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The cover of Murdoch's Pirates, by Neil Chenoweth.
What happens when one of the biggest media groups in the world sets up its own private security force? What happens when part of this operation goes rogue? Fairfax reporter Neil Chenoweth's new book, Murdoch's Pirates, investigates News Corporation's links to worldwide piracy. Here is an extract from the book.
Toronto, 24 October 1997
Toronto is a mean town when you're looking for a bolthole. The operation was blown, and the agent was running. No ordered retreat here—this was panicked flight, strung out on adrenaline. Far beyond the threshold of fear and desperation, it is when the quarry knows his pursuers are close and all he wants in life is a place to go to ground.
Author Neil Chenoweth.
Any halfway serious intelligence operation has an emergency plan. It's Spy Stuff 101 - in the world of John le Carré, a little in-house tradecraft. That means fallback options, safe houses, collateral assets to call on, a whole range of contingencies, a long way before you get round to explaining the really neat pension scheme. But it was long past any of that. Alex couldn't go back to the hotel, the telephone call had made that clear. It was the first place the police would look for him, after the Stop and Detain alert went out to the airports.
The order was to arrest him on probable cause. There were $25,000 in money orders in his hotel room and some expensive computer equipment, but Alex had to walk away from it all. This too was a measure of his distress, for he wasn't the sort of man who walked away from money easily.
Instead he was now heading across town to find another anonymous hotel room, all the time feeling his panic building. He cursed himself for using a credit card that might be traced, flung out of the new lodging and was back on the street. Toronto in late October had the chill of late Fall; a towering blonde German, he was trying to look inconspicuous. He managed to find another hotel, this one cheap and anonymous; he was jumpy as a cat, ready to flee if any police car cruised past. By morning he was in his fourth hotel. It seemed only a matter of time before his luck ran out.
In London, his controller was trying to work out where the operation had gone wrong. Ray Adams had made the travel arrangements himself. In a previous life he had been a Commander at Scotland Yard, running its intelligence division, S11. Now he ran a network of seventeen agents in Europe for Rupert Murdoch. He knew how to do this stuff. He had put Alex on a business class ticket on Lufthansa flight LH 474 at 5pm October 21 out of Frankfurt, to arrive in Toronto at 7.20 that same Tuesday evening. The return flight was a week later.
The complicating factor here was that Alex wasn't travelling alone. Adams had booked a ticket for Alex's wife as well. In part, it was because Adams didn't see any real danger. It would be a little vacation for her, a treat. Agents sometimes need something unexpected like that; their family needs to feel the love. It was just a chance to kick back, really. Think of it as a bit like Date Night, on Uncle Rupert's dime.
At an operational level (he didn't tell Alex this, let alone his wife) it was a nice domestic touch, to disarm the suspicions of the people Alex would be meeting. How could they think he was a spy when he brought his wife along with him? What kind of man puts his partner in danger as well? It was a gesture that has Trust Me written all over it. And the first meeting with the Canadian pirates had gone well. Then hours later they had ratted on him. Did it without a second thought. 'Sure I did it,' the pirate who fingered Alex tells me a decade later when I run him down. 'What's to think about? He was going to help the opposition. Of course I took him out.'
So now Alex and the missus were hotel hopping, on the run together in Toronto then across the US border, accompanied by a business associate of Alex's. Alex had wiped the hard drive of his laptop repeatedly during the night. It would take a very, very good forensic technician to retrieve anything from it. But that was still not completely out of the question.
And it had come to this. A hacker on the payroll of NDS, the arm of News Corporation that provided security for its pay-tv operations, was on the run from the police in two countries. The best prospect now that he had been smuggled across the border into the United States, was to fly him out through an airport with low security. If he was caught, the repercussions for NDS, for News Corporation and for Rupert Murdoch in the glare of publicity were potentially disastrous. The first question would be how News Corporation came to be involved in what looked like criminal piracy directed against NDS's biggest client, DirecTV. How had it come to this?
In late 1997 the story lines at NDS Operational Security were starting to tangle up. In 1996 NDS chief executive Abe Peled had faced a piracy problem that could kill his business. He had made the decision to set up his own security unit to fight the pirates who hacked and then sold their own versions of the NDS smartcards used by BSkyB and the big US satellite broadcaster DirecTV. These pirate smartcards meant anyone could watch the BSkyB and programs for free
He had hired Reuven Hasak, the former deputy head of Israel's internal security agency, Shin Beit, to run it. Hasak had hired Adams as European Security chief, and a former US Army intelligence officer, John Norris, for North America. They had arrested a string of pirates and hired some of Europe's best hackers, including Oliver Kömmerling in Germany, whose NDS codename was Alex.
At some point the mission had changed. Hasak and Peled had set up a Black Hat team in Haifa, which had been trained by Kömmerling to reverse engineer, or hack, NDS smartcards in the sophisticated lab he had helped them set up in Haifa. The theory was that Oliver and the Back Hat team would help show up weaknesses in the NDS cards. But by late 1997 the target for the Black Hat team had changed.
The decision had been made to reverse-engineer the smartcards of their competitors. But even with Oliver's help, doing this would not be simple. The first problem was to get hold of samples of the cards—blank ones from the manufacturer first of all, to practise on; then actual cards issued by the pay-television companies.
Adams emailed Oliver Kömmerling early on Tuesday, October 21 1997: 'Give me urgently a description of all the chips we want as samples.' Oliver replied with the specs on the Wednesday afternoon, October 22. What they needed was the card used by Canal Plus for its Seca card, plus the card then being used by Nagra. This was all very mundane, except that organising the wherewithal to hack NDS's competitors was unfolding right at the same time as NDS had decided to send Oliver on a mission. At the same time as he was orchestrating one of the biggest reverse-engineering events in history, Oliver was going undercover in Toronto.
It was called Operation Duck. It was Ray Adams' idea and, given the timing, it was perhaps the silliest thing that NDS had done to date. As with so much that would happen in the Murdoch empire over the next decade, it only made sense if those involved believed they would never be called to account.
The smartcards that NDS made for the huge US broadcaster DirecTV had been widely pirated. NDS agents would pose as pirates themselves in an attempt to find a major Canadian pirate ring. The problem that no one foresaw was that NDS never told DirecTV about its undercover operation, and DirecTV believed that Oliver was still a pirate.
Oliver (or Alex as he was known at NDS) and Vicky flew business class from Frankfurt to Heathrow and then to Toronto, arriving on Tuesday evening, October 21. They were joined in Toronto by John Luyando, a wheeler dealer in piracy circles who had worked with Oliver in the past. His NDS codename was Jellyfish and NDS's US security chief, John Norris, had a great scorn for him. The prize that Kömmerling was offering to pirates in Canada was a hack for DirecTV's P2 card. He had called one pirate dealer, Ron Ereiser, about it but Ron already had his hack, thanks to his Bulgarians, Plamen Donev and Vesco.
Back in August Oliver had spoken on the phone for almost an hour with Marty Mullin, a big piracy dealer in eastern Canada. Mullin would later testify that Oliver offered him a hack for EchoStar (the other big US satellite broadcaster), but Oliver denies this.
The goal of Operation Duck was for Oliver to program some DirecTV cards for local dealers and use this as a stepping stone to get to Mullin, who was one of the two biggest piracy dealers in North America. Mullin had his own hack for P2 cards and NDS dearly wanted to know who Mullin's hacker was.
By October 25 Oliver had been in Toronto four days and had programmed a swag of pirate cards, using a program he had ripped off another pirate hack. And he had been paid a lot of money. That evening, he met with two piracy dealers in a car and programmed a few cards for them with his portable programmer box, to demonstrate that it worked.
The following night Oliver received a call from a friend in London, a partner in his old piracy ring, who was sleeping with a woman who worked for Federal Express. 'He told me, these guys [from the previous night] sent a parcel to Larry Rissler,' Oliver recalls.
Rissler was a former FBI agent who headed the Office of Signal Integrity—the operational security division—of DirecTV, and he had been hunting Oliver for some time. One of the dealers Oliver had met was a Rissler informant and he had despatched a re-programmed smartcard by FedEx to his boss. The parcel would be with Rissler early the next morning—if it wasn't already there.
Oliver hit the alarm button. He booked out of his hotel with Vicky and Luyando and took a cab ride in the middle of the night twenty miles to the US border, crossed it and booked into a motel on the other side, along the southern Lake Ontario shore. But this was the wrong move because, while piracy might not be illegal in Canada, in the United States you did jail time for it. Forty-five minutes later, Ray Adams called. He said they had to get out.
In Los Angeles, Larry Rissler had already picked up that Oliver was heading into the US. He had entered Oliver's name in the US Customs database, flagged him with a Search and Detain order. For Rissler, Oliver was a glittering prize. For years he had been Enemy Number One for DirecTV, the man who consistently hacked and broke their cards for the pirates. He had no idea that Oliver was working for NDS, or that NDS would not tell him about something like this.
Now it was only a matter of time before Oliver was picked up. But here, in his moment of triumph, Rissler made a mistake. He made a courtesy call to John Norris, to let him know what was happening. It would have been hard not to show a little satisfaction that DirecTV had beaten NDS to the punch.
Norris said it was wonderful news. He didn't tell Rissler that Oliver worked for NDS, or that this was an NDS undercover operation. He just put down the phone and sent an urgent message to Adams, who then got on the phone. 'Adams phoned and told me to go—go quickly,' Oliver said. 'So I had to wake up Luyando, and tell him, "Come, we have to leave."'
Then the three of them – Oliver/Alex, Luyando/Jellyfish and Vicky - left everything behind in the motel room—computer equipment, money orders, clothes—as they headed south and east, away from the border. They booked into another motel, only to panic when they saw police cars go by. They were back on the road, looking for a new place to hide.
'We did that twice. In the third motel we paid cash.'
Oliver was continually on the phone to Adams. He hadn't even touched the smartcards, he said, so there were no fingerprints. He hadn't personally programmed the card, even if it was his decoder the Canadians used to do it. And even if there was a print or a DNA trace of some kind, there was no continuity of evidence to say it was the card that Alex's decoder had programmed.
Adams was continually emailing Hasak in Jerusalem. It wasn't even a criminal offence to re-program cards in Canada, he said. A good lawyer should get him off. Adams argued with the desperate eloquence that graces a man who is fighting not just for his agent, but for his own job. This was a tricky situation that required managing, he said magisterially. Of course it seemed completely clear that this whole mess was the fault not of Adams, but of his colleague John Norris, who had alerted them to the airports alert that Rissler had put out.
'I am well ware of these provisions and know better than anyone their strengths and weakness,' Adams emailed furiously. 'A stop and detain alert is really a pathetic provision. It means that we have no evidence against this person ONLY suspicion so please stop him and if he has anything with him detain him and let us know.'
The arguments went back and forth as they struggled with the logistics of getting Alex out of North America. It would have to be from an airport with low security, and not a direct flight to Germany. From Jerusalem, Hasak hosed Adams and Norris down when the infighting grew too ugly. In Norris's view, this operation to make contact with pirates had been Adams' bright idea, riding roughshod over the North American operations. Now the blame was all Adams'. Norris had always been contemptuous of Rissler at DirecTV. 'He's a nice idiot,' Norris had told Oliver before the operation. When he was really snitty, Norris called Rissler a speechwriter. But the worm had turned.
'The only possible evidence that could ever have existed to connect Alex to the card was what was on his PC,' Adams later wrote to Hasak, reviewing the episode. Adams had Oliver/Alex reformat the drive and then disassemble the laptop into two parts, each of which was posted by two different courier companies to two different addresses in Germany. But Oliver still had to walk through those airport gates.
'Alex had absolutely nothing with him,' Adams assured Hasak later. 'I even disobeyed your advice that he could walk through with his laptop. He did not even have a credit card with him. There would have been absolutely no legitimate grounds for detaining him for a second. Had anyone done so, there was a lawyer ready to get him out of trouble.'
Oliver did not even have a credit card and Adams had two lawyers on standby ready to get him out of trouble. 'There would have been absolutely no legitimate grounds for detaining him for a second. . . Nothing existed technically to connect Alex to the card in either Canada, the USA or Germany.'
So Oliver was home safe. That was the end of it, everyone walked away clean . . . except that Larry Rissler was seething. He knew someone had tipped Oliver off and his list of suspects was very short. He fronted Norris, who denied any link to Oliver. In reality, Norris had made sure he didn't even know Oliver's real name - he was just Alex. Rissler accused Norris of hiding the fact that Oliver worked for NDS. Rissler's chief source in the pirate community claimed to have proof that Oliver worked for NDS and his accusations became more and more insistent. Norris lied straight-faced to him, told him that Oliver had no connection at all with NDS that he knew of.
The row was escalating to the point where the future of the NDS contract with DirecTV could be at stake—and that would mean the future of NDS itself. Five days after Oliver flew out, the pressure grew too much. The Cowboy blinked. Norris told Rissler that he was right - Oliver was one of their people.
Adams was incandescent. 'We discussed this,' he raged, that 'under no circumstances must we tell Larry Rissler that Alex works for us. It was an absolute priority. That decision was made and we all acted on it…Despite whatever table thumping Larry Rissler may indulge in I knew that there was absolutely nothing that LR could do about Alex . . . My frustration is that we went to great lengths to protect Alex and then give away our greatest secret to someone we do not trust.'
That was the problem. It was DirecTV that wasn't trustworthy. It had come to this. A hacker on News Corporation's payroll was on the run from police in two countries. He virtually had to be smuggled out of the United States. If he had been caught, the repercussions for NDS, for News Corporation and for Rupert Murdoch in the glare of publicity were potentially disastrous. The first question would be how News Corporation came to be involved in what looked like criminal piracy directed against NDS's biggest client, DirecTV. Whatever their ultimate intentions, in order to mount this sting operation NDS had been pirating DirecTV—peddling software codes and stealing the signal from their best customer, without even telling them.
None of this troubled Ray Adams in October 1997 as he struggled with a much simpler issue. Why—why—had Norris come clean? It was so simple. 'All we had to do was stick to our story and deny.'
It would become a familiar legal strategy: Deny, deny, deny . . .
But now Alex/Oliver was home safe. That was the end of it, everyone walked away clean . . . except that there was an enduring problem. The question was: what part of News Corporation should have been alerted to what was going on? What part of a modern media business involves hiding people from the police and working out the best way to smuggle them out of the country, betraying the confidence of the customers whom they were paid to protect? And how was it that none of these players were ever called to account?
And the most troubling thing was that this was just the beginning, the first desperate adventure. The drama that followed would trigger four separate major court actions against NDS, in which almost every major satellite broadcaster in the world sued the News Corp arm for billions of dollars in damages from industrial espionage. And yet, in the end, NDS would prove staggeringly profitable for Rupert Murdoch's empire.
The stakes here were very high and the casualties would not just be on the balance sheet. Twelve months later, Alex's offsider in Germany would be dead, and Alex himself would be hiring bodyguards.
Adelaide, October 1997
A little disclosure here. To write about News Corporation means spending a lot of time talking to lawyers. When I was writing Virtual Murdoch in 2001 I received legal threats from half a dozen law firms around the world. It was educational in highlighting the different national legal styles.
Australian lawyers, in my experience, have not distinguished themselves by their tremendous sense of humour - at times they can be a little snippy. American lawyers don't bother with small threats. They have it down to a routine: they press the button and launch an intercontinental ballistic missile, perhaps in their spare moments between elevenses and the next client meeting. When I wrote in 1999, seeking information from Squadron Ellenoff Plesent & Sheinfeld, the New York firm that had represented News since the 1970s, their reply came from Ira Lee Sorkin. These days Ira is better known for his sterling work over the last two decades as Bernie Madoff's lawyer. Ira duly dropped a thermonuclear device on my head, but I could tell he had more important things to do. His response was so impersonal, and I think it lost something from that. But when it comes to causing pain and discomfort—in short when you want a lawyer to club your target somewhere soft and vulnerable with a large pointy stick—it's hard to go past the British. It's that old-world charm.
But law firms are just the side show. For decades the man who manned News Corp's front line of defence, as chief legal counsel (now Rupert Murdoch's personal advisor), was Arthur Siskind. Arthur and I have never really hit it off. One of the first times I met him was in October 1997, the month that Alex had his little imbroglio in Toronto. I was on the opposite side of the world, in South Australia, when Arthur threw me out of the News Corp annual meeting. Actually it was the morning tea for shareholders afterwards. And he was pretty polite about it, which really shows he was a model of restraint.
The annual meeting was a showcase for what the global media empire was doing: from the newspapers in Australia and the fledgling pay-tv operation Foxtel there; to Star TV, the satellite broadcaster that covered all of India and Asia from its base in Hong Kong; to BSkyB in Britain along with the Sun, News of the World and The Times and Sunday Times. Then there were the big bets that Murdoch had recently made on cable channels in the US—Fox Sports, and a maverick operation called Fox News that Roger Ailes hand launched just a year before, at a cost of $1 billion. Would it really work? And the Fox television network and stations, together with Twentieth Century Fox. The meeting ended with a breathtaking trailer for a film that James Cameron had directed, which was due to launch in two months time, called Titanic.
Annual meetings are a nightmare for Rupert Murdoch's minders. Back in the US he can handle any number of public outings without making a ripple, but in Australia he has a gift for unhappy headlines. He had just told shareholders what a bad idea the current push for tighter privacy laws were. Really, who needs them, when newspapers were so good at self policing? 'Privacy laws are for the protection of the people who are already privileged and not for the ordinary man or woman,' he told reporters at the press conference after the meeting. After the recent death of Prince Diana, he continued, 'I think you'll see a great deal more restraint by all the newspapers in Britain and I think you will see a stronger and better-policed code of ethics.' That restraint would mean paying less money for paparazzi photographs. 'Princess Diana, whom we all had great respect for, generally worked with photographers to her satisfaction . . . I think newspapers paid far too much for them and there'll be a major cost saving if we can bring this thing through.'
Up to then, no one had thought to turn Diana's death into a budget line item. Murdoch also offered a small rebuke to questions from the Sydney Morning Herald as 'part of the consistent and nagging denigration of News Corporation that goes on in your newspaper day after day, orchestrated by friends of another organisation . . . but I won't go any further than that'. That was the Australian public broadcaster, the ABC, that Murdoch was being arch about. It's important when you're kicking your rivals to keep a light touch.
Back then the NDS story was just beginning. But working out what happened next at NDS would prove a long, frustrating trail. The first part of that would be understanding the people and events that had led up to Oliver's close call in Toronto in 1997. The question that would recur for me time and again was: who dropped the ball? Who was overseeing the dramas that played out at NDS? And who at some point should have told the NDS black-hat operations that what they were doing was a really bad idea? NDS reported to the Office of the Chairman at News Corporation. NDS execs reported to Rupert Murdoch's closest people. Arthur Siskind and News Corp's chief financial officer David DeVoe sat on the NDS board, as did James and Lachlan Murdoch and Chase Carey, who was by then co-COO of News Corp. How much of all this, if any, made it into NDS's reports to its board, is not known.
At the time I knew nothing of the adventure in Toronto. In hindsight it's tempting to link it in the same time frame as the annual meeting in Adelaide and getting thrown out of the morning tea, as some sort of indication that senior management's attention was focused elsewhere and no one was minding the store. But that doesn't really work, because the annual meeting was in early October, a fortnight before Oliver's great escape. On October 24 1997 the record shows that Rupert Murdoch was in Beijing for a meeting in the Great Hall of the People with Ding Guangen, the head of the Chinese government's Propaganda Department.
Actually that was later in the day. Earlier in the morning, around the time that Alex was desperately working his way through Toronto's seedier hotels on the other side of the world, Murdoch had taken time off for a little sightseeing and to buy some ties in Xiushui Market, or Silk Street. He had dispensed for the morning with the services of local exec Bruce Dover. Instead he was accompanied by a vivacious young Chinese executive from Star TV, acting as his interpreter for the first time, called Wendi Deng.
Murdoch's Pirates, by Neil Chenoweth, is published by Allen & Unwin, $45.


