
Ohio is still weighing options regarding a Medicaid expansion. Critics of the expansion are worried the expansion would cost the state too much money. However, previous research shows Medicaid expansions can actually save states money by lowering the amount of uncompensated care. Medicaid expansions in other states also notably improved lives.
One analyst says Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble will see stronger growth in the future.
A controversial ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court is sparking some local debate. The ruling said juveniles are not entitled to an attorney during police interrogations preceding a charge or initial appearance at juvenile court. Under state law, juveniles are allowed to have attorneys during "proceedings," and the Ohio Supreme Court interpreted "proceedings" to mean "court proceedings."
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced 6,665 new entities filed to do business in Ohio in September. The number is up from September 2011, when 6,143 new entities filed to do business; but it's down from August 2012, when 7,341 entities asked to do business in Ohio. The numbers show a steady economic recovery.
The Ohio Turnpike may get a few changes soon. A new Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) study shows a few options for Gov. John Kasich's administration: lease the turnpike, give it over to ODOT or leave it alone. If the turnpike is leased or handed over to ODOT, tolls will likely rise to keep up with inflation and two maintenance facilities will shut down. However, the revenue generated could be used for new transportation projects — a goal for the Kasich administration. Kasich is set to make his decision in about a month.
In other Ohio Turnpike news, Turnpike Director Rick Hodges announced turnpike tow truck companies will soon be paid less but allowed to charge customers more.
Scientists want to measure human consciousness. The technology could gauge whether vegetative patients retain any awareness.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The first of three debates for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat is
today. Incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh
Mandel will meet for the first time to prove who has the better vision
for the state. Democrats have repeatedly criticized Mandel for
dishonesty and dodging questions. Republicans have criticized Brown for
supporting President Barack Obama's policies, including the auto bailout
and Obamacare. A more substantive analysis of the candidates'
differences can be found here. In aggregate polling, Brown currently
leads by five points. The debate will be at 12:30 p.m. on C-SPAN.
Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate for vice president, will be in Cincinnati today. Ryan's event will take place at Lunken Airport at noon. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, was in Lebanon Saturday. With the second presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Romney tomorrow, both campaigns are turning up the events in Ohio, a state that is widely considered a must-win for both candidates. According to aggregate polling, Obama still holds Ohio by 2.2 points despite a nationwide post-debate bounce in the polls for Romney.
Bicyclists rejoiced Saturday as McMillan Street was converted back into a two-way street. William Howard Taft Road will undergo a similar transition Oct. 20. The conversion of both roads came thanks to the approval of Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who pushed the motion in order to revitalize the business sector in the neighborhood.
The rest of Ohio's school report card data will be released Wednesday. The report card data grades schools to see how school districts are doing in a variety of categories. The release for the data was initially delayed due to an ongoing investigation by the state auditor that's looking into accusations of attendance reporting fraud at some school districts. Previously, the state auditor released preliminary findings criticizing some school districts and the Ohio Department of Education for some findings regarding attendance fraud.
A new report found Cincinnati still has a lot of work to do. The city ranked No. 10 out of 12 similar cities. Cincinnati excelled in job creation and housing opportunities, but it did poorly in categories regarding migration and age.
Bob Taft, former Republican governor of Ohio, is going green. The Ohio Environmental Council is rewarding Taft for standing up for the environment during his gubernatorial term.
Ohio's stricter laws for exotic animals convinced one pet owner to move her two tigers to Indiana.
Some guy broke the sound barrier with his body yesterday.
Election Day is today. Find your correct polling booth here. Check out CityBeat's endorsements here.
After a year of campaigns, the race between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is almost over. All eyes are on Ohio to decide the presidential election. In aggregate polling, Obama leads Romney by 2.9 points in Ohio and 0.7 points nationally. FiveThirtyEight, The New York Times' electoral forecast model, gives Obama a 91.4 percent chance to win Ohio and a 91.6 percent chance to win the election. The New York Times also has an interactive flowchart to gauge both Obama's and Romney's paths to victory.
