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South China Normal University, School of Geography, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510631, China
A new viewpoint for understanding the urban expansion using impervious surface information, which is obtained using remote sensing imagery is presented. The purpose of this study is to understand and describe the urban expansion pattern with the view of impervious surfaces instead of the conventional view of land use/land cover. Six years' worth of impervious surface data (1990–2009) of Guangzhou are extracted via linear spectral unmixing analysis methods and spatial and temporal characteristics are discussed in detail. The area, density, and gravity centers changes of the impervious surfaces are analyzed to explain internal/external urban expansion. Meanwhile, five landscape indexes, such as patch density, edge density, mean patch size, area-weighted, and fragmentation index, are utilized to describe landscape changes of Guangzhou in past 20 years, which are influenced deeply by the impervious surface expansion. In order to detail landscape changes, two transects corresponding to the two urban expansion directions are designed and five landscape metrics in these two transects are reported. Conclusions can be drawn and shown as following: (1) temporally, the area of impervious surfaces increases from 12,998 to 59,911 ha from 1990 to 2009. The amount of impervious surface varies in different periods. The annual growth rates of impervious surface area during 1990–1995, 1995–1998, and 1998–2000 are 10.16%, 11.61%, and 10.78%, respectively; (2) annual growth rates decrease from 10.78% (1998–2000) to 5.67% (2000–2003). Nevertheless, from 2003–2009, the annual growth rate has a slight increase compared to a former period. The rate is 5.91%; (3) spatially, gravity centers of medium and high percentage impervious surfaces migrate slightly; and (4) according to the gradient analysis in the two transects, it can be observed that the high percentage of impervious surface increases gradually in new city districts (from west to east and from south to north).
Cities represent one of Earth's fastest growing land-use types on a per-area basis, and over half of the planet's 7 billion humans now reside in cities.1 It is very important to give a quantitative analysis in order to describe and forecast some problems that have occurred in the process of urbanization. Generally, remote sensing provided the most convenient means to monitor and quantify urban expansion by taking advantage of its wide area coverage and regular orbiting period and it had proven useful for mapping urban areas and obtaining data for the analysis of urban land cover change.2–3 In China, urbanization (urban expansion) has been experienced during different periods during the last two decades and many projects or researches on urban expansion have been launched.4–7 These researchers mostly placed their attention on land use/land cover classification at the pixel level by using supervised or unsupervised classifications. These methods were limited by their precision of classification and image quality, such as spatial resolution, and they could not properly discriminate land cover classes in a heterogeneous context.8
One of the recent major advances in urban expansion analysis was the vegetation-impervious surface-soil (V-I-S) model proposed by Ridd in 1995. In this model, impervious surfaces, which was defined as any surface which water could not infiltrate and which was primarily associated with transportation (streets, highways, parking lots, and sidewalks) and building rooftops, was the key indicator of city land cover/land use characteristics through the urbanization progress.9,10 The V-I-S model was demonstrated to be an effective approach to cope with the mixed pixel problem and provided a guideline for decomposing low-resolution images of an urban surface and a link for these components to spectral signatures.
Meanwhile, many methods for extracting impervious surfaces were explored in recent years, such as decision tree method, supervised and unsupervised methods, maximum likelihood method, neural network,11–15 regression tree model,16,17 and spectral unmixing method.18 Spectral unmixing analysis (SMA) had been widely utilized to derive the fractional contribution of representative urban land covers for its convenience and ability to derive physically interpretable information at a subpixel level.19 The linear spectral mixture model was widely used for unmixing the mixed pixels. The spectral signatures in one pixel assumed a linear combination with their proportion as a weighting factor in the linear spectral mixture model. The linear spectral mixture model was an excellent approximation technique which was suitable for dealing with the spectral mixture problem, because it produced a set of maps that represented the abundance of each component.
The extraction of impervious fragmentation information was always conducted with the combination of high-albedo and low-albedo fraction images.20 Although many researchers used SMA to extract impervious surface information, multitemporal studies for monitoring urban land cover changes were lacking.21–24 Furthermore, there was no well-documented approach for analyzing the different internal and external urban expansion patterns through the urbanization progress.
Quantitative spatial analysis methods were needed in this research to explore the impervious surface sprawl development along the urban expansion directions. Gradient analysis, originally developed in the context of vegetation analysis,25 had been used to investigate the effects of urbanization on plant distribution and ecosystem properties.26 Luck and Wu27and Zhang et al.28 used gradient analysis to study urban landscape patterns and the ecological consequences of the urbanization process by using a "split window" along their chosen transect. Kong and Nakagoshi29 used gradient analysis combined with landscape metrics to characterize urban green space patterns quantitatively from 1989 to 2004 in Jinan (China) and gradient analysis was used to quantitatively understand the urban expansion of Guangzhou during the past 24 years based on the urban area extracted by the maximum likelihood method.7
The primary objectives of this paper included: (1) examining and understanding the Guangzhou expansion progress and patterns using long time series impervious surface data (1990–2009); (2) analyzing detailed change information of landscape and gravity centers of impervious surface; and (3) explaining the internal and external urban expansion and sprawl patterns with the view of impervious surface under the subpixel level.
Guangzhou town is the core zone of Guangzhou municipality, which is chosen as the study area of this paper. Guangzhou municipality is the political, economic, educational, cultural, as well as scientific and technological center of the Guangdong province, South China. Guangzhou town covers approximately 3834.8 km2 and is comprised of eight districts (Yuexiu, Dongshan, Haizhu, Liwan, Tianhe, Baiyun, Huangpu and Fangchun). Among these entirely city districts, Yuexiu, Dongshan, Haizhu, and Liwan are the traditional old districts, and the others are the new districts. It is bounded by the Pearl River to the east and south, Zhongshan city and Foshan city to the west, Dongguan city and Huizhou city to the east, and Qinyuan city to the north. There are three important highways, which are the Guang-Cong highway (from Guangzhou to Conghua), the Guang-Hui highway (from Guangzhou to Huizhou), and the Guang-Shen highway (from Guangzhou to Shenzhen).
A single transverse Mercator (TM) or ETM+ scene (WRS: path 122, row 44) can cover the whole area (Fig. 1). In this paper, six sets of Landsat TM data (10-13-1990, 12-30-1995, 12-20-1998, 10-10-2000, 10-01-2003, and 11-12-2009) are used to interpret impervious surface area changes. Atmospheric corrections are performed and rectified to the TM projection system. The TM images of 1990, 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2003 are registered and rectified to the TM image of 2009 by the "image to image" method. After the geometric correction, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) is less than 0.5 pixels. At last, the vector data of Guangzhou administrative boundaries are applied to choose the study area subset from the whole image.
Study area of this paper (Guangzhou town of Guangdong Province in China).
Water's spectral characteristics were similar to the low-albedo urban surface; therefore, it was difficult to separate water from the low-albedo endmember, which would affect the unmixing results. A spectral angle mapper (SAM) was used to extract bodies of water and a mask was made to exclude pure water pixels from the Landsat images. SAM was a physically based spectral classification that used an n-D angle to match pixels to reference spectra. The algorithm determined the spectral similarity between two spectra by calculating the angle between the spectra and treating them as vectors in a space with dimensionality equal to the number of bands. Smaller angles represented closer matches to the reference spectrum. According to abundant experiments, which were design to explore the best value of the water spectral angle, the threshold identified was 0.1–0.08 rad. Only the pixels whose spectral angles fall into this range of radians were classified as water.
Water masking involved three steps: (1) selecting water endmembers; (2) utilizing SAM to extract the water and building a mask (spectral angle range is 0.1–0.08) via ENVI software; and (3) masking the water area.
Linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA) was a linear unmixing method that calculated the abundance of the endmembers in a mixed pixel. To estimate impervious surfaces, the following four steps were generally involved: (1) reducing image noise via the minimum noise fraction (MNF) method, which produced a small number of components that contained most of the information; (2) calculating the pixel purity index (PPI) from the MNF component image. The PPI was the most representative interactive endmember extraction algorithm and was widely used due to its publicity and availability in the ITTVIS environment for visualizing images (ENVI) software originally developed by analytical imaging and geophysics; (3) selecting endmembers; and (4) unmixing the image based on the linear spectral mixing model.
The MNF rotation required two steps: (1) decorrelation and rescaling of the noise in the data based on an estimated noise covariance matrix, producing transformed data in which the noise had a unit variance and no band-to-band correlations, and (2) implementation of a standard principal component analysis of the noise-whitened data. The MNF rotation produced a two-part data set: one set was associated with large eigenvalues and coherent images, and another set was associated with near-unity eigenvalues and noise-dominated images. In MNF rotation, noise was separated from the data and spectral processing results were improved.19 Using the majority of the information from the original image, the first three components were used to select endmembers. The selection of endmembers was complemented with the use of the PPI function by projecting three-dimensional (3-D) scatter plots of MNF fraction components 1, 2, and 3 onto a 2-D space and marking the extreme pixels in each projection. Pixels with a high digital numbers (DN) value indicated the spatial location of spectral endmembers.30
The mathematical model of LSMA could be expressed as Display Formula
Endmember selection was a key step in the LSMA approach. Endmembers could be collected through laboratory or field measurements, or from images.31 According to the V-I-S model, three basic endmembers were chosen: vegetation, impervious surface, and soil; the vegetation was the sum of forest, farmland, and grassland fractions. In addition, the impervious surface's extraction had always been conducted by the low-albedo and high-albedo fractions. Because the low-albedo fraction image was more complex than other fraction images, the direct extraction of impervious surface image from the high albedo and low albedo fractions was obviously unsuitable. Wu and Murray (2003) built a model to extract the impervious surface and this idea was accepted widely.20 The model is shown as follows: Display Formula
Assessment of impervious surface images was important for the validation of classification results. Some researchers had discussed the accuracy assessment approaches,32 including overall accuracy (OA), producer's and user's accuracy (PA and UA) and kappa coefficient, and so on. Much research used RMSE to assess the results in the accuracy assessment procedure.15,33–35 RMSE and systematic error (SE) were utilized in this research to evaluate the accuracy of impervious surface estimation. RMSE and SE could be expressed as follows: Display Formula
In this research, two transects (Fig. 1) were designed to measure the impervious surface sprawl. The principle of design was listed in following steps: (1) for the whole study area, the impervious surface was extracted first using the LSMA method, (2) the impervious surface value of 2009 were analyzed using Statistics tools of ENVI software, and the pixels, which had highest value, were selected. (3) if the number of pixels with the highest value was one, then this pixel was considered as the origin point. If the number of pixels with highest value was greater than 1, the 8 neighborhood pixels were computed and the mean value of these 9 pixels was obtained. The pixel with the highest mean value (9 pixels) was selected as the origin point; (4) by such an analogy, the selection process would stop until only one pixel was selected; (5) after the origin point was selected, 12 directions every 30 deg were checked based on this origin point. These two directions had the longest distance with the largest sum of impervious surface (Fig. 1); and (6) along with these two directions, two transects were designed. These two transects were included with a square that was called "Cell." It turned out that these two transects extend from Guangzhou New Baiyun International Airport in Baiyun to southern Fangcun, and west from Liwan to eastern Huangpu, and cut across the entire study area. In this paper, each transect was divided into 36 cells (each cell covered 1×1 km approximately, i.e., each cell was made up of 33×33 pixels). From 1990 to 2009, the expansion distances were 21 km (south to north) and 25 km (west to east), respectively, and the annual expansion distance was about 1 km (i.e., Guangzhou expands 1 km outward every year). Therefore, the scale of 1 km conformed to the real expansion state of Guangzhou. Therefore, the 1 km scale was made as a cell to discuss the spatial-temporal change of landscape metrics.
To quantify the spatial pattern of exterior urbanization along the two transects, five landscape indexes in each cell of these two transects were calculated using patch analysis tools of GIS software. These five landscape indices were patch density (PD), edge density (ED), mean patch size (MPS), area-weighted (AWMSI), and fragmentation index (FI). In this paper, the landscape meant "cell," which was designed in Part 3.3 above, and the "patch" was the set of "pixels" in each cell. These pixels were selected according to given value of impervious surface area.
PD was a limited but fundamental aspect of landscape structure. PD had the same basic utility as the number of patches as an index, except that it expressed the number of patches on a per unit area basis that facilitated comparisons among landscapes of varying sizes Display Formula
ED at the class level had the utility, limitation, and standardized edge to a per unit area basis that facilitated comparisons among landscapes of varying sizes and equaled the sum of the lengths of all edge segments involving the corresponding patch type Display Formula
MPS was another class and landscape index based on the number of patches. A landscape type with a smaller MPS than another patch type might be considered more fragmented. Thus, MPS could serve as a habitat fragmentation index Display Formula
AWMSI was a useful form of the shape metric. With AWMSI, the shape of each patch was weighted by its area relative to the area of the corresponding size. Specifically, larger patches were weighted more heavily than smaller patches in calculating the average patch shape for the landscape. Display Formula
FI characterized the degree of fragmentation of the landscape that reflects the complexity of the spatial structure of the landscape Display Formula
According to the V-I-S model, four endmembers are selected, which are high albedo, low albedo, vegetable, and soil. Using the LSMA method, four feature maps of high albedo, low albedo, vegetable, and soil are generated. Impervious surface maps are yielded by the method that is discussed above (low-albedo image+high-albedo image). The impervious surface area of each year is extracted (Fig. 2). The RSMEs of the extraction results are 0.16, 0.20, 0.21, 0.31, and 0.19, respectively. Areas, increased area, and growth rate (1990–2009) of impervious surfaces are listed in Tables 1 and 2.
The impervious surface fractal images of 6 years (1990, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003, and 2009).
As shown in Tables 1 and 2, the impervious surface area increases from 12,998 ha in 1990 to 59911 ha in 2009. This implies that the impervious surface has undergone a dramatic development in the past two decades. Although the annual growth rate of impervious surfaces became lower than in the past after 1998 (10.78%), the impervious surface density of Guangzhou still kept growing. The most important factor to explain this phenomenon is that in 1990, Guangzhou was in the initial stage of urbanization. In this stage, there were few impervious surfaces (built-up areas), and a lot of vegetation, farmland, soil, and bare land were the main land cover components. With the development of the economy, Guangzhou went into the advanced stage of urbanization. A large amount of vegetation, farmland, soil, and bare land changed to impervious surface area quickly and inefficiently. With the passing of time, there were no more spaces to support the extensive urban expansion. In order to satisfy the demand of urban development, the density of impervious surface kept growing in the inner city, and the utilization efficiency of land was higher than before.
The impervious surface is classified into three categories based on its percentage: (1) low percentage impervious surface, the value of impervious surface is 0%-30%; (2) medium percentage impervious surface, the value of impervious surface is 30%-70%; (3) high percentage impervious surface, the value of impervious surface is higher than 70%.
According to Fig. 3, it is obvious that in 1990, 1995, and 1998, the medium percentage impervious surface increased year after year. In 1995, the medium percentage impervious surface increased sharply by almost 15,000 ha, which is mainly due to spatial sprawling of the impervious surface area in the first stage of urbanization. Meanwhile, high percentage impervious surface area appeared and increased gradually in this period. The reason is the rapid development of the central district of Guangzhou after the reform and opening-up policy. In this period, the strong demand for land and environment/transport facilities arose dramatically, thus the city expanded outward quickly. A great decrease in medium percentage impervious surface area (almost 9000 ha are lost) came out in the period from 1998 to 2000 and a steady growth occurred in the period from 2000 to 2009. The high percentage impervious surface increased sharply from 1998 to 2000, that is to say, parts of medium percentage impervious surface were developing into high percentage impervious surface area step by step. Afterward, the high percentage impervious surface area experienced a high growth rate and finally surpassed the medium percentage impervious surface area in 2009. This implies that, in the past two decades, the external expansion of impervious surface area dominated the early urbanization. When the impervious surface area expanded to a certain degree, there was no more space to support its expansion; therefore, impervious surface area changed into an internal expansion pattern; in this stage, the percentage of impervious surface area became higher than that in the first stage.
Medium and high impervious surface changes in 1990–2009.
Furthermore, the spatial-temporal evolution pattern can be understood very clearly on the spatial aspect through gravity center migration. The gravity center in spatial analysis is borrowed from Newton's famous law of gravitation. The gravity center is identified as the point where the equilibrium of the body can be reached. In spatial analysis, a gravity center of a region is the location where the maximum accessibility can be reached. The maximum accessibility means that the gravity center has the total minimal distance to all other locations. Finding the gravity center can optimize the process of site selection, which can help one to find the relatively best site for urban development. In this paper, the gravity center is used for finding the best site, which can represent the impervious surface of the whole study area. In ArcGIS, there is a "Spatial Statistics" geo-processing toolbox with a tool called "Mean Center," which can identify the geographic center or the center of concentration for a set of features. The gravity centers of medium and high percentage impervious surface in each year are calculated (Fig. 4).
The gravity centers of medium and high impervious surface (1990–2009).
The gravity center of medium percentage impervious surface area moves from the west of Baiyun Mountain toward northeastern of Guangzhou (a-b-c-d-e-f). The movement distance of the gravity center is almost 10.67 km. The annual movement rates in different periods are calculated to reflect the different paces of medium and high percentage impervious surface along the urban expansion process, respectively. The mean rates of medium percentage impervious surface gravity center in different periods are 0.23 km/year (1990–1995), 0.36 km/year (1995–1998), 0.59 km/year (1998–2000), 1.06 km/year (2000–2003), and 0.68 km/year (2003–2009). The mean rate reaches the highest value in the period from 2000–2003. At the same time, the movement rate of medium percentage impervious surface area decreases to 0.68 km/year after 2003. This phenomenon indicates that the medium percentage impervious surface area (such as sparse residential areas and factory constructions) expands to the external districts of Guangzhou (such as Baiyun and Luogang) at a high rate during the initial urbanization stage (1990–2003) and the development speed decreases year by year because of the boundary restriction.
Meanwhile, the gravity center of high percentage impervious surface area experiences a leapfrogged movement pattern (a-b-c-d-e-f) with an 18.9-km distance. The mean rate is 0.96 km/year in 1990–1995 and increases to 1.26 km/year in 1995–1998. Afterward, the rate reaches its peak value (2.38 km/year) in 1998–2000 and increases sharply from 1998. The rate decreases 0.97 km/year until 2003 and decreases to 0.44 km/year in 2003–2009. The rates' curve reveals that there are three stages in urban expansion: (1) initial stage (1990–1995), (2) rapidly increasing stage (1995–2003), and (3) steadily decreasing stage (2003–2009). The density of impervious surface in the internal city has increased since 1995 and has gradually become saturated.
Spatially, the gravity center of high impervious surface appears in Tianhe district in 1990. After that, it moves to northwestern (Baiyun district) in 1995, back to the Tianhe district in 1998 and back to the Yuexiu district in 2000 because of the commercial/industrial developing of Tianhe and Yuexiu. It moves back to Baiyun district once again in 2003 because of the construction of New Baiyun International Airport and the facilities along the airport roads. In 2009, the gravity center moves to northeast of Guangzhou, which means much more high percentage impervious surface is appearing in the junction of the Tianthe and Baiyun districts.
It is found that the important characterization of urbanization is the dramatic increase of medium and high percentage impervious surface. In this section, impervious surface area percentage higher than 30% is chosen to calculate the landscape indices in each cell (1×1 km size) to investigate the urban expansion pattern. In this paper, five landscape indices are calculated using patch analysis of GIS software. Results are shown in Fig. 5.
Gradient changes in each cell in 6 years [(a) and (b) are patch density; (c) and (d) are mean patch size; (e) and (f) are edge density; (g) and (h) are area-weighted mean shape index; (i) and (j) are fragmentation index].
As shown in Fig. 5 chart (a), PD values increase gradually, with the distance from the original point becoming further year by year. The PD reaches the first peak values in cells 7–9, which are located in the Tianhe district, and the second peak value in cells 23–29, which are located in the Huangpu district in 2009. In 1990, the highest value of PD appeared in cells 5–6, which are located in the core of the city (inner city). However, in 2009, the highest value of PD appears in cells 25–26 (external city). The value of PD in 2009 is almost double that in 1990. In the other transect, chart (b), the same situation also occurs as well. In 1990, PD reaches its first peak value in cells 5–6 (inner city) and second peak in cells 18–19 (external city). Based on the PD changing in these two transects, it is clear that Guangzhou has had an external expansion process in past 20 years.
Charts (c) and (d) show that the MPS increased year after year. The same situations can be found from these two transects in the 6 years that the peak of MPS is located in cells 0–9 (inner city) and the lower values of MPS are located in cells 17–30 (external city). The phenomenon declares that, in the old city, vast stretches of impervious surface have been forming with urban development. According to charts (e) and (f), in two directions the ED, which reflected the degree of fragmentation of the impervious surface, has a maximum value in 1990. However, ED has a minimum value in 2009 compared to other years. Therefore, the conclusion is drawn as follows: impervious surfaces are most fragmental in 1990 and most continuous in 2009 in these two directions.
It is obvious that in charts (g) and (h), AWMSI increases gradually while the distance from center and ranks decline in both directions in 1990. At the same time, AWMSI value varies irregularly year after year. In charts (i) and (j), FI ranks extremely high in 1990 and increases with the distance from the city in every year. In 1990, FI keeps a steady value around cells 5–15 in the core city. In chart (i), FI reaches the peak value at cells 25–26 until 1998, which is located in New Baiyun International Airport and FI decreases gradually from 2003 because of the establishment of New Baiyun International Airport (the establishing time is from 1998 to 2003). In chart (j), FI reaches its peak value for each year at cells 14–18, which are located in the new city. Since 1995, the FI increases year by year which indicates the medium-high density impervious surface begins in two districts. After 2003, the FI decreases because the urban development is stable.
Near the center of city, along the northwest-southeast direction from 3 km (left) to 3 km (right) and the southwest-northeast direction [3 km (left) to 3 km (right)], values for PD show a visible decrease between 1990 and 2009. Meanwhile, values for MPS show a different temporal pattern. It has a progressive increase in the period from 1990–2009. It can be inferred that the impervious surface around the city center developed from several small sized impervious surface areas into fewer larger sized impervious surface areas. Values of ED and FI, near the city center, along the northwest-southeast direction from 2 km (left) to 2 km (right) and the southwest-northeast direction [3km (left) to 3km (right)], have an apparent decrease during the period from 1990–2009. This indicates that the impervious surface area distributed around the city center evolved from very fragmental to more continuous. Considering the values of PD, MPS, ED, and FI together, these patterns suggest that around the city center, impervious surface area developed from sparse little sized patches to a dense distribution with a larger area. This is due to the dispersed urban sprawl that characterized these areas starting in 1990, and the "filling-in" process that subsequently occurred, resulting in a higher residential density distribution.
Near the fringe of the study area, in the northwest from 4 km (left) to 3 km (right) and southeast from 3–31 km (right), the peak values of PD and MPS in each of the 6 years reflect that impervious surface area was gradually sprawling from the internal city center to external city districts after 1990. Subsequently, some new centers appear with a higher density distribution of residential and industrial buildings. It is inferred from this that impervious surface area appeared irregularly and sparsely near the edge of the city along the northwest-southeast direction and indicates that the incipient urban external sprawl is fast and unplanned. In addition, in the southwest, from 9 km (left) to 3 km (left) and northeast [between 3 and 27 km (right)], the same pattern with a northwest-southeast direction has been found, which exactly reflects the noncenter urban spatial sprawl pattern.
In this study, the spatial-temporal patterns of urbanization in Guangzhou have been investigated by using a subpixel linear spectral unmixing method in the periods from 1990–2009. Gradient analysis is finished based on two mutually perpendicular transects along the urban expansion directions, including 72 cells combined with landscape metrics. Impervious surface area is obtained and analyzed for 6 years. Landscape indexes are calculated based on the distance from the original point for medium and high percentage impervious surface to analyze the urbanization spatial-temporal pattern along the urban sprawl directions.
The results indicate that Guangzhou has experienced a rapid expansion in the past two decades (1990–2009). The impervious surface area increased from 12,998 ha in 1990 to 59,911 ha in 2009 spatially. In the whole study area, the gravity center of medium percentage surface gradually migrated from west of Baiyun Mountain toward the northeastern direction. The reason is that other types of land cover located in northeastern Guangzhou has been converted into impervious surface area. The gravity center of high-density impervious surface migration leapfrogged, for the reason that human activities and policies more severely affect the high-density impervious surface development. Along the urban expansion axes, medium and high percentage impervious surface appears gradually in the new city districts (noncenter area), from a sparse and irregular pattern to a less fragmental and dense distribution, which indicates that dispersed urban sprawl characterizes these areas in 1990 and the "filling-in" process occurs subsequently, resulting in a higher residential density distribution.
The expansion pattern of impervious surface is an important basic ingredient for analyzing urbanization. Linking the quantified and spatially explicit impervious surface sprawl pattern can help to clarify the relationship between the urbanization process and impervious surface expansion. Finally, developing an understanding of the dynamic spatial patterns of impervious surface area can improve our ability to assess and create future planning scenarios by combining appropriate methods, such as gradient analysis. The ability to relate pattern to process is essential for understanding urbanization, and this cannot be done effectively without gravity center and landscape metrics analysis.
This work is supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41201432). The support from the research program of National Key Technologies R&D Program in the 12th Five-Year Plan of China (Grant No. 2012BAH32B03) is also acknowledged. Anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments and suggestions, which helped to improve the manuscript.
Fenglei Fan is a professor at South China Normal University. He received his MS and PhD degrees from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He is the author of more than 40 journal papers. His current research interests include urban remote sensing and hyperspectral remote sensing.
Wei Fan is a remote sensing engineer at the Remote Sensing Technology Co., Ltd. Guangdong Branch. She received her MS degree from South China Normal University in 2014. Her current research mainly focuses on urban environment remote sensing.
Fenglei Fan and Wei Fan"Understanding spatial-temporal urban expansion pattern (1990–2009) using impervious surface data and landscape indexes: a case study in Guangzhou (China)", J. Appl. Remote Sens. 8(1), 083609 (Jun 25, 2014). ; http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.8.083609
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Online retailer Mobile Fun has revealed the Nokia 808 PureView will be available SIM-free from May 7th, costing £539.95.
The Nokia 808 PureView's main talking point is that 41MP camera, which takes incredibly - no, ridiculously - detailed shots. We got our sweaty mitts on one last month (check out our full 808 preview), and we were very impressed when zooming into photos. These snaps could easily be blown up to A3 and still look ultra-crisp.
You can also capture Full HD videos at 1080p resolution on the Nokia 808 PureView, at a silky-smooth 30FPS. We saw some movies shot at Carnival at night, and were blown away by how bright and colourful the images were.
Unfortunately, unlike its Lumia series which sports Windows Phone OS, the Nokia 808 PureView runs Symbian Belle. Although this is an improvement on earlier Symbian efforts, it's still a little clunky in places.
Other specs include a single-core 1.3GHz processor, and a 4" nHD AMOLED screen made from curved Gorilla Glass.
We contacted Nokia about the announcement, who confirmed that it still hasn't finalised plans for the launch of the 808 PureView. The official response was: "We will officially share UK ranging details for the Nokia 808 Pure View in due course, any suggested ranging information seen at this stage is simply speculation."
If that £540 pricetag does turn out to be the final cost, we're not sure how popular the 808 PureView will be. You can buy good quality DSLRs for less than that, and we're not convinced that pro photographers will be swayed to convert to a phone - although it might work well as an (admittedly expensive) backup device, for those moments when lugging around a hefty camera isn't feasible.
We'll bring you a full 808 PureView review soon, so check back for our final verdict! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get the first word on all of our big news and reviews.

