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26th July 2011
VCS Assembly News Update 26 July (Issue 68)
In this issue:
1. News
2. Dates for Your Diary
3. Funding News
4. Consultations
5. Compact
6. Career Opportunities
7. Important Reminders
1. News
Public Services Whitepaper Published
The Open Public Services White Paper was published on the 11 July. It sets out how the Government will improve public services. By putting choice and control in the hands of individuals and neighbourhoods, public services will become more responsive to peoples' needs.
The White Paper sets out the government's approach to public services by applying five key principles:
- Choice - wherever possible we will increase choice
- Decentralisation - Power should be decentralised to the lowest appropriate level
- Diversity - Public services should be open to a range of providers
- Fairness - We will ensure fair access to public services
- Accountability - Public services should be accountable to users and taxpayers.
The White Paper will be followed over the summer by a wide-ranging discussion with individuals, communities, public sector staff, providers and others with an interest in how public services are delivered. http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/open-public-services-white-paper
The National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises
The Cabinet Office have published the results from the survey carried out last Autumn and Winter. (it was formerly called the National Survey of Third Sector Organisations)
A key finding is a 10% jump in public service provision.
£10m Investment and Contract Readiness Programme Announced
In an open letter on the Cabinet Office website, civil society minister Nick Hurd has announced a new £10m Investment and Contract-Readiness Fund designed to help civil society organisations become ready for new forms of social investment and new levels of public service contracting. The programme will operate over three years, from April 2012. Further information will become available in due course. The open letter also promotes the Government's open public service listening exercise taking place over the summer. The exercise will look at issues such as accessing open markets, reducing barriers and improving commissioning. Details on how to contribute will be published on the cabinet office website.
New report indicates that forming consortia improves charities' prospects
Research by the Charity Commission indicates that charities can benefit in a variety of ways from working as consortia. The report, Consortia for the delivery of public services: the issues for small and medium-sized charities, also highlights the need for charity trustees to consider the risks they will need to manage when deciding to join or form a service-delivery consortium.
Right to request time for training not to be extended
The government has ruled out extending the right for employees to request time off for training to smaller organisations until 2015, if at all. At the moment, the right only applies to organisations with at least 250 employees, but had originally been due to be extended from April 2011.
New website for sector employment advice resources (from VolResource)
PEACe, the Personnel, Employment Advice and Conciliation Service project run by London Voluntary Service Council, has a new website containing a range of useful HR material for voluntary sector employers. While many services and publications have a cost, others don't. http://www.lvsc.org.uk/peace
Cheques to continue until 2018 (from VolResource)
The Payments Council has announced that cheques will continue for as long as customers need them and the target for possible closure of the cheque clearing in 2018 has been cancelled.
Limits to how much people can get involved (from VolResource)
The ResPublica think-tank has published 'Civic Limits: How much more involved can people get?', "exploring the best available data on the state of civic life in Britain and describing what in practical terms is required to get more people involved". Find it on their Research page, http://www.respublica.org.uk/research
Information to help smaller community activities
Community Toolkit is a new "online information resource for people who want to get involved in organising smaller, straightforward community activities". Created by Zurich Insurance to address barriers to community volunteering, it provides guidance on some legal, health and safety, insurance and planning issues. Check it out at http://www.communitytoolkit.co.uk.
Involving third sector in designing public services
The Scottish Government has published 'A Practical Guide to Forming and Operating Public Social Partnerships'. A Public Social Partnership is defined as a "strategic partnering arrangement which involves the third sector earlier and more deeply in the design and commissioning of public services". The guide builds on the experience of ten projects in a range of areas including social care, youth services and recycling, which piloted new ways to link the public and third sectors and to ensure that people and communities are kept at the centre of all discussions on the design and management of the service.
2. Dates for Your Diary
Transformation of Adult Social Care - Live Life: Your Way
The way adult social care services are developed and delivered is changing and Shropshire Council is asking for your help to make change locally. Services have changed little over the past 30 years, but the people we serve and the county we live in has changed greatly. This is your chance to get involved to help create a new shared vision that fits the needs of Shropshire's residents.
A series of events are being held across Shropshire, throughout the summer, giving you the opportunity to share your views and experiences, helping to develop the best range of services for the people of our county. They will be held on the following dates:
- Shrewsbury Town Football Club 29 July - 9:30-12:00
- The Marches School, Oswestry 4 August - 1:30-4:00
- Bridgnorth Leisure Centre 18 August - 1:30-4:00
- Whitchurch Leisure Centre 22 August 1:30-4:00
- Ludlow Food Centre 24 August - 1:30-4:00
- Feedback Event, Council Chamber, Shirehall, Shrewsbury 23 September- 9:30-12:00
The first phase of consultation starts on 4 July and ends on 30 September 2011.The aim is to develop a 21st century service that is fit for the people it serves. Please come along to any of the sessions and have your say of the future of care and support in our county.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 0345 678 9005
Facebook: Go to www.facebook.com and search for: Shropshire:livelfeyourway
Twitter: Go to www.twitter.com and search for: @livelifeyourway
Post: Live Life - Your Way, Shropshire Council, Assessment & Eligibility, Ptarmigan, Sitka Drive, Shrewsbury Business Park, Shrewsbury, SY2 6LG.
'GOTOJAIL' - The Cell Project - Invitation until 13 August
Rideout would like to draw your attention to an innovative arts and engagement project running in Stoke - complemented by a dedicated interactive website. The arts and crime education charity Rideout has built and placed in a disused shop unit in Stoke, an exact replica prison cell as you would find in a UK prison complete with fittings from suppliers to HM prison service. On Fridays and Saturdays there are two prisoners, played by ex prisoners 'in role', sharing the cell so visitors are able to engage closely with the prison/ prisoner experience and record opinions on a number of key questions through a digital interface alongside the cell. Additionally, in person and online visitors can set the privileges the prisoners are allowed. If you are able to visit in person, the cell is open now through Saturday 13 August at Number 12 Piccadilly, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 1DH (Wednesday-Saturday; 12PM - 5PM only). If you cannot visit in person, you are able to visit the cell by a web camera installed in the cell allowing conversations between visitors and 'prisoners' to be streamed live on the internet:www.gotojail.info Here you can also determine the time you think the prisoners should be spending in prison and what material effects they should be allowed in their cell. The actual material goods; tv, playstation, duvets, etc. are removed or added to the real cell as the majority vote determines. We hope you will take up the immediate option of visiting online and engaging in the debate. For more information, contact Saul Hewish, Co-Director of Rideout:
Email: email@example.com or call 01782 325 555.
Engaging vulnerable young people: what works?
In response to customer demand, the above course is now being run twice a day (morning and afternoon sessions) at the following venues and dates:
Derby: Riverside Centre Pride Park - Thursday 3rd November
Glasgow: Holiday Inn Glasgow Airport - Wednesday 9th November
Leeds: Holiday Inn Garforth - Wednesday 16th November
London: Holiday Inn Brent Cross - Wednesday 23rd November
The course was developed in response to recommendations from recent case reviews and is based on the experiences of our colleagues in Safe and Sound Derby and other expert practitioners from around the UK. The learning aims for the course are as follows:
- Understand why vulnerable young people are often difficult to engage
- Confront some of the stereotyping that creates barriers to effective communication
- Explore why some young people are especially difficult to engage
- Be aware of good practice, and other helpful links and resources
- Identify ways to engage with hard to reach young people
- Plan how to transfer their learning into practice
The price per delegate is £99+VAT including refreshments on arrival and break time.
To book your place, please click on this link: http://www.justwhistle.org.uk/events.php (and scroll down to this event). Alternatively, please contact us for details of discounts for group bookings.
Demonstrating impact - what it's all about
One day 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 11 October at Reviive, Unit 4, Knight's Park, Battlefield Enterprise Park, Shrewsbury SY1 3AB
Booking forms to be sent to email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com
Social Impact Training Oct 2011 (170.36KB)
SIP_Booking_Form[1] (143.11KB)
3. Funding News
Transforming Infrastructure Support
BIG Fund (the non-Lottery arm of the BIG Lottery) has opened a short Expressions of Interest period (to 5th August) for organisations wishing to apply to the newly announced Transforming Infrastructure Fund. The criteria/objectives for this fund are very tightly focused. In the guidance notes OCS says:
'OCS views this as a final national level investment in this area, aimed at transformational activities such as:
- Collaboration and consolidation - creating more efficient, effective and agile organisations through rethinking business models, asset consolidation, merger of back-office functions and shared services.
- The redesign and integration of services towards more imaginative and enterprising approaches that are valued and supported locally.
- Better links with local businesses; more peer-to- peer support within the local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and stronger partnerships with local statutory bodies, particularly the relevant local authority.
- Sustainability in the long-term without ongoing support from central Government.'
Funding of up to £400,000 per upper tier local authority area will be available over a maximum of eighteen months - £600,000 in the seven local authority areas with a population of over 1m - but only one application per upper tier local authority area will be allowed. See:
IMPACT Awards 2011
The IMPACT Awards have been running since 1997 and are designed to recognise and reward charities that are doing excellent work to improve people's health. They are funded by GlaxoSmithKline and managed in partnership with The King's Fund.
The awards are open to registered charities that are at least three years old, working in a health-related field in the UK, with a total annual income between £10,000 and £1.5 million.
Benefits of applying
- Up to eight winners will receive £25,000
- Up to four highly commended awards of £5,000 and up to three runners-up awards of £3,000 will be made
- You decide how to use the award money
- Organisations that win or are highly commended for an award will be invited to send up to two representatives to take part in the GSK IMPACT Awards Development Network, a free training programme valued at £4,000 for each organisation.
- The awards are designed to recognise success and achievements for existing work so you do not have to present a new project
- The winning organisations will be visited by a photographer, have a professional film made and will receive support with press and publicity
ESF Equal Opportunities and Sustainable Development Awards - Applications wanted
ESF providers and sub-contractors are invited to apply for this year's ESF Mainstreaming Leader Awards. The awards, which were first launched in 2010, recognise those ESF providers and sub-contractors who 'go the extra mile' to promote equal opportunities and sustainable development. The awards aim to mainstream these areas of work by promoting the award winners' good practice with other partners across the programme.
In addition to the two familiar award categories - ESF Mainstreaming Leader and ESF Mainstreaming Leader Specialist Project - there is a third category of award - ESF Gender Equality Mainstreaming Leader - which recognises projects which have demonstrated good practice in promoting gender equality. The closing date for applications is 29 July 2011.
West Midlands ERDF Programme - Changes Made
A number of key changes and activities that planned for the West Midlands ERDF Programme have now happened. The formal transfer of responsibility for management of the Programme from Advantage West Midlands to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) took place on 1 July, and the local Programme Delivery Team is now based at 5 St Philips Place, Colmore Row, Birmingham. In line with the transfer there will be some changes to processes and procedures to ensure all the regions are nationally consistent. Another key activity is the midterm evaluation of the ERDF Programme. The results of the evaluation will play a key role in the future direction of the Programme. Early findings highlight an effective and well managed Programme with Priority 1 and 2 performing particularly well. There is potential scope for some changes, however overall a strong partnership approach will remain an important element to ensure all areas of the Programme perform well. For more news visit the new ERDF website at:
Funding news provided by Gary Spence, External Funding Officer at Shropshire Council and the West Midlands European Network.
4. Consultations
Current Shropshire Council Consultations
All Shropshire Council led consultations taking place are listed on the Shropshire Council website. Current consultations include:
- Live life: your way - adult social care consultation (as mentioned above)
- Education for Shropshire - consultation next steps
- Local Transport Plan - consultation ends 29/07/11
- Review of Polling Districts, Places and Stations - ends 5/8/11
- Review of Oswestry parish boundaries - consultation ends 15/9/11
- Homelessness Strategy - consultation ends 30/09/11
- Traffic Regulation Orders - ongoing
For details of all the consultations visit: www.shropshire.gov.uk/consultations
Government plans on opening public services (see News item above)
The government published its White Paper on reforming public services, titled 'Open Public Services', on Monday (11th July). It contains a number of "questions for consultation", and there is also a consultation website at: http://www.openpublicservices.cabinetoffice.gov.uk. The deadline appears to be "the middle of September".
5. Compact
No news this issue - check the next newsletter for more Compact news.
If you would like to become a Compact Champion please email me, Sarah Dodds, firstname.lastname@example.com or telephone 01743 252740.
Have you got a Compact story? Email firstname.lastname@example.com and share it with others.
6. Career Opportunities
Job Vacancies - Landau Ltd.
Training Officer
Hours of work: 22.5 hours (Part time)
Location: Sub Regional remit (Stoke, Shropshire, Wednesbury) Office base to be confirmed
Salary: £23k per annum pro rata
Advert Part Time Training Officer (27.37KB)
Quality Assurance Manager
Hours of work: 22.5 hours (Part time)
Location: Sub regional remit (Stoke, Shropshire, Wednesbury) Office base to be confirmed
Salary: 23k per annum - pro rata
Advert Part Time Quality Assurance Manager (27.98KB)
Please see the attached details and application form. The deadline for returning applications is 29 July 2011. Applicants will need to complete the application form and submit to: Hilary Oliver HR Officer at Landau, 5 Landau Court, Tan Bank, Wellington, TF1 1HE or email completed application form to email@example.com Telephone: 01952 221467.
Application form Llandau Ltd (275KB)
More career opportunities are advertised on the Shropshire Infrastructure Partnership website. Visit: www.ShropshireVCS.org.uk
7. Important Reminders
News Items
VCS Assembly Recession Survey - REMINDER
Since 2009 the VCS Assembly Board has led work to monitor the impact of the recession and undertaken an annual survey. It is really important to communicate current issues and pressures and I would be very grateful for your input. Please complete on-line:
Mapping Big Society - Shropshire in top 5
A new report from localism think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) published on the 29 June shows which areas of the country are most ready to benefit and which are most at risk from the Government's Big Society agenda.
A map of areas across England giving their "Big Society score" is available on The Guardian's Datablog. Sorting the data by score shows that Shropshire has the 5th highest Big Value Score.
See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jun/29/big-society-data-mapped
National Community Organisers recruitment begins (from VolResource)
The recruitment process for the first 30 senior community organisers under the government's Community Organisers programme has started, Locality has announced. Once in place at eleven 'kickstarter' organisations around England, they will be trained by Re:generate.
CAF launches new social investment fund
The Charities Aid Foundation has launched a new social investment fund, the CAF Social Impact Fund, where people can invest their "charitable capital" to provide loans for charities. https://www.cafonline.org/my.../social.../caf-social-impact-fund.aspx
WMEN Training Programme, Summer 2011
For information on all courses see:
NCVO Trustee Conference - 31 October 2011
Booking for the VCVO conference has now opened.
Visit: www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/trusteeconference2011 or contact Sue Beckett on 020 7520 3153, email@example.com
NCVO/VSSN Researching the Voluntary Sector Conference 2011
7 and 8 September 2011
See the following web page for details and how to book. http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/researchconf11#what
Trustees' Week 2011
This year's event will run from 31st October to 6th November. See Charity Commission news item at: http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/RSS/News/pr_trustees_2011.aspx.
Current Shropshire Council Consultations
- Local Transport Plan - consultation ends 29/07/11
- Review of Polling Districts, Places and Stations - ends 5/8/11
- Review of Oswestry parish boundaries - consultation ends 15/9/11
- Traffic Regulation Orders - ongoing
For details please see:
Bus Strategy
The Bus Strategy for Shropshire 2011 - 2016 consultation has been included in previous newsletters. The consultation process is now complete; the final report which was approved by Cabinet on Wednesday 11 May can be viewed at: www.shropshire.gov.uk/transportconsultation as well as a summary of the forthcoming changes to services. Should you require any further information regarding these changes please do not hesitate to contact the Passenger Transport Team on 01743 253013 or email firstname.lastname@example.com . For details of all bus timetables in Shropshire please contact Traveline on 0871 200 22 33 or visit www.traveline.info
VAT on cost sharing arrangements
A consultation on how the European VAT cost sharing exemption might be used in the UK has been started by HM Revenue and Customs. Responses by 30th September to:
Implementing the charitable legacies incentive
HM Revenue and Customs is consulting on the proposals around implementing a lower rate of inheritance tax when leaving 10% of an estate to charity, as announced in the Budget earlier this year. Responses will be used in developing the detail of the policy for encouraging charitable legacies. Deadline 31 August.
Shropshire used as National Case Study
Compact working in Shropshire has been highlighted as a national good practice case study.
Herefordshire's Compact out for consultation
See: http://consult.herefordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/compact/consultationHome
As usual please send details of any events, news items and other opportunities you would like to share with others.
Best wishes
Sarah Dodds
VCS Assembly Coordinator
Telephone 01743 252740
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: www.2shrop.net/shropvcsassembly


