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MAIN's TIIAP Project Accomplishments:
The foremost accomplishment of the Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) was the establishment of a sustainable and scaleable community network over 12 mountain counties and 11 different local-dialing areas. The sustainability of this model is based on the emergence of MAIN as a "nonprofit Internet cooperative" in the tradition of nonprofit, rural telephone or electric cooperatives. At the end of the grant period, this model had produced approximately 3,000 subscribers paying $150 a year for local dial-up Internet access.
This growing body of committed subscribers is generating the core revenue to ensure MAIN's financial sustainability beyond the grant period. MAIN's success as a nonprofit Internet cooperative ensures that the project met its key goal of overcoming "disparities in access" among at-risk populations. Though commercial Internet is more widely available than at the beginning of the grant period, many rural residents still cannot afford commercial rates. Meanwhile, MAIN is the only Internet service provider -- via a local phone call -- in two of our 12 counties.
MAIN also met and exceeded its goal of overcoming "disparities in access" via its highly successful Public Access Terminal (PAT) program. This effort placed PATs in rural libraries and community centers throughout the mountain region. By the end of the grant period, MAIN had placed 35 PATs at these locations. In addition, MAIN provides free Internet access to 20 more PATs not purchased by our TIIAP grant. For example, the Golden Age Senior Centers of Jackson County had five PATs which they wanted to connect to the Internet. Since these sites met our criteria for "public access," MAIN provides free Internet access to these sites.
Unfortunately, one key goal of our original PAT plan was not met. We had planned to place many of our PATs at community centers participating in the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and WNC Development Association's "Community Club" program. However, many of the community clubs interested in hosting a PAT did not meet our public-access criteria for several reasons:
1. Many of the clubs wanted to use the PATs for non-Internet functions such as word processing, data management, and desktop publishing. MAIN's technical staff and technical advisory committee strongly opposed these alternative uses due to the potential for compromising the integrity of the PAT hard-drive configuration, which would require an unacceptable level of maintenance and troubleshooting.
2. Many of the potential sites could not guarantee regular hours of public access.
3. Many of the sites could not assume the cost of the phone line once the TIIAP grant expired.
4. By the end of the grant period, the following Extension-related PAT sites were established: Cowee Community Center (Macon County), Snowbird Community Center (Graham County), Nantahala Community Center (Macon County), Swain County Extension Center, and Buladean School (Mitchell County). Despite the fact that fewer "community club" sites received PATs, we were able to place PATs at seven other non-library sites such as Family Resource Centers. In addition, as noted earlier, MAIN supported other PATs owned by libraries and community centers (such as the Golden Age Senior Centers) with free dial-up Internet access.
Overall, our PAT program exceeded our goal of "reducing disparities in access." Administrators at our PAT sites consistently report "very heavy" usage of our PATs. This program has been extremely important for citizens who cannot afford their own computers and Internet service.
Another key goal was the creation of a network architecture that is scaleable and sustainable. This goal was definitely met, but not as we had originally proposed. We had hoped to build our network around connectivity available through an arm of the North Carolina Information Highway called the State Information Processing Service (SIPS). This option would have held our connectivity costs down. However, concerns over a 60-year old law called the Umstead Act, which prohibits state agencies from competing with the private sector, torpedoed this option. Because our two-year grant "clock" was ticking away, we opted to construct our network with connectivity from private vendors, most notably BellSouth and MCI, though this approach increased our costs 30-50 percent over our original projections.
Once we gave up on the SIPS option, we moved quickly to build our network around the BellSouth connectionless data switch (CDS) in Asheville. In the long run this was a fortuitous decision, as we were able to move faster with BellSouth than we could have via a state agency.
Another fortuitous decision was our choice of Linux as our network operating system (OS), though we had started our network with a donated Sun Microsystems server and had developed a relationship with this company based on a Sun engineer with family ties to our region. The "open architecture" of Linux seemed a better fit with our role as a non-profit, volunteer-driven, community network. Of all the technical decisions we've made related to our network architecture, choosing Linux was by far the most critical.
Each of these choices (building our network on private-sector connectivity and choosing Linux as our OS) enhanced our independence, both in terms of governance and financial sustainability. These choices also made us more nimble and flexible as an evolving and growing organization.
Another key decision enhancing our independence and flexibility was our choice of Land of Sky Regional Council as fiscal agent for our TIIAP grant.
Though this decision was made before we submitted our TIIAP grant proposal, it deserves discussion here because we believe it is a valuable lesson for other projects which strive for political independence and self-governance.
Land of Sky Regional Council is a local "council of governments" (COG) serving four mountain counties. Because COGs are "umbrella" organizations designed to assist local governments in collaborative problem-solving, they transcend shifting local political climates and local turf battles. Indeed, COGs often serve as conduits for federal grant monies and as "incubators" for regional collaborations. With this historic facilitator role, COGs are less likely to try to own or capture federally-funded projects once the funding has run out. We have heard of other TIIAP projects in which a single dominant partner of a collaborative effort, such as a local government, has absorbed the project post-TIIAP and narrowed the project's scope and independence.
In addition to tackling the network access problem, MAIN attempted several "local content" goals with mixed success. Our goal of providing free webhosting for local non-profit organizations was an unequivocal success. By the end of the grant period, we were hosting more than 200 nonprofit websites in all 12 counties. We achieved this goal by adapting our computer-literacy training workshops to focus on recruiting and training website volunteers. While these "how to build a website" workshops were open to the general public at no charge, we gave preference to those citizens who were willing to volunteer their skills with local non-profits by helping these organizations build and maintain a website. This approach has produced a corps of website volunteers who continue to assist local nonprofits. Moreover, some of these volunteers have used the skills acquired assisting local non-profits to start their own web-design businesses.
Overall, training became problematic as our network grew. The day-to-day demands of serving a growing user-base forced us to scale back our computer-literacy training workshops for new users. We therefore had to rely more and more on volunteers to provide in-the-field technical assistance for new users. Another obstacle to conducting computer-literacy workshops was increasingly limited access to local computer labs, especially at community colleges, which viewed our free workshops as competition for their revenue-producing contining education classes. As a result, we began referring new users to the community college classes.
Other local content goals, such as the Mountain Micro-Climate Weather Map, never got off the ground for various reasons, the foremost being that -- due to the fast growth in our dial-up user base -- our staff was focused less on content-development and more on assisting the many first-time Internet users attracted to MAIN. However, by the project's end, two proposed local-content areas -- the WNC Virtual Farmer's Market and the Mountain Microenterprise Project -- were combined into a single Blue Ridge Web Market. BRWM has since become the "e-commerce" home for about 100 local small businesses and microenterprises. (Meanwhile, we are currently co-hosting a series of workshops with the National Weather Service to train MAIN users to become local "weather spotters," especially in times of severe weather. We hope this collaboration will eventually fulfill our goal of creating a Micro-Climate Weather Map.)
Our local-content strategy also expanded with the availability of web-based public forum software. Our text-based "news-groups" never achieved a critical mass of users. With the availability of web-based forum software, we moved our Mountain Voices forums to the web and several forums gained critical mass. By the end of the grant period, we had five popular web-forums: the Mountain Voices general-discussion forum, Y2K in Western North Carolina, Swap and Shop, Computers and the Internet, and the Madison County forum.
Other county forums never achieved the critical mass of the Madison County forum. The popularity of the forum for Madison County, which is known for its rough-and-tumble political culture, may be due to the high-degree of anonymous rumor and innuendo which characterized the forum. Unfortunately, some of this content bordered on the libelous and slanderous. By the end of the grant period, we were making plans to switch to a different forum software to require forum-users to register for a user-name and password. This mechanism gives us the ability to block access to chronic abusers of the forum and thereby institute some degree of accountability. In taking this step, we have been very careful to consider, and to articulate, the need to balance free speech and privacy rights with the need for greater accountability.
The critical goal of financial sustainability was met via our development of the non-profit Internet cooperative, modeled after the historic non-profit rural electric and telephone cooperatives of the 1920s and 1930s. By aggregating demand over our 12-county service area (comprised of 11 different local-dialing areas), we can cover the high-cost of delivering bandwidth and Internet access to the most remote and telecom-infrastructure poor areas. For example, the large number of users in the more populous and accessible Asheville-area subsidizes the extremely high costs of local dial-up access in Graham County, one of the most remote and impoverished counties in North Carolina.
Our strategic planning also recognized the inextricable linkage of Internet access and local content. Some community networks have focused solely on training users and building local content, leaving the access part of the equation to market forces and the private sector. MAIN believes this strategy is fatally-flawed for two reasons
1. It robs the community network of the Internet dollars that local folks are willing to pay for an ISP that supports local nonprofit content and other civic-improvement and community-building efforts.
2. It robs the community network of an opportunity to become a local Internet "portal." The portal concept describes an Internet site that attracts a high degree of traffic, thereby ensuring an audience for the website's content. By combining content with access (ISP services), the community network ensures a viable audience for its civic content.
By contrast, simply focusing on building a top-flight local-information website, without guaranteeing local traffic, would be like building a beautiful public park off the beaten track, while all the main thoroughfares and bus routes go to the local shopping mall and amusement park. Some folks may make the extra effort to seek out the public park, but most folks will be drawn to the more accessible and familiar shopping mall/amusement park.
In summary, eschewing the access part of the equation would rob MAIN of the essential revenue to sustain the local content part of our community network. Access and content, therefore, are synergistic, as demonstrated at the macro-economic level with mergers between access companies like AOL and content companies like Time-Warner.
