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Exactly what is my City inspector DO when he inspects a replaced hot water tank?
He came today, I stood beside him, I asked if he needed a flashlight, he said, no, but all he had in his two hands was his clipboard. I got my flashlight and proceed to ask about the fact that this tank was installed on Aug. 26th and I had hot water ONE DAY. The next date on aug 28th, Fri. I went to turn on my new hot water. There wasn't ANY. It was 4:10 p.m. and called the plumbing company and all I got was a "leave a message". Since this was the holday weekend, I could only call on TUESDAY (2days ago) and the man who installed came promptly at 8 a.m.. When I asked why he THOUGHT the light went out, he said, he didn't know, but MAYBE since I had the Blue Angels flying over my house last Thur. and Fri, MAYBE an air draft went down my flu and sucked it out. (I absolutely DID NOT LAUGH). I went upstairs, I heard him bang on a pipe and then I heard the pilot light ignight. He said it was ok now.
I finally had a shower and did one load of laundry. I washed 4 days of dishes in the sink. I took a nap.
I called the city to ask about having it inspected. The man said, there wasn't any permit for the installation. I became alarmed because this company has operated in my city for many years and in fact was the company who had installed my PREVIOUS tank that lasted 11 yrs. and when THAT pilot light kept going out (I had it lit 4 times before I called for a new tank). The city inspector said he would come over. (See above report). He called me back and said a sticker won't be issued by the city till a permit is purchased and he will contact the plumbing co.
My question is this: what if this new AMERICAN WATER HEATER, for which I paid a total of $695. (that includes an extra $100. for the 12 YRS. guarantee) what if it is a LEMON? Can I insist they take out this one and bring me a different one. Then how would I know it's a different one. Lastly WHAT EXACTLY is a city inspector supposed to do when they inspect??? I'm 73 a widow, but there's still a fire in MY furnace!!:furious:
As a city building inspector, I think I can shine some light on the inspector's responsibilities, as well as those of the plumber.
The fact that your water heater doesn't function has to be attributed to the installer or the manufacturer. If it is a manufacturer issue, your plumber should have caught it. If he didn't purge the air from the burner unit or light it correctly the first time it probably just didn't stay lit. If the problem persists, there may be an issue with the unit itself of the gas delivery to the unit.
Now, the inspector...
He's responsible for safety, not necessarily function. I'll cover function first. Because of liability, most inspectors will not adjust the dial on a gas water heater to determine that the unit lights. It would be an easy lawsuit for someone if they were scalded. Most cities' attorneys make this very clear to their inspectors. The residential plumbing code does not require that the water reach a certain temperature, or that it be limited to a certain temperature to prevent scalding. Tempered water (hot, but not hot enough to burn you) is in fact a requirement in most commercial construction based on accessibility laws and codes.
When I do a water heater inspection, I'm looking for the following:
I'm glad there's a good fire in your furnace! You're advocating for yourself! You paid good money for something that should work perfectly. Remember that the inspector is also advocating for you by requiring a permit. He's not making any money off of it, and could just as easily ignore the issue. Hopefully he's looking for all the things I listed (and anything I forgot to list but should have). :yes:
I can't tell you HOW MUCH YOUR REPLY is worth to me!
Not only did someone reply, but it was exactly what one would hope for! With your great explanation, now I won't make a fool of myself when I call that inspector tomorrow and inform him that I don't have any hot water again, which isn't HIS fault. My first call of course will be to the company and request that they send SOMEONE ELSE to look at it!
Great to have such a site as this. You've made an old lady happy again!:thumbup:
Glad to help. :) You've got the right attitude in dealing with the inspector, and probably have the right idea in asking that the plumbing company send you someone else to get it running. Perhaps someone that won't make Blue Angels jokes after you've spent a weekend taking cold showers.
Not sure if the inspector has approved the installation, but if he hasn't, request that he doesn't until you are confident that it is functional. Your permit probably has a duration of at least a month or two, so you might wait to make sure everything's good before he cuts the approval loose. Assuming he's willing, delay the inspection a few days. The City is often the only "free" leverage that you have in dealing with a problematic installation that has already been paid for.
Good one, kc!:yes:
Thanks. :)
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Basic TrueCouponing Class, Dunedin, FL
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 9:15 PM (EDT)
Who's Going
San Francisco, California
London, United Kingdom
Florence, Italy
Event Details
**Registration for this class is now open!**
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013, at 7:00 pm join us for a Basic TrueCouponing Coupon Class at Athenian Academy of Pinellas located at 2817 St. Marks Drive, Dunedin, Florida 34698. Please email Paige Ramsdell at firstname.lastname@example.com or call 727-459-1333 for more information. Thank you!
All TrueCouponing Classes are FREE (with free door prizes)! At this Basic Class you will learn:
- What is TrueCouponing
- How to find/gather your coupons
- Where to organize/store your coupons
- How to pull your coupons and prepare to shop.
- Basic coupon scenarios and tips
- Basic coupon lingo
We will NOT delve into more technical coupon scenarios like CVS and Walgreens. Those are covered in our Advanced Class. Please go HERE to view a list of all upcoming workshops and to locate an Advanced Class near you.
"It's no secret that the main source of coupons is the Sunday newspaper! Don't wait until after the workshop to start purchasing them...start this Sunday! Even though you will not use the coupons you purchase for a few weeks, they will maximize your savings. I suggest purchasing at least 4 papers (it sounds like a lot, but you will learn why this amount is necessary at the workshop). However, please DO NOT bring your papers with you. Just bring your smile and an open, willing heart to learn!"
Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
When & Where
2817 Saint Marks Drive
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 9:15 PM (EDT)
Add to my calendar
Faith Based company teaching families how to easily save money.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
2007-08-30 / Schools
CLU welcomes 600 freshmen and transfer students
Freshmen, transfer students and their parents attended an orientation last Saturday at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. The all-day event was an opportunity for students and their parents to learn about CLU.
About 600 freshmen and transfer students are newcomers to Cal Lutheran.
The overall message was that Cal Lutheran is an institution that genuinely cares about its students. That message was highlighted when parents and newcomers learned that CLU administrators- even high-ranking ones- don't live in ivory towers. Even the interim president of the university, Howie Wennes, enjoys brief visits with students on Wednesdays.
Wennes welcomed new enrollees and their parents in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, a short walk from the main campus across the pedestrian overpass that spans Olsen Road. He told the freshmen and transfer students they had made an excellent choice in attending CLU.
During their studies and other pursuits at Cal Lutheran they would learn, Wennes said, the answers to two basic questions: "Who am I?" and "What should I be doing?"
Students would also learn about and find in themselves character, judgment, confidence in their identity and vocation, and commitment to service and justice, an administrator said, while attending CLU.
Student body president Stephanie Lucas described the university as in institution of faith, reason, justice and community. "I can guarantee this will be a lifechanging experience," she said.
Lucas encouraged and challenged new students to use all the resources available on campus.
She also told them to get involved in extracurricular activities, to study abroad, to vote, to see a sunset from Mount Clef and to study in Kingsmen Park.
Each student was assigned a mentor from a group of about 30 peers, all upperclassmen with leadership skills. New students were encouraged to call their mentor if they have problems or find it difficult adjusting to campus life.
The day's festivities included lunch in Kingsmen Park and hors d'oeuvres in the late afternoon. For freshmen and transfer students, orientation would continue for three more days.
Classes began on Wednesday.


text: [dtse][/dtse] Gourmania Rating: Thought you could slink off on holiday? There's cooking to be done! Do you have the skills to win a cook off among the top chefs at a glamorous resort? Begin your journey at a fast food joint, finding the ingredients for the sandwiches your customers want and the processing their orders before time runs out. Before … Read More


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Words That Look Similar
Just to be clear, this is a TENDRIL wine rack... not a TENTACLE wine rack.
Dear Mr. Emmett,
We're sorry to hear of your disappointment with a recent purchase; however, there is nothing we can do to rectify the situation at this time. To avoid issues like this in the future, we suggest you READ CAREFULLY!
Yes, we know: you WANTED the stylish Table Top Tendril Wine Rack because you thought it would provide a fun and portable way to showcase your fine wines. But, what you ACTUALLY ORDERED was the Table Top TENTACLE Wine Rack.
Once again, our responsibility is to provide accurate information; the responsibility to read it falls on YOU!
As for your other question, why the "8 wine-holding tentacles" were still attached to an octopus, the answer is simple: there is NO HUMANE WAY to remove tentacles from an octopus, and we believe in a little thing called COMPASSION.
So, in short, what we're saying is, YOU NEED TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH YOUR MISTAKES!
Thanks for shopping!Sincerely,
Timothy Hayden
Customer Service
The Wacky Wine Holder Mega-Store


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New York Auto Show Opening Day: Supporting Veterans While Celebrating Cars & Trucks
April 20, 2014 by Toyota Bloggers · Leave a Comment
New York (April 19, 2013)
Increased Showroom Activity Points to Strong March Sales for Toyota
March 29, 2014 by Toyota Bloggers · Leave a Comment
TORRANCE, Calif. (March 25, 2014)
Scion FR-S getting ready for race debut at 'Ring
October 14, 2011 by Toyota Bloggers · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Coupe , Performance , Tokyo Motor Show , Scion , Subaru , Toyota Remember how the Lexus LFA race car debuted long before we ever saw the final production car? Well, it appears that parent company Toyota is planning to pull a similar stunt with its FT-86 Scion FR-S coupe. Here, we see a racier FR-S prototype being prepped for this weekend's German VLN race at the N


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I have a fun giveaway for all of you today. It's summertime! It's hot; time for lazy days by the pool, grilling out and – of course – ICE CREAM. What's summer without loads and loads of ice cream? So are you ready to win some cool summer kitchen play things?
I've teamed up with a group of wonderfully fantastic bloggers to offer one reader the opportunity to win this great prize, which includes (1) Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker, (1) set of colorful ice cream bowls with spoons and (1) copy of David Lebovitz's book "The Perfect Scoop".
Leave me a message below and tell us what ice cream you would make this summer if you won, and follow the widget below for more chances to win.
This amazing giveaway is sponsored by:Sign up for the Wishes & Dishes Newsletter for a fresh serving of content delivered every week to your inbox! And stay in touch on Facebook , Twitter , Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates!


