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Last night I went to Control in Williamsburg to see Richard Nicol from Pittsburgh Modular. There was a decent turnout including a few girls, a dog, beer, whiskey and Vince Clarke. There was a Q&A and then people took turns on the new Pitsburgh Modular Cell systems. I asked a few questions. I have some space about the size of a 8″ monitor speaker on my desk and I wanted to know if Richard was planning on making a 3 tier high Cell [48] case. The answer is yes and he plans to go to 4 high or maybe even higher. I also asked if he was planning any drum modules but he thinks that's been covered by Tiptop so he's not going to try at this time. Later in a one on one discussion I learned his main focus is keeping prices low. There's really nothing wrong with that as his modules do sound great. After playing with the Cell systems myself I made myself over to Vince Clarke and had a nice 20 minute conversation with him. He's a nice guy and like really into synths so I could talk for hours with him. I admit driving home I put on Yaz and then I realized I've now met every person who was ever in Depeche Mode (epic!). Thanks to Daren and Jonas (the store owners) for a fun evening. To see a full set of photos: click here
"All of the Pittsburgh modules are handmade with the look of 1950?s science fiction laboratory equipment using bold components and unique layouts to promote interaction and experimentation." – Pittsburgh Modular
For more info: pittsburghmodular.com, ctrl-mod.com and vinceclarkemusic.com


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Gardner watches Cano, other vets heat up
CLEVELAND -- Brett Gardner would never complain about getting on base five times in a game, as he did on Tuesday, but he also might need to pick up a little hazard pay if Robinson Cano keeps spraying liners around the diamond.
"I have to be careful over there at first base," Gardner said. "He can hit it pretty hard, and he hit some hard [Tuesday]. He's a lot of fun to watch."
Gardner had four hits and three runs scored in the Yankees' 14-1 victory over the Indians on Tuesday, and he said that he feels like he is starting to see some good results after having little to show for his efforts earlier on the road trip.
"I haven't been doing a good job getting on base, especially leading off the game," Gardner said. "I was able to see some pitches, backed the ball up and hit it hard to left field. It's definitely good to get on there for Robbie."
Cano had five RBIs in the Yanks' big win and has homered three times in his last two games heading into play on Wednesday. Gardner said that it has not caught him off guard that the Yankees are seeing contributions from players like Vernon Wells, Kevin Youkilis and Travis Hafner.
"It's not surprising at all," Gardner said. "We've got some guys in this room that are pretty talented, some guys that have been around and done some good things. Bringing Vernon Wells over the last few days of Spring Training, he's gotten off to a great start. Youk and Hafner right there in the middle of the order, and now Robbie's heated up too. We've got a good group of guys and we have a lot of fun together. The last two days have been great."
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

subset: commoncrawl


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STOURBRIDGE singer-songwriter Ian Parker is among musicians taking part in a benefit concert for blues star Walter Trout this Sunday (May 4) in London.
The gig, taking place at Shepherd's Bush Empire, has been organised to help raise money to pay for a liver transplant for Walter who has graced the stage at Ian's favourite venue The Robin 2 at Bilston on many occasions.
Friends, family and music fans are trying to raise $250,000 to help pay for the transplant and aftercare.
The American blues guitarist and singer, who is married with three sons, does have health insurance but it will not cover the full cost of the care needed.
Blues and roots musician Ian said: "It's great to see the blues community coming together to help Walter at this time."
He added: "Walter helped me and countless other young blues musicians to get established, which is why so many people want to help raise funds for a liver transplant he needs urgently."
Ian continued: "Walter helped me to become established by recommending me to Ruf Records and then taking me out on tour around Europe with him as a support act. He is an incredibly generous and warm man whose work ethic and commitment to the blues I have always admired.
"I'm sure the gig will attract a good crowd and raise the money needed to help Walter. There are some great acts performing and I'm especially looking forward to meeting up and perhaps jamming with my friend Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake."
The gig will also feature performances by Otis Grand, Stevie Smith, Danny Bryant, Marcus Malone, Mitch Laddie, Laurence Jones and the Flamingo Club All Stars House Band and others.
Tickets are available from ticketweb.co.uk or by calling 0844 477 2000.
Anyone unable to get to the gig but wishing to make a donation can do so online at www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/walter-trout-needs-a-new-liver-you-can-help-/151911.
For more on Ian Parker check out http://ianparker.biz/