In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown leads Republican challenger Josh Mandel by 5 points in aggregate polling. CityBeat covered the policy and campaign differences between the two candidates in coverage of the first, second and third debate and a cover story.
Gov. John Kasich has taken a noticeable shift to the center and considered less divisive ideas in recent months, and some of that might be to help Romney's electoral chances in Ohio. In the past two years, Kasich went from supporting SB 5, which would have limited collective bargaining for public employees, to focusing almost entirely on jobs.
While we focus on voting on Earth, astronauts in space also vote.
Hamilton County Commission President Greg Hartmann, a Republican, laid out his budget plan yesterday. Hartmann touted "austerity" as a prominent theme in the budget. Austerity measures actually led Europe into a second recession, according to prominent economist Robert Reich. This matches the opinion of other economists, such as Nobel-winning Paul Krugman, who argue governments should try to make up for shortfalls in the private sector through increased spending during recessions. Recently, the International Monetary Fund admitted it underestimated the bad economic impact of austerity measures. Still, Hamilton County is required to balance its budget, so the commissioners don't have many options. Todd Portune, the lone Democratic commissioner, says he will unveil his plan later.
The new Jungle Jim's at Eastgate is having a large, positive impact on its neighbors. The exotic grocery store has apparently brought a lot of new paying customers to the area.
Cincinnati's Oakley neighborhood might soon put its traffic problems in the past. City Council is expected to vote on a plan Wednesday that would block three streets in the neighborhood. Residents have complained traffic is out of control because of development at the Rookwood Exchange in Norwood, and traffic could get worse due to the holiday shopping season.
Workers injured during the construction of Cincinnati's Horseshoe Casino are looking for a way around workers comp rules. The exemption-seeking lawsuit filed by four workers against 13 defendants is typical in Ohio law, which generally prevents workers from suing employers over workplace injuries since Ohio's compensation rules provide ways to obtain missing wages and other potential damages.
Time Warner Cable is hiring for more than 50 positions in Cincinnati.
A new partnership between the Memorial Hall Society, 3CDC and Hamilton County's commissioners may revitalize Hamilton County's Memorial Hall. The hall is one of Hamilton County's architectural treasures, but a lack of renovations has left it behind modern developments, including air conditioning.
Some of Ohio's exotic animal owners are not happy with a new law that requires registering and micro-chipping exotic animals, so they are suing the state.
A Cleveland woman that drove on a sidewalk to avoid a school bus that was unloading children will have to wear a sign that says, "Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." She will have to wear the sign at an intersection for one hour a day for two days next week.
An Ohio woman broke into a family's house, cleaned the house and left a $75 bill.
On Sunday, an amputee climbed 103 stories using a mind-controlled bionic leg. Oh, science.
In an ad accusing Josh Mandel, a Republican, of lying, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown's campaign team may have lied, according to PolitiFact. The U.S. senatorial campaign for Ohio's senate seat has been filled with dishonesty, but it usually comes from Mandel. The dishonesty seems to be hurting Mandel more than Brown; Mandel is currently down 7.5 points in aggregate polling numbers.Mandel is being taken to court by liberal blog Plunderbund. The blog claims Mandel has made it extra difficult to get public records.
Preliminary data for Ohio schools was released yesterday. Some data is still being held back while an investigation into fraudulent reporting from some schools is finished, but the data gives some insight into how schools performed during the 2011-2012 school year. The data can be found here. From a local angle, the data shows Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) did not meet "adequate yearly progress," a federal standard that measures progress in student subgroups, such as minority groups; but CPS did meet standards for "value-added growth," which measures the expected progress in state testing for all students between the third and eighth grades.
City Council approved the $29 million financing plan for the streetcar yesterday. The plan will use $15 million from the Blue Ash airport deal to move utility lines and pipes. The city claims the $15 million, which was originally promised to neighborhood projects, will be reimbursed by Duke Energy once the city settles a conflict with the energy company. Duke and the city are currently arguing over who has to pay to move the utility lines and pipes.