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IAA names art show winners
Some of the winners in the Indiana Art Association Spring Art Show assembled Friday at the opening reception at The Artists Hand Gallery in downtown Indiana.
Pictured are, front row, from left: Sandra Pembleton, second place, professional; Joy Fairbanks, first, photography; Sherrill Begres, photography judge's merit; Darlene Palmer, third, photography; Jamie Mulac, first, nonprofessional; and Dayas Silis, IAA president; back row, Alec Russell, 15, first, student division; Jerry McClure, judge's merit, professional; J.D. Varner, second, photography; Jolene Joyner, first, professional; Bronwyn Kallsen, IAA scholarship recipient; and Dorcas Deforno, third, nonprofessional.
Sam Howard's "Untitled (Girl with Cigarette)" won best in show. The show continues through June 30. (James J. Nestor/Gazette photo)
James J. Nestor is a photographer for The Indiana Gazette.
More articles by JAMES J. NESTOR →


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President Obama accused Iran of "not taking its international obligations seriously" following the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Obama said he expects "some sort of definitive action" by the Iranian government to hold rioters responsible for threatening embassy officials and damaging property.
"All of us, I think, are deeply disturbed by the crashing of the English Embassy," Obama said. "That kind of behavior is not acceptable. And I strongly urge the Iranian government to hold those who are responsible to task.
"They have a responsibility to protect diplomatic outposts. That is a basic international obligation that all countries need to observe. And for rioters, essentially, to be able to overrun the embassy and set it on fire is an indication that the Iranian government is not taking its international obligations seriously."
The harsh words followed an earlier White House statement:
The United States condemns in the strongest terms the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran. Iran has a responsibility to protect the diplomatic missions present in its country and the personnel stationed at them. We urge Iran to fully respect its international obligations, to condemn the incident, to prosecute the offenders, and to ensure that no further such incidents take place either at the British Embassy or any other mission in Iran. Our State Department is in close contact with the British government and we stand ready to support our allies at this difficult time.
The Obama administration has stepped up the rhetoric and threatened stronger sanctions against Iran following an International Atomic Energy Agency report that it has not abandoned its nuclear program.
David's journalism career spans three decades, including coverage of five presidential elections, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2000 Florida presidential recount and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the White House for USA TODAY since 2005. His interests include history, politics, books, movies and college football -- not necessarily in that order. More about David
Follow the Oval on Twitter: @The Oval, @djusatoday.
Also contributing to the Oval: Richard Wolf @richardjwolf; Aamer Madhani @AamerISmad


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PGD2 Formation in Vascular Injury (PGD2)
This study has been terminated.
(Unable to find subjects that met inclusion/exclusion criteria.)
University of Pennsylvania
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
University of Pennsylvania
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: October 14, 2009
Last updated: January 31, 2013
Last verified: December 2011
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
No Study Results Posted on ClinicalTrials.gov for this Study
|Study Status:
|This study has been terminated.
|Study Completion Date:
|January 2012
|Primary Completion Date:
|February 2011 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)


text: Nordmarka forest The vast areas of untouched nature that surround Oslo are just 20 minutes from the city centre. The Nordmarka forest represents a source of recreation that is frequently used by the city's inhabitants, but also more and more visitors, both in summer and winter. Can any other capital cities offer skiing, kayaking, ice skating and island hopping – all within the city limits? Recommended starting points Some good starting points for outdoor experiences in the wilderness include Holmenkollen, Frognerseteren, Sørkedalen, and Sognsvann. You can easily reach these places with public transportation, and once you get there, you have many possible activities in front of you! Sports lodges in Nordmarka The Association for the Promotion of Skiing, The Norwegian Trekking Association Oslo, and the Agency for Urban Environment have many cabins in the forests in northern Oslo that are open throughout the year (check the opening hours before you go). Some are unserviced cabins that one can use if one has the key, while others serve lovely home-baked snacks for hungry hikers and skiers. Some also offer accommodation with meals included. Maps of Nordmarka Even though many of the trails in the forests are marked, it is a good idea to bring a map of the area. Oslo Visitor Centre has a free simple map of the area, while the best maps can be bought at The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) or at bookstores in Oslo.


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Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP)
Desert Schools offers Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) to safeguard your auto investment against financial loss in the event your vehicle is totaled or stolen. GAP is available on autos, motorcycles, motorized scooters, ATVs, boats and watercraft. GAP is designed to protect exactly that—the "gap" or difference between what you owe on your loan and what the primary insurance settlement will pay.
- Available for new or used vehicles1
- Covers up to $50,0002
- Available on loans up to 84 months
- Low one-time fee, as low as $495
- Free Look option3
The value may depreciate quickly, especially on brand new vehicles . . . leaving you with a loan balance that is temporarily higher than the value of the vehicle.
1Vehicle cannot exceed one-ton load capacity. Not available on commercial vehicles. GAP can be added 6 months after the loan is funded by paying with cash or adding to the loan.
2Maximum loan amount is $75,000 for autos and $125,000 for boats, trailers, and RVs, and includes up to $1,000 deductible.
3Option of canceling for a full refund within 60 days of GAP purchase.


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NASA is applying space technology to a decidedly down-to-earth effort that links the production of algae-based fuel with an inexpensive method of sewage treatment.
The space agency is growing algae for biofuel in plastic bags of sewage floating in the ocean.
The effort has three goals: Produce biofuels with few resources in a confined area, help cleanse municipal wastewater, and sequester emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that are produced along the way.
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With millions in dark money flowing into campaigns, no one gets a clear picture of what interests are pulling the strings. Georgia's 6th district election was no different.
Kelly Hayes of Truthout: Where was the Democratic ''Resistance'' when disabled protesters were being dragged out of their wheelchairs?
Speakout is Truthout's treasure chest for bloggy, quirky, personally reflective, or especially activism-focused pieces. Speakout articles represent the perspectives of their authors, and not those of Truthout.
As the Ebola outbreak continues to dominate headlines, so too do the stories of health care workers fighting to contain the disease. The climate crisis is morphing into a public health crisis, forcing nurses to join the ranks of other workers on the front lines of climate change: firefighters battling ever more destructive fires, farmers struggling to coax crops from drought-ravaged fields, fishermen hauling empty nets from warming waters. The nature of work is changing and we're not prepared.
For nurses, the risks became strikingly clear when news leaked out that Amber Vinson and Nina Pham, two nurses at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, had contracted Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national infected with the disease. While both nurses thankfully recovered, their situation highlights nurses as a new generation of "climate workers" exposed to expanding dangers on the job.
Acrylic on canvas 24 x 30 inches
Emanuel E. Garcia, 2014
Front View:
In the home of the Free Speech Movement at the U.C. Berkeley campus, students got a rude awakening when what they describe as an administrator "with clear political motivations" shut down the Beehive Collective's art project on drought and Proposition 1, Governor Jerry Brown's $7.5 billion water bond.
The Post is really angry that people are talking about the rich getting everything at the expense of everyone else. It demands in the headline of an article, "stop with the fiction of a binary economy."
Actually, nothing in the article really gives us much reason to question the reality of the binary economy that many economists have written about. For example, it tells readers:
"The jobless rate in the center of the United States from North Dakota to Texas is less than 5 percent and has been well below the national rate for five years."
Washington, D.C.- Dilma Rousseff's victory in presidential elections no doubt signals a desire from voters to see the past decade's economic and social gains continue, Center for Economic and Policy Research Co-Director Mark Weisbrot said today. With 98 percent of the votes counted, the Workers Party's (PT) Rousseff was declared the winner with 51.4 percent of the vote over challenger Aécio Neves of the Social Democrats (PSDB), who had 48.5 percent.
"It really should never have been close," Weisbrot said. "The Workers Party governments have delivered on clear economic and social gains since they first came to power in 2003, and voters apparently want those gains to continue. Even with the recent recession, and taking into account the financial crisis and Global Recession of 2008-2009, there has been average annual per capita GDP economic growth three times that of the previous PSDB administration.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has officially released a Fair Foodlabel to help shoppers identify which tomatoes come from ethical farms.
The label will be available to all grocery stores and restaurants that participate in the Fair Food Program. Participants in the Program pay a small premium when they buy Florida tomatoes, with the premium going to increase wages for farmworkers. They also commit to a worker-created Code of Conduct to ensure safe working conditions and prevent forced labor, sexual harassment and child labor in the fields. The Fair Food Program has been called "the best workplace monitoring program in the US," in the New York Times and "one of the great human rights success stories of our day," in the Washington Post.
A long, warm, coatless autumn made some wonder whether climate change might cancel winter this year in a reverse of the canceled summer two centuries ago in a year called "1800-and-froze-to-death". But no, I now read that the weather will change after all. Northern blasts may soon be here.
Perhaps economically as well? Two French economy ministers clearly felt the chill when visiting Berlin on October 20th, hoping to thaw out Angela Merkel's icy "austerity policy". Burdened with a 4.3 percent French budget deficit, above the European Union's 3 percent limit, and with President Hollande's popularity nearing the freezing point, these modern versions of Socialist politicians called for a deal: if Germany would invest 50 billion euros in projects to relieve Europe's sagging economy, France would cut its budget by 50 billion euros. But German leaders slapped down such a trade-off, tightly clutching their austere policies; Sigmar Gabriel, Merkel's Minister of Economics (but, at least according to his membership card, also a Social Democrat), said more private investments by France in areas like research were better than "flash-in-the-pan schemes". France should rather see about cutting its deficit, say by slicing up more labor laws. Noting who held the better cards, Monsieur le ministre soon ate crow: "I wasn't demanding anything," he whined. "It was just a suggestion."
The movie Kill the Messenger has brought to new attention to charges that the CIA was involved in drug smuggling in the 1980s. The central allegation is that the CIA at least looked the other way, as its allies in arming the Contras trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan government smuggled large amounts of cocaine into the United States. Jeff Leen, the Post's assistant managing editor for investigations, took up the issue in the Post's Outlook section today.
You have heard about Seattle's fight for a $15 minimum wage, or the teachers who organized a mass boycott of the MAP test. But you might not be aware of the newest movement–organized for one of the most basic human rights–that was recently ignited in the emerald city: The struggle for the right to play.
Parents and educators across Seattle are taking action to defend their children's right to ample time for recess and lunch. Parents and students at Whittier Elementary school set this movement in motion when they voiced objection to the school reducing lunch and recess time from 40 minutes to half an hour–gaining important local TV and media attention. Parents at Leschi Elementary soon launched an online petition that has gathered nearly a thousand signatures in a few short days. Now there is a city-wide organization of parents, students, and teachers called, "Lunch and Recess Matter." Lunch and Recess Matter is organizing a rally at the Seattle School District headquarters before the November 5th school board meeting (If you have a message of solidarity, relevant research, or attend a school with an important recess story, please contact me).
The text of the letter was short and precise, leaving no room for any misinterpretation in the "promise" made by Britain's Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour to a powerful representative of the Jewish community in Britain, Lord Rothschild on a fateful day of 2 November 1917.
"I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet: His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."


