text: Meeting EPA rules on emissions should boost solar's value to utilities Tuesday June 3, 2014 Achievable. Flexible. These are the words the Environmental Protection Agency, and President Barack Obama, clearly want associated with the newly released proposals for cutting carbon emissions from power plants. While setting ambitious goals for reducing power plant emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 -- with individual targets for each state -- the EPA says it designed its Clean Power Plan to be technology and power-source agnostic."There is no one-size-fits-all solution," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a video that was part of the media blitz accompanying the June 2 release of the plan. "Each state is different, so each state's path can be different."The Solar Electric Power Association believes the same will be true for individual utilities. As McCarthy said, the proposed regulations were developed with broad input from industry, states and other stakeholders and, in many cases, build on industry trends already underway. And even though the ruling comes from a federal agency, the proposed implementation will be state-by-state, mirroring the existing design of policies that have built the current market for solar and other renewables. Options for meeting the reduction targets encourage states and utilities to look broadly across the power sector for strategies to drive emission cuts. The list includes:-- Building on market trends toward improved energy efficiency by upping investments in existing efficiency programs or creating new ones-- Expanding renewable energy capacity-- Tapping into investments to upgrade the power grid-- Coming up with innovative, cost-effective regulatory strategies, benefiting utilities and ratepayers."The proposed EPA plan gives more incentives for utilities to use solar in intelligent ways, in concert with energy efficiency and demand response," said Julia Hamm, SEPA's President and CEO. "U.S. utilities are steadily gaining more experience with and confidence in solar as an option to meet customer demand. Solar should become a top option for meeting the new EPA rule."Will there be costs and trade-offs involved? Of course, and they will have to be factored into the process. The proposed regulations allow for interim goals and extensions for state planning, if necessary, especially for states working together to come up with a regional approach to emissions reductions.Which brings up another key word that must be associated with the proposed plan – collaboration.If the rule goes forward as proposed, it is an opportunity for utilities, the solar industry, regulators and consumer advocates to work together as thought leaders to refine and implement smart, cost-effective paths to a cleaner, more diverse and efficient energy mix.


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'Dinosaur 13' picked up for distribution at Sundance
The Columbus Dispatch - January 17, 2014 12:16 PM
CNN Films and Lionsgate announced the acquisition of the North American rights to the documentary Dinosaur 13 by Columbus natives Todd Douglas Miller and Matt Morton at the opening night of the Sundance Film Festival.
The movie tells the story of the famous Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex that resides in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. It follows the odyssey of paleontologist Peter Larson of South Dakota's Black Hills Institute of Geological Research after his history-making find.
Dinosaur 13 follows the years-long legal battle with paleontologists, Native American tribal nations, and museums that ensued after the discovery of the fossilized skeleton.
Miller directed and produced the movie, and Morton composed and performed the soundtrack.
The film will be released theatrically via Lionsgate, with a North American broadcast premiere on CNN/U.S.
"It's a great honor to be partnered with CNN Films and Lionsgate," said Miller. "Dinosaur Sue now has another incredible home!"

subset: commoncrawl


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These plugs work great. They're a bit more expensive than your typical spark plugs, but they are definitely worth it. My Subie fires up beautifully and the spark plugs produced noticeable effects in acceleration


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Not Done Yet, Albany Rallies to Beat Harvard
from press release
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Miles Thompson scored the game-winning goal with one minute and 27 seconds remaining as Albany ended a four-game skid in a 12-11 come-from-behind victory over Harvard on Saturday at John Fallon Field.
The Crimson were No. 20 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll and receiving votes in the USILA coaches' rankings.
Harvard (6-3) reversed a 9-8 deficit early in the final period on back-to-back goals by Daniel Eipp. The freshman midfielder connected from the right of the crease off a Dean Gibbons' pass from behind the cage. The pair combined again one minute and seven seconds later for the go-ahead goal. Eipp converted a spinning underhanded shot from in front of the crease.
Albany (4-5) drew even at 10 apiece as freshman midfielder Ryan Feuerstein tallied his first goal as a collegian on a blast from the left side. The Crimson went back in front 37 seconds later when Peter Schwartz found Jack Doyle streaking in the middle of the zone. Doyle sent a shot low into the right corner.
The Great Danes, who were coming off a one-goal loss to Hartford three days ago, were able to get the equalizer with 2:17 to play. Brian Caufield drove between two defenders at the top of the zone and passed off to his left to Miles Thompson, who delivered a sidearm shot into the net.
Caufield finished with a season-high five points on one goal and four assists.
After the Crimson won the following faceoff, long-stick midfielder Mike Woods dislodged the ball from Harvard midfielder Terry White and scooped up the ground ball. The turnover led to a transition play where Miles Thompson spun to his right shoulder and buried a low shot for a 12-11 lead.
The Great Danes were able to maintain possession until Harvard defenseman Daniel DiMaria forced a turnover that led to Ryan Stevens' shot that wide to the left of the goal with five seconds remaining.
"It's more than I can explain," said Albany coach Scott Marr about his team's victory. "We have played well, but not well enough in our recent games. Miles [Thompson] had two huge goals and Brian Caulfield took over when needed. It was a great effort."
The teams played to a 7-7 halftime tie in a contest that went up and down the field. Freshman Ty Thompson, Miles' cousin, had all his career-high four goals in the half, while Harvard's Gibbons had a pair of first-quarter tallies.
The Crimson grabbed a 7-6 lead when Jeff Cohen scored an extra-man goal. The Great Danes kept pace as Caufield found the cage from right of the crease with 8.6 seconds left in the period.
The Crimson, who had won five of their last six entering the contest, evened the score at eight apiece midway through the third quarter. After a failed clearing attempt, Stevens drove around a short-stick defender and drilled a bounced shot into the left side. Albany regained the lead, 9-8, when Miles Thompson shot over his right shoulder with his back to cage from right of the crease.
The freshman finished with a career-best four goals, all in the second half.
"This will get our confidence back up," said Caufield, who is just returning to form after missing a couple of games due to injury. "They controlled the ball, but we were able to make the best of our opportunities. But throughout we were still going for the ball and attacking the goal."
Eipp finished with three goals, while Gibbons scored twice and handed out two assists for the Crimson, who defeated No. 14 Massachusetts in their previous outing on Tuesday. Albany's Joe Resetarits totaled two goals and three assists and goalkeeper Edmund Cathers made 12 saves.
Albany 12, Harvard 11 Harvard - Scoring: Daniel Eipp 3-0, Dean Gibbons 2-2, Terry White 1-1, Matt Hull 1-1, Kevin Vaughan 1-0, Jeff Cohen 1-0, Jack Doyle 1-0, Ryan Stevens 1-0, Eric Slingerland 0-2, Peter Schwartz 0-1; Goalkeeper(s): Harry Krieger (60:00, 4 saves, 12 GA).⨠Albany - Scoring: Miles Thompson 4-0, Ty Thompson 4-0, Joe Resetarits 2-3, Brian Caufield 1-4, Ryan Feuerstein 1-0, Rocky Bonitatibus 0-2; Goalkeeper(s): Edmund Cathers (60:00, 12 saves, 11 GA).
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Jamie Moyer, who became the oldest pitcher to earn a major league victory earlier this season, was granted his release by the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
Moyer, 49, was released by the Colorado Rockies earlier this season after going 2-5 with a 5.70 ERA. He signed a minor-league contract with the Orioles last month.
The left-hander asked for his release after compiling a 1.69 ERA in three starts at Class AAA Norfolk. The Orioles were not ready to call him up to the majors.
He has a career record of 269-209 with a 4.25 ERA.


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It will be a big year for: the investment bankers
Financial News profiles five executives who will shape the agenda for investment banking this year
Andrea Orcel - Chief executive, UBS investment bank
Although last year was a significant one for Orcel, with a remoulding of UBS' investment bank, it will be in 2014 that the success – or otherwise – of that strategy will become clear.
The key test for the Swiss bank will be how far it can go in its desired areas of focus in equities and advisory while using its capital-light model, and to what extent Orcel is able to convince the senior rainmakers he wants to hire to join him.
The Italian banker wants to recruit more than two dozen investment banking heavyweights "with grey hair" to establish a top-tier advisory house.
Built on the legacy of the renowned advisory firm SG Warburg, the investment banking division at UBS made significant gains last year.
It climbed to seventh last year from eighth in 2012 in global equity capital markets volumes, and went from 10th to sixth in global mergers and acquisitions, according to Dealogic.
However, Orcel will be hoping to go further still, and will want to grow revenues to match the gains in volume.
James Bardrick and Manuel Falco - Co-heads of global banking, Emea, Citigroup
Bardrick and Falco will be looking to build on the gains they made running Citigroup in Europe last year.
The bank has been voted by its peers as Financial News' Most Improved Investment Bank in three of the past four years, and is making inroads.
The US firm moved from 11th by investment banking revenue in Europe in 2012 to fifth last year, according to Dealogic.
Senior hires such as Luigi de Vecchi, a former Credit Suisse banker, named as chairman of corporate and investment banking for continental Europe last July, should help Citi to expand in Europe.
In April, Ben Story joined from Deutsche Bank to lead its UK investment banking and broking business.
The next challenge for Bardrick and Falco is to make the most of the business they have put together, and ensure that Citi is not just seen as a bank that is improving, but one that has arrived.
Colin Fan - Co-head of corporate banking & securities and head of markets, Deutsche Bank
Fan and co-head Rob Rankin have overseen 18 months of change in Deutsche Bank's corporate banking and securities arm since taking the helm. However, the greatest challenge for the Canadian-born former credit trader Fan could still be to come.
Since the second quarter of last year, when Fan and Rankin took the reins at the division, staff numbers are down by more than 2,500, assets are down by $260 billion, and risk-weighted assets have been cut by close to 15%.
Nowhere has this change had more impact than in the markets division headed by Fan. The business, which has traditionally been the driver of the group's profits, was buffeted by regulation and uncertain markets throughout 2013. Third-quarter revenues from debt sales and trading were the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2011.
For the first nine months of the year, debt sales and trading revenues were 24% lower than a year earlier, while sales and trading revenues across equity and debt were down 15%.
As one of the two European banks – along with Barclays – with ambitions of being a global flow monster, Fan's challenge in 2014 will be to maintain Deutsche's place at the top table in fixed income while managing the effects of the balance sheet-limiting leverage ratio.
Eric Bommensath - Co-chief executive, corporate and investment banking, Barclays
Frenchman Bommensath has been in the role of co-chief executive of corporate and investment banking at Barclays for a little more than six months, but has already experienced his fair share of ups and downs.
Bommensath was elevated to co-chief executive of the corporate and investment bank in May alongside New York-based Tom King, following the departure of Rich Ricci. Just two months later, the business for which Bommensath is responsible – the markets business – posted a sharp decline in revenues, as progress in equities failed to offset falls in fixed income.
The UK bank posted a 22% year-on-year decline in second-quarter fixed income, currencies and commodities revenues, reporting its lowest quarterly revenues for the business since the fourth quarter of 2011. The following quarter, it reported a 44% year-on-year decline in third-quarter FICC revenues.
Like Colin Fan at Deutsche Bank, Bommensath is charged with ensuring Barclays continues to compete at the top of the fixed-income business, while managing the impact of the leverage ratio. Like his rival, he has a tough job on his hands.
-- This article originally appeared in the print edition of Financial News dated January 6, 2014


