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Fraud suspect cheated Medicaid before, now charged in alleged $8M scheme
Less than three years after Rehan "Ray" Zuberi's reinstatement into New Jersey's Medicaid program after serving time for Medicaid fraud, he has been charged again — this time as the ringleader of a scheme that allegedly bilked the program of $8 million.
Zuberi and 12 others, including his wife, Humara Paracha, and father, were arrested as part of "Operation RayScam," and charged with participating in a scheme to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to doctors and chiropractors for referrals to imaging centers in North Jersey owned by Zuberi. He is being held on $1 million bail at the Morris County Jail.
Authorities seized a Lamborghini, a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a Mercedes-Benz, several expensive watches and jewelry, along with more than $100,000 in cash, acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman said at a news conference in Newark on Thursday. The fraudulent claims may have generated millions of dollars of illegal profits, he said.
The scheme not only cheated a program that serves the state's neediest citizens, but compromised the medical system by encouraging doctors and others to put their financial interests ahead of patient need when making medical decisions, he said.
"I'm disgusted," Hoffman said, flanked by acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronal Chillemi and Deputy Attorney General Christopher Ruzich. "I'm disgusted to see someone come back [from prison] and continue to perpetrate a scheme, and get a team together to perpetrate a scheme" to defraud Medicaid.
Raids were carried out at imaging centers in Hackensack, Englewood, Wayne, Jersey City and other locations owned by Zuberi's umbrella company, Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates, and operating under the names Medical & Molecular Imaging and American Imaging of Englewood and other towns.
All of those sites have been closed and agents seized thousands of pages of medical records, and several computers on Tuesday, officials said.
Zuberi has retained Riza Dagli, the chairman of Brach Eichler's criminal defense and government investigations practice, to defend him. "He is confident he did nothing wrong," Dagli said. "We're going to try to get him out of jail as quickly as possible and work towards exonerating and clearing his name as soon as possible."
The volume of records seized shows the state still has a lot of work to do, Dagli said. "The state has made very serious accusations, and at this point it's not clear what evidence they have to support them."
Fifteen years ago, Zuberi was managing a medical clinic in Paterson when he was accused of Medicaid fraud. He received kickbacks for sending blood samples to a laboratory to be tested, pumping up the Medicaid reimbursement to the lab, according to the indictment. The blood tests were not ordered by a physician and were not from Medicaid patients.
He pleaded guilty to money-laundering and theft and was sentenced to six years in state prison
Zuberi was permanently barred from the Medicaid program at that time and served 10 months in prison, records show. He paid $50,000 restitution.
After his release, Hoffman said Thursday, Zuberi used others to submit fraudulent applications to the Medicaid program, which enabled his facilities to receive reimbursement from the state. Proxies also submitted more than 30 fraudulent applications on his behalf to the state Department of Health for licenses, state authorities said. The applications are alleged to be fraudulent because they did not reveal Zuberi's ownership interest, or the fact that he'd been convicted of a crime.
Zuberi was reinstated as a Medicare provider in 2007.
He asked to be reinstated as a state Medicaid provider in 2011, documents show. At the time, he was president of First Call Diagnostics, a Clifton company that provided support and servicing for MRI, CT, PET and digital radiography systems. He is an electrical engineer and a graduate of the City College of New York, according to his online résumé. In an affidavit in September 2011, he said, "I have no other prior criminal history, and have not been involved in any other criminal matters since my conviction."
A spokeswoman for the Medicaid program, Nicole Brossoie, said Zuberi's request for reinstatement was referred to the Medicaid Fraud Division of the State Comptroller's Office, "which had no objection to the reinstatement. As a result, Mr. Zuberi was reinstated."
Asked about the reinstatement at the press conference, Hoffman said Thursday that Zuberi "gained reinstatement by misrepresentation."
In this latest accusation of Medicaid fraud, Hoffman said, Zuberi's facilities submitted more than 30,000 claims to Medicaid and thousands more to other health insurance companies between 2008 and 2013.
The organization paid more than $300,000 in kickbacks using checks from "shell corporations" and gift cards and certificates, Hoffman said.
This week, agents raided Zuberi's 9,000-square-foot home in Boonton and the Pompton Lakes home of Baber "Bob" Eskar, his close associate and the chief operating officer of Diagnostic Imaging.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer, confirmed Thursday that it was working with the Attorney General's Office as it continues its investigation.
"This undoubtedly and inevitably affects us all," Hoffman said. "It drives up costs for all of us."
Operation RayScam, prompted by an anonymous tip 18 months ago, is still under way, Hoffman said. He did not rule out the possibility that doctors and other medical providers who received the kickbacks would be charged.
Among the others charged Tuesday, the state said, were:
- Eskar, 49, chief operating officer of Diagnostic Imaging Affiliates, with racketeering, bribery, and falsifying or tampering with records.
- Humara Paracha, 38, Zuberi's wife and the president of DIA, with racketeering, money laundering, Medicaid fraud, and failure to file a tax return or pay taxes.
- Nawab Zuberi, 73, of Boonton, Zuberi's father and an officer of the company.
- Faisal Paracha, 30, of Fords, Zuberi's brother-in-law, and part owner and manager of American Imaging of West Orange.
- Salman Siddiqui, 37, of Lake Hopatcong, another brother-in-law, office manager of American Imaging of Montville.
- Natividad Urena, 31, of Clifton, who managed the American Imaging facility in Union City.
- Thomas Grecco, 25, of Clifton, who worked in the accounting department of American Imaging of Hackensack.
- Jose Lopez, 51, of Passaic, another employee of the Hackensack center.


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UTSA hosts early voting site April 20-May 3
(April 15, 2005)--The UTSA Student Government Association (SGA) will host an early voting site at UTSA for the Joint General and Special Election for the City of San Antonio and Northside Independent School District, which includes the City Council and mayor's race.
Today's headlines
- La Prensa Foundation is newest member of UTSA Lone Star Society
- UTSA alumna Jordan Kaufmann wins $50K for new stent-graft start-up
- UTSA begins new way-finding sign installation this summer at Main Campus
- USA Today: UTSA long jumper Tyler Williamson rescues three-year-old boy
Article tools
Early voting at UTSA is open to all San Antonio registered voters, regardless of the precinct in which they reside, from April 20 to May 3 at the Main Building ground floor, 1604 Campus. (Voting is closed April 22 because of the Fiesta Battle of Flowers parade.)
Designation as an early voting site helps promote civic awareness in the UTSA community and provides a convenient voting location for UTSA faculty, staff and students.
Download a PDF document with San Antonio early voting sites and dates.
For more information, contact Jennifer Storm at (210) 458-4009.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hi everyone,
i recently bought my W520 and everything works just fine - except for the internal webcam.
I installed the drivers (current version) from the Lenovo web site but the webcam won't turn on. The green just wouldn't turn on and when I press Fn+F6 the communication tool shows up without any webcam video. Same thing for skype or any other webcam tool.
Sometimes after booting it works for a few seconds but then the image freezes and it won't start again until after several system restarts.
As indicated on google I installed the generic Microsoft driver but that does not seem to solve the problem.
Does anyone know what to do? Your help is much appreciated!
Regards, Phil
System Details:
Thinkpad W520 (4276), Core i7-2760QM
Windows 7 64 Bit Professional
Solved! Go to Solution.
Hello ph-klein and welcome to community,
Kindly uninstall the installed camera driver and software then restart the laptop, update the BIOS
README for BIOS Update Bootable CD
Then install ThinkVantage Communications Utility and after this install Integrated Camera Driver
Best Regards,
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution".! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!
thank you for the welcome and your reply. I tried to update the BIOS but the Windows tool told me that no update was required. I checked the BIOS screen, installed version is 8BET56WW (1.36) which is the current version on the Lenovo web site.
Attached you find a photo taken during one of the short moments the webcam is actually working. I'm pretty much concerned about the color errors. Might this be a hardware fault?
Best regards,
Hi Phill,
Can you reinstall the Windows and check else if the laptop is in warranty then you need to contact the support center.
Best Regards,
Did someone help you today? Press the star on the left to thank them with a Kudo!
If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution".! This will help the rest of the Community with similar issues identify the verified solution and benefit from it.
Follow @LenovoForums on Twitter!
I tried ubuntu live and the webcam didn't work either.
Today I had a remote assistance session with the Lenovo support and they confirmed a hardware fault. Until this morning I was still hoping it was a software error but now I have to get the webcam replaced Thank you for all your replies anyway.
Regards, Phil
I have tried all of these steps and my computer still refuses to recognize the webcam.
I had similar issue on my w520, the webcam just showed a black screen. After hours of trying to uninstall and reinstall the driver and running diagnostics - which all said that webcam is fine I was about to give up when I stumbled upon this thread: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T
Looks like there is wiring problem on how the web cam is connected. I used the instructions here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/migr-769
That confirms my suspicions. After spending quite a while explaining to the Lenovo support what's wrong they supposed I send in my machine to get it fixed. Since I need it for work (and I have my private MacBook with a perfectly fine webcam) I refused to do so and for the time being I don't use the internal webcam. Maybe I will give opening the display assembly a try once the warranty period is over. Thanks anyway for posting this tip!