A final project achievement worth mentioning is MAIN's development of a strong privacy-protection policy for our dial-up users. The policy simply says that MAIN will not share user-information with any third parties, nor will we employ any type of "consumer-preference" tracking software or otherwise monitor how our users navigate the Internet.
The importance of our partnership with Land of Sky Regional Council has been discussed in the Project Accomplishments section, but it bears further discussion. In addition to helping ensure MAIN's independence and financial sustainability, Land of Sky's support also enhanced MAIN's credibility and legitimacy, especially in the early month's of MAIN's existence. LOS was also instrumental in securing supplemental funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the North Carolina Governor's "Connect NC" program to jump-start the Blue Ridge WebMarket, MAIN's grassroots "e-commerce" effort. This leadership included assistance in meeting complex ARC grant requirements and accounting procedures, and in helping establish a steering committee of local small business development leaders. LOS leadership also resulted in Connect NC funding for a partnership between MAIN and the Madison County Public Library for an "Internet lab" and web-page making workshops.
Two of our key partners in our original grant proposal, public libraries and community colleges, had a role-reversal of sorts. Originally, the community colleges were supposed to house our server hardware, as they were tied into state network connectivity and typically had a network administrator on staff to assist in hardware maintenance and technical support. Meanwhile, the libraries were to host our public access terminals and serve as one of our primary means of contact with the public.
However, several community colleges became alarmed when the state connectivity office expressed concern over MAIN's proposed use of state resources. The ensuing hesitation and delay forced us to approach the libraries as sites for hosting our server hardware and modem banks. The libraries benefited by having their public access terminals tied directly into our high-speed lines, rather than dialing into a remote modem-bank over a 28.8 or 33.6 kbps connection. The host libraries also gained valuable experience in local-area networking. Only two of the original five community colleges maintained their partnership with MAIN. (Since the end of our grant period, a new community college has partnered with MAIN to bring affordable bandwidth to remote Polk County. This development is discussed later in this report.)
One of the two community colleges needed MAIN for Internet access to its distance-learning facility in a remote county. The partnership, therefore, was mutually beneficial. The other community college continued the partnership because its leadership had a strong commitment to technology and community outreach, even though their own bandwidth needs were being met by the state network. For their part, libraries were stronger partners because their needs were greater and because they had no ties to the state bureaucracy.
Public libraries probably represented our strongest partnership. Their need for Internet access in 1996, when our project began, and beyond has been acute. By providing both a public access terminal and free Internet access, our project enabled them to meet the widespread public expectation for Internet access. Another key aspect of this strong partnership is that MAIN did not attempt to impose a usage-policy on the PATs because of our high-level of trust in the libraries' core mission of free and open access to information.
We had two "surprise" partners emerge during our grant-period: Mars Hill College and Pathways for Independent Living. Mars Hill College is an independent Baptist liberal arts college about 30 minutes north of Asheville in rural, mountainous Madison County. A year before MAIN received its TIIAP grant, Mars Hill began offering Internet access accounts to Madison County non-profit agencies and organizations. With excess capacity on its T-1 line, which was leased from the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NC-REN), Mars Hill attempted to fill the void caused by the absence of a local Internet service provider.
However, the college soon began limiting non-profit access when the demand exceeded the college's ability to fund additional dial-in lines. Upon learning that MAIN was planning to bring local dial-up Internet access to Madison County, the college offered MAIN space for its server and modem bank, and even allowed our traffic to run over its existing T-1 line, thereby eliminating the need for MAIN to lease a high-speed line for Madison County.
This arrangement, however, was eventually challenged by mid-level staff at NC-REN, the non-profit agency supplying connectivity to the 16-campus University of North Carolina system and to some rural independent colleges like Mars Hill. This challenge was successfully blunted when Mars Hill argued that MAIN's presence helped the college fulfill its community-outreach mission. In effect, the partnership was "grandfathered" and allowed to remain. However, an attempt by Lees-McRae College and MAIN to replicate the MHC-MAIN partnership in remote Avery County was turned down.
Another key partnership occurred with a local commercial firm called New Era Technologies. With a strong commitment to civic involvement, New Era provided invaluable technical guidance and assistance in the early months of MAIN's evolution, including the critical choice of the Linux operating system. This partnership also helped New Era gain valuable experience in spread- spectrum wireless technology, which continues to benefit MAIN in Graham and Buncombe counties. The partnership included a cost-sharing arrangement for MAIN's first T-1 line to the Internet. More recently, MAIN has begun a T-1 cost-sharing arrangement with another private firm, SysAdmin Services. SAS has also helped MAIN purchase new network hardware at wholesale prices.
A second "surprise" partnership occurred with Pathways for the Future, an independent-living agency serving severely disabled citizens in six rural counties served by MAIN. By the end of the grant period, more than 200 disabled citizens had received recycled computers and free Internet access via the partnership. A third agency, CyberPals, provides in-home computer and Internet training and technical assistance. MAIN also provides an independent-living listserve for Pathways clients and staff. This partnership has given many home-bound, disabled citizens the opportunity to live more productive and involved lives.
Other, more modest partnerships included the Western Regional Education Services Alliance (WRESA), the Golden Age Senior Centers in Jackson County, and the Buncombe County Information Partnership.
WRESA is a non-profit agency in Haywood County created by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to provide technology training and technical assistance to public school systems in the 23-county mountain region. WRESA has a 16-station computer lab for training public-school teachers how to use the Internet, but they had little funding for Internet access. MAIN worked with WRESA to link a dial-up account to the lab, which was adequate as long as students viewed cached websites. However, once students started visiting different websites on the Internet simultaneously, the Internet access slowed to a standstill.
During the final year of the project, the growth in MAIN's user-base in Haywood County required more bandwidth. MAIN partnered with WRESA to lease a fractional T-1 and split the cost 50-50. WRESA gave MAIN secure space for its server and modem bank, plus easy after-hours access. The partnership has been a superb "win-win" for both organizations. WRESA now has a computer classroom linked to a fractional T-1, and MAIN has its server in an excellent location with a trained network administrator on hand. Both organizations now have adequate bandwidth that, individually, neither could afford.
The Golden Age Senior Centers, run by MAIN volunteer Al Bouchard, received a grant for five public-access terminals (PATs) in 1997. Al's grant proposal was strengthened by the fact that MAIN was willing to provide free dial-up Internet access for the GASC PATs. With Al and other MAIN volunteers at each GASC site providing hands-on instruction for Internet newcomers, the proposal was a perfect match for MAIN's goal of "reducing disparities in access" in rural communities.
In 1997, MAIN was approached by the Buncombe County Childcare Services agency and a local non-profit called the Community Resource Network. BCCS and CRN wanted to build a website for citizen-access to locally-available childcare and parenting services. They also wanted to create a network of PATs in rural locations throughout Buncombe County to reach at-risk families not inclined to "come to town" for help from social service agencies. MAIN provided the "technology piece" of the grant proposal to the N.C. Governor's early childhood "Smart Start" program by pledging website development support and hosting, recycled computers for the PATs, and training assistance for PAT site volunteers. The grant was successful and the project was implemented in 1997-98 under the title of Buncombe County Information Partnership (BCIP). The BCIP website now resides on MAIN, and a dozen new PATs were added to MAIN's public-access arsenal.
Community Impact:
It is safe to say that MAIN's community impact has been both broad and deep. MAIN has succeeded in demonstrating that "rural Internet cooperatives" are viable models for providing affordable Internet access in rural, economically disadvantaged regions of the country, despite the absence of advanced telecom infrastructure.
Overcoming the challenges of building a viable network architecture over 12 counties, 11 different local-dialing areas, and across two different ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier) territories has positioned MAIN to envision and advocate a comprehensive "backbone" solution to the region's lack of advanced telecommunications infrastructure. The direct, day-to-day experience of managing and funding a complex ISP network has garnered MAIN a seat at the table for regional and statewide telecom-infrastructure planning and policymaking.
MAIN has used this opportunity to put forth a telecom "backbone" proposal based on the Berkshire Connect effort in western Massachusetts. MAIN's efforts have included organizing three visits by BC's chief engineer, Walter Cooper, resulting in endorsements of our proposal by Advantage West, the regional economic development commission; U.S. Congressman Charles Taylor, Land of Sky Regional Council, a public-private, regional planning group called the Knowledge Coalition, and the N.C. Rural Prosperity Task Force. (Indeed, the blue-ribbon Rural Prosperity Task Force recently proposed changes to the Umstead Act to enable rural ISPs to connect to the North Carolina Information Highway in order to offer broadband services to rural citizens and businesses. MAIN's experience, we believe, was a major influence on this proposal.)
Community impact also occurred in the arena of grassroots economic development. Our region's potential for "e-commerce" has been demonstrated by the development of our Blue Ridge Web Market (described in the Project Achievement section). Even before BRWM was launched, MAIN helped numerous small businesses and microenterprises supplement their commercial activities via affordable access to email and webhosting. For many of these small entrepreneurs, Internet access was not available with a local phone call until MAIN came along.
Diana Schommer runs a small "mom and pop" real estate firm in rural, mountainous Madison County. Before MAIN came along, residents of Madison County could not reach the Internet with a local phone call. Diana quickly signed on with MAIN, and soon became one of the first realtors in western North Carolina to develop a website. She is now widely acknowledged as an Internet pioneer in the region's real estate establishment. While the Internet was not on the radar screen of larger real estate firms in the region, this rural entrepreneur was able to demonstrate the Internet's potential for her colleagues because she had the opportunity, thanks to MAIN.
