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Hot weather, cold weather, clear water, stained water, I dont care. The fluke can produce when other baits do not and they will catch an amazing variety of fish species. The fluke is a specially designed type of soft plastic worm. There is a variety of ways to fish it. I prefer just a four or five-ought hook and no weight.
The fluke can be used in shallow or deep water and when properly rigged is about as weedless as you can get a lure. It is primarily a bass and stripers (rockfish) lure. The fluke is simple to fish. Just cast, let settle, twitch and let settle again. Being so weedless, they are superb for fishing in heavy cover.
By BECKY ANDREWS
Wilson Living Magazine
The day started off as a big fat lie. My sister Christy visiting from Portland, Oregon had come to town and together we decided to take my children for a relaxing day by the pool. She didnt know any better. She cant be held responsible for agreeing that this day would be anything less than heavenly. I, on the other hand, should have known from experience that taking my boys anywhere while they are in the midst of summertime boredom (just 7 short days after a stay at the beach) was a recipe for disaster or at the very least a recipe for a fight.
When we mentioned going swimming both said something along the lines of, Um. Im not sure I want to go. Can we just stay home and you guys watch me make it to the next level Dragon Ball Z Bootikai Tenkaiechi 3? That would be better. When Christy calmly explained that there was no way she was going to watch them play a video game that she couldnt even pronounce when she could be soaking in a heavy dose of vitamin D on this reprieve from the northwest, they obliged to shut her up.
Dear Ken: Someone told me that there is a new movie in the works based on the life of June Carter Cash. Who will play her and when is it coming out?
The Lifetime network has announced that pop-country singer-songwriter Jewel, 37, will star in The June Carter Cash Story, which is based on Anchored by Love, the book by June and Johnnys son John Carter Cash. It will be filmed this summer in Atlanta, and Matt Ross of the TV series American Horror Story will portray Johnny Cash. It should hit TV late this year. Jewel and her husband Ty Murray, 42, a nine-time World Champion rodeo cowboy and co-founder of the Professional Bull Riders, live on 2,400-acre ranch in Stephenville, Texas, with their 11-month-old son Kase Townes Murray. Among Jewels hit songs are Who Will Save Your Soul, You Were Meant for Me, Foolish Games, Hands, Standing Still and Intuition.
Capt. Jesse Caskey transports passengers to river world
{phocagallery view=category|categoryid=54|imageid=341|displayname=0|float=left}By KEN BECK
The Wilson Post
The river road that comprises the northern border of Wilson County presents a liquid highway that most locals have yet to navigate.
For those who dont own a vessel, Capt. Jesse Caskey and his 38-foot-long covered pontoon boat Discovery offers a leisurely option with Cumberland River Cruises.
The Coast Guard-licensed skipper worked at Opryland theme park when it opened in 1972 and was serving as safety manager of the park and the Opryland Hotel when he left the complex in 1985.
I operated the Sky Ride my first two years. I managed every ride out there and was supervisor for the opening of the Grizzly River Rampage and Screaming Delta Demon. I joke around about the Opryland job. Im back to being a ride operator, but now I own the ride, said Caskey, 59, who lives with his wife Elaine in Gallatin.
{phocagallery view=category|categoryid=20|imageid=332|displayname=0|float=left}By KAREN FRANKLIN
My family recently went on a two day camping trip to Fall Creek Falls, in Pikeville, with some friends. One of the first things I noticed when we arrived at the wooded campsite was the sound of birds all around us. After a few hours and a little patience I discovered we had quite a variety, which included Tufted Titmouse, Chickadee, Cardinal, Blackbird, Chipping Sparrow, Downey and Red-Bellied Woodpecker. However, there was one call in particular that was close, frequent and unfamiliar to me. I soon discovered there was a large family of Northern Flickers near our camp site.
I believe this is the first time I have seen a Flicker, but they were easy to identify. They are 13-14 inches in length and very unique. They have a beautiful red V on the back of their head, a spotted chest and a black crescent on their front lower neck and black cheek patches. Their sound is a very distinct wicka-wicka-wicka. I tried to count how many there were but of course they would not hold still long enough for me to get an accurate count. Im assuming there were 6-8 and most likely parents with their first set of fledglings. Flickers are a type of woodpecker but are primarily ground feeders who prefer ants (which make up almost half of their diet). They also eat other insects, fruit, berries and seeds and will visit bird feeders.
By BOBBY M. GOODE
USDA Rural Development,
State Director for Tennessee
Nearly every rural Tennessean benefits from USDA Rural Development investments in businesses, cooperatives, communities and non-profits. We help them create jobs and improve access to things like reliable water, sewer, broadband, electricity, rental housing, home repairs and other essentials like public safety, education, job training and healthcare. Our urban neighbors benefit, too. A competitive rural America is vital to the economic health and independence of our nation in terms of food, exports and as a vital source of renewable energy and innovation for the future.
We also help literally thousands of families achieve the dream of homeownership every year. Just since 2009, we have helped more than 12,500 rural Tennesseans reach this important milestone.June is National Homeownership Month and as we celebrate with families across Tennessee, we are reminded that ownership matters because homes are the center of family life and communities. Owning a home generates pride that encourages greater participation in civic life and stable households contribute to greater success in school for children who then grow up to have greater success in work and life.
By ANNE DONNELL
I know youve written about thank-you notes, probably more than once, but do you mind cruising through it again? I hope that graduates and brides and grooms will read this and start writing their thanks.-A Rather Generous Person
Too often one has to be generous, even when the notes have arrived in ones mailbox. These graduates and brides and grooms, as our QP of T (Question Person of Today) phrases it, seem to feel that what worked in the third grade (contents, form, and general appearance as in smudges and numerous erasures, misspelled words, and worse) works all life long.And, yes, I agree that grooms should be on the list of those who write thank-you notes. Often the gifts come from those with close ties to the groom and perhaps no ties to the bride. So the groom can take pen in hand as I hope he would have done for graduation gifts (and birthday).
By PATRICK HALL
The Wilson Post
Wilson County businesses and the Tennessee Career Center at Lebanon, Wilson County Mayors Office and Joint Economic & Community Development Board are holding a job fair next Thursday for all local residents.
Mika Russ with the Career Center said they hope to have more than 30 employers participating in the job fair, which will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., Thursday, June 28, at Winfree-Bryant Middle School in Lebanon.
Were hoping to have more than 30 this year. Last year we had 37 and we hope to have close to that same number, Russ said.
Over 600 local jobseekers attended the job fair last year, and Russ said the employers that will be present range from small retail stores, larger retail chains to industrial and construction companies.
The Roy Bailey African American Museum will host its inaugural African American Street Festival celebrating Juneteenth on Saturday, June 23.
The event will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Market Street, one block north of the Lebanon Public Square.This will be the first African American celebration of thismagnitude for Lebanon since the old Market Street Field Day stopped back in the 1970s, a spokesperson said.
All are invited, and the event is free to the public.
The primary purpose of this event is to unify the entire community, break down present-day racial barriers and to give an opportunity for civic and social organizations to join together in community action bringing awareness to Wilson County's only African American Museum, the spokesperson said.
A Lebanon woman was arrested this past weekend for her alleged part in manufacturing and selling counterfeit money in the Wilson County area.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation made the arrest after the woman, identified as Stacy Rene Peters, 35, of Bluebird Lane in Lebanon, was indicted by the Wilson County grand jury on June 11.
She was indicted on four counts of criminal simulation $1,000 to $10,000 and one count of criminal simulation $10,000 to $60,000.
Wilson County will celebrate, remember and fight back against cancer while supporting the American Cancer Society at the overnight Relay For Life in Lebanon on Friday.
This years theme for Relay For Life of Wilson County is Change the Channel on Cancer. Organized by the ACS to raise awareness about cancer, the event promises an evening of TV-themed fun, with campsites and games based on favorite television shows.Traditional activities at Relay For Life will include the Survivor Lap, the Caregiver Lap and the Luminary Ceremony. Live entertainment and an annual benefit auction are also on the agenda.
Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam recently launched the Read20 Family Book Club with the goal of promoting early child literacy and parental engagement in their childrens academic lives.
Haslam is encouraging families this summer to read 20 minutes daily. Each month a book will be featured on the website (www.tn.gov/read20). Children and families can participate and find family engagement ideas, reading activities and tips.
I am very excited to launch the Read20 Family Book Club, Haslam said in a news release. Families reading together build a foundation for strong relationships and academic success for our Tennessee students.
By PATRICK HALL
The Wilson Post
Wilson County Finance Director Aaron Maynard told County Commission Monday night they would be faced with tough decisions in the near future, indicating the county would have to either cut personnel or raise taxes.
We have been 16 years on status quo budgets, Maynard said, adding this year would be no different.
District 8 Commissioner Frank Bush asked Maynard if the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget would be a balanced budget. According to Bush, the budget would be balanced if revenues were greater than or equal to expenditures.
Maynard said the budget would not fit Bushs description of a balanced budget, adding he uses the current revenues and general fund balance as a starting point in getting the budget together.
Although he has only been working with the county for a year, Maynard said when budgeting, the fund balance has always been taken into account when projecting expenditures and revenues.