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05:35:42 PM Jun 6th 2011
Who's the original example of this, Odin or Merlin? Both of their stories were codified into their current forms at about the same time, and, though I'd imagine that stories of Odin have been passed around a lot longer than stories of Merlin, was he always described this way?
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Hungary's Monetary Policy to Turn Dovish in March?
The Hungarian government is expected to announce its much-awaited fiscal revamp and name new central bankers in February in a move that may mean a swing to a dovish monetary policy.
The government will fill four seats on the seven-strong Monetary Policy Council, creating a majority capable of outvoting the three remaining members—the central bank governor and his two deputies. Many investors fear that Hungary's monetary policy will, as a result, turn dovish in March to help boost economic growth, the government's chief economic goal.
Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy last week submitted a draft bill to parliament that, if approved, will allow the parliament to appoint the four new MPC members from outside the central bank's executive ranks. The change in the legislation, which strips the central bank governor of the right to appoint two of the new members, has been criticized by the European Central Bank and bank governor Andras Simor.
The governing Fidesz party holds a two-thirds majority in parliament, which makes it likely the new MPC members will represent the government's stance on monetary policy, financial markets reckon. Boosting economic growth is the government's top economic priority, which has tended to go against the central bank's primary mandate of keeping consumer price inflation at the 3% target.
Unless the government's new fiscal plan convinces the market and leads to a stronger forint, a swing to a dovish monetary policy, away from the central bank's current tightening cycle, could weaken the currency, while supporting growth for a while. Raising the inflation target, which the government is reportedly also considering, is another prime risk that would erode Hungary's monetary policy credibility.


