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A.G. Schneiderman & NYPD Commissioner Kelly Announce 14 Arrests & Dismantling Of International Luxury-Vehicle Theft Ring
In 'Operation EZ Steal,' More Than $1 Million In Vehicles Stolen For Black Market Sale Across U.S. & Africa
Schneiderman: The Streets Of New York City Were Used As A Giant Showroom For Stealing Cars
NEW YORK - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, joined by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, today announced the arrest of 14 individuals who operated a sophisticated international luxury-vehicle theft ring that stole dozens of vehicles valued at more than $1 million in New York City, and its surrounding areas.
Today, a series of early morning raids conducted by Attorney General Schneiderman's Organized Crime Task Force and the New York City Police Department's Organized Crime Control Bureau Auto Crime Division capped a year-long investigation dubbed "Operation EZ Steal." According to today's indictment, the illicit enterprise was comprised of 12 individuals including an international broker, local broker, steal men, a forged document specialist, a locksmith, key code brokers, and a Florida based Toyota dealership employee who covertly supplied the key codes needed to steal the vehicles. Two additional individuals were charged on a separate indictment for their alleged participation with members of the auto theft ring who were also marketing stolen vehicles in Chicago.
"This criminal enterprise used the streets of New York City as one giant showroom for stealing cars," said Attorney General Schneiderman. "The partnership between the Attorney General's Office and NYPD has led to the takedown of an international luxury vehicle theft ring that left innocent New Yorkers in the lurch. We have put the brakes on this criminal operation and will bring all of its members to justice."
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, "The outstanding work on this case is one of the reasons why the number of stolen cars in New York continues to plummet year after year. In 1990 there were 147,000 motor vehicles stolen in New York City and by last year the total had fallen to 9,334. That is a drop of about 95% over the last twenty years."
The investigation utilized wiretaps and other surveillance to gather evidence against a Queens-based criminal ring that allegedly stole a large volume of vehicles from public streets, and in the Tri-State area. They specialized in stealing Toyota and Lexus automobiles and SUVs, including Toyota Venzas, Highlanders, Sequoias and Lexus RX350s, GX460s and GX470s, as well as other high end makes such as Acuras. Once in possession of the stolen vehicles, they allegedly created fraudulent documentation for the vehicles, and either shipped them from ports in New Jersey or Maryland in containers to Africa - Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria - disguising the containers' contents by documenting false VIN numbers on the shipping manifests, or sold them on the black market in Chicago, Illinois.
In total, 14 individuals - including the international broker, steal crew boss, locksmith, key men, vehicle thieves, and other members of an alleged illicit crew - were arrested on felony charges filed in Queens County Supreme Court Part K-18. Twelve of them were charged in a 58-count indictment with, among other crimes, Enterprise Corruption, Criminal Possession of Stolen Property, Forgery, Grand Larceny and Conspiracy. Enterprise Corruption alone carries a maximum penalty of up to 25 years in prison. Two other defendants were separately indicted for Criminal Possession of Stolen Property and Grand Larceny for their participation in this illicit ring.
According to the indictment, the operation's international broker would place an order with the local broker, who would relay the order to the steal crew boss, specifying what was to be stolen by model, year, color and accessory package. Members of the steal crew would then "fill the order" by locating the specified car on the streets of New York City. The steal team entered targeted cars using keys obtained from a locksmith by the steal crew boss. Once inside the targeted car, the steal man would use a portable computer to program the key to sync to the vehicle's unique code, enabling him to cleanly steal the vehicle without causing any damage. Forged document specialists created the paperwork used to disguise the stolen vehicles, including VIN plates and titles, for the vehicle.
The stolen vehicles would then be stored, or "laid up," at locations in Queens (33-24 69thStreet & 22-12 27thStreet) and the Bronx (300 Jackson Avenue) until they were loaded, often multiple vehicles at a time, into containers to be transported from ports in either New Jersey or Maryland to ports in Africa. In order to facilitate the movement of the containers containing the stolen vehicles, the ring provided false VINs to shipping companies, thereby disguising the containers' true contents. Those vehicles that were not shipped to Africa were sold to buyers in Chicago.
According to the indictment, Isaac Akoukoh was the enterprise's international broker and primary exporter. He was responsible for selecting the cars to be stolen, coordinating with his local broker, Fofana Makan (a.k.a. "Foll"), and arranging for the stolen vehicles to be shipped and sold abroad for as much as $40,000 in cash for one car.
Eddie Ledesma (a.k.a. "Mike" and "Carlos Sanchez"), with the assistance of Daisy Diaz, headed up the steal crew, which consisted ofAlfranci Reyes (a.k.a. "Frankfurter"), Rony Ramos, and Junior Aybar ("Alberto") who, together with Ledesma and Diaz, stole and transported the vehicles. Franklin Rodriguez, Maximo Mendez, and Avery Springette, an employee of Central Florida Toyota, provided key codes to the ring, which made it possible for locksmith Carlos Lopez to create aftermarket keys that the steal crew used to steal the cars. Gustavo Valerio created forged Certificates of Title and VIN sticker that the ring used to give the stolen vehicles the appearance of legitimacy during transport.
The separate indictment alleges that Franklin Rodriguez and Eddie Ledesma obtained key codes, which he provided to locksmith Roman Dashevsky, who, in turn, created aftermarket keys used to steal cars that were transported to Chicago by steal crew member Joseph Tavares.
Those charged in the first indictment with Enterprise Corruption (class B felony) and other charges are:
- Isaac Akuokoh, 52, Frederick, MD
- Fofana Makan,57, Newark, NJ
- Eddie Ledesma (Carlos Sanchez and Mike), 36, Brooklyn, NY
- Daisy Diaz, 29, Brooklyn, NY
- Rony Ramos, 25, Brooklyn, NY
- Alfranci Reyes(Frankfurter), 38, Brooklyn, NY
- Junior Aybar(Alberto), 32, Brooklyn, NY
- Gustavo Valerio, (Tavi), 30, South Ozone Park, NY
- Carlos Lopez, 34, Flushing, NY
- Franklin Rodriguez (Sanders Smith), 31, Brooklyn, NY
- Maximo Mendez (Cucho), 49, Kissimmee, FL
- Avery Springette, 25, Orlando, FL
Those charged in the second indictment with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (class D felony), and related charges are:
- Eddie Ledesma (Carlos Sanchez and Mike), 36, Brooklyn, NY
- Franklin Rodriguez (Sanders Smith), 31, Brooklyn, NY
- Joseph Tavares(Gante), 26, Brooklyn, NY
- Roman Dashevsky, 53, Brooklyn, NY
The charges are the result of a 12-month joint investigation by the New York State Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force and the New York City Police Department's Organized Crime Control Bureau Auto Crime Division, with the assistance of the New York City Police Department's Border Enforcement Security Task Force, New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, Illinois State Police and City of Frederick, Maryland Police Department.
Attorney General Schneiderman thanked these agencies for their partnership in the investigation.
The charges are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
The investigation was conducted by New York City Police Department Detectives Keith Mushorn and Guido Trivino of the NYPD Auto Crime Division, under the supervision of Sergeant Sam Melisi and Lieutenant Christopher Willis and the overall supervision of Inspector Joseph Kenney and Organized Crime Control Chief Anthony Izzo, and OCTF Investigator Jose Rojas under the supervision of OCTF Deputy Chief Eugene Black.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Attorney General Tarek Rahman, under the supervision of Deputy Attorney General Peri Alyse Kadanoff and Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Nancy Hoppock.