text:
The Search for Love
I spent my life running after the creation. I have always been what you might call 'needy'. I needed friends, I needed people. All the time. And I couldn't handle letdowns. But at the heart of what makes us run after the creation, is simply love. The need to give and receive love. This need has been put in us by the Creator. And every need created by God, has been created for a purpose. The need to give and receive love was created as a driver. A driver that pushes us back to God. You see, we began with God, and God wants us to come back to Him in this life—even before we come back to...Read More
Emotional bullying and being a 'loser' in marriage
Emotional bullying and being a 'loser' in marriage By: Yasmin Mogahed A few weeks ago, an article was widely circulated about a woman whose husband told her he was leaving and she decided to 'ignore' him (and his feelings) until they magically disappeared (See: http://theweek.com/article/index/99512/the-last-word-he-said-he-was-leaving-she-ignored-him#) . As I read the article, I did something different. Instead of putting myself in *her* shoes, I put myself in his. What I discovered was disturbing at best… What's wrong with what she did? The rhetoric and 'technique' was...Read More
Removing the Intruder: On Treating Love Addictions
Removing the Intruder: On Treating Love Addictions By: Yasmin Mogahed Every created thing yearns to fulfill its' purpose. The eyes yearn to see. The ears yearn to hear. The stomach yearns to eat. The heart yearns to love. And inside every one of us is a created thing. It is a gigantic mass. It is a mass of affection, loyalty, and devotion. And it was created with a purpose. It was created to be given. But it was made to be given in a very specific way, to a very specific place. What we chose to do—or not do—with this heavy mass, determines our state in this life and the next. The drive...Read More
On treating broken hearts (love addictions)
If you are trying to get over a person you can't be with, treat it like an addiction: 1. Cut yourself off from the drug completely: Cut off all communication and reminders–even if that means blocking numbers, emails, a Facebook profile, and stop checking their Facebook! This is your detox. 2. Replace it with something better: Increase in your thikr (remembrance of Allah) and get closer to Allah. If you aren't praying your daily prayers, fix that. Pray all and pray on time. Pray qiyam in the last third of the night (just before fajr). Make duaa, tawbah (repentance), cry,...Read More
A Reflection on Pain
It's easy to minimize a person's hurt without understanding the nature of pain. People often like to categorize how much a person should or shouldn't hurt about things. For example, when someone is upset about something, they say, "At least you're not paralyzed, or starving in Africa." While it's imperative to be grateful for what we have, I think people often mistaken the nature of pain, when they 'categorize' in this way. A relationship break up can hurt more than struggling with cancer (true story). The criteria for how much something...Read More
Islam Does Not Accept Domestic Abuse
To those who tell you to be silent and have 'patience' about abuse, know that the Prophet (pbuh) said:"Help your brother if he is an oppressor or oppressed." A man said, "Messenger of Allah, I can help him if he is oppressed but tell me how I can help him if he is the oppressor?" He said, "Prevent him from oppressing. That is helping him." [Sahih Bukhari]Read More


text:
Location: Children's Nutrition Research CenterTitle: Resistance exercise increase lean body mass and improves basal and hepatic insulin sensitivity in obese adolescents Author
|Van Der Heijden, Gert Jan
|Manesso, Erica
|Toffolo, Gianna
|Sauer, Pieter J
|Sunehag, Agneta
Submitted to: Acta Paediatrica
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/2/2009
Publication Date: 10/9/2009
Citation: Van Der Heijden, G.J., Manesso, E., Toffolo, G.M., Sauer, P.J.J., Sunehag, A.L. 2009. Resistance exercise increase lean body mass and improves basal and hepatic insulin sensitivity in obese adolescents [abstract]. Acta Paediatrica. 98:255(Suppl.460). Interpretive Summary:
Technical Abstract: Little is known about the metabolic effects of resistance exercise, for instance, weight lifting. We studied whether a resistance exercise program improves insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in sedentary obese adolescents. Elevn obese subjects (15.7 +/- 0.4 year; 35.4 +/- 0.8 kg/m2; 41.3 +/- 1.6% body fat), completed a 12-week resistance exercise program (1 h twice a week, exercising all major muscle groups). At baseline and completion of the program, body composition was measured by DXA, basal insulin resistance by HOMA-IR, peripheral insulin sensitivity by the stable labeled IV glucose tolerance test and hepatic insulin sensitivity by Hepatic Insulin Sensitivity Index = 1000/(GPR*fasting insulin). Glucose production rate (GPR), gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis (all expressed per kg lean body weight) were quantified by GCMS. Strength gain was assessed by isokinetic peak torque. All subjects were normoglycemic. The exercise program resulted in significant strength gain (P < 0.05). Body weight increased from 96.2 +/- 4.1 to 98.8 +/- 4.1 kg (P < 0.01) due to increased lean body mass (54.8 +/- 2.9 to 56.6 +/- 3.0 kg; P < 0.01). HOMA-IR decreased by 12 +/- 6% (P < 0.05) and hepatic insulin sensitivity increased by 28 +/-8% (P < 0.01) while average peripheral insulin sensitivity did not change (increased in 7/11 and decreased in 4/11 subjects). GPR decreased by 9 +/- 3% (P < 0.01) due to a 26 +/- 5% decrease in glycogenolysis (P < 0.01). A moderate resistance exercise program is an effective strategy to increase lean body mass, and basal and hepatic insulin sensitivity in obese adolescents, while peripheral insulin sensitivity is not affected.


