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The Ruby Makeup Academy Creates New Job Opportunities(December 13, 2012)
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) December 13, 2012
Even in times of financial unpredictability, the Ruby Makeup Academy (RMA) is creating enduring opportunities for persons interested in the fantastic worlds of beauty and entertainment. The academy is celebrating more than seven years as one of the fastest growing businesses in the Inland Empire of Southern California and now has stretched its reach to include N. Hollywood.
Ruby Polanco is the founder of the Ruby Makeup Academy and a minority business owner of Hispanic descent. She set out on a mission to build makeup training facilities in underserved urban communities. What began seven years ago with one branch in the San Gabriel Valley became in the last year three branches in Southern California. RMA also originally operated with just two employees and now has thirty-five. All locations offer full courses in professional makeup artistry, hair design, character and special effects makeup. The Temple City location is currently expanding to offer additional advanced courses and Polanco is planning on opening two more academies next year. http://www.rubymakeupacademy.com/locations.php
We are creating new jobs and new prospects, says Polanco. Times are hard, but the beauty and entertainment industries are not going anywhere, she continues. When I put it all in perspective, we dont just create jobs at the Ruby Makeup Academy, we create lifetime careers.
The Ruby Makeup Academy campuses service three locations in Temple City, Upland and now, N. Hollywood, CA. The academy provides training, certification and internships for people interested in a career in makeup artistry for television, film and theater. For more information on the Ruby Makeup Academy, please visit http://www.rubymakeupacademy.com/.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/12/prweb10232220.htm.
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H.S. Beat: Outside the Box, Oct. 26
Updated 10:01 pm, Thursday, October 25, 2012
From inside the lines to out, Express-News staff writers Blake Hurtik and Terrence Thomas take a look back and a look ahead at the high school sports landscape.
Figure this
5 - Area boys basketball teams ranked in the top 10 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches preseason poll. Class 5A: Brandeis (3), Judson (5). Class 4A: Brennan (3), Alamo Heights (7). Class 3A: Sam Houston (4).
5 - Area girls basketball teams ranked in the top 10 of the TABC's preseason poll. Class 5A: Steele (4), Reagan (10). Class 4A: Brennan (2). Class 3A: Boerne (9). Class 2A: Poth (4).
Sports Channel
6 1/2 - Hours it took to complete the three District 26-5A volleyball matches played at Littleton Gym on Oct. 19. The tripleheader — Churchill vs. Reagan, Johnson vs. Lee and MacArthur vs. Madison — started at 5 p.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m. Because the first two matches each went four sets, the MacArthur-Madison contest didn't start until 9:30 p.m. It was scheduled for 8 p.m.
8 - E-N Area volleyball teams that went unbeaten during district play — Reagan (26-5A), O'Connor (27-5A), Brennan (28-4A), Floresville (29-4A), Devine (29-3A), Marion (29-2A), Incarnate Word (TAPPS 2-5A) and Boerne Geneva (TAPPS 6-2A).
150 - Career football victories for Central Catholic coach Don Byrd. He reached the milestone during the Buttons' 49-0 win last week over St. Anthony. Byrd, in his first season at Central Catholic, is 150-62 during an 18-year career that includes a 17-year stint at Alamo Heights.
Area commitments
Elexus Allen: Stevens girls basketball — Nicholls State
Aleeya Harris: Jay girls basketball — Western Kentucky
Andrew Skowronek: Reagan swimming — Texas
Mary Margaret Soderberg: Reagan swimming — Arkansas
Hannelore Strash: Alamo Heights swimming — TCU
Austin Wells: Clark cross country — Texas A&M
Michael Williams: Reagan boys basketball — TCU

subset: commoncrawl


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This year ACI held its largest ever national home performance conference in Baltimore, Md. It was the largest in the number of workshop sessions: over 195 sessions, in 25 thematic tracks; with the largest number of exhibitors (115) and sponsors (48).
The three themes stood out: a) keep it simple (from the homeowners perspective); b) there is no silver bullet; and c) HVAC is jumping into home performance, maybe not head first, but at least with both feet in a measured…Continue
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Be safe, stay cool, thank those that have served and sacrificed to give you freedom.
Enjoy the burgers!!
*Graphic courtesy of Lee Hansen Graphics.
This and that from my world of Family Research, Yorkies, Photography, RV's and Traveling.
Happy 4th to my US blogging friend.
Hello, Carol. Thanks for stopping by my blog & joining! Always nice to make a new connection! Colleen


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Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth walk the People's Choice Awards 2012 red carpet on Jan 11 2012 at the Nokia Theatre LA Live in Los Angeles, California (FameFlynet)
Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth at the 2012 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Sunset Tower hotel in Hollywood, CA on February 26, 2012. (FameFlynet)
Miley Cyrus &Liam Hemsworth on the red carpet for the world premiere of 'The Hunger Games' at The Nokia Theatre LA Live in Los Angeles, Califoria. (SplashNews)
Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth at "The Last Song" world premiereheld at the Arclight Theater in Los Angeles, California on 3/25/10 (FameFlynet)
CENTURY CITY, CA – JUNE 27: (L-R) Actors Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus arrive at Australians In Film Awards & Benefit Dinner at InterContinental Hotel on June 27, 2012 in Century City, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images for AIF)
Liam Hemsworth & Miley Cyrus at CNN Heroes: An All Star Tribute 2011 on 12/11/11 (FameFlynet)
PHOENIX, AZ – MARCH 24: Actor Liam Hemsworth (L) and singer/actress Miley Cyrus attend Muhammad Ali's Celebrity Fight Night XIII held at JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa on March 24, 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for CFN)
Liam Hemsworth and singer Miley Cyrus attend the 18th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscar party held at Pacific Design Center on March 7, 2010 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage)


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The Isle of Man, a small, self-governing British crown dependency in the Irish Sea, makes an intriguing backdrop for "Safe House," Chris Ewan's first stand-alone thriller. The book works as both an emotional story of a family dealing with a tragedy and an action-packed tale of a young man caught up in an elaborate kidnapping.
Heating engineer Rob Hale's job takes him to a farmhouse where two men are staying, along with a chatty young woman named Lena, who begs Rob to come back for her on his motorcycle.
He does, but just after catching the end of the island's annual motorcycle races Rob and Lena have an accident. Rob remembers the ambulance taking Lena away, but when he wakes up in a hospital, there is no record of Lena. The police maintain Rob was the only one brought in, and no one is living in the cottage he claims to have visited.
Determined to find Lena, Rob teams up with Rebecca Lewis, a private investigator, hired by his parents to look into the recent suicide of his sister, Laura.
While a link that emerges between Laura and Lena seems too coincidental, Ewan keeps his plot full of plausible twists and turns. Though Rob makes a credible hero, Rebecca emerges as the star of "Safe House" — a strong, independent woman with more than a few secrets.
$25.99, 448 pages


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Fund Investors, Economy Will Benefit From Certainty and Lower Tax Rates on Investments
By Ianthe Zabel
December 9, 2010
ICI President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens today issued the following statement on the tax legislation, H.R. 4853 as amended, approved by the U.S. Senate in a strong bipartisan vote. Among other things, the bill will maintain and extend the current tax rates on capital gains and dividends for two years:
"Mutual funds and other investors, as well as the markets, need certainty about the tax rates they will face in just a few weeks. Senate approval of the legislation is an important step, and we hope Congress will complete work on a bill before year end. While we would favor a permanent extension of the current rates on capital gains and dividends, we support the proposed two-year extension for the benefits it will provide to investors and the economy generally at this phase of the recovery."
Without Congressional action, the top tax rates on investment income are scheduled to increase from the current 15 percent on January 1, 2011 to 20 percent for capital gains and a top tax rate of 39.6 percent for dividend income.
- Learn more about ICI's tax policy work.
- Learn more about ICI's government affairs work.
Ianthe Zabel is ICI's Senior Director for Media Relations.
TOPICS: TaxesGovernment Affairs
Copyright © 2017 by the Investment Company Institute


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T-Moldings provide an attractive solution for blending floor surfaces in adjoining rooms.
Want more?
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®by PowerReviews
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Reviewed by 4 customers
transitioned from existing flooring to the newly installed flooring
Service and delivery comments:
took a week to get but was a perfect match to the flooring
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It looks so much better than what we had
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AnswerBox - Get answers from Staff Experts and real customers by clicking "Ask a question" or click here to ask our Customer Service Team
Q:What are the dimensions of T-moldings-----particular--the width of the T that is not seen----how much space should be left between tile and hardwood?
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A:T-molding should be 1-19/32" wide at the top. You will generally need 1" between the two floors to accommodate the U-Track and recommended expansion gap. This is for laminate floating flooring. For details type, "T-Molding" here - http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/flooring/Flooring101
Q:How does this T molding fasten to the floor? I will be installing the wood laminate on a concrete slab floor in bedroom, transitioning to carpeted floor in hallway.
1 answer
A:You can drill & anchor or use a 100% urethane construction adhesive to glue the track down.