Similar stories come from small business folk like Tom Herman of Yancey County in the shadow of Mount Mitchell about 50 miles northwest of Asheville. "I'm in the two-way radio business," writes Tom. "Access to the Internet via MAIN has given me the opportunity to access a huge source of buyers and sellers for my goods and services. Specifically, I'm able to buy radios and pagers outside of the local area at better prices, and get a more steady flow of needed items. Also, I am able to sell items that there is no local demand for, allowing me to `recycle' used radio equipment, and get money for them, as opposed to just scrapping them and adding to the waste stream."
Murtis Carver is a hand-weaver in remote Mitchell County who rents a small mountain cabin to supplement her craft income. Until MAIN came along, Murtis could not access the Internet with a local phone call. "MAIN opened up a whole new world for me! MAIN has allowed me to link up with numerous vacation rental websites, and now I am booked solid through the summer months and into October! People have come here from Israel, Hawaii, western Canada and all over the U.S. And as a weaver, I can now communicate with other weavers that sell weaving equipment, buy hard to find books, and have instant contact with people through email. It is wonderful to sit in this remote location on the mountain and be in touch with all that MAIN has provided!"
Another area of signficant community impact has been our demonstration of how non-profit organizations and agencies can benefit from Internet access and a web presence. The Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society is a good example. This local non-profit moved quickly to establish a free website on MAIN in 1996. That website soon contributed to a striking rise in volunteer support and fundraising for OBCGS. For example, the organization's web-presence led to the recruitment of a Buncombe County native who now resides in Seattle. The volunteer is now one of the society's top genealogical researchers, and she delivers all her text and documentation over the Internet, according to Hank Muller, a retired school-teacher and volunteer OBCGS webmaster. (Hank learned how to create and maintain websites in one of MAIN's first website workshops for volunteers. In addition to maintaining the OBCGS website, he now teaches free webpage workshops for other MAIN volunteers.)
Of course, there's no way of knowing how many fewer non-profits would be on the web were it not for MAIN, but it's safe to say that many of the 250 non-profit websites we now host would not be on the web today without MAIN.
We have collected numerous non-profit testimonials similar to this one from Gordon Becker, a board member of Buncombe County Friends for Animals: "Our online access through MAIN has been a godsend in the capability that is provided to communicate with fellow board members of BCFFA. The board is composed of volunteers, most with full-time jobs, and this capability allows us to communicate with each other regarding committee assignments, meetings and BCFFA related activities without having to play phone tag." Though this may seem like a commonplace use of the Internet, it is not uncommon for organizations and volunteers in rural areas to dismiss the Internet as a luxury available only to their big-city counterparts. MAIN has succeeded in helping raise awareness in the non-profit community that the Internet is affordable and within their grasp.
Another substantial community impact has been our commitment to encouraging and providing local content and local discussion forums via our website. The Internet is an ideal tool for helping to create and sustain civic participation and the collective "community memory." However, without a local non-profit community network like MAIN to do this work, this responsibility is typically left in the hands of the private-sector. Too often, the commercial, local-information websites focus primarily on revenue-producing content such as restaurant listings and tourism-related content. Even the most civic-minded commercial websites are questionable repositories for the collective community memory, given the relative instability of the web-hosting business, where local ventures are eventually bought-out by larger firms with greater economies of scale and lesser commitment to the local community.
The future of local information is even more uncertain given the merger trends marked by the AOL/Time-Warner buyout. We predict that the consolidation of Internet companies will increasingly reduce the audiences for local information, as Internet subscribers are herded into content-areas supported by national advertising and marketing dollars.
There is historic precedent for this trend. The broadcast industry's merger-mania in the 1980s led to a huge reduction in local broadcast news, especially radio news. In many communities, local radio news simply disappeared, while local TV stations cut back on news staff. Local news-gathering has always been expensive and rarely a profit-center. By eliminating local news staffs, broadcast companies greatly reduced their operating costs. Not surprisingly, profitability soared. This trend was enabled, in part, by the Reagan-FCC's elimination of the Fairness Doctrine and the consequent weakening of the "public service" obligation for broadcast license-holders. With little or no public-service requirements, media companies simply replaced their local news operations with syndicated services or "rip and read" recitations of the AP wire or local newspaper headlines.
It's hard to imagine how local news and information-gathering and dissemination, or local discussion forums, could be profitable for the emerging media conglomerates such as AOL/Time-Warner. If this assessment is true, where will local news and information come from? And how will it find an audience? One of MAIN's most lasting achievements may be our efforts to encourage and enable civic participation and to grow and preserve the local community memory.
The demonstration of another major community impact occurred in November of 1997, just a few days before Thanksgiving. Using MAIN, local activists were able to demonstrate how a community network website could be used to quickly mobilize citizens on matters of public policy. The catalyst for this demonstration of civic participation was a lame-duck Asheville City Council poised to approve a cable TV franchise that failed to address a number of community concerns, including sufficient funding and commitment to establish a public-access TV channel where citizens could produce and air programming on local topics and issues. With only two days notice, we were able to mobilize local citizens to email the City Council members about the lack of public input and oversight on the new contract, which, if approved, would have run for 17 years.
We were also able to research the web and construct a webpage showing how other communities had recently negotiated more favorable contracts with the cable company in question. This background info was immediately available to local news reporters. Not only did this web-based background information strengthen the news coverage, it also bolstered our citizens-group's credibility in the face of "expert" testimony from the city's staff and hired consultant.
The upshot of this effort is that mobilized citizens were able to block this effort by a lame-duck mayor and city council to slip a cable TV contract past the news media and citizenry just a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday. Though the mayor had the necessary votes lined up, at the crucial moment one council member abstained, effectively tabling the contract until the new council and mayor took office. Eight months later, and after considerable public debate, the council approved a more favorable contract for 12 years (instead of 17), with $340,000 set aside for public-access production equipment.
Lessons Learned:
One of the most salient lessons we learned is that sustainability requires ongoing operating revenue. Community network projects like MAIN cannot survive by lurching from grant to grant, or by relying on local government support. Like government support for the arts, government support for community networking is too easily viewed as a "luxury we cannot afford" if budgets get tight. Nor can projects like MAIN rely on the kindness and largess of the private-sector for long-term sustainability, given the fact that private ownership and priorities will inevitably change over time.
There may be many ways to generate sufficient revenue for long-term sustainability. But for our needs and situation, operating as a non-profit ISP -- and giving local citizens the option of using their Internet dollars to support local access and content -- is the only solution at this time.
Similarly, we learned that access and content are inextricably linked. Unless your local-content website is a "portal" or is linked to a portal, it will have difficulty finding an audience. For our purposes and for our situation, operating as a non-profit ISP greatly improved our chances of becoming a "portal," as our dial-up subscribers guaranteed a potential audience to know, appreciate and contribute to our community network content.
We also learned that initial resistance from commercial ISPs to creating a non-profit ISP will evaporate in an area where so much room for growth exists, and where affordable options for Internet access are virtually non-existent. It is our experience that the dial-up, consumer ISP business can only be profitable, as a core business, in very large-scale enterprises such as EarthLink and MindSpring, where profitablity comes from aggregating and selling audiences to advertisers. Smaller ISPs, on the other hand, derive their profitability from a variety of webhosting, web-design, network administration and high-speed, dedicated access offerings. The dial-up access business is so labor intensive, given the high level of tech support and "hand-holding" required, that smaller ISPs cannot depend on it as their core business.
We believe the existence of a non-profit ISP can produce several advantages for private-sector ISPs and web-related businesses. First and foremost, we are "growing a market" for these businesses as we reach folks who otherwise could not afford to enter the world of the Internet, and who may someday "graduate" to online services we do not provide. For example, we do not offer website construction for non-profits or commercial ventures, though we do train and match volunteers with non-profit organizations. We refer all commercial users, and some larger non-profits, to local, private-sector web-designers. Indeed, several microenterprise web-design businesses have been started by former MAIN volunteers, who honed their skills assisting non-profits with their websites. We also refer heavy users (such as online day-traders) to commercial ISPs.
Another advantage is that a non-profit ISP can take the pressure off of local commercial ISPs who are constantly bombarded with requests from local non-profits (the churches, Kiwanis Club, etc) for free websites or discount dial-up access.
Finally, our most outspoken critic, the owner of Internet of Asheville and the largest local ISP in western North Carolina, has sold his business to a larger ISP firm based in Florida. Obviously, he was able to grow a business that became attractive to a larger firm, despite his claims that MAIN was "unfair competition." As we routinely get calls from "mergers and acquisition" firms specializing in identifying attractive takeover targets, we believe a signficant ISP- concentration trend has begun. This trend will mean increased absentee ownership of ISPs, especially in rural America, with a commensurate de-emphasis on serving the needs of a specific locale. But there's a silver-lining in this for non-profit ISPs like MAIN: first, this trend ensures a disappearance of local opposition to non-profit ISPs, which aren't likely to be on the radar screen of national or multi-state ISPs; second, this loss of localism increases the need for a local, non-profit ISP which has permanent roots in the community and will not be subject to future absentee-ownership.
We also learned that our capacity to deliver training was outstripped by the demand, especially after our network growth took off. Instead of conducting workshops in various locations among the 12 counties in our service area, we began concentrating on recruiting and training a corps of volunteers to provide the extensive hand-holding required by the many newcomers to the Internet we attracted. Our training efforts were also impeded by increasingly limited access to local computer labs. This limitation was two-fold: the community colleges and 4-year colleges whose labs we used increased their course-offerings, thereby making the labs less available; in addition, our community college partners became increasingly concerned that our free workshops might impact their revenue-producing, continuing education classes.