text:
commandlinefu.com is the place to record those command-line gems that you return to again and again.
Delete that bloated snippets file you've been using and share your personal repository with the world. That way others can gain from your CLI wisdom and you from theirs too. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down.
You can sign-in using OpenID credentials, or register a traditional username and password.
First-time OpenID users will be automatically assigned a username which can be changed after signing in.
Every new command is wrapped in a tweet and posted to Twitter. Following the stream is a great way of staying abreast of the latest commands. For the more discerning, there are Twitter accounts for commands that get a minimum of 3 and 10 votes - that way only the great commands get tweeted.
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu3
» http://twitter.com/commandlinefu10
Use your favourite RSS aggregator to stay in touch with the latest commands. There are feeds mirroring the 3 Twitter streams as well as for virtually every other subset (users, tags, functions,…):
Subscribe to the feed for:
Maintained by Jon H.
Site originally by David Winterbottom (user root).
Wow, didn't really expect you to read this far down. The latest iteration of the site is in open beta. It's a gentle open beta-- not in prime-time just yet. It's being hosted over at UpGuard (link) and you are more than welcome to give it a shot. Couple things:
edit the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file and try to work whit this:
-A INPUT -i (interface) -m mac (mac address) -j ACCEPT/DROP
There are 4 alternatives - vote for the best!
If you can do better, submit your command here.
Of course this could also be used to tell a firewall to only NAT traffic from specific MACs. Imagine if you put a wireless access point on it's own subnet and physical port, and controlled access in this fashion.
Thanks, great idea! More interesting, also, your cmdLineFu about downloading all Command Line Fu site and how to find a VMware.
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Classroom lecture recording refers to the activity of recording a lecture with the help of electronic media devices like video cameras and microphones. This is a relatively modern concept devised to record the classroom experience in the form of electronic footage. The recording is accessible by the attendant of the lecture or even by someone absent from the classroom. The ... Read More »
First alert rd1 Radon Gas Test Kit Review
The radioactive gas which occurs naturally is a radon. A family can suffer a lot if there is radon gas in high amount at their place. This would affect their health a lot. With the help of walls, the radon can crawl into the house or there can be other constructional flaws which may give an invitation to the radon. ... Read More »
Great gaming gadgets for 2016
Few people get as excited about a new gadget as the modern gamer. This is because gamers are always seeking kit that will make their games faster, louder and more immersive than ever in a bid to experience the ultimate gaming rush, whether it's an ultra-violent first-person shooter, or just a quick online casino game. A player's gaming platform is ... Read More »
Micromax Canvas 6 Pro : An outstanding performer for Rs. 13,999
Micromax recently launched two new phablets in its iconic and popular Canvas series called the Canvas 6 and Canvas 6 Pro. While the Micromax Canvas 6 is more of a high-end offering with a premium metallic design, the Canvas 6 Pro on the other hand is a phablet-grade device that boasts better specifications. The Micromax Canvas 6 Pro is for ... Read More »
The Strikingly Powerful HTC Desire 520 Steel Grey New-Age Smart Phone
The HTC Desire 520 Steel Grey smart phone looks stunning and wonderful due to the unique steel grey color. In this fierce competitive market, this smart phone comes fully loaded with decent features to make this smart phone an astonishing success. The scheduled date of its market launch as per the expectations is 5th May 2016 and the price of ... Read More »
Movavi Video Editor Review
Editing videos is often viewed as a complicated process and one that is best left to those who are trained and have experience in doing so. However considering how widely videos are used nowadays, it will be to your own benefit to know how to edit videos so that you can tweak and improve any videos that you utilize. More ... Read More »
Don't Quit Your Day Job — Reach Out for Help
Are you employed to a full time day job? Well, if you are running a blog or thinking of starting one then I am sure you will be tempted by the thought of quitting your day job and put your efforts on your blog. This thought is actually tempting but is not a good idea at all. Unless your blog ... Read More »
Need for hiring training rooms!
There is a need for every organization to conduct training periodically for its staffs, vendors or others who are part of the business. It is by conducing different types of training sessions that the organization can ensure that everyone concerned is on the same platform and is updated regularly, which will help the business to prosper and grow in leaps ... Read More »
What should be the Strategy of the Students towards Cracking JEE?
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is a dream institution for most aspiring engineers across the county. In the past students have toiled hard and waited for 4-5 years to crack IIT JEE. While others spent years in other colleges while studying for the exam to acquire a seat in IIT. Students were happy even after a year loss if ... Read More »
Grand Theft Auto 6 : Everything We Know and Everything We Don't About GTA Next Gen
It has been over 2 years since GTA 5 was released into the world of online multiplayer gaming. So now it is time for the game-enthusiasts to ponder over the specs, characters and release date of the 6th edition of awesomeness. Let us take a quick peek at what awaits us, the GTA addicts, in the near future. How long ... Read More »


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Alexandre Nodopaka
It's Paris, You Know! - Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka
Standing inside the bus
holding on to the overhead hand strap
we sway to the rhythms of Paris
reflecting in the vitrines.
Paris in Springtime skips
window to window
dancing before 4 eyes
gazing in tandem out of the bus.
Dressed all snappy we ride
watching out for the Eiffel bus stop.
Meanwhile I write
three poems and toss them
into a carrefour fountain under three coins.
I envision another five poems.
to be written inside a pebble
with five interconnected holes
communicating with each other
by sound wavelength frequency.
Ear to ear like mouth to mouth.
Well, it's Paris, you know.
A silver wall plaque zips by, it reads,
Here resided Mistinguett.
I melt tho she was well before my time
and unlike the street sparrow Piaf
every time I hear her sing my throat throbs
my eyes tear
I break to pieces
Well, it's Paris, you know.
Topic(s) of this poem: Paris
Comments about It's Paris, You Know! by Alexandre Nodopaka
Read this poem in other languages
Alexandre Nodopaka's Other Poems
Famous Poems
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
Langston Hughes
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
Rudyard Kipling
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe


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On-X Ascending Aortic Prosthesis Implant Video
Minimally Invasive Aortic Root Replacement using an On-X Ascending Aortic Prosthesis
On-X Prosthetic Heart Valve Implant Technique Video
The On-X prosthetic heart valve offers:
- more protection from complications as seen in clinical trial comparisons
- the possibility of one valve for life instead of the temporary choice of tissue replacements
- the possibility of reduced anticoagulation medication
- more flow especially in small size aortic valves
On-X outperforms other valves in hemodynamic performance as seen in FDA trial comparisons.
On-X Prosthetic Heart Valve PROACT Clinical Trial Video
Clinical trials have shown that the On-X valve surpasses all other valves on the market in hemodynamic performance. The valve received full pre-market approval from the FDA in March of 2002.
In January of 2006, the FDA approved the first and only IDE (Investigational Device Exemption) lowered anticoagulation trial (PROACT Study–reduced INR) for a mechanical valve to be conducted at 40 sites in the United States for the On-X Prosthetic Heart Valve.
Heart Valve Choice: Mechanical vs. Tissue Heart Valves
Video of Dr. Jamieson on Heart Valve Choice: Mechanical vs. Tissue Heart Valves
Mitral Valve Repair: Chordal Replacement using Chord-X Pre-Measured Loops
Barlow Valve
P2 Repair


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Randall has been photographing landscapes since 2007. He has received multiple awards and his landscape and architectural photos have been featured in several local and international publications.
He has captured some of the best landscapes around the Philippines - a country with a scenic coastline stretching kilometers on end and provinces with mountains, rivers and lakes just waiting to be explored and photographed. He travels around the country and beyond in search of that moment where light and landscape meet for that epic frame. He is also one of the pioneers of digital false-color infrared in the Philippines with his unique methods of post-processing combined with long-exposures that have resulted in dynamic and surreal images.
He treats photography as a journey and a path of continued learning. He values the challenge of learning something new by visiting new places and revisiting the old; meeting new people, and looking for the chance to use tools and new technologies to improve upon the craft of photography. That is his goal, his passion - to use whatever spare time to travel and explore; to see and capture the amazing show of landscape and light wherever that may be.


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Posted by Brian Hopkins on April 21, 2011
Greetings — thanks for taking the time to read my inaugural blog! Let me introduce myself by way of continuing a discussion that I started at Practicing EA and CIO.com on innovation and technology that I think strikes at the heart of our challenges as enterprise architects. It also provides a good context for my future research, which I discuss at the end.
Closing The Innovation Gap
In part 1 of this post, I claim that a gap opened while we were fighting the overly complex, expensive current state and trying to help our business partners innovate with new technology.
The gap – We cannot deliver new technology and innovation quickly or cheaply enough.
Shadow IT Is The Symptom, Not The Cause


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Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Monday gave what is expected to be the software giant's last keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an event covered in great detail by IDG News Service's James Niccolai.
While Ballmer cleared missed a great opportunity by not announcing Microsoft was relaunching its beloved Zune music player, he did tell celebrity interviewer Ryan Seacrest and a roomful of attendees that "just as (Windows) Connect revolutionized entertainment, we'll see it revolutionize other industries -- education, health care and many, many more."
Humble as always, but at least Ballmer's shirt was uncharacteristically dry. It's always been an unpleasant experience watching the sweat-drenched CEO stomping around on a stage, bellowing and bragging about how great Microsoft products are.
Not nearly as unpleasant an image, though, as the one I'm about to plant in your brain, courtesy of Huffington Post's Peter Goodman, who opened his coverage of Ballmer's keynote with this paragraph:
Listening to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer last night hyperventilate about the company's supposedly stupendous future as purveyor of the planet's life-altering experiences was not unlike watching a heavyset, middle-aged guy strutting through a pulsating club, telling all the slinky, 20-something women how hot he looks in a Speedo.
Steve Ballmer in a Speedo. That's the kind of thing that should stay in Vegas.
Don't say you weren't warned. I know this was mean of me, but I'm not suffering alone.


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Location: Batangas City
Member since 7/15/2013
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Questions from nyelee
Bags Under Fine Lines? (photo)
I don't have huge bags under my eyes but I have a fine line under one of my eyes and when I smile, the said lines deepen and it's frustrating because under that line is a small... READ MORE
Botox or Fillers for Under Eye Wrinkle? (photo)
So I have this wrinkle under my eye which is now a lot more prominent than before. It doesn't really bother me when I don't smile but when I do smile, it makes me hate myself... READ MORE