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Pretty Cheesy
We're not quite sure why anyone would nacho-ize this year's Best Picture nominees. But someone did anyway.
Ever wondered what a sombrero-clad Leonardo DiCaprio standing knee-deep in liquid Velveeta might look like? Head over to Nachos NY to check out the posters for this year's Best Picture nominees, nacho-ized. Then again, if that's nacho sense of humor (sorry), carry on. [Nachos NY]

subset: commoncrawl


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'The Young and the Restless' was seen by nearly five million viewers during the most recently documented Nielsen Ratings' week. Has a spring renewal begun for CBS' recently maligned iconic soap opera?
It's been a few months since Michael Muhney and Billy Miller veered off the road and the screen. Prior to their departures, Michelle Stafford and Sharon Case had one last tiff, which caused 'Phyllis' to fall down the steps and enter into a comatose state.
The late, truly great, dame of daytime, Jeanne Cooper, passed from this plane to the next nearly one spring season ago. Her two-part tribute show serenely spectacular. How fitting that 'Katherine Chancellor' park is often visited by the current occupants of Genoa City.
'Katherine' would be the first to tell 'Jill' (Jess Walton) and their appreciative audience that the past is gone. Viewers who don't take themselves too seriously and recognize that this genre represents escapist entertainment, not a replacement for the real world, still want to follow this afternoon story.
Yes, executive producer Jill Farren Phelps changed the picture. Most new bosses put their print on a workplace that they've been charged to renew.
Opinion is reflective of one's personality type. So, it's natural that a certain segment of YR's audience decided to tune out within the last year. But, they've been replaced by returned and renewed viewers.
As all factions exercise their TV rights, this show goes on.
Follow Sean by clicking on the word 'Subscribe' aside of his photo. Connect with him through social media via Twitter @SeanyOB, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and read his blog Insight.
Suggested Links
- 'The Young and the Restless': Nielsen Ratings' roller coaster questioned
- 'The Young and the Restless': Michael Muhney could channel Roger Thorpe again
- 'The Young and the Restless': Fan boycotts and the big picture
- 'The Young and the Restless': Hunter King shouts at her harasser
- 'American Idol': Fox reality show responds to political opposition


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iPhone and iPod Touch app promo codes to giveaway for the entertainment app Yo Mama courtesy of 100 Proof Software, register if you haven't already done so or log in to enter this giveaway and we will randomly select 10 people and email a promo code to you. This Giveaway ends on the 2nd June 2009, Good Luck!
Enjoy the best and most original Yo Mama jokes anywhere. 'Yo Mama' includes over 150 of the best brand new jokes that you've never heard before. You'll have your friends cracking up like never before. Email your favorite jokes to them right from the application. They'll all be wondering where you're getting all of these new amazing jokes from.
Have a look at our screenshots to see a small sample of what we're talking about. All of the jokes are grouped by category, always at your fingertips.
Categories include:
- Yo mama so stupid...
- Yo mama so fat...
- Yo mama so old...
- Yo mama so poor...
- Yo mama so ugly...
- Yo mama so ...?...
Quality over quantity. Sure we could provide you with hundreds of the same old tired jokes you've heard 100 times, but if 75% of them are corny, then why waste your time browsing through them. Only the best and most original jokes make the cut.
Help us make this the definitive collection of 'Yo Mama' jokes. Have a great original 'Yo Mama' joke that's not here? Simply email it to us and if it's good, we'll include it in a future update.
Some of our Feedback:
"Best iPhone/iTouch app on the market today. Buy it. Now. If you don't, yo momma is going to slap you silly." -Giggles
"This app is the best, I can't help but to laugh. Worth 100% of that dollar." -Four Fingered Joe
Screen Shots:
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The Lucky Winners of this Giveaway are:


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True Story
Follow Sarah as she makes her journey from a sucessful career in a male dominated sector and a dangerous hobby racing cars around the UK.
Her life takes a complete turn when she becomes a mother & life will never be the same again.
This is a humorous read, taking you through childbirth, and terror two's
Its a must read for any mums or mums to be. !!
Well what can I say about myself. I have now hit middle age, aghhh, but loving life with my wonderful husband & two adorable Kids( well most of the time they are adorable). My first book has just be released, its a worts & all account of my life, motor racing and then becoming a mother. Any mums will laugh along with it as they realise its not just them!. Im now starting another story, which will prob take a couple of years like this one. Thanks you viewing
Comentario publicado.
Inicia sesión o crea una cuenta para publicar un comentario.
Did It Really Happen ? Publicado 23 de septiembre de 2012
Wedding Publicado 09 de junio de 2011


text: I was curious how you get 'Tools' to appear on the GraphicsMenu? I was digging through the GraphicsMenu.java class and I see it spawns a separate JVM for running Samples, but it the jar counts as a 'tool' it runs it in the same jvm as the menu. - Edit - I did build EV3Menu.jar from master branch, and it seems the Tools menu appears now. It wouId seem since resources are so tight you would want to run the apps in the same JVM so it doesn't have to start/stop over and over and run 2 jvms? Is there a reason for this, perhaps the Samples due to memory leaks in in the DBusJava or ev3classes projects? tried making a /home/root/lejos/tools dir and put a sample jar in there but I don't see 'Tools' on the main menu (-EDIT- built my own EV3Menu.jar and it appears now),


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Torbus has definitely seen an effect of the low market in certain areas, plus she sees the U.S. market leveling off a bit. She explained, "I would say the consumption dropped. It's starting to pick up right now. It had quite a large effect in our European market, but it didn't have an effect when it went out towards the Russian countries. That market actually stayed the same. It's because it's the same thing as it was a few years ago in the eastern block countries where it's a novelty, it's a new product. People want something a little more exclusive than, for example, what they were drinking before. I think the market there is only going to grow. Where you come here in the U.S, the market becomes saturated. There's only a certain amount of truckloads that you can get out some place. And then once everybody's tried something once, then they slow down."
In terms of quality, like many others, Torbus believes that coffee drinkers are much more savvy. "I think our market is getting more specific. People are not into just coffee anymore. They are more specific into what type of coffee they drink. They want something with flavor. The soluble coffee industry depends on the vitality of its members. While few observers have predicted its demise, many have suggested that it is both losing relevance and becoming moribund. Judging from the preceding comments, however, it seems that the opposite view might paint a clearer picture of the soluble coffee industry's status at present."
Timothy J. Castle is the president of Castle Communications, a company specializing in marketing and public relations for the coffee and tea industries. He is also the co-author (with Joan Nielsen) of The Great Coffee Book, recently published by Ten Speed Press, and the author of The Perfect Cup (Perseus Books). He may be reached at (310) 479-7370 or via e-mail at: firstname.lastname@example.com.
Terms and Conditions of Website Use.
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If it wasn't obvious by the fact this game has TWO subtitles (the full name is "CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW: MIRROR OF FATE"), Konami is being very, very careful not to attach Mercury Steam's Castlevania games to the rest of the franchise canon, and with games like Mirror of Fate, I don't blame them.
Mirror of Fate wants to be a "Metroidvania" like the now-legendary Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. And it fails. Hard.
Castlevania is not unlike Sonic the Hedgehog in that its gameplay is very much a product of the 2D viewpoint in which it used to be typically viewed. When you shift the perspective to 3D, all of the rules change so dramatically that you have to rethink nearly every piece of how the game is constructed. The NES Castlevania's whip motion is not something that can be directly translated to 3D.
This is why, for so many years, you had bad 3D Castlevania games. Nobody at Konami could figure out how that game was supposed to work in the third dimension. Then came along David Jaffe and his team made God of War, a game that, when you really boil it down, is "Castlevania but for Roman Mythology". Kratos' dual chains are really just Castlevania whips, but rather than a forward striking motion, they become sweeping area attacks that hit multiple enemies in a radius around the player - something essential for combat in the third dimension. He cracked the code.
And so Mercury Steam decided to "borrow" from God of War to make Lords of Shadow, which appropriates all of the sweeping area attacks for its whip-based gameplay. And, to a certain extent, it worked! It was a bit clunky and probably overstayed its welcome, but it was the best attempt at a 3D Castlevania Konami had ever put out. Mission kinda-sorta accomplished, I guess. The problem being is that Mercury Steam's Castlevania has now apparently superseded the "real" Castlevania games, and instead of your typical Koji Igarashi 2D Castlevania romp, we get a pale imitation in the form of Mirror of Fate - a game that perhaps exposes Mercury Steam's total lack of understanding of what makes a Castlevania game.
Mirror of Fate mistakenly tries to take the 3D gameplay of Lords of Shadow and flatten it down in to a 2D plane. Now you're playing a God of War game where you cannot dodge side to side, only forward or backward. And despite the move to the 2D plane, Mercury Steam decided to retain the combat system from the 3D game - Trevor has "direct" attacks and "area" attacks, but what this generally means is that you have very little incentive to get up close and personal with enemies because area attacks literally hit just about anything on screen in a single swipe. I'm assuming direct attacks do more damage, but I never cared enough to check because area attacks did the job well enough.
Because of this, often your attacks don't even phase enemies. this is to stop you from just tearing through everything and force the player to actually bother to dodge or block an enemy's offense. And you'll want to - enemies seem to deal almost a quarter of your lifebar if they manage to land a hit on normal difficulty. In 2D Castlevania games, enemies were not something you had epic, protracted battles with, but Mirror of Fate really wants you to stand around and whip giant shielded skeletons for minutes at a time - but there's no finesse to it, no depth. Mash until it dies, maybe wait for it to lower its guard so you can attack it directly. Ho-hum.
The rest of the demo doesn't fare much better: platforming is extremely poor, and not explained terribly well. So much of the demo holds your hand, telling you exactly where to go and what buttons to push at any given time that the couple of times where they don't do that lead to me running around in circles for ten minutes wondering where to go and just sort of mashing random buttons until the right thing happened. Case in point: Once you get through the opening area of the castle, you get inside a cathedral to find your first sub weapon and fight some bats. Clear the bats out and now you have to scale the interior. The problem: there's a flashing ledge that you clearly need to do something with, but my initial attempts to grab on to it yielded no results.
In Mirror of Fate, the R button is the designated "grab stuff/read stuff" button, but for whatever reason, Trevor Belmont simply refused to grab the ledge. Eventually I found that when I dashed in to it and held the L button, he grabbed - though I would later find out that the L button was completely unnecessary for ledge grabbing; for whatever reason (a bug, perhaps), Trevor just refused to grab the ledge the first five times I touched it.
So now I've grabbed the ledge and I'm on an alcove and… now what? There's a flashing blue rope to my right. Seems pretty obvious to me that this is a grapple point, so much like Super Castlevania 4, I jump off and whip at the glowing point on the rope. Nothing happens. I try again, getting closer. Nothing. Maybe it's the wrong kind of whip? Direct whips don't work, area whips don't work. Jump at it and dash. Nope. No good. Eventually I have to pause the game and look it up that the R button is for grapple points - even though everything else in this demo so far that uses the R button comes up with specific text saying, "PRESS THE R BUTTON RIGHT NOW TO DO A THING". Not this time, apparently.
Furthermore, once grappled, the only way to jump out is… not to press the jump button, but to press R again. Now, this isn't a huge deal, but it's one of those little aggravating things where you just go "Why would you do it this way?" The solution is functional but not ideal, because my first instinct to jump out of an action is ALWAYS going to be pressing the jump button. Doing it any other way makes the developer look like they are staffed by space aliens who don't know how earthlings work. And after the sequence of events I just suffered through - mysterious, unclear game mechanic after mysterious unclear game mechanic, that does not seem too far off from the truth.
So I grapple and jump across these chandeliers and get to the other end of the cathedral where the platforms get much smaller and the distance between them gets to be much larger. I'm supposed to use the grapple here, but because of level geometry, a grapple point gets obscured and I end up trying to make a jump using a complicated ledge grab, which actually works - but after I safely make the jump, only then do I notice the glowing blue grapple point. Figuring it's an item I can pick up, I jump off the platform, collect nothing, and fall straight back to the ground floor again - taking fall damage on top of it all.
Fall damage. In a 2D Castlevania game. I almost shut my 3DS off right there.
Fall damage is typically reserved for games which are trying to be "realistic". Super Mario Bros. did not have fall damage, but Prince of Persia did, because Prince of Persia was about a real human person going through a dungeon to save a princess. Super Mario 64 had fall damage, but quickly thought better of it for future 3D Mario games. Castlevania, in all of its incarnations, has never been a "realistic" game. Not even Mirror of Fate, which has you fighting giant demonic bats using a whip and electrically-charged Romanian ninja stars. But here it is, and here I am missing half of my health bar because somebody can't design levels to be clear and understandable. It wasn't a jump that looked like I needed to be use the grapple to reach it, so why would I even try? And obviously I made it without needing to grapple, to boot! On my first try!
So after some more swinging and ledge grabbing I finally make it up to this gear which opens the path somewhere else - at this point I will admit to not really paying attention all too well to what was going on, as I had passed my frustration threshold a while ago. What I do notice, however, is that a new grapple point has appeared up by the gear. I use it and swing across to a grab-able ledge I used to get up here. Except… wait. Trevor doesn't grab the ledge. Instead, he plummets straight to the ground - the fall damage so great, that it instantly kills him. Great. Thanks.
It restarts me back up by the gear, and only now do I notice the problem: the ledges I used to ascend up to the gear are no longer flashing. Ostensibly, Trevor has decided he doesn't need to use those ledges anymore, so you can't grab them to make your way back down. Just to make sure, I swing out to those ledges again, and Trevor completely ignores them, going from a full health bar down to zero thanks to fall damage. I'm flabbergasted. I have no speech.
Is this game design? What is this? It's not fun. It's not even logical. The grapple point even suggests that I'm SUPPOSED to swing out to those ledges, because there's certainly nothing else to swing to. Using a safer, more clunky method, I climb down and continue in to some sort of catacombs or crypt. It's rather unremarkable save for moments where I can't tell the background apart from the foreground and flashing walls to clearly denote "HEY, YOU CAN WALL JUMP HERE, AND ONLY HERE". I didn't want freedom anyway.
Which is a re-occurring theme. Eventually I hit some kind of symbol - the game tells me to press the R button while standing over it, in which I am told: "This requires Shadow Magic. Come back once you get it." A statue later in the demo tells me the exact same thing - but instead, it wants Light Magic. It's the notion that it has to tell me to come back that's the problem - Super Metroid never spelled it out in human english, "you need super missiles to open this door, come back later". That was a mystery you had to deduce on your own. Apparently people were smarter in 1994 than they are now.
The demo is capped off with a boss encounter - and it's one of those bosses with a health meter that is entirely too long for as simple as it is to bait in to a pattern. As long as you keep your distance, the boss will charge in to a wall and dizzy itself, giving you a significant opening for counter-attack. Repeat ad nauseum.
While you could just say, "it was a bad demo", there are things in this demo that showcase a developer that seems fairly clueless as to how to make a game like this. The only thing that would save it in my eyes would be the promise of them either delaying the game or issuing a patch - but it would have to be a pretty significant patch, all told.