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COMMON BRAND NAME(S): Tabloid
GENERIC NAME(S): ThioguanineFind Lowest Prices
This medication is used along with other drugs to treat a certain type of cancer (acute nonlymphocytic leukemia). Thioguanine belongs to a class of drugs known as purine antagonists. It works by slowing or stopping the growth of cancer cells.
Take this medication by mouth with or without food with a full glass of water (8 ounces or 240 milliliters), usually once daily or as directed by your doctor.
Drink plenty of fluids while taking this medication unless otherwise directed by your doctor. Doing so may help decrease the risk of side effects (e.g., kidney stones).
The dosage is based on your body weight, medical condition, and response to treatment. Do not increase your dose or take this medication more often than prescribed. Your condition will not improve any faster, and the risk of serious side effects may be increased.
Since this drug may be absorbed through the skin and lungs, women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant should not handle this medication or breathe the dust from the tablets. Properly discard any unused medication. Ask your pharmacist for details.
Upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may occur. If any of these effects persist or worsen, contact your doctor or pharmacist promptly.
Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because he or she has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects. Many people using this medication do not have serious side effects.
Tell your doctor right away if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: easy bruising/bleeding, dizziness/fainting, joint pain/swelling, persistent nausea/vomiting, stomach/abdominal pain, tongue/mouth sores or pain, unusual tiredness, dark urine, yellowing eyes/skin.
This medication can lower the body's ability to fight an infection. Tell your doctor promptly if you develop any signs of an infection such as fever, chills, or persistent sore throat.
A very serious allergic reaction to this drug is rare. However, seek immediate medical attention if you notice any symptoms of a serious allergic reaction, including: rash, itching/swelling (especially of the face/tongue/throat), severe dizziness, trouble breathing.
This is not a complete list of possible side effects. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor or pharmacist.
In the US -
Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or at www.fda.gov/medwatch.
In Canada - Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to Health Canada at 1-866-234-2345.
Before taking thioguanine, tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are allergic to it; or if you have any other allergies. This product may contain inactive ingredients, which can cause allergic reactions or other problems. Talk to your pharmacist for more details.
Before taking this medicine, consult your doctor or pharmacist if a certain drug (mercaptopurine) did not work for you in the past. This may affect how well thioguanine works for you.
Before using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist your medical history, especially of: other blood disorders (e.g., anemia, low blood cell counts), gout, kidney stones, liver disease.
Do not have immunizations/vaccinations without the consent of your doctor, and avoid contact with people who have recently received oral polio vaccine or flu vaccine inhaled through the nose.
Wash your hands well to prevent the spread of infections.
To lower your risk of getting cut, bruised, or injured, use caution with sharp objects like razors and nail cutters, and avoid activities such as contact sports.
If you need to have surgery or a dental procedure, tell your doctor or dentist that you are using thioguanine.
Drinking alcohol may increase the risk of stomach/esophagus irritation or liver damage. Limit alcoholic beverages.
People with a certain inherited problem (lack of thiopurine methyltransferase-TPMT enzyme) may be at increased risk for serious side effects from this medication and may require dosage adjustment. Consult your doctor for details and to discuss whether you should be tested for this inherited problem.
This medication is not recommended for use during pregnancy. It may harm an unborn baby. Consult your doctor for more details and to discuss reliable forms of birth control. If you become pregnant or think you may be pregnant, tell your doctor right away.
It is not known whether this drug passes into breast milk. Because of the possible risk to the infant, breast-feeding while using this drug is not recommended. Consult your doctor before breast-feeding.
Your doctor or pharmacist may already be aware of any possible drug interactions and may be monitoring you for them. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with them first.
This drug should not be used within 2 weeks of receiving a live vaccine. Before taking this medication, tell your doctor if you have recently received any vaccines. (See also Precautions section.)
Before using this medication, tell your doctor or pharmacist of all prescription and nonprescription/herbal products you may use, especially of: aminosalicylates (e.g., olsalazine, mesalazine, sulfasalazine), drugs that may affect bone marrow (e.g., azathioprine, drugs that contain trimethoprim, other anti-cancer drugs), drugs that may affect the liver (e.g., amiodarone, erythromycin, busulfan).
This document does not contain all possible interactions. Therefore, before using this product, tell your doctor or pharmacist of all the products you use. Keep a list of all your medications with you, and share the list with your doctor and pharmacist.
If someone has overdosed and has serious symptoms such as passing out or trouble breathing, call 911. Otherwise, call a poison control center right away. US residents can call their local poison control center at 1-800-222-1222. Canada residents can call a provincial poison control center. Symptoms of overdose may include: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, unusually heavy sweating.
Do not share this medication with others.
Laboratory and/or medical tests (e.g., complete blood count, liver function tests, uric acid) should be performed periodically to monitor your progress or check for side effects. Consult your doctor for more details.
If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you remember. If it is near the time of the next dose, skip themissed dose and resume your usual dosing schedule. Do not double the dose to catch up.
Store at room temperature between 59-77 degrees F (15-25 degrees C) away from light and moisture. Do not store in the bathroom. Keep all medicines away from children and pets.
Do not flush medications down the toilet or pour them into a drain unless instructed to do so. Properly discard this product when it is expired or no longer needed. Consult your pharmacist or local waste disposal company for more details about how to safely discard your product.Information last revised July 2016. Copyright(c) 2016 First Databank, Inc.
Sorry. No images are available for this medication.
With WebMD's Medicine Cabinet, you can check interactions with drugs.Go to medicine cabinet
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WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.


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You have the ideas – and Samplitude Music Studio has all the tools you need, with 19 virtual instruments, MIDI editor and score view.
Record your own bass lines, vocals or guitars in the studio. You can even record entire bands parallel on up to 16 mono or 8 stereo tracks.
Samplitude Music Studio is ideal for ambitious beginners in music production and bands. Exceptional instruments, multitrack recording, tons of helpful tools and mastering plug-ins make Samplitude Music Studio one of the most professional DAWs for beginners, without the usual limitations. Bring your music productions to life in the best possible quality.
MAGIX Audio Remote
The free app for operating recordings and instruments in Samplitude Music Studio.
More virtual instruments
Sampled with care and reproduced authentically, the virtual instruments are the perfect addition to Music Studio.
More sounds
Soundpools are pre-produced loop and sound packages that you can use to sketch out ideas quickly or enhance your arrangements.
Check out the MAGIX Audio blog to see what other artists have created with our music software. Or watch our video tutorials to help you get started with Samplitude Music Studio.


