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Posts Tagged 'FD-SOI'
SOI: Revolutionizing RF and expanding in to new frontiersFriday, April 17th, 2015
By Peter A. Rabbeni, Director, RF Segment Marketing and Business Development, GLOBALFOUNDRIES
Faster connections and greater network capacity for wireless technologies such as LTE, WiFi, and the Internet of Things is driving the demand for more complex radio circuit designs and multi-band operation. In addition the emergence of wirelessly connected smart wearables is not only driving localized high performance processing power but also extended battery life, two goals which are often in conflict. The predicted explosion in the IoT is shown in Figure 1.
The rapid growth in smartphones and tablet PCs and other mobile consumer applications has created an opportunity and demand for chips based on RF-SOI technology, particularly for antenna interface and RF front end components such as RF switches and antenna tuners. As a low cost and more flexible alternative to expensive gallium arsenide (GaAs) technologies, the vast majority of RF switches today are built on RF-SOI.
To address the highly complex, multi-band and multi-standard designs, RF front-end modules (RF FEM) require integration of multiple RF functions like power amps, antenna switches, and transceivers, as well as digital processing and power management. Today these functions are addressed by different technologies. The RF SOI process technology enables design flexibility by integrating multiple RF functions like power amps, antenna switches, and transceivers, as well as digital processing and power management to be integrated—all on the same die. The benefit of integrated radios is they consume less power and smaller area than traditional radios. Therefore, mobile devices that exploit radio integration using RFSOI can offer more functions with better RF performance at competitive cost.
Mobile devices that implement RF SOI for RF Front End module functions benefit from higher levels of integration that combine with improved linearity and insertion loss, which translates to better transmitter efficiency and thus longer battery life enabling longer talk times (lower power) and faster downloads (higher signal-to-noise ratio).
Emerging technologies like RF-SOI and even FD-SOI have unique properties and capabilities beneficial in enabling RF circuit innovation and integration levels never before seen in silicon-based technologies. Device ft, gm/I, well bias control and inherent isolation of the substrate all contribute to improved system level performance over competing technology resulting in the ability to achieve higher linearity, lower power, low loss, and low cost/small size.
Innovative solutions
An innovative technology that is currently addressing the ever-increasing challenges of RF front-end design is UltraCMOS 10 (Figure 2). This customer specific process, co-developed by GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Peregrine Semiconductor, demonstrates SOI's ability to create highly integrated and reconfigurable mobile radio antenna interface solutions. For designers, it dramatically reduces the required engineering and validation time. And, for the end-user, they benefit from longer battery life, better reception, faster data rates and wider roaming range. With the qualification process complete, UltraCMOS 10 technology is now a fully qualified technology platform.
High speed digital-to-analog converters (DAC) are an essential component for direct-to-RF conversion architectures. Faster converter sampling speeds and greater peak-to-peak signal fidelity hold high promise in moving mobile digital signal processing closer to the antenna. It has been demonstrated that DACs on fully depleted SOI, achieve high linearity and very low power for nyquist bandwidths as wide as 5.5GHz. The RF architecture with a high-performance DAC results in lower power dissipation while synthesizing very wideband signals (Figure 3). This further demonstrates SOI ability to move high frequency digital sampling and processing closer to the antenna.
Agile radio architectures are another key area that can address mobile architecture challenges and cost. Today, the analog RF frontend duplicates much of the circuitry for each band. To simplify, new advancements (Figure 4) in tunable structures and filters are being made to provide a single radio for multi-band/multi-mode frequency. SOI technology offers the possibility to develop tunable/reconfigurable RF FEMs to improve RF performance at competitive cost.
Creating an Ecosystem to Extend SOI to RF
As RF FEM architectures and design challenges become more and more complex, it becomes necessary to relieve some of the increased burden at all levels of the value chain. In order to provide better RF products—from system design and RF integrated circuits down to engineered substrate design—development teams can no longer expect to design in silos and be successful. Collaboration and co-optimization are becoming much more important as a result of the changing dynamics of the design-technology landscape.
Investing in the future is critical to address certain RF challenges such as radio architecture design in multiband, multimode mobile radios and ultra-low power (ULP) wireless devices. Successful collaboration will require adherence to standards to enable interoperability, otherwise, in this fragmented market, the industry won't see the full benefit of all of the technology innovation. To succeed, we need collaboration at different levels, from R&D to ensure we have the world's best talent trying to solve all of these problems, all the way through to business models.
There is no doubt that demand on our networks will continue grow and there are advanced chip technology challenges the industry needs to address to enable a higher level of integration and lower power consumption for future wireless communication. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is committed to enabling an SOI portfolio and ecosystem—from process, device, and circuit through system level IP— to lower customer design barriers and complexity and introduce new RF architectures that leverage SOI-based technologies.
1. E. Olieman, A.-J. Annema and B. Nauta, "A 110mW, 0.04mm2, 11GS/s 9-bit interleaved DAC in 28nm FDSOI with >50dB SFDR across Nyquist,," in VLSI Circuits Digest of Technical Papers, 2014 Symposium on , Honolulu, 2014.
2. Joeri Lechevallier, Remko Struiksma, Hani Sherry, Andreia Cathelin, Eric Klumpernik, Bram Nauta, "A Forward-Body-Bias Tuned 450MHz Gm-C 3rd-Order Low Pass Filter in 28nm UTBB FD-SOI with >1VdBVp IIP3 over a 0.7 to 1V Supply", ISSCC, San Francisco, 2015.
Blog review December 16, 2014Tuesday, December 16th, 2014
Maybe, just maybe, ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) has made the near-impossible a reality by creating a cost-effective Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV @ ~13.5nm wavelength) all-reflective lithographic tool. The company has announced that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) has ordered two NXE:3350B EUV systems for delivery in 2015 with the intention to use those systems in production. In addition, two NXE:3300B systems already delivered to TSMC will be upgraded to NXE:3350B performance. While costs and throughputs are conspicuously not-mentioned, this is still an important step for the industry.
The good and the great of the electron device world will make their usual pilgrimage to San Francisco for the 2014 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. Dick James of Chipworks writes that it's the conference where companies strut their technology, and post some of the research that may make it into real product in the next few years.
The 4th Annual Global Interposer Technology Workshop at GaTech gathered 200 attendees from 11 countries to discuss the status of interposer technology. It has become the one meeting where you can find all the key interposer layers including those representing glass, laminate and silicon, blogs Phil Garrou.
Sharon C. Glotzer and Nicholas A. Kotov are both researchers at the University of Michigan who were just awarded a MRS Medal at the Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting in San Francisco for their work on "Integration of Computation and Experiment for Discovery and Design of Nanoparticle Self-Assembly."
In order to keep pace with Moore's Law, semiconductor market leaders have had to adopt increasingly challenging technology roadmaps, which are leading to new demands on electronic materials (EM) product quality for leading-edge chip manufacturing. Dr. Atul Athalye, Head of Technology, Linde Electronics, discusses the challenges.
ST further accelerates its FD-SOI ROs* by 2ps/stage, and reduces SRAM's VMIN by an extra 70mV. IBM shows an apple-to-apple comparison of 10nm FinFETs on Bulk and SOI. AIST improves the energy efficiency of its FPGA by more than 10X and Nikon shows 2 wafers can be bonded with an overlay accuracy better than 250nm. Adele Hars reports.
Does your design's interconnect have high enough wire width to withstand ESD? Frank Feng of Mentor Graphics writes in his blog that although applying DRC to check for ESD protection has been in use for a while, designers still struggle to perform this check, because a pure DRC approach can't identify the direction of an electrical current flow, which means the check can't directly differentiate the width or length of a wire polygon against a current flow.
At the recent IMAPS conference, Samsung electro-mechanics compared their Plated Mold Via Technology (PMV) to the well known Amkor Through Mold Via (TMV) technology. The two process flows are compared. Phil Garrou reports.
Blog review October 27, 2014Monday, October 27th, 2014
Does your design's interconnect have high enough wire width to withstand ESD? Frank Feng of Mentor Graphics writes in his blog that although applying DRC to check for ESD protection has been in use for a while, designers still struggle to perform this check, because a pure DRC approach can't identify the direction of an electrical current flow, which means the check can't directly differentiate the width or length of a wire polygon against a current flow.
Phil Garrou blogs that most of us know of Nanium as a contract assembly house in Portugal who licensed the Infineon eWLB fan out technology and is supplying such packages on 300mm wafers. NANIUM also has extensive volume manufacturing experience in WB multi-chip memory packages, combining Wafer-level RDL techniques (redistribution) with multiple die stacking in a package.
Gabe Moretti says it is always a pleasure to talk to Dr. Lucio Lanza and I took the opportunity of being in Silicon Valley to interview Lucio since he has just been awarded the 2014 Phil Kaufman award. Dr. Lanza poses this challenge: "The capability of EDA tools will grow in relation to design complexity so that cost of design will remain constant relative to the number of transistors on a die."
Are we at an inflection point with silicon scaling and homogeneous ICs? Bill Martin, President and VP of Engineering, E-System Design thinks so. I lays out the case for considering Moore's Law 2.0 where 3D integration becomes the key to continued scaling.
Congratulations to Applied Materials Executive Chairman Mike Splinter on receiving the Silicon Valley Education Foundation's (SVEF) Pioneer Business Leader Award for driving change in business and education philanthropy by using his passion and influence to make a positive impact on people's lives.
At the recent FD-SOI Forum in Shanghai, the IoT (Internet of Things) was the #1 topic in all the presentations. As Adele Hars reports, speakers included experts from Synopsys, ST, GF, Soitec, IBS, Synapse Design, VeriSilicon, Wave Semi and IBM.
Blog review October 20, 2014Monday, October 20th, 2014
Matthew Hogan of Mentor Graphics blogs about how automotive opportunities are presenting new challenges for IC verification. A common theme for safety systems involves increasingly complex ICs and the need for exceptional reliability.
Anish Tolia of Linde blogs that technology changes in semiconductor processing and demands for higher-purity and better-characterized electronic materials have driven the need for advanced analytical metrology. Apart from focusing on major assay components, which are the impurities detailed in a Certificate of Analysis (CoA), some customers are also asking that minor assay components or other trace impurities must be controlled for critical materials used in advanced device manufacturing.
Karey Holland of Techcet provides an excellent review of SEMI's Strategic Materials Conference. The keynote presentation, "Materials Innovation for the Digital 6th Sense Era," was by Matt Nowak of Qualcomm. He discussed both the vision of the Internet of Things (IoT), the required IC devices (including analog & sensors) and implications to materials (and cost to manufacture) from these new IC devices.