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New IRON MAN 3 Plot Details, Teaser Video/Poster Revealed
A new teaser trailer debuted for Iron Man 3 in stealth mode over the weekend, giving eager Marvel Studios fans a first glimpse at the newest armor in action, plus a tiny peek at Ben Kingsley as the villainous Mandarin.The full trailer will debut Tuesday October 23, 2012, but until then, courtesy of USA Today, we have the first new plot details, and some new images, from the film. Iron Man 3 starts wave 2 of the Marvel Studios epic that will culminate in the sequel to the billion and a half dollar smash Marvel's The Avengers. Seeing Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark back out on his own after the alien invasion in that film, he'll have his first encounter with The Mandarin early on, according to the paper, with a large amount of his weapons and armors wiped out entirely. This facilitates his newest armor, the ultra high tech Mark VIII, which is controlled largely by his mere thoughts. "He basically loses all of his toys and is forced to just use his mind to rebuild and to face his biggest enemy," Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told USA Today. Feige told the paper that Iron Man's superpower is his intellect, as opposed to godly mystical force or a super soldier serum. "He's ultimately the engineering superhero. He's so charming and so flamboyant that sometimes you forget that's what he is: 'Hey, kids, learn this stuff and you can maybe build an Iron Man suit.'" The movie will continue to build on Stark's relationship with Pepper Potts, played by Gwenyth Paltrow, who helps him through the loss of the armor he holds so dear. "That's one of the things we love about (Tony)," Feige said. "It is not a new girl in every film. Pepper Potts is an incredibly important part of his life and his evolution as a hero. She plays a very big part in this film." Potts stays by his side, but ultimately it will be up to Tony to rebuild, similar to his arc in the first film. "While he is a charming guy, it is often hard to root for a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist because they seem to have it all," Feige said. "In this movie, we are again going to see him stripped down more than we've ever seen him since he was in that cave, again with his back against the wall and with nothing but his wits to help him survive." Feige said of Downey, Jr.'s performance, "I think he's given 120% on this one." He recognizes they need to show how and why these heroes would ever operate on their own again post-Avengers. "The goal with Iron Man 3 is to again prove that all of our single heroes are as interesting alone as they are when they're all together in an Avengers movie." The new Mark VIII armor, meanwhile, is a natural evolution of the seven that have come before it in Iron Man's previous three film appearances. From standing still for several minutes to a suitcase to a pod that builds itself around wrist guards, the new armor will literally assemble itself around him. "Now we see he's invented a technology that allows him to basically have the suit arrive to him anywhere at any time, piece by piece," Feiges said. "And it doesn't always work at first." The first full trailer for Iron Man 3 debuts October 23, 2012. The film debuts May 3, 2013. Update: More early Iron Man 3 imagery comes in the form of a freshly released teaser poster, seen here. More Marvel Studios News on Newsarama:
- Disney Gives Marvel Studios' ANT MAN Release Date
- Iron Man Mark VIII, Iron Patriot Side-by-Side in Set Pic
- 10 Things We Learned from Marvel's THE AVENGERS
Twitter activity Tweets by @Newsarama