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The Burgeoning World of Corporate Security Has Gone From Cloak and Dagger to Computers and Databases
His name was Hunt. He grew up in the Bronx and landed a job at M.D. Sass Investor Services, a private New York money management firm with billions in accounts. He was working as a clerk, and by age 27 was arranging wire transfers for the firm's clients. When clients requested cash, he would call the brokerage houses where the money was invested and instruct them to deposit the funds in Barclays, Sass' custodial bank for cash management accounts. Then he would order Barclays to transfer the cash to his clients' account.
He soon discovered he could siphon off millions. According to investigators, he realized he could request more money than his clients demanded and pocket the difference. He would instruct Barclays to wire the money into a Sass profit-sharing account at the brokerage house Bear Stearns. From there, he could fax instructions to Bear Stearns to wire the funds to one of his own accounts. The instructions required a signature from Sass' chief financial officer, which he photocopied and placed on the letter. Clients wouldn't notice the losses because he could hide them in the firm's multi-layered accounting system. Investigators said he tested the plan slowly and found it virtually flawless.
He started living the fast life. He bought two large houses in the Hamptons, where neighbors said he held huge parties. He took gambling trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City and spent thousands on concerts and sporting events. He bought more than 30 sports cars, including a Porsche, Lamberghini, a Jaguar and several Grand Prix racing cars. He competed in races and operated his own racing company. He was "a magnet for women," investigators said.
Sass coworkers noted that he frequently wore new Giorgio Armani suits to work. But he was always "meticulously" dressed, said a former colleague, and the company had no reason to suspect he led such a dashing double life. He tripped up, though, when he sold two sports cars to an auto leasing company in Atlanta. The FBI was investigating the car buyer and his leasing company for a separate fraud matter when agents discovered a transfer of more than $200,000 to one of his Merrill Lynch accounts. They froze the account, and Merrill Lynch notified his bosses at Sass. A little digging revealed that he may have embezzled millions. But the firm didn't know the scope of the scam, or how it had transpired. A decision was quickly made: Call Kroll Associates, New York's leading white-collar detective agency.
On an early August afternoon in 1996, Kroll's New York office received a "panic call" from M.D. Sass. The investment firm expressed grave concerns. The FBI had frozen some of the suspect's bank accounts, so he knew he was under investigation. But the company was reluctant to confront him or call the police without getting more details. The situation was urgent because Sass feared that he might try to flee in a take-the-money-and-run scenario. The lawyers wanted Kroll's advice, fast.
After reviewing the case, Kroll's operatives quickly came up with a strategy. The best tactic, they reasoned, would be to try to strike a deal with the suspect. They would be there for backup, and could try and persuade him to surrender peacefully. By hitting him with the evidence they had--and intimating that they would soon discover more--he might be persuaded to cooperate.
The plan worked. The suspect and his attorney sat down with Kroll agents and Sass lawyers. He admitted to the theft and agreed to help recover the stolen funds.
Kroll's detectives soon uncovered a nearly $14 million loss. Along with the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, they located more than 50 accounts that he had set up with banks and brokerage houses using separate or similar names. They discovered he laundered loot through front companies listed as Q2 Projects and Grand Prix Motor Sports. They found a note suggesting that he'd secreted $3 million to an offshore bank account. They scoured thousands of his papers, unearthing payments to friends, casinos and a cash flow through dozens of shell companies in different states. They recovered more than $5 million. Most of the rest, they concluded, had simply been lost or spent.
Five months later, Hunt pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Foraging along the paths of stolen millions isn't unusual for Kroll Associates. The detective agency has tracked and nabbed assets plundered by some of the world's most notorious thieves--from Saddam Hussein to former Russian government officials who plundered state enterprises. Kroll clients include some of the biggest names in corporate America: Time Inc., General Motors, KMart, Goldman Sachs. The U.S. government has even been known to call on Kroll. When federal prosecutors were planning a sting against Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan empire, Kroll handled the job: in 1989, a Kroll SWAT team, led by a former Green Beret commando, raided two of Keating's Arizona hotels, securing computer data, financial documents and paintings worth millions. In the mid-'90s, Orange County, California, paid Kroll to investigate its management procedures after county officials lost more than $1.7 billion trading derivatives.
Based in New York, Kroll has 26 offices worldwide, with 350 employees and a support network of more than 1,000 freelance investigators. With its recent merger with the O'Gara Co.--an armored-vehicle maker and security services firm--it is at the center of a burgeoning service industry for corporate America. For Kroll and hundreds of other detective agencies, corporate investigations are booming. Though clients rarely admit hiring detectives, demand for PIs has grown sharply. The number of licensed U.S. private investigators rose 28 percent between 1990 and 1994, to more than 90,000. Expenditures on private eyes is expected to top $4.6 billion by 2000, up from $850 million in 1980, according to the American Society for Industrial Security. Some firms, which once earned most of their cash tailing wayward spouses, now report 70 percent of their income from corporate investigative work.
The media still labels them muckrakers of the flashbulb-and-trenchcoat set. But they are more than Sam Spades in suits. Out in the field, they sport hacking software, laptops and cell phones. They also boast advanced degrees and impeccable crime-fighting credentials. Their ranks include forensic accountants, former organized-crime prosecutors, attorneys versed in environmental and securities law, computer security experts and Ph.Ds in the behavioral sciences. Top firms attract some of the nation's top law enforcement officials. The president of I.G.I.--a well-connected Washington, D.C.-based agency--is Larry Potts, a former deputy director of the FBI. And until last May, Kroll's president was Robert McGuire, a former New York police commissioner.
Industry analysts say companies hire private eyes as part of standard "risk management." Investigators sell peace of mind: a background check on a job candidate; an assurance that executives aren't padding expense accounts. "Companies don't want to be found negligent for failing to do a background check," says one New York investigator. "That can have consequences for insurance claims and could expose companies to criminal liability, civil penalties and risk to their business reputation." He points out that a routine legal pre-transaction assignment--like a due diligence report for a new business partnership--now often requires extensive profiles of the target firm's senior managers, their medical histories, financial backgrounds and personal relationships.
Of course, companies caught bankrolling private eyes to dig dirt on their enemies risk a public relations nightmare. In the mid-'60s, the media pounced on General Motors when detectives for the automaker were caught trying to discredit consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who was publicizing defects in GM's ill-fated Corvair. Recently, claimants in a class-action lawsuit against Texaco sued the company and its private investigator for privacy and civil rights violations. The investigator allegedly obtained claimants' telephone logs, work histories and records of unpaid traffic tickets, among other personal facts, in an attempt to sabotage their litigation claims.
Why are some of the nation's largest corporations hiring PIs? "Companies have learned that if they're victimized and do nothing about it, they may be victimized again," says Bart Schwartz, president and chief executive officer of Decision Strategies/Fairfax International, a New York-based agency. "They're afraid of the schemes that are out there."
Schwartz is an ex-Kroll executive and a former U.S. Attorney under Rudy Giuliani in New York. He opened his shop as a solo practitioner in 1991 and now has dozens of investigators on staff. Last August, he merged his firm with The Fairfax Group, a Virginia-based agency. The new company will operate from 20 offices around the world and supply an array of fraud detection and investigative services.
Part of the reason for the industry's growth, Schwartz says, is that corporations think they're more vulnerable to in-house crimes. At scores of large companies, layoff waves from the early 1990s left more power consolidated among fewer employees. With fewer checks and balances in the system, opportunities for kickback schemes, money laundering and plain old pilfering have mulitplied. Employees haven't necessarily become more dishonest, says Schwartz. There are just more ways for them to take advantage of loopholes in labyrnthine accounting systems. "The crimes are more complicated," says Schwartz, "and companies don't want to spend the money retraining their own security departments."
Corporate detectives also seem to be capitalizing on the wave of U.S. companies setting up joint ventures abroad. Firms want to know if their foreign business partners may be fronts for money laundering, if their factories are producing counterfeit goods (a problem rampant in the fashion industry), or if government contracts have been won through bribes or kickbacks. Detectives aren't the only ones investigating such matters. Consulting firms such as Price Waterhouse, with their own investigative divisions, also proffer "business intelligence." But detective agencies are often employed for their surveillance expertise and international espionage network. The breakup of the Soviet Union left thousands of former Cold War spies jobless, and many now conduct covert operations for private eyes. With contacts in intelligence agencies, former spies can develop information on local business leaders and government officials that detectives may then sell to their customers.
Naturally, not all jobs involve extensive espionage. Agencies such as Decision Strategies are often hired just to stamp clients with a clean bill of health. In 1996, for instance, Schwartz conducted an eight-month internal probe for Western Beef, the $300 million publicly traded supermarket chain. Investors were avoiding the company because of allegations that it had links to the Gambino crime family. The company's chief executive, Peter Castellana Jr., enlisted Schwartz to investigate the company's books and records and help clear his name. Schwartz's detectives scrutinized the financial dealings of top managers and executives and analyzed accounting records. Their report found no evidence of wrongdoing and the company's stock rose considerably once the findings came out.
For firms such as I.G.I., cracking so-called "whitemail campaigns" has proved lucrative in recent years. In such cases, clients suspect an enemy of spreading rumors about their business or stock, and hire detectives to locate the culprit. "We now have a division with five full-time investigators working on these kinds of cases," says I.G.I. chairman Terry Lenzner. "We've handled cases where Silicon Valley companies have been targeted by short-sellers [traders who profit when the stock price falls]. They short massive amounts of the stock, and if it doesn't go down they leak negative information to the press or tip the FBI that the company may be a mob front. Usually the allegations are false and they can be charged with market manipulation or violating securities laws."
I.G.I. is considered one of the country's top three agencies (along with Kroll Associates and Decision Strategies/Fairfax) for large corporate investigations. Lenzner co-founded the firm in 1984, after a storied career as a Watergate prosecutor and private litigator--training that made him an ideal corporate sleuth. As deputy chief counsel for the Senate Watergate committee, he tracked millions in illegal contributions to president Richard Nixon's reelection campaign fund. After Watergate, as an attorney in private practice, he issued a massive report to the state of Alaska in 1977, documenting corruption and $1.5 billion in cost overruns in the building of the Alaska pipeline. He spent most of the next decade litigating claims against the contractors; when the suits finally ended, in 1986, the state had won more than $1 billion in settlements.
As a private detective, Lenzner works mainly for corporate interests. His 1992 report on corruption at the United Way of America brought down the charity's longtime president, William Aramony. The same year, he was hired by Martin Marietta and Lockheed to help prevent the LTV Corp. from selling its $300 million missile division to the French electronics giant, Thomson CSF. Both American companies had bid unsuccessfully for the business, and to persuade the Bush Administration to block the sale, they commissioned I.G.I. to investigate Thomson's sale of equipment to Iraq and Libya during the 1980s.
Aside from the corporate work, Lenzner has snooped for clients ranging from The Beatles, to Teddy Kennedy, to Ivana Trump, who commissioned him to look into the affairs (mostly business) of her ex-husband during their divorce proceedings. Then there was the case of one of America's greatest art heist: the 1991 theft of 13 paintings, including a Vermeer and Rembrandt's only known seascape, from the Isabel Gardner Museum in Boston. The paintings are still missing. But Lenzner says he has some new leads. "There are now two men in jail who claim to know where the paintings are being kept and are demanding the $5 million reward along with immunity against prosecution," he says of the ongoing case. "We're investigating their background to see if they're legitimate."
Last year, Lenzner landed another plum assignment: investigating contributions to President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, mainly due to his Watergate experience. Lenzner won't comment on his discoveries, but he did confirm that his client, the Democratic National Committee, returned "several million" in contributions to questionable donors based on money trails he uncovered.
For obvious reasons, I.G.I. and other agencies won't divulge their investigative methods. When asked how Kroll Associates gathers its "business intelligence," Ernest Brod, executive managing director, would say only, "We are out there not only working from the databases and the records in the way that consulting firms or investment banks are. We talk to former employees of companies. We look into the backgrounds of principals and executives of potential joint venture partners. We look into integrity issues, and operating strengths and weaknesses."
Like other agencies, Kroll says it operates under a strictly enforced code of conduct. To ease clients' concerns about unethical practices, Kroll has for years employed an in-house monitoring staff that polices the company's detectives. Other agencies vaunt similar claims. They say their business hinges on an understanding with clients that their stealthy ways won't jeopardize company secrets or kindle a criminal or civil suit for invasion of privacy. "That is our worst nightmare," says Decision Strategies' Schwartz.
Yet even top firms such as Kroll sometimes defend their snooping ways in court. In 1984, Philips Petroleum hired Kroll to dig up dirt on the corporate raider T. Boone Pickens, who was planning a hostile takeover of the oil giant. Pickens persuaded a Texas judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Kroll detectives. In court transcripts, his attorney claimed they were harassing members of his country club, former employees and family members in his home town of Amarillo, Texas. The order was overturned within 48 hours by a judge, who ruled that Kroll's questions were warranted.
In another 1980s case, Kroll agents working for Goldman Sachs were accused of impersonating a journalist and police officer when investigating Martin A. Siegel, the financier prosecuted for insider trading. When asked recently about the case, Kroll refused to comment. However, in a 1994 New York Times interview, Jules Kroll conceded that detectives working for the firm had occasionally skirted company policy by obtaining bank and telephone records of a target. Kroll told the Times that the company's "biggest black eye" came in 1990, when a Delaware judge forbade Kroll operatives from misrepresenting themselves while interviewing employees of a chemical company. Kroll's defense today: "It was a clever tactic by companies on the other side to chill our investigation," says Brod. "Nevertheless, we took it seriously, and we continue to take steps to make sure no one connected to our company oversteps the law."
Perhaps led by Kroll's example, the industry as a whole is trying to clean up its seamy public image. Many firms now operate out of well-heeled office towers, their sleuths as anonymous as Fortune 500 executives. The term "private investigator" has been replaced with tonier titles such as "investigative consultant" or "risk management specialist." And agencies are expanding their product lines, aggressively marketing them for corporate buyers. Kroll, for instance, offers a travel advisory service which alerts executives to politically unstable regions and terrorist threats in nearly 300 cities around the world. Another specialty from Kroll is classes in terrorism-avoidance for selected business clients (some tips: don't travel alone, vary driving and walking routes, carry a working cellular phone, don't accept drinks from strangers).
Imagery aside, corporate detectives still do the occasional "dumpster dive." If an employer suspects an executive of embezzlement, he might ask detectives to conduct an operation known as "tossing an office." The procedure involves entering the suspect's work space late at night, rifling through file cabinets, desk drawers and yes, trash bins, looking for scribbled phone numbers and scraps of evidence. Usually, however, hacking into a hard drive and trolling for digital footprints--log-in records, deleted letters recoverable from the system's memory banks--is more fruitful. While white-collar thieves may be scrupulous about shredding hard copies, say investigators, they rarely cover all their digital tracks. Bart Schwartz says he recently investigated a case in which a plant manager was suspected of stealing computer programs essential to the company's manufacturing process. Schwartz's detectives discovered that the manager had copied the programs from an internal computer network onto his laptop. But he had negelected to delete a backup file of the transfer, which Schwartz's agents discovered, thus pinpointing the theft. Schwartz said the case is pending in court.
Detective work like that can be dicey, however. Inept snoops who don't cover their own tracks--say, by forgetting to re-order icons on a suspect's computer screen--could jeopardize a long-planned sting or ignite a spate of nasty legal actions. But for much of the routine corporate investigative work, detectives need never venture beyond their computer terminals. Agencies typically subscribe to hundreds of private and commercial databases, enabling armchair hunters to cross-check an individual's credit card purchases, say, with property titles and checking accounts in different states. Prior bankruptcy filings, medical records, hotel bills, even what videos a suspect rented, are all available at the click of a mouse. Since many corporate detectives hail from federal law enforcement backgrounds, they can often access government databases through inside contacts. The result is that PIs now travel less, conduct fewer phone interviews or face-to-face meetings, and can cut down on surveillance operations that can be both costly and nerve-racking to clients. As one investigator quipped: "Staying in-house makes clients less nervous."
In 1972, when Jules Kroll opened his shop with a single New York office, the corporate investigative business barely existed. The dominant player was still the granddaddy of them all: the original Pinkerton's Detective Agency, where the hardboiled novelist Dashiell Hammett apprenticed before the First World War. The rest of the field was made up mostly of solo practitioners, who provided private security and did the occasional matrimonial or missing persons jobs. None, though, were offering corporations the kinds of services Jules Kroll plied. Unlike the former beat cops and ex-police detectives who staffed many agencies, he carried a set of credentials that corporate powerbrokers could appreciate: a graduate of Cornell University and Georgetown Law School; a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan. He wore the trappings of a well-bred executive and came armed with legal knowledge, boardroom negotiating skills and expertise in workplace crime.
Kroll started out advising companies on how to prevent fraud and kickback schemes in their purchasing departments. He brought in professionals of every creed: investigative accountants, district attorneys, FBI agents. The business was as much fraud detection as prevention, and by the early 1980s, Kroll expanded to the more lucrative field of due diligence--checking out a company's assets or holdings for potential buyers. Wall Street started paying attention, as Kroll got press for derailing a number of hostile takeover attempts during the mergers and acquisitions craze. In one celebrated case, Kroll fended off an attack by the Miami raider Victor Posner on Foremost McKesson, a pharmaceuticals and liquor distributor. Kroll obtained aerial photographs showing that Posner overstated the assets of his takeover company. The pictures caught the attention of the IRS, which then prosecuted Posner for tax evasion, forcing him to retreat from his assault. In another well-known case, Kroll had a hand in rebuffing Amway's $2.1 billion takeover bid of Avon. Kroll investigators discovered that Amway's chief operating officer, William W. Nicholson, was a defendant in a $1.8 million embezzlement suit and had been sued numerous times for allegedly defaulting on bank notes. The revelations reportedly dislodged Amway's board, prompting the company to drop its bid for Avon. By 1989, Kroll's services were so popular that in the $25 billion battle for RJR Nabisco, the company's detectives were reportedly forced from the game: all the competing parties were clients.
As the takeover and merger accounts dried up, Kroll used its muscle to expand overseas. Particularly noteworthy were Kroll's international asset investigations. In one case, Kroll, working for some Utah banks, identified more than $100 million in hidden assets held by the Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi. The findings prompted Khashoggi to settle a $32 million debt with the banks. Kroll also grabbed headlines for locating millions stolen by Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos and for tracking Haitian dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier's off-shore fortune, reportedly stashed in several European and U.S. bank accounts.
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The Corn Belt's widespread and severe drought sent corn and soybean prices soaring this growing season. With grain and oilseed prices rising disproportionately to milk and whole cottonseed prices, experts recommend dairy producers capitalize on the current competitive value of cottonseed to boost milk and butterfat production.
"When it comes to cottonseed, the price is right, says Tom Wedegaertner, Cotton Incorporated director of agricultural research. "While feed commodities have increased dramatically in price, the price of cottonseed has remained steady." Average cottonseed spot prices have been hovering around $350 per ton. "When compared to $7 corn and $15 soybeans, today's cottonseed is a tremendous value."
Dr. Carl Old, an independent dairy nutritionist based in Le Grand, Calif., concurs. "When cottonseed is in the $300 per ton price range, it's a good buy. Right now, relative to corn, cottonseed is an excellent buy."
While cotton acres were down 14 percent in 2012, cotton yields are outstanding, says cottonseed merchant Larry Johnson of Cottonseed, LLC, La Crosse, Wis. "In some areas, growers expect to harvest a record yield."
Old says there's always a place for cottonseed in high-producing cows' rations. "The energy density in cottonseed is really important for top production cows. Generally, cows producing one third or more than herd average should be fed whole cottonseed."
Periodically, dairy producers ask Old what they can feed to replace whole cottonseed. "My response is always 'whole cottonseed.' You can meet cottonseed's nutritional specifications on paper, but cows will not produce as much milk or butterfat when fed alternative feeds. There is no replacement for cottonseed."
With crop forecasters predicting increased corn and soybean acreage for 2013, cotton acreage is expected to shrink by as much as 2 million acres in 2013, Wedegaertner says. "Cottonseed will get real scarce and thus more costly to purchase over the next couple years."
Dairy producers who want to lock in cottonseed should not delay, advises Nigel Adcock of Cottonseed, LLC. "There's a short-term buying opportunity this fall, and producers may want to strongly consider locking in up to a year's worth of their cottonseed needs."
Forward contracts are available all the way through 2013 for cottonseed, he adds.
Cotton Incorporated suggest producers get in touch with their cottonseed merchant or feed dealer to check prices, or submit a request for cottonseed quotes through its Cottonseed Marketplace. Also, those interested in receiving periodic updates on the available cottonseed supply, along with feeding, storage and booking strategies, can sign up for the Whole Cottonseed E-newsletter.
Cottonseed is an excellent source of fiber, protein and energy. Typical rations can include up to 15 percent cottonseed on a dry matter basis. For more information, including reports on market conditions, feeding information and a list of suppliers, visit www.wholecottonseed.com.
Cotton Incorporated, funded by U.S. growers of upland cotton and importers of cotton and cotton textile products, is the research and marketing company representing upland cotton. The Program is designed and operated to improve the demand for and profitability of cotton.