An Ohio state representative is asking the federal government to monitor the election more closely. Rep. Alicia Reece, a Cincinnati Democrat, is asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to send monitors to the state to ensure no funny business goes on in voting booths on Nov. 6. The request is partly in response to a recent court ruling that forces Ohio to count provisional ballots if the ballots were brought around by poll worker errors.
Ohio's ability to stop political lies was upheld yesterday. The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) tried to put an end to the government power, which COAST claimed was censorship, by taking it to court, but a U.S. judge upheld the ability. The judge, who is a former chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, said COAST did not properly display that its speech was held down by the law. Considering some of COAST's tweets, the judge is probably right.
E.W. Scripps Co. will host a job fair in Cincinnati Oct. 10 to fill 100 digital jobs.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the rights of lesbian ex-couples to set visitation times. The court said non-parents are allowed to participate in visitations during child custody proceedings.
Ohio might expand Medicaid, but not to the extent asked for by Obamacare. That's what the state's Medicaid director said yesterday, anyway. A previous study found Medicaid expansions improved and might have saved lives in other states, and other studies have found Medicaid expansions may save the state money by cutting uncompensated costs.
Pundits really dug into Mitt Romney the past few days over his poor poll numbers in Ohio. The Business Courier asked if Romney has already lost Ohio. Politico said Romney's biggest hurdle to the White House is Ohio. The New Republic ran an article with six theories as to what led to Romney's losses in the state. The Cleveland Plain Dealer pointed out both presidential candidates were stumping at a pivotal time in northern Ohio yesterday. Aggregate polling paints a consistently bad picture for Romney in Ohio; he is currently down four points.
But Romney probably isn't helping matters. In an Ohio
rally Tuesday, he admitted President Barack Obama didn't raise taxes in his
first term.
Gov. John Kasich signed a series of bills shoring up Ohio's public pension system yesterday. The laws will cut benefits and raise eligibility requirements, but state officials insist the new laws will mostly affect future retirees.
NASA wants samples from Mars, and it has a plan. The new plan may require a robot-to-human hand-off in space.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The final presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was last night. The general consensus from media pundits is Obama won by a substantial margin. But political scientists say debates typically have negligible electoral impact. In aggregate polling, Obama is up in Ohio by 1.9 points and Romney is up nationally by 0.6 points. Ohio is looking like a must-win state for both campaigns, so Obama's advantage there is a very bad sign for Romney. FiveThirtyEight, The New York Times' election forecast blog, has an explanation of how and why the current electoral landscape favors Obama.
In a follow-up to the debate, Romney will be visiting Greater Cincinnati Thursday.
A new motion by City Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan could encourage more people and businesses to make use of the city's LEED program. The program uses special tax exemptions to encourage buildings to be cleaner and greener.
Cincinnati's City Planning Commission approved Plan Cincinnati Friday. With the approval, the plan's only hurdle is City Council. If passed, the plan will reform city policies to put a new emphasis on the city's urban core. That means a cleaner, greener city with more transportation options, ranging from walking and biking to the streetcar and rail. CityBeat wrote about Plan Cincinnati here. The full plan can be found here.
Three Republicans in the state legislature, including Cincinnati's Sen. Bill Seitz and Rep. Louis Tehrar, introduced a bill that would require health insurance providers to cover autism. Critics say the move could cost small businesses too much during an economic downturn, but supporters say it's necessary to Ohio's mental health coverage requirement, which was passed in 2007. Seitz says the bill could also save money by bringing down special education costs.
In a sign of Ohio's education funding problems, one report found two of three Ohio school levies are asking for
additional funding. But Cincinnati Public Schools' (CPS) levy will only
not ask for extra funding or higher taxes; instead, it asks for funding
and taxes to remain the same. CityBeat covered Issue 42, the CPS levy, in-depth here.
A new report found Ohio students graduate with more debt than most of the nation. The report named the state a "high debt state" with an average of $28,683 in student loans — above the national average of $26,600.
