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This article covers tips and tricks to help you with optimal setup of the IBM® Rational® Design Management Server with the IBM® Rational® Software Architect Design Manager Server Extension. Then it describes using both with either the web client, which is installed automatically with the server, or the thick client, called the IBM Rational Software Architect Design Manager Client Extension. The thick client is installed into the same package group as an existing IBM Rational Software Architect installation.
The first part of the article, Setting up the server, is intended for server administrators, while the second and third parts of the article, Using the web client and Using the Rational Software Architect client, are intended for users.
Setting up the server
1. Obtain an SSL certificate
Before even starting to install the server, apply for an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate. The application can take some time, and, after that, it has to be installed on the server. If you don't have a valid certificate, all of the functionality of the server will still be available. However, people connecting to the server using web browsers will see certificate errors, and the security of your data will be diminished, as Figure 1 shows.
Figure 1. An example of a security warning in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
2. Use the setup wizard
You can set things up manually, but the easiest way to get up and running quickly is to go to https://servername:port/jts/setup and use the setup wizard. (Typically, the port should be 9443.) If this is your first time experimenting with the server, I recommend that you go through all of the steps of the wizard by clicking the Next button. Do not click Finish prematurely, because the next-to-last step, Create Sample Project, is highly recommended (see Figure 2). If you skip this step, you'll need to create projects yourself to use the Design Management server.
Figure 2. The Create Sample Project step
3. Disable the ADMIN access
By default, the administrator username and password are both ADMIN. If you run the recommended setup wizard, you will be prompted to disable this account. If you choose not to disable the account during the setup process, please disable it manually later, or at least change the password.
4. Understand how administration tasks are grouped
It's important to understand how administrative tasks are grouped. Some are part of the Jazz Team Server (JTS) interface, while others are part of the Design Management application. Settings that affect the entire server, including the server's list of authorized users, the friend servers (other servers that your server can communicate with), and the type of back end database are all part of the JTS admin pages, accessible from the Jazz Team Server Administration section of https://servername:port/jts/admin (see Figure 3). JTS settings should be configured before the application-specific settings.
Figure 3. The Server Administration page includes an Application Administration section
Settings that make sense only in the context of the Design Management application, such as the permissions a user has in a given project, the link types (used for defining links to friend servers), and the actual model contents stored in the back end database are accessible in other locations. These locations include the Application Administration section of the JTS admin pages and hyperlinked web pages within the project area itself. (Strictly speaking, user management and license management are also available from the Application Administration pages, but it is helpful to think of them as being there more for convenience than as correct categorization.)
The next three tips go through these three examples in detail:
- Setting up permissions
- Setting up CLM links
- Importing the model contents
5. Adjust permissions properly
- To manage users, go to https://servername:port/jts/admin, and, from the Jazz Team Server Administration section, click the Jazz Team Server - User Administration hyperlink. Be sure you assign users appropriate repository permissions and the appropriate client access license.
Note:Actual users should never be assigned the DM Application – Internal license.
After adding a user and assigning the Rational Software Architect Design Manager – Design Manager license or Rational Software Architect Design Manager – Design Reviewer license, it's easy to forget the extra step that is required to give the user access to a Design Management project.
- To add a user to a project, go back to the Jazz Team Server Administration Home page.
- In the Application Administration section, choose the Project Areas hyperlink under Design Management.
- Then select the desired project in the Active Project Areas section of the page.
- Make sure to add the user under the Members or Administrators section.
Figure 4. The Active Project Areas page, accessible from the Project Areas link on the Jazz Team Server admin page
Why is this step necessary? First, not every user should have access to every project. Also, in the future, there might be applications other than the Design Management application on the same JTS server. Access control on a project level will be particularly important then.
6. Learn how to set up CLM links
There are three main parts to setting up links for Rational® Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM).
Specify the friend server
- As discussed earlier, the friend server must be specified. This is done by going to the JTS admin home page, and then clicking the Jazz Team Server – Server Administration hyperlink. Click Friends (Outbound) in the menu at the left, and add the server you wish to be able to create links to.
Figure 5. Adding a friend server
- After you add the friend server, you're prompted to log on to the other server and authorize your request. It doesn't matter if you're unable to do so (perhaps because you do not have the password). You or someone else who has access to that server can do this later by going to the Server Administration page of the friend server, and then clicking Consumers (inbound) in the menu at the left. You (or whoever logs into that server) will be given the opportunity to accept or deny the request.
Figure 6. Authorizing the inbound request
The second and third steps are application-specific, so they are not accessible from the hyperlinks in the Jazz Team Server Administration section.
Link your project to an artifact container
The second step is to set up linking to a particular server from your project.
- From the Jazz Team Server Home page, in the Manage Applications section, click the Project Areas hyperlink.
- Select a project area, and then locate the Associations section and click Add hyperlink to add support for linking to the chosen artifact container. You can think of an artifact container as a project that contains artifacts of a certain type.
- Use the pop-up dialog window to choose the type of association for the link, which is either Uses or Provides.
Figure 7. Adding support for linking to the chosen artifact container
Set up the link types that appear in the UI
The third and last step involves setting up the actual link types that will show in the UI when the end user adds a link.
- You must first navigate to the project area to set up CLM links (shortcut: https://servername:port/dm/web/projects/YourProjectArea#action=jazz.viewPage&id=rmps.app.settings).
The Project Linking page is in the Project Properties of a particular project. You can access the Project Properties from the menu at the top of the web page.
Figure 8. The menu to allow showing the project properties
When you set up a link, you can also set up the creation of "reverse links." Why do you want to link in both directions? Suppose you are designing an application, and you notice that the sequence diagram for the logout process reveals serious issues. You then submit a work item in IBM® Rational Team Concert™. If you were to create a link from this operation to the work item in Rational Team Concert, it would also be convenient for a link from the work item to your sequence diagram to be automatically created.
7. Import models from different machines onto a server
In the IBM Installation Manager, you might have noticed that the import engine is installed separately from the server. There is a reason for this: the import engine does not have to be installed and running on the same machine as the server. This enables you to import models that are not on the same machine as the server, or even to have multiple import engines running on different machines, which is useful when you have multiple project areas. Therefore, when entering the workspace path in the Import Definition web page, be sure to enter the path to the models that the import engine is running on.
How does the server figure out which import engine to use? This is defined by the engine name, which you must specify in both the Rational Software Architect Import Engine Configuration details and the Import Definition pages (Figure 9).
Figure 9. The import engine name, wdiuengine, in both the Import Configuration details and on the Import Definition page
8. Tips for importing models
Speed up the import process
In a rush to import your models? Ensure that the Validate model contents check box is cleared on the Request Import page.
For simple models, you might not notice much of a difference in the time taken by the importer, but for more complex models, the time difference can be substantial.
Keep in mind that basic validation for broken references is still performed, regardless of whether the Validate model contents check box is checked.
Figure 10. The Request Import page with no check boxes checked
Solve broken references in imported models
If you have lots of broken references, it is likely that you missed importing some projects or you forgot to specify a path map. Path maps from Rational Software Architect are constants that help prevent broken references when opening models in different environments when the dependency has moved to a different location.
- To figure out what constants should be included, open your workspace in Rational Software Architect .
- Choose Window > Preferences > Modeling > Path Maps. Make a note of the path variables.
In Figure 11, the "Available path variables" pane of the Path Maps section in the Preferences page shows a custom path map named SHARED_PROFILES pointing to C:/shared/CustomProfiles.
Figure 11. Path Maps section shows available path variables
Bonus tip:
Back to the Import Definition web page: If you chose the Import an entire workspace option, ensure that the corresponding project is in your workspace. If it isn't, you'll either need to open your workspace in Rational Software Architect and add the referenced project to your workspace or click Delete Import Definition and choose the Import individual projects option. Make sure that you include the referenced project this time.
- Next, expand the Path Maps section and click Add hyperlink.
- In the Variable column, enter the name of the path map. It must correspond to the name in the Path Maps Preferences page of Rational Software Architect .
- In the Value column, enter the name of the project imported to the server. Do not enter the directory name, such as
C:/shared/CustomProfiles, as specified in the Path Maps preference page of Rational Software Architect .
Bonus tip:
If you chose the Import individual projects option, be sure to enter the project name as it appears in the Project Name to Use After Import column.