In general, the various client-side operating systems (Mac OS, Win3.1, Win95, Win98), plus the wide variety of personal computers and communications software, requires extensive staff resources devoted to technical support. This demand for individual instruction and troubleshooting contributed to our cutback in offering formal, training workshops.
Anecdotally, we had strong evidence of rapacious demand for training, both for basic Internet usage as well as webpage construction. This unmet demand suggests that increased community college offerings are insufficient. It may also suggest that some folks are not comfortable attending workshops in the more "formal" setting of a community college classroom. In any event, our experience suggests a virtually unlimited demand for basic and advanced Internet training.
Another major lesson we learned is about the availability and cost of bandwidth. This awareness was achieved by our efforts to construct and maintain a 12-county network architecture with three difference telecom companies: BellSouth, GTE and MCI (later ITC-Deltacom). We learned, in effect, that Internet bandwidth is "long-hauled" into our region from larger urban areas with more substantial "backbone" infrastructure. As the bandwidth pricing is distance-sensitive, our connectivity costs are substantially higher than if we operated in an urban area.
To our knowledge, MAIN was the first non-profit organization or governmental agency to attempt to build such an intra-regional network in western North Carolina. Since we began operations, the largest hospital system in the region, Mission-St. Joseph's, has attempted to construct an intra-regional telemedicine network and has encountered similar high costs and technical challenges associated with crossing ILEC boundaries. MAIN and the hospital system together have been instrumental in raising the awareness of regional policymakers about the region's infrastructure weaknesses.
Another lesson learned occurred in our attempt to create online public discussion forums. We have been disappointed by how little participation these forums have attracted, though there are exceptions: our Y2K Forum, Computers and the Internet, and Swap and Shop had strong participation. However, the general discussion forums, where one would expect folks to discuss local policy issues and other local concerns have been less successful.
The lack of participation is due in part to the fact that we never sufficiently promoted these discussion forums. It should be noted that these forums included Mountain Voices, a general-interest forum for the entire community network, as well as forums dedicated to the counties of Haywood, Madison and Graham. The choice of these three counties was based on staff's perception of where there was sufficient user-interest. The Haywood County forum never got off the ground, while the Graham County forum was moderately successful. However, the Madison County forum, which had a high volume of postings, was characterized by a sometimes alarming amount of anonymous rumors and innuendo that occasionally bordered on slander and libel. Postings even came from participants posing as someone else.
When we first launched the forums, we acknowledged that some participants, perhaps fearing for their jobs, might have to use pseudonyms and post anonymously. We never dreamed that this form of anonymous posting would become the rule rather than the exception.
Concern over this content created a tension between our commitment to First Amendment values and the need for forum participants to take responsibility for their words. This concern has led us to obtain new web-forum software which requires forum participants to register to use the forums. This registration feature allows us to ban any participant who repeatedly posts potentially libelous and slanderous content, or poses as someone else. So far, we have not had to ban anyone. A most interesting aspect of this software is a feature which allows forum participants to rate the quality of an individual posting. The ratings run from 1 ("skip it") to 10 ("must read"). Early indications are that participants are giving low ratings to posts laden with rumor and gossip. We are hopeful that this "self-governance" trend continues, thereby obviating the need for editorial oversight by MAIN staff.
Future Plans:
MAIN's future plans include a growing emphasis on developing local content that continues to help make our community network website a portal, or Internet crossroads, to ensure a critical-mass of local traffic for information exchange, public discussion, civic participation, and collaborative community-building. This website will include automated features that will allow local citizens to link their business or non-profit websites in online directories such as Community Links and Business Links, with minimal staff oversight. Similarly, automated features allow citizens to post classified ads and create booths in the Blue Ridge Web Market. These automated features are essential given our modest staff resources.
This emphasis on developing local content will include state-of-the-art "web-casting" of a low-power FM radio station, the license for which MAIN will be submitting an application to the FCC. MAIN's founding organization, Citizens for Media Literacy, has been focused for nearly a decade on promoting citizen-access to the media via public-access cable TV, the Internet, and low-power FM radio. MAIN hopes to bring these three "citizen-access" media together in a mutally-supportive and synergistic manner, not unlike the highly publicized "convergence" sought after by multinational media conglomerates. Doing so will ensure that citizens of western North Carolina have a rich and diverse electronic "public space" in which to engage in free speech, civic particpation, government accountability, grassroots economic development, and collaborative community-building.
MAIN will also continue its efforts to ensure the construction of broadband "backbone" telecommunications infrastructure for western North Carolina. This effort was recently boosted by the N.C. Rural Prosperity Task Force, whose report to the Governor stated: "The availability and affordability of high speed information technology, and the ability to use it, will make it possible for rural North Carolina to compete with the rest of the country and the world in the next century."
The report set the following goal: "Provide, at affordable rates, high-speed (128K residential; 256K business) reliable Internet access to the homes and businesses of rural North Carolina." . . . and these steps to meet that goal: "1. Pursue regulatory and statutory changes to promote affordable and reliable broadband connectivity statewide by:
a. Amend the Umstead Act and related statutes, permitting the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) of the Department of Commerce to allow Internet service providers to share the state government's statewide high-speed communications network, and
b. Petition the Federal Communications Commission and State Utilities Commission to mandate that local telephone companies provide space in their end offices and wire centers at reasonable costs for state government and other telecommunications carriers to install equipment that connects to local phone companies' equipment."
The Task Force has also recommended the creation of a "Rural Broadband Access Fund to encourage private sector investment in providing high-speed information services in rural areas where it is not affordable." The recommendation notes that this policy . . . "would not favor one technology over another; our goal would be to use the private sector to ensure affordable access for users throughout our state. If private sector sources are unable to provide services, the state would provide them as a last resort. This would ensure access for people in all rural counties in need."
Technology-savvy nonprofits are increasingly using websites to strengthen their organizations, recruit volunteers, and raise money online. However, MAIN lacks infrastructure for these nonprofits to manage their websites independent of MAIN staff, and to accept online, credit-card donations. Recently, we applied for a Community Foundation grant to provide a "secure server" for credit-card transactions online. The secure server would also benefit MAIN's grassroots, economic development inititative -- the Blue Ridge Web Market -- by allowing microenterprises to conduct credit-card transactions online. Nonprofit participants in BRWM include Handmade in America and the Mountain Wildlife Center. The grant would also enable nonprofit clients to . . .
* designate and change which staff members receive email from the website.
* implement email "auto-responders" which, for example, would send an automatic "out of town" message for staff members not reading email due to travel.
* do Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programming for website guestbooks and forms, such as online surveys.
* generate website "traffic reports" on the number of website visitors and which pages they're visiting.
More nonprofits are requesting this website management capability. Similarly, our microenterprise participants -- many of whom are low-income and/or startup businesses -- have repeatedly requested a "secure server" for online credit-card transactions.
Meanwhile, a community foundation grant we received last year allowed us to add our first new county and to launch an innovative public-private partnership based on wireless, spread-spectrum technology. Polk County is a rural, mountainous county 45 miles south of Asheville on the South Carolina border. Because of the rugged terrain in the northern end of Polk, the county has historically looked to South Carolina for its telephone service. Today, the southern two-thirds of the county, home to the bulk of the county's townships and population, is in the South Carolina LATA, making the cost of high-speed bandwidth very expensive.
Upon hearing about MAIN, community leaders in Polk approached us about assisting them with their bandwidth problem. They were also concerned about a lack of affordable dial-up Internet access. In addition, the Polk campus of Isothermal Community College has a 16-seat computer lab but could not afford sufficient bandwidth for adequate Internet access. Together with the Polk County Library, we formed a partnership to lease a T-1 line (at $1,800 a month) to the ICC-Polk campus. We then installed spread-spectrum wireless hardware to shoot bandwith up to a communications tower on Tryon Peak owned by the township of Tryon. A repeater on this tower allows us to send high-speed bandwidth to the Polk County Library for its public-access terminals. MAIN, the college, and the library split the cost of the T-1 line three ways, giving each organization bandwidth that, alone, none could afford.
In addition, we have contracted with a local wireless firm, NewEra.Com, to install and maintain the wireless network in Polk County. New Era will also deliver commercial wireless Internet access to the local business community, thereby contributing to local economic development. In turn, MAIN gets a percentage of the New Era revenue to offset operating costs. And Polk County gets MAIN's full array of community network benefits (free webhosting for non-profits, etc). We are hoping this wireless public-private partnership model can be replicated in other counties to increase local high-speed bandwidth and contribute to economic growth, while spreading the cost of the bandwidth among several partners.
Finally, MAIN is increasingly sought out by local community-development efforts to provide online services for specific projects. For example, we will be providing low-cost Internet access to local school teachers participating in the "Adventure of the Mind" online training program sponsored by the Library of Congress. Though MAIN was approached primarily for low-cost Internet access, we explained that we could also provide free webhosting, a listserve for participants, plus a web-based discussion forum for guest speakers and ongoing dialogue among participants and instructors. The project director did not realize that such online tools were locally available when the project was first envisioned. He has now decided to incorporate these tools into the project.
In summary, MAIN has been discovered by area local governments and non-profit agencies as a potential "Internet partner." We feel certain that MAIN's services will be increasingly viewed as an important complement to local community and economic development efforts. We envision a future in which MAIN will become increasingly integrated into the community as a source of local news, information and community-builidng resources.
