text:
Distinguished Co-Chairman Cardin, Co-Chairman Hastings, members of the Commission, and members of Congress, today I am very happy to see, in this room, dignitaries, prominent politicians, and real patriots of America with whom I happened to work during my seven-year tenure as the Republic of Kazakhstan's Ambassador to the United States.
I would like to express my gratitude for this opportunity to address this esteemed Commission, which played a key role in the decision of the United States to support Kazakhstan's chairmanship in the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Therefore, I decided to deliver my first statement as the OSCE Chairman-in-Office here, at the Helsinki Commission, as I believe in your sincere interest in the success of Kazakhstan's OSCE Chairmanship. The goal of our chairmanship is to strengthen our common organization to provide greater security and broader cooperation in the vast territory from Vancouver to Vladivostok.
In his video address to the OSCE's Permanent Council in Vienna on January 14, President Nazarbayev presented the strategy and priorities of Kazakhstan's OSCE chairmanship. First of all, we will strictly adhere to OSCE core principles and values. We will work in the interests of all OSCE member states. Kazakhstan views the OSCE support for Kazakhstan's chairmanship as explicit recognition by the international community of our achievements in the political, social, and economic development of our relatively young country as well as our contribution to regional and global security. At the same time, this decision demonstrates the desire of the OSCE to enhance trust and mutual understanding among countries from west and east of Vienna.
Our paramount objective is to fully strengthen the OSCE, to be instrumental in boosting its effectiveness and ability to appropriately respond to current challenges and threats.
Whether our priorities will be achieved will largely depend on our ability to overcome the crisis of confidence, engendered by divisive lines and vestiges of the Cold War, which remains. In this regard, we hope for the "Corfu Process" to continue, as it has brought to light the common dissatisfaction of all OSCE member states with current state of affairs that exists in the various areas of the organization's responsibility.
We deem it imperative that the "Corfu Process" includes the humanitarian basket. Kazakhstan considers the OSCE's human dimension an integral and key part of its operations in 2010. We will firmly support the important work of all three OSCE institutions i.e., the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the High Commissioner for National Minorities, and the Representative on Freedom of the Media.
In discussing human rights, it is important to note that such rights are based on fundamental human values, on diversity of cultures and civilizations, which must, no doubt, be respected. We are grateful to our American partners because, in supporting the Kazakh chairmanship, they reconfirmed their resolute commitment to the OSCE's ideals as an organization meant for all of its members, including countries with different and often more complicated cultural and historic experiences. Together with Denmark and ODIHR, we intend to hold a conference in Copenhagen next June that will be devoted to the 20th anniversary of the 1990 Copenhagen Document as the fundamental instrument of the human dimension. The event's agenda will include a review of compliance with the obligation to observe fundamental human rights and freedoms within the OSCE region.
One of the most important events of our chairmanship will be the successful arrangement of the Review of Human Rights Conference in Warsaw to which we are paying special attention.
Given a rather positive experience of achieving inter-ethnic and inter-faith accord in our own country, we intend to make the issues of tolerance and intercultural dialogue within the OSCE space an important priority of our chairmanship.
Indeed, this will be the underlying theme of a high-level OSCE conference on tolerance and non-discrimination to be held in Astana June 29-30. We will work on the event's agenda and the OSCE's preparations for the event in close coordination with the three personal representatives on tolerance, including the esteemed Rabbi Andrew Baker and representative on combating anti-semitism. We expect the United States to support that event.
Further promotion of gender balance is a matter of urgency. In this regard, we intend to hold a meeting on promoting women's participation in public and political life and to co-sponsor an ODIHR program on boosting women's involvement in government.
We will focus on the troubling problem of human trafficking, particularly that of children, which has become a global tragedy and an increasing transnational crime.
Kazakhstan intends to pay special attention to such fundamental freedoms as the freedom of conscience, freedom of media, rule of law, greater independence of the judicial system, and better public access to justice. Given this occasion, I would like to assure you that Kazakhstan, a young democracy with an 18-year history, continues to pursue political modernization at home. Building a strong and democratic society is a conscious choice, and I am in a position to say that we have achieved some impressive successes along this difficult path.
In 2008 and 2009, in line with OSCE recommendations, significant legislative reforms were achieved on the areas of of the media, elections, political parties, and local government. We have adopted and have been successfully implementing a 2009-2012 National Human Rights Action Plan and a 2010-2020 Concept as to the Policy of Law, intended to further liberalize the law of the Republic of Kazakhstan and bring it in line with international standards.
To strengthen the national system for protecting human rights, Kazakhstan adopted laws to ensure equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men, prevent domestic violence, improve the judicial system and forensic operations, take a tougher stand on corruption, provide a social safety net for select individuals and refugees, and address such issues as further improvement of the criminal penitentiary and correctional systems.
In his address to the nation on January 29, President Nazarbayev declared the importance of further reforms to the criminal justice system laws in keeping with high international standards. Therefore, this year the Parliament will introduce a bill to provide strict public and parliament control over the operations and accountability of each and every law enforcement authority.
Thus, Kazakhstan has taken specific steps to implement international standards in its national legislation, in line with the goals and objectives we have identified in the context of our OSCE chairmanship.
Considering that this year elections will occur in 15 participating nations, the Kazakh chairmanship considers it important that the OSCE member states comply with their election monitoring obligations.
With great satisfaction, I would like to note the monitoring process that took place in the first round of elections in Ukraine; we hope that the second round also occurs in accordance with OSCE commitments. In this regard, we highlight the work of ODIHR and the OSCE Parlimentary Assembly, which has been conducted in the spirit of partnership, impartiality, and constructiveness.
Our priority in the economic and environmental dimension will be to promote good governance at border crossings and develop safe and efficient land transportation. We believe this topic is highly important as we emerge from the global recession.
Environmental security is yet another crucial focus in the OSCE's second dimension. We deem it important to focus on the Aral Sea problem, a Central Asian environmental catastrophe that has proven to adversely affect the European states. Addressing the Aral region's problems could serve as a model for solving similar environmental problems within the OSCE's area of responsibility.
Ladies and gentlemen, Afghanistan occupies a special place on our chairmanship's agenda. Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan has provided support to U.S. and international coalition efforts in the country. However, we strongly believe that achieving the long-term objective of establishing peace and democracy in that country solely through military means would make it difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, it is time to significantly expand humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.
For many years, Kazakhstan has provided financial support to Afghanistan to build schools, a hospital, and roads and to provide food aid.
As of this year, under an agreement with the Afghan government, Kazakhstan has been implementing a special program that offers the opportunity for 1,000 Afghanis to attend our universities and earn civilian degrees. Despite the fallout from the financial crisis, Astana has allocated US$50 million for this educational program. Kazakhstan as the Chairman-in-Office is going to use social, economic, and humanitarian capabilities of the OSCE that will absolutely correspond with President Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan.
It is obvious that the Afghan government should start solving the problems of its country. However, their efforts in social and economic rehabilitation and democratic development should be strongly supported by the international community and, first of all, by the member states of the OSCE. This understanding was demonstrated during discussions at the January 28 London Conference on Afghanistan, where I also delivered the vision of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan will continue the OSCE's active endeavors to improve the standard of governance at the borders between the Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, to develop cross-border cooperation, and strengthen the capabilities of Afghanistan's national border and police forces. The OSCE has already achieved some concrete results in this area: an OSCE border college has opened in Dushanbe and a customs training center has become operational in Kyrgyzstan. Training Afghani customs, police, and border personnel translates into significant support for the Afghan government. In addition, the OSCE plans to develop new projects to stabilize the situation in the country.
Our country, as a recognized leader of the global nonproliferation process, supports President Obama's initiatives on nuclear disarmament, adherence to which he reconfirmed in his first State of the Union Address to Congress. As the OSCE Chairman-in-Office we appreciate the U.S.-Russian negotiations on a new strategic arms reduction treaty (START-2).
The real OSCE contribution to the fight against transnational threats and challenges—including terrorism, religious extremism, drug trafficking, and organized crime—will be the Conference on Preventing Terrorism in Astana.
Kazakhstan will try, to the best of its ability, to contribute to the difficult process of resolving the "protracted conflicts," three of which are raging in the post-Soviet space. Bearing in the mind the historical commonality and closeness of Kazakhstan to all the parties of the conflict, as well as the trust and authority enjoyed by President Nazarbayev, we hope to give an imputus to all efforts of our partners involved in this challenging process. Therefore, I am planning to devote attention to this subject during my first trip to South Caucus on February 15.
At the same time, we believe it is crucial to seek ways to prevent the emergence of such conflicts, which eventually lead to human tragedies and humanitarian catastrophes. Therefore, we are going to actively engage the OSCE's capacity to monitor and identify any possible conflicts.
Ladies and gentlemen, 2010 represents a milestone for the OSCE. This year, it celebrates several anniversaries of great significance to the establishment of the security architecture in Europe. I am referring to the 35th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, the 65th anniversary of the end to the Second World War, the 20th anniversary of the Paris Charter for a New Europe, and the 20th anniversary of the Copenhagen Document. Furthermore, it is the 11th year since the last OSCE summit was held in Istanbul.
Unfortunately, the first decade of the new century has not made our world safer or better. The 9/11 tragedy changed the traditional notion of "enemy" and "war." International terrorism has become an enemy without an address or nationality. The architecture of the European security has changed. In spite of the many years of international efforts, Afghanistan continues to be the source of international terrorism and a major drug supplier. Not only have the protracted conflicts not been resolved but new conflicts have arisen. We have witnessed and been experiencing circumstances arising from the international financing crisis. Even the most comfortable countries of Europe are facing challenges in promoting tolerance, interethnic, and interreligious accord. All these problems exist in the OSCE area of responsibility—they need collective attention and consideration by the 56 leaders of OSCE member states.
That is why President Nazarbayev called for an OSCE summit in 2010. A specific recommendation concerning the summit is already incorporated into documents of the Athens Ministerial Council and is now supported by the Permanent Council in Vienna. Leaders of France, Italy, Vatican, Turkey, Spain, as well as Russia and other CIS countries, and the current EU President have not only supported the summit but have begun working on its agenda.
Kazakhstan also intends to continue a good tradition established by our predecessor, Greece, and invite the foreign ministers of the OSCE member states to an informal meeting in Almaty next summer. There, they could continue a free exchange of opinions on urgent problems and, ideally, achieve consensus as to approval of the summit's agenda and timeline.
I would like to note that, as a result of the United States' long absence from high-level OSCE meetings, a certain imbalance has emerged within the organization. Numerous OSCE processes have slowed, and consensus building is becoming an increasingly more challenging task. The OSCE needs proper attention on the part of a key nation that helped lay the organization's foundation. The full engagement of the United States with the OSCE will give the organization a new impetus and set a new tone for talks within its ambit.
I am absolutely certain that the idea of the Summit is in full accord with the noble goals and efforts of the United States to promote comprehensive, indivisible, and strong security and to strengthen trust and cooperation in the OSCE region—from Vancouver to Vladivostok. As the Chairman-in-Office I grasp this opportunity to call upon you, distinguished colleagues, to demonstrate the strategic vision, political will, leadership, and support needed to make the summit of our unique and unparalleled organization a reality in the name of security and prosperity of the people who established the OSCE.
Dear friends, during its 35-year history, the OSCE has created an unparalleled system of collective, comprehensive, and integral security. However, as President Nursultan Nazarbayev has noted, "…the positive historical resources of the OSCE are limited" and "today, it is not permissible to carry on endlessly a practice that involves drawing so-called 'red lines' and playing 'zero-sum games.'" I am quite sure that it is our common task to make the OSCE more effective and stronger in light of new challenges and threats.
In conclusion, I would like, once again, to thank you, distinguished Co-chairman Hastings and all esteemed members of Congress in this room, as well as members and the staff of the U.S. Helsinki Commission for your efforts and support of Kazakhstan's OSCE chairmanship. I would like to offer my profound appreciation for the great interest in the OSCE and its activities as expressed by my counterpart Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was a member of your esteemed Commission.
For my part, I assure you of our complete willingness to continue a close constructive engagement with the Helsinki Commission, the Congress, the administration, as well as other non-governmental entities of the United States with which Kazakhstan has established relations of a true strategic partnership.
Thank you for this opportunity to present Kazakhstan's vision for and priorities during its OSCE chairmanship. I am pleased to respond to your questions and welcome your comments and suggestions.
Click here for the previous year's Testimonies