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If you're serious about baking and pizza-making, a scale is a worthwhile investment. The problem with measuring flour by volume is that as I mentioned last week, it's amazingly inaccurate. A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces depending on how you fluff it or pack it, and even the experts disagree on how much a cup of flour is supposed to weigh.
By measuring by weight, you're guaranteed accuracy, no matter how you pack the flour. Weighing your ingredients directly in the mixing bowl also means there are no extra measuring cups to wash. (Which is always a good thing in my book.)
To use a scale correctly, you need to understand the tare function. Years ago, when my job included buying material by weight, one of my suppliers told me that we didn't pay him enough—his measurements were different from ours. I asked his material handler to show me how he weighed the material. He got on the fork lift, picked up the box of material, drove onto the scale and wrote down the weight on a ledger. I said, "Fine, I'll pay your weight, but you've got to give me the forklift, the box, and the employee you just weighed along with it."
Moral of the story: if you don't tare your scale, your measurements can be very, very wrong.
The tare function (sometimes called the "zero" function) is what allows you, without any pesky math, to calibrate the scale so that it doesn't take into account any of the things you don't want to be measuring. Usually, that's the weight of the bowl, and/or the weight of whatever ingredients you've already added to it.
There are two ways to use the tare function to your advantage.
Method One
Find a bowl that is large enough to hold your ingredients individually, and put that on the scale. My little bowl weighs 3 7/8 ounces.
Press the tare button (on my scale, it's the "zero" button), and the weight will reset to zero, so you can begin weighing ingredients without worrying about the container weight.
Add your ingredients to the bowl until you reach the correct weight. If you go over the correct weight, just remove some until you get back down to the proper weight.
Dump those ingredients into your work bowl, and continue with the rest of the ingredients. If anyone doubts the range of weights you can get by measuring, here's the same flour and the same 1/2 cup measuring cup. Above, it weighted 2 1/4 ounces, and here it's a whopping 2 7/8 ounces.
It's a good practice to press the tare button each time you put the empty bowl on the scale, particularly if any of your ingredients might be clinging to the bowl. Keep in mind that the ingredients that land on the scale platform are also being weighed, so keep the scale clean.
Method Two
Put your work bowl on the scale, press the tare button to zero the scale and add your first ingredient until you reach the proper weight. Then press the tare button again to zero the scale and add the second ingredient. This method is a little trickier in that it's slightly harder to remove ingredients when you've piled them on top of one another. So the key is to get close to the correct weight, adding slowly, and wait for the scale to settle and display the correct weight before you add more.
With the second method, you've streamlined your cleanup down to a single bowl!
About the author: Donna Currie has been cooking for fun and writing for pay since the days when typewritten articles traveled by snail mail. When she combined those talents in a food column for a newspaper in her area, she realized that writing about food is almost as much fun as eating. She most launched the blog Cookistry and has now joined the Serious Eats team with a weekly column about baking.