However, he noted just because money from the general fund is budgeted does not mean the county spends that money.
By PATRICK HALL
The Wilson Post
A woman was accidentally shot early Tuesday morning on Southeast Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon as she tried to prevent her elderly father from committing suicide, according to Wilson County Sheriffs Department Det. Jeff Johnson, who added no one was seriously injured.
Johnson said at approximately 5:30 a.m., at a home on the 3700 block of Southeast Tater Peeler Road, a 72-year-old man attempted to take his own life with a single-shot 410 shotgun.
The man has had health problems for quite some time and went outside to kill himself, Johnson said.
After 13 stellar seasons, Mark Purvis stepped downlast week as head baseball coach at Mt. Juliet High School. Purvis, a 1989 graduate of Mt. Juliet and a four-year starter at second base for Cumberland University, broke the news to his team in a meeting on Wednesday, June 20.
"I've been thinking about this for the past couple of years," Purvis said, "I've poured everything I have into the program for over 13 years and I'm tired -- mentally and physically.
"I spent some time talking to Mr. (Mel) Brown (MJHS principal) and he knows exactly what I'm going through. I still want to teach at Mt. Juliet, but I'll take some time -- go see Cumberland and Vanderbilt play in the spring, visit some other high school games and work on the farm."
The City of Lebanon Parks & Recreation Department is closing Veterans Field in the Baird Park Complex for the time being as preparations for the annual Continental Amateur Baseball Association 14U World Series get serious.
There are presently 41 teams from all over the map signed up to play in the annual event which is set for July 13-21 at various venues in Lebanon / Wilson County.
Veterans Field has always been the site for opening and closing ceremonies, in addition to hosting a full slate of games as well as a home run derby and fireworks show.
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MPs from the House of Commons Transport Committee have recommended a number of measures to help stop young drivers from "killing themselves and others."
The proposals include raising the minimum age for taking the driving test from 17 to 18, ensuring learner drivers spread lessons over a year before taking their test, applying a zero alcohol policy for novice drivers and banning them from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 from 11pm to 5am.
BBC website readers have been e-mailing us their views on these proposals, a selection of which you can read below.
Your comments:
Another sensible restriction on young/new drivers would be to limit the vehicle type to a low-powered engine type, preferably 1000cc until they can provide a clean licence for three consecutive years. Peter Young, Cambridge
If these people actually looked at the statistics, they'd see more MIDDLE AGED people are caught drinking and driving than any other age band - in either case the breath test limit should be reduced to 0% for all ages. Stuart Ross, Heathrow
I agree with raising the age of drivers taking their test to 18. I would also argue there is a case for raising it to higher than that when you consider the standard of driving I see from young drivers on the road (particularly males). I also think that the 'PASS PLUS' test should be made compulsory. My Fiance took the Pass Plus training within weeks of passing her test and the improvement in her driving was immense. I also believe that a separate motorway test should also be introduced. Peter Moriarty, Rugby
The alcohol level should be constant across the board. It is no more dangerous for a young driver to drink drive than an old one.
The proposal that new drivers may not carry 10-20s as passengers from 11pm-5am ignores any perfectly reasonable reasons for driving at that time that are not dangerous - like dropping a sibling off for a 4am check-in at Heathrow, or picking up a 10-year-old younger sibling from a children's party when a parent is ill.
Unless of course you're happy for your child to walk two miles home in the dark, or get in a taxi alone with a stranger...Peter Brooks, Islington, London
Novice drivers are in many ways safer than "more experienced motorists" as they have not yet grown complacent, nor do they believe that they will not have an accident because they have been driving safely for years.
Compulsory re-tests every 5 years (minimum) would help - as would the introduction of tiered driving tests (e.g. making the advanced driving test as offered by RoSPA/RoADAR compulsory after a period of time).
However, any measures making it tougher to be a legal, licensed driver must be accompanied by further steps aimed at reducing the number of illegal/unlicensed/uninsured drivers on the roads - in other words, no more "slap on the wrist" punishments.Matt Chatterley, Portsmouth
I think these ideas are a start, but they don't go far enough. As well as these, they should make the P plate mandatory for a year; limit the engine size you can drive for the year after the test to a maximum of 1300cc; and NOT permit motorway driving for a minimum of 6 months. Driving at 70mph on a motorway is a whole different kettle of fish to driving at 30mph in a housing estate.Lorne Smith, Maidstone
To be honest, since I have been banned for drink driving (which I am not proud of), I have been made to go on a DIDS course based at Manchester Probation office. This has been very educational for me personally, learning all sorts of things about driving.
ALL new drivers, young and old, should be MADE to go on some form of course separate from the Driving exams even if it costs some £150. What is £150 when compared to somebody's life? Ged Jones, Manchester
Well, I'm 18. I've been driving for about seven months and haven't had a crash yet. I think it's all down to a lot of young drivers being immature.
I really don't think that a curfew is a good idea - it would be far too much hassle to stop young drivers travelling at night.
But I think a zero tolerance for young drivers is a good idea because the young drivers that drive like maniacs should be taken off the road. I pay for those maniacs, as my insurance is £2400 for third-party cover only and I'm a safe driver.Michael, Manchester
Has it not occurred to them that a lot of people within that age group (particularly students) are liable to have part-time jobs which involve finishing after 11pm, and that not everyone will have the luxury of their own car, so lifts are common.
Similarly with shift workers in places like hospitals, call-centres, airports (talking of which, God help any young couple with a 5am check-in time - rock, scissors, paper for who gets to walk?).
Meanwhile, around our area, people in their late 20s are perfectly capable of flipping their Porsches upside-down into fields, regardless of driving experience... Matthew, Aberdeenshire
I passed my test at 17 and started driving immediately. I have never been involved in a crash and have not even had a single point on my licence. Perhaps the problems on our roads are not the young but the uninsured, reckless, unqualified drivers that the government doesn't seem to bother trying to catch because its easier to find and blame young people. Jonathan Harding, Manchester
Most Popular Now | 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now.";

subset: commoncrawl


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Subject: [htdig] I get these pdf errors
From: Mustafa Kamoga (email@example.com)
Date: Tue Nov 30 1999 - 07:53:34 PST
"I redid the entire config/installation process (no problems and fairly
I then put the edited html files from common.old into common and ran
This process produces PDF errors that look like this:
PDF::parse: cannot open acroread output from
/mnt/www/htdig/db/htdig12104.pdf: Could not repair file.
PDF::parse: cannot open acroread output from
/mnt/www/htdig/db/htdig12104.pdf: Unterminated string.
All output thus far is PDF.
Do you remember if you encountered this? Is it possible that some
configuration for understanding PDF files is missing?
At this point, I have stopped the rundig. devsun2 hung and I am
guessing that it ran out of /tmp space and hung from lack of swap.
I will reconfigure rundig to use the /mnt/www file system for tmp space
rather than /tmp.
BUT would like to know what you think about the pdf errors before I
begin again."
Please Help,
To unsubscribe from the htdig mailing list, send a message to
You will receive a message to confirm this.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Nov 30 1999 - 08:06:20 PST


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Two-wheeled whizzkids generally love nothing more in life than their road-rolling runaround. And, while they shouldn't have favourites, trying to understand or, god forbid, find a replacement for their much-loved pedaller is like a pot-holed path to purgatory.
Instead, accessorise. Let them keep their wheels as you supply them with every possible light, lock, jacket and, of course, coffee table cycling companion.
Best of all, fitting up your fitness-insistent friend with brilliant bolt-ons means they'll spend most of the day in the garage - so no more protracted discussions about the benefits of carbon cross-beams and the mighty shaved leg.
Adidas Evil Eye Halfrim Pro Sunglasses (from £140)
Aside from a personal house-to-office bike lane, the dream for most cyclists is one pair of glasses to last the whole year. These Adidas sunnies fit the bill perfectly, courtesy of Vario lenses, which can change from completely clear to dark in just twenty two-wheeled seconds.
Suitable for both murky winter rides and bright sunny ones, their anti-fog coating, fluorescent highlights and a removable sweat blocker make them a good fit for mountain bikers, too.
PDW Shiny Object CO2 inflator (US$20)
We hate punctures: summer days spent coasting through the countryside, blighted by those fiendish bushy bristles. It's the pits.
But now, when you're in the pits, you can show those thorns who's boss with the ultimate in re-inflation kit. Indestructible alloy wrapped in leather, PDW's ultra-shiny Co2 fast-filler not only looks the bicycle business but will see your rubber right back on the road in next to no time.
Upso Stirling Seat Pack (£25)
Every winter cyclist needs a sturdy saddle pack for stashing spare tubes, tyre levers and emergency snackage. Upso's range of under-seat sacks is made from recycled lorry tarpaulins, which means each one is waterproof, unique and comes with just a hit of a world-saving smugness.
The Stirling fastens tightly to seat posts via quick-release Velcro straps, making corner shop fill-ups a rapid business. Want to use it for mid-ride energy bars? It's just as happy clinging horizontally onto your handlebars, too.
Chrome Barrage Cargo (£190)
Need a commuting bag that can survive the UK's sideways winter rain? This waterproof backpack might be pricey, but after a few years of taking it on daily rides we can confirm that it's both indestructible and, if you like dry work clothes, well worth the premium.
