text:
Marshall, who reports to Senior Vice President John Reed, has 35 years of experience in commercial real estate finance. "Don repeatedly has been among the leading Freddie Mac loan originators," said Reed. "He has well-established relationships with borrowers and lenders, and we are excited to have him join us at Berkadia."
Marshall was with Capmark Finance Inc. for more than 12 years before leaving his position as manager of the Richmond office in May 2009. In December, Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, a joint venture between Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Leucadia National Corporation acquired the North American loan origination and servicing businesses of Capmark Financial Group Inc.
Earlier, Marshall was a senior vice president with Insignia Mortgage & Investment Company and held various management roles with Trammel Crow Commercial and Century Development.
Marshall has a bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University and a master of business administration degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Additional sources of funding for the project include:
9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) •
City of Chicago Department of Housing HOME loan • AHP
Grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) •
Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credit Donation Credit
Collectively, all sources of funding provided more than $21
million for the development of the project.
Centre of Galewood, a 102-unit, 102-bed Supportive Living
Facility, was constructed on approximately 0.526 acres. Rents
average $2600 per month.
Len Deering, Tom Sigrist and
Paul Matusiak of Berkadia's Chicago office originated the loan.
The borrower was Galewood SLF Associates, LP.
"This loan
involved a unique financing structure with an 'Insurance Upon
Completion' loan from FHA," said Sigrist. "Berkadia's expertise
and our in depth knowledge of FHA programs gained as one of the
leading FHA lenders in the national and local markets were an
asset in this transaction."
According to Deering, "The
4.47 percent fixed rate was one of the lowest we have
Mitchell R.
Thurston and Andrew J. Ahlers of Berkadia's San Francisco office
originated the loan. The borrower is Altamont Summit, LLC, an
affiliate of Arcadia Development Co., of San Jose,
Altamont Summit is a hilltop community of luxury,
Craftsman-style apartments with panoramic views of downtown
Portland. The property was 95 percent occupied at the time of
"The borrower wanted to close this refinance on
the maturity date of the existing loan," said Thurston. "We
seamlessly coordinated with all parties to fund the new loan on
the first business day of 2010."
Oharenko, Tom Sigrist, Paul Matusiak and Laura Cathlina of
Berkadia's Chicago office originated the loans through the
company's FHA/HUD program. The borrowers-first-time FHA/HUD
borrowers-were Westside Crest Limited Partnership and Fawn Ridge
Apartments Limited Partnership.
Berkadia acquired the
North American loan origination and servicing businesses of
Capmark Financial Group Inc. in December 2009. The FHA/HUD loan
origination platform has been an industry leader for more than a
"Matthew's considerable experience originating commercial real
estate loans with insurance companies will be a significant
benefit to Berkadia's commitment to increase loan volume with our
correspondent insurance companies in 2010," said
Prior to joining Berkadia, Case spent nine
years with Amherst Real Estate Capital, where he was responsible
for originating commercial mortgages. Earlier, he was a loan
production officer with George Elkins Mortgage Banking, where he
focused on underwriting, packaging, processing and placing
commercial mortgages with insurance company
Case has a Bachelor of Science degree in
business from the University of Oregon. Case, who holds CA Dept
of Real Estate License # 01331084, will originate third-party
loans through Berkadia Commercial Mortgage Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC.
Mentesana, with more than 20 years
industry experience, joined Berkadia from Encore Enterprises,
where he was responsible for multifamily development activities.
Prior to joining Encore in 2008, he was an FHA loan originator
with Capmark Finance Inc. for more than six years. Berkadia, a
privately held company in which Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a 50
percent ownership interest, acquired Capmark's origination and
servicing businesses in December 2009.
"We are very
happy to have Steve return to our FHA platform," said Reinlein.
"His broad experience and solid leadership skills will be
invaluable as we focus on expanding our business in the Texas
Mentesana has a Bachelor of Business
Administration degree from Southern Methodist University in
and Hill joined Berkadia from NorthMarq Capital. Prior to joining
NorthMarq in mid-2009, both Smith and Hill spent a number of
years as top originators in the Houston office of Capmark Finance
Inc. Berkadia, a privately held company in which Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. has a 50 percent ownership interest, acquired
Capmark's origination and servicing businesses in December
"We are extremely excited that Brant and Andy have
returned to our mortgage banking platform," said Bryant. "Their
leadership and significant loan origination expertise will be
invaluable as we prepare to increase our presence in Texas and
throughout the United States."
Smith, a senior vice
president, joins Bryant and Koeijmans as part of the Texas
management team.
Bryant said, "We believe that managing
our Texas mortgage banking business as a team will enable us to
give our diverse lenders, such as insurance companies, Fannie
Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and others, the highest level of service
and access to the broadest base of borrowers."
Prior to
joining Capmark, Smith was a director in the Houston office of
Holliday Fenoglio Fowler. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in
Economics from Texas A&M University and is active in the
Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Multi-Housing Council
and the Urban Land Institute.
Hill formerly was a
commercial lending officer with Sterling Bank and is a graduate
of Sterling Bank's Commercial Credit Training Program. He has a
Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from Texas
A&M University and is active in the Urban Land Institute's
Young Leader Program, the Association of Commercial Real Estate
Professionals and the National Multi-Housing
Rob Lipson of Berkadia's Red Bank, N.J., loan
origination office and Jim Badolato of the Philadelphia office
sourced the financing through a regional banking relationship.
The borrower was RL Shopping Center LP, an entity representing a
joint venture between an experienced local developer and a
national investor. The refinance allowed the borrower to pay off
their maturing acquisition loan and recapture recent capital
investments at the center.
When purchased by the current
ownership in 2006, the asset had two major vacancies. They have
since successfully back-filled the empty box spaces and
stabilized the center. Red Lion Plaza is now fully occupied with
a diverse tenant base, including Best Buy, Staples, American
Signature Furniture, and a new Planet Fitness.
Senior Vice President Warren Higgins of
Berkadia's Philadelphia office originated the loan through Sun
Life Assurance Company of Canada. Wilbur C. Henderson is the
principal of the borrowing entity, Curtis Park
The 558,000 square-foot building is located
on approximately 15 acres at 2000 Elmwood Avenue in the Folcroft
East Business Park. Constructed circa 1930 as the headquarters
and manufacturing plant for the Curtis Publishing Company, the
building was renovated in the mid-1980s for its current
multi-tenant occupancy. The borrower has owned the property since
"We originated financing with Sun Life Assurance
for this property in 1999," said Higgins. "The borrower is
experienced and financially strong, and the property is favorably
located in proximity to Center City Philadelphia and the
Philadelphia International Airport. When the loan matured, Sun
Life Assurance refinanced the debt at competitive
Landon, a highly experienced mortgage banker,
previously worked with Grubb and Ellis Capital Markets Group.
Earlier, he operated a private enterprise in Dallas and Austin
that was an intermediary providing third-party debt and equity
capital to commercial real estate clients.
"Members of
our team have known Mike for many years as an associate,
competitor and collaborator on deals. We are excited to be
joining forces with him as we continue to grow our platform in
the Texas market," said Bryant. "Mike, like recent hires Brant
Smith and Andy Hill, has long standing relationships with
numerous insurance companies and borrowers across the
Bryant continued, "Adding a seasoned
professional like Mike will help us meet the increasing capital
demands of our broad base of clients. With more capital becoming
available from the insurance company sector, GSEs and other
lenders, we are seeing a welcome uptick in activity after the
lull in commercial assignments over the past two years."
Landon has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in
Finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
Contempo Tempe is an age-restricted (55+) manufactured housing
community. Located in Maricopa County, Contempo is situated on
approximately 58.81 acres at 2609 West Southern Avenue in the
southeastern portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Constructed in 1974, Contempo consists of 454 spaces with 159
single-wide and 295 multi-sectional spaces. Among the property's
amenities are a large clubhouse/leasing office, laundry facility,
spa, fitness center, swimming pool and shuffleboard courts. The
clubhouse features an events/dining hall, activities room,
billiards room and a commercial-grade kitchen.
property is 94 percent occupied with an average rent of $453 per
month for multi-sectional and $434 per month for single-wide
Senior Vice President Chad Thomas Hagwood of
Berkadia's Birmingham, Ala., office originated the transaction.
The borrower is an affiliate of Silver King Companies.
"My client and I are extremely pleased with the ease at which
Chad Hagwood and his staff at Berkadia were able to successfully
arrange the recent refinance of Contempo Tempe MHP," said Thomas
Houlihan, president of Sterling Financial Mortgage &
Investment Inc. "Their professionalism, confidence and personal
attention made the process during these challenging times both
pleasant and profitable."
Mitchell R. Thurston
and Andrew Ahlers of Berkadia's San Francisco office originated
the loans, which had 10-year terms and 30-year amortizations. The
borrower was a joint venture between Pacific Property Company and
TRECAP Partners.
"We were able to help the borrower
recapitalize these two institutional-quality assets for long-term
ownership by providing aggressively priced fixed-rate debt with
an early rate lock through Freddie Mac's Capital Markets
Execution product," said Thurston.
The CME product,
implemented by Freddie Mac in 2008, offers increased flexibility
with pricing based on the options requested and individual loan
The 279,000
square-foot Whitman Plaza is located at the intersection of
Oregon Avenue and Randolph Streets. Built by Breslin Realty
Development approximately 25 years ago, the neighborhood shopping
center is anchored by a Pathmark supermarket and K-Mart. The
property has maintained high occupancy levels throughout its
history. Fashion Bug, Payless Shoes, Radio Shack and Party City
are some of the center's other tenants.
Senior Vice
President David Fishler of Berkadia's New York City office
originated the loan. The lender was Long Island, N.Y.-based
Bethpage Federal Credit Union. The borrower, South-Whit Shopping
Center Associates, is an affiliate of Breslin Realty
"Berkadia has worked on the financing for
various Breslin Realty projects over the years," said Fishler.
"This financing was complicated by K Mart's impending lease
expiration, which required the credit union to structure the loan
to address the risks associated with the tenant
Weisman has 25 years
experience in acquisition and permanent financing for multifamily
and commercial income-producing real estate assets. A 20-year
resident of Seattle, Weisman formerly was with Key Bank Real
Estate Capital where he was responsible for permanent loan
originations in the Washington, Oregon, Utah and Northern
California markets. Earlier in his career, Weisman established
two other mortgage operations in Seattle-American Property
Financing West LLC and American Capital Resources.
"Berkadia will focus on meeting the financing needs of
multifamily owners and developers in the Seattle market through
our Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae DUS® programs and HUD's
Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) program," Weisman said.
Berkadia also is active as an originator of loans through its
correspondent relationships with insurance companies, pension
funds and other third-party capital providers.
Prior to joining
Berkadia, Abelson and Gilfillan were mortgage bankers with the
Houston office of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital LLC having
spent seven years with its predecessor, Live Oak
Earlier, Gilfillan spent two years as a
financial analyst in the Capital Markets Group of Spaulding &
Slye Colliers in Boston and five years as an investment analyst
at HFF in Buffalo, N.Y., and Houston.
experience includes serving as assistant director of investments
for the multifamily bond program and land management division of
McCord Development in Houston. Earlier, Abelson was an
associate/real estate consultant with a national accounting firm
where he was responsible for the extensive research and analysis
of market data used for the valuation and/or appraisal of
commercial properties.
"We are very excited that Cutt
and Jon will lead Berkadia's Houston office and play a key role
in growing our Texas business overall," said Bryant. "They have
worked alongside some talented mentors over the years and are
looking forward to developing their own team and running the
branch office. John Koeijmans, Brant Smith and I welcome them. We
are very proud to have them on board."
As the
build-to-suit corporate headquarters of MeadWestvaco Corporation,
the 13-story, class "A" office building is 100 percent occupied.
The 311,000 square-foot building is located on 3.16 acres along
the James River adjacent to the Fifth District Federal Reserve
Bank in Richmond's financial district.
Senior Vice
President Geoff McVeigh of Berkadia's Richmond, Va., office
originated the loan, which was funded by Deutsche PostBank AG
through PB Capital Corp. NewMarket Corporation is the principal
of the borrowing entity, Foundry Park I, LLC.
to McVeigh: "The 2009 collapse of the commercial real estate
credit markets made marketing this loan request extremely
difficult. Although few lenders were in the market, this
property's dynamic location, state-of-the-art facility and
credit-worthy tenant and borrower captured the attention of
"Berkadia's extensive marketing was the key
to finding a viable lender," said Bruce Hazelgrove of NewMarket
Corporation. "This was a difficult assignment, but Berkadia's
experienced team persevered and got the results we were looking
Berkadia's eight-member Seniors Housing
and Healthcare Group includes experienced loan originators
Monique Bimler, Philip Brooks and Lisa Lautner, and is managed by
industry veteran Bill Kauffman. Collectively, the four have
originated $12 billion of debt to seniors housing and healthcare
properties, 25 percent of which has been Agency
The loan, arranged by Kauffman and Bimler, has
a 10-year term and a 30-year amortization. The borrowers are
subsidiaries of Brookdale Senior Living Inc., which purchased the
properties in late 2009 as part of an 18-property acquisition
from affiliates of Sunrise Senior Living, Inc.
properties, located in Santa Rosa, Calif.; Wilton, Conn.; Carmel,
Indiana; Englewood, Ohio; and Finneytown, Ohio, are owned and
operated by subsidiaries of Brookdale. The five communities
comprise 358 units, of which 107 are dedicated to Alzheimer's and
dementia care.
"We worked closely with Freddie Mac
underwriters to recognize improvements to property cash flow due
to Brookdale's management of the properties," said
Commenting on the formation of the new group,
Berkadia's president and CEO Michael I. Lipson, said, " Seniors
housing is a specialized asset class that is best served by a
dedicated origination team. Our seniors housing mortgage bankers
have demonstrated an outstanding track record for providing loans
to the industry."
"Our team is very excited to be
working together," said Kauffman. "In addition to expanding our
relationships with borrowers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we
expect to increase Berkadia's presence as a HUD LEAN originator
through a closer relationship with Berkadia's HUD
Berkadia's HUD platform, under the direction
of Executive Vice President Karl Reinlein, has consistently
ranked at or near the top of annual HUD healthcare loan
originators for the past decade.
Berkadia's industrial property experience includes
financing for everything from manufacturing facilities
to warehouses to power plants. All our experts are ready
to assist with any industrial venture you have in mind,
and your project is always backed by everything Berkadia
has to offer.


