text:
Mansfield Reformatory's main prison cell block. The cell block is the largest free-standing cell block in the world.
I am standing in a 9-by-12-foot prison cell on an unseasonably bleak and rainy August day. There is a not-so-comfortable adrenaline rush as our guide warns me not to shut the door all the way because he does not have a key.
Although I am just a visitor to the Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield, and the prison has not housed inmates since 1990, the anguish in the air from the tortured souls who used to exist here is palpable to even the most cynical people in our group.
It feels a bit wrong and twisted that visiting the reformatory was my favorite part of a recent press trip sampling four Ohio state parks and their surroundings.
But apparently I'm not alone.
Dark tourism -- traveling to sites associated with death and tragedy -- is on the rise.
In fact, dark tourism -- also known as grief tourism or thanatourism -- is so popular that a team of researchers recently became the first in the world to begin studying the phenomenon.
Experts at the new Institute for Dark Tourism Research at the University of Central Lancashire in England will examine the relationship between places with terrible associations and the tourists who use their free time to visit sites like Auschwitz and Ground Zero, according to BBC News.
Phillip Stone, director of the institute, told the BBC he believes visitors are looking for a sense of meaning in places of suffering, while getting a sense of empathy for those involved before stepping back into the safety of their own lives.
The prison
Ron Puff, our tour guide at Mansfield, can attest to the growing appeal of dark tourism.
"Ghost hunting is extremely popular here," he says. "We have ghost hunts all the time."
Puff then attempts to communicate with the prison ghosts using a coat hanger that appears to move without his help as he asks the spirit "yes" and "no" questions.
Meanwhile, a couple of members of our group excitedly use a smartphone app to search for evidence of spirits.
The 250,000-square-foot Ohio State Reformatory -- the site where "The Shawshank Redemption" and other movies were filmed -- first opened its doors in 1896. It housed more than 155,000 men in its lifetime.
Today, tourists, movie lovers and thrillseekers visit from all over the world. Those 13 and older can come during Halloween season when the prison becomes a haunted house at night.
The structure is actually quite beautiful and uses a combination of three architectural styles -- Victorian Gothic, Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne. The building was designed to encourage inmates toward a "rebirth" of their spiritual lives away from sin.
The prison houses the world's largest free-standing steel cell block.
The haunted manor
To cap off my four-day press trip, I ended up staying overnight at Punderson Manor Lodge & Conference Center in Newbury Township.
The manor -- a historic English Tudor-style mansion that opened to the public in 1956 -- is said to be haunted.
Some guests claim they've heard children giggling at night in the hallway when no kids were there.
Others swear the same black cat has roamed the halls for 50 years.
Many say they've seen an old lady wearing a bonnet who then disappears.
Five years ago, a waitress setting up tables in the parlor room claimed she saw a blue form coming out of the floor that looked like smoke. The server left and never came back.
To this day, some employees refuse to go upstairs to the third floor.
Burton Village Mayor Nick Fischbach, formerly Geauga County's chief park ranger, says some people believe long-ago drownings in Punderson Lake are responsible for the ghosts. Others say several children who died in an 1885 fire that destroyed the Wales Hotel that used to be across the lake from what is now Punderson Manor haunt the lodge.
I heard the stories, and I laughed at them," Fischbach says, "until I had my own experiences at this lodge."
For instance, Fischbach tells a story of a January night in 1979, when he was still chief ranger.
"It was snowing so hard that night, you couldn't get near the roads," he says.
He and another ranger checked to see if the water and heat were working at the lodge, and they were. Until they got to the last section of the hotel.
"Wow, it's getting cold," he thought. "When we got to the top of the stairs, it was so cold you could see your breath. Suddenly, there was a cold wind. A woman's laughter pierced the hallway. Then after the laughter stopped, it warmed up."
After listening to Fischbach's stories by the fire outside the lodge, I was excited to go back to our room for the night, said to be the second-most haunted at the hotel.
The only strange thing my husband and I noticed was that the air conditioning kept mysteriously -- and loudly -- going off and on throughout the night. I'm not sold on the idea it was the ghosts' doing, but it was fun staying there nonetheless.
View Dark tourism in Ohio in a larger map
Travelers' checks
Ohio State Reformatory
Off Route 545 in Mansfield. Allow one hour and 45 minutes for the approximately 96-mile trip from Willoughby.
Choose among three 45-minute tours: The West Tower (see the cemetery in which inmates were buried only with their assigned number on the grave); East Cell Block (Visit the Catholic Chapel and see the warden's living quarters) and Hollywood (See the "Shawshank" prison warden's office, Andy Dufresne's escape tunnel and go inside the sinister "hole").