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[Article]-Free WiFi in Airports and Public Hotspots
Permanent Link: [Article]-Free WiFi in Airports and Public Hotspots
By Brian Wilson, CCNA, CCSE, CCAI, MCP, Network+, Security+, JNCIA
Recently while traveling I noticed a hot spot and wanted to surf the internet. Once I connected to the AP I had seen that they wanted to charge me $8 per day to surf the internet. I thought that was just too much money for a quick internet connection, and my layover between flights was about 3 hours. I decided to see what I could access while connected to there AP.
Disclaimer: This paper and the topics covered in the paper are just for educational purposes and should not be tried on a network without the permission from the owner of the network you plan on testing. I hold no responsibility for any actions or damage that might accrue if you try anything explained in this paper. "Do not do this at home kids" hacking/cracking/pen testing might be harmful to your health.
Feel free to add your comments,


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The Newpark Hotel proudly boasts 129 luxuriously appointed bedrooms. Many rooms offer views over the luscious green gardens which extend onto the Urban Fen walk with 40 acres of peaceful parkland. Superior rooms offer a walk-in experience shower with separate bath, whilst in addition our executive floor bedrooms and penthouse also offer private balconies.
All our bedrooms provide the following:


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Number two.
Jan in VA
Welcome to the Quilting Board!
Number two.
Jan in VA
Jan in VA
Living in the foothills
peacefully colors my world.
Funny! Thanks for the smile. Wonder how much Nigella works out so she can stay that slim...either that, or she has good genes.
"... let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
I vote for picture 2. It does help that she has good genes and started out beautiful in the first place.
I love Nigella and have some of her cookbooks as well. I like watching her show when I can find it.
looks like number 1 digs in the dirt. if you look close at her finger nails. number 2 is very healthy looking . may wash my food down with wine. starting today....
I see what 10 lbs. of Mary Kay cosmetics can do as well as a well aimed airbrush.........LOL
I think I would prefer to spend time quilting with Gillian than the other Lady.
Everyone is born right handed, only the gifted overcome it.
I have already committed my felonies, so people don't have to worry. (Russell Means)
I swear to you, I am guilty of only being Indian. That's why I am here. (Leonard Peltier)
Before drawing any conclusions, I'd like to see the first WITH a make-up artist . . . and the second WITHOUT one. The first picture was obviously taken outside, while the woman was working. The second is obviously a PR shot.
By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
~Richard Dawkins
Inside ourselves regardless of what we eat, we all look like Nigella. Don't we?


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This positioning method for alignment for a more harmonious internal frame placement is called "Housel Positioning".
At your option, you may either accept or reject, but it does seem to relieve a great deal of stress inside of beehives, so that in itself can only help our honeybees.
What else it does in the future I can only write about as no one has really done it in mass enough to see and understand within today's domesticated colonies.
I sure I will be writing much here in the future talking about things we are seeing and for others to maybe want to try and see also.
Dee A. Lusby


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16 Bit World In The 21st Century
We sit down with Brandon Cobb, President of Super Fighter Team to talk about the history and staying power of the 16 bit game.
On August 23, 1991 the Japanese electronics company Nintendo released its Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S. There were no around the block lineups, no pre-sales, and no general interest in the future of the gaming market in Northern America. On the day of its release, there were only three games available for the console, and only two on shelves. It was a hard sell, fellow 16 bit game consoles, the Sega Genesis and the Turbo Grafx-16, had a two year lead. Many believed that at home gaming devices, primarily Nintendo consoles, were on the last leg of their hay day. Parents had seen the rise and fall of the Atari, and were wary of shelling out 200 dollars for something that appeared to be dated.
Writer Philip Elmer-DeWitt wrote an article in Time magazine entitled "Hold On to Your Joysticks" about the console stating that, "When it becomes available in September, Super NES will cost $199.95 (twice the price of the old NES) for the basic game machine, two hand-held controllers, the latest Super Mario Bros. adventure and a $50 coupon for another game. More worrisome for Nintendo are signs that the video-game frenzy the Japanese-owned company stirred up over the past five years may be starting to fizzle. Sales of the old Nintendo system have fallen off sharply (down 46% in the first half of 1991), and discount tags have replaced SOLD OUT signs in toy stores across the U.S.
"I played all the games so much, I just got bored with them," says Tomas Romano, 9, of Brooklyn, N.Y. He and his friends now prefer Little League baseball…"
In 2012, we are now on the 7th generation of Nintendo systems which are sold worldwide. Our surgeon general issued numerous calls to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity in children due to the increase of time spent indoors instead of say, playing Little League Baseball. It's safe to say gaming systems won over our hearts. And with its rich history, comes present day nostalgia. Those who remember purchasing early 8 and 16 bit consoles with their hard earned paper route money or racing over to a friend's house to play the various quests each game cartridge would possess are now adults with a strong sentiment for the earlier years of gaming. And some have never let their passion for these dated consoles die.
"There are gamers all over the world who have no interest in current and future generation consoles. I am one of them." Stated Brandon Cobb, President of Super Fighter team, a video game development, production and publishing company based in San Diego, "The average company isn't concerned with sentimentality; they simply follow the money. The moment these companies decide it's time to move on, they do so. As a result, we are left without new software for the machines that we adore."
Cobb's company has recently been in the news for producing an SNES game called Nightmare Busters that had been completed, yet never released for the system. "Rather than sit idly by and do nothing about this situation, Super Fighter Team has chosen to be the source of great new games for systems we feel still have a lot of life left in them. As a company, we are unconcerned with hopping on the money train. Rather, we are focused on doing what we enjoy, and making people happy in the process."
Although Cobbs' intentions are purely of passion, in a nation that's facing an economic depression many consumers are looking to products that remind them of better times in their lives. "Life is always moving us in new directions, toward new challenges and passions. But some things, the things we truly love, help us remember who we are and where we've been: they ground us, relax us and comfort us, giving us hope when times are tough." After hitting the front page of many tech blogs, Nightmare Busters reached its 600 copy pre-order limit, proving the niche for retro games was larger than many would have thought.
"Faux retro, as I like to call it, seems to be one of the current trends." Joked Cobb, "In my opinion it doesn't deliver anywhere near the same level of quality as the real thing, but to each their own. My hope is that this trend inspires people to investigate the real deal, and discover why the knock-offs try so hard to emulate it."
It does seem that a retro niche has emerged in the gaming industry. There are a wide range of 8 bit game apps available for smartphones, like Nyan Cat which ended up hitting the top seller list, as well as games like Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World which was made available on the PS3 online store when the film was released in theatres. Although it may be against what Cobb's company is about, it has definitely boosted their audience.
"Our company's first commercial product was a large role-playing game (RPG) for the Sega Genesis, produced on a brand new game cartridge." Explains Cobb, "At the time, no one else had tried that and many people thought I was nuts. But we sold through the game so quickly that our factory could barely keep up with demand! My confidence was justified in a big way. The announcement of Nightmare Busters created a much larger stir, with brick and mortar game shops in Japan requesting bulk orders. We hadn't previously received a great deal of business from Japan, perhaps due to the fact that our past titles were mostly English language RPGs, so this was a pleasant surprise."
Nightmare Busters, a "run and gun" 18 bit game follows the story of two twin do-gooder leprechauns, Flynn and Floyd, who have to battle an evil tyrant who has discovered a way to enter and warp what children see, hear and feel while they sleep. Equipped with two player mode, six stages and a fairly large assortment of weaponry to battle evil along the way, it's no wonder why people are clamoring to get their own copy. Who wouldn't want to travel back in time with the excitement of playing a never before seen SNES game?
"For me, it all began in 1987 when my grandmother bought me an Apple IIc." Reminisced Cobb, "As a child, I was amazed by the incredible things people were able to do with such limited hardware. I'm still amazed to this day, in fact."
Nowadays, limited software is not an issue. Students are developing their own games in dorm rooms. Game companies like Ubisoft have a fleet of hundreds developing multiple games at once. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, released late last year and well received by players and bloggers alike, had a development team of roughly 100.
"Game development was a once very personal thing." Explains Cobb, "In the early days, an entire game was created by a single person, and that included design, programming, graphics and music. It was a small, experimental market, especially if your target system was a home computer. In those days it was passion, not profit that drove a developer.
Development teams tended to remain small into the early to mid '90s, with talented people working side by side to deliver astounding products. Pixel graphics and chip music are fine arts, and the challenges presented by limited hardware couldn't stop the best artists from creating masterpieces that continue to awe people.
It's an entirely different market now. Look at Hollywood these days: it's out with quality plots, brilliant acting and beautiful, detailed sets, and in with mindless attempts at humor and needless, over the top special effects generated entirely by computers. The video game industry is very akin to Hollywood now, in that many studios spend billions of dollars making products that are so quickly forgotten, it's almost as if they never existed at all."
There may still be passion put into modern day video games, but there is truth to what Cobb is saying. According to Wikipedia, there were approximately 115,000 games released in 2011 alone, a number that becomes unfathomable if you think of how many developers were a part of the production process.
But over at the Super Fighter Team headquarters, not much has changed since the early days of gaming. The company has since gone on to produce and publish three RPGs for the Sega Genesis, as well as owning the rights to both Super Fighter and Sango Fighter, Cobb's two favorite childhood games. They keep their production team small, so the passion of creating games for past systems is kept in check which is important to the group. Instead of adapting to the cultural norms of the cut-throat world of game development, this small company has chosen to beat its own path all the way back to the beginning of gaming, which is something that is hard not to admire.