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Do you want to buy a home? If you need a home loan to do so, you will need to obtain a mortgage lender's pre-approval of your financial qualifications. The lender's pre-approval should be in writing before you make a purchase offer. Most lenders will need the following documents:
- Two most recent pay stubs,
- Last two years' w-2s and/or 1099's,
- Last two years' federal tax return with all pages and corporate returns,
- Two most recent consecutive months' bank statements for all asset bank accounts,
- For borrowers with corporations, a "profit and loss" statement for the business.
This may seem like a burdensome amount of documentation. It is! That is because you are borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a third party. Unfortunately, the bank cannot just take your word for it that you will be able to pay that huge amount back. They will want to go over your finances with a fine-tooth comb.
Here's some good news. Assembling all this paperwork will make it much easier and quicker to shop in advance for a loan and and lender. So, if you are thinking of buying property in the near future, now is a good time to put all your financial records together.


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I'm Kelly Rheel.
I'm 35, I'm single and I live with my cat in Queens, even though I was supposed to be independently wealthy, world-renowned and living on a yacht in the Mediterranean by now. I'm not really sure what went wrong. It's possible I got off track when I spent the better part of my twenties being hung over instead of diligently pursuing a career.
I didn't apply myself then. I'm doing it now instead.
At a comfortable pace.
In the meantime, I'm an esthetician, which is a fancy word for groomer. I like to draw and paint and occasionally slap stuff together with glue and for the most part, I'm a vegetarian. Plus I do a lot of traveling and live in an apartment that I love in a pretty funky neighborhood and I'm not rich or anything but I have a good time most days.
When I take all of this into consideration I have to think that, although this life is nothing like I envisioned it to be, it's still pretty awesome. So I'll be happy, as I
tirelessly pursue making it more so.
On the internet:
In the short time that Kelly has been gracing the internet with a presence more substantial than a lackluster Facebook profile, her influence has been felt by employees bored at work, the world over. For starters, Kelly is a regular contributor to xojane.com (you can say that if you've had more than one article published, right?) Her first post proved hugely controversial, inspiring heated debates in the form of over one hundred and fifty comments.
You have written one of the funniest spins on schadenfreude I've read in a while!" – Catrina_woman
"This is awful. And made me laugh my ass off." – Gnarmindy
"You are incredibly selfish." – CarlaST
Kelly's second post proved oddly controversial, inspiring over one hundred and eighty comments, yet left her a hero (her words) amongst her fellow estheticians.
Anyone complaining about any aspect of this article (tone, tips, etc) has never worked in a spa/spa-like environment, never mind one that has run a Groupon…" – Sonia
However, some did not agree…
Sounds like the writer needs an article on how not to be a dick." – mathsnail
Kelly's work can also be found on Thought Catalog where readers tend to sit comfortably between completely ignoring her posts or telling her to shove them up her ass. What Kelly believed to be an innocent commentary on a Halloween costume, sparked fury from the likes of Gawker, Bitch Media, Salon, some chick named Batty Mamzelle and this asshole, who went so far as to say she was the worst thing to happen to the internet all week. Before you accuse her of burning crosses on her lawn (as some angry Twitter users were so inclined) please understand that Kelly lives in Queens, where property containing any square inch of grass, let alone enough to support a cross, is well without her budget. Oh! And also, she wrote this follow up, just in case you still aren't convinced she's not the Grand Wizard of the KKK.
On a lighter note however, you can see The Rheel Daze on Buzzfeed.com where Kelly manages to traverse a website without once being called an idiot. Check out her lists here.
In international news, Kelly's incessant ramblings about her cat led to her being the subject of an interview by Sydney, Australia's premiere veterinary website for small animals. Seeing as Kelly loves nothing more than to talk about herself, to date, it is one of the most fun things she has participated in as a blogger. You can read the interview here.
Kelly was a dream to interview on my site. Not only did she respond to my questions, she combed my site, found some better ones and answered those too! And threw in the world's best digitally altered kitty portrait. Then her legions of fans checked out my blog. What's not to love about this woman?" – Anne Fawcett, author of Small Animal Talk.
Kelly's exploits on the internet have even transcended the boundaries of her online persona, creeping unfortunately into her professional life, where she was recently featured on the immensely popular website Yelp.
For my last session, I received my appointment confirmation with the name of the techniciaion who would be doing my treatment. I was bored and googled her name, Kelly R (name suppressed), and up popped a blog with a big fat entry on how she hates people with Groupons and how they never tip when they should, or if they do, not enough. I was so tempted to cancel my appointment after reading this (even though I do tip, it was the principle of the matter) but went through with it anyway. She was nice enough during the session." – Allie S
You can see Kelly's response to this review in her post titled Let's Get Rheel – A Conversation With My Boss.
While the internet has yet to truly experience the scope of Kelly's reach, mostly because it's a serious bitch getting published by anything other than a Twitter account, The Rheel Daze continues to to strive towards complete over saturation of the web one cat post at a time.
ANYWAY, if you're interested in working with, or being featured on The Rheel Daze, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com and thanks for dropping by!


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LED street lighting project launch in Kolkata
- Starts
- 12:00AM, 30 November 2010
- Ends
- 12:00AM, 30 November 2010
- Location
- Kolkata, India
The Climate Group is organizing a launch of the LED street lighting project in Kolkata on November 30, 2010. The project is carried out by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in joint collaboration with the Government of India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL), and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB), with overall facilitation of The Climate Group. The project cost is equally shared between Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
With this project, Kolkata now joins a select group of leading global cities, including New York, London, Hong Kong, Toronto, Adelaide, Sydney, Guiyang, Shanghai and Tianjin in launching an LED pilot project as part of The Climate Group's global LightSavers Program. The programme is funded by the HSBC Climate Partnership which supports The Climate Group's pioneering work to create cleaner, greener, more prosperous cities.
The event is targeted at other corporations/development authorities, government departments, among others with the following goals:
- Introduction of the LightSavers Program with the participants
- Sharing of experience by KMC, including challenges faced and their solutions
- Future plans of KMC in extending the project across the corporation
- Site visit
- Next steps of the project with focus on monitoring and verification
The expected outcome is that more agencies develop interest in the intervention and start developing projects.
5.30pm ‐ 6.00pm: Registration/ Tea
6.00pm ‐ 6.10pm: Welcome and introduction to the project and LightSavers Programme – Ms Aditi Dass, Program Manager, Cities, States & Regions, The Climate Group
6.10pm ‐ 6.20pm: HSBC Climate Partnership Program promoting low carbon growth – Ms Malini Thadani, Head, Group Communications and Corporate Sustainability, HSBC India
6.20pm ‐ 6.30pm: Technical presentation on LEDs, Philips Electronics India Ltd.
6.30pm ‐ 6.40pm: Address by Smt. Abha Shukla, Secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency
6.40pm ‐ 6.50pm: Efficient street lighting program – Shri Jiwesh Nandan, Chief Executive Officer, EESL
6.50pm ‐ 7.00pm: Address by Shri Manzar Iqbal – Member, Mayor‐In‐Council (Lighting & Electricity), Kolkata Municipal Corporation
7.00pm ‐ 7.10pm: Address by Shri Arnab Roy – Municipal Commissioner, Kolkata Municipal Corporation
7.10pm ‐ 7.20pm: Address by Shri Sovan Chatterjee – Mayor, Kolkata Municipal Corporation
7.20pm: Vote of thanks – The Climate Group
8.20pm: Site visit


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I am running SSRS 2008R2 x64 on a Windows Server Core 2008 R2 instance. I need to fully uninstall the SSRS instance leaving the DB's in tact. I know this is normally done through the Programs and Features control panel applet, however this does not exist on Server Core. Any ideas for uninstalling via command line?
The MSI file for RS is located at D:\x64\setup\sql_rs.msi. I tried running the command "msiexec /uninstall sql_rs.msi", however the installer is either asking for an instance ID to be passed with it or it tells me there are no instances found. Any ideas as to the verbage of the flag that needs to be passed? I already know the instance ID.


