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How do you solve a problem like Ocado?
For the last few months we've been experimenting with online grocery ordering with Ocado. We say experimenting as the whole saga has been far from a convenient, pain-free and polished service. Rather it's been like using a buggy early beta release of a piece of software.
For those who do not use or know about Ocado, let me explain the origins. Ocado is an online grocery firm that resells the usual name brand items, along with its own small range of own-brand goods and a vast selection of own-brand goods from upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose. One of the original investors in Ocado was John Lewis, parent company of Waitrose (hence the link-up). The John Lewis stake in Ocado is now controlled by the John Lewis Pension Fund.
In our fairly short tenure as a customer we've had over a dozen deliveries. We've also had an unprecedented reoccurring problem with goods turning up damaged. We've even had an incident where fresh fruit arrived so mouldy, some items had already turned to mulch, plus a couple of incidents of bakery goods turning up completely stale and a few items that never turned up at all (but remained on the bill). Around £80 of food and non-food items have been compromised across our dozen-or-so deliveries to date. It's a large amount of money to have to refund to one customer, and can't be helping Ocado's bottom line. It is also problematic as it undermines the main point of online grocery ordering – we buy online and have it delivered to our home so we don't have to go to the store (for various reasons we rarely have time anymore). Yet with the high degree of damaged goods, we still end up regularly hitting a traditional supermarket to replace damaged, missing or otherwise compromised items.
We would like to add at this point that this blog post is in no way intended as an effort to solicit any form of additional compensation, free gift or inducement from Ocado. In each incident of damaged or otherwise unusable goods, Ocado's customer service department has always responded quickly and courteously, and has always offered a sensible resolution to the problem at the time, be that a refund or replacement. However, the repeated problems suggest that our past feedback hasn't filtered through from front-line customer services to the people who need to know (and who can make changes to solve potentially systemic quality and product damage issues).
Instead, this blog post is intended as an attempt to offer detailed, constructive business feedback to Ocado on what is and isn't working in our individual experience so that improvements can be made and the good stuff continued. We are also doing this in public so that others can learn from our experiences and to stimulate sensible discussion about online grocery shopping in general. However, we would like to avoid a repeat of a recent incident on Ocado's Facebook page, where we tried to offer up some honest and constructive feedback on a small issue and our post was immediately hijacked by a small group of 'fans' who seemed unable to cope with the idea that someone's Ocado experience was less than perfect and proceeded to carry out the internet equivalent of a public stoning. While I am delighted to find that someone somewhere is receiving the Ocado experience I would dearly love myself, to blindly accuse others of lying about their own, lesser experience of the company is childish at best.
This post is a realistic account based on our personal experience alone. Your experience of Ocado may well differ, and may well be far better than our experience. In which case we envy you, and would dearly love to have your delivery driver or drivers cover our area. It does not mean our account is not an accurate one. Sadly, it is. But it can be made better! That is what we want to achieve here. Ocado, we hope you see this. Our first delivery from Ocado, and the driver who brought it was fantastic. It went rapidly downhill from there. We want the first-delivery Ocado experience back and we know Ocado can and wants to reproduce it. We are also happy to work with Ocado to try and find out what's going wrong so it can be rectified.
We really like the Ocado philosophy and business model (and the food it sells), and really want the company to succeed. Ocado is a great example of British business innovation and it fulfils a clear need in the marketplace. When the process works, it works incredibly well (not to mention that it fits my lifestyle perfectly, when it works). What seems to be lacking, based on our personal experience, is consistency and reliability.
Supermarket home delivery is a booming business in the UK right now. The current crop of services started in the late 90s when frozen food retailer Iceland launched a pure delivery-only service (you still had to go to the shop and pick your own goods and go through the till, but a man in a van would then deliver the items to your home – great for people without a car); a bit like Ikea, but for food.
Others soon followed and the likes of Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's now all offer online ordering and home delivery of groceries for a nominal fee. Then there's Ocado.
Founded in 2002 by a group of ex-Goldman Sachs bankers, Ocado set out to do things better, which meant doing some things differently. Being the first new supermarket to enter the crowded UK grocery market in a generation was never going to be an easy task, so the Ocado proposition had to be both compelling and eye-catching to attract customer interest, and it is.
Ocado is the only 100% internet-based grocery retailer in the UK. As such it differs significantly from the established bricks & mortar retailers in terms of how it goes from initial order to front door delivery.
The Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury online ordering and delivery services all work on the basis of your internet order being passed to your local store, where a staff member wanders the aisles selecting the items you requested from the shelves and choosing alternatives for items that are out of stock. These items are then packed in bags and crates before being handed off to a van driver for delivery to the customer's home or other nominated address. On delivery, the customer can then opt to reject inappropriate or unwanted substitution items, damaged or poor quality goods.
There are obvious benefits to this approach. It retains the 'local' aspect of the interaction between retailer and customer. It also maintains a level of continuity and familiarity between delivery drivers and customers, building up trust and confidence in the service if deliveries are done well. For the retailer, it keeps costs down as they can leverage existing stock, supermarkets and in some cases staff, minimising cost exposure and allowing the service to operate on fairly low minimum spends and delivery charges while still making a profit or breaking even.
Ocado takes a very different and more centralised approach. Orders are placed online and are fulfilled from a single warehouse regardless of where the delivery address is (Note: Ocado does not yet have nationwide coverage, with coverage focussed largely on the South, South East, North West and Midlands, but still expanding).
Ocado has built a purpose-built, semi-automated picking and packing facility in Hatfield that can only be described as a work of complete genius. Plastic crates are filled with carrier bags (three bags fit into one crate), the crates are bar-coded and assigned to each order. The crates then zip around the warehouse on conveyor belts and slides in a manner not too dissimilar to how your luggage is routed around the bowels of an airport. Along the way the crates stop off at the various aisles where your chosen goods are located. Members of staff in each aisle pick the items you require off the shelf, pop them into the bags in the crates, log they've done it on the computer system and send the crate back on its journey.
The computer system provides suggestions to the pickers on alternative items if something is out of stock, helping to reduce the number of inappropriate or illogical substitution choices. Furthermore, by centralising the stock and the picking in one place, and not having to compete with in-person shoppers for the stock on the shelves, Ocado has a massive advantage over the established supermarkets – it can more accurately manage and report stock availability at the time the order is placed, taking into account when the order is scheduled for delivery.
