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A large number of languages, including Arabic, Russian, and most of the South and South East Asian languages, are written using indigenous scripts. However, often the websites and the user generated content (such as tweets and blogs) in these languages are written using Roman script due to various socio-cultural and technological reasons. This process of phonetically representing the words of a language in a non-native script is called transliteration. Transliteration, especially into Roman script, is used abundantly on the Web not only for documents, but also for user queries that intend to search for these documents.
A challenge that search engines face while processing transliterated queries and documents is that of extensive spelling variation. For instance, the word dhanyavad ("thank you" in Hindi and many other Indian languages) can be written in Roman script as dhanyavaad, dhanyvad, danyavad, danyavaad, dhanyavada, dhanyabad and so on. The aim of this shared task is to systematically formalize several research problems that one must solve to tackle this unique situation prevalent in Web search for users of many languages around the world, develop related data sets, test benches and most importantly, build a research community around this important problem that has received very little attention till date.
This being the first year, we plan to host a query labeling task, which is one of the first steps before one can tackle the bigger problem, and an ad hoc retrieval task for Hindi film lyrics, which is one of the most searched items in India and a perfect and practical example of transliterated search. In the coming years, we plan to expand these tasks to more languages and more domains; we also plan to host other sub-tasks related to Transliterated Search.
Task Description
Subtask 1: Query Word Labeling
Suppose that q: w1 w2 w3 … wn, is a query is written Roman script. The words, w1 w2 etc., could be standard English words or transliterated from another language L. The task is to label the words as E or L depending on whether it an English word, or a transliterated L-language word. And then, for each transliterated word, provide the correct transliteration in the native script (i.e., the script which is used for writing L).
Names of people and places in L should be considered as transliterated entries, whenever it is a native name. Thus, Arundhati Roy is a transliterated name, but Ruskin Bond is not. But transliterations of such names will not be evaluated and therefore, can be skipped during labeling.
The datasets will be separated by languages, such that in each set queries will contain English words mixed with transliterated words from at most one other language (say Hindi), which will be made known a priori.
Languages: English-Hindi, English-Bangla, English-Kannada*, English-Gujarati* (*Subject to availability of data)
Data and Resources:
For each E-L pair, we will release:
- Queries with labels and transliterations (i.e., intended outputs) for training or development.
- At least 5000 L words in native script and their Roman transliterations.
- English wordlist with frequency
- Language-L wordlist with frequency
- Optional: List of common names of people and places in L.
For the following queries, where L is Hindi and has to be labeled as H.
Input query
sachin tendulkar number of centuries
sachin\H tendulkar\H number\E of\E centuries\E
palak paneer recipe
palak\H=पालक paneer\H=पनीर recipe\E
mungeri lal ke haseen sapney
mungeri\H lal\H ke\H=के haseen\H=हसीन sapney\H=सपने
iguazu water fall argentina
iguazu\E water\E fall\E argentina\E
Subtask 2: Multi-script Ad hoc retrieval for Hindi Song Lyrics
Input is query written in Devanagari script or its Roman transliterated form of a (possibly partial or incorrect) Hindi song title or some part of the lyrics. Output is a ranked list of songs both in Devanagari and Roman scripts, retrieved from a corpus of Hindi film lyrics, where some of the documents are in Devanagari and some in Roman transliterated form.
Data and Resources:
- Hindi song lyrics corpus of ~60000 documents
- Around 20 queries along with Relevance judgment for around 50 documents (i.e., songs) per query which is expected to contain all the relevant documents. This set can be used for training/development.
- All the other resources for subtask 1
Important Dates
- Training/Dev data release: 6th Sep 2013
- Test Set release: 30th Sep 2013
- Submit Run: 15th Oct 2013
- Results distributed: 30th Oct 2013
- Working Note due: 15th Nov 2013
- FIRE Workshop: 4-6th Dec 2013
General Datasets:
The following generic datasets that could be useful for both subtask 1 and 2 are available from http://cse.iitkgp.ac.in/resgrp/cnerg/qa/fire13translit/index.html
- Word lists with corpus frequencies for English, Hindi, Bangla and Gujarati
- Links to monolingual corpora of English, Hindi and Gujarati
- Word transliteration pairs for Hindi-English, Bangla-English and Gujarati-English which could be useful for training or testing transliteration systems.
Dataset for Subtask 1:
You can access 500, 100 and 150 labeled queries for English, Bangla and Gujarati respectively as per the description of Subtask 1. Due to the small size of the data, we do not recommend that you use these for training your algorithms. Rather, you could use those as development set for tuning model parameters and gaining insight into the problem. This will also give you an idea of the precise input-output format required for the task.
To obtain these datasets, please send an email with subject "Request for FIRE 2013 Transliteration Track Datasets (Subtask 1)" to monojitc [AT] microsoft [DOT] com with cc to rishiraj [DOT] saharoy [AT] gmail [DOT] com. The email should contain the full name(s), affiliation(s), address(es), and email(s) of all the team members, and mobile no. of at least one member who can be contacted if need be. For further details visit the data page: http://cse.iitkgp.ac.in/resgrp/cnerg/qa/fire13translit/index.html
Dataset for Subtask 2:
This dataset can as well be obtained through emailing us. Drop an email to monojitc [AT] microsoft [DOT] com with cc to rishiraj [DOT] saharoy [AT] gmail [DOT] com, subject: "Request for FIRE 2013 Transliteration Track Datasets (Subtask 2)". Please mention the full name(s), affiliation(s), address(es), and email(s) of all the team members, and mobile no. of at least one member who can be contacted if need be. For further details visit the data page.
Submission Guidelines
Test data release and submission dates:
For logistic reasons, we would like each team to submit their output exactly within two days of release of the test data. However, each team will be allowed to choose their preferred dates (within a stipulated time period) for test data release. The data will be sent to you by email on your chosen date, and we will expect your runs to be submitted within 48 hours from the time the data was sent. If we do not receive your run within 48 hours, we cannot guarantee the evaluation of your submission.
Your preferred date for test data release has to be between 1st and 15th October 2013. No test data will be released before 1st or after 15th October 2013. Also note that we will not release the development-cum-training datasets (which is currently being distributed) beyond 13th October 2013.
Evaluation report will be sent to the teams by 30th October 2013.
Input/Output Formats:
The output format is exactly the same as the annotated dev data for Subtask 1. Words have to be marked as \E or \L(L being H or B or G according as the concerned language is Hindi or Bangla or Gujarati)=<word in native script>. For example,
beetein\H=बीतें lamhein\H=लम्हें video\E download\E
For subtask 2, output format is like the qrels dev file, without, of course, the relevance judgment. You will be provided query-ids, and the output (top-ten documents only) should look like, for example:
There should be a newline after each query-id and doc-id, and the last doc-id for each query must be followed by two newlines.
Number of Runs allowed:
A "run" is the output of your system on our test data in the prescribed format. If you want to test different approaches to solve the same subtask, you can do so by submitting multiple runs for the subtask. A team is allowed to submit at most 3 runs per subtask.
Submission process:
Step 1: Send an email addressed to monojitc [AT] microsoft [DOT] com with cc to rishiraj [DOT] saharoy [AT] gmail [DOT] com by 4th October 2013 with subject "Test data release date". Clearly identify yourself so that we know which team you represent, and specify your preferred date for test data release, and the tracks (subtask I, subtask II or both) for which you would like to receive the test data. Also specify the email address(es) where you would like to receive the test data.
Step 2: Read and familiarize yourself with the input/output format of the test data. Make sure that the output file(s) generated by your system conform to the specified format exactly, because otherwise we may not be able to evaluate your submission or evaluation results might be incorrect.
Step 3: On your chosen date, you will receive the test data by 10am IST.
Step 4: Download the test set(s). Run your system(s) on these files. If you wish to submit multiple runs for a subtask, name your output text files as subtask<#>run<#>.txt (e.g., subtask1run2.txt). For subtask1, append the language name with an underscore (_). For example, subtask1run3_gujarati.txt. Put all your output files in a zipped file. If you want, you can add a Readme file in the zipped archive with some notes that you want us to know before evaluating your submission.
Step 5: Email us this zipped file before 10am IST on the third day from your chosen date for test data release (e.g., if you had chosen 7th October 2013 as the test data release, you will receive the test data on 7th Oct by 10am IST, and you have to send us back the output files by 10am IST on 9th Oct).
Resources and References
Here are a list of papers that you might find useful while solving these tasks:
- Umair Z Ahmed, Kalika Bali, Monojit Choudhury, and Sowmya V. B., Challenges in Designing Input Method Editors for Indian Languages: The Role of Word-Origin and Context, in Proceedings of IJCNLP Workshop on Advances in Text Input Methods , Association for Computational Linguistics, November 2011 [This paper can help you understand the issues in Roman transliteration of Indian languages and the existing open problems and research challenges in the area.]
- Sarvnaz Karimi, Falk Scholer and Andrew Turpin, Machine Transliteration Survey. In ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Volume 43 Issue 3, April 2011 [A general survey on transliteration techniques]
- P. J. Antony and K. P. Soman, Machine Transliteration for Indian Languages: A Literature Survey. In International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 2, Issue 12, December-2011 [Provides a useful list of references on machine transliteration for India languages.]
- Kanika Gupta and Monojit Choudhury and Kalika Bali, Mining Hindi-English Transliteration Pairs from Online Hindi Lyrics, In Proceedings of the Eight International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'12), 2012. [This paper will give you an idea about the type and extent of spelling variations in Bollywood song lyrics over the Web. The mined dataset is available and can be used for training a Hindi-English transliteration system.]
- B King, S Abney, Labeling the Languages of Words in Mixed-Language Documents using Weakly Supervised Methods In Proceedings of NAACL-HLT, 2013 [This work proposes a weakly supervised algorithm for language identification in mixed language texts and is directly applicable to Task I]
This is a growing list, so keep visiting ...
Task Coordinators
- Monojit Choudhury, Microsoft Research India
- Prof. Prasenjit Majumder, DAIICT Gandhinagar
- Rishiraj Saha Roy, IIT Kharagpur
- Komal Agarwal, DAIICT
Data Contributors:
- Dastagiri Reddy, IIT Kharagpur
- Komal Agarwal, DAIICT
- Ranita, IIT Kharagpur
- Rishiraj Saha Roy, IIT Kharagpur
- Rohan Ramanath, CMU
- Swadhin Pradhan, IIT Kharagpur
- Yogarshi Vyas, IIT Kharagpur


