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'Pretty Little Liars' Recap: Season 4, Episode 23 'Unbridled'
It comes as no surprise that the latest episode of "Pretty Little Liars" titled "Unbridled" is packed with some serious curveballs. Looks like Jason DiLaurentis is either "A" or working with the bad guy. Spencer's half brother was recently at Clark Center rehab, but was he? According to Dean (Spence's sober coach/sitter/possible love interest) he couldn't have been. Dean informs Spence that that clinic has been closed for two years.
When Emily and eventually Spencer confront Jason about being back in Rosewood, he tells them both that he's there to support his mother, Mrs. DiLaurentis (possibly "A") "Going back to rehab was humbling and my mom was there for me," Jason tells Emily. "This isn't the first time my mom thought Spencer was messing with our family."
Later in the episode when Spence confronts her older brother about CeCe, the bell saves him so to speak when Dean interrupts them. While Jason's presence in this episode is certainly shady, his mother (Mrs. DiLaurentis') actions are even more suspicious. When Holbrook informs Ali's mom that there is a good amount of evidence that her daughter is still alive, instead of being elated, Mrs. D doesn't want to hear it. She also doesn't want to hear about digging up her daughter's remains to do a few DNA tests. Luckily Holbrook doesn't have to ask for her permission – the judge already granted the excavation. Interestingly Hanna's mom, Ashley finds a recent clothing purchase for a girl the same age as Ali in Mrs. D's house. Apparently Ali has been camping out somewhere in Philadelphia. Towards the end of the episode Holbrook asks Liars the million-dollar question: "Who's the dead girl in (Ali's) grave?"
So Spence is less irritable this week, but that's not to say that she's without some serious anxiety. (Her next addiction might be in the form of Xanax.) That drug-induced rage while high on amphetamines she went on a few summers ago is causing Spence some serious psychological problems and there's a good reason for it. Turns out she went on a rampage that infamous summer against her sister and Ali knew all about it. Even Spence's parents were worried that she had killed Ali after hearing about the teenager's death. "Leave that summer alone!" Spence's mom pleads. So it comes as no surprise that Spencer tells her fellow Liars that she may have "bashed in the skull of a stranger" not so long ago. While her friends don't initially buy it, as the episodes treads on, it becomes clear that Spence has potentially hurt someone. A note saying, "You know me Spencer. You killed me," is found in her car, while finger bones are found her in the bodice of a dress she's wearing with a note that says: "What will you do when the rest of me comes out the grave?"
Aria is still in heartbreak mode, but she's slowly getting over Mr. Fitz, who resigned from Rosewood High. She's not buying Ezra's claim that Mrs. DiLaurentis is "A," but that's not to say that she's not wary of Ali's mom. She's also on guard about her own mother, who has returned from Vienna. "Maybe I was wrong about letting you go (and be with Zack)" Aria tells her mom. Turns out she's taking our her heartbreak on her love struck mother. Aria eventually gets over it and is happy that Zack has proposed to her mom.
Emily dumps Paige after she finds out that her girlfriend went to the police about Ali. "I forgive you, but I don't think I could ever trust you again," Em tells a heartbroken Paige." Let the cops protect her!" Paige tells Em. (Right on sister!) Unfortunately Emily doesn't want to hear reason. She seems to be more in love with Ali than Paige.
Hanna doesn't necessarily want anything to do with Ali or "A" after that dentist incident, but she can't ignore the fact that her mother found recently bought clothes for a girl her age in Ali's house. She convinces her fellow Liars to scope out Ali's old room for an address – the same address where Mrs. D might be sending those clothes. She also can't ignore Travis! Can't blame her. He's kind of awesome.
What do you think? Is Jason "A"? Did Paige deserve to be dumped? Leave your thoughts in the comments.


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I made a little 'How To' tutorial recently for some work colleagues and I thought it would also be relevant for updating my post here viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1794 in this topic. Because now in QCAD 3 RC5 the process seems to work a lot smoother and easier!
I`ve attached the pdf -hope it comes in useful
Note* Once you have created a block you can File > Save as and navigate to this folder to save the file in.

subset: commoncrawl


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emotional rescue makes a welcome return after being debuted the month before in hampton. this one is not quite as out there, but it does the job getting the party started. the rest of the set is pretty standard. wolfman's does its thing but is subpar to average by the '97 standard. you gotta like the sloth.
musically, the second set is where the real action is. another fine '97 timber ho! gets this one going in fine style, and who can argue with the killer mike's song that follows. instead of going the way of hydrogen, it drifts into a pretty inspired piper. phish was still cutting its teeth on this jammer, and this one does not soar quite as high as other versions played in the fall, see utah or auburn hills. the finally drift into one of my favorite slow songs phish does. circus works well before completing the somewhat odd los lobos>ween pairing with roses are free. this is another gem they picked up over the past year. they made relatively quick work of this one before shifting into a very inspired weekapaugh.
the third set is pure rowdy mayhem. 2001 is somewhat straight forward before the ny countdown/raucaus. i really like tweezer in the ny slot, but with all the balloons and general rediculousness, this one does not do a whole lot. good energy though. maze is fun, but it is also a pit disjointed. they do slip in some fun birdland teases though. maybe a nod toward va beach from earlier in the year. the rest of this set does not do much for me. ny ny is fun and tweeprise closes the year out in style. good rowdy ending.


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This ATV/dirtbike report is based on analysis of available retail sales data through February. These state-by-state totals are forecasted figures through calendar year 2009, and include year-on-year comparisons rather than a running total of individual monthly sales. These sales figures include ATVs and nonregistered off-road motorcycles.
This index is based on the author's analysis of the MIC Retail Sales Report, SEC filings of quarterly and annual reports, and other information provided by publicly traded companies (such as Harley-Davidson and Polaris). Readers are cautioned that these estimates are subject to error, which can result from changes in seasonal patterns due to unexpected weather conditions and fluctuations in the economy. Interruptions in the supply of popular models can also affect these forecasts. Questions concerning this index should be addressed to the author, c/o Dealernews, or the author via e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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- Nov 15:
- NCS Division V: Valley Christian 50, St. Bernard Catholic-Eureka 18
- NCS Division III: El Cerrito 64, Tamalpais 8
- NCS Division I: James Logan 14, Liberty 7
- NCS Division I: Granada 24, Amador Valley 20
- NCS Division II: Northgate 41, College Park 29
- NCS Division II: Montgomery-Santa Rosa 27, American 0
- NCS Division I: California 37, Dougherty Valley 12
- NCS Division II: Clayton Valley Charter 62, San Lorenzo 7
- Nov 15:
- Deer Valley romps over Castro Valley in playoff opener
- East Bay high school/community college scoreboard for Friday, Nov. 15 events
- Friday's NCS high school football scores
PITTSBURG -- Jaylyn Morgan scored four first half rushing touchdowns as the Pittsburg High football team cruised to a 47-13 win over Irvington on Friday in the first round of the North Coast Section Division I playoffs.
The Pirates scored on their first seven possessions of the game, starting with a 13-play, 74-yard drive that took almost six minutes off the clock. Morgan capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown run.
But Irvington answered quickly, as Vikings running back Jared Lozoya broke an 80-yard run down the left sideline to notch the game 7-7.
Pittsburg did not get frazzled. Instead, the Pirates again marched down the field on a 58-yard drive that ate up the rest of the quarter. Morgan capped the drive with a 16-yard run to the end zone. Morgan finished with 106 yards rushing, and did not play most of the second half.
Armani Levias threw for 156 yards and a touchdown for Pittsburg. After the Vikings cut a 27-7 lead to 14 just before halftime, Levias found Angelo Moore on a deep pass, which set up a four yard touchdown by Morgan on the next play.
The Vikings cut the second quarter Pirates lead to 27-13 Lozoya finished with 130 yards for Irvington.
Pittsburg will host the winner of the Freedom/Foothill game next week.


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The full-color guide to getting the most out of your iPhone
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You'll discover how to set up iTunes, buy music and videos, protect your information, troubleshoot, multitask, and download the hundreds of thousands of apps available from the App Store.
iPhone 5 For Dummies, 6th Edition is presented in the straightforward-but-fun style that defines the series. It's just the book you need to get acquainted with your brand-new iPhone.
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All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on oreilly.com are the property of their respective owners.