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That giant sucking sound from Washington
We seldom have a direct vote or voice in setting our levels of taxation. Federal taxes are imposed by an arrogant and uncaring United States Congress, and I mean both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Despite record high levels of tax revenues, our debt load is speeding past $16 trillion and unfunded liabilities are several times that amount.
When the 535 members of Congress chose to come home and campaign, they did so without making a decision on what are usually referred to as the Bush tax cuts. Their inaction will result in a record raid on our wallets if they continue to sit on their hands. Dozens of new or additional taxes and fees are set to take effect during the coming year if they do nothing, including multiple new Obamacare levies.
Faced with the spiraling cost of living and lacking a clear decision on the status of myriad looming Federal tax increases, we will all go to the polls in November with a high degree of uncertainty as to whether we can afford to vote for the various local revenue issues such as funding for schools, roads, senior services, child protective services and more.
It is only at the local level where we are allowed to go to the polls and vote on taxes for the things we might actually want. In the Congress and in the Statehouses, our elected officials tell us how much of our money they will allow us to keep.
Every time they squeeze us for more money through their multiple taxing schemes, we have less income available to allocate to our local institutions. When we are in the polling booth sweating bullets over whether we can afford to vote for one or more of our local levies, we have to do so without knowing for sure if we are going to get zapped with an increase in our Federal taxes in January. Most of the decisions to raise our local taxes are close ones as it is, and I don't want the greed of the Washington leviathan forcing us to sacrifice what have been valued local institutions in favor of Washington pork.
This dilemma makes it tough to fund things like the hundreds of schools and service programs for individuals with disabilities across the region when we can't even predict our own tax burden for more than a few months into the future. If Washington takes a bigger bite, there is less left for us locally. And locally is the only place where I can stand in a polling booth and have my say about funding for police and fire, roads, school levies, and all the others.
Seniors on fixed incomes are the most conflicted, especially with a looming explosion in Medicare "gap" insurance premiums, higher prescription drug costs and reduced coverages. Prices for gasoline, electricity, food and almost everything else are up, while interest rates on their meager savings are effectively zero. Exacerbating the rising cost-of-living trend is the ever-running government printing press, cranking out more and more fiat money, making every new dollar worth less than all those printed before, including the ones in our wallets and bank accounts. Congress has not just driven up prices, but has assured that the dollars we do get to keep are worth less and less. My mother's $18 monthly social security COLA won't even buy a tank of gas for her 13 year-old Buick, cover her growing out-of-pocket cost for Medicare, offset record-high heating fuel prices or the growing grocery bill. Nor will it for millions of others on fixed or declining incomes.
Most of us can cope with almost anything if we know what's coming. It's the uncertainty that can flummox and frighten even the strongest and most experienced among us, and positively terrorize the elderly who still have vivid memories of the Great Depression.
None of this bodes well for those served by our local institutions. Nor is this their fault, whether it is the youngsters in school taking their turns to chase their dreams, or the most vulnerable of our sons and daughters who will live their entire lives in that nether world of disability completely dependent on the rest of us.
Since it is our money to start with, why in the world couldn't we have been given the simple courtesy of a plain yes or no decision in Washington before we go to the polls?
To paraphrase former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, that big sucking sound you hear is the vacuum cleaner-like roar of more of your shrinking paycheck rushing from your pocket to feed the already engorged but insatiably greedy central government in Washington.
Editor's note: Dr. Terry Wallace is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Excellence in Education at West Liberty University, a Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Foundation of West Virginia and a healthcare contributor at the CATO Institute.