Figure 12. Specifying a path map
Run an Ant script during the import process
You might have noticed an option on the Import Definition page to run an Ant script. The script is executed before importing resources onto the server. A typical use of this is to retrieve the latest code from the repository into the workspace before importing. This is particularly useful in conjunction with scheduled imports.
9. Understand process templates
When you create a new project (rather than using the default Sample Project), you'll be prompted to set a process template. You can either define the process templates yourself (see the "Creating a New Process Template" section of the documentation, cited in Resources) or use the two standard process templates that are included with the software. On a Windows system, they are installed by default to:
is C:\Program Files\IBM\DesignManagement
The key things to pay attention to when using different process templates are the roles and the default permissions.
- The Basic Process Template, which is installed by default in the Sample Project (optionally created during the setup process), has no predefined roles, so everyone who is a member of that project can do almost anything (import models, add comments, and so forth).
- However, for a real project, you would typically have users with defined roles. The Default Process Template includes Architect, Commenter, Publisher, and Project Lead roles, each with their own permissions, so it is more suited for a real project.
You can see and adjust the permissions from the Permissions tab of a project area's page.
- First, click Project Configuration or Team Configuration in the Configuration table on the left.
- Then, click on a role in the Roles list to see the Permitted Actions tree updated.
Figure 13. The Permissions tab of a project area administration page
Bonus tip:
If you created another project identical in every way to the Sample Project except the process template, you are likely to encounter permission problems when performing the same actions while logged in as a user with the default process roles. In addition to what was mentioned in the Adjust permissions properly section, be sure to define process roles in the Overview tab of the project area page. (The button appears when you hover the cursor over a row under the Actions column.)
Using the web client
Be sure to read the sections on both clients, because some tips are mentioned in only one section but explain how to accomplish the same task in the other client.
10. Get information at a glance
You can add your own dashboards and widgets for each project. The option to add the widget is hidden where the down arrow is, while the plus sign is used to add a new tab to contain additional widgets. These widgets pertain to Design Management: recent comments, recent links, reviews, top resources, validation, and a "Welcome" widget.
Figure 14. An initial Design Management dashboard for a new project
11. Add visual comments by sketching on diagrams
You can add text comments to model elements, but when you do so for a diagram, you also have the ability to make a sketch on the diagram to further illustrate your point. You'll know that you can sketch when the diagram background becomes light blue and the tools in the palette can be used.
This tip applies to the Rational Software Architect client, as well.
Figure 15. The diagram background becomes light blue when sketching is enabled
12. Show the missing elements in the Explorer
Are you wondering what happened to all of the lifelines in an interaction? By default, elements that are not top-level elements are not shown. To show them, click the down arrow in the Explorer and choose Show Resource Contents.
Furthermore, the filter named Hide unnamed elements is enabled by default. To disable this filter, click the down arrow in the Explorer and choose Filters. (To adjust the filter settings for all users, choose Project Properties from the top toolbar, followed by Explorer Filtering in the left menu.)
In the Rational Software Architect client, you can find the down arrow in the header of the Design Explorer view.
Figure 16. The Show Resource Contents and Filters menu items
In the web client, you can click the right arrow next to the element name to see its contents.
13. Visually show an element's relationships using relationship diagrams
Relationship diagrams are created by clicking the down arrow () next to an element in the Explorer, then choosing the Relationship Diagram… option in the menu.
When a relationship diagram opens, the relationships are not shown on the diagram but only in the text properties to the right of the diagram. Click a shape on the diagram to select the context element, and then click the green plus sign () in the pop-up bubble to show its relationships on the diagram.
Figure 17. The green plus sign in the pop-up shows relationships on the diagram
14. Locate missing comments
Is there a comment that shows in the web client which doesn't show up in the Rational Software Architect client? That's because the web client shows comments for resource contents (such as the comments made on events) when the higher-level resource (such as a package) is selected. However, in the Eclipse client, the comments between these elements are distinguished more: you need to select the contained element to see its comments.
15. Leverage search shortcuts
Looking for a particular type of diagram? Type
sequence diagram into the search box (or the name of whatever type of diagram you're searching for).
This tip applies to the Rational Software Architect client also.
16. Create snapshots in advance
Make a snapshot before creating a review. This is important because, like imports, the process of creating a snapshot is not instantaneous.
Figure 18. Creating a snapshot
Using the Rational Software Architect client
Be sure to read the sections on both clients, because some tips are mentioned in only one section but explain how to accomplish the same task in the other client.
17. Establish a server connection
Connections to the server are added using the Design Explorer view.
To establish your first connection to the server, choose the Click here hyperlink. For subsequent connections, right-click the Server Connections item and choose New Model Repository Connection.
Bonus tip:
If the connection doesn't work:
- Be sure you enter
/dm(and not
/dm/web) at the end of the URL.
- The server is on port 9443 by default.
- The protocol should be https, not http.
- Try connecting to the web client using a web browser. This will help you identify intermittent connection problems.
Figure 19. The Design Explorer view before any connections have been added
18. Optimize performance by adjusting cache settings for repository resources
Resources obtained from the server are cached to minimize network traffic and improve performance. If you have more free memory, you can increase the size of the cache.
- To do so, go to the installation folder (such as C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP) and make a backup of the eclipse.ini file.
- Then, in the eclipse.ini file, add the following line to the end of the file:
Be sure to substitute 10 for the desired cache size.
19. Install missing features to optimally display diagrams and properties
You can install the Rational Collaborative Architectural Management Client into Rational Software Architect . But if the feature is not installed and you attempt to open a diagram that requires a particular feature (such as Deployment Planning), you will get a prompt to open the diagram in the web client. To work with additional domains, use the Installation Manager to install the additional required features.
20. Browse elements quickly
The Comments view is linked to elements in the Design Explorer tree and search results. To quickly see the comments for model elements, have this view open when selecting elements from the Design Explorer view or Search (results) view. Also, the Properties view is linked to elements in the Design Explorer tree.
21. Understand workspace links
Workspace links (not to be confused with Collaborative Lifecycle Management links) are used to create a virtual association between a repository resource and the corresponding resource in the workspace. Your workspace is searched for resources corresponding to repository resources, and workspace links are added automatically when connecting to a project. You can add these links manually, but they are mostly unnecessary. Workspace links come in handy if you are working with the local version of a resource and want to add comments or Collaborative Lifecycle Management links to the corresponding resource on the repository.
If you delete a workspace link manually and then restart the application, the same link will not be recreated automatically. You must manually add workspace links that you have deleted.
You can tell whether a workspace element is linked by looking for the link indicator at the top-left of the icon in the Project Explorer. (See Figure 20.)
Figure 20. The link decoration shows that the Use cases model is linked to the repository
22. Locate the corresponding web client features
Do you miss the ability to generate a relationship diagrams in the web client?
Just right-click the element in the Design Explorer view or diagram, and choose the Relationship Diagram action.
It's available in the Rational Software Architect client, too.
If you found the Comment Dashboard widget from the web client useful, this functionality is also available in the web client. Right-click on a project and choose Search for elements with comments or Search for comments. In the Search view, along with the results, there is a drop-down menu to use to filter results.
It's available in the Rational Software Architect client, too.
23. Search for the corresponding workspace element on the repository
Suppose you have a workspace element and want to see if it's on the repository. To make matters worse, it's called "Main," as are many other elements, so doing a text search is out of the question. But you can quickly find an element in your workspace on the repository by going to the Properties view and choosing the General tab. The Repository section includes the resource number and a hyperlink to open the resource in the browser. (If the Properties view is showing the properties of a resource in your workspace, and a workspace link has been created for that resource, the Repository section will contain a hyperlink to show the element in the Design Explorer.)
Figure 21. Use the Properties view to locate the corresponding workspace element in the repository
Also, if you right-click the element in the Project Explorer and choose Modeling References, References on Repository, the resources on the repository that reference the selected resource in your workspace will appear in the Search view.
This context menu item is also available for elements on diagrams.
24. See CLM links
There is a tab for Links in the web client, but where is it also in the Rational Software Architect client? Links can be managed from the Properties view or pop-up window.
Also, it is not possible to set up linking from the Rational Software Architect client. To do so, you will need to use the server, as described previously in the Learn how to set up CLM links section.
25. Generate reports for models on the repository
To enable reporting for repository models, you need Rational Software Architect Version 8.0.2 or later. In particular, although you might see an extra report option in Rational Software Architect 8.0 and Rational Software Architect 8.0.1, there will be no way to select the repository model. For full functionality, you must install the reporting features from the Installation Manager. For UML and BPMN, these are:
- Architecture Reporting – Architecture Reporting (UML) with BIRT
- Architecture Reporting – Architecture Reporting (BPMN) with BIRT
Architecture Reporting – Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) will be installed automatically with any of the above.