text: News Article Lifesize Donates Advanced Video Conference Hardware to The Salvation Army! Jaylen Christie Published November 1, 2013 in Salvation Army Orlando "The fact of the matter is that it is 2013 and things are changing," said Jaylen Christie, public relations coordinator for The Salvation Army in Orlando. "This new video conference equipment can be effectively utilized to stay in the know with the different Salvation Army organizations around the nation – especially when it comes to conducting business. We are extremely grateful to Lifesize for their remarkable donation. It honestly means the world to us." Visit Salvation Army Orlando


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CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Fire officials say two people have been burned, one seriously, in an overnight explosion and fire at a hazardous waste treatment facility in Cincinnati.
It happened at about 3:45 a.m. Friday at Environmental Enterprises Inc. Fire officials say workers were shredding contaminated filters when a chemical apparently caused a flash fire. A sprinkler system helped put out the fire, and Cincinnati firefighters checked to make sure local air quality was clear.
Two people were taken to a hospital with burns. Fire officials say one man was badly burned; the other's burns were minor but required treatment.
The company's website states it specializes in industrial and hazardous waste management and disposal and other services. A message was left Friday morning for comment.


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Use of Parietex Plug and Patch Hernia System in Open Inguinal Hernia Repair
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
The use of synthetic mesh plugs for open inguinal hernia repair has seen dramatic variability in the number and composition of meshes currently on the world market. The use of biomaterials (PLLA, PGA) in hernia mesh is a relatively new and innovative method. These selected polymers have the ability to degrade while implanted, allowing for sufficient natural tissue healing and scarring. This usage presumably favors a decrease in foreignness, inflammatory reaction, recurrence, and incidence of chronic groin pain. Prior studies with similar plug meshes in the same indication have yielded favorable results which require this mesh to be investigated in its specific application.
Primary Objective
Evaluate the incidence of peri-operative and post-operative complications after the application of the Parietex plug and patch hernia system in open inguinal hernia repair. We will assess the efficacy of this mesh by examination and the application of a pain scale at the following intervals: 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year, respectively. Assessment is intended to evaluate:
- Patient report of pain via their Pain score
- Wound complication
- Incidence of chronic groin pain
- Recurrence rate
- Other complications Secondary Objectives
Record the description and assessment of the Parietex plug and patch hernia system:
- surgical technique
- description of dissection and mesh placement
- method of fixation
- operative times, anesthesia choice
- length of hospital stay
- mesh handling characteristics
- return to daily activities
- overall patient satisfaction
|Evaluate the Use of a New Mesh Type in Open Inguinal Hernia Repair
|Procedure: Open inguinal hernia repair with mesh
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Observational Model: Cohort
Time Perspective: Prospective
|Official Title:
|Use of Parietex Plug-and-patch Hernia Mesh in Elective Open Inguinal Hernia Repair: A Pilot Investigation
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|April 2012
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|April 2013 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Parietex mesh
Enrolled patients who met criteria for inclusion would have undergone open inguinal hernia repair using the Parietex plug and patch hernia system
|Procedure: Open inguinal hernia repair with mesh
Show Detailed Description
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 90 Years (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
|Sampling Method:
|Non-Probability Sample
Inclusion Criteria:
- All patients regardless of gender > 18 years of age presenting with inguinal hernias.
- Subjects will be informed of the nature of the study, and have provided signed written consent.
Exclusion Criteria:
- children under the age of 18
- subjects that meet criteria for biologic mesh placement
- emergency procedure
- recurrent hernias.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01590940
|Contact: Floiras A Morfesis, M.D.
|(910) 323-0101
|Contact: Brian P Rose, B.S.
|(910) 987-3670
|United States, North Carolina
|Owen Drive Surgical Clinic of Fayetteville
|Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States, 28304
|Contact: F A Morfesis, M.D. 910-323-0101 email@example.com
|Principal Investigator: F A Morfesis, M.D.
|Sub-Investigator: Brian P Rose, B.S.
|Principal Investigator:
|Florias A Morfesis, M.D.
|Owen Drive Surgical Clinic
|Study Chair:
|Brian P Rose, B.S.
|The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
Additional Information:
|Responsible Party:
|Owen Drive Surgical Clinic of Fayetteville
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01590940 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|May 2, 2012
|Last Updated:
|May 3, 2012
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Hernia, Inguinal
Pathological Conditions, Anatomical
Hernia, Abdominal
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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Topic: COBRA Extension Bill introduced in Congress
Hello all in the U.S. - a new bill was introduced in Congress by Representatives Davis (Dem-San Diego, CA), Courtney (Dem-CT) and Andrews (Dem-NJ) that would allow people currently on COBRA to extend their benefits past the 18 month time period. The bill is called The COBRA Health Benefits Extension Act (H.R. 5324). Write or email or call your Congressional Representative and two U.S. Senators and show your support of this bill. It would not cost taxpayers anything as costs are borne by patients on COBRA only. Here is a link to identify your Congressional Reps and Senators if you're unsure who they are:
I have posted an extensive article on my blog/website as well as include suggested verbiage for an email to your Rep/Senator so won't go into detail here but refer anyone interested to my blog at: http://cholangiocarcinoma.wordpress.com/
This is sorely needed during these hard economic times; COBRA can be a lifesaver for anyone out of work who is going through cancer treatment.
Hope Congress can act soon on this important piece of legislation!