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Our range of ready made curtains is carefully selected to offer the latest in curtain fabric designs at affordable prices. We have nearly all our ranges in stock, in a variety of colours for quick delivery. We offer many styles and many fabric types, including pencil pleat, tab tops, eyelets, and also a range of coordinating ready made curtain accessories including tie backs, cushions, pelmets and scarves. To view our range simply select the heading style you would like from the left, and unlike most websites, you can actually view each design in the full range of colours available.
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Planet Gobbling Dust Storms
Planet Gobbling Dust Storms An enormous dust storm exploded on Mars three weeks
ago, shrouding the planet in haze and raising the temperature
of its atmosphere a whopping 30 degrees C.
Listen to this story (need help? try our audio FAQ)
July 16, 2001: Mariner 9 arrived at Mars in 1971 -- the first spacecraft to orbit the Red Planet. Scientists were anxious to study the crisp new pictures it was expected to send back. Much of Mars had never been seen in any detail, and Mariner 9 would lift the veil at last.
Their feelings must have been mixed indeed when the first images arrived at mission control and revealed .... a world-wide haze. The surface of the entire planet was hidden by the biggest dust storm anyone had ever seen! Only Olympus Mons, a giant volcano 24 kilometers high, peeked above the clouds.
After a month the dust settled and Mariner 9 mapped the Red Planet with great success. Scientists have since learned that huge dust storms, dwarfing desert dust clouds on Earth, are fairly common on Mars. The Mariner 9 event still holds the record as the thickest and longest-lasting we have observed -- but perhaps not for long.
Above: On June 26, 2001, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a dust storm brewing in Hellas Basin on Mars. A day later the storm "exploded" and became a global event.
Enjoying the best view of the storm is NASA's Mars Global Surveyor in orbit around the Red Planet. The spacecraft carries an instrument called "TES" -- short for Thermal Emission Spectrometer -- that can measure the temperature and dust content of the Martian atmosphere on a daily basis.
"This storm began as a small dust cloud inside the Hellas Basin, a 9-km deep impact crater in Mars's southern hemisphere," says Phil Christensen, the principal investigator for TES at Arizona State University. At first the cloud did little -- alternately growing and retreating as days passed, but never getting very large until June 27th. "That's when the storm exploded," says Christensen. "It crossed some critical threshold and really began to grow." By early July the dust cloud had spilled out of the Basin and wrapped itself around the entire planet.
Above: These movie frames show the dust content of Martian air between June 24 and July 8, 2001. A modest dust storm brewing in Hellas Basin (the large impact ring near the lower left of each hemisphere) suddenly exploded on June 27th and quickly enveloped the whole planet. GIF animations: Large (1 MB -- includes an extended caption), Medium (450 kb), or Small (210 kb). Credit: the Arizona State University TES Team.
"This is a big deal," says Christensen. Although Mars is smaller than Earth, its surface area equals the sum of all the continents on our planet. Imagine a dust storm on Earth that blanketed every continent at once. Its enough to make an allergy sufferer shiver (and sneeze).
No one knows exactly how Martian dust storms grow to such proportions. Says Christensen: "One theory holds that airborne dust particles absorb sunlight and warm the Martian atmosphere in their vicinity. Warm pockets of air rush toward colder regions and generate winds. Strong winds lift more dust off the ground, which further heats the atmosphere." It's a positive feedback loop that can transform tiny dust clouds into globe-swallowing storms.
Dust storms on Earth are smaller than their Martian cousins for two reasons:
First, Earth isn't a global desert like Mars. Most of our planet offers little fuel for self-sustaining dust storms. For example, winds in the Gobi desert frequently stir up dust clouds that migrate over the vast Pacific Ocean. With no source of dust to feed them from the ocean below, such storms quickly die.
Second, dust clouds don't raise the temperature of air on Earth as they do on Mars. "The temperature of Earth's atmosphere is controlled by the latent heat of water vapor," explains Christensen. "Airborne dust can't compete." On Mars, however, sunlight-absorbing dust can substantially heat the dry, thin atmosphere -- raising winds and, of course, more dust. "The global air temperature on Mars is now about 30 degrees C higher than it was before this dust storm began," notes Christensen.
Above: Thermal infrared measurements by TES orbiting Mars aboard Mars Global Surveyor reveal how the Martian atmosphere has substantially warmed during the ongoing dust storm. GIF animations: Large (1 MB, includes an extended caption), Medium (450 kb), or Small (70 kb). Credit:the Arizona State University TES Team.
The ultimate energy source for Martian dust storms is sunlight. For that reason the dusty season on Mars begins each year near perihelion, the planet's closest approach to the Sun. Mars will be at perihelion on October 12, 2001. "The biggest dust storms don't usually begin until one or two months after perihelion," notes Christensen. "This one coming so early in the season makes me think Mars is heading for a spell of big dust storms."
Not only is Mars near perihelion, it's also near Earth. Just now the two planets are closer than they have been in about a dozen years, which makes Mars unusually big and bright in the midnight sky. Before the ongoing dust storm began, a modest 8 or 10 inch telescope trained on Mars would reveal dark markings and polar caps. "But now," says Christensen, "those details are fading away as dust fills the air. Martian dust is made of the same rust-colored stuff that covers the ground, so the planet is looking pretty bland."
Above: Tan Wei Leong of Singapore captured this image of dust-shrouded Mars using an amateur 11" reflecting telescope on July 12, 2001. Credit: Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.
A human explorer on Mars during such a storm would surely think the planet gloomy -- perhaps even a bit depressing. But the gloom might be less vexing than the dust itself. Fast-blowing (60 to 100 mph) dust particles can gum the joints of spacesuits and infiltrate cracks in doors and windows -- a real nuisance for future colonists.
And the nuisance wouldn't be short-lived, because once underway Martian dust storms don't quickly end. "Big events tend to last for weeks or months," says Christensen. "In fact, we're not certain what makes them stop." Perhaps, he speculates, when the whole planet is shrouded, strong thermal gradients in the atmosphere subside -- winds die down and the dust settles.
Right: The land area of Earth is approximately equal to that of Mars, but dust storms are generally smaller here because Earth is not a global desert.
Like its predecessors, the ongoing dust storm is unpredictable -- no one knows when it will end. Indeed, it could be just the first of a series. "Energy in the atmosphere from one storm makes it easier for the next dust storm to begin," Christensen explains. No matter what happens, though, researchers are delighted. "Atmospheric scientists have been waiting for a beautiful storm like this," says Christensen. "The data we're collecting are marvelous, and I suspect there will be a rush of papers in the months ahead answering some of the questions we have about these events."
What an irony! An impenetrable haze around Mars will help scientists finally clear the air -- and understand the biggest dust storms in the solar system.
Editor's Note: You can monitor the ongoing storm yourself. Simply look at Mars through a telescope. Are markings on the planet crisp and distinct -- or hazy? Click here for observing tips.
July 16, 2001
presented by ThursdaysClassroom.com
 Thursday's Classroom
KID'S STORIES: 3rd and 4th grade -- 5th to 8th grade -- 9th grade and older
- Discussion Questions: These discussion questions are crafted for 3rd to 8th graders, but they will work in many high school classes, too. [lesson plan][activity sheet]
- Gobble that Dust Storm! Kids can gobble a Martian dust storm before it gobbles them. Cinnamon toast will never taste the same! [lesson plan]
- The Color of Mars Dust: Younger kids will enjoy coloring these pieces of original art by Duane Hilton as they learn about dust storms on Mars. [A Sneaky Dust Devil] [Umbrellas Won't Help]
|Use this button to download the story with lessons and activities in printer-friendly Adobe PDF format:
Thermal Emission Spectrometer - Scientists are using "TES" -- an Arizona State University-built instrument on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft -- to monitor the ongoing dust storm.
Mars Climate FAQ: What causes Martian dust storms? - from NASA/Ames
A Close Encounter with the Planet Mars -- Earth and Mars are unusually close together. Stargazers won't want to miss the Red Planet blazing bright in the midnight sky.
Stories about dust storms on Earth:
All the World's a Stage .... for Dust -- Tune in to a NASA website and watch giant dust clouds as they ride global rivers of air, cross-pollinating continents with topsoil and microbes.
Mobile Homes for Microbes -- African dust that crosses the Atlantic and brings beautiful sunsets to Florida also carries potentially harmful bacteria and fungi, a new study shows.
The Pacific Dust Express -- North America has been sprinkled with a dash of Asia! A dust cloud from China crossed the Pacific Ocean recently and rained Asian dust from Alaska to Florida.
Right: In the upper frame a massive dust cloud swirls away from the Martian north pole. In the lower frame a similar-looking cloud blows westward over the Atlantic Ocean from Earth's Sahara Desert. Credit: Mars Global Surveyor (top) and SeaWiFs (bottom). [more]
More Mars Links:
A Picture Gallery of Martian Dust Storms - from JPL's Mars Exploration web site
Soviet Landers fall prey to Martian Dust - from ThinkQuest.org
Hubble's Best-ever Image of Mars: On June 26, 2001, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a dust storm brewing in the Hellas Basin of Mars. A day later the storm erupted and became a global event.
Mariner 9 mission to Mars -NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft arrive at Mars in 1971, right in the middle of a global dust storm.
Join our growing list of subscribers - sign up for our express news delivery and you will receive a mail message every time we post a new story!!!


text: The Kimberley Region was recently hailed by Lonely Planet (the worlds largest travel publication) as the second best region to visit in the World in 2014. It is noted for it's pristine beauty in the face of rapidly developing tourist centres. El Questro Wilderness Park is the jewel in the Kimberley's crown with over 700,000 acres of outback beauty just waiting for you to explore. With landscapes as diverse as tidal mudflats, sub tropical rainforests, mountainous ranges and gorges with crystal clear water, El Questro is a very unique property. Think of it as a compilation of all the best the Kimberley has to offer the camping traveller. The question isn't why would you camp at El Questro, it's why wouldn't you! An average day may unfold like this. With over 150 bird species on the property, your alarm clock may be a Blue Winged Kookaburra or a flock of Red Tailed Black Cockatoos. Then it's off to explore the multitude of natural attractions. Maybe a hike up El Questro Gorge with a plunge under a spring fed waterfall followed by a soak in the magical thermal waters of Zebedee springs. After a spot of lunch under a boab tree enjoy a relaxing dip in one of our beautiful waterholes, and then test your driving skills on one of our 4WD lookouts. End your day under a million Kimberley stars swapping stories round the campfire. . . A camping adventure at El Questro is a must do and tops many bucket lists. It would rival any camping destination in Australia but don't let us tell you come and find out for yourself! Reservations for camping can be made from 1 February 2017.


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hahaha I really like the comment "Well not this week!" How cute! I've never thought of that.
Usually my relatives will say "you don't need that" whenever my daughter starts to dig in my shirt and say "ninny"...
That's usually when I stay right there and nurse her right in front of them... without shame.
Normally I would take her to another room since I feel like her and I bond better when no one else (accept her bother, who shares ninny) is around.


text: Openly gay imams serve as an affirming gleam of hope in Muslim LGBT community Mainstream Islam has a reputation of being rabidly anti-LGBT, but that reputation is being challenged. Gay Muslims around the world are working slowly-but-surely to reach out to other LGBT Muslims looking to reconcile their identity with their faith. Read about two openly gay imams and others who are paving the way for LGBT Muslims in America and overseas. Issues: News, Family, People of Color, Religion and Faith, Young Adult


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June's Photo Sweepstakes Winner
It's that time again...time to announce our monthly My Wild Dunes Photo Sweepstakes winning image - Wide Open at Wild Dunes!
We love this image submitted by the Johnson family of their son Camden's underwater fun! See what they had to say about it...
"Our family loves Wild Dunes. We have taken our son the last five years. It is so enjoyable to see each year what new discoveries open his eyes to the wonders of the coast. This year he was mesmerized by the starfish, sand dollars, and other sea creatures. We found at low tide. In 5 years, he has grown from a baby in a pool float to Beach Club Villa's best deep sea (a.k.a pool) diver. I am still in wonder of this photo of Camden with his eyes and mouth wide open underwater." - The Johnsons
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Youth Design Team: Summer 2011
Youth Design Team: Summer 2011 was the second Youth Design Team and the first time the teens were able to work outside of the school year. This was made possible through a collaboration with The Pearson Foundation's New Learning Institute. Teens experimented with different forms of media and from their experiences, chose what they wanted to do their final project on. Here are some of the projects students created:
Field Stories
Field Stories gives you a look at the story behind the fossils, exhibits, and stuffed animal skins. Field Stories is a multimedia Tumblr blog that shares the experiences of students, scientists and visitors at The Field Museum. You can check out the website at this link: Field Stories
Abstract Comprehension
Abstract Comprehension is a short hip-hop album based on the four divisions of science at The Field Museum. It is by a YDT teen, better known by his stage name, "Parthenon." Each division (Zoology, Geology, Botany, and Anthropology) has a track devoted to it. The album can be found at Parthenon's website: Abstract Comprehension
The Dinosaur Whisperers
The Dinosaur Whisperers is a video series by two of the YDT teens about all the "secret" goings-on at the museum when the lights go out. The Dinosaur Whispers can communicate with SUE the T. rex and the other Field dinos through special powers. Below is a video of SUE the T.rex's special music video the whispers made, titled "Ima Eat Your Face." The Dinosaur Whisperer's website can be found here: Dinosaur Whisperers
The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side
"The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side" is a proposed interactive station that would show a series of videos. The participant steps on the paw print of an animal and a video about that animal will play. Each video explains the effects of environmental destruction and the significance of that animal to nature and to humans. You can watch one of the videos here:
Recycling Game
This is an interactive programmed using a development tool called Scratch. You must choose to trash or recycle four items: paper, steel, plastic and batteries. Each choice causes different facts to pop up. Try it out.