Despite what a recent conflict between Commissioner Greg
Hartmann and Mayor Mark Mallory implies, Cincinnati and Hamilton County
are working together. The city and county are cooperating on the Banks
project, funding the Port Authority and operating the Metropolitan Sewer
Cincinnati is working harder to enforce a chronic nuisance
disorder. A property is classified as a chronic nuisance when it
surpasses a certain amount of crimes and violations. The law is meant to
hold property owners accountable for what happens in their buildings.
There are more signs that Ohio's fracking boom may not be
sustainable. Natural gas producers are not seeing the profits they
expected from the boom. For many, the boom is quickly turning into a
bust. Still, natural gas prices have massively dropped, and an analysis
at The Washington Post suggests natural gas could play an important role in reducing carbon emissions. CityBeat wrote in-depth about the fracking boom in Ohio and the faulty regulations on the industry here.
The Ohio Board of Regents is using a grant to award 1,300 associate degrees to transfer students over two years.
Fourteen recreational trails in Ohio will get $1.6 million in federal funding, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. However, none of the trails are in Hamilton County.
The key to humanity: cooked food.
City Council approved a $29 million plan that will shift $15 million from the Blue Ash airport deal to move utility lines and pipes in order to accommodate for streetcar tracks. The money will be reimbursed if a conflict with Duke Energy is settled in the city's favor. The city is currently trying to resolve the conflict over who has to pay for moving utility lines and pipes. If the city wins out, Duke will have to pay up, and the money from the Blue Ash airport deal will be put back where it belongs. If Duke wins out, that money could be lost forever — a worry Chris Smitherman voiced in the public City Council session. Smitherman, Charlie Winburn and P.G. Sittenfeld voted against the plan, and Roxanne Qualls, Laure Quinlivan, Yvette Simpson, Cecil Thomas, Wendell Young and Chris Seelbach voted for it.
CORRECTION: This blog originally said the entire $29 million plan will be reimbursed by
Duke. Only the $15 million from the Blue Ash airport deal will be
reimbursed if the city wins in the dispute.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted received a failing grade from Voters First Ohio and the Ohio Unity Coalition for the way he's handled the 2012 election. The left-leaning groups criticized Husted for taking away in-person early voting hours that were available in 2008 and issues regarding provisional ballots, wrongful terminations and misleading language on the November ballot.
The Controlling Board unanimously approved $4 million Monday to conduct a study to determine possible funding for the Brent Spence Bridge. The study will look at tolls and the viability of various public-private partnerships to see how the bridge will be paid for.
Jungle Jim's is opening an Eastgate location today, and people are apparently really excited for it.
The state launched a new website to connect Ohio job seekers and opportunities in the energy industry. The website presents opportunities in advanced energy, renewable energy, energy efficiency and gas and oil.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be in southwest Ohio today,
and Obama will be in other parts of the state. The state is typically
considered a must-win for Romney and Ryan, but aggregate polling has looked worse lately for the Republican duo.
Speaking of Romney, he indirectly admitted he'll have to raise taxes on what he considers middle income. Remember when Republicans ran on tax cuts?
Another problem with global warming: Hotter days make people less productive, which greatly hurts economic output.
A Cincinnati research team found NFL players die often to Alzheimer's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. The two diseases kill NFL players four times more often than the average U.S. population, and other neurodegenerative diseases kill them twice as often as the norm.
Having sex once a week instead of once a month is the "happiness equivalent" of making an extra $50,000 a year. Do not try that line at home.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The second presidential debate between President Barack
Obama and Mitt Romney took place last night. The general consensus from the
media is Obama won. Although the victory will likely inspire an Obama
comeback narrative for some political pundits, keep in mind political
scientists say debates typically have little electoral impact. But
debates can reveal substance, and The Washington Post has an
article "footnoting" the policy specifics from the debate. As of today,
aggregate polling shows Obama up in Ohio by 2.2 points and Romney up
nationally by 0.4 points. Ohio is widely considered a must-win for
Romney. Obama and Romney will have their final debate next Monday. CityBeat will be hosting an event at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine during the debate. More info can be found on the event's Facebook page.