The updated version of the Barrage Cargo offers handy side pockets, which nicely complement the tarpaulin-lined main compartment. The best features, though, are its seatbelt buckle and the adjustable cargo net - ideal for stashing your helmet during pub stops.
Patagonia Capilene midweight zip-neck (£60)
Toasty warm yet blissfully breathable, Patagonia's range of base layers has been a firm favourite in the Stuff office for years. This zip-neck number is no exception, equipped with nifty tricks like elastic thumb loops to ensure your hands don't feel the winter nip.
The fabric itself is designed to sit happily beneath your other layers, whilst smart sewing should keep you comfortable on the mountain climb: the shoulder seams are offset so as to avoid rucksack strap chafing.


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Pocahontas (1595 - 1617)
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the powerful chief of the Pamunkeys, a tribe that inhabited the area around the Chesapeake Bay later settled by the English. She was born around 1595 to one of Powhatan's many wives. Her given name was Matoaka, but she has gone down in history by her nickname Pocahontas, which suggests she was a mischievous little child.
Pocahontas first observed the English when they landed in Virginia in May of 1607. She had her first meeting with them when Captain John Smith was captured by her tribesmen that winter. In later published accounts, Smith states that Pocahontas saved his life as he was about to be executed by her tribesmen. Smith's claims are heavily debated and some believe it was simply a tribal ritual. Nonetheless, Smith survived and Pocahontas developed a friendship with him and the other settlers during her visits to the Jamestown Fort. She delivered messages from her father and accompanied tribesmen bringing furs and food to trade. After the first year of English habitation, hostilities between Pocahontas's people and the Englishmen developed, and Pocahontas was unable to continue her visits to the Jamestown settlement. In 1609, John Smith was severely injured by a gunpowder explosion and had to return to England. Pocahontas was told that John Smith was dead.
In 1610, Pocahontas married a Pamunkey man named Kocoum, and they settled in the Potomac region. In 1613, Captain Samuel Argall invited Pocahontas to visit his ship Treasurer, which was docked in the Potomac River. She was taken aboard by two fellow Indians and left on the ship. With Pocahontas as a captive, the ship sailed back to Jamestown. The English settlers demanded corn, the return of prisoners who had been captured and stolen items, and a peace treaty as the ransom for Pocahontas. Powhatan sent part of the ransom and asked that his daughter be treated well. Pocahontas was moved from Jamestown to the Henrico settlement near present-day Richmond. In July of 1613, Pocahontas met John Rolfe who lived near Henrico. After a year of captivity, Sir Thomas Dale took Pocahontas and 150 armed men to Powhatan demanding the remainder of the ransom. A skirmish occurred and the Englishmen burned villages and killed several Indian men. During this event, Pocahontas told her father that she was in love with Rolfe and wished to marry him. Powhatan gave his consent and the marriage was viewed by all as a peace-making marriage. In 1614, Pocahontas converted to Christianity and was renamed Rebecca. On April 5 of that year, she married John Rolfe.
Rebecca Rolfe, or Pocahontas, bore a son named Thomas, and in 1616, the young family traveled to England. They spent time in both London and Norfolk, where the extended Rolfe family lived, and Pocahontas dressed in the Elizabethan style that is pictured on the stamp. She was granted an audience with King James I and the royal family. She was treated as a visiting royal in England because the English considered her an Indian princess. While in London, she met with John Smith, whom she had thought was dead. It was the last time they saw each other. The Rolfe family spent seven months in England, deciding to return to Virginia in 1617. Shortly after they set sail, it became apparent that Pocahontas was too ill to survive the voyage as she was suffering from tuberculosis or pneumonia. Pocahontas died shortly thereafter at the age of twenty-two. She was buried in a churchyard in Gravesend, England.
Pocahontas is possibly the most famous woman in early American history. As a young girl she helped the struggling English settlers to survive. As an English wife and Christian, she traveled to London and socialized with heads of state. She played a vital role in the survival of the young colony, and deserved her credit when John Smith labeled her "the instrument to pursurve this colonie from death, famine, and utter confusion."
Additional Sources:
Web Sites:
- Love and Hate in Jamestown. David A. Price.
- Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Helen D. Rountree.
Works Cited:
- Brown, Boyd H. "Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend." http://www.nps.gov/. Accessed on 26 April 2007.
- Hines, Emilee. More than Petticoats: Remarkable Virginia Women. Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press, 2003.
- PHOTO: Pocahontas, Virtual Jamestown, Virginia Center for Digital History, University of Virginia.


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By U.S. ArmyFebruary 26, 2014
FORT BENNING, Ga., (Feb. 26, 2014) -- Officials say prescription drug abuse on Fort Benning accounted for 19 percent of criminal drug investigations in 2013. Recent changes to the Combating Prescription Drug Abuse policy are focusing on how Soldiers, civilian employees and their Families properly handle expired or unused medications.
"Prescription drugs are now the second most abused drug on Fort Benning," said Kevin Clarke, chief of police with the Directorate of Emergency Services. "Previously, this type of drug abuse was not well documented. Recent changes in drug testing have increased visibility and this policy is intended to help curb this dangerous abuse."
According to Army Regulation 600-85, which governs the Army Substance Abuse Program, testing conducted by the program is the primary method of detecting drug abuse.
Clarke said the most common types of prescription abuse include using a drug prescribed to a person by a doctor beyond 6 months of issue, use of another person's prescription drugs by a person that does not have a prescription, sales of prescription drugs that were legally issued to an individual on a valid prescription, theft of prescription drugs and use of a valid prescription in excess of recommended dosages.
"The policy establishes control, safeguards and increased visibility for our leaders," he said.
Clarke said key components of the policy include requiring Soldiers to lock up prescription drugs in barracks rooms and vehicles, making out a police report for lost, stolen or destroyed prescription drugs, informing leaders of label warnings and informing Soldiers of ways to discard of unused prescription drugs.
Oskar Schlomer, prevention coordinator for the Army Substance Abuse Program, said Soldiers are responsible for how their prescription medications are used and stored.
According to the policy, military police will record the patient information on Fort Benning DES Form 121 and the provost marshal office will file a police report into the Centralized Operations Police Suite to keep an historical record of repeated incidents. Military police will follow the same procedure if the prescription drug was lost, stolen, or destroyed off the installation.
Soldiers who do not possess a valid prescription and test positive through urinalysis for prescription drugs more than six months after the drug is dispensed could be subject to Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"The punishment is the same as if that Soldier consumed some other type of illegal drug, like cocaine or marijuana," Schlomer said.
Schlomer said Soldiers must also keep their prescriptions out of reach of minors. Parents should especially be aware of a dangerous trend among youth called "Skittles parties," where people mix a variety of prescription pills together in a bowl and consume them like candy, he said.
"Doctors typically use a patient's height and weight to determine how strong the medication should be," Schlomer said. "If a child took medication for someone who is taller and weighs more, it could be life-threatening."
In addition to keeping prescription drugs out of reach, Schlomer said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sponsors the National Drug Take-Back Day initiative twice a year in an effort to provide a safe, convenient and responsible way of disposing of unused prescription drugs. The next event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 26 at the Fort Benning Exchange. For more information, call 706-545-4415, 706-545-7027 or visit www.dea.gov.


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Hello to anyone who reads this,
I am on exchange at Lund University in Sweden. It is described as a compact University town, but as far as I can see it's anything but. These people should come and see Sydney. I fail to see how a compact uni requires the use of a bicycle to get wherever you need to quickly. Every building is surrounded by grass and carparks. It is rare to find two buildings right next to each other.
It was crazy in the first week, finding my new empty room, meeting new people, pretending to learn Svenska (Swedish language), paying rent, buying food, opening bank accounts, buying a pillow and doona (I had to borrow a pillow and blanket for the first few days and then slept on my jacket for a couple more days). Luckily you can pick up free food here and there in the first week and the people in my corridor were happy to give me some food in the first couple of days.
The social scene is pretty good. There are always mentor group activities with other exchange students and local Swedish mentors. Lots of parties to go to and meet new people. There is always something to do even if it is attending lectures and such. Everyone speaks very good English, which makes it difficult to pick up any Swedish, or any other language for that matter.
It's quite a scary experience at first, but once you get organized and settled down it's really quite good. You'll find everyone eats pasta because it's the easiest thing to cook and also the easiest to clean (aside from frozen meals you buy at the supermarket.) The strangest thing I've seen so far is the restaurant in IKEA. You can buy some ridiculously cheap furniture and then sit down with some Swedish meatballs and mash potato.
In terms of the weather I think I've been pretty lucky. Winter at the moment here hasn't been much worse than the middle of July in Sydney. However I've been told it has the potential here in Sweden to take a serious dive on the thermometer.
Until Next Time
David Porter
This sounds exciting... keep posting about Lund please, and photos! I'm swedish in year 12 and Lund / USyd are like the two favourite options on my radar right now... so your experience will be interesting for me :)
Sounds pretty good.
I've always loved the place for those exact reasons (english speaking, cold climate, friendly people, good academic environment etc..)