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All the festivities. All the excitement. A time for making memories.For many families, Crieff Hydro simply is the festive season. In fact, around 70% of our Christmas guests come back year-after-year for a Christmas getaway. It's easy to see why.
There's the famously warm Crieff Hydro welcome. Twinkling trees towering from floor to ceiling. A ceilidh and a host of family entertainment that you can join in. All of this set within our 900 acre estate within the Perthshire countryside.
What will be the family's highlight? We'd place bets on our fantastic ceilidhs. Or perhaps it'll be the fun activities, professional photography, film-making or craft classes.
Now, all you need to do is book. Because it's fair to say our Christmas breaks are very popular indeed.
Christmas hotel breaks - from just £499 per person for three nights
Book now
*Optional Hair & Beauty Treatments, Riding Centre and certain indoor/outdoor activities are charged separately. Your booking guarantees you Xmas lunch in the Meikle Restaurant. However, if you wish to join non-resident or self-catering guests you will be seated elsewhere. Bookings cancelled after 1st December will be fully charged unless the accommodation can be resold: travel insurance recommended. Full terms & conditions available on request.
Hotel break includes:
Book now
What's happening at Crieff Hydro? Get our latest news and special offers - plus take part in exclusive competitions.
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NYC Parks Events Calendar
Get up, get out, and do something! Just about any day of the year, you can find something fun, informative, and healthy to enjoy at an area park. Feel free to browse the listings below, or use the search tools to find an event that matches your interests and location.
Viewing 7,371–7,380 out of 13,470 events
from May 18, 2013 (x) to December 30, 2017
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Movies Under the Stars: 'Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth' and 'Stop Making Sense'
at Commodore Barry Park, Brooklyn
7:30 p.m.–11:00 p.m.
Celebrate the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist and composer, Bernie Worrell at this festive party and movie screening.
Category: Accessible, Film, History, Free Summer Movies, Movies Under the Stars
Wheelchair Basketball Open Gym hosted by the NY Rollin' Knicks Wheelchair Basketball Team
at West Bronx Recreation Center, Bronx
7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to play wheelchair basketball and know the rules inside and out? Well, here's your chance to learn from the best! Come out and…
Category: Accessible, Sports
Classical Theatre of Harlem Presents Macbeth
at Richard Rodgers Amphitheater (in Marcus Garvey Park), Manhattan
8:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
See a free performance of this classic Shakespeare play in Marcus Garvey Park.
Category: Theater, Free Summer Theater, Shakespeare in the Parks
Arts, Culture & Fun: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
at ARROW Field House, Queens
8:15 p.m.–10:30 p.m.
Bring a blanket, chair and a friend and enjoy outdoor movies FREE! Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian…
Category: Accessible, Art, Festivals, Film, Free Summer Theater, Seniors
Movies Under the Stars: The Wiz (1978)
at 135 Street Lawn (in St. Nicholas Park), Manhattan
8:30 p.m.–11:00 p.m.
Join NYC Parks and the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment for a free film! This movie will be held outdoors.
Category: Film, Free Summer Movies, Movies Under the Stars
Movies Under the Stars: Zootopia
at Concrete Plant Park, Bronx
8:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m.
From the largest elephant to the smallest shrew, the city of Zootopia is a mammal metropolis where various animals live and thrive...
Category: Film, Best for Kids, Free Summer Movies, Movies Under the Stars
Free Summer Movie Series in Hudson Park: The Shining
at Hudson Park Fountains (in Hudson Park), Manhattan
8:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m.
The Shining combines eerie special effects, haunting performances by Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, and an unmistakable aura of evil into a spectacular horror film.
Category: Film, Free Summer Movies
Movies Under the Stars: Frozen
at Conference House Park, Staten Island
8:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m.
Join NYC Parks and the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment for a free film. After the kingdom of Arendelle is cast into eternal winter by the powerful Snow…
Category: Film, Best for Kids, Free Summer Movies, Movies Under the Stars
Movies Under the Stars: Dumbo
at Carroll Park, Brooklyn
8:45 p.m.–10:30 p.m.
Join NYC Parks and the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment for this free family film! In this Disney classic, a young circus elephant, with comically large…
Category: Accessible, Film, Best for Kids, Free Summer Movies, Movies Under the Stars
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Summer in the Square: Morning Fitness
at South Plaza (in Union Square Park), Manhattan
7:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Classes are at 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 10 a.m. Please bring your own mat and towel.
Category: Fitness, Outdoor Fitness
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- Know about an event that's not on the calendar? Send us a tip!
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Fancy Feast 2012 Holiday Ornament Giveaway!
Hi all!
Do you all remember the post I did a few weeks back about Fancy Feast unveiling a beautiful new holiday ornament? Well I have exciting news to announce to all you cat-lovers out there…
ThoughtsFurPaws is announcing the giveaway of 20 of those Fancy Feast 2012 holiday ornaments, the ones that the renowned cat food brand is currently giving away on its Facebook page!!
The chic, stylized 2012 Fancy Feast holiday ornament is made of polished metal and adorned with cat-like ears. Two elegantly simple circular plates are tied together with a soft ribbon to create a modern interpretation of the iconic white Fancy Feast cat.
Designed to add a little dazzle to your holiday décor, the ornament reflects Fancy Feast's commitment to celebrating the love shared between cats and their owners.
And it's a perfect interpretation if you ask me… it's a beautiful ornament that will delight the finickiest of cat lovers and holiday ornament-lovers, too!
To enter to win one of these beautiful cat holiday ornaments, which make perfect pet-lover gifts, all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me why you want one/why you should win, and then Tweet this post!
The contest entry deadline is Monday, December 17th by 6 pm EST.
I will contact the winners that night and you will receive your ornament in the mail directly from Purina before Christmastime.


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If you've ever been to the U.K., then you've probably had the privilege of tasting some of the world's best chocolates and candies. And there is no question ...On August 23, 2013 / By Helena Stone
At the risk of encouraging a disturbing trend of head-centered cannibalism, these tasty skulls look to be positively to die for for the chocolate-craving crowd. Each skull is ...On June 4, 2012 / By Chip Chick Staff
What is more delicious than using an iPhone or iPad? How about eating one! Spotted half-way around the world, in a mall at the center of Herzliya in Israel, on ...On April 15, 2012 / By Ali Heriyanto
Belkin's new Energy Collection Backpack has been designed in mind for those looking for a lightweight backpack for carrying their laptop that is still tough enough to withstand ...On August 4, 2008 / By Chip Chick Staff
In 2008 Belkin continues to wow us with their simplicity in design as they continuously offer up products that are creative and different then the rest of the ...On January 7, 2008 / By Chip Chick Staff
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Pico Island Tours
Island Tours
Pico Island – Full day
Depart from Madalena to the village of Sao Roque on the north coast of Pico, visiting the black rocks of Cachorro en route. Take the mountain road (altitude 900m) towards the village of Lajes do Pico, which for many years was the centre of the whaling industry in the Azores.
Continue on to the Whaler's Museum (entrance fee not included) and home to a fascinating exhibition about the industry. Return to Madalena stopping at 'Verdelho' wine cellar en route.
From Madalena, Prainha and Sao Roque
- Price from Madalena is £143 per taxi
- Price from Prainha is £167 per taxi
- Price from São Roque is £155 per taxi
Faial Island – Full day
Depart from Madalena harbour to Faial Island (30 minutes by boat). Take the mountain road towards Caldeira, the highest point on Faial at 1,043 metres. Continue north to Capelinhos, the site of the last volcanic eruption in the Azores in 1957 and visit the museum, which details the evolution of the eruption. Return to Pico by boat.
From Horta harbour
Price is £189 per taxi
- Prices are based on a maximum of 3 people per taxi
- Full day (7 hours)
- Lunch and entrance fees to museums and parks are not included
- Boat crossing between Madalena and Horta is included
- Itineraries are subject to change
To book this itinerary, or discuss a tailor-made alternative, call one of our Sunvil experts on:
020 8758 4722
Or complete our online booking form
Holiday Search
To book, or for more information please call
020 8758 4722Enquire Online


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Dell's shareholders are preparing to meet in the US for the adjourned stockholder meeting to decide the fate of the company today but across the Pacific Ocean it is business as usual.
Dell signed off a AU$2m deal in one of its key areas of commitment – the Cloud – for high-performance computing (HPC) on demand for the Australian National Computational Infrastructure (NCI).
The 3,200 core HPC compute cloud based on OpenStack will use floating-point optimized Intel CPUs, high performance Intel SSDs and fat-tree 55Gbps Mellanox Ethernet interconnect and will sit alongside the NCI petascale supercomputer and the National High Performance Data Node of the Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) initiative.
It will be used for research into climate change, earth system science, geosciences and the environment, creating additional capacity for data processing and analysing, storage and the sharing of research materials.
Collaborators of the NCI, which recently received an AU$50m grant for the Australian government for petascale computing, include the ANU, CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia and a consortia of research-intensive universities supported by the Australian Research Council.
NCI director professor Lindsay Botten said the university already has a portfolio of cloud services and digital laboratories, but this creates an integrated platform for more ambitious research goals.
"The node capability will be enhanced by NCI's investment in high-performance hardware – Infiniband interconnect, large memory and accelerators – and will provide extended access to cloud-appropriate applications from the extensive software library via an implementation of the NCI operating environment in a virtual machine," Botten said.
The National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) Research Cloud will link with Australia's highest performance supercomputer (27th in the world) Raijin, which has a 1.2 petaflop Fujitsu Primergy cluster which has 57,472 cores and 160 Tbytes of memory.
Dell signs HPC cloud deal
Dell's shareholders are preparing to meet in the US for the adjourned stockholder meeting to decide the fate of the company today but across the Pacific Ocean it is business as usual.


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The graphics processor G71 announced by Nvidia some time ago proved to be good in terms of core area (it incorporates fewer transistors than the G70) and frequency potential. Although its technical characteristics are the same as the G70's, the G71 can readily work at frequencies of 650MHz and higher as it actually does in some pre-overclocked versions of GeForce 7900 GTX.
But as we wrote in our article called Quadtet: Nvidia GeForce 7900 Quad SLI Performance Unveiled, there are but very few PC enthusiasts who purchase expensive top-end graphics hardware. Most of them seek for their graphics card in a price range of $299-399. This money can buy you the performance necessary to play modern games if you don't turn on extreme full-screen antialiasing modes or display resolutions higher than 1600x1200. From this point of view, GeForce 7900 GT, the junior model in the GeForce 7900 series, looks more interesting than the flagship GeForce 7900 GTX because it comes at an official price of only $299. What's curious, it has better parameters than the GeForce 7800 GTX which came at an impressive $599 at the time of its last-year release!
The standard GeForce 7900 GT is equipped with 256 megabytes of graphics memory clocked at 660 (1320) MHz and its graphics core is clocked at 450MHz (470MHz for the vertex processors). Although this card is made out of chips that hadn't passed a frequency check to be installed on GeForce 7900 GTX, it can often work at much higher clock rates than the mentioned 450/470MHz. That's why a release of pre-overclocked versions of GeForce 7900 GT was inevitable. This method of distinguishing a product from the competitors' solutions is as popular among the graphics card manufacturers today as installing an original cooling system. Well, these are actually the only opportunities for creativity when it comes to top-end graphics cards. Developing an original PCB design is too difficult and costly a business and is actually not permitted by ATI and Nvidia (the latter sometimes leaves its closest partners, like ASUS, the choice of the color of the card's PCB, too).
So, the first pre-overclocked GeForce 7900 GT that we could get into our hands is e-GeForce 7900 GT SO SuperClocked from EVGA. The frequencies of this card are much higher than the standard ones at 550MHz GPU and 790 (1580) MHz memory. It looks like a promise of a nice performance boost to us. You'll see how the card performs in gaming tests shortly. Right now let's have a closer look at its package and design.