Reporting for deployment-planning models on repositories is not supported in Version 3.0. For best results, when generating reports for BPMN models on repositories, Rational Software Architect 8.0.3 or later is recommended.
Figure 22. Choosing the features required for reporting from the Installation Manager
These three new report templates include details about comments and links on elements in the generated reports:
- UML Repository Report
- UML Repository Diagram Report
- BPMN Repository Diagram Report
Figure 23. New report templates designed for UML models on the repository
This article covered tips and tricks for getting the most out of the IBM Rational Design Management server and clients. By using these tips, server administrators will be able to set up Design Management servers with a better understanding of how things work, and end users will be familiar with techniques to work with designs more effectively.
The author expresses his gratitude to Anthony Hunter, Cherie Revells, and Dusko Misic for reviewing this article and to Judith Broadhurst for editing.
- Get additional information related to this article:
- For details about Rational Team Concert Ant tasks, and the teamAccept and teamFetch tasks in particular, see the Multiple Stream Development article in the Jazz.net Library.
- For a more comprehensive reference, see the Jazz build Ant task reference. on Jazz.net.
- For more information, see the Creating a New Process Template section of the "Getting Started with Jazz Project Areas and Process documentation."
- Read the Installing the Design Management Server and Server Extensions part of the Jazz technology documentation.
- To learn more about Rational Software Architect, start at the developerWorks page. Also explore the product overview and the information center, where you'll find installation and use instructions.
- Learn more about the Rational Design Management project for collaborative architecture design and analysis.
- Visit the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources and best practices for Rational Software Delivery Platform products.
- Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts focused on a variety of IBM products and IT industry topics.
- Attend a free developerWorks Live! briefing to get up-to-speed quickly on IBM products and tools, as well as IT industry trends.
- Watch developerWorks on-demand demos, ranging from product installation and setup demos for beginners to advanced functionality for experienced developers.
- Improve your skills. Check the Rational training and certification catalog, which includes many types of courses on a wide range of topics. You can take some of them anywhere, any time, and many of the "Getting Started" ones are free.
Get products and technologies
- Download the Rational Software Architect Design Manager for evaluation (and be sure to check for updates).
- Download either or both versions of Rational Software Architect for a trial:
- Evaluate IBM software in the way that suits you best: Download it for a trial, try it online, use it in a cloud environment, or spend a few hours in the SOA Sandbox learning how to implement service-oriented architecture efficiently.
- Join the discussion in the Using Design Management forum on Jazz.net.
- Share your knowledge and help others who use Rational software by writing a developerWorks article. You'll get worldwide exposure, RSS syndication, a byline and a bio, and the benefit of professional editing and production on the developerWorks Rational website. Find out what makes a good developerWorks article and how to proceed.
- Follow Rational software on Facebook and Twitter (@ibmrational), and add your comments and requests.
- Ask and answer questions and increase your expertise when you get involved in the Rational forums, cafés, and wikis.
- Connect with others who share your interests by joining the developerWorks community and responding to the developer-driven blogs.
Dig deeper into Rational software on developerWorks
- Overview
- Free online course: Getting started with IBM Bluemix
- IBM Bluemix Garage Method
- Technical library (tutorials and more)
- Forums
- Communities
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Paccione, 43, is an underwriting manager for Chubb & Son, but in lawn mower racing circles, he's known as Mow Power, whose fierce maneuvering and grace under pressure have vaulted him to the top of the national circuit in three short years. Between racing, working, taking care of his three children and working out, who has time to cut the grass? A mite sheepishly, he admits, "I actually have a service."
This weekend Paccione and his family headed down to southern Maryland for the STA-BIL Bowles Farms Turf Battle, a major race in the national championship series, which will culminate Labor Day weekend in central Ohio with the STA-BIL Keeps Gas Fresh Finals & Challenge of Champions.
That weekend also will feature the induction ceremony for the National Lawn Mower Racing Hall of Fame, a mowersports expo and the first U.S. Open, intended as an annual event, for which 20 up-and-coming racers have already signed up.
The U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association, the largest sanctioning body in the sport, is also the oldest, founded in Illinois on April 1, 1992. The joke is that it's still mowing strong.
Forgive the pun, but wordplay is all but written into the regulations. Commissioner Bruce Kaufman says the thousand or so racers involved in the organization are in it for the fun. There's no prize money, only plastic trophies.
"You can get a lawn mower for next to nothing and soup it up into a one-of-a-kind creation," says Kaufman, aka Mr. Mow-It-All. "You can take it out and run at ungodly speeds safely and affordably. If you want to go the humor route, we do have Sodzilla and the Turfinator and the dear departed Mr. MOWjangles ..."
Wait: the dear departed, or the Deere departed?
Kaufman lets that sink in, then bursts into laughter. "You got me! You even got Mr. Mow-It-All!"
The racecourses are typically kidney-shaped; the turns are where races are won and lost, the drivers jockeying past each other, their (in some cases, not inconsiderable) rear ends hanging off the seat, the outside wheels rising from the ground as the drivers lean into the curves. The track, delineated by hay bales, is either dirt or clay, although one race in Michigan is on grass, pre-emptively mown.
The standard course is an eighth of a mile, sometimes a little shorter. "We want to keep it small enough so it's competitive and the racer with the biggest engine doesn't run away with it," Kaufman says.
Paccione described his entree into this elite world like this: Guy meets girl. Guy meets girl's dad. Guy thinks he's getting dowry. Girl's dad gives him lawn mowers.
Paccione's father-in-law, Pat "The Rocket Man" Sullivan, a former landscaper who lives in Florida, was the 2007 national lawn mower Driver of the Year. He invited his daughter, Tina, and her family to one of his races and let Paccione borrow one of his mowers. Paccione lapped his father-in-law and took home the trophy; now he's one of a handful of racers sponsored by STA-BIL, a fuel stabilizer.
The Pacciones look at the national meets as a way to spend time with their extended family: Pete, Tina's brother, who lives in North Carolina, also races, and Tina recently started competing. She beat her husband in her very first race.
She says she had promised her family she'd stay at the back of the line, but "once I got out there, I couldn't restrain myself."
And the family dynasty will live on: A junior division welcomes racers who are 8 and up, so Paccione's oldest son, now 7, is preparing to compete next year. He practices on a lawn mower called Pinky, with blocks of wood strapped to the pedals.
Lawn mower racing is not without its dangers. In fact, the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, a trade association, has formally opposed the sport, even though the first rule of lawn mower racing is not to actually mow any lawns: The blades must be removed.
Drivers must wear full-face helmets, gloves, chest and neck supports, and long pants. Paccione favors cargos, but some drivers wear NASCAR-style uniforms.
Paccione's brother-in-law once broke his collarbone when he accidentally rode up on his father's mower. Another time, Paccione's mower landed on top of him when he hit a hay bale in a curve. ("My story is the hay bale jumped out in front of me.") All the engines come with a remote kill switch in case a driver gets unseated.
As in auto racing, there are several classes based on engine size, RPMs and horsepower, although all vehicles regardless of class must have a lawn mower engine block — no snowmobile engines, no Go-Kart engines.
The slowest class is IMOW (International Mower of Weeds), the equivalent of stock cars. Those machines are essentially what you'd find in the home and garden section of Sears, although many racers salvage old engines from junkyards and build new chassis for them.
Then there are the classes of modified engines, which can do 35 to 40 mph on the track. The vehicles in the fastest class, up to 60 mph, are lawn mowers in appearance only. "That is the tinkerer's dream," Kaufman says. "You can do the most things allowable in the class," including amping the engine displacement up to 465 cc, which is about as powerful as a midsize motorcycle.
Circuit legend Bobby Cleveland of Locust Grove, Ga., set a lawn mower land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2006, 80.792 mph, but the Brits, generally credited with inventing the sport, took the title back this year when their mower hit 87.833 mph.
At the national level, the USLMRA uses a LeMans start, in which the drivers run across the track, hop on the mowers, turn the engine and race, er, putter off.