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SANTA CLARA -- Safety Antoine Bethea knows what it's like to both win and lose a Super Bowl, and his goal now is to get back on that winning side with the 49ers.
"Of course, sitting here, I wish I had two Super Bowl rings instead of one," said Bethea, a rookie starter in 2006 for the Super Bowl-champion Indianapolis Colts. "It's one reason I'm here in San Fran. A great opportunity to get another ring. That's what I'm here to do."
Bethea spoke on a media conference call Wednesday, after formally signing a four-year deal worth up to $23 million with $6.5 million in guarantees, Scout.com reported. He replaces Donte Whitner, who signed with the Cleveland Browns for $13 million guaranteed as part of a four-year, $28 million deal.
Bethea was midway through his Colts tenure when he endured Super Bowl defeat four years ago. Such agony of defeat is fresher to the 49ers, 13 months after they lost 34-31 in the Super Bowl to the Baltimore Ravens.
"Antoine is a durable, experienced player who has competed at a high level throughout his career," general manager Trent Baalke said in a statement.
Bethea's durability is reflected in that he's played in 96 consecutive games, the second-longest streak among active safeties behind the Detroit Lions special-teams ace John Wendling (110).
"This time during the offseason is one of the most important times to get your body in shape," Bethea said. "It's a tough game, a rough game. From time to time, you have nagging injuries you have to fight through."
Bethea said he met with coach Jim Harbaugh — "he seems like a great guy" -- on Tuesday upon agreeing to his deal, and he dined with defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. "He seems like a cool, funny guy," Bethea said of Fangio. "We had a great time laughing, joking and talking a little about football."
Not discussed, however, was what Bethea's responsibilities will entail, though his veteran presence surely will help groom fellow safety Eric Reid, who Bethea is excited to meet.
Bethea finished as the 53rd-ranked cornerback in ProFootballFocus.com's season review, primarily because of coverage issues (23 receptions in 33 targets). He committed no penalties all season, which stands in stark contrast to the five unnecessary-roughness calls Whitner drew.
"You try to play the game clean," Bethea said. "With some of the new rules, it's kind of tough. Being that I didn't have any penalties called on me, that's a good thing."
Last November, Bethea won the Colts' "Man of The Year" award for his community service and leadership.
"Antoine embodies everything this team is about. He is a tremendous player and continues to provide veteran leadership in our locker room and in the community," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said in presenting that award.
Bethea returned to complete his college degree at Howard University in 2011. He then started his Safe Coverage Foundation to help students obtain higher education, including hosting college tours for inner-city high school students from his hometown of Newport News, Va. Bethea also has been the Colts' United Way spokesman, and he won the team's Ed Block Courage Award in 2012.
"He has proven to be a man of high character and is a welcome addition to our team and the Bay Area community," Baalke said.


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LOS GATOS -- A collective wave of heartache and nostalgia washed over the town after the Happy Hound, a venerable hot-dog franchise that slowly but surely morphed into a landmark, was heavily damaged by a fire early Monday.
Owner Dan Dresslar is vowing to rebuild and reopen within a month, even as he admits that might be a bit optimistic.
The one-alarm fire was reported at 4:48 a.m. and spread through the roof and a storage area, according to the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Dennis Johnsen, chief fire investigator, estimated damage at $100,000 but said much of the interior of the restaurant was unscathed, except for the lingering smell of smoke.
Dresslar, whose parents opened the Happy Hound 42 years ago, lives near the restaurant and was awakened by firefighters.
"It's devastating," Dresslar said. "I couldn't believe it when I walked out of the house. It's my whole livelihood."
The fire was reported by a passer-by, who saw flames coming out of the side of the restaurant, Johnsen said. Firefighters spent about 30 minutes extinguishing the blaze.
The fire seems to have started in a storage area and likely stemmed from a faulty or overloaded electrical strip, Johnsen said.
Dresslar was keeping his spirits up as friends loaded bags of buns, onions, hot dogs and burgers into vehicles. The food was donated to Second Harvest Food Bank.
"It's a good thing it happened when it did because Monday is when our food is delivered," Dresslar said. "I've had to cancel all the deliveries."
The eatery was actually a second incarnation after Dorothy Dresslar opened the original Happy Hound (then named the Hound Dog) in Danville in 1968, serving only hot dogs, bags of potato chips and canned soda. Three years later, in 1971, the family brought it to Los Gatos Boulevard just a stone's throw from Blossom Hill Road.
Dan Dresslar bought and took over the restaurant in 1987, and over time the menu expanded from hot dogs to include hamburgers, to the point where there was a playful debate over whether it was a hot-dog stand -- even as its modest footprint included indoor seating -- or a burger joint.
When the restaurant threw a 40th anniversary bash two years ago, fans commemorated what had grown from something residents once thought would open the floodgates for traffic headaches and the proliferation of fast-food dives to a beloved staple of the community.
In one instance, a woman bought four dogs and had them flown to her mother in Hawaii.
Dresslar said several customers stopped by the restaurant Monday morning and offered support and encouraged him to reopen for business quickly.
View Happy Hound in a larger map
"As fast as we can," Dresslar said.
Staff writer Judy Peterson contributed to this report. Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869. Follow him at Twitter.com/markmgomez. Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.


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2013 Tuesday Night Five Seasons Disc Golf League Schedule
Tuesday night league will start sign up 5:30pm, draw at 5:50pm and start playing 6pm
Hiawatha April 30, 2013 Best Shot
Hiawatha May 7, 2013 Worst Shot
Legion May 14, 2013 Best Shot
Legion May 21, 2013 Alternate Shot
Shaver May 28, 2013 Best Shot
Shaver June 4, 2013 California Singles
Jones June 11, 2013 Mixed Combo
Jones June 18, 2013 Alternate Shot
Legion June 25, 2013 Best Shot
Legion July 2, 2013 Bingo
Shaver July 9, 2013 Best Shot
Shaver July 16, 2013 Alternate Shot
Jones July 23, 2013 Best Shot
Jones July 30, 2013 ?
Hiawatha August 6, 2013 Best Shot
Hiawatha August 13, 2013 Mixed Combo
August 20, 2013 Party
Best Shot: Two Players; Play either of the two's best shot
Alternate Shot: Alternate between players every other shot; continuous
Worst Shot: Opponents pick the worst of the other teams two shots; one putt ends hole.
California Singles play: Player receives extra shot per hole if needed; must use rethrow only.
Bingo: Points for CTP and longest putt for lowest score on each card.
Mixed Combo: A mixture of best, alternate and worst shot.
$5 per night ($2 for nightly payout, $1 Ace fund, $2 for end of year prizes)
Questions or suggestions please contact Doug Peyton 319-373-2301