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One of the major factors in the great recession and real estate crisis of 07-09 was the fast and easy access to cheap jumbo loans.
Mortgages come in two basic flavors, conforming and jumbo. Find out more about conforming loans here. Jumbo mortgages are loans that do not fit conforming loan limits or guidelines.
In an effort to not repeat history, Basel III reform measures were put into place starting this month.
Basel III is a comprehensive set of reform measures designed to improve regulation, supervision and risk management within the banking sector. This was created in response to the credit crisis.
Banks are now required to maintain proper ratios and meet capital requirements. Basel III is part of the continuing effort made by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to enhance the banking regulatory system. It builds on earlier Basel documents and seeks to improve the banking sectors ability to deal with financial and economic stress while improving the risk management and strengthening the bank's transparency.
In a nutshell Basel III is a set of guidelines, like conforming loan guidelines, to ensure the mortgage market does not return to the fast and easy lending practices of the early 2000's.
Basel III ensures that all jumbo loans meet the qualified mortgage, QM, rule, as defined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and is designed to create safer loans by prohibiting or limiting certain high-risk products and features.
These include:
1. No excessive upfront points and fees. Points and fees must not exceed 3% of the total amount borrowed.
2. No toxic loan feature which means no more:
- Interest only loans
- Negative amortization loans
- No terms longer than 30 years
- No balloon loans
Next the debt to income ratio, DTI, will be lowered from 45% to 43%.
Basel III is in effect as of January 2014. Please contact me if you want have any questions about the new jumbo loan guidelines or real estate in general at firstname.lastname@example.com.
If you have any other questions, or want to share your story, please reply to this post, contact me via my website, my facebook page, or on Twitter @AmericaFoy.

