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Drought Leads to Stray Donkey Deluge
DALLAS—Law-enforcement agencies in Texas are grappling with an unusual problem: stray donkeys, which are roaming roads and fields in growing numbers and overwhelming animal shelters.
The donkey predicament is one of the odder ramifications of the record-setting drought that has dried up Texas. Hay supplies have shriveled, causing prices for a bale to more than double over the past year.
Now, authorities say, owners who no longer can afford to feed their donkeys are turning them loose.
"The donkey problem is epidemic," said Patrick Bonner, senior sergeant at the Dallas County Sheriff's Department. "We're inundated."
Donkey-catching duties are eating up his officers' time, he said, taking them away from patrolling traffic and writing tickets. The donkey population at his agency's livestock center on the outskirts of Dallas has expanded from four on average at the beginning of this year to more than 20.
Domestic pets across the country have been losing their homes since the recession started tightening their keepers' budgets. But the current hay shortage is making it even tougher for horses and donkeys, said Jacque Schultz, senior director of the equine fund at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York.
"What I hear from the rescue groups is most of them are full and they are having trouble placing animals," she said. That includes operations beyond the drought-affected areas that nevertheless are feeling the pinch of higher hay prices.
Texas, though, is among the worst off, with its abundance of ranches and farms and with drought covering practically the whole state. Earlier this year, the ASPCA launched a $250,000 "bale-out" to buy feed for shelters and owners in Texas and neighboring Oklahoma.
Texas farmers have racked up billions of dollars in drought-related losses, including some $750 million in ruined hay, according to Larry Redmon, a forage expert at Texas A&M University. Hay prices jumped to $250 to $275 a ton from about $120 a ton last year, he said.
Among livestock, donkeys are the most likely to be kicked out first by struggling ranchers, experts say, because they are of little agricultural use. Most of them are oversized pets or serve as flock protectors to fend off predators such as coyotes. (Unlike horses, which flee when threatened, donkeys tend to stand their ground and attack, according to connoisseurs.)
Donkeys, also known as burros, also are harder to sell than other farm animals, and many auctions are turning them down, particularly the males, known as jacks.
"You cannot give a jack away," said Beverly Miller, who's been in the equine-auctioning business for decades in Ector, Texas, near the Oklahoma line.
Abandoning livestock animals is illegal in Texas, and is punishable by fines and up to a year in jail. But law-enforcement officers say it's a crime virtually impossible to prove
. Donkeys aren't required to be tagged or branded so their owners are hard to trace.
"All they got to do is find a secluded part of road and open up the trailer door and let them out," said Mark Sievers, a deputy at the Burnet County Sheriff's Department, about 50 miles northwest of Austin.
In Navarro County, 60 miles south of Dallas, hungry burros acquired by absentee landowners to qualify for agricultural tax exemptions on their property are breaking loose, or being set free, in big numbers, said Sheriff Leslie Cotten. His office rounded up 34 donkeys and sent them to a shelter in West Texas in October. By the beginning of December, 44 more had been collected, he said.
"At the rate we're going we'll be out of money in six months," he said, adding that it costs taxpayers more than $200 a day to feed the animals in custody.
As more donkeys accumulate, they are becoming more difficult to place. Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, a group that takes in abandoned donkeys across the country, can barely afford to feed the 600 it is keeping at its Miles, Texas, facility. It currently isn't taking in any more, said Executive Director Mark Meyers. Texas, he said, absorbs 95% of the group's operating funds.
"We're hand to mouth right now," he said, and "it's getting worse."
Charles Munro, an architect and burro keeper in Bertram, Texas, near Austin, sees one silver lining in the continuing donkey plight. Public attention on the problem is helping donkey lovers such as himself dispel what he said is the animal's undeserved reputation for stubbornness and stupidity.
"They're actually more intelligent than some humans I know," said Mr. Munro, who is caring for 13 donkeys at a shelter he started at his home.
Write to Ana Campoy at email@example.com


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The End
Dear Friends, It's been seven years since I started this blog. I started as a young mother who needed an outlet – a community. And I found it. Then when I found my current lifestyle, it transformed into a food blogging/Paleo/CrossFit/Gluten-Free/Family hybrid blog. It's opened doors for me – professionally and personally...read more

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Could The International Space Station Be Abandoned?
The International Space Station, which has been constantly manned since 2000, may have to be abandoned later this year following the launch failure of a Russian rocket last week. Until the problem with that rocket is resolved, there will be no way to get astronauts to the station. Robert Siegel speaks with Dr. Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut, about what that would mean to the station — and the six astronauts currently on board.