text:
Redding Type S Bushing Neck Die Set .300 Wby
Product Number: RB78252
Our Price: $102.99
Availability: In stock
.300 Wby
Details & Specs
The Type S - Bushing Style Neck Sizing Die provides reloaders with a simple means to precisely control case neck size and tension.
- Uses interchangeable sizing bushings available in .001 in. increments
- The adjustable decapping rod allows positioning the bushing to resize only a portion of the neck length if desired
- Concentricity is enhanced by the ability of the resizing bushing to selfcenter on the case neck
- The decapping rod is supplied with a standard size button. This is especially useful for reloaders who are using commercial brass as is
- A decapping pin retainer is also supplied with most Type S - Bushing Dies except 17 and 20 Cal. This enables neck sizing without the use of the size button for those who sort and/or turn case necks for uniformity.
Set contains:
- Type S - Bushing Neck sizing Die
- Body Die
- Regular series 92000 Seating Die

subset: commoncrawl


text:
UHS gives exceptional people the opportunity to work where technology is making valuable advancements in healthcare. The professionalism and drive of our employees are the most important factors in the quality of service UHS provides.
© 2016 Universal Health Service, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*UHS is a registered trademark of UHS of Delaware, Inc., the management company for Universal Health Services, Inc. and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc. Universal Health Services, Inc. is a holding company and operates through its subsidiaries including its management company, UHS of Delaware, Inc. All healthcare and management operations are conducted by subsidiaries of Universal Health Services, Inc. To the extent any reference to "UHS or UHS facilities" on this website including any statements, articles or other publications contained herein relates to our healthcare or management operations it is referring to Universal Health Services' subsidiaries including UHS of Delaware. Further, the terms "we," "us," "our" or "the company" in such context similarly refer to the operations of Universal Health Services' subsidiaries including UHS of Delaware. Any employment referenced in this website is not with Universal Health Services, Inc. but solely with one of its subsidiaries including but not limited to UHS of Delaware, Inc.


text:
Very cool find for sure
Finding this shed right under this fresh rub was another great experience while camping last week.
Very cool find for sure
I don't Break the rules, I Modify them.
What a great find. Really cool pic as well.
Thanks guys!
We saw two velvet bull moose this weekend.


text:
Iowa State Falls in Both Ends of OSU Doubleheader
STILLWATER, Okla. – The Iowa State softball team dropped both games of its doubleheader against Oklahoma State Saturday at Cowgirl Softball Stadium. OSU won the first game 11-0 in five innings and took the second game 7-6 in nine innings. Iowa State is now 18-17 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12. Oklahoma State improved to 21-16 overall and 2-5 in the conference.
Game Two: Oklahoma State 7, Iowa State 6 (9 innings)
Coming off the loss in the first game, Iowa State took advantage of OSU putting the inexperienced Meagan Lively in the circle. Brittany Gomez started with a walk, Sarah Hawryluk posted an infield single and Lexi Slater also drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Aly Cappaert put the first runs on the board with a 2-RBI single to left. Jorden Spendlove would bring home another run to make it 3-0 Cyclones after one.
A Danielle Riddle home run made it 3-2 ISU after one inning and then it was Riddle again who put OSU ahead with a 2-RBI double in the bottom of the third to make it 4-3 Cowgirls.
ISU manufactured a run to tie it in the top of the fifth. Hawryluk led off the inning with an infield single. She was then bunted over by Slater via a sacrifice bunt and then Capapert grounded to first to allow Hawryluk to move over to third. It was up to Rachel Hartman to make the big hit to bring her home and she did with a single to left-center to tie the game at 4-4. The game would not stay like that for long as a Tarah Ettinger RBI-double made it 5-4 Cowgirls after five innings.
OSU brought in its ace, Simone Freeman, to close out the final two innings. In the seventh, Gomez used her speed to leg out an infield single to get the ISU rally going. Two batters later, Slater came up to take on a pitcher she had relatively little success against so far during the series. All of that changed in one swing of the bat. Slater hit a big home run to left to move Iowa State back ahead, 6-5. It was her sixth of the season, a career-high after she had five in each of her first two seasons as a Cyclone.
The bottom of the seventh did not get off to an ideal start with Riddle reaching on an infield single and then Johnson throwing a wild pitch on Freeman's first pitch of her at-bat. However, ISU battled back with a strikeout of Freeman and inducing a pop up on Tiffany Mikkelson to get the second out. It looked like ISU was home free when Tarah Ettinger popped up. However, Davison lost a battle with the Stillwater sun and could not bring in the catch to end the game, allowing Riddle to score and tie the game at 6-6 to force extra innings.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Mikkelson led off with a walk and was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Madison Ellis then drove home the winning run with a line drive to left to make it 7-6 Cowgirls.
Game One: Oklahoma State 11, Iowa State 0 (5 innings)
Not much went in favor of the Cyclones in the first game of the doubleheader as ISU saw itself down 3-0 after the first inning and 7-0 after two.
In the top of the third inning, Brittany Gomez finally got Iowa State off the mark with its first hit of the game on an infield single. The hit was her 50th of the season, marking the 26th 50-hit season by a Cyclone in program history. Gomez becomes the seventh player in ISU history to have multiple 50-hit seasons.
On Deck
Iowa State will take on an in-state rival mid-week as the Cyclones make the short drive to Des Moines to take on Drake Wednesday at 5 p.m.


text:
In Short: Feb. 14-20, 2013
www.facebook.com/thirdeyecabaret. Free film The Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520 Kanawha Blvd.W., will screen "Anonymous" at 7:30 p.m. Friday as part of its free Third Friday Film Series. The 2011 Oscar-nominated British drama set in Elizabethan England speculates on who actually created Shakespeare's body of work. The film stars Rhys Ifans, Rafe Spall, Vanessa Redgrave and David Thewlis. It is rated PG-13 for some violence and sexual violence. It will be shown with captions for the hearing impaired. Call 304-345-5042 or visit www.uucharlestonwv.org. Harlem Renaissance celebration A show celebrating the music and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance era begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the theater in West Virginia State University's Davis Fine Arts Building. The Core Ensemble, an internationally traveling chamber music trio, will perform its theatrical piece "Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance." The show examines the lives of poets Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay as seen through the eyes of painter and muralist Aaron Douglas. The score includes music by Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus, as well as concert music by Jeffrey Mumford and George Walker. Tickets are $15. Call Donna Simon at 304-766-3363. Alban Arts Center auditions The Alban Arts Center, 65 Olde Main St., St. Albans, will hold auditions for Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy "A Delicate Balance" from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Roles are available for four women (mid-30s to mid-60s) and two men (mid-40s to mid-60s). No prepared monologue is required; script selections will be available for cold readings. Patrick Felton directs. Production dates are April 26-28 and May 3-5. Call 304-721-8896 or visit www.albanartscenter.com. Drum clinic Jim Donovan, formerly of the Pittsburgh-based jam band Rusted Root, will bring his Drum & Chant Workshop to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520 Kanawha Blvd. W., from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday. The class is for drummers of all skill levels ages 17 and up. Drums are provided. Discover how to energize your brain and clear your mind; lessen resistance, fear and apathy; create deep relaxation and stress relief; expand conscious awareness; unblock energetic and emotional congestion; and open creative thinking and expression. You'll learn about ecstatic drumming rhythms, vocal toning and mantra, rejuvenating breathing exercises, visualization and more. Space is limited, so advance registration is recommended. Cost is $35. If spots are still available the day of the workshop, the cost is $45. Call Chris Higgins at 304-881-7037, or register online at www.jimdonovandrums.com. No Pants Players adult show The improv comedy troupe No Pants Players begins its 12th season on Saturday with an adults-only show at the Clay Center Walker Theater. Normally full of family-friendly fun, the troupe lets loose at these shows with laughs for, and provided by, more mature audiences. Magician Joey Stepp will perform an opening set at 7:45 p.m. and another at intermission. Adam Bryant hosts the evening. Ages 18 and up are admitted to the 8 p.m. show with a cash bar for those 21 and up. A limited quantity of tickets, $12, are still available online at www.nopantsplayers.com. If any tickets remain on Saturday night, they will be available at the door. Call 877-467-7689. Valentine's Love Lounge The third annual Love Lounge begins at 9 p.m. Saturday at the Ramada Limited Huntington, 3094 16th Street Road. It features smooth R&B music, a mature atmosphere, heavy hors d'oeurves and cash bar. Dress attire required; no jeans or sneakers allowed. Tickets are $10 with VIP tables for six with roses, candy and a bottle of wine are $100. Call 304-389-9899. Stage Company auditions Charleston Stage Company will hold auditions for the ensemble monologue show "Love, Loss and What I Wore" at 7 p.m. Sunday and Monday at the Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers St. Cast size is flexible, and roles are available for women of all ages. The comedy is by Nora and Delia Ephron, adapted from Ilene Beckerman's book of the same name. It's a compilation of tales about clothing and the memories and events they stir. Production dates are April 4-6 and 11-13. Call 304-343-5272 or visit www.charlestonstagecompany.com. W.Va. Justice League comic With the release of its new "Justice League of America" series on Wednesday, DC Comics is putting out the first issue with different covers for each of the 50 states. The image is a take on the famous "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" photo and features the series' main characters hoisting each state's flag. Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. tickets On April 6, Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. will perform a benefit concert for the Community Music Association and Junior Achievement of West Virginia at the Municipal Auditorium. The concert, "Murphy Meets Motown," will feature new and old tunes from Murphy, as well as an appearance by the Charleston Ballet. Tickets, now on sale, are $25, $35 and $40. Get them at the Civic Center Box Office, by calling 800-745-3000 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Blues Fest VIP tickets VIP tickets for the Charlie West Blues Fest, held May 17-18 at Haddad Riverfront Park, are on sale now. They are $30 Friday, $60 Saturday or $75 for both. Tickets include VIP seating, a program and food and beverage in a VIP hospitality tent. This year's lineup for the annual event includes Kim Wilson & The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ana Popovic, Magic Slim & The Teardrops, Davina & The Vagabonds, Bryan Lee & The Power Blues Band and Tinsley Ellis. All proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Program. Visit www.charliewestbluesfest.com. Film soundtrack competition Local hardcore hip hop rap duo Brain Trauma is in a competition to have its music appear in an upcoming horror film called "Pathos." To vote for the group, like the film's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pathosmovie) and to make a wall post in support of Brain Trama. The band celebrates its 10-year anniversary in October.