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The UK pages went live on Twitter yesterday evening (1 February). Companies can now post a branded banner and a permanent tweet containing media or a promotion, at the top of pages.
Asda has posted a YouTube clip of its latest TV ad in its permanent tweet. Its branded banner includes its "10% cheaper or we will give you your money back" price guarantee.
Cadbury's is using its brand page to promote its tier-one sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics, offering Twitter users the chance to win tickets to the event by clicking on its banner.
It is also promoting its latest TV ad for the Creme Egg Goo Games with a YouTube clip in its permanent tweet.
Electronic Arts has set up a brand page for its Fifa Sports game, while Sky has a page for its Sky HD service, promoting the customer service it offers on Twitter.
Marketing first revealed in April last year that Twitter was looking to launch pages which would offer brands more creative opportunities on the platform in a similar way to Facebook.
Twitter unveiled the first raft of brand pages in December last year, from US advertisers including Coca-Cola and Red Bull as part of a revamp of the service.
Reports emerged from the US last week, claiming brands have to commit to spending at least $25,000 on its ad products, including promoted tweets and trends in order to roll out a page on the platform.
In the UK brand pages are free, but there is also a minimum media spend required, understood to be in the region of £25,000.
Sky was the first brand to roll out UK-targeted Twitter ads, back in September. It was shortly followed by Electronic Arts with a campaign for the Fifa 12 game.
The gaming company claimed to have seen an engagement level of 11% for its promoted trend, which is well above Twitter's average "benchmark" for promoted trends, of 3% to 6%.
Follow Sarah Shearman on Twitter @Shearmans


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Are ridiculous. They're complaining because of the increase of Giants fans on their boards, and continuously begin the trash talking and get mad when we defend our team. They act like we aren't supposed to be confident in our team. "Really, he said the Giants might pull it off? wow is he blind" type of stuff. Overconfident whatever you wanna call em, i hope we take this game on sunday and shut them up.
I was trying to be respectful and not trash talk but now I'm starting to get into the trash talking because of how annoying they are.


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Transfer Students
Welcome, we are delighted that you are interested in learning more about Graceland University. Searching for a college that will best fit your needs is an exciting process. We're pleased that you're including Graceland in that search. As you explore our website, you will learn about coming to Graceland as a transfer or non-traditionally aged college student and the unique services we provide to ease your transition to Graceland University.
We hope the information below answers the majority of your questions. If you have other questions or need additional information, please contact the Admissions Office. We will be happy to assist you.
How Do My Courses Transfer?
Whether you're transferring from another college or applying to Graceland University after a lengthy absence from school, the following information will give you the basic information you need to make an easy transition to Graceland.
An important question that many transfer students ask is "How will my courses transfer?" We have your answers. This link* will show how your courses will transfer to GU.
* Note: The information within the evaluation system is provided as a guide only. We provide no guarantee that a particular course from your current or former institution will be accepted for transfer credit. An official evaluation of transfer credit will be done upon acceptance to Graceland University. Our evaluation system is subject to frequent revisions, and equivalents may change. We will be adding schools and additional courses to the list on a regular basis. A course not listed in the database does not signify that the course will not be accepted, it simply means that it has not yet been reviewed and is not in our database.
Steps for applying
- Apply on-line at www.graceland.edu/apply.
- Arrange for submission of official final transcripts to be sent from all colleges you have attended, having accumulated at least 24 semester hours. Students with less than 24 hours will be required to meet freshmen requirements and submit official transcripts documenting all college coursework attempted, along with an official high school transcript, which includes class rank (if available), and ACT/SAT scores.
- After all your materials are in, you will be evaluated for acceptance.
- Upon acceptance, you must submit your deposit of $200. The deposit will hold your place in the incoming class, reserve your financial aid package, and allow you to register for classes for the semester you plan to enroll. The full deposit is refundable when you leave Graceland provided no charges have been assessed against your account.
Criteria for acceptance (Click here for more detailed criteria)
- Acceptance is based on your college work rather than high school if you have attended college full time for at least one semester and/or accumulated 24 semester hours of credit.
- A 2.00 cumulative grade point average on all transfer credit is required. (Exceptions will be considered individually.)
** Applicants who do not meet the above criteria can submit a letter, along with their application materials, describing how they can be successful at Graceland University. Please share relevant career experience and other qualifications that will enable future success as a Graceland student.
Transfer information (Click here for detailed transfer steps)
- Classification - If you have earned 56 transferable semester hours with a grade point average of 2.00 based on a 4.00 point system, you will enter Graceland at junior standing.
- Transferable hours - There is no maximum number of hours acceptable for transfer from two-year schools.
- College Level Examination Program (CLEP) - Credit for or waiver of courses through CLEP will be determined by Graceland upon receipt of scores from the College Board.
- General Education - If you are transferring from a regionally accredited 2-year or 4-year college or university with at least a 2.00 cumulative GPA in transferable coursework, refer to Graceland's catalog to see the general education alternative for you.
- Degree audit - When final college transcripts have been received from all colleges you have attended, you have been accepted to Graceland, Admissions has been notified of your intended major, and you have paid your deposit of $200, a degree audit can be processed to determine what courses will be required for graduation from Graceland. This can be done by making the request to the registrar or, after you have received your user name and password, you can do your own audit through My Graceland. You should receive your user name and password soon after you pay your deposit.
Financial Aid
If you need financial assistance to attend Graceland, we'll work with you to develop the best package possible. We administer federal, state and institutional aid. The following are steps you need to complete to receive financial assistance:
- In order to receive federal or state financial aid, you must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Include Graceland's federal code of 001866 on your FAFSA.
- If you have already submitted a FAFSA for the school year but did not include Graceland's code, there are two ways for Graceland to receive your information:
- The quickest way to get the information to Graceland is to go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and update your FAFSA to include Graceland's code of 001866. You may want to check with the Financial Aid Department to insure your results have been received.
- Provide the DRN# that appears on your Student Aid Report to the Admissions Office or to Financial Aid Services. (866.GRACELAND)
- Verification - If you have applied for federal aid, you may be identified for financial aid verification. Don't be concerned. The federal government selects students at every college and university with the purpose of verifying the information that has been provided on the FAFSA. It is important that you comply immediately with the request for information from Financial Aid Services.
- Iowa Tuition Grant (ITG) - If you are a resident of Iowa and attending an Iowa private college, you may qualify for the ITG ranging up to $4,000. To determine if you are eligible, you must file a FAFSA by the ITG deadline date.
- Graceland administers a program of academic scholarships and grants. Academic transfer scholarships are based on cumulative grade point of college work attempted. Grants are awarded to full-time students in the areas of athletics and the performing arts. There are also grants available for students in the Honors Program who have a grade point average of 3.75-4.00; members of Phi Theta Kappa; Community of Christ Leadership Program; congregational matches; and for academic areas such as computer science. Financial need is not a qualification for these awards.
Registering for classes
- Watch for Graceland's Early Orientation dates. If you can attend, you will be able to register for classes while you are here.
- If you are unable to attend Early Orientation, you can register for classes by calling the CAP Center (Career, Advising and Personal Counseling), 888.229.9234. CAP personnel will help you initiate the process.
- Living on campus is required of all students. Exceptions to this policy are students living with their parents or legal guardians, married students, and students 23 years of age and older. Housing requests can be completed online after you have been accepted or by calling 866.GRACELAND, ext. 5107.
Net Price Calculator
The Net Price Calculator is designed to help residential campus students estimate financial aid options for Graceland University. Please be sure to complete the entire process to ensure the best possible results.


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November 10, 2012:
View MK Wait Times
View WDW Showtimes
View Crowd Calendar
This day is in the past.
Showtimes for Saturday, November 10, 2012
Captain Jack Sparrow's Pirate Tutorial » Pirate Show with Guest Participation
Shows at 10:15am, 11:20am, 12:25pm, 2:15pm, 3:20pm, and 4:25pm
Hoedown Happening » It's a Frontierland Hoedown!
Shows at 4:45pm and 5:40pmThe Notorious Banjo Brothers and Bob » Three-Person Band
Shows at 11:00am, 11:55am, 12:30pm, 1:20pm, 2:40pm, 4:20pm, and 5:10pm
Main Street, U.S.A.
A Frozen Holiday Wish » Castle Lighting Show
One showing at 6:15pmCasey's Corner Pianist » Ragtime Piano Player
Shows at 12:10pm, 1:35pm, 2:35pm, 3:35pm, 4:55pm, 6:10pm, and 6:50pmCelebrate A Dream Come True Parade » Celebratory Afternoon Parade
One showing at 3:00pmDapper Dans » Barbershop Quartet
Shows at 9:00am, 9:45am, 11:05am, 11:45am, 1:00pm, 1:50pm, 2:35pm, 3:35pm, and 4:35pmDream Along With Mickey » Castle Show with the Fab Five
Shows at 10:35am, 11:40am, 1:15pm, 2:15pm, 4:15pm, and 5:15pmElectric Water Pageant » Seven Seas Lagoon Water Parade Floats
One showing at 10:25pmFlag Retreat » Flag ceremony honoring Veterans
One showing at 5:00pmLet the Magic Begin » Characters and Dancing intro to the Magic Kingdom
One showing at 7:50amMain Street Electrical Parade » Old-School Nighttime Parade with a bazillion lights
Shows at 9:00pm and 11:00pmMain Street Philharmonic » Magic Kingdom's very own band
Shows at 2:50pm and 3:55pmMain Street Trolley Show » Singing and Dancing Show
Shows at 8:20am, 9:15am, 10:10am, and 12:00pmMove It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party » Jumpin' Street Party
Shows at 11:00am, 12:30pm, and 5:40pmWishes Nighttime Spectacular » Spectacular Fireworks Show
One showing at 10:00pm
PUSH, The Talking Trashcan » Moving and Talking Trash Can
Shows at 10:00am, 10:50am, 11:40am, 12:40pm, 1:30pm, 2:10pm, and 2:45pm
No shows scheduled in either Fantasyland or Liberty Square today.
Note: Showtimes are updated regularly via disneyworld.com, walt disney world entertainment, and our own sources -- but the schedules may change at any time.
|Opening Time
|Closing Time
|Evening Extra Magic Hours until 3:00am
|MK Crowd Level
Inaccurate/stale schedule?
Let us know.