Because the sport does not require its racers to be in peak physical form, every so often a ringer is employed for the actual running part. "We do have concessions for that," Kaufman says. "It's lawn mower racing."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In Brief: Apple says consumers spent $10B in its app store in 2013
Apple: People spent $10B in its app store
NEW YORK -- Apple says people spent more than $10 billion in its app store in 2013 on apps such as "Minecraft," "Angry Birds Star Wars" and "Sleep Cycle" alarm clock.
December was the most successful month in the store's history, as customers spent $1 billion that month. Apple says the year's total was also a record.
There are more than a million apps available in the app store for the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch. In addition to games, there are newspapers, magazines, travel, business, and health and fitness apps, among others.
Apple launched the app store in 2008, a year after the iPhone, with 500 apps.
Feds crack down on bogus weight-loss aids
WASHINGTON -- Makers of a weight loss additive called Sensa will return more than $26 million to consumers to settle federal charges that the company used deceptive advertising claiming that consumers could lose weight by simply sprinkling the powder on their food.
The government's settlement with California-based Sensa is part of a broader crackdown on four companies peddling weight-loss products including food additives, skin creams and dietary supplements.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it will also collect $7.3 million from LeanSpa, a company that promotes weight loss supplements through fake news websites. Also swept up in the action are skin cream maker L'Occitane and HCG Diet Direct, which sells unproven hormones for weight loss. The companies will together return about $34 million to consumers to settle the federal charges.
Ex-UBS banker pleads not guilty in tax case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A former top executive with Swiss bank UBS AG has pleaded not guilty to U.S. fraud conspiracy charges stemming from a broad federal tax evasion investigation.
Raoul Weil entered the plea Tuesday in a Florida courtroom to charges first filed in 2008. He was a fugitive until his arrest in October in Italy and was later extradited to the U.S. He is free on $10.5 million bail.
Prosecutors say Weil conspired to hide $20 billion in assets from the IRS using secret overseas accounts for thousands of wealthy customers. Weil's lawyers in Switzerland have insisted he is innocent.
Other UBS bankers have also been prosecuted, and in 2009 the bank itself paid a $780 million fine and agreed to turn over thousands of names of customers.
More than 350 in Japan sickened by frozen food
TOKYO -- More than 350 people have been sickened across Japan after eating frozen food products that may have been tainted with a pesticide, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Tuesday.
Food maker Maruha Nichiro Holdings began recalling 6.4 million packages of various frozen foods on Dec. 29, saying it found some were tainted by high levels of pesticides.
The company has received hundreds of thousands of calls about the problem.
NHK said information from local governments showed 356 people suffered vomiting, diarrhea and other problems after eating items subject to the recall, which include a wide range of products such as frozen pizzas, croquettes and lasagna.
Goodyear managers held captive are freed
AMIENS, France -- Two Goodyear managers held captive by angry French workers were freed Tuesday after police intervened, ending two days of standoff over the factory's bleak future.
The release outraged union members, who made a bonfire of tires in front of the plant. It also left unresolved the larger problems that have dogged the plant in Amiens in northern France, which Goodyear has tried to sell or shutter for more than five years.
The plant has become an emblem of France's labor tensions. Workers, having failed so far to save their jobs, seized the plant's director and human resources chief on Monday morning to demand bigger severance packages.
-- from wire reports


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Last thursday, I was invited to speak to a group of undergraduates from various local universities at a mosque building next to the UIA matriculation centre. About 40 students of all races turned up. The topic was on the state of ethnic relations in the universities.
I told the organisers that it was an irony to invite someone who had graduated from a local university almost 10 years ago to speak on the topic. Nonetheless, I did speak on the topic from my own standpoint on how we should approach ethnic relations in the future.
I told the audience that we must first address our own lack of understanding of our society's history. The misinterpretation or the intentional reintrepretation of our social history does not help either. The common interpretation of ethnic relations in the country is taken from a dominant Malay viewpoint.
The communitarian interpretation does not allow any space for individual view or opinion. We often hear statements which seek to generalise a certain viewpoint e.g. Malays cannot accept the concept of Bangsa Malaysia, eating pork is a Chinese culture et cetera. This sweeping statements strive to generalise and to monopolise opinions.
The statements are hardly accurate. Many Malays are happy to accept the concept of Bangsa Malaysia (without its distortion) as a foundation of national unity. Many of them understand and appreciate the essense of fairness and equality. To our ignorant, many Malays are treated more unfairly than others. While not benefiting from the Malay Agenda promises, they have to suffer from the social stigma which comes with the agenda - dependent and lazy. None of the allegations are true about the Malays. Many prefer to work hard and would embrace a sytem which rewards good work and effort. Not nepotism, not Umno Putraism.
The finer point which I made at the talk was our failure to progress socially although we have had a marked progress economically. Political, we are still at an infancy of a matured society. We continue to hold on to our racially based model even after 50 years of independence. We aspire to become a developed, first world nation by 2020 and yet we know that to become one we need to scrap our racist model. Who is hoodwinking who?
I told the multiracial audience that they must choose which path to take in the future. If we choose to live together, then do not let racism corrupt our social lenses. Do not let racist politicians destroy our social fabric and that we must STOP THE RACISM!


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A 52-year-old Ambridge man has died after a motorcycle crash in Schenley Park.
The wreck happened shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday along Panther Hollow Road.
The motorcyclist was identified as Stephen Carter. He was taken to UPMC Mercy, where he was pronounced dead.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.


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Contents Getting Off the Streets Breaking and Entering Getting Off the Streets
After Coste, Sarah, and Sam crash land smack dab in the middle of Washington D.C. it becomes clear that the end is in sight. Sam must get to The White House where Reed is putting his plans into motion while Coste takes Sarah to safety. Making it to The White House won't be easy though as the streets are crawling with Black Arrow agents with one purpose in mind, to kill Sam Fisher. Your first order of business though is to get out of the theatre you find yourself in.
Exiting the theatre is actually easier than it first seems once you run across the swarm of Black Arrow employed guards patrolling the exit. The room you must first enter has three doors, left, middle, and right if you are facing the doors themselves. Go through the leftmost door and sneak up to the furniture to wait for one of the guards to come right up to you. Use a hand to hand maneuver to kill him and unlock a 'mark and execute' ability to use on the remaining enemies in the room. Once they've been killed though, their deaths trigger another wave of guards to come check out what's going on. At this point, sneak back into the main theatre hall, only being spotted once near where you meleed the first enemy, and over to the rightmost door where you'll have a clear shot at sneaking out of the theatre building since the guards will be too busy checking on your last known location.
Once you exit the theatre walk down the streets observing the chaos on the streets of the capitol of the United States of America. There is no Black Arrow opposition here until you reach a gate where an enemy is speaking with a civilian.
At the gate where the Black Arrow agent is speaking to the civilian, wait for them to finish their conversation and the civilian to leave before grabbing the agent and killing him with a hand to hand maneuver. With him dead, it's easy enough to sneak along the left side of the next street behind the cars and concrete barriers to completely avoid detection and reach the next area.
As you round the corner and reach an area where Black Arrow guards are making announcements to the gathered civilians quickly hop up to the fire escape to your right and avoid the enemies keeping watch down below. Hop down and sneak around the right side of the gathered crowd and make your presence known very quickly. Just as quickly as you popped out continue forward while the mass of enemies heads over to investigate your last known position and move on to the area directly in front of The White House's main gate. Breaking and Entering
In the next area, sneak over to the right side of the gate. Grab the guard nearest the right side of the gate and use a hand to hand move to neutralize him. At this point detonate the fuel tanker (colored red) by opening fire at it. As the nearby guards head over to inspect the commotion run ahead to the building just inside the gate and get on the roof. Use your 'mark and execute' ability from the rooftop of the building and take out the entire lot of guards below in one fell swoop. Once everyone is down hop down to reach the next area.
Sneaking past the next wave of guards is simple; just stick to the right side of the path and allow the patrolling guards to pass by before proceeding. When you see the guard that's across the way turn his back to where you are it's time to quickly run over and perform a hand to hand move to unlock a 'mark and execute' move for the next area.
As you reach the next area, directly in front of The White House, mark and execute the two enemies there and quickly run to the garden on the right side of the main White House entrance to end the mission. GO TO MISSION 11: THE WHITE HOUSE
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text: Don't watch what people tell you to watch in Norton, MA, when you have more channels you can really get what you want out of your TV. What's On Demand in Norton, MA, you ask. Well, pretty much everything you could possibly imagine. Call today for a Direct TV packages in Norton, MA and enjoy more channels than you'll know what to do with. You don't have to alter your finances in Massachusetts, just switch to DIRECTV.