text:
122,488 words (≈ about 8 hours)
In a world where security cameras prove what you have done and databases define who you are, the few who know how to manipulate the technology can play God. They can change the future; they can alter the past. They can make big money, they can save the world, and they can get away with murder over and over again.
Danielle Leaf grew up believing she was safe. Now she knows she was wrong.
Award-winning author Jon Evans returns with new heroes and a compulsive, fast-paced… (more)
I have read two of Jon Evans's books and now have them all downloaded to read. If adventure is your genre, give Evans a try. Can't wait to finish this one and get to the next...
Since first reading Night of Knives I became a fan of Jon's work. Swarm and Invisible Armies have both proven to be compulsive reading with imaginative plots and unexpected twists and turns all of which I'm sure would make Hollywood block buster films! Can't wait for the next masterpiece.
Language: English
Written in: 2011
Published: 2012-01-02
Word count: 122,488 words (≈ about 8 hours)
License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (cc by-nc-nd)
Tags: Jon Evans, invisible armies, black bloc, suspense, thriller, technothriller, hacking, hackers, protests, protestors, occupy
Jon Evans is a novelist, journalist, adventure traveller, and software engineer. His novels have won Arthur Ellis and ForeWord Book Of The Year awards, translation into half a dozen languages, and praise from The Economist, The Times, and The Washington Post.
Jon's journalism has appeared in Wired, Reader's Digest, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and The Times Of India, and he writes a weekly column for TechCrunch.
Jon has released all of his published novels - Dark Places, Blood Price, Invisible Armies, The Night of Knives, Beasts of New York, and Swarm - under a Creative Commons license, and all can be freely downloaded from Feedbooks.


