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[260901] Sannio –Why will you not be able to sell the contacts on player owned vendors?People like to meet other players at smithies while they get their armor & weapons repaired. It's one of the foundations of UO's in-game community. Although the "need" to meet at NPC blacksmith shops may have diminished as player housing came about, it's still a very valuable location-based service that we want to continue to prosper, and allowing players to sell these repair contracts on player vendors will likely have a very harsh impact on players who practice their smithing craft in NPC shops.
[260901] Vex –You can create them anywhere. You can only use them in an NPC blacksmith/armorer shop. The reason for this restriction is to prevent players from using them anywhere, at any time, like in the middle of a battle. The idea is that a PC blacksmith can create and trade away a contract for the services of his guild, and the NPC blacksmiths and armorers will fulfill the contract.We chose to not allow the items to be sold on player-vendors or to take any multi-use or stackable form in order to allow small stockpiles but not allow enormous ones. We want you to still go to a blacksmith for repairs, not a blacksmith's vendor, and we don't want you to be able to store up hundreds of repair contracts.
Note that the primary aim of this system is to eliminate blacksmith repair scams. Now, you have the option – if you don't know a blacksmith and don't want to risk losing your stuff, you can arrange for repair contracts. If you know and trust a blacksmith, you can still hand your things off to him to repair.
[280901] Adrick –Yes the level of skill is recorded on the deed – using the deed checks that recorded level and is treated to the same functions that a normal repair check would do against the skill or the repairer.
[280901] Adrick –The deeds will be a light black color.You can target a single scroll or a stack of scrolls – however only one deed will be created – it will deduct one scroll from the stack.The deeds will not be used up if you target an invalid item (something you cant repair) or an item that is in full repair.
[260901] Vex –Their whole purpose is to allow trading of vast quantities of items through the secure trade window. Unfortunately, there are too many occurrances of people getting taken by scammers who convince them to drop huge stacks of things on the ground to speed up a transaction.We'd like it if players would break up huge transactions like this into smaller ones that can go through the trade window. But we also recognize that is cumbersome and can take a lot of time. So, to make it more convenient and eliminate an opportunity for scamming, you'll be able to get a deed.Each deed is one-shot. You double-click it, target a stack of items in your bank box. Those items are taken away off to a virtual warehouse and the deed is filled in with the details of that stack of items. You can trade the deed using the secure trade window, and the buyer can redeem the deed for the original stack of items at the bank.
This is not intended to be a system to allow easy transport of huge quantities of items; its sole purpose is to facilitate the trading of huge quantities of items. And eliminate scams. :)It may be obvious with the recent posts to In Concept that we're putting some effort into finding ways to get rid of the most common scams that our Game Masters have to deal with.
[260901] Vex –About how much would the deed cost?Probably around 50 gp or so. Not much. But we can't give them away free or people would build towers of them on top of the bank just because they could.
[270901] Vex –Can Commodity Deeds be sold on player-vendors?Tentatively, yes. That is to say, I'm not going to special-case them to not be sellable on vendors (like the repair contracts) unless some unforseeable problem with doing that crops up.
[260901] Vex –The scroll that shows in the trade window opened by initiating a house trade doesn't look anything like a deed. Also, it will continue to show the owner and coordinates. The only difference in that display will be replacing the house name with its type.The requirement that both parties be within 2 steps of the sign is probably good enough to prevent the house sign, but it certainly won't hurt to get an arbitrary player-input element (the house name) out of the trade window.With these changes, there won't be any doubt about which house it is that you're actually buying.
[280901] Sannio –It became apparent to us that the house name can be far too deceptive when considered as a detail in selling/trading a house. "Mislabeled" houses essentially became a house-trade security issue, and we felt would it would be best to leave the name off.
Sannio –Carpets have not been tossed, but they are currently "on hold."
Sannio –We are most definitely still refreshing houses.I want to point out that house decay isn't "frozen in place," and that houses will still "decay" over the course of the day. You'll see houses move into the "somewhat worn" category, but the next day they'll be refreshed again.The refreshing doesn't include refreshing boats, only houses.
Sannio –I just wanted to remind people to be careful as they move their items around within their homes.It's probably a good idea to check for hidden characters before unlocking any items which you want to move around. It can be heartbreaking losing a rare that you wanted to move to someone who was hidden and watching you, and then later finding out that GMs can't replace any items lost in this way.
Jessica Mulligan – Most of what is scheduled to launch in the next two years looks to be Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The most interesting launch to watch will be The Sims! Online; it's the first shot at a mass-market persistent world. If it goes over well, it could possibly be the "killer app" that brings millions more players into the hobby. Personally, I prefer to play the more traditional, familiar hard core online games.
Mark Asher – Yes. I expect to see some sex-themed MMOGs, though probably not from the current game publishers. Graphic violence? Yeah, some MMOG will try that angle to distinguish itself from the others. Boundaries? I don't know why we won't see MMOGs with graphic depictions of sex acts, but I'd not expect them to be big budget games. It will have to be something that a small team can cobble together. You're not going to find investors willing to dump millions into an X-rated game. It's just like porn movies and their small budgets vs. traditional Hollywood movies.
Star Long – It is certainly not nearly as saturated as the retail games market. If you look at where this industry was when UO launched the total paid online subscriber base for all online games was probably not more than 100,000. Almost 4 years later the total number is well over 3 million (most of which is in Korea playing Lineage). That is way over 100% growth per year. No other game genre has that kind of growth. Additionally most of the online games have yet to see a significant drop off in the subscriber numbers despite more games being in the market. Almost all of them continue to grow. There are certainly a lot of online games in development but as we have seen recently by some not so successful launches it is not an easy thing to back one of these beasts up. So I think we will see a bunch of games hit the market but most will crumble and the top 5 or so will control almost 90% of the subscriber base (much like retail games today).
John Smedley – Hmm… yes, I think it's inevitable… but I think it's all a question of style. For example, look at the screen shots of World of Warcraft which are very beautiful and yet obviously are not trying to be photo-realistic. Another great example would be an Anime style online RPG. As for the advantage of having less-than-real life graphics in online games, I think gradually the power of the cpu's and graphics cards is pushing the envelope to allow these types of things not to really be a consideration when we're making games. I realize this sounds a bit like a pipe dream now, but I fundamentally think it's moving that way.
Richard Garriott – It's interesting to compare the next 10 years with the last 20 years. Over the last 20 years, interface and graphics have radically advanced, but game mechanics have largely remained the same, except for the first 5 or so years while the medium was in its true infancy. Looking forward, I would expect the same type of curve to happen in online, though more accelerated. Thus over the next 2-5 years I would think game mechanics will by found that are compelling in an MMP setting, then after that we will fall back into tech advance more than game play mechanic innovation. Thus by 2006, I'd expect to see the style of games we will be playing in 2011, but through 2011 the presentation will become highly advanced.
To be specific: Though I would love to see VR style interfaces, I still doubt they will be popular, but the graphics will be rendered in as realistic or surrealistic and high resolution as is needed to create a real time vision of a conceived reality. Much of the game play will be as it is today, but we will have discovered a few great new play paradigms. I suspect some of the most compelling will be MMP social environments. People will log into virtual environments, not only to combat each other, but often in "games" that have no measured competition at all. They will socialize, explore and problem solve together around the globe. In these environments we will see even deeper friendships form, more "dating" and people will compete, but for influence and attention, much more like they do in the "real" world. Since relationships are real, the line between real and virtual will be substantially blurred.
We feel that a dedicated and active member of the UO community should not be able to lose a house, along with years of accomplishments and items, due to a sudden emergency or other factors beyond their control. In keeping with this, we plan to continue refreshing all houses daily through the end of the calendar year, and we are proposing a new system that, if adopted, will change the current system of house decay.
We feel that a dedicated and active member of the UO community should not be able to lose a house, along with years of accomplishments and items, due to a sudden emergency or other factors beyond their control. In keeping with this, we are proposing a new system in which houses will not decay as long as the prime owner of the house has an active UO account. In order to see that housing spots are still available to all players in Britannia, however, houses will decay if the prime owner's account is closed or permanently suspended. Please keep in mind that this is still in a "Concept" phase, meaning that the details are not set in stone, and may be changed based on various design-related factors and player feedback.
This change would mean that active players who own houses will no longer need to refresh their homes to prevent them from decaying. Accounts that are temporarily suspended, such as those accounts which are banned for 24, 48, or 72 hours, are still considered active, and their houses will not decay unless the account is permanently suspended.
If this change is enacted, any houses owned by a player whose UO account is closed will be considered "ownerless", and will be marked as condemned. Condemned houses are automatically refreshed once at the time that they become condemned, and will then decay over the normal period of approximately 10 days, allowing co-owners and friends time to move their items out of the house before it decays. Condemned houses cannot be refreshed.
However, we understand that there are houses and establishments in UO that have been run by co-owners for a long period of time since the original owners left the game, and we do not wish to see these co-owners lose these houses due to this change. In order to see that all co-owners are given the opportunity to protect their house before this change is put in place, we would enact a system to transfer ownership of all current ownerless houses to a co-owner, provided the co-owner has an active UO account.
If, when this change is put in place, the owner of a house does not have an active UO account, each of the co-owners will be given the option to become the prime owner. The character who was first granted co-ownership of a given house will be the first co-owner offered the option of becoming the prime owner of that house. Should the first co-owner reject the option to claim the house, the next earliest co-owner will then receive that same offer, and so on through the most recent co-owner. If none of the co-owners accept ownership, that house will become condemned and begin the decay process.
Since players can only own one house per account per shard, any co-owners offered ownership of a house will need to keep in mind that if they accept ownership of the house, any other houses they already own on that shard will become condemned and begin to decay. Co-owners who do not wish to lose any other houses owned on their account should not accept ownership of an ownerless house.
They had overheard the controller's talk of fighting an enemy, and the few gargoyles who had evaded capture figured that any enemy of these foul beasts might be an ally to the gargoyles. But they had also learned how gargoyles in these other lands were perceived… as monsters to be slaughtered for treasure and fame. They had no choice, though. Something had to be done, and this was the last hope.
Evocare, on Bulk Order rewards –Well, the really cool rewards only come from doing the very rare, very hard-to-pull-off large orders.Unless ancient smithing hammers that greatly increase your skill (even over 100.0), the ability to make colored weapons (valorite katana, anyone?), and other such goodies don't interest you… ;]Of course, such rewards are oh so very difficult to obtain… will you be one of the few blacksmiths weilding that telltale valorite smithing hammer? :P
Evocare, on the new prices for resources on TC6 –To answer the oft-asked "why not reagents?" question, it's because the new vendor system in testing *only* works for items that have a reasonably strong player-driven supply and demand. For any commodity that does not have a strong player supply (like reagents), the commodity would simply rise to massive levels.For example, reagent prices would rise continuously until they hit some level where the price was so high that players would be incentivized to pick them up off the ground and sell them to the npcs. Unfortunately, this price would be far far higher then mages would be willing to pay for the reagents, thereby making playing a mage impractical. At some point in the future, if we develop a significantly better method for players to harvest reagents, then we'll have the required supply and demand levels to turn them into a market-driven commodity (would be very cool).
By contrast, there is a far stronger supply of ingots/boards since those are better developed metagames then reagent gathering, and since there is also a strong demand, the equilibrium price will be fairly reasonable for both miners and smiths.Hopefully, this reply will clear up more confusion then it causes… ;]
Krum, also on the new resource pricing –Well it's really unlikely that NPC vendors will ever sell colord ingots (there are technical limitations; ever notice that NPCs don't buy colored ingots?)If we advertised the prices each vendor was offering on a web site or something like that, I think it would only provide more stablization.If we find that what has been developed here where the vendors all have their own price becomes a problem, we'll change it. Because of the way this system works though is that no gold is really being created. If I buy thousands of ingots, the price is going to go up. People selling ingots back to the NPC will essentially be putting the money I gave the NPC into their own pocket. No gold is really being created by the system out of thin air, so it seems that this type of system will result in a fairly stable market economy, much like the existing real-world securities market.