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Justin Bieber has won a motion to have his DUI trial delayed until July.
The "Baby" hitmaker's lawyers asked for a postponement earlier this week and on Wednesday, Florida Judge William Altfield granted the request.
The 20-year-old was originally due in court on May 5 to face charges relating to his arrest in January, when he was allegedly caught drag racing on the streets of Miami.
Following the arrest he was slapped with counts for DUI, resisting arrest without violence and driving with an expired license – accusations he has since denied.
PHOTOS: Justin Bieber through the years | Bieber's top 20 'bad boy' moments
Bieber is now due in court on July 7.
He is also facing prosecution in Toronto, Canada, where he stands accused of hitting a limousine driver during a night out in December. The assault case has been continued until May 12.


text:
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Green Tea with Pomegranate
A perfect marriage of hand-picked leaves from China with tart, sweet pomegranate and hibiscus, our Green Tea blend offers a tropical pleasure that delights the palate.
Ingredients: Green Tea, Hibiscus Flowers, Dried Pomegranate, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Soy and Sunflower Lecithin Contains: Soy, Sunflower
30 tea Bags
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Rated 4.5 out of 5 by 16 reviewers.
Rated 5 out of 5 by chilimatt Taste By itself the tea is great. For my taste buds i like a bit more zing so I added 1/2 tea spoon lemon and a small squeeze of honey. It give me that little extra ZING that I adore. Now that the weather is getting colder it really gets me going in the morning or as a early evening kick back and relax ( aaaahhhhhhh) kind of feeling. I love this tea :) Thanks Gevalia Matt September 30, 2014
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where is the decaffeinated version?
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I see it in the flyer I received but it's not here. Have you discontinued it?
Age: 35-44
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Length of use: 3-5 years
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3 years, 6 months ago
Las Vegas, NM 87701, USA
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Answer:Green teas are decaffeinated.
Age: Over 65
Gender: Female
Drink Gevalia: Morning
Length of use: So long I can't remember
Take Gevalia: Black
2 years ago
Dallas, TX, USA
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Answer:Green Tea with Pomegranate is not available in decaf.
3 years, 6 months ago
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Why dont you show the ingredients in your tea? Is it 100% green tea? What about the flavors?
Age: 45-54
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3 years, 6 months ago
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Answer:The Green Tea with Pomegranate contains green tea and natural flavoring.
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Answer:Hi Esme- That is a great question! Unfortunately, our full collection of teas has been discontinued. Discontinuations are due to low selling volume. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you for reaching out to us and hope you'll continue to enjoy our products.
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ST. LOUIS, MO (KSDK) -- Early Saturday morning a 43-year-old man was shot and then robbed as a suspect held a hammer to his head.
St. Louis police say Lamont Wilkes was opening his front door to his home on the 4400 block of San Francisco when he heard two gun shots and felt a sharp pain in his neck. Then he felt another sharp pain in his back.
Wilkes fell to thr ground and one of the suspects held a hammer to his head and took $100 from the pocket of his pants.
Police believe they are looking for two suspects in this case. Both suspects fled the scene on foot. One of the suspects is around 6'0 and was wearing dark colored clothing. The other suspect was wearing a mask and is believed to be around 5-6.
Wilkes was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition.
Police are still investigating and NewsChannel 5 will bring you more information as it becomes available.


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I like the style...looks cool, good job!
We do not stop playing because we grow old.
We grow old because we stop playing.
I like the style...looks cool, good job!
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
Your Welcome Anstett. The church is from me as well. One of the maps from my PBP game circa 2007-08. I was PS filter happy at that time. I am glad you had a use for it.
Have you dressed your dungeon lately?