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From Pakistan to Afghanistan, U.S. Finds Convoy of Chaos
Like a broker tracking the dips and spikes of a volatile but lucrative stock, Mohammad Shakir Afridi has kept a close eye on U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan since the first Americans landed in the country 10 years ago. As president of the Khyber Transport Assn., one of the largest associations of truck owners in Pakistan, Afridi's biggest contract involves moving military equipment for American and coalition forces through Pakistan to military bases in Afghanistan. The slightest policy shift in Washington can carry major consequences for Afridi and his business.
Sitting on a rooftop in a leafy residential block in Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, Afridi slaps the morning paper on the floor beside his mat. "Twenty-four of our boys in one go," he spits out. A front page photograph shows a field full of coffins draped in Pakistani flags. The soldiers were killed on Nov. 26 when U.S. helicopters and jet fighters from Afghanistan fired on military outposts on the Pakistani side of the border. The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S., which has been rocky for years, hit a new low. While the U.S. military promised to investigate and the NATO chief regretted the "tragic, unintended" incident, the Pakistani Prime Minister said there would be "no more business as usual" with the U.S. Pakistan demanded the U.S. vacate an airbase it was using in the South and choked off all U.S. and coalition military supplies traveling through the country.
Afridi learned of the American attack before the Pakistan military or government had issued any statement; one of his truck drivers called to tell him the border was closed. Afridi was later given orders from the military to halt trucks near the border, and to direct all others to the southern port city of Karachi. He quickly obliged. "It's serious this time," Afridi says. "They'll make the Americans sweat."
U.S. and Allied forces in Afghanistan get the bulk of their supplies in two ways. The first is the Northern Distribution Network, a web through Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia that crosses through at least 16 countries, using a combination of roads, railway, air, and water to move supplies in from the north. The chain can be complex and circuitous. One path through the network, for example, might involve military cargo that arrives by sea in Istanbul. From there it travels the width of Turkey on truck and crosses the northern border into Poti, Georgia. In Georgia the equipment goes by rail to Baku in Azerbaijan, where it's loaded onto a ship bound for the Kazakh Port of Aktau, across the Caspian Sea. Then it's put on trucks for the 1,000-mile ride through Kazakhstan, then a train through Kyrgyzstan and, finally, into Afghanistan.
The second passage to Afghanistan, known as Pakistani Lines of Communication, begins at the port of Karachi and continues on one of two land routes, north toward the logistical hub at Bagram Airfield or west toward Kandahar. It has always been the primary option for American forces: It's the shortest and cheapest, requires only one border crossing, and minimal time on the road inside Afghanistan. Nearly 60,000 trucks drive more than 1,200 miles through the length of Pakistan every year carrying supplies and fuel. According to varying figures provided by U.S. and NATO forces, 40 percent to 60 percent of all military supplies used by coalition forces in Afghanistan come through Pakistan.
Afridi doesn't cut the figure of a man playing a key role in the U.S.'s long war in Afghanistan. The 46-year-old Pashtun is from the Khyber Agency, one of the seven Pakistani tribal sectors along the border with Afghanistan. He has a neatly trimmed salt and pepper beard and prefers to drape his rotund figure in a plain white shalwar kameez and a black vest. When he's not too preoccupied, he wears a disarming smile. The only thing that makes him stand out from the legions of similarly dressed men on the streets of Peshawar are his dark tinted glasses and a cell phone that never stops ringing.
Even Afridi wouldn't have dreamed of such a life a decade ago. His grandfather started the family transport business in the 1960s, buying a few trucks to move melons, grapes, and wheat from the fertile lands of the Punjab in Pakistan to largely arid Afghanistan. Afridi inherited the business in the 1980s. In 1996 he added a few tanker trucks to his fleet after signing a contract with Pakistan State Oil to transport fuel from refineries in Karachi. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and coalition forces moved in to occupy the landlocked country, Afridi's business took off. He says he orchestrates a fleet of nearly 4,000 flatbeds and more than 3,000 fuel tankers that haul military supplies into Afghanistan.
On a November morning, two days after the U.S. attack, Afridi rides around in a brand new black Toyota Hilux Vigo pickup. He's just returned from the haj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, a prohibitively expensive ritual Muslims are required to do at least once in a lifetime—if they are able to afford it. Afridi says this year was his second haj. His first was in 2010.
Despite the prosperity, there are times he wishes he had never become involved with the Americans. After all, he is bringing fuel and supplies to forces fighting Pashtuns like himself in a neighboring country. In Peshawar, where his business is based—and where the Pashtuns are a majority—he's a man on the run, constantly looking over his shoulder. As Pakistanis increasingly see the U.S. as the real enemy in the conflict in South Central Asia, Afridi feels like a target for doing business with them. "Can you believe it? They won't even let my guards carry their guns here anymore," Afridi gestures to the two unamused looking men, with no obviously displayed firearms, who have hung near him like a shadow ever since they jumped out of the cargo bed of the pickup.
The fallout from the Nov. 26 friendly fire incident means Afridi's business is at a standstill, indefinitely. Still, he thinks the Pakistanis have done the right thing. He says he hates the sight of the American flag, and stands "shoulder to shoulder" with Pakistan's army. "Your homeland is like your mother," he says, pausing to turn off a ringing phone. "You can screw people here and there, that's just business." He peers over his dark glasses. "But you never, ever screw your mother."
Of Afghanistan's neighbors, Pakistan has the longest border and has historically wielded the most influence. It also provides the nearest seaport to Kabul. To leverage Pakistan's strategic position, the U.S. has poured more than $20 billion into the country over the past decade. The money is not simply to strengthen Pakistan's democracy against the threat from militants, as diplomats sometimes suggest. It has also been a way to buy Pakistan's loyalty, aimed specifically at luring Pakistan away from the Taliban. Most important, the money is also for the continued use of Pakistan's highway network. "If we want to be successful in Afghanistan," as General James L. Jones Jr., former National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama, said in recent congressional testimony, "the roads to that success have a lot to do with Pakistan."
The U.S. has worked hard to find an alternative. The Northern Distribution Network, running through Europe and Central Asia, was developed only in 2009. That was after the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan had begun the previous year. Besides easing congestion on Pakistani ports and border crossings, it was also an opportunity to decrease dependence on Pakistan, which the U.S. increasingly suspected was collaborating with the Taliban inside Afghanistan and providing their fighters and leaders sanctuary in Pakistan. Today around half of U.S. military supplies to Afghanistan come in from the north, but the northern network comes with its own set of challenges. (About 10 percent to 20 percent of supplies are flown in.) Besides being very long and costing three times as much to use as the Pakistani route, it's vulnerable to attack. Only days before the closure of the Pakistani Lines of Communication, a Russian news agency reported an explosion along the northern supply route in Uzbekistan.
Russia's sphere of influence spreads across much of the northern route, which can cause complications. In 2009, for example, after Kyrgyzstan threatened to eject the U.S. from the Manas Air Base, a key node in the supply chain, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Russia was "working against us." Two days after the Pakistanis closed the supply route in November, and the U.S. was left with only the northern route, Russia's NATO envoy made loosely veiled threats at closing off the northern supply line as well if NATO didn't begin to rethink its European missile defense shield.
Many countries along the northern route still don't allow the passage of foreign military gear, so Pakistan was the only way for the U.S. to move nearly all of its combat equipment. At a congressional hearing in May, Lieutenant General Mitchell H. Stevenson, the U.S. Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, was asked what the "long term impact" would be if the supply route through Pakistan was "suddenly shut down." After explaining that the Army kept a 45-day supply of reserve fuel on the ground in Afghanistan, the general said they could only "last several weeks" without any significant impact.
This is what Pakistan's calculation appears to have been from Day One. According to Abdul Sattar, Pakistan's Foreign Minister from 1999 to 2002, the evening after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, General Pervez Musharraf, who then ruled Pakistan as an unelected Chief Executive, called a meeting at the military's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. He wanted to discuss his country's response to the inevitable U.S. call for cooperation.
Abdul Sattar, one of only two people at that meeting not affiliated with the military, says that by midnight the group had decided on the broad outlines of Pakistan's official response to the U.S. in case of a war in Afghanistan. Sattar suggested a "Yes, but…" approach to Musharraf, meaning Pakistan should agree in principle to whatever reasonable demands the U.S. would make, then secure strategic advantages while negotiating the fine details.
Sattar was soon sidelined though, as were many others, and decision-making shifted into an insulated and small circle of generals closest to the dictator. "I would not hear much after that, a memo here or there, months after the fact," says Sattar, now retired and living in a quiet corner of Islamabad. The agreements the U.S. reached with Musharraf were never fully revealed, but information trickled out over the years.
The most important part of Pakistan's role in America's war was impossible to conceal: The country's highway network would be the route along which the U.S. military's supply chain would run. On this issue, Pakistan had taken the "Yes, but…" path. The country did not allow American military vessels on its waters. The U.S. Transport Command handed out massive contracts to international shipping lines such as Singapore's APL, the Danish company Maersk, and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd. Since the beginning of the war, APL has received more than $700 million in defense-related contracts and has moved more than 300,000 shipping containers for the U.S. military. Maersk has won nearly $2 billion in contracts. The goods transported through Pakistan include everything from blankets and microwave dinners to armored Humvees and Kevlar vests, and even shipping containers full of frozen food.
Getting all the overseas crude oil and other supplies to the port city of Karachi has proven to be the easy part. Once the cargo is unloaded in Karachi, however, the international shipping lines subcontract the job of getting it to Afghanistan to local agencies. Those agencies in turn hire local truckers like Shakir Afridi. And so the lifeline for one of the largest deployments of U.S. forces in American history falls into the hands of a loose association of truck drivers and owners from the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The nerve center of the transport business in Karachi is in Shireen Jinnah Colony, a smoggy and rusty seaside neighborhood with an apocalyptic landscape. Flatbed trucks are assembled from scratch on the side of the road. These "jingle trucks" are painted in every color of the spectrum and decorated with hundreds of intricate metal, wooden, plastic, and glass trinkets. In the background, monstrous oil refineries pump thick smoke into the air. From a small room in an office block abutting the Port of Karachi, Muntazir Afridi, Shakir's younger brother, deals with the southern end of the Afridi family business.
The trucking industry in Karachi, which is as far away as you can get in the country from Afghanistan, is in the hands of the city's large minority Pashtun population. Mostly immigrants from Peshawar and the tribal areas on the Afghan frontier, the Pashtuns arrived in the 1950s and '60s in flocks, looking for jobs. Largely uneducated and unskilled, 1,000 miles from home, they slowly acquired transport contracts to supply Pakistan's north. Their deep cultural ties to Afghanistan's majority Pashtun population also made them favorites for transport jobs for Afghan trade. In a city where ethnic groups battle and bloody the streets over slices of the local economy, two tribes in particular have an unshakable grip on the trucking business: the Shinwaris and the Afridis.
Muntazir Afridi's office is sparse. Taped to the wall are photos of the holy mosque in Mecca and the prophet's mosque in Medina. A desk sits in a corner, and on a rickety coffee table is an overflowing ashtray. "In Bombay they have their film industry," Muntazir proclaims with a smile, while sipping his morning green tea on a stained couch. "In Karachi we have the trucking industry."
With NATO transport shut down, the office block, which houses logistics companies, trucking companies, insurers, and customs clearing agents, is quiet. In an adjacent room, a group of men, mostly truck drivers, lie on soft rugs watching a Pashto film on television. The smell of Afghan hash hangs thick in the air. Other men, clearly stranded, shuttle between offices in the block with fists of crumpled papers, asking for loans, food, and lodging.
Muntazir is in his mid-20s and dressed, like his brother, in a plain white shalwar kameez. His beard is long and neat. He points outside at the sheer scale of the enterprise. Stretching for miles, from the walls of the office block below all the way to where the large cranes of Karachi's port are visible through the smog, is a patchwork of hundreds of oil tankers and flatbed trucks in yellow and red and green. "On a regular day they would all be on the move like ants," Muntazir says, but instead the trucks are parked, overflowing from the terminal lots. Lines of jingle trucks are parked, sometimes double parked, for miles along the roads of Karachi. The entire southern quarter of the city looks like it's been invaded by trucks.
The Afridi family is only one of hundreds that have enjoyed the boom from the steady flow of American military supplies through Pakistan after 2001. The real gold rush started with the troop surge in Afghanistan that began soon after Obama won the election in 2008. When he took office there were just over 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. By January 2010, the number had more than doubled to nearly 70,000. In May of this year, troop levels peaked at nearly 100,000.
More troops naturally meant more supplies. Figures issued by the Pakistan Federal Tax Ombudsman illustrate the spike in traffic at Karachi's port. U.S. military equipment received at the port rose from nearly 16,000 shipping containers in 2005 to more than 54,000 in 2009. Halfway through 2010 the U.S. military had already shipped nearly 30,000 containers to Karachi.
In Pakistan the demand for trucks skyrocketed. "Everyone who had nothing to lose took out a loan and bought a truck," Muntazir says. He invited many of his extended relatives from the tribal areas to come to Karachi and start driving. The local "third party vendor" transport companies, to whom the international shipping lines subcontracted, were so desperate for drivers that Muntazir says they began lending money to people they had just met, so they would buy a truck and get supplies moving. "There was just no way the companies would be able to deal with truckers," Muntazir says. "They couldn't keep track of a thing." Entire truckloads started going missing. Drivers would take the wheel of a brand new truck and simply drive off, never to return. The supply chain was coming undone.
This is where Shakir, the elder brother, began to do work he describes as "brokering," placing himself between truck owners and the local transport companies. He takes responsibility for the cargo and ensures it gets to U.S. and other ISAF forces in Afghanistan. Acting as a guarantor, Afridi receives a cut from the logistics companies when the cargo is picked up and again when it's dropped off. The work has proved so profitable that Afridi has sold his entire fleet.
In November 2008, Hakimullah Mehsud, a commander of the newly formed Taliban Movement of Pakistan, invited the news media to Orakzai, a tribal agency in Pakistan, for his first press conference. Mehsud arrived riding in a brand new armored U.S. military Humvee. As he posed for photographs, he told reporters he had captured a few American vehicles after attacking and looting a military convoy traveling through Pakistan. He boasted he would increase these attacks.
Such attacks started at the same time as the U.S. troop surge in late 2008. Fuel tankers began getting torched regularly and shipping containers were ripped open, looted, and left empty along highways. In the local press, Pakistani military officials told of groups in the tribal areas stealing helicopter parts. Militants who couldn't get to the trucks took to bombing bridges and roads along the route, at times shutting the supply route for days.
The supply line was not just vulnerable to militants. In the past several years, the Pakistani and American visions for Afghanistan's future have diverged so far that the relationship has turned hostile. Pakistan first cut off NATO's supplies in September 2008, in response to the first-ever reported incursion of U.S. troops into Pakistan. Two months later, after a drone aircraft targeted Pakistan's "settled," nontribal lands for the first and only time, 160 NATO trucks were burned in a nightlong rampage in Peshawar. Many believed the event was staged by the Pakistani military and meant to send a clear signal. Vice Admiral Mark D. Harnitchek, deputy commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, said in a 2009 speech that 12 percent of the freight bound for Bagram in December 2008 had disappeared.
The supply line has been under consistent fire ever since. In 2009 there were 25 attacks on NATO supply lines in Pakistan, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, an online database tracking terror incidents in the region. In 2011, before the supply line was closed in November, there had already been a total of 111 reported incidents, destroying hundreds of supply vehicles. Even in times of relative calm, the Pakistani military has had its hand on the valve, as it alone decides how many trucks carrying U.S. military equipment to let through on any given day.
The spike in attacks is partly because drivers and truck owners have jumped into the action. Drivers in particular, discouraged by the high risks involved, have taken to selling their loads of fuel on the black market, then setting fire to the tankers and collecting insurance money. They can earn a nice profit, even after paying off local collaborators. Though the scam is a pain for the brokers, Muntazir says he feels for the truckers. "These guys risk their lives, and they get what? Thirty thousand, maybe forty thousand rupees for a trip?" That's about four hundred dollars. Peanuts, says Muntazir. "Anyway, you can't blame them trying to make their little bit," he adds. "The real money is being made by those guys dealing in dollars"—meaning Pakistani transport companies, the Americans, and others higher up the food chain.
In June 2010, after an unsourced news report on Pakistani TV claimed that nearly 11,000 Afghanistan-bound shipping containers that had arrived in Karachi had gone missing, the Supreme Court of Pakistan asked another agency, the Federal Tax Ombudsman's office, to investigate. The case landed on the desk of Shoaib Suddle. A career police officer, Suddle was Karachi's police chief at the height of a war between several ethnic groups in the mid-1990s. He has a doctorate in white-collar criminology from the University of Wales and has also served as the chief of Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau.
When Suddle first began his investigation, he received little encouragement from his colleagues. It's made-up news, people would say. How can thousands of shipping containers go missing without anyone noticing? Then he had a breakthrough. The Pakistani ports and customs authorities were not keeping track, but he found that private container terminals in Karachi were keeping detailed records of the exact time containers would depart and return. Some trucks would never check back in. But thousands of mostly empty trucks were coming back too soon, sometimes a few hours after departing for Afghanistan.
"We found the mother of all scams," Suddle said. In a report published by his office earlier this year, he described complex transnational networks bribing local customs agents and using crooked bureaucrats in Pakistan to forge documents and create fake companies. The intent of that corruption was to get goods labeled as Afghanistan-bound into the country, and then divert them for resale on the black market.
In total, Suddle estimated that at least 7,992 shipping containers had never reached Afghanistan. The report called this "the tip of the iceberg." A follow-up investigation, also ordered by the Pakistani Supreme Court, revealed that close to 29,000 cargo loads have gone missing in the country. There is no way of knowing precisely what disappeared. While many of these containers were loaded with commercial cargo destined for Afghanistan, military equipment for coalition forces accounts for nearly 40 percent of all trade to Afghanistan through Pakistan. Pakistan's Federal Board of Revenue estimates that 3,300 shipping containers full of military equipment were among those missing.
According to an agreement between the Pakistani and British ministries of defense, signed in June 2002 and made public only recently, Pakistan allows ISAF military equipment to arrive in Pakistan without inspection. The U.S. military is not even required to file a customs declaration form describing contents inside shipping containers. Much of the lost military gear finds its way into the Pakistani black market. Some of it might even make it across the border into Afghanistan—but into the wrong hands.
In the Khyber Agency, not far from Peshawar, the hemorrhaging U.S. supply line stocks a long bazaar the locals call Karkhano Market. Among the haphazard corrugated-iron storefronts and randomly arranged merchandise, middle-aged women are shopping for "USA" branded oil and soap bars with the American flag printed on them. Crisply clothed young men in dark glasses who walk in and out of back doors make hushed deals with suppliers. Scruffy fighters drop in from Afghanistan to sample the latest in the military technology available on roadside tables.
Alongside old British rifles and Soviet AK-47s, American military gear like Kevlar vests, boots, camouflage suits, night-vision goggles, and knives hang from hooks. Tall stacks of large boxes carrying ammunition and weapons parts will not be opened without a good reference. In the bargain bins, thrown in with used fleece socks and shrink-wrapped copies of The Book of Mormon, are U.S. military operation manuals that restrict distribution to "DoD and DoD contractors only," and carry instructions to destroy "by any method that must prevent disclosure of contents or reconstruction of documents." A large sign for a shop on the second floor reads, "Haji M. Ikhlas USA traders," with crude paintings of a U.S. military helmet and army boots. In 2009 a U.S. military laptop that the U.S. Army's 864th Engineer Combat Battalion used for diagnostics and maintenance of military weapons systems and vehicles was found in this same market. It contained restricted U.S. military information, as well as software for military platforms, the identities of numerous military personnel, and information about vulnerabilities in American military vehicles used in Afghanistan. All that for $650.
Shopkeepers say that much of their stock comes from Afghanistan or is brought in from elsewhere in Pakistan—they don't differentiate. From whatever direction, it's clear that the stuff is stolen from the U.S. military supply chain, and here in the open black market it fetches a good price.
This is an enterprise that none of the subcontractors in the U.S. military supply chain—the international shipping lines, the local logistics agencies, the truck owners and drivers, and brokers like Shakir Afridi—lose much sleep over. After all, it doesn't affect their bottom line.
Back inside the city limits of Peshawar, Shakir Afridi is attending a lunch at the house of a truck owner he represents. There are more than a dozen guests, some of whom introduce themselves as truck owners, others as drivers. There are local officials from towns along the supply route who might help out with paperwork in case of an accident, and reps from the transporters' union, too.
Afridi sits at the head of a decadent spread of goat meat and Kabuli pulao rice. "When I was in Mecca last month, I prayed and begged Allah to finish this war," he says, sinking his teeth into a leg of goat, coated in dripping salty fat. A truck owner sitting next to him pours himself a glass of Pepsi and passes Afridi his phone. He wants to share a photograph of one of his drivers, whose eyes had been gouged out, he explains, by Taliban who attacked his truck as he drove along the western route to Kandahar. "This is a dirty, dirty business," says Afridi shaking his head sadly.
Afridi says he's not worried about revenue should the war end. He's confident other contracts will come through. After all, he's been cooperating with Pakistan's military for years now, "standing shoulder to shoulder." He talks about the Central Asian "stans"—all landlocked, growing, and looking to trade. He thinks Pakistan will start moving goods into Central and East Asia. Most important, he is convinced that "Allah, not America, is the one who provides sustenance to man."
As Pakistan and the U.S. drift apart, Afridi's prayers for an end to the war may soon be answered. As of Dec. 13, the supply route remains closed. President Obama has ordered a military investigation into the events of Nov. 26. In the meantime the blame game continues. While Obama has called President Asif Ali Zardari to offer condolences, the U.S. has yet to apologize. To the contrary, some U.S. officials are saying Pakistan was warned of the operation in advance. On Dec. 8, 32 oil tankers and 10 shipping containers full of NATO military supplies parked at a poorly protected terminal in Quetta were burned and destroyed. A day later the Pakistani Senate heard testimony about how the country had incurred nearly half a billion dollars in road damage over a decade because of NATO supply trucks. Pakistan's government pulled out of the Bonn conference held to plan the last stages of the conflict in Afghanistan. Pakistan, it seems, wanted to make the point that while it is consistently asked to do more to help in the war in Afghanistan, it can do less, too.
"America has been trying to get out of this for years now," says Afridi as he pushes away his empty plate and sticks a toothpick in his mouth. Dessert and green tea are served. "We have them so badly hemmed in that they can't go anywhere," he chuckles. By helping supply the U.S. with enough to keep busy in Afghanistan, but not enough to win, Afridi believes he is killing two birds with one stone. He is turning a profit and bleeding the country he hates most in the world. "They want out, but we're still not done with them yet," he says as he dips a spoon into a bowl of custard. "There's still a little more to go."


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Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link Hong Kong section
Route of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong XRL Hong Kong Section
|Kowloon and New Territories, Hong Kong
|Transit type
|Passenger high-speed rail
|Number of stations
|Operation will start
|System length
|26 km (16.16 mi)
|Track gauge
|1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
|50Hz 25,000V (AC)
|Top speed
|200 km/h (120 mph)
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link Hong Kong Section (XRL HK Section) is a proposed high-speed railway connecting Kowloon with the high-speed rail network of China at Shenzhen. As its name suggests, it is part of the rail link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province.
Current plan[edit]
In April 2007, the Executive Council assigned the task of planning and design of the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) to the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL). Government projections indicate that the XRL will carry about 100,000 passengers daily in 2020 and 120,000 passengers in 2030, generating an economic benefit of HK$83 billion over the next 50 years in terms of travelling time saved. Construction costs were estimated at HK$39.5 billion (US$5 billion), giving an economic internal rate of return of about 9%.[1] The government stated the objectives were to "reinforce Hong Kong's position as the transport hub in southern China and integrate Hong Kong into the country's rapidly growing express rail network", and promoting cultural tourism. It also argued that shortening the travelling time between Hong Kong and Guangzhou to just under 50 minutes—half the current journey time— would save "HK$83 billion over the next 50 years in terms of travelling time", and the creation of 5,000 jobs during construction, and 10,000 operational jobs.[1]
The XRL HK Section will only serve the West Kowloon Terminus. Trains will run to Guangzhou South Station in the Shibi Township of the Panyu District in southern Guangzhou through three intermediate stations, namely, Futian, Longhua (Shenzhen North) and Humen.[2][3] The expected travel time between Guangzhou South and West Kowloon stations is estimated to be 48 minutes, with a total distance of 142 kilometers.
Shenzhen North Station was open on 22 June 2011, and Futian Station is expected to open in 2014. Trains departed from Hong Kong may have destinations beyond Guangzhou, through the Wuguang High-Speed Railway and the Shiwu High-Speed Railway, or via Shenzhen North to Hangzhou and Shanghai through the Xiashen Railway, Huhangyong Railway, etc.
Under the current plan the total distance of the Hong Kong section is 26 kilometres, most of which through underground tunnels.[4] The dedicated track will enable a top speed of 200 km/h;[4] the expected travel time from Kowloon to Shenzhen's Futian Station is 12 minutes.[citation needed]
The construction cost in Hong Kong will be covered by the Hong Kong taxpayer[1][5] (whereas the construction cost in the Mainland section will be covered by the Guangdong Provincial Government and PRC's Ministry of Railways).
Hoping to be able to start construction of the Hong Kong section of the Express Rail Link (XRL) project before the end of 2009, the Executive Council approved the implementation on 20 October, paving the way for funding approval from the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council.[4]
Appropriations for the project secured approval of the Hong Kong Legislative Council on 16 January 2010.[6]
Service between Guangzhou South and Shenzhen North stations started on 26 December 2011.[7] The extension to Futian station, originally scheduled for 2012, has been delayed until on 30 December 2015 for Futian and the 3rd quarter of 2018 at the latest as planned for West Kowloon Terminus.
Opposition to the project[edit]
On 29 November 2009, a demonstration of more than 1,000 people protesting against the construction of the Express Rail link gained the attention of the local media when a group of 100 people engaged in a sit-in protest in front of the government headquarters in Central.[8] On 18 December 2009, when the funding application was debated in the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, a demonstration of an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 people was staged around the Legislative Council Building. The debate did not end at the time when the meeting was scheduled to be ended, and the funding application was not yet voted on.[9] A major protest followed in January 2010.
See also[edit]
- ^ a b c "Green light for local section of Express Rail Link". Hong Kong Government. Retrieved 22 July 2008.
- ^ Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link
- ^ a b c ExCo approves implementation of high-speed rail link, Hong Kong Government, 20 October 2009
- ^ 廣深港高速鐵路香港段工程項目簡介 (PDF) (in Chinese). Environmental Protection Department and MTR Corporation. Retrieved 22 July 2008.
- ^ Song, Shengxia (18 January 2010), Hongkongers protest vote on high-speed rail, People's Daily, Global Times, retrieved 28 January 2010
- ^ http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20111226-318220.html
- ^ Angry rail-link protesters clash with police, The Standard, 30 November 2009
- ^ Opponents of high-speed rail link claim victory as pan-democrats delay funding, South China Morning Post, 19 December 2009
External links[edit]
- Express Rail Link(Hong Kong), MTR official site
- XRL Project, MTR official site
- expressrailtruth.com, Opposition site (in Chinese)
Coordinates: 22°17′59″N 114°10′07″E / 22.2997°N 114.1686°E


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The sky presents two lunar spectacles for the price of one tonight. The full "Hunter" moon rises, while at the same time, sections of it are darkened by the outer part of the Earth's shadow, an event known as a penumbral eclipse.
In Washington, D.C., the moon rises at 6:14 p.m. this evening, and, by then, the eclipse will have already begun (it officially begins at 5:51 p.m. EDT). It will be most noticeable around 7:50 p.m., the time of maximum eclipse, says Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory.
"At this time you should notice a distinct darkening of the bottom of Luna's disc," writes Chester. "The shading will be quite subtle, but it should be readily apparent when compared to the northern limb. The darkening will then slowly shift to the southwestern limb before the eclipse ends at 9:52 pm."
EarthSky emphasizes the subtle aspect of the eclipse because, coinciding with evening twilight in the U.S., the sky will not yet be that dark.
"You may not notice any shading at all on the moon's surface if you see the eclipse from the Americas," Earth Sky writes. "Even as the eclipse is happening, you'll be seeing the moon low in the sky, peering at it through more atmosphere than when the moon is overhead. This is a very, very subtle kind of eclipse. Will it be noticeable? Maybe to photographers! We'll hope for some good photos."
It adds: "Europe and Africa will be in a better position to see the subtle penumbral eclipse because the lunar eclipse takes place at late night (instead of evening or morning twilight)."
Don't expect to see a bite taken out of the moon as in partial and total lunar eclipses, but rather parts of it will just appear duller than usual.
Whether or not the eclipse, the last of 2013, stands out, the moon itself will be striking, reaching 100 percent fullness at 7:38 p.m. EDT.
"Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons," writes the Farmers' Almanac. "The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it's time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead."
Clear skies in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast promise good moon viewing.
Readers: We want your moon photos! Please share them with us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Flickr!


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Hey Forum members.... Im the owner of Mayorga Coffee in Germantown Maryland, just wanted to say Hello to all and let you all know I will be providing a 10% discount (ONLY at Germantown) to all Forum members on any drink here
I have Coffee, Tea/chai , Latte's, espressos, Hot Chocolate, Fruit Smoothies, Bubble Tea(pearl tea), etc....
I also do sandwiches(panini!), soup, salads, pastries (cheescake, muffins, brownies etc....)
FREE wireless internet, Xbox station, Plasma TV's (set to football on Sat/Sundays... one is always on ESPN the other usually CNN)
Address is : Mayorga Coffee
12615-E Wisteria Dr
Germantown MD 20874
(301) 591-3874
Hope to see you all!
-Shahul Usman


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|View single post by cathy4328
|Posted: Sat Apr 30th, 2005 11:24 pm
|We have a Kenmore dryer , model # 110.96590820. We've never had a problem with it, until last night. I went to dry a load of clothes, and it wouldn't turn on. Checked the fuse box, saw the fuse was blown. There was also scorching by the outlet, so I unplugged it and called a friend. He came over and pulled the outlet. He said there was something that looked like soap on the outlet, and that was why the outlet blew. He replaced it with a new outlet, cleaned everything up and tested it. Everything worked fine. I then dried my clothes, and it worked perfectly.
Now, less than 24 hours later, I went up to do a load of laundry. I smelled the scorchy smell and there was a bigger mark on the wall, so I tried to turn on the dryer. Wouldn't work. Went to the fuse box, fuse was again thrown. Went back up and unplugged the dryer, and there's a whole bunch of gunky stuff on the plug. There's also a small line of something that looks like soap coming out of the outlet, but here's the thing - I haven't done any laundry or used any soap since last night. The walls are dry and no soap or liquids are stored above the dryer. My friend also looked inside the outlet while he had it open last night, and there was nothing inside to indicate that there was a leak from inside the wall. Any suggestions? Please?


text:
Search Results
Cited Taxa8 taxa cited in:
Fry, W. G. and J. W. Hedgpeth. 1969. Pycnogonida, 1. Colossendeidae, Pycnogonidae, Endeidae, Ammotheidae, Fauna of the Ross Sea, 7. Memoirs of the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, 49 : 1-139, 1 pl., 209 figs., 16 tables.
Click on a species name to view details, or select up to five species to plot on the map.


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Yes the harness was fairly tight to my body at the beginning of the day, but as the day wore on the front slid up. I have a Fettdad harness that I actually sewed to an old vest carrier that I had laying around. I was hoping the extra fabric would help, but it didn't fix it completely. I have a couple of ideas on how to keep it down. One is to use the larger velcro strap (which is about 4 inches across) on top of the front of the vest carrier. That should hold it better. The MOW pack is just a heavy JP too, so it probably always want to self lower.
The worst part is that it will take another troop to see if helps, since I probably won't suit up and wear it around the house for 5 hours. lol


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E70 BMW X5 produced between 2007 and 2013. Discuss the E70 X5 with other BMW owners here.
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From Diesel to 5.0 M-Sport, Adaptive Drive, Review, Photos
As some of you may know I bought a Diesel in June. I was originally interested in the Mercedes ML BlueTEC and even made a deal on one. By chance while my 535 was in for service I test drove the X5 Diesel. It was a standard non sport version. I really liked the X5 on the test drive compared to the ML. It seemed much more responsive, much more sporty, much more fitting with my taste and style. I even thought it sounded cool. I couldn't live with the ML after that. So I ordered a 35D with SA, 20" wheels, nicely loaded to the tune of $65.5K
I lived with the car for two months, then took it in for service. Minor adjustment of the seat air bladder position and replacement of a defective rubber wind deflector under the front bumper.
During the two months I had the car, I realized the car fatigued me, even short drives. The diesel sound and vibration goes from cool to annoying really quick, on the highway as well as stop and go city traffic. The Sport Activity Package comes with Sport suspension delete. I thought it would be a nice tradeoff considering the 20" wheels. I was wrong! The ride is very busy, even on seemingly flat pavement. Minor undulations are really unsettling for this suspension. Becoming major and prolonged pitch changes in the suspension geometry. Bigger pavement irregularities seem to send the suspension into Parkinson's like syndrome. Combined with the very firm sport seats and it becomes very fatiguing.
The 6 speed tranny is tuned for economy and really does not want to downshift. At WOT it downshifts to a gear, one gear too high in most circumstances. Sometimes it bangs out the right gear and really takes off, but the rush is short lived, it just doesn't want to play at higher revs. The up-shifts are really muddled. Slow and lacking crispness. For some strange reason, anytime it rained the car felt quicker and more responsive. Atmospheric pressure? Humidity?
The dealer set me up with a loaner while at service. I asked for an X5 and they did me a favor and set me up with one. It was a 13 35i premium. The minute I got on the interstate I was literally blown away by the difference. I drove gas X5s before, 535GT with the N55 as well as 5.0. This particular car seemed to be a factory ringer. It was an absolutely superb setup. Incredibly responsive, lighting quick gear changes. In manual mode, the up shifts are so quick and crisp it almost feels Dual Clutch, along with the little flare ups between shifts. On the highway, putting your foot down to the floor but not passed the "button" rewards with brisk gear change and acceleration. It seems to be in the right gear. But wait, there is more! Click the button under the gas pedal, and there is one more, lower. Spectacular! It just wants to breathe at higher revs. And there is always one more to be had. The exhaust sound in the 13 35i is phenomenal, especially in manual mode.
The Premium has 19 wheels. The ride is not as busy as in the SA D with 20's but still a little choppy. The car does seem lighter on its feet than the diesel. Possibly the weight. I haven't verified if the springs and dampers are the same/different part numbers.
Spoiled by this, almost week long relationship. I began considering my options. I was no longer enjoying the D. Yes, the 35i is nice, but if I'm going to get out of the D, I better get my rear end planted in a 5.0 seat. Suspension was my biggest dislike in the diesel. Reading all the positive responses here about Adaptive Drive and the comfort and sportiness it provides, I was almost certain there would be a check mark on that option box. Just to be sure I get the most isolation from NYC catacombs, I thought I should go with the 19's instead of 20's. AD with 19's, that's should be perfect for me, right? I was so close to ordering it but not wanting to make another mistake, I set out to find one with at least AD. It proved to be almost impossible. Yet, I managed to find two different AD equipped cars at different dealer's used lots and one 13 5.0 with AD, M-sport, M-performance, and 19s. My car!
Over two days I drove a total of five X5s, three being with Adaptive Drive.
2011 5.0 M-Sport with AD and 20s seemed nice. Not enough rough pavement on the test drive but on one bigger pavement transition it seemed to crash over it.
2009 3.0 M-Sport AD with staggered 19s felt like a floating boat. Nauseating body motions, poor steering response and unsettling harshness over somewhat concaved man hole covers. Couldn't wait to get out of this car.
2013 M-Sport 35i M-Sport with 20s no AD over the same road as the 09, felt much more composed. Firm but not too harsh. It controlled body motion briskly and felt much sharper.
2013 5.0 standard car no AD, 19s. This car seemed similar to my diesel.
Finally a 2013 5.0 AD M-Sport with M-Performance 19's. This was supposed to be my options. Well, I got a similar floaty feeling I got with the 09 that had the same wheels/tires. To a much lesser extent but the unpleasant front to back sway was there. Additionally, it also seemed to deal with the bigger road irregularities and indentations surprisingly poor. The Sport mode helped somewhat.
Unwilling to spend any more time test driving cars, I decided to take a calculated risk and Ordered a 5.0 with M-Sport/Performance with 20" wheels. There really was no other option. I knew I wanted the V8 after driving the Performance Pak 5.0. I knew I didn't want Adaptive Drive and I knew I didn't want 19's after putting my Diesel with 20's next to an M-Sport with 19's. I ordered the one combo I didn't drive, The M-Sport with 20s and Self Leveling Air Suspension.
I made a terrific deal with a local dealer and ordered it. The car went from 112 to production overnight and was at the dealer a little over a week later. I am absolutely Blown away by the level and quality of service I got from my SA. He made the deal happen for me, delivered on everything he promised in record time. Spent an incredible amount of his time fussing over every detail until it was polished. Finally when the car arrived, pulled it aside at the dealership so it sat separate from the crowds and even people smoking outside. On the delivery day, positioned it right next to his desk, locked, watching eagle over it. Put wheel locks on it free of charge and even adjusted the tire pressure himself. Wait, that's not all! He knew I transferred my lease on the diesel. On his own initiative, he asked if I could have the new owner call him so that he could update BMW Assist for him. I bought many brand new cars before, different marques, this is my fourth Bimmer. This has to be by far the best car buying experience I ever had. I usually go way out of my area to get a good deal and better service from sales. What can I say, It's not easy to leave me pleased. Sales Advisors like that make the dealership.
Finally about my car. The Self Leveling Air suspension in the 5.0 M-Sport is very well sorted. It remedies every issue I had with the diesel and the test drive vehicles. I'm convinced this is the option to have in the current X5 platform. The car feels very light on its feet. Very composed. The potholes and road bumps that became known to me are controlled quickly and effectively. There is no extra rear end sway, no float. The ride is as close to perfect as I can imagine for a high ground clearance vehicle. The handling is much improved over the diesel, especially transition response as well as steering feel and effort. The engine note is intoxicating. I don't want to push it too much during break-in but it is next to impossible.
Here are some pics from the test drives and finally my beautiful Space Gray M-Sport.
Last edited by z51vette; 09-16-2012 at 12:11 AM.
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Genmar creditors committee creates Web site
The Unsecured Creditors Committee in Genmar's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case has created a Web site to keep interested parties up to date on the situation. Click here to view the site. The committee also noted that Gary Potter of EZ Loader Boat Trailers was elected chairman of the committee and Marcia Kull of Volvo Penta…more


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a place for zinesters - writers and readers
these are zines i have made. they are available for trading, or for sale at USD$2 each. email me for more details! firstname.lastname@example.com
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Correct me if I am wrong. I marked the lines with arrows color coded to indicate which port and rear fitting I should replace the line.
What a hunk of crap quality GM used, theres no reason to be under a 07 vehicle pulling the brake lines out because of rust and thats the 2 main lines, I still have the line over the rear differential and a small line for the front, I already replaced the 2 from the resovior, my daughter just passed her road inspection, when I looked under her 93 opel the brake lines still looked great, no corrosion what so ever