I'm just starting a Ba/Bsc this year and I was wondering what sort of process you go through to go on exchange and how easy it is.
Enjoy Sweden!
It's a pretty simple process. First you choose a uni which has courses relevant to your degree. Then you give your preferences to your home university. Then you apply for the home university to which you were given by your home university.
Simple stuff but it takes a long time to go through the whole procedure. 276714


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Jessica Alba Buys Honor a Barbie Car for Christmas! (PHOTOS)
Honor Warren, the adorable daughter of Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren, got an early gift this year after a trip to Toys R Us. The mommy-daughter duo were spotted leaving the infamous toy store with a sweet ride for Honor — none other than her very own pink Barbie car. Maybe there's even enough room in that car for Honor's little sister Haven.
When Celebuzz caught up with Alba recently, she was thrilled to report that Honor and Haven get along great!
"They are so sweet together," Jess said with a smile. "They love on each other. It's a relief!"
"It's so nice!" Alba told Celebuzz about being a mother for the second time. "It's nice enjoying having a newborn instead of being overwhelmed. Instead of wondering if the baby is going to be okay, now I can just relax. It's just so fun!"
Recently, Jessica praised Honor's sister instincts, telling Us Magazine: "Honor is just the best big sister. I guess that's a pretty great landmark in itself. She's so great with Haven."


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Paris (AFP) March 14, 2013
The European Space Agency (ESA) said it signed a deal on Thursday with its Russian counterpart to launch two unmanned missions to Mars, a quest that was rocked by a US pullout last year.
Called ExoMars, the scheme entails sending an orbital probe to the Red Planet in January 2016 to look for atmospheric traces of methane gas, a pointer to the existence of microbial life.
It will also send down a small stationary lander to test key technologies for the second mission -- the launch of a six-wheeled rover in 2018.
A seven-instrument science lab on wheels, the rover will be the first able to drill to a depth of two metres (7.5 feet), where astrobiologists see a good chance of finding microbes that would be destroyed by harsh conditions at the surface.
"Establishing whether life ever existed on Mars is one of the outstanding scientific questions of our time and the highest scientific priority of the ExoMars Programme," ESA said in a statement.
Under the deal, the Russian agency Roscosmos will provide heavy-lift Proton launchers for both missions as well as the descent module for the rover.
The descent module will include a surface platform, also provided by the Russians.
"Both partners will supply scientific instruments and will cooperate closely in the scientific exploitation of the missions," ESA.
EXoMars was born in December 2005, and more than 400 million euros ($520 million) has been spent on it so far.
The project was badly hit in February 2012 when the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pulled out, prompting Europe to turn to Russia for help.
ESA ministers endorsed the Russian deal at their meeting in Naples, Italy, last November, pending the signing of a formal contract with Roscosmos.
ExoMars marks a further step in space cooperation between Europe and Russia.
The medium-life veteran of space, the Russian Soyuz launcher, is deployed at ESA's base in Kourou, French Guiana, to help extend Europe's range of satellite launch services.
On Tuesday, NASA said its Martian rover Curiosity had detected hydrogen, carbon and oxygen -- the building blocks of life, and evidence that the planet was once awash with water.
Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more
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Plains All American Pipeline LP (NYSE:PAA)
Q2 2007 Earnings Call
August 7, 2007, 11:00 AM ET
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and CEO
Harry N. Pefanis - President and COO
Phil D. Kramer - EVP and CFO
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
John Edwards - Morgan Keegan
Welcome to Plains All American Pipeline's Second Quarter 2007 Results Conference Call. During today's call, the participants will provide forward-looking comments on the partnership's outlook as well as review the results of the prior period. Accordingly in doing so, they will use words such as belief, estimate, expect, anticipate etc. The partnership intends to avail itself of Safe Harbor provisions that encourage companies to provide this information and directs you to the risks and warnings set forth in Plains All American Pipeline's most recently filed 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, and other current and future filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In addition, the Partnership encourages you to visit its website at www.paalp.com, in particular, the section entitled non-GAAP reconciliation, which presents certain commonly used non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA or EBIT, which may be used here today in the prepared remarks or in measures such as... or the Q&A session. This section also presents a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures that includes a table of selected items that impact comparability with respect to the Partnership's reported financial information. Any reference during today's call to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, and the like, is referenced to the financial measures, including the effect of selected items impacting comparability.
Today's conference call will be chaired by Greg L. Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of Plains All American Pipeline. Also participating in the call are Harry Pefanis, Plains All American's President and COO; and Phil Kramer, Plains All American's Executive Vice President and CFO.
I will now like to turn the call over to Mr. Greg Armstrong.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you Joe and good morning and welcome to every one. As a reminder, the slide presentation accompanying this call is available on our website at www.paalp.com.
PAA generated strong operating financial results for the second quarter 2007. Highlights for the quarter are summarized on slide three. The partnership reported net income EBITDA and net income per diluted unit of $104.8 million, $210.2 million and $0.78 per unit representing percentage changes of 31%, 76% and negative 4% as compared to respective second quarter 2006 results of $80.3 million, $119.6 million and $0.81 per unit. Excluding selected items impacting comparability, second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $214.8 million and adjusted net income was $120.2 million or $0.91 per diluted unit representing percentage changes of 68%, 35% and negative 12% compared to corresponding results of for the second quarter of 2006 of $128.2 million, $88.9 million and a $1.3 per unit.
As indicated in the press release we issued on May 29th, these adjusted results exceed the upper end of our guidance range we provided in our May 20007 conference call. The slide four shows, this marks the 22nd consecutive quarter that Plains All American has delivered results in line with or exceeding our guidance. As mentioned in last call, we completed the integration of Pacific early in the second quarter. Moreover, as reinforced by the partnership's strong first half operating performance and financial performance, and our increased guidance for the second half of 2007, we have achieved a combined run rate level of operating and commercial synergies that will exceed our target synergy objectives for 2007, subject to timing accelerations and delays as well as capital projects substitutions and modifications that are fairly routine for large multiyear project execution. We believe we are on track to achieve our Pacific-related financial targets for future periods as well.
The remainder of today's call will be provided in three main costs. First, we will review; second quarter operating results, address major operational assumptions for third quarter guidance and provide an update on our expansion, capital projects and recent acquisitions. Next, we will discuss our capitalization, liquidity and the depletion finance activities as well as view updated financial guidance and on last, I will wrap the call with a few closing comments on our current performance versus our 2007 goals, provide some insight into our outlooks for the future and also address the recent market transition from contango to backwardation.
At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will have a question-and-answer period, and shortly after the completion of the call, we will post a complete written transcript of the prepared comments as well as a downloadable audio version of the call. With that I now turn the call over to Harry.
Harry N. Pefanis - President and Chief Operating Officer
Thanks Greg. Each of our segments performed above the second quarter guidance, we provided on May 2, this year. As shown on slide five, adjusted segment profit for our Transportation segment was $89.4 million or $.34 per barrel, and it was approximately $10.4 million above the midpoint of our guidance range. Transportation volumes were approximately 2.9 million barrels per day; that included pipeline volumes of approximately 2.8 million barrels per day. Our pipeline volumes exceeded our guidance by about 102,000 barrels per day. Although, there were several ups and downs, most of the volume increase was attributable to the Basin Pipeline System. I'd also point out that increased revenues from our Canadian trucking operations and from our pipeline loss-allowance barrels contributed to the over-performance in this segment.
Adjusted segment profit for the Facilities segment was $4.3 million above the midpoint of our guidance range at $31.8 million, or $0.27 per barrel, with volumes of 38.8 million barrels per month. Strong segment results were mostly attributable to the stronger than expected gas storage earnings from our 50% ownership interest in the PAA/Vulcan Gas Storage joint venture.
Adjusted segment profit for the Marketing segment was $92.9 million or $1.21 per barrel, which exceeded the midpoint of our guidance range by $26.9 million. Volumes were 843,000 barrels a day and overall were in line with our guidance. Our marketing results benefited from the combination of favorable market conditions, improved margins in our gathering and marketing business, net improved margins on our truck gathered volumes and a stronger than forecasted foreign exchange associated with our Canadian activities.
In a moment Phil will discuss our 2007 guidance. This guidance assumes third quarter volumes in the Transportation segment of approximately 2.8 million barrels a day. Estimated volumes for each of our larger systems are shown on slide six, and are generally in line with recent trends. Third quarter guidance for our Facilities segment is based on average capacity of 37 million barrels per month of crude oil, refined products and LPG storage, 12.9 Bcf per month of natural gas storage and 17,000 barrels per day of LPG processing throughput.
Third quarter guidance for our Marketing segment incorporates lease gathering volumes of approximately 705,000 barrels per day, LPG sales of 65,000 barrels per day, waterborne foreign crude volumes of 75,000 barrels per day and refined products volumes of 15,000 for an estimated total volume of 860,000 barrels per day. We expect moderately strong market conditions in the third quarter; however, we expect market conditions to weaken in the fourth quarter.
