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Communications to Beneficiaries on the Prescription Drug Benefit Could Be Improved
GAO-06-654: Published: May 3, 2006. Publicly Released: May 3, 2006.
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On January 1, 2006, Medicare began providing coverage for outpatient prescription drugs through its new Part D benefit. Beneficiaries who enroll in Part D may choose a drug plan from those offered by private plan sponsors under contract to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers the Part D benefit. Beneficiaries have until May 15, 2006, to enroll in the Part D benefit and select a plan without the risk of penalties. GAO was asked to review the quality of CMS's communications on the Part D benefit. GAO examined 70 CMS publications to select 6 documents for review and contracted with the American Institutes for Research to evaluate the clarity of these texts; made 500 calls to the 1-800-MEDICARE help line; and contracted with the Nielsen Norman Group to evaluate the usability of the Medicare Web site.
The information given in the six sample documents that GAO reviewed describing the Part D benefit was largely complete and accurate, although this information lacked clarity. The documents were unclear in two ways. First, although about 40 percent of seniors read at or below the fifth-grade level, the reading levels of these documents ranged from seventh grade to postcollege. Second, on average, the six documents did not comply with about half of 60 common guidelines for good communication. For example, the documents used too much technical jargon and often did not define difficult terms, such as formulary. Moreover, 16 beneficiaries and advisers that GAO tested reported frustration with the documents' lack of clarity and had difficulty completing the tasks assigned to them. Although the documents lacked clarity, they informed readers of enrollment steps and factors affecting coverage decisions and were consistent with laws, regulations, and agency guidance. Customer service representatives (CSR) responded to the 500 calls GAO placed to CMS's 1-800-MEDICARE help line accurately and completely about two-thirds of the time. Of the remainder, 18 percent of the calls received inaccurate responses, 8 percent of the responses were inappropriate given the question asked, and about 3 percent received incomplete responses. In addition, about 5 percent of GAO's calls were not answered, primarily because of disconnections. Accuracy and completeness rates of CSRs' responses varied significantly across the five questions GAO asked. For example, while CSRs provided accurate and complete responses to calls about beneficiaries' eligibility for extra help 90 percent of the time, the accuracy rate for calls concerning the drug plan that would cost the least for a specified beneficiary was 41 percent. For this question, the CSRs responded inappropriately for 35 percent of the calls by explaining that they could not identify the least costly plan without the beneficiary's personal information--even though CSRs had the information needed to answer the question. The time GAO callers waited to speak with CSRs also varied, ranging from no wait time to over 55 minutes. For 75 percent of the calls--374 of the 500--the wait was less than 5 minutes. The Part D benefit portion of the Medicare Web site can be difficult to use. GAO's test of the site's overall usability--the ease of finding needed information and performing various tasks--resulted in scores of 47 percent for seniors and 53 percent for younger adults, out of a possible 100 percent. While there is no widely accepted benchmark for usability, these scores indicate that using the site can be difficult. For example, the prescription drug plan finder was complicated to use and some of its key functions, such as "continue" and "choose a drug plan," were often not visible on the page without scrolling down.
Recommendations for Executive Action
Status: Closed - Implemented
Comments: In 2007, CMS reported that it now tracks the accuracy and completeness of customer service representatives' (CSR) responses through additional call monitoring. It has also made an effort to identify individual CSRs that are in need of further training by recording additional calls. In addition, CMS has developed new CSR training sessions, with an emphasis on the Part D benefit, as well as reference materials to assist them with calls.
Recommendation: In order to improve the Part D benefit education and outreach materials that CMS provides to Medicare beneficiaries, the CMS Administrator should monitor the accuracy and completeness of CSRs' responses to callers' inquiries and identify tools targeted to improve their performance in responding to questions concerning the Part D benefit, such as additional scripts and training.
Agency Affected: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Closed - Implemented
Comments: In 2007, CMS reported that it has taken steps to enhance processes and training at its 1-800 MEDICARE call centers. These steps include working to ensure that customer service representatives (CSR) understand what information can be shared with callers regarding the prescription drug plans when callers do not provide personal, identifying information. For example, CMS has developed scripts used by the CSRs are clear about providing information to callers under these circumstances, has issued a related training update, and has focused on this issue in supervisory staff meetings with CSRs.
Recommendation: In order to improve the Part D benefit education and outreach materials that CMS provides to Medicare beneficiaries, the CMS Administrator should determine why CSRs frequently do not search for available drug plans if the caller does not provide personal identifying information.
Agency Affected: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Closed - Implemented
Comments: In 2010 CMS reported that, since our 2006 report on Part D communications was issued, it has continually improved its educational and outreach materials explaining the Part D prescription drug benefit. In addition, it noted that it has tested these materials with its target audience. CMS has also expressed a continuing commitment to providing technical information in an understandable, beneficiary-friendly manner to help beneficiaries make decisions about their prescription drug coverage. CMS said that its products follow commonly recognized communications guidelines by providing simple sentences and messages, defining terms, repeating important messages with consistent wording, using bullets, and remaining stylistically consistent. It also stated it has conducted an extensive "environmental scan" to identify its audience's communication needs, and that it consolidated and revised its publications in response. CMS also described steps it follows to develop each year's new edition of the Medicare and You Handbook, which summarizes all Medicare benefits, including Part D. For example, it cited holding meetings with advocates and stakeholders, scanning 1-800-MEDICARE, www.medicare.gov, and the Medicare Ombudsman's tracking systems to identify issues important to beneficiaries, using experts in consumer communications to get feedback from almost 100 beneficiaries, caregivers, and others, instituting quality assurance and proofing processes, including adherence to an extensive style guide based on materials from professional trainings, consumer testing, and plain language guidelines.
Recommendation: In order to improve the Part D benefit education and outreach materials that CMS provides to Medicare beneficiaries, the CMS Administrator should ensure that CMS's written documents describe the Part D benefit in a manner that is consistent with commonly recognized communications guidelines and that is responsive to the intended audience's needs.
Agency Affected: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Closed - Implemented
Comments: In 2007, CMS reported that it has enhanced the usability of the Part D portion of the Medicare web site. For example, it has improved the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder (MPDPF) by providing clearer displays of the drug pricing data, drug utilization management requirements, and other important features that make the site easier to navigate and use. CMS also modified the website's default settings so that the generic drug option is more accessible during use of the application. It has also made it easier for beneficiaries to save information during their initial session and retrieve it during future visits. CMS is also utilizing the services of a web design firm to improve the MPDPF and tightly integrate it with other tools on www.medicare.gov.
Recommendation: In order to improve the Part D benefit education and outreach materials that CMS provides to Medicare beneficiaries, the CMS Administrator should improve the usability of the Part D portion of the Medicare Web site by refining Web-based tools, providing workable site navigation features and links, and making Web-based forms easier to use and correct.
Agency Affected: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Definition of telos in English:
noun (plural teloi /ˈteloi/ /ˈtēloi/)chiefly Philosophy or literary
An ultimate object or aim.
Example sentences
- It's a teleological structure, but the successful continuation of the presence of the interactive focus defers and ultimately defeats the telos.
- The tragic hero, we are told, still treats the ethical as his telos or goal, even if this entails subordinating particular duties to its attainment.
- The eschatological motif leads likewise to a theology that takes its orientation from the perspective of our human telos together with the telos of creation as a whole.
Greek, literally 'end'.
For editors and proofreaders
Syllabification: te·los
Definition of telos in:
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= trending

subset: commoncrawl


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There is a flutter of excitement by the pain au chocolat as a little blonde girl tugs her mother's arm, "Look!" A giant duck has wandered into the breakfast room. Kiko, the mascot of the Princesa Yaiza hotel in Lanzarote, has started his morning tour, a yellow pied-piper rounding up recruits for the children's club.
Normally, I'm not a great fan of life on the ocean wave, and my idea of hell is a mega cruise ship holding thousands of people.
I'm standing by the jetty on Cumberland Island waiting for the ferry back to St Marys and can see dolphins and manatees frolicking off the coast.
It's less than three hours' drive from SeaWorld in Orlando, but here I'm seeing animals in their natural habitat.
Harrogate has recently been named the happiest place in the UK in which to live - for the second consecutive year. So what makes this quintissential English town so special?
There's no denying its attractive and historic Georgian architecture.
Duinrell Amusement Park and Tiki Waterpark
Where: near The Hague in Holland
Why: It may be in the heart of lush forest and near to a sleepy, wide beach but you'll get white knuckle rides and thrilling water slides at this amusement/water park combo.
I recently discovered that Dubliners are avid storytellers with a lyrical lilt, humour and a lot of poetic licence.
For a Jewish girl who has lived in London her whole life, all my shopping, sporting and general out-and-about activities have been confined to the north-west of the capital.
Like many members of the community, I prefer to spend my free time in local areas where there is parking, rather than travelling to places that may be just a few tube-stops away.
Festival season is coming to Brighton on May 3 for three-weeks with Israeli-born dancer, choreographer, percussionist and composer Hofesh Schechter as guest director.
As our car navigates the winding road up towards the Austrian resort of Oberlech, the alpine scenery is breathtaking, the early spring sunshine making inroads into the snow atop the mountain peaks. The stunning panorama is apposite as our destination is the summit of luxury accommodation and service.
We do love a simchah. And many also quite enjoy a flutter. So if in Vegas for the latter, why not take in a wedding? Or to be precise, Tony N' Tina's Wedding. OK, so the nuptials are fictitious, being the focal point of the long-running show, which is currently playing in Vegas's Bally's hotel.