text:
Royalty Free Music & Incredible Ways To Customize It
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text:
Recently in Atlantic 10 Category
Greg Cameron of the Springfield Republican recapped the championship victory while Harry Plumer previews the upcoming play-in contest with a look at the exceptional play of senior defender Thando Zono.
Matt Vautour of the Daily Hampshire Gazette was also present for UMass' 2012 Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship and highlighted Zono and the scoring ability the Minutewomen possess.
Peter Cappiello highlighted the impact Zono had while discussing UMass' 5-0 victory over Richmond.
More coverage of the upcoming contest with Rider can be found through UMassAthletics.com, including a link for live stats.
The Atlantic 10 Conference has set up a page on its website with information related to the event for fans.
UMass, as the host of the event, will also provide coverage of the entire championship through UMassAthletics.com and a tournament central page, including live statistics and web streaming.
Peter Cappiello spoke to the UMass field hockey team to preview this weekend's action for the Daily Collegian.
Harry Plumer of the Springfield Republican stopped by practice this week to speak with a few members of the squad in anticipation of the championship.
Sophomore Lauren Allymohamed was tabbed the Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year - the fourth consecutive season a UMass student-athlete earned the laurel - while second-year head coach Carla Tagliente was named the Coach of the Year.
Read up more on each of the awards UMass received here or through the official Atlantic 10 release.
Mike Moran covered the victory over No. 1 Syracuse for the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Peter Cappiello with the Daily Collegian recapped the hard-fought upset of No. 1 Syracuse, which included a goal for the ages from senior defender Thando Zono.
J. Anthony Roberts provided a photo gallery and Harry Plumer added a short recap for the Springfield Republican following the defeat of No. 1 Syracuse.
Matt Levine with the Daily Collegian had coverage of UMass' strong play against conference opponents this weekend.
The Atlantic 10 Conference named Zono to its players of the week listing for her efforts while sophomore defender Lauren Allymohamed was named the UMass Athlete of the Week.
Chaz Williams took the conference by storm in his first season in the Atlantic-10 and only figures to be more of a menace in 2012-13. Potentially the Preseason Conference Player of the Year, Williams should give UMass coach Derek Kellogg one of the league's best back courts with he and talented wing Jesse Morgan, a 6-foot-5 wing who seemed to get better every team he took on the floor. If big man Cady Lalanne can stay healthy and form a potent baseline with Terrell Vinson and Raphiael Putney, the Minutemen should be in position to compete for a conference title and a berth to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a quite a while.
The guidelines for the competition are intentionally broad to provide maximum flexibility in the video submissions. Campus SAAC organizations that entered this year's competition have taken advantage of the incredible opportunity to raise awareness of bullying, through their creative and powerful messages.
The online vote will be open and conducted Friday, March 23 through Sunday, April 1. The campus SAAC votes will also be due on the final day of the online voting (Sunday, April 1), with the winner being announced on Tuesday, April 3.
The inaugural competition, which took place during 2010-11 academic year, involved the creation of videos that promoted an NCAA or institutional core value (e.g., sportsmanship, sense of community, commitment to service, academic and athletic excellence), or an ideal that student-athletes are especially proud of or passionate about. There were a total of seven institutional entries for this first-ever competition. The competition generated over 3,100 online votes, with roughly 40 percent of those votes going to the University of Dayton (1,204), which sealed their victory in the first-ever competition and they also finished second in the campus SAAC vote.
"Some 30, 35 different colleges were entered [in the Varsity Four]," said Head Coach Jim Dietz. "The Second Varsity Eight rowed tremendously, I think that's pretty exciting racing."
The Minutewomen are off to the Atlantic 10 Championships tomorrow, which are scheduled to begin at 8 AM on the Cooper River.
UMass Winter Scholar-Athlete Luncheon - Cerie Mosgrove, Sean Busch. Speeches by Female honoree Cerie Mosgrove (women's basketball), Associate Head Coach Steve Lanpher, Professor Glenn Wong and Track & Field Coach Ken O'Brien. Busch was unable to attend.
Nick Bellofatto of the Daily Collegian has a story on the UMass Swimming & Diving teams' performances at the A-10 Championships this past weekend in Buffalo. The Minutemen claimed their fifth-straight and 13th overall title, while the Minutewomen put in a very strong performance, placing third. It was a tremendously successful meet on both sides as numerous school records fell. In addition, the following individuals were recognized:
Women's Most Outstanding Diver: Molly Elkins
Women's Diving Coach of the Year: Mandy Hixon
Men's Most Outstanding Rookie: Chris Inglis
Men's Most Outstanding Diver: Jason Cook
Men's Co-Coach of the Year: Russ Yarworth
Men's Diving Coach of the Year: Mandy Hixon
For a complete list of honorees, click here, or to read the complete release from the Atlantic 10, click here
Checkout this notebook blurb about the men's track and field team from over the weekend. Dick Baker from The Springfield Republican highlights the career of Ken O'Brien, and the success of his squad through the 2011 season.
(note: scroll down to middle of the page)
Over the weekend the Minutemen crowned four A-10 Champions.
"The Massachusetts women's rowing program has also grabbed the attention of many in the A-10. The Minutewomen, under the tutelage of legendary coach Jim Dietz, won its 12th straight Atlantic 10 Championship in 2007 -- the most consecutive A-10 crowns won by any team, in any sport. Dietz, who is in his 17th season at the helm, has guided his teams to 54 Atlantic 10 gold medals in 14 league championship events. He has been honored as the A-10 Coach of the Year seven times."
In recognition of its 35th-year anniversary, the Atlantic 10 Conference is unveiling 35 Years of A-10 History. Major accomplishments and features were collected from each year, and in the conference's No. 4 Highlight, the impact of the 1972 enactment of Title IX and the contributions of women's athletics to the Atlantic 10 is the focus.Featured in the No. 4 Highlight is the incredible success experienced by the UMass softball program over the last 31 years under the guidance of head coach Elaine Sortino.
"Under Sortino's direction, UMass has accumulated 22 Atlantic 10 Conference titles and has never suffered a losing season. Sortino has proven her ability to produce exceptional talent during her 31-years at the helm, coaching 27 All-Americans, 13 A-10 Players of the Year, 16 A-10 Pitcher of the Year picks, eight A-10 Rookie of the Year honorees and 116 all-conference selections."
The Massachusetts field hockey team knows the position of the underdog tournament host. It was in that position just last season when it hosted No. 1 seed Richmond. Read the full preview in the Daily Coellgian.
First Team
Lavoy Allen, Temple
Kevin Anderson, Richmond
Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Damian Saunders, Duquesne
Chris Wright, Dayton
Second Team
Juan Fernandez, Temple
Chris Gaston, Fordham
Tu Holloway, Xavier
Delroy James, Rhode Island
Shamari Spears, Charlotte
Third Team
Chris Braswell, Charlotte
Cody Ellis, Saint Louis
Chris Johnson, Dayton
Lasan Kromah, George Washington
Aaric Murray, La Salle
All-Defensive Team
Lavoy Allen, Temple
Kevin Anderson, Richmond
Dante Jackson, Xavier
Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Damian Saunders, Duquesne
All-Rookie Team
C.J. Aiken, Saint Joseph's
Langston Galloway, Saint Joseph's
Jordan Latham, Xavier
Rob Loe, Saint Louis
Juwan Staten, Dayton
Preseason Poll (# first place votes), Total Points
1 - Temple (19), 350
2 - Xavier (3), 325
3 - Richmond (3), 311
4 - Dayton (1), 310
5 - Rhode Island, 233
6 - Saint Louis, 223
7 - Charlotte, 218
8 - Duquesne, 172
9 - La Salle, 133
10 - George Washington, 130
11 - Massachusetts, 126
12 - Saint Joseph's, 91
13 - St. Bonaventure, 80
14 - Fordham, 28
Herb Scribner has a sidebar in Tuesday's Collegian regarding corner kicks last weekend. "Thus far in the 2010 campaign, the Minutemen have given up 59 corner kicks, with 15 of them coming in the first two A-10 matches alone."
The Minutewomen will host the Pumpkin Head Regatta this Saturday at 8 AM on the Connecticut River.
Check out the Daily Collegian preview of this weekend's matches: Minutewomen open conference play over weekend
Michael Counos also has a sidebar on the expected return of senior forward Sydney Stoll, UMass' leading scorer from a year ago: Minutewomen looking for Stoll's return to spark run.


text:
"The Flash" Adds "Harry Potter" Star Tom Felton as Series Regular
Start Time: 08:00PM End Time: 09:00PM
A LOOK BACK THE FIRST SEASON WITH AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT SEASON TWO — This one-hour special gives fans a chance to catch up on the incredible events that led billionaire Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) to secretly create the persona of Arrow. Five years after being lost at sea, Oliver returns to Starling City to carry out his father's dying wish: take down the corrupt elite who have failed his city. The special follows Oliver as he delivers vigilante justice and discovers that the real threat to his city is far greater than he ever imagined. An exclusive first look at season two is included. The special also stars Katie Cassidy, Colin Donnell, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Colton Haynes, Manu Bennett, Susanna Thompson and Paul Blackthorne.
This event was submitted by CBR.
|Follow @cbr


text:
Available for Adoption:
Angel Renee
7 Years
Jack Russell Terrier
Pet ID Number: C26992
How to adopt
All pets over 12 weeks are spayed or neutered.
We give a free spay/neuter certificate to those adopting kittens or puppies.
| Angel was brought to the shelter when her family could no longer care for her. She is housebroken, good with kids, quiet and playful.
$100.00 adoption fee.
ANGEL RENEE has received monthly sponsorship care from loving donors. Louis and Susan Greer are sponsoring ANGEL RENEE. Thank you, Louis and Susan, for your loving support!