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|154 Orange Road
Suite 1
Montclair, NJ 07042
United States
|Full Time
|Engineering / Product Dev / Science
|iOS web developer ios developer web application developer full-stack full stack new jersey NJ startup mobile SaaS B2B enterprise workflow enterprise workflow ios development web development
|Web Site:
|427 Bloomfield Ave.
Suite 405
Montclair, NJ 07042
United States
|UpdateZen is very close to our private Beta... four of us... 2 brilliant developers, 1 terribly tasteful designer, and me, the founder. We're building a HIGHLY disruptive product for the mobile productivity market. And the open seat right now is for a very creative, resourceful marketing director (or "growth hacker" - if you prefer) who can help us launch our mobile solution into Beta, through Beta, into public launch, to initial traction, and then to organic scaling through terribly creative means. Getting updated by your people, and tracking the status of the key things they're working on, is just not fun. It's not enjoyable, it's not organized, and it's highly stressful... for both the Team Lead (a CEO, Executive, VP, Director, Manager) and the Team Member (Direct Reports, Colleagues, Co-workers, Freelancers, Consultants, Contractors, Key Relationships). Leaders are deluged with updates from across their team, through emails, spreadsheets, Word docs, texts, IM's, project management applications, etc... It's a mess. And email seems to just pile up furiously. And unnecessarily. UpdateZen allows Team Members to effortlessly and enjoyably update their "boss" through a gorgeous iPhone app and a full functionality web app. And UpdateZen allows Team Leads to quickly review just the "need to know" updates from across their team in seconds via their own iPhone app or web app. UpdatedZen headquarters are a gorgeous open office in the active NYC outpost of Montclair, NJ. We have people working here that live in NY, and those that live in NYC. We're only a 30 minute trainride from NYC's Penn Station to our location in Montclair If you are someone who thinks big, wants to solve a huge, validated problem in the market, and is a uniquely talented marketing/growthhacker type of person, I'd LOVE to hear from you. If you want to join UpdateZen, then salary AND equity should both matter... alot. I don't want mercenaries. I want highly creative thinkers and geniuses in engineering, design and marketing... people who communicate well and work well with other creatives. It's a team effort, so you should truly enjoy working on a brilliant think-outside-the-box team if you want to apply.
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Money Smart Week @ Your Library kicks off Saturday, April 21, with several fun, hands-on workshops to help you learn more about managing your money.
First, the program Free Credit Report/Credit Improvement (at the Library Center from 10 a.m. - noon) will guide you through the process of getting your credit report online free of charge. Nickie Bland, Steven Clark, Cari Oughton and Casey Pyle from BancorpSouth will provide information on obtaining and understanding your credit report, correcting errors on your report, as well as tips to put you in the best financial position possible. Krissy Sinor of The EDGE Community Technology Center will also be on hand, providing laptops and technical assistance for participants to obtain and print their credit report.
Shredding personal documents is a money smart tip to help you avoid identity theft. Document management service company EDCO Group, Inc., hosts Document Disposal Weekend. The company is providing locked boxes available all weekend on the Library Center concourse. Drop off your sensitive documents for shredding at their centralized facility.
The following two programs will also take place Saturday at the Strafford Branch Library, both presented by Heim, Young and Associates:
The money-smart programs continue all week long. Click here for the complete schedule (PDF download).
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Groene at the Legislature: Teacher absences, substitutes
Mail: Southern statues symbolize suppression
More opinion
Senate: Vote no on Graham-Cassidy health care plan
Fall: Good time to spray musk thistle in rosette stage
More Ag News
Neighbors did not sound happy about a commercial business near their homes on West Ninth when they spoke to the city council Tuesday.
The home on the property is run down and damaged. Owner Mark Grubb asked for the rezoning so he can covert the buildings to a warehouse and office, and store roll off dumpsters.
Andrea McMillan, a neighbor, said the street is too narrow for that type of business. She said there are no sidewalks and heavy truck traffic would damage the pavement.
McMillan said the lack of sidewalks make walking along the street unsafe when large vehicles are on the street. She said kids playing in and around the equipment would be a dangerous possibility.
Another resident and former city councilwoman Rita Hernandez said the rezoning could hurt property values. Hernandez lives two and a half blocks east of the property. She said the house is historic -- the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in North Platte. She expressed concerns about damage to the street caused by large trucks. She said she already has to call to get potholes fixed and it would be worse if the business were permitted.
Grubb told the council the house is badly damaged, with walls falling down, and roof leaks have caused a lot of water damage to the interior.
Grubb said that he could possibly fix up the house to rent but it would barely clear the existing standards. He said money is a factor. He said he knows no one that would want to rent it where it is anyway as its in a less than desirable neighborhood and it would just proliferate the bad rentals that have recently received attention at council meetings and in the news media.
Grubb pointed out that the property is surrounded by other bad properties, is only one block from the noisy railroad main line and one block from a busy highway (U.S. 30). He also mentioned how close it is to the Buffalo Bill Ave. overpass. He pointed out that properties on three sides of it are already in a highway commercial zoning district.
Hernandez spoke again and took exception to Grubb saying the neighborhood was less than desirable. Councilman Jim Carman added that he had been out by the property and said there are some real nice homes out there and its a nice neighborhood.
Mayor Marc Kaschke pointed out that this measure failed to pass the planning commission, where it received only one favorable vote.
The motion failed 7-0.
In other action, the council:
Approved 6-1 on second reading, an ordinance allowing weapons, explosives and firearms in parks, pathways or other recreational facilities within the city and repealing section #93.05 of city ordinances. Councilman McGuire voted no. The ordinance must pass one more reading to be enacted.
Agreed 7-0 to removed a no-parking zone on both side of West Philip Avenue between Bare Street and Lakeview Boulevard.
Approved 7-0 an application by Duanne and Dixie Gaedke for a conditional use permit to allow a caretaker office and owners dwelling (night watchman) to be located on the existing Cody Go Carts recreational grouns at 805 Halligan Drive.
Held a public hearing on a resolution setting the property tax rate for fiscal year 2012-2013. No public comments were made.
Held a public hearing to adopt the budget statement and appropriate city monies for 2012-13. No public comments were made. McGuire moved to close the public hearing and suspend the rules requiring three readings. Passed 7-0.
Passed 7-0 a resolution approving Nebraska Department of Roads project along U.S. 83, bringing crosswalks into ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards, thereby making them more accessible to people in wheelchairs and on crutches and walkers. Also, privately owned signs and poles are to be removed from the right of way.
Approved 7-0 a five-year interlocal agreement with Lincoln County to provide planning and zoning services. The county will pay $26,000 for the service in 2013, with the fee gradually increasing to $30,000 over five years.
Adopted 7-0 a resolution approving a three-year employee insurance agreement between the city of North Platte and League Association of Risk Management.
Approved the Mayors re-appointments of Elyse Bohling, Connie Huebner and Kim Osborn to the Library Advisory Board.
Flatrock Publishing, Inc.
1300 E 4th St., Suite F
North Platte, NE 69101


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Our Kentucky 49th District State Representative, Linda Belcher, has been a tenacious advocate for our district and the people of Bullitt County. Through her bi-partisan work in Frankfort, she has obtained several millions of dollars for long overdue road improvements. She has sponsored bills to fight drug abuse and is a strong supporter of legislation promoting the education of our youth.
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Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Reconstruction With or Without Lateral Retinaculum Release
This study is currently recruiting participants.
Verified May 2017 by Hospices Civils de Lyon
Hospices Civils de Lyon
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Hospices Civils de Lyon
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
First received: December 22, 2011
Last updated: May 22, 2017
Last verified: May 2017
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
The investigators hypothesis is lateral retinaculum release has no effect on treatment of Patellar Recurrent Dislocation with Medial Patellofemoral Ligament (MPFL) reconstruction.
|Episodic Patellar Dislocation
|Procedure: MPFL reconstruction and lateral retinaculum release Procedure: conventional surgery
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|Randomized Control Trial on Lateral Retinaculum Release in MPFL Reconstruction
Resource links provided by NLM:
MedlinePlus related topics: Dislocations Plastic and Cosmetic SurgeryU.S. FDA Resources
Further study details as provided by Hospices Civils de Lyon:
Primary Outcome Measures:
- Patellar tilt measurement [ Time Frame: 2 years of follow up ]IKDC score, patellar tilt measurement on x-rays and CT-scan
Secondary Outcome Measures:
- rate of complications [ Time Frame: 2 years of follow up ]
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Actual Study Start Date:
|November 2011
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|November 2020
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|November 2020 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
|isolated MPFL reconstruction
Procedure: conventional surgery
conventional surgery: MPFL reconstruction
|Experimental: MPFL reconstruction and Lateral retinaculum release
Procedure: MPFL reconstruction and lateral retinaculum release
MPFL is performed with a standard technique using gracilis tendon. A tunnel is performed at the femoral part with a bioabsorbable screw fixation and 2 bundles with suture fixation at the patellar side
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 45 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- age between 18yo and 45yo
- indication for MPFL reconstruction
- unilateral or bilateral indication
Exclusion Criteria:
- indication for bony procedures
- previous surgery for PF disorders
- patient refusal
Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01719666
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01719666
|Contact: Elvire SERVIEN, MD,PhD
|+33 4 72 26 92 51
|Centre Albert Trillat, Croix-Rousse Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon
|Lyon, France, 69004
|Contact: Elvire SERVIEN, MD, PhD +33 4 72 26 92 51 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator: Elvire SERVIEN, MD, PhD
|Sub-Investigator: Philippe NEYRET, MD,PhD
|Sub-Investigator: Sébastien LUSTIG, MD
Sponsors and Collaborators
Hospices Civils de Lyon
More Information
Keywords provided by Hospices Civils de Lyon:
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017
|Responsible Party:
|Hospices Civils de Lyon
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01719666 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|December 22, 2011
|Last Updated:
|May 22, 2017
Keywords provided by Hospices Civils de Lyon:
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Patellar Dislocation
Wounds and Injuries
Knee Injuries
Leg Injuries
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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Mississippi State used an eighth-inning rally to defeat Indiana, 5-4, at the College World Series on Monday in Omaha, Neb.
The Bulldogs (2-0) are now a win away from reaching the championship series. They can advance with a victory Friday against the winner of Wednesday's elimination game between Oregon State and Indiana. The Beavers or Hoosiers would have to beat the Bulldogs twice to advance to the finals.
Mississippi State scored three times in the eighth Monday to erase a 3-2 deficit. Demarcus Henderson tied the game with an RBI single, and Trey Porter gave the Bulldogs a 5-3 lead with a two-run single.
MORE CWS: Oregon State eliminates Louisville | TV schedule | MLB players that made it to Omaha
The Hoosiers rallied in the bottom of the ninth. After Scott Donley drove in a run with a groundout that also moved the potential tying run to third base.
Bulldogs closer Jonathan Holder—who bears a resemblance to Kenny Powers, the fictional pitcher of "Eastbound and Down" fame—entered the game and got the final out for his 20th save.
PHOTOS: Behind the scenes with LSU at CWS
Trevor Fitts started for Mississippi State but replaced by Chad Girodo in the third after allowing two runs.
It turned out to be a good move.
Girodo (9-1) struck out 10 batters in 6 1/3 innings and allowed just two runs to earn the win.
Brett Pirtle went 3-for-5 with two runs scored to lead the Bulldogs. Pirtle scored the tying run in the eighth in Henderson's hit.