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Posted on by KCPT
Thanks to social media, today's teens are able to interact directly with their culture — artists, celebrities, movies, brands and even one another — in ways never before possible. But is that real empowerment? Or do marketers still hold the upper hand? In "Generation Like," author and FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff ("The Merchants of Cool," …Continue Reading


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How To Follow The Sochi Olympics On Twitter
By editor • Jan 23, 2014
Originally published on January 24, 2014 10:05 am
Though Sochi is nine hours ahead of New York, social media will make it easier to keep track of many Winter Olympians in real time. We've compiled Twitter lists for each of the U.S. team rosters. We're also making lists for media, teams and international athletes — and will be adding to them as the Olympics go on.
Feel free to subscribe to any of these lists and follow @nprolympics on Twitter for the latest updates from NPR's team in Sochi.
U.S. Teams
U.S. Cross-Country Skiing Team
U.S. Short Track Speed Skating Team
More Lists
International Olympic Committees
Media covering Olympics in Sochi
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Mo Gollub was a comic book artist and animator. He began his career in 1937, when he became an animator for the Disney Studios. He remained with the company until 1941 and has worked on films like 'Bambi' and a couple of shorts. He was an animator with UPA in the 1950's and subsequently worked for Pantomime Pictures, Sanrio and Hanna Barbera, where he was a lay-out artist on shows like 'The Flintstones', 'Scooby Doo', 'The Harlem Globe Trotters' and 'The Smurfs' with intervals between 1964 and 1983.
He was also a comic book artist for Dell Publishing/Western Comics from 1946 to 1971. He drew realistic adventure series like 'Tarzan', 'Lone Ranger', 'Trigger', 'Lassie', 'Indian Chief', 'Robin Hood' and 'Korak', while he also worked on funny animal stories starring 'Cubby & Tubby', 'Fairy Tale Parade' and 'Raggedy And & Andy'. He also drew the comic book adaptation of Disney's 'Bambi' film. From 1960 onwards he was dividing his time between assignments from Western and his animation work. By then was a cover artist of the classic 'Turok' comic books.
Smokey (Quebec edition, 8/5/1958)
Gollub drew for Western's 'Smokey the Bear' comic book from 1955 and additionally produced this educational wildlife feature as a comic strip for newspapers through Columbia Features between 1957 and 1959. The strip also had a Sunday page, and was credited to Wes Wood, although Gollub was the artist and Paul Newman the writer.


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INGREDIENTS:4 ears fresh Supersweet corn, husked 4 oz. cotija* (queso anejado) or feta cheese 1 tsp. chili powder 4 lime slices DIRECTIONS:Preheat grill or broiler. Grill or broil corn, turning occasionally until hot and some kernels turn golden brown, about 5 minutes. Crumble cheese on one side of each corn ear. Sprinkle with chili powder, dividing evenly. Broil until cheese starts to melt, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with lime. *Available in Mexican and specialty food stores. SERVINGS:4 portions ...
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Guns & Ammo
Guns & Ammo
Learn More About Guns & Ammo
DICKS Sporting Goods Guns & Ammo Near You
Bring home your prey with performance-crafted guns and ammunition from the gun store near you.
DICKS Sporting Goods is your firearms destination. From target shooting to a waterfowl hunt, the experts at DICKS Sporting Goods are here to pair you with the right gun. Stock up on ammunition, shooting optics and scopes and firearm accessories. Visit the DICKS Sporting Goods store locator to find the gun shops near you.
Shop all guns and ammo:
From big game to varmint, find your next firearm in our collection of state-of-the-art rifles, shotguns and ammo. Explore the full collection in store, including brands like Remington®, Browning®, Savage® and Winchester®. Get ready for the field with hunting equipment and apparel from DICKS Sporting Goods.
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Mrs. Villarreal was born on March 18, 1933, in George West to Estabeliano and Teofila Cano Lopez. She married Ciriaco Villarreal on July 18, 1964, in Beeville. She was a homemaker.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Ciriaco Villarreal Sr.; a daughter, Madelena Villarreal; three brothers, Juan Peralta, Ramon Lopez and Cipriano Lopez; one grandson, Gilbert Lee Flores; and one step-daughter, Oralia V. Camacho.
Survivors include two daughters, Mariann (Peter) Martinez and Margie (Simon) Barrientes, both of Beeville; two sons, Ciriaco (Nere) Villarreal Jr. of Mathis and Martin Villarreal of Beeville; three step-daughters, Dalia Sanchez of Aransas Pass, Natalia (Nick) Camacho and Ellie (Adan) Martinez, both of Beeville; 18 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.
Visitation was held from 1 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 11, at Oak Park Memorial Funeral Chapel. A rosary was recited there at 7 o'clock that evening.
The funeral Mass was celebrated Monday, March 12, at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church. Interment followed at San Pedro Cemetery in the Clareville Community.
Pallbearers were Mikey Sanchez, Jacob Barrientes, Johnny Posada, Jimmy Padron, Ralph James Padron Sr. and Peter Martinez.
Honorary pallbearers were Jason Barrientes, Randi Padron-Griego and Simon J. Barrientes.
Oak Park Memorial Funeral Chapel


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Find out more about us and our management team, and check out our facilities.
Owner, Travel Company
"I have found that Live2Sell has greatly benefited my business. The staff and service that are provided by Chris and his team are both exceptional. Within 3 months of working with with Live2Sell, my business had an almost 40% increase in revenue…."
CEO, Telecommunications Corporation
"It's a very competitive market here in the US. Our decision to outsource our business to Live2Sell was absolutely one of the best business moves we've ever made. My only regret is that we didn't do it sooner..!"
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"It was important that our customers have round-the-clock support that they can depend upon. Our team with Live2Sell are well trained and professional. We are very happy with our choice to go with them as our b2b lead generation outsourcing partner…"


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Brandon Cervantes received the National Director of Law Enforcement and Investigations Award for 2012 Hero of the Year. While on duty in South Carolina Cervantes decisive heroic action resulted in a woman's live being saved. He is a federal law enforcement officer for the U.S. Forest Service in Asheville, NC, and is a Coast Guard veteran.
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Four wounded in St. Louis shooting
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Authorities said four people were shot and critically wounded in an attack in St. Louis on Sunday night.
Police said the attack happened along the 2700 block of Dayton Street. The two men and two women who were shot were taken to an area hospital.
A police official who declined to give her name but said she had read the report of the shooting said she had no further information, including any information about the assailant or assailants.
More News
BOONVILLE - Authorities said at around 9:30 Saturday night, an armed robbery occurred near Santa Fe Trail and Riviera Drive.... More >>
BOONE COUNTY - One person died in a vehicle crash on Highway 124 Saturday evening, according to Boone County Fire... More >>
COLUMBIA – More than 20 schools from Kansas City to Columbia gathered at Jefferson Middle School Saturday for the FIRST... More >>
MARIES COUNTY - A man who stole a vehicle and allegedly wrecked it was arrested, according to the Maries County... More >>
PLEASANT HILL - Gov. Jay Nixon announced the completion of the Katy Trail extension from Windsor to Pleasant Hill Saturday.... More >>
COLUMBIA — In late October, an outbreak of canine distemper forced a St. Louis animal shelter to euthanize 17 dogs.... More >>
ST. LOUIS - The City of Columbia did not violate residents First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by allowing a student... More >>
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis lawyer has been named chairman of the University of Missouri board of cur... More >>
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis police said a man impersonating a police officer tried to pull over the wrong... More >>
SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Southwest Missouri authorities have charged a man with raping a woman nearly a year after he was... More >>
COLUMBIA - The Missouri Arthritis Foundation in Missouri is set to raise $40,000. Since August, supporters have signed... More >>
COLUMBIA (AP) — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said a proposed medical radioactive isotope plant in Columbia would have little... More >>
HOLTS SUMMIT - The Holts Summit Lions Club is hosting the second annual Christmas Festival Saturday before the start of... More >>
COLUMBIA - Overuse injuries appear to be growing increasing common in youth sports. According to a 2015 study by the... More >>
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — Missouri's outgoing Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon is giving clemency to 15 people convicted of drug-related crimes... More >>
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — A former director of Missouri's unemployment benefits agency has agreed to a $2 million settlement to... More >>
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A woman assaulted as a girl during a 1982 attack that killed her mother wants... More >>
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) — Missouri Auditor Nicole Galloway said she's reviewing state legal payments following reports of harassment and employee... More >>
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|Fishing Home
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The West Virginia Husky Musky Club
Membership Rules
Anglers have two ways to become a member. One way is to complete the applicable parts of the application form and submit a check for $10. The second way is for an angler to catch a legal-sized muskellunge (30 inches or longer measured from the tip of snout to end of tail) on rod and reel from West Virginia waters. The application must be filled out and mailed to the West Virginia Husky Musky Club within 30 days of catch. The angler submitting this application automatically becomes a club member without paying first–year dues and will be presented a membership certificate at the annual awards banquet.
Special certificates are awarded to those anglers who catch a musky at least 40 inches in length. Annual awards are also given for outstanding musky fishing achievements, including Trophies to the active members who catch the longest and the heaviest muskellunge.A musky of 40 inches or more in length must be weighed on certified scales (unless released) and be witnessed by two other adults, one of whom must be the owner or clerk in charge of the scales. Only one witness is required for a musky less than 40 inches and certified scale weight is not required. Photographs of catches are appreciated.
The West Virginia Husky Musky Club Application
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� 2003 West Virginia Division of Natural Resources


