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Tearing up the town
Relevant offers
Christchurch Earthquake 2011
The man who revealed embarrassing EQC leaks says he's not a fighter by nature, but, as he tells Martin van Beynen, he's sick of how Christchurch's quake victims have been treated.
Talk. This man can talk. Perhaps it's because he's Australian.
Or maybe it his Sri Lankan, Polish and Irish heritage.
Bryan Staples is New Zealand's man of the week and, although initially reluctant to enter the fray in a public way, he says he is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.
Staples, 54, who has spent most of his life in Brisbane where he worked as an insurance loss adjuster, is the man to whom a senior Earthquake Commission (EQC) manager sent, by accident, a potentially explosive email and spreadsheet containing a wealth of material on 83,000 Christchurch earthquake claimants.
Since the Monday leak, New Zealand has got to see and hear quite a bit from Staples, and many would be struck by the colour, fluency and brazenness of his statements.
Some might find him rabid, others would say he displays a refreshing passion and chutzpah not usually associated with the classic Kiwi personality.
Last week, for instance, as he talked in a Christchurch cafe, he spoke of his plans to put coffins outside his office in Fitzgerald Ave. Three black ones would symbolise, he says, the three Christchurch people he knows who committed suicide after soul-destroying encounters with insurance companies and EQC.
Another bunch of coffins would be adorned by graffiti applied by local "kids" to symbolise how the earthquakes and the aftermath will affect future generations.
"It's not really about us any more," he says, downing his cappuccino.
As he puts it, EQC could not have sent the email to a worse person. He has been a caustic critic of EQC since he left the organisation in February last year, just not in public.
The email gave him yet more ammunition - and a public platform - to boost his depiction of EQC as incompetent, untrustworthy and self-serving.
EQC is justifiably sensitive about the information, for reasons quite apart from the fact the breach was a massive leak of private information. Had it gone to a friendlier party, the public may never have known about the leak.
The most sensitive part of the email was a spreadsheet with a column showing EQC's cost estimate of repairs to the claimant's house.
In the wrong hands the information would water down EQC's bargaining position with contractors, and if householders knew the figure they would be loath to settle for less.
Unfortunately this appears to have been the case, with Staples giving two examples of clients who were given cash settlements significantly less than the EQC estimate as shown on the leaked email.
The Press newspaper will be investigating these cases over the next week.
When Staples first received the email he thought the sender, EQC claims process Manager Susan David, was "jumping ship" because she was fed up with her employer.
He agreed to delete the email but by then four or five others had seen the material and he cannot be responsible for them, he says. "I'm surprised EQC never asked me who else had seen or had access to the email."
The subtext of course is clear. The content of the email is out there somewhere, although as far as Staples is concerned he has done all he promised in a statutory declaration he signed on Tuesday.
EQC has laid a complaint with the police, although the nature of the complaint is unknown.
It is probably an allegation Staples has appropriated confidential material and made a false declaration, which is an offence under the Crimes Act.
STAPLES CAME to Christchurch two days after the September earthquake in 2010 and hit the ground running. He was one of about 30 Australian loss adjusters who had been trained by EQC in anticipation of a large-scale New Zealand disaster.
He was told that disaster was likely to be an earthquake in Wellington. Once he started in Christchurch, it wasn't long before he was wondering if EQC managers were actually more interested in a "cushy racket than doing the right thing by the people of Christchurch".
"I wasn't well liked because I kept asking questions. I vividly remember one EQC manager saying to me, 'we're going to make this gig last. Just get a pencil and paper and do as you're told'."
So why didn't he just take the $75 an hour and perks and keep his mouth shut? Why, in fact, did he not, on leaving EQC, keep his head down and make money by working with EQC. Staples says he is not a fighter by nature.
"I've never been in a physical fight. I've won all my fights by 100 yards. But I can't shut up if I think people are getting a bum deal. I worked for EQC for six months but became sick of the nepotism, cronyism and psychopathic behaviour of the people in charge. I sort of had an epiphany and thought I could help the people of Christchurch get their entitlement from EQC and the insurance companies."
He and his associates now employ about 45 people, he says, and he makes no bones about the fact he wants his business to make him money. However it's a struggle. He claims EQC owes his company, Earthquake Services, about $700,000, although EQC says the work Staples undertook was unauthorised and now needs to be checked. "Thank God for the ASB and BNZ," he says.
BRYAN WAS brought up in a non-religious, Liberal-voting household with his mother a nurse and his father a fruit and vegetable wholesaler. His Dad kept a photo of Margaret Thatcher, herself the daughter of a grocer, on the wall.
"They were always helping people. We didn't get Christmas presents. On Christmas morning we all went down the Salvation Army or some such outfit and helped with giving out food."
He laments the fact EQC/EQR hubs are now surrounded in barbed wire to repel outraged residents.
"I want to know what happened to the Anzac spirit we saw after the earthquakes. I was just amazed when I got here how people helped each other. And look at that beautiful spirit we saw with the student volunteers. We want to set up outside each hub and invite people to tell us their stories, and we will give them an Anzac biscuit and a cup of tea and listen to them."
Calling himself the Robin Hood of Christchurch, Staples says he has watched EQC destroy its brand by taking on responsibilities it never needed to.
"EQC's role should never have been to compete with insurance companies doing assessments. EQC should have captured the high moral ground early and taken a stance defending the rights of Cantabrians against the multi- national insurance agents. All EQC had to do was set up a cheque writing service and deal only with insurance companies."
The commission should also have established a crack team of loss adjusters, engineers and quantity surveyors to investigate any claims and hold insurers to account, he says.
He has said all this before, he says, in letters and emails to EQC, but it has fallen on deaf ears.
After the email leak, Staples is a man EQC can no longer ignore.
- Sunday Star Times
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Which memorial design do you like most?Related story: Christchurch earthquake memorial designs unveiled


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People who look up often see more than they bargained for. Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia. Featured in: 50+ Group + Kairos + Featured Men Photographers
kid grandfather vision looking up black and white rundle mall adelaide dinosaurs grump visionary grandpa brat boy dreamworld ben loveday fantasy street photography
Nice one
Thanks. The little boy was jumping all over the place, so he was a bit hard to capture.
Excellent candid !!!! Bravo Ben !
Thanks Dominique!
fabulous observation and brilliant processing
Thanks moyo
Great candid, again gorgeous b/w!
Thanks Berns- I got the evil stare from Grandpa.
Great foreground clarity and nice background glow. My kind of street photograph. Love this! :-)
Thanks Miguel!
There is obviously a pterodactyl flying past. . . . . Dad looks as though he needs to find his own inner child again : ) : ) Cecily
An end of a long day of dragging around the dino- chaser I think. Thanks fixie.
Walk Like a Man…hehe…LOVE this!!
thanks mareakingurl
sensational shot, Ben
Thanks Geof
February 29, 2012
Thanks Teresa!
So do people who look down! (But I do that – both – on purpose anyway ;)) Fantastic shot, Ben, congrats on your feature!
Many thanks Marjolein
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subset: commoncrawl


