text:
Simultaneous localization and mapping
In robotic mapping, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is the computational problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of an agent's location within it. While this initially appears to be a chicken-and-egg problem there are several algorithms known for solving it, at least approximately, in tractable time for certain environments. Popular approximate solution methods include the particle filter and extended Kalman filter.
SLAM algorithms are tailored to the available resources, hence not aimed at perfection, but at operational compliance. Published approaches are employed in self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicles, planetary rovers, newly emerging domestic robots and even inside the human body.[1]
Problem definition[edit]
Given a series of sensor observations over discrete time steps , the SLAM problem is to compute an estimate of the agent's location and a map of the environment . All quantities are usually probabilistic, so the objective is to compute:
Applying Bayes' rule gives a framework for sequentially updating the location posteriors, given a map and a transition function ,
Similarly the map can be updated sequentially by
Like many inference problems, the solutions to inferring the two variables together can be found, to a local optimum solution, by alternating updates of the two beliefs in a form of EM algorithm.
Statistical techniques used to approximate the above equations include Kalman filters, particle filters (aka. Monte Carlo methods) and scan matching of range data. They provide an estimation of the posterior probability function for the pose of the robot and for the parameters of the map. Set-membership techniques are mainly based on interval constraint propagation.[2][3] They provide a set which encloses the pose of the robot and a set approximation of the map. Bundle adjustment is another popular technique for SLAM using image data, which jointly estimates poses and landmark positions, increasing map fidelity, and is used in commercialized SLAM systems such as Google's Project Tango.
New SLAM algorithms remain an active research area, and are often driven by differing requirements and assumptions about the types of maps, sensors and models as detailed below. Many SLAM systems can be viewed as combinations of choices from each of these aspects.
Topological maps are a method of environment representation which capture the connectivity (i.e., topology) of the environment rather than creating a geometrically accurate map. Topological SLAM approaches have been used to enforce global consistency in metric SLAM algorithms.[4]
In contrast, grid maps use arrays (typically square or hexagonal) of discretized cells to represent a topological world, and make inferences about which cells are occupied. Typically the cells are assumed to be statistically independent in order to simplify computation. Under such assumption, are set to 1 if the new map's cells are consistent with the observation at location and 0 if inconsistent.
Modern self driving cars mostly simplify the mapping problem to almost nothing, by making extensive use of highly detailed map data collected in advance. This can include map annotations to the level of marking locations of individual white line segments and curbs on the road. Location-tagged visual data such as Google's StreetView may also be used as part of maps. Essentially such systems simplify the SLAM problem to a simpler localisation only task, perhaps allowing for moving objects such as cars and people only to be updated in the map at runtime.
SLAM will always use several different types of sensors, and the powers and limits of various sensor types have been a major driver of new algorithms.[5] Statistical independence is the mandatory requirement to cope with metric bias and with noise in measures. Different types of sensors give rise to different SLAM algorithms whose assumptions are which are most appropriate to the sensors. At one extreme, laser scans or visual features provide details of a great many points within an area, sometimes rendering SLAM inference unnecessary because shapes in these point clouds can be easily and unambiguously aligned at each step via image registration. At the opposite extreme, tactile sensors are extremely sparse as they contain only information about points very close to the agent, so they require strong prior models to compensate in purely tactile SLAM. Most practical SLAM tasks fall somewhere between these visual and tactile extremes.
Sensor models divide broadly into landmark-based and raw-data approaches. Landmarks are uniquely identifiable objects in the world whose location can be estimated by a sensor—such as wifi access points or radio beacons. Raw-data approaches make no assumption that landmarks can be identified, and instead model directly as a function of the location.
Optical sensors may be one-dimensional (single beam) or 2D- (sweeping) laser rangefinders, 3D High Definition LiDAR, 3D Flash LIDAR, 2D or 3D sonar sensors and one or more 2D cameras.[5] Since 2005, there has been intense research into VSLAM (visual SLAM) using primarily visual (camera) sensors, because of the increasing ubiquity of cameras such as those in mobile devices.[6] Visual and LIDAR sensors are informative enough to allow for landmark extraction in many cases. Other recent forms of SLAM include tactile SLAM[7] (sensing by local touch only), radar SLAM,[8] and wifi-SLAM (sensing by strengths of nearby wifi access points). Recent approaches apply quasi-optical wireless ranging for multi-lateration (RTLS) or multi-angulation in conjunction with SLAM as a tribute to erratic wireless measures. A kind of SLAM for human pedestrians uses a shoe mounted inertial measurement unit as the main sensor and relies on the fact that pedestrians are able to avoid walls to automatically build floor plans of buildings. by an indoor positioning system.[9]
For some outdoor applications, the need for SLAM has been almost entirely removed due to high precision differential GPS sensors. From a SLAM perspective, these may be viewed as location sensors whose likelihoods are so sharp that they completely dominate the inference. However GPS sensors may go down entirely or in performance on occasions, especially during times of military conflict which are of particular interest to some robotics applications.
Kinematics modeling[edit]
The term represents the kinematics of the model, which usually include information about action commands given to a robot. As a part of the model, the kinematics of the robot is included, to improve estimates of sensing under conditions of inherent and ambient noise. The dynamic model balances the contributions from various sensors, various partial error models and finally comprises in a sharp virtual depiction as a map with the location and heading of the robot as some cloud of probability. Mapping is the final depicting of such model, the map is either such depiction or the abstract term for the model.
For 2D robots, the kinematics are usually given by a mixture of rotation and "move forward" commands, which are implemented with additional motor noise. Unfortunately the distribution formed by independent noise in angular and linear directions is non-Gaussian, but is often approximated by a Gaussian. An alternative approach is to ignore the kinematic term and read odometry data from robot wheels after each command—such data may then be treated as one of the sensors rather than as kinematics.
Multiple objects[edit]
The related problems of data association and computational complexity are among the problems yet to be fully resolved, for example the identification of multiple confusable landmarks. A significant recent advance in the feature-based SLAM literature involved the re-examination of the probabilistic foundation for Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) where it was posed in terms of multi-object Bayesian filtering with random finite sets that provide superior performance to leading feature-based SLAM algorithms in challenging measurement scenarios with high false alarm rates and high missed detection rates without the need for data association.[10]
Popular techniques for handling multiple objects include Joint Probabilistic Data Association Filter (JPDAF) and probability hypothesis density filter (PHD).
Moving objects[edit]
Non-static environments, such as those containing other vehicles or pedestrians, continue to present research challenges. SLAM with DATMO is a model which tracks moving objects in a similar way to the agent itself.[11]
Loop closure[edit]
Loop closure is the problem of recognizing a previously-visited location and updates the beliefs accordingly. This can be a problem because model or algorithm errors can assign low priors to the location. Typical loop closure methods apply a second algorithm to measure some type of sensor similarity, and re-set the location priors when a match is detected. For example, this can be done by storing and comparing bag of words vectors of SIFT features from each previously visited location.
"Active SLAM" studies the combined problem of SLAM with deciding where to move next in order to build the map as efficiently as possible. The need for active exploration is especially pronounced in sparse sensing regimes such as tactile SLAM. Active SLAM is generally performed by approximating the entropy of the map under hypothetical actions. "Multi agent SLAM" extends this problem to the case of multiple robots coordinating themselves to explore optimally.
Biological inspiration[edit]
In neuroscience, the hippocampus appears to be involved in SLAM-like computations,[12][13][14] giving rise to place cells, and has formed the basis for bio-inspired SLAM systems such as RatSLAM. Bio-inspired methods are not currently competitive with engineering approaches however[according to whom?]
Researchers and experts in artificial intelligence have struggled to solve the SLAM problem in practical settings: that is, it required a great deal of computational power to sense a sizable area and process the resulting data to both map and localize.[15] A 2008 review of the topic summarized: "[SLAM] is one of the fundamental challenges of robotics . . . [but it] seems that almost all the current approaches can not perform consistent maps for large areas, mainly due to the increase of the computational cost and due to the uncertainties that become prohibitive when the scenario becomes larger."[16] Generally, complete 3D SLAM solutions are highly computationally intensive as they use complex real-time particle filters, sub-mapping strategies or hierarchical combination of metric topological representations, etc.
[17] Robots that use embedded systems cannot fully implement SLAM because of their limitation in computing power. Nguyen V., Harati A., & Siegwart R. (2007) presented a fast, lightweight solution called OrthoSLAM, which breaks down the complexity of the environment into orthogonal planes. By mapping only the planes that are orthogonal to each other, the structure of most indoor environments can be estimated fairly accurately. OrthoSLAM algorithm reduces SLAM to a linear estimation problem since only a single line is processed at a time.[17]
Various SLAM algorithms are implemented in the open-source robot operating system (ROS) libraries, often used together with the Point Cloud Library for 3D maps or visual features from OpenCV.
A seminal work in SLAM is the research of R.C. Smith and P. Cheeseman on the representation and estimation of spatial uncertainty in 1986.[18][19] Other pioneering work in this field was conducted by the research group of Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte in the early 1990s.[20] which showed that solutions to SLAM exist in the infinite data limit. This finding motivates the search for algorithms which are computationally tractable and approximate the solution.
The self-driving STANLEY and JUNIOR cars, led by Sebastian Thrun, won the DARPA Grand Challenge and came second in the DARPA Urban Challenge in the 2000s, and included SLAM systems, bringing SLAM to worldwide attention. Mass-market SLAM implementations can now be found in consumer robot vacuum cleaners such as the Neato XV11. Self-driving cars by Google and others have now received licenses to drive on public roads in some US states.
See also[edit]
- Structure from motion
- Kalman filter
- Monte Carlo localization
- Particle filter
- List of SLAM Methods
- DARPA Grand Challenge winner Stanley, a vehicle using SLAM techniques
- Registration of range images
- The Mobile Robot Programming Toolkit (MRPT) project: A set of open-source, cross-platform libraries covering SLAM through particle filtering and Kalman Filtering.
- Multi Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge: A $1.6 million international challenge requiring multiple vehicles to collaboratively map a large area
- Neato Robotics
- Robotic mapping
- Stereophotogrammetry
- Project Tango
- Computational photography
- ^ Mountney, P.; et al. (Stoyanov, D.; Davison, A.; Yang, G-Z.) (2006). "Simultaneous Stereoscope Localization and Soft-Tissue Mapping for Minimal Invasive Surgery" (PDF). MICCAI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 1: 347–354. ISBN 978-3-540-44707-8. doi:10.1007/11866565_43. Retrieved 2010-07-30.
- ^ Jaulin, L. (2009). "A nonlinear set-membership approach for the localization and map building of an underwater robot using interval constraint propagation" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
- ^ Jaulin, L. (2011). "Range-only SLAM with occupancy maps; A set-membership approach" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
- ^ Cummins, Mark; Newman, Paul (June 2008). "FAB-MAP: Probabilistic localization and mapping in the space of appearance" (PDF). The International Journal of Robotics Research. 27 (6): 647–665. doi:10.1177/0278364908090961. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
- ^ a b Magnabosco, M., Breckon, T.P. (February 2013). "Cross-Spectral Visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) with Sensor Handover" (PDF). Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 63 (2): 195–208. doi:10.1016/j.robot.2012.09.023. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
- ^ Karlsson, N.; et al. (Di Bernardo, E.; Ostrowski, J; Goncalves, L.; Pirjanian, P.; Munich, M.) (2005). The vSLAM Algorithm for Robust Localization and Mapping. Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
- ^ Fox, C., Evans, M., Pearson, M. and Prescott, T. (2012). Tactile SLAM with a biomimetic whiskered robot. Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA),.
- ^ Marck, J.W. Mohamoud, A., v.d.Houwen, E., van Heijster, R. (2013). Indoor radar SLAM A radar application for vision and GPS denied environments. Radar Conference (EuRAD), 2013 European.
- ^ Robertson, P.; Angermann, M.; Krach B. (2009). Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Pedestrians using only Foot-Mounted Inertial Sensors (PDF). Ubicomp 2009. Orlando, Florida, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/1620545.1620560.
- ^ J. Mullane, B.-N. Vo, M. D. Adams, and B.-T. Vo, (2011). "A random-finite-set approach to Bayesian SLAM," (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 27 (2): 268–282. doi:10.1109/TRO.2010.2101370.
- ^ Wang, Chieh-Chih and Thorpe, Charles and Thrun, Sebastian and Hebert, Martial and Durrant-Whyte, Hugh, (2007). "Simultaneous Localization, Mapping and Moving Object Tracking," (PDF). Int. J. Rob. Res. Sage Publications, Inc. 26 (9): 889––916. doi:10.1177/0278364907081229.
- ^ Howard, MW; Fotedar, MS; Datey, AV; Hasselmo, ME. The temporal context model in spatial navigation and relational learning: toward a common explanation of medial temporal lobe function across domains. 2005, Psychol Rev. 112(1):75-116.
- ^ Fox, C; Prescott, T. Hippocampus as Unitary Coherent Particle Filter. 2010, International Joint Conference on Neural Networks. doi:10.1109/IJCNN.2010.5596681.
- ^ Milford, MJ; Wyeth, GF; Prasser, D. RatSLAM: a hippocampal model for simultaneous localization and mapping. Proceedings. ICRA'04. IEEE International Conference on. Vol. 1. IEEE, 2004.
- ^ Brynjolfsson, Erik; McAfee, Andrew (Jan 20, 2014). The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 52. ISBN 9780393239355.
- ^ Aulinas, Josep (2008). "The SLAM Problem: A Survey". Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Artificial Intelligence Research & Development: 363–71. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
- ^ a b Nguyen, V.; Harati, A; Siegwart, R., "A lightweight SLAM algorithm using Orthogonal planes for indoor mobile robotics," Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007. IROS 2007. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on , vol., no., pp.658,663, Oct. 29 2007-Nov. 2 2007
- ^ Smith, R.C.; Cheeseman, P. (1986). "On the Representation and Estimation of Spatial Uncertainty" (PDF). The International Journal of Robotics Research. 5 (4): 56–68. doi:10.1177/027836498600500404. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
- ^ Smith, R.C.; Self, M.; Cheeseman, P. (1986). "Estimating Uncertain Spatial Relationships in Robotics" (PDF). Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence. UAI '86. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Elsevier. pp. 435–461.
- ^ Leonard, J.J.; Durrant-whyte, H.F. (1991). "Simultaneous map building and localization for an autonomous mobile robot". Intelligent Robots and Systems' 91.'Intelligence for Mechanical Systems, Proceedings IROS'91. IEEE/RSJ International Workshop on: 1442–1447. ISBN 0-7803-0067-X. doi:10.1109/IROS.1991.174711. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
External links[edit]
- Probabilistic Robotics by Sebastian Thrun, Wolfram Burgard and Dieter Fox with a clear overview of SLAM.
- SLAM For Dummies (A Tutorial Approach to Simultaneous Localization and Mapping).
- Andrew Davison research page at Imperial College London about SLAM using vision.
- Autonomous and Perceptive Systems research page at University of Groningen about visual SLAM.
- openslam.org A good collection of open source code and explanations of SLAM.
- Matlab Toolbox of Kalman Filtering applied to Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Vehicle moving in 1D, 2D and 3D.
- SLAM Example using Processing.js of Feature-Based Navigation.
- FootSLAM research page at DLR including the related Wifi SLAM and PlaceSLAM approaches.
- SLAM lecture Online SLAM lecture based on Python.
- SLAM in use for indoor positioning and navigation.


text:
Both jobs, this week, quite easily done. "Notorious: Alfred Hitchcock and Contemporary Art" is at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, and it is what it says it is: an exhibition of contemporary art that takes off from the works of Hitchcock. And what it means, for one thing, is that we live in the age of the proactive curator, and curators love themes, and this is obviously an excellent theme, because so curiously specific - excellent, at least, if the theme can be made to work.
It can. It fills a gallery convincingly. The show has a dozen or so bodies of work, mostly video and photo; it includes such artists as Cindy Sherman, Douglas Gordon, Atom Egoyan and John Baldessari; and almost all the work is Hitchcock-inspired in perfectly explicit ways. So what it also means is that the Master, in his centenary year, holds a fairly strong place in today's artistic mindset.
This needn't be surprising. Hitchcock offers lots of things we like (or like to analyse): sex and violence, fetishism, voyeurism. But perhaps the real affinity, or aspirant affinity, is with Hitchcock's tone, an uncertain one, a shifty mix of passion and irony, sophistication and crudeness, which comes with his uncertain status as high/low artist, and which makes him, in fact, a peculiarly difficult object of inspiration - as many film "homages" prove, and several of the artistic "remakes" here do too. But one of them proves quite otherwise.
The six "Phoenix Tapes" are short videos made by Christoph Girardet and Matthias Muller. They steal and save the show. They're not a remake so much as a remix. The artists have taken the complete films of Hitchcock, made a descriptive catalogue of every shot, and then edited together sequences of recurring motifs, with linking themes.
The first of these videos you meet is devoted to hands in close-up. You have, say, half a dozen shots of door handles being very slowly turned, then ditto of keys being concealed, handbags rifled, notes written, things dropped, phones dialled, steering wheels turned, pistols fired. One obvious pleasure is source- spotting - there's the note from Rear Window, the bottle smashing in Notorious; then there's the aspect of criticism-before- your-very-eyes, the themes that return again and again; best of all is the sense of one distinctive Hitchcock mode - the intimate handling of objects - extracted neat and put on repeat for our savouring.
Other tapes are more ambitious. There's a mothers-and-sons reel, with magnificent montages of Hitchcock harridans and Hitchcock "queers". There's a romance/murder reel, which segues effortlessly from dream clinches to violent strangleholds. There's a panic reel, with one extremely exciting image-relay, moving in a rapid step-by-step jolt from close-up accusing face to bolting crowd. The Phoenix Tapes transform the laborious encyclopaedism of their making with a wit, cunning, rhythm and tone that are all true to source. The effect is to renew the oeuvre - to give back what you know almost too well in a revised and reviving form. It would be wonderful to have them out on commercial video, but copyright prevents.
So that is the big, good surprise of the show (it was specially commissioned). Other works have a more expected air. Some of them had to be included, of course, but I think Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills (1978) are losing their shine, though they once seemed such a brilliant invention. These are black-and-white stills from imaginary but generically recognisable films, each starring (in various guises) the artist. There are some definite Hitchcocks among them, and No 56 is clever because it could be Hitchcock or it could be Bergman, which isn't a confusion you'd expect. But once you've had a good look through them all, they don't accrue.
But that's not an experience you're likely to have with another essential inclusion, Douglas Gordon's 24-Hour Psycho (1993). It runs (silently) at about two frames a second and, if you haven't seen it before, it's quite an interesting spectacle: very frustrating at first, of course; and then a focus for the desires that are being frustrated (i.e., it makes you think about stories, suspense, shock etc); and then you slow down and take it at its own dreamy speed; and then you get bored. But in fact I did hear of someone who had sat through it entire.
With the rest of the show: though, as I say, it's convincingly full of Hitchcock-oriented art, I suspect the curators didn't have such a wealth to select from that they could afford to be very choosy - rather, the theme needed to look justified, and almost everything plausible went in. At least, I find it hard to believe it was sheer admiration that made them include The Bridge (1984), a photo-text piece by the veteran British conceptualist Victor Burgin, which presents a Freudian-feminist critique of Vertigo and in effect transfers an essay from Screen magazine on to the gallery wall and nothing more.
Of course, there's some slightly livelier stuff too. But little of it seems fully necessary, in terms of saying something the films don't already say. It's a problem about cross-trading between high and low culture - a special problem here, because of the special position Hitchcock occupies. He is almost inappropriable. Now the typical situation is for the high artist to come across some vigorous popular form and to find in it unconscious, unexploited artistic possibilities - and to take it up, bring it out, do something with it. Think of Roy Lichtenstein and the strip-cartoon. Granted, the cartoon-artists he borrowed from were not the naive, anonymous craftsmen they've sometimes been taken for, they were conscious stylists, and you may say the original cartoons are nicer; but still, Lichtenstein saw potentials in their work that they didn't see, and made something of them.
But the case of Hitchcock is different, perhaps uniquely so. Not remotely naive, of course - quite the contrary: critics have long been saying he was a terrific highbrow, almost an experimental film-maker, producing a self-reflexive cinema about looking, about fantasy, about viewing and cinema itself, all that. Which is true enough. But if it were the whole truth, then practically nobody, including most of those critics, would be at all interested in Hitchcock's art, whose mysterious charm is in the way these highbrow elements are inextricably mixed with the values and dynamic of comedy-melodrama (though sometimes, as in Vertigo, the mixture tastes pretty funny).
So you can't do much with Hitchcock, artistically. You can't be knowing about the films, bringing out implicit but unconscious material, because they know it all already. And if you try to extract and separate out a "deep" Hitchcock from an "entertainment" Hitchcock, you actually end up with something much thinner and more straightforward than the originals. In terms of cultural trading, Hitchcock is ahead of the game, and playing it in the other way. He knew the avant-garde cinema of his time, and incorporated its tricks and interests into thrillers. It isn't a matter of packaging high with low (as, for instance, The Name of the Rose basically does); it's a fusion. We can't do that now. And I suppose the main thing Alfred Hitchcock must inspire in the contemporary artist, beyond homage or critique, is a pure and fully justified envy.
`Notorious: Alfred Hitchcock and Contemporary Art', Museum of Modern Art, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford; until 3 October
- More about:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Contemporary Art
- Grace Kelly
- Modern Art

subset: commoncrawl


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China Bond Market Ready for Takeoff After Bold Moves
China is the opposite of other major economies when it comes to companies' ability to raise money by issuing bonds.
China's 4.2 trillion yuan ($666 billion) corporate bond market is just 9 percent of its gross domestic product. In the U.S., the $7.9 trillion in fixed-income securities is equal to more than half the size of economic output.
The government wants to change that, to give corporate bonds a bigger role in boosting growth and to divert risk from the state-owned banking system that provides 75 percent of the nation's credit. A mature bond market also would provide funding for capital-hungry small businesses that have few options beyond the unregulated world of shadow banking, which officials are seeking to wrestle under control.
Guo Shuqing, the 56-year-old head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, has taken steps to consolidate regulatory power over bonds since he became chairman seven months ago. He's set up an office to study new products, and in May the CSRC, the equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said it's considering introducing municipal bonds. In early June, Guo launched a plan to allow small and medium-sized companies to sell debt comparable to speculative-grade bonds in other market.
"International experience shows that overreliance on bank credit in a financial system can, under certain circumstances, lead to systemic risk," Guo told the official People's Daily newspaper in March, saying that the bond market, which provides 13 percent of China's debt, "seriously" lags behind the demands of the real economy and needs to develop.
Power Grab
Three government agencies now split control over the bond market, including the CSRC, the National Development and Reform Commission and the central bank. The CSRC is pushing ahead with unifying all of the regulators' separate bond-disclosure, credit-rating, investor-protection and entry standards, according to a May 31 statement on its website.
Guo's unilateral power grab may create conflict, said Fraser Howie, Singapore-based managing director of CLSA Asia- Pacific Markets who co-authored the book "Red Capitalism" on China's financial system.
"Clearly there are others who are going to want to have a say when it comes to the fixed-income world," Howie said. "What he needs to do is pick fights he can win."
If anyone can, it may be Guo. As head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in 2001-2005, he pushed through reforms by forging relationships between departments and building support, according to Hong Weizhi, a former spokesman for SAFE who worked with the chief regulator.
Bringing Together
"Maybe only he can bring things together, only he can persuade relevant departments," Hong said. "You need not worry when you hand a job to him. He attaches great importance to coordination and always puts state interests before his own agency's."
In April, the three bond-market regulators held their first meeting to coordinate policy on corporate securities, according to the central bank's website.
"In the long run there should be a unified supervision of this market," said Wang Ge, an executive director in debt capital markets at Goldman Gaohua Securities Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s joint venture in China. "Investors are eager to invest in corporate bonds, but the market is not sophisticated enough to allow them to hedge credit risk."
Junk's Debut
Guo's moves would change that. The introduction of junk bonds could allow China to have its first default, which would then allow the market to price the risk of a company going bankrupt and instill confidence in the market. So far, local governments or banks have bailed out any company that risked defaulting on its publicly traded bonds.
The debut sale went ahead as a private placement on June 8, with a 50-million-yuan offering by Suzhou Huadong Coating Glass Co., based in the eastern province of Jiangsu, according to a release on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
"For a mature bond market we should allow some firms to go bust," said John Sun, managing director at Citic Securities International in Hong Kong. "The high-yield issuers will be small companies, so the impact on the whole market will be small, but psychologically it can impact the market sentiment because it's never happened before."
Although foreign banks, through joint ventures, can trade in bonds and underwrite them on the CSRC-regulated bond market via the two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, they mostly remain shut out of underwriting on the interbank market, which is 20 times larger and closed to individual investors.
Only HSBC
Only HSBC Holdings Plc has won approval to underwrite non- financial debt on the interbank bond market, and has yet to lead manage any sales. The London-based bank is the top underwriter in Hong Kong of so-called Dim Sum bonds, denominated in China's currency and sold offshore, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. HSBC declined to comment on Guo's reforms or potential for expansion for foreigners.
"It's awfully hard to see a foreign bank getting in, in a big way, in the early stages because the large local institutions are going to have to dominate to ensure that it works," said Jim Antos, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. "A Chinese corporate would feel they have a better chance of success with a big local institution. That's the law of the jungle."
Foreign Underwriting
Foreign banks do stand to profit from the expansion of the domestic bond market as more Chinese companies are also allowed to sell Dim Sum bonds in Hong Kong. In addition to HSBC, Standard Chartered Plc, also London-based, along with BNP Paribas SA of France and Deutsche Bank AG of Germany have been the top underwriters of 227 billion yuan worth of debt since Baosteel Group Corp. became the first mainland non-financial company to sell yuan bonds in Hong Kong in November. Another four offerings are in the pipeline after being approved by the NDRC in April.
"European banks in China welcome the efforts made so far by the regulators to establish a strong liquid domestic bond market," Dirk Moens, secretary general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said in a statement that urged China to "clarify the approval process and grant faster access to those qualified banks."
Guo, a visiting scholar at Oxford University in 1986-87 who makes speeches in fluent English, has been pushing open China's capital markets to foreign investors, an effort that had languished under his predecessor.
Market Priming
In April, the CSRC announced an almost tripling of the amounts allowed for U.S-dollar and yuan-qualified foreign institutional investors seeking access to China's otherwise- closed markets. That money can be used to buy bonds sold through the stock exchanges. As of the latest figures available in March, 14 percent of the foreign investment had funneled to debt.
"He has done a lot for the first several months since he took over this position," said Zhiming Zhang, Hong Kong-based head of China research at HSBC. "He's rolling out a lot initiatives, but it's all strictly within the CSRC."
For years China's bond market has meant shuffling money between state organs, with state-owned companies selling their paper to state-owned banks at controlled interest rates and banks holding the bonds on their books. Regulators have cornered different segments of the market: the NDRC primarily approves bond issuances of state-owned companies connected to local governments and the central government; the People's Bank of China, or central bank, approves unlisted companies' bonds; the CSRC handles companies already listed on the exchanges.
Expanding Reach
Back in 2009, the central bank had begun its own plan for small businesses to issue notes in an attempt to allow a wider range of companies to sell debt. Today, only 17 percent of private companies currently issue bonds rated AA- and above, according to data from HSBC.
Guo's junk-bond plan expands the reach. It allows small and medium-sized companies to access funds, and investors to receive yields as much as three times the bank-lending rate. Companies, including unlisted ones, could also sell debt without administrative approvals, allowing the market to decide credit risk rather than the state.
"Commercial banks are very conservative in bond investing, so it's not likely they will hold a large portion of the SME bonds," said Wilson Li, a Shenzhen-based analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co., naming mutual funds and insurance companies as the potential investors. "That shifts risk away from the banks."
Few Tools
More than 68 percent of bond investors are banks, according to Chinabond, the nation's bond clearing house. Currently in China there are few tools to hedge credit risk. Trading in new credit-default products introduced in 2010, known as credit-risk mitigation warrants, has never taken off.
Shandong Helon Co. (000677), a small fiber maker in eastern China that listed on the stock exchange, avoided default on its 400- million-yuan bond in April, despite being technically insolvent since September and reporting a loss of more than 1 billion yuan last year. Its overdue loans account for 582 percent of its assets.
Guo started early as a reformer. Born in 1956 in sparsely populated Inner Mongolia just ahead of China's Great Leap Forward, Guo was dispatched to a rural work team during the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. He published his first article, "Investigations on Reforming the Chinese Economy," in 1984 while a Master's student in Marxist and Leninist theory.
He sent the article unsolicited to the State Council's committee on economic reform hoping they could learn from it, according to an introduction he wrote for a collection of essays published in 2008.
Politician's Manner
Having worked in a number of state institutions, including as vice governor of landlocked Guizhou province and as a deputy in the central bank, Guo has a politician's manner. In his first speech as securities regulator in November to a Caixin magazine conference in a hotel in Beijing's central business district, he advocated allocating more resources to rural areas. Since then he has continued advocating for expanding the bond market.
Li Yang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the top state-supported research body, echoed the need in a forum in May, as cited by the official Xinhua news agency. He warned that corporate debt has exceeded warning levels, and companies could default on bank loans if the economy slows.
The central bank, the People's Bank of China led by Zhou Xiaochuan, who had headed the China Construction Bank Corp. before Guo, manages the interbank market. Zhou led the first meeting of the inter-ministerial coordination mechanism for corporate bonds in April.
Fast Track
The NDRC, the country's economic planning agency which used to be the center of China's Soviet-style planned economy, approves most bonds to fund infrastructure projects. Such borrowing was crucial for China's 2008 stimulus and led local governments to rack up 10.7 trillion yuan in debt, 27 percent of China's GDP, from banks and bond sales, according to a June 2011 audit.
The NDRC plans to allow at least 500 billion yuan in a record for corporate-debt issuance this year, double the 2011 amount, according to a summary of a private talk by an NDRC official viewed by Bloomberg News. It has adopted a fast-track process for sales of public-housing debt by local governments, an official familiar with the decision said.
China has overwhelmingly relied on state-owned bank credit for its economic growth since reforms to the planned economy began in 1978. The ratio of all the financing in the economy to gross domestic product reached an all-time high of 44 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according to HSBC.
Weaning Off
In the early 1990s, Korea managed to wean state-owned borrowers off bank lending, Kim Eng Tan, a credit analyst at Standard & Poor's LLC said.
"They had a problem with state-owned companies financing only from banks, but when the bond market started, all the big companies rushed to the bond market, leaving the banks with no customers, freeing them up to lend to small and medium-sized companies," he said. "If you free the largest conglomerates to go to the bond market you solve the SME problem."
In China's system, that would require coordination among regulators that have overseen separate aspects of the bond market for more than a decade.
"When Guo stepped in he said we need more flexibility, we need to encourage more products in this market," Citic Securities' Sun said. "He's a very capable guy. When he was in China Construction Bank he did a good job there, but of course at his current position a lot of politics will be involved."
Guo's writings have demonstrated that he's aware of the challenge. In his essay introduction, he noted the difficulties.
"Changing the settled mindset and behavior of those involved in economic activity and leaders," Guo wrote, "is not a simple study class, where you can attend some training sessions and finish the task."
--Henry Sanderson. With assistance from Dingmin Zhang in Beijing. Editors: Sheridan Prasso, Andrew Monahan
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Henry Sanderson in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7548 or email@example.com;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shelley Smith at +852-2977-6623 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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Mini Morsel Shortbread Squares
These crisp, chocolaty squares make a noteworthy addition to any party or holiday tray. They mix up in one bowl and bake in 30 minutes. Delicious straight out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A true favorite!
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels, divided
Directions, Reviews, Nutrition
BEAT butter and sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in 1 cup mini morsels. Press onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
BAKE for 30 to 33 minutes or just until top is light brown. Immediately sprinkle with remaining morsels. Let stand for 5 minutes or until morsels are shiny; spread evenly. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.
What did you think? Share Your Review »
397 Reviews
Thank you for reviewing this recipe.
Very Delicious
I brought these for a school function and they were gone quick! I had made them the week before and found that they got hard and stale very fast so I made them the night before and carefully secured them. They stayed moist and delicious!
this was very fast and easy to make. it is tasty and delicious. will make again.
Mini MORSEL SHORTBREAD SQARES
This was very easy to make. But my whole family and myself thought it was very dry and not good as your usual recipes are.
Easy and Good
This recipe is very easy to make and very good. It didn't last very long because my family ate it so quickly. I will be making it again.
Not my favorite
The pics looked so good and I thought I would really enjoy it...however, it was disappointing in my families' eyes. We thought it was too dry : (
Nutrition Information
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/48 of Recipe
Servings Per Recipe: 48
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories: 100
- Calories from Fat: 50
- Total Fat: 6g (9% of DV)
- Saturated Fat: 3.5g (19% of DV)
- Cholesterol: 15mg (5% of DV)
- Sodium: 30mg (1% of DV)
- Carbohydrates: 12g (4% of DV)
- Dietary Fiber: 0g (0% of DV)
- Sugars: 7g
- Protein: 1g
- Vitamin A: 2% of DV
- Vitamin C: 0% of DV
- Calcium: 0% of DV
- Iron: 2% of DV
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.


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News By Tag
Industry News
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Industry News
Motor Werks of Barrington is Offering Savings on Auto Service
Barrington's Mercedes-Benz dealership offers specials on routine maintenance.
In preparation for winter, the dealership is featuring some particularly beneficial offers:
ñ A free 28-point winter inspection. With winter already upon most of the area, it is only likely to get colder and more abrasive. By bringing a vehicle in for this complimentary inspection, the service center will check the vehicle's battery condition, as well as its starter performance, tire wear and pressure, belts, hoses, and much more.
ñ Free tire installation is available for any set of tires purchased at Motor Werks. Whether upgrading worn and balding tires or simply switching out for special, winter-ready treads, they'll be mounted and balanced for free.
ñ The importance of a cooling system, even in the winter months, is hard to overstate. Drivers can have their cooling system serviced for $99, which covers inspection for leaks, 1 gallon of anti-freeze, a pressure test, and checking hoses, belts, and clamps.
ñ Dent repair can be important before winter hits and salt and poor weather wreak havoc on any imperfections. The team at Motor Werks of Barrington is offering paintless dent repair for only $95 per panel.
Additionally, their service center pays special respect to older model vehicles. Drivers of any Mercedes-Benz that is a 2004 model or older can receive 15% off any repair or service on their vehicle.
Scheduling maintenance at Motor Werks of Barrington's service center is simple: drivers can either call (888) 466-0754 or set up an appointment online (http://www.motorwerksmercedes.com/
Motor Werks of Barrington is available for auto maintenance and repair needs six days a week; for more information regarding their current specials, contact their dealership (http://www.motorwerksmercedes.com/
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text:
VC receives $269,477 grant from Texas Workforce CommissionPosted: Updated:
Concert in Utah park honors man killed in London attack
The life of a Utah man who ran a recording studio before he was killed in a high-profile attack London attack will be celebrated with the local music he loved.
Conference: US mayors may shape national climate policy
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says national policy on climate change will emerge from U.S. cities, now that President Donald Trump has withdrawn the country from the Paris climate accords.
APNewsBreak: Military heads want transgender enlistment hold
Officials say U.S. military chiefs will seek a six-month delay before allowing transgender individuals to enlist in their services.
California governor stops parole for Charles Manson follower
California Gov. Jerry Brown has blocked parole for Charles Manson follower Bruce Davis.
Lawyer: Race a factor in St. Louis cop being mistakenly shot
The lawyer for a black St. Louis police officer who was off-duty when he tried to help in an arrest but was mistakenly shot by a white officer says his client's race factored into it.


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Moderators: crewchief252, LayedOut, Dep6, jamesmc
trigger22 wrote:Shade wrote:I buy my supplies from Seattle Marine Supply.
1 550ft roll of #120 Braided Tarred Line = $55
Yikes...... Memphis net is only $35 for 550 feet of #120 tarred
DKC wrote:Why use drops if you're not using a dog?
DKC wrote:Shade wrote:DKC wrote:Why use drops if you're not using a dog?
If you attach directly to the main-line.... Wouldn't you be limiting motion? In some good chop I am sure it wouldn't matter, but in a gentle current I would think that having drops would allow the decoys to move in the wind and/or current as the are designed to do.
Once the long line is set and the drops have their score, that's where they're going to sit.
I haven't noticed any difference. I have my surf scoter rigged without drops as we layout hunt exclusively with the scoter. On my bills I have drops as we will layout and blind hunt the bills. The only difference I've noticed is that without drops, it's a lot faster and easier.
Why not make one line of each and then you can decide.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests


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Once you've reached a pinnacle, you can't keep whining that you're only teetering because you're a woman. You're teetering because the pinnacle is slim, sharp and lonely, and you can only remain there if you belong there, or if you have one hell of a safety belt supporting you. Those that belong there make the pinnacle look easy, the rest impale themselves or fall. Or they loll about in the safety belt, and stagnate.I wrote that a long time ago, back when Katie Couric was complaining that her … [Read more...]
Hillary on Top: Teetering, and not Due to Sexism
Hillary, Stop Being Coy! Fight Sexism; It's YOUR TIME!
While traveling yesterday I had a chance to catch up on my reading and discovered that Hillary Clinton is "thinking about" running for President.We love her when she is coy, don't we? I can't wait to see her new presidential posters. Remember this one, from 2008?2008 was a big year for Democrat candidates drawn with just a hint of totalitarian flavor. Hillary's rising sun was reminiscent of Chairman Mao, Obama's posters often ran more toward soviet propaganda.That was then, and … [Read more...]
Katie Couric and the Gravitas Issue
Taking a break from his lengthy vacation Greg Kandra -- who during his long career at CBS spent some time toiling on behalf of Katie Couric -- argues that, despite charges of sexism, or Gail Collins' weirdly bar-lowering, denial-laden praise (which declared that as long as Couric didn't make it "worse" for women, she'd been a "total success") Couric was simply a bad fit for the anchor's desk, and that everyone seemed to know it but Couric herself, and Les Moonves. Noting with irony that the new … [Read more...]


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On Thursday, The Washington Post reported plans for the liberal One Nation rally, and even used a label in reporting "liberal groups" were organizing the event that "they expect to draw tens of thousands of people." Reporter Krissah Thompson quoted organizers of the event:
"We aren't the alternative to the tea party; we are the antidote," said NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who is also a lead organizer. The team that produces the NAACP's annual Image Awards show are putting together the One Nation rally.
But Thompson somehow missed the hubbub over Mr. Jealous recently speaking in a black church about the rally, wildly comparing the "hatred" of Obama opponents to the "period before Kristallnacht," that is, the prelude to the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews:
With massive progress comes massive backlash. And one of the reasons why we haven't stopped long enough to celebrate our victories is because of the hellfire we had to come through to get health care done. All the hatred on the radio, all the hatred on the TV. Our Jewish friends sitting around saying 'This is too much like the period before Kristallnacht.' And old black folks sitting around going 'I don't know if this is more like when my granddaddy told me about the end of Reconstruction of what I witnessed with the rise of the White Citizens Council.'
Jealous also yelled about how conservatives supposedly "hold the Koran hostage, call our president an African witch doctor? Shame on you! This is what One Nation is about...one nation, under God with liberty and justice for all!"
Thompson and other reporters should know that conservatives think you can't beat your breast in joy about your successful lobbying for the imposition of a European-style socialist health care scheme and then exclaim your movement is advocating "liberty"....without a laugh track.
But shouldn't reporters notice these remarks -- from a protest leader, not an occasional straggler -- with the ardor they found Obama-Nazi signs at Tea Party rallies (by Lyndon LaRouche superfans)? Shouldn't networks (like ABC) who devoted stories to Jealous smearing the Tea Party as a gaggle of racists and a threat to human rights also report when Jealous starts suggesting there's an American Tea Party Holocaust around the corner?


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Chevy 327 rebuild
I am considering rebuilding a 327 2 bolt main that was installed in my 1957 chevy step side when i purchased about 10 years back. my first thought was to ditch the motor and go with a crate motor but now thinking of keeping with the 327 for nostalgia. This will be a daily driver and not so much for racing however i would like to acheive around 350 hp. My plan is to rebuild the short block (pending having the block magns fluxed and pressure checked) and then installing an Edelbrock top end kit such as the 2022 or the 2088. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks!
All sounds good. decent heads,medium cam,aluminum manifold,headers,decent 4 bbl.You can make 350 hp.Thats only 1.06 hp per cube
Make it a 360 cid. Use a 350 crank and bore it 0.060".
If you are going to build a mild street engine, it will be much easier to make 350 hp with a 350 than a 327. Plus the torque goes up also.
If you are going to stay with a stock converter and highway gears, then use a cam around 212 degrees at 0.050". But will need a good set of heads and a set of headers to make 350 hp.
Listen to f-bird. no more easy power than induction , simple and reliable. Yea and his 327 by the way he is describing it is a small journal engine , just a tad hard to get the 350 crank in it.
The blower answer is not a fits all for all occasions.
it is if your wanting cheap reliable extra power. bar none .if not explain
looks like the OP is a first timer? I wonder what he really wants? I sure like a zingy n.a. 327.
maybe for a heavy truck a blown low output v-8 might be the answer?
1 Attachment(s)
revnkevn........build what YOU want, also ALL 327's were 2 bolts, large or small journal cranks. The blower would be nice but not nesessary to achieve 350 hp. The main thing you want to do is find a REALLY GOOD machine shop and talk over your build with them.
Preperation is everything, The right machine work with the right combination of parts will allow you achieve your goal. Just remember it will still be a 327 or 331 cubic inches, not 350 or 383 and the power will be sacrifised for "nostalgia". Here's a pic of my 331" SBC, never got to dyno it but it sure sounded good....enjoy your build.
Hello guys,the idea is not wrong one dude but one question in my mind that why you ditch the motor??327 is looking good and superb..good keep it up and doing more work on it...
the 327 is a great street engine, my 327 has 335 HP with 9.25 CR ported heads cam 454 lift~280 dur. 3 deuces. nostalgia? yep, maybe more like period correct!
In the Lesaber, the engine went and blew clouds of smoke for miles. I ended up grabbing a bunch of parts and throwing them together. Found a 700r4 from a S10 , a 300hp 327 from a rusted partscar belair with Z28 intake and 750 edel carb, to replace the buicks 350, new 4.10 ring and pinion. These were leftovers from old freinds projects and very cheap.
The 67 327 with hp factory cam is much better than a 78 buick 350. Less inches but more hp and torque than before. At some point in life, it was rebuilt and taken .030" over. The trans a 700r4 , and stock S10 2600 stall. Shifting the 4.10 gears and 235/60/15s . Runs 2600rpm at 75mph.
For what it was a 350/th350 lesaber with 2.76 gears. The driveline 700r4 with 4.10 drives like a racecar. The car can fry the tires, and accelerate well. The trans and 4.10 alone would be a killer upgrade for acceleration.
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text:
[Date Index]
[Thread Index]
[Author Index]
GUIKit and GraphEdit
hi all.
I am working with the graph edit and I add some actions to buttons, in
order to apply changes to the graph.
With this graph, you can select squares or arcs. Is there a way to
know which is the selected arc? The idea is to select an arc, and then
modify the value of the weight of this arc.
I try to do this with a script added to a widget button. The code for
the graph panel is the following :
Widget["Graph/GraphPanel", {"preferredSize" -> Widget[
"Dimension", {"width" -> 600, "height
" -> 400}]}, ExposeWidgetReferences -> {"
graphModel"}, Name -> "graphPanel"]
the button gets the PropertyValue[{"graphPanel", "expr"}] which is the
representation of the graph. For example :
{{1, 1} -> a, {1, 2} -> b, {2, 2} -> c, {2, 3} -> d, {_, _} -> 0}
now if I know that the user has selected a particular arc, I can do
some changes to the value of this arc and apply these changes to the
I hope this is something we can do. I search a way to do that, and if
someone can help me saving time, I will be very thankful.


text:
Educational Consumer Tips
Better Business Bureau
Published: 10/10/2011
The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB) licenses Commercial Contractors for the following trades: Electrical, HVAC, Hydronics, Plumbing, and Refrigeration.
Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board
6606 Tussing Road
Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068
Phone: 614-644-3493
Fax: 614-728-1200
The OCIILB does not license Residential Contractors nor do they license General Contractors. Currently, there is no statewide license requirement for Residential Contractors.
What to do if you have a complaint
OCILB accepts complaints against licensed specialty contractors and unlicensed specialty contractors. However, OCILB may not have authority over residential contractors. If you have a complaint concerning workmanship and code compliance against a residential contractor you may be able to get assistance from your local Building Inspector. The Local Building Inspection Department sometimes requires residential contractors to be licensed in your area, or may require them to obtain certain building permits. If you live in the Greater Cincinnati area, you can find your local Building Inspector here. In areas without a local Building Inspection Department office, or for complaints regarding other issues, you can contact the Ohio Attorney General's Office (Consumer Protection Section) at 1-800-282-0515 for further assistance.
Don't forget, BBB is also here to help. We offer complaint resolution services free of charge. Consumers can fill out a complaint quickly and easily online, and it can be done for all types of businesses. You can submit your complaint online here.
Want to Learn More?
If you want to learn more about the Residential, General Contracting, or General Construction industry, BBB offers expert advice on a variety of home improvement topics. Be sure to check out our resource library and sign up for our consumer newsletter, Dollars & Sense. To read our review of a specific business, search BBB's website to find the company's BBB Business Review.
More tips for this industry
Questions and Comments
Question Submitted 11/6/2013
I have a question about the building inspector. I recently contacted the building department to report several jobs in my area completed and being worked on by a contractor who was unlicensed to do these trades(electrical, plumbing metc..) one job this particular inspector inspected and I told him the electrical was done by this contractor without the proper licenses and permits. instead of helping me as a concerned citizen he actually called the contractor and warned him, gave him my name and said I was trying to cause trouble. I am sure this is an ethics violation. do you have any idea who I need to contact on the state level to file my complaint against this building inspector.thank you.
BBB's Answer:If you have not already done so, you may wish to contact the head of your building inspector's office to explain the situation you have encountered. If unsuccessful, the Ohio Board of Building Standards (a division of the Ohio Department of Commerce) certifies county, township and municipal building departments. They may be able for further assist you.
Views expressed on this page are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Better Business Bureau.
Rate this tipRate this tip by choosing the stars below.
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text: Hey guys I'm new here so expect me to ask some dumb questions and such but I need you guys to tell me if I'm getting a good deal on this 2005 sti with 39000 miles. The guy is asking for 23k for his non modded adult owned car and I'm considering it greatly, but would like your opinions first of course! What do you guys think about the price and the miles... Could I get a better deal? And my price budget right now is around 25k, should I try to look for an 06? Anyway any help would be appreciated and yeah, I hope to be a part of you guys soon


text:
"You Never Really Hear About Mitt Romney's Ankles:" Gloria Feldt on Female Candidates and the Media
Women's Media Center board member Gloria Feldt was on America's Radio News Network on Friday to discuss media treatment of female political candidates, and what kind of effect that may have on other women considering a run. More »
Obama's Epic #FAIL on Plan B
Out of patience with Obama Administration betrayals on health issues, a coalition has launched a petition demanding an agenda that is fair to women. More »
Make History With Your Media Activism on Women's Equality Day
This is Women's Equality Day. What better way to celebrate, suggests author and WMC board member Gloria Feldt, than to launch your own campaign against sexism in the media. More »
Giffords Tragedy: What's the Message to Young Women?
When an angry young man aimed his semiautomatic handgun at Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a Tucson Safeway store on Saturday, he didn't just critically wound her and kill or wound 19 others. He fired a shot through the heart of American democracy. More »


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- Amongst the world's largest Cu-Ni-PGM polymetallic sulphide deposits with contained metals (using a 0.3% Cu cut-off) of 13.7 billion lbs copper, 4.4 billion lbs nickel, and 21.2 million ozs palladium+platinum+gold (TPM) [ 1 ]in the Indicated category and 11.8 billion lbs copper, 4.0 billion lbs nickel, and 12.8 million ozs TPM [ 1 ] in the Inferred category, representing an average 19% increase from the June 2012 interim AMEC Report.
- Using a base case 0.3% Cu cut-off, AMEC estimated an Indicated Mineral Resource of 1.17 billion tons [ 2 ] and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.26 billion tons on the three deposits (Birch Lake, Maturi and Spruce Road) occurring on approximately 11% of the footprint of the prospective portion of the Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) property block, representing a 60% increase in Indicated Tons and a 9% increase in Inferred Tons from the June 2012 interim report.
- The S3 Subunit (which is a subset of the base case mineral resource estimate for the Maturi Deposit) using a higher 0.5% Cu cut-off contains 622 million tons in the Indicated category and 198 million tons in the Inferred category. This material may have potential to provide higher-grade mill feed for the early stages of any planned mining operation.
- Exploration Target areas include additional potential resources of between 1.4 and 2.2 billion tons contiguous to the boundaries of the three deposits. These Exploration Target areas occur on approximately 12% of the footprint of the prospective portion of the TMM property block.
- The AMEC updated mineral resource estimate highlights a growing Platinum Group Metal (PGM) and gold resource of 21.2 million ozs Indicated and 12.8 million ozs Inferred in the Maturi and Birch Lake deposits. A decline of 3.0 million ozs contained in the Inferred Resource from the June 2012 interim report is offset by a 9.1 million ozs (75%) increase in the Indicated Resource. The TMM project has one of the world's largest palladium and platinum resources outside of South Africa.
TORONTO, December 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Figure 1 - Map of Twin Metals Minnesota Indicated Resources, Inferred Resources, and Exploration Target Areas. (CNW Group/Duluth Metals Limited) Media


text:
Model #BLM-1651
|List Price:
|Our Price:
|$499.00 New
General Description
We're committed to exceeding your expectations:
- Found it for less? We'll match the price
- 25-Year or Limited Lifetime Warranty
Our customers come first — we guarantee it!
No guests should ever have to feel uncomfortable in your lobby chairs. XL Club Chairs offer an extra-high weight capacity and extra-wide seats so all of your clients will feel welcome.
Let the graceful curved style and practical airy design of Belmont Reception Seating transform your lobby. Attractive club chairs, sofas and waiting room chairs will show visitors just how classy your company really is. This harmonious synthesis of comfy cushioning and polished solid wood will make any wait worthwhile.
Inviting waiting room furniture sets the tone for an entire business. Belmont reception seating features cozy polyurethane foam padding and a Matrex seat support system for lasting comfort. Heavy duty construction gives guest chairs and couches exceptionally high weight capacities so everyone can sit comfortably. Add all of these great features to a modular system with complete layout flexibility and you have a formula for success in any office.
- Manufacturer:
Lesro offers a rich selection of solid wood and metal reception area and conference room furniture. Top, made in the USA quality ensures that Lesro's furniture will withstand the test of time.
- Width:
- 29.5 in.
- Depth:
- 26 in.
- Height:
- 32.5 in.
- Weight:
- 50 lbs.
- Back Size:
Filling materials used in upholstered furniture meet the flame retardant requirements described in California Technical Bulletin 117.
CAL133 is a fire-safety standard for public buildings or public assembly areas.
- Cushion Thickness:
- 5.5"
- Glides:
- Plastic
- Meets ANSI-BIFMA:
- Yes
- Seat Height:
- 19"
- Seat Material:
Polyurethane Foam
Polyurethane foam offers support, durability and comfort. It contours to support individual body shapes.
- Seat Size:
- Upholstery:
- Fabric or Vinyl
- Waterfall-front Seat:
- Yes
- Weight Capacity:
500 Lbs.
Weight Capacity refers to the moving weight/force of a person as he/she sits down on a chair.
- Width Between
- 24"
- Extra Large: These club chars have a 500 lb weight capacity and 24" wide seats to support larger people.
- Light Appeal: The exposed leg design gives rooms a more spacious feel by allowing light to filter underneath furniture.
- Cozy Cushioning: Environmentally-friendly polyurethane padding keeps guests comfortable.
- Enduring Support: A Matrex seat support system and heavy-duty construction help seats maintain their comfy feel for many years.
- Modular System: Choose from entire series of club chairs, sofas, loveseats, waiting room chairs and occasional tables for complete layout flexibility.
We're committed to exceeding your expectations:
- Found it for less? We'll match the price
- 15-Year or Limited Lifetime Warranty
Our customers come first — we guarantee it!
Shipping Info
Shipping Information Specifications
- Quickship:
- Yes
- Ships Via:
- UPS/FedEx Ground
- Assembly:
- Minimal
- Average Assembly Time:
- 10 Minutes
- Leaves Factory In:
- Approximately 6 business days
Belmont Exra-Large Guest Chair
|List Price:
|Our Price:
Product Family
This product is a part of Belmont Reception Furniture Seating
There are 12 products in the family


text:
The NYT plays nice with Glenn Beck
Blog ››› ››› ERIC BOEHLERT
In its news article today about the CNN Headline News talker signing a deal to join Fox News next spring, the Times reports that Beck represents a coup for Fox because Beck's a hot entity and his ratings are on the rise.
Mr. Beck appears first at 7 p.m. and then in a repeat at 9 p.m. The 7 p.m. show has been averaging about 375,000 viewers in recent months, and the 9 p.m. repeat exceeds 485,000 viewers.
That does sound impressive, right?
Except here's the phrase the Times politely avoids in its write-up: "last place." Because that's where Beck has been in his CNN HN time slot since pretty much the day he went on the air. He's been the Detroit Lions of cable news. As in, dead last. Like often, not-even-close-to-the-competition last.
But what about that big viewership spike this year? Well, it's an election year and pretty much all the prime time cable shows are up this year.
Instructions for signing up and claiming your comment history are located here.
Updated rules for commenting are here.


text: We returned recently from a 3 week trip through Germany, Italy and back to Germany. I booked 10 different hotels through Booking.com. Using their reviews and reviews from TripAdvisor I searched for small, family run hotels outside of major cities that offered free parking, free WIFI and included breakfast. We were very satisfied with each of the hotels. About 5 days before we were to check into our hotel in Garmisch, I received an email from Booking.com that the hotel owner was hospitalized in critical condition and the hotel could not honor our reservation but they had booked another hotel at the same price. The new hotel was a larger, 4 star property that normally charge more than 20 euros more than our original hotel and breakfast was an additional 15 euros per person. However, booking.com absorbed the extra cost and the hotel honored the price. We never paid more than 85 euros for a double room in any of the hotels we used during our trip. This included breakfast, parking, WIFI and all taxes. So, if anyone tells you Europe is expensive, don't believe them. We also were able to eat very reasonably. The way to do this is to eat where the locals eat. We avoided eating in big cities and in tourist areas. We tried to eat in smaller towns or in some cases at our hotel. We averaged under 50 euros for a large meal including a couple glasses of wine or beer. This is for 2 people. We also purchased the partner Bavarian Castle Pass for 40 euros and used it for admission to 13 different castles throughout Bavaria including Linderhof, Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee, The Residenz in Munich and Nymphemberg. The pass is good for 2 adults so each castle ended up cosing less than 2 euros per person.


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They even went as far as to give themselves a nickname: "The Trio"
Julian Wilson, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound athlete was the first player of the group to receive an offer from OU after he pulled down offers from a number of other heavy hitters like Florida and Nebraska.
Three weeks later he accepted the offer and officially joined the "Sooner Nation".
This past Saturday afternoon both Haywood, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end / defensive end and Thompson, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound left-handed quarterback received offers from OU Head Coach Bob Stoops.
And the duo made it official when they both announced their intentions to join Wilson in Norman.
"Yes sir," Thompson responded when asked if they have indeed pulled the trigger on their impending verbal commitments to OU.
Haywood, who is having a breakout year on the field, has racked up 396 receiving yards and scored nine touchdowns, added an additional six touchdowns on the ground and racked up 60 tackles, four sacks and two interceptions on defense. He is the Sooners' 25th commitment for the class of 2010.
Thompson, who is the Sooners' first quarterback commitment for the Class of 2011, has been equally effective. He has guided the Sabercats to an 8-1 start and has thrown for 1,724 yards and 19 touchdowns while rushing for 263 yards and eight tallies.


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The Inspiration of Honeybees
By Gretchen Conti
Editor's Note: A few months ago we learned about some breathtaking bee photography by Jonathan Dy. Beekeepers love to watch bees, and he's successfully captured them so we can study and appreciate them even more. Thank you so much to his longtime friend and roommate Gretchen for sharing their story with us!
If you'd like to see and learn more about Jonathan's work, visit
www.jonathandy.com or http://jonathandy.tumblr.com/.
In the early spring of 2010, urban beekeepers Corine Singfield and Devon Girard moved two honeybee hives into our backyard. My roommate, artist / photographer Jonathan Dy, and I lived in Strathcona, Vancouver. We had started our first vegetable garden the previous summer and we were excited by our successes.
The honeybee move took place after sunset when the bees were all in their hive. It went smoothly until the following morning when the neighbor closest to the hives expressed concern over their proximity; she wanted them removed. We agreed to put up a barrier that would prevent them from entering her backyard, but after only a couple days she was satisfied with their passivity and the barrier was no longer needed.
With the garden still dormant from the winter the bees captured all of our attention and swayed our imaginations. We would spend hours outside with the hives—I would sit next to them reading a book or simply watching; Jonathan would take photos and document the experience http://www.behance.net/gallery/Urban-Beekeeping-in-Vancouver/802861.
The presence of the hives on a warm, sunny day was all-encompassing. The buzz that radiated, sweet wafts of honey, and the drama of nature: each bee carrying out its duty, deaf to any need that falls outside the collective.
We learned about the practices of beekeeping and observed hive inspections, including opportunities to see the queen, taste the honey and learn the different tasks the worker bees took on. We were just beginning to appreciate the sweetness of a honey crop when we received an eviction notice. The landlord wanted to sell, and our adventures in hosting hives came to an abrupt end.
In the spring/summer of 2011 I joined the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (wwoof.ca) and traveled to two farms in British Columbia, both with bee hives. The first was on Mayne Island with the organic farmer and beekeeper Ron Pither. Ron is an extremely resourceful and hardworking farmer who tells the stories of a man who has lived several lives, one of them as a beekeeper.
Having operated dozens of hives at a time and a beekeeper equipment store, Ron now only keeps three hives on Varalaya Farm. His approach is as non-invasive and intuitive as any I've seen. He wore no veil, no gloves, and preferred to learn the health and state of the bees through observing activity outside the hive.
Working with Ron in June and July we kept a watchful eye over swarm cells and assessed the general health of the hives. He also taught me how to repair and maintain frames and boxes.
After my stay with Ron, I changed environments drastically and went to a young, energetic farming cooperative called Golden Ears Farm in Chase, B.C. It was there that I came across my first top bar hive and had the pleasure of trying to catch a swarm (an unsuccessful attempt in the end).
Though my time spent on both farms was rich with experiences and learning, I realized that to fully learn the ways of beekeeping I would have to find an environment where I was surrounded by bees.
Through friends in the Vancouver urban gardening community I got in contact with Jane's Honey Bees (http://www.janeshoneybees.com/), a 700-hive family operation working out of White Rock, B.C.
Our agreement is simple: in exchange for my labor, J and Liz teach me the tasks of the day, working together at first and then progressing to semi-independent work. We spent my first day assessing the strength of the hives and trying to facilitate their growth via moving frames within the boxes and sometimes amongst the different hives.
We looked for signs of productive queens and killed those that were laying drone brood, being sure to insert a pheromone stick in any hive that was left queenless. In the 32-hive yard I saw several queens, watched baby bees busting through their capped wombs and with mixed emotions squashed my first unproductive queen.
In the weeks since, I've continued working with Jane's Honey Bees, learning to anticipate and troubleshoot the wild desires of honeybees.
I had planned to get my own hives for next summer, but a local beekeeper has decided to sell his hives at a good price. With the experience I've gained through the years and especially with all that I'm learning at Jane's Honey Bees I've decided to take on my own operation.
I've purchased six hives and am looking for homes in the backyards of my neighbors and in community gardens that are nearby. I hope to be as resourceful as the honeybee and expand from simply harvesting honey to pollen, wax and perhaps royal jelly.
The first book that I ever read about beekeeping noted that honeybees are the only creatures on earth that don't need to harm any living being (plant or animal) in its natural life cycle. Its only line of defense leads to its own death. Honeybees not only live in harmony with nature but they produce an immense amount of energy that feeds populations, worldwide. Their survival is paramount, and their existence is inspirational.


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Member Since: January 21, 2010
Country: United States
Just picked one of these up at microcenter. Very cool :)
Couple small comments. The guide doesn't mention anything about LED polarity. Also, it doesn't mention anything about removing the two pin headers used to hold down the layout after it's put together. Probably not a huge deal but having three exposed sets of pins sticking up that could short positive and negative seems like a bad idea to me.
Really cool, but it really needs a power switch.
My account will be just shy of a year old. Ironically it was after last year's free day that I heard about sparkfun. Looks like I have some studying to do :D
No public wish lists :(


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Hyrus [OOC + SU Thread: Rated M]
View Single Post
August 13th, 2012 (7:39 PM). Edited August 14th, 2012 by Arctos.
Fire and Blood
Join Date:
May 2012
Hey, I understand Sign ups are closed but absolutely HAD to post praising the RP (after Skymin recommended I give it a look)! Reading through the background info provided it is staggeringly well thought out and a pleasure to read. Hope the RP continues to go from strength to strength for all those involved!
EDIT: I've been told the Sign Ups have been reopened and as such here is an SU (Apologise for any poor grammar I havent had a chance to proof read yet but will do so in the morning):
Rickard Mayce
Country of Origin:
Ethora, The Golden Isles
Rickard stands at 5ft 10" and is of a lean build. His skin has been left a deep brown by time spent in the sun and bears many marks of a tough life. He could not be considered an attractive man although his poor looks are due more to his lifestyle than his pedigree. His face is sharp, with high cheekbones and a crooked, pointed nose. The ears are small, with the left one missing a large section that appears to have been removed with a dull blade leaving the wound ragged in appearance. His thin lips sit amidst a neat beard kept so short it could almost be called stubble. A scar stretches from the right ear to the chin following the jaw line closely. The eyes peer out from below thick black eyebrows and above deep black bags. The whites of the eyes are bloodshot from too much ale and too little sleep, the irises are coloured a deep blue which rivals the sea surrounding the Golden Isles he once called home. Surrounding the face is ebony hair worn loose and at shoulder length.
Rickard's clothing is kept simple, functional and dark. Preferring the swift sword play of his home islands Rickard feels clumsy in heavy armour and so opts for a mail hauberk, leather leggings, boots and gloves. Rickard prefers not to wear a hood or coif to aid in his movement and peripheral vision. The only ornamentation upon his armour is a single plate of armour covering the heart decorated with an enamelled black swan. This ornamentation is purely optional.
Rickard has been gifted with a sharp tongue and the dark sense of humour to make use of it. He is fully aware of these traits and takes great pleasure in the use of them. His tongue is not only used to harm however and can be put to use in negotiations and acquiring what he needs. Rickard is talkative and rarely caught without a word to say on the matter (even if those words are pointless quips). He also understands that words can take a man only so far and has gotten to where he is today only by realising this fact. Calm and slow to anger Rickard can appear lazy and even disrespectful at times. These qualities all serve to charm, infuriate and confuse people in equal measures.
Rickard Mayce has made a name for himself as the leader of the Shadow Swan Trading Company. As the leader of such an outfit Rickard has gathered contacts with people and guilds present in most major port cities. Rickard and the SSTC take little interest in the fighting of lords and have loyalty to none. He follows the gold, trading with any and all sides of a conflict. He is not as cold as he may at first seem however and has been known to smuggle goods to common people caught in siege situations for little or no payment. He reasons that this is not interfering if the lords themselves do not receive the items.
Some may believe such a man to be amoral and this would be understandable. However Rickard has sworn never to again turn to pirating or theft of any kind. These warped morals Rickard holds close and instils in all of his crew.
The hard life Rickard has led and risk of death at each turn have left a man who takes many risks and lives completely in the moment. Although he is able to plan and does so in his professional capacity outside of this he seems to lurch from one moment in the next as if diving blindly into the future.
The Mayce family are the lords of a small coastal holdfast a day's fast ride from Stormguard to the South. As such they are the bannermen of the Taimors. The emblem of the Mayce family is a silver swan with wings spread over a field of deep blue. An ebony sword dissects the sword vertically with the neck of the swan wrapped around the hilt. The family words are "Rise on the bounty of the waters".
Rickard was the second son of Lord Jorrick Mayce by his first wife. His mother had died of sudden illness when Rickard was 7. Rickard enjoyed the company of his older brother Brandon and younger half-siblings Alexander and Elizabeth, the two of which are twinned. Lord Mayce idolised Brandon as his perfect son and heir to the Mayce lands. As such Rickard would often be left alone as his brother, a mere year his elder, attended court with his father and learnt of the post that one day would be his.
On Brandon's 12th name day he was to be sent as a ward to the capital of Rowanion. Lord Mayce was dumbstruck when the raven had arrived bearing the offer of warding his prized son and had jumped at the opportunity to further his house in the eyes of his liege lord. He was less pleased with the prospect of his prodigal son leaving and being left with Rickard and two babes barely days from their wet nurse's teat.
It was mid-afternoon when Brandon was able to escape the madness of the preparations for his leaving and find Rickard in the tower overlooking the narrow water separating the Golden Isles from the mainland. The two boys were soon playing games as they always had and as usual they moved from the holdfast grounds to the surrounding fields near the cliff. Rickard had always been the swifter swordsman although his brother had more power however neither was more skilful than the other.
The sun was setting and the boys continued to spar by the Cliffside when their father finally found them. The old man was leading a large rowan gelding towards them fully saddled. A smile was evident on his face, something which was a common sight for Brandon but a rarity for Rickard. Brandon spied the horse and dropped his sword. His father nodded confirming the beautiful horse was indeed for him. Rickard chose now to strike. The sword had barely left his brothers hand as he swept his feet from beneath him. His brother fell backwards clutching at the loose earth of the cliff. His father broke into a run towards them. Rickard dropped the wooden sword. Brandon fell.
The memories of that day from then on are a vague and bitter memory for Rickard now. Images of his brother's broken body on the rocks below and his fathers anguished screams and wails haunt his dreams to this day.
It was the next day that Rickard was called to his father's solar and told that he was no longer welcome. He relinquished his right to lordship and was exiled in that same day. Given only the clothes and food he could carry, the gelding meant for his brother and the wooden sword that had taken his brother's life.
After half a year living in Stormguard Rickard decided to stow away on a ship to the mainland and leave The Golden Isles behind. He did so however was soon discovered. The trading vessel he had chosen had been a small, agile ship with what turned out to be a kindly captain. The captain invited the boy onto the crew as Cabin Boy and Rickard learnt the hardship of a life on the waves.
This blissful existence lasted a mere year before the ship was raided by Highman pirates. The pirates began to slaughter the crew and would have killed Rickard had he not snatched up the sword of his unconscious captain and begun to fight. The boy was rusty but still remembered the sparring lessons the Master At Arms of his old home had taught him. By the time the boy was disarmed three pirates lay dead. The pirate captain demanded to see the boy and made him an offer: His life or his captains. Rickard fretted over the decision but soon took his old captain head. He joined the crew of the pirate ship and spent the rest of his formative years on board as they raided traders and ports alike.
At the age of 18 Rickard had worked his way to first mate under the captain who had spared him. The ship was struggling and morale was low. It was at this point that Rickard was approached with plans of mutiny. He agreed and helped lead the mutiny against his former captain soon adding his blade to that taken from Rickard's first captain and his body to the sea.
Rickard took control with force and charisma. He appealed to the greed and lust of the crew with promises of gold to buy rum and women. When some would not listen they met the end of his blade or took their chances of reaching the shore before drowning. It was after he gained this control that Rickard swore to never pirate again. He swore to the nine and the one and any other god that was listening that day. The ship was returned to the nearest port and the loot divided between the crew as promised. With his cut Rickard rebranded the boat The Shadow Swan and it was in the next 4 years that The Shadow Swan Trading Company was built to its state today.
Weapon Preference:
Rickard typically wields two blades: one long sword and one short sword. Initially these were the blades taken from the captains he had killed however with the recent success of his Trading Company he has had new matching blades forged as well as a matching brace of knives of varying lengths. The blades all possess hilts stylised to look like the shadow swan Rickard has taken as his sigil.
RP Sample:
Rickard's Theme
Knights of Ekilore
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Kelly Scott was rolling back the clock to more productive times Friday night at the Enmax Centrium. "It's a feeling of complete confidence," the diminutive 34-year-old Kelowna skip was sayingRead More
Tag Archives: Kelly Scott
Four-team playoffs set at Scotties
When all was said and done, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts round-robin results more or less reflected most pre-tournament predictions. Manitoba's Jennifer Jones and her team of Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin finished safely out front as predicted.Read More
Polars play giant-killer at Scotties
Six teams remained in contention for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts title on Thursday morning but defending champion Amber Holland of Kronau, Sask., was facing must-win situations tonight against Saskatchewan and in any future tiebreakers.Read More
Quebec stays hot; Holland bounces back big
It was steal-and-steal alike at the Enmax Centrium in Draw 13 of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Red Deer Wednesday afternoon.Read More
Four-time champ climbs to familiar position
The current Scotties Tournament Of Hearts began to assume a fairly familiar stance on Wednesday morning. Four-time champion Jennifer Jones and her Winnipeg team climbed alone to the top of the heapRead More
Holland tumbles into three-way traffic jam
Suddenly, it's a real horse-race. With seven teams operating within a game of one another at the top of the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts heap.Read More
All-west battles dominate Red Deer afternoon
It was an all-West battle royal Tuesday on the ice at the Enmax Centrium, site of the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts.Read More
Holland wins rematch of 2011 Scotties final
It was supposed to be the great rematch Monday night at the Enmax Centrium. A re-run of last year's gut-clencher at Charlottetown where Amber Holland threw a monkey wrench into Jennifer Jones's hopesRead More
B.C.'s Kelly Scott is, indeed, back!
Kelly Scott is back in familiar territory. The diminutive British Columbia skip remained the last of the undefeated at the Scotties Tournament Of HeartsRead More
Scotties experience rises to the top
Experience took a step forward at the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts on Sunday night. Defending champion Amber Holland of Kronau, Sask., faced a must out-turn double-kill with her last rock against Alberta's Heather Nedohin at the Enmax CentriumRead More
Nedohin outmeasures Jones
Measure for measure, it was the best game on the ice Sunday afternoon in front of packed Enmax Centrium in Red Deer at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts for Draw 4.Read More
The Trip to the World's Starts in Red Deer
The field is finally set for the 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Now we're one step closer to answering the big question… who will wear the maple leaf in Lethbridge March 17-25 at the 2012 Ford World Women's Curling Championship?Read More
The Road to Red Deer: British Columbia Update
Kelly Scott will have the opportunity to win her third Scotties Tournament of Hearts after capturing the 2012 Scotties B.C. Women's Curling Championship at Vancouver's North Shore Winter Club on Sunday, January 29.Read More
The Road to Red Deer: West Update
The Road to Red Deer continues with an update from the West.Read More
Lethbridge Draws on a Tradition of Success
The Season of Champions returns to Lethbridge in 2012 as the city hosts the Ford World Women's Curling Championship. And based on the interest being generated in the community, event organizers are expecting another roaring success.Read More


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The Laboratory of
Paleoecology at Northern Arizona University has a state-of-the-art
pollen-processing laboratory to identify and count pollen. This laboratory
includes five research-grade light microscopes, two binocular microscopes, and a
modern pollen reference collection of ca. 2500 specimens. In addition,
the facility has all of the field
equipment necessary for collecting sediment cores from lakes and wetlands,
including coring platforms and coring equipment. Photo: IDEA Lab
All Images Worth 1000 Words ->


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Best Grilled Cheese in the U.S.
Grilled Cheese
1 of 22
Grahamwich, Chicago
Graham Elliot Bowles is known for playful cuisine at Graham Elliot, and the sandwiches at his take-out joint, Grahamwich, are equally inventive. The grilled cheese on sliced Pullman loaf features Wisconsin cheddar, prosciutto, tomato marmalade and cheese curds, which, when melted, add an extra soft, gooey effect. grahamelliot.com.


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Thompson Square Stops By the Studio with Big D and Bubba [VIDEO]
Married duo Thompson Square will stop by and visit with Big D and Bubba tomorrow morning. Husband and wife Keifer and Shawna Thompson put their 13-year marriage on display in each song and, night after night, on tour. Now they have their sophomore album "Just Feels Good" out and it is a great view of a relationship that offers no distinction between the personal and the professional.
This couple has done pretty well in the country business with their No. 1 double platinum-selling "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not" as well as "I Got You" and "Glass." Thompson Square also swept the 2012 Vocal Duo awards (CMA, ACM, CMT, ACA). "Kiss" was the most-heard song oncountry radio in 2011, and has received two GRAMMY nominations.
Their story is interesting with both of them arriving in Nashville on the exact same day – Keifer from Miami, Okla., and Shawna from Chatom, Alabama. They met at a singing competition and have been together ever since. Thompson Square signed as the flagship artist on Stoney Creek Records, and the rest is history.
And since it's Thursday, the guys will pull out their record player and play us a song — old school baby! Don't miss the fun and awesome guests every weekday morning from 5am-9am with Big Dand Bubba on KNUE!
Thompson Square "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not"
Subscribe to 101.5 KNUE on


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Peripheral Stenting
Peripheral Stenting
Peripheral stenting is a minimally invasive procedure used to open up blockages in a peripheral artery (arteries in the lower abdomen, kidneys, arms, legs or feet).
What is peripheral stenting?
Peripheral stenting is used to open up clogged arteries without performing open surgery. The procedure is done through a catheter, requiring only a small incision in the groin or arm. Using high-resolution fluoroscopic (X-ray) video and film equipment, a special catheter is inserted into the peripheral artery with a tiny balloon at its tip. The balloon is inflated once the catheter has been placed into the narrowed area. This compresses the fatty tissue in the artery and makes a larger opening for improved blood flow. A tiny, expandable metal coil called a stent may be inserted into the newly-opened area to help keep the artery from narrowing or closing again.
The interventional cardiologists at the PinnacleHealth Cardiovascular Institute perform this minimally invasive procedure in our state-of-the-art catheterization labs.
How to Prepare
Your doctor will explain the procedure to you and offer you the opportunity to ask any questions that you might have about the procedure.
- You will need to fast prior to the procedure. Your doctor will notify you how long to fast, usually overnight.
- Notify your doctor of all medications (prescription, over-the-counter or herbal supplements) you are taking; if you are pregnant or suspect that you may be pregnant; if you are allergic to or sensitive to medications, local anesthesia, latex or if you are allergic to or sensitive to contrast dye or iodine.
- Your doctor may request a blood test to determine how long it takes your blood to clot.
What to Expect
You will be positioned on the table, lying on your back, and under local anesthesia and a small incision will be made in your groin or arm to insert the catheter. The catheter will be advanced into the peripheral artery and once in place, dye will be injected through the catheter in order to see the narrowed area(s) and x-ray pictures will be taken.
Once the catheter is in place, a balloon will be inflated to push back the blockage and a stent is placed in the opened area.
When the procedure is completed you will be moved to recovery for observation and to address any issues you may have with pain. You should make arrangements to have a friend or family member drive you home and avoid heavy lifting or strenuous activities for a few days.
What are the risks?
There are a number of risks associated with peripheral stenting including:
- Blood clots in the leg
- Bleeding at the stent insertion site
- Damage to blood vessels and nerves
Although rare, stroke is also a potential risk.


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DanThemes saidNo,no, I'm saying (in short) replace
I've read your article and still can't understand why you would think that having to writing n lines of code, as a buyer, with no php knowledge, is better and less confusing than using something like this:
[gallery] with a button, make it easier.
Apparently, from what I researched, people want short-codes. It's a required feature if you want to be popular. Making a better alternative (not by me, just saying, a possible update to short-codes) is going to take a lot of time. Meanwhile, as authors we have to provide support and maybe even functionality for them . At least, since we don't control the rules of this, we can provide the best versions with the best experience we possibly can, and move along, and update, very very slowly


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Free personalized radio that
plays the music you love
Everybody Loves Me
Features of This Trackelectronica influences
r & b influences
a subtle use of vocal harmony
mild rhythmic syncopation
minor key tonality
a dynamic male vocalist
use of ambient synths
prominent organ
subtle use of strings
upbeat lyrics
and many other similarities identified in the Music Genome Project
These are just a few of the hundreds of attributes cataloged for this track by the Music Genome Project.show more
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text:
Scroll down to listen to song clips.
Delightful songs covering useful themes such as getting up in the morning and telling tales in class, as well as material for wider issues such as respect for others, being healthy and environmental matters. New recording, new arrangements, same great songs!
|Songs for EVERY…, Words on Screen™
|What's Included
Activity Songbook with:
Audio CD with:
Words on Screen™ v2 CD ROM with:
|Songs with Rounds, Part-Singing and Solos:
|"The OFSTED music inspector was almost moved to tears (from enjoyment!). The music came out as one of the strengths of the school."Charlotte Bergdahl, Middlesex
|Words on Screen™ v2
|What is Words on Screen™ v2? - For more information click here.
|Words on Screen™ v2 System Requirements
|Licence Information
Words on Screen™ User Licences
¹Included with this option is a single user licence, allowing the Words on Screen™ CD ROM to be installed on ONE computer only.
²To license the installation of the CD ROM onto network servers and/or two or more computers, please select the annual Digital Site Licence option.
Digital Site Licence (Replaces Extension Licence)
With so many songbooks and audio files purchased in digital format, teachers need a legal way to install or distribute copies for use around the school. Out of the Ark's annual Digital Site Licences are the perfect solution!
Cost-effective and flexible, our digital licences give you peace of mind so that you know you are covered for all kinds of digital usage including permission to:
You will need to purchase an annual Digital Site Licence for each individual title and renew your licence each year.
For more information, or to buy an Annual Digital Site Licence retrospectively, please call our customer services team on Tel: 1 800 850 777.
When photocopying or reproducing Out of the Ark material, copyright rules apply. Photocopying of song lyrics or music scores may only be carried out if your school/organisation has a relevant photocopying licence. All photocopying must be recorded on the licence log.
|9781901980073 Book & CD / 9781906988081 Book & CD ROM


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March 14, 2013
Box Score | Box Score | Photo Gallery
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Rod Rucker posted his seventh 20-plus point outing of the season, but guards Neil Watson and Dwayne Davis led Southern Miss past the UAB men's basketball team on Thursday in the Conference USA Quarterfinals at the BOK Center.
UAB concluded the season at 16-17, as the Golden Eagles (24-8) advanced to the conference semifinals.
"Obviously we're extremely disappointed in the game and the outcome of the game. Overall, I've been very, very excited about this team and proud of this team from start to finish and we've come a long way," head coach Jerod Haase said. "But the game itself, offensively, we did some nice things. We were able to move the basketball and do so some things against that zone that other teams can't do because of our personnel, but on the defensive end we struggled mightily. We couldn't guard them in man to man, couldn't guar them in the zone, we couldn't box out and their ability to shoot the basketball and score in a variety of ways proved to be too much."
Rucker went 9-for-14 from the field and added seven rebounds. Preston Purifoy came off the bench and netted 10 points, while Jordan Swing chipped in with nine.
USM's Watson finished with a game-high 23 points, 19 in the first half, while Davis poured in 20, as both players shot 7-of-11 from the field.
Southern Miss shot 53 percent and led 40-26 at halftime.
In the second half, the Blazers would pull within seven, 48-41, with 13:40 left on a Quincy Taylor 3-pointer. However, Davis made a jumper to put the Golden Eagles back up by double digits and would hold on the rest of the way.
Thursday's contest was the final collegiate game for seniors Terence Jones, Alexander Scotland-Williamson and Karl Moton.