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text:
Consultants to MA in biomedicine program bring experience from VCU, Ohio U, Harvard, and much more
Seven top healthcare professionals comprise the new consulting team for the three-year-old MA in biomedicine program at Eastern Mennonite University. Among the seven is the former dean of Harvard Medical School. The biomedicine program prepares students for careers in medicine, hospital administration, teaching and other fields. Many of the current students did not pursue majors in colle ...More

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I am looking at using a software installation and configuration management framework/tool to automate building virtual images (based on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003/2008) for developers. Can anyone recommend a good tool/framework to use for this, or any other method that they have found useful (i.e. using an MSI, etc)?
Thanks, MagicAndi


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I expected the O2 to be attacked by those defending their more expensive headphone amps. It's clear $30 worth of parts is a threat to lots of commercial designs. But, to all those companies charging more, please show your performance data. Can you objectively beat the O2? If so, please share your measurements!
The O2's critics apparently are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find any flaw. But so far their claims only represent the 1% fringe. AMB is one of the dominant critics of the O2. I've tested the AMB Mini3 and found it inferior in just about every way to the O2 so it's not surprising they're attacking the O2. But everyone should carefully look at their claims and how realistic they are for real world use.
And if AMB wants to criticize, what about the AMB M3 and flagship beta22? What if the O2 beats the M3 and beta22 on the test bench? And what if the O2 at least matches the M3 and beta22 in blind listening tests? AMB is encouraging such comparisons.
The same is true of Kevin Gilmore's designs. If he wants to criticize the O2 it's only fair a representative example of his work is bench tested. And, for the subjective crowd, how does a Gilmore design compare to the O2 in blind testing?
I'm committed to revealing the objective truth. If my opponents want to challenge the O2's performance I'm happy to shine the spotlight on their products as well. As I've said many times: May the best product win!
I have no financial interest in the O2. If someone can offer a better product for less money they'll have my full endorsement. It's all about raising the bar.
I also encourage everyone to respond here or on diyAudio. If anyone chooses to attack the O2 from somewhere I can't post, that's a rather cowardly approach.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
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These devices are never properly tested and nobody knows their output voltage, DC offset, etc. NwAvGuy has theorized that some ebay stuff might be improperly built products being cleared out of inventory - who knows what output voltages some of these may have.
Some of these devices even have massive voltage spikes and I think one should remember to GuARD against these devices AS this might really damage headphones.
hi, im new to this site and i have checked on the specs, since im planning to do it (can I?) but anyways, when I checked on the BOM, the item # 26, (1 Ohm >= 1/4 Watt 1% Metal Film < 7.3mm) and the (Multicomp MF25 1R or MF12 1R (lower minimum order)) from farnell code showed differently, as stated it is .25w / 1/4w, however the farnell code showed .125w / 1/8w, i know it is 1/8 as most of the resistors in the list are 1/8w?? correct me if im wrong.. i really wanna do this
Using The O2
Based on the concerns, I've decided to lower the default gain to 2.5X (8 dB) to provide some extra margin for rare sources. This allows up to 2.8 V RMS of input. I've already revised the article and the new resistor values will be in the revised design documents.
If anyone knows of realistic O2 sources, without volume controls, that have more than 2.8 V RMS of output, please post a link to the specifications here. And if there are such sources, the gain resistors can be clipped dropping the O2 to 1X gain and you could still drive the HD600s beyond an ear splitting 110 dB SPL.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
You could use 3.6 mm resistors for R10, R11, R15, R18 if you can't get the larger ones easily. Regardless of size, they should be metal film (not carbon film) if possible. They can also be a slightly higher value like 1.2 ohms.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
GAIN & Input Overload
I'm going to work on the blog article to make it more clear, but here's an example using a relatively worst case headphone with a "hotter than normal" source:
The Beyer DT880-600's are the most voltage hungry cans I could come up with. They need about 5 V RMS to hit a seriously loud 110 dB (the math is shown in the Gain Settings section).
Next you want to consider the source. Most home sources are 2V RMS but The Music Streamer II specs list it as a "hot" 2.25 V RMS.
Then you figure out the gain: 5V Out / 2.25 V In = 2.2X so the default Low Gain setting of 2.5X will push the Beyer's past 110 dB at 0 dBFS.
You can also check for the maximum gain if you want. For running on AC power that's 7/2.25 = 3.1X.
So if I was going to use the 600 ohm beyers with the MS II DAC, I'd use the default 2.5X Low Gain setting and leave the DAC at full volume.
If I needed extra gain for something that was recorded/ripped way below normal levels, I could simply turn down the DAC volume, set the O2 to full volume, and use the 6.5X High Gain mode of the O2. Operated at max volume the output stage will clip before the input stage. Which means you get the full 7+ V RMS with no input clipping--plenty to ruin your hearing even with the voltage hungry 600 ohm Beyers.
To sum it up: Even using the default gains the O2 should work just fine with the 600 ohm Beyers and the HRT MS II DAC. Any source with a volume control allows using either gain setting on the O2. And nobody has come up with a credible fixed output source that will overload the O2 on the Low Gain setting.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
And running on batteries (seems reasonable as the Music Streamer is bus-powered) maximum gain will be 3.8/2.25 = 1.7.
Can this be correct?
Yes Limp you have it right. With the PC/DAC volume at max, and the O2 running on nearly dead batteries, the max gain would be 1.7X. But you have to put that in perspective.
2.25 * 1.7 = 3.8 V RMS out while the Mini3 clips at 2.0 - 2.3 V RMS out when running on battery power. So you're still ahead with the O2.
I would simply use the default 2.5X gain setting, turn the O2's volume all the way up, and use the PC's volume control. The input stage would never clip and you'd get the maximum output possible from the O2 (which ranges from 3.8 V to 5.0 V depending on the battery charge level).
Nearly all USB DACs let you control the volume from the PC's operating system. And the few that don't still let you control the volume in the player software. So this really isn't a big deal. If anyone's concerned about loss of resolution I'll be happy to show the math on that as well.
It's also worth noting the HRT MS II is somewhat unusual for a USB powered DAC in that it has a bipolar DC-DC converter power supply. A USB DAC running from 5 volts USB power, as many do, can't manage more than about 1.6 V RMS out and most are even lower. And it doesn't help that HRT chose to go 10% over the Redbook standard of 2.0 V RMS either.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
Who was the gentleman who was going to be working the wiki? Maybe the gain/input overload issue should be placed there?
If the DAC supports 24 bits it's a non-issue with a modern (not 10 year old) operating system. If the DAC can only run at 16 bits, then yes, you do "lose bits" as you turn the volume down on the PC side. So, ideally, you want to minimize the reduction. But you have to turn the volume down by half (for the MS II a max output of 1.1 volts) before you even lose one full bit.
In the above example using 2.5X gain instead of 1.7X means a 32% reduction in level which is a fraction of 1 bit. Lots of portable players and other devices with digital volume controls get away with much worse.
Psychoacoustics are heavily involved here. The effective bit loss on a high quality 320K MP3, which has stood up to hundreds of blind tests against lossless audio, is much more severe than a fraction of 1 bit. Yet we usually can't hear it under normal listening conditions.
I just looked and couldn't find it, but I remember a thread on HydrogenAudio where they posted excerpts at different bit depths that were level matched and you could ABX them with Foobar. If anyone knows where that thread is it would be helpful? But the conclusion, if my memory is correct, is even 14 bit audio was tough to distinguish from the original.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
NEW FILES! - It's still the weekend in two thirds of the country so I partly achieved my self imposed deadline
Revised files can be found in the O2 Files & Resources section and there are also now PCB files!
IMPORTANT - For anyone wanting to rush out and get boards made, you might want to hold off at least a few days. Extra sets of eyes might catch something I missed. Also, I should have more information soon about the availability of the board from one or more commercial sources. I know some have also talked about a group buy on diyAudio.
DESKTOP AMP - I believe the trade offs I made with the O2 in the interest of cost, size, and portability are worthwhile. I'm not aware of another portable amp that can do a better job overall--let alone for under $40 - $100. But...
There are things that can be improved in a desktop version. One of those is changing the gain structure to eliminate the input overload issue. In the O2 there simply isn't room to solve the problem without significantly hurting the performance.
Eliminating the batteries frees up lots of board space and removes $11+ from the total cost. That space, and the $11, can be put to good use improving the audio performance still further.
CHOICES - If you intend to use the O2 only where there's AC power, and you're not in a hurry, you might want to wait for the Desktop version.
COST - I don't know where the total cost will come in for an upgraded desktop version. The biggest issue will be the front and rear panels if you don't want to drill your own. Needing two panels instead of one will add around $20 to the total cost. I would expect the complete desktop amp to still be well under $130 and, if you get clever with the enclosure, you could probably build one for under $70.
TIMING - I also don't know when I'll get the desktop design published. At least I don't need to write another 40,000 words documenting it! I'll mostly just note where it differs from the O2. Still, there will likely be a couple spins of the PCB, prototypes built, lots of measurements have to be made, and there still will be a lot to document and write up. With the O2 cat already out of the bag, the desktop version is likely to be a more collaborative effort.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
Hmm, for the desktop version, instead of removing the batteries to end up with a chassis of the same size, perhaps you could simply consider a bigger chassis. It may bring up the cost, but looks is actually something money can buy in the HiFi world.
Instead of an desktop rig, would you consider a transportable rig, ie an amp that is not meant to be listened to in your pocket but that you could bring everywhere without being saddled with a transformer.
So for the desktop version, what would you do? Opamp with a gain of 1, then potentiometer, and then voltage gain?
PS: did the 1.1 PCB perform as expected on the test bench?