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In each column, The Support Authority discusses resources, tools, and other elements of IBM® Technical Support that are available for WebSphere® products, plus techniques and new ideas that can further enhance your IBM support experience.
This just in...
As always, we begin with some new items of interest for the WebSphere community at large:
- Check out the IBM Conferences & Events page for a list of upcoming conferences. The IBM European WebSphere Technical Conference is a 4.5 day event to be held 11-15 October 2010 in Düsseldorf, Germany. This event combines the WebSphere and Transaction & Messaging Conferences of previous years into one seamless agenda, offering two great conferences for the price of one. This year's conference will be co-located with the Portal Excellence Conference, dedicated to portal business solutions and technical strategies..
- Last month, the IBM Support Portal was named one of the Top Ten Support Sites of 2010 by the Association of Support Professionals. Have you tried the IBM Support Portal yet? All IBM software products are now included, and all software product support pages have been replaced by IBM Support Portal. See the Support Authority's Introduction to the new IBM Support Portal for details.
- Learn, share, and network at the IBM Electronic Support Community blog on developerWorks.
- Check out the new Global WebSphere Community at websphereusergroup.org. Customize the content on your personalized GWC page and connect to other "WebSpherians" with the same interests.
- Several exciting webcasts are planned in July and August at the WebSphere Technical Exchange. Check the site for details and become a fan on Facebook!
Continue to monitor the various support-related Web sites, as well as this column, for news about other tools as we encounter them.
And now, on to our main topic...
Managing existing environments with Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere
IBM Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere (hereafter referred to as Rational Automation Framework) is a solution for managing the installation, configuration, and application deployments for IBM WebSphere products. Rational Automation Framework is data driven to provide accuracy and consistency, as well as increased speed in the form of parallel execution -- beyond the performance gains acquired through automation.
The framework ships with over 500 actions, which are granular building blocks used to build an automation solution for your WebSphere products. Rational Automation Framework is built on top of a proven, enterprise level automation platform in the form of IBM Rational Build Forge, and currently supports WebSphere Application Server V6.0, 6.1 and 7.0, WebSphere Portal V6.0 and 6.1, and IBM HTTP Server V6.0, 6.1 and 7.0. Additionally the Rational Automation Framework team has provided incubator code for IBM WebSphere Virtual Enterprise and the IBM WebSphere Business Process Management suite, including IBM WebSphere Process Server, IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, IBM WebSphere Business Monitor, and IBM WebSphere Service Registry and Repository.
Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere and Rational Build Forge enable you to manage your IBM WebSphere product cells. Rational Automation Framework provides two options for bringing a cell under the management of the framework:
- The first is to use the new cell wizard to define the topology of a new WebSphere product cell. After running through the new cell wizard, an automation plan will be created to install the WebSphere product bits, create and federate the profiles, install IBM HTTP Server, install the plug-in, and so on.
- The other option is to import an existing WebSphere product cell into Rational Automation Framework. Using the existing cell wizard, you simply specify a minimal set of information about the existing cell, such as the host name of one of the nodes, credentials for the operating system and WebSphere product user, and a profile location. Rational Automation Framework will then discover the cell's topology and then build a representation in Rational Automation Framework and an automation plan to import configuration data from the cell (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Example run of the Rational Automation Framework existing cell wizard
After importing the cell's topology into Rational Automation Framework, an automation plan is created that will run the action was_common_configure_all at all applicable scopes. This will import nearly all of the configuration of the existing cell. The example environment described here is a WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment environment, and so the automation plan will run the import all action at the cell, clusters, nodes, and servers scope (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Automation plan to import the cell's configuration
Capturing the configuration
Rational Automation Framework supports several modes of operation. These modes vary action by action, but many of the actions support Import mode. Because Rational Automation Framework actions are designed to handle a specific portion of the configuration, you can use an action to pinpoint exactly what you'd like to capture.
For example, you could run the was_common_configure_jdbc_providers actions in Import mode at cell scope to import just data providers that are defined at the cell scope into Rational Automation Framework. The data is then stored in a normalized, version-agnostic XML format on the Rational Automation Framework server. These documents can then be version controlled. Unlike the application server, where many resource types are stored in a single XML file, Rational Automation Framework stores related resources in their own XML files. For examples, data sources, JDBC providers, and was40 data sources are all stored in the jdbc.xml file. Additionally, there is a jdbc.xml file created at each scope where a corresponding Import mode command was run.
Suppose you have a TEST_PROMOTE environment defined. You could run this command:
rafw_home\bin\rafw.bat -env TEST_PROMOTE -cell qa -cluster cluster1 -import was_common_configure_jdbc_providers
After completion of this command, the file rafw_home/user/environments/TEST_PROMOTE/cells/qa/clusters/cluster1/jdbc.xml will contain definitions of all the JDBC providers defined at the cluster1 scope (Listing 1).
Listing 1. Example output of Import mode run at a scope with one JDBC provider defined
<?xml version="1.0"?> <jdbc> <RAFW_JDBCProviders> <JDBCProvider classpath="${DB2UNIVERSAL_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}/db2jcc.jar;${UNIVERSAL_JDBC_DRIVER_ PATH}/db2jcc_license_cu.jar;${DB2UNIVERSAL_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH}/db2jcc_license_cisuz.jar" description="XA DB2 Universal JDBC Driver-compliant Provider. Datasources created under this provider support the use of XA to perform 2-phase commit processing. Use of driver type 2 on WebSphere Application Server for Z/OS is not supported for datasources created under this provider." implementationClassName="com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2XADataSource" name="DB2 Universal JDBC Driver Provider (XA)" nativepath="${DB2UNIVERSAL_JDBC_DRIVER_NATIVEPATH}" providerType="DB2 Universal JDBC Driver Provider (XA)" xa="true" > </JDBCProvider> </RAFW_JDBCProviders>
In this case, only a single JDBC provider existed at the cluster1 scope.
Applying Rational Automation Framework's repository configuration to a cell
After capturing configuration information in Rational Automation Framework, you can now playback the configuration data in Rational Automation Framework using the same action in Execute mode. Execute mode will first delete all configuration elements of the given type and then recreate them based on the information stored in the Rational Automation Framework configuration repository. Notice that each of the existing data sources being removed from the WebSphere Application Server configuration are being created based on the model in the Rational Automation Framework configuration repository.
Adding resources to the configuration
Augment mode in Rational Automation Framework enables you to add configuration elements to a WebSphere Application Server cell. Augment mode is truly additive and will not update existing configuration elements. A check will be made to determine if a specified configuration element exists; if it does, a warning message will be displayed and the element will be skipped. Definitions for resources to be augmented are specified in a file named <type>_augment.xml; for example, jdbc_augment.xml for JDBC related resources. Figure 3 illustrates the warning messages for existing resources as well as the addition of new resources to the WebSphere Application Server configuration.
Figure 3. Augment mode action flagging existing elements that will be skipped and new resources added
Comparing Rational Automation Framework's repository with a live cell
"Configuration drift" refers to a situation that can occur when over time differences are introduced into a WebSphere product environment. While most users diligently attempt to keep their staging and production environments in sync, inevitably a change is introduced that ultimately goes unnoticed. A common source of such rogue changes are attempts to debug an issue in production. When a critical application is down at 2:00 AM, it is possible that not all changes made while attempting to bring the application back online are documented – or reverted if not required. In the short term, the changes in these applications might seem harmless, but once you deploy a new application it begins to behave differently in your production versus staging environments. Or possibly there is a difference between your east and west coast data centers. Change made in the "heat of battle" might seem innocuous at first, but when it begins to cause problems you are left to find the needle in a haystack.
Compare mode in Rational Automation Framework will compare the configuration stored in Rational Automation Framework's repository with the corresponding configuration in the live cell and flag any differences. Using the Rational Build Forge automation platform, you can schedule these comparisons during off-peak hours and run them on a regular basis. If a change is caught early, it is much easier to make an informed decision on whether or not the change should be accepted or reverted, rather than trying to recall why a change was made six months ago.
Figure 4 shows the results of a comparison where the Rational Automation Framework configuration contains a data source resource that doesn't exist in the WebSphere product cell.
Figure 4. Comparison mode flagging a missing object in the live cell
Figure 5 shows an example of a comparison that flagged a change to the max connections setting on the connection pool attribute of a data source.
Figure 5. Change to an attribute on a data source
Once a difference is flagged in Rational Automation Framework's Compare mode, you have the choice of keeping the change and updating the Rational Automation Framework repository with the new value. This is accomplished by running the corresponding Rational Automation Framework action in import mode. If you decide to not keep the change, you can reapply the configuration stored in Rational Automation Framework by running the corresponding action in execute mode. This will recreate the configuration according to the values saved in Rational Automation Framework.
Deploying enterprise applications
Rational Automation Framework uses a properties file that describes the enterprise application deployment options and indicates the location of the .ear file to be deployed. The action was_common_deploy_install_app -a <app name> is used to deploy EAR files. The application properties file can be in one of two formats:
- The first format is a single OPTIONS key that contains all of the wsadmin options for the deployment. This option string can be rapidly created using most versions of WebSphere Application Server by simply using the admin console to deploy the application and selecting the View Administration scripting command for last action link.
- The other option for creating these properties files is to create each option in wsadmin as its own key in the file. This approach enables administrators to create a template version of the file they can pass to developers. Developers then only have to worry about a small set of options. Listing 2 shows a segment from one of these files. In this example, the developers will determine whether the preCompileJSPs option should be used, but the administrators will decide which servers the modules are mapped to. Rational Automation Framework ships with example files for each version of WebSphere Application Server that is supported by the framework.
Listing 2
# Precompile JavaServer Pages files options.preCompileJSPs=false # Distribute application options.distributeApp=true # The MapModulesToServers option specifies the application server where # you want to install modules that are contained in your application. options.multi.one.MapModulesToServers=["Default Application" default_app.war, WEB-INF/web.xml WebSphere:cell=mycell,node=mynode,server=server1] options.multi.two.MapModulesToServers=["Default Application" default_app.war, WEB-INF/web.xml WebSphere:cell=mycell,node=mynode,server=server2 options.multi.three.MapModulesToServers=["Examples Application" examples.war, WEB-INF/web.xml WebSphere:cell=mycell,node=mynode,server=server2+WebSphere:cell=mycell, node=yournode,server=server1]
Promoting resources along the development lifecycle