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Russia: Reject Adoption Ban Bill
|Human Rights Watch
|Publication Date
|21 December 2012
|Cite as
|Human Rights Watch, Russia: Reject Adoption Ban Bill, 21 December 2012, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/50dc0a9c2.html [accessed 31 May 2016]
|This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
The upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, on December 26, 2012, unanimously endorsed a bill that would ban adoptions by United States citizens and would impose new restrictions on Russian nongovernmental organizations that receive funding from the US. The State Duma, or lower parliamentary chamber, had adopted the bill on December 21. The bill will become law after President Vladimir Putin signs it.
Several government ministers and other high-level officials had expressed concern about the bill in media statements. One official, according to news reports, sent Putin a letter outlining how the bill violates Russia's international obligations.
"The bill undermines Russia's international human rights commitments, and President Putin should not sign it," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
(Moscow) – The upper chamber of Russia's parliament should reject a draft law that would ban United States citizens from adopting Russian children and introduce new restrictions on civil society.
"Russian officials' anger at the US Congress is leading them to do the wrong thing," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This bill hits back at Russia's most vulnerable children and could deprive them of the loving families they desperately need."
The Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, introduced the draft law to retaliate for the so-called Magnitsky Act, which US President Barack Obama signed into law on December 14, 2012. The law calls for visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials allegedly involved in the torture and killing of whistleblowers in Russia.
The draft law would allow for suspending and freezing the assets of Russian nongovernmental organizations that engage in "political" activities if they receive funding from US citizens or organizations or if their leaders or members are Russian citizens who have US passports. Any nongovernmental organization that engages in what the draft law terms "political" work that "harms Russia's interests" would also be suspended, and its assets would be frozen.
The proposed blanket ban on adoptions by US citizens would undermine Russia's commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Human Rights Watch said. The convention states that children should "grow up in a family environment" and upholds international adoption "as an alternative means of child's care, if the child cannot be placed in a foster or an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be cared for in the child's country of origin." Such inter-country adoptions are allowed when safeguards in the adoptive country are equivalent to those applicable in the case of national adoption.
"This bill is harmful to Russia's orphans, to democracy and public participation in Russia, and violates Russia's international human rights commitments," Williamson said. "Russia's leadership should end the crackdown on civil society and make good on Russia's obligations under international law."
Of the 3,400 Russian children adopted by foreign families in 2011, 956 – nearly a third – were adopted by US parents, according to official figures.
The draft provisions affecting nongovernmental organizations are the latest in a series of measures adopted in the past seven months that increasingly restrict freedom of expression and association, Human Rights Watch said. Since May 2012, Russia's parliament has adopted laws that imposed new restrictions on public assembliesand raised financial sanctions for violations to the level of criminal fines, re-criminalized libel, and imposed new restrictions on internet content. A law adopted in July forces nongovernmental organizations that engage in advocacy work and accept foreign funding to register as "foreign agents". Another law, adopted in November, expands the definition of "treason" in ways that could criminalize international human rights advocacy.
The Federal Assembly, the upper house of parliament, is scheduled to consider the bill the week of December 23. The bill is referred to as "The Dima Yakovlev" law, in memory of a 21-month-old Russian boy who died in Virginia in 2008 when his adoptive American father left him in a locked car for nine hours. A US court acquitted the father of involuntary manslaughter charges.
If adopted, the bill would introduce a visa ban and asset freeze on US citizens involved in human rights violations and crimes against Russian citizens. These provisions of the bill also apply to citizens of other countries that pass legislation similar to the Magnitsky Act.
The US law is named for Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison after he exposed a massive tax fraud scheme by government officials. The law angered Russia's leaders and legislators, who threatened an "asymmetrical" response.
"Russia's officials threatened an "asymmetrical response" to the Magnitsky Act and indeed what they delivered is wholly disproportionate,"Williamson said. "The draft law would harm orphaned children and civil society, and should be rejected."


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Microsoft Research
September 12, 2013 4:16 PM PT
Quick: What do these tweets have in common?
For one thing, you'd need some help translating them if you're not bilingual or up on social-media lingo. More notably, these tweets illustrate an intriguing new twist on a problem that researchers thought they had solved some time ago: how to train computers to identify the language in which documents are written.
> Download the language-identifier tool now
Why does the language in which a tweet is written matter? Twitter and other social-media platforms hold a treasure trove of information about public opinion and social trends, and that data, when mined, can provide insights into consumer preferences, political views, and all sorts of other behaviors and demographic patterns.
As Moises Goldszmidt, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, puts it, mining of social media can give us "a better understanding of our human nature."
On a more practical level, it also can help with machine translation and the development of more adaptive devices and services.
"I am very interested in how we humans make decisions, with the aim of creating better and more intelligent devices and services that continuously adapt," Goldszmidt says. "Social media offer a window into the social, cognitive, and emotional aspects of this decision-making process."
But many text-mining techniques are language-specific, so robust language identification is a prerequisite for that type of processing.
Unlike most of the web, including most blogs, social-media postings are full of slang, hashtags, misspellings, emoticons, and offbeat punctuation and capitalization. Some people mix languages. Length restrictions, such as the 140-character limit in Twitter, encourage compressed, ungrammatical writing. These days, even human readers can have difficulty decoding what tweets and other social-media posts are saying, so imagine how tricky it can be for computers.
Goldszmidt and his colleagues Stelios Paparizos and Marc Najork from the Silicon Valley lab encountered this roadblock in the course of their work in web mining and large-scale data analytics.
"When we started, I took automated language identification to be a solved problem," Goldszmidt says. "It surprised me that we had to change a lot of our assumptions because of the particular nature of how people express themselves in Twitter. That aspect turned out to be a research project in itself."
That research has yielded an elegant—and somewhat surprising—solution that the researchers have detailed in a paper and made publicly available as a downloadable language-identification tool.
When Goldszmidt, Paparizos, and Najork began their project, existing language-identification technologies worked only for longer, cleaner documents. Some of the tools could recognize just a handful of languages with a high level of accuracy. But on Twitter, most of the more than 100 million postings each day are just a few words long, and they come in hundreds of languages. Accuracy can degrade quickly in this domain.
By his own admission, Goldszmidt, a native Spanish speaker, is a contributor to the language-identification problem. He sometimes mixes spelling and semantics from English and Spanish—for example, texting "aim jom" to his family to mean "I'm home." Paparizos sometimes uses both Greek and English in the same message.
With access to the Twitter stream, the researchers set about finding an automated way to classify the kinds of cryptic postings that they themselves were creating.
"We started out by first training a set of language identifiers on very clean content—Wikipedia pages," Najork says. "Wikipedia pages are, of course, labeled with the language they're written in."
For their training set, the researchers identified the languages with at least 50,000 articles in Wikipedia. Those languages—52 in all—included the major European and Asian languages, as well as some unexpected ones: two synthetic languages, Esperanto and Volapük, along with several languages that have a relatively small number of speakers, such as Latin, Occitan, Galician, and Basque.
"We trained those language identifiers," Najork says, "and then threw them at our collection of tweets."
You might assume that Twitter profile information could help in the process of language identification—after all, users can indicate a language preference when they set up their account. But many people never bother to change the default setting, which is English. Some people even set a fake location—for example, they might claim to be at the North Pole when in fact they're in South Africa.
But it turns out that for about 3 percent of tweets, the user has GPS location tracking turned on. In that case, "you know where the person was who wrote this tweet at that particular point in time," Najork says. In other words, GPS metadata becomes supporting evidence in predicting the primary language of a tweet.
"It looks like an English-language tweet, and it was sent by someone in the U.S.," Najork says. "Now you have reasonable evidence that this is actually an English-language tweet."
By extracting tweets for which the geographic data matches the predicted language, you get a new set of reliable training data—Twitter training data. This is the key to automatic machine learning of Twitter vernacular in each language—the OMGs, LOLs, and so on.
Getting to this optimal solution was painstaking.
"We tried more than 60 different techniques and parameters," Paparizos says, "and studied what works well and when."
Some of their findings were unexpected. For example, it's common practice in language identification to convert all text to lowercase before analyzing it, because many people don't bother to properly capitalize words. But it turns out that keeping the existing capitalization helps differentiate between languages. German, for example, requires capitalization of all nouns, so tweets in German still tend to follow that rule.
The biggest surprise, though, is the simplicity of the solution itself. It requires no knowledge of the grammar or word roots of any language. It simply compares character patterns and word patterns in a document to the patterns in trained language profiles. It then tells you the most probable primary language.
"The tool works for any kind of language identification," Paparizos says. "Essentially, we give you a trained data set to work with. And then if you want to train the tool to recognize Klingon or some other language, it's very easy to add Klingon training data, and the tool will tell you whether something is in Klingon or English or Greek or any other language it has been trained to identify.
"The method that produces the best result is surprising to people, because it's simple and it's unexpected, but it performs well. Whenever I talk about it to other people, they say, 'I can't believe that method works the best.' This is a little bit unexpected, because it is not a standard classification method."
The new tool also works for any social-media data.
"This works for Twitter, but you can do the same thing for Facebook," Paparizos says. "Anyone can add their own training data and train the language identifier again with their own data."
The tool already is opening the door to a vast array of research possibilities.
"People who do work in social mining and web mining are excited that there's a tool they can use that gives them the language," Paparizos says. "Before, there was no comparable tool for social postings."
Najork is particularly interested in doing "sentiment analysis" on people who tweet—studying how they feel about their lives or about certain issues, or tracking the level of happiness in various countries over time. Another area he thinks would be fascinating to study is the correlation between sentiments in social media and financial markets.
"Social search is a very interesting, new phenomenon—the fact that we have a lot of content generated by a really wide fraction of the population," he says. "We can now do all types of analyses on a really representative set of the population. You really can get to understand social phenomena much, much better, and I think that's an absolutely fascinating new area."