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The United States later this summer will add close to 10% to its natural gas export capacity to Mexico following the June 14 approval of a 0.37 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) pipeline that crosses the border at a point in far western Texas. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a request by Kinder Morgan's El Paso Natural Gas Co. to begin operations on the export pipeline that crosses the border from El Paso County, Texas.
Norte Crossing is one of several natural gas pipeline export projects planned through the end of 2014, which together could add up to 3.3 Bcf/d of additional export capacity to Mexico—almost doubling the 2012 U.S. export capacity to Mexico of 3.8 Bcf/d. U.S. exports of natural gas to Mexico have increased by 0.34 Bcf/d from March 2012 to March 2013, and now average 1.81 Bcf/d. The highest year-on-year increases in monthly export volumes to Mexico between 2012 and 2013 have come from three pipeline crossings immediately to the south of the Eagle Ford Shale play in the Western Gulf Basin of South Texas. The Norte Crossing differs in that it is located in the Permian Basin in West Texas.
Mexico has increasingly relied on pipeline gas imported from the United States because its natural gas consumption has risen faster than production. Much of the increased consumption is the result of the country's plans to add 28 gigawatts of new electric generating capacity between 2012 and 2027. Norte Crossing will interconnect with the 0.85 Bcf/d Chihuahua Corridor pipeline in Mexico, scheduled for completion this summer, according to Mexican government reports. This corridor will increase natural gas supply to electric generation facilities in Chihuahua and the neighboring states of Durango and Coahuila.
Natural gas prices rose over the report week at most locations. The Henry Hub spot price increased from $3.74 last Wednesday to $3.93 yesterday, reversing some of the declines from previous weeks. Prices increased across most of the country, likely in response to forecasts for hot weather. Increases were particularly large in the Northeast, with large gains in trading Tuesday. The price at the Algonquin Citygate, which serves Boston, rose $0.24 to $3.97 per MMBtu. Similarly, prices at Transcontinental Pipeline's Zone 6 trading point for delivery into New York City rose $0.25 per MMBtu the same day. The Northeast is a major consumer of natural gas for power generation, and their consumption this week was about 2.4% greater than the previous week, with particularly high use on Monday and Tuesday, according to data from Bentek Energy Services.
A pipeline explosion Tuesday morning on Florida Gas Transmission's (FGT) system is expected to have little effect on prices. The explosion occurred in Washington Parish, Louisiana, and no injuries were reported. While prices at the FGT Zone 3 trading point have risen $0.17 per MMBtu since Monday, these increases are more or less consistent with other prices in the region. Various trade press sources have noted that the availability of spare capacity on pipelines in the region will offset the impact of the explosion. Bentek said in an analysis report that it does not expect further upward pressure on prices as a result of the explosion. The spot price at FGT ended the week at $4.18 per MMBtu.
Total supply declined 0.5% during the week. According to Bentek data, dry gas production declined 0.6% during the week, as maintenance in several regions curtailed some production for the past several days. Despite the decline this week, production remains 1.2% above its year-ago level. Declines in production were partly offset by a 1.4% increase in Canadian imports week over week. Consumption increased 0.9% during the week. A 5.6% increase in power consumption was partially offset by decreases in industrial, residential, and commercial use. Power burn increased in most areas of the country. In the Southeast (the largest consumer of natural gas for power generation), consumption of natural gas for power generation increased 11.8%.
At the Nymex, the futures price rose during the week. The price of the July 2013 contract rose from $3.777 per MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.963 yesterday. The 12-month strip (the average of the 12 contracts between July 2013 and June 2014) increased from $3.949 per MMBtu last Wednesday to $4.097 yesterday.
Both short-term issues like end-user maintenance and long-term fundamental issues led to substantial declines in NGL prices. Williams Company shut down its olefins facility in Geismar, Louisiana, for unplanned maintenance Thursday following an explosion; additionally, CP Chemicals Group's Port Arthur, Texas, ethylene cracker is offline for planned maintenance. These events put downward pressure on ethane and butane prices. In addition to short-term maintenance outages, longer term fundamentals have also put downward pressure on prices, particularly on butane. Increases in supply, export constraints, and declines in gasoline demand (butane is used as a blending agent) have all led to price declines.
Working natural gas in storage increased to 2,438 Bcf as of Friday, June 14, according to EIA'sWNGSR. The 91 Bcf gain in storage levels was higher than both the 5-year average and year-ago stock changes for the week, which had net injections of 80 Bcf and 63 Bcf, respectively. Despite the large build, current inventories remain 559 Bcf (18.7%) less than last year at this time and 47 Bcf (1.9%) below the 5-year average of 2,485 Bcf.
The net injection was larger than the market expectations, which, on average, were reported to be 90 Bcf. Natural gas near-month Nymex futures prices fell $0.084 per MMBtu to $3.835 around the time of WNGSR's release. In the hour following the release, prices traded higher at $3.903 per MMBtu.
All three storage regions posted increases this week. Inventories in the East, West, and Producing regions increased by 60 Bcf (the 5-year average net injection is 52 Bcf), 11 Bcf (the 5-year average net injection is 13 Bcf), and 20 Bcf (the 5-year average net injection is 15 Bcf), respectively. In the Producing region, working natural gas inventories increased 2 Bcf (0.8%) in salt cavern facilities and increased 19 Bcf (2.9%) in nonsalt cavern facilities.
Warm temperatures during the storage report week supported this week's net injection. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states were 1.6 degrees warmer than the 30-year normal temperature and 0.9 degrees warmer than the same period last year, and averaged 71.0 degrees for the week, compared to 70.1 degrees last year and the 30-year normal of 69.4 degrees.