I think we could even extend the system so players could buy and sell futures or options on the items, although this probably won't happen.We believe that we've covered our bases as far as exploits are concerned with this system. Too many players are making assumptions about how this works and are basing their "I'm going to exploit this by yadda yadda" on these assumptions. We've got extensive logging going on, so it will be possible for us to track extraordinary activity. If we find a problem, we will take the necessary steps to correct it.
Prophet –The vet reward system pulls down the account age information on a weekly basis. As well shards only check for updates to ages once a week. So in theory if you are particularly unlucky it could take just under two weeks for your age to get updated. The norm is approximately one week from your billing date.
Adrick, on TC6 horses having unlimited stamina –This is not a change it is a fixing of a bug – horses were NEVER designed to have unlimited stamina. Its not just about PvP either – its about horses vs ostrads vs nightmares vs war horses – each have different stamina levels – kind of pointless to have the top 3 when the bottom one is unlimited :(
Adrick –Horse staimna drain was always an issue in UO until it was broken. This has upset the balance of all tamed rideables – the advantages of some over others, because of this bug, were removed and thereby the advantages of being able to tame and sell these higher stamina pets was nerfed. Faction war horses were designed to be the best endurance rideable in the game – to make them worthwhile to those that earned them in faction battles. Just the same Nightmares are a reward to tamers who can tame and sell them/ride them.As pointed out above feeding a horse is one way to get his stamina back, training him is another to increase his max stamina.
Adrick –I do appologize for the time it took to get this scheduled – There will still be a few faction issues – but a vast majority of them should be fixed after this next publish.
Sannio –I just came from a meeting with the GMs, and we spoke about the nature of the transportable ballot boxes (or any item that was created or modified through the use of a bug or exploit), and the repercussions which might occur by having one.When it is brought to the attention of a GM that you are in possession of a transportable ballot box, the item will be deleted and an action will be taken against your account by that GM. This action will be at least an official warning, although someone with numerous transportable ballot boxes and/or a previous record of rules infractions may incur a more severe penalty, such as temporary or permanent suspension of that player's account.I know this has been a stressful topic for some people, but I hope this helps the understanding of the situation.
Calandryll –Don't use arcane gems on blessed clothing. The arcane cloting will not retain the blessed status. This is again because it deletes the old object and then creates a new one.
Calandryll –Max charges is based on tailoring skill.We didn't want the arcane gems to be difficult to get. One thing people may not realize (spoiler coming up!!) is that you don't *need* a GM tailor to recharge your arcane items. Any character can do it. The only difference is that a non-GM tailor can't fully recharge an arcane item, they can only charge about 4/5s of the maximum charges. So while the max total anyone can have at one time is 80 charges, one can recharge his/her own items once they run out of charges. You do have to have the arcane item and the gem in your backpack to do it though.
Calandryll –You can cast over 10 ebolts with a full suit. That's nothing to sneeze at.They aren't meant to be a replacement to reagents. More of a back up, in case you suddenly run out of regs… plus, in Third Dawn, they look cool. :)
Calandryll –It's not a bug. You are not creating an exceptional item when you make an arcane item. We felt that even though you need an exceptional item to make into an arcane item, since you didn't need to be a GM tailor to make one, the items should still have a maker's mark.
Calandryll –with the latest crafted arcane apparel, even those without GM level skill have their names added to any exceptionally crafted item. will this be implemented on future new craftables as well?If you mean do we plan on giving makers mark for craftables for non-GM skilled crafters… no, we don't. Hope that addresses your concern.
Calandryll –No actually, the reason golems are not living is because in real life books (ie: real life folklore) golems were not "living" creatures. A golem, by definition, is a non-living entity that is given "life" (meaing it can move and perform tasks) through magic or alchemy. But it is by no means a living creature, or even an undead creature.Golems are not affected by peacemaking because they have no ability to hear things. They are not living (or even undead) creatures, they are clockwork constructs. That was more of a fictional decision than any kind of bard nerf. Any time we decide to give a monster an ability, the first priority is to make sure it makes sense within the fiction.Controllers should have no special protection from barding at all. You should be able to provoke controllers onto each other and provoke other monsters (except golems of course) onto controllers. If you can't, please let me know and I will check into it on Monday.
Calandryll –This bug is fixed. We can't publish it as part of next week's scenario update though. So we'll most likely publish the fix the week after. If there gets to be a lot of broken generators on Monday, I will go in and manually solve them all with a god client.
Calandryll –Town criers are not going to give out any scenario hints anymore. Only barkeepers do that now.
Calandryll –From now on, this is the publish schedule for scenarios. It's very similar to the original schedule for the first scenario, with the exception of putting it on one shard first. The schedule below assumes that nothing really bad happens.× Monday afternoon (CST): Publish Oceania (active on Tuesday local server time)× Tuesday Night (CST): Publish all non-US shards (active on these shards Wed. morning maintenance, local server time)× Wednesday Morning (CST): Publish all US shards (active on their Wed. morning maintenance, local server time)So basically, this is the same way we did it for the Savage Empire Scenario, except we are publishing it on Oceania a day early. This allows us to get about 24 hours worth of gameplay on a live shard in case any bugs slip past us. For the other non-US and the US shards, they get the scenario content at the same time as they always have.
Scenario stories will continue to be posted the Thursday afternoon before the content update, just like always.
In order to see that our support team can help those players with the most urgent needs, we must prioritize the calls that we take. When new exploits and new problems are found, we find that we receive large numbers of calls on those matters, and those calls take a considerable amount of time.One of these instances currently involves an exploit that involves the illegal dying of characters' hair. We are aware of this problem, and we are addressing it, but in order to see that our support members can still give priority to those players who need them most, we cannot address this on a case by case basis. Although GMs will not accept calls on this matter, we are processing logs of this exploit's use, and players found using this will be held accountable.
Please remember that exploiting bugs or using unapproved third party programs in Ultima Online can result in the permanent suspension of your Ultima Online account. A list of approved third party applications can be found here. Using any exploit or third party application not on this list is a violation of the Rules of Conduct.We are committed to removing those players that choose to exploit Ultima Online and will continue to work towards maintaining an enjoyable and level playing experience for all of our players.
We are targeting to make three new updates, including Commodity Trading Deeds, Secure House Trading, and Service Repair Contracts, live on the Oceania and Great Lakes shards after their scheduled maintenance periods Wednesday morning (local server time). Barring any unforeseen issues, these changes should be made live on the East Coast, West Coast, and Central shards after their morning maintenance periods on Thursday, local server time. The remaining shards should see these changes live following their Friday morning maintenance periods (local server time). Information on these updates can be found in Testing for the Next Update.
In order to introduce these changes as soon as possible, it is necessary for us to delay this week's scenario publish for at least one day, meaning that Oceania should receive the scenario publish after its morning maintenance Wednesday (local server time). The remaining shards should receive the scenario updates after their morning maintenance Thursday (local server time).
On Monday, October 8th, Origin Systems (OSI) was alerted to the possible misconduct of an individual employed within the GM Support Department. Upon investigation, OSI found reason to believe that this employee was engaging in activities that breached the trust that must exist between a company, its employees, and its customers. The decision by OSI management in this case was immediate dismissal.
All actions that are taken by members of our support staff are logged and monitored, and we investigate all reports of GM misbehavior that we receive. We are grateful to players who bring these incidents to our attention, as these reports are used to ensure that OSI representatives are providing the best possible service at all times. If you believe that a GM or any OSI representative is behaving in anything less than the highest standard of service, we ask you to please email firstname.lastname@example.com with the details of your issue. Only the most senior representatives of our support staff read this mailbox, and we assure you that your issue will be thoroughly investigated.
We take our responsibility to our customers very seriously, and we will not allow anyone – staff or otherwise – to abuse our terms of service or the trust of our customers.
We will be releasing a client patch on Tuesday, October 9th at approximately 2:45 PM CDT. This patch contains localization files, and does not contain any gameplay changes. NOTE: As there are no executable changes contained in this patch, the in-game version numbers will not change, and should still read 3.0.4p (2D client) and 3.0.4p Build 77 (3D client).
Due to an issue with the latest publish that became active this morning on the Great Lakes and Oceania shards, the prices of items sold on player vendors may have been reset to their default values. Because of the seriousness of this issue, it is necessary to revert the Great Lakes and Oceania shards to a previous backup made at approximately 7:00 AM CDT.It is always a difficult decision to make when confronted with the possibility of reverting a shard; however, we feel the damage that could be avoided by reverting these two shards far outweighs the inconvenience involved with taking this course of action. We apologize for the necessity of this interruption and any inconvenience it may cause.
The Wedding Proposal Deed and the kit it creates are intended to facilitate marriage ceremonies in-game. No rares will be distributed, in order to avoid players marrying each other only for rare items. Weddings would also be recognized on a special page of the UO website, dedicated to marriage announcements.
When a player double-clicks on a Wedding Proposal Deed, a gump is displayed, outlining the two ring types (silver or gold), and the inscriptions to be placed on the rings. Once chosen, the inscription is placed on both rings. The inscription cannot be different between the two rings, and below the inscription will be the name of the spouse the person is married to.
Possible Inscriptions:
All My Love,
All my love, all my life,
Always For Forever,
As You Wish,
Constant and True,
Endless As This Shall Be Our Bliss,
Enduring love,
Eternally yours,
Faithful Love Will Ever Last,
For You Alone,
Forever And Ever,
Forever Entwined,
Forever In Love,
Forever In My Heart,
Forever in Virtue,
From This Day On,
Grow Old With Me,
Here Is My Heart, Guard It Well,
How Do I Love Thee,
I Love You Most,
I Will Never Love Another,
Joy Without End,
Life is Good,
Love Conquers All Things,
Love Is All In All,
Love Is Eternal,
Love Me And Leave Me Not,
Love 'n' Kisses,
Love, Faith, Hope Together,
My Heart Is Yours,
My Heart Is Yours Forever,
My Love Is Forever Yours,
Never Another You,
Never To Part,
No Heart More True Than Mine To You,
One Life, One Love,
One Love, One Lifetime,
Undying devotion,
With All That I Am,
With These Rings We Bind Our Love,
With You Always,
You And No Other,
You Are My Strength and My Love,
You Are The Love Of My Heart,
You Have My Heart,
You Roxxorz My Heart,
You Shall Never Walk Alone,
Once chosen, a targeting cursor is displayed, and the player must target the person (s)he wishes to marry. The message "Please click on your desired spouse" should be displayed.
Once the spouse is selected, a gump will be displayed, stating "Accept marriage proposal? From ____ (person's name who used the deed)", along with Accept/Decline buttons. The targeted player may then accept or decline the proposal.
If the proposal is accepted, a pouch will placed in the user's backpack (if there is room). If there is not room, the marriage is cancelled. The pouch will contain the following:
Either silver or gold wedding rings (two rings… each the same color)A bottle of wineTwo goblets
Players who are already married will not be able to propose marriage or be proposed to. There is currently not a way to become divorced.
Recently, there was a problem with players' houses not being refreshed properly due to an issue with the automatic house refresh system. We have kept a very close eye on the situation, and all houses were manually refreshed while we addressed the issue. The problem has since been fixed, and all houses should now be refreshing automatically on a daily basis. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.It's important to note that house decay itself has not been frozen. Houses will decay a small amount over the course of a day; however, they will be completely refreshed the following day.
Tajima –There have been a few threads like this since the UOTD beta. I'd like to comment briefly on some of the underlying technical issues behind the project in an effort to clarify some misunderstandings that I see repeated frequently:The first and probably greatest challenge for UOTD was the requirement to be fully interoperable with the 2D client. This involved converting all sprites to Direct3D surfaces, rewriting the terrain rendering system, generating all-new art, integrating an animation system, and developing an orthoganal camera system. (Since there's no sense of "distance" in UO's game display, a typical 3D camera system wouldn't work. Instead, UOTD's camera system prevents "distant" 3D objects from diminishing in size.)
There were also considerable challenges with the texture memory situation. Since UO's original sprites were often much larger than necessary or sized to non-optimal dimensions for many 3D cards, we had to spend considerable time developing a texture compression scheme. (Players of the beta should remember how badly the jungles lagged the client before this compression system was enabled.)By being completely interoperable with the 2D client, we also inherited the isometric view. While the overwhelming majority of our players prefer this viewpoint, it prevents us from using some vital techniques common in first-person 3D programming to improve performance:
1) Mesh Level of Detail: By reducing the number of polygons based on the distance of the object from the viewer, the processing requirement is also reduced. (e.g. A monster 10 meters away uses a mesh with 500 polygons, but at 100 meters the mesh used only has 100.)2) MIP Mapping: Multi-Image Pyramid mapping is a method used to reduce texture memory requirements. Much like the mesh level-of-detail technique, the resolution of textures changes based on the distance of the object from the viewer. (e.g. A monster at 10 meters uses a 512x512 texture, where the same monster at 100 meters uses a 64x64 texture.) By saving texture memory in this fashion, the need to cache textures to the system RAM (bad) or the hard disk (worse!) is greatly reduced.(While we could have used both of these techniques in Third Dawn, the end effect would have been a peculiar "morphing" result as polygon and texture detail changed on the fly as objects entered and exited the screen. Not a desirable solution!)
3) Distance Fogging: By "fogging" objects and terrain in the distance, the requirement to draw them is reduced or eliminated.4) Scene Culling: An intelligent first-person 3D engine can determine when objects can't be seen by the viewer, and avoid spending cycles drawing them. As line of sight in UO is a server function, our client is still required to display "unseen" objects.
Though the isometric viewpoint represented considerable challenges for us, the fact that the game is an immense massively-multiplayer environment is by far the greatest one.In UO, players can be anywhere on the map within seconds. This isn't true in a typical level-based first-person environment. Since we can't predict where a player will Recall at any given moment, we can't set up a predictive texture cache. On top of that, even if we did know the geographical location a player was planning to go well ahead of time, we can't accurately predict what he'll see when he arrives. With UO's extensive range of monsters, weapons, wearables, and mounts, the texture load can range from minimal to overwhelming in seconds.
In addition to all the other performance-enhancing techniques a first-person game enjoys, many level-based games are constructed to limit what the player sees at any given moment. By aggressively controlling that viewpoint and the content within, the all-important considerations of polygon count and texture usage can be maintained within the desired range. To accomplish a similar effect in UO, we'd have to physically prevent players from entering heavily-populated regions, or limiting what items they carried. Again, not a desirable approach!Hopefully this will clear up some of the misconceptions and inappropriate comparisons of UOTD and other games. Every game ever developed has been a series of compromises, and UOTD is no exception. That said, we're continually tweaking here and there to improve performance, stability, and appearance of the Third Dawn client. We're confident you'll like what's coming up.
An issue involving a merge with the latest server publish is causing an unacceptable amount of lag on all shards where the publish was activated. We will be reverting the affected shards to the previous server publish. This revert may cause a small "time warp" on the affected shards.Note this will cause any clockwork assemblies players may have found to no longer give messages when used. Once we republish the servers with the fixed code, they clockwork assemblies will function as before.We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
In my last comments from the team, I discussed what I felt the virtues should not be. This time, I'd like to start talking about what I think they should be and why. I've broken down the virtue system into three main goals and would like to expand upon each of these in this update. Note that not every virtue will achieve all three goals by itself… but the system as a whole should.
We have all seen the following line of text in the game: "gold coin : 500"It used to say, "500 gold coins." Why the change?To answer that question, we must consider the purpose of localization. Localization is the process of allowing text to be displayed in various languages, based on the settings of the end user machine. If your game is intended to be played by only one group, all speaking the same language, then you can just display everything in that language. However, if you have people from multiple countries playing your game (like UO, for instance), the need for translation and a unified way for displaying text becomes apparent.
The latest Scenario update that was made active on the Pacific shard yesterday, October 23rd, became active on the remaining North American shards today after their scheduled morning maintenance periods. However, database issues prevented the update from being published on the AOL Legends, Siege Perilous, and Great Lakes shards. We expect the publish to be active on all remaining shards tomorrow, October 25th, local server time.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct 23 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NasdaqNM:ERTS), the largest U.S. video game publisher, said on Tuesday it would lay off 200 to 250 people from its online unit toward a goal of reaching profitability for the unit in fiscal 2003.The cuts represent about one-third of the staff of Redwood City, California-based EA.com, according to an EA spokesman.The move comes in an effort to bring the online unit to profitability in fiscal 2003, the company said.It was not immediately clear if the cuts would mean the elimination of any of the offerings on the EA.com site.
He worked his away across the floor around piles of his projects. Bits of golem lay in semi-completed forms in a pattern than could have passed for an obstacle course with random papers lying everywhere as if they had fallen from the canopy of a giant tree above. Clocks lined the walls, although half had been covered by hastily sketched plans that had been pinned up. As he made his way through the maze, piles of documents spilled behind him and small tools tinkled to the floor. The banging on the door resumed just as he came near and pulled it open.
Lord British is scheduled to make his entrance into the world of Lineage on November 26 as part of a four-week-long special event."I'm thrilled that Lord British has found a new home," said Garriott, now an executive producer at NCsoft's Austin, Texas, office." And I'm happy that home is Lineage. Players in North America are about to find out why Lineage is so incredibly popular in other parts of the world. Its unique features offer something that people here have never before experienced."
I've been a little quieter on the boards lately, but I've still been busy behind the scenes, trying to come up with ways to make information more clear and readily available to the players. We've just recently updated the entire Playguide on the site (that's over 300 pages of updated game material, thanks to Kerowyn!), and the downloadable manual will be upgraded as well.
Calandryll –Now that the update is on all of the shards, please let me know if there are any problems with the bug fixes:
Unreachable generator panels – this will fix all existing panels as well.
Young players using control panels – since young players don't get damaged they will no longer be able to use the control panels.
Controller fame – lowered to be in keeping with their difficulty.
Arcane gem recharge – anyone, regardless of tailoring skill will be able to rechrage arcane items. GM tailors will be able to recharge them to 100% capacity, nonGMs will only be able to recharge them to 80% of their maximum.
Arcane Controller clothing – Clothing worn by controllers will autotmatically delete when the controller dies.
Cant use arcane gems on blessed items – this will keep people from losing their blessed items.
Null string errors – server localization text (such as barkeepers and arcane clothing) will no longer give null string errors.
Calandryll –The virtue systems listed in In Development have been changed in the following way:
Master System:– Third Path title changed to "Knight" instead of Guardian.
Sacrifice:– Removed karma requirements.
Humility:– Changed gains (HPs, Stamina, Mana) to +5 at path one, +10 at path two, +20 at path three.– Once a veteran character helps a [young] character, they will not be able to invite another character from that same [young] account to become their squire for one week. For example:– You invite a character to be your squire and s/he accepts.– You can help that character as often as you want, but for one week you cannot invite another character from that account to become your new squire.– You can invite [young] characters from different accounts to become your squires.– After one week, you can invite a different [young] character from an account you have already helped.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'm also working on a change to try to cut down on the spam young players might get bombarded with and make it easier for them to accept/reject offers.
Sannio –Yeh why ARE women listed under monsters in the polymorph menu! thats been bugging me for a long time now! (im not female though it was just strange)Men are listed under "animals" and women listed under "monsters." Neither are quite correct, but as the "animals" and "monsters" sections each had an open slot, placing the men and women polymorph options in their current positions was a simple choice of convenience.
Hanse –You don't have to refresh your pets if you claim them within a 24x7 (168 hours) of playtime. This means if you play 2 hours per day, you will have to claim your pet at least once before you have played 84 days. :)It's pretty worthless to even have pet refreshing, with such a long timer. We're looking at removing the refresh requirement.
Ultima I: Reborn will be available for free when it's released some time next year.
However, Peroxide has no contract with Electronic Arts, which bought the game in 1992 from the original publisher, Origin Systems.
The Peroxide team did contact Richard "Lord British" Garriott, one of the original developers of the game.
Garriott granted his permission to remake the game as long as there was no financial gain, according to Damiani.
Electronic Arts, however, hadn't heard about the Ultima project and would like to have a word with the Peroxide developers.
"EA owns the rights to Ultima and all of its characters, and in this case, no permission was requested or granted," said Jeff Brown, an Electronic Arts spokesman. "As for Richard Garriott's approval, that's like getting permission from Toto to remake The Wizard of Oz."
Ultima 1: A legend is reborn was mentioned in this article over at Wired news.
On a note, I'd like to clarify some statements made in this article by an EA spokesman. He claimed EA has no knowledge of our remake, thus we could still hurt their intelectual property rights.
Peroxide has attempted to contact EA at an occasion last year, and having received no answer from any public relations or any department, it was assumed then we were allowed to proceed.
Also, as it's been known by now, and is explained in our FAQ, we have been granted verbal permission for this project by Richard Garriott, the owner of the Ultima franchise when this project started. As Richard Garriott was a (Or at least one of the) creative president of Origin Systems by then, we assume this would represent the position of the whole company. What is really an unfortunate statement though regardless of its legal validation is that Richard Garriott's permission is as meaningless "as Toto's allowance to remake the Wizard of Oz". The implicit sarcasm on this sentence is in my opinion disrespectful towards the creator of the series and the responsible mind behind the most successful and lucrative projects of Electronic Arts, likely the ones that took the company to the top of the computer gaming industry today.
To any extent, we have taken measures to attempt and speak to them directly, though we have done this before and unfortunately did not get an answer.
Corpses will now hue the correct color for looting – a corpse that is orange is lootable (meaning you did damage), while a corpse that is blue is not lootable (it will include enemies you didn't damage). Grey and red corpses are lootable.
Characters will continue to be able to use Tinkering to create gems-based jewelry — however, changes to the crafting system will disallow creation of such items as a "million diamonds necklace," in two specific ways. This first relates to being able to craft with resources only available in one's pack — in the case of the diamonds, only 4000 diamonds can be put into one's backpack (leaving the character weighing 414 stone in total). The second involves fixing a bug wherein the new item was incorrectly named after the stack of diamonds, and not after the one diamond that was used in the creation of the piece of jewelry.
Origin Systems today announced that it has signed an agreement with Grammy and Emmy-winning producer/director Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, McFarlane Toys and Spawn.com, to create characters exclusively for Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, the latest version in the award-winning Ultima Online (UO) series. The company is also partnering with McFarlane and McFarlane Toys to develop both a line of six action figures based on the new UO creatures and two comic books based on Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.
"Exodus," he spoke in his deep voice, "it seems your lack of understanding of the humans could very well cost us this entire campaign!" His arm shot out and knocked a small statue across the room like an arrow. The small lights on the far wall began to sparkle like firelight through gems.
Character data takes up a great deal of space on the servers. Many players have multiple characters that they do not play (characters made for one-time events, made during their regular shard downtime, etc.). Purging characters that are not being used will result in shorter backups, decreasing shard down time and increasing overall performance.
[Added Today] The code for this system was actually published into the game in August of 2001, but has not yet been activated. This means that this system will not need to wait for a publish to turned on, but will be activated once it becomes necessary (i.e. the available disk space becomes low). Once it is turned on, it will be active on all shards, and will be a permanent addition to the game.
[Added Today]
Characters will be deleted after not having been used for 6 months unless the character has over 350 total skill points.
Characters at or below 350 total skill points will need to be "refreshed." Refreshing is defined as logging a character in and then logging out. Logging in a character will reset the six month timer.
Characters with over 350 combined skill points will not be deleted, and do not need to be refreshed.
[Removed Today]
Design Characters are deleted after three months unless:
The character has over 75 total stat points. All characters that are over 75 stat points will not be purged by this system.
Characters at or below 75 total stat points will need to be "refreshed". Refreshing is defined as logging a character in and then logging out. Logging in a character will reset the three month timer.
In order to warn players, shards on the Shard Selection screen will appear in a different color when characters on that shard are scheduled for a purge. Character names in the login list will then appear in the same color if they have not been logged-in for over 2 months. This will serve as a reminder and also warn the player in case a time-warp results in the "refreshing" of a character not saving.
In addition, players will be e-mailed a warning before any character is purged. It is very important that all players keep their e-mail address updated in the Account Management section of the Ultima Online website.