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19 years of experience
Accepting new patients
Family Practice
1530 Celebration Blvd
Kissimmee, FL 34747 Phone number & directions
Patient Reviews
Patient Reviews ? Write a Review
Overall Rating:
Total Ratings
Total Reviews
I'm so happy to have him as my Doctor;hes the best..
Finally! A Doctor Who understands me! Loved this guy and miss him!
Dr. Wurster has been my doctor for many years. He did have some "down" time a while back (but we all need that once in a while)! I have ckd and he takes such good care of me. I trust him so much and wouldn't know what to do without him and his very good staff. I thank God for guiding me to this good doctor.
Dr was okay, but his staff is terrible.
Does anyone know how to obtain medical records. I have tried locating any info and have been unable. Called the State and they have been receiving numerous complaints. I would have hoped that his family (his wife that works there) would have sent letters or messages to his patients on how to obtain records. Everyone should be very concerned that private information could be compromised. Thanks.
I called Dr. Wurster's office and finally got an updated message. He is on "indefinite medical leave." There are then instructions on how to get your files transferred to a new Family Physician. My prayers are with the doctor as I always found him to be a man of compassion and truly cared about his patients.
Although the wait time can be a pain, Dr. Wurster has been my doctor for 10 years and worth every minute I wait. He takes great care of me and has wonderful bedside manner. I wouldn't go anywhere else!
Been with Dr. Wurster for years but is now moving offices and having a hard time finding new location
Terrible. Just closed his doors. No notice. Can't call mailbox is full. Can't get medical records. Not professional at all.
Dr Wurster has been one of the most competent caring doctors I have been to in a long time. Yes the wait time is horrendous but the time spent with him is unequivical. He cares about each of his patients and does not hurry to the next one in the search of the all mighty dollar so of course his wait times are longer. I too went to the office to find "the sign". I am only concern fo rhis well being. I hope you are alright and if you come back, you will once again be my doctor and as well our entire community doctor.
I went to my appointment today to find that the office of Dr. W. has been closed until further notice. It upset me as Dr. W. has been my Dr. for 12 years. He recently changed his office staff and they were much more efficient and pleasant and I was happy about that as wait time went from 2 hours to about 15 minutes. Other than today he has always been there for any appointment I had made. He never rushed me, always answered all my questions and spent time with me. When I saw him last I made a comment about his waite loss and he let me know he had been very ill. I sincerely hope and pray he is fine. He was overworked but I don't believe he deserves the bashing of people that never even saw him. I have to wait for every single Dr. or Dentist that I have ever gone to but unlike Dr. W. most of them cannot get you back out the door once they finally see you. I hope you are fine Dr. W. and I will return to your practice if you are well enough to come back. God Bless
Although I think that Dr. Wurster is a caring and competent doctor, I cannot recommend him. I have had three appointments cancelled on me. Since I only saw him once with no adversity, I can only imagine what is causing this. Today was the last straw! I walked up to his office with a note that said " the office is closed until further notice.". I did not receive a call the day before to advise me of this change. I should have been forewarned when I was waiting in the office for my first visit ( over an hour wait) when a gentleman walked in and complained to the receptionist about another office not receiving a referral ( the second time it happened). I don't know what is going on but I'm going to my OBGYN and asking for a referral because as they say in baseball " three strikes , you're out !
I had my first apt and the day before my apt they called and said that he would be on vac that I would have to make a new apt.I made a new apt and I saw the Dr.then I had an apt a week later to find out about the blood test and they called the day before and said he would be on vac.This Dr does not care about you cause he goes on vac and their is no one to answer the phone and their is no one on call.You could be dying and he would go on vac.YOU NEED TO RUN FROM THIS DOCTOR
I made my first appointment to see Dr. Wurster over a month in advance. I received a voice message an hour before my appointment stating that the office would be closed for the day. When I called back to reschedule, I left a message but no one ever called back. I finally made another "first time" appointment a few weeks later, and received a call an hour before stating that they were out of printing paper and had to reschedule me. They never called me back. The lady on the phone, Aubrey, was rude to me every time I've called. DON'T WASTE YOU'RE TIME HERE!!!
not very professional and incorporates his personal behavior into his work area. watch out girls you may become the next Mrs Wurster!
I've waited as long as 3 hours before getting in to see the doctor and then another 25 to 30 mintues be he comes into the exam room. He does spend a great deal of time with you once you get to see him. His office staff does need a lot of work on organization
He is a good doctor but doesn't control his staff. His wife apparently runs the show. I requested a 3 page form for disability insurance and was told it would be $150...all I would be receiving was $200. No follow-up by office staff. His wife controls the paperwork and everything! I think he is overworked and office is overbooked! Last wait was 2-1/2 hours. After 10 years, looking for new doctor.
Longest wait I ever had for a doctor. Does not work with any other doctor so on occasion he does not show up, closes his office or makes you wait more than an hour. No one answers the phone...you have toleave a message and wait for a call back.
Although his sign says (and the receptionist confirmed) that he is an osteopath, he is any more. After waiting over an hour, he didn't treat me -- because he doesn't do osteopathic medicine any more -- but he still charged me $200!!!!!
worst doctor I have ever had as a physician. Do not recommend him at all.
Dr. Wurster is the best doctor I have seen, I have seen him for over 6 years now and he is always attentive and has correct diagnoses. He actually cares about each and every one of his patiens and I will continue to have him as my primary care physician while I live in the state of Florida. The wait is a little while and to get an appointment is not always easy but he is awesome!


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I have decided to start over and create a new account (indigocove). However I'm leaving this account up because I won't be transferring everything to this new one.
However, I do plan on completing Lemons and Limes on that account. Thanks so much for your dedication.
Joined:May 08, 2011 07:53PM
Made a new account because I wanted to start over. Don't worry though this one can stick around. New username is indigocoveView all conversations
Lemons and Limes
Description: Rose Summers does NOT live a normal life. In a world where books become dragons, chalk drawings become people, and it rains green gumballs you don't often find normality. It's not like Rose goes looking for th...
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Interested in joining a Minnesota Food Charter Network Action Team? Click here to learn more about the Network and Action teams and visit the Minnesota Food Charter Network webpage.
Lawmakers support Minnesota urban agriculture effort
Grantee Publication Highlight
2015 HFHL Graduate and Professional Student research Grantee: Pajau Vangay, Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology Ph.D Program | Antibiotics, pediatric dysbiosis, and disease | Cell Host & Microbe (2015)
Grantee Publication Highlight
2010 HFHL Faculty Grantees: Dr. Jennifer F. Schultz and Dr. Lara LaCaille | Go!: results from a quasi-experimental obesity prevention trial with hospital employees | BMC Public Health (2016)
Grantee Spotlight: Camden Greenhouse Project
Project Sweetie Pie and U of M researchers were awarded a 2015 Community-University HFHL Planning Grant to engage community stakeholders in developing a vision of the Camden Greenhouse--a potential urban agricultural campus in North Minneapolis.
Subscribe to receive HFHL News and Announcements
Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives (HFHL) Institute regularly sends out announcements via two e-mail lists:
HFHL_CONNECT is open to members of the University community and the general public.
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Announcements pertain to requests for grant proposals, our educational programming, Institute or partner special events related to food, agriculture and/or health, occasional food-related employment opportunities, as well as Institute news. If you would like to join either listserv, click one of the buttons above or contact HFHL at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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We carry keyguards for a variety of Apple® iPad™ AAC applications, or can custom cut them to your specifications for any Tablet, AAC device or keyboard! Our keyguards are manufactured using high strength polycarbonate, which is virtually indestructible, and much more durable than the acrylic material that our competitors use. Our keyguards include a limited lifetime warranty against breakage! (some exclusions apply, see warranty information)
Don't see what you need? Contact us here, we can help you design your custom keyguard
Note: Please carefully choose your keyguard options. Keyguards are custom cut to order and returns will be assessed a $15 restocking fee. You can view our full return policy here


text: We've stayed at the Paddock Inn several times while racing at Mid-Ohio. It's so convenient to the track (close enough to hear the engines fire-up in the morning)! This is a purpose-built B&B with spacious, comfortable, private rooms (cleverly named and themed for the Mid-O corners). Even when all the rooms are booked, it's incredibly quiet. Belinda is the perfect... 更多


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Explore Archaeological Open-Air Museum and Archaeological Education Centres around the world. Find Living History Groups or Ancient Technology. Use the search options below the map to find what you are looking for.
(Markers in orange = EXARC members).
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us. Please check individual images for licensing details.