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Australia's fashion capital, Melbourne, plays host to the annual L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival from March 18-24. This week-long event features stunning runway shows, beauty workshops, business seminars and live entertainment.
Designers confirmed to show in 2013 include: Alice McCall, Collette Dinnigan, Ellery, Josh Goot, Karen Walker, Kate Sylvester, ksubi, Morrison, Tigerlily, Willow, One Teaspoon, Alannah Hill and sass & bide.
Mondo Travel has created an escorted tour with an exclusive festival package hosted by Mondo Shopping and Fashion ambassador Amber Peebles.
The four-night tour includes return airfares from Auckland to Melbourne flying Air New Zealand, accommodation at the four-star Batman's Hill on Collins hotel including daily continental breakfast, a shopping tour of Melbourne and transfers throughout the city.
Tour guests will experience the best of L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival events including VIP seats to three L'Oréal Paris Fashion Runway shows, access to the Rekorderlig Fashion Lounge after-show parties, marie claire and L'Oréal Paris Beauty Workshop including a L'Oréal Paris Gift bag, VIP corporate suite tickets to the 'Red Carpet Runway' show including pre and after-show parties.
Mondo Travel has also secured backstage passes to the Red Carpet event and, most importantly, pick up and drop off at the front door with transport to each show every night.
Mondo Travel is only taking 20 people, so to secure a spot on this exclusive tour and for more information go to www.mondotravel.co.nz or call 0800 955 655.
Viva has a trip for two to give away on the Mondo Travel tour to the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival with Amber Peebles. For your chance to win, go to www.nzherald.co.nz/vivagiveaways and enter the keywords "Melbourne Fashion Festival" on the VIP Viva page along with details.
Entries close at 11.59pm on Sunday, February 10. For terms and conditions see the website.


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Beautiful quilt, love the colors!!
Printable View
Beautiful quilt, love the colors!!
Wowie it is stunning! What a wonderful gift! Well done!!!!!
Beautiful Quilt, I love fairy frost in about anything...but your piecing and quilt is wonderful
Beautiful quilt! Lucky girl! I love that Fairy Floss line! Yummy!
Absolutely stunning, love your fabric colors.
Congratulations to your DGD and also to you for creating such a beautiful quilt.
Gorgeous quilt! Love the colors! Congrats to your DD!!
Truly a beautiful quilt and I've never really cared for the pineapple pattern. I love those colors and the hand quilting. It is an overall quilt. Good job
sassy granny
Wow ! That is gorgeous ! What a beautiful gift. I also do hand quilting and I just hope I can do one as beautiful as yours. Thank you for sharing.
very pretty


text: Yes, I'm in Groveland right on Hwy50. Everything looks good, fair amount of bloom open, a lot of bloom getting ready to pop, and the bees were working them hard. I'm probably just being impatient. I don't have any experience with oranges. I'm doing good on drawn comb so far. I haven't had to get into my boxes of foundation yet. Once they get rolling I would like to get them to draw some deep foundation to be used for splits later on this spring.


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Making its debut this weekend on Starz was last year's "Winnie the Pooh" from Walt Disney studios.
It's traditionally animated and features all the classic A.A. Milne characters that inhabit the Hundred Acre Wood. Disney has brought them to the screen many times over the years, but in this particular installment, Disney released the picture with surprisingly little fanfare. I barely even realized it had come and gone. Possibly because they released it on the same weekend as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2".
Frankly, it made me wonder if Disney was "dumping it".
If they were, there was certainly no reason to, as "Winnie the Pooh" is wonderfully crafted animated movie, worthy of a place in the Disney heritage.


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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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ACE Fit Share
This vibrant summer salad goes well with just about any entree. Be sure to get ultra-fresh beans and corn and blanch them just long enough to tenderize them and bring out their color. If they are available, use salt-cured black olives, which provide the best complement to the crisp vegetables.
Nutrition Profile:
Diabetes Appropriate
Gluten Free Diet
Healthy Weight
Heart Healthy
High Fiber
Low Calorie
Low Carb
Low Cholesterol
Low Sat Fat
Low Sodium
Serves 8
Prep Time 45 min
Total Time 45 min.
Step 1
Put a large pot of water on to boil. Fill another large pot half full with ice water. Blanch about half the green beans in the boiling water just until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into the ice water. Transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with the remaining beans.
Step 2
Return the water to a boil. Add corn and blanch until tender but still crisp, about 3 minutes. Drain and immediately plunge into the ice water. Cut the kernels off the cobs.
Step 3
Add the corn to the beans in the bowl. Add bell pepper, onion, olives, basil, oil, vinegar, lemon juice and garlic; toss to mix well. Season with hot sauce, salt and pepper.
Featured Workouts
Check out our 12-week fitness plan designed to boost your strength, endurance, muscle definition, energy level and overall health.
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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Town Square
Radio in the Bay Area, Anyone remember KGO's mass firing last year ?
Original post made by Former Radio Listener, Crescent Park, on Jan 2, 2013
Does anyone else remember this or note it as a fairly large change in local radio? It was a big deal at the time for me, I used to listen to KGO constantly in my car while driving and certain shows I would go out of my way to catch at home as well.
I wonder if there are others out there who believe this was a sea change in terms of radio "entertainment" but also in terms of a fairly important democratic ... small "d" democratic ... institution that is now gone, but not replaced? A kind of public forum, much like the Palo Alto Online Town Square Forums.
As inadequate as KGO and other stations were at being democratic institutions, they fulfilled an important niche by keeping average people up to date on the news and interpreting the news by relatively intelligent, well informed, well known people. People like Gene Burns, John Rothmann, Bill Wattenberg, Gil Gross, and others. This last year during the election I particularly missed the analysis and discussions that I got used to hearing on KGO throughout decades. Although some of these hosts have moved to other stations, in the local Palo Alto area I don't get as good or even acceptable reception of those stations as I did KGO.
Nothing is perfect, and KGO had a long history of being quite imperfect, moving in the 70's from a ranting right-wing platform to a mature diverse platform for discussion starting in the 80's on. What KGO did offer throughout past decades when it was intact was a place where public discussion could take place, a function of the media that one could point to in order to prove that they at least were trying to serve the public interest. But after many years, KGO went farther and did better than the many talk radio shows you might hear if you crossed the nation sampling the AM radio stations on the way.
I think KGO and other radio shows were a really asset to the Bay Area, and a model for the rest of the country. Sadly, with the firing and decimation of KGO a year ago, nothing has taken up the slack or replaced KGO in this function. There is still KQED, which is still under attack, and there are some smaller, and in my car at least, weaker and more difficult to get AM and FM stations that do have some alternative talk, but by and large now, most of what I head on the radio is pretty bad, irrelevant to the news, mostly uninformed propaganda such as FOX News Radio.
I find that most of the music I like, rock, jazz and classical is not gone from the radio, and there now there is rarely any intelligent talk, with the possible exception of a small piece of KGOs remaining talk shows; occasionally Ronn Owens and Pat Thurston. The other talk shows particularly the syndicated ones are really horrible, worse than useless.
I seriously doubt that this change did anything to bolster KGOs bottom line, or increase its listenership. Does anyone know? Can anyone point to any online data on this question? I scan by KGO on the dial every once in a while when there is nothing in my car and I forget my iPhone and its audiobooks or other media programming - I never hear anything that interests me - and more ads than ever on products that I have always wondered who on Earth purchases.
Does this not bother anyone as much as it does me. I cannot imagine that KGO is doing any better selling advertising or gaining listeners with the noise it broadcasts currently. To me it is almost unlistenable and without value.
Where is our FCC which is supposed to ensure that our broadcast media on the public airwaves functions in the public interest? Can citizens demand that the FCC or broadcast media start again to fulfill their function? What can we do to bring back public conversation and discourse in our local area?
Comments (8)
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 3, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Talk radio which in the Bay Area used to be such a bastion of it not progressivism, then thought and discussion is pretty much wiped out in the last year, it's all canned syndicated BS because what is going on is not competition in media, it's a political war.
It's clear that's why the buy up franchises and then put no money into programming, they just syndicate all over the nation reducing the relevance and service to the public, and then use the money they save to expand more ... this is a media economic blitzkrieg by the right wing.
a resident of Greenmeadow
on Jan 3, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Somewhat already covered in this prior post: Web Link
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on Jan 3, 2013 at 2:14 pm
I had an electrical issue in my car recently; I didn't even bother to program a button for 810 this time.
Too bad, I missed it as a decent centrist between KSFO and the other right stations and the occasional leftie station that surfaces now and again.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 4, 2013 at 1:01 am
> Somewhat already covered in this prior post: Web Link
Thanks Palo Parent ... guess I saw that back when it posted. I guess not many people agree that they miss KGO.
Old 810 fan ... I'm with you, I don't even go to that spot on the dial anymore, though I occasionally check out Pat Thurston's podcasts as the only thing left on the station.
I cannot imagine that they are making more money or gaining the young listeners they thought they would. Does anyone know?
The only thing I have heard that is "lefty" is the Alan Colmes show, but all it is is Alan Colmes taking calls from people who insult him and yell at him. He does a good job showing them up, but that is not like the KGO format that was really unique.
Thom Hartman can be interesting, but I don't know where he is and never hear his show.
Of course Dean Edell quit long before this mass firing, and Bob Brinker left at about the same time.
Whatever ... can what is there now be better in any way?
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 4, 2013 at 9:36 am
Ronn Owens is still on, and he is still "the master" of regional talk radio, and a centrist, which I like. I dislike Pat Thurston - seems very oily to me. The elderly hosts that KGO laid off were...elderly, perhaps that's why a change of format was needed.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 4, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Howdy neighbor .... Ronn is the one who seems oily to me. Mentioned by a lot more people than I ... but I do appreciate Ronn even as a centrist he is far superior to what used to be talk radio in the 60's and previously - when to me it was abusive, right-wing and unlistenable.
What I like about Pat Thurston is not her beliefs or ideology it is her professionalism in that she allows others to talk without interruption - something that is primary to me in a talk show host. She is inquiring and curious and open-minded. She is left oriented, that is true, but she is not doctrinaire or dogmatic, and she is almost always polite to the other side unless she is insulted or attacked unfairly.
The old hosts, mostly Taliafero and Wattenburg were a bit much, although on rare occasions I could listen even to them and enjoy it. They both were more abrasive that I could tolerate.
Gene Burns was wonderful but I think with his health in question probably had to go sooner rather than later. Even though I would disagree vehemently with Burns on occasion I really miss him for his civilized manner and discussions.
Gil Gross I started out not thinking much of but over time I got to appreciate his style and intelligence, even if not so much his clownish sense of humor.
John Rothmann had no sense of humor, but he was amazing in his political and historical knowledge. I really appreciated Rothmann's show even if after a while I think he got burned out - as any political discussion lasting over 10 year will do to anyone! ;-)
I think KGO could have tried new hosts and developed ones with talent, even tweaked the format a bit instead of discarding the whole station ... it is really unlistenable now. I wonder if there are regular listeners or what is going on with KGO after a year now?
One thing that does not get past me is the large number of strange incidents with the hosts they chose, and why that was the case. I know there were historically some odd occurrences with the talk show hosts, but in my tenure as a listener there was the odd suicide of Dwayne Garret, the arrest and conviction of Bernie Ward on child porn charges. Some of the very late hosts such as Chris Clarke seemed to know insane over time at this job and really seemed to lose it. That is no fun to listen to.
Perhaps they just could not find anyone would could devote their whole life to a show, and take the pressure of being on the spot almost every day of the week in earshot of the whole West Coast.
It would be very interesting to know how and why what happened with KGO and what is different at the station now.
I enjoyed the talk shows because as music changed from my generations music and became to diverse and chaotic melange music is today I shifted from listening to music to enjoying hearing discussion ... civilized discussions of the "news of the day" as KGO used to say. KGO was tops at having some cool discussions and interviews - I miss it very much. KQED is great, and the other PBS station in our local listening area, but sometimes it's just nice to hear real people talk - after all this is America.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 5, 2013 at 4:44 pm
I find this a rather odd statement: "KQED is great, and the other PBS station in our local listening area, but sometimes it's just nice to hear real people talk - after all this is America." Seems to me I hear real people talk on KQED and also KALW. Most all of them are Americans, except on BBC World Have Your Say (on KALW) on which most callers are not Americans but people from all over the world. They're real people, as well.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 5, 2013 at 10:32 pm
Hey Area Man ... I don't know about anyone else, but KQED does have a lot of talk, which I appreciate and enjoy, but it rarely has LIVE talk or discussion ... as far as I know Michael Krasny's Forum show is the only call in show I have heard on KQED. If you know of others please let me know.
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Cherries and Berries
By Laura Stec | 1 comment | 399 views
One more week to vote!
Don't forget to cast your ballot online. Voting ends May 29th. Stay tuned for the results in the July 21st issue of the Palo Alto Weekly.