The age of the Internet of Things is upon us, blogs Pete Singer. There are, of course, two aspects of IoT. One is at what you might call the sensor level, where small, low power devices are gathering data and communicating with one another and the "cloud." The other is the cloud itself. One key aspect will be security, even for low-level devices such as the web-connected light bulb. Don't hack my light bulb, bro!
Linde Electronics has developed the TLIMS/SQC System. Anish Tolia writes that this system includes an information management database plus SQC/SPC software and delivers connectivity with SAP, electronically pulling order information from SAP to TLIMS and pushing CoA data from TLIMS to SAP.
Ed Korczynski blogs about how IBM researchers showed the ability to grow sheets of graphene on the surface of 100mm-diameter SiC wafers, the further abilitity to grow epitaxial single-crystalline films such as 2.5-μm-thick GaN on the graphene, the even greater ability to then transfer the grown GaN film to any arbitrary substrate, and the complete proof-of-manufacturing-concept of using this to make blue LEDs.
Phil Garrou says it's been awhile since we looked at what is new in the polymer dielectric market so he checked with a number of dielectric suppliers – specifically Dow Corning, HD Micro and Zeon — and asked what was new in their product lines.
Karen Lightman, Executive Director, MEMS Industry Group, had the pleasure to learn more about the challenges and opportunities affecting MEMS packaging at a recent International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS) workshop held in her hometown of Pittsburgh and at her alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
Ed Korczynski blogs that The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was awarded jointly to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."
Yes, GlobalFoundries is hot on FD-SOI. Yes, Qualcomm's interested in it for IoT. Yes, ST's got more amazing low-power FD-SOI results. These are just some of the highlights that came out of the Low Power Conference during Semicon Europa in Grenoble, France (7-9 October 2014) blogs Adele Hars.
Blog review September 8, 2014Monday, September 8th, 2014
Jeff Wilson of Mentor Graphics writes that, in IC design, we're currently seeing the makings of a perfect storm when it comes to the growing complexity of fill. The driving factors contributing to the growth of this storm are the shrinking feature sizes and spacing requirements between fill shapes, new manufacturing processes that use fill to meet uniformity requirements, and larger design sizes that require more fill.
Is 3D NAND a Disruptive Technology for Flash Storage? Absolutely! That's the view of Dr. Er-Xuan Ping of Applied Materials. He said a panel at the 2014 Flash Memory Summit agreed that 3D NAND will be the most viable storage technology in the years to come, although our opinions were mixed on when that disruption would be evident.
Phil Garrou takes a look at some of the "Fan Out" papers that were presented at the 2014 ECTC, focusing on STATSChipPAC (SCP) and the totally encapsulated WLP, Siliconware (SPIL) panel fan-out packaging (P-FO), Nanium's eWLB Dielectric Selection, and an electronics contact lens for diabetics from Google/Novartis.
Ed Koczynski says he now knows how wafers feel when moving through a fab. Leti in Grenoble, France does so much technology integration that in 2010 it opened a custom-developed people-mover to integrate cleanrooms ("Salles Blanches" in French) it calls a Liaison Blanc-Blanc (LBB) so workers can remain in bunny-suits while moving batches of wafers between buildings.
Handel Jones of IBS provides a study titled "How FD-SOI will Enable Innovation and Growth in Mobile Platform Sales" that concludes that the benefits of FD-SOI are overwhelming for mobile platforms through Q4/2017 based on a number of key metrics.
Gabe Moretti of Chip Design blogs that a grown industry looks at the future, not just to short term income. EDA is demonstrating to be such an industry with significant participation by its members to foster and support the education of its future developers and users through educational licenses and other projects that foster education.
Blog review June 30, 2014Monday, June 30th, 2014
Pete Singer blogs that at The ConFab last week, IBM's Gary Patton gave us three reasons to be very positive about the future of the semiconductor industry: an explosion of applications, the rise of big data and the need to analyze all that data.
Tony Chao of Applied Materials writes that Applied Ventures will be participating in the second-annual Silicon Innovation Forum (SIF) held in conjunction with SEMICON West 2014 in San Francisco on Tuesday, July 8. The forum is designed to bring new and emerging innovators together with the semiconductor industry's top strategic investors and venture capitalists (VCs), in order to enable closer collaboration and showcase the next generation of entrepreneurs in microelectronics.
Adele Hars of ASN recently caught up again with Laurent Malier, CEO of CEA-Leti to get his take on the ST-Samsung news. Malier said that CEA-Let has been heavily investing in FD-SOI technology, committing critical scientific and technological support at each phase of FD-SOI development.
Phil Garrou blogs that last week at the 2014 ISC (International Supercomputing Conference) it was announced that the Intel Xenon Phi processor "Knights Landing" would debut in 2015. It will be manufactured by Intel using 14nm FinFET process technology and will include up to 72 processor cores that can work on up to four threads per core.
Solid State Watch: May 9-15, 2014Friday, May 16th, 2014
ST licenses 28nm FD-SOI to SamsungFriday, May 16th, 2014
By Ed Korczynski, Sr. Technical Editor, SST/SemiMD
On May 14, 2014 it was announced that STMicroelectronics and Samsung Electronics signed an agreement on 28nm Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FD-SOI) technology for multi-source manufacturing collaboration. The agreement includes ST's fully developed process technology and design enablement ecosystem from its 300mm facility in Crolles, France. The Samsung 28nm FD-SOI process will be qualified in early 2015 for volume production.
"Building upon the existing solid relationship between ST and Samsung within the framework of the International Semiconductor Development Alliance, this 28nm FD-SOI agreement expands the ecosystem and augments fab capacity for ST and the entire electronics industry," said Jean-Marc Chery, COO, STMicroelectronics. "We foresee further expansion of the 28nm FD-SOI ecosystem, to include the leading EDA and IP suppliers, which will enrich the IP catalog available for 28nm FD-SOI."
According to Handel Jones, founder and CEO of International Business Strategies Inc. (IBS), "The 28nm node will be long-lived; we expect it to represent approximately 4.3 million wafers in the 2017 timeframe, and FD-SOI could capture at least 25 percent of this market."
Table 1 shows IBS data estimating costs for different 28nm fab process technologies.
"We are pleased to announce this 28nm FD-SOI collaboration with ST. This is an ideal solution for customers looking for extra performance and power efficiency at the 28nm node without having to migrate to 20nm," said Dr. Seh-Woong Jeong, executive vice president of System LSI Business, Samsung Electronics. "28nm process technology is a highly productive process technology and expected to have a long life span based on well-established manufacturing capabilities."
In June 2012, ST announced that GLOBALFOUNDRIES had joined the FD-SOI party for the 28nm and 20nm nodes. However, though the name has since changed from "20nm" to "14nm" (Table 2), work continues nonetheless with GLOBALFOUNDRIES on 14nm FD-SOI with prototyping and IP validation vehicles planned to run by the end of this year. Samsung has so far only licensed the 28nm node technology from ST. A representative of GLOBALFOUNDRIES reached for comment on this news expressed welcome to Samsung as an additional supplier in the FD-SOI ecosystem.
"Leti continues its development of further generations and our technology and design results show great promise for the 14nm and 10nm nodes," said Laurent Malier, CEO of CEA-Leti (Laboratory for Electronics and Information Technology). Leti and ST are not against finFET technology, but sees it as complementary to SOI. In fact the ecosystem plans to add finFETs to the FD-SOI platform for the 10nm node, at which point Taiwanese foundry UMC plans to join.
FD-SOI Substrate Technology
Soitec, a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy industries, supplies most of the world's SOI wafers. Paul Boudre, COO of Soitec, commented, "Our FD-SOI wafers represent an incredible technology achievement, resulting from over 10 years of continuous research and high-volume manufacturing expertise. With our two fabs and our licensing strategy, the supply chain is in place and we are very excited by this opportunity to provide the semiconductor industry with our smart substrates in high volume to enable widespread deployment of FD-SOI technology."
Soitec's R&D of ultra-thin SOI was partly funded and facilitated by the major French program called "Investments for the Future." Soitec has collaborated with CEA-Leti on process evolution and characterization, with IBM Microelectronics for device validation and collaboration, and with STMicroelectronics to industrialize and demonstrate the first products.
Boudre, in an exclusive interview with SST/SemiMD, explained, "For 28nm node processing we use a 25+-1nm buried oxide layer, which is reduced in thickness to 20+-1nm when going to the 14nm node and we don't see any differences in the substrate production. However, for the 10nm node the buried oxide layer needs to be 15nm thin, and we will need some new process steps to be able to embed nMOS strain into substrates."
The Week in Review: Nov. 29, 2013Friday, November 29th, 2013
Resource Center
White Papers
RF-SOI Wafers for Wireless Applications
The increasing demand for wireless data bandwidth and the emergence of LTE and LTE Advanced standards pushes radio-frequency (RF) IC designers to develop devices with higher levels of integrated RF functions, meeting more and more stringent specification levels. The substrates on which those devices are manufactured play a major role in achieving that level of performance.
DFM: What is it and what will it do?
Everybody's talking about it, but just what is DFM? According to various EDA company websites, design for manufacturing can be: generation of yield optimized cells; layout compaction; wafer mapping optimization; planarity fill; or, statistical timing among other definitions. Obviously, there is very little consensus. For me, DFM is what makes my job hard: Characterizing it, and developing tools for it, is the most important item on my agenda.
Via Doubling to Improve Yield
In nanometer designs, the number of single vias, and the number of via transitions with minimal overlap, can contribute significantly to yield loss. Yet doubling every via leads to other yield-related problems and has a huge impact on design size. While there is still concern over of how many vias can be fixed without rerouting and without creating DRC violations, the Calibre via doubling tool can identify via transitions and recommend areas for second via insertion without increasing area.
The Impact Of 14-nm Photomask Uncertainties on Computational Lithography Solutions
Certain measurement methodologies can be inaccurate even if they're precise, and there are known errors associated with certain system parameters.
A Study Of Model-Based Etch Bias Retarget For OPC
The etch loading effect is the dominant factor that impacts final CD control at advanced nodes with shrinking critical dimension.
Automation of Sample Plan Creation For Process Model Calibration
A look at ways to simplify the optical and resist model calibration and to speed up the entire process.
Extending Copper Interconnect Beyond The 14nm Node
Fabricating interconnects is one of the most process-intensive and cost-sensitive parts of manufacturing.
3D-IC Testing With The Mentor Graphics Tessent Platform
Testing interposer-based versions of stacked die and future versions using through-silicon vias.
MEMS & Sensors Industry Group Conference Asia 2016Shanghai, China
September 01, 2016 - September 30, 2016
European MEMS Summit 2016Stuttgart, Germany
September 15, 2016 - September 16, 2016
SEMICON Europa 2016Grenoble, France
October 25, 2016 - October 27, 2016
MEMS Executive Congress 2016Scottsdale, AZ
November 09, 2016 - November 10, 2016