Centralisation, paired with very effective customer relationship management (CRM), order processing and stock control systems means that the company knows exactly how much of an item it has in stock, its sell-by date, when the next delivery is due in, how many orders there are for that item and when they are due to be delivered. As well as having hard data on availability vs demand, the company can make pretty accurate predictions on future demand based on historical data and sales trends, allowing it to order quantities more accurately to service expected future demand, while minimising waste from items going out-of-date and unsold on the shelves. The approach also lends itself well to just-in-time ordering, meaning that Ocado doesn't always have to stock and store goods in massive bulk, goods can stay at the supplier until they are actually needed on-site at Ocado's Hatfield warehouse. There are also significant operational, purchasing and staffing economies of scale associated with the single central warehouse model.
Once all your items have been picked and packed, the crates reunite at the end of the process, where they are loaded onto a van and shipped off for delivery by one of Ocado's army of delivery drivers, using a massive fleet of custom-built Mercedes-Benz refrigerated delivery vans, painted in an array of bright colours. Most even have names – my last order was delivered in a van called Laura Lemon, the order prior to that was delivered in a van called Kai Cabbage.
Last year (2009) Ocado enjoyed significant growth in customers, sales and turnover – including a bumper Christmas – and continued to expand its fleet of vans and drivers. It has also continued to expand its network of satellite distribution centres. In order to expand Ocado's coverage area, but retain the single warehouse concept, Ocado has opened a number of satellite distribution points to enable it to reach into additional regions. Rather than load all its delivery vans at Hatfield before setting out around the country, orders destined for an area covered by one of these satellite distribution centres are picked and packed as normal in Hatfield, before being transferred en-masse via a large lorry to the satellite centre. There, the crates containing the shopping are transferred to the smaller delivery vans, which in turn deliver the goods to the customer's home.
As a customer that appears to be served from one of these satellite depots, rather than direct from Hatfield, we think this is where the Ocado experience might be starting to break down.
Maybe it is the additional journey and transfer process that our shopping goes through (being moved by large lorry from Hatfield to White City, then being reloaded onto a small van) that is causing so much stuff to be damaged? Maybe it's a mechanical problem within the Hatfield fulfilment centre? Or maybe it's down to aggressive handling by the drivers or the original pickers and packers?
As a customer, ultimately we do not know where the problem is, and don't really care, as the mechanics of Ocado's process should be transparent to the customer. What we do care about is getting the problems worked out of the system so that we can obtain a reliable flow of undamaged deliveries from Ocado for a long time to come.
Issues such as rotten fruit and stale baked goods seem easier to determine. That problem stems either from the supplier, or that these perishable goods are not being stored properly in Hatfield. It is also possible that Ocado's stock control processes are failing and these items are hanging around for too long. Storage problems seem more likely, but we are purely guessing as to exactly which of these is the actual cause.
Another area of concern is the delivery drivers. Again, it is hard to identify the root cause for what we are about to say (and would appreciate not going through another public stoning), but by-and-large the drivers that have delivered to our home, with the exception of our very first delivery, have been pretty awful. Maybe it is because the drivers are based at a satellite depot and thus don't feel like part of the Ocado corporate family and don't subscribe to the philosophy? Perhaps the satellite depot structure has created malaise leading to less oversight and monitoring, higher staff turnover, less training and less overall enforcement of standards and expectations of the delivery drivers?
We have had drivers that have man-handled goods, drivers who could not speak English, drivers that turned up at the wrong time without warning, drivers who refused to wait for a few seconds while we checked for broken fragile goods (really, we realise you have other deliveries to make, but there's no need to rush a delivery like it's a Formula 1 pit stop – no wonder things keep getting damaged), and drivers who continually refuse to take the old Ocado carrier bags away for recycling (a significant differentiator of the Ocado experience is its commitment to recycling the many carrier bags it uses to pack the shopping in).
Sure, the bags are bio-degradable so dumping them in the rubbish isn't so bad, but when part of the Ocado delivery service (which can cost up to £6.49 for a single delivery) is to take away the Ocado bags from the previous delivery, it is frustrating when it doesn't happen. Especially when you have made the effort to hand the bags to the driver and he still manages to put them down and leave without them. We are not the most eco-conscious people in the world, but try to do our bit and even we know it's wasteful to dump something like a carrier bag into landfill when the grocery delivery service is supposed to reprocess and remanufacture them. Again, we don't know why so many of the drivers we've had are reluctant to take the Ocado carrier bags away, but in our experience, many are.
To be clear, especially to the Facebook lunatics, we are referring only to the drivers that have delivered to our home. We cannot comment on drivers that have never delivered to us and do not wish to tar all Ocado drivers with the same brush. We would hope that the vast majority of Ocado drivers are like our first driver – polite, careful, considerate, helpful and most important, passionate about their job. The guy really cared about doing a good job and ensuring the customer was happy, taking extra time to talk new customers through every little detail. It is good customer service you seldom see anymore and it's good to know it's alive and well somewhere within Ocado. It is the sort of service that makes us want to be loyal customers, and perhaps it is the pursuit of that service again that has led us to be so patient and to persevere for so long with Ocado.
Alas, that perseverance may be coming to an end. Our delivery experiences have been a challenge, while the juvenile reaction to our Facebook feedback has sadly left us with a very negative view of Ocado – particularly given its failure to police its own Facebook page and its encouragement of the mob of immature individuals hurling abuse and unsubstantiated (and quite frankly criminal) accusations.
Also, we are currently trialling Ocado's Delivery Pass deal. This is another excellent Ocado service innovation, whereby for a monthly subscription fee (or annual payment), you incur no individual delivery charges, regardless of when you opt for delivery. It also means you can order as little as £40 of goods (orders between £40 and £65 usually carry an additional delivery surcharge when paying for individual deliveries), which again suits our needs well as a weekly Ocado shop of around £45-£50 pretty much covers our grocery needs.
We began a one month free trial of Delivery Pass back at the beginning of March, and have had three deliveries in that time. So far, one delivery had nearly £20 of damaged and missing items (including a badly damaged frying pan), and the two most recent deliveries had no product problems at all (though on both occasions the driver left behind our carrier bags having been handed them). What is likely to be our final order of the trial is coming this Saturday, and it is this delivery that will determine whether we commit to the 12-month minimum Delivery Pass contract or walk away, perhaps completely, from Ocado.
The thing is we really want to continue as an Ocado customer and as a Delivery Pass subscriber. However, there is an obvious reluctance to commit to a 12-month minimum term if we are going to have to spend time every delivery logging claims for damaged goods, and paying £9.99 a month for the privilege of chasing down refunds and replacing damaged items. With all the problems we've had so far, and the fact that in four months we've only had two consecutive deliveries without damaged goods, our patience is wearing thin and we are starting to resign ourselves to the fact that we'll have to trawl around a traditional supermarket – sadly not a Waitrose – again instead of having quality produce delivered to our door by Ocado.
So we say this in closing – Ocado, we are loyal and committed customers that want to support your business and spend money with you, so please don't ignore our feedback and instead show us the same level of commitment we are showing you. Please sort it out; please retain us as a customer!
Full disclosure: Prior to becoming a journalist I worked in the grocery retail industry. I also advised WebVan, a dot com-era grocery delivery service in the US on media issues.