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The Minnesota Section of the American Water Works Association is a nonprofit scientific and educational association dedicated to public health, safety, and welfare through research and dissemination of information and by supporting educational development of its members.
MN AWWA launched this new website in October 2014, featuring all new functionality for online training and event registration, interest groups and more community interactivity, and much more. Please click HERE to learn more about the features of our new site, and feel free to contact our Section Volunteer Coordinator for assistance with registration or navigating the new site. Enjoy!
FREE Small Systems Operator Training
9/20/2016 » 9/23/2016
100th Anniversary Conference


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Homeless Resource Day Online Training
Homeless Resource Day Volunteer Registration Form
Roles and Responsibilities Document
New volunteers must take one of the two training opportunities:
In-person Training
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
6:15 -7:30 p.m.
401 Hungerford Drive, 1st Floor Room #A, Rockville, Maryland 20850
Students only - In-Class Training will be provided
(Details will be provided by instructor)
The day is possible due to the help of many volunteers. During Homeless Resource Day, students from Montgomery College, the University of Maryland School of Nursing and community members volunteer. They assist in various roles-one of the most rewarding is serving as a guide to escort homeless guests through the facility helping them navigate services, vendors and exhibits. Some of the comments last year were:
(These are basic roles, not a complete list.)
(These are basic shifts, we welcome your assistance and will accommodate your schedule.)
"Volunteers are not paid, not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless" -- Sherry Anderson


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Show transcribed image text The centers of two metal spheres of radius 10 cm are 60 cm apart on the x-axis. The spheres are initially neutral, but a charge Q is transferred from one sphere to the other, creating a potential difference between the spheres of 210 V. A proton is released from rest at the surface of the positively charged sphere and travels to the negatively charged sphere. At what speed does it strike the negatively charged sphere? The fundamental charge is 1.602 times 10 - 19 C and the mass of a proton is 1.6726 times 10-27 kg. Answer in units of m/s
Show transcribed image text


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At the beginning I want to write, that You made a nice and simple plugin. Of course if plugin doesn't have any error, it's probably "Hello world!" plugin :)
I set to my user (using ID) limit of 3 posts (I choose "any" state). Everything works great until my user sends few posts to trash.
For example, my user reached allowed limit and decided to move one post to trash. He or She has still 3 posts (2 published and 1 in a trash). If count of posts not in a trash is less than 3, Your plugin allows to add a new one. After adding a fourth post, my user can recover post from trash and that's the way He or She can have more than allowed limit. The problem probably is placed in "any" state. It's not getting "trash" posts.
Could You be so kind and write me down, how to fix it?
Thank You.


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Combining human beatboxing, vocal harmonies and floor-wobbling basslines, Vocal Orchestra is an original show, written and created by internationally acclaimed beatboxer Shlomo, and performed by a company of the world's most exciting beatboxing superstars.
An uplifting mashup of intricate group beatbox routines and roof-raising interpretations of all-time classics.
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Could someone please take a look at RiversideOpenView.com and let me know what I need to do in order to have my whole blog appear in the center of the screen rather than to the left.
I found some information in other threads here and from other sources, but they did not solve my problem.
I would greatly appreciate any help.


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Hiking or walking is an activity practiced in all kinds of terrains and is not restricted to age, gender or physical fitness.
As in every task, there are various levels of difficulty, which can be surpassed gradually as experience is gained. The routes are divided into four types of difficulty: relaxed, medium, steady and difficult.
Rafting is a team sport, in which all the crew members in the boat row and position themselves in a coordinated manner in order to balance their weight when going through the river rapids and keep themselves afloat.
The standard number of people allowed on the boat is from six to eight crew members, depending on the boat size.
Rafting beginners are recommended to remain in the center of the boat. Those who are somehow experienced and prefer to row may stay in front, whereas the most experienced generally stay at the back.