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Synonyms of erudite in English:
he was so erudite that only men who were his equals in scholarship could understand him erudite editions of minor classical writers
learned, scholarly, well educated, knowledgeable, well read, widely read, well versed, well informed, lettered, cultured, cultivated, civilized, intellectual;
intelligent, clever, academic, literary, bookish, highbrow, studious, sage, wise, sagacious, discerning, donnish, cerebral, enlightened, illuminated, sophisticated, pedantic;
esoteric, obscure, recondite
rare sapient
[Antonyms] ignorant, ill-educated
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The Indigenous Prophecy of the White Squirrel
This blog is dedicated to the little squirrels of this planet and in the entire cosmos. This blog is made with love and gratitude to all my squirrel teachers. Long may their tails wave!
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Indigenous Prophecy of the White Squirrel
27 comments:
There is a white squirrel at Austin Community College Northridge Campus! I've taken several photos - very cute. I think it is female.ReplyDeleteReplies
Hello Leslie! I would love to see your photos.... please do send me a Friend Request on FB! I am listed as Julie Squirrelady Gallagher!Delete
- AnonymousJanuary 27, 2013 at 10:09 AM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
Thank you for this excellent comment! LOVE is the POWER and the animals are teaching us what unconditional love is! Thank you for your link.. will check it out... I am a bit ensconced in the Petition to end the Squirrel Slam in Holley at the moment. PLease, if you haven't yet signed it... here is the link: http://is.gd/ievFyO Also my fb name is Julie Squirrelady Gallagher... feel free to send me a friend request... I am happy to do anything I can to help.KEEP ON LOVING THE ANIMALS! they are our teachers!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 7, 2013 at 9:12 PM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDeleteReplies
So happy you are enjoying the squirrel wisdom! If you have a FB account feel free to send me a Friend Request! NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A LITTLE SQUIRREL TO OPEN HEARTS!Delete
- sheila harmonOctober 15, 2013 at 11:50 AM
I live in Pa. close to Gettysburg. I saw my very first snow white squirrel today . She was beautiful. and amazing to watch. feeling Blessed :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Awesome! You are very blessed! What a lovely gift from the squirrel angel!ReplyDelete
A beautiful white squirrel has moved into our yard near Titusville, NJ. We get to watch it daily and feel so very blessed and honored by his presence. He arrived in early December 2013 and is still here sending joy to all. He flicks his tail, digs in the snow, plays with squirrel friends, jumps, runs and sits. He is rarely still for a moment. He seems so very special.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 14, 2014 at 8:50 PM
I saw the white squirrel in 2009, I was following God threw the mountains to a holy place.ReplyDelete
As I started my meditation walk threw the mountains, I first saw a white rabbit at the start of the path, at the end of the path after my meditation was complete, I started to head back down the trail I then turned back to see the white squirrel.
- AnonymousOctober 11, 2014 at 9:43 PM
I live in Gahanna, OH and have had the most beautiful white squirrel running around the wooded ravine area in the back of our house now for the 2nd year. A couple of my neighbors and I have photographed him. He is very fast and it is difficult to take a really close up picture of him though. I worry about him because we have fox, hawks and coyotes that are in the wooded area as well. I just saw him yesterday running around with a couple of other squirrels. They were having so much fun. I love to watch him. He is definitely magical.ReplyDelete
My husband had seen a white squirrel and I just thought he meant an albino. A few days later our beloved Gus boxer dog passed away. The day after he passed the white squirrel showed up in our yard again running along the fence. My husband got a picture of him. A completely white squirrel with dark eyes (not red). I think it was a sign from our Gus in heaven. Id post a picture but not sure how.ReplyDelete
I'm sure it was a sign from heaven! What a wonderful message!ReplyDelete
I live in Warner Robins Ga, Two days ago my husband and I saw a white squirrel. It was totally white, no brown spots. We told our neighbor who is a kind of explorer (goes everywhere) and he says he has seen them multiple times.ReplyDeleteReplies
How wonderful! Did you happen to see the color of his eyes??Delete
I had a white squirrel run a cross the road in front of me this morning. It appeared to be darker in color around the eyes so I don't think it was albino. I live in Washington state.ReplyDelete
You got a squirrel blessing! Awesome!ReplyDelete
This morning I saw a white squirrel it was beautiful it had a dark tail.It ran in front of my truck more like flying .I got out of my truck to see where it went I got a few pictures before it left.The best thing about this day I felt like I was blessed it Christmas day.12/25/2015 my name is Sheila Gray lancaster pa.I would like to send photos but it won't let me.ReplyDeleteReplies
sheila, you can send photos to my email address: email@example.com
- Jinna tolliverMay 24, 2016 at 7:44 AM
Every morning for the last week a white squirrel comes out the tree and feeds pure white it's beautiful to watchDelete
AWESOME! What a blessing!Delete
Something caught my eye this morning and it was a pure white, almost, glistening squirrel..it was beautiful. I will be watching with my camera if it comes back. Maryland..Delmarva peninsulaReplyDelete
AWESOME! A sign of good things coming in your life! If you get a photo, feel free to email me: firstname.lastname@example.com
- Charlotte OggJanuary 23, 2016 at 11:13 AM
We have a white bodied with a brown tail squirrel. Never seen one of this color. Beautiful. This is in OhioReplyDeleteReplies
I would love to see a photo of it, if you can get one. My email addy is:Delete
email@example.com Thanks!