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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/28/microsoft_g_cloud_ferrar/
Whitehall's G-Cloud: Hype or hope?
Big-swinging reform or buzzword bingo?
Posted in The Channel, 28th March 2012 10:01 GMT
Special report According to the British government, the cloud will make everything better. The UK gov is rolling out something called G-Cloud, which according to No 10 means faster and more flexible IT procurement based on a list of open systems and approved standards. The punchline for the British taxpayer is that services will be delivered faster, at a reduced and a competitive rate.
To prove that the government gets "it" – "it" being the cloud – the minister whose department is driving G-Cloud, Francis Maude of the Cabinet Office, has even been to the west coast to press the flesh and meet those behind the interwebs.
Microsoft's Ferrar: too much cloud fever?
There, Maude met some of the tech companies most closely associated with cloud. We're told he eschewed the usual stops at government suppliers such as Oracle for firms including Cloudera, which delivers Hadoop services; MongoDB specialist 10Gen; cloud infrastructure specialist Joyent; and eBay's PayPal.
But G-Cloud doesn't necessarily mean what you might think it does. Number 10 hasn't floated an Amazon-style or Salesforce-style platform for developing and hosting applications or crunching Google-licious workloads. Nor has it rolled out an Apple-style AppStore or Android marketplace that downloads paid apps to the smartphones and fondleslabs of the nation's citizens, civil servants, doctors and teachers.
What G-Cloud consists of – for now, at least – is two things: a way to approve and certify software, hardware and services from technology companies – from handsets and calling plans to hosted email and collaboration services, and something the government calls Cloudstore, which lists the services and the contact details of their suppliers.
As catalogues go, though, this isn't exactly the last word and it seems as if the government's done a first-rate job of going where so many others have been before – avoiding the pitfall of buying into the branding rather than the practice. Sure, everything looks cloudy: everything is nicely boxed away as a software-as-a-service (SaaS); an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS); a platform-as-a-service (PaaS); or as "specialist cloud services" – and you also get things like variations of Microsoft's Office 365 or IBM cloud migration services.
But plenty of services come with huge gaps where suppliers haven't bothered to fill in details or where the government says "service is waiting to be assured". Still, at least Cloudstore does say "beta" on it – a moniker that world+plus dog slapped on its site after it was popularised by Google with Gmail, and one which has since become a lot less trendy. Oh, dear.
The British government is notorious for bringing in big swinging policies that its incumbents claim will change absolutely everything: health, housing and education have been meddled with and pulled this way and that as intellectual fashions and those espousing them have swept through Westminster. The changes don't always work out.
When it came to supplying big services and infrastructure to government, remember how the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was going to change things for the better? It has now fallen out of favour, having supposedly cost more than expected.
Is cloud the latest manifestation of the change-of-direction disease that afflicts British government? The move to the "cloud" is, of course, being driven by that most fickle and historically shortsighted of movements, far more bound to over-promise and under-deliver than politics: technology.
Francis Maude is the "ministerial face" of G-Cloud, but one of the people developing and selling government's digital change agenda is a rising star in the party jointly running the coalition government. Formerly a practicing techie, Liam Maxwell has provided advice that has shaped the ICT policy of the Conservative Party and, therefore, the government. His role is to "provide expertise on how government can use innovative new technology to deliver better, cheaper solutions."
Inside the Cabinet Office with him is Chris Chant, a career Whitehall techie who's argued for change in how IT is delivered in government. As G-Cloud Program director, Chant is charged with implementation; he is - for now at least - the right man in the right place at the right time.
Microsoft man talks about UK.gov's cloud project
I put the question of whether the government has swung too far on cloud to Mark Ferrar, national technology officer (NTO) for Microsoft – which made the G-Cloud cut. Ferrar is intermediary between UK's public sector and the world's largest supplier of software.
As NTO, Ferrar acts as Microsoft's "trusted advisor" to senior politicians, civil servants and those running health trusts and local authorities. Ferrar's job is not to sell the next versions of Windows but to talk strategically about where Microsoft is headed.
Ferrar does bring a certain customer qualification to the position. Before joining Microsoft in October 2010, Ferrar ran the technology office in charge of NHS IT infrastructure. As a member of the UK government's chief technology officer council, Ferrar worked on elements standards on re-use and data that are forming the basis of G-cloud.
He was also involved in the national programme for IT at the NHS, a classic example of the type of big-box and centralised strategy that G-Cloud is supposed to kill. It cost £12.7bn and was axed for a decentralised strategy to re-coup money.
So, does Ferrar think the UK government has cloud fever? "I think it's been a bold step in the right direction to explore a technology that could have been unavailable to the public sector," Ferrar told The Reg.
"Is there too much cloud fever?," he responds. "The government will tell you they are not going to get it right on day one, they probably won't get it right 100 per cent and there will be a period of adjustment – and that's right and proper because the cloud and market will adapt," he said.
Government seesaw
Ferrar said the government is in a no-win situation of staying with the past or moving on to a newer, more uncertain, future: "This is a seesaw moment... On the one hand you have focus and re-assurance of outcome but risk missing a shift in the way the market goes. On the other hand, you can embrace some of the vagaries of the market and you risk lurching from one side to another as the market finds its equilibrium. There's a danger when commentators say it's all going wrong or it's all going brilliantly well. We will see scepticism across the commentary [on] whether it's working or not and that's probably a healthy place to be."
With fever comes delusion, and tech companies are feeding the cloud fever by claiming their software, hardware or service is "cloud". We have three accepted definitions of cloud – IaaS, PaaS and SAAS – and plenty of scope to claim that one offers a product or strategy that "enables" them.
Try before you buy
As always, along with the hype comes the prospect of customers being oversold. As government customers stumble out of the shadow of centralised IT purchasing into the bright light of choice, what's to stop them getting ripped off?
Maxwell, government director of ICT futures, told me at the recent Intellect event in London that the government's terms and conditions would provide protection against this. Maxwell: "You test them out beforehand to see. They are getting accredited. Any proven IT director is going to test these out, government or non-government."
Ferrar agrees the phrase "cloud" has become overplayed and says he stands by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition from late 2011 here (PDF). He said that he thinks Microsoft plays into this with Office 365 and Windows Azure, which are listed on Cloudstore. "The cloud term is globally getting to point where nobody knows what it is but everybody kind of thinks what they know it might be," he says.
There is another challenge in the rush to the cloud, however: data. Right now, users around the world are blindly shovelling terabytes of data into different cloud services simply because it is so much easier to write, develop and deploy apps that run on servers that you don't need to manage. Amazon is the one everybody is chasing and it's a data sponge: the number of data objects held by EC2's S3 storage grew nearly 200 per cent in 2011 to 762 billion: 2011 was Amazon's fastest growth year.
A cloud provider will let you trickle in data in gigabytes or terabytes for months at a time; then you hit a year and then you have no capability to move. – Tom Hughes-Croucher, Joyent
But what if you decide you want that data back or want to change suppliers? The latter is a distinct possibility in government contracts, which have have fixed-length terms and where suppliers change.
It's easy to become trapped by a discussion about standards for portability – about the way cloud providers lock you in using data formats or APIs that don't interoperate with each other. According to Maxwell, the terms and conditions required to get on the G-Cloud supplier's list combined with "open standards" will solve the data lock-in problem.
But visit the Cabinet Office's current site on standards for data transfer in the G-Cloud, however, and you won't find much there to guide your purchasing decision.
In February the government started a round of consultations on open standards on data along with software interoperability and document formats. This was its second after the government controversially scrapped its first open-standards definition – apparently after it came under lobbying pressure from, ahem, Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The Cabinet Office, running the G-Cloud initiative, has denied this was the reason, however.
"We are at the beginning of it," Maxwell said of the new consultation. "We are saying we need to take control of the various components in your network infrastructure and end user devices, application development, service management and systems integration that now rests in departments."
Microsoft's Ferrar reckons you can overcome the standards issue by moving data with Odata, authored by Microsoft, the W3C's RDF and the ePub format.
The real problem isn't formats, though: it's sheer volume and completeness of data.
For example, neither Amazon and Microsoft charge a penny for putting your data into EC2 or Windows Azure, but going the other way, there's a toll. Amazon's exit charge starts at $0.15 per gigabyte and the firm offers discounts for volume. Microsoft's charges start at $0.12 per GB. Microsoft doesn't say how many objects are sitting in Azure but Amazon – as we know – is home to nearly 100 billion.
Tom Hughes-Croucher, chief evangelist at cloud software fabric specialist Joyent – one of those West Coast companies recently visited by MP Maude – told me that it is bandwidth that is the real choke point and that the UK government should be really concerned about. Hughes-Croucher was previously an evangelist and technical lead at web giant Yahoo!
"Getting the data isn't a big deal," Joyent's man told The Reg. "The big deal is a cloud provider will let you trickle in data in gigabytes or terabytes for months at a time; then you hit a year and then you have no capability to move the project because there's no bandwidth to move."
The last war
Hughes-Croucher's former Yahoo! colleague, Facebook performance and efficiency expert Carlos Bueno, tag-teams with him on this subject in this slideshow. Both agree that it's the network latency that's the real lock-in factor on cloud.
"Data formats are like fighting the last war. There are enough programmers that any weird binary XML could be reverse-engineered pretty quickly. That's not a big deal in my opinion. It's not strategic lock-in any more," Bueno says.
To give you an idea of scale: it took Yahoo! four weeks using 700Mbps pipes to move 10-20TB of data from servers run by Xoopit, which Yahoo! bought in 2009, to its own servers. Moving 12TB between Amazon S3 and Windows Azure will take 40 hours, and between S3 and Rackspace will take just under a week, according to this lock-in survey on GigaOm.
Clusters, clusters everywhere
The problem is that data centres cluster together in urban areas like London, and they don't communicate very well with their rivals over the road or in another part of the same country. Instead they link via fat pipes to their offices in other parts of the world such as Singapore, New York, or Texas. Cloud companies therefore can - and do - claim data portability is already solved because they can easily shunt data between their own data centres in zones around the world. This argument amplifies the point that moving data within the same cloud isn't a problem.
The solution is to have service providers interoperate with each other locally through fat pipes. Hughes-Croucher and Bueno say they think the UK government should use its size to demand that providers build cheap and fast data pipes between their buildings in the same area before putting their data in.
Maude: G-Cloud driver went West Coast
It's possible to get big fat, service-provider-to-service-provider connections, Hughes-Croucher says, but it's a case of having some incentive to do it. "Government is a big spender so whatever they say is their requirement has a big effect on the market," he says.
Yahoo! and Facebook, for example, have used their size to secure agreements with service providers for fast connections between their developer sites and data centres.
Microsoft's Ferrar reckons networks are improving and that this will help to move things around. "With fiber optic networks we will have the ability in the next few years to move more info almost instantaneously than has existed to this point. When we go to high-bandwidth IPv6-based networks between service providers and the telcos, the ability to move data between different parts of even our [own] cloud will be significant."
Once that happens, Ferrar reckons, the challenge will move from volume to whether or not the data that is uploaded is actually of any use. He says: "The question then comes: 'Do I understand what I'm putting into the cloud and I can I get it out in an understandable format?' Where we are today is: 'I had it here and I want to put it in the cloud and how do I do that?' We are seeing a lot of growth in BLOB storage, which is how a lot of stuff goes in."
BLOBs – or Binary Large Objects – are what happen when people are throwing around large pieces of data, typically at the start of a project or during a migration.
Microsoft's man reckons people need to get better at understanding what they are uploading to make sure it is really of use when the time comes.
"Drawing on my experience in health, one of the unrecognised positive outcomes of the national programme for IT was the understanding that data that goes into analysis and running the business for clinical and business outcomes has to be timely, accurate and complete – so they had a whole programme running on quality of data," Ferrar said.
"You need to train the organisation on how to manage data effectively. The health sector over the last seven years has learned to do that. Local and regional government will learn that as we move more data into the cloud [that] it has to be accurate and complete or that you have to know how inaccurate and incomplete it is. If you know that, then you've got a fighting chance of making some sense out of it."
Let's be clear on one thing: the new approach to government IT goes beyond a question. The European Services Strategy Unit in 2007 found examples of chronic failure in IT outsourcing with costs touching on £10bn. The idea of G-Cloud is an attempt to get away from IT mega-projects such as the scrapped £469m Firecontrol project.
The mantra from those driving G-Cloud is the involvement of small- and medium-sized tech companies. The understanding is that these SMBs can help effect change by being more nimble and competitive than the big boys in supplying government.
But what hope is there for tangible change when roster of existing, big suppliers crops up on the new Cloudstore? Cloudstore's approved suppliers feature IBM, Fujitsu, SAP, Dell, Rackspace, BT, CSC, Computacenter, EMC and Logica – not to mention Microsoft. Fujitsu and BT, for their part, are among those fingered by the ESSU for delays and overruns of projects under the old system. This bodes ill for both Maxwell's goal of help SMEs to "enter the government marketplace" and career civil servant Chant who's arguing for change on the back of years spent in different government CIO roles.
Worse still or a project with the word "cloud" in its name, none of these firms can really be considered a "flag-carrier" of cloud. That honour might go to industry leaders Salesforce, Google or Amazon, which are not represented in the Cloudsore.
NoSQL nowhere
Smaller cloud start-ups are missing, too. The UK government does use MongoDB, the NoSQL database supported by the 10Gen start-up Maude visited on his Californian trip. Yet 10Gen does not feature on the list of G-Cloud suppliers. In a statement, 10Gen technical director Alvin Richards told us that following an initial meeting with Maude to discuss the further use of MongoDB by the government his company will "engage in all necessary steps required to become an approved supplier."
Yet Microsoft is on the list. It's a company deeply embedded in UK government. Not just that, but Microsoft somehow convinced the UK gov that Cloudstore should run on its Windows Azure cloud. It was a neat trick, given Microsoft is not the first name that springs to mind when you mention "cloud" – many would say Amazon, Salesforce, Rackspace or VMware got their first.
Also, in terms of Azure at least, there's already official egg running down Redmond's face. On 29 February Azure was knocked offline for hours by a rather mundane, and easily avoided, leap-year programming glitch that dragged the Cloudstore down with it.
Embedded Microsoft
Given the UK government's huge reliance on Microsoft, isn't it a foregone conclusion that it should therefore go with Microsoft on G-Cloud in the same way it has gone with those other established, big suppliers of technology?
Ferrar puzzles at this and rejects the proposition. "It kind of implies the government is locked in [to Microsoft], when we don't feel they are," he says.
"I'm sat here 18 months into being Microsoft and you go back and look back and say: 'How did we end up like that?' and it's tough being asked to justify the success of a product that's been successfully marketed and does the right thing, for the right people, at the right time, and that allows them to collaborate in rich and varied ways."
One thing Ferrar does takes exception to is what he says is conflation between open standards and open source on the subject of cloud. "There are people trying to weave the two together, saying you can only have open standards if you have open source – and that's simply not true," he says.
Ferrar doesn't name names but insists there is a general level of discussion – some might call it a consensus – among developers working in the industry that the cloud will be built using open source. You have, for example, projects such as Open Stack trying to build a "Linux for the cloud" using a community model and released under an Apache licence. Amazon and Google, meanwhile, run on versions of Linux, not Windows – although Amazon does offer Windows instances for Redmond fans.
If you read the GPL, free means free as in freedom of speech, not free as in free beer. Stuff like that has cost of deployment and cost to patch it. – Mark Ferrar
"I'm unclear how or why these things need to be linked," Ferrar says. Proprietary products are still compliant with open standards."
He highlights Microsoft work that mixes the kinds of open-source being touted for the cloud with Microsoft's software: specifically putting Hadoop to crunch large batch jobs on Windows Azure and SQL Server. Before that, there was improved interoperability for MySQL and PHP on Windows and between Linux and Microsoft's Hyper-V, he said. "Microsoft has changed. Microsoft is a different animal to what it was five yeas ago," he says.
In combating open source, Ferrar talks total-cost-of ownership – a favoured weapon used by Microsoftees when they are trying to persuade you that Windows is better. The argument runs that support, training and maintenance come with a licence that is paid for – but that you will pay extra for such essentials when it comes to open source and Linux, whose purchase price is "free".
"We need to get away from this implicit concept that this is free – free 'no cost'," he says. "If you read the GPL, free means free as in freedom of speech not free as in free beer. Stuff like that has cost of deployment and cost to patch it. When you buy your Windows licence you get the cost to patch it."
Apparently this is what Ferrar told Francis Maude in July 2010 at a big CIO CTO council meeting, just before Ferrar jumped to Microsoft. Ferrar left the civil service for Microsoft in October that year.
Is Microsoft worried that the proposed change to government's IT to favour cloud services and SMBs will put Microsoft at a disadvantage? Microsoft, after all, built a 30-plus-year business selling licences for client and server operating systems, Office, email and collaboration software. Not according to Ferrar: "We embrace the change," he said. "We are embracing the change to open data."
But is Microsoft even ready for cloud, given February's outage?
We spoke to Ferrar before the leap-year crash. At that time, Ferrar reckoned the UK government had come to Microsoft – together with application integration partner Solidsoft – to put Cloudstore on Windows Azure because it "didn't want a fiasco with the thing rolling over."
What about now?
Following up afterwards, Ferrar pointed to the fact that Microsoft had been "open" about the cause of the outage. "We will strive to continue to be transparent with customers when incidents occur using the learning to advance our engineering, operations, communications and customer support and improve our service," he said.
It's early days for government cloud, both in the evolution of G-Cloud and the government actually taking its data and apps off existing servers.
Booby traps await, especially in data – where there are the rules that are supposed to govern this stuff alongside proposed standards that are works-in-progress. Despite this, the big-name tech vendors have already been signed up to G-Cloud. Their presence is bound to ensure standards that emerge suit their plans.
Microsoft's man has worked both sides of the public-sector street – on big, centralised projects as a customer and now as an IT supplier, somebody pushing cloud. Ferrar is optimistic: "Government would benefit from a diving towards greater shared agenda – sharing solutions," he says.
And that, it would seem, means cloud. ®