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Tuesday, October 19, 2010 |
Is it on your bookshelf? Standing by on your bedside table? Canada Reads continues its search for the essential Canadian novel of the last 10 years, and we want to hear from you.
What's your must-read book of the decade? Think about it. We know it's a hard question. So does best-selling novelist Jane Urquhart. The southwestern Ontario author is busy promoting her latest book,Sanctuary Line, but she took time out to ponder the possibilities. The trouble was, she couldn't limit herself to just one novel.
Urquhart voted for two books by literary bigwig Margaret Atwood. Check out what she had to say about why she chose them.
We'll be offering up more author recommendations this week, but we also want you to weigh in. Tell us your pick for the essential novel of the last 10 years, and why you chose it. You can use our online form, or drop by on Twitter or Facebook. Have a say in which books will be in the running for the next Canada Reads crown. There's a book lover's bonus, too: you could win a set of 40 great novels in our contest — the deadline is midnight on Monday, October 25.
Debbie Pacheco is an associate producer with Canada Reads.


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Drunken Monk
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Posted in thread: It's IPA Day! on 08-01-2013 at 10:22 PM
Posted in thread: Carboy/ Keg Cleaner Giveaway on 05-26-2011 at 03:37 PM
Posted in thread: Large Giveaway - Fermenter, Mash Paddles, Thermapen on 11-18-2010 at 05:34 PM
Posted in thread: BLC in keg on 10-08-2010 at 08:28 PM
Dr Landman keeps talking about prolonged exposure to the keg. I'm thinking of mixing a batch
then immediately running it through the lines so it will be in the keg for maybe 2-3 minutes.
I'm guessing ...
Posted in thread: My first crack at formulating an IPA on 06-12-2010 at 06:06 PM
I think I'm going to go with this:10# 2-Row1# Munich.5# Crystal 40.5# Wheat1oz Cascade 5.4AA @
601oz Willamette 4.8AA @601oz Cascade 5.4AA @101oz Willamette 4.8AA @101oz Cascade 5.4AA @01oz
Posted in thread: Barley Crusher Manual on 06-12-2010 at 05:24 PM
That would be awesome! Hell if you could just tell me how to adjust it that would work too.
There's a lot of talk on here about what gap everyone is running but nothing on how to actually
adjust the m...
Posted in thread: Barley Crusher Manual on 06-12-2010 at 05:14 PM
I lost my manual too. I want to open up the gap on mine because I've had a couple of stuck
sparges at factory setting. How do I actually turn the knobs to adjust the gap? Do I just latch
pliers onto t...
Posted in thread: My first crack at formulating an IPA on 06-11-2010 at 04:54 AM
The centennial is leftover from my last batch. I have plenty of Cascade and Willamette.
Posted in thread: My first crack at formulating an IPA on 06-11-2010 at 12:56 AM
So I'm pretty set on the grain bill. I'm not 100% on the hop additions. Does anyone have any
suggestions. I'm going to brew this weekend.Thanks for looking. :mug:Pali's Pale AleSelected
Style and BJCP...
Posted in thread: dunkelweis tastes like dog crap on 04-30-2010 at 01:10 AM
Any chance you added any dog crap to the boil?


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The winners of this year's North Idaho College athletics awards were announced during the annual NIC Athletics Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Banquet held in May.
The award recipients were nominated and selected by the NIC coaching staff.
The Women's Academic Athlete of the Year is women's soccer player Callie Martin, a sophomore from Bozeman, Mont. Martin started every game of her athletic career as a Cardinal, scoring 12 goals with eight assists. She has a 3.95 GPA and will be attending Montana State University to pursue a degree in Accounting.
The Men's Academic Athlete of the Year is wrestler Jarrett Morrill, a sophomore from Logan, Utah. Morrill, is an NJCAA Academic All American with a perfect 4.0 GPA as a Business major. In addition Morrill was also a two-time All-American on the mat, finishing 3rd in the nation this season and helping NIC win the NJCAA Wrestling National championship.
The Women's Athlete of the Year is women's basketball player Yang Yang, a sophomore from Yong An, China. Yang was selected NJCAA second team All-American and to the NJCAA All-Tournament team after leading the Cardinals to an eight-place national finish. She led the Scenic West Athletic Conference in kills and blocks and was ranked fourth in the nation in kills per set. She will attend Rocky Mountain College to continue her volleyball career.
The Men's Athlete of the Year is wrestler Ryan Zumwalt, a sophomore from Spokane. Zumwalt was last year's winner of the NIC Scholar-Athlete Award and is a two-time NJCAA All-American. He returned from a season long leg injury to win the Region 18 championship for his weight class, and was the 165-pound NJCAA national runner-up this season. Zumwalt will be competing at St. Cloud State in Minnesota next season on a wrestling scholarship.
North Idaho Title was honored as the NIC Booster Member of the Year.
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(208) 769-7819 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Please direct all public information requests to:
Mindy Patterson
Community Relations Executive Assistant
(208) 769-3316
Public Information Request Form [PDF]


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They're (Paper) Ba-ack: November 13, 2012
Tuesday is New Book Day. We celebrate each week by highlighting titles we're excited to see arrive in paperback.
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THE Australian Open field might have - at least by global standards - about as much depth as David Warner's poetry.
The organisers might have failed to wave the seven figure cheque required to get Tiger Woods' to even think about leaving his girlfriend on the ski slopes and firing up the private jet.
However, through good management and considerable good fortune, the 98th edition of the national title which begins at Royal Sydney today is one of the most keenly anticipated in years. A classic case of never mind the width, feel the quality.
At any time Adam Scott, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy would be marquee signings. World-class players with contrasting games and box office appeal. Particularly now Scott spends his shopping time trying to accessorise green.
But it is the motivation of the Australian Open's Big Three, rather than their mere appearance, that is exciting.
This is a timeslot when, you sometimes suspect, travel-weary players who would rather be on the beach turn up out of patriotic duty or contractual obligation. Scott, Day and McIlroy all have compelling reasons to play as if their charmed lives depend on it.
Scott's quest is Australian golf's Triple Crown - the Australian PGA, Masters and Open, a feat achieved for the only time by Robert Allenby in 2005. Which, given Scott has risked RSI signing autographs and struck more poses than Heidi Klum in the past three weeks, would be an epic achievement.
During last week's World Cup, Scott demonstrated the fine line even the best players walk by hacking out a rare quintuple bogey nine. Which showed the concentration required to win once. Let alone three times in four weeks.
Day is trying to win his first Australian Open and, you suspect, consummate his relationship with the local galleries. Day's decision to spend more time in Miami, Florida than Miami Beach in Queensland in his formative years has been vindicated by his rapid progress.
But in the way Day embraced victory in the team and individual events at the World Cup, he seemed like a man pleasantly surprised by the adoration. If the cheque at Royal Melbourne had more zeroes than this week's, Day now knows there is nothing quite like winning before a home crowd.
As Day is discovering the impression he has created in Australia, Australians are finding out more about him. Notably that, for all his raw talent, the 26 year-old is a scrapper.
Lush Royal Sydney won't present the same challenge as Royal Melbourne's granite greens. Still, if Scott's treacle swing can make 18 handicappers swoon, Day showed he is man who has more way than one of getting the ball in the hole.
McIlroy hopes to poop on the local party. Although the Northern Irishman presents such a pleasant public face it is difficult to think of him as a spoiler. How could you not like a visitor who, when asked who was supporting in the Ashes, says: "Anyone but England, isn't it?''
McIlroy's motivation is to salvage a sole victory from a year that could not have been worse if he had worn John Daly's outfits, not merely used Tiger Woods' brand of clubs. One made even more miserable, McIlroy admitted, by having to continually find reasons to explain his poor form.
Reasons beyond, that is, his multi-million switch to the Nike clubs which, in McIlroy's hands, had seemed about as useful as spatulas. Although, having worked hard with his now full-time coach Michael Bannon, McIlroy's game has recently shown signs of improvement.
For McIlroy the Big Mo in Movember is not some absurdly inappropriate facial hair but momentum. The chance to move into a new season with his game and his confidence restored. Something victory over the red hot Scott and the equally in-form Day would ensure.
Which is not to say that Scott, Day and McIlroy is a $5 trifecta. Simply that the bragging rights this week, for the members of that trio or anyone who beats them, are pleasantly large.
Originally published asAustralian Open's big three