Our slide seven shows snapshots of the forward NYMEX curves as of June 15th and July
17th of this year. Two trends are apparent from the slide; first we are no longer in a contango market, and the outer month spreads have flattened out. Typically, the market we currently expect in the fourth quarter is most difficult type of market to extract upside value using our risk management strategies. Later in the call, Greg will comment a little more on the effects of a backwardated market on our business. Maintenance capital expenditures for the quarter were $10.9 million. We expect our full year 2007 costs to be $52 million, which is about $7.0 million higher than our original forecast.
Moving forward to our 2007 capital expansion program, as shown on slide eight; so far this year we have completed or nearly completed five internal growth projects. In January, we completed the last 300,000 barrels of our 900,000 barrel Phase I expansion at our Kerrobert crude storage facility in Canada. In February, we placed our 6,000 barrel per day High Prairie Rail Terminal into service. In June, we placed into service the final 1.3 million barrels of tankage at St. James Phase I storage facility and we expect to place our 55,000 barrel per day Cheyenne pipeline system into service around the 1st of September and we also expect to place into service the first 100,000 barrels of our 850,000 barrel tank expansion at our Martinez terminal in September. The remaining 750,000 barrels of tankage expansion will be placed in service in the fourth quarter.
As shown on slide nine, we are proceeding with other major projects, including the 2.7
million barrel Phase II expansion at St. James, as well as the Salt Lake City pipeline expansion and the Ft. Laramie terminal project. We have experienced some weather-related delays at our 3.4 million barrel Cushings Phase VI expansion. We still expect the majority of the tanks to be in service by the end of the year. The remaining portion will come online during the first part of 2008. We also began construction of our Patoka terminal during the second quarter. On the Pier 400 project, we are waiting on the Port of Los Angeles to release the draft environmental impact review.
Since our last conference call, we have increased our 2007 capital program by about 10%, from $500 million to $550 million. The increase reflects the net impact of scope changes, timing estimates and fine tuning of costs on a number of other projects and is primarily due to a $12 million upgrade of our Elk City to Cushing pipeline system; an increase in our forecasted cost for the Cheyenne pipeline system and the addition of a number of smaller projects, some of which will carry over into 2008.
As operator of the PAA/Vulcan gas storage joint venture, we are continuing our leaching activities on the first Pine Prairie cavern well, and expect to place this cavern into partial service in early 2008. Also, we recently completed a non-binding open season for an additional 16 Bcf of storage capacity at Pine Prairie for 2010 and beyond. We were very pleased with the results of the open season, and supports our plan to file an application with the FERC for a 16 Bcf expansion later this year.
On the acquisition front, we closed the $52 million Bumstead LPG storage facility acquisition last month, marking the third acquisition of the year. This facility has approximately 133 million gallons of butane/propane working storage capacity and provides a nice complement to the Andrews LPG assets we acquired last year. We remain active and continue to pursue our target of averaging $200 million to $300 million a year in acquisitions.
With that I will now turn the call over to Phil.
Phil D. Kramer - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks Harry. During my portion of the call, I will review our capitalization and liquidity at the end of the second quarter, discuss our recent financing activity, share a few comments about our accounting activity that did impact our second-quarter results and then walk through the third quarter guidance and the updated guidance for the full year 2007.
Given all the attention on both the weakness in debt capital markets and the very recent weakness in MLP equity capital markets, I am very pleased to report that PAA is extremely well positioned in both regards as we ended the second quarter with a strong credit profile and capital structure and excellent liquidity. As summarized on slide 10, at June 30th, PAA's long-term debt outstanding was approximately $2.6 billion, while book equity was approximately $3.4 billion and, as a result, our long-term debt-to-total capitalization percentage was approximately 44%.
Our second quarter adjusted EBITDA-to-interest coverage ratio was approximately 5.2 times, and using the midpoint of our 2007 adjusted EBITDA range, our long-term debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio is approximately 3.4 times. In addition, our long-term debt has an average tenor of approximately 14.4 years, and we have no maturities of long-term debt until mid-2009, when we have a relatively small, $175 million tranche maturing. We also have excellent liquidity and we recently extended the maturity of our committed $1.6 billion revolver and increased the size of our uncommitted contango facility from $1 billion to $1.2 billion. At June 30th, we had approximately $1.5 billion of undrawn committed capacity available to meet our working capital needs and to fund future acquisitions.
As shown on slide 11, even with over $5.2 billion in cumulative acquisitions and expansion capital investment since the fourth quarter of 2001, we have been within our targeted 50% of long-term debt-to-total cap percentage ratio in 22 of the last 23 quarters. The foregoing metrics exclude our short-term debt and contango-related interest costs. This is because our short-term debt primarily reflects borrowings under our contango facility and revolver for hedged crude oil and LPG, as well as exchange market requirements, and these borrowings are essentially self-liquidating as the inventory is sold and proceeds are used to pay down the debt. Also, our contango-related interest costs are reflected in gross margin as a direct cost of these activities. At June 30, the balance in short-term debt was approximately $890 million, and that's inline with our balance as of March 31st. I might mention that to the extent we remain in a backwardated market, we will significantly reduce our short-term debt balance related to the contango storage.
Our financial growth strategy targets funding at least 50% of our growth capital with equity and excess cash flow, as well as maintaining a prudent amount of equity to support our merchant activities. Consistent with our history of proactively financing our capital needs, in June we issued approximately 6.3 million units in a direct placement for total proceeds of approximately $383 million, including the general partner's contribution. This transaction is consistent with our credit ratings objective and our overall capital structure management as we continue to expand our merchant function, including refined products, and implement our various capital projects, including the construction of approximately 13 million barrels of new tankage, some of which will be utilized by our merchant activities. A portion of the proceeds from the equity transaction was used to fund the acquisition of the Bumstead LPG storage facility and our expansion capital projects and the balance was used to reduce our short-term debt and our inventory-related borrowings.
As we indicated in our last conference call, we have a substantial inventory of internal
growth projects. We expect to invest an aggregate of $1 billion to $1.2 billion on organic projects over the three-year period from 2008 to 2010, and we expect to continue to be active on the acquisition front. Maintaining a strong capital structure also provides us with a solid level of pre-funding should we have the opportunity to make a large acquisition, regardless of the then current market conditions.
As shown on slide 12, we are approximately $363 million ahead of our 50% equity in excess cash-flow target. There were three accounting items that I want to address that impacted the second quarter results. First, our LTIP expense for the second quarter was $21.8 million, $19.5 million of which is reflected in the selected items impacting comparability. This compares to our quarterly guidance of $10 million, of which $9.3 million is included as a selected item. Of the $11.8 million total difference, $7.5 million reflects the cumulative impact of a higher unit price on the LTIP liability accrued during prior service periods. The bulk of the remaining difference is related to a $2.8 million accrual triggered by our determination that achieving a $3.50 annual distribution level is now considered probable.
Second, our second quarter net income was also impacted by an approximate $9 million net loss on the sale of non-core assets, the majority of which were acquired in the Link acquisition in 2004. Gains and losses of this type are reflected in depreciation expense, similar to impairment expense. The last accounting item is related to a $10.8 million deferred tax provision recorded in the second quarter. In June, the previously proposed Canadian legislation imposing an equivalent to a corporate entity tax on certain flow-through Canadian entities became law. We believe this legislation will apply to our Canadian activities conducted through our Canadian limited partnership; however, there is some uncertainty as to whether the legislation does apply, and our Canadian counsel is seeking some clarification.
As enacted, certain aspects of the legislation should not apply until the year 2011, unless our Canadian limited partnership exceeds certain normal growth guidelines. Since the law has been enacted, we recorded a deferred tax provision again of $10.8 million as of June 30th, and it's almost entirely related to prior periods and represents primarily depreciation and goodwill book tax differences. I should also note that we conduct a portion of our Canadian activities through a corporation, which is already subject to Canadian income tax. The good news is that generally any tax our flow-through entity pays in Canada will result in a tax credit for our U.S. unit holders when they file their U.S. tax return.
One final comment on the second quarter of 2007 coverage and as said our distribution coverage was 1.4 times the $3.32 annualized distribution that was recently declared based on the weighted average diluted units outstanding during the quarter. Our website reconciliations include the details of this calculation.
Now moving on to our financial guidance. You should note that this guidance excludes selected items that impact comparability between periods, namely the impact of SFAS 133 and our LTIP expense. For more information, please see the detailed guidance that was furnished to 8-K yesterday evening. Since that 8-K is available on our website, I am only going to touch on the highpoints of the guidance, and that's also included on slide 13.
For the third quarter 2007, we guide you to an adjusted EBITDA range of between $175 million and $195 million, with a midpoint of $185 million. We estimate third quarter adjusted net income will range from approximately $85 million to $110 million, that equates to $0.55 to $0.75 per diluted unit. For the full year, we have increased our adjusted EBITDA guidance range to approximately $760 million to $800 million with a midpoint of $780 million. This midpoint is approximately $90 million higher than the initial guidance we provided for 2007. Again, for additional details and assumptions, I would refer you to the 8-K that we furnished yesterday.
And finally, for those investors interested in our Gross Receipts for tax purposes, please visit our new Gross Receipts tab located under the Investor Relations portion of our website. This webpage gives approximation of this quarter's contribution to annual gross receipts as well as historical gross receipts.