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Photo: Cracker Barrel
Oh how New Yorkers wish they didn't have to travel to New Jersey for a stack of pancakes from the self-described "Old Country Store."
They need to start putting that rat meat to use like the Asians do.
New York is one of the fattest cities in the world. I don't think they need anymore fast food options…
not the fattest in the country though
Every city needs a Bojangles , Sonic, Zaxby's ! So yummy . I cant believe Im commenting on food lol
I'm in Arizona and we got all those places except for 3. That bojangels chicken place looks good. Damn now I'm hungry
These would never work in NYC. Everything is watered down and expensive there. Zaxby's have great prices and you can taste the quality…NYC would ruin that.
Do they have any White Castle burger joints in NY?
Yes there are several throughout Brooklyn & Queens.
Damn I am on the west coast and if you come here for "In and Out" The line is so damn long sometimes you just pull off!!! LMAO! But it's def one of the best burger spots in the world! I wish we had a Sonics near by though!! I would love to travel to the south just for Bojangles lol


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Interview: Scott Stone of Yolo Land & Cattle Co.
As another point in that discussion, we wanted to talk with someone who actually raises cattle — grass-fed cattle. Meet Scott Stone of Yolo Land & Cattle in Woodland, California. We had a few questions for him, and here are his thoughts.
Today, the Stone family is proud to be meeting consumer demand for beef in a number of ways, including raising grass-finished natural cattle.
TK: Why do you raise grass-fed beef?
SS: Producing grass-finished beef can be difficult in North America where few regions have the growing season to make it possible. We're uniquely positioned in California to meet the changing lifestyles and desires of our consumers. Mostly, consumers just want to understand the complete picture of how their beef is raised.
We take special care of the resources that provide our way of life. The Sacramento Valley gets limited annual rainfall and having been faced with drought conditions for the past few years, we had to find a way to keep our grasses and business growing. We implemented an irrigated pasture system that reuses the rinse water from a nearby tomato cannery to support our grazing cattle herd. We've also partnered with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to use solar power to pump water on different ranches in the mountains. So, now we're able to turn grass into a healthy food for a living; and we're doing it in more environmentally sustainable way.
TK: What are some of the taste differences between grass-fed and corn-fed?
SS: While both are packed with nutrients like protein, you'll find some subtle differences in taste. Our grass-fed beef marbles a lot like corn or grain-fed beef, but tends to have a lighter flavor.
TK: Do you have a favorite way to cook grass-fed beef?
SS: One of our family favorites is a Wrangler Beef Stew. We use stew meat from a boneless beef chuck shoulder pot roast, and add in bay leaves and honey from our ranch. It's a great way to take advantage of all the good things that come from the earth, right in our backyard. And anyone can easily modify the recipe to use seasonal vegetables from your area. It's a hearty meal that fills me up after a hard day on the ranch.
Another favorite is grilling some grass-fed Ribeye steaks on the barbeque with just a little garlic salt and pepper.
TK: What else can you tell us about your cattle operation?
SS: Since my dad started the ranch more than 30 years ago, our basic philosophy has been "take care of the land, and the land will take care of you." This isn't just a business, it's our home. So it's important that we run an environmentally and economically sustainable operation that benefits the families, wildlife and livestock that live off the land.
We established a conservation easement on the ranch through the California Rangleland Trust to ensure our land will remain a working cattle ranch. This easement protects the land from development to help ensure the future of our ranch for our sons and daughter, and hopefully our grandchildren.
We take great pride in what we do here at Yolo Land & Cattle – there is a great sense of accomplishment and responsibility in feeding ourselves and the world. I can only hope that American consumers feel that same sense of pride when they purchase a great steak for dinner or burger for lunch – they're supporting one of the many hard-working, family-owned operations across the country.
Thank you, Scott!
• Visit Beef: From Pasture to Plate for other cattle producer profiles.
Related: Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Beef: What's the Difference, and Why Does It Matter?
(Images: Yolo Land & Cattle Co.)


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i think its not fair to say our strikers arent good enough. pav , defoe and crouch are top strikers, maybe not world class but top in any case. keane is all about his confidence and form and right now he has none of both. yes we can improve and buy better but to say they arent good enough is a little harsh. i think we need to sign a new guy some one who will improvew the squad to replace keane but i do think not having a orthodox 2 upfront has effected the players we have style. crouch has set up vdv a dozen times and takes defenders withhim to give bale space so i think he has done his fair share for us and it would have been nice if he had a few more goals but hes doen the job asked. defoe and pav yes not playing well and i agree need to do better , but to say they arent good enough i think is too much.


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- Report: #450079
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Doba.com
Doba.comdoba.com Internet U.S.A.
Doba.com Hackers and Spyware by the Tons!!! Online Internet
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Not only has this mentoring process proven to be a huge waste of my time and money, but today they referred me to doba.com and as soon as I typed their URL into my internet search, my computer was attacked by their computers no less than 3 times!!! This is absolutely insane in my mind, and I believe the government should somehow get involved with these so called "make money online" firms and shut them down for good.
There are only 3 sites that I would recommend that are legitimate online moneymakers that I've tried so far. Neither of which is associated with doba.com. Personally I'd run like crazy in the opposite direction if someone were to have me check out a site or webpage that immediately started attacking your computer. I've had this happen on a number of occasions before, thus I know many of their tricks they use.
Don't say I didn't warn you, if someone or another Company X tries to send you to doba.com or any of their numerous wholesale drop shipper URL's!!! Do yourself a huge favor and cut all ties with that person or company immediately if not sooner!!! Last but not least, all I can say is SCAM ALERT!!!
Family man
Palmer, Alaska
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/08/2009 04:44 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Dobacom/internet/Dobacom-Hackers-and-Spyware-by-the-Tons-Online-Internet-450079. 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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True healing, whatever your scars, isn't accomplished in isolation.
True healing, whatever your scars, isn't accomplished in isolation.
Donald Trump has reportedly made another error regarding Christian practices.
Here are five faith facts about Mark Rubio, the Catholic son of Cuban immigrants and newest presidential candidate.
Mother Teresa once observed that "in the developing world there is an epidemic of poverty, in the West an epidemic of loneliness." How is Maundy Thursday relevant to loneliness?
A Christian in Iran who received 80 lashes for drinking communion wine has been asked to leave the country, human right activists said.
Churches in Nigeria may be risking the spread of Ebola through their Holy Communion and Sharing of the Peace rituals.
Pope Francis is calling for a reform of the Catholic Church's communion rules.
Articles on news from Christian News Headlines. Trending hot topics and popular headlines stories.


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Upsilon1 Ceti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Upsilon1 Ceti (U Ceti), is a star located in the constellation Cetus. Upsilon1 Ceti is also known as 59 Cet, and HD 12274.
Upsilon1 Ceti is an K7III Giant star with an effective temperature of 3900 Kelvin. It has an apparent visual magnitude of +4.0, and an absolute visual magnitude of -0.835. It is located 300 light years from the Sun, and has a mass of 1.4 solar masses, and is estimated to be 50 solar radii, as recorded through direct angular measurement.
Upsilon1 has the following equatorial coordinates:
- Right ascension: 02h 00m 00.305s[1]
- Dec: −21° 04′ 40.23″.[1]
- http://www.alcyone.de/cgi-bin/search.pl?object=HR0585
- http://server3.wikisky.org/starview?object_type=1&object_id=714
- http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=59+Ceti&NbIdent=1&Radius=2&Radius.unit=arcmin&submit=submit+id
- http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/upscet.html
|This giant-star-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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Monday's Sports Transactions
COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT — Reduced the 18-month doping bans for Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson to six months.
|American League
HOUSTON ASTROS — Optioned RHP David Martinez to Oklahoma City (PCL).
|National League
ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS — Recalled RHP Trevor Cahill from Reno (PCL). Optioned RHP Mike Bolsinger to Reno.
MIAMI MARLINS — Sent RHP A.J. Ramos to Jacksonville (SL) for a rehab assignment.
|National Basketball Association
NBA — Named Eric Hutcherson senior vice president, human resources.
CHICAGO BULLS — Traded F Greg Smith to the Dallas Mavericks for the right to F Tadija Dragicevic. Traded F Anthony Randolph, cash considerations and two future second-round draft picks for the rights to F Milovan Rakovic.
DETROIT PISTONS — Signed G Jodie Meeks to a multiyear contract.
MIAMI HEAT — Signed F Josh McRoberts and G Mario Chalmers.
|Canadian Football League
EDMONTON ESKIMOS — Signed DB Alonzo Lawrence to the practice roster.
WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS — Added WR Taveon Rogers and QB Mason Mills to the practice roster. Released RB Will Ford.
|National Hockey League
CAROLINA HURRICANES — Agreed to terms with RW Justin Shugg on a one-year, two-way contract.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS — Named Kevin Dineen assistant coach.
DALLAS STARS — Signed D Julius Honka to a three-year entry-level contract.
|American Hockey League
GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS — Re-signed D Brennan Evans to a one-year contract.
ATLANTIC 10 CONFERENCE — Promoted Drew Dickerson to assistant commissioner and Caitlin Bonner to director of advanced media.
APPALACHIAN STATE — Named Bryan Bender director of men's basketball operations.
BARUCH — Named Viktoriya Mikhelzon and Tracy Dimaculangan women's assistant cross country coaches.
DETROIT — Named Chris Kolon men's lacrosse coach.
GEORGIA — Dismissed F Brandon Morris from the men's basketball team following his arrest on a marijuana charge.
HOUSTON BAPTIST — Named Jordan Jeffers men's and women's assistant golf coach.
MARSHALL — Signed football coach Doc Holliday to a two-year contract extension through the 2017 season.
POST (CONN.) — Announced the resignation of baseball coach AJ McNamara. Promoted associate head baseball coach Ray Ricker to head coach.
RADFORD — Named Riley Butler men's assistant soccer coach.
ROWAN — Named Dustin Dimit men's cross country and track & field coach, and Derick Adamson women's cross country and track and field coach.
SAINT ANSELM — Named Phil Rowe associate director of athletics.
SMU —Announced basketball G Emmanuel Mudiay will pursue professional basketball opportunities overseas instead of playing for SMU.
UTEP — Named Sara Plourde softball pitching coach.


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Regarding the Monday letter, "Due time to end failed occupation": For an American to state "The American occupation in Iraq was a war failure" is plain ignorant. The American and allied forces were operating with the understanding that Saddam Hussein was making possible weapons of mass destruction. Plus, Saddam used his tyrannical dictatorship in some of the most awful killings known to humankind.
To say that we failed is a blatant insult to not only the USA, but most importantly to the 4,000-plus American service members that sacrificed their lives. "The USA leaves a ruined country…" What!? The U.S. left Iraq a free country! We and the allied forces have and will help diplomatically and with humanitarianism. Now we have a potentially powerful ally in the Middle East.
When it comes to recouping the monetary cost of the war, think of the oil fields over there. We now have the possibility to receive a larger chunk from them to help the economy.
Justin Roberts


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True, Hall did create magic against the Wolverines as part of a 37-7 drubbing in Rich Rodriguez' final season in Ann Arbor. It happened on the field, but not in the record books because the season was later vacated as part of NCAA sanctions. As a result, it won't be recognized here. Sorry.
That's nonsense.


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Strawberry S'mores
Total Time
Prep 2 mins
Cook 3 mins
This is from the current edition of the Kraft Food & Family magazine. This looks so easy and since strawberry season begins shortly, I will have to try it. I'm thinking that a little chocolate with this certainly won't hurt!
Ingredients Nutrition
- 4 graham crackers
- 4 large marshmallows
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jam
- 8 strawberry slices
- Break graham crackers crosswise into squares.
- Roast marshmallows until lightly brown and melted inside.
- Spread strawberry jam onto 4 graham cracker squares.
- Top with marshmallow.
- Top with strawberry slices.
- Top with remaining graham cracker squares and press lightly.
- Serve warm.
Most Helpful
The kids and I made these for dessert last night. We followed the recipe as written and we loved them. Great new way to make smores! Made for Spring PAC 2009.
Yummy!! Great!! Best S'mores in town!! Those were the exact comments from my 3 daughters.