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Obama rocks Iowa
January 4, 2008Add new comment | Filed under: News, Notes
We've been hearing about the Iowa Caucuses for more than a year now, so it was great to finally get it over with. I usually look at all politics with a jaundiced eye, and the Iowa Caucus was no exception. It wasn't that big a surprise that Sen. Barack Obama and Governor Mike Huckabee won their respective races. The polls predicted the outcome in the days leading up to the vote. Still, Obama's victory speech took many of us by surprise. His delivery has changed some over the last 18 months, but I've always thought he was just a so-so orator. When he took the stage to address his supporters yesterday, though, he actually looked like someone who could be president.
Now, i'm not endorsing any candidate or any party, and I recognize that the winner of the Iowa Caucus doesn't automatically become the nominee (or the president.) But, if, as Obama suggested, we look back at yesterday as "the day it all began," his speech, with its measured cadence and perfectly-placed emotional punches, will be remembered right up there with the most significant in our political history. Just in case you missed it, you can see it below. - David Cruz
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By QCS Staff
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the Tucumcari Elks Lodge will be conducting a kids fishing clinic on April 25, according to a press release.
Kids from Tucumcari and neighboring communities are also invited to have a day of fishing instruction and win some fun prizes, the release said.
The clinic will start at 9:30 a.m. and runs until 1:30 p.m. It is open to kids between the ages of 6 and 11 years old.