text: Game Girl Workshop inspires young Palestinians to challenge cultural norms Gaming 10 September 12 by Liat Clark Anni Lyngskær "It's all about building for me. I'm future-building -- these girls, our country, our economy." Rasha Salaheddin, a 29-year-old computer engineer, former developer and games lover is talking to Wired.co.uk about her role running the Game Girl Workshop, a women-only forum where teenage girls learn how to design, code and build a game from scratch in five days. Salaheddin has plenty of ambition, ability and passion for her work. She also has to be home by ten every evening, has only one female colleague at the outsourcing company she works for and is forbidden from crossing the border to her neighbouring country. Salaheddin lives in the West Bank, and has an envious ability to look at the future as entirely changeable."She has a lot of things on her mind and her heart," Game Girl Workshop founder Andrea Hasselager tells Wired.co.uk. The two met by accident on Facebook -- Hasselager was looking for another Palestinian-based coder to help out with an ambitious project that would see the Danish-run workshop transferred to the West Bank. The games designer and her team of three -- a programmer, a graphics artist and a sound artist (co-founder Nevin Erönde) -- had already trialled the concept with minority groups of Middle Eastern descent in Denmark and, encouraged by their young participants' enthusiasm, decided the burgeoning tech scene in the West Bank might benefit from the female-only model."The stories in most computer games are told from a western, male perspective," says Hasselager. "To challenge this tendency we thought a good place to start would be to motivate and inspire young teenage girls with game development, to show them that technology can be creative and fun."For Salaheddin, the workshop directly addressed the root of a problem she witnessed everyday at her outsourcing company -- a complete dearth of women working in a rapidly growing tech industry. Anni Lyngskær "I think this issue is not only about Palestine, but it's more obvious in Arab countries because the culture is a man's society," she says. "Boys already have so many things to do; they have freedom in their lives. So what we have a responsibility to do is make girls have these same things."Girls have the ability, and we too are smart and can do many things, but we need to have that mentality now so [future generations] can grow up with it. Our culture and how we live doesn't focus on these things -- girls become teachers and they are too far from things like programming. So they think it's a man's field. But there's nothing between men and women, no difference; we are all human and have a mind. It's about how we rise and grow up, and the culture around us." In 2010 Google announced it would invest millions in the West Bank, and in the years that followed investors continued to pour tens of millions into the tech industry (Cisco invested £9 million between 2008 and 2012), pledging to support a community of fledgling startups dotted between increasingly common outsourcing firms. Figures from Palestine's Central Bureau of Statistics show that more than 30 percent of homes have internet access -- not too short of the Middle East-wide average -- and 2,000 Palestinian's graduate with a degree in technical subjects every year. For women, though, the positive stats end there. "Women are attracted to technical subjects due to their prestige," Ibrahim Abu Kteish, an IT professor at the Birzeit University near Ramallah whose classes fall just short of a 50/50 gender divide, told Wired.co.uk. "However, only a small number of women find jobs after graduation," he adds, estimating that around ten percent of the territory's IT workforce is made up of women. The idea behind the Game Girl Workshop is to provide young, potential pioneers in the Middle East tech scene with a space to learn, create and, most importantly, aspire. By ensuring the teaching staff -- including graduate assistants like Salaheddin -- are only women, the project provides teens with essential role models lacking in a male-centric community. For girls who may have already got used to the idea of sacrificing their ambitions to raise a family, the workshop presents another path. Students would leave the workshop with the knowledge that they could build something from scratch, the tools to do so and a model of what that the future could look like (the programmer working with the team, for instance, came to Palestine with her boyfriend and baby in tow -- perhaps a distant or even unwelcome model of what the modern woman could be for some Palestinians, but nevertheless, it shows there are alternatives). Anni Lyngskær The programme ran in Anabta, Nablus and Balata (the largest refugee camp in the region). Each one followed a simple teaching plan -- kick off with a brief introduction of the software (Propellerhead's Reason Essentials, Audacity's open source audio software, YoYo Games' Game Maker 8.1 Standard and the Gimp graphics programme), let the girls play around and pick their specialty, then split them into groups. They worked independently on themes like "young and old" or "flourish and decay", teachers only assisting when difficulties arose.Although most of the students, aged between 14 and 16, will probably never code again, a few saw in the workshop exactly what Hasselager was hoping they might.Speaking through a translator, 14-year-old Jenan Sawalmy from Nablus told Wired.co.uk, "Everyone said only boys could do these things, so I wanted to show everyone I can do some good things too". Sawalmy, who loves action games and worked as a programmer on her team, has every intention of pursuing a career in gaming. "There are many worlds here against girls getting these things -- there are girls who study, but they don't have good job prospects. They study and then everyone gets married. I want to make my own games and make people see that girls can do it too."Over the five days, Sawalmy created an impressive game in which a hunter has to kill enemies and overcome obstacles to save a princess. "I wanted to show girls, even if you have a lot of obstacles to face, if you fight really hard you can reach your goals."Soft-spoken 15-year-old Ola Shihab worked as a games programmer on her team. "When I started working, I was very excited -- I was creating my own game," she says, growing increasingly animated as she explains the panicked rush to finish the game, and just a little gleeful when she talks of her brother's jealousy that she got to create a game, not him."I'm more interested now. I feel like Andrea had so much passion -- now when we play a game, we know how much it took to complete it and think about the story behind it."Both Salaheddin and Hasselager were hugely impressed with the quality of games coming out of the workshop, with rich graphics illustrating carefully conceived tales. As an outsider, however, Hasselager was most struck by one major difference between the games made in Denmark and those in the West Bank. "All the games from Palestine had more symbolic stories -- a fisherman needs to fish, a hunter needs to kill scary monsters -- whereas the games from the workshops in Denmark had more individualistic stories." When the Danish girls were given the theme of "home", Hasselager thought, being children of migrants, they would riff off it with various conflicting themes of identity. Instead, they ended up making themselves the centre of a game that involved finishing household chores so they could make a date. Anni Lyngskær "I found it interesting that Jenan was talking about how she wanted to be like the character in the game she created -- move forward and kill all the opponents. All the games had a male avatar or hero."Palestinian-born Samer Abbas, who works for Middle East social game portal GameTako, suggests this is both due to a global familiarity with male protagonists in games, and social themes of contest."In the case of the fisherman game, it is perhaps natural to have a male character because males are most often the main breadwinners or hunters in the family," he told Wired.co.uk.Salaheddin already seems to be positioning herself as an activist, ready to battle these norms. Women, she argues, suffer the most from the political situation because the culture dictates that protection, more than freedom, is of paramount concern when it comes to the female sex. While Israel puts boundaries around the territories and on its citizens, the Palestinian culture reinforces those boundaries by not allowing women to travel freely across checkpoints, for their safety. Those same boundaries, however, are encouraging a new generation on to the web."I love logical things and I love to make things. So when I was looking to my future I thought, in a country like Palestine, it's best to be in technology because it's open for everyone. With the situation -- borders and check points -- you cannot have the same opportunities as in any other country. In technology I find I can have this chance -- I can have an equal opportunity with anyone in the world because the internet is free. I love to be free, even in my education. I was looking for a solution to live a normal life and I found that in technology -- in a technical world I have the same opportunities that anyone would in the world, and I work with them -- so I feel happy and satisfied."It is this same reasoning that has caused the West Bank's tech scene to grow while industrial sectors remain near dormant -- it's an industry that relies little on movement."This is a sector that has no borders," Murad Tahboub, the managing director of Ramallah-based ASAL Technologies, told the New York Times. "You just need electricity and a telephone line."Seeing the raw enthusiasm among the teen students Salaheddin is hoping to set up her own version of the workshop at the village she hails from. "I'm starting to think I have a responsibility for all Palestinians, and especially for the girls. I'm from a village... and I know how hard it is for them." Anni Lyngskær Abbas is a firm believer that education is the key to inspiring the next generation of startups in the Arab world. "I believe that programming is, or should be, the pencil case of the future, a set of tools that will help students solve problems," he told Wired.co.uk. "Programmes like Game Girl are essential not only because games make education more fun, but also because programming is demystified". Investment is trickling into the territories, but gaming is certainly not a huge priority for local councils. Despite this, education centres are working independently to ensure the technology industry succeeds. Birzeit University has setup Computer Clubhouses in the West Bank's refugee camps, advises start-ups and holds an annual Robotics Prototyping and Programming Tournament for nine to 14 year olds.One key collaboration that could help matters is routinely suggested and debated. Just an hour's drive away, Israel's tech hub has been booming since the 90s and in June this year the country's minister of industry, trade and labour Shalom Simhon called on European companies to form joint ventures with Israeli and Palestinian companies."We focus on the political aspect of the conflict, but we are not talking enough about the economic aspect," he said. "You can see in Judea and Samaria, we lifted the barriers and the economy grew there." Abu Kteish is skeptical, to say the least. "Economic freedom means the Israeli companies control 99 percent of the deal and they leave Palestinian companies the remaining one percent. For the Israeli government it is important to keep the Palestinian authority alive, and to show that there are some economic activities -- but not to advance it. The major obstacle for any development in Palestine is the occupation itself. The main step for any business relationship is trust, [and that's] absolutely missing here." One former senior diplomat Wired.co.uk spoke with remains just as dubious about Simhon's call: "I feel very sceptical about [his] suggestions, and strongly suspect that the Palestinians will inevitably see it as very much the same mixture as before -- another example of the Israelis trying to fob them off with 'economic peace' while having no intention of moving forward with a serious political agenda. If that is the Palestinian view, then I think European companies would be making a mistake to get involved, in the absence of any prospect of a political process."Salaheddin, who says local outsourcing companies already work in cooperation with Israel on big accounts like Cisco or Intel (both of which have branches in Israel) goes against the grain here, voicing the opinion of a growing restless youth keen to get on with their lives."I don't like the things Israel does to my country, the same as any Palestinian. But we win from this -- we don't lose anything. You cannot make another border to yourself and keep in your place, you need to be much more open and use this opportunity to grow up. If you can have your own company without any help, that's ok, but if you need help -- why not?" Anni Lyngskær Tareq Maayah, CEO of Ramallah-based Exalt Technologies, is in agreement. "Now we are producers and we sell to Israel, as opposed to just being consumers. It's the start of a better balance in the economic relationship." Hasselager had initially wanted to do a joint workshop with Israeli and Palestinian teenagers -- but a resounding no came from the university students."Many students think only of soldiers or settlers, they have never seen or met normal Israeli citizens," explains Abu Kteish.In July 2012 a World Bank report stated that Palestinian economic growth was unsustainable -- too much reliance on foreign aid means industry could collapse without it. That same month, in a small town called Allar near Jerusalem, a 15-year-old Palestinian girl became mayor of her town for the summer. The appointment made her the youngest mayor in the world, and the act made the world sit up and take note of a country ubiquitous with struggle and restriction -- restriction of movement and of freedom -- for a new reason. The appointment said to the world, our advancement will not be restricted; our aspirations and our education will not be limited. Bashaer Othman will head back to school at the end of the summer, but Allar will no longer be ubiquitous with its geography, next door to the most disputed city in the Middle East. It will be ubiquitous with future-building. Game Girl Workshop was sponsored by ActionAid Denmark, GameMaker and Propellerhead. Visit gamegirlworkshop.org for more information. Edited by Olivia Solon Latest on wired.co.uk


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There will be aftermarket exhausts for the G-5 and the C-5 (Of course only for off-road racing use) almost as soon as the bikes are introduced.
Hi AllI too have just (in the process) of buying a new Enfield EFI (DL),( i'm in Yorkshire (UK).Don't laugh but mine is still in the dealers waiting for the new redg. plates.I haven't riden seriously for 35/40 years so consider myself a novice but seriously looking foreward to riding -but at the moment I will be a fair weather rider.Do want to eventually customise this bike with what ever items can be obtained from various sourcesRegards Martyn
It seems the factory has opted for an extremely conservative approach to break-in.When Kevin and the motorcycle magazine group went to India for test riding the UCE they took the bike off the assembly line and drove the by-gosh out of them with no failures at all.The construction methods on the AVL were different than the iron barrel and the UCE even uses more advanced methods, as I understand it, than the AVL.The AVL called for the same break-in procedure as the iron. I ignored that and just drove it sensibly. Now after 10K miles have not had any failures of any kind. Wonder why they don't set up a reasonable break-in.
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TechVista is Microsoft Research India's annual research symposium. It brings together the best minds from the scientific and academic worlds onto a common platform. TechVista provides an opportunity for the research community, government, and students to interact and exchange ideas on research and its future directions.
TechVista 2011 was held at The Westin Hotel, Koregaon Park, Pune, India on January 21, 2011. A number of leading computer scientists and thought leaders from India and abroad attended the event. Thanks to all the participants for making it such a great success!
The Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri. Prithviraj Chavan was the Chief Guest at the inaugural of TechVista 2011. Shri. Prithviraj Chavan also inaugurated TechVista 2011. Eminent scientist, Dr. R A Mashelkar was the Guest of Honour.
The other speakers in the inaugural session included Dr. Richard F. Rashid, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Research, and the head of Microsoft Research worldwide, and Dr. P. Anandan, Managing Director, Microsoft Research India.
This was followed by two Distinguished Lectures:
- "Kinect: the start of something NUI" by Prof. Andrew Blake FRS, Managing Director, Microsoft Research Cambridge and a key member of the team that developed the Machine Learning technology for Microsoft's Xbox Kinect.
- A talk by Dr. Mathai Joseph, Advisor, TCS, and member ACM India Council titled "The Time is Now!". He is also the former Executive Director, Tata Research Design and Development Center.
This afternoon session of TechVista featured a large number of cutting edge demos from the different Microsoft Research labs worldwide, technical lectures by leading researchers and a poster display by Indian Ph.D. students.
Technical talks:
- Online Social Games: A New Approach to Understand Language Evolution by Dr. Monojit Choudhury, Researcher, Multilingual Systems group, Microsoft Research India.
Bringing Programmability to Experimental Biology by Dr. Bill Thies, Researcher, Technology for Emerging Markets, Microsoft Research India.
Formal Methods: A Disruptive Technology! by Dr. Wolfram Schulte, Principal Researcher and founding manager of the Research in Software Engineering group, Microsoft Research Redmond.
- Rich Interactive Narratives: Taking Storytelling to the Next Level by Joseph Joy, Principal Software Architect, Microsoft Research India.
The demos encompassed a large spectrum of fields in computer science, representing some of the cutting edge research being conducted at Microsoft Research and other divisions of Microsoft. Click here for demo details.
The Ph.D. poster display showcased some of the best work by Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Ph.D. students from India, selected through a competitive process. Click here for a list of posters.
Results of the PhD poster session:
First Prize: Ruta Mehta of IIT Bombay, for the poster Rank-1 Two Player Games: A Homeomorphism and a Polynomial Time Algorithm. She was advised by Bharat Adsul and Milind Sohoni.
Second Prize: Saptarshi Ghosh of IIT Kharagpur, advised by Niloy Ganguly, for Effects of a Soft Cut-off on Number of Links in the Twitter Online Social Network, a project done in association with under-graduate students Gautam Korlam (IIT Kharagpur) and Ajitesh Srivastava (BITS, Pilani).
Third Prize: Dilip Mathew Thomas of the Indian Institute of Science, advised by Phaneendra Yalavarthy and Vijay Natarajan, for Feature Preserving Mesh Simplification.