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Best Places For St. Patrick's Day Attire In DFWSt. Patrick's Day is on the horizon and partygoers are on the hunt for the perfect festive outfit. If you know where to look, you can find attire that is whimsical, practical, sexy or traditional.
Macy's Job Cuts Signal Hard Times For RetailersMacy's is slashing jobs and leaving the Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth, a harbinger of hard times for retailers after a holiday season that saw a noticeable shift to online shopping and away from physical stores.
Top 5 Holiday Travel MistakesA record number of people, more than a 100,000,000 Americans, are expected to travel for the holidays.
Spread Christmas Cheer With These New Holiday SongsBeyoncé fans will have to continue their studies independently.
Tasha's KRLD To Do List December 17-20, 2015Keep busy this weekend with concerts, events, Christmas displays and more.
6 Incredible Christmas Vacation DestinationsLooking for a Christmas vacation you'll never forget? Check out these six incredible destinations!
5 Non-Traditional Holiday Vacation IdeasFive recommendations for getting away on a nontraditional holiday vacation
USPS Predicts Monday As Busiest Shipping Day Of YearIf you've got holiday presents to send and are planning to mail them today you can expect a bit of a wait at the post office.
Snowball Express Shows Families Of Fallen Military Heroes Holiday Fun & UnderstandingFamilies of fallen military heroes flew to DFW for a few days of holiday cheer.
Around Town: Prairie LightsHoliday lights are shining brightly all over North Texas. JD Ryan is Around Town with a drive through exhibit you won't want to miss.
Top 5 Gift Ideas For Those Who Are Hard To Buy ForNot sure what to get for someone on your Christmas shopping list? If you're totally stumped on what to purchase, consider these top five gift ideas that you may have not considered yet.
5 Kid-Friendly Holiday Party ActivitiesWant to keep the kids busy so they stay away from the gifts beneath the tree? Organizing some activities prior to the day's festivities can make your day a bit less hectic and a lot more fun.


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Here's our first response, which has been offered as a comment on his blog, to Daniel Streett's recent post arguing for a communicative pedagogy for Koine. If you have not yet subscribed to his blog, go do it now.
Thanks for your post. Mike Aubrey and I have gone back and forth a bunch on this. I'd like to interact with your some of your thoughts. Let me say up front that I am currently approaching language description and pedagogy in my classes from a (neuro) cognitive linguistic perspective. Some of this has been dealt with on our blog.
1. Greek is not a dead language. It was spoken long before Dionysus Thraxe first described it in humanity's first grammar (Tekne Grammatike) and is still spoken today all over the world. Objections to a communicative pedagogy of Greek are silly because there's probably a native Greek speaker near you with whom you could speak. In fact its for this reason that I have long considered communicative approaches of a reconstructed Koine a waste of time. There's no need to make-up Greek. Just go to Greece and while you're there, learn to "read" Homer and the NT.
2. Reading… the process is much more complex than we might think. One term that does not describe it for humans is "easy". Reading is an enormously complex cognitive skill that literally changes the brains of the literate. For an introduction (without technical literature), see the Brain Science Podcast. The interview with Maryanne Wolf (#29) is a great episode on this topic, but all the episodes are relevant to language students and scholars.
One thing I've gleaned from the short list of neurological literature I've read- Language acquisition happens early in childhood and no other time. Unless one acquires multiple languages as a child, which is very possible, every second-language (L2) experience one has must be viewed as learning and not acquisition. Once one is past the age of acquisition, L2 learning becomes extremely tough (but the human brain is very plastic and old dogs can indeed learn new tricks) and new L2s are not learned as one's mother tongue was acquired. Thus, L2 users are using different neurological processes than when they use their native language. As such, it seems that as an L2 user I will never read the GNT as I read the Houston Chronicle. Neurologically, engaging the two will always be different processes.
3. Meaning – From a cognitive perspective, meaning is embodied. It is emotionally driven perception, conception, and memory expressed in symbols: phonological and even orthographical in some cultures. As modern English speakers removed by language, time, and culture, we cannot directly engage the embodied meaning of the Bible as the original audience did, not to mention that of its authors. We are not them and have not lived their experiences. The most we can do is pour over every scrap of data we can get our hands on: textual and archaeological alike. From this, we may attempt to describe what is going on linguistically in the NT, but to say that one can be comprehend Koine as one does a native language is not neurologically or psychologically plausible. First, you have to invent a time machine. Then you've still the got battle of L2 neurology.
4. Pedagogy – At Stellenbosch, we teach students to understand the Hebrew or Greek text in Hebrew or Greek by using the best tools available. This includes reference grammars, lexica, encyclopedias, and even the tools of modern linguistics. Once this is done, then we talk about translation, which is a completely different ball game. Translation theory is its own discipline and quick target language glosses cannot be conflated with source language meaning. You are right that too many language teachers confuse the meaning of an original text with a translation.
The immediate benefit I see (and have experienced in a Hebrew ulpan) with biblical language students who learn the modern form of the respective language or otherwise learn communicatively is that of vocab mastery. Using your vocab in communicative situations will cement those lexemes in your memory like flashcards cannot. However, a communicative approach to Koine cannot give you a Koine mind.


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- Posted May 17, 2014 by
- swarit
Kolkata, India
- THE BIG FAT INDIE EXHIBITION 2015 : Sneak Peak To The Event
- BIBS Organized Aspire To Achieve -An Enriching Event For Their Students
- Heritage Business School Conducts Workshop On Overcoming Negativity At Workplace With Michael A. Potter
- Jaipur Gets New Furnishing Brand: Skipper Furnishings Launches New Store
- Brandwar 2015: A Live Learning Experience For BIBS Students
Renowned Dentistry Implant Company Sterngold Dental LLC Presents "Over Denture" Lecture At Boston University
On April 16th, James T. Ellison, CDT, Technical and Educational Services Manager for Sterngold, instructed DMD students at Boston University about root supported over-dentures, using direct placement attachments, namely the ERA Micro Direct Over denture.
There were 110 dental students and the lecture and hands-on presentation is part of Boston University's curriculum. Dr. Andrea Maalouf presented in the morning and Jim Ellison and Dr. Ferriero presented the hands-on part in the afternoon. For more information on Sterngold's training courses or FREE Webinar opportunities visit their website: http://www.sterngold.com/Sterngold/events/training.aspx?st=2
Sterngold Dental LLC has many innovative and interesting events lined up in this year.
Some of the most important events are:
1. May 9, 2014- Connecticut State Dental Assoc. Annual Mtg
Lecture & Workshop on Implants and Attachment Dentistry
2. May 13, 2014- FREE Webinar
"The ERA Partial Denture Attachment- There is no Substitute"
3. May 14, 2014- "ERA® vs. Locator® - A true comparison"
4. May 15 - 18, 2014- North Carolina Dental Assoc.
Half day lecture and Half day Workshop on "Attachments in Dentistry"
Kingston Plantation, South Carolina
5. May 15, 2014- FREE Webinar
Raising the Bar: Fabricating an Overdenture
Implant Bar without Soldering, Casting, Welding or Milling
6. June 5 - 7, 2014 - 3-Day Hands-On Attachment Course
Sterngold Dental
23 Frank Mossberg Drive
Attleboro, MA
7. May 21, 2014
FREE Webinar
The ERA Partial Denture Attachment
There is no Substitute
8. June 11, 2014- Attachments in Dentistry - Treatment Planning
Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY
9. June 26, 2014- Dental Attachments and the Compromised Patient
Seaview Hospital and Home
Staten Island, NY
10. July 18 - 19, 2014
Attachments and Implants
Half Day Lecture, Half Day Workshop
American Dental Assoc. Mtg.
Committee on the New Dentist
11. September 12, 2014
All Day Attachment Dentistry Ultimate Course
Central New York Dental Conference
Fifth District Dental Society
Syracuse, NY
12. October 9 - 14, 2014 - Attachment Prosthetics, Lecture and Hands-On Workshop
American Dental Association
San Antonio, TX
About Sterngold Dental LLC
Sterngold Dental, LLC is EN ISO 13485:2012 and ISO 13485:2003 under CMDCAS certified and we also comply with the European Medical Device Directive (93/42/EEC), FDA Quality System Regulations, CGMP and MHLW Ministerial Ordinance No. 169. All products and procedures are closely monitored under these quality systems. Sterngold Dental, LLC's Implant products have full approval to market in the United States, Sweden, and more than 20 other countries. For more information, visit www.sterngold.com