text:
AMD Will Build 64-bit ARM based Opteron CPUs for Servers, Production in 2014by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/29/2012 4:48 PM EST
- Posted in
- CPUs
- IT Computing
- Opteron
- Cloud Computing
32 Comments
Back to Article
itsthejedi - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkAnything that can help their position in the marketplace sounds good to me. Reply
Marburg U - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkWhat position?
I'm seriously asking. What do they want to be when they grow up?
I have no idea, do they? Reply
Symmetry81 - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkWell, they did want to sell Bulldozers to people who wanted a good performance/chip price ratio... but it looks like there aren't actually any of sort of customer anymore even if they execution hadn't been botched.
Now they're looking for people who want performance/power and both have highly threaded workloads and don't need all their threads to be memory coherent. Which is actually a real market! Not the biggest, but Facebook will certainly want to talk to them for instance. Reply
BallBond - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkLove my job, since I've been bringing in $5600… I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I'm making it online(Click on menu Home)
http://goo.gl/65nPk Reply
hrga - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkIf you quadruple that i'm willing to have a same job Reply
hrga - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkROFL. You're right about that we we should really asked them what they wanna be when they grew up.
But this time they're back on their long executing pipeline plan where they want a play a main roll in server market ever since they bought Alpha and released it as their first commercially successful desktop CPU -- K7 which later war renamed to widely popular Athlon brand.
Ever since they're announced their intentions to supplement oldish Intel's IA32 x86 instructions with now commonly known x86-64 instructions their intentions to grab a part of server market share were ridiculized.
The only problem i see with this long perpetuatiing intentions is that AMD deliberately neglecting desktop market as irrelevant to them while their competitiveness resembles to that they had in K5 vs. Pentium era but that doesn't seem bother them at all. Reply
rangerdavid - Friday, November 02, 2012 - link"Ridiculized" is an awesome new word, props for that - but "perpetuatiing." should be spelled "perpetuatiiiing."
Thank you. Reply
jjj - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkCost wise it might be cheaper to go with an ARM core but AMD's only advantage would be the fabric.A custom core could offer more of an advantage over the other ARM guys and they could have a go at consumer markets too (plus it would be far more interesting ).. Reply
RussianSensation - Monday, October 29, 2012 - link"AMD is not designing its own ARM cores at this point or acquiring an ARM architecture license to do so in the future.. The decision to use ARM's own core design—the Atlas 64-bit core that is a successor to the ARM A15—is apparently driven by AMD's time-to-market goals."
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4399611/AM... Reply
hrga - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkhttp://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4399611/AM...
That eetimes article is really uncomprehensively written ... "merchant chip", "ARM A15" ... i know for "merchant's goods", "marketed chip product", and "Cortex-A15" which is ARM core design. I wonder if Lisa Su written article for them. Reply
MySchizoBuddy - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linka custom core can come later own just like how Apple did it. Reply
Beenthere - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkThis is a good step forward for AMD in a developing market segment. It will be another revenue stream which is smart Biz. Reply
Jaybus - Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - linkThe market is still unclear at this point. The Samsung Exynos 4210 has 2 A9 cores with a TDP of 4.5 W and at 1.2 GHz achieves 1,380 MIPS in the 7zip LZMA compression benchmark. The two core i3 2100 at 3.1 GHz with a TDP of 65 W achieves 8,800 MIPS in the same test. But the competition is really the Xeon E3 1220L which has 2 cores and a 17 W TDP.
What I see is that Intel has had a power efficiency issue, whereas the ARM chips have a performance issue. But Intel is clearly getting better with, for example, the Xeon E3 1220L and its 17 W TDP at 2.3 GHz (3.5 GHz turbo). It would take at least 12 1.2 GHz A9 cores to match the performance of the E3 1220's 2 cores. Does the new 64-bit ARM core in the AMD chip gain enough in performance to compensate for the gains Intel has made in power efficiency?
The low power server market is really just not that clear. It is a risky move, which is why AMD is not designing its own ARM-based core just yet. But they have lost their competitveness in the high performance server market, so they are trying to branch out. There could be gains to be made in the ultra-low power server market, such as NAS boxes, media servers, etc.
Also, I wonder if AMD might be thinking about an ARM based APU SoC for the mobile market, since Apple seems to be at odds with Samsung these days. Reply
fancarolina - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkI hope they make this chip. This would be ideal for Windows 8 tablets. It would be able to turn off the x86 cores while in Metro and not doing anything heavy. Then when you fired up an x86 Application it can flip them on and you have the power of a full processor. You would get the best of both worlds ARM efficiency on the go and x86 application support when you want it. Reply
KitsuneKnight - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkI don't believe AMD is going to be making any ARM+X86 CPUs (at least not based on this announcement). Maybe in the future... but I don't think that'd be an ideal situation. Certainly wouldn't be easy at all to handle. Reply
MySchizoBuddy - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkHow many cores will the opteron chips actually have? Reply
kukreknecmi - Monday, October 29, 2012 - link""I do think that a Jaguar based Opteron would likely be the best route for AMD, but it would also likely require a bit more effort than integrating an ARM core.""
What does "require a bit more effort" here means? Arent Jaguars already developed and ready to go? Does Jaguar needs special treatment to become a server chip like Atom based ones? From what i know, Jaguar is more or less can be produced in recent times, yet Arm based ones will be more than 1 year.
So again, why the Jaguar's way needs more effort ? Or AMD is up to something that ArmV8 based chip will be a beast and probably wipe Jaguar, so there is no need to insist? Reply
mayankleoboy1 - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkwould it make sense to make a GPU from gluing together many ARM cores together with high bandwidth interconnects ? Reply
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkIn short, no. A GPU is fundamentally composed of many very simple math units, along with specialty units like texture units and ROPs. Not only would ARM cores be a poor choice for the math units (they're relatively complex) but it would still lack the kind of specialty units you need to flesh out the rest of the GPU. Reply
KitsuneKnight - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkFor a GPU? It'd likely be pretty horrible performance (or if you scaled it up enough, ignoring scaling limitations, horribly massive power consumption). While you might be able to get a lot of ARM cores for the same power as laptop/desktop GPUs, they'd likely take up a huge amount of physical space, and not have as good performance.
The ARM cores would have a massive amount of silicon duplicated that wouldn't be used very much. It'd beat the GPU for workloads the GPU sucks at (ones GPUs aren't regularly used for... non-graphic stuff), but... it won't necessarily beat a similar x86 chip at that workload.
It'll be interesting to see where ARM actually manages to go, but I doubt it's as different from x86 as a lot of people like to assume. Intel has shown an amazing ability to produce an x86 chip that's actually in the same ballpark as ARM chips... we still need to see ARM produce (well, design) a chip with high performance (as in, something that's usable for random laptop/desktop workloads... not just light tablet workloads). Reply
nofumble62 - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkIt does not have PCIe gen 3. Why it is called high speed? Reply
Jaybus - Wednesday, October 31, 2012 - linkNo. Intel already tried something similar with Larrabee. Reply
iwod - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkWe now know ARM's memory controller is its weakest area, do the license means AMD will be using the same controller for server applications? Or would they design something different.
I think there are increasing number roles in Web Server market where there is Low CPU usage with High Memory usage such as caching servers. Which is a perfect fit for ARM typed CPU.
And it is interesting that it was AMD who states they want x86 from top to bottom. And x86 will shrinks and grows. Then they came up with x64. Intel decided the other way and wanted IA-64 aka Itanium and ARM Xscale CPU for the low end. It was x64 that force Intel to rethink and license it, then sold Xscale and now literally gave up on Itanium. Now they swap position and It is Intel who thinks x86 should be used from top to bottom and AMD decided to use ARM, how time changes. Reply
booleanalgebra - Monday, October 29, 2012 - linkNot sure about AMD but this does lend credibility to the minions of ARM server guys like AppliedMicro and Calxeda who have been at it for many years already.
AMD was one of the two (main) members of the exclusive x86 club. For them to abandon that exclusivity and go with standard ARM cores is a testament in itself. But giving up that exclusivity also means they need to compete with the likes of AppliedMicro who have a head start on them. There will also be other ARM server players coming out of the woodwork so AMD will have to count on better execution - not their strong forte. Reply
andrewaggb - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkAMD isn't competing well in any market right now that I can see, other than bargain laptops and desktops. Their graphics lead (as far as perf/watt/$$ is lost as nvidia really turned it around).
By all indications haswell's integrated graphics may catch up (at least in benchmarks) to amd's integrated graphics.
They're almost hopelessly behind intel in single threaded performance, they have no smartphone wins, no windows 8 tablet wins (that I know of), almost no ultrabook-a-likes,
I don't know that switching to ARM will help them either. Sure you can use somebody else's cpu designs, but it's not a competitive advantage. You're likely using the same foundry as everybody else as well. Your graphics are good, but not especially low power, and you've conceded the high end to intel.
I don't want AMD to go away, but entering a very competitive market that Texas Instruments just pulled out of seems risky to me. Unless you're sure you can one up qualcomm, nvidia and apple, what's the point? I doubt they'll be one-upping anybody using stock core designs.
Hopefully I'm wrong. Reply
dvinnen - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkI would feel better about this venture if they were designing their own chips. I can imagine an ARM processor with a AMD memory controller and HyperTransport links built in could be a cool and viable product.
Not seeing that with just rebranding an ARM core as an Opteron Reply
rrohbeck - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkOnce they make their own designs, I can see interesting options:
An ARM APU with a Radeon GPU for graphics performance and GPGPU (HSA)
An ARM CPU that combines an ARM instruction decoder with a high performance back end
An x86 Opteron with a low end GPU and built-in ARM core as a IPMI BMC
And my favorite: A CPU that supports both x86 and ARM instructions. "Just" add an ARM instruction decoder to an Opteron. Reply
hrga - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkI like this part of IPMI BMC but that doesn't seems viable as this kind of specific CPu would still require Serial Port Interface + Super I/O + switchable logic and all that doesn't work on low voltages 1.2-1.4V as CPU ... some IPMI substitute could be blueprinted this way
My favorite would be CPU that doesn't "just support both instruction set" [ARMv8 and x86-64] but something that i could use w/o OS reboot as power sawing feature. But this even crappily new Win8 doesn't support yet (and probably wont!).
So at least they could in new desktop socket that will be brought for HSA, probably with Excavator @20nm, along integrate two "el cheapo" Jaguar cores to do the similar feature and yet every OS could do that w/o any issue as both share same x86-64 architecture.
Any good market thing with ARMv8 is if they go same way as nvidia announced their Tesla line should go. To integrate few ARMv8 cores directly onto GP-GPU which then could boot directly w/o need of any traditional x86-64/IA64 CPU. Reply
nofumble62 - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkDirk got fired because he hold on to x86 too long and let Nvidia jumped on ARM.
I guess that has always been the board intention. So they fired all the people don't go along with them.
Does AMD have a chance with ARM? yes.
Do they have enough time? No. They will run out of cash way before the first chip is launched. Reply
Metaluna - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkAs I see it, Intel is really the last of the companies that can sell CPUs as their defining product and profit center. ARM is a race to the bottom profit-wise. You can differentiate a little bit with custom architectures, but ARM cores are pretty much a commodity. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but it means that CPUs become just a small part of an overall product line. Nobody thinks of Qualcomm, Broadcom, Samsung, Apple, etc. as a processor company, nor is anyone paying a premium for ARM-based processors.
What I'm saying is, if AMD is going to go this route, it needs to become a much more diversified company than it currently is. Reply
melgross - Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - linkThis is AMD after all. So whatever they come out with will be a year late, underpowered, and use too much current.
This just looks like a desperate move by them, as they know they will always be behind Intel in that space. Reply
nukunukoo - Friday, November 09, 2012 - linkSeriously, will the company survive to see that happen in 2014? Reply