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From machines scalping fractions of a penny to the slick-haired 55-year-old smoking veteran brokers, the global pool of those seeking wealth are being reminded that the market will often see through the fluff and focus on truth. But, at the moment, the truth is anything but visible, as there is no fiscal-cliff deal, and talk of an impending agreement continues to constitute pure speculation based on facial expansions and publicly held pow-wows. (Note that, ideally, the next step is to have a prominent person on either side of the aisle signal that an endgame is in sight).
So what do we have to go on? Here is a tidy list of hypotheticals on which the market is acting, which all assume a fiscal cliff deal will be announced around Christmas:
1. Market sentiment will firms further.
2. Firming market sentiment will cause a flight from "havens," either Treasuries or corporates.
3. As fourth-quarter earnings commences, we'll receive better forward-looking commentary on initial sales and earnings guidance for the first half of 2013, as well as details on improved internal discussions on new orders among. The market will interpret the latter as an indication of unrealized earnings power (which has been clouded by cliff scare).
4. Firming market sentiment, and a different earnings season vs. what we saw in the third quarter, will begin to feed in to survey and macroeconomic data; for example, the dreadful recent read on Michigan consumer sentiment turns into a cycle bottom. Along with those happy tidings, market sentiment is only enhanced, luring in the suckers -- oops -- investors.
5. Any conflicting data in support of the rally will be completely ignored or explained away by using the investment-banking gibberish, "Can't fight the Fed; they are a backstop."
Weeee-hawwww. Am I ahead of myself by cultivating this virtuous circle of amazingness that makes everyone significantly wealthy on paper? After all, from 1950 to 2011 the S&P 500 has risen in 47 Decembers compared with declines in 15 of them, so clearly we have to jump aboard the seasonal train -- which happens to be hosting Mr. Irrelevant on central fiscal issues. Moreover, we are now witnessing the following.
● The S&P 500, the financial sector and emerging-market indices are each above their 50-day moving averages. (Dig that move in Wells Fargo (WFC)? I hope you are following me on Twitter, as I pointed it out there Monday.)
● Consumer discretionary stocks are generally in technical no man's land. They're between the 10-day and 50-day moving averages, with downtrend still in place, but optimism sprouting. This is counterintuitive to evidence of a slowdown in retail spending for the holidays, as well as to the high probability that the payroll tax credit will expire.
● The iShares Dow Jones Transportation Average (IYT) is simply rocking. To heck with FedEx's (FDX) core profitability getting impacted by changing business dynamics. The economy is alive, baby!
Amidst the litany of this pump-type news, are there are reasons to dump the short-term gains or wait on the sidelines any longer? You bet there are. Although I converse with Mr. Market daily, I prefer to fight him a bit by not suggesting new longer-term positions -- and snatch some off the table if you are being a "speculator," as Ben Graham eloquently coined it.
Before I put my stamp on anything, to quote a chant from WWE wrestler Ryback, "Feed me more" --details, that is. Where is the caution stemming from? Well, for example, General Electric (GE) lowered its fiscal-year revenue guidance, and the stock was hit with a sell stick to the neck. That tells me that, for a host of globally exposed entities, business conditions weakened from the lackluster third quarter. It also says the pace of recovery after fiscal-cliff resolution will be methodical -- no, there won't be an elated rush of orders. There will be measured optimism on the part of executives.
Unfortunately, the market could care less, a lesson could indeed be beaten into its body as we flip the page to 2013.
Inspirational Daily Investing Quote: "He who graduates the harshest school, succeeds." -Thucydides


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June 24, 2009
Galveston Island State Park Reopens Beach Camping July 2
GALVESTON, Texas — Galveston Island State Park, whose facilities were devastated by Hurricane Ike last September, has made a remarkable comeback and will once again offer beachside camping in time for the busy Fourth of July weekend. Beginning July 2, visitors will be able to choose from 36 beachside campsites situated on three loops.
Two camping loops will accommodate tents or recreational vehicles and have restrooms and showers. Each $15 campsite will have water, a shade shelter, fire ring and picnic table. The third camping loop is wired for 50 amp electric service and will be for RVs only. Those sites will cost $25 per night. All beachside camping sites will provide foot traffic access to the Gulf of Mexico.
The popular state park, which was closed for six months and has been reopening in stages since last spring, only recently returned to a seven-day schedule and began allowing daytime access to a little more than a mile of beachfront. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has spent approximately $225,000 to rebuild the campsites and operate the park this fiscal year that ends Aug. 31.
Galveston Island State Park hours are from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The park office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Up until June 18, only the bay side of the 2,000-acre park had been open for day use since last March. It had been experiencing growing visitation. The bay side camping area features 10 water-only campsites for $15 per night and 20 water-and-electric sites for $20. A $5 per-person entry fee for individuals 13 and older has been reinstated. Children 12 and younger receive free park entry.
"During Memorial Day weekend, we had over 500 visitors to the bay side part of the park fishing, kayaking, bird watching and hiking," said Justin Rhodes, regional director of state parks in southeast Texas. "The debris has been cleaned up and the park is coming back together. It's beautiful right now."
Rhodes said having the park open seven days a week and offering limited camping and day use facilities on the beach side are interim steps until a master plan is developed, an environmental assessment can be done and permanent facilities rebuilt. To facilitate the reopening of the beach side, electrical power and water were restored, and a structure was moved in to serve as temporary headquarters. The original headquarters building and all other beachside facilities were destroyed by Hurricane Ike.
During its recent session, the Texas Legislature allocated a portion of the state's Hurricane Ike recovery funds to the TPWD to hire an architectural design firm to develop a master plan to rebuild the state park.
Over the ensuing months, hundreds of volunteers pitched in to clean up storm damage and remove considerable debris on the bay side and to convert the Nature Center into a Welcome Center. The Galveston Island State Park Friends Group played a major role in operating the park and staffing the Welcome Center.
The Texas Department of Transportation, operating under a directive from Governor Rick Perry to assist hurricane-impacted governmental entities, led efforts to demolish structures and remove debris on the gulf side of the park. TxDOT's assistance is estimated to have saved the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department about $2.3 million it didn't have budgeted, according to TPWD regional project manager Tony Bettis. So far, he said, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun to reimburse TxDOT for the Galveston Island cleanup.
Galveston Island State Park occupies a sliver of land at the midway point of the barrier island about six miles southwest of the western tip of the popular sea wall. The bay side provides public access to about 600 acres of grasslands with coastal scrub and scattered oak mottes, as well as hundreds of additional acres of saltwater sloughs, wildlife-rich wetlands and tidal bayous.
Visitors can reach Galveston Island State Park from FM 3005 (Seawall Boulevard). For more information, call the park at (409) 737-1222.
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Two Palestinian brothers were arrested in an attack on a 9-year-old girl in the West Bank settlement of Psagot.
JERUSALEM — Two Palestinian brothers were arrested in the attack on a 9-year-old girl in the West Bank settlement of Psagot. The Israel Defense Forces apprehended the brothers in their West Bank village of El Bireh, located several hundred yards from the girl's home, on Monday.
Noam Glick was attacked on Saturday night while standing on the porch of her home. She was treated at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem for wounds at the base of her neck, across her chest and on her ear. Shots also were fired during the incident, according to reports.
Following the attack, Israeli soldiers found a breach in the settlement's fence. Psagot is located north of Jerusalem and adjacent to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
On Monday, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas referred to the stabbing during a meeting in Ramallah with several left-wing Israeli members of Knesset but did not directly condemn it.