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Expectations for Danica Patrick in the 2013 Daytona 500
February 20, 2013
In which the author offers some historical perspective on Ms. Patrick's accomplishment as well as an explanation of some vagaries of The Great American Race
In 1994, an inexperienced driver named Loy Allen Jr. shocked the NASCAR world by becoming the first rookie to win pole position for the Daytona 500. Any race fan who remembers his name remembers it solely for that accomplishment as he never won a race.
In 2002, another rookie driver won the pole for the Daytona 500. His name was Jimmie Johnson and it is likely only fans of his and trivia fans who remember that particular accomplishment. That is because he went on to win six season championships and 60 races.
In 2013, Danica Patrick, in her first full season racing at the highest level of NASCAR, the Sprint Cup Series, became the first woman to win the pole position for the Daytona 500. One expects her career accomplishments in the Sprint Cup will lay somewhere between those of Jimmy Johnson and Loy Allen, but what about this race?
First, let us review what she has accomplished and what lies ahead for her.
As the premier race on the NASCAR schedule, the Daytona 500 is different from every other race with regards to how the field is set. Like any other race, there is a qualifying session. One by one, drivers take their car onto the track and get one chance at completing a lap of the race track as quickly as possible. The driver who is fastest wins the pole position **, the first starting position in the race. In general, the balance of the starting field for the race is filled on the basis of these qualifying laps in order of fastest to slowest. It was in such a qualifying session on Sunday that Danica Patrick earned the pole position for the Daytona 500. If this were any other race on the schedule, the qualifying session would be the sole story for who starts the race and in what order. But the Daytona 500 is unique.
For the Daytona 500, the qualifying session only fixes the first two positions, the pole position earned by Patrick and the position next to her, which was claimed by three-time D-500 winner Jeff Gordon. On Thursday, the qualifiers are divided into two groups (Danica Patrick and all odd-numbered qualifiers in one group, Jeff Gordon and all of the even numbered qualifiers in another) who will race in separate 150 mile events. The finishing order of these two events determines the next 30 drivers in the starting order behind Patrick and Gordon. Once those spots are filled, qualifying times from Sunday are again used to determine the balance of the field. As such, the third fastest driver in Sunday qualifying (Trevor Bayne) can find himself starting the race in 33rd if he has a poor showing on Thursday. Conversely, a driver that was slow in the qualifying session can dramatically improve his starting position with a strong result in his race on Thursday. For Danica Patrick, her finishing position in the race does not matter, but it is still important.
There are two ways Danica Patrick could have a bad day on Thursday. One involves events which erase the benefit of earning the pole position ***. If she is involved in an accident and her car is damaged beyond repair, she will have to race in the Daytona 500 in a backup car, which would force her to relinquish her first place starting position and send her to the back of the field. A major mechanical failure that necessitates an engine change carries the same consequence (.correction: A transmission change would warrant the penalty in any race. For the Daytona 500, an engine change is permitted after the Thursday race.)More subtlely, she could discover that while her car was set up ideally for running alone in the cool weather on Sunday, it is unsuited for racing in a pack of cars in warmer weather. That is, without changes, her car will be uncompetitive in the Daytona 500. As I'll show shortly, success in qualifying does not necessarily translate to success in the big race.
While Thursday offers the only opportunity to experience race conditions, there are three more opportunities to test the car (or experience heart-breaking misfortune). There are two practice sessions on Friday and one on Saturday in which drivers can take their car onto the track and turn laps at their discretion. These sessions tend to be uneventful as a whole, but it is not unheard of for drivers to crash or have mechanical failures which send them to the back of the field for the start of the race on Sunday.
No driver starting in the pole position has won the Daytona 500 since 2000. Dale Jarret was on the pole that year and like the aforementioned Loy Allen, he was not in the lead when the first lap was completed. Unlike Loy Allen, he was in the lead for the most important lap, the final one, and 88 other ones as well. Since then, the average finishing of the pole-sitters has been 17th (Mildly interesting to note that the average finishing position of the three rookies to win the pole was slightly better, 16th). Some of this is due to the nature of the racing at the Daytona International Speedway. Cars will tend to run in one or two large lines (sometimes referred to as drafts), the lengths and arrangements of which change rapidly. A driver can be leading a line of cars one moment and suddenly find himself a number of positions behind when the draft breaks into a separate line and passes him by ***. The tendency of the cars to race very closely nose to tail in these lines makes the probability of a melee wreck involving a substantial number of cars very high; it is a rare Daytona 500 that does not have an incident referred to as "The Big One"; the largest crash of the race involving 10-20 cars with varying degrees of damage.
These features of Daytona racing can make it quite difficult for the inexperienced driver. Danica Patrick does have a couple of advantages over most rookie drivers of the past. One is that she is in top-tier machinery. She drives for a team that won the season championship in 2011 with her car's engine coming from a team that won eight of the 16 championships before then. Secondly, the cars being raced this year are of a new design; drivers are still figuring out the particulars of their racing characteristics and how to best apply them to Daytona. Most lLessons learned by veterans in 2001 or 2011 will not apply.
Last year, driving an inferior car, Patrick was 29th in qualifying and finished 16th in her race on Thursday (caught in a crash near the end of the race). She started the 500 in 29th position and was caught in a wreck very early in the race and finished 38th. Depending on the strategy she employs in her race on Thursday, she may improve on last year's result, but she also could run the race without incident and finish further back. ***** As only 43 cars compete in the 500, she is almost certain to improve on her finishing position in the big race. As history shows, most anything is possible and the pole position is no indicator of a strong finish. Barring her being victimized by a wreck not of her doing, I would expect her to finish in the front of the middle; 13th-25th position. 12th place would equal Janet Guthrie's mark as the top finish by a female driver; anything higher would be a superlative effort.
** The term pole position comes from horse racing. While all forms of motorsport use it in the same fashion, NASCAR's roots were closer to the origins of the term; many early stock car races took place on tracks also used for horse racing and the fastest qualifying car was placed first in line, next to "the pole".
*** Only the first place starting position is forfeited; for the purpose of the record books, the fastest driver in qualifying is the pole-sitter even if he or she doesn't actually start the race in first position. The only exception would be if the car or its fuel was found to be outside of regulations.
**** What I describe here is the general nature of NASCAR racing at Daytona for the better part of my lifetime. Changes in car aerodynamics as well as a repaving of the racing surface has caused variations over the years. It is not yet clear what sort of racing the newly designed cars will favor; the race on Thursday should bring some clarity.
*****Most veteran drivers starting their Thursday race in first would tend to follow a simple strategy: Run up front as long as possible, but if the lead is lost, fall to the back of the pack to ensure that you're not caught in a wreck. The need for Danica Patrick to get more experience in race conditions may force her to "mix it up" and put her car more at risk than would sometimes be the norm.
Major League Soccer in Jacksonville
December 12, 2012
One of the surprise highlights of the year in Jacksonville sporting events was a "friendly" soccer match between the mens national teams of the United States and Scotland. Played on a lovely Saturday evening in May, the match drew 44,438 fans, the most ever to attend an international friendly match in the state of Florida. This figure appeared even more impressive two weeks later when a World Cup qualifying match in Tampa attracted a mere 23,971 attendees *.
As one would expect, the success of the event immediately stirred activity to bring more soccer to Jacksonville. Your correspondent was hopeful that perhaps the Gold Medal winning women's national team could be persuaded pay a visit to the River City for an international friendly. Last week though, Jacksonville mayor Alvin Brown (who had "more major sports in Jacksonville" as part of his campaign platform) hinted that the soccer to come would be of the domestic variety. This was confirmed yesterday when his office announced that the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer would play exhibition matches in Jacksonville in February for the next three years. The 2013 edition will serve as part of the Union's visit to Florida to participate in the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic, an exhibition tournament featuring five other MLS teams as well as ones from Orlando and Tampa.
I attended and enjoyed the US-Scotland match. I am afraid there are a few reason why these matches to come will not be as successful:
- The teams Philadelphia of course is one and the other will be an MLS team as well (presumably one of the others playing in Orlando). Neither will have the allure of the national team or an international professional team. Given that the nearest MLS team is DC United, it is understandable that the teams are not from the region. Still, the average person will find it to be a random selection of teams and will be unlikely to have a cheering interest in either of them.
- The weather Those who were in Jacksonville during the week leading up to the Super Bowl will be quick to tell you that Jacksonville is not south Florida; warm pleasant weather is not a given. A night game will likely start with temperatures in the 50's; cool weather by Florida standards, certainly cooler conditions than those for the match in May with the possibility existing that it could be cooler yet. Pleasant weather is not out of the question, however. Game day conditions for the aforementioned Super Bowl were fan-friendly.
- The sports calendar Outside of The Player's Championship golf tournament, May is a somewhat quiet time for sports in Jacksonville. Minor league baseball and arena football are in season, but neither provide an annual "classic" civic event. The area has a bit more going on in February. The forthcoming exhibition match will fall between the Grand-Am Endurance race in Daytona and the Daytona 500 (and is one day before the Daytona Shootout exhibition race). It comes two weeks after a first round Davis Cup tennis match between U.S. and Brazil. Most crushing to me, it falls on the same evening as the second basketball leg of the River City Rumble, the season long athletic competition between Jacksonville and the University of North Florida (I attended the game this year and intend to do so again in 2013). Granted, none of these events are of both large scale and in immediate proximity to the soccer match. It is almost certain though, that they will serve to reduce the number of people interested in attending another sporting fixture.
Taking these factors into consideration, I think an attendance of 30,000 is the best that can be hoped for… and that may be generous. It would be interesting to know how that lines up with what the city and Major League Soccer would consider to be a success.
* The weather was a factor in the reduced attendance in Tampa; it was anything but lovely.
The Big Ones
October 28, 2012
In my youth I read any weather book I could get my hands on. One that I particularly treasured was called simply The Weather Book, which was written by the founding editor of the USA Today's weather page.
Unfortunately, I do not have my copy on hand to quote from or refresh my memory on its contents. But as I recall, it had a page or two on the scenarios that meteorologists were most afraid of. One was a major hurricane hitting New Orleans and the other was a hurricane hitting the New York area.
The damages envisioned in the scenarios were so grave that some in the weather community always felt compelled, either in the name of safety or self-aggrandizement, to treat every storm that neared those locales as being The One.
To some extent, it was these false alarms that brought complacency to the Louisiana and Mississippi. Many people treated the nightmare scenario as a piece of fiction that would never really happen and paid the consequence. Others, who were a bit more in touch with reality, found themselves thinking "Wow,this is actually happening". It was the former group of people that I was thinking of when, speaking to my father on the afternoon prior to Katrina's landfall I said, "This is going to be so bad that people won't believe it until they see it."
That is not to say that meteorologists did not try to spread the word. A meteorologist at the local National Weather service office put his soul into his work
URGENT — WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA 1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28, 2005 ...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED... .HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.... National Weather Service Bulletin for New Orleans region (Wikipedia)
Just as Ivan was the last false alarm prior to Katrina, I fear that Irene will be seen as the last false alarm for the metro New York nightmare scenario.
As was the case prior to Katrina, some forecasters are putting their soul into their work
National Weather Service Office Philadelphia/Mount Holly Hurricane Sandy briefing
To restate what I wrote earlier, there are some who treat storms as their source of personal entertainment and do not hesitate to crank up the hype. There are others who take every unnecessary death in a storm as a personal failing. While the latter group contains cautious people (in the sense that they will advise some precautions that will prove to be unnecessary), they are so cautious that they do not pour their soul into their work when it is not warranted. Robert Ricks, the author of the Katrina bulletin, stopped and re-read his bulletin, to make sure that he didn't include any statement that was unwarranted. I suspect that Gary Szatkowski exercised the same amount of caution when he drafted his "personal plea".
Three possible sources of complacency, which I will briefly address:
- "They don't really know if the storm will hit us"
"Given how many of the New York false alarms happened in the not so recent past, this sense is probably greater among older people than is generally appreciated. Their memories are sharper of the days when hurricanes were totally unpredictable beasts and forecasts weren't to be trusted beyond a day out. Those days are long past. While it is true that forecasters cannot predict the exact landfall point two days out, the science has progressed such that they will not miss by much. Hence the NWS forecaster's statement that "The focus of efforts should be on when Sandy hits our region, not if Sandy hits our region."
- "They said Irene was going to be the horrible one and it wasn't"
While this storm seems similar to Irene in the headline numbers that the public is most familiar with (maximum winds, Saffir-Simpson category) , it is a very different storm. At the comparable position point in Irene's life, the extent of hurricane force winds was 85 miles with tropical storm force winds extending 285 miles away from the center. Right now hurricane winds extend up to 175 miles away from the center of Sandy and tropical storm winds reach out a staggering 520 miles. This has tremendous implications for storm surge. The most recent analysis of Sandy's winds from NOAA's Hurricane Research Division reveals an extremely high potential for damage from storm surge, higher than any hurricane observed in the 1969-2005 time-frame (See Dr. Masters' commentary Sandy's storm surge a huge threat for more on this.) As Dr Masters notes, Irene was a close call. The storm surge from Sandy will be worse.
Allow me to pick a random data point from a location with which I am personally familiar: Bridges in Chesapeake, Virginia have been closed due to flooding caused by Sandy. This happened during Irene as well. Irene, however, passed immediately to the south of Chesapeake. Sandy is over 300 miles away.
- "It just doesn't seem that bad. It's a category one hurricane, and a border-line one at that."
Of the three points listed here, it's the one I have the most sympathy for. For years now forecasters have known that they needed to either tweak the Saffir-Simpson scale or bring additional measures of a storm's potential for destruction into the public eye. For various reasons that has not happened. This may very well be that brings in new measures. I fear that due to the public's unfamiliarity with the Hurricane Research Divsion's product they think it's something not quite real that is being used as a tool of the hypesters. That is not the case. It is a very real warning.
Complicating matters is the technical matter of Sandy's nature when the storm makes landfall. Resulting from that is a "controversy" over whether the National Hurricane Center should be issuing warnings for the northeast. The NHC issued a two page release on the matter. I don't have anything to say on the matter. This is not the time to be arguing.
It is a time for meteorologists to sound the alarm and for residents in and near the path of Sandy to prepare for the worst. While, by terminology, Sandy will not be the first major hurricane to hit the United States since 2005, it will be major in the conventional sense of the word. As far as the New York City nightmare scenario goes, Sandy is The Big One.
2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season Prediction Roundup
June 3, 2012
Having reviewed the past performance of these forecasts in my previous post, it is now time to look at the forecasts for the current hurricane season.
The official start of the season comes with two named storms, Alberto and Beryl already having come and gone. As most forecasts are explicitly June 1 – November 30, those storms do not count against these forecasts as listed here (I've adjusted the number of named storms forecast by Colorado State downward by two, per their note) .
Is this pre-season activity significant when considering activity for the rest of the season? The Colorado State forecast notes
Pre-1 June activity has very little bearing on the rest of the hurricane season. The only two seasons on record with two named storms prior to 1 June were 1887 and 1908. While 1887 was a very active season, 1908 had average levels of activity. The last season with a U.S. landfall prior to 1 June was 1976, which was a relatively quiet season.
Also note that by this time in the 2007 season, there already were two names in the books. While that season finished with a respectable number of named storms (15), aggregate activity as measured by ACE (72 units) was below the long term average.
Here is a summary of the forecasts from the six organizations I track. It lists the number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes forecast along with the predicted amount of Accumulated Cyclone Energy. The consensus forecast (calculated as a simple average of unrounded numbers from all forecasts) is for twelve named storms, six hurricanes, and 97 units of ACE. This forecast is slightly below the average of the past five seasons and roughly in line with the 1981-2010 average.
