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5.0 stars 18 reviews
Avvo Rating: 10
Cheryl L. Fratello is the president and founder of Fratello Law, P.C. and practices in the firm's trusts & estates, elder law and real estate departments. For years, Cheryl has assisted clients with their estate planning through the use of wills ...
Practice areas: Elder Law, Probate, Estate Planning, Real Estate
5.0 stars 1 review
Avvo Rating: 7.3
As a former IRS agent and CPA attorney, I bring to the practice of Elder Law a unique perspective and expeience. This makes us stand out and I have used this expeience over the last 30 years to help countless individuals and families. My office ...
Practice areas: Elder Law, Estate Planning
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Brenda has been a solo practitioner for over twenty-one years. She enjoys the freedom as a solo practitioner to focus on the areas of law that she enjoys. Elder law, in particular, is very rewarding as she can assist her clients in times of cris...
Practice areas: Elder Law, Estate Planning, Real Estate
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Review: "Donna Stefans is an excellent Attorney who pays 100% to detail and calls you back when ever you are in need of legal advise. She does an excellent job with any Estate or Tax issue you might have. If your loved one is elde...
Practice areas: Elder Law, Trusts, Wills & Living Wills, Estate Planning, Tax
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Elder law attorneys and elder care lawyers deal with issues related to elderly and disabled people. They write wills, answer tax questions, and plan strategies for obtaining disability, Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare payments. Their services are useful for health and long-term care planning, as well as end-of-life planning decisions and instances of elder abuse. Elder law attorneys know what public and private resources may be available for your elderly relatives or for anyone else you know with special needs.


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Driving a shiny car is a great way to experience luxurious transportation without the hassle of carving a carriage out of marble and training a yoke of peacocks to pull it. Keep your ride looking ritzy with this Groupon.
Choose from Three Options
$21 for a mini detailing package (a $42 value)
- Secretariat interior and exterior wash with basic wash, triple foam polish, and clear coat protectant (a $24 value)
- Silicone-based polysealant waxing that leaves a deep shine (a $10 value)
- Two mat-shampoo treatments using heated extractor (a $4 value each)

$40 for two mini detailing packages (an $84 value)

$23 for two Win car-wash packages ($48 value)
- Wash with foam cleanse and pure-clean rinse followed by triple foam polish and underbody wash
- Finished with a clear-coat protectant and wheel enhancer
- Rain-X, tire shine, and wheel wax

White Horse Auto Wash
Horse racing has been apart of the Rust family for centuries. The family celebrates their lineage at White Horse Auto Wash with an equestrian theme that is present throughout their whole establishment, from the White Horse name—an homage to the legend of the Shenandoah River fishing rock—to the horse-racing terms used to describe each car-wash package. But despite the richness of the Rust family history, it is their modern approach to cleaning cars that garners the most attention.
Below concrete floors, thousands of gallons of recycled water churns through White Horse's reclamation system, sending it to the surface through low-flow nozzles to cleanse vehicles. To complement this eco-friendly system, White Horse's team give each car, truck, and SUV a glossy shine using biodegradable products, from a triple-foam polish to Rain-X and a carnauba-based wax applied with an orbital buffer.
Customer Reviews
15705 Jefferson Davis Hwy.
Woodbridge, VA 22191
+17037302024Get Directions

subset: commoncrawl


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Boston is the oldest continuously active US port of arrival. Long before Massachusetts Bay Colony formed in 1630, American Indian tribes settled and traded there. After Europeans arrived, Boston became a busy place for passengers, cargo vessels, trading ships and the shipbuilding industry. It was the gateway for expanding the East Coast Colonies.
By the 1750s, the Mid-Atlantic Colonies were growing by leaps and bounds, and Philadelphia replaced Boston as the major center of arrival and trade. Not long after William Penn's ship The Welcome landed on the shores of the Delaware River, Philadelphia became a leading center for trade and newcomers to the infant United States.
Founded in 1729, Baltimore received thousands of immigrants. It originally was established as a port to move crops along the Eastern Seaboard, as well as cargo to and from international destinations. Newcomers flocked to Baltimore partly because of its inland setting on the Chesapeake Bay—it was the closest Atlantic port to major Midwestern cities and manufacturing centers.
New Orleans became an epicenter of immigration and trading in the early 1700s, when the French owned Louisiana. People and cargo arrived at this port, then traveled north along the Mississippi River to their final destinations You might have heard that certain ethnic groups favored certain ports—for example, Boston was a popular destination for Irish immigrants. But keep in mind that each port has ushered in immigrants of just about every nationality and ethnic background. For example, the greatest influx of Italians came through the port of New York, but significant numbers also disembarked in New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston.


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Our duo stripe gold ribbon is a blend of gold and solid colored ribbon that is simple, yet elegant. The resulting combination is a glamorous ribbon that can be used for various Christmas or gift designs. Available in 3/8" width on 50 Yard Spools.
General Shipment Timing GuidelineThis product takes about 2-3 weeks before we are ready to ship not including ship time to your area from JKM's facility.
(Product Characteristic: Metallic Stripe) / (Fabric Content: Rayon/Metallic)


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Granted By: Indiana University
Academic Unit: IU School of Informatics and Computing
Degree(s): Master of Science
Doctor of Philosophy
Overview: Research and theory in informatics move rapidly to application and development. The faculty teaching in the School of Informatics participates in research activities and new applications of technology. As a result, faculty can transmit state-of-the-art knowledge to students. Indiana University is capitalizing on this great research strength in informatics with the formation of an Informatics Research Institute (IRI). IRI will conduct research in areas of emphasis shared with the School of Informatics, including: fundamental research in human computer interaction; fundamental research in capturing, managing, analyzing, and explaining information and making it available for its myriad uses; and expanding research into policy and socioeconomic issues arising from information technology.


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Lake and Martha Crenshaw to Speak at Mount Holyoke February 15
on the "War on Terrorism"
Nikki Giovanni to Deliver Black History Month Keynote Lecture
February 14
and Author Bill McKibben to Speak at Mount Holyoke February 11
Wins Institute on Teaching and Mentoring Award
Details Postgraduate Educational and Career Paths of Young Alumnae
Student Rocks!
Staff, New Hours at CDC
Terms to Remember: Interns Report
Studies Scholar Robin Blaetz: Exploring the Language of Imagery
Panels Are Capstone to Renovation of Pratt Hall
Web Site to Assist Victims of Sexual Violence
Yarns with Pete Seeger
a Journey of Courage
Week at MHC
Champion of the
Liberal Arts
The "Learning" section of the February 3 issue of the
Boston Globe featured a question-and-answer interview with Elaine
Tuttle Hansen '69, who was named the seventh president of Bates
College last month. When asked by the Globe about how she feels
about being the first woman to lead Bates [she will take over
in July], and how, if at all, that fact will affect her presidency,
she replied, "None of the schools in the New England Small
College Athletic Conference have women presidents at the moment.
None of the formerly men's colleges have women presidents. It
is peculiar to me. Most of this is really about the times. I think
if you could have looked ahead twenty or thirty years ago, you
would have said that this was about the time that women who were
educated would be ready to step into positions like this. This
is not about me, but about the way the world has changed."
Globe correspondent Shari Rudavsky noted that Hansen is, "a
graduate of Mount Holyoke College, [who] believes she is a steward
of the American liberal arts tradition" and asked the president-elect
what she perceived as the greatest competition Bates [and by extension,
all liberal arts colleges] now faces. "Fifty years ago, small
liberal arts colleges were educating probably 40 percent of the
population. Now, given the growth in so many different forms of
higher educationcommunity colleges, distance educationonly
about 3 percent of students go to liberal arts colleges. This
means we have to adapt, to preserve what's so wonderful about
liberal arts institutions and be willing to innovate and keep
up with the times. There is a certain amount of competition among
liberal arts colleges and the sense that you're being compared
to each other heightens the competition. I think we ought to be
very careful to collaborate with each other to make sure that
the entire model of educationthe liberal arts, four-year
residential collegesurvives. I see the competition from
other, cheaper ways of providing postsecondary education as a
larger threat to us."
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Copyright © 2002 Mount Holyoke College. This page created by Office of Communications and maintained by Don St. John. Last modified on February 8, 2002.


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We'll help you find the right solution for your needs
Does this sound like your topic?
Let us know when your receive great advice so we can thank our lawyers and point others with similar questions in the right direction.Got it!
I've been injured on the job which has lead to two back surgeries. I've been P&S on both the one in 2009 they gave me 14000 for the first surgery which rated me 13%. I've now had another surgery in 2012on my back to. They have endow 17% P&S on this one. But have not paid me PD.they say I mde of had a overpay of TD to which they have to sort out. Mt permanent disabilities made me not return to work cause they could not accommodate them. I've recently applied for disibility industrial retirement in may 2013 n was granted on aug2013. Can I recieve more compensation then what they have given me so far and how do I make them give me the PD on this past injury. I'm now retired from the state of California job but I think they owe me more then the 14000 granted from first surgery and more.
Please consult an attorney in your area either through this website or through caaa.org. The money owed is not based on how many surgeries you have had. It is based on what that percentage is. An attorney could help assess whether there is more that can be done to obtain a fair percentage for you which translates to more moneyAsk a similar question
A local workers compensation lawyer should be retained to properly evaluate your claim, and to ensure you get the benefits to which you are entitled.Ask a similar question
You absolutely need to retain a workmen's comp lawyer, now.
Behar Intl. Counsel 619.234.5962 Kindly be advised that the answer above is only general in nature cannot be construed as legal advice, given that not enough facts are known. It is your responsibility to retain a lawyer to analyze the facts specific to your particular situation in order to give you specific advice. Specific answers will require cognizance of all pertinent facts about your case. Any answers offered on Avvo are of a general nature only, and are not meant to create an attorney-client relationship.Ask a similar question
Workers compensation is a specialty area in the law. I respect that you've never needed an attorney in your life and that you are now retired. But, now is the time to consult with one of the good AVVO workers compensation attorneys in your jurisdiction. The insurance company and the employer have their own interests in mind and that does not include optimizing the claim of the employee or even informing you of all that is available to the injured worker. Here's more: Blue-Link-Below
Law Offices of Andrew D. Myers, North Andover, MA & Derry, NH provide answers for informational purposes only. Actual legal advice can only be given by an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction, thoroughly familiar with the area of the law in which your concern lies. This creates no attorney-client relationship.Ask a similar question
If you are unable to return to work you should get an attorney to assist you I would also recommend you apply for soc sec disability if you are under 65Ask a similar question
Are you aware that the alleged TD overpayment is often negotiable? Do you know if the doctor rated your back injury correctly? Are there other body parts you should also be alleging are work related? Are you happy with your workers' compensation medical care or would you rather buy out your right to future medical care? Are you experienced in negotiating with State Fund? All of these questions highlight why you should have a reputable WC attorney representing your interests.Ask a similar question
There may or may not be more money for you, but you will surely need a good WC Attorney to sort it out. I know some excellent Attorneys, and some excellent Attorneys know me.
I represent Employers, but I can recommend Worker Attorneys in So Cal if you ask.Ask a similar question
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Nov. 28, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery
TENNESSEE TIDBITS In the 20th meeting between the two teams, the Lady Vols remained perfect against MTSU improving to 20-0 in the all-time series.
Tennessee is now 30-2 against Sun Belt Conference teams.
The Lady Vols improve to 215-42-1 against teams from the state of Tennessee.
UT moves one step closer to 1,200 all-time wins (1,196-266-1)
The Lady Vols took their first lead of the night with 4:26 left in the game on a Kamiko Williams jumper. Williams aided her own cause stealing it away from Shanice Cason.
Today's attendance was 10,768
FOR STARTERS Today's starters: sophomore Cierra Burdick, freshman Bashaara Graves, sophomore Ariel Massengale, junior Meighan Simmons and sophomore Isabelle Harrison.
Burdick and Simmons are the only Lady Vols to have started every game of the 2012 season. ashaara Graves got the first basket of the night at the 18:20 mark floating in a jumper from the right side of the key.
After starting the first five games of the season, freshman Andraya Carter was the first substitution of the night for the Lady Vols.
TAKING OVERTIME The Lady Vols are now 28-16 all-time in overtime games winning their first overtime game since Dec. 19, 2010 (82-72 vs. Stanford)
The Lady Vols are now 2-1 in overtime against Tennessee teams. Tonight marked the first OT game for the Lady Vols against a team from the Volunteer State since a 82-81 victory over Tennessee Tech on Jan. 8, 1978.
CLUTCH KAMIKO Kamiko Williams provided the offensive spark to help the Lady Vols to the tough victory over MTSU.
The senior gave UT its first lead of the night stealing the ball and knocking down a jumper with 4:26 left in the game.
Williams gave the Lady Vols a five point lead near the end of regulation firing a three with the shot clock expiring, but UT was unable to hang on to the lead.
In overtime, after hitting a jumper to put Tennessee up six, Williams drew her first charge of the game and first of the season with 36 seconds left in the game to keep the ball in Tennessee's hands and retain the victory.
SPREADING THE OFFENSE AROUND Four Lady Vols hit double-digits in scoring as junior Meighan Simmons tallied a team-best 19 points, leading the Lady Vols in scoring for the fourth time this season.
Bashaara Graves and Ariel Massengale had 15 points on the night, a season high for Massengale, while Harrison put up 10 to go along with six blocks.
Simmons hit double digits early in the second half and her 19 overall points put her just 10 points shy of 1,000 for her career.
Simmons his the double-digit mark for the fourth time this season and 52nd time in her career. Bashaara Graves has netted double figures in all six games this season with 15 tonight. She recorded the second double-double of her career adding 12 rebounds, registering the feat in regulation.
HARRISON SHUTTING THEM DOWN Isabelle Harrison set a new career high with six blocks, four in the first half against the Blue Raiders, including three in the first five minutes of play.
The Lady Vols finished with eight blocks, including Harrison's six in her fifth start of the season.
ON THE RUN The Lady Vols used a 9-0 run over a 1:25 span near the end of the first half to put themselves within two points with five minutes remaining.
In the second half, the Lady Vols brought it within one with a 10-0 run spanning 3:46 in the second half to narrow the MTSU lead to 55-54.
The Lady Vols finished the game out on a 13-4 run in overtime.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF FREE POINTS Senior Taber Spani and freshman Jasmine Jones took advantage of MTSU's hacking by converting on their and-1 opportunities.
Spani was 1-1 in and-1 opportunities converting at the 13:49 mark in the second half while Jones was 1-for-2 in and-1 opportunities.
The Lady Vols were 16-of-21 on the night from the charity stripe compared to MTSU's 8-for-12 effort.
Cierra Burdick (4-for-4), Meighan Simmons (4-for-4), Isabelle Harrison (2-for-2) and Spani (1-for-1) were perfect from the free throw line.
TAKING CHARGE With 6:01 left in the first half, Jasmine Jones drew her first charge of the season, prompting a 7-0 run by the Lady Vols to bring the score to within two (29-31).
Kamiko Williams drew the charge of the game with 36 seconds remaining in the overtime period to give Shanice Cason her fifth foul of the game and keep the ball in UT's hands.
UP NEXT Tennessee wraps up its three-game homestead Sunday when No. 22 North Carolina comes to down for a 1 p.m. matinee.
STATS AT THE HALF The Lady Vols were down at the half for the first time in the 2012 season by a 35-39 margin. UT and Chattanooga were tied at 28-all at halftime of that game.
The Lady Vols trailed by a 12-point margin with 9:11 remaining in the first half, the second largest margin of defeat in the 2012 season, the Lady Vols were down 13 at Chattanooga with 22 seconds left in the game, 80-67.
The 39 first half points given up were the most by any team this season and more than the 37 points given up to Alcorn State throughout the entire game.


text:
Related Publications
- Related by Author
- Related by Topic
Related Links
Fatherhood's Cold War
CLAL: the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, 2000
Topic: Men, Law, Family, Women
Name of Publication: CLAL Politics and Policy Archive
Genre: Brief
Coverage: United States
Language: English
Copyright Information: Download for personal use, freely distribute link
Bibliographic Information:
Brenner, Daniel S. Fatherhood's Cold War. CLAL Politics and Policy Archive. CLAL: the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. 2000: http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=2305
» View Publication
(PDF, 74 Kb)


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S&P: Still Accumulate Time Warner
Time Warner (TWX ): Reiterates 4 STARS (accumulate)
Analyst: Tuna Amobi, CPA, CFA
Before 5 cents of net one-time charges, Time Warner posted third-quarter earnings per share of 15 cents vs. 11 cents, one cent cent above S&P and Street estimates. Revenues and adjusted EBITDA grew 5% and 9%, as expected. Time Warner affirmed its 2004 EBITDA growth target of low double-digits to low-teens. But AOL U.S. narrowband customer attrition continued at a slightly higher pace than we expected. More troubling to us, however, is the planned restatement of historical financial statements (2000, 2001 and possibly, 2002) arising from the AOL Europe consolidation, as Time Warner establishes a $500 million legal reserve for a pending government probe.
Ford Motor (F ): Reiterates 3 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Efraim Levy, CFA
October sales volumes of Ford vehicles fell 5%, year-to-year. Cars declined 20%, but trucks rose 2.5%. Sales volume for the important F-Series rose 16%, but we are disappointed by the weakness in most of the company's premium brands. We expect incentive activity to continue in the very competitive U.S. automobile market. Ford's sedan sales should benefit from the recent introduction of two new mid-sized cars as well as the new Ford Mustang and Escape hybrid vehicle. Based on peer and historical p-e analyses, we have a 12-month target price of $14 for this cyclical company.
General Motors (GM ): Reiterates 3 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Efraim Levy, CFA
GM's October total vehicle sales volume declined 4.7% year-to-year. Light truck sales declined 4.6%, while cars dropped 5.3%. Sales for the month are disappointing and we believe GM lost market share. Ford sales were down 5%, but sales for Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler rose 2%. We are concerned about GM's inventories and incentive levels in the U.S. We think further production cuts in January could follow GM's reduction in fourth-quarter U.S. production. Based on peer comparative and historical p-e analyses, our 12-month target price remains $41.
Prudential Financial (PRU ): Maintains 3 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Gregory Simcik, CFA
Prudential posted third-quarter adjusted operating earnings per share of 92 cents, vs. 68 cents, 8 cents ahead of our estimate. Results benefited by 4 cents from favorable mortality and 3 cents from a tax true-up. Prudential has received requests for information in probes of insurance broker practices. We believe high 2004 transition costs will decline in 2005 and that stock buybacks will continue into 2005. However, reduced pension income and share dilution from convertibles over the next 3 to 6 months is a concern. We are raising our 2004 adjusted operating earnings per share estimate to $3.43 from $3.28. Our 12-month target price remains $51.
Halliburton (HAL ): Reiterates 3 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Stewart Glickman
With an apparent victory by President Bush in the election, we note that we would expect a Bush win to benefit oilfield services companies generally. However, we expect that KBR, the business unit involved in government and infrastructure work in Iraq, will continue to generate chronically low operating margins, and that Halliburton will continue to shift resources to its more profitable energy services group. Based on discounted-cash-flow and relative valuations, our 12-month target price remains at $38.
Cigna (CI ): Maintains 3 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Phillip Seligman
Absent favorable prior-period claims development in this year's quarter, Cigna posted third-quarter operating earnings per share of $1.59, vs. $1.45, 23 cents above our estimate. Premiums and fees fell 10% and memberships 16%. We attribute health care segment's 86% rise in earnings to price hikes, better medical management, and lower costs. Given operating gains, we are raising our 2004 earnings-per-share estimate by 30 cents to $6.00. However, we see further membership declines amid competition. Assuming more cost cuts, we look for 2005 earnings per share of $6.20. Our target price is $68, a below-peer 11 times our 2005 earnings per share estimate.
Freddie Mac (FRE ) and Fannie Mae (FNM ): Reiterates 2 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Erik Eisenstein
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae opened weaker today despite notable strength in the broader market. We see this as a fair reaction to the likely reelection of President Bush, as well as Republican gains in Congress. We think Congress will take another pass at reforming the companies in 2005, and that Republicans generally are more likely to consider issues pertaining to the implied government-sponsored subsidy, particularly if there are further adverse events in the Fannie Mae accounting controversy. We are cutting our target prices for Freddie Mac to $57 from $58, and for Fannie Mae to $59 from $61.
Countrywide Financial (CFC ): Maintains 3 STARS (hold)
Countrywide Financial announced 2005 earnings-per-share guidance of $3.25 to $4.25. The assumptions underlying the new guidance are consistent with our projections, including that the company can take market share during the period. In our view, the biggest issue facing Countrywide in 2005 will be operating expense control in what we see as a smaller overall mortgage origination market. We are keeping our 2005 earnings-per-share estimate at $3.85 and our 12-month target price at $35; the latter reflects a lower p-e than most other financial institutions, but a slight premium to the shares' historical multiple.
PG&E (PCG ): Reiterates 2 STARS (avoid)
Analyst: Justin McCann
PG&E posted third-quarter operating earnings per share of 57 cents, vs. 42 cents, in line with our estimate. The increase reflects the impact of rate increase and higher transmission revenues. Year-ago reported earnings per share of $1.23 included regulatory-approved recovery of previously uncollected purchased power costs. We still see 2004 earnings per share at $2.10 and 2005's at $2.20. PG&E hopes to restore its annual dividend payout at $1.20 in April, indicating a potential below peer yield of 3.8%. But we continue to believe PG&E shares are overvalued at nearly 15% of its p-e premium to peers and are maintaining our 12-month target price of $30.
Priceline.com (PCLN ): Reiterates 4 STARS (accumulate)
Analyst: Scott Kessler
Excluding acquisiton-related costs, Priceline.com posted adjusted third-quarter earnings per share of 28 cents, vs. 20 cents, 1 cent above our estimate. GAAP earnings per share was 23 cnets, vs. 21 cents. Revenues fell 9%, and were 9% lower than our forecast, reflecting the hurricanes that hit the southeastern U.S., and dissuading travel to and from those areas. Opaque airline ticket sales were also below our expectations. However, we are maintaining our earnings-per-share forecasts of 88 cents for 2004 and $1.14 for 2005. Our 12-month target price remains $24, based on peer and discounted-cash-flow analyses. We continue to believe that Priceline.com is an attractive acquisition candidate.
Estee Lauder (EL ): Reiterates 3 STARS (hold)
Analyst: Howard Choe
Estee Lauder posted September-quarter earnings per share of 41 cents, vs. 33 cents, 4 cents above S&P and Street estimates. Selling, general and administrative expenses were lower as a percentage of sales than we had expected. Total sales and operating profit rose 9% and 21%, respectively. Despite the 4-cent upside in this quarter, the company's updated earnings guidance for the first-half of fiscal 2005 (June) only raises the range by 1 cent to 96 cents to 99 cents. We expect a high level of marketing spend for the holiday season. Full-year fiscal 2005 guidance remains unchanged at $1.88 to $1.93.


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When one thinks of the phrase "sex scene," the connotations of lush, vivid sexualities splattered over the silver screen spring to mind.
As guys, we relish in the hopefulness that at some point in that "chic flick" our lady friend forced us to watch, we'll get to see at least half a nipple or some side boob from the female lead, or any female in the cast for that matter.
But, when we get a dose of flesh-smacking, cinematic sweatiness, we leave the experience feeling fulfilled with a profound sense of "where-can-I-take-my-lady friend-NOW!?"
Well, gents, no side boob or half butt-crack shots on this list. This is unadulterated human humping at its finest and most, ahem, "artistic." Fun Fact: This list also could have been called Greatest List of All-Time, or Best Almost Porn.
10. 'Antichrist'
Easily the most artistically shot scene on this list, Lars von Trier set the benchmark for graphic sexual insertion in mainstream cinema with Antichrist, when William DaFoe — who likes showing his wang on film — is tasked with the difficult job of making sweet, intimate love to Charlotte Gainbourgh during the film's opening scene.
If it wasn't for von Trier's expert use of camera movement and editing, this scene could have easily been dubbed hardcore porn and released as such.
The only thing that could possibly have kept this from being higher on this list is the fact that a baby falls out of a window during the DaFoe penis-shot/butt-shot fest (there's female butt and vagina in there, too).
Baby death isn't hot. Engrossing, but not hot.
9. 'A History of Violence'
If your thing is humping the hell out of your girlfriend on your hardwood stairs, then you'd probably love A History of Violence.
Besides its status as a great, Oscar-nominated film, it also boasts one of the more painful-looking sex scenes in all of cinema. And, super-sexy Maria Bello is the one getting the stairway pounding. So that's awesome.
It's fairly tame compared to some of the other films on this list, but once you see it I'm sure you can understand it's place here.
8. Storytelling
There's not too much skin being shown in auteur Todd Solondz's infamous scene, other than Selma Blair's chesticles, but it's not needed.
When Blair assumes the position against a bedroom wall and proceeds to be levied a heavy penis tax, it's not only the specific act of sex that's illicit, it's what actor Robert Wisdom (The Wire) makes her say during the act that makes your jaw drop.


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Rockies 7, Diamondbacks 5 (13): Chris Nelson ignited a four-run 13th inning with an RBI single as Colorado halted its nine-game road losing streak and avoided its first 100-loss season.
Charlie Blackmon collected four hits and an RBI while Wilin Rosario belted a solo home run for the Rockies (63-97), who entered having scored a total of one run in their previous 32 innings.
After Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt forged a 3-3 tie with a one-out solo blast in the ninth, Nelson followed Tyler Colvin's leadoff ground-rule double in the 13th with a run-scoring single off Brad Bergesen (2-1). Blackmon and Jonathan Herrera each drove in a run later in the frame while Matt McBride scored on a wild pitch to cap the uprising.
Josh Outman (1-3) picked up the win despite allowing two runs in the bottom of the 13th and Josh Roenicke recorded the final two outs for his first career save.
Aaron Hill and Gerardo Parra also hit solo homers for the Diamondbacks. Parra's shot was his first since June 19, ending a 70-game drought.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Rosario's homer was his 28th of the season, tops among major league catchers and National League rookies. ... Diamondbacks starter Wade Miley struck out the side on nine pitches in the third inning, joining Randy Johnson and Byung-Hyun Kim as the only Arizona pitchers to accomplish the feat. Miley finished with a career-high 10 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings. ... Diamondbacks 3B Chris Johnson went 0-for-5 with an RBI as he was in the lineup for the first time since Sept. 23 because of a bruised hand.


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Germany to press EU for new greenhouse gas targets
Date: 11-Oct-02
Country: GERMANY
"We want an EU agreement to cut emissions of gases that damage the environment by 30 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020," the chairman of the Greens, Fritz Kuhn, told a news conference.
"If we are successful in this, the German government will cut carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent (compared to 1990 levels) by 2020."
Under the Kyoto accord, the European Union has to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Scientists say emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in fuel combustion are causing a greenhouse effect, warming up the atmosphere.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats are in the middle of working out a new government programme with the Greens after the coalition narrowly won re-election last month.
The coalition agreement is due to be completed by the first sitting of parliament on October 17.


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Retiring as soon as possible may
tempt you, but before launching your golden years, consider all
effects on delaying retirement.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 1 in 3 workers
btw the ages of 35 and 44 have less than $1,000 saved for
Savvy professionals start making contributions from their paychecks to
their retirement accounts at the beginning of their careers.
Time is money. The earlier a person starts setting aside money for retirement, the less he or she will need to save every year.
Each decade of your life presents a unique way to prepare for your retirement.
Aside from earning income for at least a few more years, there are other reasons why people choose to work post-retirement.
Here is the guide you need to make sure all your concerns are cured and secured as you prepare to retire.
As retirement approaches, the importance of such tools as pension plans,
savings accounts and Social Security sets in.
A lot of people dream of retiring early so that they can start living their lives the way they always wanted. If you think you're one of them, here are some telltale signs that can help you determine if you are ready to quit working at an earlier age.
As Detroit looks to the future, we can no doubt celebrate the
creativity of the grand bargain that made the city's quick exit out of


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Seeing your own reflection in the eyes of others
A new play about shared Indian and Irish cultures and modern experiences, The Beta Cycle: Bitterroot, Berkeley, Belfast, Beta premiered on stage at the Longhouse in Squaxin territory winning a standing ovation for the seven member cast on April 13. The Open to All Possibilities Players headed by Salish director and poet Victor A. Charlo and producer Zan Agzigian brilliantly bring the Irish and the Indians into sharp parallel focus in this four act play. As far back in time as anyone can remember western hemispheric peoples have talked about, depicted on pottery and made sculptures of bearded people who "come from the rising sun." The Utes and the Washo talk about "tall, red-haired people" in legend. Tupac Amur greeted Pizaro as did Montezuma greet Cortez as if noting the return of a long lost visitor from the past. Confirming legend and ancient oral history researchers note with increasing excitement the artifacts of early visits to the western hemisphere by peoples from Europe, Africa, the Pacific Islands and Asia. Evidence appears along virtually all the coastal areas. Indians in the Americas increasingly recognize the ancient connections between themselves and other peoples in the world. These ancient connections are being demonstrated in decidedly modern terms: In literature, poetry and theatre.
The four "short plays" of the title use wit, satire, pathos and artistic grace to draw the audience into the intense experiences of American Indians and the Irish with displacement, acculturation, and the eventual survival of ancient peoples in the Americas and in Europe. The cast was not always tight in delivery, but each member delivered an outstanding show. Co Carew's eagle dance of nature's story as Victor Charlo delivered a poem in one transitional interlude was wonderful. The words and movement combined to remind us of the immediacy of nature's power and the cultural reality among Indians and the Irish of this knowledge. Russ Dupuis provided a constant taste of subtle humor and expressions of deep pain as he played one of the Indians in Bitterroot and as Chief Charlot in Beta. Pat Matt, Jr. delivered a strong presentation as the Man in Berkeley bringing a sense of contemporary Indian attitude to the play. David Dale gave a sometimes too fast delivery for the Irishman in Bitterroot, but he gave strength and believability to his parts. Karen Lewing was a steadying influence on the cast and a consistently strong character in Berkeley and Belfast. In many ways Ms. Lewing gave the audience Ireland. Sky Dupuis-Shortman is a young and developing actor who made his characters in Bitterroot and Beta typically shy while claiming their personal authority. The question throughout is, " If a people is faced with extinction, how does each individual react? How do a whole people react? Charlo and Agzigian's The Beta Cycle takes us through 100 years of American Indian and Irish responses to these penetrating challenges.
The question raised by this play is important to Fourth World peoples all over the world. It is notable that a Salish poet consciously recognizes that the Fourth World peoples of Europe experience the same personal and community tensions over efforts of invading populations to displace and threaten their very existence. The Irish (Ire) have deep tribal roots in the land. They are rooted in the ancient tribes of the Celts who spread out from their primordial homes in what is now central Europe. The Celts have part of their original population now located in Northern Italy, in Romania, the Isle of Man, Breton (western France), Wales, Kernow (Cornwall, England), Galicians of northwestern Iberic Peninsula and the Castilians. In Ireland the Irish have been occupied for more than 800 years (England still occupies northern Ireland—part of Ulster.) The wounds from that occupation continue to fester even as Ireland as a state now rises as a social, economic and cultural power.
The ties between American Indians and the Irish are recounted as hurtful experiences born from a common tormentor—England. The British instituted land tenure systems that rendered the Irish as virtual poppers in their own land as wealthy elites from Britain and France claimed precious land for their own economic benefit. The Irish were forced into the role of surfs eking out a life in the face of repressive government and social policies coming from London. Irish kids were removed from their families and sent to "residential schools" to "civilize" them and to force them to speak English instead of the Gaelic. Some Irish were picked by the English to administer the schools and policies of the London government because they were willing to accept England's control of Irish lands and peoples. A kind of "Bureau of Irish Affairs" developed to administer England's hold over the lives and property of the Irish.
English policy distained the Irish for their "drunkenness," and what many regarded as their uncivilized dance, music, language and style of living. The Church and the government of England conspired to convert the Irish into a people more to their liking. The scars from this bitter treatment remain on the souls of Irish in Ireland as well as Irish in other parts of the world where many fled to get away from the great potato famine of the middle nineteenth century—a famine many charge even today could have been avoided but for the economic and social policies of the British government.
What had been the policies and colonial violence done to the Irish by the English were duplicated by the English against many different American Indian nations in the Americas from 1607 onward to the present day. First the English and then the government of the United States organized a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to control "the Indians and to remove them from fruitful lands" better used by those "destined to govern." The Canadian government organized its version of the BIA and carried out virtually the same policies. Eventually Indian children from scores of different nations were herded into "residential schools" instituted by the government and often operated by Christian churches. Like the Irish residential schools, facilities were located far from the homes of Indian communities "to avoid the possibility that Indian children will be contaminated by the uncivilized savages." Indian children were, like the Irish, beaten when they spoke their language, had their haircut, made to work long hours, and even sexually abused by headmasters (more than 7000 law suits have been lodged against the Canadian government and churches for alleged sexual abuse of Indian children).
The social behaviour and policies in broader society end up the same. If Indians or Irish were placed in public schools they experienced "shunning" and demeaning attitudes. Indians and Irish in the Americas found themselves frequently unable to find acceptable housing. The prisons disproportionately filled up with Indians and Irish. Self-hatred—despising oneself for being Irish or Indian—wishing that one could be from another kind of people lurks in the hearts of many Indians and Irish still.
As one Irish woman told me when I visited Dublin not long ago, the "Irish are only just now beginning to recover from the "troubles" experienced at the hands of the English. There is a developing sense of confidence and self-power among the Irish born from a rediscovery of their culture long buried in the peat bogs. Recalling their poetry, music, engineering, dance, science, and innate ingenuity the Irish have begun to reëmerge as a force in Europe. The Irish are after their 800 years of darkness reclaiming their identity as human beings.
It is sometimes necessary to see your own reflection in the eyes of others before you can see yourself clearly. The Irish saw in their most desperate times during the famine a great sense of good will when several American Indian tribes gathered money and food to send to the hungering masses. That gesture was not and is not forgot. Irish people seeing an American Indian will extend their hand in thanks and recognition of the time when virtually no other peoples in the world would help; American Indian people with so little of their own helped the Irish in their time of deep need.
The Beta Cycle has Indians and Irish looking into each other's eyes and they see clearly their own reflection. The skillful writing and acting of The Open to All Possibilities Players is a new opening to closer communications between Fourth World peoples in the Americas and Fourth World peoples in Europe sharing and knowing a similar past and aspiring to a common future.


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[Resolved] I need some legal advice
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Salz und Pfeffer
Location: NYC
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 952
Mein Auto: 2014 F22 M235i
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Originally Posted by
08 335Ci
Sounds like you have a lizzard for your insurance ...
Good luck.
Right on the money!
Originally Posted by
Alright I am in the insurance industry so let me offer a little insight.
You are collecting under your own policy and thus are subject to the limits of your policy. in your case you opted for $30 a day rental coverage and thus you can be reimbursed up to that limit regardless of style vehicle. If that does not afford the BMW rental i'm sorry. look up some rates for those classes of car and ask your agent how much it will cost to get those limits and then make your own choices for the future.
Your other option is to go back to the other party and explain whats going on, tell them you want to get a comparable vehicle to the one you are driving and ask them if they will cover it (specifically say your looking to rent say a bmw not go by class). if they approve it then your golden and just wait for the reimbursement.
As for grounds of going to court over this and doing more then wasting more time and money? I would probably buy some scratch offs first.
In summery, always read your insurance contract and when in doubt, ask your agent.
Thank you! I have cleared it up, so basically I went back to my insurance, and asked them what would they think a comparable rental would be for my car - luxury class was suggested, and I went with it - the Enterprise office I contacted had a few BMW's in the class available, and I got an X5 at the luxury insurance rate of $65 a day ($30 is covered by my insurance, $35 is out my own pocket).
My insurance extended their "gratitude" by providing a courtesy to try to get me reimbursed for out of pocket expenses on the rental when they go into litigation with the other insurance company - it is a non-fault to me accident.
Originally Posted by
I agree 100%. Sure the rental isn't a BMW but it is reliable transportation. Worrying about stuff like this is hard on ones psyche and not worth it.
Sorry to sound too rude but you can go piss in the corner - I pay a premium on my own choosing for the car in this particular class, it wasn't my idea to get into an accident and create this headache for myself, I don't know why you think I should settle for less.
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One in three professionals is suffering from "burnout" leaving them struggling to cope with stress at work - and in some case spurring them to leave their jobs all together - a new study has found.
The new research, conducted by recruitment specialists, claims that human resources directors at leading British companies and public sector groups believe that 30 per cent of staff suffer from the problem with employees in London and the South East worst affected.
Two thirds of those surveyed by Robert Half UK put the problem down to workload, while more than half said overtime is the second biggest problem.
Meanwhile more than a quarter complain that their workforce is struggling because they are not able to manage their work-life balance.
Eighty per cent of executives said they fear "burnout" could lead to them losing their top employees this year and are looking to restructure working hours to make them more flexible.
Those most likely to be affected are accountants who come under bigger pressure towards the end of the fiscal year.
"Employee burnout can affect almost any professional, from top boss to rank-and-file employee. Many employees who have been tackling increased workloads while putting in long hours are beginning to lose motivation."
He said companies are looking to hire more temporary staff in order to take pressure off. He added: "Companies who adopt this approach have been able to cope better with the unexpected, prevent employee burnout and avoid reduced morale and increased costs."
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- Employment
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Tweeting Turkish pianist given suspended sentence for blasphemy
By Can Sezer and Ece Toksabay
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A world-renowned concert pianist was given a suspended jail sentence in Turkey on Monday for insulting religious values on Twitter, a case which has become a cause celebre for Turks alarmed about creeping Islamic conservatism.
Fazil Say, also a leading composer, went on trial in October for blasphemy - a crime that can carry an 18-month sentence - for a series of tweets including one citing a 1,000-year-old poem.
"The fact I've been convicted for an offence I didn't commit is less worrying for me personally than it is for freedom of expression and faith in Turkey," Say said in emailed comments.
His case has stirred up passions about the role religion should play in Turkish public life and highlighted how much has changed since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party, which has roots in Islamist politics, swept to power a decade ago.
A judiciary once renowned for defending the secular republic against Islamist influence - notably jailing Erdogan himself for reciting a religious poem - now finds itself in hock to religious conservatives, government opponents say.
"The verdict is unacceptable, and an indicator of the AK Party's vengeful conception of the law," Ilhan Cihaner, a lawmaker from the main opposition CHP party, told Reuters.
Say retweeted a verse in April last year in which 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam mocks pious hypocrisy. It is in the form of questions to believers: "You say rivers of wine flow in heaven, is heaven a tavern to you? You say two houris await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?"
In another tweet, he poked fun at a muezzin, someone who makes the Muslim call to prayer. "The muezzin finished the evening prayers in 22 seconds ... Why are you in such hurry? A lover? A raki table?" he asked, referring to the aniseed-flavored spirit popular in Turkey. Continued...


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All | Editorial | General Tech | Graphics Cards | Networking | Motherboards | Cases and Cooling | Processors | Chipsets | Memory | Displays | Systems | Storage | Mobile | Shows and Expos
Will it Strike Again?
It can now be claimed that we are arguably in our 4th generation of Lightning products from MSI. It can also be claimed that the 3rd generation of products really put that brand on the mainstream map. The R6970 and N580GTX (and XE version) set new standards for enthusiast grade graphics cards. Outstanding construction, unique pcb design, high quality (and quantity) of components, and a good eye for overall price have all been hallmarks of these cards. These were honestly some of my favorite video cards of all time. Call me biased, but I think when looking through other reviews those writers felt much the same. MSI certainly hit a couple of homeruns with their three Lightning offerings of 2011.
Time does not stand still. Resting on laurels is always the surest way to lose out to more aggressive competitors. It is now 2012 and AMD has already launched the latest generation of HD 7000 chips, with the top end being the HD 7970. This particular product was launched in late December, but cards were not available until January 9th of 2012. We are now at the end of March where we see a decent volume of products on the shelves, as well as some of the first of the non-reference designs hitting the streets. Currently Asus has its DirectCU II based 7970, but now we finally get to see the Lightning treatment.
MSI has not sat upon their laurels it seems. They are taking an aggressive approach to the new Lightning series of cards, and they implement quite a few unique features that have not been seen on any other product before. Now the question is did they pull it off? Throwing more features at something does not necessarily equal success. The increase in complexity of a design combined with other unknowns with the new features could make it a failure. Just look at the R5870 Lightning for proof. That particular card tread new ground, but did so in a way that did not adequately differentiate itself from reference HD 5870 designs. So what is new and how does it run? Let us dig in!
Continue reading our review of the MSI Radeon HD 7970 3GB Lightning Graphics Card!!
The Kepler Architecture
Join us today at 12pm EST / 9am CST as PC Perspective hosts a Live Review on the new GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. We will discuss the new GPU technology, important features like GPU Boost, talk about performance compared to AMD's lineup and we will also have NVIDIA's own Tom Petersen on hand to run some demos and answer questions from viewers. You can find it all at http://pcper.com/live!!
NVIDIA fans have been eagerly waiting for the new Kepler architecture ever since CEO Jen-Hsun Huang first mentioned it in September 2010. In the interim, we have seen the birth of a complete lineup of AMD graphics cards based on its Southern Islands architecture including the Radeon HD 7970, HD 7950, HD 7800s and HD 7700s. To the gamer looking for an upgrade it would appear that NVIDIA had fallen behind; but the company is hoping that today's release of the GeForce GTX 680 will put them back in the driver's seat.
This new $499 graphics card will directly compete against the Radeon HD 7970, and it brings quite a few "firsts" to NVIDIA's lineup. This NVIDIA card is the first desktop 28nm GPU, the first to offer a clock speed over 1 GHz, the first to support triple-panel gaming on a single card, and the first to offer "boost" clocks that vary from game to game. Interested yet? Let's get to the good stuff.
The Kepler Architecture
In many ways, the new 28nm Kepler architecture is just an update to the Fermi design that was first introduced in the GF100 chip. NVIDIA's Jonah Alben summed things up pretty nicely for us in a discussion stating that "there are lots of tiny things changing (in Kepler) rather than a few large things which makes it difficult to tell a story."
GTX 680 Block Diagram
Continue reading our review of the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Graphics Card!!
The Truth
There are few people in the gaming industry that you simply must pay attention to when they speak. One of them is John Carmack, founder of id Software and a friend of the site, creator of Doom. Another is Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, another pioneer in the field of computer graphics that brought us the magic of Unreal before bringing the rest of the gaming industry the Unreal Engine.
At DICE 2012, a trade show for game developers to demo their wares and learn from each other, Sweeney gave a talk on the future of computing hardware and its future. (You can see the source of my information and slides here at Gamespot.) Many pundits, media and even developers have brought up the idea that the next console generation that we know is coming will be the last - we will have reached the point in our computing capacity that gamers and designers will be comfortable with the quality and realism provided. Forever.
Think about that a moment; has anything ever appeared so obviously crazy? Yet, in a world where gaming has seemed to regress into the handheld spaces of iPhone and iPad, many would have you believe that it is indeed the case. Companies like NVIDIA and AMD that spend billions of dollars developing new high-powered graphics technologies would simply NOT do so anymore and instead focus only on low power. Actually...that is kind of happening with NVIDIA Tegra and AMD's move to APUs, but both claim that the development of leading graphics technology is what allows them to feed the low end - the sub-$100 graphics cards, SoC for phones and tablets and more.
Sweeney started the discussion by teaching everyone a little about human anatomy.
The human eye has been studied quite extensively and the amount of information we know about it would likely surprise. With 120 million monochrome receptors and 5M color, the eye and brain are able to do what even our most advanced cameras are unable to.
Continue reading our story on the computing needs for visual computing!!
Completing the Family
When we went to Austin, Texas to sit with AMD and learn about the Radeon HD 7900 series of cards for the first time, an interesting thing happened. While the official meeting was about the performance of the Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950, when things started to settle several AMD employees couldn't help but discuss Cape Verde (7700-series) and Pitcairn (7800-series) GPUs. In particular, the HD 7800 cards were generating a lot of excitement internally as a spiritual follow up to the wildly successful HD 5800 and HD 5700 series of cards in terms of price and performance characteristics.
So while the Radeon HD 7970 and HD 7950 are being labeled as the world's fastest GPUs, and the Radeon HD 7700 is the fastest GPU for everyone, the HD 7800s are where many of our readers will look when upgrading their machines while staying within a budget.
Be sure to check out our video review posted here and then continue on to our full, written review for all the benchmarks and analysis!!!
Continue reading our review of the Radeon HD 7870 and HD 7850 Graphics Cards!!
AMD Gets the Direct CU Treatment
In the previous roundup I covered the DirectCU II models from Asus featuring NVIDIA based chips. These boards included the GTX 580, 570, and 560 products. All of these were DirectCU II based with all the updated features that are included as compared to the original DirectCU products. With the AMD parts Asus has split the top four products into two categories; DirectCU II and the original DirectCU. When we start looking at thermal properties and price points, we will see why Asus took this route.
AMD has had a strong couple of years with their graphics chips. While they were not able to take the single GPU performance crown in this previous generation, their products were very capable and competitive across the board and at every price point. In fact, there are some features that these cards have at particular price points that make them very desirable in quite a few applications. In particular are the 2 GB of memory on the HD 6900 series cards where the competition from NVIDIA at those price points features 1 GB and 1.25 GB. In titles such as Skyrim, with the HD texture DLC enabled, these cards start to limit performance at 1920x1080 and above due to the memory requirements needed for these higher resolution textures.
MSI's Alex Chang Speaks Up
MSI was founded in 1986 and started producing motherboards and video cards for the quickly growing PC market. Throughout the life of the company they have further diversified their offerings to include barebones systems, notebooks, networking/communication devices, and industrial products. While MSI has a nice base of products, they are still primarily a motherboard and video card company. In the past 10 years MSI has become one of the top brands in North America for video cards, and they have taken a very aggressive approach to design with these products.
I had the chance to send MSI quite a few questions concerning their video card business and how they develop their products.
What is your name, title, and how long have you worked at MSI?
My name is Bob, and I'm…. actually, I'm just Alex Chang. I'm the Associate Marketing Manager. I've been with the company for 2 years.
Typically how long does it take from the original reference design card release to when we can first expect to see a Twin Frozr III based card hit retail? How much longer does it take to create the "Lightning" based products?
Historically, we've seen the introduction of a non-reference thermal solution within 2-4 weeks of product launch. As an example, GTX580 was launched in November 2010, and by December there was already a reference PCB GTX580 w/ the Twin Frozr II cooler.
In the case of Lightning cards, the development timeframe is longer due to more R&D, validation, and procurement of components. With GTX580, the timeframe was around 6 months, but moving forward MSI is pulling in the launch timeframe of our flagship products.
Southern Islands Get Small
When AMD first started to talk to me about the upcoming Southern Islands GPUs they tried to warn me. Really they did. "Be prepared for just an onslaught of card releases for 2012," I was told. In much the same strategy the company took with the HD 6000 series of cards, the new Radeon HD 7000 cards have been trickling out, part by part, so as to make sure the name "AMD" and the brand "Radeon" are showing up as often as possible in your news feeds and on my keyboard. In late December we wrote our review of the Radeon HD 7970 3GB flagship card and then followed that up in January with a review of the Radeon HD 7950. In those briefings were told in a general way about Cape Verde, the Radeon HD 7700 series, and Pitcairn, the Radeon HD 7800 series, but without the details of performance, specifications or release dates. We have the answer for one more of these families now: Cape Verde.
Cape Verde is the smallest of the Southern Islands dies and falls into the sub-$175 graphics market depending on card vendors' pricing and overclocking settings. The real question we all wanted to know is what performance levels these new cards were going to offer and if they could be the TRUE successor to popular Radeon HD 5770. While the answer will take pages and pages of details to cement into place, I can say that while an impressive card, I wasn't as excited as I had wanted to be.
But I am getting ahead of myself... Check out our video review right here and then keep reading on for the full evaluation!!
AMD Cape Verde - the smallest of the Southern Islands
GPU companies like to brag when they are on top - you'll see that as a recurring theme in our story today. One such case is the success of the Radeon HD 5770 that mentioned above - it still today sits on the throne of the most adopted DX11 capable GPU on the Steam Hardware Survey, one of our best places for information on the general PC gamer.
While the inclusion of it, as well as the Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5850, on this list are great for AMD a couple of years ago, the lack of a 6000-series card here shows us that users need another reason to upgrade; another card that is mass market enough (ala under $200) and offers performance advantages that really push gamers to spend that extra cheddar.
Bring in the Cape Verde GPU...
Continue reading our review of the Radeon HD 7770 1GB GHz Edition and HD 7750 Graphics cards!!
Four Displays for Under $70
Running multiple displays on your PC is becoming a trend that everyone is trying to jump on board with thanks in large part to the push of Eyefinity from AMD over the past few years. Gaming is a great application for multi-display configurations but in truth game compatibility and game benefits haven't reached the level I had hoped they would by 2012. But while gaming still has a way to go, the consumer applications for having more than a single monitor continue to expand and cement themselves in the minds of users.
Galaxy is the only NVIDIA partner that is really taking this market seriously with an onslaught of cards branded as MDT, Multiple Display Technology. Using non-NVIDIA hardware in conjunction with NVIDIA GPUs, Galaxy has created some very unique products for consumers like the recently reviewed GeForce GTX 570 MDT. Today we are going to be showing you the new Galaxy MDT GeForce GT 520 offering that brings support for a total of four simultaneous display outputs to a card with a reasonable cost of under $120.
The Galaxy MDT GeForce GT 520
Long time readers of PC Perspective already likely know what to expect based on the GPU we are using here but the Galaxy MDT model offers quite a few interesting changes.
The retail packaging clearly indicates the purpose of this card for users looking at running more than two displays. The GT 520 is not an incredibly powerful GPU when it comes to gaming but Galaxy isn't really pushing the card in that manner. Here are the general specs of the GPU for those that are interested:
- 48 CUDA cores
- 810 MHz core clock
- 1GB DD3 memory
- 900 MHz memory clock
- 64-bit memory bus width
- 4 ROPs
- DirectX 11 support
Continue reading our review of the Galaxy MDT GeForce 520 graphics card!!
3 NV for DCII
The world of video cards is a much changed place over the past few years. Where once we saw only "sticker versions" of cards mass produced by a handful of manufacturers, we are now seeing some really nice differentiation from the major manufacturers. While the first iterations of these new cards are typically mass produced by NVIDIA or AMD and then distributed to their partners for initial sales, these manufacturers are now more consistently getting their own unique versions out to retail in record time. MSI was one of the first to put out their own unique designs, but now we are seeing Asus becoming much more aggressive with products of their own.
The DirectCU II line is Asus' response to the growing number of original designs from other manufacturers. The easiest way to categorize these designs is that they straddle nicely the very high end and extreme products like the MSI Lightning series and those of the reference design boards with standard cooling. These are unique designs that integrate features and cooling solutions that are well above that of reference cards.
DirectCU II applies primarily to the cooling solutions on these boards. The copper heatipipes in the DirectCU II cooler are in direct contact with the GPU. These heatpipes then are distributed through two separate aluminum fin arrays, each with their own fan. So each card has either a dual slot or triple slot cooling solution with two 80 mm fans that dynamically adjust to the temperature of the chip. The second part of this is branded "Super Alloy Power" in which Asus has upgraded most of the electrical components on the board to match higher specifications. Hi-C caps, proadlizers, polymer caps, and higher quality chokes round out the upgraded components which should translate into more stable overclocked performance and a longer lifespan.
Tahiti Gets Clipped
It has been just over a month since we first got our hands on the AMD Southern Islands architecture in the form of the Radeon HD 7970 3GB graphics card. It was then a couple of long weeks as we waited for the consumer to get the chance to buy that same hardware though we had to admit that the $550+ price tags were scaring many away. Originally we were going to have both the Radeon HD 7970 and the Radeon HD 7950 in our hands before January 9th, but that didn't pan out and instead the little brother was held in waiting a bit longer.
Today we are reviewing that sibling, the Radeon HD 7950 3GB GPU that offers basically the same technology and feature set with a slightly diminished core and a matching, slightly diminished price. In truth I don't think that the estimated MSRP of $449 is going to really capture that many more hearts than the $549 price of the HD 7970 did, but AMD is hoping that they can ride their performance advantage to as many profits as they can while they wait for NVIDIA to properly react.
Check out our video review right here and then continue on to our complete benchmarking analysis!!
Southern Islands Gets Scaled Back a Bit
As I said above, the Radeon HD 7950 3GB is pretty similar to the HD 7970. It is based on the same 28nm, DirectX 11.1, PCI Express 3.0, 4.31 billion transistor GPU and includes the same massive 3GB frame buffer as its older brother. The Tahiti GPU is the first of its kind of all of those facets but it has a few of the computational portions disabled.
If you haven't read up on the Southern Islands architecture, or Tahiti GPU based around it, you are missing quite a bit of important information on the current lineup of parts from AMD. I would very much encourage you to head over to our Radeon HD 7970 3GB Tahiti review and look over the first three pages as it provides a detailed breakdown of the new features and the pretty dramatic shift in design that Southern Islands introduced to the AMD GPU team.
Continue reading our full review of the Radeon HD 7950 3GB graphics card!!
Guess what? Overclocked.
The NVIDIA GTX 580 GPU, based on the GF110 Fermi architecture, is old but it isn't forgotten. Released in November of 2010, NVIDIA had held the single GPU performance grown for more than a year before it was usurped by AMD and the Radeon HD 7970 just this month. Still, the GTX 580 is a solid high-end enthusiast graphics card that has wide spread availability and custom designed, overclocked models from numerous vendors making it a viable option.
Gigabyte sent us this overclocked and custom cooled model quite a while ago but we had simply fallen behind with other reviews until just after CES. In today's market the card has a bit of a different role to fill - it surely won't be able to pass up the new AMD Radeon HD 7970 but can it fight the good fight and keep NVIDIA's current lineup of GPUs more competitive until Kepler finally shows himself?
The Gigabyte GTX 580 1.5GB Super Overclock Card
With the age of the GTX 580 designs, Gigabyte had plenty of time to perfect their PCB and cooler design. This model, the Super Overclock (GV-N580SO-15I), comes in well ahead of the standard reference speeds of the GTX 580 but sticks to the same 1.5 GB frame buffer.
The clock speed is set at 855 MHz core and 1025 MHz memory, compared to the 772 MHz core speed and 1002 MHz clock rate of the reference design. That is a very healthy 10% clock rate difference that should equate to nearly that big of a gap in gaming performance where the GPU is the real bottleneck.
Continue reading our review of the Gigabyte GTX 580 1.5GB Super Overclock graphics card!!
Retail-ready HD 7970
We first showed off the power of the new AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB graphics card in our reference review posted on December 22nd. If you haven't read all about the new Southern Islands architecture and the Tahiti chip that powers the HD 7970 then you should already be clicking the link above to my review to get up to speed. Once you have done so, please return here to continue.
Welcome back, oh wise one. Now we are ready to proceed. By now you already know that the Radeon HD 7970 is the fastest GPU on the planet, besting the NVIDIA GTX 580 by a solid 20-30% in most cases. For our first retail card review we are going to be looking at the XFX Black Edition Double Dissipation that overclocks the GPU and memory clocks slightly and offers a new cooler that promises to be more efficient and quieter.
Let's put XFX to the test!
The XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation
Because of the use of a completely custom cooler, the XFX HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation looks completely different than the reference model we tested last month though the feature set remains identical. The silver and black motif works well here.
Continue reading our review of the XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation!!
The First 28nm GPU Architecture
It is going to be an exciting 2012. Both AMD and NVIDIA are going to be bringing gamers entirely new GPU architectures, Intel has Ivy Bridge up its sleeve and the CPU side of AMD is looking forward to the introduction of the Piledriver lineup. Today though we end 2011 with the official introduction of the AMD Southern Islands GPU design, a completely new architecture from the ground up that engineers have been working on for more than three years.
This GPU will be the first on several fronts: the first 28nm part, the first cards with support for PCI Express 3.0 and the first to officially support DirectX 11.1 coming with Windows 8. Southern Islands is broken up into three different families starting with Tahiti at the high-end, Pitcairn for sweet spot gaming and Cape Verde for budget discrete options. The Radeon HD 7970 card that is launching today with availability in early January is going to be the top-end single GPU option, based on Tahiti.
Let's see what 4.31 billion transistors buys you in today's market. I have embedded a very short video review here as well for your perusal but of course, you should continue down a bit further for the entire, in-depth review of the Radeon HD 7970 GPU.
Southern Islands - Starting with Tahiti
Before we get into benchmark results we need to get a better understanding of this completely new GPU design that was first divulged in June at the AMD Fusion Developer Summit. At that time, our own
lovely and talented Josh Walrath wrote up a great preview of the architecture that remains accurate and pertinent for today's release. We will include some of Josh's analysis here and interject with anything new that we have learned from AMD about the Southern Islands architecture.
When NVIDIA introduced the G80, they took a pretty radical approach to GPU design. Instead of going with previous VLIW architectures which would support operations such as Vec4+Scalar, they went with a completely scalar architecture. This allowed a combination of flexibility of operation types, ease of scheduling, and a high utilization of compute units. AMD has taken a somewhat similar, but still unique approach to their new architecture.
Continue reading our review of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB graphics card and Southern Islands architecture!!
Galaxy Continues the MDT Push
One of the key selling points for the AMD Radeon series of graphics cards the last few generations has been Eyefinity - the ability to run more than two displays off of a single card while also allowing for 3+ display gaming configurations. NVIDIA-based solutions required a pair of GPUs running in SLI for this functionality, either standard SLI or the "SLI-on-a-card" solutions like the GTX 590.
However, another solution has appeared from Galaxy, an NVIDIA partner that has created a series of boards with the MDT moniker - Multi-Display Technology. Using a separate on-board chip the company has created GTX 560 Ti, GTX 570 and GTX 580 cards that can output to 4 or 5 monitors using only a single NVIDIA GPU, cutting down on costs while offering a feature that no other single-GPU solution could.
Today we are going to be reviewing the Galaxy GeForce GTX 570 MDT X4 card that promises 4 display outputs and a triple-panel seamless gaming surface option for users that want to explore gaming on more than a single monitor inside the NVIDIA ecosystem.
Continue reading our review of the Galaxy GeForce GTX 570 MDT X4 1.25GB Graphics Card!!
A Temporary Card with a Permanent Place in Our Heart
Today NVIDIA and its partners are announcing availability of a new graphics card that bridges the gap between the $230 GTX 560 Ti and the $330 GTX 570 currently on the market. The new card promises to offer performance right between those two units with a price to match but with a catch: it is a limited edition part with expected availability only through the next couple of months.
When we first heard rumors about this product back in October I posited that the company would be crazy to simply call this the GeForce GTX 560 Ti Special Edition. Well...I guess this makes me the jackass. This new ~$290 GPU will be officially called the "GeForce GTX 560 Ti with 448 Cores".
The GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Edition
The GeForce GTX 560 Ti with 448 cores is actually not a GTX 560 Ti at all and in fact is not even built on a GF114 GPU - instead we are looking at a GF110 GPU (the same used on the GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 570 graphics cards) with another SM disabled.
GeForce GTX 580 Diagram
The above diagram shows a full GF110 GPU sporting 512 CUDA cores and the full 16 SMs (simultaneous multiprocessors) along with all the bells and whistles that go along with that $450 card. This includes a 384-bit memory bus and a 1.5 GB frame buffer that all adds up to still being the top performing single graphics card on the market today.
Continue reading our review of the GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core Graphics Card!!
Introduction, Campaign Testing
As you might have noticed, we're a bit excited about Battlefield 3 here at PC Perspective. It promised to pay attention to what PC gamers want, and shockingly, it has come through. Dedicated servers and huge multi-player matches are supported, and the browser based interface is excellent.
If we're honest, a lot of our hearts have been stirred simply by the way the game looks. There aren't many titles that really let a modern mid-range graphics card stretch its legs, even at 1080p resolution. Battlefield 3, however, can be demanding - and it looks beautiful. Even with the presets at medium, it's one of the most attractive games ever.
But what does this mean for laptops? Has the resident laptop reviewer at PC Perspective, I know that gaming remains a challenge. The advancements over the last few years have been spectacular, but even so, most of the laptops we test can't run Just Cause 2 at a playable framerate even with all detail set to low and a resolution of just 1366x768.
To find out if mobile gamers were given consideration by the developers of Battlefield 3, I installed the game on three different laptops. The results only go to show how far mobile gaming has come, and has far it has to go.
Continue reading our article on mobile Battlefield 3 performance!!
EVGA Changes the Game Again
Dual-GPU graphics cards are becoming an interesting story. While both NVIDIA and AMD have introduced their own reference dual-GPU designs for quite some time, it is the custom build models from board vendors like ASUS and EVGA that really peak our interest because of their unique nature. Earlier this year EVGA released the GTX 460 2Win card that brought the worlds first (and only) graphics card with a pair of the GTX 460 GPUs on-board.
ASUS has released dual-GPU options as well including the ARES dual Radeon HD 5870 last year and the MARS II dual GTX 580 just this past August but they were both prohibitively rare and expensive. The EVGA "2Win" series, which we can call it now that there are two of them, is still expensive but much more in line with the performance per dollar of the rest of the graphics card market. When the company approached us last week about the new GTX 560 Ti 2Win, we jumped at the chance to review it.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win 2GB
The new GTX 560 Ti 2Win from EVGA follows directly in the footsteps of the GTX 460 model - we are essentially looking at a pair of GTX 560 Ti GPUs on a single PCB running in SLI multi-GPU mode. Clock speeds, memory capacity, performance - it should all be pretty much the same as if you were running a pair of GTX 560 Ti cards independently.
Just as with the GTX 460 2Win, EVGA is the very first company to offer such a product. NVIDIA didn't design a reference platform and pass it along to everyone like they did with the GTX 590 - this is all EVGA.
Continue reading our review of the EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2Win!!!
The Alienware M17x Giveth
Mobile graphics cards are really a different beast than the desktop variants. Despite have similar names and model numbers, the specifications vary greatly as the GTX 580M isn't equivalent to the GTX 580 and the HD 6990M isn't even a dual-GPU product. Also, getting the capability to do a direct head-to-head is almost always a tougher task thanks to the notebook market's penchant for single-vendor SKUs.
Over the past week or two, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a pair of Alienware M17x notebooks, one sporting the new AMD Radeon HD 6990M discrete graphics solution and the other with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M.
AMD Radeon HD 6990M on the left; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M on the right
Also unlike the desktop market - the time from announcement of a new mobile GPU product to when you can actually BUY a system including it tends to be pretty long. Take the two GPUs we are looking at today for example: the HD 6990M launched in July and we are only just now finally seeing machines ship in volume; the GTX 580M in June.
Well, problems be damned, we had the pair in our hands for a few short days and I decided to put them through the ringer in our GPU testing suite and added Battlefield 3 in for good measure as well. The goal was to determine which GPU was actually the "world's fastest" as both companies claimed to be.
Continue reading our comparison of the GeForce GTX 580M and Radeon HD 6990M mobility GPUs!!
You don't have 3D Vision 2? Loser.
In conjunction with GeForce LAN 6 current taking place on the USS Hornet in Alameda, NVIDIA is announcing an upgrade to the lineup of 3D Vision technologies. Originally released back in January of 2009, 3D Vision was one of the company's grander attempts to change the way PC gamers, well, game. Unfortunately for NVIDIA and the gaming community, running a 3D Vision setup required a new, much more expensive display as well as some glasses that originally ran $199.
While many people, including myself, were enamored with 3D technology when we first got our hands on it, the novelty kind of wore off and I found myself quickly back on the standard panels for gaming. The reasons were difficult to discern at first but it definitely came down to some key points:
- Cost
- Panel resolution
- Panel size
- Image quality
The cost was obvious - having to pay nearly double for a 3D Vision capable display just didn't jive for most PC gamers and then the need to have to purchase $200 glasses made it even less likely that you would plop down the credit card. Initial 3D Vision ready displays, while also being hard to find, were limited to a resolution of 1680x1050 and were only available in 22-in form factors. Obviously if you were interested in 3D technology you were likely a discerning gamer and running at lower resolutions would be less than ideal.
The new glasses - less nerdy?
Yes, 24-in and 1080p panels did come in 2010 but by then much of the hype surrounding 3D Vision had worn off. To top it all off, even if you did adopt a 3D Vision kit of your own you realized that the brightness of the display was basically halved when operating in 3D mode - with one shutter of your glasses covered at any given time, you only receive half the total output from the screen leaving the image quality kind of drab and washed out.
Continue reading our preview of NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 technology!!
RAGE Peforms...well
RAGE is not as dependant on your graphics hardware as it is on your CPU and storage system (which may be an industry first); the reason for which we will discover when talking about the texture pop-up issue on the next page.
The first id Software designed game since the release of Doom 3 in August of 2004, RAGE has a lot riding on it. Not only is this the introduction of the idTech 5 game engine but also culminates more than 4 years of development and the first new IP from the developer since the creation of Quake. And since the first discussions and demonstrations of Carmack's new MegaTexture technology, gamers have been expecting a lot as well.
Would this game be impressive enough on the visuals to warrant all the delays we have seen? Would it push today's GPUs in a way that few games are capable of? It looks like we have answers to both of those questions and you might be a bit disappointed.
Performance Characteristics
First, let's get to the heart of the performance question: will your hardware play RAGE? Chances are, very much so. I ran through some tests of RAGE on a variety of hardware including the GeForce GTX 580, 560 Ti, 460 1GB and the Radeon HD 6970, HD 6950, HD 6870 and HD 5850. The test bed included an Intel Core i7-965 Nehalem CPU, 6GB of DDR3-1333 memory running off of a 600GB VelociRaptor hard drive. Here are the results from our performance tests running at 1920x1080 resolution with 4x AA enabled in the game options:
Continue reading our initial look at RAGE performance and image quality!!
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The Crazy Newshound has found a new Ravens article.
Harbaugh says Ravens 'can get so much better'
Meanwhile, Harbaugh said Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta was not experiencing concussion-like symptoms following Baltimore's win over Pittsburgh. Pitta sustained a concussion in the first quarter of the game after catching a five yard pass. Pitta exited ...
Link to the full story.


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- Stylist:
- Dickie
May 01, 2012 - Dickie took my badly damaged hair and with Deva Curl products, turned it into fabulous curls! I thought my curls were lost... The last salon said " well we can cut that dry piece out" can you believe that was an option!! Diane did an incredible job making my hair, which was about 5 shades one warm wonderful color and my hair feels great! Imagine curly hair feeling great! LOVE THEM!!


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a place for zinesters - writers and readers
This is my first zine, titled "Labor of Love", released on April 18th, 2011! It has 54 pages total. I used baby blue paper and pink staples to bind them. I just added them to my ETSY shop at http://RiotgrrrlK97.etsy.com .... I am also up for trades!!! : )
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signatures are annoying, right?
haven't been able to connect today, server down?
it was up earlier today, but i can't connect for the past few hours. OMG i actually went for a run!
signatures are annoying, right?
how are you guys finding so many resources? i can't seem to find anything. or is there a way to get them via keyboard commands?
welcome to the layer cake
its up now. Can someone try logging in to confirm everything is aok?
looks like it still isnt letting people in. I'm workin on it.
well, I restarted my router and now it works... whatever, stupid router.
I like it when the tiles don't fully load. I can see what tunnels we made. lol
here is mine as a back up for people who need a fix if the other is down....no griefing
what does "no griefing" mean?
signatures are annoying, right?
signatures are annoying, right?
Here is what I worked on for a few hours tonight
I assume that is an oversized chalice, within which you shall place...1000 pieces of tnt?
I plan to close it off like a big dome (though more of a cube I guess).....I may get drunk and bored one night though and fill it with TNT hahahaha
FlickrOriginally Posted by JKREW
The TNT really sped up my land clearing for my build project.
Has anyone been able to move water, other than digging a path from the ocean? I filled up a bucket, threw it into a hole, the water existed for a second, then disappeared. My plans will call for some canals, but I don't think I can make that happen now.
I finally got my Helms Deep project connected to the caverns underneath my original base near the spawn point. It took a LOT of digging!


text: Just wanted to show how much fun my 4 year old daughter, Teagan is having being a change bandit for the second year. - Jennifer Big Boy Jude wanted ya to know he's on the job, straight from his room in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at ACH this week!!! Photo 1 of 1 Continue Gallery


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Asia stocks down as Fed fears weigh on markets
A man talking on a mobile phone walks by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 28, 2013. Investors seeking bargains helped push Japan's benchmark stock index higher Tuesday after plunging 3 percent the day before. The Nikkei has been on a rollercoaster ride since last Thursday, when it plummeted more than 7 percent after interest rates on the country's benchmark 10-year bond spiked to above 1 percent for the first time in a year. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
BANGKOK (AP) — Concerns that the Federal Reserve might start scaling back its stimulus program due to a seeming improvement in the U.S. economy sent [auth] Asian stock markets lower Thursday.
Sharp rises in global stock markets this year have been partly fueled by central bank actions to support economies in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Positive signs of growth in the U.S., including data released Tuesday showing improved consumer confidence and housing prices, have helped boost Wall Street stocks to record highs.
However, an improving U.S. economy increases the chance that the Fed might ease back on its massive bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing. The purchase of $85 billion a month in Treasury bonds has helped keep interest rates super-low and been a boon to stock markets, where investors have fled in search of higher returns.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.8 percent to 13,932.92. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.2 percent to 22,518.85. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.5 percent to 4,900.90. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines also fell. South Korea went against the flow, rising 0.2 percent to 2,005.99.
The lack of major data releases for the day deprives investors of reasons to wade into stocks, analysts said.
"A lack of first tier data releases today will limit activity although the tone will likely remain relatively downbeat," said Mitul Kotecha of Credit Agricole CIB in a market commentary.
The latest speculation surrounding the Fed came after the release of positive consumer confidence and housing news on Tuesday. That led investors to fret over the prospect of the Fed reducing its bond-buying.
With the approach of the end of the month, investors also were booking profits.
Benchmark oil for July delivery was up 5 cents to $93.15 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract for the benchmark grade fell $1.88 to close at $93.13 a barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2958 from $1.2934 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 101.23 yen from 101.15 yen.
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On April 9, 2014, in a scene right out of Netflix's House of Cards, the Orwellian-titled and airline industry-authored Transparent Airfares Act of 2014 (H.R. 4156) was passed out of committee after just nine minutes of discussion and without any hearings, debate, or opportunity for consumer or travel industry stakeholders to inform Congress of their views of the anti-consumer consequences of this bill. H.R. 4156 is in fact profoundly anti-consumer. It would allow airlines to return to their old and deceptive practice of advertising low come-on airfares from which they had stripped out the federal transportation taxes and fees that travelers simply must pay — an abusive tactic the U.S. Department of Transportation felt compelled to stop in 2011 in order to protect consumers from being misled.After steamrollering the bill through committee, and endeavoring to escape the full light of day and appropriate deliberation, airlines now seek to subvert the suspension calendar procedure. This is not the type of unobjectionable proposal — like the naming of a federal building — that procedure is designed for, but rather, it is harmful and controversial special-interest legislation. There is not one consumer or business travel group that supports this bill.However, as with Kevin Spacey's character, Frank Underwood, there is always more than meets the eye when it comes to special interests and Congress and their grand bargains and schemes for corporate and personal political gain at the expense of everyday consumers. The fact is H.R. 4156 is not just about undermining a U.S. DOT consumer protection rule. That bill would appear to be merely a first step in a new, audacious and longer-term airline strategy to game the system and choke off competition for their own benefit.Now that the U.S. airline industry has reduced to three mega network carriers heavily invested in global joint ventures and immunized alliances, the most pernicious effects of such radical consolidation may not be limited to the already problematic loss of service to midsize communities, higher airfares and fees, or less concern for customers.Airlines would appear emboldened to reduce transparency, undermine DOT's consumer-protection and Open Skies authorities and erect a virtual fence around the U.S. to frustrate new entry by foreign carriers, keeping an airtight lid on capacity. This represents a post-consolidation epic battle pitting the forces of commercial protectionism against the proponents of open and free markets.Indeed, airlines' enhanced monopoly and monopsony power can be leveraged not only in the traditional sense and practiced against consumers, suppliers and other market participants, but rather, against their regulator, the U.S. DOT.Examples of such efforts include:• Drafting H.R. 4156 to reduce fare transparence and undermine DOT's consumer protection authority;• Blocking Norwegian Air International's application to serve U.S. cities by seeking to intimidate DOT and going to Congress to block foreign carrier new entry;• Frustrating new services Middle Eastern carriers want to offer by restricting open and efficient access to U.S. markets;• Defunding the Export–Import Bank of the United States to keep modern Boeing planes out of the hands of foreign carriers that would introduce new price-competitive services to the U.S.; and• Preventing an increase in Passenger Facility Charges that would support airline agendas but continue to widen the gap between often antiquated and inadequate U.S. airports and world-class foreign ones.There is little doubt that if airlines succeed in these efforts, their sights will be then trained on overturning DOT's three-hour tarmac delay rule and additional past and proposed consumer protections that DOT has or will likely implement in the marketplace. Next up on the airline target list could be all manner of other government policies airlines view as not in their interests but which are vitally important to consumers and all other participants in the travel-supply chain.At a time of such massive consolidation of the U.S. airline industry, we need a stronger DOT to guard against airline abuses, not a weaker one. We need Congress to work for and not against competition, the consumer, and the modernization and return of U.S. airports to competitive world-class status. Over the long term, open and free markets increase competition, create efficiencies, encourage innovation, expand markets, increase sales and satisfy customers. These are the right public-policy outcomes.The fictitious Frank Underwood is able to advance his agenda on Capital Hill through lies and manipulation because his opponents cannot perceive his ambitions and strategy and endeavor to resist his entreaties tactically. This is the real strategic and historic risk with H.R. 4156. It must be stopped, as it represents a serious threat and all that consumers detest about Washington and the influence of special interests. However, consumer-minded members of Congress must awaken to the larger and darker airline strategy to undermine consumer protections, competition policy and the vibrancy of a marketplace vital to America's economic and social interests.Note: At http://btc.travel find relevant foundational documents, analyses and industry statements representing all views on H.R. 4156, as well as press editorials and stories.Kevin Mitchell is founder of the Business Travel Coalition (610-999-9247; email@example.com), established in 1994 to interpret industry and government policies and practices and provide a platform so that the managed travel community can influence issues of strategic importance to their organizations.
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How long have you been natural?
I have been natural for 8 years going on 9!
What motivated you to transition? Were you a transitioner or a Big Chopper& why?
I transitioned for 2 years wearing braids and twists. My hair was so damaged from color on top of color on top of relaxers! I hated to look at my hair, something had to give! After 2 years of wearing the braids, I cut all the relaxed ends off which left me with just above shoulder length hair.
What do you love most about your hair?
I love that it's not too thick and it's not too thin. It's somewhere chillin in the middle.
What has been the most memorable part of your journey?Has it been easy or difficult or both?!
I love to see little/young girls who I inspire to wear their natural hair. I wish that I had the pleasure of being natural all my life, however that wasn't so. I struggled with damaged hair during high school and it was very frustrating at times. So when I see young girls who would rather learn about their real hair other than wearing weave all the time, it really does bring me joy!
What have your experiences been as a 'natural?' Any memorable reactions from family or others?
For the most part everyone in my family appears to love my natural hair. They say it fits me and my personality. There was a time this man came up to me and said "Do you EVER do your hair?" lol rude, right?! I laughed and said "nope! No time for ignorance sir, Good day!"
What are some of your favorite natural hair websites, YouTubers, or blogs?
I literally have a million favorites! A few of them include Taren916, and My Natural Sistas
Anything you want the readers to know? Inspirational words?
"Hair typing" shouldn't divide a community that was built to bring us together!
Where can people find you for more information?
You can reach me @thekishshow.
This post was written by Global Couture for CurlyNikki.


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Tiger shoots a back-nine 43 and then wins convincingly the next week. Vijay Singh notches career victory #31, Sergio Garcia spits in the cup, the LPGA releases a list of banned substances, and Jeff - despite not being on the show this week - falls in love with Phil Mickelson. All this and more in this episode of Golf Talk.
You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 051 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.
For this week's Show Notes - links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information - just read on.
Show Notes and Links
Off the Tee
Forum Topic of the Week
Beating Balls
- Failure Fuels Mickelson
- Mickelson Supports Tiger's Invitational
- What does Tiger Owe the Media?
- Tiger Alone
- Nike Sumo2 Recall
- Vardon's Illegitimate Son
- LPGA's Banned Substances
- Garcia Spits in Cup (Video)
- Mandatory Driver Testing?
- Ochoa Takes Safeway Classic
- Atwal 35 MPH Over
- Join our Podcast as a Guest
This show was recorded with Audio Hijack Pro over a Skype connection. We then used Soundtrack Pro to edit the show and GarageBand to produce the AAC file from the AIFF file, to add the artwork, and so forth. Feeder was used to create the XML file.
Note: This is an AAC (MP4) file, an open file format. iTunes - free software - can play AAC files, as can numerous other players, though we heartily recommend iTunes.
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If you'd like to submit a listener question that we can answer on the air, send the question to firstname.lastname@example.com.