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STAFF at Maplins and Staples at Greenbridge Retail park were alerted to the use of fake £50 notes when several punters attempted to use them to pay for goods earlier this year.
The CCTV images are the latest to be shared with the Adver in a bid to net criminal for unsolved offences.
Three men entered each of the stores on Jaunary 22 at around 3.48pm and attempted to pay for goods with the counterfeit money.
The suspects are decribed as white men. The first was of stocky build, with short dark hair, wearing a grey hoodie with the hood pulled up, black tracksuit bottoms with blue lines down the side and blue and white trainers.
The second man had short dark hair, was wearing a black coat, blue jeans and black trainers and the third man was wearing a dark jacket.
Anyone with any information should contact the Swindon Crime Management Unit on 101 quoting crime reference number 54140007256.


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So Skordos enthusiastically showed up at Monday's "Parents Choice Rally" and was assured by the sign on the gym wall that "every voice counts." Parents and supporters were encouraged to counteract negative publicity created by Ball State University's recent decision to revoke the charter of Imagine and two others in Fort Wayne because of low test scores. They were even provided pre-addressed forms that could be filled with impassioned pleas to Gov. Mike Pence.
But should the future of a school entrusted with about 350 young lives and lots of public money really hinge on the success or failure of an 11th-hour public-relations campaign?
Principal Ra'Chelle Spearman probably would have preferred to be doing almost anything but serving as chief cheerleader Monday evening, but felt she had no choice in the wake of Ball State's decision, which she said was both premature and – contrary to the university's press release – a surprise.
"We have a five-year charter but only four years (of state test scores)," Spearman said, noting that the final scores won't be available until May and should show continued improvement. Surely Ball State could have delayed its decision a few more months, she said, especially when it did not implement new accountability measures until this year she believed would take more than test scores into account.
But therein lurks the Catch-22 for Imagine on Broadway, Imagine MASTer Academy, the Timothy L. Johnson Academy and other charter schools now fighting for their lives. Having been justified as alternatives to public schools with chronically low test scores, charter schools risk credibility by implying that such scores should not be used to measure their performance.
And even if Imagine on Broadway's latest scores do improve – and Spearman said less than 60 percent of students are meeting math and English standards – what would that prove if the tests are suspect?
So Spearman, Skordos and others Monday were left with anecdotal arguments very much like those often made in behalf of struggling public schools: How caring teachers had made a difference for children challenged by poverty, family problems or academic neglect.
"My daughter struggled in kindergarten in the Fort Wayne Community Schools. Her teacher called her 'stupid' and said she would never amount to anything," Skordos said, her eyes filling with tears and her voice choked with emotion. "I'm saddened and heartbroken by this. You can't judge a school only by tests. Our kids would be lost in the public schools." Other parents said much the same.
Fourth-grade teacher Katie Tunis said Imagine's dedication to students matches what she experienced while teaching for 20 years at Fort Wayne's private Canterbury School. "We're seeing a lot of individual growth by students," she said.
According to teacher Emily Kleinschmidt, in fact, students who have been at Imagine for several years have shown improvement in test scores much better than its overall scores. "It proves we are more than just an 'F' that ISTEP and its grading scale would lead some to believe," she insisted.
No doubt that's true. The staff at Monday's rally seemed professional and genuinely concerned about their students. The parents were passionate about saving their school. The problem is that, for better or worse, Indiana has established a way to evaluate school performance that casts a negative light not only on Imagine on Broadway but on many other schools with dedicated teachers struggling to educate children from a variety of challenging backgrounds.
Spearman said her school will appeal Ball State's decision and, if that fails, will seek other alternatives. "We have a lot of potential here," she said. But potential is by definition in the future. The school's survival is about the here and now.
This is, appropriately, "School Choice Week" in Indiana. But just as public-school supporters lose credibility by applauding the demise of charters while absolving underperforming public schools, I and other advocates of charters and vouchers should welcome the chance to demonstrate the ability to help the very students public schools have not.
If Imagine on Broadway and the others are to survive, in other words, they should be prepared to base their case on facts – not emotion.


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The SW Dairy Day is scheduled for Thursday October 18th to be held at the SW Regional Dairy Center from 9:30 am 4 pm. We have booth exhibitors, DOPA credits, educational seminars and keynote speakers. Please come out and enjoy the day.
Click on Southwest Dairy Day Flyer pdf to view more information.
If you have an interest in sponsoring this event please go to www.texasdairymatters.com to register for a booth, equipment or general sponsorship. We look forward to seeing you there!


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Traffic fatality rate decreases
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 21:50:00 GMT —
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says traffic fatalities are down almost 16 percent compared with last year.
The patrol said Monday that 364 people have died from traffic accidents so far in 2013. That's down from 431 fatalities at the same point last year.
Missouri's annual traffic toll rose last year to 826 after having fallen for several previous years. This year's partial figures are roughly on pace with 2011, when 786 people died on Missouri roads.


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Model: Elvida Santos
Makeup: Liza Macawili
Bikinis: Kandy Shop
Establishing yourself with a great build can be a gift and a curse. On one hand, you've built a car that everybody respects; on the other hand, you've gotta build another one to prove it wasn't a fluke! After debuting his stunning '57 Rag, "The Blueprint," Andre "Dre Ghost" McGee knew that he had to come back with a car of the same caliber, and he had his work cut out for him. We first spotted the Las Vegas rider's '58 Chevy Impala convertible coming together a few years ago at Bowtie Connection of San Pedro, where John Kennedy and his crew worked on the classic.
With such a load of work to be done, the full frame-off restoration was a few years in the making, but it would all be worth it in the end. Thanks to Bowtie's expert crew, the guys stripped the car after making sure that everything lined up. This build was going to be another ground up custom restoration that Bowtie Connection was known for, and everyone involved knew it would be special.
The major item on the agenda was to transplant and bolt on an LS-3 Corvette engine into the convertible. The aluminum engine and transmission were purchased through Street and Performance, as were all of the accessories that were bolted onto the engine. After wiring a few components, this engine was ready to roll. A combination of paint, chrome and engraving make this engine compartment a standout on the show circuit. Airbrushing was also used on the custom molded coil covers, for added detail. Street and Performance pulleys, brackets, and engine accessories were used to dress up the engine block. A Matson four-core radiator and Spal electric fan keep the performance engine running at cool temperatures, and the engine compartment turned out to be a walk in the park, as the Street and Performance crate engine is essentially a turn-key project.
The car's body was actually in pretty good shape, making it easy for the Bowtie Connection Crew to get the car ready to spray a House of Kolor candy Oriental Blue finish. The body received a dash that was patterned-out in a custom finish to match the frame by Zack Felix of Felix Dezigns. The frame was also done by Zack, and featured a silver flake base accented with patterns, done in Oriental and cobalt blue, which further tied the scheme into the exterior. Finishing off the custom paint scheme were murals airbrushed by Abel Rocha of San Fernando, California, showing Biggie, 2Pac, and Tookie Williams playing poker at the Bellagio. Abel also did other subtle murals throughout the car, in places like the door panels and on the continental kit.
Since Homies Hydraulics of Paramount, California, did Dre's last setup, they took on the job of making this rag top hop. The trunk received two pumps with a custom whammy tank and mounting plate. Once it was complete, Dre and his friend, OJ, took the setup apart and gave it a modern twist by using Hernan's Engraving to etch in all of the extra details that they needed to have a winning setup. The setup features three Adel square dumps or hydraulic valves, which are plumbed in hard lines, and the system is powered by six batteries that were mounted on custom racks and covered with paint and murals.
While the car was still at Bowtie Connection, John had his upholstery department tackle the interior. Freddy, who made sure that all of the interior lines were matched perfectly, stitched the original-style interior up. Freddy also took care of the custom convertible top, which had to be built from scratch. Having the top match the car keeps the whole "blueprint" theme going. Interior tricks include a chrome rack (done by A1 Plating), electric windows, bench seat, Flaming Rivers tilt column, and Dakota Digital gauges. Exterior options include a Continental kit, spotlights, cruising skirts, disc brakes and engraved bumper guards by Hernan Custom Engraving.
Dre is no stranger to the pages of Lowrider, as he was quite well known after his '57 Chevy Impala convertible was featured. The feature inspired everyone in Vegas to copy the car's style and since it was gone, every builder of note was claiming to be "King of Vegas." Now that the '58 is done, Dre will just let the car do the talking and we will have to see how many feelings get hurt when they go up against this custom Vegas ragtop. For the future, Dre is already planning out "The Last Episode"—a '59 ragtop and once he's done, his son will be going to be taking over the throne. Only time will tell when that day will come, as Dre shows no signs of slowing down yet.
"The Blueprint 2"
Owner: Andre "Dre Ghost" McGee
Vehicle: 1958 Chevrolet, Impala convertible
City/State: North Las Vegas, NV
Club: Street Players C.C.
Engine: A Street and Performance LS-3 Corvette crate engine was hitched to a 4L60E transmission. The engine was also dressed with Street and Performance pulleys and Flowmaster exhaust.
Body/Paint: The Blueprint features a House of Kolor candy Oriental blue paint job with a silver-flaked dash and rolling chassis, done by Zack Felix of Felix Dezigns.
Interior: A leather and suede factory-style interior kit was put together by Bowtie Connection.
Sound System: An Alpine head unit controls Rockford Fosgate amplifiers and speakers, which include Alpine 10-inch subwoofers.
Setup: Two chrome pumps with a custom whammy tank reservoir with three Adel dumps and custom tubing and three Parker slowdowns.
Tires: 5.20 Premium Sportway
Wheels: 13×7 reverse Zenith wires with powdercoated wheels