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From desertification in China to glacier melt in Nepal to water scarcity in South Africa, climate change is beginning to make itself felt in the developing world. As developing countries search for ways to contain carbon emissions while also maximizing economic potential, a natural focus of attention is nuclear power. But nuclear energy presents its own dangers. Below, Wang Haibin of China, Anthony Turton of South Africa, and Hira Bahadur Thapa of Nepal answer this question: "Given nuclear energy's potential to slow global warming, do its benefits outweigh its risks, or do its risks outweigh its benefits for developing countries?"
Experts from emerging and developing countries debate crucial, timely topics related to nuclear energy, nuclear proliferation, and economic development. Each author contributes an essay per round, for a total of nine essays for the entire Roundtable. This feature was made possible by a three-year grant from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
The nuclear approach to climate risk
Round 1
Global issues, personal perspectives
Water, climate, and thorium: Why nuclear power makes sense for South Africa
Climate change, reactors, and bombs
Round 2
To each technology its proper time and place
Progress, crisis, and ingenuity
Environmental gains come with security risks
Round 3
The dangers of exaggerating risk
Security in the new epoch
Ability to harm brings responsibility to help
Round 1
Global issues, personal perspectives
It is not so simple to answer whether, given the dangers of climate change, the benefits of nuclear power outweigh the risks in developing countries. Different groups of people in the developing world may view the risks and benefits very differently.
For the purposes of this essay I will divide people in the developing world into two categories: a benefit group and a risk group. People in the benefit group, largely poor, are quite vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, including drought, heat waves, rising sea levels, more frequent and stronger storms, food shortages, and so on. Thus, they may see significant benefits in nuclear energy and its potential to slow climate change. People in the risk group, on the other hand, are more capable of adjusting to climate change. Therefore, it might be expected that they would perceive greater risks in the development of nuclear energy than do the poor.
As the political scientist Francis Fukuyama has written, "Wealthy people have had disproportionate influence in most polities at most times in history." Given that members of the risk group are better off financially than members of the benefit group, class-based imbalances in political influence represent a large potential obstacle to the further development of nuclear energy in the developing world.
Making this obstacle even harder to surmount is that most nuclear reactors must be built where water is abundant (particularly along seacoasts or riversides). Locating these facilities close to water is an issue of convenience as well, because proximity to water eases delivery of the large, heavy pieces of equipment that are required for the construction and maintenance of nuclear power plants. But seacoasts and riversides are also the places where members of the risk group are most likely to live. (In China, to take one example, members of the benefit group might or might not live in such areas). That prosperous areas overlap with sites otherwise appropriate for nuclear power plants has ominous implications for the further development of nuclear energy -- especially in the aftermath of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
To members of the risk group, who enjoy economically advantageous positions, nuclear power is just one energy option. At the same time, while the effects of global warming may seem like a distant threat to members of the risk group because of their greater resources, a nuclear accident on the scale of Fukushima would threaten both their physical well-being and their livelihoods. Thus, fear of nuclear accidents provides members of the risk group strong incentives to adopt a not-in-my-backyard attitude.
Because people in the risk group have more economic and political power than do members of the benefit group, the expansion of nuclear energy in the developing world seems to face great difficulties. Further complicating matters is a widespread skepticism in the developing world regarding government in general, and in particular government's competence to monitor the nuclear industry. This is a skepticism that characterizes both the risk group and the benefit group.
Political calculations. In China, the central government immediately after Fukushima stopped assessing and approving new nuclear power projects. With the passage of time, some local governments have become eager to resume nuclear projects for the sake of economic growth, but the central government has remained hesitant to grant go-aheads. On May 31 of this year, however, indications emerged that the central government might resume steps toward nuclear expansion. But targets for nuclear power generation seem to be falling sharply. In early 2011 it was envisioned that China's nuclear power capacity would reach 86 gigawatts by 2020, but current forecasts call for an expansion to as little as 60 gigawatts.
This downward adjustment manifests the caution that the central government feels it must exercise in the post-Fukushima era. The central government has spent a great deal of time, of course, weighing the wishes of both the risk group and the benefit group. The government's calculation essentially involves the economic and environmental gains of nuclear energy versus the economic and environmental losses if a nuclear accident occurs -- no matter how unlikely such an accident might be.
China has a number of tools at its disposal beyond nuclear energy to help it address climate change. These include the further development of lower-carbon energy sources like natural gas, or zero-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar. The government can also acquiesce in local governments' unconventional measures, like widespread blackouts, to achieve targeted reductions of carbon dioxide emissions -- and in fact already did so in late 2010. But if just one serious nuclear accident occurs in China, even if it is not as severe as Fukushima -- and especially if it occurs in one of the three most prosperous areas in the country (the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze Delta, and the Bohai Bay area) -- it will be an economic disaster for the country and a political disaster for the central government. Indeed, such an accident might be more than the government could afford.
Water, climate, and thorium: Why nuclear power makes sense for South Africa
Participants in this Roundtable are asked whether, given the dangers that climate change presents, nuclear energy is worth the risk for developing nations. My own country, South Africa, offers a particularly interesting lens through which to examine this question.
South Africa is best known internationally as the one-time home of apartheid. Not as well known is that during the apartheid era, as South Africa became an international pariah, the country's decision-making elites responded to perceived threats to national survival by encouraging the development of sophisticated capabilities in science, engineering, and technology. One manifestation of this was a nuclear weapons program.
During its transition to democracy South Africa abolished its nuclear weapons program and, in 1991, acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Thus it became the world's first nuclear-armed country to voluntarily relinquish its weapons. This fact alone places South Africa in a unique position from which to reflect on questions of nuclear proliferation and nuclear energy.
In want of water. Today, the greatest threat to South Africa's survival, and certainly to its prospects for prosperity, may be water scarcity -- a problem that, as will be explained, is closely connected to climate change.
South Africa is among the 40 driest countries on earth. Its location between three global weather systems -- the intertropical convergence zone, the Southern Ocean, and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation -- helps account for the nation's annual average rainfall of only 495 millimeters (mm), compared to a global average of 860 mm. So severe are South Africa's water challenges that a national economy only exists because, through hydraulic engineering projects, rivers have been pushed around on a national scale.
Complicating matters, the majority of the country's economic activity takes place in the hinterland, on a high and dry central plateau. Johannesburg, which is the economic capital not only of the country but of continental Africa, is the world's largest city not located on a river, lake, or seashore. At about 1,800 metres above sea level, it straddles the continental divide that separates the Orange and Limpopo River Basins.
The Orange and the Limpopo, which drain into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans respectively, are crucial to the nation's economy -- but only a small percentage of the rain that falls across the country is converted into water in these rivers. The conversion rate in the Orange River Basin, for example, is a meager 3.4 percent. This means that, of 100 units of water that fall as rain across the surface of the basin, only 3.4 units become water in the river and thus become useful for industrial purposes. The rest is lost to evapotranspiration. Climate change will likely cause low conversion rates to fall even further as losses to evapotranspiration increase.
South Africa has attempted to address its chronic water shortage through dam construction, but dam-building is reaching its limits. In the Orange River Basin, total dam storage capacity is already equal to a staggering 271 percent of the annual average flow of the river. To put it another way, almost three times as much water is stored in dams on the Orange River as would flow through the river, undammed, over an average annual cycle. This is indicative of water constraints that call into question South Africa's viability both as a stable democracy and as a nation capable of providing full employment for all.
Hotter, drier. Climate change, with its new and largely ill-defined risks, threatens to make matters worse. Increases in the ambient temperatures in South African river basins will exacerbate evaporative losses and disrupt weather patterns that are already unpredictable. And as ambient temperatures increase in areas that are stressed to begin with, the country's problem with excessive nutrient flows is likely to worsen -- already, about one-third of South Africa's available water is highly eutrophic (that is, rich in dissolved minerals and thus supportive of excessive life, most notably blue-green algae).
As a professional in the water sector who is deeply involved in strategic planning processes, I see no viable future for South Africa unless we develop a sophisticated recycling ethos. Today, national water resources that are available at a high assurance of supply amount to about 38 billion cubic meters annually. This number needs to increase to about 65 billion by 2025 if we are to achieve full employment (assuming that the water-use patterns on which employment depends do not become more efficient). This means that South Africa will either have to gain access each year to an additional 27 billion cubic meters of water from rivers to which we have no legal riparian claim (the Zambezi or the Congo) -- or we will have to use our total national resources about 1.7 times each year. But such recycling in effect implies desalination, because excessive mineral salts and endocrine-disrupting chemicals must be removed. This, in turn, requires massive amounts of energy.
South Africa's current energy platform, which is centered on coal combustion, is clearly unsustainable. But nuclear energy would be another story -- especially if South Africa were to construct nuclear power plants using thorium as a fuel. Indeed, South Africa is ideally positioned to utilize thorium-based power reactors. First, the country has large reserves of thorium, which is currently regarded as a waste mineral with few commercial uses. Second, South Africa occupies a moral high ground in nuclear affairs by virtue of having relinquished its weapons program, and thus it would make an appropriate candidate to help pioneer the use of thorium, a fuel with enhanced proliferation resistance. It should also be mentioned that South Africa is among the relatively few developing countries that already utilize nuclear energy, and does not lack for technical capacity in this sector.
South Africa's future will be dictated in large measure by the way the country addresses its water scarcity dilemma, and by its ability to create employment amid growing resource constraints. Extensive changes will be necessary if the country's challenges are to be met. Because the hinterland happens to be located on a high plateau, massive amounts of energy are required to pump water uphill to reach it; eventually, major industries will likely have to relocate to the coast. In all probability, desalination of seawater will become the hydraulic foundation of the nation's economy, and this suggests a greater potential role for nuclear energy.
South Africa enjoys an abundance of both uranium and thorium. But it is the latter resource that could provide the country the relatively clean energy it needs for economic development without introducing new proliferation risks.
Climate change, reactors, and bombs
June's United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, was criticized in many quarters for failing to produce binding agreements on climate change and other global issues. The criticism was justified, insofar as the international community has made so little progress in recent years toward addressing the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming, especially in the developing world. In my native country of Nepal, glaciers are retreating and creating new lakes that present terrible risks to people along riversides at lower elevations. The melting of Himalayan glaciers also threatens the supply of drinking water to millions of people in Nepal, India, and China.
Due to risks like these, it is only natural that developing countries -- especially middle-income nations with high economic growth rates -- are searching for alternatives to fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is among these alternatives; its ability to generate electricity without carbon emissions is one reason that a large number of developing countries, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), are considering the development of nuclear power sectors.
But several issues stand in the way of nuclear power's expansion in the developing world. The 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, for example, dealt a severe blow to an industry that had expected to receive a boost from fears about climate change. The accident provided a reminder that, even if one acknowledges the positive aspects of nuclear power, serious dangers remain inherent in its use. The dangers include, along with incidents such as Fukushima, an increased risk of weapons proliferation.
But, complicating matters, an ongoing tension characterizes efforts to contain proliferation and to facilitate the spread of peaceful nuclear energy. To some extent, this tension dates to the days of President Dwight Eisenhower. The United States under Eisenhower strongly promoted the peaceful use of nuclear power around the world, and Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" program created a conducive atmosphere for the birth of the IAEA in 1957. But after all, it was the United States that had dropped two atom bombs on Japan in 1945. Even today, the IAEA's twin objectives of promoting peaceful nuclear applications while stopping the spread of nuclear weapons can sometimes seem at odds.
It would be an exaggeration to claim that the IAEA cares only about preventing military applications of nuclear technology, but at times the agency and its Board of Governors are portrayed as improperly favoring the most powerful member states -- which seem to care much more about proliferation than about expansion of nuclear power. The agency has been accused of issuing flawed reports regarding the alleged proliferation activities of some NPT signatories; for example, a November 2011 report on Iran has come in for heavy criticism, and not just from Iranians. At the very least, the agency's commitment to facilitating the spread of peaceful nuclear technology does not seem to match the vigor it exhibits on proliferation questions.
Taking Iran as an example again, the IAEA and a number of major powers have been heavily engaged in efforts to stop that country's perceived weaponization. The latest negotiations between Iran and the five recognized nuclear weapon states, plus Germany, have not yielded positive results; but far more effort has been expended on Iran than seems to be devoted to helping developing countries exercise their inalienable right to nuclear power.
Something similar might be said regarding North Korea. That country's withdrawal from the NPT in 2003, and its tests of nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009, arguably sprang -- at least in part -- from a US failure to hold up its end of the bargain spelled out in 1994's Agreed Framework. Under that agreement, the United States was to facilitate construction of proliferation-resistant light water reactors in North Korea and to provide Pyongyang with heavy fuel oil to make up for the electrical capacity North Korea would lose by freezing operations at its existing nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The light water reactors were never completed; the shipments of fuel oil were suspended in 2002. Today, a resolution to the North Korean nuclear crisis is as elusive as ever.
So the IAEA (and the major powers) failed to stop proliferation in the North Korean case and may be on the verge of failure in the Iranian case. To be fair, the agency is designed as a warning system, not as a police force; if it finds that a country is out of compliance with its obligations under the NPT, the only action at its disposal is to bring the noncompliance to the attention of the UN Security Council. Still, just as the Iranian and North Korean cases suggest that the IAEA is sometimes unable to meet the NPT's nonproliferation objectives, the agency also sometimes fails to facilitate the spread of nuclear technology's peaceful uses. Perhaps this suggests that a deep conflict is at work between promoting power reactors and banning nuclear weapons.
Obstacles and solutions. But the IAEA cannot be blamed for everything. Also unhelpful to the goal of expanding the peaceful utilization of the atom without introducing unacceptable risks is the role that commercial considerations sometimes play in nuclear issues. A case in point is the 2008 US-India nuclear cooperation agreement, and the arm-twisting that the world's only superpower exerted to convince the Nuclear Suppliers Group to grant India an exception to its export controls despite India's not being a signatory to the NPT. In this instance a nuclear-armed country outside the nonproliferation regime gained many of the benefits that participation in the regime would confer. Such an arrangement contributes nothing to the integrity of the nonproliferation regime, because all countries that aspire to the development of a nuclear energy sector should enjoy the confidence that others are playing the game fairly.
Still, despite all these difficulties, it might be possible to strike an acceptable balance between the benefits and risks of nuclear expansion -- whether the risks are Fukushima-type accidents or the clandestine pursuit of nuclear weapons. Establishing such a balance might depend on the development of advanced reactor technologies with enhanced safety features, but additional useful steps could include multilateralization of the fuel cycle and a corresponding strengthening of the multilateral framework for the control of nuclear facilities and materials. If a strengthened framework were established, one in which all countries could place their confidence, safeguards and safety regimens could be steadily enhanced. Thus the way might be paved for a time when the peaceful atom could be embraced by all nations that could afford the cost. Such a day must be hastened if the most harmful effects of climate change are to be averted.
Round 2
To each technology its proper time and place
In his first Roundtable essay, Anthony Turton presented a perceptive analysis of the linkages among water scarcity, electricity demands, and climate change in South Africa. He also outlined inspiring ideas about easing that country's water constraints by using nuclear energy in the desalination of seawater. It is my view, however, that while Turton's ideas may be sound for South Africa, they have limited applicability in many other places -- including China.
If nuclear energy is to be developed in a sustainable fashion, cost-benefit ratios must always be kept clearly in mind -- and in different locations, nuclear power can present starkly different cost-benefit ratios. In developing countries with constrained water supplies and less constrained electricity supplies, it may make sense to use nuclear energy to desalinate seawater (and even to pump it to remote locations). But in developing nations where the population suffers from an urgent shortage of electricity, the idea of consuming a great deal of power to produce fresh water would seem to lack a firm economic basis.
China, a country whose economy and electricity needs are both growing rapidly, currently operates 15 nuclear reactors. More than one of these plants is used for desalinating seawater, but only when, as is the case with the Hongyanhe facility in Liaoning province, desalination is unavoidable. The pressurized water reactors at the Hongyanhe facility require a great deal of fresh water to operate, and the local supply of fresh water is inadequate for this purpose. Therefore, the plant has been designed to desalinate over 10,000 cubic meters of seawater daily for its own operation.