|5 season trailing
I'll know briefly review each forecast in alphabetical order. Note that a few forecasts contain much more information than that's what displayed here. I'll mention it as necessary so that those interested may delve into the forecasts on their own; I won't be covering everything in detail, however.
The grandfather of these seasonal forecasts is that issued by researchers affiliated with Colorado State University; Dr. William Gray issued his first forecast in 1984 and since 2005 Phillip Klotzbach has been listed as the primary author with Dr. Gray second. The forecast is statistically driven, though, for the current scheme, one input comes from a computer model. The methodology has been alternatively tweaked and replaced in whole over the years; the current scheme is new to 2012.
The Colorado State 2012 hurricane season forecast calls for 11 named storms to form after June 1 with 5 becoming hurricanes and 2 of those being major hurricanes and a combined 80 units of ACE. The forecast discusses mixed signals as to whether a full blown El Niño event will develop or neutral conditions will prevail along with near-normal to cooler than normal Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) in the Atlantic as being factors in their forecast. Regarding the latter issue, the forecast states "Overall, the Atlantic is experiencing more marginal conditions this year than in many previous years during the active era that has been experienced since 1995." It is worth noting that their forecast for Accumulated Cyclone Energy would be the lowest forecast since 1994 *** and is the lowest of the six forecasts tracked here.
The forecast also contains landfall forecast probabilities along with a lengthy discussion of whether rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere have contributed to the increase in major hurrricanes in the Atlantic since 1995.
Since 2009, a team at Florida State University lead by Tim LaRow has been issuing forecasts. The forecasts are generated using computer model simulations that were originally described in the paper Atlantic Basin Hurricane Simulations. Due to apparent limitations in model resolution, the model does not generate hurricanes that are at or above the major hurricane threshold, hence the lack of a forecast number of major hurricanes.
The FSU 2012 hurricane season forecast calls for 13 tropical storms and 7 hurricanes. The forecast for ACE is the highest: 122 units. It is worth remembering that FSU's ACE forecast was also the highest and therefore ended up being the most wrong. This year, however, the FSU forecast is alone at the high end; last year the CSU forecast was nearly identical to that of FSU.
Since 2005, professor Lian Xie of North Carolina State University has been the lead for releasing forecasts from his institution. His statistical approach garnered significant attention in 2006 when it correctly forecast a quiet season when others suggested more activity.
The NC State 2012 hurricane season forecast gives a range of numbers, which average to 9 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. The forecast also predicts storm numbers for the Gulf of Mexico and gives some landfall probabilities, though it is not nearly as extensive as the predictions from Colorado State.
Since 1999, the Climate Prediction Center of NOAA has been issuing outlooks, in collaboration with the National Hurricane Center and the Hurricane Research Division. The basic factors for the forecast are fairly unchanged; the state of El Niño and SSTs in the Atlantic are the two primary considerations. A variety of computer models are utilized to predict those two factors.
NOAA's 2012 Hurricane Season Outlook gives a range of numbers, which average to 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. Like the CSU forecast, it discusses the spread in El Niño forecasts as a source of uncertainty. It also reviews the near-normal to below average SSTs in the Atlantic.
The Tropical Storm Risk consortium was borne out of a UK government sponsored project named TSUNAMI. The first forecast was released under the latter name for the 1999 hurricane season with Professor Mark Saunders as the lead author. It utilizes a statistical approach considering two factors: Forecast SSTs in the Mean Development Region of the Atlantic Ocean (10°-20°N — 20°-60°W, the classic breeding ground for Atlantic tropical cyclones) and forecast low level trade winds over the Atlantic and Carribean.
Tropical Storm Risk's 2012 Atlantic hurricane forecast predicts 13 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. Of the two values used in the forecast, the one for trade winds suggest a slight effect of suppressing tropical cyclone formation, while the SST values are neutral. The forecast also makes predictions for the number of landfalling storms in the United States and Caribbean. TSR had an strong 2011 forecast (with a near perfect prediction of ACE) , though, as their own forecast notes, "forecasts for the 2006, 2007, and 2009 hurricane seasons were less impressive".
The United Kingdom's Meteorological Office has been releasing outlooks since 2007, though it was only last year that they started issuing them as June-November forecasts . The forecast is derived from two global forecast models, one of their own along with one from the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasts.
The UK Met Office hurricane season forecast for 2012 predicts 10 named storms and 90 units of accumulated cyclone energy.
These are the forecasts that I keep track of either due to their long reputable existence or, in the case of the younger ones, notable performances. (I'll admit I was absolutely parochial in keeping track of FSU's model right from the start; fortunately it was a strong performer in its first two seasons). While it may seem that these are more than enough forecasts, there are yet more out there.
Penn State University researcher Micheal Mann has been releasing forecasts since 2007. His 2012 prediction (which comes from a statistical model) is 11 named storms.
Weatherbell Analytics is a private company that hired forecaster Joe Bastardi after he left Accuweather. Weatherbell Analytics' 2012 hurricane season forecast is for 11 named storms, 5 hurricanes, 3 major hurricanes and 85 units of ACE. It expects fewer storms to develop far at sea and relatively more to from close in to the United States.
In the context of hurricanes, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) is best known for its specialized dynamic hurricane model. The lab has developed what it is calling a Hybrid Hurricane Forecast System for hurricane season outlooks. Unfortunately, the most recent discussion is for the January forecast run. That forecast predicted six hurricanes for the 2012 season.
Finally, the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (ISMET) has been producing forecasts since 1996. I have been unable to find an primary source document for the forecast, but a column penned by the Institute's director, Dr. Jose Rubiera, quotes from it. Their forecast calls for ten named storms with five becoming hurricanes.
The column, originally published in Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, is actually pretty interesting. It is entitled "El Pronostico de la Temporada de Huracanes en Su Propio Lugar", which translates to "The Hurricane Season Forecast in its Proper Place". It discusses the purpose of hurricane season forecasts and their limitations. Rubiera outright states that the forecasts have scientific value," but do not possess a practical value to the general public".
I find the column valuable enough to spend time working on a translation ****, which will be the content of my next post.
*** It's only been since 2006 that the CSU forecast explicity forecasted ACE; before then it gave only a number called Net Tropcial Cyclone (NTC) activity, which is a completely different calculation, but like ACE, does give a measure of aggregate activity. This season's forecast NTC, 90, is the same as the 2009 forecast, but the forecast for ACE that season was 85. You have to go back to 1994, to find a NTC lower than 90. Had there been an ACE forecast, it likely would have been at 80 or lower.
**** Yes I could just run it through Google Translate or some such tool and it would probably be workable or "good enough". Feel free to give it a whirl, yourself. I did though, get an outstanding education in the Spanish language in high school and have made use of that learning at various points since, but not recently. So I'm going to grab this surprising opportunity and run with it.
2007-2011 hurricane season predictions reviewed
June 2, 2012
Before releasing a post summarizing the predictions for activity in the hurricane season to come, I like to review those of seasons past.
I do this to address a couple of concerns people have about these forecasts. One is that when the media reports upon them, they rarely, if ever review the performance of the forecasts in years past. The second is that the forecasts always (intentionally) over-state activity and as such exist solely to generate hype and anxiety for the forthcoming season. One lesser concern, even more conspiratorial in nature, is that the classification of tropical storms, etc is manipulated so that NOAA can "hit their numbers".
As for second concern, 2005 remains the canonical refutation of that notion. The highest forecast for that season from the organizations tracked here was Colorado State's, which called for 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 4 major hurricanes. The actual numbers for the season were 28,15 , and 7. When you review the five hurricane seasons since, it is clear that there is not a sustained inclination to overstate activity.
A concern I won't address in the post is the general utility of these forecasts to the average person. I expressed my thoughts in a 2007 commentary on hurricane season forecasts :"They are of little value to individuals. National Hurricane Center forecaster Richard Pasch said it best: 'An active year is the year when you get hit.'"
With that out of the way, let us look back on the 2011 season and the pre-season predictions. The season featured 19 tropical storms, 7 hurricanes, 4 major hurricanes, and 127 units of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE). The consensus numbers from the six organizations I track were 15, 8, 4, and 148.
Three of the forecasts originated from reasearchers affilitaed with universities (Colorado State, Florida State, and North Carolina State). NOAA's forecast came from its Climate Prediction Center. Tropical Storm Risk is a British consortium, and the sixth forecast was produced by the United Kingdoms's Meteorological Office.
|5 season trailing
Everyone under-forecast the number of tropical storms. Short-lived tropical storms such as Franklin, Gert, and Jose, brought the number of named storms above predicted levels without causing the other numbers to go over as well. All forecasts were over by one or two on the number of hurricanes, but were either on the number or were within one of the number of major hurricanes.
Most forecasts slightly to moderately overstated the amount of Accumulated Cyclone Energy. Tropical Storm Risk's forecast was the exception as it nearly hit the number exactly.
As we'll see below, the first two forecasts from Florida State were impressive, particularly the ACE predictions. 2011's forecast, alas, wasn't particularly note-worthy. Yes, it was the closest in predicting the number of tropical storms. However, that is the least important of the four numbers. ACE is the most representative number of aggregate tropical cyclone activity. The importance of the storm categories goes down with the damage potential, hence major hurricanes are most important followed by hurricanes, and then the number of tropical storms.
Here are the predictions for the past five seasons. Note that the "observed" numbers for 2007 removed Andrea and Olga due them being out of season (an adjustment I failed to make in past reviews and something that was brought to mind by Alberto and Beryl this year). Also, the UK Met Office has been releasing forecasts since 2007, but only since 2011 have they been June-November forecasts that are easily comparable to the others (past forecasts were July-November). For each year, I've link to NOAA's season summaries, which provide good reviews of the atmospheric conditions that prevailed for the season and how they affected the NOAA forecasts.
|5 season trailing
In the past five years, the consensus storm numbers have been overforecasts twice (2007 and 2009) and in the ball park the other three seasons. Note that 2009 was an El Niño year. When the oscillation and its affects are not properly accounted for, over-forecasts result.
|5 season trailing avg
2007's ACE was brutally over-forecast by everyone. With the exeption of the major hurricanes Dean and Felix, storms that season did not have long lives and therefore did not contribute much to the total. In percentage terms, the consensus forecast for 2009 was substantially overblown as well. 2011 wasn't as bad. The consensus predictions for 2008 and 2010 were excellent
My next post will be a round-up of the forecasts for the 2012 season.
***(Note that in their forecasts as published, some organizations release ranges of numbers, or in the case of Tropical Storm Risk, numbers that aren't whole numbers. The numbers here are averages and roundings of ranges and TSR's numbers are rounded as well. The consensus is calculated using the unrounded numbers. That's why the consensus numbers of major hurricanes is four, when by appearances, it should be five; TSR's published number was 3.7 and NOAA's range was 4-9. Those got rounded up to four and five, respectively for the purposes of the list, but the unrounded numbers were used to calculate the average of the forecasts)
2012 Atlantic Storm Names
June 1, 2012
It is June 1, the official beginning of the Atlantic Hurricane season. As tropical weather cognoscenti know, this is the day that the first regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook comes out, the one that lists all of their storm names and pronunciations. It is also the day that I go over the history of storms past with those names.
This set of names was first used in 1982.Because there was extremely strong El Niño event that year, which suppressed tropcial storm formation, only the first five names were used that year. As this of list has tended to be associated with quiet seasons, only three names from the original list (the fewest from any set). For the first time since we've been giving storms names, two names have been used before the official start of the season ( 1908 had two hurricanes before June 1 and 1887 had two tropical storms before then; that was well before the practice of storm naming had begun).
Without further ado, here are the names (links for years are to images of the tracking chart for the storm, links for retired names are to the Wikipedia entry):
Alberto – In 1982 he managed to go from nothing to hurricane and back to nothing in the short space between the Yucatan Peninsula and the coast of West Florida. Tropical storm in 1988 and 1994. Central Atlantic category 3 in 2000. 2006 edition came ashore in Florida as a tropical storm. Short-lived tropical storm in 2012.
Beryl – All six times were as a tropical storm (1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006). 2012 version made landfall in Jacksonville Beach, FL and was the strongest landfalling May tropical cyclone since the May 29, 1908 hurricane.
Chris – Tropical storm in 1982 , 1988, and 2000. Hurricane at sea in 1994. 2006 tropical storm affected the Bahamas and Greater Antilles before abruptly dissipating.
Debby – Category four hurricane at sea in 1982. Bay of Campeche hurricane in 1988. Tropical Storm in 1994. Leeward Islands hurricane in 2000. Tropical storm at sea in 2006
Ernesto – Until 2006, always a tropical storm and never a hurricane (1982, 1988, 1994, 2000). 2006 hurricane made first landfall near Guanatamo Bay, Cuba, weakend to a tropical storm and made subsequent landfalls in Dade County, Florida and Oak Island, North Carolina.
Florence – Gulf of Mexico hurricane in 1988 (passed directly over New Orleans at tropical storm strength). At sea hurricane in 1994 and 2000 and 2006. Most recent edition affected Bermuda and Newfoundland.
Gordon – This spot was held by Gilbert until after the 1988 season. In 1994 a hurricane with a wacky course (at TS strength) through the Caribbean Sea and Straits of Florida en route to briefly threaten the Outer Banks before turning back south. In 2000, the hurricane took a straight line course from the Yucatan to the Big Bend of Florida. 2006 's version was a major hurricane at sea.
Helene – Category four at sea in 1988 and a tropical storm in 2000. Like Gordon, a major hurricane at sea in 2006.
Isaac – Tropical storm in 1988, category four at sea in 2000. A catagory one hurricane that weakened before brushing Nova Scotia in 2006. Last name to be used that year.
Joyce – This spot was held by Joan until after the 1988 season. Joyce debuted in 2000 as a hurricane that weakened before crossing into the Carribean.
Kirk – Added to the list in 2006, yet to debut. Spot was formerly held by Keith.
Leslie – A tropical storm in 2000.
Michael – Hurricane in 2000. Hit Newfoundland as an extratropical system.
Nadine – Tropical storm in 2000.
Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, and William have never been used. The various seasonal forecasts suggest that we might not see any of those names this season either.
Duke at Florida State 2/23/12
February 23, 2012
At some point this week, it became clear to me that tonight's game is the basketball equivalent of the football game against Oklahoma last September: A game highly anticipated by the Seminole faithful that everyone wishes they could attend. While the Oklahoma days in front game had a "happy times are here again" feel due to their being many such big games in the past, tonight's game is a rarity. While the Duke and UNC games are well attended and serve to FSU basketball what the football team serves to everyone else in the ACC, there has rarely been little more than pride on the line. The times that FSU have hosted a top 15 team and been on equal ground are quite few in number (gleaned from the game notes on seminoles.com) :
- January 10,1998 – Duke 75 FSU 63 – I was reminded of this game when I reading the news that student tickets for tonight's game were distributed in 15 minutes . Once upon a time, student tickets for the basketball games were issued at the door; they could not be procured in advance. A near disaster before the opening of doors for this game changed that. The 13th ranked Seminoles lost to the 2nd ranked Blue Devils and I lost my voice for the better part of a week.
- February 27, 1993 – UNC 86 FSU 76 – UNC was #3 and FSU was #6. Looking back on the 1992-1993 season, one notes that FSU would have finished in a tie with UNC for the regular season title had they won. Looking over the box scores for this game and the ones preceding it, I note the absence of Charlie Ward. I assume he was a known "injured / will not play" before the game and that took some luster off the anticipation.
- February 16, 1989 – Louisville 78 FSU 77 – (OT) The one game in which FSU (#7) was higher ranked than their opponent (#10). FSU did finish the 1988-1989 season as regular season champions of the Metro conference, having beaten Louisville on the road earlier in the season. They lost to the Cardinals in the conference tournament final, however.
- February 17, 1978 – FSU 81 Lousivlle 70 – This game between the 14th ranked Seminoles and 9th ranked Cardinals was played in Tully Gym.
A win tonight would put the Seminoles atop the ACC standings and represent their third straight victory against the Blue Devils. Here's hoping for some of that 1978 magic.
POSTSCRIPT: Alas, it was a bit more like 1998 than 1978: Duke 74 Florida State 66. Although, back then, anytime FSU got behind more than 6 points the game felt hopelessly lost; tonight the Seminoles fell behind by 13 with two minutes to go in the first half but whittled the deficit down to seven at halftime and later closed the game to three points with the ball in hand.