text:
The promise of Big Data has been courting many a CIO for years now, the allure being that all the data they have on everything can be fed into some giant engine that will then spit out insights for them. However like all things the promise and the reality are vastly different beasts and whilst there are examples of Big Data providing never before seen insights it hasn't really revolutionized industries in the way other technologies have. A big part of that is that Big Data tools aren't push button solutions, requiring a deep understanding of data science in order to garner the insights you seek. IBM's Watson however is a much more general purpose engine, one that I believe could potentially deliver on the promises that its other Big Data compatriots have made.
The problem I see with most Big Data solutions is that they're not generalizable, I.E. a solution that's developed for a specific data set (say a logistics company wanting to know how long it takes a package to get from one place to another) will likely not be applicable anywhere else. This means whilst you have the infrastructure and capability to generate insights the investment required to attain them needs to be reapplied every time you want to look at the data in a different way or if you have other data that requires similar insights to be derived from it. Watson on the other hand falls more into the category of a general purpose data engine that can ingest all sorts of data and provide meaningful insights, even to things you wouldn't expect like helping to author a cookbook.
The story behind how that came about is particularly interesting as it showed what I feel is the power of Big Data without the required need to have a data science degree to exploit it. Essentially Watson was fed with over 9000 (ha!) recipes from Bon Appétit's database which was then supplemented with the knowledge it has around flavour profiles. It then used all this information to derive new combinations that you wouldn't typically think of and then provided them back to the chefs to prepare. Compared to traditional recipes the ingredient lists that Watson provided were much longer and involved however the results (which should be mostly attributed to the chefs preparing them) were well received showing that Watson did provide insight that would otherwise have been missed.
That'd just be an impressive demonstration of data science if it wasn't for the fact that Watson is now being used to provide similar levels of insight across a vast number of industries from medical to online shopping to even matching remote workers with employers seeking their skills. Whilst it's far short of what most people would class as a general AI (it's more akin to a highly flexible expert system on the data it's provided) Watson has shown that it can be fed a wide variety of data sets and can then be queried in a relatively straightforward way. It's that last part that I believe is the secret sauce to making Big Data usable and it could be the next big thing for IBM.
Whether or not they can capitalize on that though is what will determine if Watson becomes the one Big Data platform to rule them all or simply an interesting footnote in the history of expert systems. Watson has already proven its capabilities numerous times over so fundamentally it's ready to go and the responsibility now resides with IBM to make sure it gets in the right hands to further develop it. Watson's presence is growing slowly but I'm sure a killer app isn't too far off for it.
I'm absolutely terrible at cooking. It's not that I can't follow a recipe or anything like that, more it's to do with the fact that I don't particularly enjoy the cooking process all that much, seeing it as more of a necessity rather than something that can be enjoyed for its own right. There's a few reasons for this, mostly being that I've got many other things I'd rather be doing, but I've also got something of a weird attitude to food that I can trace back to my childhood. Essentially it's something of a disinterest in eating, something which I've struggled with as I've transformed myself from a 185CM 65kg person into the 90KG man beast I am today, So you can then imagine when I saw Soylent I instantly drew parallels to my own life and I was drawn in by the promise of convenience and optimal nutrition.
Soylent, for those who are unaware, is a food replacement product that's the brainchild of Rob Rhineheart, a Y-Combinator alum who's background is in electrical engineering, computer science and the Silicon Valley scene. It's goal is to be a nutritionally complete food replacement that contains all the necessary things to keep your body going, and nothing that it doesn't. Rhineheart has been working on this formula for quite some time, documenting his escapades on his personal blog, and has been fine tuning it based on how his body has been reacting to his use of it. Since he's still alive and doesn't appear to be suffering any ill effects there appears to be some credence to his claims although, as always, this is the Internet so it's not surprising that a healthy dose of skepticism has been thrown his way.
As someone who already consumes quite a bit of liquid calories the appeal of Soylent to me was the fact that I could have it as an on-demand meal replacement that wasn't stupendously expensive. You see whilst I work out a lot more than your average person the kind of gains I see are quite limited and that's entirely due to the fact that I struggle to get enough calories in me to support said gains. Soylent then could prove to be the kicker to get me over my current gain hump as well as being that convenient meal replacement that I could go to when I just couldn't be bothered going down to the shops to pick something up. Of course I had to start doing some digging to find out if Soylent could really do all the things it said it could do and this is where things started to unravel a bit.
The idea of a nutritionally complete meal replacement isn't new with the most prevalent product being Ensure Complete. These products are pretty expensive by comparison however with a typical daily intake being almost an order of magnitude more expensive than Soylent claims it will be. However these other products were developed by people who are in the business of doing this and whilst I'd love to believe that Rhineheart managed to cram decades worth of biology and nutrition information into Soylent you can't really be confident in his expertise in this area. He does say he's been consulting with experts and that all his ingredients are FDA approved however that doesn't mean the end product is safe, especially if it's going to people's sole source of nutrition.
Indeed whilst many of the short term experiments appear to have positive outlooks I can't help but feel that Soylent may be overreaching with some its claims. This is somewhat par for the course in Silicon Valley as in order to attract attention over there you have to be "disrupting" or "reinventing" something in order to get noticed but this isn't a photo sharing app, it's a product that's being marketed as being the last source of food you'll ever need. In that regard I feel they need to temper people's expectations as it's entirely possible that Soylent works brilliantly for the precious few who've tried it (read: relatively slim IT folks, most of whom already have a healthy lifestyle) and could be an absolute train wreck for others. This is true of all nutrition and I don't see why the current mono-formula of Soylent would be any different.
In all honesty I really want something like this to be real, safe and successful as I know it's a product that I would end up using. However at the same time I want it to be based on solid science with the appropriate trials and review mechanisms done in order to ensure its safety. This is the same amount of scrutiny I've applied to all the other supplements and powders I've ingested over the years and I'm not about to break my rule just because it's coming from Silicon Valley. I'm hopeful that the Soylent crew will eventually get to that point but for now I'm going to plant myself firmly on the fence.
Just a quick post to send out seasons greetings to everyone who I won't be able to see in person today. I trust you're having a brilliant time wherever you are, enjoying the company of loved ones and indulging yourselves in the usual festive feasts. I know I'll probably set for the next few days after 2 hearty family meals, I should probably skip breakfast just to make room.
So enjoy yourselves, take care and I'll see you back here when I've recovered 😉
Even though I've only been in this hotel for the past 2 nights it was already beginning to feel so normal to wake up here that it just felt like any other weekend when I opened the curtains. The bright light flooded the room revealing a bright and sunny day with the overcast clouds of the past couple days banished to the far reaches of the horizon. Still Canada's fast approaching winter made sure that any heat gained from the sun was quickly swept away by a crisp westerly wind leaving us just a little warmer than the day before. It wouldn't matter too much today though since we were going to downtown Montreal to do some shopping and to soak in a bit of the local culture.
After driving around looking for parking we finally found a place that wasn't too far from Laura's old university. She regaled us with stories of the different places and how they'd changed over the years. One of the buildings we went by was newly built by her old university for the engineering department. Seeing it made my heart soar as it reminded me of how the University of Canberra shut down its engineering department due to lack of interest. If such a magnificent building was only just erected it meant that the engineering profession was alive and well here, and had the funding to go along with it.
As usual our late rise from slumber put our first meal of the day firmly in the lunch category and since we were near Laura's old haunts we eventually settled on a crepe house that also did all day breakfasts. The food was cheap but surprisingly filling leaving all of us pawing at the remains whilst we finished off our coffee. I have still yet to find a place that does anything resembling the coffee I'm used to (and was spoiled with on my last trip to Melbourne) so downing the rest of the brown liquid was more for the caffeine than anything else. We started to head down towards the main shopping drag which contains Montreal's Underground City, a large shopping complex with multiple subterranean levels.
We wandered around the place for hours checking out all the local and chain shops that made up this giant underground maze. It had 4 different areas that all had their own distinct architectural style to them, ranging from giant multi-floor underground atriums to densely packed strips of shops where no space had been wasted. The christmas flair had already been brought out as well with ornaments dotting most of the shops and a giant tree in the middle of one of the large atriums festooned with all sorts of mechatronics that puts anything I've seen in Australia to shame. After trying to find a few items and failing we decided we should begin making our way to our dinner spot since it was booked for a rather early 6:00pm.
We arrived there with about an hour and a half to spare so we hit up one of the local cafes to burn a bit of that time. Their coffee was the closest thing I've had to what I'd call proper coffee since I left Australia over two weeks ago so it was refreshing to say the least. After stealing their wifi for an hour we ducked out to grab a couple bottles of wine before going to grab our seats. Interestingly enough the wine here is extremely cheap with most bottles going for under $20. Couple that with the fact that it's considered unusual to charge corkage and the number of bottles that adorned our table was close to one per person, a queue for what the rest of the night would entail.
Laura's friend from work had arranged this dinner for us and she had also brought her husband and another couple along for the night. Usually my innate shyness would take over here and I'd sit quietly at the end of the table, enjoying the food and being happy with just listening. However since we're strangers in a foreign land the conversation flowed with topics of comparisons between Canada and Australia, with subjects from the trivial to the enthralling. Even though I didn't have a terrible amount in common with these guys I still felt like we hit it off well, especially considering we kicked on at a local irish pub. There I was introduced to 2 new drinks: the black velvet and the irish car bomb.
The Black Velvet is half a pint of Guinness on top of half a pint of cider. It's an interesting mix with the smoothness of the Guinness first hitting you with a clean cider aftertaste. The Irish Car Bomb is half a pint of Guinness with a shot of Hennessy and Baileys on the side, drunk in Jaeger Bomb fashion. I'm a bit of a gun when it comes to drinking these sorts of drinks and promptly beat everyone to the bottom. There were a few misfires and with this particular drink there's really no second chances since the Baileys will curdle very quickly on contact with the Guinness.
It was around midnight when we retired back to our hotel after saying goodbye to our newfound friends. We did make a quick stop at the local McDonalds to get some poutine before heading home, revelling in the novelty of ordering this localised fast food. It had been an exhausting day and we all collapsed on the main bed, dozing off to one of the movies I had brought along with me. Our plans for tomorrow to visit the cultural heart of Montreal, Old Montreal, were far from our minds as we lay down to rest, our bodies thankful for the peace after our day of shenanigans.
4. That's the number of times I hit the snooze button this morning. The bed in the hotel was so beautifully comfortable that the prospect of leaving it was more than I was willing to bear. Still I had set the alarm for a reason: I had an important task to accomplish today and it had a start time, 10:00am. The alarm dutifully went off at 9am but was slammed into silence multiple times so that I could enjoy just a few more sweet moments sprawled out under the covers. The enormity of the task I had set myself soon began to weigh on me however and I pulled myself out of bed to get ready for this monumental task.
I was going to pick up my first American rental car.
Usually this wouldn't be much of a big deal but since I'd never driven a car in a country that drives on the wrong side of the road (even though the majority of the world does so) I was on tenterhooks as to how I would cope with it. I tried to soothe myself with some facts like the one that many countries have completely switched from one side to the other with no ill effects, even on the day of the switch. Still those first few moments when I sat in my shiny red Toyota Yaris had me scrambling to figure out which way was up, with blinkers and window wipers going crazy as I tried to gain control over my 68hp beast.
The following couple hours of driving were strikingly uneventful as I drove towards my chosen destination the Florida mall. This was due, in whole, to the fact that I got completely and hopelessly lost for those two hours. It wasn't for the fact I didn't know where I was going, I had looked it up before I went. No it was more due to the fact that I had no idea how to interpret 90% of the road signs and missing the other 10%. Thanks to the plentiful McDonalds restaurants that spotted the highway I was able to purloin free wifi Internet to help guide me on my way to the Florida Mall. I arrived there around lunch time and set about hunting down the places I could do the following things:
The first task was relatively easy, despite my tendency to be completely disinterested in most fast food. I eventually found a place that had a decent chicken salad and a juice bar that served up a mean fruit cocktail. Once I was flush with energy from consuming all that I went onto a shoe store called Sketches which I had seen multiple times before in other places. I managed to find two pairs of shoes that I thought were pretty decent and they had a sale going on so I grabbed both of them:
Getting my online self mobile proved to be a little more difficult however. After searching most of the store I couldn't find anyone that sold AT&T, the only cell provider I knew would support my iPhone with 3G. As it turns out Radioshack stocks them so I hunted down one of their resellers. I had done some research prior to leaving that said all I needed to do was to buy the cheapest handset I could find and then rip the sim out of it and stick it in my phone. It made sense to this former phone salesman so I scored myself a brand new Samsung A107 for a cool $20 (including $15 credit), plus another $15 for credit (required for activation, apparently). After spending 10 minutes with the salesman getting it activated I headed off for the trip back home. On the way I, of course, got myself lost and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to switch out the sim and get the maps working.
As it turns out not only are the phones locked to the AT&T network they also lock the sim to the phone itself. After wrangling with my iPhone to get the new sim in it greeted me with a No Service error and refused to work. That, my friends, was $40 down the toilet and a couple quick Google searches confirmed that AT&T had been doing this for about a year. So much for that plan then. I'm not sure if I'll bother trying to get an American sim now, it might just be worth grabbing a cheap-o GPS unit like my friend Nick did on his jaunt over a couple months back. That's basically all I'd need it for anyway (and my next car apparently comes with one for free).
After dealing with my fail I managed to get myself back to the hotel and worked off the aggression with a good workout. I then had dinner at one of the local restaurants where the food was palatable, but nothing to write home about. I took this opportunity to sample one of the local beers, this one being a Sam Adams Octoberfest:
It was a decent brew, easily comparable to some of the more premium Australian lagers. I've become more of an Ale man over the past couple years of refining my beer palate so there wasn't much to write home about this one but it was a decent accompaniment to my meal of skewered beef and roasted vegetables. Hopefully I'll be able to indulge my inner beer fanatic a bit more when I'm down in Miami as I've read that there are some very good restaurants down there.
Casting off the exhaustion of yesterday was a good feeling and whilst my day was filled with fail it still felt good to get out and about around Florida. Tomorrow the real fun begins as I say goodbye to my plucky Yaris and trade up for a more manly set of wheels: a Z06 Corvette. I'll also be upgrading my hotel from the Hyatt Regency to the Viceroy in Miami and by all accounts it looks to be one heck of a step up. I'm looking forward to living a little bit of the highlife down there as my suit has been aching to get out of the cramped confines of my suitcase. The heat here however has been quite intense so it will probably be a night only affair. Still with the reputation Miami's night life has I don't think I'll be out of place late a night, seeking a classy encounter 🙂