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Intellectual Property Scholarships
American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation - Sidney B. Williams Jr. Scholarship
Sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation, the Sidney B. Williams Jr. Scholarship addresses the need to increase the number of minority intellectual property attorneys and to bring these attorneys to the attention of firms and corporations as candidates for employment. The $10,000 Law Scholarships will be awarded to minority students developing a career in intellectual property law. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is assisting the Foundation by administering the application and selection process.
American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation - Jan Jacin Competition
Sponsored by the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation, the Jan Jacin Competition includes two separate awards offered to law students nominated by their schools who have excelled in the study of intellectual property law. The first award is the Jan Jacin Award, which includes a cash award of $5000. The second award has been established by the Past Presidents of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and awards up to a maximum of a $2500 cash reward.
International Trademark Association - Ladas Memorial Award
The Ladas Memorial Award, supported by the law firm of Ladas & Parry LLP and the INTA Foundation, was established in memory of the outstanding contributions to international intellectual property law made by the distinguished practitioner and author Stephen P. Ladas. The purpose of the Ladas Memorial Award is to provide an incentive to further develop interest in the field of trademarks and to enhance the general understanding of this discipline. The Competition is open to all U.S. and international students, practitioners and academics interested in trademarks and trademark law. Carries a $2000 cash award.
University of Houston Law Center - Institute for Intellectual Property and Information Law Sponsored Scholarship Grant for Judicial Clerks
The IPIL Sponsored Scholarship Grants (SSG) Program at the University of Houston Law Center is designed to facilitate newly-authored scholarship on Intellectual Property & Information Law (IPIL) by Federal Appellate Court clerks. As one of the nation's leading programs for the study of intellectual property and information law, the IPIL Institute at the University of Houston Law Center is pleased to provide this initiative to support the creation and dissemination of quality scholarship in its field. The IPIL SSG program provides grants for IPIL related scholarship from scholars serving or soon serving the Federal Appellate Courts as judicial clerks under a two-year or less appointment. Carries an award of $3000.
1L Patent Litigation and Patent Fellowships
The Perkins Coie Patent Litigation and Patent Fellowships provide a $7500 academic scholarship and a paid summer associate position following the first year of law school for 1L students with particular technical backgrounds and an interest in patent litigation and/or patent prosecution. Our summer associates work on real legal matters while working for and learning from attorneys who service the needs of Fortune 100 and 500 companies in industry areas around the nation
Fish & Richardson, P.C. - 1L Diversity Fellowship Program
Launched in 2005, Fish & Richardson's 1L Diversity Fellowship Program provides fellowships to five diverse first-year law students throughout the country annually. Each selected student receives a $5000 academic scholarship, mentoring by members of the firm, and a paid summer associate position in the Fish & Richardson office of the student's choice.
Patent and Trademark Office Society - Rossman Award
Established in 1972 by the Patent and Trademark Office Society and the friends of Dr. Joseph Rossman, the Rossman Award is given annually to the author of the article in the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Society that, in the opinion of the judges, makes the greatest contribution to the field of patents, trademarks, or copyrights. All of the articles published in the Journal between July of one year and June of the next year will be considered. The winner receives a plaque and a check for $1500 in a special meeting of the Patent and Trademark Office Society.