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RWU's small campus and tight knit community won Caitlin over, and she found her new four-year home. Already involved in student/faculty research with Associate Professor Kerri Warren and a member of Tri Beta, the national biology honor society, and the student senate, Caitlin joined FIMRC (The Foundation for Medical Relief of Children) in her senior year. One thing led to another, and Caitlin found herself in a FIMRC clinic in El Salvador for a week during spring break. She and the four other members of the RWU FIMRC chapter traveled to a remote village to help with Dengue Fever prevention efforts. They tested water in the village, met and bonded with the locals and put in 35 hours of hard work. Of course, they also played with the children in the village, hiked up a volcano and swam in a waterfall, so it wasn't ALL hard work, but a life-changing experience nevertheless.
"One of the things I loved most about RWU is that there were no grad students in the sciences, so our professors were supported by undergraduate researchers. I was involved in the entire research process, from writing the grant to the final presentation and everything in between—it's real world experience."

subset: commoncrawl


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In the spring, a friend and I will be starting two hives in south Austin, Tx. We like the idea of foundation-less beekeeping standardized on medium 10 frame supers, but are concerned by the possibility of things going wrong soon after the installation of the first packages. If we use the "Popsicle stick in bar groove" method for guiding the bees to build comb in the plane of the frame, but have no existing drawn comb to use as a guide on both sides of an undrawn frame, what are the odds that all the comb is crazy after week 1-2 and I am going to have to cut it out and pursue other measures?
Is it worth trying to buy drawn comb from others to put in every other frame in the first two supers? Are there other methods that have worked for any of you for getting a new colony to draw straight, foundation-less comb other than or in addition to the Popsicle stick method?
Thank you for the help,


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View Comment
Posted at 10:39 PM on September 22, 2014
Posted at 6:36 PM on May 19, 2013
Posted at 7:46 PM on April 26, 2013
Posted at 5:11 PM on April 25, 2013
At the end of the day half of Taylor Swifts song / Albums are on recent break ups in the past. Its like she has to break up with someone to make herself successful! Its like she can't just write a song on anything other than a break up in her life! She needs 'heart break' to be successful!
Posted at 10:28 AM on April 14, 2013
Everyone in the top 10 are pathetic. Taylor, if you read this (i know you don't) just keep on winnin n success and dont b Everyone in the top 10 are pathetic. Taylor, if you read this (i know you don't) just keep on winnin n success and dont bother any of them. Goodluck in your career!! Love taylor
Posted at 5:10 PM on April 14, 2013
Posted at 7:45 AM on April 15, 2013
No success? Are you serious? She has 4 platinum albums, currently on her 3rd world tour, has won 7 Grammys, 11 AMA's, 7 CMA's and many other awards, is worth over $80 million and has countless fans all over the world, and she's only 23, plus she's been successful since the age of 16. And you're saying she's not successful? Wow.
Posted at 7:47 PM on April 26, 2013


text: heres a noob perspective. i have started down this road, read just about everything i could find here and elsewhere. this is my 1st ak build and have read the warnings that this is an advanced project for a first timer. that being said, what i have learned from the many post is the gas-op is a tweakers special. it will require adjustments to get right. blowback on the other hand is straight forward,relatively speaking based on experience. as soon as my mags arrive i will start working the pieces. i am a true glutton for punishment and tend to start with the more complicated option. my thought is if i can pull this off then everything else is cake. the azhonky builds and writeups are the best i have seen. the 2xtm posts were good, but for some reason i cant find it anymore. read everything, when you think you have a good grasp of the build, read some more and ask lots of questions. my vote is blowback on the first on and gas-op next.


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I used to work with ThinkingSphinx until the day I needed to index documents with dynamic attributes. As Sphinx indexes data from the result of an SQL query, the goal didn't seem possible.
I decided then to take another look at Solr. Solr, differently from Sphinx, is an HTTP server and indexes data from posted XML documents. Each document can have a different structure, so it fits perfectly with the model of dynamic attributes.
Thiago Jackwin, aka RailsFreaks, created a plugin that integrates Rails with Solr called acts_as_solr. The plugin is very good, but Thiago disappeared from the map some time ago, he lost the domain, left GitHub and doesn't answer emails any more. As a result of this, different forks and forks of forks have been created and the Git tree became a mess.
Annoyed with the situation of the project, I decided to fork the fork I liked the most and created a new repository called acts_as_solr_reloaded, with new features. This way, I hope the project gets easier to be found and that it gives more trust. I'm also compromising myself to keep the repository up to date and to pull contributions.
As today, the new features acts_as_solr_reloaded comes with are:
- support for dynamic attributes
- geo-localization or geo-spatial search
- integration with acts-as-taggable-on
- highlighting
- relevance ranking
To support geo-localization in Solr, it needed to be updated to the version 1.4 .
To make easier the experience of working with dynamic attributes and geo-localization, a few generators that setup the database were added to the project. You can use them like this:
script/generate dynamic_attributes_migration script/generate local_migration
You can after define your model this way:
class Document < ActiveRecord::Base acts_as_solr :dynamic_attributes => true, :spatial => true, :taggable => true end
Note that with :taggable => true you dont need to define your model as acts_as_taggable_on :tags, it's done automatically.
To better demonstrate the new features in acts_as_solr_reloaded, I recorded a small video of five minutes showing the functionalities in action, hope you like it:
New features in ActsAsSolrReloaded from Diego Carrion on Vimeo.
Note that in the video I used acts_as_taggable_on :tags and :taggable => true, at the time of the recording this both declarations were necessary, not anymore.
If you appreciate this work, please consider to recommend me at Working With Rails.


text:
So Fit
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My Valentine
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Bubbles And Booty
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text: Looking for help understanding what happened to my truck.... One fine Sunday afternoon I got in my truck, started it and turned on the headlights. A moment later all the lights got very bright and went out, shortly after I realize the alternator no longer seems to work. (1) Without checking anything else I pull the alternator and have it bench tested at Advanced (even though it was less than 2 months old). It passes after running the bench test twice (the second time at my request). (2) Checking the wiring I found a bundle of red (only) wires which ran to the starter where burnt with exposed copper against the manifold. (3) After I replaced all the lights and sections of wire which where damaged everything works even (except the voltage warning light in the dash). Why would the lights have burnt out if the starter shorted? My understanding is: (incandescent) lights burn out suddenly during a voltage spike. But how could a short cause a voltage spike? Especially if the voltage regulator is functioning correctly? (the voltage regulator was bench tested as part of the alternator) Any help on this subject would be appreciated. Even a site referral could be helpful. Thanks. -Andrew PS I'm not certain I correctly replaced all the burn wires, because my voltage warning light comes on after I shut the engine off. (I just unhook the battery if I not driving)


text:
A cold snap gave me the opportunity to do another mite count (I had the insert in my SBB), and my count came out at 20/day. A little over a month ago I got 8/day. Most of them this time around were light brown in color, which was interesting.
I have a couple of questions:
- Is this count a concern going into winter?
- Do I have time to take action?
I'm brand new, so any advice is appreciated.


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Independent brewers are making fine beers. Don Kavanagh's interest is piqued.
As the midwinter Christmas season approaches, a new year starts too, with the evenings starting to get longer from next Friday, June 22.
I mention this only to make an utterly tenuous link between the time of the year and a few new beers I've tried recently. One of them, Invercargill Brewery's Saison, is one of the most interesting beers I've had in ages.
Saison beers originated in the French-speaking part of Belgium as a lower-alcohol option to slake the thirst of those gathering the harvest. Often made with a wheat component, many saisons also included ginger, orange and coriander.
Steve Nally's Invercargill version opts for a more vigorous level of alcohol (it comes in at 6.8 per cent), but without sacrificing any flavour to the hotter alcohol. In fact, this beer is all about flavour, with a really tangy orange character coming through on the palate and a huge belt of citrus and passionfruit on the nose. It's a really impressive beer and cements the brewery's place as one of the country's best and most innovative.
Another new beer from Invercargill is the Wasp Pilsner. This 4.8 per cent kamahi honey-flavoured pils is a wonderfully refreshing drop, with the sweetness of honey balancing the crispness of the lager. The name comes from the fact that wasps steal honey in the wild and that's what the brewery did to get the ingredients for this beer (although I can't help suspecting that no one realised that wasps don't make honey until after the labels had been printed.)
Another couple of new-ish ales I've come across recently will get me in trouble with the beer snobs, but frankly who cares?
Boundary Road Brewery in the Hunua ranges used to be Independent Brewing and still makes international brands such as Carlsberg under licence. In the past year it has also been concentrating on a range of craft beers and two of the latest additions are worth checking out.
Mumbo Jumbo IPA is a big, beefy IPA with a lovely floral nose and a good piney hop bite on the palate. Weighing in at 5.2 per cent, it's not going to knock you about too much either.
The Chocolate Moose (see what they did there?) is a 4.5 per cent chocolate stout with real coffee and dark chocolate aromas along with a warming burst of pure cocoa on the palate.
As I say, many purists will roll their eyes at the mention of Boundary Road, which they tend to view with suspicion because it is part of what used to be Independent Liquor, the company that almost single-handedly invented the RTD. But the Boundary Road range is getting more interesting with every beer and they are worth both the time and effort of tracking them down. Happy hunting.