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Ottawa, ON (Sports Network) - Rookie Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his first
three career playoff goals, and the Ottawa Senators pounded the Montreal
Canadiens, 6-1, in a spirited Game 3 at Scotiabank Place.
Daniel Alfredsson had a goal and two assists for the seventh-seeded Senators,
who grabbed a 2-1 lead in this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
Erik Karlsson and Sergei Gonchar each had two helpers in the lopsided win,
while Craig Anderson made 33 saves.
Carey Price surrendered all six Ottawa goals on 30 shots.
The Senators will look to put the Northeast Division winners in an even deeper
hole when they host Game 4 on Tuesday.
The teams combined for 236 penalty minutes, the majority coming in a fight-
filled third period during which the Senators scored four goals.
The Sports Network


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For fine dining in elegant surroundings, Audacia Manor does not disappoint.
Luxurious décor and a layout that accommodates any preference are a few of the features that put this popular venue a cut above the rest.
Enjoy formal and sophisticated dining in the elegant dining room or laze around the pool or on the spacious verandah if a more casual settings is what you're after.
The elevated setting overlooking beautiful gardens makes for a wonderfully tranquil environment in which to enjoy delectable food and great company.
Spend a few hours out of the rat race at African Pride Audacia Manor Boutique Hotel.
With succulent speciality burgers and a tasty menu complimented by exotic classic drinks, Billy the Bums offers sophisticated ambience influenced by American culinary delights.
With a comfortably stylish setting and pleasant outdoor and indoor dining, Billy the Bums is a fun and intriguing place to enjoy Monday burger and beer nights or seductive exotic cocktails from the comprehensive menu.
Billy the Bums hosts a sexy and trendy approach to dining and drinking located in the popular Berea in Windermere Road.
Nestled amongst the splendid tranquil grounds of Mitchell Park, Blue Zoo Restaurant in Morningside boasts a dainty little restaurant that spills out onto voluptuous grounds perfect for relaxing or indulging in Sunday afternoon tea.
With indoor and outdoor seating and a simple menu that serves traditional Durban / English fare, diners can enjoy a variety of salads, soups and heart-warming meals such as lamb shank and succulent steaks.
With weekly live music hosted on the scenic grounds, The Blue Zoo Restaurant is the place to indulge in simple fare and tranquil surrounds.
A casual place with pleasant indoor and outdoor seating buzzing with happy mouthfuls of Chinese.
Sample traditional items including deep fried broccoli and brinjal in a spicy sauce, salty duck or barbeque pork belly followed by fried ice cream at the end.
China Plate in Riverside will do when the need for Chinese can be satisfied by no other than China Plate.
There are over 237 local Spur steak branches and 28 international ones. Spur offers hearty and satisfying meals with great value for money. The steak ranch is famous for their classic burgers made from AAA-grade beef, served with the crispiest chips and Spur's own recipe for the tastiest onion rings.
Every branch is lively, vibrant and incredibly family friendly. There is a kiddies menu and a lovely entertainment area for children. The food is generously portioned, extremely tasty and brilliantly priced.
Touched by a neutral palate reflected in glass covered walls and champagne hued décor, CZAR Restaurant embraces opulent relaxation complimented by low slung leather couches.
Serving a variety of tapas, sushi and Asian cuisine, the restaurant entices the palate and senses with decadence set amongst a courtyard cradled by trees and low strung fairly lights for a truly magical dining experience.
Discover temptations ranging from sushi, perfectly cooked tempura whole baby squid, dim sum touched with an elegant Eastern influence and classic twist.
For main course, try peppered fillet with a red-wine sauce, tarragon butter and fries complimented by a glass of well-paired wine.
CZAR Restaurant soaks up the hip and happening crowds cooled by a contemporary feel for a touch of elegant glamour.
A small family run restaurant, Delfi cradles the palate with authentic Greek delights spilling off a simple menu.
This unassuming restaurant wraps you up in a cosy and friendly setting delighting the taste buds with home-cooked creations.
With a great meze selection and traditional menu, diners can immerse themselves in an array of deep-fried squid heads with garlicky skordalia, spicy Greek sausage flamed in ouzo or sardines with plenty of lemon.
Mains include a good lamb shank and to die for stuffed tomatoes or imam.
Dine and celebrate the Greek way with traditional Greek dancing and plate breaking concluding a perfect meal at Delfi restaurant in Morningside.
Nestled between two elegant parks complimented by two dining rooms, terrace and open-air cigar/cocktail lounge, Harvey's soothes the senses with padded velvet walls, gold ceilings and unique oil paintings.
This award-winning restaurant is housed inside a landmark building with reputation as a nationally known institution. The menu changes every six weeks allowing for a fun and vibrant dining experience.
Peruse the menu while relaxing in the plush dining area or open-air cigar/cocktail lounge. Harvey's Restaurant will immerse the palate on a culinary journey seduced by every mouthful.
Indulge in classic cakes or take breakfast to another level perusing the extensive menu boasting exceptional choices of this grand affair.
Breakfast offers range from Continental, home-baked breads, cereal, muesli, cheeses, cold meats and hot fare with perfectly silky eggs benedict a must try.
Lunch offers light healthy meals and caters for vegetarians and vegans.
Enjoy a lapse in time at this beautiful Edwardian hotel for a refreshingly relaxed approach to dining.
A steak lovers paradise Joops place is situated off the beaten track located within the trendy Morningside. Brimming with a warm and welcoming ambience, this bustling family run restaurant services up mature cuts of prime beef cooked to perfection and drenched in some of Joops best kept secret sauces.
Take delight in a heavenly centre cut super grade fillet, stuffed with pineapple and cheddar cheese, cooked to crisp perfection, finished with button mushrooms and flambéed with brandy.
In addition to the steak, Joops Place serves tender and succulent chicken breasts sautéed with bacon, onion and tomato, simmered with sage and rosemary or chicken schnitzel, plain or topped with a zesty cheese and mushroom sauce.
For those looking for something a little different, try the oxtail casserole in a rich brown gravy, lamb curry, chicken and prawn curry or veal schnitzel
Joops place is renowned for some of the best steaks in the world coupled with a bustling ambience and great hospitality, Joops Place offers your palate a heavenly night out.
Pampered decor compliments intimate lunches and dinners flattered by an array of delectable stylish cuisine.
Dine in the vaulted conservatory style restaurant or alfresco in the quaint courtyard exploring the intoxicating Ala Carte menu.
Take pleasure in the char grilled fillet of beef medallions on sweetcorn potato cake and roasted cherry tomatoes served with a mustard seed butter cream or the aromatic duck simmered in a star anise, cinnamon and gingered infused court bouillon then oven glazed with a basting of hoisin and soy sauces served on a vegetable brioche.
La Brassiere at Quarters Hotel reflects a bygone era restored to its former glory boasting stylish cuisine and intimating settings.
Awarded Durban's best traditional restaurant by KZN Tourism, La Brassiere invokes moments of indulgent pleasure for a memorable dining experience.
Possibly the best pizza around. Enjoy the fiery famous Piavilla pizza topped with bolognaise, chilli and mozzarella or the temptingly decadent brie and cranberry. With an extensive menu boasting starters, salads, pastas and mains, Luna Blu Gourmet Pizza Company fulfills a loyal following with their gourmet pizza in a box.
Serving delectable Italian food coloured by traditional murals of Italy and large imported tins of plum tomatoes, Mamma Luciana's wonderfully warm aroma infuses the senses with heartwarming meals.
Unpretentious and vibrant, this restaurant fills the belly with good food, wine and laughter soothed by Eros Ramazzotti drifting in the background.
Authentic Italian décor wrapped in warm colours and vibrant chequered white and red tablecloths envelop the floor and walls while diners laugh and indulge in delicious hearty portions of true Italian food.
Mamma Luciana's Trattoria captures the essence and passion of true Italian cuisine along the bustling streets of vibey Florida Road.
Snap Wine Bar and Café wets the appetite with exceptional wines, sumptuous cuisine and moderate prices.
Peruse the extensive menu sampling hearty soups, crispy salads, plump seafood dishes, succulent steaks and satisfying burgers with pasta dishes and freshly baked baguettes dressed in voluptuous fillings.
Enjoy a culinary vineyard journey at this trendy wine bar in Marriot Road for an enjoyable fusion of bistro and wine.
This stylish and elegant establishment infuses contemporary cuisine with a good selection of wines and champagne to compliment each meal. The menu serves sushi and Asian style tapas.
A hip and happening restaurant and venue, Society's classic elegance attracts the trendy and elegant crowds. Located off bustling Florida Road, Society offers two dining areas each unique in their own experiences.
With good service and knowledgeable staff at hand, diners can sit back and soak up the opulent décor sampling decadent cuisine.