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|The EU has been urged to make "the invisible, visible" and increase public awareness of ADHD.
President of the European brain council Mary Baker told TheParliament.com, "A lot of people do not believe in [ADHD's] existence. So therefore, if it does not exist, then people do not understand that there is treatment for it. We need to make this illness visible to society."
Baker, also a consultant to the World Health Organisation and chair of their working group on Parkinson's disease, was speaking at the launch on Tuesday of an expert white paper on ADHD.
The white paper aims to provide policy solutions to address the societal impact, costs and long-term outcomes in support of individuals affected by ADHD.
She added, "There is a lot of support that can be given to children living with this disorder, if people start to work together."
If ADHD is recognised early and treated appropriately, the child "will get a better education, a better chance in the workplace, a better chance at family relationships and making relationships of their own", said Baker. "It's an illness which requires good investment and I think teachers, psychologists, criminal justice, all need to come together and help society face up to a challenge that could be considerably better managed."
Baker added that it is "very difficult" for older people diagnosed with ADHD "because, like anything in life, to be diagnosed with [an illness] later is always hard".
She also warned that it is often something quite major in an adult's behaviour that signals the need for help, from driving offences to criminal activity, "So an early diagnosis to make an invisible illness visible is the way to go."
The term 'invisible disability' is often used to describe ADHD because of the lack of knowledge and widespread social stigma surrounding the condition. Among mental health disorders, ADHD is one of the most neglected and misunderstood in Europe, according to the white paper. ADHD affects approximately one in 20 children and adolescents across Europe, with many cases persisting into adulthood, the report says. And currently, due to untreated or inappropriately treated ADHD, the disorder is creating an excessive burden and expense to society.
Co-chair of the European parliament's interest group on mental health, wellbeing and brain disorders, Nessa Childers explained that work on improving the situation for ADHD sufferers must begin at national level. "We all have to go back to our member states and publicise this situation," she told this website. The Irish MEP added, "As a clinician, I have seen adults who were not diagnosed with ADHD as children and the kind of damage that was done to them. I think advocacy and education is the way [to combat this]." Childers went on to highlight how mental health problems such as ADHD are becoming far less of a priority on the political agenda, particularly due to the current economic crisis, which has resulted in widespread cutbacks in resources. "ADHD is one of the most neglected and misunderstood psychiatric conditions in Europe," she warned.
The S&D deputy said, "At member state level we must begin to share research and information. Some member states have very sophisticated support mechanisms for ADHD. "It would be a good idea if we looked at that and began to reproduce them in all member states because, quite frankly, it doesn't take a lot, only a small amount of investment is needed to make a big difference to individual children, to school teachers and to parents."
Video of the interview with Mary Baker and Nessa Childers on ADHD - click here.
For the expert White Paper on ADHD (some member organisations of ADHD-Europe contributed too): click here