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Human beings are, at our core, individuals. No person requires another person to live their life. Sure, it may be a lonely life, but one that is liveable none the less. We live in a time that affords a higher level of individualism than any other period in human history, there are literally people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. But at that core, there are two inescapable groups that human beings can be grouped into: male and female. Each group has a vast variety of flavors within it's respected sex, but men and women themselves are so inherently different that they will live their entire lives never truly undertsanding how the other side thinks and feels.
Kiki Wolfkill - 343 Industries
Sexism in games has been quite the hot topic in the gaming world lately and 1UP's own week long cover story was proof that this is a topic that many people have passionate opinions about. So the question for me is, "why is this topic important to people?" Well, at least for the 1UP staff, the answer is simple: they feel that women are treated or portrayed unfairly in video games. But are they? Well, let's take a look.
Lorraine McLees - Bungie
The easy answer is "yes, women are portrayed in a sexist way in most games and women themselves are subject to harrassment by men when playing games online". The problem is that things are never black and white. To say that "women are....", or, "men are...", is an insult to the individual. Nobody likes to be put into a box. Why? Because we are individuals. We don't like it when another person attempts to "classify" us.
Amy Henning - Naughty Dog
Which leads to my problem with the 1UP cover story; it's the opinion of men. Sure there was an article on the subject by a woman, but the rest were by men. Men are the most unqualified people to represent the feelings of women. Men can never and will never understand what it's like to be a woman. Only a woman knows what it's like to be a woman. But even then, we're talking about individuals. Two women may understand what it means to be a woman and how things like "being more in touch with your emotions" feel, but that doesn't mean that they will have the same opinions. On the contrary, they're just as likely to disagree as they are to agree.
Jade Raymond - UbiSoft
This is not a subject that I had put a lot of thought into in the past, to be perfectly honest. But after reading the articles in 1UP's cover story I began to think that maybe I needed to think about it more. But, as a man who accepted many years ago that I will never fully understand the opposite sex, I decided it would make more sense to ask women what they think about sexism in games. They are, after all, the center of the topic. But what I found was that, by attempting to find a blanket answer to my questions, I was insulting them as individuals, which is, in my opinion, worse.
Meagan Marie - Crystal Dynamics
Today we have more women than ever in the video games industry, but more importantly, we have more individuals than ever. This means that the amount of unique experiences available to us will continue to grow. The games that we experience are not the result of a man's mind or a woman's mind, but an individual's mind. What if the Dead or Alive games had been designed by teams of women, yet turned out exactly the same? I've talked to women whose views fall on all sides of the spectrum. Some love the way women are portrayed, some hate it. Some think that it could be better, while others don't care at all. But what I found the most is that women, just like men, don't like to be grouped together. They just want to be accepted as the individuals that they are instead of having other individuals constantly point them out, regardless of the reason.
Winifred phillips - Award Winning Video Game Composer
The conclusion? Woman, just like men, are individuals. To assume that all women feel oppressed or portrayed in an unfair light is to rob them of their individuality. And to say that today's gaming industry is sexist is to rob all of the hard working ladies in the gaming industry of the time and energy they spent to get to their respected positions. Men, at the moment, game more than women. This is not something that is up for debate, it is fact. But that doesn't mean it will always be so, and because of this women will, over time, take up more and more lead roles in the gaming industry. This will, most likely, bring more women into gaming. It's really a natural process. But more importantly, it's one that should be allowed to happen naturally and not be forced, because history shows that forcing these kinds of things never works as well as when it is allowed to happen naturally.
Rieko Kodama - Sega
The solution? Individuals are responsible for any wrong doing on another individual, therefore these situations should be handled by individuals. If you see someone being treated in a cruel of unfair way, and you feel the need to intervene, then do so. I certainly do. As an individual you have the right to make that choice. What we shouldn't do, however, is assume that our opinions represent that of a whole group of people or attempt to rescue a group of people who, by all intents and purposes, do not need rescuing. All the evidence you need of this is to look at the response from women on this subject.
Tina Sanchez - Infinity Ward
I almost didn't write this because I honestly feel like this very blog can be viewed as doing the exact thing that I am talking about: taking away a woman's individuality by writing about where they fit in the video games industry. From my experience many women that game don't want to be thought of as "girl gamers", there are obviously those that do, but I've talked to many that want to be just "gamers". Many people don't like to be singled out, no matter the intention. But by constantly beating this drum we are categorizing these women as victims and "women/girl gamers". And by doing this we are taking away their individuality and cramming them into a box.


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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Getting Pummeled in sparring!
In sparring today i fought a very powerful puncher but a ****ty boxer, so what happened i thought it would be easy as usual (because i've thrashed him before) but this time he kept aiming for my body.
In the end he got a body shot which winded me and i couldn't physically continue, i rested for a few seconds to get my breath back and sparred again.
The thing is is that i am the better boxer and mainly got all the hits on him but afterwards i tried to protect my body and he ended up getting a very powerful right hand which landed on my jaw. I was a bit hurt but the coach stopped it.
Obiviously my pride was more injured than me and i was pretty devasted when i went home. has this ever happened to you? and how do you come back?.
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Getting Pummeled in sparring!
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I had a semilar experience around a month ago..
i stopped going to the gym for a week, feeling very much like a loser,but then my coach called me and kept saying that if i back off now i'd really be a loser, and the only right thing to do was come back train hard then go punch the crap out of the guy...
so thats what am basically doing right now .. i havnt gotten to the part were i beat the crap out of him though
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Yep. I've had days where I feel like a total wimp, getting thumped around where all I'm trying to do is hold the other guy off. I've gone back into the locker room not wanting to look at anyone because I know they saw it go down, and it's left me in a ****ty mood for the rest of the day.
So if I can give you any advice, it's this: You don't learn anything by sparring with easy partners that don't challenge you. Sure, they pump up your ego (the opposite of what I was just talking about), but they also give you a false sense of security so when you're in there against a tougher opponent, you won't be ready for what he's bringing.
The more you get beat on when you spar, the more you learn about your own weaknesses, and the closer you'll be to correcting them.
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dude, just keep boxing, stay light on ya toes on move away, not backwards, but laterally. bork a few times, see what he does, move away or stick and move.although, ur question is sorta hard to answer, becos everyone is different.
im a sociable person
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**** happens
your mistake was trying to guard your body
you need to devlope a defense that guards both yoru body and head
dont ever show that your hurt if you can help it
ive been hurt to the body but i would never show until the sparring match is over
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you can never bring your arms down to your body...if thats all hes going for you can pick him off when he goes for the punch..one way to get your body harder to hit..make your stance lower..and make it more like your chest is facing away from him..basic things you learn when you first start
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boxer25k i like your drink haha..i've been drinkin the diet turbo tea b4 my workouts =P
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This vehicle is being sold as Lot No. F14. - Matching numbers drivetrain - Frame-off restoration completed May 2015 - Receipts and journal
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This 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo two door coupe is a very clean, 24,455 original mileage, Box A title car.
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Gorgeous numbers matching Monte Carlo! Engine: 350 CI bored .030 over, rebuilt with mild cam, new pistons, bearings, crankshaft
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1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, green exterior, 350 CID V8 motor, 350 automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, cold air conditioning,
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A fire charred 163 acres in the Folsom-El Dorado Hills area on Friday. (July, 19, 2013)
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Dog Minders Directory
Pet Sitters Gold Coast
Phone: 0466 627 308 | Location: Logan Avenue, Miami, QLD
Daily professional, personal pet visits are the most caring, convenient and cost effective choice for looking after your pet when you need a break. Not only will we feed, pat, cuddle and spoil your pet, but we collect mail, conduct a home security check,Pet Miami - Dog Miami - Cat Miami - Pet Sitting Miami - Pet Care Miami -
Add your business into the Dog Minders category.If you own a business and would like to have your business listed here then add your business to the guide. You can get a Classic Listing where you will be able to feature your Dog Minders including a photo, opening hours, specials and more. Have customers find you in our Dog Minders directory today! Find further businesses with keywords starting with D in our D directory.