With that, I will turn the call over to Greg.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks Phil. We are very pleased with the second quarter results and look forward to the rest of 2007. First, as shown on slide 14, we are well positioned to achieve the five goals for 2007 that we established at the beginning of the year. Second, we believe PAA is well positioned for the future. Specifically, as illustrated by the montage on slide 15, we believe that the combination of our base level cash flow, incremental contributions from our organic growth projects and future distributions from our gas storage joint venture underpin our ability to grow PAA's distribution at an average rate of 7% to 9% per year over the next several years. We also believe that any major future acquisitions will likely extend the period of visibility for continuing that growth trend or serve to offset unforeseen challenges or delays in our capital projects.
Third, as illustrated by the montage on slide 16, we have a disciplined financial growth
strategy and as a result of consistently executing that strategy, we have a strong capital structure and excellent liquidity position that will facilitate the financing of future capital projects and acquisitions.
Before we open the call up for questions, I wanted to spend a few minutes addressing the anticipated impact on PAA associated with a rapid transition in July from a steep contango market to a backwardated market. First, let me provide a little bit of background. Throughout most of the time period from early 2005 through the end of June 2007, we have experienced favorable contango market conditions. A contango market is favorable to our commercial strategies that are associated with storage tankage, as it allows us to simultaneously purchase production at current prices for storage and
sell at higher prices for future delivery.
As Harry mentioned earlier, in July 2007, the market for crude oil transitioned rapidly to a backwardated market, which has a positive impact on our lease gathering margins because crude oil gatherers can capture a premium for prompt deliveries, but provides little incentive to store crude oil as current prices are above future delivery prices. We refer to the interaction between our lease gathering activities and the commercial strategies used with our tankage as counter-cyclical balance, which we believe has a stabilizing effect on our operations and enables us to generate a base level of cash flow in either environment. As a result of the wide contango spreads experienced over the last couple of years and a fair amount of price structure volatility, we have been able to generate not only a base level of cash flow, but in many quarters we have also been able to generate significant additional profitability. At the risk of being labeled sandbaggers, in the guidance we have provided each quarter we have been very deliberate about reducing or eliminating the incremental impacts of these favorable market conditions from our guidance beyond the very near term, as they are unpredictable and very difficult to forecast.
With that as background, in response to the question, what impact will the shift from a
strong contango market to a backwardated market have on PAA's guidance numbers? The answer is, for the remainder of 2007 the answer is, in two words, not much. That belief is illustrated and reinforced by the guidance we furnished last night for the second half of 2007. If you look at the most recent guidance for the second half of 2007 you will quickly see that it is very much in line with and, in fact, slightly ahead of the second half guidance we provided at the beginning of 2007 and again at the end of the first quarter. We have not provided guidance numbers yet for 2008, but I can say that our long-term outlook, upon which we have based our distribution growth targets, is not predicated on a steep contango market. It does assume that there will be a fair amount of volatility and that our assets and our business model will have the opportunity to generate solid results in that environment.
At this point, we see nothing to cause us to change that outlook regarding future volatility. We believe the countercyclical balance provided by our asset base and our business model will enable us to continue to generate a solid base level of cash flow in the current backwardated environment. If the market remains in the current backwardated structure, our future results from our marketing segment will likely be less that those generated during the more favorable periods of pronounced contango, but are still expected to be in line with our base level expectations, upon which we manage the business long-term and upon which we also set our distribution growth targets. I would also point out that in most cases, our profitability during a backwardated market would be enhanced if there is volatility in the pricing structure and we think the fundamental and market related factors suggest we will continue to experience a volatile crude oil market.
I want to touch on two additional related matters before I leave this topic. The first is that the transition to a backwardated market will also have a beneficial impact on our total debt to total capital, as we will be liquidating our inventory positions and the proceeds will be used to substantially reduce our short-term debt. Our short-term borrowings at the end of each of the last four quarters have ranged from $900 million to $1.2 billion. And as Phil mentioned a bit earlier, in the event we remain in a backwardated market, we expect to realize a significant reduction in that balance. The second and final point I would make on this topic is that the impact on EBITDA will be meaningfully less than the amount implied if you were to assume an amount of storage capacity and apply to it an assumed contango spread. Setting aside the issue of getting the capacity figure right, you must also take into account the costs incurred to realize a portion of that spread, including the interest cost incurred while the contango barrels are in storage.
As we've mentioned many times before, we include the interest cost on short-term borrowings for hedged inventory as a cost of goods sold, thus only the margin on the contango transactions are reflected in EBITDA. Accordingly, in the last twelve months, EBITDA from the marketing segment has been reduced by approximately $52 million in associated interest on hedged inventory borrowings. And finally, we want to thank all those who attended PAA's analyst meeting on May 30th. For those that did not attend, copies of the slides used at the meeting and audio recordings of the presentations are available on our website at www.paalp.com.
That wraps up the items on our agenda. Thank you all for your participation in today's call. A complete written transcript of the prepared comments for this call will be posted on our website at www.paalp.com very shortly. You will also have the option to download an audio version. Joe at this time we will open the call for questions.
Question And Answer
Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Ross Payne with Wachovia Capital. Please take your question.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Greg, can you talk to how much of your storage is to third parties versus your account.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ross it varies really by location and it's pretty dynamic changing number right now in... we haven't published that information.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Okay. Because... I would assume the man for storages is going to be less under this market condition to two third parties, but do you assume that that's goanna be made up in you normal business on a backwardated basis?
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes while you were... we were conversation here offline, I can't give you the aggregate number. I just don't give it my location but it's in the 55% to 60% range, the tankage is two third parties.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
And to answer your question, to kind of clarify perhaps what I was trying to get earlier, what we call base level results, not the base line plus but what we call base level results which is what we try and manage the business on over to an extended period of time, we do think that there will be offsets to the countercyclical balance. What we are really trying to say is the significant access profits that we get called sandbagger store because clearly the market has been very favorable for about 2.5 years. We are not saying the market won't come back in the more favorable conditions but that's not how we manage the business. We really take that as something that's incremental to the baseline, not a part of the baseline.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Okay, so you will still be able to achieve your results without that?
Harry N. Pefanis - President and Chief Operating Officer
Hey Ross this is Harry Pefanis. A lot of the people that lease-take they are leasing it operationally, they are leasing it we have not leased, for most leased I can people do the same contango trades. So we don't expect that business to go away just because of the long-term contracts that are operational nature.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Okay. Any idea on what the average size on those contracts is?
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Again it's going to vary by location but we wouldn't expect that mix to per party tankage. It's the change a whole lot over the expanded credit time. We have some contracts that are short term that have been well for many, many, many years throughout all kinds of markets.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Okay alright. One another question for you Greg. What kind of target do you have for your debt-to-EBITDA looks like your leverage is moving down nicely post the PTX acquisition, but what do you target from a long-term debt-to-EBITDA level?
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ross, several years ago when a bigger portion of our earnings and cash flow was coming from non-fee base, we have picked a target of what we call debt-to-EBITDA 3.5 or less. When we a couple of years ago started expanding quite aggressively into the pipeline sector, we kind of move it up to go to equal to approximately 3.5 to 1. Today we are a little more comfortable with that number moving up, probably in the 3.5 to 3.8 but it still has a 3 in front of it. I will tell you what you see today is capacity we've raised excess equity, to be able to position for the opportunity that may exist when there is... it's difficult for others to get to the capital markets and we have already in fact pre-funded as Bill mentioned. So I wouldn't take the 3.3 as an indication that we are migrating there. We think in that 3.5 to 3.8 range, we are consistent with our BBB, BBB+ target especially, if we are seeing a higher percentage of our business competency-based activities.
Ross Payne - Wachovia Securities
Very good. Thank you guys.
The next question is from Sam Arnold with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead with your question.
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Hi good morning guys. Congratulations on the quarter, a very strong marketing and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that. How much of the results could you breakdown were attributable to kind of the issue that you are seeing at Cushing versus St.James. I mean it seems like you guys will probably be able to make a quite a bit of money of that arbitrage that was going on and just trying to find out how sustainable that portion is?
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
It was totally different markets.
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
You were asking was there an arbitrage to be captured between the $5 or $6 discount in --
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Right. Just as basin volumes were up quite a bit and then with cap line you think there will be a lot of more import volumes coming into St.James and things of nature. So I am just wondering if you guys had a quantity to that because Cushing prices were so much lower than St.James because of all the stuff that was going with McKee and some other refineries downstream at Cushing.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
McKee definitely helps basin volumes. Even though you have higher prices at St.James basin was still, I mean cap on was still at very high levels and continuously cap line operated at high levels and just for clarification, all that goes into the Transportation segment not Auto nor Marketing segment.
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Okay. So you don't iterating on that?
Unidentified Company Representative
Yeah, I think that this assumption Sam may be that the barrels are completely tangible and that they... I mean they physically in order to take advantage of those arbitrages that you'll see on the screen, they have to have transportation packet in there as well as the forward curve and the delays associated with the bases differential. So it's probably easier for some traders to create value on the screen than it is in reality and I guess what we are saying is those markets are directly linked. It's not that natural gas towards which is completely tangible and if it's in a pipeline you can back transport it so to speak. You can get it to that operable market and then in this it's more logistical nightmare if you will, which is what makes it very complicated with 50 different grades and varieties of crude.