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The Black Hills State women's basketball team traveled last weekend to Fremont, Nebraska as they took on two stiff opponents in Midland Lutheran College and MidAmerica Nazerine. They returned home to face Southwest Minnesota State University on Monday night in the Donald E. Young Center.
On Friday the Lady Yellow Jackets jumped out early on Midland Lutheran College gaining a 17 point lead going in at the break 48-31. It was no different in the second half as the Jackets outscored Midland by 12 points to bring the final to 91-62. Black Hills State was led by senior Lacey Haughian with 14 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Bayley Chevron had 13 points, senior Snjezana Dojcinovic had 11 points, and freshman Katelynn Lamb added 10 points.
In the second game of the Midland Lutheran Classic the lady Yellow Jackets took on nationally ranked MidAmerica Nazerine. The first half went back forth between the two teams with the lady Jackets taking a 38-34 advantage at halftime. In the second half the game remained tight with Black Hills edging MidAmerica Nazerine at the end 80-73. Black Hills State was led by Lacey Haughian with 33 points. Sophomore Brittany Furhman had 17 points and Katelynn Lamb added 11 points.
Monday night the Lady Yellow Jackets hosted Southwest Minnesota State University, which where Coach Nore coached at before returning to Black Hills State University. This was the first contest of the season for Southwest Minnesota State and the Yellow Jackets were looking to improve on their impressive 6-0 start. Both teams played very hard throughout the entire game. At halftime the Mustangs had the lead 27-31 off of a late run to close out the first half. In the second half Southwest Minnesota State built a 9 point lead but the Yellow Jackets came roaring back to get within three. Down the stretch the Yellow Jackets had a chance to tie the game but fell short as the final was 58-61 in favor of Southwest Minnesota State University. The Yellow Jackets were led in scoring by Lacey Haughian who had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Snjezana Dojcinovic had 11 points and Brittany Furhman added 10 points.
The 6-1 Yellow Jackets will now travel this Thursday to Sioux Falls to play a pair of non-conference games against Sioux Falls College and Northwestern College. Check the schedule for accurate times for Friday and Saturday.


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text: If you have not gotten your Mammogram,you should go! I went yesterday and it was a blast! This was my first one so of course I was very excited to see what this was all about! First, she plopped my boob on the thingy. Then went back to take the pic while my face was plastered against the side of the machine. I stand there thinking, well, this is totally fun. Then she comes back and says, hold on, something is not working right. She adjusts the machine, then re-plops my boob on there again. Tries to take a pic, No go. I broke the machine. Yeah, that's how I roll. So we had to wait for the other room to open up and use that machine. I sit in my pretty pink wrap around shirt, waiting by myself in the cold air conditioned room. Finally, the next room is available. Boob #1 gets it again This time it took, yeah!!! Ok on to #2. So I got 4 smashing's this time, plus the two that did not work the first time. So 6 smashing's! Wonderful! They send me out to the waiting room because my #2 boob looked funny. Ok, they call me back in for more pics of #2. Yippe, I get more smashing's! All is finally over with a total of 10 smashing s. Perhaps that is a record? Oh but wait, I do get to see the ultra sound tech. I have a lump. The ultra sound was nice and warm. At least that was relaxing for the 10 seconds it lasted. Good news though, The lump was nothing. Now I can rest knowing I am fine for a while. if you have not had a chance to have this much fun in a while then I please make your appointment today!


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Coax is gone. But all outputs are always active (HDMI, Component and Composite). I have HDMI going to an HD wireless transmitter to TV2 in another room, Component going to TV1, and Composite going to my DVD recorder. I have no Joeys. The cool thing is IR and RF are both active, so I can use my IR universal at TV1 and the Dish RF remote at TV2. That's something I always wanted to do with DirecTV but couldn't.
What brand of HD wireless transmitter are you using and how far away is the TV? Do you have any connection issues?


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The kid who gave the inspirational speech after learning how to ride a bike has at least one thing in common with Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.
Both know how to give a sound motivational speech.
"Everybody! I know you can believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself, you will know how to ride a bike. If you don't you just keep practicing! You will get the hang of it, I know it," the kid said after riding his bike for the first time.
Ray Lewis can't play for the Baltimore Ravens forever so maybe the team should consider bringing this kid on for pregame speeches.


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May 2, 2013 | 5434 views
Four new plans offered for redesign of Coliseum
Bruce Ratner, Madison Square Garden, Jay-Z top list of respondents
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Four companies presented their proposals to revamp the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum at a joint press conference at the Nassau County Police Department headquarters in Mineola on May 2.
In March, County Executive Ed Mangano issued a request for proposals, seeking a private company to reinvent the Uniondale complex.
The four respondents were headlined by some notable names, including Jay-Z, developer Bruce Ratner and Hank Ratner, the CEO of Madison Square Garden, and who is of no relation to Bruce. Each group was given 30 minutes to pitch its plan to rejuvenate the 41-year-old arena and its surroundings with private funding.
The conference was hosted by Mangano's business advisory council, headed by chairman Bert Brodsky. The following are the four proposals.
Nassau Events Center LLC
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text: By Craig R. Christiansen Executive Director NSEA Children thrive with the strong support, encouragement, and engagement of their families in school life. I remember especially my first day of school each year. It was a big deal. The first day always significantly changed the family routine. New flannel shirts were bought (we were always prepared for winter), bus schedules were checked, and preparations were made to trek to school to meet the teacher. The whole family went. As a child, I thought this annual parade by parents and grandparents was to celebrate having their kids back in school. As an adult, I understood the importance of establishing a connection between parent and teacher from the very first day. In smaller communities, my parents would also routinely meet my teachers in the grocery store or church. In larger communities, that routine connection between parent and teacher becomes more difficult. In today's world, the demands of the workplace may significantly interfere with the ability of parents to connect with teachers and the school.Street-Level Reality Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced a national tour in conjunction with the showing of "Won't Back Down," a movie that depicts the distance between schools and parents. The Chamber's webpage describes its goal as "…supporting effective school board governance and reforms that improve student achievement." We all support efforts to raise student achievement. Parental involvement is a key factor in the success of students and their schools. Perhaps the U.S. Chamber of Commerce should pay as much attention to the street-level reality of how difficult business often makes it for parents to be involved in their children's education as it does to calls for massive reform. Parents want their children to succeed–to have more opportunities than they had and to have a productive, enjoyable life. Many political and business leaders lament the fact that some students do not achieve proficiency in core subjects. The reality of the American workplace is that too few parents are allowed–and even fewer are encouraged–to attend their child's parent-teacher conferences, school events, or other opportunities to strengthen the parent-school relationship. The Chamber reminds business leaders of their critical role in supporting effective school reforms. Yes. Let these reforms begin with efforts to permit working parents to be the powerful force they should be in the school life of their children. Business leaders, both at the national level and in every community across Nebraska, should be asked to demonstrate their commitment in unleashing the most powerful force schools have to help children –their parents. A parent is a child's first teacher, life-long counselor, and guide. But in this economic situation, many parents are working long hours that impact family life and children's needs for support. I do not suggest that businesses give away time and productivity. What we need are creative business leaders who are committed to find flexible solutions for their employees. It is not as simple as just having teachers hold evening conferences. Not every parent works 9 to 5…or only one shift.Make it Work Locally A community commitment to find ways for parents to attend parent-teacher conferences is a beginning in recognizing the real and appropriate power of parents in a child's life. There is reputable research that shows a clear correlation between parent involvement and improved student achievement. It works. So, make sure it works in your community. Ask your school to host a joint meeting of parents and business leaders to explore this issue. Ask your local chamber of commerce to recognize those businesses that support parent involvement in your local schools. Friends, family, and businesses must all support parents who need time to confer with teachers and support their children. Yes, parental involvement in a child's success is important for the family and the community. It is also just good business.