Significantly, the desalination technology that the plant has adopted is reverse osmosis. The choice is significant because reverse osmosis consumes less energy per unit of fresh water produced than do other desalination methods, rendering the energy needs and economic costs of desalination acceptable to the plant's operators. But -- according to an interview I recently conducted with a senior economist at China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, the plant's owner -- the company has no plans to desalinate more seawater than the Hongyanhe facility needs for its own operation.
The company's decisions regarding desalination reflect a trade-off between water demands and power demands; such trade-offs are common in the developing world, where many countries require more water, more electricity, or both. I believe that, in a world where 1.5 billion people lack access to electricity, it is power demands that, on the whole, are more acute than water demands.
This is not to minimize the severity of water shortages in many countries, least of all in Africa -- where persistent drought in nations such as Sudan and Somalia has contributed to bloody conflicts in recent years. And because persistent drought in some regions is among the expected outcomes of global warming, it is hard not to associate drought-related conflicts with increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Therefore, so that the climatic challenges facing countries such as Sudan can be minimized, countries around the world must increase their efforts to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide -- for instance, through greater use of low-carbon energy sources like nuclear power. There is no guarantee that nuclear energy will forestall the worst effects of climate change, but hope at least lies in that direction.
Finally, I would take some issue with Turton's assertions that South Africa "has large reserves of thorium" and "is ideally positioned to utilize thorium-based power reactors." I find these statements too optimistic and perhaps oversimplified -- in view of the fact that India, a country with greater thorium reserves than South Africa, with well-known ambitions in thorium technology, and with 20 nuclear reactors currently in operation, nonetheless relies primarily on pressurized heavy water reactors at its nuclear facilities. Thorium-based power reactors are of course a wonderful idea. But like fast breeder reactors, they belong more to the future than to the present. Many years are likely to pass before thorium reactors become a mature technology.
Progress, crisis, and ingenuity
This Roundtable asks participants to assess, against the backdrop of climate change, nuclear power's appropriateness for the developing world. In this essay, however, I would like to consider a related but broader issue -- human beings' prospects for continuing to thrive on a planet whose ability to support human life is increasingly under stress.
I was recently invited, along with a number of co-authors, to write a paper on water resource management. In the paper, we argue in favor of the idea that the world has recently undergone a transition from the geological epoch known as the Holocene to a new epoch, the Anthropocene. That idea, associated with Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen among others, hinges on the notion that Homo sapiens is now affecting the very forces that will shape the Earth of the future. For example -- and significantly to this Roundtable -- radionuclides are now being found in the sediment of many rivers at levels much greater than would be the case under normal background conditions. This increase in radionuclides can be precisely dated to the mid-1940s -- which coincides with mankind's capacity to split the atom. That is, future sedimentary rock will be formed from sediment that has been altered by human beings.
All this highlights a profound dilemma faced by the human race. The dilemma relates, on one hand, to the viability of the planet's life support system; and on the other, to growth in human population, economic activity, and technological capacity. The planetary life support system is a dynamic equilibrium in which complex variables interact to create a set of environmental conditions conducive to life; if the equilibrium goes too far out of balance, conditions conducive to life will degrade. Meanwhile, human population has grown rapidly for centuries and looks set to continue doing so for decades more; global economic activity has increased markedly as well; and technological advances continue apace. This has created ever-increasing demand for energy and water, among other resources, and has placed great stresses on the biosphere.
Those who see the planetary life support system as finite argue that it cannot be expected to support unlimited population growth and economic development. They argue that if human beings fail to curb their population growth and economic activity, the support system that has allowed intelligent life to evolve in the first place will be overrun. This is the essential attitude of Malthusianism, which predicts that the inevitable outcome of human expansion is catastrophe. But a competing discourse -- the Cornucopian viewpoint, which is sometimes associated with the late University of Maryland professor Julian Simon -- holds that humans through their ingenuity will manage to solve the problems that arise from population and economic growth.
I believe in humanity's capacity to learn, innovate, and adapt so as to sustain intelligent life on this planet; thus, I count myself as a Cornucopian. Part of what attracts me to Cornucopianism is that it allows dilemmas to be converted into something different -- problems. The problems revealed through the Cornucopian lens are complex, and are likely to become more complex over time. Nonetheless, problems are receptive to solutions in a way that dilemmas are not.
Human beings are distinguished from other species by their ability to innovate, but people must now innovate fast enough to address the stresses that human life places on the planetary support system. Fortunately, mankind's technological progress over the years has been quite impressive. For example, it was only a few decades ago that the atom was split for the first time. But by last year, when a grave accident developed at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the damage was contained reasonably well despite difficult circumstances, and the lessons learned from this incident can be incorporated into future designs for nuclear power facilities. To my mind, the outcome of the Fukushima accident provides support for a Cornucopian view of the world.
I do not consider myself an especially ardent advocate for nuclear energy. But I do believe that if the human race wishes to survive, all options that might benefit humanity's chance of survival must be explored, and these options include nuclear energy.
Environmental gains come with security risks
Nuclear energy has attracted renewed interest in recent years, partly because of its ability to generate electricity while producing only negligible emissions of greenhouse gases. For many developing countries, however, establishing and maintaining a nuclear power sector presents a plethora of challenges. This is especially true for a "least developed country" like Nepal, my own nation. Though Nepal became a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2008, the country's limited human and capital resources make it an unlikely candidate to develop a nuclear energy sector.
But because of the global threat of climate change, even nations without power reactors of their own could benefit from a worldwide expansion of nuclear energy. If climate change progresses, Nepal faces threats to its water supply due to Himalayan glacier melt and to its agricultural sector because of potential changes in weather patterns. Nepal therefore has good reason to welcome the further development of nuclear energy in other countries.
But though a nuclear expansion could produce climate-related benefits for a country such as Nepal, it would also introduce new risks. For example, an accident like the one that took place last year at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station -- or, worse yet, an incident similar to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster -- could have terrible consequences within Nepal. Indeed, Nepal happens to be surrounded by two developing nations that are among the world's top candidates for nuclear expansion -- China and India. As Wang Haibin noted in his first Roundtable essay, many people in the developing world regard with skepticism their governments' competence to oversee nuclear power. Such skepticism need not be confined to one's own government.
For Nepal, though, the risks inherent in nuclear expansion involve a security dimension as well. South Asia, a dangerous region because of the enmity between India and Pakistan, has a history of terrorist events like the coordinated attack against Mumbai in 2008. Pakistan has often been accused of lending aid to terrorist groups. In such an environment, all nuclear installations must be considered potential terrorist targets, so an increased number of installations creates a greater risk of attack.
Another issue that makes some Nepalis apprehensive is the 2008 US-India nuclear cooperation agreement. Pakistan, unsurprisingly, reacted to the deal very negatively, but the agreement is also troubling because of what it suggests about US and Indian attitudes toward China. In the words of Shyam Saran, India's former foreign secretary, the agreement "reflects a certain strategic convergence between the United States and India… We have similar concerns and attitudes regarding the emergence of China." And any evidence of tension between India and China must be considered worrisome to Nepal.
Nepal's resources are limited -- technologically, scientifically, and financially. The country cannot afford a nuclear sector of its own. But it nonetheless stands to benefit in environmental terms from a nuclear expansion elsewhere, despite the risks outlined above. Someday, perhaps, the risks associated with nuclear energy can be reduced through the development and commercialization of fusion reactors, a technology that could revolutionize the nuclear sector around the world. Until then, however, regional powers must ensure that nuclear energy diminishes risks instead of compounding them.
Round 3
The dangers of exaggerating risk
Accidents at nuclear power facilities are rare. And even in an incident as serious as the one that occurred last year at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the damage was ultimately contained within certain limits. But the risks associated with nuclear power are often portrayed as simply unacceptable, and publics in many countries continue to view nuclear power as fundamentally dangerous. To understand more about this phenomenon, it is useful to compare the risks posed by nuclear energy with the dangers presented by other methods of base-load electricity generation -- fossil fuel combustion and hydropower.
In one sense, a power plant running on fossil fuels poses only a low risk to public safety. True, an explosion at such a facility could threaten the lives of people who live in the immediate area, but the danger does not extend beyond that. The real danger posed by fossil fuels is pollution. To begin with, burning these fuels produces pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which have direct and negative consequences for human health. Even more significantly, burning these fuels produces carbon dioxide, the primary cause of the global warming that threatens to alter life on this planet radically. Though power plants' carbon emissions will likely be reduced in the future through technologies like carbon capture and sequestration, significant carbon emissions seem a certainty for an indefinite period of time.
Hydropower, meanwhile, is widely regarded as a safe source of energy, with easily manageable risks. An argument can certainly be made that dam construction creates environmental problems, but the operation of hydropower plants does nothing to aggravate global warming. Quite the opposite -- if global warming causes water flow through river basins to become more irregular, it is climate change that may harm hydropower facilities. On a similar note, some hydropower plants may suffer if fossil fuel exploitation reduces the availability of water to hydroelectric facilities -- in China, for instance, coal mining places great stresses on water resources.
Given all this, it is not difficult to argue that fossil fuel combustion represents a greater set of dangers than does nuclear power -- or, for that matter, than hydropower, which is in a sense nuclear power's "natural ally." Still, according to public opinion surveys examined in a 2010 report published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, majorities in only two of 18 countries supported building nuclear power plants in order to combat climate change.
If nuclear energy is to become a more significant tool in the fight against global warming, proponents of nuclear energy must accept that nuclear power comes with a certain degree of risk -- and sometimes in the form of accidents. Then again, proponents must contend with two other dangers related to nuclear energy that are generally not exaggerated. The first is nuclear weapons proliferation; other sources of energy, it must be admitted, present no risk equivalent to proliferation. The second is at the back end of the fuel cycle, mainly involving the disposal of spent fuel. This risk, in some ways, may be underappreciated by the public.
Anti-proliferation efforts are an ongoing political project; the dangers of the fuel cycle may likewise be addressed through multilateral initiatives and technological advances. But public fear about safety at nuclear power plants remains a serious obstacle to nuclear expansion, and therefore to progress against climate change.
Security in the new epoch
A prominent theme running through several essays in this Roundtable has been security. Wang Haibin has discussed the ways in which people of different economic classes perceive the risks to personal security that are posed by climate change and nuclear energy. Hira Bahadur Thapa has detailed the threats to Nepal that South Asia's unsettled security situation entails. And I have written about South Africa's acute water constraints, which I believe threaten the country's economic security and indeed its survival -- and which I also believe could be mitigated through nuclear-powered desalination efforts (perhaps with proliferation concerns reduced by the use of thorium as fuel).
Human beings are capable of enhancing their own security through sophisticated means that are unavailable to other species. During the Holocene -- the geologic epoch when Earth's climate was relatively stable -- people learned to grow food, manage water, and build permanent shelters that mitigated environmental risk. Technological advances such as these allowed humanity to become a dominant species; the capacity for manipulation and control is an essential element of human success.
This capacity also makes human beings the only species that can hope for security as a fundamental condition of existence. Other species' lives are characterized by inherent insecurity; a range of adaptive strategies has evolved as a result. One of the most successful strategies is for members of a species to cooperate when faced with a common threat. I believe that, though human beings have succeeded because of their ability to manipulate their environment, they will have to adopt the cooperation strategies of other species in order to continue prospering.
Dominance and wisdom. I asserted in my second Roundtable essay that a transition has been effected from the Holocene to the Anthropocene. That is, human beings have begun to manipulate their surroundings on a global scale -- and new security challenges, like climate change, have emerged as part of this process. These challenges affect individuals, who live within particular ecosystems, but each ecosystem is nested within the global climate system; even national economies can be seen as wholly owned subsidiaries of the global ecosystem. Thus, though the new security challenges of the Anthropocene will often manifest in local forms, approaches to them must be subordinated to global considerations. Efforts to achieve balance between the local and the global are likely to influence political systems at various levels.
This brings my argument back to nuclear energy. Will the security risks posed by global warming prompt people to accept the more localized risk of accidents at nuclear power facilities? Will people's calculations be affected by improved nuclear oversight and continued advances in engineering? Is it correct to characterize the acceptance of nuclear power as the sort of cooperative behavior that human beings must display if they are to continue thriving? To my mind, answers to these questions proceed from accepting that human beings are the world's dominant species, but acting on that acceptance with wisdom. Applied to nuclear issues, wisdom might mean embracing the further development of peaceful nuclear technology while rejecting weaponization. (Applied to water, it would require people to behave like custodians, instead of mere consumers who discard an altered form of water as waste.)
Meanwhile, in order for the security challenges of the Anthropocene to be met, humans through their ingenuity must produce technological advances quite quickly, and institutions must incentivize such advances when market demand does not spur them. This is a tall order, and it must be addressed in disparate contexts, on scales both global and local. The job will be easier if human beings can maintain an awareness of the interrelatedness of ecosystems, and the nested nature of threats and opportunities. Humanity must be brave enough to explore the new frontiers of science but wise enough to fashion a collective security in which security does not depend on building weapons.
Ability to harm brings responsibility to help
All participants in this Roundtable recognize the dangers associated with nuclear energy, and have discussed its expansion in terms of manageable risk. We all nonetheless agree that such an expansion is justified by the dangers of climate change. Given the consensus on nuclear energy that has emerged in this Roundtable, in my final essay I would like to explore the ways that a country such as Nepal, which is unlikely to develop a nuclear sector of its own, could contribute to climate change efforts -- and the responsibilities that wealthier countries bear toward Nepal and other least developed nations.
Nepal's emissions of carbon dioxide are very low. Statistics from the US Energy Information Administration show that in 2010, on a worldwide basis, more than 31,780 metric tons of carbon dioxide were emitted into the atmosphere as a result of energy consumption. Of this total, Nepal was responsible for a mere 3.36 metric tons. But as I have detailed in my previous essays, climate change presents grave dangers to Nepal, in areas ranging from the productivity of agriculture to the physical safety of Nepalese citizens. In short, the damage that Nepal stands to suffer from climate change is out of proportion to its responsibility for the problem.
Many other least developed countries are situated similarly. Low-lying coastal nations like Bangladesh, island states like Kiribati, and dry countries like Niger whose precipitation levels might fall even lower as climate change progresses -- all are justified in viewing the advance of climate change with alarm. Making matters worse, nations with low levels of development are especially ill equipped to solve the new problems that climate change will present them.
These countries can attempt to influence international behavior on climate issues, for instance through the Least Developed Countries Group, an association of 49 nations within the UN system. Nepal has chaired this group, and has campaigned in that capacity and others for action on climate change. But the political influence of least developed countries is limited. Ultimately, it is the more developed countries that must take the difficult steps necessary to contain the damage of climate change.
Still, even though Nepal's carbon emissions are negligible and its political influence is restricted, the country could make direct contributions to slowing climate change. Nepal, for example, is a good candidate to stage reforestation projects under the Clean Development Mechanism, an element of the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialized nations to meet their carbon-reduction goals in part by funding emissions-related initiatives in developing countries. Nepal could also help other nations lower their emissions by further developing its own hydropower sector -- as Wang Haibin mentioned in his third Roundtable essay, hydropower is a safe form of electricity generation that does not contribute to global warming. Nepal, with its abundant hydropower potential, could export significant amounts of electricity to nearby nations whose carbon emissions are greater than its own.
Initiatives such as these require the participation, financial and otherwise, of wealthier nations. Nepal cannot undertake them alone. But in any case, the heart of the climate-change problem is that countries more developed than Nepal release too much carbon into the atmosphere. I have argued that nuclear power could be an important part of reducing carbon emissions, but it is only one piece of a larger puzzle. And though Nepal can make a contribution to assembling the puzzle, more developed countries must do the bulk of the work.