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John Wooten etched his name in the Pirate record books following a stellar junior campaign in which he became the 15th player in school history - first since Darryl Lawhorn in 2003 - to claim the Triple Crown.
Wooten led the team in average (.338), home runs (nine), slugging percentage (.502), runs (50) and total bases (119), while sharing the team lead in RBI (40) with Corey Thompson.
The Goldsboro, N.C. native also became the first Pirate in school history to belt homers in his first and last collegiate at-bats. Wooten started his career homering against No. 2 Virginia on Feb. 20, 2010 (solo shot) and then blasted round trippers in his next two games closing out the season with nine on his way to Conference USA All-Freshman team honors.
Despite a subpar sophomore season where he batted .298 (73-for-245) with a home run, 16 doubles and 28 RBI, Wooten caught lightening in a bottle in the 2011 Charlottesville Regional. He sported a .500 (8-for-16) average leading the regional with eight hits, while ranking fourth with nine total bases on his way to Charlottesville All-Regional Team honors as a unanimous selection.
Wooten capped off his career earning First-Team All-Conference USA honors and in his final collegiate at-bat in the Chapel Hill Regional, he sent a solo shot over the left field wall against No. 4 North Carolina capping his career total at 19 home runs. The solo blast also pushed his RBI total to 40, clinching the team's Triple Crown in 2012.
Top 10 Moments of the 2012 Baseball Season
8. Wooten Claims Triple Crown - Homers In Final At-Bat (June 3)
9. Timothy Younger vs. Houston (Apr. 5-7)
10. Chase McDonald's play during the 2012 Chapel Hill Regional (June 1-3)


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Jun 13, 2011 12:05 PM
Dear Restless Natives:
Please as to be seeing our 2nd attempt on this one.
Kicking the Girly Stuff Out writes: "Dear Outblush, You ladies are always a treat for my workday. I laugh, I lust, and I drool over some of the things you post. But I thought I would put your amazing internet searching skills to the test. My man in a manly man, he is a cowboy, and he doesn't seem to like my shiny bed cover, or the flowery one, or the yellow one. There is just no pleasing him. So I NEED your help, he will sleep under anything but I'm trying to make him happy and me happy at the same time. We have a king size bed, so he can stretch all the way out without me having to sleep in another room. We both like greens and browns, I prefer something about the weight of a quilt, he really likes Southwest blankets and plaids. I don't want to spend over $250 on this project, just looking for the blanket. If you could help me keep my cowboy warm this winter I would appreciate it so much. Sincerely, Kicking the Girly Stuff Out"
1 - Camo Patchwork Quilt ($180)
2 - Durango Southwestern Bedding Set ($233)
3 - Solana Southwest Bedspread ($220)
4 - Houston Grande Bedspread ($200)
5 - Cabela's Realtree Bedding Set ($160)
6 - Desert Dance Lightweight Comforter ($220)
7 - Not pictured: Bryan Keith Reversible Comforter Set ($180)
Frustrated in your search for that perfect leather handbag, red stiletto pump, or whatever makes your heart go thump in the night? Click here to check out our requests for you, the reader, and to contact us, and we might do the shopping work for you in a future Personal Shopper feature!
these are all hideous, i'm sorry... cowboy or not, i wouldnt sleep under any of these.
FOR REAL. Yikes. How about just getting a solid-colored comforter color in a neutral, non-girly color. Or just tell your manly man to DEAL WITH IT.
If you simply must cater to his manly decorating choices, go for the real deal and check out Pendleton.
jesus christ, outblush. get it together. no taste whatsoever.
stick with the pendleton!!!
As a Pendleton devotee (and I mean it), I loves me some Pendleton. And sorry to say, most of their stuff isn't much better than what we have here. Caitlin, I'm not sure if you were trying to link to a specific one, but it just went to a generic page - I'd like to think you were going for this:
http://www.pendleton-usa.com/product/Home-Blankets/Blankets/SOLID-PATTERN-BLANKETS/ECO-WISE-PLAID-EASY-CARE-BLANKET/166771/sc/1777/sc/1777/c/1821/pc/1816.uts. And thank you for your contribution, you lover girl, you.
Anyway, this was just not the kind of Personal Shopper that we usually cater to - green and brown manly man bedding? That's not ugly? So we just tried to help our reader happy-ify her man as she requested.
P.S. No need to get all crazy up in here sofia. Yeesh. If Caitlin hadn't pointed you in the direction of Pendleton, what answer would you have given?
I didn't link to a specific one, but I like the Riata blanket (and the plaid).
I'm an interior designer/intern architect, and I have seen some absolute horrorshow interiors. I just don't want this girl to resort to camouflage bedding.
In theory, I thought the camo bedding would be the worst, but when I looked at them in the image, I actually disliked some of the others more. At least with the camo you could do something crazy and just go over the top with it. Like that dinosaur trophy mount we put up a lil while ago! Aaaand, there you can see my "interior decorator" coming out.
She could find some beyond-repair pendletons at thrift stores and make a custom quilt. Maybe I'll do that for my guest room...
The camo quilt doesn't actually have any camo print on it, and if I had to choose, gun to my head, I'd sleep under that one, but I'd insist on sleeping under it in our family cabin at Lake Tahoe. I'd sleep under #5 in some sort of crazy forest themed hotel room.
It's hard to find nice looking green and brown manly cowboy bedding at all, let alone for under $250, let alone for a king size bed.
See, that's what I'm saying! If we can't find it, we might as well just help her make her man happy.
one ring,
i'm from oregon and actually when i think rugged, manly and good looking/great quality i think pendleton. and pendleton was what i was going to say. i'm laying under a motor robe throw as we speak.
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For more information regarding certification in school administration, please contact: Dr. Nancy Casey Plassmann B18
St. Bonaventure University
St. Bonaventure, NY 14778
(716) 375-2394
Email: email@example.com
For application instructions and materials, please visit our site:
Or contact:
The SBL program is offered via a unique "hybrid" format. Each class meets 3 times (on Saturdays) per semester, with the rest of the course work completed online. The setting for these Saturday sessions alternates, by semester, between the University's Olean and Hamburg locations. The SBL program offers fall starts and can be finished up in four semesters with no summer classes. With program director approval, a spring semester start in the program may be possible.
The SBL program meets NY course requirements for SBL certification.
With six additional credits, SBL students can receive the MSED in Educational Leadership.
Admission to the SBL programs requires:
Publications and Presentations
Brown, A., Views of Primary Stakeholders Concerning The Tech Prep Project. Proceedings of the Edward F. Kelly Evaluation Conference, 1997
The constructivistic approach to teaching and learning is based on a combination of a subset of research within cognitive psychology and a subset of research within social psychology, just as behavior modification techniques are based on operant conditioning theory within behavioral psychology.
The basic premise is that an individual learner must actively build knowledge and skills (e.g., Bruner, 1990) and that information exists within these built constructs rather than in the external environment. [See Ullman (1980) versus Gibson (1979) for an overview of this controversy within the cognitive perspective.]
However, all advocates of constructivism agree that it is the individual's processing of stimuli from the environment and the resulting cognitive structures, that produce adaptive behavior, rather than the stimuli themselves (Harnard, 1982).
Application forms, procedures and additional information
There are many ways to experience
St. Bonaventure for yourself
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College Hockey:St. Norbert a near-unanimous choice as top team in D-III men's poll
With 18 of 20 first-place votes, St. Norbert starts this season where it ended last season – as the top-ranked team in the USCHO.com Division III Men's Poll.
Oswego garnered the other two first-place votes and is ranked second, followed by Norwich, Plattsburgh and Gustavus Adolphus to round out the top five.
Amherst, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Adrian occupy spots 6-8, respectively, while Hobart and St. Thomas tie for the ninth ranking this week.
Castleton starts off at No. 11, Wisconsin-River Falls is 12th, with Utica at No. 13, Bowdoin 14th and Wisconsin-Eau Claire coming in at No. 15.
Fourteen other schools received votes.
The USCHO.com Division III Men's Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 20 voters, including 18 coaches of Division III programs and two men's hockey writers.
The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the "Flag" link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.
Please also keep "woofing," taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.