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The opportunity to visit Hawaii and watch your school play a football game doesn't sound like a bad way to spend Christmas holiday. Except maybe for fans of Nevada.
As of last Thursday, the school had sold just 10 tickets over the phone to the Hawaii Bowl, which will be played on Dec. 24 against Southern Mississippi.
That doesn't mean there no Wolf Pack fans will be in Honolulu. The school has distributed approximately 600 tickets through its pass list. Those count as tickets distributed. Also, the school said online ticket sales are being conducted through the Hawaii Bowl.
The school will charter a 767 with 249 seats to transport members of its delegation to Honolulu. To fill out some of the vacancies, 30 of the 130 members of the school band will travel to the game.
The band did not attend two years ago when Nevada played SMU in the Hawaii Bowl. Instead, the Hawaii band played the school fight song at various functions.
"Our band is going to play our fight song, thank goodness," senior associate athletic director Keith Hackett told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
First-place votes in parentheses.
Football coaches' poll
Sign up for Campus Rivalry e-mail alerts

subset: commoncrawl


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Due to the nature of this product, we are unable to accept a return under the terms of our Returns Policy for 'change of mind' purposes or sizing errors.
Returns for these products will only be accepted where the goods are deemed faulty under the terms of our Warranty Terms & Conditions .
This Product is offered and supplied by Kogan HK Limited pursuant to the Terms and Conditions.