Last edited by khaos974; 08-15-2011 at 01:01 AM.
khaos974, the idea of a bigger amp and keeping the batteries is an interesting idea but I'm not sure it would find a very big audience? I would encourage others here to weigh in on the idea? Desktop amps have the connections on the back, are bigger, have larger volume knobs, 1/4 jacks, etc. Is someone really going to want to haul something like that around on trains, planes, etc?
It also makes life much easier from a design standpoint to have known power supply voltages--especially when designing the gain structure. So I can more highly optimize the amp if I know it's always running from tightly regulated supply voltages versus slowly dying batteries.
And, it helps even more not to worry about current consumption. Several aspects of the O2 were optimized to help the battery life. With a desktop only amp, I'm free to optimize everything purely for the best audio performance. And the bling crowd can have that nifty blue LED power indicator too!
I posted comments earlier about the V1.1 PCB. The measurements are all essentially identical. I was kind of hoping for slightly better performance but I'm happy with the same performance despite adding the gain switch, switching to smaller 1/8 watt resistors, etc. I'm probably going to revise a few of the graphs in the first article but everyone will probably yawn as not much has changed.
Personal Audio Blog: http://nwavguy.com (non-commercial, objective reviews & commentary)
I want an orange led!
I personally would have some use for such an amp, I mainly use an amp at home or where I work, and also sometimes when I'm in a cafe with my laptop. I would enjoy not having to bring another piece of gear (the AC to AC transformer). But I don't know if many other people are in the same situation.
As for if performance with a more stable supply is compatible with leaving the battery supply, I wouldn't know. Would it be possible to design an amp with superlative performance on AC and the same level of performance as the original O2 on battery? If you feel it's too difficult to achieve, then so be it.
Anyway, I think that "high end" gear should be designed to provide more headroom and be usable in more extreme cases that don't often happen in normal situation (such as driving those apogee speakers whose impedance went down to 1 ohm).
"Objective 3: able to handle that 1% of equipment with superlative ease"
Last edited by khaos974; 08-15-2011 at 02:43 AM.
I like the idea of a pure desktop amp. NwAvGuy has already said that the original version would be OK as a transportable amp. Do you plan to use headphones that are harder to drive than 300 ohm Senns on the go? If not you should be good!
You could always use a more regular portable amplifier (like the O2) when at the café, and/or maybe use some headphones that do not require an unhealthy amount of power.
Often it is easier to adapt your own requirements to the facts of the world, than to demand the facts of the world to adapt to your requirements.
Can we call the desktop version the:
Anti-H34d-F1 Amp
I assume that would avoid any copyright issues?
|diy, headphone amp, mini3, o2, objective2
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Dear whom it may concern;
I'm very happy you have come here, for it proves you have shown interest in Moeras. This is of course not surprising, as I believe just about everyone eventually finds themselves drawn here. It's a very peaceful place, yet at the same time can be as bustling as Cita Erbonde during a festival. Countless immigrants come here, so there is a mishmash of cultures in just a small marshland, but you'll always be welcome here. Our patron legendary is Articuno, which is rumoured to fly over the region every few years and cause the snows to fall.
There are two, close to three, main sections of Moeras. My home, the town of Nreole, is the "capital" of one culture, and also the capital of the province. We're the indigenous to Moeras, which can sometimes lead to harsh feelings to the immigrant-originated Olanites, but I'll have you know I hold no such quarrel! In fact, all in all, we get along together in the end, especially around this season--Tournament season, indeed. Nreole is situated in the deep marshland and involves little modern technologies--citizens enjoy activities like boating, and the houses are often supported above the waterline. There are wooden routes going throughout this area, but when there isn't, there are always the lean Seviper boats to get you someplace along the bayous. For heavier loads there are Arbok boats, used for carrying cargo.
Though, if you have a Pokemon able to carry you, like me, that is probably best. Not to mention they can defend you, if you come across one of the many dangerously poisonous Pokemon that scuttle around in these swamps... Heheheh.
Nreole is famous for our voodoo practices, much so that some people are driven away! I'm not sure why, though. Voodoo is never to be used for evil, in fact, it's meant to bring others fortune. Well, yes, I like brewing poisonous concoctions, but that isn't voodoo! There's no need to be afraid of magic. Especially in Moeras.
There's a separate colony in the Nreole area, which are said to be the "true indigenous" of Moeras, as it was said a couple centuries ago settlers came and mixed blood with us, spread different cultures and gifted us another language (français, if you are curious). There's a little tension between these people and the "French Nreolians", but as with the Olanites, we always sort things out in the end. My assistant is actually one of these people, and maybe we don't see eye to eye all the time, but we tend to get along. At least I'm pretty sure we do.
Next is the modern part of Moeras, the grand city of Olan. Though Nreole is the capital, this place gets the most attention. The city was founded many years before I was born by Unovian settlers. It is a bustling place! But I must admit, I really enjoy my time there. As should you--it's simply a blast.
The Articuno Arena in Olan will serve as our battle ground for most of the tournament. It's not incredibly large, but so far it has worked for this competition. In non-tournament days, it works as a great concert hall and other performances, such as plays done by actors from Cita.
Olan is famous for its delectable food and amazing music. This place is jazz central, mon ami, you'll always be entertained there. Like I stated before, there's a bit of a rivalry between Olanites and Nreolians, and it may be said during the tournament days there's a little more--I mean, Olanites want an Olan resident to be the Moeras champion, Nreolian as a champion for Nreole citizens, all that. But I believe everything's just a friendly competition. After all, at the end of this, we want our Moeras champion to be the Grand Champion!
So, once again, I am overjoyed that you have given your attention to our wonderful province. I truly hope you will consider it, and if so, I await your participation in this years events.
Thank you,
Cesar La Croix, Moeras Leader
Bonjou! Sorry I'm late! My name is Zulime Alva, and I'm Cesar's assistant! Just because my title is "assistant" doesn't mean I don't do a lot of important stuff around here!
Aside from this address, you'll first be seeing me in the battle area. Although I don't battle as much as Cesar, I have many other things to take care of! My jobs are always quite varied, but I tend to do a lot when it comes to organizing festivals and other fun events. Be careful, though, as some of our ceremonies and parties are not for the faint of heart...! You'll see what I mean in time, but rest assured, it's all in good fun!
If you need help with anything, be sure to ask me! I can help with whatever you're looking for - whether it's getting you some Arcticuno-blue paint to adorn yourself with, or loaning you my anasi, Auguste, for a ride.
And if you can't understand Cesar, you can always ask me to translate; I've gotten pretty good at it! Don't be afraid to remind him that pale Franse pa di lèspri ou. (Speaking French does not mean you are smart.)
See you soon!


text:
If a cyclist fails to complete a stage of Tour de France because of injury or something else, but is ready again for the next stage, is he allowed to continue? If yes, does he receive some sort of time penalty for failing to complete the stage?
I believe that under the following regulation, a rider who does not finish a stage may continue in the next stage, only if the incident occurred in the last 3 km.
No, the cyclists are not allowed to get back on the bike for the next stage if they do not finish. This has as a consequence that the cyclists continue with very heavy injuries just after a crash, because they hope that tomorrow will be better. (For example, Dutch cyclist Wout Poels, continued racing for 10km after Fridays huge crash, but is now still in the intensive care in a French hospital with torn spleen and kidney and three broken bones in his chest)
Also, I found this article ( http://www.uci.ch/includes/asp/getTarget.asp?type=FILE&id=34028 ) on the UCI website.
In addition to what was said by Bernhard, the Tour de France uses a "Voiture-balai" which translates to a "Broom Truck/Car" (from Wiki). I've been to the Tour a few times and you see the truck at the end, about 30-45 minutes behind the peloton depending on the stage (flat or mountains). This is more of a traditional thing as the Broom Truck has been around since 1910.
It's job is to "sweep" the riders that are far behind the peloton, be it due to injuries or just exhaustion.


text:
Mt. Zion Of Oakwood Village
Non-Denominational / Independent
1 Mount Zion Circle
Oakwood Village, OH 44146
Mt. Zion Of Oakwood Village is a mega church located in the Cleveland area in Oakwood Village, OH. Our church is Non-Denominational / Independent.
What to Expect at Mt. Zion Of Oakwood Village
Rev. Dr. Larry L. Macon, Sr.
Service Times:
Sunday 8:30am
Sunday 11:30am
Wednesday 7:00pm
Service Details
- Formal and informal attire most common
- Blend of traditional and contemporary worship style
- Printed worship bulletin
- Communion
- Congregational readings
- Altar call or invitation
- Location: Cuyahoga County
Ministries and Programs
- Children's ministry
- Youth or teen ministry
- Young adult ministry
- Singles ministry
Additional Info About Our Church
We are a church on the move for Christ.
1 Mt Zion Cir, Oakwood Village OH 44146
View larger map and directions for worship location
View larger map and directions for worship location
Add or Update Church Listing Info
Add or update the information in this church listing to help visitors discover Mt. Zion Of Oakwood Village.
For Further Information
|(440) 232-2645


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Top 10: Reasons Why It's Good To Be Australian
Top 10: Reasons Why It's Good To Be AustralianThere are so many reasons why it's good to be an Australian man and only one that's really required: because we're bloody awesome and live in the best goddamn country in the world. We work hard, drink hard, laugh hard and are almost* universally loved for it (*English and New Zealander's excluded).
If that's not enough for you, here are 10 reasons why you wouldn't be anyone else, anywhere else.