text:
- Report: #893497
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: IADT
IADT6039 S Rio Grande Ave Orlando, Florida United States of America
IADT International Academy of Deign and Technology RIPOFF, LIARS, SCAMS, CONS, DREAM KILLERS, Orlando, Florida
*Consumer Suggestion: class action
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My parents which are retired, very ill, and I are now 70,000K in debt and growing there is not a day that does not go by that I am not reminded of this huge mistake which I believed to be the end of the so called salvation to my Independence and the start of my future.
When first going to the school I had done research, and what it had to offer, I was told and guaranteed that the school was nationally credited and that If I ever wanted to further my education to a University that I could do it with no problem. HUGE LIE!
I later started to find discrepancies in some of my paper work form school and financial aid offices at the time I was not of age to put loans under my own name without a co-signer and I later found that I had accumulated almost 7,000k worth of debt. I tried to fight theses loans since at the time my parents were on 2 parent plus loans and had covered my tuition for the years being there. After almost going into a state of shock while over hearing two financial aid officers talking about a scam that theses poor kids were being put under. With no one to confided and scared of what my parents said I kept shut.
I knew I needed to get out of there before the next semester started so I withdrew from classes and told my parents that something did not seem right and we should consult a lawyer but my parents are old fashioned and did not really believe in the system nor that anyone would listen; we were 70,000k in debt and going into financial ruin. I have thought about this many a time and have contemplated suicidal thoughts as a result of this fiasco but will not let myself be pushed to the edge without putting a fight.
I feel like this school has raped others out of many dreams and hopes for their future. If anyone has a glimmer of hope or knows what to do or someone would like me to tell my story I will be more than happy to do so. I feel that all former students and faculty should ban together and stop this rape from going further.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/05/2012 10:50 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/IADT/Orlando-Florida-/IADT-International-Academy-of-Deign-and-Technology-RIPOFF-LIARS-SCAMS-CONS-DREAM-KILLE-893497. 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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#1 Consumer Suggestion
class action
AUTHOR: jclifford - (USA)
SUBMITTED: Friday, June 10, 2016POSTED: Friday, June 10, 2016
We are trying to get Morgan & Morgan to pick up the IADT case and they said they will probably do it if they get enough enquiries. We currently have over 100 people. Go to http://www.forthepeople.com/ and fill out information under contact to join. Tell every former students you know. :)
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text:
Reflection in C++ – part 2November 29, 2009 – 7:08 pm
In a previous note I wrote a little bit about my experimental reflection system for C++. Today, I'??d like to describe a simple load-in-place mechanism I built on top of that.
Basic idea behind LIP is to minimize the overhead of any processing after data is loaded from a file. Ideally, all that needs to be done is call to '??fread'?? to a memory buffer. For more detailed description of such system see Fast File Loading article by Ent/Incognita.
Let'??s consider possible scenarios when trying to load object from file without any futher processing:
- raw '??C'?Ě object with no pointers, no virtual functions, consisting only of pure value members. No problems here, we can just load it from file and it'??s ready to use.
- object containing pointers. Things get more complicated, as obviously pointer values will point to random places in memory after loading. One popular method is to '??fix-up'?? pointers after loading. When saving object we also save blocks of memory associated with pointers and store additional info that link pointers to corresponding blocks (for example, an index in the fix-up table).
- object containing virtual functions. We need to initialize vtable somehow. One way to achieve this is to call placement new on object'??s memory. However, we have to remember that constructor will automatically call constructors for all contained objects, effectively overwriting member variables that we'??ve just loaded. I'??ll write a little bit more on that later.
Rough sketch of my approach:
- iterate over all fields of pointer/class reflection type. For every pointer '?? prepare fixup entry, save related object/block of memory (for objects, we basically do the same thing for their fields again). For every class '?? iterate over fields again. I do have some special cases here, like vector class (I need to save whole memory block (vector contents) associated with vector).
- write object header + pointer fixups. Object header contains type ID, total size of saved data and number of pointer fixups. Every pointer fixup entry consists of the following informations: offset of a pointer to patch (from the start of main object memory), offset of final pointer value (to get final pointer value we only need to add this offset to start of main object memory), type tag for objects that require vtable reinitialization.
- write raw memory associated will all collected objects.
One tricky thing here is '?? how do we know how to initialize vtable? Up to this point whole system was rather portable. Sure, PDBs aren'??t present on PS3, but the layout of objects shouldn'??t change (objects that need reflection, that is), so for multiplatform projects you still can generate reflection info from PDB and use it with other compilers. Now, however, we need to obtain function address, which obviously will vary from platform to platform. I added two special functions that Reflector will try to search for. They are:
explicit SuperBar(EInitVTable): v(rde::noinitialize) {} static void* Reflection_CreateInstance() { return new SuperBar(); } static void* Reflection_InitVTable(void* mem) { return new (mem) SuperBar(INIT_VTABLE); }
When those functions are found (they're identified by name and must be static), Reflector will save their addresses. Later, we'??ll add module base address to those and now it'??s possible to call correct placement new for type type determined at runtime. One tricky thing here is, as you can see '?? I call a special constructor for v (v is rde::vector here). Reason for this has been mentioned before '?? we don'??t want constructors to overwrite values that we'??ve just loaded (in case of vector, it'??d set capacity to 0). I considered patching int/float values as well (just like pointers), but it felt a little bit too brute-force. I had an access to source code anyway (I use RDESTL), so I decided it'??d be more elegant to make it more LIP friendly instead. In this particular case, it doesn'??t matter so much, because you shouldn'??t be doing any operations on loaded vector anyway (it doesn't really own the memory, so shouldn't try to free/reallocate it).
Here'??s loop patching all the pointers. Vtable initialization makes it a little bit more complicated than it should be. If you only save '??C'?Ě-like objects, this could be dropped (I actually think it'??s a good idea for most data/resource classes, it'??d also help with the problem mentioned above).
for (PointerFixups::const_iterator it = pointerFixups.begin(); it != pointerFixups.end(); ++it) { rde::uint8_t* pptr = objectMem8 + it->m_pointerOffset; void* patchedMem = objectMem8 + it->m_pointerValueOffset; *reinterpret_cast<void**>(pptr) = patchedMem; if (it->m_typeTag != 0) { const rde::TypeClass* fieldType = static_cast<const rde::TypeClass*> (typeRegistry.FindType(it->m_typeTag)); // We already initialized vtable for 'main' object. if (patchedMem != objectMem) fieldType->InitVTable(patchedMem); } }
Generated assembly is as simple as it gets (whole 4 instructions for patching single pointer):
; 543  :         rde::uint8_t* pptr = objectMem8 + it->m_pointerOffset; ; 544  :         void* patchedMem = objectMem8 + it->m_pointerValueOffset; mov    esi, DWORD PTR [edi-4] ; 545  :         *reinterpret_cast<void**>(pptr) = patchedMem; mov    eax, DWORD PTR [edi-8] add    esi, ebx mov    DWORD PTR [ebx+eax], esi
Offsets could probably be packed into 16-bits if necessary.
One last thing that I wanted was a support for special field flags. It'??s mostly for the editor, sometimes you may want to mark field as '??hidden'?? or '??read-only'?? (so that it'??s not possible to edit it) or have other annotations (like text description, more informative than the name). The best way I could think of was adding those annotations in a comment (a little bit like in C#, only there are special keywords there), then extracting them. Problem is, I couldn'??t find a way to determine in what source file type has been defined. In the end, I scan all source files from .PDB, which can be very slow with bigger projects. One possible way to speed it up a little, would be to determine where type constructor is defined, then scan only files related to this compilation unit. Example of '??hidden'?? field:
// [Hidden] float*            p;  // This field will set FieldFlags::HIDDEN flag
The whole '??flag'?? system is a little bit experimental at this stage (feels messy), so it'??s disabled by default. In order to enable it, Reflector needs to be run with '??-flag source_path'?Ě argument (source_path is to narrow the choice of source files a little bit and not scan compiler includes for example. In my example, it'd be "reflection" as that's main tree).
Some random notes:
- load-in-place system is far from complete. Right now vector is the only supported container, it can only save vectors of POD types, etc. It'??s rather proof of concept than complete solution. Still, I'??m using it in my home projects already and it works good enough for my purposes. It should be quite easy to create more flexible serialization system that doesn'??t rely on pointer patching, but iterates over all fields and save them in a more "traditional" way.
- at some point I'??d like to make it possible for the whole reflection system to switch to purely hash-based version. One problem is that I couldn'??t really think about good way to detect special cases for LIP then (right now, if name starts with '??rde::vector<'?Ě it'??s assumed to be vector, can'??t be done with hashes). (admittedly, I didn'??t try very hard)
- as I wrote before '?? system should be semi-portable. If LIP/construction by name is not needed, then reflection info generated from PDB should be valid on other platforms as well (provided they don'??t differ too much from Win32/X360). Obviously, it won'??t work with platform specific types (rendering structures etc), but normally you don'??t really expose/reflect those.
Source code to both Reflector & my test app can be downloaded here.


text:
Our History with Used Equipment
Since 1932 Perry has been buying & selling high quality used process equipment & plant worldwide. We now have one of the largest inventories in the world of used process equipment with almost 15,000 items in stock.
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Niro model MP1 stainless steel multi processor fluid bed dryer/granulator/coater.
Stock #L1025-02
Unused Hydro Air Research Italia Microfiltration Ceramic Membrane Filtration System
Stock #VL1200
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Used Kells approximately 25,000 litre stainless steel vertical jacketed storage tank
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NEW stainless steel Perrymix dissolver model DS-250, working capacity up to 500 litre
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UNUSED (Commissioned) SIG Bosch model RGS-8 (8) lane vertical fed granule sachet form, fill and seal machine.
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Used De Dietrich model SR1000 stainless steel double cone vacuum dryer blender
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Used 100 tons/day Desmet Ballestra Flexifrac R Dry Fractionation Plant
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Used Zinc Electroplating Plant for Rack and Barrel
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127000 KW GE Twin Process Power Plant
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text:
Tuesday July 22, 2008
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- The childhood home of former baseball home
run king Hank Aaron will be donated to the city where he grew up
and will become a museum operated by the city's minor-league team.
The home is expected to be moved in October next to "The
Hank," or Hank Aaron Stadium, home of the Mobile BayBears. Aaron's
family and team officials made the announcement Monday.
The three-bedroom home, which is currently boarded up, could
open as a museum in late March. The city will own the house, but
the team will handle the renovations and run the museum.
Aaron, now 74, grew up in Mobile's Toulminville neighborhood,
about a block from a city park that now bears his name. He hit 755
home runs -- a record that stood until it was broken last year by
Barry Bonds. Mobile Mayor Sam Jones said it has "tremendous" tourism
potential and called Aaron an "ambassador for Mobile."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