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Hamilton County Celebration and Miniature Golf Classic
UWCI - Hamilton County Office
Friday, June 26, 2009 from 11:15 AM to 2:00 PM (EDT)
Event Details
"Link up" to United Way's Hamilton County Celebration!
Round up your foursome and join us for a fun-filled afternoon of celebrating United Way's successful 2008 campaign, while enjoying a round of miniature golf.
WRTV-6 anchor Ericka Flye and WRTV-6 meteorologist Crystal Wicker will emcee the event. United Way will recognize leaders in the campaign and community, and will unveil the Early Readers Club, Hamilton County's newest initiative (and part of United Way's Ready to Learn, Ready to Earn priority).
The Miniature Golf Classic is a 4-person, best-ball format. Attendees may choose their own teams, or we'll match you up. Entry fee includes golf, food and a beverage. Slushies will be available for $2. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Early Readers Club in Hamilton County. A tax-deductable receipt will be issued upon completing your online registration.
The event will be held rain or shine. If it rains, the event will be held inside and guests will receive video game tokens. Dress is casual. Capris/long shorts are acceptable as casual dress.
A big thank you to Ben & Ari's for hosting this event!
When & Where
Ben & Ari's
SR 37 N & 141st Street
Friday, June 26, 2009 from 11:15 AM to 2:00 PM (EDT)
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TWO county volunteers have been given the royal seal approval.
Joshua Caine and Rosemary Hoyes both met the Princess Royal due to the hard work that they do for their respective charities.
Josh, from Hereford, is a St John Ambulance cadet and saved the life of a woman who fell down stairs at her home.
The 16-year-old was delivering papers in Tupsley when he noticed the flashing of a torchlight through a letterbox.
He looked into the house and saw a woman lying on the floor, shouting that she needed help.
Josh let his St John Ambulance training take over and the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School pupil told the 90-year-old to stay calm and not to move. He then ran next door to get a spare key and asked his mum to call an ambulance.
The woman was believed to be suffering from a serious neck injury and hypothermia as a result of the fall.
Josh was invited to Armoury House in London to meet the Princess and share his story as part of a young achievers' reception.
Meanwhile, Rosemary was presented with a silver trophy by the Princess Royal for her role at Riding for the Disabled (RDA). .
Rosemary, who lives near Ross-on-Wye, is a volunteer at the RDA Centre and was recognised for her contribution to the Herefordshire branch.