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Quote or Image
Just wondered, could anyone with the game please provide either a quote or image... just something to spice up the article a little bit? It would certainly be much appreciated. I would have done it myself, but I've played through all of the video games in which it was mentioned (the PS2 versions, at least) and haven't once heard mention of them. Thanks :) --Don't forget: Elvendork! (It's unisex!) 01:54, February 18, 2013 (UTC)
- Nevermind, I found one :) --Don't forget: Elvendork! (It's unisex!) 03:22, February 18, 2013 (UTC)


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More than 93,000 people, including over 6,500 children, have been killed in Syria's civil war, which has grown increasingly deadly over the past year, a United Nations study said on Thursday.
The skyrocketing death toll, along with documented cases of children tortured and entire families massacred, "is a terrible reminder of just how vicious this conflict has become," UN rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement.
The study comes amid reports of a new massacre in an eastern Syrian town. Dozens of people, mostly Shia, were reportedly gunned down on Tuesday by Islamist rebels in the town of Hatla, near Deir Ezzor.
"Senseless carnage"
Describing the killings over the two year conflict as "senseless carnage," Pillay said that the UN's latest toll figure "is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher."
The number of people killed in Syria has skyrocketed over the past year, with the average monthly toll since July 2012 standing at more than 5,000, compared with 1,000 in the summer of 2011, the study said.
"This extremely high rate of killings, month after month, reflects the drastically deteriorating pattern of the conflict over the past year," Pillay said, adding that nearly 27,000 people have been killed since December 2012 alone.
"Civilians are bearing the brunt of widespread, violent and often indiscriminate attacks which are devastating whole swathes of major towns and cities, as well as outlying villages," she added.
The study, running from the outbreak of the conflict in March 2011 to the end of April this year, updates the toll of 60,000 which the UN gave in a November 2012 document.
Pillay slammed both sides, pointing to government shelling and air attacks on urban areas, and the rebels' pounding of residential areas and bombings in the heart of cities, notably the capital Damascus.
Some 82.6 percent of the documented victims were male, while 7.6 percent were female, and the gender was not indicated in the remaining cases.
The analysis was not able to differentiate consistently between combatants and noncombatants, and around three-quarters of the reported killings did not record the victim's age.
But the deaths of at least 6,561 children – 1,729 of them under 10 years old – were documented.
"There are also well-documented cases of individual children being tortured and executed, and entire families, including babies, being massacred — which, along with this devastatingly high death toll, is a terrible reminder of just how vicious this conflict has become," Pillay said.
Shias massacred
Meanwhile dozens of Shias were reportedly killed in a vicious attack believed to have been undertaken by Al Nusra Front militants earlier this week in Syria's eastern town of Hatla.
Islamists entered the town on Tuesday and fought members from the Popular Committee – a group of militias formed by the Syrian government, a witness affiliated with a monitoring group said.
"The clashes continued for several hours and the members of the Popular Committee were not able to withstand the attack after the army failed to arrive and running out of ammunition. This led to the death of many of them," a resident of the village working with the Syrian Media Center said.
"[The attackers] broke into houses and killed the remaining family members and did not leave anything without burning it. They burned tens of houses to the ground," the villager said.
In one of the videos, around 12 armed men are seen in the courtyard of the house, unveiling a corpse under a cover with a gunshot wound to the head.
In another video, around 10 gunmen are shown firing their weapons into the air to celebrate the killings. The cameraman said: "Behold, the mujahideen are celebrating entering the Shia homes. God is the greatest. All the apostates' houses were burnt." The video also shows some houses on fire.
It was not possible to independently verify these accounts.
Activist Karam Badran, who spoke to Reuters from nearby Deir Ezzor, said some people had been killed in Hatla while others had been taken hostage by the rebels.
"Three of the men killed were three Shia clerics. They were executed and hung on the gates of the town," Badran said, adding that the dead also included Sunnis who had joined the pro-government local committees.
(AFP, Al-Akhbar, Reuters)


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'Brushfire Fairytales' Jack Johnson
I'm not afraid to say I like Jack Johnson... I mean, I like Jack Johnson. Especially this album. He's certainly falling of my radar with his newer stuff, but this one will always stroke a chord in my heart.
A unique little accessory for the home. This mason jar stores sunlight, and casts a subtle glow later in the night.Added 8 Years Ago from Amazon.com


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December 9, 2010 BY John Kim
Classic is as classic does, and this new colorway of the Air Force 1 Mid exemplifies that to a tee. Here's a look at a new upcoming colorway of the middle-child of the Air Force 1 family, featuring a white leather upper, brown swoosh, and a gum sole. Sounds like the recipe for success, than that is certainly the case for this sweet pair, and with 2010 being a fairly strong year for the Air Force 1, 2011's looking to carry that trend as this pair is set for a January 2011 release. There really isn't anything 'new' about this colorway – we've all seen a fair share of white/gum Air Force 1s – but there's a reason why they never get old. CrookedTongues has a pre-order available so peep the gallery after the jump.
Filed under: Nike Air Force 1s Upcoming Sneakers


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The 'Killers' actor says that Wozniak did not act as a consultant on the Joshua Michael Stern movie, and it is why the account is different from his.
Ashton Kutcher has finally given his response to Steve Wozniak's complaints that certain plot points of Kutcher's film, "jOBS", were "totally wrong" and "not close." In an interview with the Associated Press (via Washington Post), the actor says that the late Steve Jobs' partner did not serve as consultant in the production. This is why the story is different from his.
"He's a brilliant man and I respect his work, but he wasn't available to us as a resource, so his account isn't going to be our account because we don't know exactly what it was," the leading man in the Joshua Michael Stern biopic says. "We did the best job we could. Nobody really knows what happened in the rooms."
Kutcher goes further as he claims, "Steve Wozniak is being paid by another company to support their Steve Jobs film. It's personal for him, but it's also business. We have to keep that in mind." This is not the first time Kutcher says so. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he echoed the claim and added, "So he's gonna have an opinion that is connected to that."
"He wanted it to be represented - his contribution to Apple - fairly. And, in all fairness, the movie's called Jobs," the "Bobby" star argued. "And it's about Steve Jobs and the legacy of Steve Jobs, and so I think it focuses more ... on what his contribution to Apple was."
Wozniak, portrayed in the Kutcher film by Josh Gad, has been hired to work on Aaron Sorkin's untitled Jobs biopic. This version is based on Walter Isaacson's biography of the late Apple co-founder. The adaptation is under development at Sony Pictures.


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A nurse anesthetist is suing Springfield Hospital in federal court for allegedly violating Vermont's whistleblower protection act.
From 2007 to 2012, Stephen Green, CRNA, alleges that he witnessed and reported numerous counts of medical malpractice in the anesthesiology department at Springfield Hospital. Green is arguing in U.S. District Court that the hospital retaliated by firing him in early 2012. He wants his job back, and he is seeking compensation for damages.
Vermont's whistleblower protection law bars employers from retaliating against an employee when he or she "discloses or threatens to disclose to any person or entity any activity, policy, practice, procedure, action, or failure to act of the employer or agent of the employer that the employee reasonably believes is a violation of any law or that the employee reasonably believes constitutes improper quality of patient care."
Springfield Hospital hired Green in 2006. Soon after he began, he "grew concerned over what he considered unsafe practices in the anesthesia department," his court complaint says.
In one instance, anesthesiologist "Dr. G.W." allowed a child operation without following the American Society of Anesthesiologists' standard of requiring a patient to fast before anesthesiology. This practice, according to the standards, improves the effectiveness of anesthesia and reduces complications.
Green says many of G.W.'s patients were "barely breathing" when they arrived in the post-anesthesia care unit after surgery and often needed "airway interventions."
The bulk of Green's concerns center on anesthesiologist "Dr. A.F." Few of the doctors' full names were included in Green's court complaint. Green's attorney — Stephen Ellis of Springfield firm Ellis, Boxer and Blake — said that since the doctors are not parties to this case, he does not want them to be part of the public record. Springfield Hospital did not immediately comment.
Green alleges that while patients were under general anesthesia, A.F. would take personal calls and deal with paperwork, "such as his personal income taxes."
Monitoring standards from the American Society of Anesthesiologists call for anesthesiologists to check vital signs at least every five minutes.
"In one instance, during administration of general anesthesia to an eight-year-old patient, no measurements were recorded on the electronic monitory for thirty minutes, and Dr. A.F. recorded normal blood pressures on his paper anesthesia record in the normal range for those same thirty minutes," Green's complaint says. He further claims A.F. falsified medical records many times.
After reporting A.F. to hospital management, Green said the doctor was hostile to him. And Green says the hospital never investigated any of these matters.
In early 2012, Green alleges hospital CEO Glenn Cordner discovered he was planning to inform Gov. Peter Shumlin about the issues he flagged and the hospital's inaction — although the governor's office has no record of Green making such contact. On March 19, 2012, Cordner fired Green "as a cost-saving measure," court records show.
Green alleges he had the lowest salary of all anesthesia providers in the unit.
After Green was fired, he says, the hospital emailed medical staff to inform them that the hospital did not have enough anesthesiologists for emergencies. He said one obstetrics provider resigned when he was informed that he should be ready to perform cesarean sections in emergency births with only local anesthesia.
"Springfield Hospital did not communicate this shortage of anesthesia providers to its patient population," Green alleges.
In addition to violating Vermont's whistleblower protection law, Green is also suing Springfield for breach of contract, conspiracy to depress wages and promissory estoppel, among other charges. Civil suits, like this one, go to federal court if a party is seeking more than $75,000 in compensation.