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shasta caverns
10 Driveable Locations to Visit This Year, Part II
Don't let an unstable economy keep you at home this year. Instead, use it as an excuse to stay local and explore parts of your state you may have only ever seen on a map. Last week, we revealed five of our can't-miss spots for 2009. Read on for our remaining five picks of delectable escapes within driving distance.
5. The Shasta Region


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Fan can register for 2012 MLB All-Star ticket strips beginning August 17
Here's some exciting news from MLB!!!
Registration for the opportunity to purchase ticket strips and to volunteer for 2012 MLB All-Star events will begin Wednesday, August 17 for the general public at allstargame.com and royals.com/2012. Each strip includes one ticket to each All-Star Week event at the ballpark, two MLB All-Star FanFest tickets and one Official All-Star Game program. MLB All-Star Week at Kauffman Stadium includes the 83rd MLB All-Star Game (July 10), Gatorade All-Star Workout Day (July 9) featuring the State Farm Home Run Derby, and Taco Bell All-Star Sunday (July 8 ) featuring the XM All-Star Futures Game and the Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game. MLB All-Star FanFest (July 6–10) will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center.
Winners for ticket strips will be selected at random to ensure as many fans as possible have the chance to purchase strips. Date, time and instructions for purchase will be communicated via e-mail to each selected applicant by the end of February. Existing Kansas City Royals season ticket holders will receive ticket information by the end of February for their opportunity to purchase ticket strips.
With thousands of baseball fans from around the world planning to visit Kansas City during 2012 MLB All-Star Week, 2,000 community volunteers will be sought to assist with All-Star Week and All-Star FanFest. Qualified volunteers must be 18 years of age or older, enjoy baseball and volunteering, pass a background check and be available to work at least one five-hour shift for a minimum of three consecutive days during All-Star Week.
The 2012 All-Star Game will be the third ever held in Kansas City and the second to be hosted by the Royals. On July 11, 1960 at Municipal Stadium, Willie Mays led the game off with a triple to start a three-run first inning, and the National League jumped out to a 5-0 third inning lead en route to a 5-3 victory. Mays went 3-for-4 for an N.L. squad that included fellow Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial and Eddie Mathews. Hall of Famer Al Kaline's two-run shot in the eighth inning was not enough for the American League. On July 24, 1973 at what was then known as Royals Stadium, 21 future Hall of Famers – including 17 players, managers Sparky Anderson and Dick Williams, A.L. coach Whitey Herzog and umpire Nestor Chylak – took part in the Midsummer Classic. Bobby Bonds earned Most Valuable Player honors with a home run, a double and two RBI in the N.L.'s 7-1 win. Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Willie Davis helped overcome an A.L. pitching staff that included Catfish Hunter, Bert Blyleven, Nolan Ryan and Rollie Fingers.
Gatorade All-Star Workout Day features American League and National League batting practice followed by the State Farm Home Run Derby, where players from each League participate in a home run hitting contest. Recent winners include Robinson Cano (2011), David Ortiz (2010) and Prince Fielder (2009), who served as the first-ever captains at the 2011 State Farm Home Run Derby. Since 2007, State Farm and MLB have donated more than $2 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America through the "Gold Ball" program and other donations.
Taco Bell All-Star Sunday includes the XM All-Star Futures Game, which showcases many of the top Minor League prospects, has featured Kansas City's Alex Gordon (2006), Eric Hosmer (2010) and Mike Moustakas (2010). Players who have competed in both the XM All-Star Futures Game and the MLB All-Star Game include Prince Fielder, Zack Greinke, Josh Hamilton, Felix Hernandez, Troy Tulowitzki and Justin Verlander. The 2012 Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game, also part of Taco Bell All-Star Sunday, will feature stars from film, music, television and entertainment teaming up with former Major Leaguers and former Royals stars immediately following the XM All-Star Futures Game. Past celebrity participants have included Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Hamm, Jimmy Kimmel, George Lopez, Marisa Miller, Chris Rock and Jordin Sparks. The game has also featured a collection of Hall of Famers including Ernie Banks, Gary Carter, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor, Ozzie Smith and Dave Winfield.
Major League Baseball All-Star FanFest will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center. The five-day event, beginning on July 6, will serve as the launch for MLB All-Star Week, which will culminate with the 83rd Midsummer Classic on July 10 at Kauffman Stadium. MLB All-Star FanFest is the world's largest interactive baseball fan event, providing an unrivaled experience for fans of all ages. Among its attractions are an exhibit from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, batting cages, clinics from Major League legends, free autograph sessions with former Royals and MLB legends, memorabilia, and much more.
For more information, please visit allstargame.com and royals.com/2012.