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Sabres crapped out hard this weekend, once with me in attendance. Then the Bandits crapped out hard tonight, with me in attendance. What the fuck is going on with Buffalo teams right now? Why are my Bandits 1-5?! Why can't the Sabres do anything right?!
Screw you guys, I'm going home.
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SOUTH FORK, Colo. -- After a few minutes of terrified hesitation,
a lynx, a cat not seen in Colorado in over 25 years, was
reintroduced here on Wednesday.
The 18-pound, 3-year-old female was the first of two lynx
released on private property in the Weminuche Wilderness area of
the San Juan Mountains, and the first of about 50 lynx to be
reintroduced this year.
"They're back," hollered Gene Byrne, a wildlife biologist with
the Colorado Division of Wildlife, as a second tuft-eared cat
darted across the sunlit snow.
"Never left," another wildlife official, Bill Andree, said
Whether these elusive cats were ever really gone from Colorado
has been a subject of much speculation in recent years. The Earth
Liberation Front, for example, a radical animal-rights group, was
so certain of the Lynx's presence in Colorado that last October it
claimed responsibility for a major fire at a ski resort the group
believed was threatening a habitat for the animals.
The last known sighting of a lynx in Colorado was near Vail in
1973. But there is no doubt that the lynx once roamed this state
"This was a relatively common species in Colorado before the
20th century," said Todd Malmsbury, a spokesman for the Colorado
Division of Wildlife. "We can't say if their decline was caused by
human settlement and all its impacts -- mining, pollution,
agriculture, recreation -- or something else." The Lynx's
disappearance may also have been the result of a decline in their
primary prey, the snowshoe hare, or of trapping.
The spread of development in the Vail area prevented officials
from releasing the mountain cats there. Instead, they settled on
this site next to San Juan-Rio Grande National Forest, about 200
miles from the popular ski resort area.
"There are too many people, too many dogs, too many everything
up there," said Malmsbury. "It doesn't mean they can't repopulate
there though."
"This is their entryway into 6,500 square miles of
wilderness," said Cal Joyner, a supervisor for the U.S. Forest
The lynx released Wednesday, which were brought 1,700 miles from
British Columbia last week, are part of a $2 million, 5-year
program by the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
The reintroduction sparked a lawsuit by local cattlemen and
back-country tour groups anticipating that the animal would bring
about restrictions on land use. Their primary concern is not the
lynx, itself, which is not a natural predator of livestock, but the
restrictions that may result if the cats are later declared to be a
"threatened" or "endangered" species.
A decision on whether to include the lynx, which is thriving in
Canada and Alaska, on the federal Endangered Species List is
expected by summer. A handful of states -- Montana, Idaho, Maine and
Washington -- are believed to have lynx populations. It is currently
on the Colorado Endangered Species List.
"We just assumed they were here before, but once they're
legally listed, we don't know what falls after that," said Freeman
Lester, a 63-year old rancher and president of the Colorado
Cattlemen's Association. "Recreational people might be affected,
and some grazing."
But others note that there are already restrictions since it was
assumed the lynx still existed here.
"Every action we take -- whether it's grazing allotment or
recreational use -- we plan as if they were present," said Joyner.
"To have the animals suddenly here shouldn't change our management


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Events Calendar
You Complete Me: Mediating Relationships in Contemporary Art
Through November 11, 2012
You Complete Me: Mediating Relationships in Contemporary Art
Mediate is defined as an intervention to bring about resolution. While we often think about mediation involving a dispute or argument, this exhibition looks at the idea more broadly. The artists and pieces represented intervene by directly and indirectly engaging with other people in the creation of the work. It is only with the involvement of others, either in the making of or the display of the work, that the work can be fully completed. The artists, or the artwork, then become mediators, asking the participant/viewer to negotiate their perspective by becoming part of the work. Featuring work by Jill Frank, InCUBATE, Jason Lazarus, Nikki S. Lee, David Parker, Adrian Piper, New Materialists (Tadd Cowen, Matt Joynt, Mikel Patrick, John Preus) and Jon Rafman. A full-color fully illustrated catalogue will be available with essays by Chicago-based research group InCUBATE and DeVos Art Museum curator Melissa Matuscak.
NMU Campus Map
Event ContactMelissa Matuscak
Phone: 227-2235
Website: Click to Visit
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- Vintage Ski Day 12:00 pm
- Friday, January 27, 2017
- Chinese New Year at the Wildcat Den 11:00 am