text:
VB: 18 Mavs land on All-SLC Honor Roll
Nov. 18, 2013
Courtesy of The Southland Conference (www.southland.org).
FRISCO, Texas - The Southland Conference, as part of its year-long 50th Anniversary commemoration, has announced its All-Time Volleyball Honor Roll. The announcement comes prior to the Southland's 32nd Volleyball Tournament, to be held Friday through Sunday in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The honor roll includes 83 volleyball student-athletes that have impacted the sport since the league began sponsorship of the sport in 1982. The team includes all former players that earned multiple All-Southland first-team honors, as well as a number of other standouts. Additionally, seven coaches were recognized for their historic contributions to the sport.
"Volleyball has been a fantastic sport in the Southland for more than three decades, and we've seen our teams participate at the highest levels, including the NCAA national championship," league commissioner Tom Burnett said. "We've had a great combination of coaching legends and standout student-athletes, and we expect that to continue for a very long time."
The Honor Roll includes a pair of four-time All-Southland Conference first-team student-athletes, Katie Weismiller (1983-86) and Ana DeOliveira (1985-88), both from UT Arlington. Weismiller was the 1984 and 1985 Southland Player of the Year, and is also one of only two four-time All-Southland tournament picks. She remains the conference's all-time leader in service aces (266) and assists (5,769). DeOliveira was the 1987 and 1988 Southland Player of the Year, as well as the 1985 Newcomer of the Year. Like Weismiller, she was also a four-time All-Southland Tournament selection, earning MVP honors in 1987 and 1988.
Weismiller and DeOlivera helped lay the groundwork in making UT Arlington a nationally-ranked program in the late 1980s, as the Lady Mavericks played in the 1988 NCAA Division I South Regional championship match, and then outdone by a trip to the 1989 NCAA Volleyball Final Four.
The UTA coaches named to the honor roll, Lisa Love (Southland tenure: 1982-88) and Cathy George (1989-93) directed the team to national accolades during that era, winning a combined nine Southland Coach of the Year honors and coaching a combined 24 first-team all-conference picks and six players of the year. Five other legendary coaches were honor roll selections, including Karen Chisum (1987-2011) of Texas State, Katrinka Jo Crawford of Lamar (1982-86) and Texas-San Antonio (1996-2001), Brenda Gray (1987-current) of Sam Houston State, Debbie Humphreys (1988-current) of Stephen F. Austin and Steven McRoberts (2006-10) of Central Arkansas.
Including Weismiller and DeOliveira, UT Arlington placed the most student-athletes on the All-Time Honor Roll with 16. Stephen F. Austin added 13, followed by Texas State with 12, Texas-San Antonio with eight, Lamar and Sam Houston State with seven each, McNeese State with five, Central Arkansas with four, Louisiana-Monroe and Oral Roberts with two, and Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, Louisiana-Lafayette, Texas-A&M-Corpus Christi and North Texas with one each.
To best assess the candidate pool for the All-Time Honor Roll, the Southland Conference developed a metric that analyzed numerous elements of a student-athlete's performance and value within the league at the time she played. Most notably, the conference honored "real-time" factors such as all-conference/all-tournament selections by coaches and a player's individual honors and statistical performance among her peers.
Southland Conference 50th Anniversary
Molli Abel, Lamar
McKenzie Adams, Texas-San Antonio
Amanda Aguilera, UT Arlington
Shenequa Bedford, Texas State
Jackie Bennett, UT Arlington
Natasha Biggers, Texas-San Antonio
Liz Blue, Lamar
Jessica Bowlin, UT Arlington
Carol Bozikis, UT Arlington
Kimberly Brewer, Texas State
Kaci Brewer, Lamar
Shannon Browning, McNeese State
Brittany Burton, Stephen F. Austin
Amber Calhoun, Texas State
Caley Carter, Nicholls State
Veronica Carter, Lamar
Kim Coffey, North Texas
Marissa Collins, Central Arkansas
Laura Cramer, Stephen F. Austin
Jennifer Cron, Sam Houston State
Torie Dacus, UT Arlington
Meagan Daniel, Texas-San Antonio
Amari Deardorff, Texas State
Ana deOliveira, UT Arlington
Stacey DiFrancesco, Northwestern State
Leslie Dodson, Texas-San Antonio
Aubrey Duncan, Stephen F. Austin
JaNel Edwards, Louisiana-Monroe
Lynn Edwards, Louisiana-Monroe
Angela Eppers, McNeese State
Colleen Farrell, UT Arlington
Anna Ferguson, Sam Houston State
Sheina Fernandes, Oral Roberts
Stephanie Figgers, Stephen F. Austin
Tara Frantz, UT Arlington
Julie Franzen, Sam Houston State
Sarah Gascon, Southeastern Louisiana
Anita Greichgauer, Nicholls State
Jana Harless, Sam Houston State
Jessica Hays, Central Arkansas
Heather Hoy, UT Arlington
Kelsey Jewasko, Texas-San Antonio
Krisna Johnson, Stephen F. Austin
J.J. Jones, Stephen F. Austin
Carli Kolbe, Sam Houston State
Krystal Kolkhorst, Texas State
Tamara Luckemeyer, Texas-San Antonio
Adrianne Meengs, Lamar
Carey Mefford, McNeese State
Krisha Neimann, Texas State
Shana Neimann, Stephen F. Austin
Brooke Newbury, Stephen F. Austin
Elizabeth Nwoke, Texas State
Amber Pack, UT Arlington
Anissa Parker, McNeese State
Olaya Pazo, UT Arlington
Lauren Railey, Stephen F. Austin
Ruby Randolph, Lamar
Michelle Reid, Stephen F. Austin
Kristy Rhodes, Stephen F. Austin
Emma Ridley, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Traci Rohde, Stephen F. Austin
Nicky Rose, Texas State
Kendra Rowland, Texas-San Antonio
Yolanda Royston, Sam Houston State
Natalie Sarver, Lamar
Kelsey Schwirtlich, Texas-San Antonio
Alicia Shaffer, UT Arlington
Bruna Silva, Oral Roberts
Caley Smith, UT Arlington
Chloe Smith, Central Arkansas
Robyn Smith, Central Arkansas
Trina Stokes, Louisiana-Lafayette
Heather Stumbaugh, Stephen F. Austin
Shawn Sweeten, UT Arlington
A.J. Watlington, Texas State
Amy Weigle, Texas State
Katie Weismiller, UT Arlington
Deveney Wells-Gibson, Sam Houston State
Jessica Weynand, Texas State
Valerie Whitfield, UT Arlington
Marquita Williams, McNeese State
Stephanie Winn, Texas State
All-Time Coaches (Seven)
Karen Chisum, Texas State (Southland Tenure: 1987-2011)
Katrinka Jo Crawford, Lamar (1982-86) and Texas-San Antonio (1996-2001)
Cathy George, UT Arlington (1989-93)
Brenda Gray, Sam Houston State (1987-Current)
Debbie Humphreys, Stephen F. Austin (1988-Current)
Lisa Love, UT Arlington (1982-88)
Steven McRoberts, Central Arkansas (2006-10)