Gates open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for self-guided tours Monday through Saturday. Sunday tours (between 1 and 4 p.m.) last about one hour. All tours involve extensive stair climbing and take place only from early May through early September.
Overnight ghost hunts and ghost walks are sold out for 2012. Dates for 2013 will be posted online this month. Details: 419-522-2644 or www.mrps.org.
Tickets, at $17, remain though Oct. 28 or the Mansfield Ohio Haunted Prison Experience. Details: www.hauntedx.com.
Lodging: Mohican Lodge & Conference Center in Loudonville, about 20 miles southeast of Mansfield, near Mohican State Park and the adjacent, 4,795-acre State Forest. The 1,110 acre park has five miles of the Clear Fork Branch of the Mohican River running through it. Modern lodge rooms have lake or wooded views. A limited number of pet-friendly rooms are available. All rooms are non-smoking. Amenities include outdoor tennis, a fitness room, heated pool, sauna and lighted walking trail. Reservations: www.mohicanstateparklodge.com; 800-282-7275. The 25 Mohican State Park cottages, all nonsmoking, are available year-round and sleep a maximum of six. Four cottages allow up to two pets. All are heated and air-conditioned and cost $110 a night ($115 for pet-friendly cottages). Reservations can be made one year in advance.
The state park also has three camper cabins ($50 a night plus tax) and three separate camping areas (from $25 a night for nonelectric sites and up to $38 a night for a full electric hookup). There are also five private campgrounds nearby. Reservations: 866-644-6727; www.mohicanstatepark.org.
Punderson Manor Lodge
11755 Kinsman Road (Route 87) in Newbury. Allow at least a half hour for the approximately 18-mile trip from Willoughby. See fall color at its peak throughout the lodge's grounds. Punderson Haunted History Tours run through Oct. 25. Details: 440-564-9144 or www.pundersonmanorstateparklodge.com.
Lodging: Punderson Manor Lodge & Conference Center, open year-round at Punderson State Park in Newbury Township includes the historic English Tudor-style mansion with 31 guest rooms, outdoor and indoor swimming pools and 26 fully furnished two-bedroom cottages with views of Punderson Lake, one of Ohio's few natural lakes. The lake is home to a variety of shorebirds and waterfowl. The park has 14 miles of winding trails to hike and a 600-foot public beach. Pets (dogs and cats only) are permitted in select cottages and in designated camping areas. Reservations: www.pundersonmanorstateparklodge.com; 800-282-7275.


text:
Tour de France winner Cadel Evans will close out his season with one more criterium in Europe, followed by an appearance with the BMC Racing Team in the inaugural edition of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.
Wrapping A 'Dream Season'
Evans will compete in a post-Tour criterium Tuesday in Amsterdam after appearances in criteriums in Belgium and Germany last week. His final race of the year will be the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, which runs Aug. 22-28 and includes 833 kilometers of racing through the Rocky Mountains. "I'm looking forward to competing in the U.S. in one more stage race before I close out what has been a dream season," Evans said. "I've heard good things about the race in Colorado and I know it won't be easy. But I'm up for one more challenge." Evans last raced in the United States in the 2006 edition of the Amgen Tour of California, finishing seventh overall.
Colorado Suits Him Well
In addition to winning the Tour de France, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour de Romandie this year, Evans was also runner-up at the Critérium du Dauphiné and top 10 in the Volta a Catalunya. He is the No. 1 ranked rider on the UCI's WorldTour rankings. "With the worlds in Copenhagen this year being more for sprinters, Cadel wasn't expecting to go to the worlds," BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said. "Colorado has nice mountains, we are an American team, and it's a good opportunity for him to race in the U.S. He couldn't race in California in May due to his pre-Tour de France training camps."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
ONCE's John Tiffany and Stephen Hoggett Win SDCF's 2012 Callaway Award
On November 15th, the winners of the Stage Directors and Choreographers' Joseph A. Callaway award were announced at an intimate presentation at the SDC offices, attended by most of the finalists. John Tiffany, director and Steven Hoggett, choreographer each won the prestigious award for their collaborative work on Once, produced by New York Theatre Workshop.
The last time both the director and choreographer of a show won the award was in 2007 when Thomas Kail and Andy Blankenbueler each won for In the Heights.