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People who make movies know that we are eager to see couples falling in love. If they throw in a chirpy pop song over a montage of the highly attractive pair walking on the beach and laughing together at a street fair, we are happy to believe that they are in love and we can move on to the (short-term) complication before the happy ending.
"Southside With You" is a rare movie that shows us what it is really like to fall in love, over the course of an all-day first date. It would still be utterly witty, charming, and captivating even if it was not based on the real-life beginning of the romance of Barack and Michelle Obama. The historical context is primarily significant because we start off with information the characters do not have. We know what they will do and who they will become. But it also is especially meaningful as we come to the end of the Obama administration, and only the most partisan opponents can fail to appreciate their graciousness, elegance, and family values — and the true partnership and romantic spark that is evident in their relationship.
We begin with the amusing contrast of their preparations for the date. Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter, who also co-produced) is put together so meticulously that her father (Phillip Edward Van Lear) teases her: "Can't you at least run a comb through your hair?" She insists to her parents, as she will to Barack, that this is not a date. She is just accompanying the law student she has been assigned to supervise for the summer to a community meeting.
Then there is a glimpse of his "preparation" for the date — smoking and reading a book. And losing track of the time. "You're late," she says when he arrives at her home. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice." She points out that she is his supervisor and she has noticed his lateness at work as well. She also notices, but does not mention, that the floorboard of his car is rusted through. One of the pleasures of this film is listening in as two extremely intelligent people uncertain about where they are going but certain they want to improve the lives of the people in their communities, getting to know one another through a thoughtful, thought-provoking, and above all honest conversation, especially as we see the growing pleasure each of them feels in finding someone who can both understand and challenge them.
Their first stop is an art show. As they look at paintings by Ernie Barnes, Barack asks Michelle if she ever watched the television show, "Good Times." She says the Robinsons were more of a "Dick van Dyke Show" family, and we can tell she is a bit defensive. Perhaps some of her Princeton classmates assumed that "Good Times," set in the projects of Chicago, was based on families like hers. But then he tells her why he asked, and we can see her relax and start to appreciate his curiosity, depth, and knowledge. Despite all of her insistence that this is not a date, we can see her begin to get captivated. Each kindly, if not gently, pushes the other, she on his bitterness toward his father, he on her joining a corporate law firm rather than pursuing her goal of working for the community. Each bristles at first at being pushed, but then we see both of them genuinely grateful for being able to engage so honestly.
The talk is superbly written and performed. But some of the moments where nothing is said are just as moving, thanks to the superb performances of Sawyers and Sumpter, who do not impersonate the First Couple but give portrayals of great sensitivity and wisdom. The POTUS and FLOTUS we see on television are more polished and self-assured than they were in their 20's. Sawyers shows us a Barack Obama who was a long way from the understanding and forgiveness toward his absent father he would convey in his book. And yet, when he gets up in front of the community group, people who are disappointed after a setback and ready to give up, we see for the first time some of the cadences and mannerisms and ability to inspire that are so familiar to us now. Sumpter is lovely, with an exquisitely calibrated performance, first less, than more, then much less reserved. She is careful, and professional, and then she gets up to dance with a group performing in a park, and she shows us how despite her resolve, she cannot help being drawn to Barack.
This is a movie that understands that love is a conversation you never want to end, with someone who instinctively understands you and unreservedly supports you but who doesn't let you get away with being less than you are capable of, someone who earns your absolute honesty. As we see them fall in love, dropping their defenses, allowing themselves to be hopeful, moving together toward a life of service, it renews our faith in love and purpose as well.
A PERSONAL NOTE: The First Couple met when they were both working in my dad's office, and characters loosely inspired by my parents appear in this film. While I completely support the decision of writer/director Richard Tanne to create a scene with an interaction that is a bit awkward and uncomfortable, in real life my parents are far cooler (and more attractive!) than the characters in the film, and the interaction was warm and supportive. My parents and the Obamas became good friends.
Parents should know that this film includes smoking, brief strong language, drug reference, and some discussion of family dysfunction.
Family discussion: How did the difference in Barack's and Michelle's relationships to their parents affect their perspective? What did each of them say to change the other's mind? What did Michelle learn about Barack at the community event?
If you like this, try: "Before Sunrise" and "Medicine for Melancholy"
Disney foolishly forced legendary animator Floyd Norman to retire at age 65, but he was not foolish enough to stop coming to work. Every day, he brings his wife Adrienne to her job at Disney, and then he spends the day wandering around, asking questions, talking to people, and generally, to use the portmanteau word Adrienne came up with, "floitering." "The whole Disney campus is Floyd's office," says one colleague. Eventually, Disney realized they could not do without him and they gave up and just hired him again.
This delightful documentary about the very "animated life" of Floyd Norman is a must-see for fans of animation, movie history, and stories of lives filled with creativity, courage, and a sense of adventure. His career extends from the classic "nine old men" era at Disney, where he worked for Walt Disney himself animating the prince, the horse, and the three fairy godmothers in "Cinderella" and Kaa the snake in "The Jungle Book" and the "Jolly Holiday" musical number in "Mary Poppins" to animating, writing, and directing for Hanna-Barbera, Pixar, and for his own company. He used Roy Disney's camera to go into Watts and shoot footage of the riots that was broadcast on the NBC news, and he worked on iconic Saturday morning cartoon shows like "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids," "Johnny Quest," and "Scooby-Doo." (The only negative comment the sunny-tempered Norman makes in the whole documentary is a good-natured aside on Scooby — "I hate that dog!") He even animated the opening logo for "Soul Train."
More characteristic is his description of his childhood in Santa Barbara as "incredibly pleasant." It was there he saw his first Disney animated film — "Dumbo" and knew that making cartoons would be his life's work. It didn't matter that Disney had no black animators. He was "just another kid who wanted to work for Disney," and when they saw what he could do, they hired him as an "assistant in-betweener" on "Sleeping Beauty," where he was expected to turn out eight "dead-on precise" completed drawings a day.
One of the highlights of the film is seeing Floyd Norman at San Diego Comic-Con's Quick Draw, with MAD Magazine artist Sergio Aragonés. But every moment is pure pleasure, as we see the man who is still "in touch with his inner 20-year-old" demonstrate the skill, imagination, and dedication that has been central to much of the most creative entertainment of the past 60 years.
Parents should know that this movie has a bleeped bad word, a sexual reference, and references to drinking and divorce.
Family discussion: Which is your favorite Floyd Norman animation and why? How did he show flexibility and "shape-shifting?"
If you like this, try: "Waking Sleeping Beauty," "Walt and El Groupo," and, of course, "The Jungle Book," and Norman's other animated classics
The most charming and romantic film of the year is the lovely "Southside With You," the story of the First Couple's first date. Michelle Robinson was recently out of law school herself when she was asked to be mentor/supervisor of a law student named Barack Obama. She agreed to go with him to a community meeting and insisted that it was not a date. But it ended with their first kiss, at a Baskin-Robbins that now has a plaque commemorating the historic event. "Southside With You," like "Before Sunrise," is the story of two bright, curious, vulnerable, committed young people getting to know one another and falling in love. Three journalists spoke to the people who made the film, writer/director Richard Tanne, and stars Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers.
Tanne said, "I was just really struck by the two of them as a couple, just the way they looked at each other, the way that they flirted, there was something authentic about it and vibrant and even a little sexy. I think that that is a rare thing in people and I think it's an even rarer thing in public figures. So when I did end up reading about their first date, it just got me really excited because the conflict was: she's not interested and he has one day to win her over. That felt like a really good romantic conflict to hang a movie onto. Not to mention there's another aspect of it that we know what they went on to accomplish together, and the history that they have made, but the two characters don't, so there is a dramatic irony running through the entire movie. Whatever your relationship is to the Obamas you're going to bring that to it as well. And there's a tiny bit of almost suspense in the fact that if something had just gone wrong on that date where would we be today? It would be a different world."
Sumpter and Sawyers were careful to give performances, not impersonations. Sumpter said "We definitely when we started this process Rich and I said, 'We do not want to impersonate; we want to embody the essence of who they are,' and so for me I took the whole 'Okay this is Michelle Obama' off and went back to the girl who went to a magnet high school, who was told no, that she couldn't get into Yale, just back to that family, the essence of her family, her parents who worked really hard, and I related it back to my life and said, 'okay a lot of girls can relate to her' and that's why she's so accessible. Even in the dancing scene, with the drumming, it's like look at Michelle now, she's dancing with Beyoncé! So I read books, Invisible Man which we thought they obviously would read in school and then also her brother's book A Game of Character really helped me to see who she is and who she was during that time. So that informed me a lot about their family, like how tight they were and how they gave those kids so much confidence that they could do anything they really wanted in the world, even if the world told them they couldn't, so that was part of my process….I think what intrigued me and what I really got from her, I just felt like she didn't apologize for who she was. She didn't dumb herself down. She spoke her mind and I think a lot of the time women are constantly saying 'I'm sorry' for the things they shouldn't be sorry for or trying to dim their lights so that somebody else can feel greater. And it's like 'No, if I'm going to be here you come up here and we see each other.' And so that inspires me to this day because I'm like 'Wait, I can be just as smart, I can say what I need to need to say' without people looking at me like 'she is such a bitch or whatever.' It's like 'No, nope, I am actually smart and I'm speaking my mind like you would.' So I think that inspired me and intrigued me for the movie and in life."
Sawyers said, "I took Richard's notes before I sent in my tape for the audition. He told me, 'Just be a guy, trying to get a girl,' that's it. And so obviously I worked on Barack Obama as we all know him now and then dialed that back and then overwhelmingly used Richard's notes just to be a guy talking to a girl. He's really trying to charm her. He knows he is going to graduate from Harvard and do well, he knows he's working in a law firm, he knows these things in his life, he knows he is probably going to make a lot of money but he doesn't know if he can get this girl if he doesn't act right and really put his best foot forward and so for me that was the goal in that film…So to normalize how I think and just to realize how normal they are, that was the biggest thing."
As the couple discuss their families, we see the contrast between Michelle's loving, stable home and Barack's absent father. Sumpter said, "I think sometimes life brings you the person that needs to teach you something about yourself and I think she came from such a stable background and he didn't, full-family wise. I think she was a little bit wound up, like she wasn't used to telling people about [her father's] MS and all that stuff, so there's something about him that made her feel comfortable enough to speak about that. There is an empathy there as you go on in the movie the way he speaks about his father. There's some kind of connection there where she felt comfortable enough and I think that affected her, it enabled her to share about her dad and what's going on and her dad was a huge influence in her life." Sawyers added, "I think she helped him understand what a father could be. What he missed out on. And he enjoyed hearing that. And then perhaps looking forward to the future he thought. 'I can be a good father even though I didn't have one.' I listened to his interview with Marc Maron, and in it President Obama does say that Michelle had the family, the roots, not a perfect family but a great support system. That's one of the things that attracted him to her and he also mentioned that he was late like all the time and she had to stop him once and say, 'Listen, my dad had MS and we would get to my brother's basketball games two hours before so he could walk the stairs. He didn't want to sit in the handicapped section, and he wanted to walk up the stairs by himself and he was always on time, so stop being late.' He told that story."
Tanne said first and foremost was the love story "and to try my hand at a movie where I could be in an unfolding mood over the course of a day. I love movies that take place over the course of one day. One of them being "Do The Right Thing," which takes place on a hot summer day. And that's one of my favorite movies, obviously the Linklater movies and then those were sort of a gateway drug to the Éric Rohmer films where he invented the romantic walk and talk and philosophical ambling movie. The opportunity to show all the little moments between two people that most romantic movies leave out.
I wanted moments on the cutting room floor, that's what I wanted in this movie to be. So we were cutting it together from the kind of quiet minutiae that other movies might ignore. I really like that. And the great things about these two actors is that with Tika, she almost could be a silent film star, like a Lillian Gish but now. And I think one of the great discoveries of the movie is her facial reactions and her eyes and the way that she responds to things. In a way I wish I could go back and rewrite the script and have less dialogue. The more we made the movie the less the dialogue was important and just the way that they were interacting. Parker for this being his first leading man role in a movie ever, Tika has been leading on TV shows and other movies but for him it was the first time out and he was able to meet her at that level and they were able to really exist in the moment. And for a movie like this that's what it needs to be, you need to find those moments. They would just sit with each other and we could just roll the camera and wait for them to react and have those little moments where she looks at him and he is not aware that she is looking. And then she looks away and he looks back. And so they found those things organically, some of them we worked on, some of them we said, 'Hey this is a turning point where emotionally where you are starting to let your guard down,' but for the most part it was all found organically in the moment. So again the fact that he was able to do that his first time out, the fact that she's kind of a master at it, it was really nice to have that."
A turning point in the movie is when Michelle sees Barack speak to a community group that has had a setback and is feeling disappointed and let down. Tanne spoke about the challenge of writing a speech for a man who is known as one of the greatest speakers of our time. "It wasn't too daunting because by the time I got to that scene in the movie, which is the middle of the film, and I wrote it in order, so by then I was really familiar with the characters. I knew who he was at this point in the story, I knew who she was at the point in the story and the underlying goal was, he's got to impress her with this speech. Now there is a duality there because it's not like he wouldn't have been there if Michelle wasn't there that day but it's a benefit that she is. So he may have even been showing off or hitting it harder that day because she was there. So I knew how powerful it needed to be but I also was aware that he was a little bit rough around the edges, not as fully formed yet and I was familiar with the Altgeld Gardens at that time. I had done my homework and I just felt like I had a good sense of what a meeting like that could have been like. So without sounding too artsy fartsy it sort of just wrote itself. And then in doing it, Parker actually came to me before we shot it, maybe a few weeks before, and he was like 'I think we should start working in some of the more practiced Obama mannerisms because this is him in a different setting.' And it's public speaking. He brought up how there was a video of Obama at age 29 on the Harvard campus defending a professor at the rally. He was already sort of fully formed as a public speaker at that point. So we figured out this was a year earlier, so that was really the first point in the movie where we actively went after some of the mannerisms."
Sawyers said that he practiced the speech, even buying his visiting sister a spa day to get some time alone to rehearse in his hotel room. "It was one of those things where if Barack speaks to the people the way he wants to speak to people to move them that will indeed move Michelle because she would see who he is. So I wasn't necessarily playing for Michelle in the way I acted, it was more like, if I just do what I do then she'll see I'm not this bad guy." Tanne added, "We must have shot that scene from seven or eight different setups all the way through from the beginning to the end, what was that a 15-minute speech? Something like that? And he didn't trip up once on a single word, I mean it was remarkable."
The first stop on the date is an exhibit that features the work of artist Ernie Barnes. Tannes explained, "I couldn't find any information about what art they saw that day so I just love Ernie Barnes' art and I took a risk in writing the scene to his art because you never know if you're going to get the rights. Luckily the Ernie Barnes Family Trust read the script and they really responded to the script and they've been incredible from the time we shot all the way through letting us use the imagery in the trailer, giving us the works for the end credits, works that aren't even seen in the movie. I've always loved his artwork which I first saw in Good Times and that's how it all came about. The exhibit they visit is an Afrocentric exhibit so there are other artists there but the bulk of the dialogue could very easily derive from just looking at the Ernie Barnes' work because it covers the spectrum of black life. And so it led to them talking about their family members and their experiences as kids and it just prompted all this really interesting discussion from the two of them." Sawyers agreed. "It was a perfect inspiration."