text:
Retired Senior District Judge John Forbis of Childress will act as 100th District judge in the wake of David McCoy's suspension Friday.
A Childress County grand jury Thursday issued two felony indictments against McCoy: abuse of official capacity and theft by a public servant.
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct Friday ordered that McCoy be suspended without pay until further orders of the commission.
Kelly Moore of Brownfield, district judge of the 9th Judicial Administrative Region, appointed Forbis, a former 100th District judge, to preside over the district in McCoy's absence.
Moore presided over McCoy's court appearance Friday morning in Childress and set a $5,000 personal recognizance bond on each count.
"He (McCoy) came in about 11 with his lawyer, Bill Kelly, and turned himself in at the sheriff's office," Childress County Sheriff Mike Pigg said. "He was processed in just like everybody else - booked, photographed, fingerprinted."
McCoy then appeared before the judge and left the courthouse, Pigg said.
Neither McCoy nor his attorney could be reached for comment Friday.
"I have requested that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas assign a judge to preside over these two indictments," Moore said, "and I expect that assignment to come within one to two weeks."
Moore said the judge who is assigned will set the time line for prosecution.
The indictment of theft by a public servant alleges that between Feb. 1, 2002, and June 30, 2005, McCoy unlawfully appropriated money in the amount of $20,000 or more but less than $100,000 with the intent to deprive the 100th Judicial District Juvenile Probation Office.
Theft by a public servant is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
The indictment of abuse of official capacity alleges that between Feb. 5, 2002, and May 18, 2006, McCoy knowingly misused county employees and items belonging to the government worth $20,000 or more but less than $100,000.
The offense is a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
© 2016. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


text:
Dr. Michael Heintze, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing, Chair (T)Mr. Karl Boysen, Supervisor, Academic Advising, Fine Arts and Communication
Ex Officio:
Dr. Gene Bourgeois, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Coordinates and evaluates policies and procedures that impact all aspects of registration. Recommends changes or enhancements to registration-related activities to the Associate Vice President and the Provost. The committee also proposes future academic calendars for approval. The committee meets approximately one week following the census date of the spring, second summer, and fall semesters. The committee may be called for additional meetings as required.


text:
The Room Essentials Over-the-Door Basket with Hook Rail is a simple, space-saving way to create extra storage in a bedroom, dorm room, bathroom or closet. This over-the-door organizer has a wire shelf and 4 hooks for robes, coats or towels. Made of sturdy steel with a satin nickel finish and built to hang over most doors.
Number of Pieces: 1
Number of Hooks: 4
Material: Steel
Metal Finish: Nickel
Finish: Satin
Maximum Weight Supported: 15.000
Dimensions: 15.100 L x 5.400 W x 5.400 T
Weight: 1.500
Warranty Description: No applicable warranty
other Info.
- Online Item #: 14034283
- Store Item Number (DPCI): 085-03-0581
- Imported


text:
Definition of liquidizer in English:
(also liquidiser)
A machine for liquidizing food or other material.
Example sentences
- Purée the soup in a food processor or liquidiser.
- Combine the yoghurt, iced water or stock, sea salt and pepper in a liquidiser or blender (more successful than a food processor, which leaves it slightly bitty).
- Place the pepper and vegetable stock in the liquidiser and process until liquidised.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: li¦quid|izer
Definition of liquidizer in:
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= trending


text:
Editor's note: The teen's name is not being used because he is a minor.
BURNABY, B.C. — The crisis, as Burnaby's Gerda Wever calls it, started this past February with a phone call.
It was a youth worker from her youngest son's high school, and Wever was told to come down immediately.
When she arrived, her son was in shambles.
"He was crying, he was very scared," she recalls.
K was addicted to heroin. He had been using for about two years — since he was 15 — and he was using needles.
Immediately, Wever sprung into crisis mode.
"I said, 'K, We'll deal with this. We'll get you help,'" she recalls.
Heroin wasn't the only thing K was struggling with. The summer before, he had had a mental breakdown, and the addiction was making things worse.
Getting help for a teenager with a mental illness and a drug addiction proved more difficult than she could have imagined.
Wever had learned the best solution for concurrent disorders was to treat both the mental illness and the addiction at the same time.
Yet, in her experience, drug rehabilitation centres don't want to deal with mental illness, and places that treat mental illness don't want to deal with addiction.
K was in and out of rehab for the first few months, but nothing seemed to work.
While attempting to detox, K was writhing in constant discomfort and pain. Wever was there with epsom-salt baths at 2 a.m., massages — anything to try and make him comfortable in his own skin.
But she herself felt terrified and powerless. There were times she was afraid to go into his room — she didn't want to find him dead.
"I actually learned what to do in case of an overdose," she says.
It wasn't until a couple of months ago, when K started taking methadone and was admitted to the Provincial Youth Concurrent Disorders Program at B.C. Children's Hospital, that he started a healthy path to recovery, and Wever has supported him along the way.
As for the mental illness, Wever's still waiting for a diagnosis, but she suspects it's either obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety or both.
Dealing with K has made Wever an advocate for youth with concurrent disorders. She's decided to use her business, a small, local editing and publishing company called The Write Room, to launch the PARCY Foundation.
Her goal is to raise awareness about concurrent disorders and money to support research. She also hopes to start a scholarship and award for three Burnaby students struggling with concurrent disorders.
Wever's son has been clean for more than 30 days, and she's ready to "come out of the closet" and speak openly about concurrent disorders.
"It has been really difficult to talk about, but I don't want to contribute to the stigma," she says. "My main objective of the foundation has to be increasing understanding and compassion."
She also has advice for other parents: Never stop talking to your child, and never stop saying I love you.
For more on her foundation, go to thewriteroom.net and click on The Parcy Foundation.
Read more Metro news at burnabynow.com


text:
I've installed two new themes per published instructions. However, when I go to the "Presentation" section, only the two originally installed themes show. Any ideas? I saw one other post similar to this, but she fixed it on her own and I'm not exactly sure how it was done.
Thank you,


text:
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 2012
FILE - This Dec. 7, 1941 image shows a Japanese Navy aerial view of smoking U.S. ships during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Japanese Navy)
Stories this photo appears in:
AP PHOTOS: Pearl Harbor attack 71 years ago
The noise of the planes broke the early Sunday morning quiet over Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The surprise attack 71 years ago killed 2,390 service members and 49 civilians.


text:
- Graphic triblend t-shirt
- 50% Cotton, 38% Polyester, 12% Rayon.
- Machine wash warm. Do not bleach. Tumble dry low. Do not iron imprint.
- Made in United States
Get an additional 15% off 1/3 and 1/2 off sale merchandise.
Cannot be combined with any other specials. Excludes denim. Available online and in participating stores. Final price reflected in cart.


text:
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A 20-year-old man is charged with robbery after a purse snatching in Harrisburg Tuesday night, police said.
Terreance Williams, of Lower Paxton Township, grabbed the purse of a 61-year-old Carlisle woman about 11:40 p.m. Tuesday in the 1000 block of Green Street, police said.
He left the area, but witnesses followed him and a detective found him in the 500 block of Verbecke Street, police said. Williams ran away, but was taken into custody a short distance away.
The views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.


text:
Demolition Merit Sprocket
- Brand: DEMOLITION
- Product: #458149
- Availability: In Stock
Price : $40.95
The Demolition Merit Sprocket is CNC machined from 5mm thick 7075 aluminum with 2 sprocket bolt positions to extend life and multiple cutouts to save weight. Offset 1/8" teeth have a rounded profile to reduce wear while providing better chain alignment. 15/16" bore with 19 & 22mm adapters.
Teeth: 1/8"
Bore: 15/16"
Thickness: 5mm
Adapter: 19mm & 22mm Included
Weight: 2.2 oz (25T)
Dans Comp recommends replacing your chain when installing a new sprocket. Check out our selection of BMX Chains.


text:
|Mar 25, 2010
|Private messages cause the default chat tab to flash, however no such functionality exists for custom chat tabs. For people that have a separate chat tab for Guild-related messages, but still keep their tabs docked to the normal chat window, this addon will cause the Guild chat tab to flash when receiving a guild message and the Guild tab is not the currently active tab. Caveats: The guild chat tab will need to be named "Guild" for this addon to work. Currently only Guild messages and Guild...
Guild Delta
|Jul 23, 2016
|When you login, Guild Delta displays changes ("deltas", in math terms) to the guild roster since the last time you logged in. Specifically, names of players who have joined the guild or are no longer in the guild. See below for tracking other kinds of changes. If you're here about 5.4.2 changes, read Oddities below! I didn't like being unaware that people had left my (large) guild merely because I happened to not be online at the time they left. And I kept being surprised to find that people...
|Jan 08, 2014
|GuildManager is the ACE3 rewrite of GuildGreet, but with more Features. PLANNING -> ALPHA Status
|Jun 28, 2015
|Interface for addons to include extra information on the GuildMemberInfo frame. How to use This is only for other addon authors that want to put extra information next to the guild frame when people are selected. Load GuildMemberInfo In your toc make GuildMemberInfo a dependency ## Dependencies: GuildMemberInfo Register with GuildMemberInfo bool = GMI:Register('AddonName', { lines = { uniqueLabel = { -- Required callback = function(GetGuildRosterInfo(i)) return newText; end, -- Optional label...
|Jul 29, 2016
|Shows the number of Guild Members and Guild Achievements Points in the GameTooltip Renamed from GuildLevelTooltip to GuildPointsTooltip in WoD, with the removal of guild levels
Guild Search
|Aug 27, 2016
|Guild Search is a utility to help guild leaders and officers. It allows searching the guild roster, particularly the notes and officer notes. Many guilds will keep meaningful notes in those fields including the the player names for alts. It is very useful to be able to search a large guild roster to find characters. For example, with the recent rise in compromised accounts, if the right information is in the notes, it makes it easy to find all the alts of a player and demote them. It has...
Guild Skada High Score
|Aug 10, 2016
|Guild Skada High Score An addon for tracking and ranking dps/hps for raid encounters defeated by a guild. Feel free to suggest features or report bugs in the WowAce issue tracker, on GitHub, or leave a comment on Curse. Requirements As the name implies, the addon was created to be used together with Skada. Features Current features Tracks damage and healing for successful boss kills in all current WoD raids, grouped by guild, difficulty and role. Attempts to store the item level and talent...
|Feb 26, 2015
|If you like your bears sticky, you want GummiBears. The Problem By default, hitting an action button that has a spell on it (say Tranquility) while in bear or cat form will cause you to shift back to caster form so that you can cast it. More than once a clumsy paw of mine hitting the wrong button has dropped me out of bear form while tanking; never a good thing. The Workaround There is a console variable (aka a CVar), autoUnshift, which can be set to 0 to change the games behavior so that the...