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POLAND-ROOTS-L ArchivesArchiver > POLAND-ROOTS > 1999-09 > 0937746942
From: <>
Subject: [POLAND] SOMMERFELD query
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 09:15:42 EDT
Hi to all:
I am searching for the birthplace of my ggf, Walenty SOMMERFELD, born in
Poland Feb. 1865 (or 1866). I have a copy of his death certificate, Petition
of Naturalization (underage) dated Feb. 1906, and the 1920 US census which
shows he arrived in the US in 1895 and he was from Galicia (which I don't
believe to be true).
His Petition only states he was from Germany and renounced allegiance to
Emperor William II. The ship's manifest listing says he was from Germany and
would be going to South Amboy, NJ.
He was married to Mary JESIKIEWICZ and they had two children, born in
1892 and 1895, before coming to the US and having four more children here.
The family lived in Scottdale, PA, in Westmoreland County.
I have a copy of what I believe to be Mary's brother's baptismal
certificate. The brother was born in Chlebowo, diocese of Gniezno, in 1870.
I believe Mary was born in 1866. Mary also had a sister, Pearl.
My question: would Walenty and Mary have gotten married in the same
church as she was baptized? I believe they would have been married in the
late 1880s or around 1890. If they were married in the same church, St.
Nicholas in the village of Czescewo, as she had been baptized, then where do
I write for information?
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Carolyn Sommerfield Bush
Researching: SOMMERFELD, JESIKIEWICZ, KOSCIELNIAK, RESZELA, KASPSZYK
This thread:


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This link will take you to the Penn State Water Resources Extension webpage dedicated to private water system management. The links on the left of the page provide lists of publications and videos on various issues related to location, construction, maintenance, testing and treatment of private water wells, springs and cisterns.
Four page color newsletters published quarterly.


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Hi all,
I'd originally thought I'd have the option of midwives via Kaiser Santa Clara, but it looks like that's only true for Kaiser Santa Teresa or if I go up to Redwood City. Kaiser Santa Clara is a teaching hospital, so they don't have midwives.
Can anyone relate their experience at Kaiser Santa Clara? I'm a little concerned that a friend was forced to stay in bed and stay monitored the whole time which really slowed down her labor. I'm planning to bring a doula to run interference on stuff like that, but I really don't want my delivery to be over-medicalized unless there's actually something very very wrong (in which case, I probably want to skip right to c-section rather than 3 days of labor like some friends have suffered through, only to end up with a c-section when they're completely exhausted).
I'd love to hear some positive Kaiser Santa Clara stories, or have a nudge that perhaps going to Santa Teresa is the right choice. I'd miss my ob/gyn, but I'm a bit nervous about their attitude right now.


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Pagani Zonda lives on with custom Fantasma Evo Supercars
July 23, 2017
July 23, 2017
2017 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off Road trail review... First Drives
July 22, 2017
July 22, 2017
First Drives
Auto Shows
Spy Shots
Car Tech
Jorge Lorenzo photo courtesy MotoGPEnlarge Photo
"I am very happy because we improved a lot on yesterday's lap time," Lorenzo said. "The bike seems much better than last year for us and I think we have even more potential for improvement tomorrow - we still have a few issues to solve, especially corner entry, but we manage to keep a good pace."
After a single, 45-minute practice on Thursday, the flood-lit Losail International Circuit provided the proper evening ambiance for two practice sessions and allowed Tech 3 Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow to take second place, just 0.154 seconds behind Lorenzo with his time of 1:55.456. Stoner ended up third with his 1:55.675-lap, being held up in traffic while trying to pip the two Yamaha riders for top spot.
Andrea Dovizioso took fourth place on the second Tech 3 Yamaha and was the final rider under 1:56 at 1:55.905. Dani Pedrosa, Stoner's teammate was fifth, while the Pramac customer Ducati team's Hector Barbera was sixth ahead of both American Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi, who followed the Spaniard on the time sheets. Stefan Bradl on the LCR Honda and Alvaro Bautista, rider the San Carlo Gresini Honda rounded out the top 10.
"The feeling with my Ducati is getting better lap by lap," Barbera said, "and we had a good strategy, beginning the second free practice session looking for a fast lap time - and we caught it!"
There was a separation of just under 5.3 seconds from first to 21st place and the first CRT bike again belonged to Randy de Puniet on the ART in 13th place, followed by American Colin Edwards' Suter. After riding fourth on Thursday, American Ben Spies crashed 10 minutes into the final practice, completing only eight laps and landing 11th on the time charts; he was the only rider unable to improve from the earlier practice.
With this change of status at the top of the time sheets, expectations are high for an exciting qualifying session on Saturday and an equally fine race on Sunday.


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HealthNet Aeromedical Services of Charleston WV is expanding its fleet by ordering a 3rd Eurocopter EC135 and its 1st EC145. Both will be delivered in 4Q2009. Working in conjunction with Air Methods and Med Flight of Ohio, HealthNet serves West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. HealthNet is a consortium owned by West Virginia University Hospitals, Charleston Area Medical Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital. The HealthNet fleet, which has completed 50,000 accident-free missions, also includes 4 AS350 AStars. All HealthNet's helicopters have dual-pilot IFR capability and are equipped with NVGs, helicopter TAWS and wire strike kit. Interior completions of the new helicopters will occur after delivery.
AgustaWestland has received an order from the government of Trinidad and Tobago for 4 AW139 medium twin helicopters. Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard (TTAG) will establish a dedicated unit to use the AW139s for search and rescue (SAR), surveillance, law enforcement, drug interdiction and disaster relief. The contract also includes training and logistical support for the first 5 years. Total contract value is $348 million. A consortium consisting of AgustaWestland, Bristow Caribbean, the UK's FB Heliservices and Helidex of the US will manage TTAG's AW139 program in Trinidad and Tobago. Training will take place in Italy, the UK and the US. This order marks the establishment of the country's first SAR helicopter unit. Operations will be based primarily at POS (Port of Spain, Trinidad) and from offshore patrol vessels working in conjunction with the Coast Guard. AgustaWestland has now taken more than 430 orders for the AW139 from nearly 120 customers worldwide. Photo shows a Spanish Coast Guard example.
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has awarded United Rotorcraft Solutions (URS) and partner Ahlers Aerospace CAR 35 approval for night vision lighting modifications on the Bell 412. URS Pres David Brigham traveled to Australia in June to complete the modifications on 2 Bell 412s for Australian Helicopters. With the NVG filters in hand over a 2-week period, Brigham performed the modifications and worked with CASA to obtain approval. URS/Ahlers say their modification design reduces installation time and cost. The external filters allow the modified component to remain generic, thus retaining the advantages of local repair and overhaul.
ENAC, the Italian civil aviation authority, has completed the first stage of qualification and authorization tests for the creation of a low-altitude helicopter IFR route between Turin and Venice, crossing the Po Valley. Trials were performed using an AW139 specially equipped to monitor and process data generated by ground and satellite-based navigation systems. During the tests, navigation data reliability and the navigation capabilities of the AW139 were evaluated. Testing took into account the expected evolution of satnav systems. This activity is part of a number of initiatives to develop a dedicated network of low-level IFR routes optimized for helicopter operations and integrated into the airspace system. Adverse weather procedures will be developed allowing helicopters to abandon use of dedicated IFR airspace and share the airspace used by fixed-wing aircraft.
Max-Viz has installed its new EVS1500 enhanced vision system on a corporate VIP Sikorsky S76C++ operated by Aero Rio of Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brazil. This is the first S76 to incorporate a redesigned conformal EVS1500 fairing installation developed by Cary Foster and Sharmaine Vestal, co-owners of One Sky Aviation, a full service maintenance facility in Anchorage AK. The new fairing produces less standoff and drag than the previous design. Aero Rio chose the EVS1500 based on its ability to penetrate low-visibility conditions (especially smog and haze) common in its normal operating areas.
ATP Oil & Gas Corp has installed the first automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) system on a Gulf of Mexico offshore platform. ATP partnered with FAA Surveillance and Broadcast Services Office, HAI, Gulf helicopter operators and other offshore oil and gas companies. ADS-B uses GPS location data to provide real-time radarlike traffic information directly to ADS-B equipped aircraft. Data is then transmitted to FAA, air traffic controllers and other aircraft. In addition, the system will provide helicopter operators in the Gulf with immediate access to updated weather and other flight information services. The system on the ATP Innovator platform will be part of a network of systems set to go operational in Dec 2009.