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International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) have confirmed the names of elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 as:
This followed a 5-month period of public review after which the names earlier proposed by the discoverers were approved by IUPAC.… Read more…
WebElements November 30th, 2016
Posted In: Chemical education, Periodic table, Radioactive elements
A huge find of #helium gas in Tanzania may alleviate critical helium gas resources for some time. Helium is required for cooling NMR magnets and associated imaging instruments in medicine (MRI)
WebElements June 28th, 2016
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Geological chemistry, Group 18 elements
Tags: Helium
Wondering why the most expensive diamond ever (the Oppenheimer Blue, £35 million) is blue – it is because of boron impurities, element 5 in the periodic table.
WebElements May 19th, 2016
Posted In: Chemistry
A panel commentary in Nature Chemistry Commentary speculates upon the names that might be proposed for the four new elements in the periodic table. Worth a read, but we'll have to wait a while longer yet.
Abstract: "Of all the things humans can bestow names upon, new chemical elements are about the rarest. Our group of periodic table experts attempts to read the tea leaves and predict the names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118."
WebElements March 23rd, 2016
Posted In: Nuclear chemistry, Periodic table, Radioactive elements
Tags: Element 113, Element 115, Element 117, Element 118
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has provisional recommendations for the naming of new elements and the recommendations are open for comment until 29 February 2016.
IUPAC state "the most important change is that the names of all new elements should have an ending that reflects and maintains historical and chemical consistency. This would be in general "-ium" for elements belonging to groups 1-16, "-ine" for elements of group 17 and "-on" for elements of group 18."
The discoverers have the right to suggest names and symbols.… Read more…
WebElements February 24th, 2016
Posted In: Chemistry
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) announced IN January 2016 that the identification of the four new elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118 is verified and that the discoverers of elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 are invited to suggest names.
Element 113 has a temporary working (systematic) name and symbol: ununtrium, Uut. It was discovered by the RIKEN collaboration team in Japan who fulfilled the criteria for element Z=113.… Read more…
WebElements February 24th, 2016
Posted In: Nuclear chemistry, Radioactive elements
Tags: Element 113, Element 115, Element 117, Element 118, Ununoctium, Ununpentium, Ununseptium, Ununtrium
The media cover a story that scientists at the German Max Planck Institute produced a helium plasma contained for about a tenth of a second but at about 1000000 K. The next step at the Wendelstein 7-X (a stellarator fusion reactor) is to increase the stability of the plasma, to improve the heating method, and to increase the plasma temperature.
WebElements December 20th, 2015
Posted In: Nuclear chemistry
Tags: deuterium, Helium, Hydrogen, nuclear fusion
Can you make your name, or any other word(s) come to that, from element symbols? Find out using this MyFunStudio script.
WebElements December 10th, 2015
Posted In: Chemistry, Periodic table
Well it's Christmas so here are a few Christmasy chemistry links:
WebElements December 10th, 2015
Posted In: Chemistry
For those of you with access to Channel 4 in the UK, here is information about the The Royal Institution (RI) Christmas Lectures. See here for details of the 2015 lectures: how to survive in space.
Dr Kevin Fong opens a window onto today's most exciting space missions, explores the future of space travel, and offers a unique insight into the challenges of protecting human life in the hostile environment of space in the 2015 Christmas lectures.… Read more…
WebElements December 10th, 2015
Posted In: Chemical education, Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
Tags: Christmas


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Last night's 4-3 overtime win at Detroit notwithstanding, the Blues have been enduring a tough stretch lately. And not every defeat has taken place on the ice. Earlier this week their mascot, Louie, lost his bid to be crowned "Most Awesome Mascot" at the Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards ceremony.
Louie hasn't spoken with the media since the Monday ceremony, but did agree to a phone interview with JoeSportsFan to talk about the disappointing news. Louie and JSF have collaborated on several projects in the past, and have developed a stable, if not solid, working relationship. Which is probably why he was a little more candid with us than he is in most interviews.
"It's tough. Real tough," he said, in a noticeably dejected tone. "At first, I was just thrilled to be nominated. After a while though, that competitive instinct kicks in. You know, that inner drive that got you to where you are in the first place, and you start thinking to yourself, 'Hey, I can really win this thing.'"
"But, at least that (expletive) wolf didn't win," Louie said, referring to K.C. Wolf, mascot for the Kansas City Chiefs and fellow nominee. "What a prima donna. God, I hate that guy. He's such an asshole."
"We (the mascot community) would have never heard the end of it. And he wouldn't have exactly been the best ambassador for the award, if you know what I mean."
Louie then made what could most likely be interpreted as a "glug-glug" style drinking motion.
Rocky the Mountain Lion, mascot for the NBA's Denver Nuggets, took home the honor. Rocky was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2008.
"Great guy," Louie said. "Fresh breath. Nice teeth. Snappy dresser. A real class act. There's no shame in losing to him. He's one of the best in the business. A real pro."
"We go way back, all the way to the beginning. We both got our start in this business doing openings for new Great Clips locations. Those were good times."
Rounding out the field was Lou Seal from the San Francisco Giants.
"I'd never met Lou before, so I don't really know him that well," admitted Louie. "But Fredbird got pretty acquainted with him last October, and has nothing but good to say about him. Apparently the guy eats sushi like there's no tomorrow."
Exit polls showed that Louie received high marks from Hall of Game Awards voters on important issues such as dance moves and general zaniness. However, it's possible he was hurt by his controversial stance on gun control, a hot-button topic of late.
"It's our (expletive) constitutional right," Louie remarked. "I own a gun. Of course, it's loaded with T-shirts, but the real reason it's never hurt anyone – and never will – is because I've been trained to use it properly."
Exit polls also revealed that voters saw Rocky as more of a flip-flopper, which is actually a good quality for a mascot.
Other categories in the Hall of Game Awards included He's Got Game, She's Got Game, Gnarliest Newcomer, and Best Whoa-Ment. The hosts were Nick Cannon and Shaquille O'Neal.
"Maybe next year. I'll be back," said a slightly more upbeat Louie. "I have a feeling the Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards will be around for a long, long time."


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In a lecture last year, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, HM Treasury permanent secretary and perhaps the most powerful old Etonian in Britain, explained the "Origins of Treasury control". Sir Nicholas said that Treasury's power came from three sources: conflict, links to Parliament and being able to outwit the rest of officialdom. All three were in evidence this morning, as George Osborne cited his top official's advice and told Scots they can have independence or the pound – but not both. Read more
© The Financial Times Ltd 2016 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.


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on your perspective, that's either a lovely sentiment or your worst
fear. Either way, I doubt it was ever true. It sure isn't now. Last week
a reader told me that Putnam County is a launching pad for people. The
Sentinel's most recent Putnam County Guide includes a list of famous
people who hail from hereabouts. Nancy Kline is indulging her passion
for history to add some names to that list which you will see in the
near future. I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary at this desk, and
during this time I've heard of individuals who helped launch Sesame
Street, wrote Newbery Award-winning books, presided in this country's
highest courts and invented life-altering technology. This week I spoke
to the brother and grandmother of Byron Kaverman of Fort Jennings, the
man who took second place in a world poker championship. He must have
learned that particular skill outside of Putnam County, because I'm sure
he never played cards in study hall or on the bus. I certainly never
did, no sir-ee.
We also see the infamous around these parts, and
on occasion it befits the edicts of journalism to cover the bad and the
ugly, sometimes requiring us to place coverage of the unpleasant
alongside or above the good. It happens, sometimes after we've already
mapped out what goes where on the page before it ships to the press.
Floods fill our streets and basements, algae blooms, businesses close,
people do go hungry and families divide.
Yep, this county is far
from asleep, and waking nightmares trouble us all from time to time. But
there's a reason why people stay here, or go and come back as I did.
This land and its people do not sleep. Most of us even have internet
service, allowing us to find out just what kind of sea creature we are
via Facebook. Change rolls around here, sometimes reluctantly and other
times rocketing out of here to impact everyone else. And I'm finding
that there are more people in these parts who are prepared to embrace
the new.
Thank goodness there's still a back 40 to escape to.
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Students introduced to jazz music through Jazz Fest
EUREKA- Hundreds of students sat and danced in their seats as they listened to jazz music inside the Eureka Municipal Auditorium on Friday. The event was put on for students by the Redwood Coast Jazz Festival to introduce them to the American style of music.
"If we don't get the young people to like [jazz] and learn how to play it, it will eventually die out," said Lynn McKenna, the President of the festival.
The Jazz Festival has been in Humboldt County for 24 years, and have put on an event for students for 21 of those years. McKenna said many students have never heard jazz before or have seen it play live.
Arcata Elementary Student, Will Moss said he had never heard jazz before today and said he liked it. "I guess now I do," he said.
"Jazz plays such a large part in the history of dance and music in America and all over the world and I think it's a great exposure for the kids to have," said Julie Ryman, a dance teacher at Arcata Elementary School who has been teaching jazz style of dance to students.


text: By now you probably have heard about Lindsay Lohan being charged for lying to the police and how Lindsay is going to have her probation revoked and you have wonderful thoughts of her going to jail and finally doing time in jail. Oh, Lindsay will go to jail, for about five minutes. Maybe 10 depending on how long it takes them to process her bail. Then she will be right back out and awaiting a probation hearing which will probably see Lindsay doing some additional community service and maybe having her probation extended another year. Now, as for the lying to the ;police officer? More probation. More community service. Maybe some house arrest. Jail? Has Lindsay gone to jail for anything in the past? The only way she is going to jail for any period of time is if she does something really serious. Apparently stealing from a jewelry store is not serious enough so she is going to need to rob a store with a gun or kill someone I think before she ends up in jail for longer than a day or two.