text:
Let's not rush to judge over baby Gammy
Kneejerk sentiment is all very well, says Brendan O'Connor, but let's think before we demonise parents for not wanting a child with Downs
Published 10/08/2014 | 02:30
Try and put out of your head for a minute everything we subsequently learned about David and Wendy Farnell, the parents accused of abandoning one of their surrogate twins because that child, baby Gammy, had Down syndrome (DS). When the world first became fixated on the story, the details about David Farnell's history as a paedophile had yet to emerge. At that point he stood accused merely of abandoning baby Gammy because the child had DS. Let's also put aside, for a moment, the dispute over whether he did, in fact, abandon the baby, or under what circumstances he did it.
So let's just look at the story purely as it emerged initially. A man was demonised all over the world because it was reported that, firstly, he encouraged the Thai surrogate mother to abort Gammy when he discovered the unborn baby had Downs. And, subsequently, he abandoned the baby for being imperfect. Cue outrage in the world's media. Anguish all over social media. Strangers on Twitter saying that their heart was broken over the story. And ultimately a couple of hundred thousand euro collected in an appeal for the baby.
All very nice and caring. And all very easy for people to get their knickers in a twist about, before moving onto the next viral outrage.
But am I the only one who thinks that I can sympathise with what this ogre did? Is no one else prepared to admit that, while his actions were not pretty in this regard, they are understandable? Am I the only parent of a kid with Downs, who would admit that, to my shame, when you first hear the news, you have a moment where you think, "Not me. I can't do this." And if the child had a natural/birth mother there, who wouldn't be tempted to think, I'll take one, but you can hang onto what the Thai mother reportedly called "the dumb one". There is definitely a moment where, if there was a humane out like that, a person would be tempted to take it.
As for pillorying Farnell for suggesting that Gammy be aborted, I'm at a loss as to why everyone is so shocked by this. All over the world every year tens of thousands of foetuses are aborted because they test positive for DS. In the UK it is legal to abort, up to birth, for a condition such as Downs. Ground E for an abortion in the UK covers anything from cleft palate to more severe conditions - and it allows for abortions after 24 weeks and right up to birth.
In the UK - after a combined test that indicates a risk of Downs, which is routinely carried out on all pregnant women unless they object - 30,000 women a year who are deemed to be at high risk based on the results of blood tests and ultrasounds, are offered amniocentesis, which is a more definitive test for Downs. Of those offered amnio 60pc take it. The other 40pc possibly don't, largely because of the risk of miscarriage, which is one in 100 with amnio. They may also not wish to know, because they may not wish to be given the option of aborting their foetus with Downs.
Of those who take the test and get a positive result, official figures show that nine in ten abort. In 2012 1,000 foetuses were aborted after positive tests for Downs. Some of these were very late abortions. Yet those people are not demonised in the world's press. They are not the subject of social media frenzies. Indeed, you might suspect that the same social media crusaders who were so horrified by Farnell's attitude to Gammy, would be the ones who would stand up for a woman's right to choose. But when it comes to this case, where there was a living, breathing cute baby to look at, they went with the sentimental argument. How could he do it? What a monster.
I am aware that discussing these things gives me some pretty odd bedfellows. But I am not making a pro-life argument here. What I would say is that while the reaction of Farnell, and the reaction of nine out of ten people who find out their baby will have Downs is understandable, it is a pity. And there are more low-risk ways of finding out your unborn child has Downs being developed all the time. A simple blood test can do it now, which some people tell us could hopefully lead to the elimination of Down syndrome. More accurately, you could say, it could lead to the elimination of people with Down syndrome.
It is understandable why people dealing in the abstract, and even when presented with a newborn with Downs, would panic. For starters, given that we live in a world where the elimination of people with Downs seems to be an aspiration for many scientists, and is certainly common practice, you can understand why someone might feel they would not want to have a baby with Downs. Also we live in a society where people with Downs are treated like second-class citizens. When you look at a baby with Downs or the prospect of a baby with Downs, you are looking at someone whom you know will be dependent, no matter what your circumstances, on charity. Their rights will not be their rights. They will be afforded to them at the pleasure of others. They will be dependent on the goodwill of others. All their lives you or they will be around with the begging bowl trying to get essential services. When that is the message that society sends, it is understandable that someone would bolt from their baby with Downs, or get rid of it, given half the chance.
And, of course, on a more personal level, in the abstract, people get a terrible shock, and they think, "I can't do this. I am not a good enough person to do this. I am not selfless enough to do this. I have to look after my other children." They will also think of a child that will always be dependent on them, that has a one in two chance of having a heart defect, a one in two chance of dying of Alzheimer's, possibly while they, the parent, are still alive. Or the alternative, which is dying first, and having as their last thought, 'Who will fight her corner now? How will she cope without me?'
These are the realities people are faced with. So whatever this man's other shortcomings, which were not known about when we first starting judging him, don't judge his reality for the sake of some sentimental hashtag kneejerk. And if you are going to judge him for not wanting the baby, then be consistent, and judge all the people who have the same reaction, the overwhelming majority of those who get positive tests who choose to terminate their baby with Downs.
I'll tell you an awful thing. When my second kid was born with Downs I rang my brother and told him my life was ruined. For a brief moment there I would have run away or something, only I had the older child and a traumatised wife to look after, and the new baby had burrowed into me quite quickly and become more than just, to use that awful phrase people use, "A Downs baby".
The good news is this. I'm not a great person all around, but even I have managed to cope so far. Far from ruining our lives I think that, like most people with a kid with Downs, we would probably report equal satisfaction with life now. Don't get me wrong. It's terrible. Don't let anyone tell you it's not awfully sad. And it's worse for the mothers, because they are generally at the forefront of having to fight to get the child anything she needs. Because you are totally dependent on the kindness of strangers.
The latest is that my wife has essentially learned to be a speech therapist. This is on top of work and caring for a kid with special needs and another kid. And, of course, at times, you worry. And sometimes you look at her and her whole life flashes in front of you and it absolutely breaks your heart. And I don't mean in a hashtag read a sad story sadface way, like baby Gammy broke so many hearts. I mean, really tears you to pieces.
But you know what? I love her so much and she has made a man of me, and of her mother, and she is turning her sister into an extraordinary person. And she herself is an extraordinary person and I am so proud of her every day. Not as a person with Downs, just as a person, as an anything. And most importantly, so far, at least, touch wood, she is incredibly happy. She is having a ball. I'd nearly say she is having a better time than all of us. And while it won't always be easy for her, who are we to deny her the struggle? Who am I to decide she didn't deserve to live because life would be different for her. I'm so glad she wasn't wiped out. I'm so glad we didn't reject a lack of perfection. I'm so glad she's in the world. And practically every parent with a kid with Downs will tell you that and they will mean it. And lots of them have it far worse than we do. They have seen their kids cut up for open heart surgery as babies. They've seen them unable to eat or swallow, they've seen them terribly sick, in awful pain, and nearly worse, they have seen them desperately passive, which is worse than you think. They have seen all the small things we all take for granted become epic struggles. Yet they don't regret it.
It's very easy for people to get carried away when there is a cute baby involved - and, funnily enough, lots of kids with Downs are exceptionally cute, with their babyish features and their exotic eyes. It's very easy to get off on what disability activist Francesca Martinez calls inspiration porn. Ah look, so cute, aren't they great, send money, that man is evil for rejecting this child. This kind of sentimentalising of disability in the media and on social media is possibly helpful in some way in getting awareness up, but I can't help thinking it is profoundly offensive to people with disabilities. It's not a million miles from the old-fashioned, condescending notions we used to have towards disability. Ah aren't they great considering. And it's a gift from god. And god gave you this because he knew you were a special person.
Hopefully, this story will lead to some of the people who had their hearts broken on Twitter looking into this issue in a more real way. Hopefully they will look beyond having their heart broken by cute little Gammy. And maybe they might think about why someone would not want a child with Downs, and maybe they might think about all those people who choose not to have a baby with Downs, and maybe they might question whether we wish to live in a society where difference or imperfection is eliminated. And as genetics advances all the time, maybe these people might think a little about what other differences we are going to start eliminating from our ever more perfect gene pool. And maybe they might consider too that society's attitudes to people with Downs are one of the main reasons why people like David Farnell and the thousands of people who terminate their unborn babies with Downs every year do so.
Baby Gammy will have done us all a real service if he encourages people to think a bit about that. And the funny thing is that social media and the internet will be hugely valuable in facilitating that discussion and that learning process and that consciousness change. Once it gets beyond the initial hashtag kneejerk.
Sunday Independent