subset: commoncrawl


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|NPS Paleontology Research Abstract Volume
Land plants formed the trophic foundation for large populations of dinosaurs throughout the Mesozoic. Two Upper Cretaceous formations, the Aguja and Javelina, possess a rich dinosaur fauna. This reptilian fauna has been intensely studied at Big Bend National Park. Different and unique species of hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, ankylosaurs and large sauropods are common to the Aguja Formation; many of the dinosaur associations found here do not occur anywhere else in North America. Additionally, associated plant remains are encountered in carbonaceous shales, lignites and sandstones of equivalent age throughout the park. The current study will focus on the microflora and megaflora of both formations and will highlight how past herbivores exerted different selective pressures on plants. Research objectives for 1991 include finding a prolific leaf locality associated with the dinosaur fauna and processing and analyzing a stratigraphic sequence of 80 pollen samples.
The recent discovery of a nearly complete ceratopsid skull in the Aguja Formation of southwest Texas supports previous conclusions that the Aguja ceratopsid represents a distinct species, Chasmosaurus mariscalensis. The diagnostic features of C. mariscalensis include an extensive anteromedial projection of the nasal between the premaxillae, erect supraorbital horns, and laterally rounded squamosal. Nine cranial features that vary among Chasmosaurus species, Pentaceratops sternbergii, and other chasmosaurines are analyzed. Chasmosaurus mariscalensis appears to be most closely related to northern species of Chasmosaurus (C. belli, C. russelli), which also exhibit a transversely flattened nasal horn and modifications of the anterior margin of the external naris. The genus Chasmosaurus, in turn, appears to be most closely related to the other southern chasmosaurine, Pentaceratops sternbergii. The biogeographic history inferred from these relationships suggest that the biogeographic exchange between northern and southern chasmosaurines that must have occurred cannot be explained by a single dispersal event to the south.
The McKinney Springs tongue of the Pen Formation is the highest Upper Cretaceous marine unit in the Big Bend region and consists of four lithologic facies. These intergrading lithofacies are, in ascending order, the calcareous shale facies, interbedded sandstone and shale facies, the phosphate nodule facies, and the silty shale facies. This series of lithofacies records deposition in a muddy shelf or prodeltaic setting during a marine transgression, high water still stand, and subsequent deltaic progradation. The fauna in this unit is not abundant and exhibits a low species diversity.
The calcareous shale facies contains two different types of trace fossils. These are horizontal, randomly-directed, feeding burrows (fodichnia) and vertically-oriented, spiral burrows (Gyrolithes). Macrofauna consists of large oysters (Exogyra ponderosa) and other bivalves including Inoceramus vanuxemi and Durania sp. Many of the bivalves have been bored and encrusted with oysters (Pseudoperna sp.). Also present are fragments of freshwater turtle and dinosaur bone.
The interbedded sandstone and shale facies contains alternating thin beds of sandstone and shale. The sandstone beds contain poorly preserved specimens of Inoceramus sp. The shale beds contain Exogyra ponderosa that are 15 to 20 centimeters in diameter, oriented in life position, and contain clionid sponge and lithophagid bivalve borings in the shell material.
The phosphate nodule facies is a lag deposit which contains rounded and abraded skeletal material. Shark teeth from three species are common - Scapanorhynchus texanus, Squalicorax kaupi, and Cretolamna sp. Also present are phosphatized small inoceramid bivalves, other small mactrid bivalves, small gastropods, and occasional crabs.
Within the silty shale facies, there are several thin sandstone beds which contain well developed trace fossils (fodichnia). Macrofauna consists of occasional shark teeth and fish vertebrae. Two types of ammonites, Placenticeras sp. and Baculites sp., are present in the upper portion of this facies. Bivalves in this facies are restricted to small clusters of Inoceramus biconstrictus.
The project is nearing conclusion with most of the mapping complete. The deposits being studied are of a geologic age unique to North America. From this study an important gap of information will be filled by increasing our understanding of the progressive change in faunal succession. During our 1990 field season two very important specimens were recovered when we prospected a virgin region never before studied. One was the partial skull of the horse Hipparion forcei, and the other was the lower jaw bone and some rib and vertebral scrap of a long-jawed mastodon.
Big Bend National Park has abundant remains of fossil dicotyledonous woods of Cretaceous and Paleocene age. These woods are significant because worldwide there are fewer than 100 records of Cretaceous dicot woods, and fewer than 40 records of Paleocene dicot woods. In collaboration with Tom Lehman of Texas Tech, work is underway to document the diversity of fossil dicot woods of Big Bend. The Aguja Formation (Campanian, Late Cretaceous) has yielded woods of the platnoid (sycamore-like) and phyllanthoid types, wood types that occur at other Cretaceous localities in the northern hemisphere. In addition, there are at least five other wood types, and these represent new species. All five have characteristics of tropical trees, and, as a group, are relatively unspecialized anatomically. In the Javelina Formation (Maestrichtian, Late Cretaceous), a large log (>1m diameter) has specialized features and resembles tropical members of the Malvales.
Over 30 logs in the Paleocene Black Peaks Formation are of a single type, and have been described as a new species, Paraphyllanthoxylon abbotti. The species name recognizes the late Maxine Abbott who collected this material. These woods and a platanoid type are the only Paleocene dicot woods described from the United States. The Cretaceous and Paleocene dicot woods of Big Bend cannot be assigned with confidence to a single extant plant family.
Several samples of silicified and carbonized woods from the Cretaceous non-marine Gulfian Series of geological formations (Javelina or Aguja formations) are under investigation. Representative specimens were examined by R.V. Gentry of Earth Science Associates to determine if any radiohalos were present in the materials. No radiohalos were detected in the petrographic thin sections. Gentry concluded that there had been no uranium infiltration of the Big Bend fossil woods he examined as was the case in the carbonized woods he studied from the Colorado Plateau and from Chattanooga Shale.
A sample of carbonized wood was found to contain 59.2% carbon and was subjected to a radiocarbon age determination. No C-14 was detected and the radiocarbon age was found to be greater than 42,000 years B.P. Other C-14 age determinations will be done. Several silicified wood samples were analyzed for SiO2 to determine the degree of petrification. The results are as follows:
SAMPLE DESIGNATION (% SiO2)
E 4.3-5.3From the analyses, it appears that all samples except D and E are well-petrified. Also energy dispersive x-ray analyses were conducted on all samples. Further chemical tests are planned. Attempts will be made to identify all wood samples from scanning electron micrographs and petrographic thin sections.
|United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service


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Tomorrow, July 8th, 2014, the Metal Gods, Judas Priest, will release a brand new studio album - 'Redeemer Of Souls'. The band has been releasing teaser videos for months with band members commenting on the tracks and playing snippets - really building the suspense. The reviews so far have been favorable.
This is a good thing because a lot of fans were not so keen on the previous Judas Priest album, 'Nostradamus'.
Vocalist Rob Halford addressed this: "If you look at bands of longevity, like PRIEST, you see the trail of music that we've left, I don't think we could have probably made as great a record as we have with 'Redeemer Of Souls' if we didn't have 'Nostradamus' as a reference point. It's a stepping stone to the next place. Every record that we've made, we've tried to give it some distinction, some separate identity. 'British Steel' doesn't sound like 'Stained Class', 'Stained Class' doesn't sound like 'Painkiller', 'Painkiller' doesn't sound like 'Defenders Of The Faith'… So I think everything has its place and has its moments, and we've always fed off these different areas that we've gone into with our metal. So thanks to 'Nostradamus', we've got 'Redeemer Of Souls'."
Guitarist Glenn Tipton on the new release: "It's returning back to the roots of PRIEST. It's classic PRIEST"
Along with the new album is a new tour. The Priest is known for their outlandish stage shows. Leather, lasers, lighting - it's quite a production. And, of course, Rob Halford bringing out the Harley Davidson during the encore on either 'Hell Bent' or 'Free Wheel Burning'.
Check out the tour dates below:
Judas Priest 'Redeemer of Souls' Tour 2014 (with Steel Panther)
10/01 – Rochester, N.Y. @ Main Street Armory
10/03 – Hammond, Ind. @ The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
10/04 – Louisville, Ky. @ Louder Than Life Fest at Champions
10/09 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Barclays
10/10 – Atlantic City, N.J. @ Harrah's
10/11 – Mashantucket, Conn. @ MGM Grand Theater at Foxwood's
10/14 – Lowell, Mass. @ Tsongas Center at UMass
10/15 – Allentown, Pa. @ PPL Center
10/17 – East Rutherford, N.J. @ Izod Center
10/19 – Detroit, Mich. @ Fox Theatre
10/24 – Baltimore, Md. @ Pier Six Pavilion
10/28 – Duluth, Ga. @ The Arena at Gwinnett Center
10/30 – Hollywood, Fla. @ Hard Rock Live Arena
11/06 – Allen, Texas @ Allen Event Center
11/07 – Austin, Texas @ FunFunFun Fest
11/10 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Nokia
11/12 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Jobing Arena
11/13 – Highland, Calif. @ San Manuel Casino
11/14 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ The Pearl
11/16 – San Jose, Calif. @ City National Civic
11/18 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Maverik Center
check out the opening track from the new album : johnnyconcert.com


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Watch GTA V as a first-person shooter, looking like Half-Life
If we didn't know better, we'd guess that this Grand Theft Auto 5 video was created with Valve's Source engine. Instead, modded XBLToothPik suggests he's working with a modded Xbox 360 and the original Grand Theft Auto V to create a first-person experience for the game. Not just first-person inside vehicles, first person everywhere, at all times.