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Join the Under2
Thank you for your interest in the Under2 MOU and in joining the Under2 Coalition.
Subnational governments are invited to join as Principal Signatories of the Under2 Coalition.
Signatories in this category are states, provinces, regions, districts, cities, towns, municipalities, and other such subnational administrative divisions.
By signing the Under2 MOU, a subnational jurisdiction is declaring its commitment to limiting its greenhouse gas emissions to below 2 metric tons per capita by 2050. Signatories are required to provide a brief appendix that outlines their specific greenhouse gas emission reduction policies and actions that are underway or planned.
Subnational jurisdictions are invited to join the Under2 Coalition at any time. Signing ceremonies to recognize subnational government signatories will be held throughout the year.
For the details of the signing ceremony for Founding Signatories that took place in Sacramento, California, on May 19, 2015, click here.
To sign on to the Under2 MOU:
- Express your intent to sign the Under2 MOU in an email to Taryn Akiyama at email@example.com
- Submit a signature page that includes the name of your jurisdiction, name of the signatory, and title of the signatory.
- Prepare an appendix that sets forth your jurisdiction's unique set of actions and plans for reaching your emissions reduction goals. Submission of the appendix prior to signing is strongly preferred; however, will will allow jurisdictions more time to complete their appendix.
National governments are invited to participate as Endorsing Partners of the Under2 Coalition.
By way of its endorsement of the Subnational Global Climate Leadership MOU, a nation may indicate a range of intentions. For instance, a national endorsing partner could indicate its commitment to:
- Support subnational jurisdictions within its boundaries (including those who are signatories to the Under2) in their efforts to reach emissions targets;
- Encourage subnational jurisdictions within its boundaries to sign the Under2 MOU;
- Limit national greenhouse gas emissions to below 2 annual metric tons per capita by 2050; and/or
- Consider making a financial pledge to support the Under2 Coalition's work.
National endorsing partners are encouraged to provide a brief statement explaining their reasons for associating with the Under2 Coalition.
National governments are invited to endorse the Under2 at any time. A ceremony to recognize the endorsements of national partners may be organized later this year.
To endorse the Under2:
- Express your intent to endorse the Under2 MOU in an email to Taryn Akiyama at firstname.lastname@example.com
- Submit a letter expressing your endorsement of the Under2 MOU, including a brief statement explaining your reasons for wishing to join. This should include the name of your jurisdiction, name of the endorser, title of the endorser, and a signature.


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Joseph Kuo
Son of the Swordsman
A young man transporting a package on behalf of his father, a famed martial artist, is ambushed by a band of thieves determined to steal the valuable parcel. A mysterious, and formidable, woman comes to his aid, but when her identity is disclosed, it triggers a violent feud that won't end without bloodshed. Peter Yang Kwan and Cheung Ching Ching star in this kung fu action classic known for its exciting swordplay.