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Press women meet in Gothenburg
LEARNING ABOUT GOTHENBURG: The Nebraska Press Women had its fall convention in town last weekend. On Saturday, members gathered at the Gothenburg Public Library to learn about community journalism, economic development, how to write their own obituary and control of phragmites. They later toured the Monsanto Water Utilization Learning Center. Pictured is Community Development Office director Anne Anderson as she discusses "Communications for Economic Development, Volunteerism and Community Pride."
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Vaccine Licensing
- Sep 27, 2002
- Topics:
Any company trying to put a new vaccine on the market must follow a specific process to obtain a license from the USDA before the product can be used in the horse population. A vaccine receives either a conditional or full license after a series of purity, safety, efficacy, and potency tests. But what does all of this licensing jargon mean? The Horse went to Larry Ludemann, DVM, a Senior Staff Veterinarian at USDA's Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB), where animal vaccines are reviewed and approved for use in the United States for help explaining the licensing subtleties to you.
New Viruses, New Vaccines
Vaccines are periodically developed because of new disease threats that arise in the United States, or because of new strains of diseases that are already in this country. The West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine is a good example of a vaccine developed in the face of a new disease threat.
The WNV vaccine, manufactured by Fort Dodge Animal Health, is a conditionally licensed product, meaning that in order to receive approval for distribution and use, the company had to show purity, quality, and a reasonable expectation of efficacy. (Fort Dodge did this and the vaccine was released with a conditional license on Aug. 1, 2001.) A vaccine with a conditional license is approved for use on a state-by-state basis, and the WNV vaccine is only available through a veterinarian.
Ludemann explained that for a reasonable expectation of efficacy for a WNV vaccine the company showed that horses would serologically respond to the vaccine. "There is some evidence in the literature that at a certain level, a serological titer is protective against WNV," he said, "so based on that, if they could show that their product induces an immune response, we should have reasonable expectation that the vaccine is effective.
"A conditional license is issued on a one-year basis, and every year (the company has) to get it renewed," explained Ludemann. "The company is generally required, as in this case, to show progress toward full licensing." In the case of the WNV vaccine, that means making progress toward proving efficacy in a challenge study, and developing a potency test. "All vaccines have to be pure, safe, efficacious, and potent. For a potency test, every lot has to have the same level of antigen content as what was shown in the efficacy serial to be effective," he said.
Fort Dodge completed efficacy trials on the WNV vaccine in May of this year, and the abstract of the results was presented Sept. 18 (see http://www.TheHorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=3822 for a Q&A on the abstract). With completion of the study, the company showed significant progress toward attaining a full license, so the vaccine's conditional license was renewed in July of 2002.
A challenge study of a vaccine must be a controlled study completed in a university setting or with the manufacturer. In the case of the WNV vaccine, researchers were dealing with a dangerous live virus (with which they challenged the horses), so it had to be completed in a Biosafety Level 3 containment facility.
When a vaccine is challenged in one of these studies, the USDA-CVB recommends the researchers replicate the most natural route of transmission. Horses generally contract the WNV through the bite of an infected mosquito. Researchers chose to challenge the horses by introducing the same amount of viremia to each with a needle, rather than employing mosquitoes. As long as they can demonstrate that the challenge was effective (by detecting viremia levels in the control horses that do not receive the vaccine), the route of challenge is acceptable.
"In general, we require 20 vaccinates and 10 control animals that are then challenged," he explained. "You must show a significant difference between the vaccinates and the controls in prevention of disease. In the WNV vaccine's case, prevention of viremia (was shown), with a significant difference between the vaccinates and the controls."
The firm is allowed to pick whatever level (of antigen) they want to use to protect the animal--that's what they call the minimum immunizing dose," Ludemann explained. "Then every serial produced after that has to meet that minimal level."
Finally, the company has to choose a time frame for which they want to assure that the vaccine is protective.
"We generally recommend one year (protection on the labels of other vaccines), but with these new antigens such as West Nile virus, they have to do a duration of immunity studies to support their (label) recommendations," said Ludemann. In Fort Dodge's case, scientists tested the duration of immunity to show that the vaccine product was still effective when a horse was challenged one year following vaccination.
The approval process to get a vaccine from unlicensed to fully licensed is an intricate set of requirements that takes, on average, about two to three years to complete.
According to Ludemann, the WNV vaccine received its conditional license quickly because there was such an obvious need for the vaccine with the rampant spread of WNV in horses, and because of its reasonable expectation of efficacy. Currently, Fort Dodge only has to tie up some loose ends with the potency tests before it receives a full license.
Once a vaccine receives a full license, restrictions on the distribution of the vaccine are lifted, and it will not have to be approved and distributed on a state-by-state basis. Ludemann said that under the conditional license, the WNV vaccine is restricted to use by veterinarians, but with a full licensure will probably come the ability for anyone to purchase and administer the vaccine.
About the Author
Stephanie L. Church, Editor-in-Chief
Stephanie L. Church, Editor-in-Chief, received a B.A. in Journalism and Equestrian Studies from Averett College in Danville, Virginia. A Pony Club and 4-H graduate, her background is in eventing, and she is schooling her recently retired Thoroughbred racehorse, Happy, toward a career in that discipline. She also enjoys traveling, photography, cycling, and cooking in her free time.
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Management Strategies to Enhance Vaccine Efficacy
Researcher: Current Equine Flu Vaccines Effective Against Foreign Strains
Vaccinating Pregnant Mares for Equine Viral Arteritis
Spring Vaccinations: Points to Consider Before You Buy
Possible Cause of Unusual Neurologic Signs in Australian Horses Identified