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Flu Hits Iowa and Plymouth County
(Le Mars) -- More and more Iowa flu cases have been reported, and officials say the seasonal outbreak could get even worse now that children are back in school.
Reports show that at least 151 people were hospitalized for flu complications in Iowa during the last week of December. The Iowa Department of Public Health says that during the last week of December of 2011, public health officials didn't record any flu hospitalizations. The flu outbreak has also hit Plymouth County and Le Mars especially hard. Kari Van Dam, Floyd Valley Hospital's Wellness Coordinator says the flu got an early start.
Listen to
How many flu cases have been reported in Le Mars?
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The Wellness Coordinator says it is not too late to get a flu vaccine and she reminds people to frequently wash your hands.
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Wild In The StreetsWritten by on August 1, 2002 Contributors: Dick Kraft The Adventures Of Dick Kraft
What better place to meet Krafty Dick Kraft than at John Forces incredible drag racing headquarters in Yorba Linda, California? Recently, I was fortunate enough to tour John Forces high-tech facility as part of a small group that included, among others, Ed Iskenderian and Dick Kraft. When John arrived to show us around, he spotted Dick and Isky; the roles were reversed and John became the fan for a change. It makes sense that he should feel this waywhen John Force was in diapers, Dick Kraft was ringing out his new state-of-the-art rail job at the Santa Ana Dragstrip.
Catching The Racing Bug
Dick was born in the sleepy California farming community of Anaheim in 1921, where the smell of citrus grovesnot exhaust fumespermeated the air. Some dang fool gave me a roadster when I was 14 and ruined my whole cotton-pickin life, begins Dick Kraft on his entry into the world of hot rods. Then, I had a 29 Model A with Kelseys and a Winfield head that I paid for by working on the family ranches. I wasnt getting anywhere [with the four-banger] so I bought a 32 roadster with side mounts and 18-inch wheels for $200. In high school, we had a car club called the Plutocrats. Every Saturday night, we would street race to hold [onto] our number-one status. All the guys in the club would later go on to hold records. I ran the 32 only one time at the lakes and turned 98 mph.
Street racing, while we dont condone it, is a part of hot rod history. The legends of the sport didnt become heros by collecting stamps as kidsthey were racers. Dick recalls: Before you were 18 [in Orange County], if you got tickets, you had to go to traffic school on Saturday in Santa Ana. I went to traffic school from the time I was 16 til I was 18 without a Saturday morning off.
Toning Up
Rod & Custom ran a photo in the Jan. 02 issue showing Dick at speed in The Bug. Some readers may have noticed the size of Dicks arms. Dick could bench-press 300-plus pounds in those days, and what better place to hang out with a body like that than at the beach? Naturally, he went for the girls, but the real draw to places like Newport Road (between neighboring Santa Ana and Costa Mesa) was street racing.
I really went to the beach to street race, says Dick. When there wasnt anyone to race, wed get kind of bored and go out into the parking lot and street fight. The beach and sailors went together, and after a few brews, the boys in white sometimes had a differing of opinions with guys like Dick. You can probably guess who got the upper hand.
Dick credits his high school shop teacher with encouraging him to attend night school to learn a trade and calm down. Young Dick learned to work with machine tools and equipment, building manifolds and headers, later going on to Fullerton Junior College.
In The Marines
When the war broke out, Dick decided to join the Merchant Marines. Dick was rather enterprising when it came to picking up an extra buck while serving his country. I had never smoked a cigarette in my life, but they allotted me three cartons a week and I had a locker full. Id sell them or trade for guns. He was thinking ahead to when the war would end and the money he made by selling to guys with a nicotine habit would fund his racing habit. Meanwhile, Dicks friend and future Indy great Jack McGrath was building Dick a hot engine. When I got home, Dick says, I wanted to go racing; I didnt want to be putting an engine together.
Dick had two things on his mind during the war: staying alive and racing. Once, with a few hours off from his ship, Dick wasted no time getting to Anaheim where Jack McGrath was waiting for him with his 32 and a rope to tow the bare-bones roadster to a midnight street race.
There was no starter, no teeth on the flywheel, no generator, and it had one motorcycle light, recalls Dick. It was a pushmobilewe had to give it a shove to start it. We towed it on a rope all the way to the Piccadilly Drive-In in West L.A. I beat every guy there that night. I beat Jack and Manuel Ayulothey both had 32 Ford roadsters and my car was much lighter. My one light was getting dim so we towed it home and put it away. That was on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, here come 4,000 marines on Pier 91. We loaded them and headed for Pearl Harbor.
Dick decided to stay in the Merchant Marines after the war ended, but the urge to feel the dust of the dry lakes in his face was stronger than the spray of salt water. It was heaven to set foot, briefly, on the lakes in 1946 when he ran his prewar T at Harper. He recalled how, with a few days leave, he, McGrath, and some friends built what looked like a cross between a kayak and a Soap Box Derby racer.
I bailed off the ship on Friday and went home. I had the engine that McGrath built and I wanted to get going on a carI only had two or three days before I had to be back on the ship. I built the frame out of 2x2 box tubing. All I had was a gas welder, so we welded the tubing together with that. We didnt have any springs, so we welded the front end and the rear end [with the gas welder] to the axles. We sent somebody to steal a Coca-Cola sign to make the body out of. We didnt have any rivets, so we screwed the halves together with stove bolts. By Saturday, we finished the thing and I took it to El Mirage on Sunday and ran 135 mph. After seeing the guys at the lakes and having my new motor, I decided Id had enough [of Marine life] and signed off that bucket of bolts for good. Dick stayed in the Merchant Marines until 1947. When he left, he wasted no time becoming a challenger.
Drag It Out
Dick was an avid street racer, but as soon as C.J. Pappy Hart and Creighton Hunter started holding legal drag races at a seldom-used taxi strip, Dick became a regular competitor. For the first time, guys like Dick could race legally on a paved track with cops watching the action rather than chasing it. With this fledging sport came a different kind of race car. Running for top speed at the lakes was one thingyou had miles to do it. But drag racing consisted of just a quarter-mile. Top speed mattered, but acceleration mattered more. As a result, vehicle weight became a big factor.
Dick showed up at Santa Ana in 1950 with a contraption that consisted of four wheels, a motor, and a seat. The only piece of sheetmetal on the car was the cowl. Dick gave his rail job a name: The Bug. His single-seater was registered as a roadster, though we now know that it became the worlds first dragster. Before its drag racing debut, The Bug had to earn its keep on Dicks parents orange groveas a weed-sprayer. Dick commandeered what was left of the 27 T frame and made a race car out of it. The weed-sprayer ran a number of times at Santa Ana with both a roadster body and a coupe body before it was stripped to the bone.
Running at the drags became part of Dicks routine, sharing time with his other hobby: surfing. It was not uncommon for him to appear on the start line at Santa Ana with his typical racing gear: goggles and damp swim trunks. Wed body surf at Newport, jump in the thing, and go drag racing. Running nitro with my swim trunks on and burning the hair off my chestboy, those were the days, laughs Dick.
Back To Work
Dick worked for his brother on his orange grove maintaining the farms equipment. At the same time, he worked for George Barris to pay off the debt incurred for the Kraft Specials chrome. My specialty was chassis work and engines. I never built a car that spun out on me, he says.
Krafty had a knack for spinning out the competition, though, as well as getting the most out of his hot rods. He appeared to have an unlimited amount of cars, when in reality he was switching the bodies. There was another reason competitors called him Krafty, and it was the paradox that is Dick Kraft: mixing the crude with the graceful. Just when fellow racers thought they had him figured out, Dick pulled a 180. Its hard to believe that the same man who built The Bug also constructed two of the most beautiful track roadsters to appear at a race course or car show. His blue car graced the Oakland Roadster Show in 1950 after being exposed to the all-encroaching dust and dirt of El Mirage, running 122 mph. The Kraft Special (the red car) was displayed at the 51 Oakland show. Dicks Kraft Special was lettered professionally, dripping with that expensive shiny chrome and constructed like a Swiss watch.
Hot Rod Or Sports Car?
The sports-car races started to attract hot rodders, and Dicks friend and part-time employer George Barris was one of them. Barris shop was drawing an increasing share of the sports-car set, and he became interested in what was going on 100 miles east of his business. Palm Springs in the early 50s was a quiet little desert community that had a sparsely used airport. It was easy to shut the runways down and hold amateur sports-car races on the weekends. Barris threw out a challenge to Dick: Lets get you out of that T shirt and Levis and into a white shirt and tie, and join the Sports Car Club of America. The wire-wheel car (Rudge wire wheels cut down to 15 inches for more strength), as Dick refered to his hot rod sports car, appeared on the cover of the Oct. 54 issue of Hot Rod magazine. I did the frame, the front end, the rear end, the transmission, and the motor, and my friend Art Ingles did the body, remembers Dick. When Dick mentioned doing the frame, he was referring to a sophisticated truss-tubular chrome-moly chassis that only someone with engineering savvy could design and build. It rivaled anything that came out of Italy and showcased the kind of talent Dick possessed.
Border Bug
Dick Krafts life reads like folklore. Hes done it allhis way. Hes still doing it all, too, even down to resurrecting The Bugtwice. Like so many old hot rods, The Bug might have been scattered into oblivion had it not been for an inquiry by Don Garlits. When Don Garlits got his museum going, says Dick, he wrote to me and said, I understand you have parts of The Bug lying around at your brothers ranch. Would you put it together for me? It wasnt too long before the word got out: Dick Kraft is putting The Bug back together. Then Steve Gibbs, vice president/director of the NHRA Motorsports Museum, asked Dick, Why dont you put one together for the museum? Dick has the original frame and some other parts, so we put one together for the museum in Pomona.
Each rail job is made up from parts from the original, he says. During this time, Dick had retired to Mexico for a number of years and still maintains a home there. His wife of 30 years, Margarita, has been by his side helping Dick build a new version of his rail: The Bug II.
While Dick doesnt have those 16-inch arms anymore, they havent given way to buggy whips, either. He still skips rope every day, gets up at the crack of dawn to join his buddies for breakfast, and generally tries to stay in trouble. Once Dick gets The Bug II on the street, its inevitable that hell get pulled over. Lets just hope its for curiosity this time.
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Dick was one of the original California beach boys, splitting his time between the dry lakes and Newport Beach. A health nut, Dick worked out regularly and could press 300 pounds with those 16-inch arms. He went to the beach to street race and, when things got a little slow, street fight. When most guys were straining to reach 100 mph in 1941, Dick had pushed his T to 121 mph at Muroc.Imagine screaming down the quarter-mile to 116.50 mph in this baby! The front tires are Wards Riverside DeLuxe tractor tires from the family orange grove—maximum speed rating: 35 mph. Dick sometimes arrived at Santa Ana in damp swim trunks from a morning of body surfing before slipping behind the wheel. Safety equipment consisted of a seatbelt and goggles. To keep that fighting spirit, the seat was from a B-17.Dick was still in the Merchant Marines when he posed with his dad in front of their Anaheim home (it's still standing) in 1946. Looking more like a defector from the Soap Box Derby, Dick, with a couple of days off from his ship, beat it home on a Friday, threw this beauty together by Saturday, zipped up to El Mirage on Sunday, ran 135 mph, and was back on the ship on Monday. The bellypan is from a Coca-Cola sign.Dick's blue track roadster was the ultimate hot rod in both looks ('50 Oakland Roadster Show participant) and performance (122 mph at El Mirage). His T had the qualities of a Frank Kurtis product. Art Ingles, a master metal-shaping specialist, was employed at Kurtis Kraft, and he handformed the hood and stunning grille for Dick in 1948.This classic battle between Dyno Don Nicholson and Dick Kraft at Santa Ana took place before Dick began stripping his T into a rail job. Dick couldn't remember who won this match, though it looks like he's slightly ahead of Dyno Don.While in high school, Dick learned of the dry lakes and wore grooves in the road getting to El Mirage, Harper, and Muroc, racing every weekend. During his first time at the lakes in 1938, Dick ran 98 mph in a '32 roadster. Dick knew lighter was faster and reverted to running Ts from that point on.His zeal for the lakes never dampened, and while still in the Merchant Marines, he got off the ship long enough to run this '27 T roadster on Chevy rails to 115 mph at Harper dry lake in 1946.Dick built his tube-frame roadster for a new form of competition attracting hot rodders in the '50s: road racing. "I was working for George Barris when we joined the Sports Car Club of America. George had a C-Jag that he drove and I raced my car a couple of times at the Palm Springs airport course in 1951." Close friend Art Ingles formed the beautifully crafted aluminum body.Dick hadn't seen this photo since the '40s, then High Desert Roadsters member Jerry Olson of Victorville, California, brought it to our attention. Olson was given an ancient scrapbook that contained other dry lakes stars from the '40s. We asked Isky, John Athens, Nick Arias, and Dick to identify some of the participants. They only came up with a few names. Recognize anybody? Let us know so we can run more of these vintage snaps.
Dick in his Kraft Special (later called the Highland Plating Special) doesn't look particularly thrilled to be sitting at a car show (those are racing trophies) even if it was the second annual Oakland Roadster Show. "I built cars to drag race, street race, and run at the dry lakes—not to look at. I built cars to drive; I put 60,000 miles on that car and won 20 trophies at Santa Ana," says Dick. "I bought the '24 T from a relative who had it on a chicken ranch in Orange for a hundred bucks and drove it home."Except for the hubcaps, only the bare essentials were tolerable on what was to become the first dragster. The sheet of aluminum over the Strombergs prevented some of the 30 percent nitro from splashing back on Dick's face. There are two copies of The Bug, one at the NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona, California, and the other at Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida.Nothing was normal in the '70s when it came to the show circuit. Barris built his share of wild things. Dick had worked with George Barris since the early '50s and helped build the World's Fastest Snowmobile in 1970. Four Kawasaki engines with 12 beautifully polished expansion chambers pointed in the general direction of the driver.Before The Bug became the first record-setting dragster, it was a humble weed-sprayer on the Kraft family orange grove. That's Dick behind the wheel at the seventh annual Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, and the guy next to him is former Hot Rod magazine photo editor, Eric Rickman—"my big buddy," as Dick calls him. School chum Ron Roseberry helped Dick reconstruct the great-great-grandfather to the AA/Fuel dragster.Eighty-one-year-old Krafty Dick is at it again. A half-century later, Dick is building another contraption—The Bug II. That's a Chevy II four-banger with a couple of 97s residing on a '24 T frame with a Powerglide, a '40 Ford rearend, a '34 Ford front axle, and '33 Willys steering. Dick promised us he wouldn't do any street racing in his new rod.