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"Backflip" Johnny Dudley was at St. Mary's Academy Charter School Tuesday morning entertaining the students and promoting some of the upcoming events that tie in with Western Week.
There will be a "Little Britches Buckout" at Tractor Supply at 1:30 p.m. Saturday after the Western Week Parade for all of the little guys and girls ages 3 to 8 to buck their bulls – or more accurately stick horses.
"You will get your eight seconds in the round pen to show us what you got and how hard you spur that bull," said Kries Vaughan, who is helping promote the rodeo. "We are picking 10 (youngsters) to go to the PBR Saturday night to meet all the bull riders coming in from all over the world."
The main event though will be the PBR rodeo at the Expo Center.
Dudey will be one of the rodeo clowns in the arena keeping the estimated 50 bull riders safe.
He has been a profession rodeo clown about 10 years now.
His transition to clowning occurred when he saw a rodeo while still in the military and stationed in South Carolina.
After receiving an honorable discharge, he went to college and earned a degree in international business.
He got a regular job and did a little rodeo clowning on the side.
"I just found a local rodeo that let me try it out," he said.
He was a natural.
And, well, the rest is history.
Now, he tours the country performing in rodeos like the one coming to Beeville this weekend.
"For the last 40 years, Jack Simmons of Oklahoma and JK Rodeo Company out of Pecos, Texas, has become famous for the quality of stock it provides for PRCA Rodeos, including the NFR and the PBR Tours," Vaughan said.
"The same amazing stock athletes who won in San Antonio, Houston, San Angelo and Cheyenne will be just feet in front of the viewing audience at the Bee County Expo Center in Beeville."
The rodeo starts at 7 p.m. with tickets at $15 on sale now at all of the Pantry locations, The Wicker Basket and Cavender's of Corpus Christi.
Of course, this is just one of the many events coming to the Expo Center this weekend.
There is a magician, a reptile show and a variety of musicians performing. Concho Cowboys are also returning to town to showcase their Old West gunfighting performance.
With so many acts, and a host of popular musicians including Ray Wylie Hubbard, coming to town, county officials assure the Expo Center grounds will be ready. Recent complaints about cleanliness and the restrooms, they say, should be cleared up.
Commissioner Eloy Rodriguez has taken on the dirty task of cleaning up the restrooms, because he was the first of the commissioners to be approached about the problem.
"What the Western Week Committee is planning to do is put about 18 portable restrooms out," Rodriguez said.
"That is a temporary fix.
"Eventually, what we will try to do is rework the contracts, where the party who is leasing the grounds is responsible for ensuring the grounds are kept clean during the event they are hosting.
"Right now, we don't have any language that talks about that."
Eventually, he said, he would like to see the restrooms improved and even expanded. He plans to get numbers together for the next county budget to see if these could be done with the finances available.
The county has seen a lot of growth recently as bigger names come to perform, drawing people from throughout the area.
"Unfortunately, especially in the pavilion area, we haven't kept up with the growth."
Jason Collins is the editor at the Bee-Picayune and can be reached at 358-2550, ext. 121, or at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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The hearings will begin at 6 p.m. and will be held at the beginning of regular City Council meetings on those days at the council chamber at City Hall.
Marvin Townsend, former interim city manager here, told the council that the city needs to annex part of U.S. Highway 59 if it is going also to annex the property on which the motels sit.
Townsend said the owners of each of the four motels have asked to be annexed.
The city already provides water and sewer services to the motels.
Annexation will add the motels to the city's property tax rolls.
The four motels are the Belmont Inn and Suites, La Quinta Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Best Western Texan Inn.
All of the properties are located east of the U.S. Highway 181 Bypass, Townsend said.
Earlier in the meeting, Townsend said the council needed to pass a substitute ordinance to show record that the city had annexed the two acres on which the Belmont Suites is located.
Although the council apparently passed an earlier ordinance, number 2188, Townsend said the city staff had a problem.
"We've searched and searched, and there is no Ordinance 2188," Townsend told the council.
The problem with the lack of an ordinance is that the property on which Belmont Suites sits is not on the Bee County Appraisal District's tax rolls.
Because there is no document to prove that the motel is within the city limits, the owners cannot be taxed.
When asked what number the city should put on the ordinance, Townsend said to go ahead and give the same number.
"Just call it Ordinance 2188," he said, because 2188 actually does not exist yet.
Councilman George P. "Trace" Morrill, III made a motion to approve the new ordinance, and Councilwoman Yvonne Dunn seconded the motion. It passed without opposition.


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2013 National School Climate Survey
LGBT Students Experience Pervasive Harassment and Discrimination, But School-Based Resources and Supports Are Making a Difference
The 2013 National School Climate Survey(pdf) is GLSEN's 8th biennial report on the school experiences of LGBT youth in schools, including the in-school resources that support LGBT students' well-being, the extent of the challenges that they face at school, and insights into many other aspects of LGBT students' experiences. The survey has consistently indicated that a safer school climate directly relates to the availability of LGBT school-based resources and support, including Gay-Straight Alliances, inclusive curriculum, supportive school staff, and comprehensive anti-bullying policies.
The full 2013 National School Climate Survey report includes information LGBT middle and high school students' experiences with:
- Hearing biased language
- Experiences of harassment and assault
- Anti-LGBT discrimination at school
- The availability and impact of supportive school resources
...as well as demographic and school characteristic differences and information about changes in school climate over time. A recording of our webinar on findings from the report is available here.
State-level information about LGBT student experiences is available for select US states at our State Snapshots page. An archive of past versions of The National School Climate Survey is available here.
Check out the press release for the 2013 National School Climate Survey!
Share our new infographics!
Resource Downloads
2013 National School Climate Survey - Executive Summary (En Español)


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In 1994 I was 16.
I was in the midst of my self-absorbed teenage years – a time in my life when nothing seemed as important as what kind of clothes I was wearing, and my daily mood was dictated by whether my current crush had said "Hi" to me in the hallway between classes that day. I was the center of my attention.
I distinctly remember the moment that God took my focus off of me.
Throughout my childhood, my mom subscribed to Time Magazine. There were always a few copies lying somewhere near the couch and occasionally I would pick one up and casually leaf through it.
One day, in May, I picked up a magazine with this cover …
I proceeded to read the article, both fascinated and horrified by the words I was reading. As I looked at the gruesome pictures, God did a major work on my heart.
My focus suddenly shifted from myself to those living through the nightmare happening in Rwanda. I was at once both distraught about what was happening in Rwanda and heartbroken for my own self-centered worldview. My world – my concerns, my interests, my dreams, my prayers – suddenly seemed so trivial in comparison.
That was the first time I remember thinking about people outside of the world I knew. I didn't realize that God was using that moment to plant seeds in my heart – seeds that would eventually bear fruit in my choice of career, where I give my money, and how I live my life.
Fifteen years later I still haven't forgotten that day or those images.
Elie Weisel, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, said: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."
Even though the genocide happened 15 years ago, we must never allow ourselves to fall into indifference. The images can still have a profound impact on many lives.
Pictures tell stories in ways that words never can. So here is the story, 15 years later…
How did the genocide affect your life? Did it alter your view of God? Did it change your perspective on injustice? Have you explained to your children what happened?
Photos and slideshow by Chuck Bigger, one of God's biggest blessings to Compassion.
If you have difficulty viewing the slideshow in this post, you can also check it out in Flickr.Upload your photos to our Flickr group. Show us how you see poverty.