As an application and its configuration changes move along the development lifecycle, great care must be taken to move the related resources from one stage to the next; for example, moving data sources required by a new application from the shared test environment into the staging environment. While it's desirable to keep almost all of the data the same (such as the database and JNDI names), there are other values that should change from one environment to another. You wouldn't want your data sources pointing to your production database server.
Rational Automation Framework's Promote mode was designed to handle this specific challenge. Promote mode acts as a pull operation, and will pull the configuration from one Rational Automation Framework environment into another. In practical terms, this means you would pull the configuration from the shared test environment into staging. However, bi-directional promotion is supported. This is useful if you find a problem in your production environment and want to promote that same configuration to your test environment to try and debug the issue. Additionally, you are able to change scope during promotion. For example, if a developer is working in a standalone single server environment and creates his data sources at the server scope, then during promotion into the Network Deployment clustered shared test environment the data sources can be moved to the cluster scope. In order to handle known environmental differences, Rational Automation Framework passes promoted data through a filter. The filter understands two types of expressions:
- The first is a simple text-based replacement. In order for the text-base replacement to be enabled, a promote.properties file is required at both the promoted from and to scopes. The files must contain the same keys. In the standalone server to Network Deployment cluster promotion example above, the keys in each file would be:
- Standalone environment at the server scope: myKey=ABC
- Network Deployment environment at the cluster scope: myKey=XYZ
- The other type of filter is based on Xpath expressions. Much like SQL for relational databases, Xpath enables you to navigate to various places in an XML document. For Xpath keys, you only need to specify the key and value in the target environment's promote.properties file. There will be two keys, one with the .xpath suffix that contains the Xpath expression, and one with a .value suffix that represents the new value. In the example shown in Listing 3, the Xpath expression indicates that for all JavaProcessDef elements, get the maximumHeapSize attribute of the JavaVirtualMachine element. Once you locate the attribute, set the value to 512. In WebSphere Application Server terms, you are enforcing the MaximumHeapSize for each of your server JVMs to be 512MB. A developer might have been testing with a 2GB maximum heap size on his local desktop, but the same configuration isn't realistic on a shared server hosting numerous JVMs.
Listing 3
MyMaxHeapSetting.xpath=//JavaProcessDef/JavaVirtualMachine/@maximumHeapSize MyMaxHeapSetting.value=512
Another example would be to change a widgetDB Data Source to point to the production database server and use a port 5001.
Listing 4
dbname.xpath=//DataSource[@name='widgetDB']/J2EEResourcePropertySet/ J2EEResourceProperty[@name='serverName']/@value dbname.value=production.db.server.com dbport.xpath=//DataSource[@name='widgetDB']/J2EEResourcePropertySet/ J2EEResourceProperty[@name='portNumber']/@value dbport.value=50001
IBM Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere is a field-proven product used to manage IBM WebSphere product installations, configurations, and application deployments. Leveraging the core enterprise automation platform in IBM Rational Build Forge, you can use Rational Automation Framework to create a repeatable, accurate, and fast automation infrastructure suited to your WebSphere product environments. With more than 500 actions and more than 30 automation libraries (and counting), Rational Automation Framework offers a huge array of possibilities for managing your WebSphere Application Server environments out of the box. The underlying automation platform and Rational Automation Framework itself offer much in the way of extensibility for those already invested in WebSphere Application Server scripting.
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Juanma thought that he could had continue and the ref didn't give him the chance. He had enough clearness in his head to complain and get upset. In the Mtagwa fight he survived, but also from the same fight he should had learned from it and didn't do anything new. A better fighter than Mtagwa, Salido took advantage of Lopez's weaknesses and finished the job
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CK Faces: Barker Creek devotee graduates to Earth Day honors
When Derek Schruhl was 3, his family moved into a home on Nels Nelson Road. Barker Creek cuts the property in half.
Thats where Ive learned to have an appreciation for it and everything Ive done so far is to try to understand it, he said about the creek.
Derek, now 19, has been involved with the Chums of Barkers Creek organization for years and was recently awarded the countys Earth Day award for environmental leadership.
He was attending community meetings with his parents even before he was old enough to attend elementary school and before the Chums were formed in 1993.
He was just a little child at the time but the parents were very active and always took their children with them to meetings, said Mary Bertrand, Chums of Barker Creek president.
From a tag-along at his fathers Chums meetings, Derek has now graduated to board member for the environmental group.
Being that Ive lived there my whole life, you kind of get a sense of ownership not only for your part of the stream but for the whole watershed, Derek said.
When he was 7, Derek helped release 30,000 coho salmon into the creek that runs in his parents backyard. He was a Chum by association, his father Daryl Schruhl is vice president of the group. But it was not until he was ready to graduate from Olympic High School in 2004 that Derek got involved with Barker Creek preservation more actively.
Now that hes in college hes become really, scientifically active, Bertrand said.
He was assimilating a lot of this stuff when he was growing up, she added. It probably impacted him a lot more than we realized.
Now in his second year at Olympic College, Derek has been taking organic chemistry, biology, meteorology and geology classes and has added many Chums duties to his hectic schedule.
Derek has been walking the Three Springs Site, a 10-acre parcel of mature forest off of Nels Nelson Road, for many, many hours in the last year-and-a-half. He keeps and updates an inventory of all animal and plant life he discovers on his visits.
(Three Springs) offers a great diversity, he said. Theres the mature forest, the wetlands and everything in between. Youve got different types of birds that use the site, different types of mammals that use the site.
Since the Chums took Three Springs under its protection in the mid-1990s, the intention has been to preserve it as an outdoor classroom for local school children and the community. A trail system was designed and Derek helped out with that project as well.
A stewardship committee, made up of Chums of Barker Creek members, school and county officials, was formed to look after Three Springs and other parcels of land in the creek watershed.
Dereks father likes to see the Barker Creek corridor as a passive, educational area, in contrast to the active, public-access Clear Creek Trail project.
Derek, too, has gotten involved with the stewardship committee to help ensure the land pieces the Chums have helped acquire thanks to grant funds remain pristine for education and salmon habitat purposes.
Still tagging along with his father, Derek also conducts research to help contribute to Daryls role in the citizen advisory committee for the Silverdale Sub-Area Plan.
Hes sought a lot of it out on his own, Daryl said about his sons interest in matters of environment and urban growth. It amazes me the amount of research hell go out and do.
Its a real internal drive. I hopefully gave him a little bit of opportunity and he ran with it.
In her nomination letter for the Earth Day award, Margarite Juarez Thomas, environmental health technician with the health districts Water Quality Program, wrote, Derek is a rarity among community activists because he understands the roles of various government agencies and community groups play in watershed protection.
When Derek volunteered to help her with the Pollution Identification and Correction project on Barker Creek, he helped identify several tributaries missing from Juarez Thomas maps.
Hes really enthusiastic and really involved all the time, she said. Its pretty much all he thinks about.
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When I was a little girl dreaming of doing big things (like staying up past 8 p.m.), I created a little world of make-believe in my bedroom: I would line up my stuffed animals and younger brother, announce, "Class is in session!" and insist they call me "Teacher." There was something exhilarating about the title. In my mind, "teacher" symbolized intelligence, competence and wielding unbridled power over my minions.
Every day, my toys and I covered reading, writing and no arithmetic—because it has never been my strong suit. I assigned homework, and if Pooh Bear didn't return it the next day, it was a detention for him!
I took my job very seriously.
As I grew older and more mature—e.g., I discovered "Beverly Hills 90210"—a love of writing held me hostage. If my nose wasn't in a book, I was creating original pieces. Poetry scribbled in different-colored pens replaced the mini-chalkboard on my bedroom walls. My world of make-believe now existed on paper. Each day, I recorded my innermost thoughts in a journal and actually thumbed through a thesaurus to learn new words. There was nothing sexier than "90210's" Brandon Walsh's good grades and extensive vocabulary.
No, I'm not kidding.
Fast-forward to my senior year of high school. I was preparing to attend college.
As a journalism major.
Shocked? My mom was too.
Mom: "Stephanie, you are meant to be an English teacher! It is in your bones!"
Me: "Yeah, I'm more interested in journalism. Maybe I'll be on the news."
Mom: "I'm sure you would be a great news anchor, but you were born to be a teacher."
My mom has a flair for the dramatic, but it is only fair to mention that I have a flair for the "once I make up my mind, you will not change it." Away I went to college, majoring in journalism.
What's that saying about when you're wrong, you should never admit it and waste two semesters' worth of your parents' money at college? There isn't one, because it is a bad, BAD idea.
I was miserable. I didn't like my classes, I wasn't crazy about my professors, and the only ray of sunshine in my academic day was my communications class, where I communicated with people instead of on paper. Turns out, I was pretty good at relaying information to others and ...wait for it ...teaching.
I tucked my tail between my legs and returned home to tell my parents I wanted to change my major to education. I promised to work hard and make up for lost time, and avoided eye contact when that "I told you so" smile plastered itself across my mother's face.
Fifteen years and a few extra dollars later (sorry, Dad), I am a high school English teacher, certified in four different states, with traditional and virtual classroom experience under my proverbial belt. But the best part? My job rocks. How many people can say that they truly love what they do every day?
I just wish I had listened to my mom (don't tell her I said this). Silly, silly teenager. If only I had heeded the obvious signs.
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By ARAB NEWS
RIYADH: Minister of Justice Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Kareem Al-Issa said Salafism should not be interpreted as Islam at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.
The minister said in reply to a question by the rector of the university: "Salafism is only a descriptive approach, not a name. This means we obey the ancestors' belief and values in understanding Islam, which is a moderate approach practiced by the late King Abdul Aziz who founded our Kingdom based on this approach."
During the lecture attended by the rector of the university, deans, teaching staff, students and some experts, the minister dwelt at length on the subject of social work in the courts. He called on people to resolve all struggles and fights in a peaceful way without resorting to violence or without going to the court.
Solving problems is a social approach and using the Islamic principles urging every Muslim to respect his Muslim brother were some of the topics the minister talked about in his lecture at Imam University.
The minister talked about a decision to set up a department in his ministry specialized in solving the problems, fights and struggles between people in a very social way, giving rights to their beneficiaries, and reducing any injustice in these cases.
read more here: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article574685.ece
Categories: Asia, Islam, Saudi Arabia, Sharia, Sharia Law