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Spooky & Playful: The Best Halloween Treats for 2011
BOO Halloween Milk Shooters at Babble - Just milk in a glass, dressed up with a drip of chocolate and some sprinkles. Cute, and so much more child-friendly than a bag of candy, I think! • 2 Frozen "Boo"-nana Pops at Gina's Skinny Recipes - Frozen fruit, dipped in white chocolate. Easy and not too sweet. • 3 Egg Skeleton at Cute Food for Kids - Get all the directions from Tiffany; she has really smart directions for doing this easily. • 4 Cheese Pumpkin Appetizers at That's So Michelle - Skip the sugar and have some cheese — these are cuter than any sweet treat! • 5 Apple Cider in Apple Cups at Babble - Another cute idea from Kelsey. Warm apple cider in an apple cup, with a marshmallow "eye". SPOOKY GOODIES But if spooky is your thing, then these are my favorites this year! • 6 Chocolate Spider Web {Cake in a Jar} at I Am Baker - Such a smart idea! And could do this with really anything in a jar. (via not martha) • 7 Tentacle Pot Pie at not martha - One of my favorite Halloween projects ever, especially since it can be savory and not sweet. • 8 Skeleton Cut Out Cookies at Our Best Bites - Cute, simple even for the icing-challenged (like me), and repurposes the Christmas gingerbread men cookie cutters. (via Curbly) • 9 Creepy Coconut Kiwi Panna Cotta at Kitchen Table Scraps - I am not usually one for the bloody gory stuff at all, but this panna cotta is just such a good recipe, so tasty — and so easy to make into something spooky. (also via not martha - she finds the best stuff!) • 10 Bloody Eyeballs with a side of Worms at The Back Burner - CREEPY. (via Chez Us) FOR KIDS OLD & YOUNG And here are five more playful treats that all look very easy to pull off. • 11 Devils Food Whoopie Pies at Heather Christo Cooks - Who can't slap googly eyes on a whoopie pie, I ask you? Major bang for the buck, here. • 12 Grown-Up Peanut Butter Cups at Gilt Taste - We have a larger roundup of homemade candy coming later this week, but for now, let's look at these. Smoky, caramelized peanut butter cups? Reese's, goodbye. • 13 Sugared Candy Corn Cookies at A Little Bit Crunchy, A Little Bit Rock n' Roll - I simply find these adorable and irresistible. • 14 Halloween Ghost Meringue Cookies at The Secret Life of a Chef's Wife - Again, easy to make, easy to do. Big bang for the effort. • 15 Owl Smores at Living Locurto - Easy and quick to do. OK, your turn. What's the cutest (or spookiest!) Halloween treat you've seen so far this season? Related: Feast On These: Favorite Halloween Treats (Images: Kelsey of The Naptime Chef/Babble; Gina of Gina's Skinny Recipes; Tiffany of Cute Food for Kids; Michelle of That's So Michelle; Kelsey of The Naptime Chef/Babble; Amanda of I Am Baker; Megan of not martha; Sara of Our Best Bites; Renee of Kitchen Table Scraps; Denise of Chez Us; Heather of Heather Christo Cooks; Victor Sizemore/Gilt Taste; A Little Bit Crunchy, A Little Bit Rock n' Roll; Tammie of The Secret Life of a Chef's Wife; Amy of Living Locurto)


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In 2004, seven months after CBS's "60 Minutes" and The New Yorker reported on the torture of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the American people re-elected George W. Bush. In the five years since, as journalists such as Dana Priest, Jane Mayer, Mark Danner, and Philippe Sands have uncovered the extent to which the Bush administration enabled and encouraged torture, polls have showed that a majority of Americans are shrugging, hoping that the issue will go away, that the errors and even the possible crimes of the Bush years simply might be ignored, forgotten.
The most recent poll to examine whether Bush-era torture policy should be investigated didn't even use the word "torture." Instead the polling firm Ipsos asked respondents: "Should there be a bipartisan blue-chip commission to investigate how detainees were interrogated?" Fifty-four percent of respondents failed to favor such a commission. (Journalism organizations such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press are complicit in this logophobia: They avoid using the word "torture," instead gently referring to 'enhanced interrogation techniques." That phrase was originally coined by the Gestapo.) The majority of the American people seem to side with conservative Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who recently winced at the release of Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memos that encouraged torture:
"It's hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, 'Oh, much good will come of that.' Sometimes in life you want to keep walking… Some of life has to be mysterious."
This national compulsion to look away from recent malfeasance is seemingly custom-made for Martha Rosler, an artist who has spent the last four decades pointing out how Americans' pursuit of the good life has often blinded us from noticing how our nation has fallen short of its ideals. Rosler's most recent body of work addressed Americans' disengagement from the biggest American war since Vietnam: the ongoing conflict in Iraq. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has just acquired and installed a major photomontage from that series, The Gray Drape (2008, above).
The timing of the acquisition is especially fascinating: The Gray Drape entered the museum's collection on the same week McClatchy reported that former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered Guantanamo Bay interrogators to find a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, a key link that the Bush administration needed to justify the war it wanted to wage in Iraq. The McClatchy story and ensuing reports add a chill to The Gray Drape: Rosler's photomontage can be read as revealing how our blindness to and then our national disinterest in Bush-era torture led us into Iraq.
The Gray Drape shows a glamorous woman in what appears to be her bedroom, more interested in her linens than she is in the world outside. The drape she is waving — read: her love of upscale consumerism — appears to be preventing her from noticing the wail of the Iraq War outside. She doesn't want to know because she doesn't want to know. The Gray Drape might also be read as an examination of empty patriotism: The woman's drape-waving movement recalls the way you might see someone wave an American flag at a NASCAR race or at a parade. Of course there is no red, white and blue on Rosler's flag-proportioned drape, just white, a possible reference to both the moral hollowness of America's engagement in Iraq and to the jingoism encouraged by many on the right. (Rosler's 2008 video Prototype (God Bless America) makes a similar point. A still from the work is below. To see an excerpt from the video, click here. An excerpt from Prototype is about two-thirds of the way through.)
Rosler has covered some of this territory before, most obviously in Cleaning the Drapes (1967-72, above), which is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. By revisiting Cleaning the Drapes so directly in The Gray Drape, Rosler is establishing a parallel between the way America fought in Vietnam and the way it has fought in Iraq. Between 1967 and 1972 — the peak years of American involvement in Vietnam and the years
to which Rosler ascribes Cleaning the Drapes — the United States engaged in the morally questionable spraying of Agent Orange, in civilian massacres such as that at My Lai and in the bombing of Cambodia and Laos. Rosler isn't just revisiting old work with The Gray Drape, she's arguing that America's past conduct is relevant — and that we've failed to learn from it.
While Rosler has worked in a variety of media, including video and installation, her choice of photomontage to make work that addresses America's two most disastrous recent wars is telling. While photomontage was born in the late 19th-century, it was the the artists of the world's first anti-war movement, Dada, who brought the medium to maturity and who merged photomontage with intense and immediate political content. Rosler seems aware that many Dadaists had personal experiences with the horrors of war — this untitled Max Ernst from 1920 is photomontage-as-autobiography — whereas she doesn't. Ernst portrayed the battlefield directly. Rosler almost always includes a kind of filter. She hasn't been there, but she can — and does — examine the way Americans around her experience and address ongoing war (or pointedly fail to, as the case may be). [Image below: Saddam's Palace (Febreeze), 2004.]
There's nothing unusual about an artist, especially Rosler, examining her nation's conduct and its attitudes toward war or instruments of national policy. Artists, like newspaper columnists or historians, have important contributions to make to the national dialogue as our nation grapples with the legacy of the Bush administration's wars and pro-torture policy. Credit the Hirshhorn, a Smithsonian Institution museum located almost exactly halfway between the Capitol and the White House, for being willing to join in that dialogue and for acquiring work that examines the most difficult aspects of recent American history. Art museums — especially contemporary art museums — have an obligation to be willing to engage, to serve as a bridge between the public and artists. (This is the second time in less than a year that the Hirshhorn has pointedly pushed an artist or a body of work into the discourse.) More museums should follow the Hirshhorn's example.


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Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and the 7th most populous country in the world with over 175 million people. Nigeria has continued to grow, urbanize, and modernize and it is projected that at its current growth rate, it will reach a population of about 450 million people by 2050 and will be the 3rd most populous country in the world. However, Nigeria also stands at number '2' in the world for number of people living with HIV—with about 3.3 million infected.
At present, 45% of the entire population is younger than 18 years old, which has serious and important implications for Nigeria's population growth. One can postulate that in the next ten years, almost half of Nigeria's population will be reaching reproductive age. At the moment, approximately 45 million Nigerian women are of reproductive age and maternal mortality rates are high at 630 deaths/100,000 live births and neonatal mortality rate at 39 deaths/1000 births.