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Graduate Degree Programs in Electrical Engineering
|Graduate Program Information
|Electrical Engineering Program Website
|Academic Calendar
|Graduate Application
|Graduate Admissions
|Graduate Tuition and Fees
|Visit Mines
|Graduate Bulletin
|Degrees Offered
|Electrical Engineering
|M.S., Ph.D.
|Enrollment Details
|Participating Staff
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|Admissions Information
|GRE General Test is required
|GRE Subject Test is not required
|TOEFL exam is required (international)
|Admissions Statistics
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The Electrical Engineering graduate program connects you with faculty from around the world who are committed to discovering optimal solutions related to global power issues. It is imperative that research is conducted in a highly interdisciplinary and collaborative manner. From traditional power systems research to renewable energy technolgies and research the program addresses the real-world problems of advanced engineering and technology. Research in conjunction with course offerings prepares you to become a leader in industry, academia and government.
Competitive financial support packages (including stipend, health insurance and full tuition) are available to qualified candidates in the form of research assistantships (RAs), fellowships, and teaching assistantships (TAs). Applicants seeking financial support should indicate so within the online application. In addition to applying, applicants interested in support should contact the faculty members whose research interests parallel their own. Though not mandatory, applicants are encouraged to submit the application by the deadline to insure priority consideration for fall semester financial support.
Degree Programs
- Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (thesis and non-thesis)
- Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering
The main research focus lies in the following two areas:
- Sensing, Communications and Control: An interdisciplinary research area that encompasses the fields of control systems, wireless communications, signal and image processing, robotics, and mechatronics. Focus areas include intelligent and learning control systems, fault detection and system identification, compressive sensing, wireless communication circuits, computer vision and pattern recognition, sensor development, mobile manipulation and autonomous systems. Applications can be found in renewable energy and power systems, materials processing, sensor and control networks, bio-engineering, intelligent structures and geosystems.
- Energy Systems and Power Electronics: A research area focused on both fundamental and applied research in the interrelated fields of conventional electric power systems and electric machinery, renewable energy and distributed generation, energy economics and policy issues, power quality, power electronics and drives. The overall scope of research encompasses a broad spectrum of electrical energy applications including investor-owned utilities, rural electric associations, manufacturing facilities, regulatory agencies and consulting engineering firms.
Lori Sisneros, Graduate Program Administrator
College of Engineering and Computational Sciences
Phone: 303-273-3658
Office: Brown Hall, Room 339
Colorado School of Mines
engineering the way


text: Reform History is aimed at helping readers see the broad arc of school reform in Chicago. It includes selected articles from Catalyst as well as articles published elsewhere. It also includes school news briefs dating back to 1985. We welcome your suggestions for additions and improvements. Send an e-mail to email@example.com.


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Prepare using 2% Milk VELVEETA.
Substitute 1 pkg. (6 oz.) OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Grilled Chicken Breast for the cooked fresh chicken chunks. Bring broth to boil in large skillet. Stir in macaroni; cover. Simmer on medium-low heat 8 to 10 min. or until macaroni is tender. Add chicken, VELVEETA and broccoli; cook until chicken mixture is heated through and VELVEETA is melted, stirring frequently.
Substitute 1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen vegetable blend or 1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained, for the frozen chopped broccoli; and 1 pkg. (8 oz.) any flavor KRAFT Cheddar CLASSIC MELTS for the cut-up VELVEETA.
* Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin and freshness of ingredients used.
Not all that
I've been making this recipe for years. It's always a hit and makes enough for a crowd. The only thing I do differently is stir in a little water (1/2 cup or so) with the chicken. One can of broth isn't quite enough to get the macaroni tender.
This is really good, but I make it even easier by using a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese and Rotisserie Chicken. It takes less time and I always need to find ways to save time.
K:2243 v0:52549