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text: I finaly finished my jodo kast helmet , Its made entierly out of plastic paint pots, sculpy and a heap of hot glue, As you can see ive for a bit of a difrent look than some of the other jodo's a bit more weathering and so on but as there is no real refrence material its open to interpratation . ANY way please leave comments and constructice crticism. Thanx .James..


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Brown and Rolle are the starters, with Hill as the 3rd safety. Watch out for Hill this season, guy is a solid player.
Then you have Mundy and Sash, two good special team players. And can't forget T.T which he may not even make it out of Training camp, but I believe they will see what he can do at safety.
Giants fan since the early 80s
I was just surfing around some yahoo articles, and i was just reviewing all the guys currently listed on the giants roster. and then i looked at the depth chart.
they already have Pugh there at RT(brewer backup), and slid Diehl back to backup LT lol
Oderint Dum Metuant
It's too bad, I'm too good....
I also keep forgetting we signed Cullen Jenkins.
We have an abundance of depth there currently. they are going to send some people home sad. lol
Oderint Dum Metuant
It's too bad, I'm too good....
I think the Giants just like photogenic backup QBs for the TV footage. lol....that's the only kind of competition the Gmen want apparently haha
Oderint Dum Metuant
It's too bad, I'm too good....


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Staying Safe
1. If you're sensitive to sulphites, avoid dried fruit and vegetables.
2. Most wines produce natural sulphites in the fermentation process, and sulphites are also added as a preservative. But some organic wineries are creating wines with no added sulphites. Some, such as LaRocca Vineyards in California, say their wines also have no natural sulphites or only traces of it. LaRocca's red wine contains no sulphites, while its white contains only 1 part per million of the chemical.
3. Check wine labels. Under U.S. rules, wine with less than 10 parts per million of sulphites is considered safe for most who are sensitive, and winemakers are required to list the sulphite content when it is greater than that. If the the wine contains only 8 ppm, the winemaker is allowed to label it: "sulphite-free".
Canada does not require winemakers to disclose the level of sulphites on labels, but the government has proposed legislative changes that would require this. In the meantime, if it's a North American wine, check with the winery or distributor regarding questions on sulphite content. And don't leave "sulphite-free" bottles of wine on the shelf for long; they may spoil.
4. Always read package labels, but be cautious. Even if you don't see sulphites on the label, they may still be hidden in the food, in one of the ingredients like glucose. Also, remember that some foods prepared in grocery stores or sold in vending machines don't have to be labeled.


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The 2011 Flying Dutch will be trying to get out of a rut in their quest to become title contenders in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA). For three consecutive years the Flying Dutch have finished third both in the MIAA seasonal standings and at the league's NCAA qualifying tournament.
Coach Greg Stafford begins his third season with a pre-season roster that includes seven returning letterwinners. Senior co-captains are Emily Atsma of Caledonia (Grand Rapids South Christian HS) and Megan Scholten of Grand Rapids (Grand Rapids Christian HS).
Scholten is a three-time All-MIAA golfer. She received second team recognition as a sophomore and junior after being a first team honoree as a freshman. Junior Charlotte Par of Grosse Pointe Farms (Grosse Pointe South HS) was an All-MIAA golfer in 2009.
Other returning letterwinners include sophomore Mary Bradley of Pierson (Tri-County Area HS), junior Maggie Mangan of Wheaton, Ill. (Wheaton-Warrenville South HS), senior Andrea McCarty of Denver, Colo (Cherry Creek HS), and senior Lauren Zandstra of Flushing (Flushing HS).
Four of the returning golfers -- Emily Atsma, Chrlotte Park, Megan Scholten and Lauren Zandstra -- were named 2010-11 All-American Scholars by the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA). The Flying Dutch were also a recipient of the MIAA Team GPA Award for a tenth consecutive year.
The Flying Dutch play a fall and spring schedule. The fall schedule, which determines the seasonal MIAA champion, includes four 18-hole jamborees and a 36-hole championship round. The spring schedule, consisting of three 18-hole rounds, determines the MIAA qualifier to the NCAA championships.


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What is in this article?:
- Tracking Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings
- An Explosion of Data
- There Can be Only One
The EIA prepares to start a new round of its federal energy use survey of commercial buildings
The ability to accurately measure and compare the energy use of commercial buildings is critical to improving their performance and increasing standards of efficiency. The compilation of performance data for the purposes of comparison and analysis will ensure new benchmarks. Recent building codes, such as the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) are aiming to increase energy efficiency in new buildings by 30% over the 2006 edition and 17% over the 2009 edition. In addition, policies, such as the Better Buildings Initiative are prompting partners in the private and public sectors to make America's buildings 20% more efficient over the next decade. Therefore, data collection is proving vital to gauging baselines of energy consumption and establishing benchmarks.
Although energy modeling, particularly when performed during the design phase, can be instrumental in making decisions regarding design, it can sometimes prove unreliable for predictive metrics. For instance, in 2008, Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) commissioned a study from the New Buildings Institute (NBI), White Salmon, Wash., which compared design intent to the actual performance of 121 buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) New Construction (NC) ratings system. The study found that data reported by more than half the buildings deviated by more than 25% from design predictions, with 30% performing significantly better than predicted and 25% performing significantly worse.
A study released last November by NBI and developed jointly with Ecotope, Seattle, summarizes the extent to which operations and occupant behavior impact a building's energy use compared to design characteristics. "Sensitivity Analysis: Comparing the Impact of Design, Operation, and Tenant Behavior on Building Energy Performance" also makes recommendations for design teams, owners, and operators on what they can do to ensure the full potential for energy savings from efficiency measures is realized — and provides a broad perspective on how buildings use energy and what aspects of building energy performance deserve more attention in design, operation, and policy strategies. Most significantly, the study suggests that although the market generally assigns responsibility for building energy performance to the design team for aspects such as envelope, HVAC system, and lighting system features, operational and tenant practices have a significant impact on building energy use.
For example, decisions about the efficiency levels of the lighting and controls systems are fully under the purview of the designers, according to the report, but the ultimate effectiveness of the lighting controls is more in the hands of building operators and occupants. "The perception that energy performance is relatively set once the building is designed and constructed is not valid," explained NBI Technical Director Mark Frankel, an author of the report. "In fact, a significant percentage of building energy use is driven directly by operational and occupant habits that are completely independent of building design, and, in many cases, these post-design characteristics can have a larger impact on total energy use than many common variations in the design of the building itself."
Therefore, while computer modeling of buildings built to the 2012 IECC shows on average more than 30% better energy efficiency than those built to the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 model code, the real-world performance of the buildings (once they're built and occupied) may not meet that level. The effect of occupant behavior, in particular, on energy use is difficult to predict. Despite being built to correct specifications, buildings may not perform as well as their modeled estimates because of end-users' unpredictable energy use. As a result, the new code contains language requiring proof of commissioning once the certificate of occupancy is issued, which may also be used for compliance reporting after building occupancy.