Furthermore, 20% of Nigerian women report an unmet need for family planning and total fertility rate is high at 5.7 children per woman. Nigeria currently has a contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of 17.5% CPR but Nigeria's Minister of Health has made reaching 36% contraceptive prevalence rate by 2018, a national goal.
DKT Nigeria will contribute to reaching that goal by providing a variety of contraceptive options such as condoms, IUDs, oral contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, injectables and implants, using innovative marketing. In addition, DKT will target adolescents with youth-friendly reproductive services by branding and promoting products that will take into play the multi-cultural character of Nigeria, and through advertising especially via modern market advertising like social media.
DKT will help Nigeria realize its female reproductive health goals by providing effective, safe, affordable and quality contraceptive products aimed at reducing misconceptions about birth control, increasing HIV prevention awareness and confronting HIV transmission, increasing contraceptive options, ease of choice and accessibility through innovative marketing strategies and wide distribution across the country. DKT will distribute these products using a social marketing approach, which leverages the private and public sectors, targets the urban and rural communities and promotes open communication and re-education about family planning, sex, and birth control.
In 2015, DKT Nigeria sold over 35 million condoms (119% more than last year), more than 87,000 IUDs, and became one of the first programs globally to offer Sayana Press injectable contraceptives, selling over 252,000. This translates into 1,616,326 couple years of protection.
For more information, please contact our country director. You can find their information here.
Honey & Banana website: a resource for finding the perfect birth control method.
Twitter: @DKTNigeria
Facebook: Fiesta Condoms NG


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If you cut a spaghetti squash in half and take the seeds out, all you have to do is place it flesh side down in a large dish, fill with about an inch of water and microwave on high until it's cooked through. Test it with a fork. Same method for oven but takes longer.
Butternut squash... I like to simple cut in half, remove seeds, rub with a fat and roast until softened. You can peel it, cut it I to French fry shapes or large wedges, too. Another favorite of mine.


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Lindsay Lohan Arrives to Court For Final Probation Hearing
Amanda Hasaka
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For cutting metal with limited use on wood and plastic. Cut-off wheels make it easy to cut or slot bolts, screws, sheet metal, thin wood, and plastic. The cut-off wheel cuts only along its edge. Do not attempt to sand or cut curved holes with them.
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Featured Golf News
Masson Starts off Hot in North Texas Shootout
Germany's Caroline Masson fired a 7-under 64 to take the opening-round lead in the North Texas Shootout. The $1.3 million, 72-hole event - one of three new tournaments added to the 2013 schedule - started Thursday at Las Colinas Country Club in Irving, Texas.
Masson, a 23-year-old who played golf for a year of at Oklahoma State University before turning pro in late 2009, posted four birdies on the front nine and three more on the back to forge a two-stroke lead over Spain's Carlota Ciganda and three over Americans Mo Martin and Kristy McPherson, South Koreans M.J. Hur and Inbee Park, and England's Felicity Johnson.
Park, the No. 1-ranked player in women's golf and winner of the Kraft Nabisco Championship three weeks ago, had five birdies in her first 13 holes before posting a bogey on the par-4 14th and four straight pars coming home. Known as one of the best putters in golf, Park's work on the greens was off Thursday as she needed 30 putts.
Amateur Taylor Coleman, a 16-year-old sophomore at Johnson High School in San Antonio, made an impressive debut on a big stage. After joining Haley Mills of Fort Worth - an 18-year-old who attends the Jim McLean Junior Academy in Fort Worth - as the two players who qualified for the tournament in Monday's High School Shootout at Las Colinas, Coleman shot a 3-under 68 to share eighth with Christina Kim and South Korean Hee Young Park.
Angela Stanford, a 35-year-old native of Fort Worth, graduate of TCU and now a resident of Saginaw, Texas, opened with a 69 and is tied for 11th with fellow Americans Jessica Korda and Moira Dunn, South Korean Haeji Kang, Spain's Azahara Munoz and Taiwan's Yani Tseng.
Several players shot 70s, including Suzann Pettersen, winner of last week's Lotte Championship in Hawaii.
Other scores included even-par 71s by Michelle Wie, Lizette Salas and Lexi Thompson, 72s by Stacy Lewis and McKinney, Texas, native Brittany Lang. Paula Creamer, Mills and England's Laura Davies both opened with 73s on a cool day in Irving.
The "shootout" format consists of two cuts; the first will be made after the second round for the top-70 players and ties, with the second made for the top-50 after Saturday's third round.
For complete scoring details, visit http://www.lpgascoring.com/public/Leaderboard.
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Q: Do you have any idea if naturopathic treatments are bad for ferrets? My ferret has a cold, and I wondered if I could use Vicks or use saltwater nose drops — stuff like that. A: I would not recommend using any treatment on ferrets that is produced for use in people unless that treatment is specifically recommended by your veterinarian. Even products that appear very safe in people, such as saltwater nose drops, could cause an unexpected reaction in ferrets. Saltwater nose drops seem simple, but what if there are preservatives in the solution that can cause a reaction in ferrets?
I have seen too many supposedly "benign" treatments for people used in ferrets only to have that ferret end up in the hospital with a severe reaction.
See all Ask The Doc questions and answers»
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Larry King is still broadcast royalty
Legendary broadcaster goes 'On the Record' to give Greta well-wishes in her new time slot
Legendary broadcaster goes 'On the Record' to give Greta well-wishes in her new time slot
ZoeH: Fort Worth (black) condemned for 2006 execution-style slaying (of White man) gets death date David Storey Jonas Cherry HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Fort Worth man on death row for a fatal shooting during a robbery at mini-golf amusement center a decade ago has received an execution date. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says prison agency officials have received notice a judge in Tarrant County has set Paul David Storey for lethal injection April 12 in Huntsville. Storey, who turns 32 Saturday, was convicted of the October 2006 slaying of 28-year-old Jonas Cherry. Cherry was a manager at a Putt-Putt mini-golf center in Hurst, just northeast of Fort Worth. Evidence showed $150 was taken in the robbery and that Storey previously worked there. An accomplice of Storey's pleaded guilty and took a life sentence. Storey is among at least six Texas inmates with execution dates in the coming months. - (Black-on-white)


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Since 1980, "Uncoverings" has been the foremost authority in quilt research. This interdisciplinary volume represents AQSG's mission to build an accurate, well respected body of quilt-related research. Papers should be 4,500-9,000 words in length. If your paper is selected you will be invited to make a presentation of your research at the 2001 AQSG Seminar, October 12-14 in Williamsburg, VA. This is a unique opportunity to share your work with others who are passionate about quilts and to participate in a weekend conference devoted to the study of quilt history which includes study centers, workshops, keynote and research presentations, and pre-conference offerings.
Deadline for submissions for consideration in "Uncoverings 2001" is December 1, 2000.
For complete submission and manuscript guidelines, contact the American Quilt Study Group, 35th and Holdrege, East Campus Loop, P.O.Box 4737, Lincoln, NE 68504-0737
phone: (402) 472-5361, fax: (402) 472-5428, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com


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Kidney – Functions, Cause of Kidney Stones, Homeopathic / Home Made Natural Treatment / Remedy for Kidney Stones
Kidney Function
Kidneys are one of the most important organs in humans. Kidneys are about the size of a bean (4 – 5 inches) located behind the abdomen and close to the spine.
Kidneys main function is to regulate and filter the blood. Each kidney contains millions of nephrons which are responsible for filtering the blood waste. Kidneys are so complex that scientist hasn't figured out on how to repair or replicate them in patients with severe kidney dysfunctions. Several times a day, blood passes through the kidney for filtration, where kidneys remove waste, regulate electrolytes and maintain the pH of the body fluids. Kidneys excrete waste such as urea and ammonium which helps in the re absorption of water, glucose and amino acids. The urine created in the kidneys is passed on to the pelvis which acts as a funnel to drain tubes (ureter) connected to the bladder.
No Insurance Treatment: Before affordable care act this has been a great problem as many people did not have a proper health insurance plan. So when they suffer from a disease like this treatment gets very costly without health insurance coverage. So it is a very essential thing to enroll into Obama Care (Affordable Care Act) and get a good health insurance plan so that you don't have to burn through your hard earned savings for health treatments. Affordable care act enables you to get a good health insurance coverage plan according to your income. But if you don't have health insurance coverage you can still get treatment from a hospital and pay them in installments. As long as you keep paying installments regularly their wont be any problems. If you don't have any source of income and money is tight you can always apply for charity. But first to be eligible for charity you have to apply for medicare. If you are refused for medicare by the state and federal Government, then hospital can pay your bills using charity.