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Dolly Parton keeps on truckin' with a new album, a tour — and late-night trips to the Kroger in full Dolly drag
Dolly Parton, the "Queen of Country Music," reigns on our (gay) parade with her new album Better Day and her concert tour, at the Verizon Theatre Tuesday. Better Day marks her 41st solo album of original material, and she ties Reba McEntire with four No. 1 country singles in four consecutive decades. Parton is far more than a country music star. Even calling her "iconic" seems too small for the larger-than-life persona.
From her humble roots in Tennessee, our "Backwoods Barbie" continues to be a doll to her gay fans. With some rare moments to spare, she talks behind the scenes of her tour and what's beneath the makeup and glitter.
— Jerry Nunn
Dallas Voice: The first track on Better Day, "In the Mean Time," is so feisty. What was your motivation for it? Parton: That is one my favorite songs because it sums up what is going on in the world, my attitude about it. Everybody is so down in the dumps and waiting for the end of time instead of doing something about it, enjoying the time they got. This whole album I wanted to write stuff to uplift people and give a positive spin on this negativity.
You've performed the first single, "Together You and I" on television, but is there a video in the works? Yes. Trey Fanjoy, who was director of the year at CMT this year, did a wonderful video that shows people from all over the world, love in all forms and fashions — more of a universal love. It is a beautiful video.
What can fans expect from your concerts now? We got all sorts of good things going with the Better Day World Tour. We have a lot of positive stuff in that by doing different things for the fans.
You have a huge gay following and they will always love you. Hey, a big shout out to them! We have fun with my gay crowds. We are going to be in L.A. for two days at the Hollywood Bowl, then in San Francisco. All ready so many of my gay fans have said they are going to be there in the front row. I love it. I have always loved my gay fans. They accept me and I accept them. We get along just fine. I am very proud and honored when they dress up like me or whatever they want to do!
What is your favorite thing about touring? People, the audience, I love that. I love to travel because I am a gypsy, but I enjoy performing for the fans that love to see it. I have been around so many years, worked so many audiences and had so many types of shows. Since the beginning, it is kind of fun to watch how things have changed. I have fans from little bitty kids now watching Hannah Montana with Aunt Dolly to my older fans and the new ones that have discovered my music. It is a really fun trip for me as you can imagine.
How fabulous is your tour bus? The set up is great. I have traveled on a tour bus since 1967. This current one is an updated, modern version, where there is room. Especially when it has stopped you can let the sides out and have a real home. I don't stay in hotels so I just live on my bus. I've got everything from my kitchen to my televisions, DVDs and books. It's a way to carry my wigs and my costumes. I am set up good for that.
Are you able to take off the wig and shop at Kroger without people recognizing you? Well, if I went to Kroger I wouldn't take off my wig. I don't go grocery shopping too much but when I do it's usually in the wee hours after midnight. If I really want to cook certain things for a special occasion that I really need and I don't trust anyone to find it I will go to the store. But I usually dress like myself and go in. I can't be disguised because if I open my mouth you know it's me! I sound as different as I look. There is no point in going and embarrassing myself by looking like hell.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 15, 2011.


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Police suspect that a man who robbed banks in Arcata and Crescent City last month struck again on New Year's Eve, this time robbing a bank in Myrtle Creek, Ore.
Around 4:50 p.m., police responded to a reported robbery at the US Bank in Myrtle Creek, according to a press release.
The suspect enter the bank and showed a firearm and a note demanding money to a teller before leaving with an undisclosed amount of money, according to a press release.
Myrtle Creek Police Chief Don Brown said it's not certain, but the suspect appears to be the same as the Crescent City and Arcata robberies based on surveillance photos.
"It looks like it could be connected," Brown said.
Brown said the department is following leads. The FBI and Oregon State Police were also notified.
A robbery suspect hit Northern Redwood Federal Credit Union on Giuntoli Lane in Arcata on Dec. 7, and a Coast Central Credit Union in Crescent City on Dec. 24.
Arcata Police Sgt. Todd Dokweiler said fingerprints from the Arcata robbery have been turned into the Department of Justice lab for processing, and the department has been working with Crescent City.
With an armed suspect, more robberies means a greater likelihood that someone could get hurt, Dokweiler said.
"It's very common for folks who are traveling to go bank to bank," he said. "The higher the frequency, the higher likelihood you'll get caught."
"I hope that it will happen soon," he added.
The suspect is described as a white male, approximately 30 to 40 years of age, standing between 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing between 165 and 200 pounds.
He was last seen wearing a black stocking cap, heavy gray outer coat, black sweatshirt, black sweat pants and white tennis shoes.


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I used Tamari, a smooth tasting natural soy sauce which comes in several types. It can be wheat free, although most Tamari sold in the U.S. contains wheat. If you have the wheat-free kind, use a bit less because it's more concentrated, and if you need gluten-free be sure to look for that type of Tamari.
You can certainly use regular sea salt too, or leave out the salt altogether and just use the soy sauce. Since I posted the first recipe for roasted chickpeas, I've discovered lots of other bloggers knew about roasted chickpeas before I did, so be sure to check after the recipe for those links.
Chickpeas Roasted with Tamari and Sea Salt
(Adapted by Kalyn from a recipe found in The South Beach Diet Cookbook.)
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or soak and cook dried beans, which would be even better
1 T olive oil
2-3 tsp. Tamari or soy sauce (use less for pure Tamari, more for Shoyu type Tamari or regular soy sauce)
1 tsp. Asian Sea Salt or sea salt
South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This is a great snack idea for any phase of the South Beach Diet.
More Delicious Chickpea Snacks:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Crispy Roasted Chickpeas with Moroccan Spices
Spicy Crunchy Chickpea Snack from Just Hungry
Chickpea Cocktail Snacks from Fresh Approach Cooking
Roasted Chickpeas from Anne's Food
Chana Chaat in a Pappadum Bowl from Herbivoracious
Want even more recipes?
I find these recipes from other blogs using Food Blog Search.