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GP3 champion takes to track before heading to Europe for GP2 assault.
This year's Toyota Racing Series is shaping to be the best.
Just 100 points separate the top seven drivers.
There have been five different winners spread over the last three rounds, and despite defending champion New Zealander Nick Cassidy leading the series by six points, there has yet to be a Kiwi winner.
Things might just change this weekend at Hampton Downs as the field is being bolstered by the addition of a fourth Kiwi racer to the 18-car field to complement Cassidy, Damon Leitch and Michael Scott
Two-time former TRS champion, and GP3 champion, Mitch Evans is having a bit of a yahoo to get a few race kilometres under his belt before heading off to Europe for his assault on the GP2 championship.
It's been a while since Evans has been in a TRS car and a good four months since he nailed his GP3 title. The rest of the field had better not rest on their laurels, though, and disregard Evans as a threat just because they've had nine races in three weeks.
Last year, Evans raced only two rounds, winning twice, finishing second twice and was leading the New Zealand Grand Prix when he was sidelined with an electrical fault.
"I wasn't going to do anything [in New Zealand] but the opportunity came about and my New Zealand sponsors (Wet and Forget, Giltrap City Toyota, Skinny Mobile, and the Mad Butcher) were keen for me to race at home before I head back to Europe," said Evans.
"I was super keen to do it anyway and after getting clearance from my management [Mark Webber] and new team [Arden] here I am.
"It's good race experience. Obviously the cars are very different but the competition is pretty high and it's all about race mileage.
"It's good to get into that environment of tyres, race starts, racing other guys, race craft and stuff before I get to Malaysia [first round of GP2 as support to opening F1 race]."
The three races at Hampton Downs culminate tomorrow with the 20-lap feature race for the New Zealand Motor Cup.
This famous trophy has been won by some of the world's most famous racing drivers, some pre-dating the 1960s Tasman Series era.
Evans will race for Stephen Giles Motorsport, which is the same team he won back-to-back TRS titles with in 2010 and 2011 and the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild in 2011.
"Last year and even the year before I had good battles with Nick [Cassidy]. It's good to come back and continue the rivalry.
"Nick and I have had some good races against each other in TRS so I'm looking forward to lining up against him as well as all of the fast international drivers this weekend.
"The New Zealand Motor Cup holds a special place in New Zealand motor racing history. It's good to be kicking off my racing year in Auckland because this is home," said Evans.
He already has his name on the New Zealand Motor Cup, having won it in 2011 and finished a close second to Cassidy last year.
Evans and Cassidy won't have it all their own way, though. Brit Alex Lynn has won three of the last four races, and bar a mistake at Taupo in race two would have made a clean sweep of the weekend.
Austrian Lucas Auer has matured in the past year and has coupled his evident speed with race craft keeping his car on the black stuff this year. He has finished outside the top five only once in nine races and sits second on the championship table.
Rounding out the top three is Felix Serralles who, while still in the hunt with two wins, may just come to regret a less than productive weekend at Taupo.
A youngster to watch this weekend is Steijn Schothorst, from the Netherlands, who has steadily improved over the past three weeks and looks good for his first win.
TRS points
Points after round three
1 Nick Cassidy New Zealand 517
2 Lucas Auer Austria 511
3 Felix Serralles Puerto Rico 477
4 Alex Lynn UK 471
5 Stejin Schothorst Netherlands 451
6 Bruno Bonifacio Brazil 448.


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Stay connected with us to get the latest health and fitness news, innovative workouts, healthy recipes and wellness tips.
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To celebrate spring's fresh strawberries, our Test Kitchen jazzed up old-fashioned tapioca pudding. Grinding the tapioca in a blender makes the texture creamier, maple syrup adds seasonal sweetness and whipping cream gives these airy parfaits a luxurious finish.
Nutrition Profile:
Gluten Free Diet
Healthy Weight
Heart Healthy
High Calcium
Low Calorie
Low Cholesterol
Low Sat Fat
Low Sodium
Serves 6
Prep Time 25 min
Total Time 210 min.
Step 1
Grind tapioca in a blender or coffee grinder until it is a fine granular powder.
Step 2
Whisk milk (or soymilk), maple syrup, egg and the tapioca in a small heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a full boil. Remove from the heat, stir in vanilla and transfer to a medium bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface. Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours or overnight.
Step 3
Whip cream using an electric mixer or whisk in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the tapioca mixture using a rubber spatula.
Step 4
Spoon 1/4 cup strawberries into each of six 8-ounce parfait glasses or wineglasses. Top each with 1/3 cup tapioca cream. Repeat with another layer of strawberries and tapioca cream. Garnish with the remaining berries and a sprig of mint.
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Flatten your stomach and build strength in the muscles that provide stability and mobility for the spine, pelvis, ribs and hips.
Focus on pulling, rotating and building strength with workouts created alongside Olympic Gold Medalist Dominique Dawes.
This workout provides a challenging total-body workout that can be done from the comfort of home with no equipment other than bodyweight and space.


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It is interesting how different hives can be from one another.
I started two hives from packages last spring , one was very quick to build up and produced well over 100 lbs of honey , the other was sickly and produced almost no surplus at all , but seemed to perk up in the fall , going into winter with a good population.
Yesterday was very warm , the weak hive was flying cleansing flights in full force , nothing from the stronger hive , not a bee to be seen.
The hive that was flying has all the bees in the bottom deep , I opened the other , thinking they would all be dead , and they were all in the top deep , probably a few thousand of them.
The one that wasn't flying has water actually dripping water out of the entrance , and I have been cleaning out thousands of dead bees every few weeks , so i installed a top entrance for them , as they don't seem to want to go down and thru the bottom as it is too wet.
Any guesses as to what would cause so much moisture in one hive , they both have ample ventilation , and do you think putting in a top entrance is the right thing to do?
From what I can see , there is lots of stored honey in the uppers still.