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Results tagged ' Jerry Remy '
Taking a Leave of Absence.
Hello friends, I just wanted to take the time to let you know that I will be unable to blog productively for three weeks. Normally it takes me a good two hours to write a good one, and I'll barely have time.


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As we bid farewell to the most epic last couple of Coachella weekends, we'd like for you to say hello to Eugenie from Feral Creature and her epic Koolaburra style! We were so ecstatic to have one of our favorite bloggers take over our Instagram for weekend one of Coachella. Not only did we get an inside look into the hottest parties, but we received some MAJOR style inspo on how to rock our SS14 collection. Missed the takeover? Don't fret, here are some of our favorite posts:
The Azore Gladiator Sandal – Get the look: http://bit.ly/1jrhU5q
The Dita Thong Demi-Wedge – Get the look: http://bit.ly/1nCTmKG
The Perone Laser Cut Wedge – Get the look: http://bit.ly/1r9h03n


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Australia offers a highly practical environment for international students to attain skills and qualifications in any of the related areas in the discipline of Engineering faculty. These include, among many others, Software, Spatial, Civil/Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Aerospace and Aeronautical, Applied Physics, Architectural, and Surveying and Environmental Engineering courses, from Technical And Further Education (TAFE) programs to university degrees and numerous postgraduate opportunities.
The courses include both classroom study and practical fieldwork and all are appropriately accredited and recognised for membership of organisations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Courses can range between two and four years, along with ongoing postgraduate research options.
Topics covered in the course include:
Career opportunities for graduates are varied, depending on the specific course taken. For instance, Environmental or Surveying graduates may have opportunities within conservation/sustainability foundations or urban planning. Software/Computer Systems graduates can find opportunities throughout the Information Technology sector, and Logistics Management may be employable in a wide variety of roles for many potential employers. There are many opportunties to participate in practical applications of engineering theory during study, and this gives all graduates a solid grounding for them to apply what they have learned.
Fill in the following form for more information about studying Engineering in Australia:


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It's not unique in this regard, I'm sure, but my sense of humor is something wicked. I like to use the graphic from my favorite t-shirt to describe it:
I imagine that if I really wanted/had the meanness in me, I could be an excellent asshole. Like, worst 'jerk around' material. I may not always say it out loud, and usually not to the person it concerns unless I feel comfortable/know they won't garrote me for it, but it's in there. A frothy, sometimes roiling pool of meanness and wit (usually lacking actual spite, but still...).
Like, I saw headlines last night about Beyonce's miscarriage. And while I perfectly sincerely questioned on twitter why anyone ever needed to know about it (I only just now saw that it was revealed through Jay-Z's song, not sleazy journalism) and while I also know perfectly well how traumatic and awful and heartbreaking the misfortune of miscarriage can be (my mother had one between myself and my little brother), I couldn't stop that deliciously vile part of my brain from churning away.
Since I read that headline about 12hrs ago, I've made no fewer than 5 references to it.
Sure, several were forced to test ways of making the reference, but a couple were legit insertions into conversation of this appalling popculture reference. Because--the vileness, the outrageousness, the darkness, the macabre character of that joke makes it much too tempting to make for my awful mind.
There are the usual jokes about minorities, which often I manage to stretch out justifyingly long; and friends' personal lives (those ones are the kind I do usually make in that person's presence); and also the cruel rephrasing of actual goings on in my life or others' ("Aw, honey, don't worry, you're weren't a rebound for him--just an intermission!"); and so on.
I'm not entirely sure why my brain is the way it is. I'm still pondering whether it's at least not acting out in spite or bitterness; that would make me feel guilty. So far, it seems to be in good, cheeky fun for me and my friends. In deliciously bad taste, but still good fun.for all.


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Thanksgiving marks the beginning of holiday indulgence and with Grandma's rich stuffing and Mom's buttery pecan pie, how are you supposed to resist? Rather than filling up on heavy dishes, gobble up light, yet savory sides infused with fruits and veggies. Cook up some new Turkey Day family traditions by recreating holiday favorites with health-conscious ingredients.
To read full article, click HERE.


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Romantic River Front Cabins
From $175 / night
Description from the owner
Description from the owner
Bedrooms: 1/
Bathrooms: 1/
Sleeps: 6/
Type: Cabin
Book this 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom cabin in Luray today! A total of 6 people can sleep here comfortably. This property has been booked 21 times.
Guests can enjoy a hot tub, deck, and outdoor grill among other amenities offered by this rental.
Travelers are sharing their opinions on this property. It has an overall rating of 5/5 thanks to an average of 11 reviews.
Costs vary, with the average weekly rate as low as $950.00, depending on travel dates.
The owner responds to 90% of inquiries and last updated the property's calendar 2 days ago.
Proximity to TripAdvisor's Top Luray Attractions
Proximity to TripAdvisor's Top Luray Attractions
Reviews (2)
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Caracas – One person was killed and another injured when a helicopter crashed in a residential area of the southeastern Venezuelan city of Puerto Ordaz, first responders said Thursday.
The co-pilot died, but the pilot survived and was taken to a hospital, a spokesman for the Humboldt Rescue Organization told Efe.
The helicopter fell to earth shortly after taking off from Manuel Carlos Piar Airport on a test flight, the spokesman said, adding: "There was a problem and it crashed."
He said the aircraft, identified as a BO-105 model, wound up in the parking lot of an apartment building and the resulting explosion left at least two vehicles in flames.


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Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter
I found a high power replacement battery for the Miata...(That Fits) It`s a Pro-Volt that you can get at Summit Racing.It`s specs are 1100cca/50ah,33 lbs,brass terminals,-40 to 140 temp rated,deep cycle rated,2 year full replacement.Its measurements are 7.79"long,6.54"wide,6.73"high.The only mod I had to do was to remove one of the end brackets on the top clamp but it fits perfect.PT# PVT-890000 and yes it uses the same dry cell tech as the stock battery.In fact you don`t have to vent it.
I was getting tired of the weak stock Miata battery and it just about dying everytime I left my car parked for more than 3 days.After the install the car turns over like it is supposed to not like a hot high compression big block.I am very satisfied with this battery and the power it has.I can leave my stereo on for more than a half an hour without worrying my car wont start.
It`s a great "high power" alternative for the Miata.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
|Back to Product Reviews
|28 June, 2002


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National Finish: 39 Time:19:07 Regional Finish: 8 Time:17:36
Hobbies: Girl Scouts, Church Youth Group
Running hero: PreRunning goal: win state mile and 2 mile
Personal note:
I would like to thank my Mom for all her support through the years. I would also like to thank my Dad for coaching me. My dad has helped to coach me because I have had four coaches in the past four years. I woud like to thank all my friends and family who have supported me through the years.


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HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Kmart has introduced the Kmart Smart Assist Savings Card in Michigan, offering 20% discounts on more than 1,200 private-label grocery and drug-store items to unemployed shoppers in the state. Verifiably unemployed Michigan residents who register at kmart.com can receive the discount card, which is valid for up to six months. "Unemployment is severely impacting our Michigan communities, so we knew we had to step up to the plate and do what we could to ...
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This Baltimore Ravens have been playing awe-inspiring football, but don't write them off as Super Bowl favorites just yet.
There are a few factors, internal and external, that could jeopardize the Ravens playoff success.
Their 5-1 record gives them a commanding lead atop an AFC North division full of inconsistent teams. As long as they can maintain their intensity, they should have no problem qualifying for a playoff spot.
There's little doubt at this point that the Ravens are the best team in their division, but are they Super Bowl favorites?
Right now, not so much.
Fans should expect January football with little question, but they're missing a few key pieces to their equation that could jeopardize their playoff success.
Here are five reasons the Ravens fall short of being Super Bowl favorites.


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Preview two more sketches from Comedy Central's "Kroll Show"
Nick Kroll's Comedy Central sketch comedy show, Kroll Show, debuts in a couple of weeks. But 2013 and Christmas both come early for comedy fans as two more sketches already have hit the YouTubes.
In "Ref Jeff," Kroll plays an NBA referee who wants to be friends with the players, and you find out just how chatty he is when we cue up his microphone in this "Overheard on the Court" segment.
And in "PubLIZity," a spoof on "reality" TV shows Liz B. (Jenny Slate) and Liz G. (Kroll) as two publicists trying to have it all. Featuring Mitch Hurwitz as a potential client promoting awareness of canine cancer.
Roll it!
We previously saw Kroll Show take down Chick-fil-A's homophobia with its own own fast-food chicken chain TV ad.
catch some quality bro-time with the likes of Ed Helms, Jason Mantzoukas and Adam Pally in "Sex in the City for Dudes," and on the teen soap parody "Wheels Ontario," where Kroll plays "Legs," the new kid at a school for handicapped kids, drama ensues.
Kroll Show debuts Jan. 16, 2013, on Comedy Central.