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African-American women with lupus are at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, even before they are diagnosed with the disease, a retrospective study found. Adverse outcomes occurred in 51.7% of pregnancies among African-American women with confirmed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and in 34.4% of pregnancies among women who subsequently were diagnosed, compared with 19.1% of pregnancies among controls, according to Diane L. Kamen, MD, and colleagues from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Medical University of South Carolina Clinical and Translational Science Award.
Source: MedPage Today
Full Story


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Trial set for mother charged in killing
A trial date of Oct. 28 was set Tuesday for Veva Virgil, more than three years after her young daughter was smothered to death in a Watsonville motel room.
Virgil, 41, of Aptos has pleaded not guilty be reason of insanity to killing 3-year-old Isabella Grace Martinez.
A third psychiatric report was recently completed, sparking scheduling of the trial.
Judge Timothy Volkmann questioned why trial could not be done sooner, but prosecutor Ross Taylor said it was largely because public defender Allen Cave was recently assigned the case. Maya Nordberg, Virgil's previous attorney, has left Biggam, Christensen & Minsloff, the firm that contracts with the county to provide public defender services.
Outside court, Ross declined to comment on the psychiatric reports.
Virgil was arrested after driving to Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose and reportedly telling hospital staff she had sent her baby to heaven and wanted to be killed. She has a history of mental health problems and had resumed use of methamphetamine when she celebrated her birthday about a month earlier, according to the court records.
Virgil conferred with her attorney in court and calmly answered yes when the judge asked if the trial date was acceptable to her.
Defendants in bank takeover get trial dates
A trial date of May 13, and a motion-to-dismiss date of March 11, was set Tuesday for three of four people still facing vandalism and trespassing charges for the takeover of a former bank building on River Street in 2011.
Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, Franklin Alcantara and Brent Adams pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony vandalism and misdemeanor trespassing charges confirmed after a recent preliminary hearing.
Alcantara also pleaded not guilty to a recent petty theft charge.
The Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office originally charged 11 people with trespassing, vandalism and felony conspiracy for a high-profile occupation of a vacant former bank on Nov. 30, 2011. Ruling there was insufficient evidence, Judge Paul Burdick dismissed charges against seven people and dismissed a felony conspiracy charge the group had faced.
He also fined the District Attorney's Office $500 for failing to comply with discovery motions made by defense attorneys.
People swarmed into the locked bank after an Occupy Santa Cruz march, causing some damage and sparking a tense standoff with police. Three days later, the group walked away.
The fourth remaining defendant, Cameron Laurendeau, was not in court Tuesday because his attorney had a scheduling conflict. He is due in court Feb. 1 and is expected to get the same trial and motion dates.
Courthouse crack dealer heads to prison
A 41-year-old Santa Cruz man reported to court Tuesday to begin serving a five-year, four-month sentence for selling crack cocaine in areas around the Santa Cruz County courthouse, prosecutors said.
Larry Augustus Gardner was arrested in November by the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team, prosecutor Abel Hung said. Gardner was arrested after selling drugs in San Lorenzo Park and other areas near the courthouse and County Governmental Center, Hung said.
Gardner was charged with three counts of selling cocaine base, or crack, Hung said.
In a plea bargain, he admitted to two counts and prosecutors dropped a third count, Hung said.
Gardner was out of custody after entering the deal and reported as scheduled Tuesday.


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Now with a pocket to carry mom's essentials!
Infant Carrier Cover: The tent-like enclosure protects babies from the sun, wind, rain and nosy strangers, plus creates a cozy nap-time environment. The hole in the top allows for a secure grip on the handle, a view of baby inside, and air circulation. The all-around elastic keeps the cover securely in place.
Nursing Cover: It instantly becomes a nursing cover to give a little added privacy on the go--that won't fall off or blow away.
Shopping Cart Cover: At the store, cover the cart to keep those nasty germs away from baby. It's great for restaurant high chairs too!
Sprout Shell fits all infant carriers 100% cotton
Machine wash and dry
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Internationally best-selling author Francine Rivers—winner of a Christy Award and the ECPA Gold Medallion—crafts a riveting tale of mother/daughter bonds stretching across decades. Strong-willed Marta leaves Switzerland early in the 20th century and settles in California. Though Marta loves her eldest daughter Hildie, they often clash as they attempt to find their places in the world.
©2010 Francine Rivers (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
"This well-told tale will have readers eagerly awaiting the story's resolution." (Publishers Weekly)
"Another Awesome Read From Francine"
I'm a die-hard Francine Rivers fan. Every book that I've read has been amazing, and this one was no exception. I was again pulled into the story from chapter one. I couldn't put it down. I've said this over and over again but Francine's ability to make the reader feel every emotion of every character in her books is amazing to me. I say if you are a Francine Rivers' fan, give this book a go! You won't be disappointed. I would also like to add that the narator did an awesome job.Fantastic read!
"Loved this book!"
Great story & terrific narration. I didn't want the book to end. Hope there will be a sequel!
"An Adventurous Spirit in an Independent Woman"
It was a great story, moving over many years in the life of a girl, growing up to be an independent woman. Many short stories among the novel, each place she moved to or new job had its own little story going on within the plot of the novel. I liked the strong, independent woman who was the main character. She had much courage. I liked the detail, it was a good amount to get into the characters without getting lost in too many subplots. Then, after giving us all of that detail, the story ended abruptly. I felt like it could have gone on a bit longer to tie up the lose ends. Narration was good.
"Very engaging characters"
Not sure I'd have chosen this, except it was a book club selection. Francine Rivers is always a good read, because her character development is superb. You feel like you KNOW the people in the book, and continue thinking about them when you're finished with the story. That's my definition of a good book. Another test of a good book? You don't want it to end! I'm glad this one ha a sequel!
I've read all her books and as always the bottom line in her books is a spiritual truth. I feel
the story showed how forgiveness to the ones we love the most can change the path of ones life and
last for generations. Book was great but I would have liked a better ending. I wanted to know how
Marta's life ended and if Hilda survived. But I can happily imagine a good ending for all. Ms Rivers please continue to write your historical
fiction christian books.
"Book of Love & Faith"
Compelling, inspiring. Loved that the characters did not have to swear every breath and while there was sex, it was not a "how to" book. The Faith in time of trials was inspiring.
"Francine is Awesome!"
Oh this story!! I love the characters and the story line is great. I can't wait until part 2 comes out. I was a big fan of Francine Rivers and Now I love her even more!
"Francine Rivers is wonderful"
this book was great! love it! narrator awesome as well!! you have got to read it. and as always it have such a great lesson in it.
"Her Mothers Hope"
A look at the relationships, trials and tribulations of mothers and daughters, This book was insightful and uplifting, leaving you wanting to continue into the next book.
"Not your typical Francine Rivers"
The story line was great but I expected there to be more reference to Christian beliefs. Also, the mom is so mean to the daughter that it often is hard to keep listening as you are hoping that will change.
Report Inappropriate Content
If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.


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The following services will be performed without charge for the original owner of the Balfour ring. (Shipping and handling fees may apply.)
For more information on Balfour's college jewelry warranty, visit Limited Lifetime Warranty
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© 2017 Commemorative Brands, Inc. Balfour® is a Registered Trademark of Commemorative Brands, Inc.