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There will be a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for the burglarly of the USGA Museum in Bernards Township that occurred in the early morning of May 16, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said.
The burglar alarm was sounded at the USGA Museum after 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning, police said.
Prosecutor Soriano said that once inside the building, officers observed several trophy cases were extensively damaged with an axe and that two items had been removed.
The items were the U.S. Amateur Trophy, which was created in 1926 and retired in 1992, and a replica of Ben Hogan's 1953 Hickok Belt award, which the USGA acquired from the Hogan estate in 1998 and has been displayed in the Museum since 1999.
A security video camera revealed that the suspect has a tall, thin build and he was wearing blue jeans, a dark colored jacket, white sneakers and he might have been wearing a mask.
Anyone with information regarding this incident should contact Somerset County Crime Stoppers' Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477) or online at www.888577tips.org or www.scpo.net and click on either "Crime Stoppers" or "TIPS HOTLINE".


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Princess-to-be Kate Middleton could be involved in another love match – as Royal representative at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Kate s being lined up to take centre stage in the Royal Box during Wimbledon fortnight. She could even take over trophy presenting duties from the Duke of Kent.
Palace aides have discussed the idea of Kate taking on the role in the hope she will bring a touch of glamour to the tournament in the wake of her marriage to Prince William.
Kate is tennis-mad and an accomplished player. She has been a regular Wimbledon-goer with her mother Carole. She plays tennis at the Harbour Club in Chelsea, where Princess Diana was a member. She represented her school and frequently beats William on the court.
A chum said: "Kate adores everything about tennis and would love to have an official role at Wimbledon."
A Royal source said: "Catherine will want to be affiliated with charities and patronages which she is passionate about and Wimbledon would be a perfect fit."
The task of presenting trophies to Wimbledon winners is currently carried out by the Duke of Kent. Previously it was done by the Duchess of Kent but she hasn't presented a prize since 2001. The source said: "The Duke of Kent does a sterling job and there's certainly no talk of him being axed, but there is a suggestion that Kate could present the trophy at the ladies' finals. She will certainly be seen in the Royal Box in the future."
A spokesman for the Palace said: "It's too early to say. There are a lot of possibilities for Catherine."
Article: Daily Mail
Prince Andrew, Fergie and the girls are on ski holiday in Verbier
And of course, the article's focus is on Princess Eugenie's partying and flirtations with an unidentified boy.
Princess Eugenie hit the slopes of the Swiss Alps resort Sunday morning – despite a hangover from having thrown herself energetically into the apres-ski the night before. Dressed in a black frock and knee-high boots, Eugenie danced the night away on Friday at the trendy Farm Club disco in the centre of town with a young man who was clearly besotted with her.
What her boyfriend of one year, Jack Brooksbank, will make of this remains to be seen.
Article: Daily Mail
Bruce Oldfield gives another interview
You know what? Him giving out interviews like this makes it rather clear to me that he is NOT designing Kate's wedding dress. The designer who landed the job would likely be very discreet and keeping mum about it.
Anyhow, he predicts sleeves and a veil for Kate. He reiterates that she will be wearing two dresses – one for the Abbey and one for the evening reception. He also likens Carole Middleton to France's first lady Carla Bruni.
However it pans out, Bruce is going to be busy for the Royal Wedding. Even if he won't be dressing the bride, there are plenty of other high society people who will be lining up.
Other Royal News:
- Press Association: The Queen marks 59th year on the throne
- Edmonton Journal: Kate Middleton gets a mentor
- Telegraph: Black sheep Uncle Gary will get an invite to the Abbey
- Express: Queen's ex aide cashes in on £4,000 royal wedding tour
Related Posts:
- Safety Fears for Prince Charles During Princess Diana's Funeral
- James Blunt, Band of Welsh Guards to Perform on Royal Wedding
- Kate Middleton Braves the Snow for Charity Carol Service
- Royal Wedding Updates: Carriages Revealed!
- New Kate Middleton Childhood Pics Revealed


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I saw an article today on CNNMoney called the top things homebuyers need to know [3] and I don't think they tell you enough on some very key and critical points. For example, they give the advice that you should clean up your credit because it's important in the lending process (it, among other things, determines your interest rate) but it misses a key fact: You shouldn't be trying to improve your score, you are merely checking for errors and inaccuracies. You can't improve your score significantly in a month or two, the equation just doesn't work that way, so don't look for a magic bullet but do check for errors which can improve your score since the errors should be investigated and removed within thirty days. There are more…
A lot of these "things" are common sense, such as "Don't buy if you can't stay put" (#1) and "Hire a home inspector," (#10) and don't need much explanation to get the full point across. But here are the ones that need just a tad bit more information.
4. Don't worry if you can't put down the usual 20 percent.
This doesn't mean an option-ARM is what you want (where your monthly payment doesn't even cover interest), know what you're getting into when you sign on the dotted line. Don't buy into the hype of the hot housing market… buy smart, or wait.
5. Buy in a district with good schools.
The idea behind this nugget of advice is that you should be considering your exit strategy. Are you planning on living there a few years and then renting it out? Do you want to live there, sell, and upgrade? Good schools means your target customer base improves to include families with children. If you're planning on renting it out and earning some income, you probably want to buy a place in a city with young professionals.
6. Get professional help.
You don't need an agent to find a house, but you need an agent to go over the paperwork, fill out a contract, and does all the legalese stuff to make sure you aren't getting screwed. Plus, you aren't paying for the agent, the seller does. Perhaps you can knock off a little from the sale price by going without an agent, but what if you mess up the contract? And if the other guy has an agent, you might get steamrolled later on for something… the agent has to earn that commission right? Don't go into a gunfight armed with only your wits.
8. Before house hunting, get pre-approved
They don't stress this enough… if you are not pre-approved, in this blazing hot housing market, you are not even going to be in the race. You could offer tons of money, but its all fairy tale money because the pre-approval proves to the sellers you have enough credibility with a lender that you could get a loan. The pre-approval process will demand you show pay stubs, bank account records, etc; it's pretty exhaustive. Pre-qualifications (one step before pre-approvals) are worthless, don't waste your time getting one.
What do you think of my clarifications? Am I totally off-base? I'm very interested to hear your comments on this one.