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Right, okay, so it really wasn't a big increase in cap line volumes because of what was going on the Cushing is just more import?
Unidentified Company Representative
More imports and then clearly there were some very attractive Contango levels during the second quarter factors that I lined out, I think toward the end of the first quarter, first part of second quarter quite a bit. One thing..
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Right. But isn't the Contango because of what was going on in Cushing?
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Partly; I mean the key refinery probably extended the period of Contango but ultimately those markets always remedy themselves. So there has been a big pull down in crude barrels as what one would probably conclude and they are like in can tail over that in the old daily article that what came out today. There's just one thing I would probably just want to make sure by takes away from this is if you recall, even when we had a real strong first quarter when we announced we were updating our guidance for the second quarter, we didn't change the second half of the year. For our respected the market is doing pretty much what we would have thought it would be doing, maybe a little bit faster, but overall, we are only managing for our baseline; when you compare third quarter and fourth quarter, we are actually showing the flat down tick in fourth quarter; that's because some of the Contango activities that transitioned in July; it doesn't really affect you till August in terms of the actual... when you report earnings because you report the value when you have the sale in the quarter, not when you have the Contango spread show up.
Sam Arnold - Credit Suisse First Boston
Okay great. Thanks for the clarification; I appreciate that.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Your next question is from Gilbert Alexander with Delta Associates [ph]. Please state your question.
Unidentified Analyst
Good morning. Sorry to ask this, but I didn't hear although properly. You mentioned you might be going... you will be going to a 350 dividend rate. Do you have target date for that or when it might happen?
Phil D. Kramer - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Well actually just to be clear, what we for accounting purposes we require at the end of each quarter we are making assessment of probability and the definition of probability is probably not the same as the layman's definition but it's when we get to the point where it's I think a fair terminology is profound more likely than not and once we get there, it just simply requires us to make an accrual for any equity incentives associated with that level. So now we haven't picked a day that actually got in there. All we are saying is that in for accounting purposes we have reached that threshold. Clearly 350 falls within the fairway of our targeted guidance over time of 7% to 9% but we haven't given any guidance just to try and pick a date for that.
Unidentified Analyst
Thank you very much.
Phil D. Kramer - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
[Operator Instructions]. Your next question is from John Edwards with Morgan Keegan. Please go ahead with your question.
John Edwards - Morgan Keegan
Yes, good morning. Greg could you just expand a little bit further on you were talking about how things have transitioned from the contango or the backwardated market and as far as what the contribution to the business has been from contango versus backwardated I mean you did talk about that but trying to get a sense here of you are trying to I guess guide us I think you are saying there is no change to the base outlook when you go to backwardated but I am just... what's the relative contribution to the business when you are contango versus backwardated maybe you can talk about it that way.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes I think we are really trying to say is and again it's for many, many quarter we outperformed and I going to use that term sandbaggers affectionately. What I guess, what I am trying to say is the guidance that we were providing at the beginning of the year for the year end and even in the future periods extend we were talking about projecting base levels for the Pacific rate assets. In all cases we were really looking at more of a balanced market, not a extreme contango and extreme backwardation. We certainly weren't looking at a flat margin because that's our worst situation where the price of the crude oil is the same in every signal month. Generally that when those happen they are in transition, it won't stay very long. So I guess what I am really trying to get. If you look at our fourth quarter that's where run rate that's a pure forecast based upon what we have seen in terms of the slight backwardated, market not an extreme backwardated, not certainly amount of extreme contango and what we have been experiencing over the last several quarter is one that's both good volatility as good contango. We really can't spike out the amount that we may... and what you might call a pure contago arbitrage because there are several other things that go on intramonth. In some cases we actually, if we get a call from refiners, we need to borrow some of your stories because we got things coming in.
We are developing a long-term relationship, we not may not make as much as those paint barrels as we could have that we simply wanted to if you will be mercenary and so its really difficult for anybody from the outside to calculate what that earnings capacity is and it's difficult for us to share that information without giving in some proprietary information as to how we manage that. The passive state we are an MLP we manage long-term relationships, we manage long-term assets to deliver stable results. That's what we call the baseline in a favorable market like we have been saying, we enjoy what we call the baseline plus we use our incremental cash flows not to raise our distribution but to pay for additional capital that in many cases is investment fee-based capital that takes temporary increases for one that you can't predict and results in repeatable increases just at a much lower level.
That's a long, long story, I can't quantify the amount other than guide you to look at the fourth quarter and say that's probably typical be it's not affected by the transition of simply saying that's the kind of market we managed for. Sometimes we are a little more bullish. If we think the market is going to be volatile, we suddenly have the input of our guys in terms of trying to forecast for future and we do it more with respect to allocating our assets not trying to bet on which way the price of oil is going to go or the way market structure is going to go.
John Edwards - Morgan Keegan
Okay great and then just housekeeping items. What's the maintenance CapEx outlook at this point?
Phil D. Kramer - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
The total for this year, we started off with $45 million a current estimate is $52 million. That's within a range of probably $40 million to $60 million. It's probably the number unless we add more assets means. I mean what happens is John, last year I think we were understand as what we have targeted. We had some carryover part of it as a function whether were are certainly forecasting for the second half of the year since its been so late as in the first half that we got to have the opportunity to catch up out some projects.
John Edwards - Morgan Keegan
Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
Phil D. Kramer - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you
At this time there are no further questions in queue. I'd like to turn back the call over to management.
Greg L. Armstrong - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Again thanks to everyone for attending and for supporting PAA as it continues its growth path and we look forward to giving you an update on the end of the third quarter. Thank you Joe.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen this does concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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The Fair Sentencing Act, supported by every Republican senator, was approved yesterday unanimously by the Judiciary Committee and follows years of effort from Republicans on the committee to responsibly and effectively reform existing laws on crack sentencing and enforcement. Yesterday's committee action was the result of a significant bipartisan compromise to address the disparity between sentencing for crack and cocaine violations.
The compromise legislation would increase the amount of crack cocaine needed to trigger a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence from 5 grams to 28 grams in cases of possession with intent to distribute. 28 grams, or about one ounce, is a common threshold for prosecution of drug distribution cases. For cases subject to a 10-year mandatory sentence, the penalties were also modified from 50 grams to 280 grams. Simple possession of crack would no longer be subject to a mandatory prison term, bringing the treatment of crack in line with that of other narcotics.
Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said, "I have long believed that we need to bring greater balance and fairness to our drug sentencing laws. But I have also maintained that a guiding principle of that effort must be that we not place any obstacles in front of the police officers and prosecutors fighting every day to keep our communities and their residents safe. Through this change in the thresholds for mandatory minimum sentences, we will be able to achieve needed fairness without impeding our ability to combat drug violence and protect victims. This important bipartisan agreement would strengthen our justice system, and I hope the full Senate will consider and act on this proposal."
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said, "I'm proud to have been a part in a bipartisan effort to end the federal sentencing disparity for crack cocaine. The 20-to-1 ratio that was agreed to yesterday is a fair and balanced way of tackling this dangerous drug without sacrificing law enforcement's efforts. This approach was put forward by President Reagan in 1986 when crack decimated communities across the country. I'm pleased the Judiciary Committee has taken action."
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said, "This bipartisan agreement is a step in the right direction and long overdue. Congress should act without any more delay to start to reduce the sentencing disparity for possession of these illegal drugs."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, "When this was passed, Congress felt that crack cocaine was a plague that was destroying minority communities. Over time we have seen that this policy, while well-intentioned, also created negative unintended consequences. Through the years, we have seen a significant number of African-American males sentenced to longer prison sentences for possessing crack cocaine instead of powder. The law created inequities. And now, I am glad we are finding a balance that recognizes and addresses the problem. We are working and will continue to work to roll back the injustice that was done. This is a good example of where Senators actually listened to one another, recognized there was a problem, and worked together to address it in a productive fashion."
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, "This bipartisan bill will make sure our law enforcement resources are directed where they're needed most. It updates the law, making it fairer, by reforming the sentencing disparity that has developed over the years. We have made great strides in the war on drugs in recent years, but Congress must remain vigilant in addressing current drug problems, such as the stark increase in use of powder cocaine."
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said, "This common-sense agreement will help correct longstanding inequities in crack sentencing without undermining law enforcement. I'm pleased members of both sides of aisle were able to come together and reach a compromise that, I believe, will serve our communities. I urge the full Senate to enact this proposal without delay."
Source: http://sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressShop.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=543798a5-b806-e0d9-09c6-eb1c6fda4d3b&Region_id=&Issue_id=


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Wow, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm psyched that I've gotten this far without completely losing it, but I must admit I'm so wired at this point that I don't think I'll be able to sleep at 9:00. I might have to just continue.... just kidding! About continuing, anyhow. I'm so done. I don't think I'll be posting for a while. I believe you have plenty to read, right? Like 49 posts worth. :-)
It isn't my wardrobe or my makeup drawer, that's for sure! Nope, I'm proud that I've held onto my beliefs and convictions despite so many of the hardships we've endured as a family. I've always been very politically motivated and politically active, and that hasn't changed at all. I've been a stalwart supporter of Israel since I lived there in 1970. I've never changed my religious beliefs despite the way Judaism treats single parent families. I've remained a hippie in tie-dye and overalls despite the fact that the rest of the world wants Prada and Escada. I have never worn high heels in my life. Nor do I plan to start anytime soon. My hair is gray and I like it that way. Makeup is something my daughter wears. Not me.