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MMS: Duke Kunshan University
Criteria & Process
Your journey begins with self-reflection. Any master's program is a significant investment of your time, energy, and money, so it is important that you find the right program to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. "Fit" with a program occurs at the intersection of your story and ambitions and the school's story and ambitions. Before you apply, take some time to reflect on both.
Innovate and Leave a Legacy
"Innovation" and "legacy" are cornerstones for Fuqua and Duke Kunshan University. Think about how these terms apply to your own experiences and goals, then within the application, use that insight to help demonstrate how you might fit in with the culture of our two institutions.
- Why do you want a "front row seat" to China? In other words, why are you interested in this immersion experience in China?
- What legacy do you hope to leave at Fuqua and Duke Kunshan University?
- After graduation, what impact do you hope to have in your work and broader communities?
The application is available online. Review the information below to prepare to apply:
Given the competitive applicant pool, you are encouraged to apply in the round in which you can submit your "best" application. Contact Admissions Counselors Elizabeth Jones and Lisa Thomson at email@example.com if you would like more information or if you have any questions about the application.
Non-citizens of the United States, requiring an F-1 visa to study in Durham and who are not already enrolled in schools in the US and eligible for a transfer, must apply by the Round 3 deadline (March 1, 2016) to ensure sufficient time for visa processing. After Round 3, contact us to inquire about applying.
Application Deadlines for 2015 - 2016
|Round 1
|Round 2
|Round 3
|Round 4
|Application Deadline
|Oct. 30, 2015
|Jan. 29, 2016
|March 1, 2016
|April 5, 2016
|Interview Invitations Sent By Midnight (ET) — Not viewable on phone or mobile device.
|Nov. 12, 2015
|Feb. 23, 2016
|Mar. 17, 2016
|Apr. 20, 2016
|Decision Notification (sent by midnight (ET) & not viewable on phone or mobile device)
|Dec. 10, 2015
|Mar. 21, 2016
|Apr. 5, 2016
|May 5, 2016
|US Student Deposit Deadline
|Feb. 2, 2016
|Apr. 11, 2016
|Apr. 21, 2016
|May 20, 2016
|China/International Student Deposit Deadline
|Feb. 2, 2016
|Apr. 1, 2016
|Apr. 12, 2016
|China/International Student Visa Paperwork Deadline
|Apr. 4, 2016
|Apr. 15, 2016
|Apr. 21, 2016
On application deadline dates, applications must be submitted by 11:59 pm (EST).


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How do I import a jar in Eclipse?
You can add a jar in Eclipse by right-clicking on the Project → Build Path → Configure Build Path. Under Libraries tab, click Add Jars or Add External JARs and give the Jar.
Two choices:
1/ From the project:
2/ If you have already other jar imported, from the directory "References Libraries":
Both will lead you to this screen where you can mange your libraries:
Adding external Jar is not smart in case you want to change the project location in filesystem.
The best way is to add the jar to build path so your project will compile if exported:
Here are the steps:
Just a comment on importing jars into Eclipse (plug-in development) projects:
In case you are developing Eclipse plug-ins, it makes sense to use Eclipse's native bundling mechanism instead of just importing the jar into a plug-in project. Eclipse (or better its underlying OSGi runtime, Equinox) uses so-called bundles which contain some more information than plain jars (e.g., version infos, dependencies to other bundles, exported packages; see the MANIFEST.MF file). Because of this information, OSGi bundles can be dynamically loaded/unloaded and there is automatic dependency resolution available in an OSGi/Eclipse runtime. Hence, using OSGi bundles instead of plain jars (contained inside another OSGi bundle) has some advantages.
(BTW: Eclipse plug-ins are the same thing as OSGi bundles.)
There is a good chance that somebody already bundled a certain (3rd party) library as an OSGi bundle. You might want to take a look at the following bundle repositories:
Eclipse -> Preferences -> Java -> Build Path -> User Libraries -> New(Name it) -> Add external Jars
(I recommend dragging your new libraries into the eclipse folder before any of these steps to keep everything together, that way if you reinstall Eclipse or your OS you won't have to rwlink anything except the JDK) Now select the jar files you want. Click OK.
Right click on your project and choose Build Path -> Add Library
FYI just code and then right click and Source->Organize Imports
simply go to project name and import jar files or other frameworks also u can add by right clicking on project folder and external links


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Dahlkemper, a junior defender, holds a 3.37 GPA in Sociology and Education. A three-time NSCAA All-American, Dahlkemper is a finalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy and the Honda Award for soccer. She led a UCLA defense to a nation's best team goals against average of 0.30 and to a school-record 18 shutouts. Dahlkemper earned second-team Capital One Academic All-District honors this season and is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree.
Killion, a junior midfielder and team co-captain, is a Psychology major with a 3.65 GPA and a Capital One Academic All-District and two-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree. A two-time NSCAA All-Pacific Region first-team honoree, Killion led the Pac-12 in assists with 12, the third-highest single-season assist total in UCLA history. She also contributed one goal, the game-winner at California, and earned All-Tournament honors at the College Cup.
Richmond, a senior midfielder and team co-captain, holds a 3.49 GPA in Sociology and also earned Capital One Academic All-District this season and is a three-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree. Richmond was selected to the NSCAA All-Pacific Region and All-Pac-12 first teams and contributed three goals and five assists on the year. She finished her career with 91 games played, 90 starts, 12 goals and 23 assists for 47 points. Richmond's assist and games started totals rank sixth on UCLA's career charts.
Courtnall, a junior defender, holds a 3.45 GPA in Communication Studies and is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree. Courtnall was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player at the College Cup and scored the game-tying goal in the NCAA semifinals against Virginia.
Mewis, a junior midfielder, is an English major with a 3.47 GPA and a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic and three-time All-Pac-12 selection. Mewis ranked third on the team in scoring in 2013 with six goals, nine assists and 21 points. She tied two school records this year by recording three assists in a game (vs. USC) and five assists in the NCAA Tournament.
The three first-team Scholar All-Americans are the most from any one school this year and a school record.


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RT @PRIMER: @PRIMER tee spotted at the Golden Gate Bridge: http://is.gd/oz6w3.20.2009
How could I go my whole contact-wearing life without having this?! http://is.gd/ofro
OOOO Frankiiiieeee *faint* http://is.gd/odQQ
RT @trent_reznor: www.ninja2009.comČ is now live! FREE NIN/JA EP.
"I wont miss a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data" RT @Typophile: Google Design Lead quit http://bit.ly/pPz4
@Jack_Beitz Are you wearing a cardigan today, in honor of Mr. Rogers? http://is.gd/ocHN
@63merc @PRIMER so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home, and you cry, and you want to die.3.19.2009
@ccashdollar Give 'em hell!3.18.2009
OPEN HOUSE this Sunday 12-2 : http://is.gd/kLXf
Ferarri madness on Google Maps, via @PRIMER's Roman office: RT: @stephanosuh http://tiny.cc/k6h5t - EEE GADS!!!


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Man faces judge in women's stranglings
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 4:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 4:54 p.m.
DAYTONA BEACH -- A 44-year-old Port Orange man charged with strangling two women in his home and raping and abducting a 9-year-old neighbor was in court Friday for his first appearance.
James Lee Maxwell, of 180 Brandy Hills Drive, didn't have much to say at the Volusia County Branch Jail as Volusia County Judge Steven Henderson read his two capital first-degree murder charges.
Gray-haired, balding and sporting a goatee, Maxwell kept his bespectacled gaze focused on the floor as Henderson denied bond.
A grand jury indicted Maxwell on Thursday in the deaths of Chasity Danette Starr of Holly Hill and Pamela Sue Will, 48, of South Daytona.
Police said he strangled both women.
Maxwell is accused of burying Starr's body in his backyard and Will's body in a muddy ditch next to International Trade Associates in Ormond Beach, where he used to work.
Police said Starr was murdered Jan. 15, 2011. Her body was found in Maxwell's backyard June 18.
Will was reported missing from a South Daytona motel Sept. 24, 2010. Her body was found Jan. 16, 2011.
Maxwell is also accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old neighbor after a party at her house, then raping her, on Dec. 15, 2011.
His trial in that case had been set for this month but has been rescheduled for October, court records show.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Comments are currently unavailable on this article


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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State's regular-season ending football game at arch rival Ole Miss on Nov. 27 in Oxford will kickoff at 6 p.m. CT and be televised by ESPNU, the Southeastern Conference announced Monday.
The MSU-UM series dates back to 1901, when Mississippi A&M downed the Rebels 17-0 in Starkville. State has claimed three of the five Egg Bowls and reclaimed the trophy with a 41-27 victory last season at Davis Wade Stadium.
The 6 p.m. kickoff will mark the first time since 2003 the contest will be played at night.