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Visit EVENTS Section
Visit FIND ME ONLINE Section
(publisher Necon E-Books)
A collection of horror and science-fiction short stories and poetry;
received a HWA Bram Stoker Awards(R).
(publisher Space
& Time Books)
A collection of 100 poems; received a HWA Bram Stoker Awards(R).
(publisher Space
& Time Books)
A poetry collection, introduction by Charlee Jacob;
received a HWA Bram Stoker Awards(R).
(publisher Space
& Time Books)
A poetry and fiction collection, introduction by Barry N. Malzberg.
SYCORAX'S DAUGHTERS Coming FEB 2017
(publisher Cedar Grove Publishing)
A horror anthology of fiction & poetry by African-American women,
edited by Kinitra Brooks PhD,
Susana Morris PhD & myself.
Cover artwork by Jim Callahan.
See the list of authors on book site.
FOUR ELEMENTS (kindle)
FOUR ELEMENTS (paperback)
(publisher Bad Moon Books)
A poetry and fiction collection
with four sections written by four HWA Bram Stoker Award(R) winners,
Marge Simon (Earth),
Rain Graves (Water),
Charlee Jacob (Fire)
and myself (Air),
cover art by Daniele Serra
and color interior illustrations by
Marge Simon;
received a HWA Bram Stoker Awards(R).
(publisher Necon E-Books)
A collaborative book of poetry written with Stephen M. Wilson, inspired by music.
Cover art by Kiri Moth and interior art by
Jill Bauman,
a duet of introductions by
Tom Piccirilli and
Mike Arnzen;
a HWA Bram Stoker Award(R) finalist.
I have a set of poems in this wonderful anthology of short stories and poetry from Simon Schuster.
THE BEAUTY OF DEATH: The Gargantuan Book of Horror Tales with Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell and others.
(publisher Independent Legions Publishing)
Contains my story, Finding Water to Catch Fire.
I wrote the introduction to this exciting and enticing collection.
Dark Discoveries magazine #34 (publisher JournalStone)
Contains my poem, Shadow Rainbow & Other Fragile Things.
SIXTY BLACK WOMEN IN HORROR WRITING - Free download
Sumiko Saulson compiled a list of Black Women in Horror which includes interviews with six of the women
(I am one of the 6).
You can buy the book for $5.50 as
Read Sumiko Saulson blog on her Black Women in Horror book.
I am one of the authors of 7 Magpies Movie,
an anthology film project conceived by L.C. Cruell. The film is being created with work by
7 black female horror authors & 7 black female filmmakers based on the old nursery rhyme.
The writers include myself,
Tananarive Due,
Sumiko Saulson,
Eden Royce,
Crystal Connor,
Valjeanne Jeffers,
and Paula Ashe.
The directors are
Lucy Cruell,
Tiffany D. Jackson,
Nicole Renee,
Robin Shanea, Lary Love Dolley,
Meosha Bean,
and Rae Dawn Chong.
According to one old superstition, the number of magpies one sees determines if one will have bad luck or not.
One for sorrow,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told.
Check out the 7 Magpies Facebook page.
AstroBlackness: Planet Deep South
Feb 24 to Feb 26, 2016: I will be attending Planet Deep South conference in Jackson, MS.
Tucson Festival of Books
March 12 to 13, 2016: I will be at Tucson Festival of Books in Tucson, AZ.
World Horror Convention 2016
April 28 to May 1, 2016: I am a Special Guest at WHC2016 in Provo Utah,
along with other folks, including poets Michael R. Collins and Michael Arnzen.
StokerCon 2016
May 12 to 15, 2016: I am teaching a workshop at StokerCon in Las Vegas, NV,
as part of
Horror University.
Space and Time Magazine 50th Anniversary Celebration
July 12, 2016 at the NY Brooklyn Commons: NYRSF reading series event will top off their 25th season by having
Space and Time
founding editor and editor emeritus Gordon Linzner and editor Hildy Silverman in conversation with author Barbara Krasnoff. Katherine Hasell, Daniel Braum, Jack Ketchum, and I will be reading.
July 21 to 24, 2016: I will be honored as a Necon Legend along with Stephen R. Bissette at
the Northeastern Writers Conference in Providence, RI.
Tai Chi Alchemy
Sept 16 to 18, 2016: I am going to TCA in Sedona AZ. I have gone for many years and I always absorb tons of love and
inner calm. Highly recommend and you do not have to know tai chi.
TusCon 43
Nov 11 to 13, 2016: George R. R. Martin is Author Guest of Honor.
I will be a panalist at this fun SF Convention in Tucson, AZ.
A History of Blackness in Speculative Fiction by M. Asli Dukan, Invisible Universe (2016).
Discussing Writing, the Speculative, and Horror University: An Interview with Linda D. Addison By Jonathan Martínez (6/24/2016).
Blood Indigo: Black Women Horror Writers to Read Now by Eden Royce (2/23/2016).
Living Among Legends by Crystal Connor on Horror Addicts (2/22/2016).
What It Takes to Write Strange Stuff my guest post on JG Faherty Blog (2/21/2016).
Linda Addison On Winning A Bram Stoker Award interview on Horror Addicts (2016).
Genesis-The First Black Horror Writers, my blog post on Horror Addicts (2/10/2016).
8 Authors to Follow by Annie Neugebauer (2016).
Intro to Celebrating Black Horror History, by Sumiko Saulson on Horror Addicts (2/1/2016).
93 Horror authors you need to read right now list, from an Examiner Article by S.L.Schmitz (2014).
HWA Poetry Page honoring Women in Horror. Editor, Peter Salomon has poems
by Terrie Leigh Relf, Marge Simon and myself.
Listen to me read my poem PRECIOUS (from my first collection to win a HWA Bram Stoker, CONSUMED, REDUCED TO BEAUTIFUL, GREY ASHES and collage (by me)
on SFPA Halloween page (October 2016).
Eating the Fantastic interview by Scott Edelman (June 2016).
The Great Lakes Horror Company interview by Crystal Bourque, and roundtable discussion with Sephera Giron, Andrew Robertson, Bill Snider and Monica S. Kuebler (March 2016).
Genesis Science Fiction Radio internet radio interview by William Hayashi (2/19/2016)
Interview, book reviews and other stuff with Brian and Dave on The Horror Show with Brian Keene
Interview (includes my reading a poem) at 2010 Beyond Blacula reading in NYC by blackscifitv
My life is lessons and blessings. How else to explain the path
of life that has taken me from the tough streets of Philly to a
quirky house in New York? Nestled in the midst of strange and wondrous
items I joyfully write even stranger poems and stories.
Each event in my life holds different mixes of lessons and blessings,
rarely 50/50. Often the situations that hurt are more lesson than
blessing, but both are in the mix. Seeing each painful experience
in this way heals the sting, makes me pay attention to the lesson
and grow, to bring more light into my life.
My life
unfolding in unexpected dimensions:
take a skinny, awkward introvert,
mix in books of fables, science-fiction, fantasy, horror
Season with surprising blessings, people:
One taught me to laugh,
another to question everything
This one to know that there are no secrets
That one to see everything is hidden,
I learned to cry with my whole body,
That I am beautiful,
I am eternal,
Even broken,
I can heal,
rise from the ashes of a predestined life
find my authentic path
And know:
Unfolding life is imperfect.
Love the only truth.
Lessons and blessings
the only sanity…
Artwork by Newton Ewell.
© 2008 Linda Addison.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this website may be downloaded, copied
or reproduced without the written permission of Linda Addison.
Website by:


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Ctrip.com (NASDAQ:CTRP) is a leading online travel service that allows users to book hotel reservations, airline tickets and tour packages for businesses and individuals in Asia. The tourism industry in China is booming as the growing middle class has more and more disposable income, and Ctrip is at the forefront to profit from this demographic change.
Ahead of the release of their second quarter earnings on the 30th July, I will analyze the company's current circumstances, and discuss the outlook for Ctrip and the Chinese online travel market as a whole.
Business Model
Ctrip offers a wide range of services to customers, from the core business of flights and hotels, to local attraction tickets, an online travel forum, and restaurant reservations. Because of this wide range, it is also able to offer comprehensive vacation packages.
Ctrip controls almost half of the online travel agency market in China, with its biggest individual rival being eLong, at just 9.7%. However, the biggest rival to Ctrip in the whole travel agency industry is the offline travel agency stores and call centers, which traditionally dominated the market. However, the online agencies are taking control of the overall market because offline firms can't compete on price and product range.
As opposed to most Chinese firms, Ctrip offers multilingual services, particularly English, which makes it much more accessible to international users, and much easier to understand the company's operations for international investors. In fact, as well as English, Ctrip offers Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese services.
Ctrip operates a travel community website, which is the top website in China's travel review industry. Users submit reviews, travel journals and questions & answers, whilst members are offered exclusive deals.
In the first quarter of the year, Ctrip introduced the long haul bus ticketing reservation service. CEO James Liang commented that this was important because its means that Ctrip can cover the first and last miles of customers' trips, particularly the places where planes don't fly to, and trains are either unavailable or busy. This service will be particularly profitable during the Spring Festival holiday, which is the world's largest human migration. For roughly 40 days before, during the festival and afterwards, the number of passenger journeys is around 2 billion, with 2006 seeing over 2 billion journeys. This also gives Ctrip the opportunity to cross sell. For example, if a plane is delayed, then Ctrip will be able to suggest a train to take the same route.
Ctrip has also further expanded its hotel coverage, and as of the end of the first quarter of 2014, it offered reservation services for around half a million domestic and international hotels in over 190 countries and territories worldwide.
Growth Through Acquisition
Ctrip has an acquisition strategy that focuses on complementary services to add to its core business. CEO James Liang has discussed that the company prefers to invest internally in order to improve its core business.
In April 2014, Ctrip made an investment into online tour package company Tuniu, prior to its IPO. The investment of $15m in Tuniu is relatively small, and because the market is very large, Tuniu and Ctrip are taking a very small percentage of the overall market share. It's mostly taking business away from the traditional in-store travel agencies. Therefore, there isn't much price competition or removal of the competition because they're not directly competing with each other.
Ctrip has become one of the leading players in China's local attraction ticket market. Yet despite the fact that booking volume has grown tenfold year on year, the market is heavily fragmented and the company has a market share of less than 5%. Ctrip recently made a strategic investment of $200m in Tongcheng, which operates the travel booking firm LY.com, making it the second largest shareholder of the firm behind Tongcheng's management. Cooperation with Tongcheng will involve using Tongcheng's wide selection of local attraction tickets to enhance Ctrip users' experience. Likewise, Tongcheng will be able to use Ctrip's wide selection of hotels. Therefore, both firms will gain access to customers that they wouldn't have been able to get before. Tongcheng and Ctrip have larger market share in markets than Ctrip and Tuniu do. Therefore, they are able to collaborate pricing strategies to remove the price competition. Going forward, the two teams will focus on network coverage, customer experience and mobile penetration.
Ctrip holds an 8.4% in NASDAQ listed Home Inns, a minority stake in BTC-Jianguo Hotels and Resorts, as well as a 1.3% stake in NASDAQ listed China Lodging, which is the owner of Hanting Hotels, a budget hotel chain found across China.
As with other consumption industries in China, travel agencies are seeing a mass migration to mobile. This will continue to grow, because despite China having 658m smartphone owners, it only accounts for 47% of the population.
Ctrip has been developing its mobile strategy over the past few years, as its active user base accelerates, particularly on mobile. In fact, mobile is already the primary platform for the majority of Ctrip's products and services, and is the core of the company's overall business. In terms of volume, over 70% of Ctrip's total transactions were booked through online and mobile channels in Q1, compared to about 55%-60% a year ago. Total mobile transaction value for Q1 was more than 400% of the same period last year, with the peak daily transaction volume reaching about 150m RMB. Mobile accounts for about half of the total bookings of many of the new businesses such as car rentals and local attraction tickets, and over 50% of the travel reviews were submitted through the mobile channel
Mobile internet, together with PC based internet, account for the majority of Ctrip's business. For the accommodation reservation business, PC based internet contributed about 35% of the total transactions, but mobile surpassed PC by contributing 40% during the previous quarter, with the peak daily level being over 60%. For the transaction ticketing business, PC contributed 40% of total transactions, whilst mobile contributed about 30%. Likewise, Ctrip's corporate travel services maintained a strong growth of 39% in Q1, with migration to online and mobile booking accelerating again. 40% of corporate travel bookings are made through the internet or mobile, compared to 29% a year ago.
By the end of 2014's first quarter, the cumulative number of downloads for the Ctrip app was 120m. To expand its mobile user base, the company plans to only offer certain services on mobile, for example taxis and car rentals, as the user is likely to be on-the-go, and so the service is more relevant.
China's Online Travel Industry
Due to fast economic growth and the emergence of a large middle class, China has become the largest travel market in the Asia-Pacific region since 2012. Naturally, this has attracted many new entrants, with the number of Asian travel start-ups quadrupling from 2011 to 2013, with more than a quarter of these being based in China. This is justified given the growth in China's market. In 2013, GMV reached 220.46bn RMB, driven by air ticket sales, hotel bookings and tour packages. Likewise, revenue from online travel booking reached 11.8bn RMB. However, growth in air ticket sales will slow in the coming years as the market reaches maturity. Yet the industry has seen a rapid rise in online leisure travel, hotel bookings and package tours. In addition, the online car rental and taxi-hailing services will add to the new revenue sources that continue to generate strong growth for the industry.
2014 has seen the major online firms competing with each other on new fronts, with Ctrip providing 50% to 100% cash rebates for more than 5,000 entrance tickets purchased on PC and mobile, LY offering cash discounts and free exclusive products, and Lvmama had a '0 Yuan' entrance ticket promotion during the Chinese Spring Festival holiday. These promotions all boosted the entrance ticket market.
Firms are also diversifying their product range away from just the traditional travel ticketing markets such as planes and trains. The bus market was huge in 2013. Chinese citizens made over 30 billion bus trips compared with 2 billion train journeys and over 300 million air trips. Whilst most travelers have access to a train station or an airport, there will always be parts of their journey, which can be catered for by buses. This allows the online travel agencies to provide for every part of a traveler's journey.
From A Valuation Perspective
Ctrip saw stronger year on year net revenues in the first quarter of the year, growing 36%, which were primarily driven by strong volume growth. Revenues of $254.6m beat analysts' expectations of $245.3m, whilst EPS of $0.12 was in line with expectations. The company saw strong growth across all major business lines, in terms of revenue and volume.
The accommodation reservation business achieved 45.7% year on year growth in revenues and 67% year on year growth in room nights, which is a record high for the past 10 years, with international hotel rooms growing approximately 80% year on year.
Total volume growth for the newly expanded transportation ticket business reached 71% year on year, with air ticketing contributing the majority of the volume. International air tickets grew over 70% in Q1, accounting for around 15% of total volume. Ctrip is now the number one player in the cruise reservation business in terms of transaction and customer volume. Product development expenses grew due to an increase in personnel related expenses.
Previewing Second Quarter Results
Ctrip will announce its second quarter earnings on 30th July after the market closes. The hotel ASP is stable, but as they expand into lower tier cities, the ASP will fall, because prices are cheaper. However, the aim is to increase market share. Ctrip is guiding Q2 volume up 50-60% year on year, whilst guiding revenue up 30-35%. This is due to the company's focus on lower tier cities with lower ASPs. They also expect similar volume growth for the transportation business. This equates to revenue estimates of between $260.7m and $270.7m. Analyst expectations are for revenues of $269.26m and EPS of $0.11, which equates to a net margin of 6.45%, compared to 5.59% in 2014Q1 and 16.9% in 2013Q2.
Thailand, which is one of the top travel destinations, saw political unrest during Q1, so the market was soft, and also the Malaysian Airlines MH370 disappearance caused a lot of people to cancel their trips. The MH17 incident will also likely cause customers to continue canceling trips on Malaysian Airlines during Q3. To combat the market softness, the company adopts a very aggressive pricing strategy in order to gain market share. Likewise, it's worth considering that customers will have begun to make travel plans for the mid-Autumn festival national holiday, and this will be evident in the firm's bottom line. This is China's most popular time to go traveling because it's a week long national holiday. Ctrip has recently expanded their international flight ticket platform to support complex flight ticket search and allow users to book between different countries. This should boost ticketing revenues and volume from the near term onwards.
Looking Ahead
There are several key themes for the online travel agent industry in 2014 onwards. Firstly, the Tourism Law that was published in 2013 has caused the offline travel agent industry to suffer, and hence drive customers online. Online travel agencies are able to offer transparent pricing and diverse package products, and offline agencies simply can't compete. A trend that has emerged is that online agencies are starting to offer tour packages, which is a market that was previously monopolized by the offline agencies. The importance of this has been seen with the likes of Tuniu being invested in by Ctrip. The expansion into this sector of the industry means that online agencies can now cover every aspect of a traveler's itinerary. Ctrip discussed this in its Q1 conference call, with particular focus on bus tickets. So for example, from leaving their house at the start of the trip, the traveler boards a bus from their town to the nearest station, boards a train to the nearest airport, boards a plane to their destination, check in to a hotel, enter the local attractions, and tour the destination. All of these services can be booked through Ctrip, which means that they can offer complete vacation packages. In fact, Ctrip has invested in two car rental companies YongChe and eHi, as well as investing in their own local tour guide network. In addition, starting from Q1, they equipped each of Ctrip's outbound travel groups with free Wi-Fi hotspots so that customers can keep connected
As I've discussed in previous analysis, Chinese consumers are migrating to mobile at a rapid rate, and the travel industry is no exception. Mobile has already become the core business for Ctrip, and investors will be looking for the company to maintain the user migration growth, and to provide more services via mobile. For example, Ctrip offers restaurant reservation services online, but this could be expanded so much more on mobile. For example, the major restaurant reservation and review app in China is Dianping, which Tencent owns 20% of. Yet because of the success of Ctrip's travel review site, this could be expanded to cover restaurants.
Ctrip has a very large cash reserve, so they want to make the most of it. Their acquisition strategy is focused on companies that offer complementary services and products with Ctrip. As CEO James Liang discussed, firstly, any strengthening to the core business is done through internal investments. If there are good candidates in the market that are willing to work with Ctrip, then they will take a look. Secondly, they look at market leaders. In the past, they have made certain investments in economic chain hotels to strengthen market penetration. Thirdly, geographically, they have previously invested in Hong Kong and Greater China to increase their presence there. In the future, the strategy is always the same. The company has about $1.7bn of cash available to pursue acquisition strategies, and investors should expect to see Ctrip expand both internally and externally.
All in all, Ctrip's key objective for 2014 is to gain market share. Since Q1, they have made significant investments in several key areas, especially in IT and mobile internet, brand building, product promotion, open platform and several new businesses. This will continue in Q2 and beyond. The aim of this is to build higher barriers to entry and to gain market share. The company's intention is to build very extensive online, offline, and mobile platform distribution channels. Offline contributes roughly 30% of total transaction revenues. Mobile accounts for between 30% and 40%.
Yet investors should be aware that seasonality plays an important role in the travel industry. Q3 has better seasonality, so we should expect to see some improvement in the margin, whilst in Q4, there is usually a floor, and so the margin will drift down from Q3. In China, the mid-Autumn festival is a week-long public holiday in which millions of Chinese go traveling. As Ctrip can offer comprehensive vacation packages, the third quarter will be the most important for the company, and will give investors an insight into the effectiveness of recent acquisitions and the development of the company's strategy.
In terms of brand recognition, it's very good in the big cities, and with middle to high-net wealth people. The strategy is now to expand that to lower tier cities. If you look at the Baidu Index, which is a search volume and trend search site, you can see an improving brand record for Ctrip. Roughly one third of customers, on mobile and PC, come to the site directly by typing the URL directly, compared to Baidu contributing around 20-25% of online traffic. This is a sign of very strong brand recognition. Overall, search engines actually only contribute roughly 10% to Ctrip's total traffic. Ctrip also sees a very high customer retention ratio of 80%
As the market leader in an already large industry that continues to grow at a high rate, Ctrip is in a strong position to continue its development. The coming quarters will see revenue from the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival on the income statement, and Ctrip should be expected to profit handsomely from travel bookings for these periods. The migration to mobile will also be a prominent theme in upcoming earnings reports, so it will be important to see how Ctrip is reacting to this.
Finally, investors should be aware that as Ctrip continues to move into smaller Chinese cities with cheaper hotels, the average revenue per hotel will drop. However, this is all part of Ctrip's strategy to increase market share across the whole of China and improve brand recognition.
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it. The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