The Ohio Department of Education released its remaining
school report card data today. The data is meant to give Ohioans a clear
picture as to whether schools are improving. The data was delayed due
to an ongoing investigation into attendance rigging at Ohio schools. In
the new report card data, Cincinnati Public Schools was downgraded from
"Effective" in the 2010-2011 school year to "Continuous Improvement" in
the 2011-2012 school year. The new mark is still positive, but it is a
Down goes Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's early voting appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. With the Supreme Court refusing to take up Husted's appeal, Ohio must allow all voters to vote on the weekend and Monday before Election Day. Husted also sent out a directive enforcing uniform voting hours for the three days. On Saturday, booths will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. On Monday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
It seems City Council action was not enough to get Duke
Energy to budge on the streetcar. The local energy company says it wants
an operating agreement before it starts construction work. On Sept. 24,
City Council passed a funding deal that shifted $15 million from the
Blue Ash airport deal to the streetcar and established $14 million
through a new financing plan. The city says it will get the $15
million back if it wins in the dispute with Duke. The city claims it's
Duke's responsibility to pay for moving utility pipes and lines to
accommodate for the streetcar, but Duke insists it's the city's
The University Board of Trustees is expected to approve Santa Ono as UC's new president. Ono has been serving as interim president ever since Greg Williams abruptly resigned, citing personal reasons.
The Horseshoe Casino is really coming along. Casino owners are already booking meetings and events for spring 2013.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital announced a big breakthrough in combating muscular dystrophy. The hospital claims it successfully installed a device in a patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy that allows the patient's heart to pump blood to the body in the long term.
With Gov. John Kasich's recommendation, Ohio universities will have cheaper, quicker options for students. A new provision will require 10 percent of bachelor's degrees from public universities to be completable in three years instead of four.
Ohio's attorney general wants help in solving an unsolved
double homicide in Cincinnati. Attorney General Mike DeWine has recently
fixated on cold cases — previously unsolved cases that could be solved
with new information and tools.
Scientists found an earth-sized planet orbiting the star nearest to our solar system.
Newspapers all around the state — including The Cincinnati Enquirer, which labelled its article an "Enquirer Exclusive" (both The Toledo Blade and Columbus Dispatch ran a story with the same angle as The Enquirer)
— are really excited about a new poll that found Sen. Sherrod Brown
leads Josh Mandel in the U.S. senatorial race for Ohio's seat by 7
percent. But the poll only confirms what aggregate polling has been
saying for a while now.
Contrary to the claims of Mitt Romney's campaign, President Barack Obama does care about the work requirements in welfare-to-work reform. In fact, Obama is disapproving of Ohio's program, which his administration says has not enforced work requirements stringently enough. However, most of the blame is going to former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, not Gov. John Kasich, a Republican.
The University of Cincinnati received a $3.7 million grant to increase the participation of women in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines. The grant comes from the National Science Foundation, a federal entity that funds science. The grant could help current problems with science research. One recent study found scientists prefer to hire male students over female students, pay male students more and spend more time mentoring men over women.
Local homeless groups managed to get a hold of a $600,000 grant to aid homeless military veterans. The grant will provide financial assistance and job training for the currently homeless and vets at risk of becoming homeless.
The Cincinnati Enquirer is raising subscription costs by 43 percent — from $210 a year to $300 a year.
City Council will host a special session today to get public feedback and work on the new deal meant to prevent further streetcar delays. The meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. at City Council Chambers, City Hall room 300, 801 Plum St.
Ohio is a swing state, which means we get a lot of political ads during the campaign season. Are you tired of them? Well, politicians don't seem to care. In 2008, both parties ran a combined total of 42,827 ads between April and September. In the same time period this year, the parties have run 114,840.
Citizens for Common Sense was formed to support Issue 4 on the November ballot, which changes City Council terms from two to four years. The initiative would let political candidates worry more about policy and less about campaigning, but some critics say it would make it more difficult to hold council members accountable.Research shows random promotions may be better for business. The study verifies the Peter Principle, which says many people are eventually promoted to positions beyond their competence.