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Serial stowaway strikes again
A notorious 62-year-old stowaway who was arrested six times trying to sneak onto flights at San Francisco International Airport, US, has managed to fly from Mineta San Jose International Airport to Los Angeles without a ticket.
This marks the second significant security breach at the US airport in the past four months.
Marilyn Jean Hartman was arrested late Monday at Los Angeles Interational Airport (LAX) after she sneaked past security at the San Jose airport and onto a Southwest Airlines flight to Los Angeles.
Hartman had made it onto a plane at least once in her attempts at San Francisco International Airport but was caught and arrested before the plane took off.
In April, a 15-year-old boy climbed a security fence onto the tarmac at the airport, stowed away in the wheel well of a Maui-bound airplane and miraculously survived the high altitude and near-freezing temperatures during the 5½-hour flight.
Despite the security concerns raised by the two stowaways, airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes declared emphatically that the two are "very separate incidents."
"I do not have details on how this all happened. I can say that this incident and the (April) stowaway incident are completely unrelated," Barnes said. "(The Transportation Security Administration) and Southwest are reviewing how she was able to get on board the flight."
A source familiar with the incident said that Hartman tried three times to get around TSA agents screening boarding passes before she was able to slip past while a family was having their tickets checked. She did still go through the security screening devices that check for weapons and explosives, the source said.
Once inside Terminal B, she unsuccessfully attempted to board several planes before finally sneaking past a Southwest gate agent and boarding the plane to Los Angeles.
Once the plane landed at LAX, the source said, airline employees did a head count for those remaining on board who were heading to Phoenix, Arizona. When that count revealed there was one more person than expected, each passenger was asked to show proof of their boarding pass for that flight; Hartman did not have a pass and was removed from the flight and arrested.
A spokesman for Southwest Airlines said the carrier was working with authorities and conducting its own internal investigation into the incident.
Hartman was placed on probation February 27 after being arrested for attempting to board three Hawaii-bound flights departing SFO on February 15, 18 and 20, prosecutors said.
Though Hartman was not caught trying to sneak onto a plane in three of her six arrests, she continued to return to SFO despite her probation, restraining order and repeated arrests.
On her first arrest, she made it all the way through security and was found sitting in a ticketed passenger's seat, officials said.
On her second and third attempts, she was caught trying to get through the TSA line.
Authorities arrested her over the next two months in the baggage claim, food court and an airport bathroom, said San Mateo County Sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Rosenblatt. Each time, she had no ticket to fly and told investigators she had nowhere else to go.
In May, Hartman was determined to be suffering from a "major mental illness" and deemed a suitable candidate for the residential mental health program, prosecutors said. She was sentenced to two years supervised probation and will remain under strict supervision in the program for the next two years.
Hartman was transferred immediately to the Pathways Program at the Redwood House Mental Health Facility from her May 26 sentencing. It was not immediately known what level of treatment she had completed or if she had been required to stay at the facility as a condition of her sentence.
Congressman Eric Swalwell spoke out about the incident, noting that passengers' safety in the sky is reliant upon effective security on the ground and that only ticketed and screened passengers should ever be allowed on an airplane.
"Yesterday's incident of an unticketed passenger successfully taking a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles was an apparent failure by both airport security and the airline of protecting passengers from a potential threat to their safety," Swalwell said. "People want to be assured when they fly that only screened and ticketed passengers are on their flight.
"(Hartman) is a known plane hopper," he added. "She is someone that airport officials should be looking for. I don't think we need to spend more money to be a little bit smarter about how we go through security. It needs to be one person at a time, one boarding pass at a time."
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in May that Hartman continually attributed her desire to fly someplace warm to unsubstantiated claims she had cancer. It was not immediately known whether Hartman was continuing her quest to go to Hawaii when she landed at LAX.
"This engenders in me a certain level of sympathy," Wagstaffe said in May. "Locking her up is not the answer. Our goal here is to find a place other than the airport where she can find what she's looking for."
In the wake of her six failed attempts to get to Hawaii, multiple crowdfunding sites cropped up on the Internet with the goal of sending Hartman to Hawaii with a valid ticket. As of Tuesday, a GoFundMe account created in March 2014 had raised US$1,290 (NZ$1522) from 49 donors.
Hartman faces misdemeanour trespassing charges and is being held on US$500 bail, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department arrest records.
Contra Costa Times/MCT


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Rays sell out eighth straight home opener
ST. PETERSBURG -- Tuesday's Opening Day contest against the Orioles marks the eighth consecutive season the Rays have sold out the home opener.
Tickets are available for the two remaining games in the series vs. the Orioles, and the three-game weekend series vs. the Cleveland Indians.
On Saturday, the first 20,000 fans will receive a David Price Cy Young figurine, and on Sunday, kids 14 and under will receive an Evan Longoria Wall Cling.
Single-game tickets for Rays regular-season home games are available at raysbaseball.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, the Rays Tampa Store (400 N. Tampa St.) and the Gate 1 Tropicana Field Box Office, as well as over the phone at 888-FAN-RAYS and 1-800-745-3000.
Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Danny Granger Expects Pacers to Deal for a Big Man
Chris Tomasson
Senior NBA Writer
NEW YORK -- First, Larry Bird said it. Now, Danny Granger is being even more specific about what type of move the Indiana Pacers soon could make.
Asked by FanHouse on Friday in Springfield, Mass., where Bird was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame along with members of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, the Pacers president said the team needs to make another trade before the start of the regular season. Asked by FanHouse about Bird's comments, Granger said management has told him to expect a move, and he figures they will look to acquire a big man.
"We're not done yet," Granger said after scoring 22 points for Team USA in a scrimmage Saturday against China at Madison Square Garden. "I talked to management, and we're not done yet. What will happen, I don't know yet. We're still mulling over it. But we got a few things still up our sleeve."
Granger let it be known what the Pacers need after recently dealing power forward Troy Murphy to New Jersey in a four-team trade which netted Indiana point guard Darren Collison and small forward James Posey from New Orleans.
"We're going to have to go after another big, I'm sure," said the 6-foot-8 Granger. "Losing Troy, he was great. I can play the (power forward) but I'm not a true (power forward). So we're definitely going to have to add another big, and I think that will be our main focus."
The Pacers have the expiring contracts of Mike Dunleavy ($10.56 million), T.J. Ford ($8.78 million) and Jeff Foster ($6.66 million) to dangle in trades. That Murphy has an expiring contract worth $11.97 million played a role in the Pacers getting into the four-team deal, enabling them to acquire a much-needed point guard.
"I love them," Granger said of the trade acquisitions. "I really love them. As soon as it happened, I called Darren Collison because I was really excited about it ... Amazing point guard. What he did for New Orleans when Chris Paul was out (the second half of last season with a knee injury). And I think in our system he'll really thrive. And he shot it well. I think, when he got drafted, they didn't know how good of a shooter he was."
The 6-foot Collison shot 40 percent from three-point range as a rookie last season. He averaged 12.4 points and 5.7 assists.
Now that the Hornets have gotten a key small man, they'll turn their attention to a big man.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or on Twitter@christomasson


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Crossplane-crank Yamaha R1-rider Tyson Beckford dropped by our place in Hollywood yesterday and ended up taking the Aprilia RSV4 R for a quick spin. What'd he think? Well, he plans on keeping his R1 for riding on the road, but the track might be a different matter.
Editor's note: Aprilia actually has excellent part support, that's a negative perception leftover from the time before Piaggio bought them.