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Johnny Cupcakes Crossbones Orange Tee
I'm just learning about Johnny Cupcake's bizarre brand of cupcake inspired fashion. Here's a pretty cool tee featuring my favorite baked good.
This is my favorite graphic print tee from Johnny Cupcakes.
Awesome tee!
Cool skull design incorporating both cupcakes and the Day of the Dead.Added 9 Years Ago from Johnny Cupcakes


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I was nearing the end of my high school days when the Second Vatican Council got under way 50 years ago and was in the middle of college when it ended.
But even as a Presbyterian I sensed then some of the excitement and energy that radiated from Rome in those roller-coaster days of awakening and renewal -- not just in the church but in many sectors of life.
The pastor of my small-town church had warned us a few years earlier that if John F. Kennedy were elected president, the pope would run the U.S. -- a fear-mongering charge of such absurd proportions that even some of us teenagers knew enough to ignore it, if not challenge it.
But with Kennedy in the White House -- a man we now understand to have been politically flawed and operating with the sexual morals of a vacuum cleaner -- there was a sense of hope and possibility in the country and the world. This buoyant atmosphere prepared Catholics and non-Catholics alike to hope that the Catholic church could find the strength and courage to adapt to modernity in creative ways.
There was, after all, much work of liberation still to be accomplished for people in various states of racial, religious, economic and gender subjugation. And the world needed the church to be part of the answer by proclaiming and demonstrating the reign of God through Christ.
That the Catholic church was led then by Pope John XXIII was a fortuitous gift. A good way to understand what this remarkable man brought to the church is by reading Greg Tobin's excellent new book, The Good Pope.
But here we are 50 years later, and though much liberation has occurred -- some of it due to pressure from the church universal -- we seem to be in a time of retrenchment of hope. No doubt part of this, at least as seen through American eyes, has to do with how long it is taking us to recover from a profound economic recession fueled in part by wars we didn't pay to wage and a gluttonous financial system we allowed to run amok without enough regulatory oversight.
That, however, does not explain all of our feelings of frustration and angst. But maybe this does: We are operating at two madly different speeds, and the tension is almost unbearable.
On the one hand, we can send email, texts and tweets around the globe in nanoseconds, starting revolutions, changing minds, alerting others to developments in real time.
On the other hand, our faith communities often move at the speed of moldboard plows pulled by recalcitrant oxen through lumpy soil.
In some ways, of course, this slowness is a good, healthy thing. We don't want our churches to be whipped about by the winds of every small change. We value our traditions, want continuity with our past and wish to proclaim truths today that were truths 2,000 years ago.
But when the world is moving and changing at astonishing speeds, the inability of our churches to adapt often means they are being bypassed by the very people who should be the foundation for their future.
Those of us who remember the effervescent days of Vatican II and the churning engines of change of the 1960s understand that some of what resulted was a mistake. Why, after all, would we want to encourage our kids today to drop acid or to ask every priest in every church to play bad guitar?
But there was, in the midst of all that, a thrilling openness to the restless, wildly mobile spirit of God. That same living spirit today is seeking to draw us out of our religious cocoons and into those places in the world where God already is at work, bringing change and hope to those who need it most. I hope we are smart enough to find those places and join the party.
[Bill Tammeus, a Presbyterian elder and former award-winning Faith columnist for The Kansas City Star, writes the daily "Faith Matters" blog for The Star's website and a monthly column for The Presbyterian Outlook. His latest book, co-authored with Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, is They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust. Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.]
Editor's note: We can send you an email alert every time Bill Tammeus' column, "A small c catholic," is posted to NCRonline.org. Go to this page and follow directions: Email alert sign-up. If you already receive email alerts from us, click on the "update my profile" button to add "Bill Tammeus" to your list.
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I had none of the above in my 2002 hospital birth. I did have a 15 minute external fetal monitor strip, but that was it, and I was standing/squatting the whole time
No vaginal exam, ever, from start to finish.
No IV or lock.
No stripping of membranes or artificial rupture of membranes.
No pitocin, no cytotec, no augmentation or induction.
No traction on the cord after.
Babe at my breast within 30 seconds.
Delayed cord clamping.
Babe stayed with us for 2+ hours. Then DH followed him and was with him the entire time before they returned him to me.
Babe with me the entire 2 days, co-sleeping in the bed.
NOTHING other than the 15 minute EFM strip...................
So it IS possible to have a non-intervention hospital birth. I'm now due in early August, and damn well intend to do the same again.
I believe it's unlikely and rare. No VEs, IV, saline or heplock, ECFM (or intermittent FM), AROM, being confined to the bed, etc. Completely hands off and free to do whatever you wish in terms of your labor/birth preference.
With DD2 I had AROM, saline lock and intermittent FM and three VEs. Without being a royal bitch or making "requests" or "asking" for permission, it would be extremely hard to have a totally normal birth in most hospital settings.
Mom to James ( 5/2006), Claire ( 6/2008), furry kitties Calvin and Bob, and wife to Dennis.
We all walk into a hospital birth knowing that certain things are "standard operating procedure" - like wearing a hospital gown for example.
I disagree. I didn't have to bitch at all. They couldn't do anything to me that I wouldn't let them do, and I had the situation under control. The nurses and docs wished there were more moms like me.
Why didn't you refuse the AROM and stuff? NO is an easy word!
I guess I just can't wrap my head around a bunch of people physically having to force, with great effort, my legs apart and doing AROM or cervical checks. I can't believe a hospital would do that. Apparently they do, but man, I'd be hitting the door running as fast as my laboring body would get me there! LOL!
Jen, mama to (M-13, N- 10, C- 8
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I have an experienced doula coming with me who vows to stand up strong for my birth plan and knows the nurses at this hospital as well as my doctor.
Homeschooling mama to 6 year old DD.
Right. It's bad here. Learned recently of a mom a couple years back who exceeded the "time limit" on pushing and was wheeled into OR for a section screaming I DO NOT CONSENT. Then as punishment they kidnapped her baby to NICU claiming he was going to die (when nothing in fact was wrong)
That devastates me. It's stories like these that scare people from hospitals (not that I think you have to birth there - given my druthers, I wouldn't have, but hubby really took issue with home birth - if God gives me #5, we will not be wasting the gas, I assure you!). I really think if one finds a good OB who is very comfortable and confident in his or her's hospital procedures, a birth in those facilities can be wonderful. I hope someday that's the rule and not the exception.
I guess I just can't wrap my head around a bunch of people physically having to force, with great effort, my legs apart and doing AROM or cervical checks.
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Raspberry Cream Marshmallow Puff Pie
Recipe by Rita1652
This no-bake raspberry creamy pie is lite and airy! Yes you can replace with your favorite berries or mix and match. This holds up well and can be brought to outdoor parties.
Top Review by Baby Kato
This was delicious...simply delicious...it was like eating air...it is so light and fluffy and refreshing. The flavour is wonderful, you can taste the pudding, the cream, the marshmallow and raspberries, with a hint of banana and chocolate. This was so yummy, and it was quick and easy to make. I will definitely be making this again. Thanks so much for sharing Rita.
See Discussion:3 Reviews
Ingredients Nutrition
- 1 perpared chocolate wafer pie crust
- 1 banana, sliced
- 42.52 g package sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
- 236.59 ml nonfat milk
- 473.18 ml mini marshmallows
- 473.18 ml Cool Whip Lite, thawed
- 473.19 ml raspberries (or sliced strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries)
- raspberries
Directions See How It's Made
- Place sliced banana in one layer in the crust.
- Pour milk in a bowl add pudding mixing well to blend.
- Fold the whipped topping and marshmallows.
- Fold in berries and spread onto the bananas.
- Garnish with berries of choice.
- Lightly cover and chill for at least 1 hour to overnight.


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Available NOW on iTunes for iPhone and Android
Market. Coming soon for iPad.
Ski Racing's new app:
results, standings, calendars,
news and videos.
Ski Racing's Hank McKee Wins
FIS Journalist Award
While filmmaking has the Oscars, ski writing has the crystal
statuettes of the FIS Journalist Award. And at a USST alumni
gathering at Beaver Creek on Saturday, Dec. 4, SR senior
editor Hank McKee was presented with the prestigious award
thanks to his three-plus decades of reporting and writing on ski
racing. (The FIS Journalist Award recognizes career contributions
to the sport on a worldwide basis.) McKee is the 10th American
journalist honored with the award, and joining him during the ceremony were past recipients
Joe Jay Jalbert (far left), Bob Beattie and Gary Black Jr. (far right). "We are blessed to have
journalists like Hank," said Tom Kelly, chairman of the FIS PR and Mass Media Committee, in
presenting the award, "who put a personal passion into their coverage of our sport."