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Steve Berg: What ending homelessness looks like
September 20, 2010
Thanks to all our wonderful fans and supporters who submitted photos for the Alliance photo contest. Our judges are reviewing all the excellent entries and while we wait for the results, we have a very special guest on the blog. Steve Berg, Vice President of Programs and Policy at the Alliance, speculates on what a country without homelessness could look like .
She's not going to be homeless, even though her boyfriend beat her and disappeared with her money. Even though her job disappeared next, she and her babies had to move in with her mom, and now her mom's boyfriend wants them out.
She's not going to be homeless because the domestic violence counselor sent over a woman who mediated, found some places that were hiring, contacted a new day care center, connected her with a different landlord, and paid the security deposit and her storage bill.
She's not going to be homeless.
She's going to unwrap the dishes. On one of the newspapers she's using there's a story about The Last Homeless Person in America. She laughs, thinking, "That could have been me." She'll have to read it later.
He's not going to be homeless even though he came back from overseas and couldn't talk to anybody. Even though his girlfriend, his boss, his friends and parents all made him so furious he couldn't be around them.
He's not going to be homeless because the last time the doorbell rang, he let in the Veterans Affairs officer – a man who had rung twice before. Before he was ready. He's not going to be homeless because the VA officer showed him how the Department of Veterans Affairs could help him – with job programs, benefits, landlord assistance, even a rent voucher if he can't get work right away.
He's not going to be homeless. He's going to explore his options with the VA. Before he left, the VA officer showed him a newspaper clip entitled, The Last Homeless Person in America. He told him that not so long ago, tens of thousands of veterans would return from abroad only to live on the streets. "But no more," he said. "'I will never leave a fallen comrade' means that if it means anything."
He's not going to be homeless, even though he's coming out of lockup and none of his family will take him back; even though he's got a record now. He's not going to be homeless even though he's made some serious mistakes, even though he's starting over with nothing.
He's not going to be homeless because they have a place for him to live. It's a group home – but it's that or adult prison and when he gets there it's all about getting work and getting out and into his own place.
The first day on the job they're laughing at closing time. Laughing at the rookie cleaning the bathrooms and he laughts with them. There's a newspaper on the floor, a story about The Last Homeless Person in America. He sweeps it up and knows that's never going to be him.
She's not going to be homeless, even though she stopped taking her meds, even though she started drinking more again, even though she's back on the precipitous edge. She's not going to be homeless because when the rent was late, her landlord called Mental Health and a whole crew of people turned out. She's not going to be homeless because they paid the rent and they listened. They listened to her talk about how scared she was – scared of being alone, of having no place to live, of falling back to where she used to be. They listened, promised to help her no matter what, and told her they didn't let people become homeless anymore. "Look, even this guy isn't homeless any more," they said, holding up a paper:
The Last Homeless Person in America
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that the last homeless person in the country has been successfully housed – bringing an end to homelessness in America. The formerly homeless person now lives in a modest apartment with access to supportive services and medical treatment. This achievement, according to the HUD Secretary, was attained by making permanent housing a central focus of HUD programs and by adopting rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention strategies on a nationwide scale.
This is a work of speculative fiction – for now. Ending homelessness in America will require us quickly and comprehensively to address the combination of vulnerability and crisis that leaves people homeless today. It will require us to elevate prevention and re-housing tools to the same national scale as our shelter systems. It will require that we invest the resources and passion necessary to confront and untangle – five thousand times a day – the personal, emotional, and physical afflictions of people who today experience homelessness.


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So, I hit 25 and I finally got a chance to fiddle with the Nemesis system, and its pretty sweet. Originally I thought you only had to design a character, but after trying it out, it turned out to be a lot more deeper.
You have to pick what kind of minions you want... About 10 or so options, everything from, undead to ninjas to robots and even a few varied types of demons or aliens.
Then you pick what sort of powerset the minions fight with. Followed by, what kind of crimimal is your Nemesis (Mastermind, Maniac and Savage)?
What powers they use... And finally you get to create their look.
The first quest I had for my Mastermind type was to stop a robbery at the museum... It was pretty interesting to watch the dialogue between the characters, and a blast to watch my Nemesis waltz in like she owned the place.


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Playboy.com's Exclusive Interview with Eddie Izzard
Comedian and Treasure Island star Eddie Izzard talks about parrots, politics and his unique comedy style.
Actor, comedian, activist, action transvestite; Eddie Izzard is a man with his fingers in a whole bakery's worth of pies. He's performed stand-up all over the world, not only in English but in French and German as well, and snagged starring roles in films and TV series, such as The Riches. After the recent release of Treasure Island on DVD, in which he plays iconic pirate Long John Silver, we caught up with Izzard in London, where he is performing a series of stand-up gigs and enjoying the Olympic fever.
Playboy.com: You're famous for an almost stream-of-consciousness style in your shows. Did you have any idea, when you were starting out, that this was going to become so big? Some of your bits have become sort of catchphrases, like "tea and cake or death" or "covered in bees!"
Izzard: Yeah, or "I'm going to kill you with a tray." I don't think I planned that, I don't think I was thinking in that way. I actually just wanted to be an actor. And then that wasn't working and I discovered Monty Python so I thought, "Okay, I'll dump everything, dramatically, and I'll be in a group like Monty Python and hope that that will go as big as it could go." But in the end, being in solo standup and having people repeat the lines, it isn't quite how I thought of it, but it's a wonderful thing to happen. They're quite silly but they all come from somewhere — "covered in bees" is a bit odd — but they all mean something, they're all kind of weird observations that I've done. So I'm very happy about it. My comedy is quite positive, I feel. Comedy is a good attack weapon and a lot of people use it, taking apart things; it can get very gossipy and very sort of catty in comedy. I think it's better for me when I'm going for bigger targets, like mass murderers and war and death and dinosaurs and god. With these subjects, it all gets quite intriguing.
Playboy.com: Recently the Treasure Island miniseries DVD came out, where you work with quite the star studded cast and portray the legendary Long John Silver.
Izzard: It was great to work with Donald Sutherland; I was a big fan of MASH, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland and…wonderful. He was very chatty; it was a great honor to be there and to do scenes with him. I would have liked to have done more, but we only had a few we could play together.
Elijah Wood was very relaxed. He came in and he just fitted in as part of the group and moved into our hotel, 'cause he wasn't in our hotel initially, and just got on as one of the guys. I've seen him since, with Dominic Monaghan, [they] both played hobbits in Lord of the Rings, they came along to a gig in L.A., so it's nice to have worked with him and nice to know him.
Long John Silver is such a classic role to play, and I had a wonderful experience doing it. When I was seven I wanted to act, and I think the roles that I was always trying to do were playing something like Long John Silver in Treasure Island. Before I did it I said, "Look, the adaptation has got to be gritty, it's got to be ballsy, it's got to be really pushing the edge, 'cause that's what pirates were, not sort of thigh-slapping and pantomime," and they went for that. I think we've done a very edgy version, more the Goodfellas version of Treasure Island.
Playboy.com: The first time you see Long John Silver, he starts a mutiny and then cuts off his own leg, so you really start out seeing him as this man who can do just about anything.
Izzard: Yeah, I don't think he started the mutiny, I feel that he was forced into… well, it was an abandon ship, our Captain Flint told us to get the hell off the ship cause he was keeping the gold, but yes, I pushed to show him cutting his leg off. I said that would show the determination in this character, and I like playing very determined characters: I may not look like this person or that person, or I may not be suitable for this role or that role, but I can play determined people. That is what I am, and I like to take that into my characters.
Playboy.com: What about working with a parrot?
Izzard: I was wary of the parrot. Of course, it's not one parrot; it was five parrots in the end. And the thing with parrots is, it can be annoying, the scene can end up all being trying to parrot-wrangle. They were pretty good as long as I — there was a certain thing: you have to act into the wind. This is kind of bizarre, but parrots, or any birds, would not sit on your shoulder if the wind is blowing backwards up their feathers. Their feathers would fly up and they feel like they need to take off. So they need to stay into the wind. We had to get the hang of that one. You can't move about much — you turn around and suddenly you're facing the wrong way, so then he turns around and you have a backwards-facing parrot, which doesn't quite look right.
Playboy.com: You've always been a very outspoken proponent of the EU and of being European. Lately, with all of the financial uncertainty in the EU at the moment, if you were the Prime Minister of Britain, what would your next move be?
Izzard: Well, Britain is not part of the Euro financial system; we didn't join the Euro at this stage, so there's no particular thing linked into the European financial system that needs doing at the moment, but it can be better. I believe that they should be using more Keynesian economics than the Milton Friedman, Chicago school of economics. They're using this sort of Thatcherite cutback, cutback, cutback stuff, which we know does not work. We know going back to the '20s, Roosevelt proved it, you have to invest in the country and in jobs to get things back on track, and the Tories have done it in the wrong way, so I disagree with doing that. With Europe, people say, "Oh, we have a crisis at the moment," but I say, "Well, World War II was a crisis. And we got through that. It was tough but we got through it. We'll get through this." We will get through it. If you look at the history of the dollar, they had a tough beginning.
If Greece came into the financial situation of the Euro with accounting that was incorrect and improper, then it's right that restructuring has to happen, and it's probably right that the Euro has to go through some knocks and bumps to get up on its feet, because it's a new thing, and we need to find out how it works. I believe that you have to be heading towards a fair world, and there are other people in my country and in other countries who believe everything should be about separation and pulling back and devil take the hindmost and the rich get richer and everyone else has to just suffer, and I don't believe in that. So that's why I'm very positive about Europe. I'm putting my money where my mouth is: I am doing gigs in French, I will do them in Spanish, German, Russian and Arabic, and so we will see what happens in the future.
But the future is with the Progressives, it always is. It's the positive, progressive, democratic people who have taken this world from Ancient Egypt, with slavery and kings, to the point now where there's much more democracy around the world. It is the Conservatives and the Republicans, unfortunately, that have held everything back. They conserve, they resist change, they wanted to keep slavery, wanted to keep women out of the vote, they wanted to stop voting for all men in democratic countries, and it's the Progressives and the Democrats that will change the world and have changed it. And I think that these are the right people and the Republicans are the wrong people.
Playboy.com: We just saw the first cast photo from Mockingbird Lane (the Munsters remake). It looks like the look, at least, has gone in quite a different direction from the original. Can you tell us a bit about playing Grandpa Sam Dracula?
Izzard: Yes, I didn't think this was my next move, but Bryan Fuller is an intriguing person and I felt we could go on a very interesting ride here, so we've done a pilot, and probably if they go with the series, the series will go far-ranging. I regenerate at the end of the pilot and become a younger person; it's kind of weird having to play with a lot of prosthetics, which is not my top favorite. I now know what it feels like to have to put that stuff on for five hours. But yes, great, exciting, great feeling shooting it, working with Bryan Singer again, great designers, wonderful set, Guillermo Navarro as DP, so pretty beautiful setup to do, and I'm hoping that they go for this. We'll see what they think, but we're taking a risk, we're pushing it in a different direction, a deeper direction, and it is rather exciting.
Treasure Island is out on Blu-Ray Disc and DVD. Buy your copy here.