text: 3.2-stable review patch. If anyone has any objections, please let me know.------------------From: Artem Bityutskiy <email@example.com>commit c4cc625ea5958d065c21cc0fcea29e9ed8f3d2bc upstream.The writebufsize concept was introduce by commit"0e4ca7e mtd: add writebufsize field to mtd_info struct" and it representsthe maximum amount of data the device writes to the media at a time. This isan important parameter for UBIFS which is used during recovery and whichbasically defines how big a corruption caused by a power cut can be.Set writebufsize to the flash page size because it is the maximum amount ofdata it writes at a time.Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <email@example.com>Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <firstname.lastname@example.com>Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <firstname.lastname@example.com>--- drivers/mtd/devices/sst25l.c | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)--- a/drivers/mtd/devices/sst25l.c+++ b/drivers/mtd/devices/sst25l.c@@ -402,6 +402,7 @@ static int __devinit sst25l_probe(struct flash->mtd.flags = MTD_CAP_NORFLASH; flash->mtd.erasesize = flash_info->erase_size; flash->mtd.writesize = flash_info->page_size;+ flash->mtd.writebufsize = flash_info->page_size; flash->mtd.size = flash_info->page_size * flash_info->nr_pages; flash->mtd.erase = sst25l_erase; flash->mtd.read = sst25l_read;


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Mayor Williams Delivers State of the City Address
Posted on 03/27/2014 6:31 pm
On Thursday, March 27, 2014, Mayor Dennis P. Williams delivered the State of the City Address and presented his proposed Fiscal Year 2015 General Operating Budget and the Water/Sewer Fund Budget before a meeting of the Wilmington City Council.
During the address, Mayor Williams highlighted the importance of the City working collaboratively with City Council, corporate and small businesses, public safety officials and the community to impact change. Mayor Williams' speech read:
"Now is the time to stand together—The Mayor and City Council, the corporate community and entrepreneurs, police officers and citizens. As we work toward making our streets safer, our neighborhoods stronger and our children prepared for the future."
Mayor Williams also emphasized that his proposed budget maintains three guiding principles, which he hopes will lead to Wilmington becoming a thriving city where families prefer to live, educational opportunities for the youth are plentiful, communities are safe and businesses continue to invest.
- Ensure the City sustains long-term fiscal stability.
- Invest in key strategic initiatives addressing youth development, neighborhood development and economic development.
- Improve infrastructure throughout the City of Wilmington.
Mayor Williams' speech also reflected on the increase of a number of uncontrollable costs and his refusal to reduce or eliminate City services, which lead to the proposed 9.9 percent property tax increase. The speech states:
"The choices for balancing the budget in the face of the uncontrollable costs, coupled with key strategic initiatives were clear. Forced to choose between eliminating City services through massive layoffs or raising more tax revenue, I made the gut-wrenching decision to do the latter.
The decision to raise revenue through taxes is never easy. No mayor, town manager, county executive or governor relishes this prospect. However, as with managing a household budget, when costs increase but your income does not, difficult decisions must be made."


text: Jóhann ThormählenBloemfontein - Blue Bulls coach Pine Pienaar's knowledge of several young players in the Free State rugby team is not a major concern for the Cheetahs ahead of Saturday's Currie Cup match in Pretoria.That is the view of Free State coach Naka Drotské in the build-up to the Cheetahs' second Currie Cup match of 2011.Drotské said that the Bulls have had the same approach for the past seven years and Pienaar's involvement is not expected to change that.Pienaar still coached Free State in the Vodacom Cup earlier this year and was recently appointed as the Blue Bulls' Currie Cup coach. He also coached the Free State under-21 side and therefore has good knowledge of a number of their newcomers.Eigthman Boom Prinsloo, flank Lappies Labuschagné, scrumhalf Pieter van Zyl, and props Marcel van der Merwe and Trevor Nyakane all played under-21 rugby under Pienaar. They all made their Currie Cup debuts against the Leopards last Saturday.Pienaar was never directly involved with Free State's senior team, but should know more about the Cheetahs than most opponents.Even so, Drotské won't be losing sleep about Pienaar's influence on the game against his old friends."We have a number of young players who Pine knows well, but it's very difficult to focus on individual players. For example, it will be difficult for him to tell the Bulls' No 7 flank what Lappies does. It's difficult when he knows them as coach, but his players do not know them," said Drotské.He believes that his team knows how the Bulls play."It's not really a significant disadvantage for us that Pine knows our players. He knows how we play and we know how the Bulls play. The Bulls have been playing a certain way for the past six or seven years. "You know that if you want to beat the Bulls you have to be aggressive and stop them behind the advantage line. You cannot give them momentum."Drotské believes there will be pressure on his young players, but is confident that they will be up to the task."We are improving every week. You could see in the live scrumming sessions, lineout sessions and drives that the forwards are slowly but surely becoming a unit."Meanwhile, the Cheetahs could not announce their team on Tuesday due to a few light injuries.Flyhalf Sias Ebersohn (ankle) and hooker Michael van Vuuren (upper leg) did not train and will have to prove their fitness on Wednesday. Hooker PW van Vuuren also could not train fully due to a sore leg.


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To Register for the 2013 Fall Undergraduate Investment Conference, please read the rules below, submit your payment using the "Buy Now" button and then complete the form embedded below.
UIC Rules
- All teams in the Stock Pitch Competition will pitch long positions in front of a panel of current industry professionals. Teams will be randomly split into three groups, where they will compete within their group for the first round. The top team from each group will compete against each other in the final round.
- In the first round, teams will have up to twelve minutes to make their presentations followed by ten minutes of Q&A from a panel of four to five judges.
- In the final round, teams will have up to fifteen minutes to make their presentations followed by ten minutes of Q&A from a panel of four to five judges that comprise of all senior professionals who have substantial experience in the industry. The first place team will receive a prize of $3,000.
- Teams picked stocks from a pool of stocks that have a market capitalization of greater than $500 million and that are currently listed on the Nasdaq, NYSE, or NYSE Amex (no OTCBB or Pink- Sheet).
Submit payment here:
Register here:


text:
|"Like"ARM 大学计划的 Facebook 主页!
|在 iTunes U 上观看播客!
|在 Twitter 上关注 ARM 大学计划!
|"Like"ARM 大学计划的 Facebook 主页!
|在 iTunes U 上观看播客!
|在 Twitter 上关注 ARM 大学计划!
Dr. Amit Manthanwar from Imperial College London discusses the challenges in introducing microcontrollers to non CS and EE students. By adopting ARM University Program¹s Lab-in-a-Box Dr. Manthanwar been able to generate interest and enthusiasm in his students adopting microcontrollers in their projects.
Dr. Steve Alty from London Southbank University discusses the benefits of adopting the NXP mbed Lab-in-a-Box from ARM in his teaching programme
Dr. Boris Adryan uses the Freescale Lab-in-a-Box to help students at the Cambridge Systems Biology Center understand microcontrollers, with a view to incorporating them into research projects.
The ARM University Program is hosting two One-Day Workshops specifically for training Faculty and Researchers on the ARM SoC Lab-in-Box. The latter is based on the ARM Cortex™-M0 DesignStart™ processor core. The one day workshop comprises lectures, hands-on exercises, and opportunities to network with experts from ARM.
The workshop focuses on designing AMBA3 AHB-Lite compliant hardware peripherals like UART, VGA, Timers etc. and integrating them onto a simple Cortex-M0 based SoC. The SoC will be programmed with KEIL MDK-ARM software suite, and prototyped on a Xilinx Spartan-6 based FPGA board.
Attendees should bring a laptop running Windows OS with the Keil MDK-ARM evaluation software tool (free download) and Xilinx ISE Webpack (free download).
Knowledge of digital design using Verilog/VHDL, FPGA synthesis flow and experience in programming micro-controllers will be helpful.
These special University workshops are completely free-of-charge for all academics and researchers. Attendees are expected to make their own travel arrangements.
Please register online here: AUP Workshop Registration
*ARM University program reserves the right to accept or refuse registrations.
If you have any further questions please write to email@example.com


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Whitechapel has unleashed their sixth full-length, 'Mark of the Blade', today worldwide via Metal Blade Records! In conjunction with Mark of the Blade's release, Whitechapel has launched a new video for the album track 'Elitist Ones'.Read More
The Foreshadowing
On July 29th, The Foreshadowing will release their fourth full-length, 'Seven Heads Ten Horns'. For a preview of the album, fans can hear the new track, 'Fall of Heroes', now via DecibelMagazine.comRead More
Downfall of Gaia
German extreme metallers Downfall of Gaia have just entered the studio to record their fourth full-length album and follow-up to 2014's acclaimed 'Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay'.Read More
On July 22nd, Revocation will release 'Great Is Our Sin.' Today, the band has unleashed a third blistering track from the album - check out the lyric video for 'Crumbling Imperium' now via Loudwire.comRead More
Hammers of Misfortune
On July 22nd, Hammers of Misfortune will release their sixth full-length, 'Dead Revolution.' In anticipation of this release, the band has now launched a new track, 'Sea of Heroes', today via Stereogum.comRead More
Denner / Shermann
Denner / Shermann has released a new video for the track 'Son of Satan', taken from their upcoming album, 'Masters of Evil', out June 24th. To watch 'Son of Satan', please visit metalblade.com/dennershermannRead More
Necromancing the Stone
If flaccid, identikit, breakdown-laden 'metal' is the disease, Necromancing the Stone is the cure. With their upcoming debut full-length, 'Jewel of the Vile', the group plans to vanquish 'Breakdownicus Gratuitous.'Read More
If These Trees Could Talk
If These Trees Could Talk has announced a USA headlining tour in support of their new album, 'The Bones of a Dying World'! Kicking off in August in NY, the trek also features Driftoff, Spotlights, and Alexander Turnquist as support.Read More
New Releases
New Releases
Latest News
Artillery streams new album, 'Penalty by Perception', via NewNoiseMagazine.com
- March 22nd, 2016 – Danish power thrash metallers Artillery will...Read More
Exumer premieres new video for "Catatonic"
- March 21st, 2016 – German thrashers Exumer have released...Read More
Lizzy Borden signs solo artist deal with Metal Blade Records worldwide
- March 21st, 2016 – Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral Lizzy Borden has...Read More
Amon Amarth premieres new video for "At Dawn's First Light" online
- March 15th, 2016 – Launches digital picture book for new album,...Read More
Mother Feather reveals details for new self-titled album
- March 17th, 2016 – Launches video for "Living, Breathing"...Read More
Visigoth announces North American tour with Night Demon
- March 17th, 2016 – Launches live video for "Dungeon...Read More
Desaster premieres lyric video for new track, "End of Tyranny", via CvltNation.com
- March 16th, 2016 – On April 8th, German black thrashers Desaster will...Read More
Decibel Magazine inducts Fates Warning's 'Awaken The Guardian' into the "Hall of Fame"
- March 16th, 2016 – Quite possibly one of the most influential...Read More