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Breast Cancer During Pregnancy Center - Bloomington, IL
- WebMD Physician Directory of Bloomington Oncologist Doctors
- Related Breast Cancer During Pregnancy Articles
- Bloomington Emergency Contacts
- Nearby Bloomington Hospitals
- Find a Local Pharmacy on RxList - Bloomington
Bloomington Oncologist Doctors for Breast Cancer During Pregnancy
Type of Physician: Oncologist
What is a Oncologist? A subspecialty certification by the Board of Internal Medicine; the oncologist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of all types of cancer and other benign and malignant tumors. These subspecialists decide on and administer chemotherapy as well as consult with surgeons and radiotherapists on other treatment for cancer.
Specialty: Oncology (Medical)
Common Name: Cancer Doctor
Oncologist Doctors in Bloomington * results
- 2
Pramern Sriratana
Mid Illinois Hematology And Oncology Association
407 E Vernon Ave Ste 2
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 452-9701
- 43 years experience
- 3 office location(s)
- 3
Lyndi Alberts
Mid Illinois Hematology And Oncology Association
407 E Vernon Ave Ste 2
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 452-9701
- 1 office location(s)
- 4
Maryanne A. De Paz
Taylorville Memorial Hospital
210 W McKinley Ave Ste 1
Decatur, IL 62526
(217) 876-4700
- 1 office location(s)
- 5
Patricia A. Johnson
Gibson Area Hospital Outpatient Clinic
1120 N Melvin St
Gibson City, IL 60936
(217) 784-2340
- 2 office location(s)
- 6
Kendrith M. Rowland Jr
Carle Physician Group Family Medicine
602 W University Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 383-3010
- 2 office location(s)
Don't see your city? Use the WebMD Physician Directory to expand your search.
Breast Cancer During Pregnancy
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in pregnant women and tends to affect women in their mid-30s. Although only about 1 in every 1,000 pregnant women get breast cancer, the disease can be devastating to both the mother a...
Other Related Breast Cancer During Pregnancy Articles
Emergency Contact for Bloomington
- In case of Emergency, call 911
Nearby Bloomington Hospitals results
- 1Advocate Bromenn Medical Center
1304 Franklin Ave
Bloomington, Illinois 61761
(309) 454-140
- 2OSF St Joseph Medical Center
2200 E Washington St
Bloomington, Illinois 61701
(309) 662-331
- 3Advocate Eureka Hospital
101 S Major St
Bloomington, Illinois 61530
(309) 467-237
- 4Hopedale Medical Complex
107 Tremont St
Bloomington, Illinois 61747
(309) 449-332
- 5Dr John Warner Hospital
422 W White St
Bloomington, Illinois 61727
(217) 935-957
- 6OSF Saint James-John W Albrecht
2500 W Reynolds St
Bloomington, Illinois 61764
(815) 842-282
- 7Pontiac Correctional Center
700 W Lincoln St
Bloomington, Illinois 61764
(815) 842-281
- 8Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hosp
200 Stahlhut Dr
Bloomington, Illinois 62656
(217) 732-216
- 9Gibson Area Hospital & Hlth Svs
1120 N Melvin St
Bloomington, Illinois 60936
(217) 784-425
- 10Pekin Hospital
600 S 13th St
Bloomington, Illinois 61554
(309) 347-115
- 11OSF St Francis Medical Center
530 NE Glen Oak Ave
Bloomington, Illinois 61637
(309) 655-200
- 12American Red Cross Blood Servic
405 W John H Gwynn Jr Ave
Bloomington, Illinois 61605
(309) 674-717
- 13Methodist Medical Center
221 NE Glen Oak Ave
Bloomington, Illinois 61636
(309) 672-552
* Provider Directory Terms of Use:
The WebMD 'Provider Directory' is provided by WebMD for use by the general public as a quick reference of information about Providers. The Provider Directory is not intended as a tool for verifying the credentials, qualifications, or abilities of any Provider contained therein. Inclusion in the Provider Directory does not imply recommendation or endorsement nor does omission in the Provider Directory imply WebMD disapproval.
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Birds hit windows because they cannot perceive clear or reflective glass as a solid barrier. Every bird species can get confused, even birds like the Tufted Titmouse.
It's a sad experience almost all of us have had. You're sitting at home, and you hear something hit one of your plate-glass windows. You investigate and find a bird crumpled beneath the window. Many times, the bird is just stunned, and after a few minutes, it flies away. Sadly, the window collisions are often fatal. As luck would have it, the bird in question is often a less-common species, making the incident even more exasperating.
Because most of us find only one or a few wild birds a year beneath our windows, bird strikes seem like a fairly limited problem. Unfortunately, when you consider the number of homes and windows involved, bird collisions with windows is a big source of mortality for both migratory and resident birds. The good news is that it is also one of the easiest problems for homeowners to correct.
Recent studies suggest that as many as 100 million to 1 billion birds are killed in collisions with windows in the United States each year. This estimate assumes that one to 10 birds are killed at each building in the U.S., a figure that has been confirmed through more detailed studies. Unfortunately, experts believe these numbers may be underestimated because most fatalities are not noticed because the casualties are often hidden by vegetation or removed by scavengers. More than 225 species of birds have been documented colliding with glass.
Studies have found that about one out of every two window strikes results in a fatality. Although strikes occur at windows of various sizes, shapes, heights and orientations, more collisions occur with larger windows and those low to the ground. Collisions can occur during any weather condition, at any time of day and during every season. Many strikes occur during winter (when birds are attracted to feeders in larger numbers) and during migration (when large numbers of birds pass through yards and neighborhoods).
Birds hit windows because they cannot perceive clear or reflective glass as a solid barrier. Birds see trees and other habitat reflected in the window, or they see potted plants or other structures on the inside of the house. It's easy to understand how birds make this mistake. Take a walk around your home, and notice how clearly trees and the rest of your yard are reflected by windows, especially the large ones.
The Silhouette Solution
Despite the hazard to birds presented by windows, the good news is that it is a problem anyone can help reduce or eliminate. The solution is simple: Once you have identified the "killer windows," erect barriers that keep birds from hitting the glass, or do something that will help birds realize that the glass is a solid barrier. The challenge is making these simple solutions easy and aesthetically appealing to people!
The most common preventive measure is putting a raptor silhouette made of paper on the inside window surface. Contrary to popular belief, what keeps the birds from hitting the window is not fear of the raptor. Rather, the paper silhouette alerts the birds to the presence of the window.
Therefore, almost any object applied to the window will help deter birds. The most effective approach is to apply inch-wide vertical stripes of tape or other material spaced every 4 inches. This will virtually eliminate collisions but doesn't do much for your view or the appearance of the window. Many wild bird retail stores sell spider web appliques and other silhouettes that can be helpful.
Get the kids involved — they will love the idea of having their art displayed on the glass! Remember: The silhouette doesn't have to be of a bird. All we are trying to do is alert the bird that there is a window present.
With a little creativity, window silhouettes can be quite attractive and a good way to raise awareness about the issue of bird collisions with windows. I recently saw an office building that had a long row of large, reflective glass windows at ground level. The reflective image in the windows was so lifelike, I was sure that many birds had perished there. The owners had placed about a dozen paper raptor silhouettes on the windows, creating a pleasing pattern that simulated a flock of migrating hawks. I'm sure their efforts dramatically reduced collisions and stimulated lots of questions from passersby.
Although it may take time to become used to the silhouettes on the window, I think you will find that after a while you won't even notice them. I have become so used to silhouettes on our windows that I certainly don't.
Other Ways To Help Birds
A second approach is to place something in front of the window that will prevent collisions. For example, netting can be stretched in front of the glass. Many hardware stores sell netting used to keep birds from fruit trees; this works quite well to keep them from hitting windows, too.
Feeder placement also can affect collision rates. Try placing your feeders very close to the window or at least 20 to 30 feet away from the window. Birds that visit the feeder close to the window will become acclimated to the window's surface and will be less likely to collide with the glass.
Reducing or eliminating bird collisions at your home doesn't require draconian measures. No one should have to cover their windows with electrical tape or other materials. Begin your bird-proofing by inspecting your home and identifying the windows most likely to be bird hazards. Look for larger windows that reflect outside scenes or those through which birds can see habitat. We lost a beautiful male cardinal this fall when I propped open our storm door for an afternoon. The glass was so clear that the cardinal could see right through to the other side and didn't realize there was a glass barrier.
Whatever solution you choose, I know you will agree it is a small price to pay to help protect birds around your home. After going to all the effort of planting trees for food and shelter and providing a smorgasbord of feeders, it is heartbreaking to have the birds we attract hurt or killed by collisions with windows, especially when there are easy and fun ways to prevent this all-too-common source of mortality.
Posted: March 19, 2014, 11:45 a.m. PDT
*Content generated by our loyal visitors, which includes comments and club postings, is free of constraints from our editors' red pens, and therefore not governed by I-5 Publishing, LLC's Gold Standard Quality Content, but instead allowed to follow the free form expression necessary for quick, inspired and spontaneous communication.
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I have never done this before so bare with me. I was wanting
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I have never done this before so bare with me. I was wanting to know if anyone could give me some advice about how to help my granddaughter Ainsley. She just turned 3 in January and she is painfully shy around anybody except mom and dad. They lived in S Carolina . Ainsley's other grandmother was just not wanting to be a grandmother I went once a year to spend time with them and it was wonderful. I love being a grandmother. Ainsley has a 1 1/2 year old brother named Heisman and a 2 month old brother named Madden. They have moved to Kansas and have been here sine the 15th of December. But since they have been here I have noticed a few things that I want to help with. Ainsley is painfully shy and not potty trained yet. She speaks with a lisp and still uses a pacifier. She is most happy when she is watching Dora dvd's She can quote everyone of them by memory. I think that mom has just been so busy with the other little ones, that this has been Ainsley's world. How do I help Ainsley?
7 years ago.
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Before I answer your request I would like to know the following
Is Ainsley your son or daughter's child?
How often do you see them?
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replied 7 years ago.
She is my son's daughter. I try to see them a couple of times per week but now that I have been laid off i am hoping to be more. They are staying at my ex-husbands house in the basement until the restrauant gets on its feet so you can see why I perfer to have them to my house then spend time over there. My ex and I get along fine he doesn't care if I am there or not. he is not home alot. Usually I try to go when my husband can go to, but that doesn't always work.
Dr. Keane
replied 7 years ago.
Hi ..thanks for the information. Since they moved here and you have the opportunity to visit more often I would suggest that you not try to take her out to your house just yet. It's important to have a few things in place first. Your son and daughter in law first have to know that you are helping them, not trying to "correct" their parenting. Ainsley needs to get close to you on her terms and that can only happen when she feels very comfortable with you. Keep your visits focused on her but in a discret manner, like reading to her, puzzles, toys, sit on the floor...gain her trust. At three years old it may take a bit of time. The more she sees you the more she will be comfortable with you. Remember to not force her to do things with you....sit and play with a toy and see if she approaches you...you keep doing that every time you come, she'll warm up. At three all she knows right now is her immediate family and may need to socialize with other kids her age in order to be comfortable and less shy.