text:
Nice to meet you
I'm Leord and I'm a RP player as well a GM/DM and I've had a love for maps since I was really young. I've done a number of maps on paper (one at A1 size with a lot of detail) and I'm currently fleshing out a campaign setting I'm calling Hökaland. I'll post some pics in the WIP forum in a bit.
Nice to meet you
Oh, I want to see this A1 map if possible, might be huge :O
Signature? Only in the presence of my lawyers!
Welcome to the Guild Leord!


text:
by Neil Hershberg, Senior Vice President, Global Media, Business Wire New York
According to conventional wisdom, the so-called "BRIC" countries [Brazil-Russia-India-China] will be the drivers of the 21st century global economy.
Business Wire is uniquely positioned, by virtue of its exclusive strategic relationships, to reach traditional and online media, investors, business decision-makers, and consumers in these dynamic markets.
In the first article of our four-part series, we profiled Agencia Estado, the most influential financial information provider in Brazil. This month, the spotlight shifts to Russia and our partner Interfax, which is the premier business and economic news service in Russia and neighboring markets.
Russia, 11th largest economy in the world, boasts the eighth largest purchasing power. Traditionally noted for its well-educated workforce, Russia has long been a power in natural gas, oil, coal and metals.
Business Wire has been a partner of Moscow-based Interfax since 2001. Interfax has spawned dozens of specialized news agencies under its umbrella organization, The Interfax Information Services Group. It is a leading content contributor to the world's leading financial information platforms and databases, including Dow Jones, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, FT Information Ltd, Factiva and Lexis Nexis. The international investment community clearly recognizes Interfax as the most authoritative and credible source of Russian financial news. In fact, a February 2008 study confirmed that Interfax is the Russian news agency most frequently cited by both Russian and foreign media.


text:
What The He — Is Jasmine?
At 11:44 AM -0400 8/25/07, George wrote:
Okay girls and guys, what the he– does jasmine smell and taste like???????? I have searched both SM's site for about 10 minutes or more and the Internet for probably over 45 minutes on jasmine, jasmine flavor, jasmine taste, etc, etc. All I get are listings of dozens of pages on it's use as a flower in weddings, what properties it has for women in Japan, pages and pages on jasmine in tea, and the list goes on and on. Even went to Websters dictionary, online encyclopedias, etc, etc and nothing but uses, NOT A THING ON TASTE. I did visit over a hundred sites that listed jasmine and no results for the smell or taste of it. Tom seems to mention jasmine with sage and other herbs/spices. For all I know it could taste like baby kaka.
So, what is the taste and smell of jasmine.
George Its a very good question: I try to distinguish between jasmine tea and jasmine flower sometimes, but fail to do it often enough. Those are the 2 most meaningful definitions to me. But in fact, at my house i have pink jasmine and a white jasmine and they are different (my night-blooming jasmine failed to grow but that too is a bit different). All offer strong, permeating floral notes.
Yirgacheffes often have the most clear-cut jasmine notes of any coffee, but sometimes I refer to it when it is a very mild floral note, not based on the intensity or amount of it, but the quality – i tried to clarify that issue in my Flavor Quality Analysis spider-graphs. I'll also use honeysuckle, and sometimes hibiscus, but don't often use rose anymore since that's a huge variation in aromas, and I don't know enough to specify WHAT rose. Frankly, sometimes getting too specific in descriptions can hinder what i am trying to communicate, and just doesn't work — i.e. it's the wet aroma of the flowers from recently dried coriander at 3pm on Sunday.
Okay, that's a bad example, but there is a LOT left yet-to-be-described in the coffee reviews so you, the taster, can fill in the blanks. I like to (usually) go beyond saying something is simply 'floral' but don't want to kill all the fun of discovery by being overly specific (if I am even able to). I hope, at some point, you might notice that I try to keep it real, to keep descriptors firmly attached to things that you smell and taste, and avoid analogies like "this is the little black dress of coffees," or this is "coffee for the x-games", or "this is the honda accord of coffee". I have heard all these used before, and i guess they DO describe something most people understand, but when you start down that path there is no return … it becomes an easy escape from really trying to attach coffee experiences to other true sensory experiences. – Tom