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Some of y'all may remember the B&B Charcoal discussion from a few weeks back. Cliff's Notes version - I got a bad bag of B&B charcoal, smoke smelled like coal, made burgers taste like coal. Mixed reviews here on the board. I sent an e-mail to B&B and they sent me 2 - 20lb bags of charcoal.
Fast forward a few days. I finally finished up the last bag of RO I had open (worst bag of RO I've had BTW, lots of rocks, mostly little pieces of lump, lots of dust...seems like I've got some bad charcoal mojo going on lately) so I dumped in a load of the B&B to give it another try. We've cooked on it three times now with great results. No sparking to speak of, the smoke smells like good hardwood smoke and our food has turned out great.
I can say two things for the B&B charcoal folks...they stand behind their product and have great customer service. Will be good to have an alternative to RO and once the new Academy Sports is finished here in Newnan hopefully will same me some trips to WallyWorld.


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Topic: Latest me info
I had written another thread that in mid August I had the TACE procedure done. Took about a week to recover then spent another 3 weeks not seeing doctors. It was actually very scary knowing the volitilaty of this crazy cancer. I had my scan and they showed bone tumors stable (yippee) and some changes to the liver tumor. Now I haven't had any chemo since the beginning of June which is awesome and scary at the same time but my docs felt another go with a stronger dose of TACE was indicated and would be more beneficial than starting chemo. So I had that last week. Definitely more liver activity this time and fevers spiking real high like 104.3. I tend to get fevers with tumor breakdown but this high kept me in the hospital an extra day. So I'm taking longer to recover this time. So I'm back to the same scenario, scan in now 3 weeks with me paying real close attention to any possible changes of my bone tumors or bile activity. So I'm going to keep on swimming!


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2013 (1402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Downtown Winnipeg's cityplace retail/office complex is getting its first major facelift in more than 15 years.
The owner of the nine-storey complex on the southwest corner of Graham Avenue and Donald Street -- Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) -- plans to spend about $3 million on refurbishing the retail portion (the first two floors) of the building.
MPI spokesman Brian Smiley said work will get underway almost immediately, and will take 35 to 40 weeks to complete.
"The refurbishing will be taking place after business hours to minimize the disruption to our tenants," he explained.
He said the improvements will include a fresh coat of paint throughout the mall, the installation of new flooring and new interior and exterior lighting fixtures, and the installation of three new windows on the second floor overlooking Graham Avenue.
They'll also replace the mall's two escalators, which are about 40 years old and are becoming difficult to repair.
Smiley said it's customary for retail malls to be refurbished every 15 to 20 years, and the last time cityplace had a major upgrade was in 1997.
Because cityplace has been designated a heritage building -- it was built in 1916 and for decades served as the home for the T. Eaton Co.'s catalogue shopping and downtown warehouse operations -- MPI is restricted in what changes it can make to the facade. That's why the bulk of the changes will be to the interior.
Smiley said MPI consulted with the city's urban design advisory committee and the city's downtown development agency -- CentreVenture Development Corp. -- in drawing up its refurbishing plans. He noted cityplace is within CentreVenture's sports, hospitality and entertainment district (SHED).
"There are certain things they are going to be doing in terms of streetscaping and lighting and canopies," he said, and MPI officials wanted to make sure its plans are compatible with those for the SHED.
In the interests of environmental sustainability, Smiley said all of the new lighting fixtures will be energy-efficient, and a lot of the building materials that are removed will be recycled.
With the addition of a major new retail tenant in the summer -- the 17,000-square-foot Shark Club's sports bar and gaming centre -- the vacancy rate in the building's 117,000-sq.-ft. retail mall stands at about nine per cent, Smiley said.
Other key retail tenants include Boston Pizza, a Liquor Mart, a Coles bookstore, a Rexall Pharmaplus outlet and a CIBC bank branch.
The seven floors of office space are fully occupied, with MPI's head office taking up about 80 per cent of the space. Other office tenants include the City of Winnipeg's 311 call centre, federal prosecutions and a Department of Veterans Affairs office.
Interestingly, the building's newest office tenant is CentreVenture, which moved into a 3,400-sq.-ft. space late last week.
For the last six years, CentreVenture's offices were housed in a former two-storey shoe store on Main Street, south of William Avenue. President Ross McGowan said they relocated to cityplace because it's in the heart of the SHED.
"We're moving our offices there as a further demonstration of our commitment to developing the SHED, and to the revitalization of Portage Avenue," he said. "We're not going to abandon Main Street, but our focus now is on Portage Avenue and the SHED."
-- -- --
Shindico Realty Inc. is close to completing the redevelopment of two former TV-studio buildings adjacent to Polo Park Shopping Centre.
Bob Downs, the company's development manager, said two more tenants have leased space in the former CTV building, leaving only a 7,000-sq.-ft. space on the ground floor of the former WTN building left to fill.
"We've got a restaurant that's looking at that," he said, but declined further comment.
The two newest tenants are Polo Park Dental and Atmosphere, an outdoor clothing and sporting goods retailer. Both will move into the ground floor of the former CTV building.
The 8,000-sq.-ft. dental clinic is slated to open in November, Downs said, and the 11,000-sq.-ft. Atmosphere outlet is expected to open late this year.
The two tenants already in the buildings, which are connected to each other, are radio station CJOB and a local insurance broker.
Shindico and Cadillac Fairview also own the nearby Polo North retail/office complex, which was built on the former Winnipeg Arena site. That 210,000-sq.-ft. complex is fully leased with this month's opening of the city's first Bed, Bath & Beyond store.
The U.S.-based home-accessories retailer joins Mark's Work Wearhouse and Marshall's on the main floor of the complex. Anchor tenant Western Financial occupies the top two floors, as well as some space on the main floor.
Know of any newsworthy or interesting trends in the local office, retail, or industrial real estate sectors? Let Murray McNeill know at the email address below, or at 204-697-7254.


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Britney Spears thinks this is kid-friendly
Getting a nice look at these pics of Britney Spears' concert in Atlanta last night? Good. So did her kids. Because she has the parenting skills of a wombat, Britney issued an official statement on her blog making it clear her children are watching her perform despite reports that Kevin Federline wanted them kept away from the shows:
Contrary to rumors linked to false articles, Britney Spears' sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, will be joining her on the entire Circus tour and will be attending shows as planned. Britney's family is a huge inspiration and she loves having them on the road with her.
And that's how you turn your kids into serial killers. The End.
Photos: Splash News


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A health and wellbeing fair to launch a new Wiltshire fitness strategy was held last week.
Held at County Hall, in Trowbridge, it was used to highlight Wiltshire Health and Wellbeing Board's aims for 2014/15 which include promoting healthy lifestyles to help Wiltshire residents to live longer. It is a joint strategy between Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Visitors could have a full body MOT, try out hula hoops and make their own smoothie by cycling on a bike powering a blender. Wiltshire Council leader, Jane Scott and Dr Stephen Rowlands, CCG chairman, showed how to do it.
Cllr Scott said: "The strategy is about ensuring that everyone in Wiltshire has equal access the support that they need."
Dr Rowlands said: "Now more than ever it is absolutely vital that our groups have a health system that fits around you."
Visitors to the fair could also learn more about charity Hope for Tomorrow who fund a mobile Chemotherapy Unit which travels to people across the region to provide cancer treatment.
For more information about the new strategy visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk.


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87 YearsLetter Equations are well known phrases or facts where the key words have been replaced with the first letter of that word. These are often in the form of an equation, which contain a number, an = sign and the rest of the obscured phrase or fact.
272 = W in A L's G A
Answer272 = Words in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
The title refers to the opening line of the speech, "Four score and seven years ago".
What Next?
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
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After four matches for Victoria, including a five-wicket-haul on debut, Pakistan-born spinner Fawad Ahmed has earned a full-time contract with the Bushrangers.
It is the realisation of a dream for Ahmed, originally recruited as a net bowler. The leg-spinner's four appearances for Victoria since the start of the month - three one-dayers, one in Sheffield Shield - triggered an automatic upgrade from match payments to a healthy annual retainer.
Under the pay deal agreed between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association, Ahmed will collect the full $50,000 annual base contract despite the season being in its final month. And the 31-year-old could get a bigger bonus when Victoria review their squad at the end of the season.
He came to the Bushrangers' attention two years ago when he sought permission to attend Bushrangers training sessions. Ahmed was eventually recruited to work in its Harmony in Cricket multicultural program, a role he maintains, but Victoria soon realised his potential.
''I remember 'Hodgey' [Brad Hodge] and 'Ronnie' [Andrew McDonald] saying, 'This guy is really good.' They all rated him,'' Cricket Victoria general manager of operations Shaun Graf said. ''It's not as if we're giving him a free ride … he's performing now at state level.''
Ahmed wants to become a citizen, which would make him eligible to represent Australia immediately, but must get government approval.