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Our Mutual Friend (1958 TV serial)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Our Mutual Friend is a 1958 British television mini-series adapted from the Charles Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend. The series was made by the BBC and ran through 1959 for a total of twelve episodes. Unlike most BBC series of the 1950s, the series exists in its entirety.[1]
Cast and characters[edit]
|Paul Daneman
|John Rokesmith
|Zena Walker
|Miss Bella Wilfer
|David McCallum
|Eugene Wrayburn
|Richard Leech
|'Rogue' Riderhood
|Richard Pearson
|Nicodemus Boffin
|Rachel Roberts
|Lizzie Hexam
|Basil Henson
|Mortimer Lightwood
|Marda Vanne
|Mrs. Henrietta Boffin
|George Howe
|Reginald Wilfer
|Helena Hughes
|Jenny Wren
|Alex Scott
|Bradley Headstone
|Carl Bernard
|Alfred Lammle
|Rachel Gurney
|Mrs. Sophronia Lammle
|Robert Scroggins
|Charles Hodgson
|Mr. Fledgeby
|Daphne Newton
|Mrs. Wilfer
|Wilfrid Brambell
|Mr. Dolls
External links[edit]
|This article relating to a television programme from the UK is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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You won't be able to dismiss this by usual means (escape or click button), but you can close it programatically based on user choices or actions.
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Written by Andrew Wilson.
Last night I gave a talk and had an engaging conversation with the TriangleJS meet-up group in Raleigh, NC. I'd like to thank my hosts at WebAssign for providing such a nice facility, Lucas Myers for managing the logistics of the meet-up and, most of all, the group members who invested an evening to learn more about VoltDB.
Although my talk was somewhat geared toward recent work we've done with Node.js, the follow-on discussion covered a wide range of technical topics ranging from database partitioning, single- and multi-part queries, query routing, site execution
VoltDB, like many distributed systems, achieves high availability through redundant processing nodes. VoltDB calls this K-Safety. Essentially, the distributed system can answer any request at at least K+1 servers, so it can tolerate at least K hardware failures. The operator specifies the value of K that they find is the best tradeoff between failure, robustness and cost. Other systems use the terms "replica set" to describe similar functionality.
Let's talk about EC2-style clouds that provide you with a virtualized server at an hourly cost.
This is the first in a series of posts about WAN replication, a VoltDB feature that's currently under development. It provides a high level overview of our direction. More detailed posts will follow as we progress through our engineering iterations.
As an in-memory transactional DBMS, VoltDB delivers breakthrough performance and scale. Two of the product's most significant innovations, however, are in database availability and durability:
You've probably heard about the VoltDB, the super fast distributed ACID SQL RDBMS for OLTP, but you might not be aware of its throughput capabilities in detail. VoltDB achieves its high throughput by eliminating the locking and latching of conventional databases. It's also distributed and can automatically shard your data, and it has a bunch of other really cool features that make transaction processing a snap.
We took a key-value application and implemented it in VoltDB (the app is available with the distribution if you want to try it). We set the app up on 4 Dell R510′s with 64GB and
This is part 2 (of 2) of my Programming VoltDB – Easy, Flexible and Ultra-fast series. Blog post, part 1, showed how to build a VoltDB application using ad hoc queries and achieving thousands of transactions a second. It also showed how converting that logic to use VoltDB stored procedures allowed you to parallelize query execution and achieve 100,000+ transactions a second on a single node. In this blog post I'll talk about scaling beyond 100,000 transactions per second by creating a VoltDB clustered database.
There are primarily two reasons why you would want to run VoltDB as a clustered
Written by Mike Stonebraker
I am often asked about the value of flash memory in OLTP database applications. This blog post discusses flash technology in this context. First, I discuss the future of flash in general; then I turn to flash (and other future storage technologies) in the context of a main memory DBMS, such as VoltDB.
Flash memory is clearly a "moving window", since its price and performance are changing quickly. Historically, flash could only be written a few thousand times, before it would "wear out" and have to be replaced.
Written by Tim Callaghan.
We hand-built a "cluster" at VoltDB to perform a variety of long running tests. In this test cluster, one of the nodes performs all client application activity while the other 5 serve as VoltDB servers. The cost of the entire setup was under $3500 (six machines with 8GB RAM, 2 UPSs, and an 8-port switch). I'll provide more technical details of the cluster hardware in a future blog entry.
After moving into our new office I kicked off my favorite test suite that includes a data generator, an export client (writing data to the file system), and a client that runs from a
VoltDB adoption and deployments are accelerating. We're working hard make our products easy to use in both cloud and privately-racked infrastructures. We see strong adoption in five application categories – capital markets (mostly around trading systems), digital advertising, online games, network monitoring, and intelligence/surveillance (national security, fraud mitigation, etc.).
With product evaluations on the rise, organizations are increasingly asking about user experiences, particularly for deployed VoltDB applications. There are some strong user and partner endorsements on our website
The subject of my last blog post was an introduction to VoltDB Replication, one of the major product additions that we've been working on. Well, with this post, I'm happy to announce that we've recently pre-released VoltDB Replication to selected users to perform beta-level validation!
VoltDB WAN replication involves duplicating the contents of one database cluster (known as the master) to another database cluster (known as the replica). The process of retrieving completed transactions from the master and applying them to the replica is managed by a separate process called the Disaster
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660 search results for Olympics
News, photos and commentary on the 2012 Olympic Games in London, United Kingdom.
Hey critics, you leave the Olympics alone!
Type: Post | Date: Friday, Aug 12, 2016
After an excruciating wait, the new 'Star Wars: Rogue One' trailer is FINALLY here
Type: Post | Date: Thursday, Aug 11, 2016Spoiler: The Force is with them.
"Tantics" is basically every dude I hooked up with in college | Fandemonium
Type: Video | Date: Tuesday, Aug 23, 2016Miri Jedeikin and guest Sasha Perl Raver of Schmoes Know (and so much more) are loving Ryan Lochte's loose understanding of his native tongue and Raquel Welch's très hip '70s special.
Best and Worst of the 2014 Winter Olymipcs Opening Ceremonies
Type: Gallery | Date: Saturday, Feb 8, 2014Sure, we got the Sergei Eisenstein-inspired footage, but the really awesome p...
Best and Worst of the 2014 Winter Olympics
Type: Article | Date: Sunday, Feb 23, 2014Skaters, snowboarders, scary bears and pink eye at the Sochi Games
Sochi Olympics 2014: Closing Ceremony
Type: Event | Date: Sunday, Feb 23, 2014Location: ,The Sochi Olympics wind down with the Closing Ceremonies.
Sochi Olympics 2014: Bobsled, Hockey, and Cross Country
Type: Event | Date: Sunday, Feb 23, 2014Location: ,Today's events will conclude the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games
Sochi Olympics 2014: Hockey, Snowboarding, and Bobsled
Type: Event | Date: Saturday, Feb 22, 2014Location: ,Other events on tap for today include Cross Country, Biathlon and Figure Skating.
Sochi Olympics 2014: Speed Skating, Skiing, and Biathlon
Type: Event | Date: Friday, Feb 21, 2014Location: ,There will also be Hockey semi-finals, and Curling.
Sochi Olympics 2014: Hockey, Figure Skating, and Skiing
Type: Event | Date: Thursday, Feb 20, 2014Location: ,Also tune in for more Curling action.