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The Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees recently voted to approve the college's overall $63.1 million budget for 2012-13. That amount covers the combined operating and capital budgets for the academic year.
The general operating budget of $54.5 million represents a 4 percent increase over the current year. This increase was the result of increases in the cost of health insurance premiums, a 3 percent salary increase for faculty and staff, two new full-time faculty positions (in business and sustainability studies) and two new full-time staff positions and professional development.
Within the capital budget, trustees authorized an expenditure of $7.6 million going toward deferred maintenance, equipment and a reserve to fund future building projects. Future building projects will be determined when the college completes its next master plan for facilities.
In terms of revenue for next year, property taxes are expected to remain flat when compared with actual taxes received in the current year, because assessments will continue to be based on June 30, 2011, valuations. State revenues are also expected to remain flat, while an approximately $600,000 increase in tuition revenues is forecast, based on the recent increases of $3-$20 per credit hour (depending on student residency status) and a slight increase in enrollment.
"By comparing costs among campuses and using zero-based budgeting, we've been able to identify duplicate requests for funding and centralize some expenses," said Linda English, the college's vice president for finance.


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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Legislature has launched a new website that allows the public to more easily follow the thousands of state rules written each year.
RuleWatch Ohio was launched Monday by members of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, or JCARR.
The lawmakers say the site makes it easier for the public to provide feedback on how proposed rules might affect their lives, communities or businesses. With a free account, RuleWatch Ohio users can track specific rules or interest areas and receive email alerts when there's activity. It replaces a system that required searching weekly filings and other reports.
JCARR reviews roughly 9,000 rule actions each year for 120 agencies. State rules affect topics such as food safety, energy production, public education, hunting, agriculture and ownership of exotic pets.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Who's got the most Wieber Fever? That would be Grandma and Grandpa. Charles and Emiline Reifsnyder made the trip from Lansing to San Jose to watch their granddaughter compete.
"Words can't describe how you feel," Emiline Reifsnyder, Wieber's grandmother, said. "I can't believe this is happening. I mean, who ever would think, at our age, we'd be out here in California watching Jordyn compete? It's just unbelievable."
"I keep pinching myself," said Charles Reifsnyder, Wieber's grandfather. "I keep popping the buttons off my shirts. I tell her she's got to give this up one of these days and sew the buttons back."
Not much chance of that. Wieber is in first place after the first day of U.S. Olympic Trials competition, and one step closer to the London Olympics.
"I don't know if I can handle it, to tell you the truth," Wieber's grandfather said. "I've got so many friends that are following everything she does and talking about it and talking with me about it, and it's just the most exciting time in my life."
Mrs. Reifsnyder's favorite part of watching Wieber compete?
"I love the floor routine," she said. "I do. I love that. I think she's so classy."
Mr. Reifsnyder, who was chief of police in Lansing and worked for the department for 38 years, calls his granddaughter "a machine." He says he's certainly not used to how famous Wieber is.
"It still surprises me every time I see it," he said. "I watch television, all of a sudden she pops up. That surprises me. I go here and see her hanging on the wall of the building. It's all—it's unbelievable."
Sunday is the final day of women's competition. We'll have much more on Jordyn Wieber Sunday on News 10.