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Skrill Premier
It may have been a slender victory, but what this result could mean to Braintree Town is huge.
Kenny Davis' wonderful strike in the first half, added to some last-gasp heroics by keeper Nick Hamann meant Braintree took three points that could prove massive in their bid to make the Skrill Premier play-offs this year.
They were made to fight every step of the way by a Darts team battling for their Skrill Premier lives, but it was the end result that most in the 1,200-strong crowd desperately wanted.
Dartford arrived deep in relegation problems and knew three points would be vital for their survival, while the Iron had similar need for the points, albeit for a different reason.
Their 0-0 draw against Gateshead on Tuesday had left them three points outside the play-off places and a win was a necessity to get them back among the top five.
In the end, Davis' sublime first-half strike was enough to claim the points and with Gateshead only drawing against Southport – having twice trailed in their game – Braintree got right back into the heart of the play-off race.
They stayed sixth in the table but are now only one point behind Gateshead and it was an incredibly important three-point haul.
After Grimsby could only draw 3-3 at Alfreton, Braintree know a win at Barnet on Monday and a victory against the Mariners at the Amlin Stadium next weekend would see them into the play-offs.
Braintree Town made three changes to the side that had drawn with Gateshead in midweek as the previously suspended trio of Hamann, Sean Marks and Davis all returned to the starting line-up.
Dropping to the bench were Dan Holman, Nathan McDonald and Jordan Cox.
While Hamann coming in between the sticks for McDonald was a straight swap, the other two were due to injuries.
Holman had hurt his wrist and was wearing a cast that allowed him to be available, but boss Alan Devonshire opted not to chance him, while Cox had a recurrence of the back problem that has plagued him since Christmas.
The changes didn't really seem to do Braintree too many favours in the early exchanges, though.
It was a scrappy opening by both sides with neither really able to impose themselves and clear-cut chances were few and far between.
When play did open up a lack of cutting edge kept it scoreless as Marks failed to get a shot away when well-placed and Danny Harris then scuffed a shot when the Darts striker broke clear.
However, there was no lack of quality in the 24th minute when Davis hit a peach of a shot to put the hosts ahead.
The Iron skipper controlled the ball from Marks' knock down and hit it beautifully on the half volley from 25 yards to give Dartford keeper Alan Julian no chance.
The goal gave Braintree a noticeable lift and they looked far more composed going forwards after it with only a point-blank save by Julian denying Marks from making it 2-0 at a corner soon after.
It stayed just the one until half-time, but Braintree looked lively after the restart and within two minutes it took a good stop by Julian to prevent Marks from doubling the hosts' lead after he had been released by a great through ball from Dan Sparkes.
But it was the Darts who started to look more and more imposing and the aerial presence of Mikel Suarez was troubling for the Iron's back line.
The Dartford striker was inches away from an equaliser as the visitors pushed forward from a free-kick, but Braintree kept their slender lead.
They almost found the elusive second goal in the 70th minute when Jordan Cox got a good header to a corner only to see yet another superb save by Julian keep the ball out.
It meant the game stayed poised on a knife-edge as Dartford desperately looked for a way back into the game and the Iron pushed on looking for one to kill it off.
In the end, Braintree had to settle for just the one, but they were indebted to Hamann for their win in the game's dying stages.
With the clock on 95 minutes, first Suarez and then Stevenson tried their luck from point-blank range but an unbelievable double block by Hamann kept them out and the Iron's supremacy was preserved – just.


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Washington State
How does your state measure up when it comes to establishing policies that reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition?
Harm Reduction
Does the state permit access to clean syringes for people who inject drugs?
Does the state have naloxone training & distribution programs available to the public at syringe exchange programs or other facilities?
Does the state have a 911 Good Samaritan law?
Does the state have legal methadone access?
Are marijuana possession and use legal for medical purposes?
- YES, and in 2012 voters approved an initiative to tax and regulate marijuana for adults over 21.
Is there a government-regulated distribution system for medical marijuana?
More information on medical marijuana:
What are the criminal penalties for marijuana possession?
Criminal Justice
How many people are arrested for a drug offense each year?
- 19,414
What are the racial disparities in arrest rates?
Total population (2011): white: 81.9%, black: 4.9%, other: 13.1%.
Drug arrests (2011): 85.0% white, 10.1% black.
What happens to people's voting rights when they become part of the criminal justice system?
- All persons with a felony conviction must re-register to vote after completion of their sentence and all parole and probation. However, the Secretary of State's website states that persons who have willfully failed to make three payments in a 12 month period on any court imposed fines may have their ability to vote revoked by the prosecutor.


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DICKINSON, Texas - A 12-year-old girl was kidnapped as she walked to a friend's house in Dickinson on Thursday, investigators said.
Dickinson police said the girl was grabbed and pulled into a wooded area in the 3900 block of Cinnamon Cove Street. Police said they were notified about the incident shortly before 1 p.m.
The girl was able to scream and get away from her attacker about 10 minutes later after she was grabbed, but investigators said she may have been sexually assaulted before her escape. She ran home, covered in dirt and mud, and her father took her to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to be examined.
The 12-year-old girl's parents brought her home from the hospital Thursday night and shared the terrifying story of what their daughter went through in the woods. The mother said she tried calling her daughter on her cellphone, but the girl didn't answer. The mother said she did not realize that at the time her daughter's cellphone was ringing, she was also fighting off the attacker.
The father said he was standing in the front yard when he saw his daughter run up, covered in mud.
"She said, 'Somebody tried to grab me and take me, daddy,' and I thought she was playing and she was crying," said the victim's father. "She said she grabbed a stick and stuck him and then went to fighting and started hollering."
The father said the man then took off running so his daughter was able to escape.
"If you mess with a 12-year-old, you're sick," said the victim's father. "(It's) one of the worst things you ever want to hear about your kids."
"She's a child," said the girl's mother. "This is disgusting," "He needs to be caught and put away."
Detectives said the girl described her attacker as Hispanic, 5 feet 6 inches tall and 160 to 180 pounds with curly hair. He was last seen wearing a yellow long-sleeved shirt or jacket and yellow pants, which may have been coveralls.
Officers said they searched the area and several people said they saw a man leaving the area, but detectives were not able to find him.
Anyone with information is asked to call Dickinson police at 281-337-4700 or Crime Stoppers at 409-945-8477.
Copyright 2013 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Pradeep Khosla, an engineer and computer scientist who emigrated from India to the United States in the 1980s and became an internationally renowned expert in cybersecurity and robotics, will formally become UC San Diego's eighth chancellor on August 1, taking the post during a difficult time in the university's history.
Like other UC campuses, UC San Diego has been coping with large reductions in state funding. The university also has struggled to increase the percentage of students who are enrolled in graduate-level programs, especially in engineering and some branches of science. Grad students perform much of the research that occurs at UCSD, which ranks among the 10 most heavily-funded research schools in the country. The campus pulls in close to $1 billion a year for research, mostly in medicine, health, engineering and the life sciences.
U-T San Diego is scheduled to interview Khosla (pronounced coz-law) on Wednesday, and we encourage the public to suggest questions for the new chancellor. Please send your questions to firstname.lastname@example.com. Include your full name and let us know what community you live in.
Some of the questions U-T San Diego will ask will focus on how Khosla plans to deepen the university's ties to biotech companies, and what can be done to increase the percentage of American-born students in graduate-level programs at the Jacobs School of Engineering? International students (story) make up almost 45 percent of graduate enrollment at Jacobs, a figure that has been increasing. UC San Diego -- like schools nationwide -- has been having a particularly difficult time recruiting women into engineering programs.


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Topic: Chillax on a weekend in Phoenix
We are trying to put together a 2-3 day weekend in Phoenix, where it's warm in the winter. Heck, it's warm all the time! Blue skies, lots of sunshine, plants always blooming in the dessert. Taking a poll to see if we get any responses. Several people have said they would like to have a weekend to meet others. Caretakers and patients are all welcome to come. We do have 4 already. We can sit and chat with each other, may be very good also for those who have lost a loved one to CC. Throw in a little sightseeing along with our bonding and it could just be the RX we all need. Please let me know if you are interested and I will keep this thread running.


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Excerpt from Mr. Adnan Oktar's Live Interview on Kackar TV dated February 4th, 2011
They thought there would be no corruption. They were blind and deaf.
So they assumed that there will be no trouble, that Allah would not send a disaster on them, that these things would go on like that, that they will go on comfortably and that nothing would happen, says Allah. "They were blind," meaning that they have ignored clear signs. "..and deaf," that means they have pretended not to hear things that are clearly known, sincerely heard.
Then Allah turned towards them.
Meaning despite all these, they repent later on and Allah accepted their repentance.
Then many of them went blind and deaf again. Allah sees what they do.
They go astray again, Allah draws attention to that.
Those who say that the Messiah, son of Maryam, is Allah are unbelievers.
That means 'who ever sees Messiah, son of Maryam, as Allah is be in blasphemy,' says Allah. For that reason they have to believe in One Allah.
The Messiah said, 'Tribe of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. If anyone associates anything with Allah, Allah has forbidden him the Garden and his refuge will be the Fire'. The wrongdoers will have no helpers.Those who said: "That God (is) third (of) three," had disbelieved.
That means people believing in trinity are definitely in blasphemy , says Allah.
There is no god but One God. If they do not stop saying what they say, a painful punishment will afflict those among them who are unbelievers. Why do they not turn to Allah and ask for His forgiveness? Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.The Messiah, the son of Maryam, was only a Messenger, before whom other Messengers came and went. His mother was a woman of truth. Both of them ate food.
This is the polite turn of phrase in the Qur'an, Almighty Allah uses a very polite wording. "... both of them ate food". That means that they have had natural needs.
See how We make the Signs clear to them! Then see how they are perverted! (Surat al-Ma'ida, 71)
Belief in Trinity is inconceivable. Even a five year old would understand if you tell him. It is apparent that a being who eats food, who has natural needs, who sleeps, who is helpless could not be Allah, insha'Allah.


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Sailboats Raglan Women T-Shirts are an Idakoos specialtiy! Idakoos has many things to offer. Whether you want to get a Sailboats Raglan Women T-Shirt for a special occasion, give a Sailboats Women T-Shirt as a present or need to represent with a funny Sailboats Raglan Tee during Holidays or Family and Friends get-togethers, Idakoos is sure to have the right Sailboats Raglan Women T-Shirt for you! Even if it turns out you can't find the right Sailboats Raglan Shirt with the perfect design for your mother, father or children (or friends!); Idakoos offers all of its men's women's and children's Sailboats Raglan Women T-Shirts as Custom Sailboats Women T-Shirts. Personalize any Sailboats Raglan Women T-Shirt the way you want to ensure the perfect gift.
Showing 1 - 24 of 45 Women Raglan T-Shirt


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2005 William R. Cashen Service award winner
Cathy Persinger
Cathy Persinger graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. She is currently a business analyst for the UAF Geophysical Institute.
From 1993-1995 Persinger served as executive director for the UAF Alumni Association. During her tenure at the association she contributed to an expanded alumni network and increased visibility for the organization.
Persinger is best known in alumni circles as the UAF Fairbanks chapter's alumni hamburger booth volunteer coordinator. Each year for the last 10 years she set the tone and established the structure that allowed a successful transition to recruitment of more than 150 volunteer alumni and friends needed to run the burger booth at the Tanana Valley Fair. Persinger's efforts have led to a more streamlined and efficient approach to volunteer recruitment. Since Persinger has been involved the chapter's revenue from the booth has increased and they have established three new scholarships for students. Persinger strives for win-win situations as she supports healthy group collaborations that often spill over to other opportunities to support UAF students and services.
Persinger helped make volunteers feel successful, gain UAF ownership and associate the Alumni Association with "FUN!"
It is with great pleasure that the UAF Alumni Association Fairbanks Chapter awards Cathy Persinger the 2005 William R. Cashen Service Award.