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- Citing her ability to deliver legislative results and her deep involvement in issues crucial to the future of the region, state Senator Lisa Baker announced she is running for re-election.
"It is a privilege serving the hard-working people of a great area that has always been home for me," Baker said. "I strive every day to solve problems, protect local interests, and create opportunities for families and communities. I will present my record and my priorities for action and hope to earn the trust and support of the voters for another four years."
Senator Baker has voted to hold the line on state taxes, control state spending, limit state borrowing, and provide tax relief for farmers and small businesses to help them stay in operation.
She has also been successful in securing state funding for a wide range of local projects and priorities, including sewer and water systems, parks and recreation facilities, libraries, and senior housing.
As chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, Baker is noted for her determined efforts to connect veterans with the benefits they have earned and to enable communities to retain and attract volunteer responders on whom they depend.
"Those who serve in the military and those who are involved in emergency services sacrifice a lot in protecting us. Pennsylvania must fulfill its obligations to these devoted individuals," she said.
This will be the first election held in the redrawn 20th Senatorial District, which includes all of Pike, Wayne, and Wyoming counties along with substantial parts of Luzerne and Susquehanna counties.
Location, ST | website.com


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- Report: #915210
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Shaun Morrill
Shaun Morrill4351 Rodrigo St San Diego, California United States of America
Shaun Morrill Chandler marriott Sphynx kitten breeder scamer fraud lied about being gay stole money San Diego, California
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I messaged him about a sphynx cat, he called me and chatted nicely with me for hours, He stated he was a part of the gay community, him and his boyfriend logan. Stated that he wanted to adopt a baby after him and his boyfriend got back from their cruise from b.c. to panema. I then told him i was a cancer patient and that i was going through some toughh times, he said he was sorry to hear and that he would ship my kitten once he the kittens had its final vaccinations. He sent me pictures of what he supposedly looked like. he stated that he attended a elementary school in my city. we talked for another week and I finally sent him $450.00(USD) for the down payment on a kitten.
Once i sent him the money through western union (he doesnt accept paypal) he ignored me. So i thought of something quick... noibody wants to be charged with assisted suicide so i threatened him with it in attemp to get a response, he then repliued claiming to have been in a boating accident. he sent 5-6 pictures of the kitten and told me not to worry.
I then called CFA to ensure he was registered..... he wasnt so i called about 4-5 other associations and nothing. I told him that i called and he snapped stating that i was insane and that he would send a return.
so far nothing, he has even changed his phone number now!!! I have filed a police report against him, i am charging him with fraud. if he is gay i hope he is never aloud to have children. he is a horrible person. he actually at one point told me to kill myself because i had cancer and cancer patients should be youthenized anyhow. a disgusting VILE human being.
he posts on site like hoobly, terrific-cats, feline4us ect.
be careful, he even explained in detail about on fraud report claiming the lady gave him a cat with H.C.M, he knows what hes doing and is very manipulative
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/20/2012 06:50 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Shaun-Morrill/San-Diego-California-/Shaun-Morrill-Chandler-marriott-Sphynx-kitten-breeder-scamer-fraud-lied-about-being-gay-s-915210. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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Study Abroad in Russia
About Students Abroad
Students Abroad is a site which The School of Russian and Asian Studies runs for its students to personally share their adventures and discoveries while studying abroad in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. We also use it as a platform to explain elements of modern life that students often have questions about. Join us for challenge and adventure abroad! [read more]
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Featured Stories
- Remembrance of WWII in St. Petersburg
24 May 2016 7:51 PM | No Comments
- Literary History on the Trans-Siberian Railroad
20 May 2016 10:17 AM | No Comments
- Preparing for and Coping with Culture Shock
24 April 2016 10:13 AM | No Comments
- Irkutsk's Old Houses: Windows to Siberia
31 March 2016 2:57 PM | No Comments
- Why Do Russians Shout «Горько!» (Bitter!) at Weddings?
25 March 2016 2:15 PM | No Comments
- Remembrance of WWII in St. Petersburg
Minorities Archive
Minorities Abroad: Additional ResourcesPosted on August 25, 2015 | No CommentsThis site isn't the only resource for minority students studying in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe! Below is a collection of interesting and useful sites from around the web, featuring […]
Spielberg Auschwitz Documentary Now OnlinePosted on March 22, 2015 | No CommentsA brand new 15-minute documentary on the history of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, produced by Steven Spielberg and narrated by Meryl Streep is now available for free, in its […]
POLIN – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in WarsawPosted on March 11, 2015 | No CommentsPOLIN – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews "POLIN – Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich" 6 Mordechaja Anielewicza St. 00-157 Warsaw, Poland Polin.pl/en Opening Hours: Mon, Thurs, Fri – 10am […]
Terrell Starr in KyivPosted on January 3, 2015 | No Comments…what I did enjoy about Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, was that I was able to make many breakthroughs on race with locals that I have yet to experience in the […]
Personal Experience: NGO Internship in St. PetersburgPosted on August 19, 2014 | No CommentsFor the past seven months I have been living and studying in St. Petersburg, Russia through the SRAS Russian Studies Abroad program. Through the program, SRAS was able to set […]
Black Bread: Professional Network of Black Russian SpeakersPosted on June 11, 2014 | No CommentsBlack Bread is a professional network of Black Russian-speakers. Black Bread members are based primarily in New York City & Washington, DC, but many reside throughout the United States, Europe, […]
Jessica in St. PetersburgPosted on January 9, 2014 | No CommentsMinorities Abroad Project Name: Jessica Destination: St. Petersburg, Russia Time abroad: Summer 2013 Ethnic Self-identification: African-American The First Day I remember the first day very clearly when I […]
Annie in St. PetersburgPosted on January 8, 2014 | No CommentsMinorities Abroad Project Name: Annie Choi Destination: St. Petersburg, Russia Time Abroad: Spring 2009 Ethnic Self-identification: Korean-American (Photo by Elise Bergerson) My ethnicity had a profound effect on my experience […]
Minority Experience in Moscow
Morgan in St. Petersburg
Crystal in St. Petersburg
Kimberly in Kiev
Phillip in Baku
Miriam in MoscowPosted on October 26, 2013 | No CommentsMinorities Abroad Project Name: Miriam Vaswani Destination: Moscow, Russia Time Abroad: 2009-2011 Ethnic Self-identification: Mixed heritage When I initially spoke on the phone with the person who would become my […]
A Guide to Jewish MoscowPosted on September 29, 2013 | No CommentsDear reader, By merit of reading this piece, I assume that you have some interest in Jewish life in Moscow. I came to Moscow June 2012 to study with SRAS's […]
Multi-cultural Schools in St. PetersburgPosted on October 9, 2010 | No CommentsThe number of children from different countries is increasing in St. Petersburg's multi-cultural classrooms. Tensions were high at a September 29 parent-teacher meeting in a Moscow-area school. The reason: in […]


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RT @BioRunUp: $MEIP Pracinostat Receives Breakthrough Therapy Designation from FDA yhoo.it/2atA9KY
$EDAP Approved stks.co/p38v8
$EDAP looks like some big owner is selling, Bruce & Co or Manatuck?
$EDAP Reports Growing Momentum in Europe for HIFU Treatment of Prostate Cancer finance.yahoo.com/news/edap-repo…
$AEZS per the agreement isn't this now capped at 10 cents?
RT @BioRunUp: BioRunUp Article: $EDAP 2Q15 Updates And FDA Catalyst Outlook bit.ly/1OPFABH
RT @seinlanguage: Jerry: "So he just shaves his head for no reason?"
George: "That's like using a wheelchair for the fun of it!"
$EDAP now that the ER is behind us, it's time for the run in to the FDA approval to begin.
$EDAP is now releasing Earnings on April 1, 2015 after the close of market. Why did they move it up? stks.co/t1mZ5