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Zinc occupies a supreme location on the headland overlooking the legendary Fistral Beach and provides the ultimate sanctuary to relax, unwind and enjoy the seasons.
Taking its inspiration from Miami's South Beach district, it provides a new standard in contemporary living and has been designed to complement its unique location, providing a tranquil space, yet keeping pace with the cosmopolitan lifestyle that's on offer in Newquay.
The open plan living space utilises the natural light and extensive glazing makes the most of the exceptional scenery. Comfort and convenience have been built in to provide you with a perfect base to pursue an active or relaxing lifestyle.
Apartment 23 is a two bedroom apartment located on the first floor and benefits from a large balcony with stunning views over Newquay Golf Course and the Atlantic Ocean. There is an allocated parking space at this property.
There is allocated parking at this property.
High spec kitchen including an integrated electric oven and gas hob, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, washer dryer and microwave. Breakfast bar and two contemporary bar stools.
Glass dining table with four chairs.
Spacious open plan living room/dining/kitchen area with views over the Golf Course towards Fistral Beach. Large 'L' shaped sofa bed (offering additional sleeping options for up to two guests) and coffee table. Flatscreen TV with integrated Free view. Access to the balcony.
Double bed with bedside cabinets, lamps and chest of drawers. Wall mounted Flatscreen TV with integrated Freeview. Access to the balcony with stunning views over the Golf Course and out to sea.
Double bed with bedside cabinets, lamps and chest of drawers. Wall mounted Flatscreen TV with integrated Freeview. Access to the balcony with stunning views over the Golf Course and out to sea.
Living Room/AreaThe living area also has a sofa bed offering an additional sleeping option for up to two guests.
Spacious main bathroom with bath, shower over, wash basin, WC and heated towel rail.
En-suite to Master Bedroom comprises shower cubicle, wash basin, WC and heated towel rail.


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861 Carlton Avenue, Grand Rapids 49503
See more homes for sale in Grand Rapids, MI
This property has been Sold!
06/30/2016 at $133,900
3 bedroom 2 bathroom ranch conveniently located just minutes from downtown Grand Rapids. The home is newer and was built in 1997 which is rare in this neighborhood. The main floor has a spacious living area that faces east and receives lots of natural sunlight. A huge bonus is the master bedroom with an attached master bathroom. The other 2 bedrooms are well sized and offer reasonable closet space. Head to the lower to find 2 huge rooms that are finished and would make the perfect space for a man cave or rec room. Off the kitchen, is a back deck that is perfect for summer backyard barbecues. An additional feature is the over sized 2 stall garage. The seller had 12 inches of insulation added to the attic which helps keep utility costs low in the summer and winter months. All appliances
Property Information
- Status
- Sold
- Address
- 861 Carlton Avenue
- City
- Grand Rapids
- Zip
- 49503
- County
- Kent
- Township
- City of Grand Rapids
- Possession
- Zoning
- Residential
- Total Finished SqFt
- 1,900
- Above Grade SqFt
- 1,040
- Garage Desc.
- 2, Detached
- Water
- Public
- Sewer
- Public
- Year Built
- 1997
- Taxes
- $1,360
Rooms and Land
- Basement
- Full Basement
- Cooling
- Central
- Heating
- Forced Air, Natural Gas
- Acreage
- 0.14
- Lot Dimensions
- 60x100
- Appliances
- Dishwasher, Dryer, Garbage Disposal, Microwave, Oven, Range, Refrigerator, Washer
- Exterior Materials
- Vinyl
Listing Video for 861 Carlton Avenue, Grand Rapids MI 49503
Mortgage Calculator
Listing Broker
Listing Courtesy of Re/Max Of Grand Rapids (fh)
Office Address 4362 Cascade Road Se
Listing Agent Ashleigh Vanduinen
Listings last updated: . Some properties that appear for sale on this web site may subsequently have been sold and may no longer be available.
Our Michigan real estate agents can answer all of your questions about 861 Carlton Avenue, Grand Rapids MI 49503. Real Estate One, Max Broock Realtors, and J&J Realtors are part of the Real Estate One Family of Companies and dominate the Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate market. To sell or buy a home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, contact our real estate agents as we know the Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate market better than anyone with over 100 years of experience in Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate for sale.
The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site appears in part from the IDX programs of our Multiple Listing Services. Real Estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Real Estate One includes the name and address of the listing broker where available.
IDX information is provided exclusively for consumers personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
All information deemed materially reliable but not guaranteed. Interested parties are encouraged to verify all information. Copyright© 2017 MichRIC LLC, All rights reserved.


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We help you search for a Highbury oboe tutor. Oboe tuition are a great way to learn an entertaining new hobby, pick up a new talent and attain confidence with oboe. Use our site to search for Highbury oboe tutors and choose which best suits your needs so you can start your oboe tuition in Highbury immediately!
This is the only place to locate Highbury oboe teachers in the UK, helping you find Highbury oboe tuition close to you and Highbury teachers to help with any instrument such as piano, violin or guitar. We can help you find Highbury oboe tuition or a one-to-one Highbury oboe teacher to prepare for oboe grades and improve your oboe skills! Our search will order Highbury oboe tutors local to you according to their hourly charges and distance from you.
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This property is no longer available.Search for Available Property.
10 acres in Morgan County, Colorado
GREAT LOCATION! Right off I-76 and Hwy 34. Property is Zoned Light Industrial and has a commercial 4000 sqft shop + office space on 10 acres! Office space in shop and additional office building. Well services the property. Lots of potential!
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NOTE: The information contained herein is provided as general information only and has been obtained from sources deemed reliable. It is provided without any guaranty, warranty or representation, expressed or implied, made by Lands of America, or any related entity, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information. The information is presented subject to errors, omissions, change of price or conditions, prior sale or withdrawal without notice. Prospective purchasers should make their own investigations, projections and conclusions concerning the information.


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A beautiful mirror to hang on the wall for seeing an outfit in full, letting light into the room or simply to decorate. Gold will compliment many different colour schemes and it adds a little glam edge.
Glass and metal
H: 1200mm W: 380mm
Our standard delivery is between 2-8 days, our average lead time for delivery is usually 3 days.
In most cases items are sent out for next day delivery
The delivery lead time may vary depending on your post code.
Delivery lead time is usually between 3 - 5 Working Days however some items are special order and have a longer than usual lead time. Please send us an email or call to check the lead time.
Please allow 2-3 weeks lead time for our Eichholtz, Living Design and Soft Furnishing Ranges.
Please note the size and weight of the item may effect the delivery lead time.
For more information with regards to our delivery and returns policy please use the following link Delivery & Returns
We offer free delivery on all UK orders which are over £1000.
This will automatically apply in the checkout if your order qualifies for free delivery.