Potty training...if no one has tried to potty train her I would tread lightly there...talk to her mom first and offer to buy or borrow a potty training book to read to her. As she learns about potty training, pull-ups can be introduced. Potty training has a vast array of ideas about how it should be accomplished. I tell parents to relax , it will happen when she is ready (that doens't mean you can't broach the subject and set the pace) . If her lisp is that noticable I would suggest her parents contact the local school district to evaluate her for special services, such as speech therapy. By law a child is entitled to an evaluation and intevention if there is a special need. As for the pacifier, it is used to comfort (could have affect on her speech) ....if it's during the day I would eventually (not right now) see if mom and dad can make a game out of first, keeping it in her bed just for nighttime use and then throwing them away. I would not worry too much about that right now....Most of all be supportive of the young family. It has to be tough having all those young babies and being the oldest. You sound like a very nice loving grandma, most of all enjoy those babies!!!I hope this was helpful.

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Ambient light plays an important role in determining the look and feel of your living space, with brightly-lit areas conveying a sense of warmth and space during the daylight hours. Sometimes too bright, curtains are often used to limit natural illumination but can lack the versatility and greater control offered by the use of certain types of window blind. Composed of bamboo, wood or aluminium slats whose angle may be adjusted to admit more or less ambient light, the so-called Venetian variety provides a stunning and highly practical alternative that, if desired, may be used in combination with narrow, ornamental drapes to soften their appearance.
Where a wooden, laminated or vinyl tiled flooring solution is chosen one may opt to continue the natural theme with bamboo or wooden slats, to accentuate the modern aspects with aluminium in a variety of colours or to restore some of the more traditional atmosphere with some colourful Roman blinds to complement the floors and furniture.
In the case of carpeting, much the same choices will apply but with the added proviso that these large expanses of colour can dramatically influence one's perception of space. For this reason, in those smaller areas, it is advisable to try to keep your colours lighter and any patterns more subtle whilst also ensuring not to obstruct the ambient light more than is absolutely necessary. Where this may still be somewhat limited, a large mirror or two, strategically positioned should serve to capture more of the sun's light and to redistribute it to those darker areas.
Personal tastes can vary considerably as, of course, do individual budgets and when fitting all of the elements together for the perfect room it will pay to shop where both the breadth of choice and the value for money are greatest. In this case, the obvious source must be one of the more than 110 retail outlets that operate nationwide under the banner of the central buying company – Top Carpets & Floors. As the biggest single operator of its kind in South Africa, the parent company has exceptional negotiating power when buying from both the leading local and international manufacturers. It is precisely this negotiating power that ensures the exceptionally competitive retail prices enjoyed by its customers that prove quite impossible for rival companies to equal on an ongoing basis.
Choosing furniture to go with the blinds and floors need not prove to be a difficult exercise and is one that, again, will depend upon the overall look and feel that you are seeking to create. Wood and leather, being both natural materials are able to serve as a suitable accompaniment to either carpets or solid flooring, and will create a warm and welcoming ambience. By contrast, the use of glass and stainless steel combines equally effectively with either natural or alloy slatted blinds to further extend the minimalist Scandinavian theme that is easily initiated with the installation of modern laminated or engineered wooden flooring, typically in a light grained finish.
If you are looking for the perfect room with all of the various elements fitting together in complete harmony and you would like to choose from the widest choice of the industry's leading products then you need look no further than Top Carpets & Floors for blinds, floors and furniture ideas.


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The collapse of Iraq's armed forces in the face of a lightning advance by Islamic militants has left some Lowcountry veterans of the Iraq war, incuding the Army general who helped pave the way for the U.S. invasion in 2003, frustrated, saddened and disappointed.
"I'm very sad about what could have been and what appears is now happening," retired Lt. Gen. Colby Broadwater, who commanded operations in northern Iraq and Turkey in early 2003, said Friday. "We lost the better part of 4,000 soldiers in that operation. The Iraqis lost a lot of people. We have put untold billions of dollars into assisting and stabilizing that nation, which is a very difficult thing, to build a nation, and now it appears it's all falling apart."
Broadwater, now president of the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, worked closely with American and Iraqi leaders, including current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to organize Iraq's new government after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"We caused a change, we set up the government, and in my opinion, we left that government ill-prepared to handle the huge challenges that they faced," he said.
Broadwater said he believes it may be too early too tell whether the situation is a lost cause, but that further U.S. intervention would be difficult.
"The last time, it took months of planning. The situation is totally different," he said. "You would have to figure out what U.S. policy is and then develop a strategy to implement that policy. There may not be enough time to do that."
In a televised address Friday, President Barack Obama ruled out sending U.S. troops back to Iraq, but said all other options are being considered to blunt the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which had taken several northern cities and was threatening Baghdad.
Other veterans who fought in Iraq said they weren't surprised at how quickly the militants have gained the upper hand.
"I find it laughable that this administration, this government, was caught off-guard by what's happening there now," said retired Master Sgt. Denny Sherrod, a Pendleton and Folly Beach resident. "And then they stand around and wring their hands and say, 'We're going to do this, we're going to do that.' We're not going to do anything."
Sherrod, who served in Vietnam and retired from the Army Reserve after serving in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, said he thinks the attacks will lead to a "steadily expanding, multination civil war.
"When your biggest source of support withdraws, it leaves a vacuum, and the vacuum that's left behind drags all these bad guys in," he said at American Legion Post 147 on James Island. "This administration has steadily given away whatever leverage they had in the region. Every good deed that this nation was involved in has been thrown away, and a lot of American lives with them."
This week's stunning advance left many U.S. veterans around the nation reflecting - with bitterness, frustration and sadness - on the sacrifices of a war that lasted for more than eight years and killed nearly 4,500 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
"In many ways it just feels like a waste - a waste of many lives, a waste of many years," said retired Army Col. Barry Johnson from his home in Potlatch, Idaho.
On the broad stage of Middle East affairs, the unraveling highlights the resilience of extremists and the risks of weakened central authority. But it's in the small settings across America - the American Legion on James Island, VFW posts, rehabilitation clinics, kitchen tables - where a different type of reckoning is taking place. Soldiers and commanders who served in Iraq struggle to make sense of the unfolding chaos.
Martin Schaefer, an Army reservist who did two tours in Iraq, groped for the right word to define his emotions near his home in Darien, Ill. Not mad or upset, he said.
"Sad," he decided. "Sad to see that the work that had been accomplished by the U.S. and Iraqi forces is being undone by an insurgency."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Retired Lt. Gen. Colby Broadwater III×
Iraq War veteran Denny Sherrod, from Pendleton and Folly Beach, talks Friday at the American Legion Post on James Island about the militant attacks in Iraq.×
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NBC Releases Amy Poehler Promos for 'SNL'
Guys, it's almost here. There are only 3 days left on my countdown to the SNL season premiere with "Amy Whatshername" and "Katy Hoo-hah." (Yes, I have been making little Xs in my day planner to mark the momentous occasion.) To keep us all from going rabid with anticipation, NBC has graciously posted a video of host Amy Poehler's promos for the highly anticipated season premiere.
Between the constant references to Wayne's World, a lesson in baby-making, and a bit of role-playing (not that kind, don't get so excited), it seems like they're just letting the Parks and Recreation star do her thing. While I'm trying to keep my expectations in check after last year's dismal season, it would be in SNL's best interests to let Ms. Poehler take the reins and do what she does best this Saturday. (If not, let's hope we can at least depend on musical guest Katy Perry to give us a laugh by resurrecting those Cool Whip cannons from the "California Gurls" video.)
Source: NBC