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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
A trab is structural element within a sponge formed by the fusion of dendroclones.
In the Anthaspidellidae, when spicules (usually dendroclones) connect at their tips to form a ladder-like structure, trabs may be formed.[1] Oxeas are sometimes employed in the central rod.[1][2] Trabs have a feather-like structure, or may form rods.[1][3]
Trabs are usually regularly spaced, usually at sub-millimetric intervals.[1] Further dendroclones may interconnect adjacent trabs, forming ladder-like structures.[2]
The presence and alignment of trabs is often related to the internal structure of canals within sponges.[4][verification needed]
- ^ a b c d Kruse, P. (1983). "Middle Cambrian 'Archaeocyathus' from the Georgina Basin is an anthaspidellid sponge". Alcheringa: an Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 7: 49–58. doi:10.1080/03115518308619633.
- ^ a b Bingli, L.; Rigby, J.; Zhongde, Z. (2003). "Middle Ordovician Lithistid Sponges from the Bachu-Kalpin Area, Xinjiang, Northwestern China". Journal of Paleontology. Paleontological Society. 77 (3): 430–441. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2003)077<0430:MOLSFT>2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 4094792.
- ^ Keith Rigby, J. (1973). "A New Anthaspidellid Sponge from the Silurian of Lake Timiskaming, Quebec". Journal of Paleontology. Paleontological Society. 47 (4): 801–804. JSTOR 1303055.
- ^ Rigby, J.K.; Collins, D. (2004). Sponges of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and Stephen Formations:. Royal Ontario Museum Contributions in Science. 1.
|This poriferan- (or sponge-) related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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Hello, I wish to show different articles / blogs in each of the categories. Right now, the same 9 articles are displayed in Featured Stories; Editors Picks; Latest Headlines; and on the scroling screen at the top of my page. I'm using the Arras theme, version 184.108.40.206 with WP version 3.2.1
Can anyone please help a "newbie" to show different articles in each category? I have in excess of 60 articles which I would like to show.
Visitors must get fed up reading the same 9 over and over!
Hoping someone can assist. Thanks, Mustbe


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Copycat Restaurant Recipes: 17 Casseroles to Make at Home
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No-Bake Must-Make Buster Bars Casserole
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No-Bake Must-Make Buster Bars Casserole helps you make a delicious copycat of Dairy Queen's famous Buster Bars. Like most no bake desserts, all you need to do is prepare the casserole and then chill until it sets. The Oreo crust and oven-roasted peanuts, though not present in real Buster Bars, really make this sweet treat stand out. Make sure to drizzle some hot fudge over the casserole right before serving.
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Aug 07, 2013
We have a Copycat Cracker Barrel Cherry Chocolate Cobbler. Hopefully this is what you're looking for : ) www.allfreecasserolerecipes.com/Copycat-Casserole-Recipes/Copycat-Cracker-Barrel-Old-Country-Store-Cherry-Chocolate-Cobbler
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Aug 07, 2013
Thank you all for the hard work you put into finding and sharing the recipes with us. I know, me, personally, it would take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to find all of them! LOL I have been looking for a while now for the Chocolate Cobbler that Cracker Barrel Country Store used to serve. It was scrumptious! I seldom ate them but they were always there and I knew I could get it next time......until next never came. If y'all or anyone else out there has this recipe(or even knows what I am talking about), please let me know. I would love to have the recipe! Oh yes, it was served with a dollop of vanilla bean ice cream and fudge sauce. Mmmmm!!!! Thank you everyone for all of your help! Hugs, Paula
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Santa Hat brownies inspired by pinterest.
Wishing you a very merry Christmas and healthy and happy new year!
Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee 2012 !!!
Posted by:
Rachel |
December 23, 2011 at 03:52 PM
Fabulous! Happy Christmas
Posted by:
Gina |
December 23, 2011 at 06:02 PM
Merry Christmas Lina - and hats off to your awesome baking!
Posted by:
domesticali |
December 23, 2011 at 08:04 PM
Joyeuses Fêtes et beaucoup de neige (ben, pas trop quand même!!!).
Posted by:
Claudia |
December 23, 2011 at 08:57 PM
M*E*R*R*Y C*H*R*I*S*T*M*A*S to you and yours!
Posted by:
Sew Create It - Jane |
December 24, 2011 at 02:40 AM
Merry Christmas to you and your family x
Posted by:
French Knots |
December 24, 2011 at 04:10 AM
And to you dear Lina - have a fabulous one.
Nina xxxx
ps. love your snow!
Posted by:
Nina - Tabiboo |
December 24, 2011 at 04:11 AM
Merry Christmas to you & yours, Lina ! xoxo
Posted by:
Sonia / Cozy Memories |
December 24, 2011 at 05:05 AM
what cute brownies! Hope you have a lovely Christmas Lina and a very happy New Year xxx
Posted by:
Julie (little cotton rabbits) |
December 24, 2011 at 03:04 PM
adorable, hope you have a fantastic Christmas xox
Posted by:
driftwood |
December 24, 2011 at 06:18 PM
Oh, those are brilliant! Hope you had a really lovely Christmas.
Posted by:
dottycookie |
December 27, 2011 at 08:31 AM
Too cute. Happy New year...
Posted by:
suzie sews at Dotty Red |
December 28, 2011 at 05:03 AM
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Play any type of Game at Y8.com. The biggest Game Collection to play free online. Flash, Unity 3D, Html5, Android, Java and Shockwave.
Vikings got it right: the Hammer is the Weapon of the Gods. Little creeps are trying to get into your tree. Beat the living daylights out of them! Upgrade to massive hammers like Frostbite and Volcanic for even bigger smashies!
Mouse key - To beat your enemies.
A/D Letter keys - To move.
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text: I am currently using the Newsprint 2012.05.05 WP theme and would like to make a slight change to its appearance. At the bottom of the content I post the date which it was posted appears and also it displays who posted the content. I do not want this to appear. EyesOpenReport.com you can go there there and check it out for yourself. Could I get help on how to get rid of this part of the post. HELP!


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exterior, industrial
Other characteristics:
Pvc Folding Doors is one of the new generation of high speed doors. Reinforced Aluminium or steel supports bar high density pvc fabric materials, special designate drum system serve to you every conditions.bThis type of door is suited for larger size openings and is designed for heavy duty application. High operation speed-80 cm/Sec-standard, Serve to you energy saving, useful and durability system is reducing the noise. It is best assistance to block outside conditions (Dust noice,outdoor effect)
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Welcome to St Cuthbert's Society
St Cuthbert's Society is one of the largest and oldest student communities at Durham. Founded in 1888 as an alternative to college living, it still retains that independence of spirit, but now offers its students all the advantages of being a college of Durham University. Cuth's occupies two sites, with rooms on the historic Bailey and self-catered, modern flats across the river at Parson's Field. We provide a uniquely flexible range of accommodation and catering options to our diverse student body. Cuth's offers outstanding opportunities for student participation in sport, the arts and volunteering, which are supported by its exceptionally energetic Junior Common Room, as well as a lively programme of interdisciplinary lectures, careers evenings and events to enhance the academic experience.
SCR v JCR Cricket Match
The annual cricket between the SCR and the JCR will be held on Friday 15th June at Maiden Castle (5pm start)
Each year, the SCR President challenges the JCR President to a cricket match to round off the academic year. This year is no exception so come and join in the fun and support your team and college.
Download this event in iCalendar format


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Poem [Lana Turner has collapsed!]
by Frank O'Hara
Analysis: Tough-o-Meter
(3) Base Camp
This poem isn't too difficult to understand on a basic level. The speaker is walking around when he learns that Lana Turner has collapsed. He wants her to get up. No biggie. But it can be a little difficult to analyze such a short and seemingly casual poem, because you really do need to pay close attention to every line. We've helped you out with this in the "Summary" section.