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Perioperative Services
Perioperative Services offered at Lompoc Valley Medical Center are comprehensive, providing services in various specialties. Advanced technology is provided 24 hours a day for various patient populations from infant to geriatric. Our goal is to support patients throughout all phases of the surgical experience; pre-induction, intraoperative and postoperative. Our staff is committed to providing professional and quality care to our patients and their families.
The scope and complexity of patients' care needs met by the Perioperative Department include minor and major surgical procedures, assisting with pain management, and endoscopic procedures. The department utilizes contracted technical support for lithotripsy, pacemaker insertions, radiologic procedures and Anesthetics. Staffing in the department consists of RN's, ORT's, & Anesthetists/Anesthesiologists who are available from 5:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday through Friday, with on-call coverage provided after hours 7 days/week.
The level of care and services provided meet our patients needs by providing all surgical procedures excluding major cardiovascular and neurovascular procedures. The standards &/or practice guidelines utilized by this department include AORN, ASPAN, JCAHO, Title 22, OSHA.


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Bachelor, Master and Phd Theses
Master, PhD and Postdoc positions in Theory of Tribology
One or several positions for outstanding diploma students, PhD students and postdoc's are available in the general area of tribology, in particular tribology of soft contacts: rubber friction, adhesion, leak-rate of seals and tire dynamics. Present and future activities may involve both theory development, development of computer codes and simple model experiments to test the theory development. The candidate is expected to possess a solid background in physics, chemistry and mathematics and be excited about natural science. He/she should be able to take initiative and be open minded for learning new subjects and methods.
Contact Bo Persson, E-mail: email@example.com for further details.
See also "www.Multiscaleconsulting.com" for some research topics presently under consideration.
|D003/2014, Condensed Matter Physics, Theoretical Physics, Computational Physics, Spintronics, Materials Physics
|Master theses: Topological Insulator
|PGI-1 - Quanten-Theorie der Materialien
|D002/2014, Computational Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Supercomputing
|Ph.D. position: Developing and applying unique DFT code for leadership applications on Blue Gene/Q
|PGI-1 - Quanten-Theorie der Materialien


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First-Of-Its-Kind Event Will Bring Together Investors, Business Leaders and Economic Development Organizations to Promote Direct Investment and Job Creation in the U.S.
WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013 – In a speech today at a meeting of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank announced that the first-ever SelectUSA Investment Summit will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., October 31 – November 1, 2013. This summit will connect businesses and investors from around the world with state and local economic development organizations in an effort to promote the U.S. as the premier destination for investment and create good, American jobs. The SelectUSA program is an integral part of the Obama Administration's efforts to increase direct investment in the United States, as a means of spurring economic growth and job creation.
In her remarks, Dr. Blank noted that through SelectUSA, U.S. Commercial Service officers abroad are helping foreign businesses learn more about investing in American cities and regions, and that SelectUSA staff are continuing to work at the national level to empower mayors, governors, and economic development leaders who increasingly find themselves competing with a foreign city or country for investment dollars.
Business.USA.gov is an official
website of the U.S. Government.
Business.USA.gov is an official website of the U.S. Government.


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Developer(s): Level-5, Studio Ghibli
Platforms: Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3
Release Date: TBA
Genre: (J)RPG
Mode: Single-player
One of the best-looking games due for the Nintendo DS is now one of the best-looking games due for the PS3, with this weeks' Famitsu reporting that Level 5's Ninokuni is getting a major facelift for a home console.
What had been a quaint role-playing game for Nintendo's handheld now, even in awful photos of a magazine on a man's lap, looks stunning on the PS3, Studio Ghibli's (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) art design leaping off the page. Imagine how all that animation (Ghibli's animators are working on a ton of material for the game) will look in 1080p on a big screen.
Edited by Saber Rider, 24 June 2010 - 06:37 PM.