I'm not a faddish person. I'm still carrying a backpack and not a purse. Oh, I own plenty of purses. Really expensive, made just for me purses by Carol Hearty. But I like my backpack and it's so much more convenient with all the medical accoutrements I need to carry with me.
Sometimes I feel like an old fogey, but that's not really what I'm about. I just stick to what I like and what I know works for me, despite what society says is more correct. I'm my own person, I've always been that way, and I'm really proud of that.
And you? What are you proud about?
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777 Is The Number Of God Because I Am God
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T Ceti H.C. Radnarg
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TC were you around for the "Tsunami from out of space" thread some years ago?
If not here is a particular quote from someone who posted throughout that thread:
Thread: Tsunami from outer space. Prepare yourself for unimaginable destruction. (Page 78)
Dear readers,
Let me address your most pressing objections and remonstrations.
As I clearly indicated in my previous post, I know that it sounds hurtful to a listener to be told that some information is out of bounds. There is a very good reason for my reticence here and, once again, I expect you to neither understand nor appreciate the import of what I am going to tell you by way of mitigation.
A long time ago, a gentleman walked among the self-aware bipeds on this planet and imparted the truth pertaining to the human condition, and he even spoke in metaphysical terms of exactly the same kind of event we are discussing this evening, not simply because he was an individual of great prescience, but because he had seen it before, time and time again. Few understood what he meant and the same holds true for most of us alive today, living as we are in a complex labyrinth of ignorance and misplaced, viciously skewered religiosity; and none are more ignorant than those who claim to have studied his few surviving words.
So great has the deception been and so formidable the centuries-long permutations of lies within lies, accompanied by a shrill cacophony of pseudo-theologies, that this man can no longer be known or understood by means of ordinarily contemplating words on paper or by rifling through the neat little packages of wisdom dispensed by charlatans in robes and collars.
He once declared that truth, much of which has been deliberately obscured by those who own the power to publish, is so precious that it cannot and should not be served straight. He said this not to cause you to fall into ignorance and die in that condition, but to protect those who understood: those with "ears to hear and eyes to see".
Now, when you look around you, wherever you are, you will observe that all sentient beings, barring injury or infirmity, have ears and eyes. We therefore know that this man ascribed to the physical appendages "ears and eyes" a quite different signifier: a signifier attendant only to those who are meant to understand. It therefore follows that there are those among us who are not and were never meant to understand. They are sentient beings, self-aware bipeds that look just like you and I. You may even be married to one.
If I told you that there are, and always have been, two entirely different species of 'human being' (with no discernible physiological differences) walking around on this planet, you may quite justifiably laugh in my face, close your browser, switch off your computer and watch the late night show on television. Yet this is exactly what this man told his followers when they asked him why he obscured the truth by hiding it in riddles.
This great truth has been all but expunged from the religious, historical and archaeological record. Even at this very late stage in our current era, those who are not a part of us have been busying themselves with the destruction of as much telltale physical and anecdotal evidence as possible, lest survivors of the coming cataclysm stumble once more upon the truth and free themselves and a possible future civilisation from the burden of slavery. If this fact was not clear to you the moment American troops and their mercenary allies looted and destroyed the museum treasures of Baghdad, just as their ilk had hollowed out the sacred pyramids, and just as their kind are preparing to destroy vast bibliographic depositaries and ancient archives in Iran, then it should become abundantly clear to you now, as I write, that it is too late to ask questions.
Will you ever understand that simply asking questions and having answers served up to you on a golden platter is not the path to knowledge? For if it was, would you who are not a part of us be all the wiser a million times over, and a million times more dangerous than you already are?
Can you now see why 'ESA DE' and 'White Hat' have not returned?
If you understand what I'm saying, it's because you were meant to understand, and it is on your behalf that I impart these words.
There is one person among you upon whom my words are not wasted. You know who you are. I love you.
H. P. Greene
Anonymous Coward 27207624
...the only 2 species of humans on this planet are those with a calcified brain/body and those without a decalcified brain/body...of course we look the same as everyone else does on the outside...
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Related quotes
"You are your greatest asset. Put your time, effort and money into training, grooming, and encouraging your greatest asset."
"Human capital is a core corporate asset, just like financial and physical assets. As such, it must be managed the way companies manage other assets. This requires thinking strategically about how to invest in human capital, and figuring out how to optimize and measure its return."
"2005 represented another strong year for First Midwest as measured by the fundamentals of profitability, asset formation, fee-based revenue growth and asset quality."
"I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among men the greatest asset I possess. The way to develop the best that is in a man is by appreciation and encouragement."


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London is a fantastic place to spend some free time. The historical London Underground, also known as the tube, offers versatile and quick way of traveling. But there are also other options. If you prefer sightseeing and you are not in a hurry it is good idea to take a bus. You can save some money by buying a travel card that allows you to travel as much as you like in fixed price.
Discount Code - LDNFUN:
Promotion - 6% off all passes (cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer)
Expires - 31-10-2014
Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London. However the mayor's financial control is limited and he does not control the heavy rail network (except for the North London Railway). The public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is attempting to address, including £7 billion (10 billion) of improvements planned for the Olympics. London was recently awarded the city with the best public transport.
The centrepiece of the transport network is the London Underground, commonly referred to as The Tube, with sixteen interconnecting lines, and plans for expansion especially deeper into South London, and at least one new line. It is the oldest, largest, and most expensive metro system in the world, dating from 1863. The system was home to the world's first underground electric line, the City & South London Railway, which began service in 1890. Over three million journeys a day are made on the Underground network, around nearly 1 billion journeys are made each year. The Underground serves the central area and most suburbs to the north of the Thames, whilst those to the south are served by an extensive suburban rail overland network. The Docklands Light Railway is a second metro system using smaller and lighter trains, which opened in 1987, serves East London and Greenwich on both sides of the Thames. Commuter and intercity railways generally do not cross the city, instead running into fourteen terminal stations scattered around its historic centre. Since the early 1990s, increasing pressures on the commuter rail and Underground networks have led to increasing demands, particularly from businesses and the City of London Corporation, for Crossrail - a £10 billion east-west heavy rail connection under central London. Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium, in two to three hours, making London closer to continental Europe than the rest of Britain and tying it into the Euro-core.
The London bus network is a twenty four hour service and caters for most local journeys, carrying even more passengers than the Underground. Every weekday, the London bus network carries 6 million passengers on over 700 different routes. In the year to March 2005, the network's ridership was 1.79 billion passenger trips. The buses are internationally recognised, and are a trademark of London transport along with black cabs and the tube.
Although the majority of journeys involving central London are made by public transport, travel in outer London is car-dominated. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs) and an orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes but very few motorways penetrate into inner London. A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled in the early 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of congested central London. Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a vastly reduced season pass which is renewed monthly and is cheaper than a corresponding bus fare.
When you visit London you should try visiting some local pubs. Good place to start is a pub called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. It has unique historical feeling in it. You can reach it easily by going to the nearest metro station (Chancery Lane). Other good pub worth visiting in the same area is Cittie of Yorke.
One well known and old pub that you should try is The George Inn. If you are visiting landmark places like Tate Modern or London Bridge The George Inn is in the same area. Another good pub idea in the same are is The Anchor. If you are going to Leicester Square try Lamb & Flag pub. It is quite small and cosy.
Suomeksi - in Finnish
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That Doesn't Belong There
We've heard the rumors. People have gotten some strange things stuck in places they don't belong. We all saw what Ryan Dunn did with that Hot Wheel car in the Jackass movie. And now three doctors have gotten together to tell their story.
The book is called Stuck Up: 100 Objects Inserted and Ingested Where They Shouldn't Be, and the docs (all writing under pseudonyms) reveal the weirdest cases and the stories behind them. Two of the authors, Rich E. Dreben and Marty A. Sindhian, M.D., did an interview with the Huffington Post.
"Sometimes patients tell us that they were doing some type of household chore in the nude when they 'fell' or 'tripped' or 'jumped into bed' and 'landed on the object,'" Dreben said.
Dreben and Sindhian say that patients who find themselves in these situations, come in all forms. Like a mental patient who rolled up a tuna can lid, like a cigar, and swallowed it. Or children who swallow coins. Or some dude who was drunk, and took Buzz Lightyear to 'infinity and beyond'.
Both doctors say that the back story really doesn't matter as much, they both make sure to respect their patient and not make fun of them.
"Physicians are trained to be as non-judgmental as possible; we do not want patients to avoid seeking help because they believe they will be judged by their doctors."said Dreben.
Dreben, Sindhian and emergency room physician Murdoc Knight (who also co-authored the book) said inspiration came from an x-ray of a cassette tape jammed where 'you tell the IRS to put it year after year'.
Keeping up with the times, the book also has a patient with an iPod…down there. I think I'm going to stick with PC.