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Full name William Gilbert Grace
Born July 18, 1848, Downend, Bristol
Died October 23, 1915, Mottingham, Kent (aged 67 years 97 days)
Major teams England, Gentlemen, Gloucestershire, London County, Marylebone Cricket Club, South of England
Also known as The Doctor, WG, Doc
Batting style Right-hand bat
Relation Brother - EM Grace, Brother - GF Grace, Cousin - WG Rees, Cousin - GHB Gilbert, Cousin - WL Rees, Cousin - WJ Pocock, Cousin - WR Gilbert, Son - WG Grace jnr, Son - CB Grace, Nephew - H Grace, Nephew - NV Grace
In a nutshell Cricket's first big draw in more ways than one, Grace with his towering presence revolutionised batting, brought cricket to a mass audience and transformed cricket in England into the unrivalled spectator sport of the summer More
|Test debut
|England v Australia at The Oval, Sep 6-8, 1880 scorecard
|Last Test
|England v Australia at Nottingham, Jun 1-3, 1899 scorecard
|Test statistics
|First-class span
|1865 - 1908
It is more than 150 years since WG Grace was born, but there are other ways of measuring how distant he is in time. For one thing, no one still alive, not even Jim Swanton, can remember seeing him play (although in Sort Of A Cricket Person, EWS notes that "I am supposed to have watched [him] from my perambulator on the Forest Hill ground round 1910"). Eight decades have passed since Grace died, yet he dogs us still, demanding our attention at regular intervals.
The statistics of his career are alone enough to explain why - more than 54,000 first-class runs (there are at least two different versions of the precise figure, so let's leave it at that) spread across 44 seasons, including 839 in just eight days of 1876, when he hit a couple of triple-centuries, and only one other batsman managed to top a thousand runs in the entire season; a thousand in May in 1895, when he was nearly 47; and 2800-odd wickets costing less than 18 runs apiece. I suppose we might wonder why his bowling average wasn't even more impressive, given the ropey pitches on which Dr Grace played. No modern cricketer would deign to turn out on them, which makes his batting all the more wondrous, and comparisons with Bradman or anyone since quite pointless.
But there was not that much to Grace apart from these skills and his devotion to his family. A hand of whist appears to have marked the limit of his capacity for cerebration, and if one wished to be rude to suburbia one might identify Grace as suburban man incarnate, fluctuating mentally as well as physically between the fringes of Bristol and the London Counties, ultimately coming to rest in Eltham. His one inherited asset was that he came from a clan which was dotty about a great game and dutiful (but in some cases no more) about the general practice of medicine, with no doubt in its collective mind which came first at all times and in all places. His brother EM Grace, who was a coroner, once had a corpse put on ice until he could attend to it at close of play, and WG himself must have had one of the most prolonged medical trainings in history because he so frequently interrupted it in order to exercise his major talent at the crease. He began to study as a bachelor of 19, and was a father of three in his thirties before taking his final qualification at Westminster Hospital. His most conspicuous act as a doctor is thought to have occurred when an unfortunate fieldsman impaled himself on the boundary fence at Old Trafford.
It was simply because the cricketing Grace totally dominated his own era that an exasperated CLR James could not understand why standard history books of the period never mentioned him. This man, for heaven's sake, opened for England at the age of 50 - and at the age of 18 he had scored 224 not out for England against Surrey, in a match which he left halfway through in order to win a quarter-mile hurdles championship at the Crystal Palace! No wonder he was the best-known Englishman apart from Mr Gladstone, so much so that Evelyn Waugh's friend, Monsignor Ronnie Knox, waggishly suggested that Gladstone and Grace were really one and the same celebrity.
Athletic is not a word that obviously comes to mind when contemplating Grace in his prime, though a slim young man did precede the pot-bellied genius, who in middle age was far too heavy for any horse to bear. I have often wondered how stylishly he played his strokes ever since I saw some film in which he appeared to be brandishing his bat as though he was about to poke the fire with it. Something tells me that he never hit the ball as gracefully as Victor Trumper did in the famous photo of his straight drive; Grace, I suspect, was much more about power than aesthetics.
That, at any rate, would fit what we know of his character in general. Apart from tenderness to his relatives and a generous soft spot for children, he was not, I think, a particularly attractive man, though he could sometimes (and it is usually recorded as remarkable) encourage a young player on his own side with - as the saying went in his day - bluff good humour. After the Australians had experienced him for the first time, a commentator Down Under observed that, "For so big a man, he is surprisingly tenacious on very small points." He was notorious for employing, in order to pursue victory or personal achievement, a variety of wiles and tricks that may be thought of as, well, hardly cricket. He was also, throughout his career, quite breathtakingly grasping when his eye caught the glint of hard cash.
It was the social historian Eric Midwinter who, some years ago, pointed out that on Grace's first tour of Australia in 1873-74 (when he was a medical student simultaneously enjoying his honeymoon) he extracted a fee of £1500 from the organisers, which would be well over £100,000 at present values. On his second tour in 1891-92, one-fifth of the entire cost of transporting 13 English cricketers across the world, supporting them in Australia and paying them for what they did there, went into Grace's pocket. He regularly collected testimonials - one, worth £1458, was organised by MCC so that he might buy a medical practice - and overall probably took something like £1 million in today's currency out of the game; and, remember, there was no sponsorship nor endorsements in those days to inflate a star's income. This was in a period when the prosperous middle classes were earning no more than £1000 a year, a highly skilled artisan £200, and a labourer half as much if he was lucky. A good professional county cricketer in the second half of the 19th century saw his wages rise from £100 to £250. No wonder it cost twice as much to get into some English grounds if Grace was playing than if he was not.
The astonishing thing about the mercenary Grace, of course, is that he was classified and has ever since been glorified as an amateur. Nothing more exposed the humbug that used to smother the entire topic of Gents v Players than an examination of Grace's financial rewards from the game; and nothing more reveals the intellectual dishonesty at the heart of the humbug than something Grace once said when trying to argue the Gloucestershire committee into playing more amateurs than professionals. He declared his fear for the future of cricket if it became wholly professional. "Betting and all kindred evils will follow in its wake, and instead of the game being followed up for love, it will simply be a matter of £ s d." Prophetic words, perhaps; but it ill became WG Grace to mouth them.
It will be gathered from the above that he has never been a hero of mine, not since the day in adolescence when I discovered that he was sometimes a shameless cheat in a game that, I was being asked to believe, was wholly honourable. I shall nevertheless drink to his memory on July 18 because his tremendous gifts, especially his phenomenal batting, were largely responsible for the elevation of cricket from just another 19th-century game, which had become popular partly because it lent itself to gambling.
Grace's towering presence, more than any other single factor, transformed it into the unrivalled spectator sport of summer, first of all in England, subsequently in other lands spread widely across the world. I would even suggest that a true measurement of WG's unique stature is that he is instantly identifiable, even by some who are uninterested in his vocation, by his initials alone. I cannot think of another human being in any sphere, not even WC Fields, of whom this is also true.
Geoffrey Moorhouse, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1988
David Frith on Grace
In the late 1800s, one man was synonymous with cricket, and enchanted all who came to see him bat. Truly was he nearly as big as the game
An early pioneer
The sheer longevity of WG Grace's career was remarkable, and some of the records he set might never be equalled
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1896
'I don't think the selectors handled my exit properly'
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, now preparing for a second career in coaching, on not getting the farewell he thought he deserved
Lauderhill prepares for cricket's big boys
This is the first time India are officially visiting the USA, and the excitement among their local fans is tangible - even if match tickets are stiffly priced
Dhoni struggles to bring method to T20's madness
A refusal to play low-percentage cricket is a major ingredient in MS Dhoni's success as an ODI finisher, but that approach is no longer fetching results in T20
Ashwin's rare double, and stellar comebacks for Shami, Bhuvneshwar
India's marks out of ten after they beat West Indies 2-0 on their Caribbean tour
Analysing cricket through a baseball lens
A team from MLB Advanced Media are looking at how they can develop new statistics to analyse performance in cricket
A series that tells us what's wrong with Test cricket today (59)
West Indies v India was not a good advertisement for the format for a number of reasons
Dhoni struggles to bring method to T20's madness (57)
A refusal to play low-percentage cricket is a major ingredient in MS Dhoni's success as an ODI finisher, but that approach is no longer fetching results in T20
'I don't think the selectors handled my exit properly' (44)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, now preparing for a second career in coaching, on not getting the farewell he thought he deserved
Lauderhill prepares for cricket's big boys (33)
This is the first time India are officially visiting the USA, and the excitement among their local fans is tangible - even if match tickets are stiffly priced
The start to JP Duminy's Test career was impressive, but in the last three-and-a-half years he has done little to justify his place in the team


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It's tomorrow it's out isn't it? Exciting times!That won't be right, they'd never start the season with two London teams playing each other - there's enough interest on the first day without needing local rivals (I won't say derby cos I think you can only have one derby team; we might be Spams but ours is clearly the Goons) playing each other. I'm feeling us starting at home this season... or away to Man City, I can't decid which.


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Britney cleared of child abuse allegations
He also accused the 'Toxic" hitmaker of giving them food they were allergic to and also said that she sexually harassed him by walking around naked, reports The Sun. But Los Angeles social workers found there was no credibility of the abuse accusations. "Flores is an opportunist," a family source said.