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Highway hopefuls
Republicans are one seat shy of reclaiming control of the U.S. Senate. A good November drive along Highway 65 would take them where they want to go
Americans watching November's historic Senate elections will be flooded with figures during the coming months: Poll numbers. Fundraising reports. Party registration percentages. Past margins of victory. Odds from Las Vegas bookmakers. Does it really take an accounting degree to figure out which party has the advantage?
If you want to predict the outcome without the aid of a graphing calculator, remember just one number: 65. That's Highway 65, the north-south roadway that runs through Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, the major geographic focus for the GOP this year. Almost every place it touches has a hot Senate race. It may lack the glamor of Route 66, but this year, at least, Highway 65 is America's unofficial political barometer.
There will be other close races, of course. The Senate contests in New Hampshire, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Dakota are all looking like squeakers. But Republicans need to pick up just one Democratic seat to regain control of the Senate, and no other part of the country boasts a greater concentration of vulnerable Democrats than this northern part of the Highway 65 corridor. Both national parties are putting millions of dollars behind their candidates, and voters in all three states have already seen a flurry of expensive TV ads more than eight months before Election Day. In addition, President Bush and some of his top aides are making the region a kind of second home.
But how is it all playing out on the ground? Are voters paying attention? Do they really care who controls the Senate in far-off Washington? Are they more focused on national issues like terrorism, or statewide concerns like education and unemployment? A week-long drive along Highway 65 provided some answers.
For much of its long run through Minnesota, 65 is just a narrow state road wending its way through vast stretches of pine forest. The highway originates at the Canadian border near International Falls, the city that holds the dubious distinction of being the coldest spot in the United States during much of the winter. Because Minnesota was in the throes of a spring blizzard when I arrived, I started my trek several hundred miles to the south, in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
With 54 percent of the state's population, the Twin Cities wield inordinate political clout. It's nearly impossible to gain statewide office without a solid political base among the quirky, reform-minded voters of Minneapolis. That's why Republicans are so excited about their prospects this year. After heavy recruiting by the Bush administration, St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman threw his hat into the ring, scaring off any potential GOP rivals. He's a former Democrat with a face made for television and a record that appeals to independents. (This is the state, remember, where Jesse Ventura came out of nowhere to beat both a Republican and a Democrat in the governor's race.)
Mr. Coleman's rival is Paul Wellstone, one of the most liberal lawmakers in Washington. Winding up his second term in the Senate, he broke his earlier term-limits promise and announced he wanted another six years. That has even many of his former backers, like Bill Anderson, wondering if they'll vote for him again.
Mr. Anderson and his wife both voted for Mr. Wellstone in 1996, but are reconsidering this year. "I'm not a Coleman fan, but he has some good ideas. He's done a pretty good job over in St. Paul," says Mr. Anderson as he sits in the parking lot of the Fridley VFW post. It's one hour until the Saturday afternoon meat raffle, and the low, red-brick building is getting crowded. Politics isn't the first topic of conversation, but Minnesotans are famous for being informed on the issues. One question is likely to yield 15 minutes of political opinions.
Veterans' issues top Mr. Anderson's list of concerns, and he thinks President Bush is doing a fine job as commander in chief. The president's sky-high approval numbers may not help with loyal Democrats, but independent voters are skeptical of lawmakers like Sen. Wellstone who oppose Mr. Bush on almost every issue. "He's way out in left field," Mr. Anderson says. "We need someone new altogether. I'm not sure Coleman is the best guy, but he may be better than what we have now."
Down the road at the Columbia Golf Course, the glass-and-steel skyline of Minneapolis provides a dramatic backdrop to the gentle hills that seem ready-made for sledding. Jeff Johnson, a 17-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department's narcotics squad, is keeping a watchful eye on three young children. He doesn't consider himself a Republican: "I don't care for either party. I vote on the person who's running." But this year the choice is easy: "Anybody but Wellstone. He needs to go. He's been an embarrassment from day one. Enough of his giveaway policies-letting all the refugees in here, all his welfare stuff. I was taught, you don't work, you don't eat."
That's a sentiment that may spell trouble for Mr. Wellstone come November. Minnesota notched the country's fastest-growing black population over the past decade, and its overall minority population has doubled in that time. The state's Nordic identity seems at risk, even among many blue-collar workers who might normally vote Democratic.
But exploiting such sentiments is risky. A few dozen yards away from Mr. Johnson, an extended Mexican family is also enjoying the snow. The best hills are taken by the white kids, and the Hispanic families are wary of encroaching. Diego, who refuses to give his last name, says he's heard the talk of government giveaways, and it makes him mad.
"Nobody gives me anything," he says, as his wife tries to keep the children away. "I working two jobs. My wife, she working also. We hope our children will be rich one day. This is why we come to America." Diego says his friends will all vote for Mr. Wellstone, whom they view as a friend. "The other people, they wish we just go away."
Further south, on the Iowa state line, the little town of Albert Lea hasn't seen much of an immigrant influx. The membership rolls at Elks Lodge 813 still read like the Stockholm phone book: Stensrud, Bjerke, Dillemuth, Overgaard. But even here, Mr. Wellstone's giveaway reputation is well established.
The senator "wants to give everything away," says Bob Herman, a local businessman. "He wants to give $100,000 to immigrants to help them settle in. Our party changed a lot. I used to be a Democrat, now I vote for the man."
Mr. Herman says many farmers are wary of Sen. Wellstone, but as a big-city mayor, Mr. Coleman can't automatically count on their votes. "He did a lot for the city of St. Paul, but he's got a little work to do in agricultural communities like Albert Lea." While the local farm economy is fairly stable, "no one's getting ahead," and farmers often feel overlooked in politics. "Two-thirds of the population lives in the Twin Cities," Mr. Herman complains, an exaggeration that betrays an us-versus-them mentality that may prevent the Republicans from generating much enthusiasm among rural voters.
In Iowa, by contrast, no politician would dare overlook the farmers. The state's 90,000 farms produce crops and livestock valued at $12 billion annually-the lifeblood of Iowa's economy. All those farmers have helped send Tom Harkin to the Senate for 18 years, and, as chairman of the powerful Agriculture Committee, he's in the perfect position to repay them for their support.
Still, Republicans see a chance to pick up this seat in a state that went for Al Gore by just 4,000 votes in the 2000 presidential race. The national party has anointed Greg Ganske, a moderate congressman first elected in 1994's "Republican Revolution" as its last, best hope to carry this swing state.
Unfortunately for Washington's power brokers, Bill Salier didn't seem to get that memo. The 33-year-old former Marine farms 300 acres just off Highway 65, near the northern Iowa town of Mason City. While the National Republican Senatorial Committee pretends Mr. Ganske is the only Republican in the race, Mr. Salier has been quietly shaking tens of thousands of hands around the state for nearly two years now. By his own reckoning, he's slept in his own bed just 14 nights since last Thanksgiving.
"The NRSC has no idea what's actually going on here in Iowa.... They're going with the conventional wisdom that we need to nominate a moderate against a liberal. That doesn't work. There's no incentive for Reagan Democrats to come back. There's no inspiration for independents. Elections follow when you lead on principle."
With his intense blue eyes, slightly graying buzz cut, and erect bearing, Mr. Salier looks like a Marine out of Central Casting. Still, it's clear that he's no professional politician. He's delivering his anti-establishment speech from the Formica-topped table in his pea-green kitchen while his mother stands nearby, peeling potatoes over the sink. Yet even in this odd setting, he articulates his conservative principles with passion, and some in Washington have begun to notice. Conservative groups like the NRA, Eagle Forum, Club for Growth, and Campaign for Working Families have all met with him recently, and some have toyed publicly with the idea of endorsing him.
Despite Mr. Salier's two years of almost non-stop campaigning, Edith Butler admits she doesn't know much about Mr. Salier. The small, older lady in a pink cardigan and mousy blond wig is on duty today at the Buggy Whip Antique Mall in Iowa Falls, about an hour south of Mason City. Highway 65 slices right through the picturesque little town with the decidedly '50s feel (no parking meters, no Starbucks, a wooden band shell that looms over the little public square).
The major issue around here? "Hog farming," Mrs. Butler answers without a moment's hesitation. Specifically, the locals are up in arms about giant commercial hog farms that produce tons of solid waste, which stinks up the air for miles around, might seep into the water supply, and certainly drives down property values.
As a small hog farmer himself, Mr. Salier could easily tap into this frustration, except that regulating the big commercial farms might conflict with his pro-business instincts. So, until convinced otherwise, Mrs. Butler plans to vote for Mr. Ganske. And what about the incumbent, Tom Harkin? "He's all talk," she replies. "He promises a lot, but he never really does anything."
The general opinion about Mr. Harkin tends to be different around Des Moines, the state's largest city. Just outside town, the grandly named Adventureland Resort-really just a small collection of aging roller coasters-sits at the intersection of Highway 65 and I-80. Next door is the red-roofed Prairie Downs Racetrack and Casino. Two men headed into the casino talk about conditions at "the plant," but they won't give their names. (It's 3:30 on a Monday; maybe they've left work early.)
They both think Mr. Harkin is doing a fine job. They list education, health care, and pension benefits as their main concerns, and they want the federal government more involved in all three. Would they consider voting for Mr. Ganske, who tends to support big-government solutions like a patients' bill of rights and campaign-finance reform? "Why would we support a semi-Democrat when we've already got the real thing?" laughs one.
Missouri has major cities on both its eastern and western flanks, but Highway 65 misses them both by a long shot. The small towns along its route seem distinctively and surprisingly Southern, from the twang in the vowels to the tunes on the radio. Crossing the state line into north-central Missouri, my car stereo picks up a dozen country music stations, and Alan Jackson's ode to 9/11 seems to be in constant play somewhere on the dial.
In an odd way, that could spell trouble for the Democrats here. Their standard-bearer, freshman Sen. Jean Carnahan, has never actually faced the voters. Her husband, Mel, the state's popular governor, was locked in a bitter campaign with then-Sen. John Ashcroft when his small plane went down in a thunderstorm, less than a month before the election. Missouri's shocked voters elected him anyway, but only after Mrs. Carnahan agreed to serve in his stead.
When she got to Washington, one of her first duties was to vote on Mr. Ashcroft's nomination for attorney general. She voted no. That struck many Missourians as petty, especially after Mr. Ashcroft had graciously conceded the race rather than mount a legal challenge to the constitutionality of electing a dead man. Then came Sept. 11, and Mr. Ashcroft became perhaps the highest-profile attorney general in history. Suddenly, Mrs. Carnahan's "no" vote seemed not only petty, but vaguely unpatriotic.
Pat Greeley, a waitress at the Country Kitchen restaurant in Chillicothe, says she voted for Mr(s). Carnahan largely out of sympathy. But now her sympathies are shifting. "He was always a good senator," she confides during a slow breakfast shift. "It's not like people around here were voting against him. It was more like sending a sympathy card to the governor's wife, you know?"
But if Mr. Ashcroft was popular as a senator, he's downright heroic as attorney general. "I'm so proud of the way he's defending us," Ms. Greeley says. "We all feel like we're in good hands with him and President Bush in Washington." She pauses and shakes her head. "So then you start to wonder: What if Jean Carnahan had her way? He wouldn't even be there right now. Makes you wonder about her judgment, you know?"
Up and down the state, the names of John Ashcroft and Jean Carnahan are paired that way, as if 2002 were a rematch of the 2000 race. Actually, though, the likely Republican nominee is Jim Talent, a conservative former congressman who narrowly lost a gubernatorial bid after sympathy for Mr. Carnahan spilled over into his race two years ago.
Mr. Talent is an able campaigner with enthusiastic support from the Bush White House, but running against Mrs. Carnahan won't be easy. "How do you campaign against a widow?" wonders Bill Thomas as he loads fishing gear into the trunk of his car. Like many other voters in Springfield, he calls himself "conservative and proud of it." Springfield, after all, was Mr. Ashcroft's political base, and the Assemblies of God denomination is headquartered in this southern Missouri city.
"No one has any idea what Jean Carnahan stands for or what she's done for them as a senator," Mr. Thomas continues. "But voting against her would be like voting against your own grandmother. It's tough to run against Grandma, especially if she keeps reminding everyone how much she misses Grandpa."
Immigrants in Minnesota, hog farms in Iowa, "Grandma" in Missouri-the issues along Highway 65 may not be statistically representative, but they illustrate how different politics can be once candidates venture outside the Beltway that rings Washington, D.C. Republicans desperately need at least one win here to regain control of the Senate, but where they might pick it up is anybody's guess. Along the campaign trail-as on Highway 65 itself-there are plenty of dangerous curves ahead.


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That is well groovy. Nice techniques there.
I've stumbled on a nice tutorial today. It's a quick way to imitate old book drawings. Quite useful if you want to make atmospheric player handouts.
EDIT: the original link is dead, download timallen's PDF version instead, post #23
Last edited by Katto; 02-06-2014 at 01:49 PM.
That is well groovy. Nice techniques there.
ViewingDale Map maker and VTT . Recent CG posts . Keyword Index . Intros Index . Member Locations . CWBP Place Index
Great find...
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Ghoraja Juun, my largely stagnated campaign setting.
Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Looks very useful!
Hello, All.
I am reposting this message after modifying how this tutorial is linked.
I sent an email to forcg administration requesting permission to put up the PDF document I created of this tutorial. To date, I have not received a reply from them.
Consequently, I have linked this tutorial directly from its source. It is now available in the Tutorials in PDF Format thread.
You can find the link on Page 1, in the PHOTOSHOP-RELATED TUTORIALS section of Post 2.
In the end you will see, you is you and me is me.
© May 29, 1980
I tried it as well, seems to work best on smallish images where the smart blur/surface blur works best at blurring the boundaries between colors so that the find edges filter doesn't produce a lot of extraneous lines.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
unfortunately the color burn and motion blur effect does not work anymore (which is the thing that made this look intersting). Applying color burn blending mode to the pattern overlaid layers has no effect whatsoever.
Instead you can apply what I call Ascencion's technique:
- CTRL+click the original graphic for selection
- apply filter noise /add noise... (Amount 400% monochromatic)
- apply filter blur / motion blur
proceed with the tutorial from the original source (step 9 I thinK)
hope that helps
Last edited by inservo; 11-13-2011 at 06:29 PM.
I've just tried it again (thanks for reminding me about this tutorial!) and it works great on character portraits too.