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About 6 months ago, a friend in the craft industry told me that paper bows were going to take over the paper flower craze. I was begining to see bows all over the fashion world, which is usually what drives the trends in the paper world. I love keeping up with trends all across the board since they all play off each other in the end. And bows are no exception!
I am loving all of the bows out there! They just make me happy! And I NEED some of these shoes or I may just not be able to live :)
I am seeing all kinds of great paper bows too!
If you want to create some paper bows, HERE is a great template from us! I created this birthday banner using the linked template, I just left off the tails of the bow :) They are so easy to make :)
I want to see some bows on your projects!! Post some photos on our Facebook page if you make some!
Have a great Wednesday!!


text:
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June 6, 2013 | Vol. 117 -- No. 7
Jim Missel
Theo Petropoulos (left) and Eric Igbinoba (right) will be taking their football skills to Linfield College this fall.
Cheney High School seniors Theo Petropoulos and Eric Igbinoba have signed letters of intent to play football at NCAA Division III Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore.
Igbinoba, 6-feet, 180 pounds, has signed as a wide receiver for the Wildcats. The 2013 graduate was a three-time All-Great Northern League first-team selection and a 2012 second-team All-State pick as a senior. He earned 11 varsity letters in football, basketball and track and was team captain in all three sports his senior season.
Petropoulos, 5-9, 175, signed as a kicker and was an All-GNL first-team selection as a senior,...
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text:
Strong corporate governance is fundamental to Resolute Forest Products' long-term success as an increasingly diversified, highly competitive and consistently profitable organization.
Our approach to governance is designed to ensure that all aspects of the Company's business are conducted with integrity and transparency, in a manner that facilitates meaningful engagement with stakeholders. Compliance with the laws and regulations in the various jurisdictions where Resolute operates is a given. However, our aspirations are considerably higher.
We have adopted corporate governance charters related to certain key areas such as director qualifications and responsibilities, responsibilities of board committees and director compensation. We have also adopted a Code of Business Conduct for directors, officers and employees.
At Resolute, we expect our employees to maintain the highest level of ethics and integrity in their dealings with customers, suppliers, fellow employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. As part of this commitment, we have adopted an Ethics Reporting Policy that allows officers, managers and employees to report financial or accounting irregularities as well as other suspected wrongdoings; to raise any other ethics or compliance concerns or questions they may have; and to proactively seek guidance on actions with potential ethical implications. To learn more, read our Ethics Reporting Policy.
Ethics Reporting Hotline/Helpline (independent and confidential)Toll-free 24/7/365: 1-877-319-8904Web Report: www.clearviewconnects.com
* We amended our Code of Business Conduct as of April 1, 2014. The Code of Business Conduct, as amended, applies to all employees, including our president and chief executive officer, chief financial officer and chief accounting officer, and to each member of the board of directors. (Hourly employees have been subject to the amended Code of Business Conduct since July 1, 2014, and were subject to the previous code until then.) We amended the Code of Business Conduct to update a number of policies, to clarify guidelines and duties, and to improve the structure and style. We also amended the Ethics Reporting Policy as of August 11, 2014, to clarify the role of the board representatives and the manner in which certain matters are handled. We simultaneously made corresponding changes to the Code of Business Conduct. None of the amendments and revisions described here relate to, or result in, any waiver, explicit or implicit, of any provision of the prior version of the applicable documents.
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text: Welcome to Belmont Experience the lifestyle of a lifetime! The Belmont at Park Central is one of three unique communities, all nestled together in one great location. Have it all and more with the quintessential Orlando lifestyle at your reach. Enjoy the nightlife and entertainment with a short drive downtown. Channel your inner fashionista with the upscale shopping of Millenia Mall. Or enjoy a night of fine dining at our brand new private restaurant only steps from your front door. We welcome you to an un-paralleled experience where variety is never limited. Prepare to be amazed with the astonishing amenity package no other community dares to compare! Live your life by choosing your style with the Belmont at Park Central. Winner of Property of the Year at the 2014 Apartment Association of Greater Orlando, Golden Key Awards. View Our Floor Plans


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Outfit yourself in the right clothes for your next adventure. Our rainwear and outerwear will keep you dry and warm, while our baselayers help you prepare for changing temps. You'll find performance and tactical clothes from Beretta, Under Armour and 5.11 Tactical, fishing clothes from Columbia, and more apparel from The North Face, Marmot, and Carhartt.
Results 1 - 3 of 3 Page 1 of 1
Carhartt Men's Washed Duck Flannel-Lined Dungaree
Heavyweight 100% ringspun cotton duck fabric
Lined with 100% cotton flannel fabric for warmth
Full seat and thigh; sits at the natural waist
Multiple tool and utility pockets; hammer loop
19" leg openings for easy on/off over work boots
Carhartt Sandstone Waist Overall/Quilt Lined
12-ounce, 100% cotton sandstone duck
100% nylon quilted to midweight polyester lining
Dungaree-fit sits slightly below the natural waist
Full seat and thighs
Cordura kick panels at bottom of leg openings
Carhartt Flame-Resistant Midweight Canvas Waist Overall/Quilted ...
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text:
Action After Shave Repair
Action After Shave Repair quickly moisturizes, soothes, and clams razor burn.
Guaranteed AuthenticGuaranteed Authentic
Folica is an authorized distributer of this product and guarantees its authenticity.Close
- Action After Shave Repair quickly moisturizes, soothes, and clams razor burn.
- Instantly soothes skin after shaving.
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- Reduces minor razor burn and redness.
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Apply dime sized amount to beard and neck area, immediately after shaving.
Key Ingredients:
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Apricot Kernel Oil: Moisturizes and softens skin, without leaving a oily residue.
Shea Butter: Deep moisturizer. Conditions, softens, and smoothes skin. Helps reduce fine line and wrinkles.
Squalene: Derived from wheat germ. Moisturizes and softens skin and beard hairs.


text:
Cedarhill obtained nonprofit status in 1992; as its reputation grew, more and more animals arrived, each with a history worse than the last. "You can't imagine what it is like to see one of these big cats feel the earth under its feet for the first time," says McElroy, who by then was putting in 18 hours a day, every day. "I remember Kimba, a Bengal tiger, coming here. He'd always been kept on a very short chain, standing on cement. When he touched grass, he jumped in surprise, then he ran and played. He's never stopped."
In addition to her own two-story cedarwood house on the property, McElroy added a one-story safari guesthouse for donors, decorated in Out of Africa style with animal print wallpaper and textiles. She also became an activist, lobbying for four years until Mississippi created laws to regulate the sale and trade of exotic animals. Now she's working to end canned hunts, in which animals are kept in small enclosures, even cages, so "sportsmen" in safari suits can stand on top of Land Rovers or swoop low in helicopters to shoot them. Tragically, hundreds of these hunts are still held across the country and are advertised extensively online. "These 'brave hunters' are photographed in macho style with their victims," McElroy says. "Someone comes back from a canned hunt with a stuffed head or a skin from an animal on the endangered list, and people think he went to Africa. Canned hunts are all about bragging rights. They have nothing to do with sport."
It's estimated that Texas holds about 500 such hunts every year, with an additional 500 taking place nationwide. "Exotic animals can be sold to breeders and so on down the line, until they end up in canned hunts, illicit auctions, roadside zoos, research labs, or even in exotic food," she says.
McElroy, now 64, remains a tireless advocate. Over the years she has expanded Cedarhill's habitats to make room for 300 creatures, large and small. A typical day begins at dawn with the roar of five lions and 12 tigers: Bengal, Manchurian, Siberian, and Sumatran. They in turn rouse the rest of the sanctuary — four cougars; two bobcats; two shy wolves; 200 abandoned domestic felines, many rescued after Hurricane Katrina; an assortment of dogs; two blind horses; potbellied pigs; and cockatoos and parrots, including one who perfectly mimics McElroy.
"They are all unadoptable," she says. "If they went to a shelter, they'd be killed. But once they come here, they're members of the Cedarhill family. They live out their days cared for, in comfort, and greatly loved."
Shortly after sunup, McElroy's mostly female crew sets out with each animal's customized breakfast. (She tends to hire women because many of the animals have been traumatized by men.) As the food arrives, the lions and tigers race inside their enclosures, chuffing in pleasure.
As fond as she is of her rescued big cats, McElroy refuses to be photographed inside their enclosures or cuddling them. "To do so would project an image that these animals can be domesticated. They can't," she says. "A wild animal will never be 100 percent safe. I don't want to encourage people to view them as big, cuddly pussycats. They can maul and kill."
She rolls up her sleeve to show the scars on her right arm, saying, "This was my fault." In the early days of the sanctuary, she needed to relocate K.C., a cougar who'd apparently been abandoned by drug dealers without food, water, or shelter. His face, chest, and front legs looked like they had been deliberately lacerated with a weed eater. Amazingly, he survived and was brought to Cedarhill.
"I had to move him from one enclosure to another and asked a man to help me. He arrived with a shovel," McElroy says. "K.C. growled, thinking it was going to be used on him. He spun around in panic and tore my arm open." McElroy says she was rushed to the ER and required more than 200 stitches and intravenous antibiotics. She says that when a sheriff told her, "Don't worry, we'll shoot the cougar," her response was, "Don't you touch that animal." It's the only time she or any of her employees have been attacked.