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Pink, will.i.am, Sara Bareilles, Miguel & More Added to Carole King MusiCares TributeNewly announced performers include: Sara Bareilles, P!nk, will.i.am, Miguel, Alicia Keys, Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles, Train, Martina McBride, Jakob Dylan, Darlene Love, Amy Grant, Gloria Estefan, and many more.
Miguel Covers Pink's 'Just Like A Pill'With just an acoustic guitar, Miguel slowed things down and got to the heart of the track, which was featured on Pink's 2001 album, 'M!Ssundaztood.'
Vintage Kanye West Rant Rails Against Pink As Much As Taylor SwiftNew audio has surfaced that allegedly captures the rapper ranting about Taylor Swift, Pink, MTV and his mother's untimely passing.
Justin Timberlake, Macklemore & Bruno Mars Lead MTV VMA NominationsWith six nominations each, Justin Timberlake and Macklemore are tied for the most MTV VMA nominations at this year's awards show, taking place on August 25 at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.
Beyonce & Andre 3000 Cover Amy Winehouse For 'Great Gatsby' Soundtrack
Celebrate The 2013 GRAMMY Nominees With Upcoming Album
fun. Dominates Grammy NominationsCliches be damned, it was a fun. night at the GRAMMY Nominations Concert on CBS, with the band performing and getting nominations in all four major categories: Album, Song and Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Kelly Clarkson, The Black Keys and Frank Ocean all grabbed multiple nominations as well.
Kanye West's "Cruel Summer" Debuts At No. 2, Pink Tops AllWith Cruel Summer, Kanye West is on a hot streak. His G.O.O.D. Music compilation album debuted at No. 2 on the sales charts this week.
Five Most Talked About VMA MomentsMiley as Pink, One Direction sweep, Rihanna is not impressed, Lil Wayne can't keep his pants on, Katy has big ones.
Olympic Tweet Beat: Musicians Share Their Love For Olympic AthletesA look at some Twitter love shared between Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Pink and their favorite Olympians.
Pink Weighs In On Why She Won't Join "American Idol"If there were no Simon Cowell Pink says, "I would be the honest voice but people wouldn't like it."
Nicki Minaj Visits The Ellen Show: Talks Desire To Have A Baby And Catches Up With Sophia Grace & Rosie


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City police seek home invadersBy Josh OGorman
STAFF WRITER | February 04,2013Rutland City Police are searching for at least four assailants who broke into an apartment and pistol whipped the occupants.
Shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, Rutland City Police received a 911 call stating two men were fighting near 110 Maple St. Upon arrival, police said they interviewed two men and a woman who said at least four, and possibly five, people kicked in the back door to the apartment and used the threat of pepper spray to gain access to the apartment.
One of the assailants found the female resident in her bedroom and threatened her with what she described as a silver pistol, and when one of the male residents attempted to protect her, the assailants attacked him, according to police. The assailants demanded drugs and money before fleeing the apartment to an unknown location, police said.
Police said one of the male victims sustained serious injuries and was taken by ambulance to Rutland Regional Medical Center. The other male victim declined to be taken by ambulance and was driven to RRMC by a private party.
I would characterize it as an anomaly, Rutland City Police Sgt. John Sly said of the incident. We dont have many home invasions and its uncommon to have roving groups of people like this breaking into residences.
It is not known what, if anything, was taken, but the victims were able to identify two of the assailants as people they knew personally, police said.
The assailants remained at large Sunday night.
@rutlandherald.comMORE IN This Just InIve written much lately about the need for better media literacy and the importance of vetting... Full StoryBELLOWS FALLS A homeless man from the Bellows Falls area was found Tuesday under the Arch... Full StoryRoad in Pawlet closed next week
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Prestige II Area Rug
# 08710
Product Description
Encompassing the flavors of transitional, traditional and contemporary, the Prestige rug features a series of versatile designs to complement any decor. Hand tufted in India, each rug is produced from the finest hand spun and twisted New Zealand yarn to provide a truly unique texture.
Product Details


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"Spring Haiku" is the second book in the Haiku Seasons following "Winter Haiku." A Haiku is a short poem that is said " to capture the essence of a brief , transient moment in one's life and the universe. It stems from a profound appreciation of and closeness to nature and often referred to "wabi-sabi" or recognition that beauty can be found informally, even in the depths of poverty". It is also inspired by another term "furabo" which indicates "a person who roams about, unattached, carried like a slender piece of cloth fluttering in the wind."
Dianne Cacchioni lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Dianne is a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a B.A. in Fine Arts as well as a graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Visual Arts majoring Photography. In the last twenty years her work has explored the world of photography, both historically and conceptually as well as alternative techniques, including painting with photographic emulsions and hand-making large sheets of paper. After studying with Zen brush master Ari Tomita, (student of Japan's National Treasure Shiryu Morita,) for the last ten years she has been exhibiting and selling her brush paintings. Her Haiku series of the seasons and other books represent this collaboration of camera and brush.
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Autumn Haiku Publicado 13 de junio de 2011
MACHU PICCHU Publicado 31 de mayo de 2011
peru Publicado 30 de mayo de 2011
Zihuatanejo Publicado 10 de mayo de 2011
Ecuador Publicado 08 de mayo de 2011
amazon napo river ecuador Publicado 07 de mayo de 2011
HUNTED POETICS Publicado 27 de mayo de 2009
Summer Haiku Publicado 27 de mayo de 2009


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Suites Available At The United Spirit Arena
March 28, 2011
LUBBOCK, Texas - Basketball fans interested in the luxury amenities at the United Spirit Arena are urged to contact the Red Raider Club as several suites are available for the upcoming 2011-12 season.
The suites are priced at $30,000 annually and allow seating for up to 12 per suite for both men's and women's basketball while providing a great venue to host friends and clients. The suites also allow users to take advantage of the many great concerts that come to the arena on an annual basis, such as George Strait/Reba McEntire and Leann Womack, The Eagles and many other entertainers.
Texas Tech is offering a special incentive for suites that are purchased before April 15 that will include a special private dinner with athletics director Kirby Hocutt and both men's and women's basketball head coaches.
In addition to the suite, two parking passes are provided for both men's and women's basketball. Private catering is available in the suites through our food and beverage provider, Ovations.
For more information, please call the Red Raider Club at 806-742-1196.


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Fairy Sphere
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Fairy Sphere (妖精の球, フェアリースフィア, Fearī Sufia) is one of the "Three Great Fairy Magics" distinct to the Fairy Tail Guild.
A spell which converts Fairy Tail member's bonds and faith into Magic Power. It takes the form of a large sphere with a Fairy Tail mark and a stylized pair of wings emblazoned upon it. The spell protects the Guild from any evil, an absolute defense Magic, powerful enough to defend against even time. However, the sphere acts as a stasis chamber, a place in which time stops, thus everyone within the sphere is stuck in a frozen state in which they don't age.[1] It's powerful enough to protect Tenrou Island and everyone on it from Acnologia's Dragon's Roar.[2]
|Abyss Break • Adamantine Barrier • Bind Snake • Changeling • Cosmic Beam • Fairy Glitter • Fairy Law • Fairy Sphere • Gottfried • Grimoire Law • Hidden • Katsu • Magic Circle • Magic Sword • Nakagami Starlight • Self-Destruction Spell • Triple Element Combination Magic • Triple Unison Explosion • Urano Metria
|Carla's Spells
|Bluff • Sermon
|Plue's Spells
|Plue Eye • Plue Healing • Plue Sonic


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This week Gabriele Marcotti is joined by Alyson Rudd, Oliver Kay and Julien Laurens, football writer for Le Parisien.
Fulham's two late goals against Arsenal set the tone for the debate with the panel arguing that the home team looked the classier outfit. There are also signs that Arsenal have shifted to a more direct approach.
Chelsea come in for criticism, from team selection to tactics, approach and a "ridiculous" team celebration. Wayne Rooney also comes under the scanner for his enthusiasm for celebrating Christmas. Was Sir Alex Ferguson right to drop him, though?
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