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About FNI
News & events
Payments for Ecosystem Services in Latin America : Evaluation of PES Cost-Effectiveness in Landscape and Policy Mosaic
The project aims to evaluate payments for ecosystem services (PES) costs-effectiveness in generating co-benefits of carbon mitigation and biodiversity conservation services. The evaluation includes accounting for landscape and policy enabling conditions at different spatial scales.
More specifically, the study aims to evaluate the hypothesis that agroforestry (at farm scale), and landscape mosaics (at landscape scale) are cost-effective areas for targeting of PES as part of national strategies for the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme).
WP2 (for which FNI and SUM are responsible) of the project will analyse the legal and institutional foundations of PES schemes in Costa Rica and Colombia. Specifically, this work package looks at legal acts, regulations, and institutions that PES schemes are linked up to at national and international levels.
Project leader at FNI:
Kristin Rosendal
Project period:
Rosendal, G. Kristin and
Peter Johan Schei
'How May REDD+ Affect the Practical, Legal and Institutional Framework for 'Payment for Ecosystem Services' in Costa Rica?'
Ecosystem Services
, Available online 20.05.2014, DOI 10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.04.009.
Related focal points of research:
Biodiversity and genetic resources
Climate change
Project funding:
Research Council of Norway, LATINAMERIKA programme.
External cooperation partners:
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA)
Centre for Environment and Development (SUM)
, Norway
Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, (CATIE), Costa Rica
Fundación Centro para la Investigación en Sistemas Sostenibles de Producción Agropecuaria (CIPAV)
, Colombia
State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)
, Brazil
Fridtjof Nansen Institute
P.O. Box 326, 1326 Lysaker, Norway. Tel: (+47) 67111900 / E-mail: post (+@fni.no)


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Featured Content
Biking Florida
At first glance it would seem that "Mountain Biking in Florida" is an oxymoron, like a slogan for a comic T-shirt on the order of " I Climbed Mount Dora". Florida doesn't have any mountains but it does have sand, sand, sand -- something cyclists dread more than mud and pick-up trucks.
The rush of wind on your cheeks as you glide and turn through sun and shade, hopping logs and roots, is an experience you can find in Florida's parks and forests, though. By checking at park headquarters or referring to the trail-head signs, you will find that quite a few of these are open to bicycling and a few have surfaces good enough to make biking pleasurable; old logging roads or rail trams, horse trails, some single-track trail and even a few hills (but no mountains).
The six day Florida Springs bike tour is a good round-about through central Florida. And here's a sampler of other good places to check out for off-road biking in Central Florida:
Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area near Christmas in east Orange County. Biking is allowed on all roads in the park and on the orange-blazed trail. (White-blazed trails are for hikers only.) This is a big place with wildlife and plenty of room to roam. Bring lots of water and food if you plan to explore here.
Orlando Wilderness Park also near Christmas, offers 15 to 20 miles of easy, scenic riding on elevated trams above an artificial wetland. The bird-life there is spectacular, especially in the winter. The park is open Feb. 1st through Sept. 30th, dawn to dusk.
Lower Wekiva State Preserve off S.R. 46 near the Wekiva River - One mile of trail and many miles of old logging trams (which you'll share with equestrians).
Rock Springs Park State Reserve off S.R. 46 in Lake County is the future site of a 20-mile bike trail. Until then you can wander park roads and logging trams. Very hot in the summer in the pine flats; bring lots of water and food.
Tosohatchee and Rock Springs allow hunting in the fall, so call first to find out if there is a hunt scheduled.
If you're interested in the Suwannee River, see Cycling the Suwannee: Gar Pond & Big Shoals on GORP.There is a controversy brewing both nationally and locally over the issue of bicycle use of hiking trails. In Central Florida, bikes are banned from most of the single-track trails on our public lands. However, some land managers are beginning to realize that cyclists are a sizable user group and are not a threat to other trail users. Cycling, if done properly, is no more injurious to the trail surface than hiking and far less damaging than horse-back riding. The best things off-road cyclists can do for their sport are ride on open trails only and ride responsibly: Don't ride when it's wet, don't skid or carve turns, and treat other trail users with friendship and respect.
Petition land managers and state agencies to allow cyclists on single track trails. Joining a local bicycle advocacy group such as the Florida Freewheelers and volunteering for one of their trail clearing expeditions would also be helpful.
Many thanks to the Florida Department of Transportation for information used in this piece.
Details mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication


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Northwest NEWS
ovember 11, 2002
And the winner is - Moorland's Elementary
Molbak's has announced the winning classroom of the 2nd Annual Scarecrow-Building Contest held at the nursery during the recent Fall Harvest Festival.
The winning scarecrow was created by Dane Jacky's fourth grade class at Moorlands Elementary in Kenmore.
The class will enjoy an ice cream party provided by Cold Stone Creamery in Woodinville.
Each year Molbak's invites third and fourth graders participate in a scarecrow-building contest during the Fall Harvest Festival.
Fifteen classrooms and families from the community rolled up their sleeves and built scarecrow masterpieces.
The scarecrows were on display from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 and critiqued by Molbak's employees.


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improve communication between individuals and groups interested in the history of neuroscience;
promote research in the history of neuroscience; and
promote education in and stimulate interest for the history of neuroscience.
The Journal of the History of the Neurosciences: Basic and Clinical Perspectives, the official organ of the society, is published by Taylor & Francis. Now in its eighteenth year (2009), publishing four issues per volume, the Journal provides a forum for investigations in the field of neuroscience history, as broadly defined, including the history of basic, clinical, and behavioral neurosciences, ancient and non-western topics, and significant individuals, events, and technical advances. ISHN is a focal point for those interested in neuroscience history and offers, through its journal and annual meeting, opportunities to contribute to this rapidly growing field.


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Anthony S. Girnius of Berkeley Heights passed away on Friday, July 26, 2013, in the Berkeley Heights Nursing Home, Berkeley Heights, at the age of 89.
The visitation will be held in Paul Ippolito Berkeley Memorial, 646 Springfield Ave., Berkeley Heights, on Monday, July 29, from 4-8 p.m. A service will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the funeral home. Private interment. For more information or to send condolences, visit ippolitofuneralhomes.com.
Anthony is the beloved husband of the late Alice (nee Szollosi); loving father to Robert Girnius and to the late Carol Kohler; dear brother of Janet Dziodosz and Margaret Conway and the late Joan Fordney and Edward Girnius; cherished grandfather of five and great-grandfather of nine.
Anthony was born in Newark. He served in the Navy during WWII and worked for Elizabethtown Water Co. (now known as American Water Works) for over 30 years.
In lieu of flowers, make donation in Anthony's memory to the Michael J. Fox Parkinson Foundation Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, NY, NY 10163.