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Favorite made for tv movie or title
"The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom"ReplyCancel
Brian's SongReplyCancel
Now this is aging me but I'd have to say, LACE just because I LOOOOVED when I heard Phoebe Cates (girl crush) say "Which one of you BITCHES is my mother?"
Honorable mentions:
North & South, Liz Taylor as a madam, what more could you ask for
Roots, cus every person of color had to see Roots lol
Starring Holly Hunter, Beau Bridges, Swoozie Kurts, and Max Headroom.ReplyCancel
I loved GiaReplyCancel
Borrowed Hearts w/ Roma Dow ey and Eric mcormack. 1997. Used to be my Xmas go to movie but they stopped showing it. I just love it. Oh and the Joey butafucco movie with Alyssa Milano. Pure sleazy joyReplyCancel
@Lady_Heisenberg. GIA is the best! Still love that movie to piecesReplyCancel
The 1992 Betty Broderick story. A woman scorned & her final fury.
I was totes caught up.ReplyCancel
@Montana, You stole my thunder! LACE forevah!!!!
Also James Clavel's Taipan, ooooh, Pierce Brosnan at his best. I was in 6th grade when I read the book (massive) and then, they released the miniseries soon after, with my biggest crush! I just exploded. And I hated the actress who played his love interest, who happened to be the same one who played Phoebe Cate's mom in Lace.ReplyCancel
Lonesome Dove!ReplyCancel
I remember a cozy evening watching "The House of Secrets and Lies" with my mom. She loved that title.ReplyCancel
Death of a Cheerleader with Tori SpellingReplyCancel
I loved The Thorn Birds.ReplyCancel
Has everyone forgotten "Trilogy of Terror"?ReplyCancel
Band of BrothersReplyCancel
Also the 1996 Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice and one additional vote for 1981's Brideshead Revisited.ReplyCancel
"Prick up your Ears."
Joe Orton would have loved going to those Brian Singer parties.ReplyCancel
Oh, "North and South" and the sequel. The third part, not so much.
And Betty Broderick! I will ALWAYS stop what I am doing to watch Meredith B. go nuts and ram the car through Dan's front room, and throw back the Christmas ring. ("Oh, YOU liked it better. And that's what counts, right, Dan?! It's not what I ASKED for!") Sad to enjoy it so much, I know, when it's a true story about real people, but…that's some crazy shit right there.
I'll have to check out "Taipan." I'm on a big Pierce kick right now — on season three of "Remington Steele," which I didn't watch as a wee one when it was first-run — so I'm sure I will enjoy it.ReplyCancel
Rich Man,Poor Man; The Thornbirds & GiaReplyCancel
You ARE right! It's Noble House. It's been so long!ReplyCancel
Oh! Special thanks to @AKM! James Clavell's book turned miniseries is Noble House.
I'm going senile.
When it comes to crazy titles, the SyFy Channel takes the prize hands down:
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
Dinocroc vs. Supergator
Megapython vs. Gatoroid
Jersey Shore Shark Attack
And many more besides those!ReplyCancel
The 1970s were the Golden Age of TV movies. How could I choose just one? Trilogy of Terror, Bad Ronald, the Linda Blair masterpieces like Born Innocent and Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, and Like Normal People (featuring the stellar acting of Shaun Cassidy and Linda Purl, the queen of 70s TV movies).ReplyCancel
Damn. Beat me too it! LOLReplyCancel
Loved that movie!ReplyCancel
I second "I Know My First Name is Steven" (so sad)
And…."Sin of Innocence" with Megan Follows and Dermot Mulroney!ReplyCancel
BABYCAKES WHEN RICKI LAKES WAS FAT.ReplyCancel
Is Piranhaconda about the Hammaconda on a sexual conquest spree? I'd watch that!ReplyCancel
No one mentioned The Deliberate Stranger. Great title and movie (Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy).ReplyCancel
Lace, Gia, Betty Broderick (both movies), any Lifetime movie with Park Overall or Leslie Ann Warren…you KNOW your in for some serious melodrama usually with a healthy side of Bat Shit Crazy. And just because I grew up reading them I have to include the newest Flowers in the Attic and upcoming Petals in the Wind. My best friend from grade school and I read all the books a zillion times back in the day and there was no way in hell we were gonna miss the chance to watch the movies together!!! I am even changing my holiday plans so we can watch Petals together!ReplyCancel
Anything with Meredith Baxter, Joanna Kearns, Tracy Gold, Melissa.Gilbert, Judith Light, and Connie Selleca.
I saw a messed up one with John Stamos on CBS and another messed up one with Tony Danza on the same network. Made for tv movies are not like they used to be. Thank God most of them ate on YouTube.ReplyCancel
@Illinois Fan, that's exactly what I was going to say. Harmon was great in that role (his best along with the Oscar Snubbed "Summer School"). It's hard for me to imagine Ted Bundy and not see Mark Harmon.
Also, I always loved Helter Skelter. My Dad had me get that for him on DVD a couple of Christmas' ago.ReplyCancel
Last Chance Cafe
It's got Kevin Sorbo (vomit). He owns a cafe. His name is Chance. It's the gal's last chance at finding love. I just wet myself!ReplyCancel
"Anything with Meredith Baxter, Joanna Kearns, Tracy Gold, Melissa.Gilbert, Judith Light, and Connie Selleca."
Bwahahaha. Totally. They're the queens, aren't they?!
In the same vein as "The Deliberate Stranger," how about Gary Cole as Jeffrey MacDonald in "Fatal Vision"? I was nine when my family watched that, and I think that started my fascination with true crime. Bizarre story, and I'm still not sure who I believe.
I think we should crown "Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?" as the best title ever.
And I just thought of another one that's so bad it's good: "Friend 'Til the End" (I THINK) with Shannen Doherty. Remember that one? She's in a band and her sorority sister is trying to steal her bandmate boyfriend and just screw her over at every turn.ReplyCancel
@Henriette +1 re: Salem's lot
@Akm +1 fatal vision
The '80's simply RULED the TV miniseries!ReplyCancel


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The Saddleback College Foundation invites you to invest in the future of Saddleback College students and the surrounding community with your tax-deductible contribution. Every dollar invested in Saddleback College makes a significant impact in our community. You are preparing the leaders of tomorrow.
Ways you can give to Saddleback College
We have an informative planned giving guide here which may answer many of your questions about the different ways to give to Saddleback College.
In brief, below are some of the methods which you could use to support the mission of Saddleback College:
Giving an Asset: The simplest way to support Saddleback College is through cash gifts. But creative gifts of assets can include stocks, bonds, and property. These can not only provide you with charitable deductions, but often offer additional tax savings. Gifts of real estate have the following benefits to the donor; no taxation on the appreciation of real property, an income tax deduction of 100% of the fair market value of property as of the gift date, and a reduction of your taxable estate by the value of the gift less any income tax savings retained or reinvested.
Endowments: A gift can be used to establish an endowment fund that is maintained in perpetuity. The interest on the principal is available each year to fund needed programs, projects, or equipment.
Bequest: A bequest through a will or trust is the most common form of a planned gift. By remembering Saddleback College in your will, you may be able to secure a charitable estate-tax deduction for the value of the gift.
Income-Generating Gifts: Life-income gifts, such as gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and pooled income funds can provide you with an income stream and significant tax savings as well as the satisfaction of supplying Saddleback College with vital resources.
Matching Gifts from Your Employer: Many employers match employee contributions to educational institutions like Saddleback College, so don't miss out on this easy opportunity to double the impact of your gift. Information should be available to you through your HR office. For more information, contact Donald Rickner, Executive Director at (949) 582-4968.
Giving Retirement Plan Benefits: You may consider using retirement plan benefits to make a significant gift that will support Saddleback College. Because of the estate and income tax treatment of retirement plan benefits, the cost of your gift to your estate and heirs is often relatively small.
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Online: You can choose to make a donation via our secure online giving pages.


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I'm confused as to why the doctor would prescribe medications for reflux when he ruled it out with the ultrasound?
What are you doing to help baby with what might be your overactive let-down? I posted to you in another thread and my suggestions were to pump your breasts until your milk let's down and then put baby to breast to see if that makes any difference.
Otherwise, it really doesn't sound like your baby is crying all that much...am I missing some information? Have you considered that perhaps your baby is just sensitive to the world outside the womb? Did the links I gave you above help you out at all?


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The new Volvo FH
The new Volvo FMX
The new Volvo FM
Whether you need to slam on the brakes or slow down gently to make sure you won't need an emergency stop, the EBS (Electronically controlled Brake System) will support you in staying out of harm's way.
EBS is an electronically controlled anti-locking disc-brake system offering high braking effect and instant alertness thanks to electronic signal transmission.
EBS increases traffic safety for both rigids and semi-trailers/trailer rigs. The wheel brakes and auxiliary brakes work together, improving both safety and efficiency. EBS is fitted as a standard to trucks with air suspension and it can be installed in some applications with leaf springs.
Brake signals are sent to the EBS control unit when the driver presses the pedal. A number of sensors for wheel speed and brake lining wear send information and the control unit determines brake pressure for each axle and wheel. Modulators also regulate the air pressure delivered to the brake cylinders. EBS also has a pneumatic backup system.
EBS is available in two different program packages - Medium and High. The latter is intended for semitrailers.
Some EBS functions for safety and comfort:ABS anti-lock brakes.Lining Wear Sensing (LWS) indicates when about 20% of the brake lining remains.Lining Wear Control (LWC) evens out wear between the brake linings on the various axles.Brake Temperature Warning for the brakes.Brake Blending The auxiliary brake is activated to boost the wheel brakes.Diff Lock Syncro (DLS) The driven wheels are synchronised prior to engagement of the differential lock.
Traction Control System (TCS) Anti-spin and synchronising - distributes traction between the driven wheels.External Brake Demand (EBD) via other systems.Lining Wear Analysis calculates the number of kilometres left in the linings.Drag Torque Control prevents the driven wheels from locking on slippery surfaces when the accelerator is released.Diff Lock Control (DLC) Automatic engagement of the differential lock at low speeds on solo and tandem rear axles.Hill-start aid The brakes disengage after a preset level of engine torque has built up or when the clutch pedal is released in trucks with a manual gearbox, or about one second after the brake pedal has been released on trucks with automatic transmission.Panic Brake Assistance increases brake pressure to optimise retardation and cut the stopping distance.Wheel Brake Monitoring continuously checks brake function.EBS status monitor via the TEA vehicle electronic system and VCADS Pro.Brake Performance Warning Warns if retardation is too low in relation to pedal pressure.Electronic Stability Program (ESP) Brake stabilisation for semitrailers with4x2, 6x2 and 6x4 drive. Included in EBS High.Coupling Force Control (CFC) between tractor and trailer.Trailer Brake (TB) makes it possible to carry out a safety check when switching trailers.
Volvo Driver training works to make drivers even more aware & sensistive about safety, economy, fuel efficiency and to care for their vehicle's performance & upkeep.


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Using Bookimed, 2 patients received individual program for treatment of sphincter of oddi dysfunction
273 patients received a treatment program
2 requests for today
Kardiolita (former Vilnius Heart Surgery Center) is a leading private multidisciplinary hospital - one of the largest private medical institutions in Lithuania and in the Baltic States. Hospital offers a full range of medical services - from diagnostics to the most complex surgeries and post-operative rehabilitation in the best health resorts in Lithuania. Kardiolita meets European standards: it is equipped with modern medical facilities, high-level laboratory and air purification from pathogenic bacteria, which contributed to JCI certification.