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Safer streets are coming soon to four Queens middle and elementary schools.
The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) confirmed it has selected a construction company to make adjustments around the schools to increase safety, as a part of the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Safe Routes to Schools program.
The safe routes program is a city-wide initiative that seeks to improve safety to city schools with the highest accident rates.
A DDC representative said the $3.3 million improvements will begin by the spring of 2014 around I.S. 77 in Ridgewood, St. Stanislaus Kostka School in Maspeth, St. Joan of Arc School in Jackson Heights and P.S. 108 in South Ozone Park.
The work around the schools will include adding speed bumps, adjustment of streetlights and traffic signals, ramps to the sidewalks, work to improve the curbs for pedestrians, placement of bus pads in the streets and infrastructure and utility work.
These four schools are on DOT's list of 135 priority schools for traffic safety improvements, which was originally created in 2003 by the city agency. Overall, there are 33 priority Queens schools on the list that are slated to see the improvements.
The work on the four schools is expected to be completed by the spring of 2015.
- Speed board installed near Lindenwood's P.S. 232
- Speed cameras to go into effect near city schools September 9
- Crash near Maspeth school prompts talk of safety improvements


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text:
What Google really is?
What Google really is is a weapons guidance system you know!
strange definition, How you are saying that please tell.
You recognise such things when your Grand Dad was a Major (Military Officer) and your uncle the caretaker of Bletchley and you spent all your youth school holidays visiting military places delivering weapons and supplies and picking them up for distribution.
And I also studied various ways to attack the UK (or other Countries - whole Countries that is) and amongst those strategies there was a system that used satellites and search engines to destroy whole countries so it's not difficult to spot something you also designed yourself on paper when the same systems are presented in front of your eyes so obviously.
For me it's not obvious at all how a search engine can guide weapons? I thought they use laser beams for that?
google is a like those aliens in the movie, collecting all our data for their research.
Yeah agreed but that is just one system and the system I had in mind that I wrote the plans for a few years ago had both lasers and search engines working together. In fact it's funny lasers got mentioned as that was one of my main ideas I came up with and wrote the ideas down for.
I suppose you could in some ways say the search engine part guides the laser part.
If you take it that a search engine is the internal bit say for the example laser one then it is the search engine or that part of the software that guides the laser.
Though we have to imagine that say MIRV's (for a name to express any weapon as a delivered er missile say) could mean any thing
It's been bugging me for donkeys and I am quite surprised nobody else spotted this use for a search engine.
If a search engine can pinpoint something like say a word it can then pinpoint anything
target it as it we're
LOL a whole new meaning to laser targeted ads ROFL
There are tons of link building software available, it seems like if you're willing to pay, you can get a whole lot of links. So my question is: how important does google really think links are? I understand the idea behind quality links, but like everything else on this planet, there's someone out there who will find the loop holes. Shouldn't it be more important just to have a website about whatever your website is about and offer what you say you do?
Google is your friend? No?
Well, considering the recent Panda update from Google some might consider the search engine to be a weapon against page rank and placement. Your best defense is high quality original content which others will enjoy and naturally linkback to.
I can't tell if this post is metaphorical or the rantings of a crazy man
Uh, the pandas sneak into our houses in the night-time and kill us with their l33t gun-fu. It's all part of teh Google's plan.
Screw fresh content. They want fresh blood. You wait.
It was a search engine a while ago.
Google its the big monopoly
Google is a pain in the **** sometimes!!
time to close this thread, i think...
the one-line fluffers have arrived


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WASHINGTON — U.S. homebuilders began work at a slower pace in January than in December. But all of the drop occurred in the volatile area of apartment construction, which sank 24 percent. By contrast, the rate of single-family homebuilding rose 0.8 percent.
Even with the overall decline, the pace of home construction in January was the third-highest since 2008 and was evidence of continued strengthening in residential real estate.
And in an encouraging sign for the rest of the year, applications for building permits, a signal of future construction, topped December's rate. Applications for permits are at their highest point since mid-2008.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that builders started work at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 890,000 homes last month. That was down 8.5 percent from December, when housing starts had hit an annual rate of 973,000, the most since June 2008.
Analysts expected a decline on January construction, given the sharp gain in December. December had initially been reported at an annual rate of 920,000. On Wednesday, the department revised up the December pace to 973,000.
January's was only the second drop in construction in the past six months. It still left the annual pace of homebuilding 23.6 percent higher than a year ago.
Economists noted that building permits keep increasing. Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist for BTIG, said the increase in permits suggested that the January decline in construction starts would be temporary and that "as the year progresses, housing starts will continue to push higher."
Greenhaus said he wouldn't be surprised if construction starts topped 1 million for 2013.
The U.S. housing market is slowly regaining its health after stagnating for roughly five years after the housing boom collapsed. Steady job gains and near-record-low mortgage rates have encouraged more people to buy.
A steady rise in prices reflects, in part, fewer homes for sale. The supply of previously occupied homes for sale has reached its lowest level in more than a decade. And the pace of foreclosures, while still rising in some states, has slowed sharply in the U.S. That means fewer low-priced foreclosed homes are being dumped on the market.


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I want to start a discussion on spin and stability, and how the two are related.
Specifically lately I've been thinking about how spin affects the stability of FH throws.
I've heard my whole DG life "Throw more overstable plastic when you throw FH because a FH throw generates so much spin that it makes a disc fly more understable."
Now, I always thought this was bullshit. I thought people just had shitty FH form and that's why discs didn't fly as stable for them compared to BH. I used this theory to explain why I noticed the same effect myself, that a lot of discs that flew good for my BH weren't flying so great FH.
The other day I did an experiment which I suspect has solved the issue for me. I was throwing my 2nd shot on a long hole at my home course, and that shot as about a 120' FH upshot with a putter. It got turned over hard by the wind and carried for over to the left. Confused, because I knew even in this 10mph headwind a 120' approach is no issue for my putter, I tried again. For some reason the second time I snapped it much harder and it held the line beautifully.
The problem was not that a FH throw generates so much spin it makes a disc fly understable, the problem was the opposite (At least for me it was, I don't know if this is universal). I was generating such little spin on my forehand throws that this was causing them to fly understable.
So I repeated my test and got the results I expected. When I compacted my FH throwing movement and focused entirely on wrist and finger movement to generate high levels of spin, my discs flew much more true. Finally I was able to flick my neutral mids and putters into a headwind and have them hold hyzers the entire way. Another thing I noticed is before when I tried to FH a putter really hard it would turn over easily. It was because I was trying to speed up my whole arm and not focus on spin. Now when I try to flick a putter hard, I can make it fly straight like a bullet and it's beautiful to watch, because I'm putting enough spin on the disc to stabilize it.
I'm going back out today to play around with this theory some more. But from what I've seen the past few days I am inclined to believe the following:
-Unusually understable disc flights can be caused by a lack of spin imparted on the disc at release.
-Discs will hold their line better, fight wind more and glide further when they are given an increased amount of spin.
-There are no differences between BH and FH throwing that make discs fly inheritly different for a given throwing style (Something I've always felt but could never explain why I think it's true).
If you think any of this is wrong or right I'd like to hear why. I know there are much more experienced FH players on here than me and while this subject isn't exclusive to FH throwing a lot of my observations have been related to it.


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Canes send Sutter to Charlotte
Posted November 3, 2013
The Carolina Hurricanes will assign forward Brett Sutter to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL), pending him clearing waivers on Monday at noon, team President Jim Rutherford said Sunday.
Sutter, 26, has played 12 games for the Hurricanes this season, averaging 6:56 of ice time per game. Originally drafted by the Calgary Flames in the sixth round (179th overall) of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Sutter has appeared in 49 career NHL games with Calgary and Carolina, totaling one goal, four assists (5 points) and 36 penalty minutes. The Viking, Alb., native scored 19 goals and earned 29 assists (48 points) in 70 games while serving as Charlotte's captain in 2012-13.


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A HAMPSHIRE library has launched a fund-raising appeal because of flood disruption.
Chawton House Library near Alton has seen visitor numbers hit by problems with access as the A32 has been closed at nearby Farringdon, as well as a lack of basic hygiene facilities.
Several events have been cancelled although the house itself, the Centre for the Study of Early English Women's Writing 1600-1830, is not in danger.
The library has had to pay for sandbagging to protect the church and resource the extra man hours to help protect the estate.
Stephen Lawrence, chief executive, said he was hoping to raise £10,000.
Opened in 2003, the library has a collection of some 9,000 books. At one time the house was owned by the brother of novelist Jane Austen who died in Winchester in 1817.