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Brian Hayes
It was the fourth day of a meandering coast-to-coast road trip. We were climbing through the Centennial Mountains along the Idaho-Montana border in an overloaded Toyota with a U-Haul luggage pod on the roof. As we crested Monida Pass, a sign at the roadside announced: Continental Divide, Elevation 6,823 Feet. "Well," quipped my traveling companion, "I guess it's all downhill from here."
For miles afterward—as we climbed still higher hills and crossed the divide twice more—I pondered that remark. The great divide is the spine of the continent: Rain falling on one side trickles into the Pacific, and on the other side into the Atlantic. The concept is simple enough, but I kept wondering how we would have known we were crossing the divide if the highway department had not put up those helpful signs. The divide is not necessarily the high point of a cross-country journey, so what distinguishes it, geometrically or topologically? That morning in Idaho, it seemed even more enigmatic than other lines that people draw on the landscape. For example, a contour—a line connecting points of equal elevation—is something you could trace out by carrying around an altimeter, but there is no instrument that would help you find and follow the continental divide.
The long drive home offered us ample opportunity to noodle away at this puzzle. Being a computer-dependent person, my instinct was to address the question in algorithmic terms; I would know that I understood the answer when I could write a program to identify the divide. Out on the road, however, I could not put such a program to the test. I am also a library-dependent person, but the urge to go find out what others had to say was also frustrated. And thus for a week or so I had no choice but to actually think about the problem.
In a two-dimensional world, it's easy to find a continental divide, if it exists. Think of an ant farm: a thin layer of soil sandwiched between two upright panes of glass. An ant walking along the surface of the soil from west to east will trace a one-dimensional profile, a graph of elevation as a function of longitude. If the profile has just one peak—that is, if the ant climbs steadily to some maximum elevation and thereafter descends continuously—then obviously that unique peak is the divide. ("It's all downhill from here," the ant might well say.) If there are multiple peaks with valleys between them, the highest of the summits must be the divide.
Some pathological possibilities could spoil this easy analysis. The ant-farm profile could have several tallest peaks, all at exactly the same height, or a plateau might form a continuous line of highest points. In these cases there is no unique continental divide. But such landforms are unlikely. Ignoring them, the algorithm for finding the ant-farm divide is straightforward: Just look for the highest point.
Leaving behind the ant farm to consider a two-dimensional surface embedded in three-dimensional space, the divide problem gets more interesting. In particular, the find-the-maximum algorithm no longer works. Just try it for the case of North America! When you search out the highest point in the lower 48 states, you find yourself atop Mount Whitney, in California, elevation 4,418 meters. But Mount Whitney is nowhere near the continental divide, and all the water that falls on its flanks winds up in the Pacific, none in the Atlantic. (Indeed, much of it flows through the municipal water mains of Los Angeles.)
Thinking about this phenomenon on a larger scale raises doubts about the whole concept of a continental divide. Just as runoff can sneak around Mount Whitney, it can also find a path around the entire American Cordillera, which doesn't really separate the Pacific from the Atlantic. After all, you can get from New York to San Francisco without climbing even the smallest hill: There is a sea-level route, around Cape Horn. From a topological point of view, a continental divide can exist only if a continent girdles the planet, so that the divide is a closed curve, with an inside and an outside.
Perhaps the best answer to this complaint is that the idea of a great divide belongs to the field of topography, not topology. Insisting on mathematical rigor is not necessarily helpful. In any case, we can rescue the concept of the divide, at the cost of making it somewhat artificial. The key step is to cut away a rectangular section of the earth's crust, corresponding roughly to the lower 48 states, and put it in a high-walled glass box—a terrarium, not so different from the ant farm. Now a continental divide is either a closed curve that lies entirely inside the box, or else it is a continuous line whose endpoints are anchored to the glass walls. With this definition, the divide truly does divide the territory into separate regions.
How should the terrain inside the box be represented mathematically? One elegant idea is to make the earth's surface the graph of a continuous function h(x,y), which defines a height h for every combination of x and y coordinates. (I assume the spherical surface is projected onto a plane. Also, it's necessary to smooth out cliffs and overhangs, so that every x,y pair yields a unique h.) The main advantage of this scheme is that you can find maxima and minima of the height function by taking the derivative of h and looking for its zeroes. The disadvantage is that an equation for all of North America is likely to be quite unwieldy.
A more practical alternative is a discrete model, defining the elevation of the surface only at a finite number of points arranged in a grid. To keep things simple, let the grid be rectangular, formed by the intersections of evenly spaced north-south and east-west lines. Also, connect each grid point only to its four nearest neighbors, so that water on the model landscape flows only in the four cardinal directions. With this model of the terrain, the task of a continental-divide algorithm can be stated more concretely. For each grid point, the algorithm must answer the question: Does this point lie on the divide? Does it shed water into two basins that do not communicate with each other?
As we motored on into Montana, I tried to come up with a quick-and-easy algorithm to answer these questions. My first thought was to make the most of local information about the immediate neighborhood surrounding each point. I reasoned that the divide ought to run mainly along ridges, and ridges can be recognized by a distinctive pattern of higher and lower neighbors.
But analyzing neighborhoods proved messy. Each of a point's four neighbors can be above, below or level with the central point, and so there are 34=81 possible configurations. That was too many cases to keep in mind while cruising down the Interstate, so I decided to simplify by pretending that no two adjacent grid points are ever at exactly the same height. (This ruse is not as unrealistic as it might seem; if you could measure elevations with infinite precision, the probability of finding two identical values would be zero.)
When all neighbors must be either higher or lower, there are 16 local configurations, and they can be further consolidated into just six classes. A peak is a point higher than all four of its neighbors, and a pit is lower than all of its neighbors. A point with exactly three lower neighbors lies on a ridgeline. The opposite case of three higher neighbors describes points along a valley bottom—a line known to topographers and crossword solvers as a thalweg. Finally, the points with equal numbers of higher and lower neighbors fall into two subclasses. If you stand on the central point and turn through 360 degrees to survey the neighbors, you might see them in a sequence such as above-above-below-below; a point of this kind lies on a slope. If the neighbors alternate, as in the sequence above-below-above-below, then the point is a saddle or pass. A saddle is special: It is the only kind of point that lies both on a ridgeline and on a thalweg.
Somewhere between Butte and Bozeman I began to doubt that this local classification was going to yield a useful algorithm. It doesn't even help much in the two-dimensional case (where each point has only two neighbors instead of four). A divide in the ant farm always lies at a peak, but the local properties of peaks will not tell you which of them is the divide. Finding the highest peak requires global information; you have to compare points throughout the entire array.
For the three-dimensional model, the situation is even stickier. Not only is local information unable to identify the divide, but in addition there is no simple global property that will settle the issue. You can't just compare each point with all the other points, looking for a maximum of some kind. Instead, you need to consider multiple pathways through the array of points.
But if local configurations can't solve the divide problem, maybe they can at least rule out lots of points that might otherwise be candidates for the divide. For example, it seems beyond question that a pit cannot form part of the divide, and so all pits can be crossed off the list. But as we rolled on beyond Bozeman toward Billings, I gradually realized that no other kinds of points could be excluded. Peaks and ridges and saddles are clearly allowed on the divide. It might seem that slopes and thalwegs would be ineligible, but this is not so. Think of a river delta, where streams diverge and bifurcate. If such a delta were to form at the outlet of a high alpine valley right on the continental divide, with channels flowing down either side, then the entire area of the upstream valley would have to be considered part of the divide, including the slopes and the thalweg.
Admittedly, a river delta in the headwaters is a pretty unlikely landform, but algorithms are supposed to cope with even the oddest cases. And natural landscapes do offer oddities. Some maps show the great divide itself dividing in Wyoming, where it envelopes a high basin. Even stranger are some unnatural landscapes. At the Big Thompson Project in Colorado a tunnel carries water across the great divide—or rather under it, or under the ridge where it ought to run—and thereby alters the topological genus of the earth's surface.
Over the next 200 miles, as we followed the eastbound Yellowstone River, I had several more bright ideas that proved faulty. For example, I thought I saw a way to extend the ant-farm algorithm to the 3D world. The first step would be to survey elevations along the south wall of the terrarium, and find the maximum. Then set out from this peak, moving to the highest neighboring point, then to the highest neighbor of that point, and so on. Stop when you come to another wall or when the path loops back on itself. I briefly believed that this procedure would trace out the divide. I had forgotten that the high point on the southern boundary is not necessarily on the divide, and so you might go wrong from the first step.
An attempt to patch up this idea led to another strategy, which I still find appealing even though it seems to be a dead end. Suppose you know the two points where a divide touches the perimeter of a square region, but the path through the interior of the square is entirely hidden. If you could cut the square into four smaller tiles, and determine where the divide crosses each of their sides (if at all), then you would begin to have a rough vision of its route. Quartering each of these squares yields 16 more, and then 64. Soon, it would be enough merely to know which sides of a square are crossed by the path, without trying to measure the exact position of the intercept. This is a classic divide-and-conquer algorithm, with a hint of deep recursive magic. Unfortunately, the magic is illusion. The algorithm's initial supposition—that we know where the divide enters and exits each square—is unfounded.
Yet another idea also exploits the distinctive topology of the divide—the fact that it is either a closed curve or a curve with endpoints anchored to the boundary. Here's the plan. Working from local neighborhood information, identify all the peaks and ridgelines, and paint them red. The labeled ridges will form a dense network, which probably traverses most or all of the divide, but it includes many other paths as well. To be able to see the divide clearly, you need to prune away the underbrush. Topology suggests a promising way to do it. The premise is that all the ridges except the divide must have at least one free end—a dangling terminal point like the end of a tree limb. You can find these free ends by scanning the array for red points that have only one red neighbor. Removing the end point creates a new vulnerable stump. If you repeat the scan until no more single-neighbor sites can be found, only the divide will remain labeled—or so I thought.
In some instances this procedure actually works, but it has serious weaknesses. In the first place, as noted above, the divide does not have to lie entirely on peaks and ridges, and so the first stage of the algorithm may fail to label some points it should. The second stage can also introduce errors. Suppose two closed loops of the divide are connected by a ridge that is not properly part of the divide system (water on both sides flows to the same basin). Because this extraneous section of ridge has no free end, it cannot be removed by the pruning procedure.
However tricky the divide problem may prove to be, a correct algorithm surely does exist, since nature somehow solves the problem. If all else fails, one can emulate the natural algorithm. The idea is to let raindrops fall on each grid point, and then follow the runoff as it drains toward lower elevations. The most thorough version of this algorithm pursues every downhill path. That is, if a point has three lower neighbors, then the algorithm follows droplets that roll along each of the three downhill links. The flow stops when the droplet reaches a pit and has nowhere more to go.
Tracing such paths for all points on the continent should identify the great divide. The divide is just the set of points from which droplets can reach both the Atlantic and the Pacific basins. (This is, after all, the definition of the divide.)
The rainfall algorithm works, at least for small test cases, but it is fabulously inefficient. An average point on the model landscape has two downhill neighbors, which means the number of paths to be explored doubles at every step. If a typical path is just 20 steps long, the algorithm will have to map a million paths for each point.
This exponential explosion of pathways should not be necessary. Real water droplets don't explore all possible routes to the sea; for the most part, they stick to the path of steepest descent. An algorithm can do the same, which makes the computational burden much lighter. But there are other problems. The divide has to be defined somewhat differently—as a path threading between grid points rather than a connected series of points. And there is the lake-bottom problem: A path of steepest descent seldom descends continuously from the divide all the way to the ocean. It's not all downhill from here.
Somewhere in North Dakota or Minnesota—near another divide that separates Hudson Bay from the Gulf of Mexico—I finally began to settle on an idea that might be called the global-warming algorithm. It works like this: Given North America in a terrarium, start raising the sea level, and keep the floods coming until the Atlantic and the Pacific just touch. At this moment you have identified one point—namely the lowest point—on the great divide. Now continue adding water, but as the sea level rises further don't allow the two oceans to mix. (This would be a difficult trick in a physical model, and it's none too easy even in a computer simulation.) Note the succession of points on the land where east meets west, and mark them down as elements of the divide. When the last such point is submerged, you have succeeded in dividing the continent.
Describing this process in terms of water filling a basin tends to conceal some of the nitty-gritty computational details. Real water is very good at flooding; it just knows how to do it and never makes a mistake. Simulated water, on the other hand, must meticulously plot its every move. To raise the level one foot, you have to check every point adjacent to the current waterline and decide which points will be newly submerged. Then you have to look at the neighbors of these selected points, and at their neighbors, and so on. There's the potential for another exponential explosion here, although with realistic landscapes it doesn't seem to happen.
When I finally got a chance to write a program for this process, I found that the algorithm is exquisitely sensitive to the order of operations. Consider the situation just as the Pacific is about to reach the lowest point on the divide. If the Atlantic has not been raised in synchrony, then the Pacific waters will pour over the saddle point and flood part of the eastern basin, shifting the divide to an incorrect position.
Back home again, and plugged in to libraries as well as computers, I was not surprised to learn that others had gone before me in thinking about the nature of watersheds and divides. But I was surprised to learn just who my predecessors were.
Two of the best publications on the subject are short papers by Arthur Cayley (a founder of topology and graph theory) and James Clerk Maxwell (the author of the electromagnetic theory of light). Cayley and Maxwell do not focus on continental divides—perhaps the concept is not an obvious one for residents of an island nation—but their analysis of landforms in general clarifies aspects the divide problem. They emphasize peaks, pits and saddles as the keys to delineating the fundamental regions of a landscape.
Much as Euler gave a formula for the number of faces, edges and vertices in a polyhedron, Maxwell relates the number of topographic peaks, pits and saddles on a surface. In the case of a sphere, the formula is p+q–s=2, where p is the number of peaks, q the number of pits and s the number of saddles. Maxwell also outlines a procedure for dividing the landscape into watershed regions. Whereas all my own methods progressed either down from peaks or up from pits, Maxwell argues that the right way to do it is to start in the middle—at a saddle—and proceed toward both peaks and pits along lines of steepest ascent or descent.
The more recent literature on divides and watersheds held another surprise. I had expected to find work by geographers and cartographers, and indeed they have written extensively on the subject. But there is also a body of work by students of image analysis and artificial vision. The connection is clear once it's pointed out. Just as a topographic map can be presented as an image in which elevation is encoded in brightness, so also a digitized image can be interpreted as a surface where altitude represents shades of gray or color. Finding watersheds in such a surface is a useful approach to identifying objects in the image.
The idea of using watersheds for image analysis was first proposed at the School of Mines in Paris in the 1970s. (The images that needed analyzing were micrographs of ore samples.) Workers there have continued to refine the method. The version of the algorithm I have found most helpful was devised by Luc Vincent and Pierre Soille when they were both working at the School of Mines.
The Vincent-Soille algorithm is related to what I have dubbed the global-warming method, but with a number of enhancements. One remarkably simple device greatly reduces the computational effort. In addition to storing the array of points that represents the landscape, they keep a list of the same points sorted in order of increasing elevation. With this list in hand, there is no need to search for points that will be submerged each time the water level rises; you can simply cross them off in order.
As it happens, one contemplated application of the watershed algorithm in image processing is the old dream of a car that drives itself. The "watersheds" detected in a video image might be the edges of a roadway. So perhaps the next time I cross the continental divide I'll be able to pay more attention. I won't have to keep my hands on the wheel.
© Brian Hayes
You can find this online at http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/num2/dividing-the-continent/4
© 2016 Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society