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But enough about me...
Then we zoomed off to dress rehearsal at the NACL. Checking my visage in the rear view mirror, I admired what little hair had grown back in and cooed. "You look good!" I told my reflection, "I'm sure you'll steal the show!"
In hindsight, I should have known better and checked my ego at the door. While "True Confessions" was in fact, a smash, it was Yarnslingers Joanne Geraine, Michele Schuchman, Jonathan Hyman, Neil Deutsch, Kazzrie Jaxen, Shawn Michael Porter and Colette Ballew who shone.
Fabulous musical interludes were provided by Max and Cat Wilson and Ramona Jan's hilarious costume changes were met with thunderous applause. Still deluded, I took the mic and led the audience through the game show, stopping from time to time to help the sold-out crowd attempt to unravel who the "liars" were. I strutted about and preened, thinking that folks were looking at me, but the audience participation painted a story that I had not foreseen. Playing along, they asked questions of the game show contestants, sprinkled with requests for (uh huh) "pawtographs" and a desire to know more about the furball. Deflated but stalwart, I pressed on, still believing that (IMHO) there was some interest in me, but as the show came to a close, I finally realized that the attention was being showered on (sigh) others.
Contemplating whether my freshly cleaned tux would serve as a costume for the upcoming Halloween party at the Dancing Cat (www.dancingcatsaloon.com), Yarnslinger Joanne suggested that it didn't really matter what I wore, since "All eyes will be on the dog," and then she added that it might be time to "Get with the program." Nice. As invitations flood my inbox, I'm taking Geraine's advice and (finally) admitting that my false sense of popularity is based on my "adorable" dog and that I'm just along for the ride. As the light bulb flickered on, I glanced over and admired her myself. "Might as well wear the tux and inform anyone who asks that I'm dressed as your chauffeur," I wheezed in her general direction, since she wasn't paying any attention. "Oh well," I thought—but enough about me.


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Buy for$3.99(12 items)
Written by Angelic Storm on 26.06.2011 at 23:15
For me, a very underrated album! Some people say this is "nu metal", but as far as I can see, there's nothing nu metal about this album. lol There was some nu metal elements on GHUA, but not on DIM. :\
"Screaming From The Sky" and "Wicked" are weak songs, and "Love To Hate" isn't amazing, but everything else on the album is awesome as hell to me! Songs like the creepy as hell "Death's Head" and the crushing "Perversions Of Pain" are amongst Slayer's best and most underrated songs. The Japanese bonus track "Unguarded Instinct" is also an amazing song, and I wish it had been on the album proper, cos I wasn't able to hear it until many years after this album came out.
Written by Deadmeat on 27.06.2011 at 00:23i'd say this a bit "hardcore" but it ist nu metal at all... Death's Head, Bitter Peace, Scrum and Stain Of Mind are the best songs imo!
Written by Guest on 29.12.2012 at 17:38
... thundercunt reviews slayer - diabolus in musica


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"I have been enjoying your program on my local Catholic radio station for many years and can happily give a large amount of the credit for my continuing spiritual growth to your offerings. You snatched up the banner many had laid aside and are marching bravely forward!"
~ Pamela, Portland, Oregon
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"We rightly praise the Slavonic letters invented by Cyril, in which praises to God are set forth."
~ Pope John VIII, an excerpt from his sanction of the use of the Slavonic language in the Mass and other church offices, noting the invention by St. Cyril of a special alphabet which now bears his name (Cyrillic); part of the church's civilizing work among the pagan Slavs


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Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.
No, I checked with Kurt and it's real.Ed
I was thinking restamp too since the deck looked to be surfaced, but if you look carefully at the 1st picture, you can see the broach marks. The close up doesn't show that.Ed