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Attends San Clemente (Calif.) High School...played for head coach Jonathan Hamro...three-year varsity letterwinner... SuperPrep, PrepStar and MaxPreps All-American...listed as a five-star recruit by both Rivals and Scout.com...received four stars by ESPNU.com...rated as the third-best high school offensive tackle and 19th top overall recruit in the nation by Rivals.com...also listed as the second-best recruit in California by Rivals and SuperPrep...ranked as the fourth-best offensive tackle in the country by Scout.com and ESPNU.com...listed 27th on ESPNU's Top 150 list...ranked 11th overall among high school recruits by 247Sports.com...ranked as the top offensive lineman in the nation and 16th recruit overall by SuperPrep...Cal-Hi Sports ESPN All-State pick...three-time all-South Coast Conference selection...named most valuable player of South Coast Conference as a senior...two-time all-Orange County selection by the Orange County Register...participated in the 2012 U.S. Army All-American Bowl for the West squad...recipient of the Glenn Davis Award, given annually to a player on the West team at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl who best epitomizes the U.S. Army's high standards of excellence in community service, education and athletic excellence...also lettered in track and field...Sea View League shot put champion...parents are Gary and Keri Murphy...has three older siblings, Kelly, Kasey and Kevin...brother Kevin played football at Harvard from 2008-11...born in Mission Viejo, Calif....full name is Kyle Neil Murphy.
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There is a basic first-step process that must occur in early phases of your business intelligence solution build-out. Make sure that you have business & system analysts interview, document and review with your key business stakeholders and business users, the documented process and entities to be captured to solve your business needs.
To rephrase that in a simpler, more succinct way: Model your business first with a conceptual model. This is very important as well as very difficult to achieve to a level of success in which you have accurately captured and modeled your business processes in a way that can result in a software solution. Very skilled analysts with the ability to speak in terms that clear in regards to gathering requirements and business processes, many of which the stakeholders may not have fully realized in their day-in and day-out work day.
The way that we do these through Microsoft Services and Microsoft partners for Microsoft Enteprise Cube (MEC) solutions, is to utilize our program for BI delivery models which describes best practices and techniques for understanding the customer's business models and business needs. Since MEC is most concerned about providing business value through BI solutions based on industry pain points, we devise conceptual models in Visio that are high level using ORM or UML. The first picture below is an ORM example from Visio followed by an example of UML. I have found that ORM is very much sufficient and appropriate for data modeling while UML has much broader application for capturing use cases:
What we have found with the Microsoft Enterprise Cube, BI SDM and the Microsoft Solution Framework, is that without a focus on gathering, documenting and validating models of business processes and business entities, your BI project runs a high risk of not solving the real business needs or business problems.
I am going to continue this discussion as a series throughout the summer. Next we'll dive into putting this conceptual model into a logical model and user E-R diagrams as we start to build-out the physical data models that will serve as the basis for both the relational and multi-dimensional databases within a complete business intelligence solution project.
- Mark (email@example.com)


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I am stunned, but should not be, by the ease with which people are conned these days. We want to be sold on what to believe. It makes it so much easier than having to think for ourselves. Yet our spiritual poverty is reflected in what is happening all around us.
Our stock market threatens to collapse whenever the economy starts to look rosier, because then we might stop printing money, which would cause stock prices to fall. So, Wall Street reaches all time highs while unemployment grows. And the general population of America is peculiarly silent.
I remember a Polish filmmaker who lamented the lack of any particularly brilliant or powerful films being made in Europe over the last fifty years except during moments when severe repressions were momentarily lifted. Is it possible we have too much ostensible freedom and too little understanding of how we really are not free at all?
I am reminded of George Orwell's dystopian novel, "1984." Language had been shortened to doublespeak. A word like 'excellent' would be rendered 'doubleplusgood.' One remaining piece of damning physical evidence, a newspaper-printed photo of a politician, whose image had lately been erased because he was now unpopular, was incinerated. Words and images no longer existed to articulate complex ideas.
The Internet has destroyed the value of intellectual property over the last fifteen years by its inability to protect copyright. In November the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Cariou appeal of Richard Prince's appropriation of his photographs. See story at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/court-wont-overturn-rasta-pictures-decision. Now newspapers are disappearing. Encyclopedia Britannica almost disappeared and will only be digital now. Who profited? Google, the en-Cyclops, the all-seeing, whose stock in 2004 first sold for $84 a share, traded this week on Wall Street for over $1,000 a share.
Now we see the erosion of privacy. The NSA siphons your emails by tapping into the flow of information moving through overseas cables between the heavily secured ports. ID theft is reaching monstrous proportions. It's not entirely clear where this is leading or what is left of our souls.
Typhoon Haiyan, with the most powerful winds ever recorded on the planet, plowed through the Philippines in November. Aerial images reveal a landscape like an atom bomb struck, with trees and buildings flattened for miles.
I feel frustrated and a bit powerless before the forces of climate change and the swiftly dissolving middle class in America. I am not sure what bothers me the most, that this is happening, that people don't recognize it, or that if they do, they are either resigned to it, or they actually welcome the destruction of modern civilization either because they have been disenfranchised, or because they believe this heralds the End of Days.
Once again, I would remind folks, follow the money. Who profits?
I remember 32 years ago standing in a refugee camp 50 miles outside the capital city in El Salvador. I was there as a photojournalist during their civil war.
I had traveled to this camp with the Green Cross, the country's local humanitarian organization that, unlike the Red Cross, was actually out in the countryside every day helping people. A volunteer, a young woman backlit by the heavy sunlight that blinded my camera, was holding a carton of cigarettes she had brought to distribute and smiled fearlessly at me. Their director had recently disappeared and been found tortured to death. The underexposed photo I took of her shows nothing of what I felt in that moment.
In that moment I came to understand the transcendence of the human spirit over death and destruction.
That week I had also interviewed one of the wealthiest women in the country. Asked about any concern for the workers who picked coffee beans on her plantations for slave wages and who had dared to revolt, she spoke with disgust, "They live in the dirt, like pigs," she said. I worry that is how the uber-wealthy in this country today think.
I think about how what is going on in the world shows up in my backyard now. West Nile virus spread by mosquitoes, an apple tree that did not flower or bear fruit this year, a water well polluted by years of farm run-off, an elderly coyote that comes regularly and brings messages of worry about the way things are going, nudging my conscience. Crows have replaced songbirds, and the worms of moths instead of the caterpillars that become butterflies.
Sometimes of course there is joy, and hope. On November 6 I attended a panel talk that included a presentation by gardener Miranda Jacobson of Bees Knees and Hummer Hangout on how, on a low budget and in a few short years, she turned her rocky backyard behind her double-wide into an urban wildlife sanctuary that now attracts birds and bees and butterflies. I was most amazed that 40 people showed up at 8:30 on a cold morning to hear about organic approaches to gardening and wild plantings with low water use at the Gutierrez-Hubbell House on Isleta Boulevard in Albuquerque, in the Backyard Farming Series, a collaboration of the Hubbell House Alliance with Bernalillo County Open Space and Erda Garden and Learning Center.
In Judaism we speak of Tikkun Olam, a Hebrew phrase that signifies it is our responsibility to repair and heal the world. Quite a mess we're leaving to our children and our children's children if we don't get started now.
A print version of this column was published in The New Mexico Link, December, 2013 and another version in the Gallup Independent, Nov. 16, 2013, p. 20 Religion, Spiritual Perspectives column. Diane J. Schmidt is an award-winning writer and photojournalist in New Mexico who was raised in the traditions of Reform Judaism and is an admirer of all things spiritually resonant.


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Viewing posts tagged Israel
Jan 17th 2014
Sundance Review: The Green Prince
Israeli vs. Palestinian: The worst of enemies become the best of friends. Read More
May 10th 2012
Rebecca Walsh: Next Year in Jerusalem
Utah politicians love to testify from their Twitter accounts—and none more than retiring Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. Read More
Oct 17th 2011
Poets at Westminster: Admiel Kosman and Lisa Katz
Read More
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Though it broadcast its last original episode in 2013, "Dexter" is not dead yet. NuvoTV secured the basic cable broadcast rights to the series. Composer Daniel Licht also put the finishing touches on the final CD for the series, which was released on July 29.
"I recorded some songs for it and mixed some music from the live concerts I did," Licht explained during an exclusive interview in early June. "I made a really special CD for the last season of 'Dexter.' I think everybody was a little sad, but I think everyone was ready to move on, too. All things must pass."
Creating themes for "Dexter"
As Licht points out, with cable channels and Netflix producing original content, there are more avenues open for entertainment.
"There's something to be said for longer forms: it has become very interesting for storytellers and writers," he explained. "There's something you can do with a series that you can't do with a 2-hour film or a 90-minute film: explore things in depth, get into really detailed character studies. Which is what 'Dexter' was; it was an 8-year character study."
The composer said that "Dexter" contained themes that had been there since the beginning of the series.
"The most famous one, I suppose, is the 'Blood Theme.' That's the theme you hear at the end of every show; it's kind of a high synching violin sound," he offered. "There's a minor rising triad theme, usually on piano or wineglass; those themes have been there throughout. There's always new themes in every season, usually involved with a new character."
In Season 4, John Lithgow appeared as Arthur Mitchell, the man who became known as the Trinity Killer.
"That was great. With John, I had kind of this driving rhythm. He was kind of like a robot that kept going and couldn't be stopped," Licht explained. "We did an insistent kind of theme for him; the music had a lot of momentum to it. It wasn't a stopping and starting kind of music; it was steamroller music."
Taking "The Red Road"
Licht also scored the first season of "The Red Road," an original series airing on the Sundance Channel. He also will write music for Season 2, which is set to debut in 2015.