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Akita AK90 rims feature a single 5 spoke (Five-spoke) wheel design. AK90 Wheels are available and ready to ship. The AK90's sport style is the latest from Akita and available in the following colors: and BLACK-MACHINEDFACE and HYPERSILVER-MACHINEDFACE.
This AKITA AK90 is a 18 inch wheel with a HYPER LIGHT finish. AKITA wheels can come in many different bolt patterns, and some even come with multiple bolt patterns. This particular custom AK90 wheel comes in W.The width and offset of your wheels is also important; Our Wheel experts are here ensure your wheel and tire package is the right fit for your vehicle. This AK90 wheel has a 7.5 MM width, and an offset of 40 millimeters.
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Heskett Inducted Into Glen Brand Hall of Fame
WATERLOO, Iowa – Four-time All-American wrestler Joe Heskett was inducted as a member of the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame on Sunday, joining an elite fraternity of former NCAA, Olympic and world champions.
Heskett, who is one of 11 Iowa State wrestlers in school history to earn All-America honors four times, has the third most wins in Cyclone history at 143, trailing only Mike Land (150) and Cael Sanderson (159). The Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio native, finished his illustrious Cyclone career with a 93.46 career win percentage (143-10), good for the fourth best win percentage all-time at Iowa State.
Heskett wrestled his entire collegiate career at 165 pounds. As a freshman in 1999, he took third at NCAA Championships in State College, Pa. As a sophomore and junior in 2000 and 2001, he fell just short of an NCAA title, finishing second both years at the national tournament. As a senior in 2002, Heskett capped off a perfect season and took home the individual NCAA title at 165 pounds. Heskett was one of three NCAA champions for ISU that season, as the Cyclones finished second in the team race behind Minnesota.
Heskett, who racked up 58 pins in his career, also owns three Midlands titles (1998, 2000 and 2001) and three Big 12 titles (1999, 2001 and 2002).
After college, Heskett enjoyed a successful career competing internationally on the freestyle scene for Team USA. Heskett just missed a spot on the 2004 Olympic team, as he took second at the U.S. Olympic Trials and served as alternate. He won the 2007 World Team Trials, placing fifth at the 2007 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. He captured the silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games.
Heskett was favored to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in Bejing. He was ranked the No. 1 wrestler for Team USA at 74 KG (163 pounds) in 2007-08 leading up to the U.S. Olympic Trials in Las Vegas. Eight months before the trails, Heskett was forced to retire due to a heart ailment, ending his wrestling career.
In 2010 after assistant coaching stints at Cal-Poly and Ohio State, Heskett was named the head wrestling coach at Army where he remains today.
The Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame of Iowa was founded in 2002 and recognizes those who have impacted the sport of wrestling on a national level, as well as in the state of Iowa. It recognizes native Iowans and others who have achieved their fame wrestling or coaching at an Iowa school.
Troy Steiner, Terry Steiner, Kirk Meyers and Dale Brand join Heskett as distinguished members of the 2013 HOF class.


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Difference between revisions of "Parachute Prescription Network"
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==Poster & Brochure==
==Poster & Brochure==
[[File:Poster_Parachute Prescription .]]
Latest revision as of 04:35, 12 December 2012
Project Members
Ben Cleveland, MSHS
Laura Salisbury, MID
Lee Sanghun, MSIE
Problem Statement
Elderly patients frequently take multiple prescription and over-the-counter medications leading to complex daily dosage routines. Additionally, prescriptions are not always filled at the same pharmacy, resulting in a fragmented collection of the patient's medication history scattered among multiple sources. The volume of medications that elderly patients take puts them at risk for medication noncompliance taking the form of negligence, abuse, or alteration of prescription directions. The elderly make up a significant portion of the emergency department population and accurately communicating their medication history and compliance is critically important to ensure quality emergency care. Due to physical or mental impairment, these patients may have difficulty accurately conveying this information in a stressful environment such as the emergency department. As a result, doctors are forced to use any means necessary to obtain an accurate record of what patients have been prescribed and how closely they have adhered to prescription directions. Often doctors are forced to make quick decisions based on incomplete and/or inaccurate information possibly leading to further health complications in the emergency department.
Our solution, Parachute Prescription Network, is a digital application that allows the caregiver of an elderly patient to link medication information from the patient's online pharmacy accounts, online hospital accounts, and automated medication dispensers into a single account. This account can be accessed through a patient passport that is brought with the patient to the Emergency Department, where practitioners can quickly check a patient's filled prescriptions from multiple locations, compliance record, and and over-the-counter medications that are registered.
Key Points
-Elderly patients have many prescriptions to keep track of from multiple sources
-Doctor has difficulty assessing medication history and compliance
Design Principles
• Quick Access • Accurate Medication Information • Customizable to each patient • Address Geriatric • Include Caregiver • Easy for practitioner to digest information quickly
Poster & Brochure
File:Poster Parachute Prescription Network Final Version.pdf


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Real Housewives of Atlanta
Is The Real Housewives of Atlanta New Tonight, Sunday, February 10, 2013?
Last week, the Super Bowl Beyonce concert kept us from a new episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and while Bey's show (and the game, we guess) was all kinds of fabulous, we were longing for our H'wives by the third quarter.
Thankfully, Bravo heard our cries and plans to broadcast a new episode — Season 5, Episode 14 — tonight at 8 p.m. ET. The brand-new ep is called "Prayed Up," and the major focuses are Cynthia Bailey and Porsha Stewart's beef, and Kenya Moore's cancer scare.
The official synopsis is as follows:
"Porsha is pulling out all the stops to throw Kordell a Harlem Renaissance-themed party for his 40th. Cynthia isn't pleased with Porsha's lack of support she has dedicated to her pageant, and tempers flare when she confronts Porsha. Kandi meets with her manager Don Juan, who's concerned about her lack of focus lately. At his big party, Kordell sets Cynthia and Porsha straight by helping to mend their relationship. Meanwhile, Kenya is shocked when she finds two suspicious lumps in her breasts."
Check out a sneak peek of tonight's episode below. Will you be watching?