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State highway officials have the edge in a court battle with the Silveira Ranch over the value of ranchland needed for Highway 101 improvements.
The state Department of Transportation has offered owner Lorraine Silveira about $1.8 million in a condemnation proceeding, including $282,000 for 32 acres of pastureland next to Highway 101 at the Redwood Landfill at the north end of Novato.
No way, says Silveira, who wants about $6 million for the prime acreage, loss of facilities including water pipelines, ranch roads, gates and a cattle crossing, and the reduction in value of a quarry operation as well as land envisioned for "highest use" as a winery.
But a tentative ruling Thursday by Superior Court Judge Paul Haakenson indicates the Silveira valuation is inflated, concluding the rancher "fails to show that $5,895,000, rather than $1,769,900, is the 'probable amount of compensation that will be awarded.'"
Haakenson, questioning validity of a consultant's "master plan" report saying the 1,400-acre ranch can accommodate clustered housing, a winery, vineyard, creamery and dairy, said that claiming the highway project would clip $3 million from a seemingly "inflated" $29.4 million overall value of the property was "speculative and unsupported by competent evidence."
Haakenson on Friday listened to lawyers argue about conflicting valuations and appraisals, called for more information on several key points and observed that both sides seemed to be mixing "apples and oranges" in the effort to quantify values. He asked for submission of final arguments before a Feb. 22 hearing, a week before the state wants to begin the $29.7 million Redwood Landfill interchange improvement project.
"The court is mindful of the profoundly troubling aspect of government confiscation of private land, and the absolute need and right to fairly compensate the landowner for such government confiscation," the judge's tentative ruling said. "The court is not suggesting herein that greater compensation might not be warranted after further development of the issues and trial on the matter."
Silveira was upset by the turn of events. "It's horrendous," the veteran Marin rancher said outside court Friday, noting she needs cash before she can replace a pipeline system that brings water to her herd of 200 cows. "I don't know how they expect us to turn milk into money" to pay for new pipelines before the old ones are bulldozed, she added.
Attorney David Trotter, who serves as mayor of Moraga, represented Silveira at the session, saying the state was "low-balling" the rancher with a land valuation that was "questionable in the extreme." In addition, he cited disruption and destruction of facilities including roads, gates, pipelines and a cattle crossing, as well as loss of direct freeway access. What's more, the highway project would mean loss of a winery site valued at more than $1 million as well as encroach on a quarry operation, depriving the ranch of $521,000 in potential revenue, Trotter said.
"Your honor should take another look at the valuation," Trotter advised the judge at one point, referring to acreage values Haakenson challenged in the tentative ruling. Outside court, the attorney declined to elaborate on "master plan" development scenarios envisioned for the ranchland.
Samuel C. Law, attorney for the state Department of Transportation, said Trotter had it all wrong.
The state's land valuation of $8,170 per acre, about a quarter of the value asserted by Silveira, was in line with other pasture sales over the years and includes the value of potential development while discounting the "highly speculative" contention about wineries and sale of quarry "dirt," Law said. He added Silveira's case amounted to "extraordinary assumptions and complicated theories about how this property can be developed" and failed to recognize the "offsetting value" of the freeway project.
Trotter called Caltrans "a tad arrogant" for "thinking they know what the highest and best use of our property is."
Haakenson said the case posed a tough call for a judge without a background in real estate, appraisal and related valuation matters. "It's a complicated issue and I'm in a difficult position of making a decision," he noted.
The project at the landfill north of Novato will revamp the interchange, widen the overpass over Highway 101 and include new frontage roads. Access to both sides of the freeway will be provided so that drivers do not have to cross the busy freeway to get to the other side, as they do now.
The landfill overpass will have an access road to the new frontage road on the west side of Highway 101, eliminating a dangerous left turn at San Antonio Road. That frontage road will connect Olompali State Park and San Antonio Road.
Contact Nels Johnson via email at email@example.com. Follow him at twitter.com/nelsjohnsonnews


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Birth of Feminism Movie Poster, 2001- 2012
are the Women Artists of Venice?, 2005
Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls, in the Artworld and Beyond
Curated by Neysa Page-Lieberman
March 1 - April 21, 2012
Follow our Guerrilla Girls blog on Tumblr!
Complete list of press citations available here.
The Guerrilla Girls exhibition goes on tour this fall. Contact Neysa Page-Lieberman for more information.
March 1st:
Public Recption, 5-8 pm, A+D Gallery and Glass Curtain Gallery
Public Conversation, 6 - 7 pm, The Conaway Center, 1104 S.
Wabash, 1st floor
Neysa Page-Leiberman, Exhibition Curator and Director, Department of Exhibition and Performance Spaces and Jane M. Saks, Executive Director, Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, will be in conversation and conduct an audience Q&A with the Guerrilla Girls.
Presented at both Glass Curtain Gallery and A+D Gallery at Columbia College Chicago this exhibition of Guerrilla Girls, a major presentation of the collective, illuminates and contextualizes the important past and ongoing work of these highly original, provocative and influential artists who champion feminism and social change. A selection of the group's most iconic campaigns and actions from the 80's and 90's foregrounds their most daring and rarely seen international projects, which trace the Guerrilla Girls' artistic and activist influence around the globe. The exhibition's installations are punctuated by documentary material including ephemera from famous actions, behind-the-scenes photos and secret anecdotes that reveal the Guerrilla Girls' process and the events that drive their incisive institutional interventions. Visitors can peruse the artists' favorite "love letters and hate mail," drawn from almost three decades of humorous, heart-warming and shocking communications, and are invited to contribute their own views to an interactive wall installation. This multimedia, expansive exhibition illustrates that the work of the anonymous, feminist-activist Guerrilla Girls is as vital and revolutionary as ever.Spanning two galleries, artwork is organized by theme: Glass Curtain Gallery features work related to the visual artworld of museums and galleries, and A+D Gallery focuses on work "beyond" this spectrum including film, politics, and feminism.
This exhibition is part of a college-wide year-long program organized by the Department of Exhibitions and Performance Spaces and the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago, of which the Guerrilla Girls are one of the 2011-2012 Fellows.


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Seeking spark, Padres drop Everth to No. 8 spot
SEATTLE -- The Padres are willing to try just about anything to get shortstop Everth Cabrera going right offensively.
On Monday, that meant dropping him to No. 8 in the lineup for the first game of a two-game series at Safeco Field against the Mariners.
"The last 40, 50 at-bats have gone the other direction," said Padres manager Bud Black.
Cabrera, who has hit either first or second this season, entered play hitting .225 this season with a .102 average in June.
This is the first time Cabrera has hit eighth since 2012.
Cabrera hit a career-best .283 last season and was the team's lone All-Star representative but missed the final 50 games of the season after testing positive for testosterone.
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. Keep track of @FollowThePadres on Twitter. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Community Service Day
- When:
- Location:
- Gordon Plaza
- Description:
The University of Baltimore's 11th annual Community Service Day will be held on Friday, April 19. Volunteers from the UB community, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends, are now being sought for this important event. Registration is required; details are listed below.
Every year since 2002, the Rosenberg Center for Student Involvement has brought together hundreds of UB community members to volunteer a day of their time, creating positive change in neighborhoods throughout the Baltimore area. Volunteer groups travel to more than a dozen service sites, assist with vital projects of all kinds, and engage in meaningful reflection about their experience to develop opportunities to work toward improving their own communities. This year, the Leadership and Service Council, a new student organization dedicated to promoting leadership and service activities at UB through the Be More program, is organizing Comunity Service Day with support from CSI staff.
Go here to sign up and get more information about Community Service Day. If you have questions, contact Erica Symonds, community engagement coordinator, at 410.837.4076 or email to email@example.com.
Learn more about Community Service Day.
- Contact Name:
- Anthony Butler
- Contact Email:
- firstname.lastname@example.com
- Contact Phone:
- 410.837.5419
If you need accommodations to participate in this event, please contact the person listed above at least 10 days prior to the event.


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Sieg Lindstrom Pics
Click on any photo for larger image and controls to view as a slideshow.
Statue of Pushkin.
Amerikanskiy track folk in Moscow
David Oliver and Lena Lindstrom at the dinner
Ash with Loretta Green
Ashton Eaton and Jon Hendershott
Jenn interviewed by Garry
Jenn Suhr
Mike Powell with Jon Hendershott
Eaton, Theisen-Eaton, Lena L.
The party site
On the boat
Sightseers in Moscow


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Pebble Garden Ideas
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