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I have been using Zimbra Desktop for several months and have had no problem opening attachments to email that are Adobe documents.
This week, however, when I try to open an Adobe document attachment I get a blank page.
I can still download the Adobe document then open it through Adobe itself, but this is a hassle and slows down the work flow.
I have updated the latest version of Zimbra Desktop and I believe I may have updated Adobe this week (hence the problem)
Does anyone have a solution?


text: By Tim LinscottManaging Editor A simple answering machine message summed up the trickle down effect of the government shut down. "The Grant USDA office is currently closed due to a lapse in federal funding," is the message heard, explaining why there were no employees at the USDA office to answer phones or meet with people. On Tuesday, Oct. 1 the federal government went into a furlough and some government employees, including those from Perkins County, started the waiting game on when they could go back to work. Congress did not fund the federal government by Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, and went into a partial shutdown. Government functions deemed essential are continuing as usual, while others are suspended. According to the Associated Press, more than 800,000 of about 2.9 million federal employees are likely to be furloughed. Seven federal employees at the Perkins County USDA office have been idle since the furlough began. There are two Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and four Farm Service Agency (FSA) employees affected by the shutdown with one Upper Republican NRD employee 'in limbo.' Claudia Stevenson, Resource Conservationist for NRCS, explained that on Sept. 30 a teleconference was held in preparation of the shutdown and employees were given a checklist to follow if/when the government furlough went into effect. "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst," is how Stevenson described the situation on Monday. This is not the first time Stevenson has been through a furlough. From Nov. 14-19, 1995 and Dec. 16, 1995-Jan. 6, 1996 a government furlough lasted 28 days. Stevenson, who has been employed with the NRCS for 26 years, 21 of those in Grant, moved on quickly from the first furlough of her career. "You put it out of your mind," she said. Employees are not allowed to do any work, whatsoever, or even use government equipment, such as cell phones. Her major concern at her office is the conservation projects that have been done, and the people who have not been paid for those projects. "A lot of work has been done but not paid back," Stevenson said. "Some projects are supposed to be happening and can't." There will be some likely delays in future conservation sign-ups and other projects may be pushed back. She wasn't sure how long they will be pushed back because she has no idea how long things will be shut down. Stevenson said the situation was 'disheartening' and she has been keeping in touch with the other employees to make sure they are doing fine. "We're sitting at home waiting for Congress to do their thing," she said. "I watch CNN, that is how I know what is going on." Federal employees received pay for the last six of 10 days. If things are not solved quickly, there will not be a next paycheck. The last shutdown cost the government $1.4 billion, according to an estimate by the Office of Management and Budget. Stevenson explained that there are not only federal bills to pay through the NRCS, but she, personally, as well as the other federal employees, have financial obligations. "Personally, we've been saving for a situation such as this, but you never want it to happen," Stevenson said, explaining she gets through this nervous time with 'prayer and a lot of quiet time.'


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By conservative estimate, 27 million men, women, and children currently lead their lives as slaves. 21st century slavery takes many forms, the most common being debt bondage, sexual servitude, chattel slavery and the severest forms of forced labor. The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) is the only human rights organization in the United States dedicated solely to abolishing modern-day slavery worldwide.
eBay for Charity
Registered with eBay for Charity.


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Elizabeth Mitchell rocks this collection of Woody Guthrie songs. Right from the start with Riding in My Car we knew we were in for a treat. Her bright, strong voice makes you relax and enjoy these great songs in a new way. She makes each song her own. You could imagine Woody listening for a bit, smiling and then joining in. Children's music at its best. This CD was just nominated for a GRAMMY! Click here to hear a sample.
Age: Infants, Toddlers, Preschool, Early School Years. Review Published: 2014-05-28 09:03:18. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
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Products reviewed by the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio are provided by the manufacturer at their cost. The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio does not require or accept fees for reviewing products.


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A new coalition in Albany
(Page 2 of 2)
In order to ensure the fiscal integrity New Yorkers deserve, keep our communities safe and give our children the best education, lawmakers in Albany must pass proactive bills immediately. The clock is ticking for the state, and the new coalition has the opportunity to prove that the people elected are those best suited to the job.
Which brings me to my next point. Of the coalition, the New York Times's Thomas Kaplan wrote an article titled, "G.O.P. Senate Deal: Diversity Takes a Back Seat to Power in Albany." While the article recognized New York as one of the most diverse states in the nation, with minorities accounting for more than 40 percent of its population, it pointed out that all of the statewide elected officials are white. The article further explained that nearly all of the coalition members who will now have the majority in the Senate are also white lawmakers. The Times claimed that this has left many minority leaders feeling that the political power given to them by the voters is "slipping away."
Not surprisingly, the Rev. Al Sharpton has jumped into the mix, calling on civil rights leaders to rally. Senator Klein has stated that the Independent Democratic Conference is not an exclusive club, and is open to "all senators who are serious about governing."
Klein is exactly right. The diversity critics failed to recognize that one of the five Democratic members who joined the coalition is Sen. Malcolm Smith, an African American. Why was this fact disregarded? Most important, it is the people of New York who decide at the ballot box who will represent them in Albany. One would think we elect people based not on race, but on talent and credibility.
We don't deserve to go back to the aforementioned period of dysfunction. The current leadership has taken steps in the right direction, though we are still in a vulnerable position. The new coalition government must continue to work with the governor to bring fiscal security back to our state and lower tax rates.
At this point, Albany must put self-indulgent claims like this aside and focus on the upcoming legislative session and the state's agenda. Distractions like this will only set us back.
Al D'Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? firstname.lastname@example.com.
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text: The Pro-Intense Triple Effect: Redensify, Plump and Firm. This rich eye and lip contouring cream contains active plant stem cells to combat thin dry skin around the eyes and vertical lip lines to reveals a more youthful, renewed and remodeled look. Over 71% of users felt their skin was visibly plumper.* *Consumer test on 59 women over 28 days.


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When sync the adress book, every folder in the adress book will be synced with the handset. So if you have enabled the Mail receipients list, the whole "Emailed contacts" folder or any other shared folder will be synced to the handset.
Is there now a solution available to sync only the single contact folder ?


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Deal making in Vegas
Baseball's Winter Meetings wrapped up today in Las Vegas, and the Royals had a flurry of activity on the final day. Here's a recap:
* Kansas City selected pitcher Jose Lugo from the Twins in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft and immediately traded Lugo to Seattle for cash considerations.
* The Royals selected three players in the Triple-A Phase of the draft:
– Right-handed pitcher Luis Ortega, 21, who pitched in the Dominican Summer League for the Washington Nationals two squads in 2008.
– Catcher John Suomi, 28, who split his 2008 season in the Phillies organization between Class AA Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
– Right-handed pitcher Carlos Arias, 23, who spent 2008 at Class A Mahoning Valley in the Cleveland Indians organization.
* The Royals lost left-handed pitcher Gilbert De La Vara in the Major League Phase to the Houston Astros and right-handed pitcher Russ Haltiwanger in the Triple-A Phase to the St. Louis Cardinals.
* Kansas City's signed free agent pitchers Horacio Ramirez and Doug Waechter. The left-handed Ramirez is expected to battle for a rotation spot. He made 15 appearances with KC in 2008 before being traded to the White Sox for minor league outfielder Paulo Orlando. Waechter, 27, will be in the bullpen. The righty was 4-2 with a 3.69 ERA in 48 appearances with the Marlins in 2008.
* Minor league outfielder Jordan Parraz was acquired from the Astros to complete the November 24 Tyler Lumsden trade. Parraz batted .289 with 31 doubles, three triples, six home runs, 42 RBI and 82 runs in 2008 for Class A Advanced Salem in the Carolina League. Baseball America ranked Parraz as the Astros prospect with the Best Outfield Arm prior to the 2008 season.
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Speaking of these new acquisitions, are we gonna get to meet any of these guys at Fan Fest next month? Any idea when you'll be able to give us a tentative lineup? I had a great time 11 months ago. Really looking forward to the next one!
We are finalizing the list of players, coaches, alumni, and broadcasters that will appear. A preliminary list went live on royals.com yesterday.
"Players and coaches scheduled to attend include: Mike Aviles, John Buck, Shane Costa, Kyle Davies, David DeJesus, Brandon Duckworth, John Gibbons, Alex Gordon, Zack Greinke, Trey Hillman, Luke Hochevar, Kila Ka'aihue, Devon Lowery, Ron Mahay, Dave Owen, Kevin Seitzer, Ryan Shealy, Joakim Soria and Mark Teahen."
We will provide updates on additional player appearances when they become available.


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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pop star Beyoncé, currently on tour with rapper husband Jay Z, will receive a special award and perform at the MTV Video Music Awards this month, the cable TV network said on Thursday,
Beyoncé, who received eight nominations, will be awarded the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the show, one of the industry's top ceremonies that will be aired live from California on Aug. 24.
"As a performer, Beyoncé has delivered some of the most memorable performances in VMA history," MTV said in a statement.
PHOTOS: Beyoncé through the years | Hip hop's super couple
Beyoncé, 32, earned nominations for best video and best collaboration with Jay Z for her hit "Drunk In Love," and will compete for Video of the Year against Australian rapper Iggy Azalea.
R&B singer Usher and Australian rock group 5 Seconds of Summer will also perform at the show.
The Video Music Awards began in 1984 and helped propel the cable channel, now owned by Viacom Inc, as a player in the entertainment industry.
Singer Miley Cyrus shocked audiences at last year's award show in New York with her raunchy performance with Robin Thicke of his hit "Blurred Lines," which dominated the headlines.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Grant McCool)