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Multi-core and 64-bit CPUs are the hottest commodities in the enterprise server market these days. In recent years, as the cost and power requirement of faster CPU clock speeds has increased, the growth in raw clock speed (usually measured in megahertz) of single CPUs has slowed down. Hardware manufacturers continue to improve X86-based server performance by increasing both the multitasking capability and internal data bandwidth. Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are shipping 64-bit processors with two internal CPU cores, and quad core processors are soon to follow. Ninth-generation servers from Dell exploit this new generation of chips. The PowerEdge 1955 blade server, for example, supports up to two 64-bit dual core processors in a blade configuration, with up to ten such blades in a 7-rack unit (12.25") chassis.
However, those new generations of servers also pose new challenges for the software. For instance, to take advantage of the multi-core CPUs, the software application must be able to execute tasks in parallel across the CPUs; to take advantage of the 64-bit memory bandwidth, the application must also be able to manage a large amount of memory efficiently. As a key software platform on enterprise servers, Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) is on the forefront of this multi-core, 64-bit revolution. Java EE developers must adapt to those challenges to make the most out of hardware investment.
When Java first came out in 1997, the state-of-the-art PC had a single CPU with a less than 300MHz clock speed and less than 64MB of RAM. The first Java applications were mostly on the client side. High-performance multitasking and large memory handling were clearly not the priority for Java designers at that time. But as Java became widely adopted for server-side applications, things started to change. Web applications are inherently multithreaded since each web request can be handled in a separate thread, parallel to other requests. The latest Java platform has greatly improved performance on modern server hardware.
In this article, we look at the current state of enterprise Java and analyze the challenges it faces with the new generation of servers. Based on our experience working on Java EE applications running on the JBoss Application Server in the Dell Scalable Enterprise Technology Center, we provide solutions and tips to scale your Java EE applications to the latest server hardware.
The core of the Java platform is the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The entire Java application server runs inside a JVM. The JVM takes many startup parameters as command line flags, and some of them have great implications on the application performance. So, let's examine some of the important JVM parameters for server applications.
First, you should allocate as much memory as possible to the JVM using the
-Xms<size> (minimum memory) and
-Xmx<size> (maximum memory) flags. For instance, the
-Xms1g -Xmx1g tag allocates 1GB of RAM to the JVM. If you don't specify a memory size in the JVM startup flags, the JVM would limit the heap memory to 64MB (512MB on Linux), no matter how much physical memory you have on the server! More memory allows the application to handle more concurrent web sessions, and to cache more data to improve the slow I/O and database operations. We typically specify the same amount of memory for both flags to force the server to use all the allocated memory from startup. This way, the JVM wouldn't need to dynamically change the heap size at runtime, which is a leading cause of JVM instability. For 64-bit servers, make sure that you run a 64-bit JVM on top of a 64-bit operating system to take advantage of all RAM on the server. Otherwise, the JVM would only be able to utilize 2GB or less of memory space. 64-bit JVMs are typically only available for JDK 5.0.
With a large heap memory, the garbage collection (GC) operation could become a major performance bottleneck. It could take more than ten seconds for the GC to sweep through a multiple gigabyte heap. In JDK 1.3 and earlier, GC is a single threaded operation, which stops all other tasks in the JVM. That not only causes long and unpredictable pauses in the application, but it also results in very poor performance on multi-CPU computers since all other CPUs must wait in idle while one CPU is running at 100% to free up the heap memory space. It is crucial that we select a JDK 1.4+ JVM that supports parallel and concurrent GC operations. Actually, the concurrent GC implementation in the JDK 1.4 series of JVMs is not very stable. So, we strongly recommend you upgrade to JDK 5.0. Using the command line flags, you can choose from the following two GC algorithms. Both of them are optimized for multi-CPU computers.
If your priority is to increase the total throughput of the application and you can tolerate occasional GC pauses, you should use the
-XX:UseParallelGC and
-XX:UseParallelOldGC (the latter is only available in JDK 5.0) flags to turn on parallel GC. The parallel GC uses all available CPUs to perform the GC operation, and hence it is much faster than the default single thread GC. It still pauses all other activities in the JVM during GC, however.
If you need to minimize the GC pause, you can use the
-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC flag to turn on the concurrent GC. The concurrent GC still pauses the JVM and uses parallel GC to clean up short-lived objects. However, it cleans up long-lived objects from the heap using a background thread running in parallel with other JVM threads. The concurrent GC drastically reduces the GC pause, but managing the background thread does add to the overhead of the system and reduces the total throughput.
Furthermore, there are a few more JVM parameters you can tune to optimize the GC operations.
On 64-bit systems, the call stack for each thread is allocated 1MB of memory space. Most threads do not use that much space. Using the
-XX:ThreadStackSize=256k flag, you can decrease the stack size to 256k to allow more threads.
Use the
-XX:+DisableExplicitGC flag to ignore explicit application calls to
System.gc(). If the application calls this method frequently, then we could be doing a lot of unnecessary GCs.
-Xmn<size> flag lets you manually set the size of the "young generation" memory space for short-lived objects. If your application generates lots of new objects, you might improve GCs dramatically by increasing this value. The "young generation" size should almost never be more than 50% of heap.
Since the GC has a big impact on performance, the JVM provides several flags to help you fine-tune the GC algorithm for your specific server and application. It's beyond the scope of this article to discuss GC algorithms and tuning tips in detail, but we'd like to point out that the JDK 5.0 JVM comes with an adaptive GC-tuning feature called ergonomics. It can automatically optimize GC algorithm parameters based on the underlying hardware, the application itself, and desired goals specified by the user (e.g., the max pause time and desired throughput). That saves you time trying different GC parameter combinations yourself. Ergonomics is yet another compelling reason to upgrade to JDK 5.0. Interested readers can refer to Tuning Garbage Collection with the 5.0 Java Virtual Machine. If the GC algorithm is misconfigured, it is relatively easy to spot the problems during the testing phase of your application. In a later section, we will discuss several ways to diagnose GC problems in the JVM.
Finally, make sure that you start the JVM with the
-server flag. It optimizes the Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler to trade slower startup time for faster runtime performance. There are more JVM flags we have not discussed; for details on these, please check out the JVM options documentation page.
Besides the JVM, the Java platform libraries have also gone through extensive changes to accommodate the newer server hardware. We strongly recommend you upgrade your application to JDK 5.0+ in order to take advantage of all the performance enhancements built into the platform. Three new library APIs introduced in the last two major versions of the JDK are of particular importance for multi-CPU computers.
The concurrency utility library in JDK 5.0 is very important for multithread applications. It simplifies the Java thread API and provides a thread-safe set of
Collection implementations. For instance, the new
ConcurrentHashMap is a thread-safe
HashMap and you can read/write it without a
synchronized block. We will get to this in more detail later in this article.
The NIO (New I/O) library was introduced in JDK 1.4. It allows multiple threads to share one physical connection (e.g., a socket) to the hard disk or network. A thread no longer needs to block the I/O socket to read or write data. Using NIO, we can greatly reduce the thread waiting time caused by a limited number of blocked sockets. The NIO is especially useful in multi-CPU computers where CPUs often wait on the I/O, and where there are many threads.
The logging library introduced in JDK 1.4 provides a convenient API to log information from the application to the console, logfiles, or network destinations. The important performance feature of the logging library is that you can configure the logging output by changing the logging level at runtime via configuration files. This helps us to reduce logging--which involves slow I/O operation and is a major cause for CPU waiting--at runtime, without recompiling the application code.
You should write new applications and upgrade older applications to use the concurrency, NIO, and logging APIs whenever possible. If you cannot upgrade, you should use alternative open source libraries that provides similar features. For instance, Doug Lea's util.concurrent library has many of the same features as the JDK 5.0 concurrency API; furthermore, the Apache Log4j library is comparable to the JDK 1.4+ logging library.
In the previous sections, we discussed the general guidelines to build and run high-performance Java EE applications for multiple CPU and large memory servers. However, each application is unique with its own performance requirements and bottlenecks. The only way to make sure that your application is optimized for your hardware is through extensive performance testing. In this section, we cover some of the basic techniques to diagnose performance problems in your application.
It's beyond the scope of this article to cover performance-testing tools and frameworks. In our tests, we used Grinder, an open source performance-testing framework in Java. It can simulate hundreds of thousands of concurrent users across multiple testing computers and gather statistics on a central console. It provides a utility for you to record your test scripts by going through your web application in a browser. The generated script is in Jython, and you can easily modify it to suit your own needs.
As we discussed before, tuning GC operations in the JVM is crucial for performance. The easiest way to see the effects of various GC algorithm parameters is to monitor the time the application spends on GC throughout the load testing. There are two simple ways to do it.
You can add a
-verbose:gc startup flag to the JVM. The JVM would print out every GC operation and its duration in the console. If the server pauses due to a long full GC operation, you can optimize the GC parameters accordingly. If the system runs lengthy full GC very frequently, you probably have a memory leak somewhere in your application.
If you use the JDK 5.0 JVM, you can also use the JConsole utility to monitor the server usage of resources. The JConsole GUI shows how various regions of the memory are utilized and how much time is spent on GC (see Figure 1). To use the JConsole, you need to start the JVM with the
-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote flag and then run the
jconsole command. JConsole can connect to a JVM running on the local computer, or to any JVM running on the network via RMI. You can use one JConsole instance to monitor multiple servers.
To pinpoint the exact location of a memory leak, you can use an application profiler. The JBoss Profiler is an open source profiler for applications inside the JBoss Application Server.
When the application is fully loaded, the CPU should run between 80% and 100% of its capacity. If the CPU usage is substantially lower, you should look for other bottlenecks, such as whether the network or disk I/O is saturated. However, an underutilized CPU could also indicate contention points inside the application. For instance, as we mentioned before, if there is a synchronized block on the critical path of multiple threads (e.g., a code block frequently accessed by most requests), the multiple CPUs would not be fully utilized. To find those contention points, you can do a thread dump when the server is fully loaded:
On a windows machine, type
Ctrl-Break in the DOS terminal window where the server is started (i.e., the server console) to create a thread dump.
On a Linux/Unix system, run the
kill -QUIT process_id command, where
process_id is the ID of the server JVM process, to create a thread dump.
The thread dump prints out detailed information (stack trace with source code line numbers) about all current threads in the server. If all the request-handling threads are waiting at the same point, it would indicate a contention point, and you can go back to the code to fix it.
Sometimes, the contention point is not in the application but in the application server itself. Most Java EE application servers have not completely evolved their code base to take advantage of JDK 5.0 APIs, especially the concurrent utility libraries. In this case, it is crucial to choose an open source application server, such as the JBoss Application Server, where you can make changes to the server code.
Traditionally, Java EE had been designed for the multitiered architecture. This architecture envisions that the web server, servlet container, EJB server, and database server each runs on its own physical computer, and those computers are tied together through remote call protocols on the local network.
But with the new generation of more powerful server hardware, a single computer is powerful enough to run all those components for a medium-sized website. Running everything on the same physical machine is much more efficient than the distributed architecture described above. All communications are now interthread communications that can be handled efficiently by the same operating system or even inside the same JVM in many cases. It eliminates the expensive object serialization requirements and high network latency associated with remote calls. Furthermore, since different components tend to use different kind of server resources (e.g., the database is heavy on disk usage while Java EE is CPU-intensive), the integrated stack helps us to balance the server usage and reduce overall contention points.
Figure 2. Choose between call-by-reference and call-by-value in the JBoss AS installer (click for full-size image)
The JBoss Application Server has built-in optimizations to support the single JVM deployment. For instance, by default, JBoss AS makes call-by-reference method calls from the servlet to the EJB objects. Call-by-reference can be up to ten times faster than the standard Java EE call-by-value approach, because call-by-value requires object serialization and is primarily for remote calls across JVMs. Figure 2 shows that you can choose from the two call-isolation methods.
The JBoss Web Server project goes one step further and builds native Apache web server functionalities directly into the Java EE servlet container. It allows much tighter integration between components when deployed on the same server, and hence could deliver much better performance than older Java EE servers.
With the entire middleware stack running on the same physical server, we also drastically simplify deployment and management. When you need to scale the application up, you simply add a load balancer, move the shared database server to a different computer, and then add any number of server nodes with the integrated middleware stack (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. The load-balanced architecture
All web requests are made against the load balancer, which then forwards the requests to application servers in a manner that ensures all nodes have similar numbers of request per unit time. The load balancer should be configured to forward all requests from the same user session to the same node (i.e., use sticky session). Most Java EE application servers also support automatic state replication between the nodes to avoid application state loss when a node fails. For instance, the JBoss AS supports several state-replication strategies including buddy replication, in which each node can choose a "buddy" as its failover. Such load balancing and state replication would be very difficult to deploy and manage if we had three or four tiers of servers.
The new multi-core 64-bit servers are capable of running heavy-load web applications. But for small web applications, they can be overkill. To fully utilize server capabilities, we sometimes run multiple small websites on the same physical server. Of course, you can deploy multiple applications on the same Java EE container. But to achieve the optimal performance, stability, and manageability, we often wish to run each application in its own Java EE container. How do we do that?
Technically, the primary challenge to run multiple Java EE server instances on the same physical server is to avoid the port conflicts. Like any other server application, the Java EE application server listens on TCP/IP ports to provide services. For instance, the HTTP service listens for web requests on the 80 or 8080 port; the RMI service listens for RMI invocation requests on the 4444 port; the naming service listens on the 1099 port; etc. For the server to run properly, it must obtain exclusive control over the port it listens to. So, when you start multiple server instances on the same computer, you are likely to get port conflict errors. There are three ways to avoid port conflicts.
Using virtualization software, such as VMware and Xen, you can run multiple operating systems on the same physical server. You can run a Java EE server instance in each of those guest OSes. The benefit of this approach is its flexibility in architecture and management. Each OS virtual machine can be independently provisioned, managed, and backed up. You can also choose to run the database server, the load balancer, or other server components in their own virtual OSes. However, the drawback of this approach is that there is relatively heavy overhead to virtualize the entire OS just to run the JVM.
Many Java EE servers allow you to start a server instance bound to a specific IP address. For instance, in the case of JBoss AS, you can start the server with the
run.bat -b 10.10.20.111 command to start a server instance bound to IP address
10.10.20.111. You can assign multiple IP addresses to your server and then start a Java EE server instance on each of those IP address. Each server instance listens for the same port numbers on different IP addresses, and hence there is no conflict. This approach provides a good balance between server manageability and performance overhead. We recommend it if your application supports IP address binding.
In the unlikely case when you cannot assign multiple IP addresses to a physical server, an alternative is to reconfigure the port number used by each server instance so that they do not conflict. That would typically require you to go through reams of tedious configuration files, and you must be intimately familiar with those files to look for port numbers. In the JBoss AS, there is a simpler way: JBoss AS has an MBean service called
jboss.system:service=ServiceBindingManager that can automatically shift port numbers used in the current server instance (e.g., increase all port numbers by 100 from their default values). In general, we do not recommend messing with port numbers since the application server is not regularly tested with nonstandard port numbers, and a number of complications and side effects could arise from such use.
To achieve optimal results, we should run no more server instances than the number of physical CPUs in the server; otherwise, the server instances would wait on one another to use the CPUs, creating more contention points. We should also keep the memory allocation for each server instance at around 1GB for optimal GC results.
Michael Yuan would like to thank Phillip Thurmond of Red Hat for reviewing this article and providing helpful suggestions.
Michael Juntao Yuan specializes in lightweight enterprise / web application, and end-to-end mobile application development.
Dave Jaffe is an engineer in Dell's Scalable Enterprise Technology Center.
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