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I have nothing invested in this buy, but from other buys I have been in, I will never pay for a product until I see the product shipping to others again.
I hate being the guy waiting.
I hope this makes it, as I may be interested in the future.
That's the way I feel about it, you BS the customers to much you get use to doing it and it ends up biting you in the ass down the road.The funny thing is if I had been told, hey I need the money and it may take a few months to get this out to you I still would have purchased it and that would be it fine. but I don't like to be lied to.I really doubt it will become a "flame fest" here, the people here are far more mature then the other site mentioned. If it does get out of hand don't remove it, just have it locked, removing a thread is like burning a book.Looks like it turned into a flame fest. If it looks like this thread heads that way, i'll have the mods remove it.
I have nothing invested in this buy, but from other buys I have been in, I will never pay for a product until I see the product shipping to others again.
I hate being the guy waiting.
I hope this makes it, as I may be interested in the future.
So...how does this not blow your shoulder into next week??
Please excuse my ignorance , but I thought you needed a REAL heavy rifle for 50 BMG??
" Save a tree...........Eat A Beaver!"
I seldom talk to liberals.............................. But when I do, I order fries............
hmm, I still wanna order one, problem is, there is no place to shoot a .50 that isn't over 3 hours away.
As a retailer who has been in business for a very long time, I can tell you this.
It is a violation of the MC/Visa merchant agreement to process the the sale (whack your CC) before the unit is ready to ship.
They can get a verification number to make sure you have enough credit and set the funds aside, but not actually charge you.
Tell him you want a drop dead ship date and that if it does not ship on that date, you are going to dispute the charge. If he gets a couple of disputes, they will void his merchant agreement and his ability to accept CCs. Not a good way to start out.
I've been keeping a eye on this thread for sometimes now. Would buy this upper,but I think a few threads should be posted,just to see what the outcome of the shipping ordeal is.
The last time I got into a mass, it went on for over a year. By the time it was said and done, I was not happy with product. It just was not worth the long wate. Hope this turns good, couse I sure won't this 50 cal upper.
I now have a tracking number and the package has been picked up by UPS.
I should get the stuff before the weekend and I will snap some pictures and let you guys know how it goes.
I want to make it clear that was another customer that he told one thing and did another.
The post above was not related to me. As I said before I was not the only one that was having this experence.
The complaint is not that he never offered a refund to anybody who wanted one. I Don't know that anybody ever asked for one.
The problem was that when you do make a request for information about your order he would tell you a ship date a couple days off. When that day comes and goes with no shipment he makes no effort to contact his customer who he has already charged for the product.
You have to contact him he gives you a new ship date and the cycle starts again.
My stuff shipped. I will judge it fairly when I get it.
The guys on this board deserve to hear the truth about a real customer expereince. Not just the flag waiving of an obvious fan with unknown connections to the vendor.
Take some shots of your targets.Originally Posted by HeritageMX
This is the last post I will make directly to you. It looks like you might suffer a little from the same thing as Chris. look at the post you used to start this thread.I guess you didn't just stumble on to the "BOHICA" web site after all....Originally Posted by rbthntr64
You posted this same kind of thing on several other boards, Correct?
I find no fault in you promoting some thing or somebody.
But when an actual customer posts his actual experences and your answer is to threaten to run to mommy and have the thread closed and erased, I find some humor in it.


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Venue/Location: Off Campus
Date: Sunday, November 17, 2013 - 12:00 PM - 5:15 PM
The Monadnock Farm & Community Coalition, in collaboration with the The Colonial Theatre and community partners, is presenting "A Place at the Table" - a nationally acclaimed film underscoring the relation between hunger and obesity and the need for more accessible and affordable food - on Sunday, November 17 at 1pm at the Colonial Theatre in Keene, NH.
Many of our students come from food insecure families and communities. Some of them are thinking about careers in politics, business, human services and education, where they can be powerful forces for change. All of them have the potential to be touched by this film. Talk about "an education that matters."
Following the film, there will be a panel discussion, moderated by Senator Molly Kelly, where participants will see examples of the work that's being done locally on the related problems of hunger, food insecurity, obesity, and poverty. There will be opportunities to take meaningful action in our own community, and perhaps continue the discussion back on our campus.
The event is FREE, and includes a live musical performance, reception & refreshments. Suggested admission is a donation of fresh or canned food for local charity.
A FREE SHUTTLE for students will leave from the Field House on the FPU Rindge campus at 12:00 noon, and return at 5:15pm. To reserve a seat on the shuttle, students must sign up at the Info Desk at the Campus Center. A $5 deposit will be returned at boarding.
REGISTER FOR THE EVENT using the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/event/8394443005?ref=ebtn
This event is being organized by the Monadnock Farm & Community Coalition. For more information, email email@example.com.