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More Obama BS: Obamacare 'Free Contraceptives' Alone Could Make Up for What a Woman Spends on the Premium
Filed Under Health Care, Politics | 9 Comments
President Obama really does rely on his base being total and complete morons who don't know how to use the calculators on their Obamaphones.
Obama has been going around telling people that the "free contraceptive" coverage under Obamacare plans could be worth the price of the premium.
In a word: Bull:
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Obamacare "subsidy calclulator," a 27-year old woman, who is single, has no children, does not smoke, and earns $32,000 per year will pay an average annual premium of $2,657 in 2014 to buy a health-care plan in an Obamacare exchange. That works out to $221.42 a month–many times the cost of a month's supply of birth control pills.
If the same woman had an annual income of only $29,500, she would still need to pay an average of $2,432 in annual Obamacare premiums–or $202.66 per month.
Birth control can be purchased for as little as $10 a month. So Obama's claim that if a woman is on birth control the Obamacare plan "pays for itself" is only true if the women's current form of birth control is paying a friend $55 a week to tell the guy "not tonight, f*#@head!"
9 Responses to "More Obama BS: Obamacare 'Free Contraceptives' Alone Could Make Up for What a Woman Spends on the Premium"
ChapBix on
September 26th, 2013 3:05 pm
As in all things that the statists do, prices DO inflate with continued tampering with market forces. Want evidence? Start with education and health care. Look for contraceptives to increase in price after Obama's announcement as insurers must provide them free to the insured.
backwoodsconservative on
September 26th, 2013 9:13 pm
This is from the guy who said we could solve our problems with high gas prices by keeping our tires properly inflated.
Marshall_Will on
September 26th, 2013 9:35 pm
There's ONE way to close the "reversion to the mean" gap!
Good point CB. Many have noted from the inception of the G.I Bill ( post WWII ) and particularly post VN that the cost of a college education SOARED as more and more took advantage of these programs.
So like SS, only the first wave of recipients truly benefitted, the rest get handed an over priced BOS.
Marshall_Will on
September 26th, 2013 9:40 pm
After 5+ years, thousands of broken promises and countless scandals ( wouldn't you think the LSM would take Him to TASK on some of this creative license? )
Recently I'd seen a clip of Teh Wun claiming "When you structure health care premiums in a way that are cheaper than than people's *cell phone bill" people are going to sign up for it".
Define "cell phone bill" Mista' pResident. You should have seen some of my daughter's? It can mean anything from a pre-paid $10 a mo. plan like grandma gets in case she forgets where she parked the car and PANICS up to $500 PLUS a mo. In watching Bertha Coombs GUSH about it NBR ( I'm less confident than EVER )
Marshall_Will on
September 26th, 2013 9:46 pm
And I'm not all that sure ( under cross-examination from Tyler Matheson ) her impromptu claim "You can choose to take the tax deduction UPFRONT or claim it at the end of the YEAR" statement will wash w/ your accountant?
Ahem, a family of 4 making $50k a year paying $500 a mo. for coverage sounds as likely as their being able to cover monthly golf membership dues. And if the claim is accurate, the coverage has huge deductibles and will run around $2,500 per annum. Their exchanges are ready to ROLL in about 14 States…
patti on
September 26th, 2013 11:33 pm
"President Obama really does rely on his base being total and complete morons who don't know how to use the calculators on their Obamaphones. "
Good one, Doug….I'm so using that
The BS is getting really deep…he can count on the gullible morons…but the funniest thing is barry believes his BS, too…he just reads whatever is in front of him, he's clueless. Did you notice Cruz spoke for 21 hours, no prompter, just afew notes….no ummmms, ahhhhs…..what a contrast.
Instagram from Sen. Mike Lee…
"I am encouraged by the increasing number of my colleagues who have been calling me to commit their support in the upcoming vote to #DefundObamacare #MakeDCListen"
Truesoldier__ on
September 27th, 2013 12:10 pm
Just like you do not hear from the LSM that Lois Lerner (through her attorneys) are trying to negotiate an immunity deal in exchange for her testimony. Issa has said that he hasn't offered a deal, but is willing to entertain negotiations. In otherwords, she better be willing to dish real dirt with evidence if she wants a get out of jail free card.
typeressay on
February 25th, 2016 10:43 am
President of america mister obama is very famous and extremely hardworking president of the state. It is beneficial for the country and all related issues are studied. His policies are providing good position to the president and his country.
essay writer on
March 21st, 2016 10:54 am
Network Marketing Ethical Advertising That Empowers Your Business
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Catching sand crabs at sunset


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70-81 F-body for DSE Quadra LNK (SGF15)
1970-81 Camaro / Firebird exhaust System for Detroit Speed Quadra Link Rear Suspension
Pricing: $862.07
Pypes is first to market with it's 1970-1981 Camaro /Firebird exhaust system specifically designed to fit the Detroit Speed Quadra Link rear suspension. The system can be purchased complete with a pair of Race-pro Mufflers (SGF15R), without mufflers (SGF15) or just as a tail pipe kit (TGF15). Constructed of 16 gauge mandrel bent stainless steel this 3" system is complete with Pypes Tunnel x-pipe, Mufflers, tailpipes hangers and hardware. The system fit the complex DSE suspension without cutting the floor or bracing and allows for complete suspension travel making for a perfect exhaust solution for this application. As with all Pypes products it's backed buy their lifetime warranty.
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- 67.0 lbs.
- W60.0000" x H12.0000" x L13.0000"
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|The addictive craft to looking a free is to ask the defeat into a online feeling. To that pitcher you fail to be a position to allow the real parent over the discipline still of the child under the responsibility. There take 2 Leverages with operating the craft umpire else with the new coach practice time.
|Downloads Columns Columns is a craft of police and compliant journalist, where you must get the articles up to Watch them we see 4G new statements every apartment! King Of Fighter 98 King Burger: King of Fighters XS Ultimatum: Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament: Street Fighter non-backward-compatible
PuroParty.com..."Reaching Hispanics!"


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Michi Shiranai was a farm in the Juramashi district of Otosan Uchi which became a roadway for criminals prior to the Scorpion Coup. [1]
- ↑ Otosan Uchi:Book 1, p. 47
|This Imperial Families related article is a stub. That means that it has been started, but is incomplete. You can help by adding to the information here.


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|EU Warning: Not suitable for children under the age of 3 years due to small parts which could cause a choking hazard.
Explore the world with this colourful and highly detailed 18cm Discovery Globe! Learn about all the different regions of the world on this sturdy globe that features political boundaries and natural features–the world is at your fingertips!


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Classes resume back for September 2016
Wow what a sizzling hot summer its been!! We have been busy with our 2016 Summer Camp. What an amazing camp it was this year with over 25 kids attending! We are back with a new season: ALL classes resuming back week beginning Sep 5th. We have a couple of new classes for this season


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Israel Program Overview
Livnot's Israel Program Overview
An amazing Israel experience program for Jews in their 20's in Tzfat
The first Livnot program in 1980 looked like this:
While the campus, tools and hairstyles have changed a bit since then, the foundations upon which Livnot U'Lehibanot was established have remained the same. Livnot programs combine meaningful community service, exciting hikes, thought-provoking spirituality workshops, engaging seminars, singing and group cooking, specifically for young Jews in their 20's. Livnot's programs ultimately create what has been described as "an environment whose essence revolves around the existence of a strong community for the post college age group" (G.B.). Livnot strives to beautify and mend Tzfat and all of Israel–their infrastructures and communities–and to help young Jews figure out for themselves what Judaism and spirituality mean to them. Come paint a house for an elderly Russian family, uncover a crusader fortress, scratch the surface of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah, snap some photos of the breathtaking Galilee, sing in an ancient cistern, learn about Shabbat, and make a few friends. We've got an Israel program for you:
One-week Northern Exposure
Two-week Jewish Leadership
Six-week Onward Israel: Ultimate Internship
Special Parents' Program