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Self Esteem Quotes, Sayings about self-worth
You should never be so involved with your position/job that when the position is gone your entire self image is gone with it.
– Colin Powell
The greatest single cause of a poor self image is the absence of unconditional love.
– Zig Ziglar
When nobody else celebrates you, learn to celebrate yourself. When nobody else compliments you, then compliment yourself. It's not up to other people to keep you encouraged. It's up to you. Encouragement should come from the inside.
Don't let anyone ever dull your sparkle.
Don't ever think you are nothing. Somewhere along the line, there is going to be someone who thinks you are everything.
You are interesting, worthy and lovable. If you don't believe that, nobody else will either.
Some people will like you for no reason, some people will not like you for no reason. Who you choose to spend the most time, thoughts, and effort on, depend on exactly how much you like yourself. By just saying near to people who treat your poorly, you are telling them it's OK to do so. Only keep people close to you who treat you well.
Your biggest enemy is yourself – so be your best friend!
I don't care what you think of me!
Unless you think I'm awesome – in which case, you're right! Carry on…
Your value doesn't decrease based on someone's inability to see your worth.
The way you look at yourself it affects the way you live.
I may be broke, but I am not poor. I am a successful human being in every sense of the word. My intentions are good. I can find solace in that my actions are pure. My heart full and giving.
If they do not know who you are. What you are about. And don't want to take the time to learn. Then f*** them.
Asking for help does not mean you are weak or incompetent. It means quite the opposite. You have to be strong, confident and intelligent enough to realize when you need help and courageous enough to ask for it.
She needs make- up to cover up because, society taught her who she is, isn't enough.
Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
– Thomas A. Edison


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The Warriors' Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have been touted as one of the best shooting duos in NBA history, but might a couple of 40-somethings be able to beat them in a shooting contest?
Dell Curry, Stephen's father, and former Charlotte Hornets teammate Glen Rice think they can pull it off against the young guns who have made 260 3-pointers a little more than halfway through this season.
"Just shooting, I could hold my own," Dell Curry told SiriusXM NBA Radio on Friday. "Absolutely. I know Glen Rice could. I would take the old guys in that.
"When I'm shooting against my son, I'm really focused."
The shooting contest was proposed by SiriusXM's Lionel Hollins in an interview with Rice on Thursday.
"Let me tell you something," Rice said with a laugh. "You give me and Dell about a month to get in some kind of condition, you know we're going to think we can take 'em. I mean, that's just how we think.
"Tell Dell to get in shape, and me and him will take on his son and Mr. Thompson, and we'll let them know who the real shooters are. Although they are great, there's better ones out there, and they're in the past."
Dell Curry and Rice played together from 1995-98 and finished their careers as 40-percent 3-point shooters. Rice said Stephen Curry's success was no surprise after having watched his teammate's pre-teen son hoist shots from beyond the arc, and he praised Thompson as well.
"That duo they have, I mean that's like the one-two punch of shooters of all time right there," Rice said. "It's just incredible to see those two guys Curry and Thompson do their thing. As a shooter, I love seeing it."
Stephen Curry was named a Western Conference All-Star Game starter Thursday, garnering the most fan votes among all backcourt players in the NBA, and his father confirmed that the two shared an emotional, short conversation after the announcement.
"I voted a lot more this year than normal," Dell Curry said with a laugh, adding that he was more nervous than Stephen during the announcement and very disappointed by his son not making the All-Star team last season.
"He's gone through a lot -- ankle surgeries two years in a row, really doubting whether he was going to be able to stay healthy enough to play like he's playing now. It really makes me proud, and I did get a little emotional."


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News headlines 2011
31 Dec 11 Thanks for your support in 2011!
As the year draws to a close we'd like to thank all our members and group leaders for all your support in 2011 and hope Run England has helped you in your running journey so far.
30 Dec 11 Jog Derbyshire ends 2011 with 25,000 attendances!
Jog Derbyshire was launched with the aim of encouraging people who did little or no physical activity to be more active through walking, jogging and running groups.
28 Dec 11 End of a successful year for Warwick WASPs
As the year draws to a close, Warwick WASPs are one of a multitude of running groups across the country that have enjoyed huge success in 2011.
27 Dec 11 60 seconds with a Run England group leader
Russell Evans - running group leader for Crediton Running Network - answers Run England's questions in our 60 second challenge (we're not too strict with the timing)!