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The process for integrating the APIs is the same for all developers. Print the following instructions to distribute to your developer.
Review the requirements for each API carefully at the UPS Developer Kit page at ups.com (see link below). Download the Software Developer Kit (SDK) and carefully review the entire Developer Guide for the API you will integrate. The Developer Kit also includes sample code and WSDLs. Once you have reviewed the kit, you should request access to the UPS test environment. Most APIs provide immediate access to both test and production environments. However, the following APIs require a second request to activate production access: Address Validation Street Level, Locator, Pickup, Rating (LTL Freight only), and Shipping.
UPS provides a testing environment that is accessible with an Access Key for all APIs. This will allow you to simulate live request and response messaging to ensure you have properly formatted your XML or Web Service requests.
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Pocatello approves eminent domain ordinance
POCATELLO, Idaho - The Pocatello City Council approved a resolution Thursday that will allow the city's legal and planning departments to acquire private property under its eminent domain laws. This means the city can now build a complex drainage system on private land.
Landowners did not want to talk on camera, but said it's an infringement on their rights. Some said they don't want to sell their land for less than they think it's worth.
City officials say the drainage system is necessary because the building of the South Valley Connector upstream of the Portneuf River could cause flooding.
City attorneys said this has been tough since they are balancing landowners' rights with maintaining the public's well-being.
"We're not talking about the public good (supplanting) someone's rights. We are talking about the government going for the public good, but also making sure to a certain degree, the property owner is maintained whole as best as possible," said Richard Diehl, deputy city attorney.
The city said it will need to acquire the property by August.


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eGov Services • 1300 Perdido St, New Orleans, LA 70112 • (504) 658-4000
Home » Mayor's Office » Press Releases » 2013 » 20130607 Statement from Mayor Landrieu on the passing of Father Michael Jacques
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NEW ORLEANS, LA-- Mayor Mitch Landrieu released the following statement today following news that Father Michael Jacques of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church passed away.
"Today, New Orleans lost another giant with the passing of Father Michael Jacques of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church.
"For decades, Father Mike faithfully served St. Peter Claver Parish and tirelessly advocated for the Treme neighborhood. It was common for Father Mike to remind his parishioners of the call we have to love and serve our community.
"My prayers go out to the Jacques family, the Society of St. Edmond and the parishioners of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. While we mourn today as a city, I am confident that the legacy of service Father Mike helped to instill at St. Peter Claver and throughout our city will live on."
Last updated: 5/18/2016 2:19:05 PM


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KEWL!!!! I like those and would like to build one for myself.
We have several members who have either started or are contemplating M1919a builds.
We were asked to include a M1919a specific forum here at gunco, here it is.
I'm going to jump on the band wagon myself, the kits that Weaponeer is offering are just too tempting.
Now I know we have a couple of members who have already built a 1919, shortrnd and 1-PAT that I know of, I'm hoping they can give us some pointers.
Since I'm once again a newbie, I'll toss out a couple of questions.
What is required to build one of these besides a kit, RH sideplate and rivets.
I understand that the build requires some machine work, what is involved there?
What's the deal with tripods, I know the real M1919a tripods are very expensive.
I saw a ad somewhere, SGN I think, about a adapter that allows the use of a MG42 tripod, is this what you guys are using?
KEWL!!!! I like those and would like to build one for myself.
"Teds of Beverly Hills" Home of the "Foil wrapped baked potato"
Can anyone around here give us some good answers? I am contemplating doing the maching myself on the internals. I've got some dimensions and drawings but don't have a lot of experience with the mill. How extensive, or rather, hard is it to do the machining?
I kind of cheaped out on the tripod,,, I got an A6 version , this has a bipod, stock, m6 flash hider, and carry handle. this way I do not need an expensive tripod. I think you can still buy a A6 conversion set for like $125. 1919 is very diferant than an AK but just as much fun!!! I think you new 1919 builders will find their is a small amount of welding to be done for one of thies kits too. I know of no way around it, maby someone has but as far as I know you will need a bit of welding.
as for the mill work,,, I think you woll find it to be fairly basic stuff, I do know the bolt will also need to be milled and it is very hard material so you will need to go slow. it will need to have the sear slot widened and the bolt itself narrowed, some guys just buy a bolt, sear, and triger set up but I like to home build a home build. if you yave the mill and skills already!!
southernammo.com has a great deal on ammo for a 1919. $89 per thousand for slightly tarnished ammo. this is great stuff for a 1919. and it shure beats 150 per thousand. you will have to wate so get in now
Wait to get in? Is it a public company?
I think they will sell out fast. my order was put in about 6 months ago. i should get my ammo from the first shipment , they are going to get more but theyb are not exactly shure how much. so if you want a chance at all get your order in.
The A6 is a very good way to go. You are correct about finding the kits for around $125. I bought a set just a month ago and that was what I paid before shipping. It came with everything except the flash hider cone (I can't stand those things anyway........yuck) and the condition was excellent. I think you get an extra "cool" point for having the A6 version.Originally Posted by hotbarrel
There is in fact an alternative to welding. From what I understand it is also ATF approved as a permanent semi-auto modification. Rather than using welds to the right hand side plate you can use.......... silver solder. It's the same process but just substitute the silver solder for the welding.
For those of you that don't know it, the welding has nothing to do with the actual building process. It's only used to make the semi auto conversion ATF approved. What you are actually doing is welding the right side plate (semi-auto plate) to the bottom plate, trunnion, and top plate to prevent it from being swapped out with a full auto plate.
Great info shortrnd. So I want to get a tripod or something of the sort for my 1919 build. Can you guys give me a breakdown of all of the different setups out there, which is the nicest, most readily available, and prices. I'm trying to determine what is best for me, but don't know where to start.


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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), having a child during the teen years carries high costs—emotional, physical, and financial—to the mother, father, child, and community.
For example, the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage and Unplanned Pregnancy has estimated that in 2008 teen pregnancies cost Minnesota and Wisconsin taxpayers $69 million in public health service costs for the children of teen mothers.
Although the rate of teen pregnancies is declining in the United States, the CDC reports that the current United States rate is a much as nine times higher than in similar countries. CDC data show that the teen birth rate in Minnesota and Wisconsin are below the national average.


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Football fans bowled over with excitement as Super Bowl approaches
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - The Super Bowl will air this Sunday on FOX East Idaho, and fans of both teams are already getting excited.
At the Buffalo Wild Wings in Idaho Falls, some fans were even making game day predictions Friday.
"It's hard to say. Typically it's a blowout. So I expect Denver to blow them out," said Broncos fan Brian Stevens.
Derek Hogan, a San Diego Chargers fan, says he's rooting for the Seahawks to crush Denver this year.
"I'd like to see Denver burn to the ground," said Hogan.
Some folks care less about teams and are more focused on one player in particular.
"I am a big Peyton Manning fan. Everything thing I've seen him in he's got a really good sportsmanship," said Brianne Hogan.
"I was raised a Peyton Manning fan my entire life," said Shanae Stapleton.
Managers at Buffalo Wild Wings say Sunday will be one of their busiest days of the year. They plan to offer discounts on a select number of drinks.
"Come in, take care of all your food needs, drink needs. I think we'll have a huge turnout this year. It's a great match-up and we have a huge Denver following and Seattle following here," said Buffalo Wild Wings manager Devin Seibel.