Sometimes in the process of excreting waste kidneys develop kidney stones which are harmful in nature but could be extremely painful and may develop repeatedly. Kidney stones are a solid mass or concentration formed in the kidneys due to minerals in the urine.
Cause of Kidney Stones
It may not sound as one of the major factor in developing kidney stones but in reality majority of the kidney stones are indeed due to dehydration. The modern diet is high in animal protein, fructose, and refined sugar, high in sodium, apple juice and grape juice which in turn lead to dehydration increasing the risk for developing kidney stones.
People who develop kidney stones, about 20% have medullary sponge kidney.
If the kidney stones are developed on a repeated basis, screening is recommended for signs of Crohn's disease because kidney stones are most common for such disease. A urine sample is analyzed within 24 hours of kidney stone formation to find features that are promoting kidney stone formation.
Calcium oxalate is the most common component of kidney stone developed. There are some studies that suggest that taking higher amount of supplemental calcium not dietary supplements have higher risk of developing kidney stones. Some studies done on women dating back to early 1990's suggest that taking supplemental calcium of 1000mg or more could lead to higher risk of developing kidney stones up to 17%. The patients were studied over a period of 7 years. On the contrary, dietary calcium seems to reduce the risk of developing kidney stones because calcium is responsible for binding with oxalate in the digestive gastrointestinal tract. In 2004 study, low calcium diets, high oxalate diets and low fluid intakes seems to be the primary factor of kidney stone formation.
Don't be fooled by thinking that calcium is the only culprit in developing kidney stones. Other electrolytes such as high dietary sodium, still highly debatable tap fluoridated water could also lead to increased risk of kidney stone formation. Low potassium diet as well could lead to kidney stone formation because potassium binds with citrate in the urinary excretion which is also responsible for kidney stone formation. Lower dietary magnesium seems to be another factor in kidney stone formation.
Supplemental vitamins do not seem to affect the formation of kidney stones. There are several studies resulting in inconclusive conclusion whether vitamin C or D increase or decrease the chances of developing kidney stones.
Excess animal protein leads to increase risk of developing kidney stones. It is especially true for western countries where majority diet is composed of animal protein. A lot of acid is created that increases urinary excretion of uric acid and calcium. The excessive amount of amino acids, uric acid from animal proteins acidifies which leads to formation of kidney stones. High animal protein diet also leads to low citrate formation which also increases the risk of kidney stone formation. Since vegetarian diet is high in citrate, kidney stone formation does not seem to be a major problem in people with vegetarian diet.
Kidney Stone Symptoms
Here are some of the symptoms which you may experience with the movement of stone in your kidney or when it passes into the Ureter which is the tube that connects your kidney to the bladder.
- You may feel severe pain on the side and back.
- Pain while urination.
- You may feel pain in waves and it will fluctuate in its intensity.
- The color of the urine may change to pink, red or brown.
- The pain will grow towards lower abdomen and groin.
- You may feel nauseated and vomit.
- Frequent urge to urinate.
- If there is any presence of infection due to the kidney stone you may feel fever and chills.
Home Remedies for Passing Kidney Stones
- As calcium oxalate are considered a major factor in the formation of kidney stone, so try to decrease the intake of diets which are rich in oxalate like: Vegetables such as spinach, Swiss chard, beets (root part), beet greens (leaf part), collards, okra, parsley, leeks and quinoa are among the most oxalate-dense vegetables.
- Keeping your body well hydrated, drinking more than 6 to 8, eight ounce glasses of water every day will help in reducing the formation of kidney stones.
- Reducing meat consumption and some types of fish by individuals who have high level of uric acid formation may help reduce and prevent the formation of kidney stones. Always check the over-the-counter calcium based antacids. Overuse of such antacids will increase the stone formation in your kidney.Magnesium rich diets like whole-wheat bread also helps in prevention of the stone formation. If you eat a diet which provides you with adequate amount of magnesium, kidney stones formation can be put to and end, according to a study.
- Keeping your sodium consumption in check is also very important to prevent this condition.
- Diets like milk which are rich in Vitamin B6 and Vitamin also help a lot. Vitamin A is very essential for the proper functioning and health of your urinary tract.
Here are some herbal and homeopathic medicines which may help in the treatment and easing the pain caused by the kidney stones ===> Herbal, Homeopathic Kidney Stones Remedies Medicines
1. Calcium oxalate and phosphate.
2. Uric Acid.
3. Struvite.
4. Cystine.
What are UTI Or urinary tract infections?
Sometimes these infections are mistaken for kidney stones but their symptoms are different. If you have a urinary tract infection there will be a strong urge to urinate which will be followed by a sharp pain or sensation of burning inside the urethra afterwards. Mostly there will be very little urine output and often it is tinged with blood.The frequency of this urge to urinate may be very high and the lower abdomen, back, or sides may feel sore. If you have UTI / Urinary Tract Infection, that may be accompanied by other symptoms like back pain, fever, nausea, vomiting, and chills.
Kidney Stones Treatment Options:
For the kidney stones which are less than 1/4 inch (or 5mm) in diameter the best options are pain killers to suppress the pain, without any other medical intervention. Such kidney stones are likely to pass on their own. But if they grow larger than that other options have to be used for taking out these stones.
1. Lithotripsy: Extracorporeal shock wave lithrotripsy (ESWL) is used for breaking the kidney stone into small fragments. Lithotripsy which means crushing stone is a one to three hour process. The kidney stone is first located by an X-Ray and then the high energy waves are focused on the exact point of kidney stone location, which is broken down into smaller fragments which pass through the body over a period of time. For carrying out this process the patient is anesthetized and suspended in the tank of water, which has been replaced by enclosed bag of water placed in direct contact with the patient's body so that the shock waves can be transferred without actual immersion into the water. In this process 3000 lithrotripsy shock waves vibrate the kidney stone and it is shattered into smaller fragments. But the most common calcium oxalate type kidney stones are very hard to fragment as they are extremely hard. Also for complex larger stone cases more than one treatment of lithotripsy may be needed.
2. Ureteroscopy: The instrument known as ureteroscope is a long tube which has an eyepiece. It is used for the search and retrieval of the kidney stones or fragmenting it using laser. Anesthesia is performed before doing this procedure for the kidney stone treatment. After the patient has been given anesthesia, a urologist slides the ureteroscope into the patients urethra, after which a scope is inserted through the bladder and inside the ureter. The stone is then removed. But if the kidney stone is too large it is then broken up into small pieces by using a laser generator which is attached to a flexible fiber.
3. Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy: For this procedure of finding and removing kidney stones, a very fine wire like instrument, nephroscope, is used. Anesthesia is done before performing Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy. A small incision is made in the patient's back, after which a tube is inserted into the kidney. If the kidney stone is too large, then a ultrasonic probe may be inserted so that acting as a lithotripter it can fragment the stone by delivery of shock waves. After the procedure of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy the patient has to stay at the hospital. A nephrostomy tube may also be placed through the skin into the kidney so that urine and any residual stone fragments from the kidney can be drained into a urine collection bag. This tube may stay for 2 to 3 days.
Test and diagnosis for determining the presence and size of kidney stones:
1. Imaging Tests: The test which is preferred for determining the presence of kidney stones is noncontrast spiral computed tomography (CT) scan. Intravenous pyelogram (IVP) is a test in which a dye is injected into your arm vein and when it travels to kidneys and bladder, X-Ray is done. The X-Ray will reveal any stones present in the urinary tract. Abdominal X-ray (KUB) will provide the picture of the kidneys, bladder and tubes which are connecting kidneys to the bladder (ureters). Ultrasound exam for detecting kidney stones (ultra-sonogram) is also becoming a preferred choice for the physicians as it is cheaper and provides results as good as other expensive diagnosis. Blood tests can also be done which may be helpful in the determination of the type of kidney stones, as it may help in revealing calcium or uric acid in your blood. Urine tests in which the urine is collected for 24 hours and analyzed for high concentration of minerals which may be the reason for the formation. Lab analysis of the kidney stones which have been passed by the patient, can help the doctor to make a plan for the prevention of their occurrences.