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"On a par with Malaysia"
Athens –The 5th International Biotechnology Forum (IGBF5), which is to be held May 8-9 in Athens, boasts appearances by three Nobel Prize winners. Andrew Schally, Richard Roberts and Sir Peter Mansfield will speak at the opening ceremony of the two-day-event, which as the website promises "again brings together the crème de la crème of the BioScientific and BioBusiness world."
Greece might be at the centre of the European biotechnology world for these two days in May, but for the other 363 days of 2009 it will be anything but – at least not yet, according to Nassos Alevizopoulos, a BioBusiness consultant and Senior Vice President of the US biotech company Regulon Inc.
"Despite some recent signs of activity, Greek biotech is embryonic; say at the level of Malaysia," says Alevizopoulos. Until 2005, he was the CEO of Bionova, the Greek company that hosts IGBF. Today, there are at least 15 R&D-based biotech companies in Greece, he continued, and to increase international outreach in the looming credit crunch, these companies have recently created HellasBio, a non-profit biotech industry association.
As in Italy, the concept of biotech venture capital (BVC) has just begun to emerge in Greece, but "one HellasBio member leads its market in Europe already, while two other innovative Greek biotechs have also attracted professional European BVC for products that were developed locally," Alevizopoulos says. If all goes well, he hopes to see "50 companies in 5-10 years." To reach this ambitious goal, the Greek business leader aims to exploit his country's large expatriate bioscientific community in the US and EU, and take advantage of repatriated scientists and executives. Meanwhile, Malaysia is not idle. At the BioEurope Spring conference in Milan, the flashiest booth belonged to South-East Asia – not South-East Europe.


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Story Time at Central
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
10:00am @ Central Library
Come join us every Tuesday for early literacy activities including songs, fingerplays, read-alouds, and occasional simple crafts. Afterwards there will be plenty of time to play with our toys in the beautiful children's room on the second floor. All ages welcome. Parking is Free!


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Blue Monday. Denver Broncos fans have now experienced five of those after the Orange got crushed the day before in the Super bowl.
"It's lingering. It's lingering. You're just kind of in shock that it was such a blowout," said disappointed fan Bryan Reuer.
Shock, embarrassment, disappointment…all feelings licensed professional counselor Erin Fowler said is common after a major defeat in football.
"We get a lot of pleasure from football. I get a lot of pleasure from football. We have a lot of fun with it and of course it's natural to be upset and sad when something we care about is over," Fowler said.
Fowler says fans should talk about the game but not focus on the negative.
"When we continue to focus on the things that are negative, it's going to feed that anger," Fowler said.
She says while feeling of sadness and frustration are normal, it's not if it begins to interfere in daily life and work. Fowler says that's when you should seek professional help.
The best way to get over it…is to look ahead.
"Look forward to the things to come. Get together with friends and talk about the successes the team has had. Get ready for next year," Fowler said.
Denver Broncos fans have had to do that for 15 years. Maybe next year it will be different.


text: Since taking office, Gov. John Kasich has promised to raise Ohio's severance tax on oil and gas producers to provide income tax relief to all Ohioans. Throughout this debate I have always insisted that our part of Ohio receive its fair share of any new tax revenue on oil and gas production. Unfortunately, pending legislation in the Ohio House, House Bill 375, that proposes a new severance tax on oil and natural gas production through the use of horizontal drilling doesn't do that. Horizontal wells are being drilled throughout eastern and southeastern Ohio, mostly in what is known as the Point Pleasant, Utica, or Marcellus shale formations.


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Seems MKV's internal subtitles doesn't show when playing the video. The PMS sees them and they are present in the #--TRANSCODED--# directory ( for example: "MEncoder {audio: dca eng} {subs: hun}*" )
I don't have problem with the external subtitles. It doesn't matter if its AVI or MKV, they are showed flawless.
Can somebody help me on this issue?
Anyway the PMS is great!!
I almost forgot, i use PMS v1.03, Linux 2.6.27-gentoo-r7, MEncoder dev-SVN-r28058-4.3.2


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The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded its largest grant in the country to South Carolina schools. The money will be used to make the state's school buses more environmentally friendly.
Aiken County plays a big part in making this happen. The half million dollar grant will make your child's ride to school safer and cleaner. Underneath the bus, the muffler would be replaced with a filter to make the emissions that come out of the back of the bus cleaner...but that's just the beginning.
Brian Barnes not only works for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, he also has a son with asthma. And for 9 year old David, riding on the bus can be tough. Brian says "diesel emissions are a breathing irritant and it's a asthma trigger." Brian is thrilled that these filters will replace the mufflers on 132 buses.
The grant also means that more than a thousand state buses will run on biodiesel, a fuel made from soybeans. That biodiesel fuel is likely to be supplied by an Aiken County company, United Energy. The company currently has a contract with the state to fuel the school buses and hopes to renew that contract this July.
The long term plan for South Carolina is to fuel all its buses with biodiesel. E.P.A. officials are already working on the funding. Scott Davis of the E.P.A. says "We hope to have a mulitstate grant and when you affect many people in a positive manner, you're able to obtain more money."
The biodiesel and filters should be ready this summer. so this plan will start next school year.


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Vibram is an Italian company that has been producing some of the finest rubber for shoes since 1935. The Vibram Five Fingers sole technology started out as extensive research and design project. When Vibram approached shoe manufactures about incorporating this revolutionary barefoot rubber sole into their products it fell upon deaf ears. So Vibram set out to build and sell the Five Finger shoes all by themselves.
Get to know more about Vibram Five Fingers.
Marathon Running
ACTIVE is the leader in online event registrations from 5k running races and marathons to softball leagues and local events. ACTIVE also makes it easy to learn and prepare for all the things you love to do with expert resources, training plans and fitness calculators.


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Between 1905 and 1912, Bourdelle devoted himself to the figure of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, who waited faithfully for her husband to return. He created three versions in different sizes, with slight variations.
The work owned by the Petit Palais is a medium-sized version, without a spindle and with one foot extended. It is the second example of the medium-sized Penelope, probably cast between 1924 and 1946.
The genesis of the work can be found in several silhouette sketches in the Musée Bourdelle of his student and future second wife, Cléopâtre Sévastos, contemplating a work of art in a London museum.
One of them is poetically entitled "Sévastos in front of the Hindu gods" and is dated August 1906. However, Penelope's face owes much to his first wife, Stéphanie van Parys.
Penelope reflects different influences at work in Bourdelle's sculptures since 1900. She owes her pose with twisted hips, known as contrapposto, and her caryatid draperies to Ancient Greece and she has the posture of a tanagra, those ancient statuettes which were popular with collectors at the turn of the last century. She has the fullness of figure of Indian statues which Bourdelle admired greatly. Her curves are reminiscent of 14th century Parisian Gothic virgins. These academic references are applied to a very modern form of construction with geometric planes and an unusual pedestal, which is almost cubist in style, rooting it firmly in the modern era.


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Taking Medication to Control Heart Failure
You have a condition called heart failure (also known as congestive heart failure, or CHF). Having heart failure means your heart isn't pumping enough blood. Medications can help your heart work better. But they can't do their job unless you take them exactly as directed by your doctor.
Why take your medications?
They help you feel better. That means you can do more of the things you enjoy.
They help your heart work better.
They can help you stay out of the hospital.
Know your medications
You may take one or more of the medications below. Be sure you know which ones you take:
ACE inhibitors lower blood pressure and decrease strain on the heart. This makes it easier for the heart to pump. Angiotensin receptor blockers have similar effects. These are prescribed for some patients instead of ACE inhibitors.
Beta-blockers help lower blood pressure and slow your heart rate. This lessens the work your heart has to do. Beta-blockers may improve the heart's pumping action over time.
Diuretics ("water pills") help the body get rid of excess water. This helps prevent swelling. Having less fluid to pump means your heart doesn't have to work as hard. Some diuretics make your body lose a mineral called potassium. Your doctor will tell you if you need to take supplements or eat more foods high in potassium.
Digoxin helps your heart pump with more strength. This helps your heart pump more blood with each beat. So, more oxygen-rich blood travels to the rest of the body.
Aldosterone antagonists help alter hormones and decrease strain on the heart.
Hydralazine and nitrates are two separate medications used together to treat heart failure. They may come in one "combination" pill. They lower blood pressure and decrease how hard the heart has to pump.
Tips for taking your medication
Take your medications exactly as directed. Follow the directions on the label.
Take your medications at the same time or times each day.
If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember — unless it's almost time for your next dose. If so, skip the missed dose. Do not take a double dose.
Never change the dose or stop taking a medication unless your doctor tells you. Please tell your doctor if you don't understand how to take your medications, or if you are having difficulty getting your medications.