"The first season was 6 episodes. Sundance does kind of a British approach, which is a short series," he said. "You can certainly pay a lot more attention to detail if you are only working on 6 episodes. If you are on a network show, and you've got to do 22 episodes and you get to the point where you are doing one a week, you are going to have to move faster."
The composer also mentioned that like the annual Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Channel has very high standards. "They are super creative; they know film very well, and they create some great TV pieces to delve into this television world. It was a great experience," he said.


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Miss Eick is a graduate of Curtis High School, where she received a license in practical nurse studies. She is pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in speech-language pathology, audiology and hearing from Brooklyn College, where she was named to the dean's list, and is a licensed practical nurse with New Vanderbilt Rehabilitation and Care Center, Clifton.
Mr. Worona is a graduate of St. Peter's Boys High School, New Brighton, and earned a bachelor of science degree in supply chain and information systems from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, where he was named to the dean's list. He is an associate transportation systems analyst with Church and Dwight Co., Inc., Princeton, N.J.
An October 2013 wedding is being planned.


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Friday, October 31, 2008
Diggin' in
Jonathan Fowler explaining his finds to Jim and Pauline How.
Archaeology involves a great deal of contemplation.
This past weekend brought another visit from our friendly neighbourhood archaeologist. Jonathan Fowler, from St Mary's University in Halifax, has been digging intermittently at the deGannes-Cosby House on St George Street over the past two years. A visit from Jonathan and his crew is always refreshing. They always have a great deal of enthusiasm for archaeology which I belive is a testament to Jonathan's abilities as both an archaeologist and as an educator.
I will only mention the deGannes-Cosby House in passing as it will be the subject of a blog in the future. The house itself celebrated its 300th anniversary this summer with great pagentry. This building is without a doubt one of Canada's architectural treasures. The house's current owners, Jim and Pauline How have been very gracious in sharing their residence with the community through they years. The Hows are also generously funding the archaeology at the house.
This past weekend was an extension of the work which was done in the summer of 2007. When they were digging at the front of the house that summer, they had discovered a cobblestone type surface about 25cm below the surface. These cobblestones, known as pave, were a very exciting discovery as they would have been a freature sometime around the time that the house was built in 1708. This time, the crew were digging on the oposite side of the front door and hoping to discover a matching pave surface. As often happens with archaeology, they didn't find what they were looking for. They also didn't find any gold although a nice early Victorian penny did come to the surface. Other finds included many pottery shards including a couple of nice examples of Rennish pottery, a forged iron hook and the ubiquitous clay pipe stem.
The image at the bottom of this post shows the pit itself. The distinctive feature of this pit is the large root which cut almost directly though the middle.
All for now,
Posted by rgsheritage at 9:40 AM
Labels: Archaeology
1 comment:
- AnonymousAugust 3, 2009 at 2:19 PM
When my father, William S. Thorne, owned the Melanson property he found a leather pouch full of French coins at the old basement site. Also a hollowed-out rock that looks as it was used as a vessel or bowl of some sort, which I still have to this day. My brother and I used to set up pottery on the remains of the basement and threw rocks at them when we were young.ReplyDelete
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A win-win for VermontFebruary 28,2013
A win-win for Vermont
With concern for future generations and their power needs, I oppose putting a moratorium on wind power in Vermont, an issue discussed on the Senate floor in the Statehouse. As we have become slaves to imported oil, we must look forward to the use of renewable energy, which is readily available to us in Vermont, namely wind, solar and small hydro. The development and use of local clean energy will keep our money here in Vermont and positively affect our economy.
Using just 4 percent of Vermonts ridgelines, 25 percent of the states electrical needs could be met, which would offset 1.27 billion pounds of carbon dioxide annually. That is the equivalent of removing 111,000 automobiles from the highways. Vermont needs to move forward with the production of wind power to help our economy and reduce greenhouse gases for a win-win situation.
Please join me in urging your legislators to reject a moratorium and make Vermont more sustainable for those who will follow us in the future.
Gay Gaston
RandolphMORE IN LettersI agree wholeheartedly with Walt Amses in his article about the urgent need for reasonable gun... Full StoryAs the election season gets into high gear I would like to make two predictions and one comment. Full StoryIt is almost universally agreed, by both parties, that a Trump presidency would be a disaster. Full Story
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Welcome to the Office of Field Experiences
Welcome to the Office of Field Experiences, where we coordinate early field experiences and student teaching placements for all students in Purdue University's various Teacher Education Programs. We work closely with our partners in school corporations throughout the state of Indiana to ensure successful and rewarding placements for each and every one of our students. Our goal is to seek the best possible placement so that the experience becomes the capstone of each student's educational program.
Our calendars for Student Teachers (PDF) includes important dates, times, and locations for:
- Student Teaching Application Workshops
- Student Teacher Orientation sessions
- Student Teaching Dates for the current academic year
Office of Field Experiences Annual Report
To view data highlights and the Executive Summary of the 2013-2014 OFE Annual report, click here: (PDF).
To view the entire 2013-2014 OFE Annual Report, click here: (PDF).
Teacher Education (TEACHED) Email List
Click here to join the Teacher Education Email List (TEACHED). This email list allows Teacher Education Students in all program areas to receive important information regarding Teacher Education at Purdue.
OFE information is available on the Purdue-Board RSS feed.
You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and use many of the forms on our website. If you do not already have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, or if you wish to upgrade to the latest version, you may download it here:
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Grovetown man to fight $291 ticket for shooting BB gun | The Augusta Chronicle
"He said Owens and an officer banged on his back window when they arrived at his house. After Ussery explained the situation, he said, they demanded he be escorted inside to retrieve the gun."
Should have kept his mouth shut and asked to see a warrant.
They did the same thing a few years back in my town, but the guy fought it, claiming a BB gun does not meet the definition of a "firearm" by the state's legal defintion.
(6) Firearm means any weapon (including a starter gun) which will, is designed to, or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive; the frame or receiver of any such weapon; any firearm muffler or firearm silencer; any destructive device; or any machine gun. The term firearm does not include an antique firearm unless the antique firearm is used in the commission of a crime.
He won and the ordinance has been removed. Yeah--warrant!
Wow, glad I don't live in that town. What a bunch of moroons...
Yeah I would have demanded a warrant
Talk about paranoia. Officer Barney Fife didn't help the situation. Of course the BB gun wasn't heard. A well meaning teacher must have seen it and panicked.
I see that Augusta and surrounding towns haven't changed much since I was stationed there. I quickly learned after being assigned to Ft Gordon and rented a place at the Colonial Apts , the highway I used to travel to and from work was a police feeding grounds, and more so if you displayed the post tags on your car. Post tags were issued by the post to allow personnel entry to the fort and were attached to the front and rear bumpers and signaled the world that you were an officer or enlisted by the background color of the tags. I guess there has been "Change" as promised, but not change we like and is getting worse.


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a little black cat says...
playtime!October 20th 2012 1:39 pm
[ Leave A Comment | 3 people already have ]
This morning, The Dad picked me up & put me on the bed, and played kitty fish with me for a long time. I had so much fun! I am still too little to jump up there, and mom thinks my paw also prevents me from trying. But I was not scared of The Dad at all! He is very very nice, but to me he is big & has a deep voice, so I have been a little scared of him, especially since the break-in (mom figures it was at least 1 or 2 men that broke in & they were loud & scary) So I was kind of always slinking away when he walked in the room. But he has been trying really hard to make me not scared. He calls me Mr. Felix. Then Smitty jumped up there too, and we all played together some more! I was so pooped out I took a long nap! Happy Saturday!
Leave A Comment | 3 people already have
Happy Saturday Felix! Hope your paw gets better.
I used to be dcaredd of my granddad, but now I love him!
Thank is how I was with my Dad, they know someone are treating me bad when I was out living on the streets. When Mom brought me home and I saw my Dad I got wild eyed and wouldn't let him near me. It took a very long time for me to learn to trust my Dad he never gave up and soon I was OK with him...but he never pushed to pick me up or hold me, only when I asked him to.
So your Dad is doing the right thing just be careful and hang in there, soon you will know he won't hurt you..
It is so awful those men broke into your house and made you scared of your Dad....
Family Pets


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The only known animals in which the female has a penis and the male has a vagina have been discovered. Kazunori Yoshizawa from Hokkaido University in Japan, Rodrigo Ferreira from the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil, and Charles Lienhard in Geneva are responsible for the discovery. The research was published in the April 17, 2014, edition of the journal Current Biology.
Four distinct but related species of cave-dwelling insects (Neotrogla) were discovered in caves in Brazil. The female Neotrogla bear the young but the males have a small vagina while the females have an elaborate penile structure. This is the first discovery of a sex-role reversal in animals that includes an elaborate penis in the female of the species and a vagina in the males.
The penile structure in Neotrogla includes numerous spines and an inflatable chamber that allows the copulating insects to remain attached. The insects were observed by the researchers to copulate for as long as 70 hours. The males provide both sperm cells and nutrition to the female during copulation.
There are many other examples of sex-role reversal in animals but no animal has ever been discovered that exhibits an exchange of physical sexual characteristics to the extent observed in Neotrogla. The researchers propose that the cave environment may have played a role over the eons in the adaptation that works best for Neotrogla. The nutrient and mineral composition of the isolated environments may have also contributed to the sex-role reversal in the four species of Neotrogla.
Biology and evolution have no concrete explanation for the existence of two sexes in animals. The researchers propose that this discovery may produce new insights into sexual selection, the evolution of novel species, and the role of conflict between the sexes. Nothing may come from this discovery but the fact that Neotrogla is the only species known in which the female has a penis.