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The life of a political candidate is full of perils—there's the property developer who wants to show you his ride, the art lover who can't get enough of your paintings, and the political staffer with the terrific idea about how to sell your home.
Andrew Cornwell had reason to regret all these pitfalls he encountered in the course of winning the seat of Charlestown for the Liberals in the March 2011 state election with a 24.5 per cent swing.
Mr Cornwell, who was testifying before the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday, presented as the typical political neophyte, who froze when confronted with handy piles of money that made him a little uneasy.
The saga began on October 6, 2010 with Mr Cornwell up to his elbows in unconscious dog when a phone call came in to his veterinary surgery at Cardiff from Newcastle property developer Jeff McCloy.
As the nurse held the phone up to his ear Mr Cornwell said he was a little tied up right now in mid-operation, but it takes more than that to stop a property developer.
Fifteen minutes later Mr McCloy called again, sitting in his Bentley from the parking lot outside the vet surgery, wanting a word. When Mr Cornwell put the operation on hold and came out, Mr Mccloy gestured to him to climb into the car, Cornwell told ICAC.
"You were aware that he was about to give you some money before you climbed in the car?" counsel assisting ICAC Geoffrey Watson, SC, asked.
"Yes I did," Mr Cornwell said. "He had a padded envelope and he said I should be giving it to the Salvation Army. I was flustered and I froze."
Mr McCloy has denied making the donation. Mr Watson said it was understandable Mr Cornwell might have frozen on the spot, "but why didn't you do something about it the next morning?"
"It was just a huge mistake, I just froze," said Mr Cornwell, who stood aside form the Liberal party on Wednesday. "I was uneasy about it."
The envelope contained $10,000. Mr Cornwell said he took it home and put it into a cupboard. It was almost a month before he gave it to the Robin Beaven, the official Liberal Party agent for the Charlestown election.
"I told him it was from Jeff McCloy and could he deal with it appropriately."
He said Mr Beaven could have directed it to the Liberals' federal campaign, which would have been legal, but he did not ask what he did with it.
Bank records show Mr Bevan banked the money in his account on November 12, and moved it to the Charlestown Liberal account four days later, where it was later used to help qualify for more than $100,000 assistance for the seat from Liberal head office.
Mr Cornwell said he was also uneasy about a painting by artist Rex Newell which his parents had given his wife but which they both disliked.
"It was like a farmhouse type of painting. Not the sort you would buy to put up at home," he said. It was "mainly blue" and he had been keeping it n a cupboard, before storing it in a toy room.
In December 2010 he had given gifts worth $50 to $100 to people who had been helpful to the campaign when he was left with the painting to give to the last name on his list, property developer Hilton Grugeon.
Mr Grugeon had called to thank him and said he could not accept it as a gift and insisted on paying for it. Mr Grugeon's staff had then called Mr Grugeon's wife to arrange to pay $10,120 for the painting.
"This is a strictly private arrangement between your wife and I, it has nothing to do with you," Mr Grugeon told him.
Mr Cornwell agreed with Mr Watson that it was a bribe, "an attempt to curry favour".
After seeking legal advice from his parents (both of whom are lawyers) Mr Cornwell told his wife to cash the cheque, which he used to pay his PAYG tax.
Mr Cornwell also told of a meeting with Newcastle MP Tim Owen and his campaign director, Hugh Thomson, at a Pentecostal church in Newcastle, when Mr Thomson suggested he could widen his support base by having donations paid to a "trust account in Sydney".
Earlier, Mr Thomson had told Mr Cornwell that he could arrange for someone to contract to buy his house and pay a non-refundable deposit, before they pulled out of the deal, leaving Mr Cornwell with the cash.
"I told him it was the most harebrained idea I had ever had," Mr Cornwell said.
The Australian Financial Review


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Good creative work makes you feel something. Today there was a lot of laughter, very few dry eyes, and some pretty big smiles when we celebrated our work from the past month. Congrats to our hardworking and talented teams for inspiring us all.
Kicking off our first department-hosted happy hour and the digital team rocked it with margaritas, a VR station and more! #publicisroars #adlife
Had a great morning with the Good Morning New York anchors and some of the cast of new video for our client Coordown. If you haven't seen the video yet, click here: https://youtu.be/kNMJaXuFuWQ #notspecialneeds
What "special needs" does a person with Down syndrome truly have? Our new campaign for CoorDown challenges the conversation surrounding people with Down syndrome. https://youtu.be/kNMJaXuFuWQ #notspecialneeds


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WHITE OUT: Holiday makers enjoy the snow at the Kaitoke Regional Park.
Christchurch awakes to a blanket of snow under blue skies, a day after the blizzard.
Just hanging: Monty the snowman relaxes with friends in Edgeware, Christchurch.
Warming up: Elliott Gresty enjoys a hot chocolate after constructing both a snowman and an igloo in Church Bay.
Hardy surfer heads down the road.
Justin Mycroft can't resist a taste of all the white stuff that fell overnight around Taupo and was one of many locals who made the most of the snow.
Snow closed the road near the Kaitoke Loop Rd, north of Wellington.
Students Kurt Shearer, Michelle Quinn, and Tom Steward dress light for the snow.
A view of Mt Arthur from the Ruby Bay bypass, Nelson.
Matt Neilson, 11, snow boarding on the street watched by his brother, Josh, 10, in Church Bay.
Jaidyn and Kaylah, with their snowman in Opawa.
Snow fell along the Motueka Valley Highway.
A cold start for Lyttelton.
Redcliffs and Moncks Bay were covered down to the beach with a thick coating of snow.
Hills Road Christchurch is deserted except for a few cars.
The winter blast covered Redcliffs and Moncks Bay, Christchurch, down to the beach with a thick coating in snow early this morning.
A shuttle bus stuck on Papanui Road.
Brent Neilson snowboarding on the street in Church Bay, Canterbury.
An igloo in Christchurch.
Snow in Lyttelton, Canterbury.
From Huntsbury Hill looking over Christchurch.
Reuben the cat checking out the snow in Alexandra.
Snow covers the ground outside of Taihape in the North Island.
Snow covers a track near the Wainuiomata water catchment area, Wellington.
Snow covers everything on Weston Road, St Albans, Christchurch, including a civil defence portaloo put in place after the February Christchurch quake.
Planking in the snow, Hagley Park, Christchurch.
Debbie Sheehy's home on Rawhitiroa Rd, near Eltham, Taranaki, was coated in powdery white snow this morning.
Snow in the Rimutakas behind Eastbourne, Wellington.
Snow blankets Lyttelton.
View of snow-covered suburbs from Westmorland, Christchurch.
Enjoying the snow.
Snow in Whitemans Valley, north of Wellington.
Snow in Caversham, Dunedin.
Snow falls in central Christchurch.
Snow in central Christchurch.
Snow in the suburb of Cashmere, Christchurch.
Snow on Memorial Avenue, Christchurch.
Snow at the Airport Gateway Lodge, Christchurch.
Snow outside the Airport Gateway Lodge, Christchurch.


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Welcome to Hope 4 Hanna
Rally your friends, family, and coworkers to join us at the Plaza Pacifica shopping center in San Clemente to help find the causes, effective treatments, and a cure for autism, as well as enjoy a day of good old-fashioned family fun.
Rain or Shine! The 4th Annual Trace 3 San Clemente 10k-5k and 1/2k Kids Run benefitting Hope 4 Hanna will take place on Sunday, October 21st, 2012. Help us as we "Take Down Autism One Step at a Time".
New for 2012 is our family friendly TACA Fallapalooza Festival for Families. This event will immediately follow the 2012 4th Annual Trace 3 San Clemente, 10K-5K and 1/2 Kids Run.
Sensory friendly activities include: Bounce house, petting zoo, pumpkin painting, face painting, mask creating and more fun fall activities for kids on the autism spectrum, their siblings and friends. Don't miss out on this fantastic kid friendly event! This event is being designed with ASD families in mind.
About Hope 4 Hanna
Hope 4 Hanna was started in May 2008 by its founding board members: Justin Alderson, Kristen Alderson, Joshua Belden, and Lene` Belden. The inspiration for their vision is Johanna ("Hanna") Belden, who was diagnosed in October 2006 with Autism Spectrum Disorder shortly after her second birthday.
The mission of Hope 4 Hanna is to help create a less challenging road for families dealing with the disorder. Once diagnosed, every child with autism faces a set of new expectations and responsibilities including, but not limited to behavioral and biomedical interventions, occupational and speech therapies, dietary restrictions, individual education planning, specialized playdates and socialization classes. The families have the task of introducing these new schedules and interventions into their homes, while trying to maintain normalcy.


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Global central banks and the world's biggest bond funds have shrugged off controversy over the federal government's debt ceiling, ploughing a record $5.9 billion into a new 20-year Commonwealth bond.
The 20-year bond, priced at a yield of 4.86 per cent, extends the typical 10-year maturity for Australia's AAA-rated sovereign debt. It comes after Treasurer Joe Hockey called for the term of government borrowing to be lengthened to as much as 50 years.
Members of the bank syndicate that sold the bonds on behalf of the Australian Office of Financial Management said the deal could lead to corporate borrowers issuing longer-dated bonds.
"It is a reflection of our bond market being high quality, liquid and AAA rated," AOFM chief executive Rob Nicholl said. But investment managers admit to fielding calls from investors worried about Mr Hockey's proposal to raise the debt ceiling or allowable value of government bonds on issue to $500 billion from $300 billion.
RBC Capital Markets warned raising the debt ceiling would result in a broader theme of "a weaker budgetary position, increased [bond] issuance, and a difficult Senate", which would "remain negatives for both bonds and the Australian dollar".
Debt ceiling woes
The Australian Financial Review