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Honesdale woman sentenced to six years for heroin
September 11, 2013 —
A Honesdale woman who failed to dim her bright lights to oncoming traffic was stopped, searched and eventually sentenced to up to six years in state prison. The sentence was handed down on September 9 in Pike County. When Jessica Cargill was initially stopped in Lackawaxen Township, officers became suspicious of her and a passenger and looked through the vehicle. They discovered a locked safe in the trunk of the car. The state troopers obtained a search warrant, opened the safe and discovered 430 bags of heroin valued at $8,600.
Cargill pleaded guilty to charges of possession with intent to distribute. In addition to the prison time, she was ordered to pay an $800 fine. Pike County District Attorney Raymond Tonkin said "This was a large amount of heroin that was intended to be sold in the area."


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Cheats and Walkthroughs
Microsoft is issuing permanent Xbox Live bans to those who illegally pirated Halo 4. The game reportedly leaked last week and has since become available online to users with modded Xbox 360 consoles. Microsoft isn't letting these players get away their activity though, and has sent an e-mail to those they suspect have pirated the game.
"This email is to notify you that your Xbox Live privileges have been permanently suspended due to illegitimate prerelease title play," the email reads. "Because your conduct is in violation, the Xbox Live Enforcement Team has issued a permanent suspension. Your Xbox Live privileges will not be reinstated."
Microsoft is currently working with its security teams and law enforcement to address the Halo 4 leak. You'll be able to legitimately play the anticipated first-person shooter on November 6, 2012.


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(Click here to read our disclaimer)
Aicar refers to 5-aminoimidazole-4carboxamide riboncleotide which is an intermediate chemical in the generations of inosine monophosphate. Research for this product often focuses on protecting an animal's cardiac tissue from damage, after a myocardial infarct. This chemical is often applied in animal test subjects alongside GW1516 because it aicar can enhance the effects of this chemical during trials. GW1516 acts as a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta that is limited to a research setting, due to its potential connections to cancer. Research indicates that this peptide could have an impact on improving treatment for cardiovascular disease, particularly when this condition is linked to diabetes, obesity or dyslipidemia.
Scientific Research of Aicar
Research indicates that there is a small coronary arterial occlusion before a reperfusion and prolonged ischemia where the tissues can be protected.
- Preconditioning that precedes a myocardial infarction can delay the death of cells in this tissue, which may allow medical professionals to salvage greater amounts to tissue during reperfusion therapy.
- During research trials, Aicar applied to animals has been found to precondition the heart, causing an anti-inflammatory state which prevents endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Trials which applied this chemical 24 hours before an induced reperfusion saw no increase in adhesive interactions.
- During these applications the animals also received an ATP-sensitive potassium channel as well as hemeoxygenase-dependent mechanisms.
Applying Aicar in animal test subjects has created an indication that it may be capable of increasing AMPK-dependent recruitment of items, including ATP-sensitive K channels which will then move to the sarcolemma that can shorten the risk of calcium overload during reperfusion. This can lengthen the time period that can be used for preconditioning. Research using rabbits has indicated that preconditioning can be extended up to 2 hours when undergoing coronary ligation.
Safety Concerns of GW1516
Recent publications from ongoing studies note that animal test subjects exposed to this chemical have shown mixed results regarding the development of side effects.
- A 2004 study noted that specially-bred mice exposed to GW1516 saw an increase in the development of polyps. Development of this peptide has continued after this study to better determine what may trigger this risk.
Recent studies note that rats at all application levels of GW1516 increased the risk of cancer in all organs of an animal, most notably the testes, womb, ovaries, thyroid, bladder, stomach, liver, and skin. Clinical trials for any use of GW1516 have been banned by the WADA. The combination of Aciar and GW1516 has been applied to animal test subjects to increase the exercise endurance of these test subjects. This increase far surpassed the effects of either chemical when applied alone. This increase in endurance may improve the animal's ability to improve cardiac health following a heart attack or stroke. Ongoing research is investigating the safety of constant application of these chemicals in high concentrations.
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Good points. I think it's more overt and calculated than you think. Example, when the Ramones are celebrated as the 70's major group, and Parliament FUnkadelic is virtually ignored in the RS compilation and the RS music guides - i gotta problem with that. When Anthony Decurtis and David Fricke and Kurt Loder (Three OF THE WORST CRITICS OF ALL-TIME)write history books for RS or other publications, they prove how shallow, ignorant, and biased they are - they don't keep objective view of the true and leading role of African-American artist in music history
The Ramones and Sex pISTOLS are some of the worst musical acts of all-time (COmbined with Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Television) - it's disconcerning to see those stooges put up and over true and talented African-American groups in nearly every book, media publication ,etc
People who are half-way educated about music see right through the B.S.


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United States Senator from Maine
Face Tags
@SenatorCollins and @JoeLieberman speak about #OsamaBinLaden at press conference.
@SenatorCollins discussing her jobs plan at #Maine Chamber
@SenatorCollins with FHWA Maine Director Jonathan McDade talking about Memorial Bridge funding
This morning, Sen. Collins met w/ Bill Brennan, Pres. of Maine Maritime Academy & members of the Maritime Admin.
Senator Collins with Maine students David Bibeau and Krysta Moulton from the U.S. Senate Youth Program
@SenatorCollins and @CNOAdmRoughead speak to the press at BIW re #shipbuilding
@SenatorCollins and @CNOAdmRoughead touring Bath Iron Works today
Senator Collins speaking to Women in Logistics and Delivery Services this afternoon
Senator Collins reading to students at Horace Mitchell Primary School at Kittery Point:
Today Senator Collins had a web chat with @MacInnes3's third grade class at Washington Street School in Brewer:
Senator Collins w/ Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell before he briefed the cong. del. in Munich
Senator Collins at a press conference yesterday, releasing a new GAO report on the northern border:
Senator Collins on stage listening to President Obama during the #DADT repeal signing this morning
Senator Collins greets Patrick Donahoe, incoming Postmaster General
Monday, Senator Collins had the pleasure of meeting the Chapman family from Bangor:
©2016 Twitpic Inc, All Rights Reserved


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At the present time, Washington State has two levels of counselor credentialing. The first level, Registered Counselor, requires no formal education or training in the field of counseling. Rather, registered counselors are simply required to complete an application form, pay a fee, and show evidence of having completed a state-approved HIV/AIDS/STD workshop.
The second level of credentialing, Certified Mental Health Counselor, requires formal graduate training and postgraduate supervised experience prior to obtaining this professional certification. Both the Washington Administrative Code and the Revised Code of Washington provide important information about the requirements for becoming a certified mental health counselor in Washington State. The Washington State Department of Health is the state agency responsible for overseeing the certification of counselors. For more information, please visit the links provided below.
It is important for you to know that the M.S. Mental Health Counseling program at CWU is designed to meet the course work requirements for certification as a mental health counselor in Washington State. Nonetheless, any candidate for certification must still complete the postgraduate supervised experience requirements specified in the law. If you have questions about the ways in which the CWU program assists in preparation for state certification, please contact the Counseling Programs Director or the CCPAC Co-Director in charge of counseling practicum training.
The CWU School Counselor Program has been approved by the Washington State Board of Education to provide a program of study leading to Educational Staff Associate School Counselor certification. The State Board of Education?s standards for certification of school counselors require that the candidate complete an approved Master?s degree program in counseling which has been developed in concert with school and professional organizations. Central Washington University is affiliated with an Educational Staff Associate (ESA) Professional Education Advisory Board for the preparation of school counselors. The program emphasizes supervised practicum and field experiences.
Upon completion of the Master?s degree and certification program, the individual will be qualified for the residency level certificate as a school counselor in the State of Washington. Candidates for residency certification generally follow the two-year program leading to the Master of Education degree in School Counseling. Candidates who have already earned a Master?s or Doctoral degree in a related field, such as Education, Special Education, Mental Health Counseling, and School Social Work, are not required to earn a second Master?s, but must complete all requirements for the M.Ed. degree and certification program in school counseling, with the exception of the thesis. The certification program also requires satisfactory completion of a comprehensive written and oral examination.
In addition to obtaining state certification, counselors also have the option of pursuing national certification. The National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) offers several different types of national certification; perhaps the most common is the Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC). For more information about national certification and procedures for obtaining it, please click on the link below. If you have questions about the ways in which the CWU counselor training program may assist you in preparing for national certification, please contact the Counseling Programs Director or the CCPAC Co-Director in charge of counseling practicum training.
Although the CWU counseling programs curricula are focused on insuring that graduate students receive the course work and training necessary to pursue credentialing in Washington State, it is important to note that the program curricula have been developed in consideration of national standards for counselor preparation as well. For a summary of certification requirements by state, members of the American Counseling Association may access a database via the ACA's web site. Otherwise, students are encouraged to contact the state board of education or departments of health or licensing in the states in which they are considering pursuing counselor certification. State professional counseling organizations may also be able to provide information for counselors interested in relocating to their states. Regardless of the state(s) in which a student intends to seek certification or licensing, the CWU counseling program faculty are willing to assist in preparing documentation of their course work and training for presentation to credentialing bodies.
Find out what happened "Today in the History of Psychology"Graduate Orientation On Monday, Sept 19
Just a reminder that our incoming graduate students (ABA, EXP, MHC, SP) are invited to a graduate orClasses Start Wednesday, Sept 21.
Hello to all our new and returning undergraduate and graduate students. Classes start on Wedne