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Juliana: girl, born 2012, diagnosed with HIV and mild mental delay
Lily: girl, born 2010, HIV, disorder of brain, mixed specific development disorders, umbilical hernia, Anaemia (on right)
Must be adopted together; the sisters are in different orphanages (in different towns) because of age difference, but in the same region, so it will be 1 court for both siblings.
Married couples only. Older parents and large families OK. Travel required.
Boy, Born December 2006
From his caregivers: good results of blood tests; gets anti-retroviral therapy.
Character: hyperactive, restless, jumpy, sometimes disruptive behaved
Update Nov 2011:
Louis is a very active and communicative boy. He likes attention, he really needs a family. Just look at his smile. He is very sweet.
Louis may be available with Priscilla.
Girl, born 2010
General speech underdevelopment, HIV, Hep C
Girl, born 2008 and Boy, born 2009
girl, hiv
boy, hiv, cardiomyopathy, anemia
They were listed before and were taken into foster care, they are now available again!
These siblings must be adopted together!
Girl, born 2006
Inga is a very delicate and shy girl. She has blond hair and blue eyes. She resides at the orphanage since February 2015. Before this she has stayed with her father. Her mother died in 2008.
Her father has lived with her mother's sister (Inga's aunt) after her mother's death. They both abused alcohol and reportedly there were a lot of fights and alcoholic libations. For sure Inga saw many negative situations. Her father is suspected of abusing the girl. A court case is in process. He has prohibition of contact with Inga.
Sometimes she has visits of her grandmother (mother of her mother) and aunt. She likes their visits but understands her situation. At the present Inga operates well in the orphanage. She doesn't create any behavior problems. She tries be very independent. She is open with children and adults. She is very sensitive girl. She hides her emotions. During the days she is smiling but sometimes she has a withdrawal period. She doesn't want to speak about the past. She looks for contact with adults. She needs to be noticed and be cuddled. Sometimes she can be stubborn.
Inga is clever girl. She likes puzzles, drawing (and doing it really well!), playing with other children. Her IQ is average and she is good schoolgirl. She attends in dancing class. She works with a psychologist and pedagog.
Update 2016: Inga at the beginning of her stay in the orphanage was very withdraw, she hasn't wanted to speak. She was afraid so much of new situation. During the adaptation process (3 months) she hasn't been willing to cooperate with the educators, she has avoided contacts with other children. She has been very sad and lost. During this period Inga has been sick very often. Her appearance has aroused anxiety. She was very slim, her skin was pale, she looked tired. Inga has had very often fever, cough, rashes. Inga had aversion to eat. After many medical exams the diagnosis that she is chronically ill (HIV).
In opinion of people who take care of Inga in the orphanage she functions very good now. She is more open, she wasn't sick almost at all. In this difficult period of the year autumn-winter Inga wasn't sick even once. She didn't have any rash. She much better copes with swallowing drugs. Inga is open, smiling, more communicative. Other children like her. She is very sensitive and sustainable. She good cooperate with the children, in school and in the orphanage. Sometimes she has the moments that is little withdraw. Inga needs little time to trust new person.
Since the beginning of the January the psychologist and the pedagogue in the orphanage have been talking with Inga about potential (domestic) adoption. She understands what is adoption and how this process works. Her reaction is positive. But she hasn't been informed about possibility of international adoption at this moment. The psychologist and the pedagogue will work with her further and they think she will be positive about it as well.
Boy, 8 years old
Nevan is a very cute boy with chocolate skin color. He has big eyes with thick eyebrows and long eyelashes. He has straight hair with slightly coarse texture.
Nevan is a cheerful boy with smiley character. He is very welcoming and friendly. He makes friends very easily and adapts well. Nevan is playful and active. He loves playing with a ball. He is known for his smiley behavior and very confident personality. He is expressive that he can express his needs and approach adults. His nannies tell that he is very obedient and respects adults. He is very peaceful that he doesn't get into a fight when he interacts with his friends. He cries when he gets upset and reports to his nannies.
From a family who met Cody spring 2014: we were able to spend a good amount of time with him. He was delightful! He loved holding our hands when we went for walks outside, and he loved playing ball with my husband. He seemed healthy, smart, well-behaved, and kind to the other kids. We often saw him acting kind of like a big brother, helping some of the others with things like zipping their jackets. I think he would do great in a family with other kids. We were sad to say goodbye to him, and he asked us when his mom and dad were coming.
Cody: Mild mental delay, Atrial septal defect, HIV disease resulting in encephalopathy, Hypertrophy of tonsils
Caren: HIV
They must be adopted together. She is in a different orphanage because of her age, but in the same region, pretty close to each other. It will be the same court for both children.
He changed 3 orphanages already and this summer he will be transferred again because of his school age; he is scheduled to be transferred before school starts in September. Where is he going is NOT good! He needs OUT!! He is a very good and friendly boy and needs a family asap!


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Hotel Plaza gets 5 stars! We stayed in July 2009 and we loved it. We had originally booked in to another hotel in Piano but realised straight away that we had made a mistake and so we moved after 2 nights. We stayed at the Plaza for 4 nights. Pros: everything!, in particular (1) reception staff very helpful (esp. Cynzia). e.g. We asked them to recommend a restaurant for dinner and the one they recommended was superb. (2) roof top pool is stunning, with views over towards Vesuvius (3) breakfast - wow! love the 'Vesuvius donuts' - erupting chocolate, how fabulous (4) location is great - just 100 yds from the centre, yet very quiet (balcony doors are sound-proof) (5) free internet (6) everything is brand new and very cool and modern, having been refurbished in 2008; air-con, lovely bed, terrific bathroom (7) the roof top area has to be one of the most relaxing places in the world!! Cons: there are none. This hotel is perfect, and we hope to stay there again one day... Tip: I recommend you get a room on the front; though the rooms over look the road, the balcony doors are sound-proof and anyway vehicles aren't allowed in to the centre in the evening.
— on 15 sept. 2009


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See All Contributors »
Quite the storm last night. Uprooted trees, broken branches,and trash blown all over campus. One tree uprooted right outside Fredriksen Court, another by the Service Center (leaning up against the building), and another up by Forker. Crews were already outside at 6:30am with chain saws and the wood chippers trying to clean up the mess! I didn't think the wind was that strong last night, guess I was wrong
we got nothing in Cedar Rapids
IIRC, when I looked at storm reports, Ames reported something like a 71 mph gust.
Looked like a friggin hurricane in west Ames...
Looks like this was a massive storm. We have the same things on the NE side of the Twin Cities right now.
Still no power in WDM since 3:45 this morning.
Originally Posted by reignofthetiger
Looked like a friggin hurricane in west Ames...
No kidding. My yard is trashed!!!! It snapped a cottonwood in our neighbors yard in half. Luckily no property damage for us, just scattered all our lawn furniture around, knocked over our grill, and scattered branches and leaves everywhere....
knocked over the construction (snow fence) over by MWL...blew it into a few cars and scratched them up a little bit. I'd imagine the construction company is liable for that.
What time did it hit last night? I never heard anything.
Tons of damage here in Okoboji. Lots of down trees and some power lines. Many boats and hoists blown up on shore. Most of the damage here was shown at Terrace Park. I think the best picture here is the wooden boat that has another boat on top of it, and you can't very well, but it's wedged between two barges. Also the Tilt-a-Whirl at the park was completely destroyed by a down tree.
Hilton Coliseum was specifically built to hold in sound with a solid concrete structure, steel doors, and a crowd that sits just a few feet from the court. With a fan base that frequently ranks among the nations largest crowds, players from opposing teams, as well as Iowa State, have said that the floor has shaken due to the loudness of the crowd
i woke up around 230 and it was already raining pretty hard here in ames. it finally died down about 3 or so i think. finally got our internet back but directv is still out
I was driving thru that crap. It was like a blizzard - except with rain and leaves and debris. I live out in the country, and while I've seen all kinds of wind, that was the first one that blew crap across the yard from ALL sides of the house, compared to the usual one or two sides...and some pretty heavy stuff as well. Just glad all the shingles are in tact...
Walking on water is easy. Just do it in December when it's frozen.
Was nice and fun up in Minneapolis last night as well... got to experience the lower levels of TCF Bank Stadium due to the 2 tornado warnings that pretty much killed the event i was at.
I assume fort dodge was hit too....nobody in the family is picking up the phone.
saw a tipped over port-a-john, and a rather large tree down over a fence on 60th south of university in wdm, otherwise mostly small branches, etc, strewn all over.
I don't do signatures. Blondes, brunettes, and red heads are a different story.
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Communications and Marketing
Communications and Marketing
The City College of New York Office of Communications and Marketing advances the College's mission by designing and delivering effective marketing communications programs. We support both the school's academic and non-academic units.
We are staffed by a small but talented team of professionals with over 130 years of combined experience. Drawing upon our expertise in writing, editing, art design, media relations, web-based communications, planning, social networking, social media, direct marketing, and photography, we can assist you in developing and producing campaigns that will achieve the results you desire.
The Office of Communications and Marketing is also the public relations arm of the institution. We work with all offices, divisions, schools and departments to promote the work of students, faculty, staff and alumni to appropriate targeted media. Our Public Relations Department will work closely with you to craft a compelling and relevant story and then direct this news to the general, academic, business o other media whose audience will benefit most from its publication – either in traditional media or digital. This effort is a major component of crystallizing the branding of the College and illustrating the high quality of scholarship and achievement at City College.
If you are a member of the media seeking information or direct contacts within City College, please contact our office.
We look forward to working with you.
The Office of Communications and Marketing
Shepard Hall
Room 176
160 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031
p: 212.650.5310
f: 212.650.7584
e: email@example.com


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Some people tell me "Get a GEM". Others tell me that I won't improve over that. I sure don't want to redo my pier to mount a GEM just to match what I am already getting. Plus, there's the issue of meridian flip.
Any advice or comments would sure help me make my decision.