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I am going to build some combo slatted rack / screen bottom boards.
1. How much space between the top of the slats and the bottom of the frames? 3/8" ?
2. How much space between the bottom of the slats and the screen?
3. Should the entrance be just above the screen or above the slats?
4. If I use a top entrance....is there any need to put in an entrance in this combo? Maybe a removable block....just in case I change my mind about a top entrance?
5. Is there always a need for the wide (4") piece in the front of the slat rack or can you just run the slats all the way from front to back? Any advantage to the wide front board? Even with a top entrance?
Thanks. Jim


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By now, you are probably used to protecting your computer from a wide variety of threats, but what about your phone? Most of us rely on our mobile phones to communicate, socialize, work, store pictures and contacts, and even do online tasks like banking and shopping, yet we don't often protect them.
This could be a mistake. Mobile security threats—both offline and online—are prevalent and growing. With these threats growing it is important to consider a mobile security application for your Android, Blackberry or any other mobile device.
Consider that people are 15 times1 more likely to lose their mobile phones than their laptops. In the U.S. alone, 113 phones,2 are lost every second, and 12,000 smartphones are found in airports each week. And, losing your phone doesn't just mean losing the personal and confidential information stored on it, but also your ability to communicate.
What's more, losing your mobile phone or tablet PC could lead to identity theft if you have personally identifiable information stored on it, such as your date of birth or driver's license number, or if you have your phone's browser set to automatically log you in to banking and shopping sites.
Given that researchers found that almost a quarter of consumers store their computer or banking passwords on their mobile devices, and around 11% store personally identifiable information, and even credit card numbers3, these risks are very real.
Confidential work information is another matter. It is estimated that nearly one-third4 of all workers will lose a mobile device that could provide access to sensitive company information, making this a top concern for businesses today. It's easy to see why they are worried—the Ponemon Institute5 estimates that the loss of a smartphone can cost a company $129,000 when data loss is factored in.
Beyond the risk of loss, mobile users should also be concerned with the growing amount of malware aimed at mobile devices, which is expected to double6 by the end of this year.
In fact, malware directed at the Android platform increased by 76%7 over the last few months and there are now over 1,200 variants targeting a number of mobile platforms. So far the Symbian, Android and J2ME platforms have been the most affected, but Windows phones are also facing attack.
Mobile malware threats can be very similar to those directed at your computer. You could accidentally install a dangerous application that includes malicious code or spyware, or you could connect to an unsecure wireless network, allowing a cybercriminal to potentially access your information.
You could also fall victim to a phishing attack that tricks you into handing over your personal information or financial details. One study8 has shown that mobile users were three times more likely to give their personal information to a phishing website than desktop users. Cybercriminals have now even begun sending phishing messages via SMS texts, which is known as "SMiShing."
Given these risks, it's important to take steps to protect yourself. Here are some tips to keep your information safe:
In all likelihood, smartphone and tablet use will continue to grow and bring us new functionality and applications that make our lives easier. As long as we take the necessary precautions to protect our devices and information, we should be able to enjoy these developments.
1 McAfee, Feb. 2011
2 MicroTrax Feb 2011
3 CPP Research, March 2010
4 Trusteer, Jan 2011
5 Ponemon Institute, July 2011
7 McAfee Q2 2011 Threat Report
8 Trusteer, Jan 2011
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During the year imported stone fruit is available, but I can never be bothered with it. Picked early, cool stored, ripened, chilled, then transported across the globe, the fruit's natural flavours and textures are jetlagged beyond recognition. Eating them bears little comparison to picking a ripe fruit from the tree on a sunny day, and leaning forward as the juice runs down your chin.
New Zealand stone fruit is now well in season and at its best. Towards the end of the season, you can buy bargain boxes for preserving, bottling or turning into jams, sauces and chutneys. This used to be carried out on a major scale in many home kitchens, often in soaring summer temperatures. Agee jars would be lined up on pantry shelves full of the summer's crop , ready to use for winter puddings.
This was done in the interests of economy. These days it is not necessarily so cheap to do all this preserving. You can, however, share the pride felt by homemakers of previous generations as they displayed their neatly arranged shelves.
You will also get gold stars for serving the results of your kitchen labour in summer throughout the year.
Melons are also at their cheapest now. Use them fresh in salads, eat chilled wedges to cool off, puree them and freeze to make simple sorbets.


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Hello Giants Fans,
Get inspired and meet Giants NFL living legend & Hall of Famer Harry Carson and at the same time help us raise money for our youth program. There will be food, raffles, games and other surprises. Seats are limited and will go fast. Click this link to get more information and buy ticket http://www.cbtparamus.org/store
Date: Dec. 9th at 9am
Location: 452 Forest Avenue Paramus, NJ 07652Tickets: http://www.cbtparamus.org/store


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Time for Play offered in Nisswa
A play group called Time for Play is offered from 9:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Nisswa Community Center.
The play group is for children ages 6 and younger. Parents must stay.
Children have the opportunity to ride on toys, slide, parachute, cars, blocks, play houses, etc.
Bring a sack lunch if you wish.
Cost is $2 per day per child.
No registration is required, just come to the community center for some fun.


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- Admissions
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- About Plattsburgh
Kevin Probst, a B.A./M.S.T. in Geology Education graduate leads an undergraduate laboratory in GEL 101 on a field trip to investigate limestone outcrops near Plattsburgh. Selected outstanding students in the B.A./M.S.T. program are given the opportunity to teach geology labs to give them more teaching experience prior to beginning their career.
This combined B.A./M.S.T. program allows students to graduate in five years plus a summer with an undergraduate degree in geology (earth science) and a Masters of Science in Teaching. These students are more competitive in the job market as they have full professional certification and do not begin their career needing to complete a master's degree within five years after beginning their teaching career. Students begin their graduate studies during their senior year and are allowed to take up to 12 graduate credits at undergraduate tuition rates.
If you would like more information about geology at SUNY Plattsburgh, please contact
Dr. Edwin Romanowicz, Director
Office: Hudson Hall 132
Phone: (518) 564-2028
Toll-Free Phone: (877) 554-1041
Fax: (518) 564-5267
Email: email@example.com


text: While there are many ways to prepare for the ACE certification exam, you may be unsure which preparation method is best for you and the materials you have at hand. Although some of us work best by following a detailed schedule or syllabus, others prefer to come up with their own game plan and outline an exam-prep strategy that covers all of the core text books and online materials they have access to. Regardless of which path you choose, it's important to make sure you're using one that will utilize all of the study materials you have. ACE offers two main forms of study guides—The Study Coach Email Series, and Academy Elite (PT)/Academy Select (HC). The Study Coach Emails are designed for individuals who are not using Academy Elite or Academy Select and want a study guide to follow as they move through their materials. Study Coach Email Series Available for all four certifications (Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, Health Coach and Advanced Health and Fitness Specialist), Study Coach emails outlining what to study and when are sent out once a week for 12 weeks. In addition to letting you know what to study, the emails provide information about what you should be learning within each chapter and what your next steps should be, as well as helpful hints from the chapters covered in that week's studies. The emails also guide you through the Master the Manual study guides and online exam review courses, and let you know when to use your practice tests. These emails are designed for individuals who have at least the main textbook for the certification they have chosen. It is important to note that, while the emails are available to those who purchased bundles that include Academy Elite/Select, they are not designed to be used in conjunction with these study tools. Academy Elite and Academy Select Available for the Personal Trainer and Health Coach certifications, these study formats provide a self-paced online course syllabus that breaks down all of the study materials into convenient lessons featuring video lecture, reading assignments and lesson quizzes. These programs offer custom progress tracking, which allows you to monitor your study habits and make sure that you stay on track with reaching your goal exam date. These programs are designed to be used with the PT and Health Coach manuals as well as with the Master the Manual study guides, online exam review course and online diagnostic practice tests. Academy Elite and Select are included with the Premium and Premium plus bundles, but can also be added on later if you would like to upgrade to a more comprehensive study package. Regardless of which path you choose, the Study Coach Emails and the Academy Elite or Academy Select will help you to stay on track and cover all of the information needed for the exam. Please keep in mind that these tools are not designed to be used in conjunction with each other. However, when used appropriately they can effectively guide you in preparing to sit for an ACE certification exam.


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