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Filmed on October 10, 2013, at "Head, Heart, Hand: AIGA Design Conference"
AIGA's executive director opens the 2013 "Head, Heart, Hand: AIGA Design Conference," discussing the future of AIGA and why design strategy, social impact and craft are vital to great design.
Richard Grefé is the CEO of AIGA, the professional association for design. He is generally involved in all of AIGA's activities, although his major contributions are in strategy, formulating new initiatives to enhance the competitive success of designers and advocating the value of design. He earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College, crafted books at Stinehour Press, spent several years in intelligence work in Asia, reported from the Bronx County Courthouse for AP, wrote for Time magazine on business and the economy and then earned an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Following a career in urban design and public policy consulting, Grefé managed the association responsible for strategic planning and legislative advocacy for public television and led a think tank on the future of public television and radio. He has been at AIGA since 1995, developing programs that reinforce the relevance of design as an extraordinary creative gift and a critical element of business strategy.
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See videos from the 2013 "Head, Heart, Hand: AIGA Design Conference" in Minneapolis, featuring George Lois, Eric Baker, Leyla Acaroglu, Andrew Blauvelt, Steve Duenes, Matthew Ericson, Nicole Lazzaro, Paulina Reyes, J.J. Sedelmaier and many more.
Section: Events and Competitions -
Conference , AIGA Design Conference
This double-projector presentation showcases the presenters' many collaborative projects and focuses on the opportunities to be found in this method of working.
Section: Inspiration -
photography, Conference , book design, editorial design, print design, product design, AIGA Design Conference
Matteo Bologna, emcee of Command X: Season 4, a design reality show featuring seven up-and-coming designers competing for the title of America's next top designer, introduces the contestants.
Section: Inspiration -
Event, mentoring, AIGA Design Conference, students
AIGA's chapters allow our members to form powerful social and
professional bonds through conferences, competitions, lectures and
community events.
Section: About AIGA -
AIGA chapters
Learn more about AIGA's national conferences and events, and access videos from select conferences and awards events.
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Conference , Event
Julianna Slocum
San Francisco
2016 AIGA Awards Gala
AIGA AZ 2016 Town Hall Meeting survey
June 18, 2016
Show your love Arizona with a poster
June 17, 2016
Election Results
June 14, 2016
AIGA Austin Town Hall
June 06, 2016
Shiyu Wang
New York
Art DirectorJPL
Harrisburg, PennsylvaniaJune 27 2016
The Holiday Bus Drive
Zeus Jones


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Being a single mother is not an easy job, especially with the current state of the economy.
Employment is difficult to find, rent is expensive, and most single mothers are unaware of the assistance they may qualify for through housing grants for single mothers.
To help solve this problem, we've put together a list of housing grants available to qualifying single moms.
HUD Housing Grants
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, provides single mothers and low income families with access to a variety of housing grants.
If you are having some financial difficulties and are unable to afford your rent or mortgage, consider the following grants offered through HUD. Additional and updated information on each of these grants can be found at www.hud.gov.
- HOME Investment Partnership Program – The HOME Investment Partnership Program is a federal grant offered through HUD to the states and local governments within the United States. This program allows communities to purchase land and build or rehabilitate housing that can be rented or purchased by low income individuals and families. Each jurisdiction must match 25 cents for each dollar contributed to the program in order to use it. These grants can also be used for rental assistance, loan guarantees, direct loans, credit enhancement, grants, or even assistance with rental security deposits.
- American Dream Down Payment Initiative – On December 16, 2003, the federal government signed the American Dream Down Payment Initiative (ADDI) into law, providing about $200 million dollars worth of funds to all 50 states. It was designed to help single mothers and low income families cover the costs that stop many individuals from purchasing their first homes: closing costs and down payments. Eligible individuals must be first-time homebuyers and have an income less than 80% of the average for their area. Up to six percent of the cost of the home can be obtained, or $10,000, depending on which is greater. Rehabilitation funds may also be obtained from this housing grant to help with repairing home health hazards, such as removing lead paint.
- PHA Housing Grants – PHA housing grants are available to single mothers through the Housing Choice Vouchers Program. This program allows low income families to rent or purchase safe and decent housing in their area. Vouchers are provided to the families who qualify and the public housing agency (PHA) in your area pays a portion, or all, of the rent or mortgage you owe each month. Any difference in the amount of rent or mortgage paid by the PHA and the total rent must be paid by you. Eligible individuals must have an income less than 50% of the average income in their area. Families who have an income of less than 30% of the average income for their area make up 75% of the housing vouchers given out. Although there are certain requirements for eligibility, and often a waiting list for those who qualify, individuals who are homeless, involuntarily displaced from their homes, or spend more than 50% of their income on rent may be able to obtain help more quickly.
- Housing Counseling Program – Sometimes a little education can go a long way. HUD provides education-based counseling for low income families and single mothers through the Housing Counseling Program. This program educates individuals who are renters, homeless, homeowners, and homebuyers. Its purpose is to provide knowledge about opportunities available through the federal government for assistance, grants, and access to affordable housing. Guidance and advice is given to homeowners, renters, and buyers to help them improve their housing conditions and prevent default, delinquency, and foreclosure. Assistance is also given to homebuyers to help them identify what interest rates are fair, how to avoid appraisals that have been inflated, and how to establish repayment terms they can afford.
As you can see, there are many housing grants available for single mothers. If you are interested in any of these grants, visit www.hud.gov or your local housing authority for information on how to apply.


text: Sophomore guard Gilbert Arenas missed a free throw with 0.7 seconds remaining to secure an 84-83 win for the Red team yesterday in the University of Arizona's annual Red-Blue Scrimmage at McKale Center. The Red team took a two-point lead on a Jason Gardner three-pointer with 28 seconds left. The Blue team slowed the ball to play for the last shot, but Richard Jefferson fouled Arenas with less than a second left. Arenas made the first of two free throws, but missed the second. He led all scorers with 30 points and added six assists, but he committed 12 turnovers. Michael Wright led the Red team with 29 points and 11 rebounds. Jefferson and Gardner each had 15 points, and Walton added 14 for the Red team. Senior forward Eugene Edgerson had 22 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for the Blue team in his first game action since the 1999 Red-Blue game. He redshirted last season to complete his degree requirements as a student teacher in a kindergarten class. Senior center Loren Woods showed his back, which forced him to miss much of the Pacific-10 Conference season last year, is in good shape. He had 16 points for the Blue team, as well as six rebounds and three blocked shots. The Wildcats play their first outside competition Sunday, 5 p.m., in an exhibition against the EA Sports/California All Stars.


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Patch, Experiment, Mist, Colorado School of Mines
This Mist patch representing an experiment on STS-107 belonged to NASA astronaut David Brown, a mission specialist who flew in space for the first time as a member of the crew of STS-107, the Space Shuttle Columbia mission that disintegrated upon reentry on February 1, 2003. A flight surgeon and a naval aviator, Brown was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in April 1996. After two years of training and evaluation, he qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Aboard STS-107, Brown logged 15 days, 22 hours, and 20 minutes in space. Although this patch was never flown in space, it was a personal memento of Brown's.
Doug Brown, Dave Brown's brother, gave the patch to the Museum in 2006.
Gift of Douglas R. Brown.
- Country of Origin
- Unknown
- Type
- MEMORABILIA-Events
- Materials
- synthetic fabric, adhesive
- Dimensions
- 2-D - Unframed (H x W): 11.4 x 14cm (4 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.)


text:
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
Just writing a quick update on life here. I haven't lost any weight nor have I really tried. With the holidays and the stress of this last week, I just lost my mojo. For those of you who read my status updates, you know about what's gone on this week. It just has been a week from H-E-double hockey sticks. Christmas was okay except for the family fighting. But it just seems it can't be a holiday or a visit without someone fighting. It's ridiculous how much my family fights. I did get some nice tupperware to store things in since I didn't have enough for storage, I got a new PS2 game, a blender, and a couple of ornaments my mom bought for my first Christmas, which was a picture of me at 9 months old (so cute!) and this bottle with all my birth info written on it (also cute). Then on Wednesday, I go out in zero degree weather and my car won't start. I figure, okay, it's too cold to start since it's hated the cold the last few years like crazy and I'll try again later. I tried all day and all it does is crank but won't turn over. I'm going okay, great. What's wrong now? This being the second break down in the 8 years I've had it, I had a feeling it was something major. I call my gramma up and she says she'll have AAA tow it to my work where there's a garage and my boss is an ex mechanic and see if we can figure out and hopefully fix what's wrong. They finally look at it. It's getting fuel, so not the fuel pump. It's getting power, so not the battery or spark plugs. So my boss finally gets out to look at it since the regular guys are officially stumped at this point and he tells me it's the timing gears. Yup, my feeling is right. Getting it fixed will cost more than it's worth. Which pisses and depresses me to no end. As I said before, I've had that car for 8 years. I have a lot of memories tied in with that car. Yes, I'll always have the memories, but now I have to find someone who wants to buy it to fix it up for a demolition derby and give it a warrior's death that way, or sell it for scrap. Either way, I can't keep it. And that hurts. So I'm sitting here without a car and I feel like I've lost my best friend. That car was a war horse, let me tell you. Anyway, moving on. Then last night I went out to check the mail and as I was on my way back, there was an ice spot that I hit and I fell and cut and bruised my knee fairly well. It's still sore, but it's better than it was last night. And this morning I woke up with my nose all itchy and mildly stuffy and a lil runny and all that fun stuff. So now I think I'm catching a head cold to top it all off. Add insult to injury. Pfft. So yeah, I haven't had the world's greatest week. But I'm telling myself that I need to let everything go and move on. Life moves on whether or not I like it. Time to find a new car, time to heal from an unlucky fall, and time to get over this cold by stopping the junk food sorry for myself crap that I do and getting back to exercise. It's almost a new year. Time for change.
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I hope the new year brings good luck for you. Feel better soon.
1273 days ago
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When it rains, it pours! I get sentimental about things like cars, too, so understand your feeling of loss. It's more than just the loss of transportation!
But you're right - it's time for a change. On the bright side, the car didn't leave you stranded and gave you 8 good years. Your fall ended with a cut, but no ER visit or surgery. And colds will come and go! We're about to embark on the adventure of 2013 - I hope this time next year has us both checking off our list of "goals achieved"!
1273 days ago
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As uncomfortable as it can be sometimes forced changes are so that new and better things can happen. Maybe the next car will bring on the making of even better memories.
Funny how attached you can get to a car. The first car I bought myself was my baby and when it got wrecked I cried all the way to the crusher. But, it led to a new car that was far more reliable that took me all the way to Key West and back on $250.
I wish you luck with your weight loss journey. Stress isn't a friend to weight loss and family stress seems like it's impossible to shake off as easy. I just look at it like this...I'm thankful that at least I have family and they are there to p*ss me off.
1273 days ago
Comment edited on: 12/30/2012 1:59:12 PM
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text:
Sony's upcoming Android-powered Tablet S is now available for pre-order, with shipping on September 16. The Tablet S sports an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip, a 9.4-inch 1280x800 resolution display, a 5.0-megapixel rear-facing camera, a paltry 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 16GB storage and 1GB of RAM. It includes a Wi-Fi universal IR remote, Sony Entertainment Network with Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited and games for PS certified devices.
Pricing isn't too bad, at $499.99 and pre-orders are available right now if you're interested. Hit up the source if you want to tap some of that Sony Tablet S.