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Word today following Green Bay's morning practice was that OLB Frank Zombo suffered a broken scapula prior to the Packer's second preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals on Friday. Despite the injury, Zombo played and recorded three tackles and one quarterback hit in the game.
Prior to the game, Zombo and Eric Walden had been splitting time at ROLB opposite Clay Matthews (in the preseason game, Zombo actually started for Matthews, who sat with a bum hamstring). Although Walden appeared to have moved ahead in their competition, taking snaps with the first string defense toward the end of last week, the competition was still very much alive. This was even more pronounced after the Arizona game, where Walden played poorly against the run. Several times, he was caught inside and allowed Cardinals running backs to break outside for large gains.
Although Zombo isn't a household name, he was being counted on to either start at ROLB and/or back up Clay Matthews this year. Now, he will reportedly miss significant time with this injury, essentially handing the opening day job to Walden. Although Walden may have won the job outright during the remainder of camp, it was still likely that Zombo would see significant time in sub packages and on special teams. The injury creates some issues for the Packers at linebacker, but could also effect seemingly unrelated positions on the team.
Jones has been a disappointment in camp and had appeared to have already been counted out of the competition to start with Zombo and Walden. Elmore has shown next to nothing while trying to make the transition from college defensive end to outside linebacker. So'oto is an undrafted rookie who would certainly be facing a steep learning curve without the benefit of offseason practices and only a few short weeks to learn the complicated Dom Capers defense.
However, Zombo's injury may require the Packers to keep one of these players that they had intended to cut, thus reducing the number of spots available at other positions. The guess is that the Packers keep So'oto and try to survive the first couple weeks while Zombo recovers.
This is where those tight ends and receivers come in. Keeping an extra linebacker for depth takes up a valuable position on the roster from one of these other groups where the Packers have so much depth. Behind Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson, James Jones and Randall Cobb, the Packers have Brett Swain, Chastin West, Diondre Borel, Tori Gurley, Antonio Robinson and Kerry Taylor. Many of these players would be snatched up by a team without the wide receiver depth of the Packers if they are cut and exposed to waivers.
Similarly, Green Bay is loaded at tight end, with starter Jermichael Finley, Andrew Quarless, Tom Crabtree, fifth round pick D.J. Williams, seventh round pick Ryan Taylor, and TE/LB hybrid Spencer Havner. All have shown flashes in camp, and all but Havner seemed destined to make the roster prior to Zombo's injury.
Now, however, the Packers may have to make some tough decisions at these other positions. Although the players they cut might not have paid immediate dividends on the already-loaded Packers, they could have contributed on special teams or in the future. On a team that prides itself on developing young players and finding hidden gems, Zombo's injury may limit that ability and could have further-reaching impact than it would appear at first blush.