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CodePlexProject Hosting for Open Source Software
Get the latest Html Agility Pack updates at our new Twitter feed
What is exactly the Html Agility Pack (HAP)?
This is an agile HTML parser that builds a read/write DOM and supports plain XPATH or XSLT (you actually don't HAVE to understand XPATH nor XSLT to use it, don't worry...). It is a .NET code library that allows you to parse "out of the web" HTML files.
The parser is very tolerant with "real world" malformed HTML. The object model is very similar to what proposes System.Xml, but for HTML documents (or streams).
Html Agility Pack now supports Linq to Objects (via a LINQ to Xml Like interface). Check out the new beta to play with this feature
Sample applications:
There is no dependency on anything else than .Net's XPATH implementation. There is no dependency on Internet Explorer's MSHTML dll or W3C's HTML tidy or ActiveX / COM object, or anything like that. There is also no adherence to XHTML or XML, although you can
actually produce XML using the tool. The version posted here on CodePlex is for the .NET Framework 2.0. If you need the old version, please go to the old page or drop me a note.
Examples - Code Examples
If you want to participate to the project - because that's the whole purpose of putting the source there, right - use the forums or drop me a note (simon underscore mourier at hotmail dot com)!
Happy coding, scraping, scanning, html-ing, xhtml-ing, etc... :^)
Simon Mourier.
Last edited May 14 at 12:40 AM by zzzprojects, version 9
Has made my life so much easier since I discovered HtmlAgilityPack. Use it every day, excellent release.
Took me 5min to get used to it, works nice !


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Jury recommends death penalty for convicted killer David Hosier
Hosier convicted of killing Angela Gilpin in 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A jury in Jefferson City has recommended the death penalty for a convicted killer.
On Wednesday, David Hosier, 58, was convicted of killing Angela Gilpin. Hosier is also suspected of killing her husband Rodney in their Jefferson City apartment in 2009.
A jury heard arguments Thursday and Friday morning during the sentencing phase of the trial. Around 11 a.m., the jury began to deliberate whether Hosier should be sentenced to life in prison without parole or receive the death penalty.
Just after 2 p.m., the jury recommended to the court that Hosier receive the death penalty. A sentencing date has not been set yet.
ABC 17's Brad Johnson reported the prosecutor in the case was instructing the jury to choose the death penalty. Prosecutors say Hosier has been proven to be a violent person in the past.
Prosecutors said even after an eight-year stint in prison for beating a girlfriend unconscious, Hosier still committed murder.
However, Hosier's attorney said his client is only violent toward women. His attorney told the jury to punish Hosier, but do not give him the death penalty.
Stay with ABC 17 News and abc17news.com for the latest on this developing story.


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Guess which costs more: far away by ship or close by truck?
Milk-cow-quality alfalfa hay is already over $300 per ton in California which isn't making this a fun summer for dairy producers there. An article last week by Bloomberg news isn't going to make them any happier.
It said that loading bales onto a ship and sending them from California to China actually costs less per ton than putting them on a truck and driving them to dairies a few hours north.
On the surface, the math looks insanely out of whack. From the Port of Los Angeles to Hong Kong is about 7,340 statute miles. It takes two to three weeks for a ship to get there. From Los Angeles to the central San Joaquin Valley is about 175 miles; it takes a truck three or four hours to get there.
Incredibly, shipping by ship costs less. Sort of. The president of a hay-exporting firm in California's Imperial Valley says shipping to China runs about $33 per long ton. Trucking to Tulare, however, costs about $54 per ton.
But the article doesn't mention a few things that probably understate the as-delivered cost by ship. Hauling the hay to the port also costs something, as does loading it onto the ship. Once the ship arrives, the hay also needs to be unloaded and hauled to the Chinese farm that bought it. Add it all up, and we bet the total prices are pretty close.
Still, it's yet another example of just how small the world has become and why competition extends far beyond your local neighbors.


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During the Vietnam War, they were giant tanks that drove around the jungle. Using coconuts as ammunition. The term "Gorilla Tank" comes from the fact that many gorillas would grab onto these tanks as they drove by. The reason for this was that these tanks can reach speed of up to 120mph, and these gorillas love it. As a defense mechanism, these tanks could stop suddenly, forcing the gorillas off and to hit any target ahead of them.
by Sir Sven May 21, 2008


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The Changing Landscape - The Impact to Patients' Privacy
Both President Bush and President Obama agree that every American should have an electronic health record by 2014. Congress agrees too and has poured $27 billion into digitizing the healthcare system. Using data instead of paper records, technology tools can analyze mountains of health information to understand what treatments work best for each of us, improve quality, facilitate research, and lower costs. Strong support for electronic health records systems and health data exchanges is bipartisan.
But the systems being funded have major, potentially fatal design flaws which are NOT being addressed by either party:
- Patients have no control over who sees or sells sensitive personal health information.
- Comprehensive, effective data security measures are not in use; 80% of health data is not even encrypted.
- Health data is held in hundreds or thousands of places we have never heard of because of hidden data flows.
- Hundreds of thousands of employees of corporations, third parties inside and outside the healthcare system, researchers, and government agencies can easily obtain and use our personal health information, from prescription records to DNA to diagnoses.
- There is no "chain of custody" for our electronic health data.
The consequences of the lack of meaningful and comprehensive privacy and security protections for sensitive health data are alarming. Over 20 million patients have been victims of health data breaches– these numbers will only increase. Millions of patients each year are victims of medical ID theft, which is much harder to discover and much more costly than ID theft. Such easy access to health data by thousands of third parties is causing an explosion of healthcare fraud (see FBI press release on $100M Armenian-American Fraud ring: http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2010/nyfo101310.htm). Equally alarming, this lack of privacy can cause bad health outcomes, millions of people every year avoid treatment because they know their health data is not private:
- HHS estimated that 586,000 Americans did not seek earlier cancer treatment due to privacy concerns. 65 Fed. Reg. at 82,779
- HHS estimated that 2,000,000 Americans did not seek treatment for mental illness due to privacy concerns. 65 Fed. Reg. at 82,777
- Millions of young Americans suffering from sexually transmitted diseases do not seek treatment due to privacy concerns. 65 Fed. Reg. at 82,778
- The Rand Corporation found that 150,000 soldiers suffering from PTSD do not seek treatment because of privacy concerns. "Invisible Wounds of War", The RAND Corp., p.436 (2008). Lack of privacy contributes to the highest rate of suicide among active duty soldiers in 30 years.
Public distrust in electronic health systems and the government will only deepen unless these major design flaws are addressed.
The President's Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights shows he knows that trust in the Internet and electronic systems must be assured. The same principles that will ensure online trust must also be built into the healthcare system --- starting with Principle #1:
"Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it."Back to blog


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Ramesh Shah
UTSA engineering college hosts lecture on fuel cells
(March 29, 2005)--Ramesh Shah, an expert on fuel cell technology, will lecture at UTSA on "Fuel Cell Technology- A Myth or Reality" at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, March 31 in Engineering Building Room 2.04.06 on the 1604 Campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Today's headlines
- La Prensa Foundation is newest member of UTSA Lone Star Society
- UTSA alumna Jordan Kaufmann wins $50K for new stent-graft start-up
- UTSA begins new way-finding sign installation this summer at Main Campus
- USA Today: UTSA long jumper Tyler Williamson rescues three-year-old boy
Article tools
Fuel cell technology, an emerging alternative to oil and gas as the source for electric power generation, improves efficiency and reduces ozone emissions. Most fuel-cell devices generate electricity by a chemical reaction involving fuels such as hydrogen and oxygen.
Shah, a research professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, has more than 30 years experience in design, analysis and test simulation of compact heat exchangers and thermal systems. He has served on seven international journal editorial advisory boards and has published 19 books and more than 100 papers.
He received doctoral and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from Gujarat University in India.
The lecture is sponsored by the UTSA College of Engineering and the San Antonio section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).


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In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Ever Merciful.
Love for All, Hatred for None.
A view of the Rushmoor Arena
A view of the Rushmoor Arena
Rafiq Ahmad Hayat Sahib Ameer UK, in an interview with MTA International News Correspondent.
Jalsa Gah Entrance
Nasir Khan sahib Naib Amir UK observing the Jalsa Gah preperations
Inside Mens Marquee
International Hotal near new Jalsa Gah (Rushmoor Arena)
International Hotel near Rushmoor Arena
Copyright © by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. All rights reserved.


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Equestrian events have been available for athletes with disabilities since Para-Equestrian Dressage developed in the 1970s. Dressage is the art of training a horse in obedience and in performing precise movements. The Paralympics have featured this graceful sport at every Games since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Para-equestrian events are open to athletes with any type of physical or visual impairment. Athletes are grouped into five different classification grades according to the level of their impairment.
Rules of the Game
There are currently 11 dressage medal events at the Paralympics: one team test, and individual championship and freestyle tests for each of the five classification grades. Men and women compete together. The tests require the horse and rider to be in perfect harmony. Judges score the competitor based on his or her horsemanship skills in the overall routine and in the individual movements.
Visually impaired riders may use callers to help them navigate the arena. Other special aids are allowed as well, such as saddles designed with extra support and rubber bands to help keep a rider's feet in the stirrups.
Click here to read about powerlifting at the Paralympic Games.