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- 1 of 1 Photos | View More Photos
LONDON (AP) -- Michael Phelps qualified eighth-fastest in the 400-meter individual medley preliminaries on Saturday, grabbing the last spot in the evening final.
The two-time defending Olympic champion won his heat in 4 minutes, 13.33 seconds with a time that was well off his world record of 4:03.84 set four years ago in Beijing, when Phelps won a record eight gold medals.
Kosuke Hagino of Japan led the way in 4:10.01. Chad le Clos of South Africa was second at 4:12.24, and Ryan Lochte advanced in third at 4:12.35.
Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, the silver medalist in Beijing, was ninth and missed the final by one spot.


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What happened at your thanksgiving table this year?
Dear Engaged Bystander: What happened at your thanksgiving table this year? This year, our family gathering was the usual warm chaos, MUCH smaller (14 instead of 24), and lots of attention on the first great grandchild of this next generation.
And this year, my niece brought home a project from her graduate program – we were to take our favorite family photographs and re-enact them. I will spare you the details, but it did bring back some wonderful memories of past years and the people we have lost in our family over the years. After everyone had left, I had the chance to talk with my mother about what life was like for her with two kids in the 1950's. She shared this most amazing story of another time…
My older brother was born in Chicago and when my mother went food shopping she would put him in the baby buggy and take him with her. He usually fell asleep along the way and she would park the buggy outside the store, in a single line alongside all of the other baby buggies as she went into shop. If a mother came out and heard a baby crying, she would quiet that baby and wait for the mother to come out. It was the entire village raising each child. But can you imagine this in 2010? As a parent, I would never do that, even in this wonderful small town where I have raised two children. Today, it would be considered child neglect, but in 1953, this is how every mother raised her child.
I heard this story just after reading a recent study commissioned by an English nonprofit called, Play England. The study found that 44 percent of men and 38 percent of women said they would be wary of even helping a child in their neighborhood in case they were suspected of attempting to abduct the child. Thirty-eight percent of parents (with children 0-5) thought it was "common" for children to be abducted by strangers while playing outside. These are the fears that are weakening our community spirit and leave our children increasingly isolated and more likely to play alone, indoors, without the benefit of multiple healthy relationships.
Play England sees playtime as essential for a healthy childhood. Yet the organization has found that while 90 percent of adults played regularly on the street as children, only 30 percent of today's children (age 7-14) get that same chance.
The impact of our growing awareness linked to fear is clear. Given my mother's story and the image of those baby buggies outside of the supermarket, we clearly need to begin to offer hope and practical advice for connecting safely with other parents, children and families. While I am thankful for the awareness we have built over the years, I also hope that we can begin to advocate for practical ways to connect with other families and not be so afraid to help any child in need.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Posted by jtabachnick on 11/29/2010
Filed under


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Professional in Mortgages and Real State Transactions. BUY - SELL - ANYTHING - CALL NOW
Buy a house, sell a house, refinancing, residential or commercial. In Modeto, Turlock, Stockton or in any area here in the Central Valley, or any part of California...
CALL NOW : 209-534-9415 ask for ART. We are located in M0DEST0 Ca.
Are you looking for a professional, to help you get the best of the best? You just found him, I am located in Modesto California and I can help you. I do Residential Transactions in California only: Loans, buying or selling a home. Commercial Loans for the rest of the USA*.
OK this is what I see every time, some one search the internet, for place to to get money from, when looking for a loan, mortgage, finance, refinancing, any credit and the results are something like this:
1- A page where they offer you the moon and stars, and make it believe that is so easy. 2- They say they are going to give, all the details in the next page, guess what, you have to put some personal information, to get to next page. 3- You gave information, and now You still have to go to the next page, for more information, and believe it or not, you have to put more personal information, and at last they ask you, a bunch of questions, and when you are ready to get the details, this message shows up: Thank for you information, one of our agents will contact you, with in 24 hours, or if you want to talk to one at this moment, please call this number now 1-800- BUL XXXXX. And when you talk to someone, you find out that this person is not a real state agent or loan agent, is just a telemarketer for those customers, that feel better talking with someone in person. I hate it, I try it all the time, since I am in this business, I need to know what others do, 99% when you go in this process, this is what is happening, you are just a lead, yes a name a phone number, and they are going to give it to the one, that pays better or have better connections, your information have been in many hands, and from this process, you may even get 3 to 4 calls from estrangers, and believe it or not, some of this may be more telemarketers that get paid, to get all the complete full application information, some of them will not be able to talk number. Well my friend if this is what you like, I am sorry but I work in a different way.
I like the personal touch, you see my face here and you know, who is going to be working with you, I do not expect you to decide to work with me just because my picture, but at least this is a start point, I am going to tell you who I am, if you think that you would like to give me the opportunity of earn your trust and let me offer my services, I would really appreciate it.
This is me: I am married, 42 years old, with perfect credit, own 11 properties 5 of them in California, my wife is beautiful and I love her, God blessed me with two great kids, a 13 year old girl and a 7 year old boy, I leave in Modesto California. I love fishing and swimming, I think that my family is a great family, my kids are great students, the 7 year old boy is already in third grade, their grades are great, my girl is the number one of her class she is going to 8th grade advance all honors, I am a honest man, I do not lie, I am responsible, I like to treat others the way I like people to treat me, I hate dishonesty and I stay away from people that have bad habits, I try my best to give my family the best example of me, I want them to be proud of me always, and I will do everything to protect them. I like money, but my family and principles are always first.. I go to Church some times on sundays, my family goes more often, I stay a home working on getting my customers what is going to make them happy.
Bellow is a picture of one of my homes, is nice and very big with 20 feet high ceilings, mediterranean style, big and with only 4 bedrooms, 2 fire places, has heated pool, and all the extras, God has blessed me with good opportunities in life, and I am grateful for it. My two kids are in front of the house in Modesto California.


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I am easy
Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson
12 Monkeys
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
NO picnic at PWP????
S&M Collector
After the marathon.
With two kegs of beer.
Aren't you paying attention?
Folks, remember, it will be dark at about 4:45 PM. The last thing you want is to be stuck outside at PWP in the dark. Monkeys have to eat.
Lazy idiot
You missed another one.
Must be a Tuesday or something.
Tick tock
The Greatest of All Time
Oh, do you Nashvillians have southern accents?
On the plus side, I think I can safely guarantee a few that you don't know will be at the race. A couple weeks ago, I heard a nice lady in our local running club turn "Trent" into a 3 syllable word.
Options are a good thing. That way those that want to avoid Tweak can go elsewhere and not offend or be offended by Tweak or anyone else for that matter.