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Monday, January 14, 2013
I didn't find anyone worthy of my coveted Best Dressed/Wear What You Want combo award at the Golden Globes last night. Last year, I bestowed that award upon Piper Perabo, because her sheer ballgown by Theyskens' Theory had that special touch of crazy that makes me say, "I WANT YOUR INSANE OUTFIT" to the television. I thought everyone looked very pretty this year, which is safe but doesn't win any Wendy Brandes honors. Out of all the pretty dresses, my favorite was Lucy Liu's ballgown by Carolina Herrera.
The color, print and fit of this dress caught my eye. There's something Marie Antoinette-ish about it, and I'm always in favor of that look. In November, a Dolce & Gabbana ballgown with a floral print stopped me in my tracks at Bergdorf Goodman because it had the same feeling.
I guess I just like the idea of a dress that takes up a lot of space. Go big or go home!
Plunging necklines were everywhere at the Globes. I can shop my closet for that look. Most of my examples are vintage — Ossie Clark was a big fans of halters and keyhole necklines — so if you're on the hunt for something scandalous, start online and get something that can't be found in a mall, for WendyB's sake! While Ossies can be expensive …
… I got this Donald Brooks Couture dress on eBay for $60.
Here's another Ossie worn in 2004.
The lowest neckline I've worn came courtesy of a Marie France dress I bought from Vintage-a-Peel. Here it is in 2006. Works well with my Cleopatra necklace, doesn't it?
I did buy a non-vintage Black Halo dress in 2010 …
… and was wearing a new, plunging Roland Mouret when I had an embarrassing moment with Tom Brokaw that same year.
My embarrassment had nothing to do with the dress; it was my unfortunate reference to a Family Guy episode that made me blush right down to my waist. Anyway, none of my low-cut dresses or any of last night's Golden Globes cleavage rival Jennifer Lopez's iconic Versace dress at the 2000 Grammys.
I doubt anyone will outdo J. Lo when it comes to baring boobage. That dress was perfection on her. Look at that bod! Speaking of Lopez, I was irked by the tweets during the Globes about how hard it must be for her to be in the same room as ex-fiance and Golden-Globe-winner Ben Affleck. WTF! They broke up in January 2004. Hollywood is a small place; I'm sure they've been in the same room many times in the past NINE years. I've spent plenty of enjoyable time in the company of MrB's exes (hi, ladies, if you're reading this). It's water under the bridge.
UPDATED TO ADD: I'm not sure it was fair for me to add an old picture of me to Not Dead Yet Style's Visible Monday post … but I did it anyway! I'm crazy like that. I figure I still have all my low-cut dresses and will be wearing them again soon enough.
21 Responses to "My Best Dressed at the Golden Globes: Lucy Liu"
Oh, you beat me to blogging about Lucy's dress, Wendy! (It's too bad it's always a Monday morning here in Malaysia during awards season so I'm always at work)
It's also my fave pick at this year's Golden Globes. Hope Lucy goes with something just as good (or even better!) at the Oscars.
LUFF the Donald Brooks frock! Want it!!!! x
My favorites were Lucy Liu and Kate Hudson. Everyone else was mostly blah. The most amazing thing was Anne Hathaway wearing a boring dress from Chanel that didn't fit properly. What's the point? And also, I wish someone would give these ladies a lesson in posture, especially when they wear strapless. So much hunching it made my back sore.
Love that Marie France dress, and the colorful Ossie Clark. Your hair looks great in a bob!
I wuv that pilgrim dress. The Bergdorf Goodman dress is a stunner.
I actually really liked Lucy's braid with that dress too. The plunging neckline look is pretty great if you have the right body for it. You and the celebs at the Globes look fab, but I doubt that Salma or Sofia would be able to pull it off without looking like they have another type of job! 🙂
I'm so glad that Lucy broke the boring dress mold last night!
And you and your plunging necklines. Ooooh honey. Obviously the crack dude on your block didn't see you walking the dogs in that Roland Mouret number or else he wouldn't have been so impressed with your other outfit that he recently commented on!
I just love both the pose and the Ossie dress
you're wearing with the Red tights – sexy little thing. My other fave is the non-vintage Black Halo dress from 2010.
I think one has to have great boobage, as I give you major props for, to carry off these necklines. But you look amazing in all these dresses, and OMG, you met Toni Collette! Now I'm pretty sure I could wear *her* dress 🙂
Oh, the sexy pilgrim dress is too awesome. I'm on eBay one minute from now looking for one! Loved Lucy's dress too, it had *pockets*. Thanks for sharing with Visible Monday!
Oh, Wendy, I thought that gown totally out of place for an event which was basically a seated formal dinner party, held inside a giant ballroom. Even if it was awards. Kerry Washington, to me, was the belle of the evening, her outfit was perfection.
My friend and I totally picked this as our favorite of the night
I haven't seen much love for the look in the blogger community, but I still stand by my pick
Her hair and make up were perfection as well
Your wear those plunging necklines so stunningly, Wendy. Love that Pilgrim! (For some reason outfits like that fall flat when I put them on…)
As for Globe wear, I miss Bob Mackie.
Wowza, you look stunning in your low cut dresses. Just stunning. I especially love the one dress with the red tights. You look so mischievious!
I liked Lucy Lui's dress best too. Surprisingly, it was not popular with the Fashion Police or other critics. Some of the outfits were beautiful, but just not unique enough for me.
Totally agree on Lucy's dress. When Mr C protested that it "looks like Versailles wallpaper" I respnded, "That's why I like it!"


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Welcome to Arnouts Insurance Agency
Arnouts Insurance Agency is the leading insurance agency in Okemos and Lansing. We are a locally owned, independent insurance firm founded in 1999. Since then, we have grown into one of the most trusted and respected insurance agencies in the State of Michigan. Based in Okemos, Arnouts Insurance Agency is proud to serve the diverse insurance needs of individuals, families and businesses all for both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan.
The insurance experts at Arnouts Insurance Agency take the time to effectively evaluate your unique insurance needs so that your most important assets are protected at the most cost-effective rates. We provide comprehensive risk-management solutions that cover a wide range of risks, giving you the peace of mind you need and deserve. We offer all the expertise, professionalism and caring you expect from a well established, community-centered insurance agency. We can provide expert insurance solutions for your home, auto, life, and health. We are also now offering flood insurance options for Mid Michigan homeowners.
Michigan State University students and faculty: We are located just two miles from the campus of MSU. We have helped hundreds of students and faculty with their insurance options and plans. We understand your needs, and we are ready to craft an insurance plan that covers you and is healthy for your budget. Learn more!
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Emergency Claims Phone Numbers:
Auto Owners 888-252-4626
Citizens 800-628-0250
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Accident Fund 866-206-5851
Allied Insurance 866-322-3214
FirstComp 888-500-3344
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Statements on this web site as to policies and coverages provide general information only. This information is not an offer to sell insurance. Insurance coverage cannot be bound or changed via submission of any online form/application provided on this site or otherwise, e-mail, voice mail or facsimile. No binder, insurance policy, change, addition, and/or deletion to insurance coverage goes into effect unless and until confirmed directly by a licensed agent. Any proposal of insurance we may present to you will be based upon the information you provide to us via forms/applications and/or in other communications with us. Please contact our office at (517) 347-1466 to discuss specific coverage details and your insurance needs. All coverages are subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the actual policy issued. Not all policies or coverages are available in every state. Information provided on this site does not constitute professional advice; if you have legal, tax or financial planning questions, you should contact an appropriate professional. Any hypertext links to other sites are provided as a convenience only; we have no control over those sites and do not endorse or guarantee any information provided by those sites.


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More From This Episode
You're going to need a bigger boat for this final round led by puzzle guru John Chaneski. Every answer is a word, phrase or proper noun that contains the name of a body of water or waterway. For example, the actress that starred in the John Waters movie Hairspray, before becoming a TV talk show host, is Ricki Lake.
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Round 2 of the Yakezie March Madness Blogger of the Year tournament is now over. And, what seemed like an insurmountable opponent, Financial Samurai, fell like one of those funny looking fainting sheep when faced with the force of the Beating Broke fans! We've now advanced on into the 3rd round, and it isn't getting any easier.
For this 3rd round, Beating Broke has come up against another very worthy opponent. It's Kelly from Centsible Life! She's an awesome blogger, and a great person too! But, that doesn't mean we can't all go vote for Beating Broke and leave her in the tournament dust! While you're at it, go over and subscribe to The Centsible Life. Kelly has some great articles and has some great deals and tips too!
Now, go vote for Beating Broke!


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Jun 16, 2014 9:30 AM
If you're someone who likes to decorate your bathroom right down to the minor accessories sitting on the counter, you'll love the rustic charm of the Bacova Live Love Lodge Bath Ensemble (items range from $13-40). Achieve a quaint "cabin in the woods" (hopefully nothing like the movie) feel with a matching lotion dispenser, wastebasket, bath mat, tissue box cover, soap dish, toothbrush holder, and bath and hand towel set. You can be confident that your bathroom has more amenities than an actual camping outhouse would.
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out: