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When I was down in London at the Spring B&Q show in the bottom of my goodie bag was a voucher for their new Valspar paint range, which I think has launched recently. They have ready mixed paint in every colour you can imagine or you can take something with you for them to scan and match the colour, which is massively handy if you have wallpaper you want to match in someway.
Miss L's bedroom has been the same shade of Farrow & Ball pink since she was 8 months old and now she's 11, we thought it was time for a change. We had a chat and we've done a Pinterest mood board for her room and thankfully a lot of the colours she has in her room already pink, white and purple do seem to tie in with the new blue she likes.
Follow Liz's board Tween Bedroom Makeover Moodboard on Pinterest.
She really wanted a similar duck egg blue to that of her school jumper, which in turn takes the colour from the ceiling paintings in Ely Cathedral. The picture below isn't brilliant but does show the beautiful shade of duck egg used when the ceiling was restored in 1858.
Luckily we spotted a pair of curtains almost the exact right shade in Ikea last trip, so I didn't need to take some cathedral ceiling in to be scanned. Not all the B&Q's have the scanning yet so check the website to see if your local store does it. I popped into the Bury St Edmunds store and the guy duly scanned my curtains. The colour came up on the computer screen and it was a totally different dark blue on the screen which freaked me out a bit – see the top right of the computer screen below?.
I thought 'well it's free paint and I can always use it somewhere?'. However I needn't have worried, when it was mixed – Matt Finish Primer and Colour – it was a perfect match to the curtains.
The fun thing is you can name the paint you've had create. Our's is 'Lily Blue' and it's stored in their database and you can re-order it from any store in the country. Very handy if you're moving or you need some more of the paint.
I'm really looking forward to using it. I think we're going to team it with white, not sure if it's just going to be a feature wall or I'll do more walls in it? She has mock SATs next week so I'll paint the week after and make a more grown up room for her. I look forward to showing it all to you when it's done and letting you know how the paint performed.
**Full Disclosure I got a free can of paint, sadly no more meringues*


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Glen Carpenter, construction manager for the $23 million Ticonderoga Central School District building project, conducted tours of the new Elementary-Middle School wing recently. Parents and residents came out to see new science labs, like this one, along with the classrooms, cafeteria and kitchen.(Staff Photo/Lohr McKinstry)
Daily Newspaper Photos03022010TCSProject5950A
From March 2010

subset: commoncrawl


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General Assembly
Content Producer
Emily Kate Pope is a freelance writer and content producer at General Assembly, an educational institution dedicated to creating a global community of individuals empowered to pursue work they love. She's interested in topics related to startups, entrepreneurship, social media, and content marketing. Contact her at email@example.com for any writing or collaboration opportunities, and follow her at @GOEKP or @GA.


text:
Call Sweet Air™ Today!
Septic odors STOP here!
Use the ORIGINAL SWEET AIR™ vent filter to eliminate unpleasant odors from house vents. In the thirty years we have been in the septic business the question we hear most often is "How do I get rid of the obnoxious smell from my vent pipe that ruined my patio party and prevents my family from enjoying our own back yard?" SWEET AIR™ vent filter is your answer to eliminate septic odors. It will filter foul air which flows through house vents each time a sink, shower, dishwasher, or bathtub is drained, or a toilet is flushed. SWEET AIR™ is inexpensive and can be easily installed on existing vents.
- No more offensive odors pulled inside from air conditioners
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- Fits existing 3" or 4" piping
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- No more offensive odors
- No more spoiled patio parties
- No more foul air drifting into open windows


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Here's how you can bypass the iPhone's lock screen to control music tracks or volume.
1. Go to the iPhone lock screen.
2. Press the Home button twice.
3. You'll see the following: Name of music track The volume control The back, forward, and pause buttons
You can also control the volume via the plus or minus buttons on the iPhone 5 headphones.
For more, see the original article at the link below.
Four time-saving iPhone tips | CNet
This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network. Want to Join?


text:
Conference Theme
The Human Spirit
American stage and film actor, director, and producer George C. Scott famously said that, "The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it." Indeed, throughout history people have been challenged by wars, diseases, natural disasters, and personal tragedies. Yet, time and time again people have found ways to overcome, learn, and grow from tragedies.
The 2014 Celebration of Inquiry will celebrate the human spirit, its strength, its resiliency, and its grace. Faculty, students, staff, and community members are encouraged to submit presentations, panel discussions, workshops, etc. to the Celebration of Inquiry. The Celebration of Inquiry will take place from March 31 until April 3 of 2014. All Coastal Carolina University classes will be redirected to Celebration of Inquiry sessions starting on April 1 at 12:05 p.m. until April 2 at 5 p.m.
The presentations will be organized along six multi-disciplinary content areas:
- Arts & Humanities
- Business & the Economy
- Education & Human Development
- Science & Technology
- Ethics & the Environment
- Society & Gender


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As always, the Emmys nomination announcement provided some surprises and some snubs.
PHOTOS: Who's up for what?
No one was more surprised than Melissa McCarthy, who kept chirping and gasping after co-presenter Joshua Jackson read her name in the best comedy actress category for her work on CBS' Mike & Molly.
Also surprising? No nominations for The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick, lead acting nominations for Modern Family's cast or Glee's Lea Michele.
The troubled miniseries The Kennedys redeemed itself with four unexpected nominations: best drama, best actors Greg Kinnear and Barry Pepper and best supporting actor Tom Wilkinson.
MORE: See full list of nominees
Some predicted nominations include Kate Winslet for Mildred Pierce -- which garnered an additional 20 nominations -- perennial best actor favorite Hugh Laurie for House, HBO's Boardwalk Empire and its star Steve Buscemi, and nods for NBC comedy 30 Rock and its leads Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.
HBO also scored a big coup with the best drama nomination of its new hit Game of Thrones, although there was only one acting nomination for the show: best supporting actor for Peter Dinklage.
STORY: No series leads Emmys race
In the reality world, American Idol and its host Ryan Seacrest scored nominations, as did So You Think You Can Dance, The Amazing Race, Dancing With the Stars and hosts Cat Deeley, Phil Keoghan and Tom Bergeron, respectively. Top Chef and Project Runway rounded out the list.
The Emmys will air live on Sept. 18.
Sign up for Lifeline Live e-mail alerts


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Two Lands of Swamps?
Is this Land of Swamps the same as the Land of Swamp? --ShounenSuki 11:07, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
- What is the Japanese name for Land of Swamps you're referring here? Numa no Kuni is correctly named as Land of Swamp since according to a dictionary in my hand, 'numáchi' means swamp. Perhaps you're actually referring to the Land of Marsh entry? Looks to be the same though. What does official resources say? - 126.96.36.199 03:15, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
- Sorry, forgot to sign off earlier to the above entry. - 188.8.131.52 03:15, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
Shippuden Movie
It should be noted that Numa no Kuni is also the country where the physical body of the demon Mouryou was sealed while the demon's soul was sealed in Oni no Kuni/Demon Country. This was directly referred to by Tsunade during the mission briefing in the Shippuden movie (movie no. 4). - 184.108.40.206 17:09, 1 March 2009 (UTC)


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If you love art, you cannot help but love Spanish Art which has influenced Western art as we may know it today.
While artists like Picasso, Velázquez, and Gayo are well known throughout the art world, Spanish art has a much broader reach. If you are only familiar with from more of a Baroque and Neoclassical period, you are missing out.
by admin on November 21, 2013 · 1 comment
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The annual MSOE Fish Fry dinner, from 4:30-7:30 on Friday, February 14th in 3rd floor Campus Center. Dinner includes 6 pieces of fried cod or chicken tenders (mix and match), potato wedges, coleslaw, rye bread and butter, and a soda, water or milk.
The event costs $5 for students, staff or alumni with ID and $8 for anyone without an ID.
- Feb 14, 2014 4:30 PM - Feb 14, 2014 7:30 PM CDT (America/Chicago)
- 3rd Floor Cudahy Student Center
Contact Info
Charles Nalbach (Owner)


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Health Foodie. Mad cheff skillz. Kung-fu skillz... not really. But I got mad skillz w\ da footrub though... I like working on creative projects with friends. & When the sun comes out you can sometimes find me chilI'n in a hammock on the lake w/ my pups & a book.
My priorities. Family. An honest & caring relationship. My puppy-dog Lily! Friends. Fun. Sun. A creative outlet/DIY project. Food. Music! Getting outdoors when its nice out.
Hiking, backpacking, mtn biking, & XC skiing with da pups!
Learning to make money in new ways in this new and different economy. Ebay rocks!
Being my best self & becoming the man I have always wanted to become. Craftsman/ artist/ caring & giving.
Getting back to my roots by painting, welding, and making great friends!
Caring for my awesome dog Lily. She is like a 5 yr old child that can run 30 miles an hour!
Teaching myself to cook healthy and amazing food!
Also The Wild Rumpus! & Sleeping in piles!
& salad. I make a really mean salad.
When the levee breaks
Simple man
Free bird
Muddy waters - i want to be loved
Professor Longhair- Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Black angels
Older favorites include Dan Auerbach - keep it hid, Two Fingers(AKA Amon Tobin), Balkan Beat Box, James Blood Ulmer, Muddy Waters.
Food! Yum, I do that too.
Books! Have those too. Cook books & brewing books mostly.
Movies. Not the scary kind
Shows! F-yeah! Lets go! We're still talkin bout music right?
Humor and smiles!
People (friends, family, and dating).
Music, loud music, like its meant to be HEARD!
A creative outlet (making things with my hands like painting, furniture, food... etc).
My precious dog Lily! I hope she lives a long and healthy life!
IDK, whatchu doin? Lets meetup


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Another new addition to Alaska's Pilot Series: Imperial Red Ale, complete with an ominous looking snow crab on the front of the label.
This limited edition red ale combines lots of hops with lots of malt, ostensibly to bring you the best of both worlds. It's certainly got plenty of things to talk about: Bracing, forest-driven hops hit you first (particularly on the almost floral, aromatic nose), then the caramel-fueled silky-sweet malt joins the party. The end result isn't so much a balanced sweet-n-bitter as it is a bit of a mudball, these burly elements dueling each other so effectively they cancel each other out. What's left behind is a bit woody and more than a little muddy, a rather unbalanced brew that never quite finds the footing that the initial rush of hops provides.
8.5% abv.
B- / $9 per 22 oz. bottle / alaskanbeer.com
Similar Posts:
- Review: Alaskan Brewing Company Winter Ale
- Review: Alaskan Brewing Company Big Mountain Pale Ale
- Review: Alaskan Brewing Company Imperial India Pale Ale and Pumpkin Ale
- Review: Lake Champlain BeBop Hop Chocolate Bar


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Kate Beckinsale Bikinis in Mexico (PHOTOS)
Kate Beckinsale squeezed in one last summer vacation during the Labor Day holiday, breaking out her bikini bod in Mexico on Sunday with director husband Len Wiseman, daughter Lily and various family friends.
Beckinsale accessorized her bikini with a floppy hat and trendy wedges – but Len was the one who made the real fashion statement in must-see itty bitty blue trunks!
Click here to see Kate and Len's beachy style. What do you think of Len's shorts? Let us know in the comments.


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Coffee Beans
Tea Menu
Contact Us
Mail Order
Coffee Beans
Tea Menu
Contact Us
Mail Order
Coffee beans roasted at the pod!
Colombian Excelso EP Huila/Medelin Rainforest Alliance
From the foothills of the Andes, these high altitude Colombian Excelso beans are sourced from some of the country's best co-operative farms. The roast is just darker than medium which gives a rich and nutty taste with a hint of fruit. A smooth, rich coffee that's well balanced and full bodied. Good to drink at any time of the day.
Ethiopian Limu
From our cupping (taste test) we describe this as, 'sweet, vibrant and winey with floral notes'. It has low acidity and yet sharp at the same time. This is a strong, dark and smooth coffee, with an aroma of chocolate and nut. perfect for after dinner, either black, or with a little milk.
Java Ijen Mountain
These premium beans are grown on the Ijen Plateau, above the jungle of Eastern Java, at an altitude of more than 1,400 metres. A distinctive clean and thick tasting coffee with a spicy, smoky body and medium acidity. Specially dark roasted to produce a strong coffee. Not for the faint hearted!
Peru Chanchamayo (Organic)
Peru's finest premium gourmet coffee. Organic Chanchamayo is smooth, sweet and well-balanced, with nutty and chocolate tones.
Brazilian Ipanema Estate (Santa Rosa Farm)
This gourmet single estate coffee is made from 100%Yellow Catuai beans
Medium roast, they produce smooth caramel and cream flavour. Simply superb.
Guatemala SHB Bojangles
This coffee is produced by smallholders in the volcanic areas of Guatemala.
SHB (Strictly Hard Bean) denotes the highest quality, from soils rich in minerals.
A fully roasted coffee with a sweet and soft fruity taste. A satisfying combination of a medium body and low acidity.
Prices are for 228g, 454g, as beans or ground, and 1Kg beans only
Colombian (4.40, 8.20, 16.00)
Ethiopian Limu (5.20, 10.00, 19.60)
Java Ijen Mountain (5.20, 10.00, 19.60)
Peru Chanchamayo (5.40, 10.20, 20.00)
Guatamalan Bojangles (5.40, 10.20, 20.00
Brazilian Ipanema Yellow Catuai (5.80, 11.00, 21.60)
and subject to availability, Kenyan Kii A/B (6.00, 11.40, 22.40)
© Mocha Mondo | created at


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|Eloquent Silence
by Nyogen Senzaki,
translated by Roko Sherry Chayat, Forward by Eido ShimanoOne of the first pioneers of Zen in the West, Nyogen Senzaki taught the transformative path of Zen in everyday life. He had a rare purity of intent and an unswerving dedication to the ideals of wisdom, compassion and simplicity. This landmark collection offers his complete, previously unpublished commentary on The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), along with many essays, Dharma talks, letters, poetry and calligraphy. His example of true practice and incisive clear vision is an inspiration much needed in the world today. Paperback. $17.95


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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
In this paper we describe a security suite for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks comprising both fixed and mobile nodes. The security suite is composed of a secure routing protocol and a set of cryptographic primitives aimed at protecting the confidentiality and the integrity of underwater communication while taking into account the unique characteristics and constraints of the acoustic channel. By means of experiments and simulations based on real data, we show that the suite is suitable for an underwater networking environment as it introduces limited, and sometimes negligible, communication and power consumption overhead.
Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs) are constituted by underwater sensor nodes and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) interconnected by a wireless acoustic underwater communication network. UASNs can be used for many purposes including ocean sampling, environment monitoring, undersea explorations, distributed tactical surveillance and disaster prevention [
Co-ordination and sharing of information among sensor nodes and AUVs require secure communication [
The unique characteristics of the underwater acoustic channel, and the differences between UASNs and their ground counterpart, namely Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) [
In this paper we present the secure communication suite for UASNs we have designed and experimented within the European project called "Underwater Acoustic Network" (UAN) [
The paper provides the following novel contributions. First of all, the paper presents a practical and efficient solution to secure communication in UASNs. The proposed suite (i) protects end-to-end confidentiality and integrity; (ii) supports both the one-to-one and one-to-many communication paradigm; (iii) allows secure reconfiguration due to nodes mobility, joining, and leaving. The resulting suite introduces limited communication overhead and negligible energy consumption. We show that these claims are well founded by means of sea trials and simulations based on real data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first secure communication suite that has been implemented and tested in the field.
Second, by means of experiments and real data, the paper proves that the resulting security suite is indeed suitable for an underwater acoustic networking environment. We believe that reporting design choices and field performance is valuable in itself because it may allow the research community to orient towards either refinements of the proposed approach or different approaches altogether, however with the long-term objective of achieving operational implementations of secure underwater acoustic networks.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses related work. Section 3 and Section 4 describe the system and threat model, respectively. Section 5 describes the cryptographic suite whereas Section 6 describes the secure routing. Section 7 presents performance evaluation carried out by means of experiments in the field and simulations with real data. Finally, Section 8 reports our final considerations.
The problem of secure underwater acoustic communication is quite a new research field [
Some solutions to specific security problems have been presented. Dong
In this paper, we face with an orthogonal problem, namely secure end-to-end communication. We present a secure communication suite that: (i) protects end-to-end communication; (ii) supports both the one-to-one and one-to-many communication model; (iii) allows secure network reconfiguration due to nodes mobility, joining and leaving; and finally, (iv) has been evaluated in the real-world field. To the best of our knowledge, no such a contribution has been given so far. Cong
The communication suite is composed of two components, a set of cryptographic primitives and a secure routing protocol. As to the cryptographic primitives, they have been initially proposed in [
We consider an underwater surveillance system aimed at protecting a critical asset by means of an underwater acoustic network. The system is composed of a set of networked underwater nodes, each equipped with sensing, computing and acoustic communication facilities. Every underwater node has computational resources and power saving capabilities comparable to those of a low-budget personal computer (e.g., a PC/104 embedded computer) and it is able to run a commodity operating system such as Windows XP or Linux. Nodes are battery operated and thus have limited energy resources.
Every node is equipped with a number of sensors that allow it to both sense the state of surrounding waters and detect the presence of targets in the neighbourhood. Of course, a node may only achieve a local partial view of the state of the system. For this reason, several nodes are deployed around the critical asset and each of them reports the sensed data to a Command and Control Center (C3) station. Such a station collects sensed data from underwater nodes, so achieving a global view of the system (e.g., it performs the intrusion detection algorithm).
Underwater nodes may be both fixed and mobile. Mobile nodes are
The above system model indicates two different communication paradigms that we need to support: (a)
As to the one-to-many communication, in principle a node could directly broadcast a message to the destinations. However, as the power necessary to send a message decays with a power of distance greater than two [
An underwater acoustic network is subjected to several threats and possible attacks [
In a surveillance system, integrity is as important as confidentiality. Actually, an adversary that is able to spoof a node and thus impersonate it can then inject fake messages. Fake messages may carry wrong measurements as well as wrong commands for mobile nodes. Wrong measurements may lead the surveillance system to return wrong results in terms of false positives/negatives. Wrong commands may cause the network to disrupt or even translate into a safety issue with possible damages to devices themselves.
In order to protect integrity and confidentiality, we assume that underwater communications are enciphered. At the application level, every node
In addition, in order to support one-to-many communication, the gateway GW and the mobile nodes are organized as a
An adversary may also attack availability. Denial of Service (DoS) is a severe threat in an underwater acoustic network, even more severe than in traditional networks, due to the intrinsic limitations of the acoustic channel [
Supporting secure communication in an underwater acoustic network is challenging due to the severe limitations of the networking environment in terms of very high message propagation delay, very low bandwidth, and high energy consumption for communication [
Cryptography is the primary means to support confidentiality and integrity. Cryptographic primitives tend to cause the
Furthermore, underwater nodes are generally deployed in unattended, possible hostile, environments [
In Sections 5.1 and 5.2 we describe our solutions aimed at avoiding message expansion in secure message communication. In Section 5.3 we describe an efficient and scalable rekeying service.
Confidentiality of messages is achieved by encrypting them with a block cipher. Encryption is achieved by splitting cleartext in blocks of fixed, predefined bit-length and then encrypting every block. In the most general case, cleartext length is not multiple of the block length. Thus padding is necessary. However, padding has the negative effect that the ciphertext may result up to one block longer than the corresponding cleartext. This effect is an instance of the ciphertext expansion phenomenon.
While ciphertext expansion is negligible in a traditional network, it becomes relevant in wireless sensor networks and, in particular, underwater acoustic networks. In these networks, communication and energy limitations require to keep a message size small and ciphertext expansion may introduce an overhead that is not negligible anymore. For instance, in the AES encryption algorithm the block size is 128 bits. As the message size in the UAN project is, on average, around 720 bits, then the message expansion due to padding would be around 18%.
In order to completely avoid the ciphertext expansion problem, we use the CipherText Stealing (CTS) technique that alters the processing of the last two blocks of plaintext, resulting in a reordered transmission of the last two blocks of ciphertext and no ciphertext expansion [
Encryption without authentication is insecure [
UAN features a trade-off between security and performance by using 4 bytes digests resulting from truncating the real hash function value. Using, such a short hash size, the overhead becomes around 4.4% of the UAN average message, which is almost negligible. Furthermore, using such a short hash function value is not detrimental to security [
Each time a node leaves the system, the GW generates and distributes a new group key
In short, the key authentication mechanism levers on
To reduce the communication overhead, the gateway GW maintains a logical key tree (see
Each node maintains a
In order to have an idea of how the protocol works, let us consider the logical key tree in GW → GW → GW → { GW → { GW → {
Upon receiving a rekeying message, after it has been properly decrypted, the authenticity of the next key therein contained is verified by computing its hash and comparing the result to the corresponding current key. For instance, upon receiving rekeying message 5,
So far, our focus has been on protecting the integrity and confidentiality of application messages, namely, messages whose payload contains data sent by the application layer of the network, such as sensor readings or commands to AUVs. However, unless the surveillance communication sub-system fits within a single acoustic broadcast domain, a multi-hop, ad-hoc acoustic network is necessary. In such a case, we have to consider integrity and confidentiality of
Disrupting the functionality of the routing protocols compromises the availability of the network and services running on the network. Attacks against routing protocols include attempts to create routing loops or black holes (when attacker claims to be a short distance to all destinations and then selectively forwards payload traffic). Therefore, the same principles of service integrity and service confidentiality apply to control messages. To provide a secure communication infrastructure, control messages need to have authentication and replay protection. Therefore, these messages need to use message integrity codes. Also, to prevent an outsider from identifying the type of control messages being transmitted, we should have these messages encrypted.
In the UAN project we have used FLOOD, a routing protocol that has been designed for, and tested in, an underwater acoustic networks [
In Section 6.1 we provide a brief description of FLOOD. By way of example, in Section 6.2 we highlight FLOOD vulnerabilities and describe a spoofing attack against control message integrity that translates into Denial of Service (DoS). Finally, in Section 6.3 we describe SeFLOOD which incorporates the establishment of link-layer shared keys.
FLOOD is a routing protocol for UAN. It is composed of three phases: the
As to the security of the control messages and thus the integrity of the network infrastructure, the network discovery phase and the network reconfiguration phase are particularly relevant. For this reason, we briefly review them in Sections 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 as far as their salient features related to security are concerned. For a detailed description of FLOOD, readers may refer to [
The FLOOD Network Discovery Phase is based on the
The protocol is initiated by the GW which broadcasts a
FLOOD allows the network to reconfigure,
Before starting moving, a mobile node
Upon reaching its new location, the mobile node broadcasts an
In this section, we show that FLOOD protocol is subjected to the spoofing-based DoS attack.
In this way, the protocol never completes. In order to avoid this kind of attack, each node could be deployed with the list of all the nodes identifiers belonging to the system. Thus, if the attacker tries to add a new fake node to the network, each node rejects it, because the fake node is not contained in that list. However, due to the underwater conditions and to the high distances among nodes, it may happen that a node
In order to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the FLOOD protocol we have extended it into a new protocol called
More specifically, SeFLOOD protects confidentiality and integrity of any given control message
Link-layer keys are distributed as follows. We assume that each pair of nodes
Furthermore, we group nodes into
Each cluster is associated to a
Cluster keys are established by means of the following
The protocol is composed of two rounds, the
From a security point of view, we can argue that the encipherment by
Notice that the attack described in Section 6.2 is not possible anymore. Actually, in order to play such an attack, the adversary would need to either know the cluster keys of neighbours or disseminate its own. However, none of these alternatives is possible because the adversary does not know the link keys of nodes.
SeFLOOD also supports mobile nodes, without adding overhead in terms of number of messages. In fact, it exploits FLOOD messages sent by a mobile node in order to distribute the cluster keys. We assume that nodes have loosely synchronized clocks. This assumption is reasonable because nodes periodically emerge and synchronize their clocks with GPS, for example.
Assume that
Upon successfully receiving message M6.3.1 (otherwise the message is discarded), the GW deletes
Assume now that the mobile node GW →
Initially, node
In Section 5.3 we showed that a compromised node can be logically evicted from the application layer by revoking the group key and redistributing a new one to all members but the evicted one. Of course, a compromised node must be evicted at the routing layer too, as necessary. This task can be accomplished as follows. Let
In order to evict
During the EP phase, the GW sends an
In this section we report the performance analysis of our cryptographic suite through experimental tests performed within the UAN experimental campaign conducted on May 2011 in Norway [
The GW is placed at a depth of 96 m. FN1 and FN2 are at a depth of 96 m and 39 m, at a distance from the GW of 163.5 m and 860 m, respectively. The nodes FLG1 and FLG2 are placed at a depth of 20 m and 15 m, with an initial distance from the GW of 677.8 m and 687.1 m, respectively. These values are summarized in
In the experiments, we used AES in the CBC-CTS mode as cipher for confidentiality and SHA-2 as hash function for integrity. SHA-2 produces a 256-bit output that we truncate at 32 bits. It follows that guaranteeing secrecy and integrity gives rise to a message expansion of 4 bytes.
In the experiments, the payload varied in between 32 and 78 bytes. This means that the 4 bytes message size increment due to security varies in between 5.13% and 12%. This increment, of course, reflects on the increased transmission time.
Underwater acoustic communication is particularly affected by noise and subject to the highly variable sea environmental conditions. For this reason, an increased message length due to security might reflect in an increased likelihood of message loss or corruption. In order to evaluate this impact of security on performance we have considered
We have compared the ADR when security is disabled to the ADR when security is enabled. The results are reported in
In an aside, the highly variable sea conditions and their impact on the communication performance become particularly evident when you consider delay. It is well-known that underwater acoustic networks are characterized by very high delay variance which is extremely harmful for efficient protocol design, as it prevents from accurately estimating the round trip time (RTT), which is the key parameter for many common communication protocols [
Performance of SeFLOOD has been evaluated in terms of overhead that security solutions add to FLOOD. Our evaluation encompasses both the network discovery phase and the reconfiguration phase. Such an evaluation has been carried out through a simulative approach using the SimPy simulator [
We have considered a network composed of seven fixed nodes, the gateway GW, and one mobile node. For each node we have assumed a maximum transmission power of 189 dB re
The HELLO and CLUSTER KEY messages in the Cluster Key Distribution Protocol (CKDP) have been implemented as follows. The HELLO message is composed of the following fields: (i)
We have evaluated the performance of SeFLOOD with respect to two metrics: (a) the
As to the Discovery Phase, the additional messages introduced by SeFLOOD derive from the Cluster Key Distribution Protocol (CKDP).
In particular, FLOOD sends 17 messages in the dense scenario and 13 messages in the sparse scenario. SeFLOOD, instead, sends 73 messages in the dense scenario and 40 messages in the sparse scenario. It follows that
As to
From these considerations, it turns out that although the CKDP protocol causes additional messages, the resulting overall additional traffic may be negligible with respect to the FLOOD discovery traffic. In details, FLOOD sends 144,580 bits in the dense scenario and 88,856 bits in the sparse one, while CKDP sends 9,792 bits in the dense scenario and 4,032 bits in the sparse one. Therefore,
It turns out that while the additional round of messages required by CKDP causes the discovery phase in SeFLOOD to get longer than FLOOD, the additional SeFLOOD traffic results instead practically negligible with respect to the overall FLOOD traffic. Such a negligible traffic also makes the additional SeFLOOD energy overhead practically negligible with respect to the overall FLOOD energy overhead.
As to reconfiguration phase, SeFLOOD does not introduce any additional message with respect to FLOOD. SeFLOOD introduces some overhead in terms of
However, it is worthwhile to notice that CKDP assumes a random deployment according to which a node cannot know its neighbourhood until deployment is completed. However, and underwater acoustic network is often employed in mission-oriented systems such as the surveillance system considered in the UAN project. In such systems, nodes are initially located in predefined locations. Therefore, a node knows in advance its
Underwater acoustic networks are prone to packet loss. If we consider the packet loss (PL) as the ratio between the average number of lost packets and the number of sent packets, then PL = 1 − ADR (Section 7.1). It follows that in our experiments we experienced a packet loss that ranges from 32.8% to 61.5% (see
As it turns out, the problem of reliable communication is certainly important in UASNs but it is largely orthogonal to the problem of secure communication and thus we do not address it here. Interested readers can refer to the literature [
Second, we have used the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) in key management protocols of the security suite, namely, the Group Key Management Protocol (Section 5.3) and the Cluster Key Distribution Protocol (Section 6.3). In an underwater acoustic network, UDP presents several advantages with respect to connection-oriented protocols such as TCP. Mainly, UDP does not require an end-to-end connection, and therefore entirely avoids all the connection management issues that are typical of connection-oriented protocols and that cause them to perform poorly in a networking environment that is characterized by long delays and large losses. Of course, the main drawback of UDP is that it does not provide the same level of reliability in message delivery. Therefore, services such as packet re-transmission have to be moved to the upper layers. Here, it comes the third solution we have adopted.
As to the Group Key Management Protocol, if any node misses any of the rekeying messages then the node fails to receive the new group key
Similarly, in the Cluster Key Distribution Protocol, if any node misses any key distribution message, the node fails to receive a cluster key
In this paper, we have presented a suite for secure underwater acoustic communication. The security suite comprises a routing protocol and a set of cryptographic primitives (cipher, digest, and re-keying), and has been designed to protect the confidentiality and the integrity while taking into account the unique characteristic and constraints of the underwater networking environment. Experiments and simulations have shown that the security suite introduces limited and sometimes negligible overhead, and thus it is perfectly adequate for the underwater acoustic communication. In particular, the suite achieves the following results.
The cryptographic suite provides efficiency by limiting the effect of ciphertext expansion. The resulting overhead is indistinguishable from the performance fluctuations due to the changing sea conditions.
The Discovery Phase of the secure routing protocol introduces an additional round, and thus a consequent delay, with respect to the insecure protocol. However it causes a negligible additional communication overhead (smaller than 6%). The overhead of the Discovery Phase is paid at system bootstrap and it is amortized over the whole system lifetime.
The Reconfiguration Phase of the routing protocol does not introduce any additional overhead with respect to the insecure routing protocol. This is a very important feature because network reconfiguration due to node mobility, joining and leaving the application is a normal operational mode of the system.
The design of the secure routing protocol meets the well-known Lampson's recommendations for computer systems design [
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that provides a complete, practical, and efficient solution to integrity and confidentiality for UASNs. In this respect, we hope that our work will have a significant impact in this field.
We wish to thanks the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions leading to an improved presentation.
This work has been partially supported by the EU FP7 Project UAN (Grant Agreement No. FP7-2007-2013-225669), and the EU FP7 Network of Excellence CONET (Grant Agreement No. FP7-2007-2-224053).
The surveillance network.
Implementation of the (
Key chain.
Key tree.
An execution instance of FLOOD.
A DoS attack.
The CKDP applied to FLOOD.
The test-bed.
The nodes used in the experiments.
Average Delivery Ratio when security is enabled/disabled.
Average round-trip time when security is enabled/disabled.
Discovery Messages in Sparse and Dense Scenarios.
Discovery Bits, Add Bits and Del Bits in Sparse and Dense Scenarios.
Configuration parameters for Scenario L.
Simulation parameters.
|5,000 s.
|Number of runs
|Average transmission range
|2 km
|Maximum transmission power
|189 dB re
|200 m
|Number of nodes
|DIFS (silent period before transmission is considered)
|0.25 s
|SIFS (Wait time between DATA and ACK)
|0.01 s
|Max number of retransmissions
|Average number of Neighbors


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In the present study the phenolic (Folin-Dennis) and flavonoid (colorimetric assay) constituents and the antioxidant activity of
Oxidation is a basic part of the aerobic life and of our metabolism. Thus radicals are produced either naturally or by some biological dysfunction. Unpaired electrons which are centered in atoms of oxygen or nitrogen are called reactive oxygen species (ROS) or reactive nitrogen species (RNS) [
Currently, there is a great interest in the study of antioxidant substances mainly due to the findings of the free radicals' effects in the organism. The phenolic constituents found in vegetables have attracted considerable attention for being the main components of antioxidant activity, in spite of not being the only ones. The antioxidant activity of phenolics is mainly due to their redox properties, which allow them to act as reducing agents, hydrogen donors, and singlet oxygen quenchers. In addition, they have a metal chelation potential. The antioxidant activity of phenolics play an important role in the adsorption or neutralization of free radicals [
The genus
Chemical studies on
The total phenolic content of
The temperature during the drying and heating process affects compound stability due to chemical and enzymatic decomposition, losses by volatization or thermal decomposition; these latter have been suggested to be the main mechanisms causing the reduction of polyphenol contents. However, the total polyphenols in extracts obtained of
Solvent extraction is frequently used for isolation of antioxidants and both extraction yield and antioxidant activity of extracts are strongly dependent on the solvent, due to the different antioxidant potentials of compounds with different polarity [
It was not possible to detect the phenolic constituent in essential oil (EO) and hexanic (HF), ethyl acetate (EAF), buthanolic (BF) and methanolic (MF) fractions of
The levels of flavonoids are shown in
Water is a polar extractor, so it will extract polar constituents, such as heterosides. In this work, when water was used as liquid extractor, the level of flavonoids was higher, suggesting that these flavonic constituents might be in the heteroside form since previous studies showed that flavonoids can be found in nature in the free state or in the form of glycosides [
The fractions obtained by Soxhlet from
The antioxidant activity of
Based on previous data, it is possible that the powerful antioxidant activity of polar extracts is given by the presence of the substance with hydroxyls [
The key role of phenolic compounds as scavengers of free radical is emphasized in two important reports [
This study reports for the first time the antioxidant activity and total phenolic content in
Plant material (seeds) of the specie
The seeds of
Thirty grams of seeds were triturated with the aid of pruning shears and submitted to extraction using a Soxhlet extraction device with hexane, ethyl acetate, buthanol and methanol until reaching the exhaustion of the drug. The fractions were subjected to rotary evaporation, until complete elimination of the solvent, four fractions of different polarities were obtained: hexanic (HF), ethyl acetate (EAF), buthanolic (BF) and methanolic (MF).
So as to quantify the phenolic and flavonoid constituents were used fractions obtained by Soxhlet (described above) and several extracts (1 g/extract) obtained by four different methods of extraction: reflux 80°C during 30 min, ultrasound for 30 min, static maceration during 48 h and heating plate 100°C for 45 min. These extracts were prepared using 30, 50 and 70% ethanol and distillated water as solvent. These extracts were prepared using: A (water), B [30:70, v/v ethanol/water], C [50:50, v/v ethanol/water] and D [70:30, v/v ethanol/water] as extraction media.
A spectrophotometric method explained AOAC [
The procedure used for the quantification of flavonoids is based on the reaction between the flavonoids and aluminum chloride forming a complex with a yellow color that can be measured in a spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 420 nm [
The radical scavenging activity were determined by the 2,2- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl hydrate (DPPH) (Sigma-Aldrich Chemie, Steinheim, Germany) method [
An aliquot (0.5 ml) of ethanol solution containing different amounts of the essential oil (OE) and fractions (HF, EAH, BF and MF) obtained from seeds of
This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoa de Nível Superior (CAPES).
Phenolic constituents of
|Ethanol/water (30:70, v/v)1
|Ethanol/water (50:50, v/v)
|Ethanol/water (70:30, v/v)2
|Reflux a
|5.20 ± 0.25
|600.30 ± 2.51
|852.60 ± 2.51
|501.00 ± 1.73
|603.00 ± 2.08
|Plate of heating b
|113.00 ± 1.00
|332.60 ± 2.51
|536.30 ± 1.52
|781.60 ± 1.52
Data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n=3). Statistical significance was calculated by ANOVA followed by Tukey test. Letters indicate statistical differences between lines. Numbers indicate statistical differences between columns. a, b, 1, 2 all methods show statistical differences.
Flavonoids levels of
|Ethanol/water (30:70, v/v)1
|Ethanol/water (50:50, v/v)
|Ethanol/water (70:30, v/v)
|132.00 ± 1.00
|122.00 ± 2.00
|106.06 ± 3.05b,2
|120.30 ± 1 53a,4
|110.00 ± 1.00
|103.30 ± 2.3
|110.60 ± 1.15d,2
|123.00 ± 1.73
|101.70 ± 1.53
|92.60 ± 2.5
|96.30 ± 1.53
|131.30 ± 1.53
|Plate of heating
|68.00 ± 1.00
|67.00 ± 1.00
|73.70 ± 1.15g, 3
|68.00 ± 1.00
Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n=3). Statistical significance was calculated by ANOVA followed by Tukey test. Letters indicate statistical differences between lines. Numbers indicate statistical differences between columns.
p<0.05 compared to water and ethanol/water (50:50, v/v);
p<0.05 compared to water;
p<0.05 compared to water, ethanol/water (50:50, v/v) and ethanol/water (70:30, v/v);
p<0.05 compared to ethanol/water (30: 70, v/v) and ethanol/water (70:30, v/v);
p<0.05 compared to water and ethanol/water (70:30, v/v);
p<0.05 compared to ethanol/water (70:30, v/v);
p<0.05 compared to water, ethanol/water (30:70, v/v) and ethanol/water (70:30, v/v);
all methods show statistical differences;
p<0.05 compared to ultrasound and plate of heating;
p<0.05 compared to ultrasound, maceration and reflux;
p<0.05 compared to ultrasound and plate of heating;
p<0.05 compared to ultrasound, maceration and reflux.


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What's On Calendar
Norwich School of Artists
These holdings form the most comprehensive collection of the work of the Norwich School of Artists in existence. The collection covers three generations of some fifty artists who form the nucleus of the School. All are well represented by an impressive, representative range of works in all media.
'The stature of the signature works, especially of the first generation Norwich School artists, is of wider than regional significance; indeed there is no comparitor among European Schools of painting of that period'.
Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Director of Art, Arts Council of England
The two leading members of the School were John Crome (1768-1821) and John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), both of whom have international reputations in their own right. The artist Charles Daubigny (1817-1878) commented in 1870 that 'without Old Crome, Turner and Constable, the modern French School could not have existed'. (William Gaunt, Victorian Olympus, Cardinal, 1988). Crome's identified oeuvre is particularly small and securely identified works number under one hundred oil paintings. Twenty-two of these are in the collection at Norwich. Also included are a group of his very rare watercolours and drawings and a complete sequence of etchings with examples of the different states. Similarly Cotman, a more prolific artist, is represented with the largest collection of his oil paintings in existence, thirty-six in total. Of the 800 watercolours and drawings, 100 are of 'exhibition' quality. A series of 130 of his numbered drawings for pupils to copy and complete sets of his 400 or so published etchings in their various editions are also included.
The Norwich School artists found subjects for their paintings primarily in Norwich and the countryside and coastline of Norfolk, but not exclusively so. In common with their contemporaries they also toured the British Isles, while Crome and Cotman were among the first to tour the continent in search of subject matter. The artists are too numerous to mention all of them, but among the more prominent of the landscape painters were Robert Ladbrooke, his son John Berney Ladbrooke, Crome's most important pupils, James Stark and George Vincent and Crome's own sons John Berney Crome and William Henry Crome. Others were marine artists, most notably Joseph Stannard and his brother Alfred, and William and John Cantiloe Joy. The women of the School, Emily and Eloise Harriet Stannard and Emily Crome were still life artists, as was James Sillett who also painted miniatures. All these artists are each represented by between 5-35 paintings. The highly prolific Henry Bright, who was equally proficient in oil and watercolour, is well represented in both media (14 oils, 73 watercolours and drawings). An important artist, who had his roots in the Norwich School, was Frederick Sandys, the 'Norwich Pre-Raphaelite', who Rossetti called 'the greatest of living draughtsmen'. As well as seven oils by him, the collection includes a series of magnificent chalk portraits in the Pre-Raphaelite manner.
Of the watercolour artists John Thirtle was, after Cotman, the most talented and is represented by almost 200 watercolours and drawings, mainly of the streets and rivers of Norwich and its surrounding countryside. Cotman's sons Miles Edmund and John Joseph are also well represented, as is Henry Ninham whose collection of 350 watercolours of Norwich are a valuable record of the changing face of the City. The Rev E. T. Daniell produced a remarkable series of about 150 watercolours made on his travels of the Far East. Apart from a few watercolours in the British Museum, his work is virtually unrepresented in public collections outside Norwich. The youngest and most talented of the younger members of the School was John Middleton, whose freely painted watercolour landscapes appear remarkably modern and whose work is also poorly represented in collections outside Norwich.
In addition to these, numerous local and national artists who exhibited with the Norwich Society of Artists or who were connected with the Norwich School artists are also represented. These collections are supported by a wide range of related material: sketch books, personalia, contemporary catalogues, manuscripts, exhibition reviews, photographs, etc., as well as portraits of all the main artists and several of the more minor ones.
Read more
Dates for your diary
Jul 26Titanic: Honour and Glory
Jul 26On Board the Titanic Trail
Jul 26Oh, What a Picture!
Jul 26Pirates and Seafarers
Jul 26Cecil Aldin - The Art of Black Beauty
Jul 26Seaside Family Fun Day!
Jul 26Free days from the Norwich Freemen


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Mental Health Application Process
Academic Year 2013-2014
- Information will be provided to eligible students in their lst year full-time and 2nd year part-time micro classes during fall quarter. If you missed this presentation, please review the Information Session Power Point Presentation.
- Submit a completed application packet in one of the following formats by December 13, 2013, 5:00pm:
- Electronically, via email, to Shyra Harris, MSW – firstname.lastname@example.com
- Hardcopy to Andrew Copeland, Room 402 E
- Candidates who turn in completed applications will be invited to attend a panel interview with representatives from public mental health systems and community-based organizations that partner with the public mental health system.
- Interviews will be held in January. Specific times and dates will be announced later.
- Individuals who are selected for the Stipend Program shall be notified upon completion of all interviews.
- Placements begin the next fall.


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NFL agent Joe Linta discusses client Joe Flacco and his contract negotiations with the Baltimore Ravens, expressing his intent to get Flacco paid like a top 5 NFL quarterback.This video is no longer available. Click here to watch more NBC Sports videos!
Flacco's agent wants top 5 money
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A chapter in a skincare book I got from the library says that Thermage has "evolved just like software" and says it's painless and effective. On realself thermage is not so popular with patients and lots of doctors. Is that because every one refers to old thermage technology? How would I identify the new thermage?
Does the New Thermage Face Treatment Work Better Than Old Technology?
Doctor Answers 2
You can get names from the Thermage web site.
Results from Thermage have indeed gotten better. Thermage has a mixed reputation because it is often done incorrectly and on the wrong patients.
It is mostly a matter of delivering enough energy with multiple pulses. This means buying the new larger treatment heads. These are more expensive, and not all doctors make the extra investment.
So do your research. And ask to speak to a happy Thermage patient. Their web site can be helpful.
The real deal on Thermage
You are right that Thermage technology has improved since it first came out several years ago. Most of the early improvement, however, was in how the treatment is done rather than a change in the device. Early on it was thought that a single pulse to each area at a high setting was best; that resulted in a lot of pain, complications, and unpredictable results. Now it is done with several passes at a tolerable setting, with improvment in results and safety. The technology has since been updated too.
At effective settings, there is still some discomfort but if it is truly painful then it is being done at the wrong setting. We have also gotten a lot better at predicting who will get a good response. If you are looking for an alternative to a facelift or a tummy tuck you will be disappointed. But if you are in that in between phase where you want improvement in skin tone but don't need a lot of tightening, you are likely to be pleased. I believe that the people who rate it unfavorably were sold on the basis of unrealistic expectations.
These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.


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Associates' commitment to client results creates vibrant culture, says President and CEO
(Kansas City, MO - USA) – 9 September 2014 – Lockton Companies, the world's largest privately held, independent insurance broker, has earned the Best Places to Work in Insurance Award for the sixth consecutive year. The evaluation and awards are presented by Best Companies Group and Business Insurance magazine.
"Whether it is the first time or the sixth, it is never routine to earn an honor like this," said John Lumelleau, President and CEO of Lockton, Inc. "Our Associates' commitment to delivering client results has created a vibrant culture at Lockton."
Lockton is a top 10 global broker with 48 consecutive years of revenue growth. In its recently completed fiscal year, the company generated organic growth of 11 percent and revenues of $1,125,363,000.
Lockton is the only top 10 global broker to ever receive the Best Places to Work in Insurance Award.
Lockton has more than 5,300 Associates around the world. To learn more about Lockton, connect at lockton.com.
Best Companies Group evaluates brokers and insurers through a two-part survey process. One part evaluates workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, and demographics, worth approximately 25 percent of the score. The second part is an employee survey to measure the Associate experience, worth approximately 75 percent of the evaluation. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process, analyzed the data, and determined the final rankings for this program. For more on the award program connect with BestPlacestoWorkINS.com.
Read the full profile of Lockton in Business Insurance magazine. [Subscription required.]
About Lockton
More than 5,300 professionals at Lockton provide 41,000 clients around the world with risk management, insurance, and employee benefits consulting services that improve their businesses. From its founding in 1966 in Kansas City, Missouri, Lockton has attracted entrepreneurial professionals who have driven its growth to become the largest privately held, independent insurance broker in the world and 10th largest overall. Independent researcher Greenwich Associates has awarded Lockton its Service Excellence Award for risk management for large companies. For five consecutive years, Business Insurance magazine has recognized Lockton as a "Best Place to Work in Insurance." To see the latest insights from Lockton's experts, check Lockton Market Update.


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Our geography contains about a 1.300 bird species? more than those in the northern hemisphere; and the 800 fish species in the Llanos region, outnumber those known in all of North American.
The humid forests play an essential role in the development and maintenance of the biological diversity of our country. These humid forests are home to large mammals like the deer, tapir, tigers, ounces, ocelots, sloth bears, ant bears and a great variety of bats, rodents, birds, reptiles and amphibian species.
The Venezuelan Llanos are of a recent formation with marked seasons, high temperatures, floods and severe drought; the water that accumulates in the depressions is a melting point for an extraordinary diversity of birds, where the heron stands out along with the cormorant and corocoras, migrating birds and others that share the space such as the chigüire, wild pigs, and a multitude of amphibian species which include reptiles and the characteristic alligators (local name: babas).
Among the fish from the rivers, streams and temporary lagoons of the Llanos, the "temblador" stands out, electric fish that were a fascination for Alejandro Humboldt! also the caribes (piranhas) with their sharp teeth, the striped catfish, valentones and many others.
Two very important biological systems due to their productivity and serving as refuge to important species are the gallery forests and morichales (tract of land planted with mirity palms.) The first is shelter to deer, iguanas, various species of turtles or morrocoyes, a number of reptiles and amphibian, as well as birds that nest in the trees by the edge of the water courses. The mirity palms (moriche), grouped in the low flooded zones, are also shelter to birds such as the sparrow hawk and the macaw, and rodent such as the barnacle and curious fishing bats.
South of the Orinoco the land suffers a sudden elevation presenting the spectacular landscape of the Guayana Plateau, one of the oldest emerged zones on the planet. This is the habitat of numerous endemic animals such as the "Roraima frog" the "fake coral snakes", birds such as the "soisola del Duida", various species of marsupial, rodent and edentate that add up to a group of acuatic and terrestrial invertebrates which presently constitute an attraction for zoologists and ecologists from all over the world.
The Andes region constitutes an important dispersion route for the fauna, the zone is exclusive of species such as the "frontine bear", small insectivorous of the Cryptotis type, the sole representation of this group in the neotropical region. The diversity of birds in the Andes competes with that of the Llanos: the turpial - our national bird - the cristofue (tyrant flycatcher), the paraulatas (a variety of thrush), the robust paujies (cashew birds) and small colibris (humming birds). The reptiles are abundant and the very poisonous mapanares species (bush masters) stand out, corals and false corals, rattlesnakes and many species usually called "cazadoras" (hunters).
The deciduous and the rain forests are also the home of important fauna that share common elements with the Llanos, such as the ocelot and other members of the feline species; deer, tapir and a great variety of monkeys.
The extensive coastline and the insular territories are the link to the Caribbean fauna; numerous estuaries, coral reefs, mangroves, high and
Low coasts, are home to thousands of invertebrate species where the shrimp, lobsters, crabs and other mollusk stand out. Among the estuary fish, the popular stripped mullet is easily found (Maracaibo Lake, the lagoons by the coast such as Unare and Tacarigua), flounder, catfish, tamborines and curbinas, whose presence is determined by the dominance of fresh or sea water.
Mangroves constitute one of the most important biological refuge systems in the country to numerous birds and an area for the juvenile development of many fish, they serve as habitat to rich land fauna which competes with the acuatic forms. Among a hundred or more birds observed in the mangroves, the sparrow hawk, pelicans, red and white corocoros, cotuas, tijeretas and many more abound. So does the presence of insects.
In contrast to the mangroves are the xerophyte and thicket zones for which many islands off the coast of Venezuela are characterized. In these zones the reptiles are numerous, such as the "matos". Iguanas and rattlesnakes.
Rodent mammals such as the rabbit, fox and porcupines. Under the rocks are the scarab and scorpions alternating with other insects and arachnid with interesting biological and morphological adaptations, oriented towards the water's economy.
The continental fish fauna is immensely rich and yet to be discovered, an estimate of the presence of 700 to 1.000 different species, to name a few: the catfish, rays, tembladores, caribes, cachamas and morocotos, are some of the most evident species.
The acuatic mammals like the "perros de agua" (water dogs) and the manatee, stand out along with the dolphin and the huge reptiles such as the water serpents and the Orinoco alligator.
This extraordinary fauna constitutes one of the most valuable elements of the country and efforts are constantly being made to protect it through different means: National Parks Refuges for Fauna, exploitation laws and regulations.
Nonetheless, there are species in danger and human activity makes up for the great damage and pressure on the environment, which is rapidly limiting the natural ecosystems.
Fuente: Antonio Machado, Carlos Machado.


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Much-maligned running back Chris Johnson continued his resurgence with 153 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns as the Tennessee Titans posted a 23-17 victory over the host Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Johnson, who broke out of a season-long slump with 190 yards rushing a week ago, scored on runs of 48 and 4 yards as Tennessee (7-5) won its second straight game to stay alive in the AFC playoff picture.
Buffalo took a 7-3 lead in the first quarter on a wild play. C.J. Spiller raced to the Tennessee 5-yard line for 30 yards and then fumbled the ball into the end zone. On replay, officials ruled that Spiller recovered the ball in the end zone for the touchdown.
But the lead was short-lived as Johnson scored on a 48-yard run four plays later to give the Titans a 10-7 lead.
Rob Bironas booted three field goals and the Bills (5-7) lost their fifth straight game and appear headed to miss the playoffs for the 12th straight year.
The Bills trimmed a 23-10 deficit to 23-17 with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Stevie Johnson. The Bills got the ball back with just over a minute to play but didn't threaten.
Fitzpatrick finished with 288 yards by completing 29 of 46 attempts. Spiller rushed for 83 yards on 14 carries.


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About Nigel Sussman
Hi. My name is Nigel. I draw all the time, but take many breaks for eating good food, cooking, listening to and playing music, painting, designing, and hiking around the Bay Area. My current work is intricate and whimsical and reflects my love for food, animals, and the complexity of elaborate machines and urban environments.
Check out more of my art here: http://www.nigelsussman.com
Check out more of my art here: http://www.nigelsussman.com
Nigel Sussman joined Society6 on October 22, 2010. Verified on October 22, 2010.


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Transportation Asset Management Case Studies
Data Integration: The Virginia Experience
Agency Facts
VDOT is responsible for the third-largest, State-maintained highway system in the country.
Virginia's transportation system is a vital element in the State's economy, providing the safe and efficient movement of people and products throughout the Old Dominion. VDOT is responsible for building, maintaining and operating the State's roads, bridges, and tunnels. It also provides funding for airports, seaports, rail, and public transportation through the Commonwealth Transportation Board. Virginia has the third-largest, State-maintained highway system in the country, just behind North Carolina and Texas. This system is divided into the following categories:
- Interstate-1,118 miles of 4-to-10-lane highways that connect States and major cities.
- Primary-8,050 miles of 2-to-6-lane roads that connect cities and towns with each other and with interstate highways.
- Secondary-47,582 miles of local connector or county roads, generally numbered 600 and above. Two counties, Arlington and Henrico, maintain their own county roads.
- Frontage-333 miles of frontage roads.
VDOT is legislatively mandated to fund the maintenance of Virginia's existing transportation assets before funding capital improvements. VDOT's commitment to maintenance is apparent: nearly $1 billion of its $3.4 billion annual budget is allocated for maintenance activities. These resources have enabled VDOT to maintain its highway network in relatively good condition-as a result, approximately 80 percent of interstate and primary highways are in good condition.
VDOT is a decentralized organization with approximately 10,000 employees located in nine districts and the central office. The agency recently completed a major reorganization effort that established a new Asset Management Division, a combination of the previous Maintenance and Equipment Divisions. The new division also assumed responsibility for roadside development and outdoor advertising activities that were previously performed by the Environmental Division. The Asset Management Division is now responsible for operating and maintaining all of VDOT's assets, including the highway network, right-of-way, rest areas, buildings, and equipment.


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Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity
"Our Not-So-Glorious Selves" first appeared in the September 2002 issue of Touchstone.
FSJ & Touchstone Fundraising
95% raised: $512,653
Our Not-So-Glorious Selves
Joseph F. Wilson on the Crises of the American Catholic Church
It is ironic that the Catholic Church in the United States has become such a spectacle for the world. For years, I have dealt with African and Eastern Europeans who arrived here as summer supply priests with the idea firmly implanted in their minds that the American Church was a model of efficient organization for the rest of the world—a conviction that I have always found extremely naive.
It is now undeniable that something is very wrong. The revelations of situations of clerical sexual abuse of minors in various dioceses have arrived with numbing regularity, yet as horrifying as these are, how much more so what we have learned about the failure of the various dioceses to focus upon the victims and respond in a timely, compassionate way.
As I write this, the bishops are preparing to gather in Dallas for a meeting devoted to the crisis, but they will make a most serious mistake, as will we all, if they fall into the trap of considering the clergy sexual abuse crisis in isolation. It is not an isolated crisis; it has a context, a severe and dismal context, which is why I always thought my African friends naive in their high regard for our efficient organization. Ultimately, little or nothing will be accomplished for the good of the Church if we neglect the context.
A Series of Crises
The fact is, we do not face a single crisis, but a series of them: Ten or twelve easily identifiable, major crises afflict the Catholic Church in America. They have not suddenly or recently sprung up; we have been laboring under them for forty years, desperately trying to ignore them by keeping up a constant chatter about this "age of renewal." Monsignor George Kelly chronicled them in The Battle for the American Church, and since then the problems have only worsened.
After forty years of this "renewal," our Catholic colleges and universities are largely secularized, our Religious communities are rapidly declining into extinction, and religious education has been effectively gutted of its content so that at least two generations have grown up woefully ignorant of Catholicism—most Mass-goers cannot identify the Catholic teaching on the Eucharist when it is put before them. Seminaries are afflicted with serious problems (as recounted by Michael Rose in his recently published Good Bye, Good Men), and Catholic moral teachings have been rejected by so many that it often seems as though most Catholics are indistinguishable from amiable pagans in their opinions on moral issues.
At the very heart of this turmoil stands one particular area of crisis, which, I would suggest, has strongly affected all of the rest: the crisis in the sacred Liturgy. The Liturgy should touch the life of every baptized member of the Church. It draws us together weekly, even daily, for worship; our thoughts and reflections, our prayers, our understanding of God and his ways are shaped by its images, rites, and words.
Forty years ago, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council directed that a long-awaited liturgical renewal should begin. Many fine scholars had worked towards this renewal for decades. The council Fathers set forth the basic principles as well as some concrete directives. They called for the preservation of Latin in the Mass, the fostering of Gregorian chant, and the recovery for liturgical use of ancient, worthy texts that had been lost through the centuries; and they directed that, where over the centuries the rites had been obscured by additions, the liturgy be restored to its noble simplicity. Anyone reading the liturgical directives of Vatican II will see that it called for a deeply traditional liturgical renewal.
Most Catholics would find that startling news indeed—and therein lies my point. Forty-five years ago, some 78 percent of Catholic Americans were drawn to Mass at least every Sunday. The Liturgy used by the priest at the altar was essentially unchanged in its invariable parts from the days of Pope St. Gregory the Great, who died in 604. The ceremonies used by the priest were carefully prescribed, each gesture expressive of reverence and adoration. The unchanging reverence of that Liturgy spoke deeply to Catholics about the very nature of the Faith; the Liturgy and the Faith were gifts from God, a precious inheritance handed to us from the previous generation to be guarded and lovingly passed on in turn.
That world was turned upside down within a few short years. Stories of postconciliar liturgical excesses are too widely known to need rehearsing here. Many parishes seemed to consider that they had implemented the renewal by switching to English, installing a picnic table altar, and assembling a folk group. The Liturgy had become a kind of consecrated karaoke night, and anyone who wished might perform. We were told that we were returning to the simplicity of the early Church, that we had gotten rid of the medieval baggage.
But if we could have returned for a Sunday to that early Church, we would have seen that presider and people faced East for the prayers, towards the rising sun, the symbol of the Lord's Second Coming, just as we had before the council. One never heard that much of the Liturgy we had just jettisoned actually went back well before the Middle Ages. Indeed, far from returning to the springtime of our Tradition, it seems that in these past four decades, something wholly alien to Catholic worship has been introduced into our rites. No longer is the Liturgy something we gratefully receive through generations past; now it is something we "do," we "put on ourselves."
Our focus has changed, and I fear we are often not worshipping at all; we are celebrating ourselves. Gathered for the Eucharist, we have largely lost our focus on what God has done for us in Christ, so intent are we on celebrating each other's giftedness, not to mention our own.
Anything Goes
A striking example of this from my own experience is the funeral Mass—specifically, the eulogy. In the course of my ministry, I have celebrated funeral Masses at which there were four separate eulogies. I have sat patiently as innumerable family members burst into tears and delivered a completely unintelligible discourse. I have listened to frequent references to the drinking, gambling, and smoking habits of the departed. I have often heard people canonized even under the most dubious circumstances ("I know he wasn't much for church or prayers or stuff like that, but he really loved people and a party, and that's what I think heaven is gonna be like," said his girlfriend. His second wife was in the congregation).
I remember the "karaoke eulogy," when the son-in-law, who by no stretch of the imagination could be described as an intelligible public speaker, started inviting other family members up to the pulpit for a series of amateur eulogies. I have heard heresies uttered in eulogies (speculation about what sort of animal Uncle Sam will come back as; a serious, solemn statement about how all religions are equally valid). I have watched as a bereaved son used his eulogy to settle scores with the rest of his family, resulting, I was told, in a fistfight at the restaurant later.
But there is one thing that I should have heard in every eulogy I have ever sat through, yet actually have heard extremely rarely: any kind of statement of faith in the merits of Jesus, in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The whole heart of our Faith, the whole reason we were in church at all, went completely unmentioned in the overwhelming majority of these eulogies, which presumably were the things each eulogist most needed to say.
The purpose of a funeral Mass is the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the repose of the departed soul. It is the specific application of the fruits of Calvary to this individual departed Christian, the opportunity for the mourners to participate in the Eucharist and offer their Communion for the departed. It's about the Lord Jesus, the Resurrection, the means of grace and the hope of glory.
You'd never guess it from the eulogies through which I have sat. Liturgy has become entertainment; it is a sort of karaoke experience we put on ourselves, to suit the mood and needs of the moment. The notion is now strange to people that secular show tunes should not be performed during worship, that irreligious or heretical discourses should not be delivered from the pulpit, that someone who is pouring out the inmost thoughts of his heart during a Liturgy ought to have something to say about Jesus! As the priest, I am supposed to be amused by a postcommunion, light-hearted character sketch of the deceased as a boozy broad who loved her scotch and her card games and swore like a sailor at TV game shows.
Slowly, but surely, our sense of reverence, of the majesty of God, has eroded. As late as twenty-five years ago, if I opened the tabernacle before Mass to bring the Blessed Sacrament to the sick, everyone in church would fall to their knees until the doors swung shut again. Today they simply sit and chatter away; indeed, I once had a young man step right up to the top step of the altar next to me to ask where the bathrooms might be! In an age when we are bombarded with constant sensory distraction, we naturally try to turn our worship into entertainment as well.
We are often not worshipping at all, and we don't even realize it; we've forgotten the transcendent dimension of worship, the awe and wonder at the majesty of God, and we are actually lost in wondering contemplation of our glorious selves. The Liturgy has become the vehicle for our self-expression, the consecrated karaoke hour.
A Devastating Effect
I would suggest that this perversion of the Liturgy has had a devastating effect on every aspect of the life of the Catholic Church in our country and, I would suspect, on other Christian churches affected by our liturgical revolution. If such violence can be done to the central Symbol of our experience of the Faith, the Liturgy of the Mass—if we can take it, and shape it to our will, and make it an expression of our own preferences—then the lesson is clear: We can do the same with anything. We can gut Religious Life of its distinctive traditional expressions, we can disembowel our religious education so that we replace the Catechism with contentless coloring books and rap sessions, we can edit for ourselves the moral teachings of the Church—oh, especially the moral teachings!
And I believe that this goes a long way to explaining the hostility one often finds towards traditional customs, conservative Religious communities, and especially the Tridentine form of the Mass. A friend recently told me that he had concluded after years of observation that "sexual liberation" was the key to much of the turmoil he had seen in the Church. You don't have to dissolve Religious Life, ransack the Liturgy, and ruin catechesis if all you want to do is put the Mass into English; but you would want to do these things if you didn't want to have around you any uncomfortable reminders that the new goal of your life, sexual autonomy, might not be such a good idea after all.
Whether or not one would agree with my friend in focusing on sexual autonomy as the key to this tragedy, I certainly think that, upon reflection, most would concede that at least personal autonomy is key. Achieve the situation where those inconvenient moral teachings are rarely if ever mentioned, and where the Liturgy is as malleable to our whims as a can of fresh Play-Doh, and the gospel becomes much more user-friendly.
Sadly, it is most unlikely that anytime soon Catholics will hear our bishops' conference concede that as a Church we find ourselves in the grip of many long-standing crises. The bishops are alive to the need to develop a protocol for dealing with sexual abuse, and the media is watching carefully to see what they will do about that. But they are unlikely to address the faithful of our country and acknowledge that a sixty-percent decline in Mass attendance in thirty years is a crisis. They are unlikely to concede that, after a decade of dithering over Rome's norms for Catholic colleges, our institutes of higher education are more secularized than ever. We will wait in vain for them to express alarm over the widespread religious illiteracy among our two youngest generations, or over our failure to teach the church's moral norms.
They have spent quite a bit of time on the Liturgy at their meetings; one has to concede that. After years of preparation they finally approved and sent over to the Holy See for authorization a new English translation of the Roman Missal—it was so fatally flawed that Rome trashed the whole thing and is reorganizing the translation process. They also approved, again after much delay, a new translation of the lectionary—four handy volumes the size of a large city phone book, featuring what is surely the most turgid translation in the English language.
But one waits in vain for a clear expression of concern over the state of our worship—what happens when we gather. A few years ago, a Lutheran pastor who was reading her way into the Church finally decided to stop by the nearest church to see the Mass for herself. It proved to be something of a stumbling block in her path to Rome: Having read our beliefs on the Mass, she found it hard to believe that we really believe them ourselves once she saw what we actually do at the altar! In my ministry to converts in different parts of the country, I find that the deplorable state of the Liturgy is a heavy cross for many to bear.
Not one crisis, but an even dozen; and we shouldn't even imagine that we have begun to address them if we stop after acknowledging only one—especially if that means neglecting the one which is a crisis of "the source and summit of the Christian Life," the Liturgy.
Joseph F. Wilson was ordained a priest in 1986 for the Roman Catholic diocese of Brooklyn. Currently serving St Luke's Parish in Whitestone, Queens, as parochial vicar and Director of Education of the school, he has also preached retreats, days of recollection, parish missions, and the Forty Hours devotion in different parts of the country. This article is a revision of two columns that originally appeared on the CruxNews website.
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Willow Creek Mine Fire - A Chronology of Events
Click Picture for Enlargement
Week of January 31, 1999
Mine rescue teams re-entered the mine and successfully completed the exploration, recovery and re-ventilation of the D Seam Bleeder Entries from the No. 9 to the No. 21 Crosscut. In addition, the teams explored to the No. 33 Crosscut of the D Seam Bleeder Entries and part of the connectors between the bleeder entries and the D-1 Tailgate Entries. The fire area was effectively isolated from the rest of the mine with explosion resistant seals in the D-1 Northwest Tailgate Entries and the D-1 Northwest Headgate Entries and with substantial stoppings in the D Seam Bleeder Entries. Prior to exploration, the horizontal in-mine degasification system was extended into the D-1 Tailgate Entries and the extension into the D Seam Bleeder Entries was disconnected.


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Life saver
Reviewed By stephanie s (HUDSON, FL) Reviewed for a 2010 Dodge Journey —7/19/2017 8:37 PM
Save seats from dog hair and vomit
Reviewed By Vance R (Harbor Springs, MI) Reviewed for a 2017 Subaru Outback —6/16/2017 4:33 AM
I'm on my second one of these, with my second dog. The first never wore out, I just didn't think I'd need it anymore. They look great, remove and install easily, wash well, and are very durable.


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› A gradable adjective or adverb is one that can be used in the comparative or superlative, or that can be qualified by words such as 'very' or 'quite'.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
noun [ U ] uk /ɡreɪ.dəˈbɪl.ə.ti/ us /ɡreɪ.dəˈbɪl.ə.t̬i/
Gradable and ungradableMany pairs of opposites are gradable, i.e. they have different degrees of the same feature: …
Gradable adjectives and words and phrases that go before themMost common adjectives can express different degrees of qualities, properties, states, conditions, relations, etc. These are called gradable adjectives: …


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Seniors: Recently Added Listings
Articles on computers, health, caregiving, money, work, consumer protection, and travel.
National Council on Aging's website that helps seniors or their caregivers locate government programs that may pay some of their costs for essential services such as health care and utility bills.
Elderhostel's online catalog of educational travel programs
Click on Elderweb's site map to view the many topics covered, including pensions, transportation, home adaptation.
Comparison tools helpful when shopping for Medicare providers and nursing homes
Offers a Family Resource Connection database that lists books and websites on caregiving.
The official web site of the Social Security Administration.


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Two years after exposing slavery in the cocoa plantations of Ivory Coast, a CNN team went back to see how the chocolate industry and the Ivory Coast government were tackling the problem. Watch the documentary, presented by Richard Quest, in full.
This thing called cocoa, it has a flavour of love for it and human anguish! But all is utilised by someone who is greedy, who his/her value to human dignity isn't etched in his/her mind. it is painful to still see slavery at such a time,such a century, where civilization is passing us slowly. A world that is growing to ease the tensions of racism, radicalism, rigidity and absurdness. you would not expect a human to claim riches at this time yet they are a result of slavery, it's awkwardness, it is a train of human backwarsness. it is sad. But with you,me and all those others collectively who are respector of human, who value human dignity, Slavery is dying, it is being connered, soon we'll kill a burry it.
you are so right we should burry slavery and never dig it back up we need a world of peace
Hello I'm James writing to you from India, I'm studying here India maybe you should try and visit Nigeria about cocoa harvesting and child Labour and how much they are selling the cocoa and things farmers face and difficulty that farmers face from the middle man and please I'm a student and I helped my dad a lot on his cocoa farm and his 107 years old and still trying is best to make the cocoa farm go on. All I want is changes in Nigeria cocoa farming because is the one paying my fees now and I will love to hear from you thanks
what is wrong with you bruh
kids shouldnt be forced to work no one should this child labor is wrong the governments should abolish child labor people shold have freedom
I would like to request the license to show this film on our choco festival.
Who should I get in touch with?
I like your site, good and informative.


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Crumble Topping for Dinner? Yes, Please!
Hi and Happy New Year!
I just finished reading The Blue Zones: Lessons For Living Longer From the People Who've Lived The Longest. This book examines the four cultures with the highest percentage of people who have lived to 100 years old—Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica and Loma Linda, California.
There are many consistencies across the four cultures—daily exercise, strong family values, and a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. But the one that really jumped out to me was that beans were the cornerstone of each Blue Zone diet.
Yes, beans! This is quite a powerful finding for the small, humble bean.
One reason beans are important for health and longevity is that in addition to being a good source of protein, they also contain lots of powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants are a class of phytochemicals that neutralize free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unstable compounds that cause cellular damage and one of the primary factors causing aging.
In a U.S. Department of Agriculture study, researchers measured the antioxidant capacities of more than 100 common foods. Three types of beans made the top twenty: small red beans, red kidney beans, and pinto beans. And three others — black beans, navy beans, and black-eyed peas — achieved top-40 status.
In a delicious effort to get more of these little powerhouses in your diet, try the following recipe for Black Bean Casserole with Cornmeal Crumble:
Black Bean Casserole with Cornmeal Crumble
Serves 6-8
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes (NOTE: this calls for 1 cup cooked brown rice so get some cooking ASAP)
Equipment Needed: Saucepan, food processor, casserole dish
My most favorite part of a fruit crumble is the topping so I created a dinner casserole with a crumble topping using nutrient rich pumpkin seeds instead of butter. And the results are DELISH! Serve with a green salad for a complete meal.
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes, fire roasted with chipotles
1 28-oz can pinto beans, drained
1 28-oz can black beans, drained
1 4.5-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained
1/2 cup packed minced fresh cilantro
1 cup leftover brown rice
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the spices, tomatoes, beans and canned chilies, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from heat and stir in cilantro and brown rice.
While mixture is simmering, prepare crumble topping.
Cornmeal Crumble Topping
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup all-purpose flour (GLUTEN FREE? USE A GF BAKING MIX INSTEAD)
3/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold water
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
In a food processor, pulse pumpkin seeds until ground. Add flour, cornmeal, and salt and pulse to combine. Drizzle in water and olive oil, pulsing quickly in food processor, just until mixture begins to hold together.
Spray or lightly oil a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Pour the bean/rice mixture into the dish. Spread cornbread crumble over beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cornbread topping is lightly browned.
~Chef Jenny
PS-If you're interested in learning how to make beans and other superfoods taste delicious, consider my Natural Foods Cooking Program. The recipes and instruction in this class will keep you and your family eating healthy all year long—and loving every bite. Registration closes this Tuesday, January 15th, so if you are interested, be sure to sign up soon!


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- Bumping a topic without meaningful discussion should be limited to once every 7 days.
- Don't make a general post where you ask to be an operator/leader. If you want to be one, make an application on the server where you want to be one.
- If you make a post about your server, don't give it a generic name like 'new server' or 'Pixelmon server'. We'll ask you to change it or remove it entirely.
- Don't attempt to hire any server staff here. Use the Looking for Staff forum instead.
- Don't use caps lock. The only attention it'll get you is that of the forum moderators.
- Don't make more than one post about the same server. Players will join, so don't advertise it on a lot of posts.
- Don't post cracked servers; we don't support them.
- Don't even bother to advertise your server here if you take the ads off our downloads on your website or use modpacks. We have no interest in servers that don't want us supported/have no respect. Your post will be removed and you will be banned.
- If you want your topic removed, put 'remove this topic' in your title so we can see.
- No advertising on other servers.
- No advertising 3rd party services.
- Stick to the rules, and have fun playing!
Pixelmonmod website username: UniversalRealms | 5.0.1 | Gyms | 225 Lvl Cap | Events
I love this server (website) is really very good (I recommend)
In my opinion there are no mistakes
I like your organization
Yours truly
IBGnova wrote:Greetings, Pixelmon players!
My name is IBG_Nova and I own a decent sized Pixelmon server, named UniversalRealms. We have been around for about 8 months, and have grown immensely during this time. You can locate our website at this link: http://www.universalrealms.net .
Our server supports 5.0.1 (Full Release).
What makes us unique?
We support eight custom gyms, fully functional NPCs, as well as a huge safari zone, 400x400 blocks, and a full in-game marketplace to allow trainers to acquire the items to meet their Pixelmon needs. Furthermore, we host weekly events and monthly giveaways to help new players compete with the veterans.
Side note
UniversalRealms is affiliated with GlacialRealms, and players can join through either their IP or ours. However, players will join their hub, and can join our Pixelmon server via /server pixelmon or the compass.
Why should you join us?
UniversalRealms is, as aforementioned, a custom-made Pixelmon server with a range of dedicated staff across the world, so players will never be without help, should they need it. Our community is also always happy to help players out, and we have little to no issues with flame, or anything else.
Server Info:
IP: Play.UniversalRealms.Net
Server Website: UniversalRealms.net
You can view our server rules here.
Click here for Free Rank Info!
Pixelmonmod Username: CatogoricHawk19
Review: I've been playing pixelmon for over 5 years now and honestly, this server is great. Super helpful staff and they respond lightning fast, overall great server. but you wanted some feedback so heres a little things i personally would like to see tweaked.
1. The Gyms- as most pokemon fans know the gyms always have level caps, i think this should be implemented into the server making the first gym start at 30 and as you progress the level caps grow higher.
2. Pokemon spawns- the pokemon spawns are quite off to be honest, ill be playing with my two buddies and we wont find any pokemon but when one of us venture off the all spawn around that person and vice versa!
3. Boss pokemon- i know that boss pokemon have a low spawn rate but ive been on the server for over 2 weeks and i haven't seen a single boss, call it back luck but ive seen friends get them on other servers within 2-3 hours
That is my feedback! hopefully it helps


text: Greg McMillan, a managing broker working out of the Grant Street office, joined Sotheby's International Realty in 2000. Having lived in the West all of his life, he is a native of Northern California who relocated to Santa Fe in 1979. Greg visited New Mexico earlier that year and was so taken with Santa Fe that he moved to the city 10 weeks after this initial and only visit. He fell in love with the antiquity of the town, the spring time weather and the friendliness of the people. Greg obtained his real estate license in 1980 and has been involved full time in local real estate ever since. He specializes in residential properties in all price ranges throughout the Santa Fe City and County and Northern New Mexico areas. Among his many and varied interests are history, good food, experiencing high Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada mountain terrain, gardening and environmental and animal rights issues.


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BARTESTREE & Lugwardine look set to be playing in the Worcestershire County League next season.
The club voted by a big majority to move on from the GB Liners Marches League at an EGM last week.
"There were 27 in favour, six did not mind either way and there was one abstention," said club stalwart Derrick Jones.
"It is the right time for the club and the players want to go, and that includes the second team."
Jones said that the club's facilities had been inspected by Worcestershire League officials and given the green light with their entry into Division Four due to be ratified this week. The go-ahead club will be able to boast a new state-of-the-art practice nets complex which was opened in the presence of representatives from the England and Wales Cricket Board as well as many club members and guests Herefordshire Cricket and the England and Wales Cricket Board identified the club for support due to the strength of their junior development programme and for their particular focus on women's and girls' cricket.
The ECB partnered by Sport England awarded a grant of £39,348 towards the total cost of around £52,500 for the three-bay synthetic practice area.
Additional funding was provided by a generous donation from Clive Richards OBE and grants from The Lord's Taverners, The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation, The Rank Foundation and Carlsberg. The nets facility was designed and constructed to the highest specifications, using their unique netting structure, sub-surface preparation and carpet materials, by Total-play Ltd.
Following an introduction from John Huband, the ECB regional funding and facilities manager, the nets were officially opened by Laura Newton, ECB business support manager and former opening bat and fast bowler for the England Women's Cricket Team.
Laura then gave a demonstration of cricket skills with club members, focusing on the up-and-coming junior girls.
''We were delighted to receive this grant and want to express our appreciation to ECB and Sport England, and to Ed Price of Herefordshire Cricket for his solid support throughout this process," said secretary Nigel Shore. "It is a recognition of how far we have come since the club was formed in 1997. Our next big target is as a focus hub for the development of women's and girls' cricket."


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Saniya Chong just completed one of the great individual Slam Dunk tournaments in history. Maybe the best ever. On Tuesday she set the tournament scoring record with 40 points. Two days later she set it again with 46. She also had a near triple-double the first game and 12 rebounds the second game.
She would have been a no-brainer for MVP if Ossining had won it all. But it didn't. Peekskill won, and Asia Jackson was named MVP.
This has been a point of some contention. Some say Chong should have won it because of her incredible performance, one that exceeds anything at this event in recent memory. They say Ossining would have lost to Peekskill by 40 without her.
Others say that a player can't win MVP if she's not on the championship team. If her squad didn't win, she's not the most valuable.
What do you say? Can a player on the losing team win MVP, a la Bobby Richardson on the 1960 Yankees? Don't vote based on Chong specifically. I'm asking, in general, could you be persuaded to give a losing player the MVP of a regular-season or postseason tournament if she plays exceptionally well?
Vote in the poll at the right.
According to the last poll result, 55 percent of you said Chong will average 30 ppg this season. That looks like a better bet now that she's up to 34.5 ppg.


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Medicare Proposal Ties Stricter Quality Measures to ESRD Payments
More than 5,000 dialysis centers around the country would have to work within much stricter quality guidelines under Medicare's proposed incentive payment program for care delivered to patients with end-stage renal disease.
Included in the proposal is that each center's rate of hospital admissions—the adjusted number of patients who required admission to a hospital because of an infection or other adverse event—would be publicly reported in 2015 "to encourage facilities to improve their care."
Several other quality measures would be folded into a formula that determines reimbursement of federal funds to dialysis centers, which now treat more than 547,000 patients with renal disease who undergo dialysis, a cost to Medicare estimated at $8.7 billion for 2013, and $39.46 billion in public and private (insurance and patients' co-payments) spending as of 2008.
The proposed rule states that these measures were picked in the belief that they "are important indicators of patient outcomes and quality of care."


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Sandy Bay in South Molle Island
Thinking of planning a city break to South Molle Island. Expedia have a great range of hotels and accomodation in South Molle Island near Sandy Bay that will help make your stay that little bit more special. But before you go make sure to check out the Expedia travel guide on Sandy Bay first, so you can find out everything you need to know before you go away.