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The Ohio State Buckeyes received quite a scare when star quarterback Braxton Miller left Saturday's game with a sprained MCL, per ESPN's Brett McMurphy. However, Ohio State still pounded the San Diego State Aztecs into submission thanks to a strong performance from backup quarterback Kenny Guiton.
Coach Urban Meyer praised Guiton's play, per Rusty Miller of the Associated Press:
The old right-hander steps in again. He really did a nice job. He's too slow, not strong-enough armed and all he does is lead, manage, distribute and has an incredible knowledge of the game. And incredible leadership skills.
And our players respond.
Miller, regarded as a prime contender to seize the Heisman Trophy, suffered a nasty hit while scrambling for a first down on Ohio State's first offensive series. The injury forced the junior out of commission for the rest of the day.
INJURY UPDATE: Ohio State QB Braxton Miller is out of game vs. San Diego St. after this 1st quarter hit » http://t.co/Mnyvpv1XD5— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 7, 2013
Despite Miller's early departure, the Buckeyes had no trouble steamrolling the Aztecs by a score of 42-7, demonstrating how much talent stretches across the depth chart.
Ohio State compiled 445 total yards, 402 coming after Miller's injury, falling a mere 15 short of its output last week against Buffalo.
Guiton proved he could handle the starting gig for most other schools. The senior completed 19 of his 28 passing attempts for 152 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Much like Miller, Guiton also made an impact in the ground game, recording 83 rushing yards and another score. Not bad for the No. 2 quarterback.
The reserve showed great pocket poise and arm strength with this first-quarter touchdown strike to Philly Brown, via ESPN College Football's Twitter account.
Replacing injured QB Braxton Miller, Kenny Guiton is 4-4 & this 27-yd TD pass to Philly Brown http://t.co/pIwRRLowLk #SDSUvsOSU ABC/ESPN2— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) September 7, 2013
San Diego State, which surrendered 40 points to FCS opponent Eastern Illinois last week, is hardly a juggernaut; the Buckeyes performed their expected duties by handling inferior competition. However, that should not negate Guiton's impressive showing.
CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel thinks the Buckeyes have another legitimate talent on their hands.
San Diego State is awful, but that doesn't change this: Kenny Guiton isn't a whole lot behind Braxton Miller.— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelCBS) September 7, 2013
Guiton's superb effort also eases the pressure for Ohio State to rush Miller back. Missing time would hamper his quest for the Heisman, but the Buckeyes could roll past California and Florida A&M with Guiton under center.
A quarterback controversy will not materialize after one game, but it's nice to know the backup can get the job done when needed.
However, when the Buckeyes face No. 21-ranked Wisconsin three weeks from now, they'll need their star quarterback to keep their title aspirations intact.
Since Urban Meyer took over, Ohio State is a perfect 14-0, with only NCAA sanctions stopping it from soaring to a BCS title game. Staring adversity in the eye without blinking is a crucial trait for a championship contender to possess.
An Ohio State fan couldn't have been blamed for pessimistically jumping to the worst scenario possible when Miller went down, but Guiton and Co. held the fort down with ease, proving in the process that the Buckeyes are true title contenders.


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The recent upheaval in the Western Athletic Conference has that league reeling. But it also enhances (and hastens) Cal State Bakersfield's chances of landing a conference home.
The general consensus of college media types on the West Coast and in Texas conjectures that the WAC is dead as a football-playing conference.
But it should remain alive in its other 18 sports offerings. And with all the defections, the WAC will need to add new members.
And among those waiting on the sidelines, hungry for an invitation to join: Division I independent CSUB.
CSUB and Utah Valley have been the two universities that have made previous bids to join the WAC only to be turned down.
But now, so many programs have left the WAC, beggars can't be choosy. To survive, the WAC must add to its membership.
CSUB athletic director Jeff Konya said he speaks regularly with Jeff Hurd, the interim WAC commissioner.
Konya said nothing is scheduled for a formal CSUB presentation to the WAC (which Cal State did previously). Konya said he thinks the WAC will focus on the football issue first, and then look at adding new members who don't have football.
The WAC's football prospects are bleak if it hopes to remain a Football Bowl Subdivision league.
On Friday, football-playing San Jose State and Utah State formally accepted offers to jump to the Mountain West Conference.
Earlier in the week, football-playing Louisiana Tech and Texas-San Antonio accepted offers to join Conference USA.
On Wednesday, football-playing Texas State accepted an offer to join the Sun Belt Conference. Multiple media reports have football-playing Texas-Arlington joining the Sun Belt once the school's board of regents approves the move.
Those programs will join their new conferences in the fall of 2013.
In an ironic twist, Texas State, Texas-Arlington and Texas-San Antonio haven't even joined the WAC yet (that happens next fall) and they're already leaving the conference. Those three will play one year in the WAC and then depart for their new conferences.
As of now -- and more changes could follow -- by the fall of 2013, the WAC will be down to two football-playing members: Idaho and New Mexico State. Both of those programs made bids to join the Mountain West but were turned down, according to reports.
The NCAA requires six football-playing members to meet the requirement for Football Bowl Subdivision conferences.
More movement is possible from the WAC as Idaho and New Mexico State will try to find somewhere to continue playing football, whether it's in the Mountain West, Conference USA or Sun Belt, or (in Idaho's case) possibly moving down to the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly called Division I-AA) and hope to join the Big Sky Conference.
As it stands now, the WAC's lineup of schools by the fall of 2013 will be Idaho, New Mexico State, Seattle, Denver and Boise State (it's football program will join the Big East, all other sports will be in the WAC).
The WAC will be forced to add members. It must have six to ensure it retains is status as an automatic qualifying conference for NCAA championships.
The prospects for CSUB and Utah Valley look good. Another media report suggests New Orleans might work into the mix -- that program is returning to the Division I level but has no conference home. One might think Southern Utah (currently in the Summit League) might be courted by the WAC as another non-football member.
Konya said he has been monitoring all of the web sites and rumor discussions on the Web. He said he saw one report that there could be as many as eight prospective universities the WAC could target.
Presumably, some of those could come out of the Big West or Big Sky conferences.
No conference invitation is expected quickly, but CSUB is in its best spot since it began the Division I transition from Div. II with the exploratory year in 2005-06.
Konya noted that the WAC is already familiar with CSUB's athletic program, and the WAC has already accepted the CSUB baseball team as an affiliate member. CSUB baseball's WAC membership begins next season.
Men's soccer, which has been CSUB's most successful sport in recent years, will join the Pac-12 as an affiliate member in 2013.
The WAC does not offer men's soccer as one of its sports.
The WAC, which is in its 50th year, offers eight men's sports and 11 women's sports.
Men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field.
Women's sports are basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball and indoor and outdoor track.
CSUB has five of the men's sports the WAC offers and 10 of the women's sports.
It seems like a good fit, especially with the WAC scrambling. Look for it to happen.


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NEW YORK — Specialty food retailer Fairway Market here is seeking additional area locations after receiving new investment from a private-equity firm. Sterling Investment Partners, Westport, Conn., will provide ongoing capital and strategic resources and has taken a significant ownership stake in the family-run specialty retailer, Howard Glickberg, Fairway's chief executive officer, told SN in an interview last week. Fairway and Sterling declined to disclose terms of the agreement. ...
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text: October 31, 2013 Folks drank in history Wednesday as Middleton Place's popular Wine Stroll series came to a close with the Masquerade Wine Stroll. Serving as the year's finale, organizers doubled their efforts to serve up a memorable evening featuring wine from around the world as well as light hors d'oeuvres from the Middleton Place Restaurant. Started four years ago as a way for visitors to experience the gardens in a different light and different atmosphere, the Masquerade Wine Stroll saw ladies and gentlemen don carnival masks to take in the sights at the National Historic Landmark and transport them back to a time of "elegance, refinement and merry anonymity."


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Sacramento County elections officials say they have found 407 uncounted ballots cast in the Nov. 6 election.
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