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http://www.oakdaleretrievers.com/Remembrance.html "You'll Cry"
Training is not science, it is art. A blend of this, a measure of that, a deep breath at the appropriate moment and always a loving touch.
Nice chatting with you regards,
M&K's HR UH Tucker of Texoma JH
M&K's SHR Prime Black Angus
M&K's Miss Jessie Girl JH
Sir Jacob of Lakeview-Jake
Freeway JYD
Mike Whitworth
Hihope Hiland Heathen of Perth CD, RE, CGC, TDI. (RIP)
teracroft Clan Piper of Perth CGC TDI (RIP)
Boyne's Fast Break of Perth RN CGC ( munchin in training)
And no, when it comes to accusations of aliases, I'm not going to lighten up. The admin takes that very seriously, or he wouldn't have wasted his time posting to that effect. Chris doesn't intervene much, so when he does, it's wise to pay attention, and honor his simple requests.
If you and Marvin's comments were a joke in very poor taste, set the record straight, and we can move on.
God Bless PFC Jamie Harkness. The US Army's newest PFC, but still our neighbor's little girl!
M&K's HR UH Tucker of Texoma JH
M&K's SHR Prime Black Angus
M&K's Miss Jessie Girl JH
Sir Jacob of Lakeview-Jake
Freeway JYD
Mike Whitworth
Only posts since the "New Era" of RTF should really count.
Super Bowl regards...............
(BTW---looks like I missed some serious action while I was out....ummmm.....training my dog for Upland tests)
Last edited by road kill; 01-30-2011 at 06:04 PM.
Stan b & Elvis
Anti-intellectualism and fascism go together like bacon and eggs.


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Getting the Best in Tech Support
Getting the most out of your support plan means constantly reviewing and prioritizing your help needs.In the context of shrinking budgets, limited resources and constantly shifting business needs, companies have to actively review current support services contracts with an eye toward gaining maximum value. Only when an IT organization identifies where it needs better support, the gaps in internal knowledge and the opportunities to save money can it go out and get the best possible deal. The first step in prioritizing support services needs is to examine the entire infrastructure to determine all points of failure and system interdependencies. Companies then need to assess which of those systemsincluding hardware, operating systems and applicationscurrently and for the foreseeable future provide business-critical functions.
With hardware prices constantly dropping, IT managers have new opportunities to add redundancy to systems that at one time could have been viewed as single points of failure. These include network and Internet connections.
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Rectangles | One quadrilateral | Quadrilaterals containing other inscriptions | Red, pink, orange | Blue
Trademark: 'Creativo DESIGN'
On 3. 1. 2000 the community trademark application no. 001445824 was filed for Creativo DESIGN (Figurative mark) by Kleine Wolke Textilgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG before the OAMI.The goods and services in respect of which registration of the trademark was sought are in classes 24, 25 and 27. The current status of the trademark is registered.
Status is 'Registered'
The Community Trade Mark has been registered for the European Union.
|10. 4. 2001
|Expiry date
|3. 1. 2020
|Nice classes
|24, 25, 27
You can follow this trademark. You will receive an email, whenever we detect changes of the trademark filing.
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Newegg.com - A great place to buy computers, computer parts, electronics, software, accessories, and DVDs online. With great prices, fast shipping, and top-rated customer service - once you know, you Newegg.
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This review is from: Startech Thunderbolt Laptop/Notebook Docking Station - HDMI / Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.0, GbE, w/ Thunderbolt Cable Model TBDOCKHDPBC
Pros: Fast, works well with single display
Cons: Does not support dual displays unless one of the displays is a TRUE Thunderbolt Display (Not display port) ->Like the MAC $1000 thunderbolt monitor.
Thunderbolt connector at both Docking station and Laptop gets extremely hot, told this is normal.


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- Description
Thank you for exploring this reading resource. You can use these simple, nonfiction reading passages with non-readers and fluent readers. You can use them during whole group or guided reading groups. Here are some ideas...
*Provide fluent readers with their own copies of the passage. Students can highlight passages and then record the information on the corresponding tree charts*.
*Read aloud the passage to nonreaders. Create a class chart based on the facts. Or read the passage and have students trace the facts on the cut-and-paste fact sheets*.
*Ask beginning readers to highlight key words or sight words.
* Identify verbs and nouns and make lists. (For example, for tree frogs, jump, croak, and eat could go on the verbs list. The nouns list could include eyes, suction cups, and legs.)
*Project the passages or have them printed onto poster-sized paper for use with shared reading.
*Put all of the passages in a center to create an independent research area.
Have a "tremendous" time reading about rainforest animals!
* These passages were created to complement the charts and writing frames in the unit
Thinking about Rainforest Animals: Smart Charts and Writing Frames.
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Hi, friends! I share creative, time-saving ideas for smart teachers (like you!) and your smart kids. I have over 15 years experience in preschool through fifth grade. I served as Senior Editor for early childhood products and the preschool edition of The Mailbox magazine. I also present to Kindergarten teachers at state and national conferences. Click here to vist the Smart Kids blog and follow Smart Kids on Facebook!


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Leota Catherine Twist Front Long Sleeve Dress Garnet
Style: 1570102420
Out of Stock
A dramatic twist at the empire waist of this matte jersey knit long sleeve dress draws the eye. Sleek lines drape from the high point of the waist, creating coverage where it's welcomed.
- Long sleeves.
- Pleating from twist drapes fabric across the tummy and on the back.
- Wrinkle free, easy care fabric.
- Sizing runs small. We recommend ordering a size up.
- Approximately 39" from shoulder.
- 94% Polyester, 6% Spandex. Hand wash. Imported.
- By Leota.
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The Grundy Livingston Kankakee Workforce Board is part of a national network of organizations involved in workforce preparation and employment. Board activities and programs are designed to meet both the needs of the communities' businesses and the needs of job seekers and those who want to further their careers. The board is comprised of both public and private sector members who work together to fund and support programs targeted at youth, adults, and dislocated workers in a three-county area who are in need of training, career exploration assistance, career counseling, or lay-off assistance. The board manages and oversees funds granted to Grundy, Livingston, and Kankakee Counties through the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act.
The Grundy Livingston Kankakee Workforce Board in partnership with Kankakee County are soliciting proposals from qualified organizations to provide youth workforce development services under the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA) in Local Workforce Area #11 which includes Grundy, Livingston, and Kankakee Counties. Read more...
Grundy Livingston Kankakee Workforce Board. All rights reserved.
200 E. Court Street, Suite 506
Kankakee , IL 60901
phone: 815.935.0074
Developed by
TEC Services Consulting, Inc.