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We are TSS Photography
And we are the BEST when it comes to Youth, Sports & Event Photography… Let us show you how we can make you smile!
Teams, Schools, Events & Groups
We have produced images of Groups, Teams and using Green Screen Technology, Virtual Photography as well.
We Know Youth & Sports Photography
From Action Photography to Group and Individual Sports Photography, photography is our passion. And our Photography Product line is full of gift ideas!
Welcome to TSS
The Leader in Sports, School and Event Photography
TSS has over 25 million youth photographed since 1983!
TSS Photography has been working with leagues, schools and other groups for over 30 years, providing lasting memories to parents and children in local communities nationwide.
TSS has the experience, knowledge and desire to ensure you have a great Picture Day every time.
We have built a strong reputation of providing top quality service and products over the years and that is why our customers continue to use TSS year after year.
Started in 1983 in Athens, GA and quickly growing into Atlanta, TSS realized the growing need for photographers that focused primarily on the youth & sports market throughout the nation.
In 1984 TSS opened their first franchise in Cincinnati, OH.
The company soon grew into additional markets such as School and Event Photography, and in 2005, changed their name from The Sports Section to TSS Photography to better represent the different markets that we photograph.
Currently TSS Photography is located in 42 states and has over 220 franchised locations. By photographing over 2 million subjects every year, TSS understands the specific needs of our customers such as associations, leagues, schools, other portrait and event work and has developed a proven "all-inclusive service program" that ensures each Picture Day runs smoothly and efficiently.
TSS offers one of the largest product lines in the industry. We offer quick turnaround of orders so that customers can enjoy their photos right away. In 2004, TSS expanded their lab and moved to a new state of the art facility in Duluth.
Since 1983 TSS Photography has established itself as the preferred Picture Day partner for youth leagues, schools, churches, clubs and organizations of all kinds.
TSS Photography leads the industry with the variety of products we offer our customers.
Our state of the art facilities include a custom in house photography lab which processes nearly 2 million images each year for TSS Franchise Owners.
TSS produces millions of products every year with these images on them, including:
mugs, mousepads, t-shirts, clipboards, plaques, calendars, trading cards, memory mates, virtual groups, Impact Posters-Panos-Banners and many others!
Call TSS! 800-336-4550
Over 150 Franchised Locations Nationwide
Located in 42 States
Over 2 million Subjects Photographed Yearly
TSS Photography has been capturing compelling images at indoor and outdoor events of all sizes for 30 years.
We provide complete photography services at events such as Corporate Events, Charity Tournaments, Races, Proms and Marathons, just to name a few.
TSS Photography Headquarters 800-336-4550, X116Call TSS for your Youth Event today
TSS Sports, A Passion for Youth Photography
With our 30+ years of experience in youth & sports photography, we have gained the expertise to ensure that every Picture Day is a great experience for both the children and parents alike.
Our photographers are able to capture the essence of the sport through the faces of each child, helping parents preserve those precious moments for years to come. Our "all-inclusive" program makes every Picture Day hassle free for leagues, clubs and other youth groups.
We have a strong reputation of consistently offering quality service and products to our customers, and as the industry leader, provide our valued customers with fresh new products and designs every year.
Persona Portraits is your source for high quality photographs in a customized setting that reflect who you are.
Our extensive and unique product line includes framing options, various sizes and ordering options, holiday cards and gift ideas for family and friends.
School Picture Day Photography
Safety First
Your original order will contain a Customer Order Summary with a great deal of information regarding your recent purchase, including your TSS ID, the key to finding your child's image in our network, and a free bookmark to encourage reading!
Your TSS ID number is unique to your child's image, even if multiple shots have been taken, each one will have its own number.
If you've misplaced your Customer Order Summary, no problem!
You can find the TSS ID on the back of most of our products using the image you want to re-order. Or, give your local photographer a call so we may assist you in finding your next great gift idea using an image from TSS Photography.
As the nation's leader in youth & sports photography, TSS Photographs nearly 2 million children every year. Going on-site to ensure each child gets that perfect picture, we also make sure your children are in a safe environment.
Our Certified Safe Program is a requirement of all TSS staff which consists of a national background check and ID badges worn during Picture Day to ensure you know your children's photographers have been given a Nationwide Background Check. We not only keep in mind the best interests of the community, we are a part of it.
Each and every TSS Franchise is locally owned and operated, supported nationally and giving you the best value for your money, while helping to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Miracle League and other organizations even beyond our support for the groups we work with.
TSS Photography Has Gone Green
Green screen technology explained
What Exactly Is Green Screen?
Computer software is used to replace the special background with a digital background. Choose from beautiful spring and fall scenes, or cool color tones. Even sports arenas, or outdoor locations can be used.
TSS can offer unlimited background options to meet your school and parents needs. TSS Photographers are Green Screen Certified.
It's Easy When You Go Green
No more rescheduling because of bad weather. Picture Day can be indoors every time, and you can still use your field for the background!
TSS Photographers will capture your own field at its best and use that image for your background OR create a fun graphic background and give Picture Day a new look.
Also, with our patented Virtual Group technology, we can take all the individual photos on a Green Screen and merge them into a team photo without the team having to pose together.
This can make picture day faster and more convenient for your parents by letting them come when they want or alphabetically to get all siblings photographed together instead of hours apart on a given day.
TSS offers the latest in Green Screen, a cutting-edge technology that merges a child's picture with a custom background! Have you ever had to re-schedule Picture Day because of bad weather or moved indoors only to have a boring or ugly background ruin your picture?
With Green Screen, you will never have this problem again!
You can take all of your pictures indoors and still use your outside field as the background or use of our custom and cool backgrounds to make the photo really stand out.
Do you have construction or some unsightly obstacle around your field that ruins Picture Day? No longer is this an issue. Green Screen will allow you to eliminate these ugly images from your background.
Green Screen technology allows your league, school or other group to choose the background image desired.
- Have Picture Day in a convenient location
- Avoid wind and heat
- Give parents and kids a great picture without the hassles.
Green Screen is just one more reason to use TSS Photography for your next Picture Day. Ask your local TSS Photographer if Green Screen is available in your area.
Proven Business Model
As a franchise owner with TSS Photography, your opportunity for success is accelerated from over 30 years of an unsurpassed track record and a time-tested proven business building model.
National Buying Power
Because we process over 2 million subjects annually, you can benefit from our ability to negotiate the strongest competitive pricing which we pass on to our franchise owners.
Never Pay Royalties
TSS Photography does not charge its franchisees a percentage or minimum monthly royalty. This is critical in maximizing and controlling your bottom line.
TSS Photography Franchises
You have the right to use an established trade name, logo and style. This will allow you to easily differentiate your business with a unique brand identity that is already proven to be successful.
The First Step?
Are you ready to get started with learning more? Engage in our step-by-step mutual evaluation together!
The TSS Facility
1300 Metropolitan Ave
Oklahoma City, OK 73108
405-703-9143 (fax)


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Hi all I am developing a login form with multiple login options. The main two options people have is to login with either their email address, or by using their Member ID. I wish it was just an email only, but after discussing with the marketing and membership people for the organization, it seems we just don't have much choice right now.
So I'm wondering how this will be best handled as far as ease of use, without overwhelming people with a ton of options and choices? Our current login form is completely overwhelming, with two separate forms, and a forgot password link and a new user button. I would like it to work so that when you first get to the main form, you aren't confronted with so many choices. Ideally, just one set of fields would be great - email, password, and a forgot password or help link.
Problem is, I need to provide two choices - login with email, or login with member ID. I could do a tabbed thing where you first see the email input and a submit button, and if you want to change it to member ID, there's a tab for that which clicking the tab shows you the login with MemberID field. Another option is to say "Login with either Email address or Member ID" which the user can then enter either one, click Submit, then my programming does what it needs to in the background. Although this seems like the best choice, I'm not happy with that because I would like to signal to users that logging in with email is preferred. So if someone needs to login with their Member ID, I would like there to be another step in the process, whether it's clicking on a tab or something to show the other form.
Any suggestions as far as best practices for what I'm trying to accomplish? Any example website with multiple options but handles it gracefully with superb ease of use for customers? TYIA!
Why would you prefer it if users log in with their e-mail address? Unless you are dealing with some compelling technical advantage, one input that accepts either datum would seem to be the simple and user-friendly answer.
Probably lack of adequate planning and foresight is mostly to blame...
The technical reason is, our AMS database stores two sets of records for customers. A "Person" record and a "WebUser" record. The WebUser record, which is where the actual authorization takes place, needs an email address (as the UserID) to login.
So the next question you might ask - why use MemberID at all then? We actually have two websites, one of which has been a strictly MemberID-only login for organization members, and the second website (ecommerce) uses Email address login. The ecommerce one is the one that is actually hooked in to the organization's AMS (and this is the site I am working on). The other site runs on a separate database outside the AMS, although the two sites are now starting to merge. It's all very messy right now...
Just to add, there is additional complexity for users logging in because they might know their MemberID but they have never set up a WebUser record, meaning those people can't login at all yet. They have to create a WebUser account first, and we need to know their MemberID when they create it, in order to tie the WebUser record to the proper Person record. (Make sense?) (MemberID is on the Person record, but Email on the WebUser record, which is where the login authorization actually occurs)
The way it is currently set up, people are just going in and creating new WebUser records without knowing they already have a MemberID, or just assuming it will magically find them behind the scenes. We are ending up with tons of duplicate records right now.
The way I figure to control these issues somewhat is to take either their email address or MemberID for the login. That way, whether or not either might be found in the system, I can at least direct the user to take the appropriate action. Example, we can say hey we found your email here, so try using Forgot Password to reset it. Or as another example, we might grab the MemberID, then tell the customer they need to create their WebUser account to continue. There are several situations any one customer might find themselves in, and right now we are giving them the worst possible user experience in dealing with it. (like I said above, we currently have two login forms on the same page, plus a forgot password link, plus a new user button, plus a link to a "Login FAQ"...)
What I want to do is remove everything except: Email/Password field, plus provide a MemberID option.
If registered users don't, or may not, know that they have an ID, could you do a mail shot to tell them about it? It seems like you need to resolve how you want users to log in and then tell them about it, which would then ease your form problem.
That is a thought we have mulled over, but didn't come to a resolution on...
My preference for a resolution would be to have only an email address and password for logging in. For customers who only know their member ID, I would like to then direct them accordingly (to a new user creation form, where we can then look up the member ID to pull information from). This customer might then actually have an email/password account but forgot or weren't aware for some reason. We can still at that point tell them about it, and then give them instructions for resetting the password, and redirect them back to the main email/pass login. This makes most sense to me, but only one problem exists with going this route. One of the managers insists we provide Member ID up front for logging in... :/
Hence, my need to create a form where we have the option of either entering your email or entering your Member ID...
Your dissenting manager might have a point. At least member IDs are more secure than e-mail addresses.
If you can persuade the relevant people to improve the way in which the records are organised so that only a simple form is needed, it really would be better for everyone. Them, you, and your users. But I can appreciate that it may not be possible. I disagree with your suggestion of directing certain already-registered users to a type of registration form: look at that from their point of view and that wouldn't go down well. It would certainly annoy me anyway! Surely, working to avoid anything that would reduce business would not be such a hard sell.
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it. Regarding which to use, I guess it comes down to the fact that one site has always used MemberID while the other has always used Email address. Now that the two are starting to merge... a decision needs to be made once and for all.
And perhaps MemberID as the main login field is the better way to go. Unfortunately the database structure might be a limiting factor there. We need to investigate that and discuss the possibility.
Again, thanks for your comments!


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There are several bars that double as arcades. Now the union of beer and video games is being elevated to a new high score. Arcade game The Last Barfighter — created for Raleigh's Big Boss Brewing — is similar to Street Fighter with a few of key differences. 1) All the fighting takes place in a bar. 2) The characters are different — there's no devilish Blanka but there is a Blanco Diablo named after the brewery's Belgium wit. 3) The winner gets a cup of frothy beer poured into a cup from the machine's cabinet.
This is a drinking game we can get behind. For the time being, you can only play it at special charitable events around Durham, but we'll let you know if someone events the home console version.
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