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City Hall update
First phase of renovation already under way
July 16, 2013
The first phase of an estimated $1 million-plus renovation of Marietta's 76-year-old city hall officially started on top of the building last week as workers with North Canton-based Buxton Roofing......
Policians can have a roof, but kids in school cannot.
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Cheap is cheap......there is a reason they are cheap sometimes.
Been there before at home; haven't you?
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If we had the Taj Mahal we wouldn't be going through this expensive repair to al old-*** building.
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These jobs are bid jobs. The lowest bidder does not necessarily get the job. Experience and good references get the jobs. Possibility any local bidders didn't have the right experience needed or bad references.
7 Agrees | 0 Disagrees | Report Abuse »
Union roofers are to high priced. Have to go with the cheaper bids.
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Are there no qualified roofers needing work in Washington County?
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A Quote by EF Shumacher on transcendental longing, love of god, and liberation from constraints
"...liberation from constraints that operate at the level of ordinary humanity---limits imposed by space and time, by the needs of the body, and by the opaqueness of the computer-like mind. All three examples [Jacob Lorber, Edgar Cayce, and Therese Neumann] illustrates the paradoxical truth that such 'higher powers' cannot be acquired by any kind of attack or conquest conducted by the human personality; only when the striving for 'power' has entirely ceased and been replaced by a certain transcendental longing, often called the love of God, may they, or may they not be 'added unto you.'"
Source: Guide for the Perplexed, Pages: 93
Contributed by: manofflowerz


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Does your family do a lot of traveling around the holidays? This week on the Melissa & Doug blog, we'll be talking all about the ways families play when they're traveling (or just pretending to travel). We'll share our top picks for travel games, best packing strategies (start with a great kids' suitcase!), and special posts all about taking fun on the road.
There's nothing more iconic than the family trip. It's the subject of movies, songs, and countless family albums, and everybody knows the refrain: Are we there yet? It's also a great opportunity to give your kids a new perspective on the world they live in, pay a visit to far-flung relatives, and (our favorite!) get creative with the way you play!
All week long, we invite you to join us here to share ideas: Add to the comments with your best play ideas. Let us know your best tip for (relatively) peaceful travel with kids. And chime in with your answer to that all-important kids' travel question: What's the one toy or game you can't leave home without?
You can send your family-travel photos to us through Facebook, too–we may share your picture!


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Clothes Call: What they were wearing in Week 2
It's early in the season, so it comes as no surprise that we saw a lot of new looks across the Big Ten during Week 2 action. See all of the uniform and helmet alterations the Big Ten showcased Saturday in this post. Have a picture of a Big Ten uniform or arena/stadium alteration? Please tweet it to me (@BTNBrentYarina) for my Clothes Call blog.


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As you nurse your hangover from last night's festivities, why don't you sit back, pop some aspirin and feast your eyes on this little gem from 2000's Academy Award winning movie "Leprechaun In The Hood." Warwick Davis stars in the below scene as a rapping leprechaun.
.... and as an added bonus, here's one of the wee little man smoking weed... (NSFW)


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The 2016 THR Actresses Emmy Roundtable
Sarah Paulson, Kirsten Dunst, Kerry Washington, Constance Zimmer, Regina King Full Story
Regina King: Big gold Globe sequins
Steve Granitz/ Joe Scarnici/ John Shearer/ Getty Images
You remember last week, Priyanka Chopra in that dress with the big sequins and I wasn't sure about it? Click here for a refresher. Well I'm much more sure about Regina King's big sequins: I love them. Full Story
Emmy Prom Queen and the Prom Princesses
Steve Granitz/ Gregg DeGuire/ Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Mark Davis/ Lester Cohen/ Jon Kopaloff/ Jason Merritt/ Getty Images
You know how we're told that dresses are passed around at awards show seasons the same way songs are? Like the dress - or song – meant for person A winds up with person B or C If A rejects it? Who is selling the prom dresses? Those wee tiny bodice with MASSIVE BALLROOM SKIRT dresses, that remind me of every movie in the 80s where the rich kids were the worst? The prime example here of course, is Tracee Ellis Ross. Full Story
Oscar Shaping: SAG nominations & Leo > Fassy
Kevork Djansezian/Getty
Here are the 5 actors nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award: George Clooney, The DescendantsDemian Bichir, A Better Life Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar Jean Dujardin, The ArtistBrad Pitt, Moneyball Missing?Michael Fassbender. Leonardo DiCaprio, who'd been losing so much momentum, who barely factored in any of the critics' selections, suddenly just. Full Story


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McCrory-backed high school bill passes NC Senate
Legislation creates new high school diplomas, course plans
The state Senate has made quick work of legislation supported by Gov. Pat McCrory to create new kinds of high school diplomas and course plans that emphasize vocational or career paths that don't require four-year college degrees.
The Senate voted unanimously Thursday for the bill now heading to the House.
The bill directs the State Board of Education to require, beginning with the 2014-15 school year, that diplomas carry new seals endorsing graduates as "career ready," ''college ready" or both, depending on their courses.
Career and technical teacher licensing requirements also would be revised to help develop more teachers in those fields.
The measure fits into McCrory's campaign platform that not all students must attend traditional colleges to obtain well-paying jobs.
McCrory praised the bill's bipartisan passage in a statement.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW) -- It'll be a trip to Verizon Wireless Cheryl Toothe of Trenton won't soon forget.
"I came to trade in my phone to upgrade to a different phone and really didn't expect all the excitement," she told News 12.
Around 12:50 Wednesday afternoon, she was only feet away from an explosion of glass and metal.
"I heard someone yell, 'Oh my God!' and everyone just sort of turned towards the window, and then all of a sudden, this car came through," Toothe said.
The aftermath was a blue Chevrolet Malibu parked inside the store, across from the Whiskey Road Walmart, almost comically. Shards of glass covered the entrance like fallen icicles.
"I mean it looked like a war zone in there," Toothe said.
The Aiken Department of Public Safety responded to find no injuries but dozens of lucky people, including the older female driver.
"Driver was pulling into a parking space in front of this retail store, said that her foot slipped off the brake on to the accelerator, and she went over the curb through the plate glass window," said Sgt. Jake Mahoney.
The driver was transported to Aiken Regional Medical Centers as a precautionary measure, but Toothe, a complete stranger, stayed around to make sure she was all right.
"You know, Jesus says what you do to these my brethren, you've done to me, so I had to step in and do something," she said.
At the end of the day, she's left with an unforgettable story, and it's one that she and others survived to tell.
"Oh yeah, I'm going to call my children as soon as I get in the car, but unfortunately, I didn't know how to use my new phone enough to get a picture of it, but I think I'll remember it for a while," Toothe said.
Workers were able to clean up the glass and metal and put up plywood temporarily. The store will reopen at 10 a.m. on Thursday, according to the store manager.


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Gracing the stage at three20south in Breckenridge tonight is Doctor Robert, The Beatles Tribute featuring - you guessed it - all Beatles, all the time. Here, band member Kevin Reinert breaks it down so you can understand better:
The genius of The Beatles' music and songwriting. We're also influenced by many other bands such as The Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead and Phish, who were all influenced by The Beatles.
For some reason, some fans think it's acceptable to take our tambourine from our percussion table (we coined the term "tambourism" from these experiences). Most of these folks don't have much rhythm so it can be very distracting. At one show in Buena Vista, a fan didn't appreciate us telling him he couldn't take the tambourine, so he went home to get his own. About halfway through the set, he was so intoxicated he fell face first into the stage. That was the end of his evening.
We play different sets every show, and know 105 out of 210 Beatles songs spanning their entire career. We like to weave in and out of songs from the different eras, and generally play around 50 songs for a show like this.
Expanding our setlist, blending songs without stopping between, performing bigger and more high profile shows, expanding our touring beyond Colorado.
We're from Crested Butte and have played over 100 shows around Colorado since September 2010.


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I'm trying to set up my Sony Bravia KDL-40EX503 to play Spotify. Playing videos using PS3 Media Server works fine (except for sometimes having to start videos through the Transcode folder in order to get them to play, but that's a totally different story).
I've pretty mcuh been following this guide to set it up: http://ps3-spotify.blogspot.se/
I've got DSBridge to work, the icon appears as it should and entering http://localhost:8124/ in Chrome gets me the stream.
But I can't seem to get Spotify to appear in the TV's inteface.
In C:\ProgramData\PMS\WEB.conf I've added the line:
This according to the guide should get Spotify to pop up in Web/Radio, but the directory appears empty.
I've adjusting a number of things like replacing localhost with my actual local IP, turning off my firewall. But I can't seem to get it to work.
The guide I followed was for PS3, so I'm not sure whether or not this is something that the PS3 supports and my TV doesn't.
Does anyone have any idea of how I can fix it?


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8.0/10 8 レビュー
Please note that the bookings for Advance Purchase rates are non-refundable. Hotel might take the remaining balance upon the receipt of the booking.
Built in the 19th-century, this luxurious palace is nestled on a hilltop overlooking the Tagus River and presents guests with the ideal base for an unforgettable stay in Lisbon.
Tucked away in the city's diplomatic quarter, Lapa Palace is set in a beautiful sub-tropical garden. Sunbathe on a lounger in the pool area or pay a visit to the wellness centre, where you can treat yourself to hours of relaxation in the sauna. ...


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I mentioned VLC because maybe also someone other tesing CoreAVC will have same problem so he will know why encoded file is skipping in circle
And in my case it was VLC which played video on background. But maybe it was problem of Nvidia drivers, who knows?
When talking about performance: when you are encoding, always you need to decode it so it can be passed to encoder from decoder part. It is not problem to decode faster than in real time for CoreAVC. Encoder will ask for decoded frame and it is passed to encoder. There is no decoder fixation to do it in realtime only(you can see it also when timecodec is used). Because that last test can be encoded at about 20% faster because CPU ignores decoding part so there are more cycles for encoding part and also CPU is not so overloaded with CUDA enabled when encoding is in progress.
My GPU is notebook variant of Nvidia 9650m GT.
About DiAVC I already posted here but it is not supported by MEncoder for now so useless for PMS sevrer.
But I didn't test it again with new dsnative.dll driver and latest MEncoder version....older versions were unable to load DiAVC decoder.
Link to timecodec benchmarking "tool": http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/timeCodec.exe