John Tiffany accepted both Callaway awards stating that he and Steven Hoggett had been best friends since they teenagers in London and that only work on his new show Rocky, premiering in Germany on November 18th, kept the busy choregrapher from accepting the award himself.
Hoggett sent word to the presenters that he was, "very moved to receive this award from his peers."
The 2011 - 2012 Joe A. Callaway Award recognizes excellence in the craft of directing and choreography during the New York City theatre season from September 1, 2011, through August 31, 2012, and is the only award given by professional directors and choreographers to their peers for work on a specific production. To be eligible, Directors and Choreographers must be SDC Members in good standing. The production must take place within the five boroughs of New York City under an Actors' Equity Association contract other than the Showcase code and Broadway contract.
The Callaway Committee, comprised of current longstanding SDC Members Melvin Bernhardt, Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Linda Burson, Hope Clarke, Edie Cowan, John Going, Gus Kaikkonen, Sue Lawless, Lorna Littleway, William G. Martin Jr., Barry McNabb, Michael Montel, and Tony Parise, selected finalists from more than 300 productions considered this season. Finalists for the 2011 – 2012 Joe A. Callaway Award were:
Rachel Dickstein, Septimus & Clarissa, produced by Ripe Time
Charlotte Moore, Dancing at Lughnasa, produced by The Irish Repertory Theatre
Jenn Thompson, Lost in Yonkers, produced by The Actors Company Theatre
John Tiffany, Once, produced by New York Theatre Workshop*
Steven Hoggett, Once, produced by New York Theatre Workshop*
Mimi Lieber, As You Like It, produced by The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park
Kurt Stamm, Maltby and Shire's Closer than Ever, produced by The York Theatre Company in association with Edward Negley, Neil Berg & Adam Friedson
Joe A. Callaway dedicated more than 50 years to the theatre as an actor, director, lecturer and critic. He was a founding member and director of San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, the first recipient of a Master's degree from the Goodman School of Theatre, an associate professor at Michigan State University, a noted radio and television reviewer, and an actor off-Broadway and in regional theatre. Since his death in 1991, his legacy lives on in awards he endowed for direction and choreography (through SDCF), for acting (through Actors' Equity Association), for playwriting (through Young Playwrights Inc.) and for theatre scholarships (through NYU).
SDCF's Joe A. Callaway Award was first presented in 1989. Previous winners include Gabriel Barre, Andy Blankenbuehler, Carolyn Cantor, Martha Clarke, Graciela Daniele, Frank Galati, Christopher Gattelli, Gerald Gutierrez, Doug Hughes, Garry Hynes, Bill T. Jones, Thomas Kail, Moises Kaufman, Larry Keigwin, Joe Mantello, Trevor Nunn, Jack O'Brien, Ciarán O'Reilly, Harold Prince, Bartlett Sher, Susan Stroman, Daniel Sullivan and George C. Wolfe.
Pictured: John Tiffany


text:
These are all so great. Thank you all very much for posting these links to books. I got an ereader recently and I have been adding files to it. Some of the larger collections are really appreciated (Collected Writings of Ajahn Chah for instance as well as the Sutta Pitaka).
With Metta.


text:
Sign into our member site to view your information online.Forget your username or password? Not registered? Register here
clorazepate (generic name)
It is used to treat anxiety
(klor AZ e pate)
Table of Contents
Top Learning Centers(Recursos en Español)
What is this medicine?CLORAZEPATE (klor AZ e pate) is a benzodiazepine. It is used to treat anxiety. It also used to treat alcohol withdrawal and certain types of seizures.
What should I tell my health care provider before I take this medicine?They need to know if you have any of these conditions:
How should I use this medicine?Take this medicine by mouth with a glass of water. Follow the directions on the prescription label. Take your doses at regular intervals. Do not take your medicine more often than directed. If you have been taking this medicine regularly for some time, do not suddenly stop taking it. You must gradually reduce the dose or you may get severe side effects. Ask your doctor or health care professional for advice. Even after you stop taking this medicine it can still affect your body for several days.
A special MedGuide will be given to you by the pharmacist with each new prescription and refill. Be sure to read this information carefully each time.
Talk to your pediatrician regarding the use of this medicine in children. Special care may be needed. While this drug may be prescribed for children as young as 9 years for selected conditions, precautions do apply.
What if I miss a dose?If you miss a dose, take it as soon as you can. If it is almost time for your next dose, take only that dose. Do not take double or extra doses.
What may interact with this medicine?Do not take this medicine with any of the following medications:
This medicine may also interact with the following medications:
What should I watch for while using this medicine?Visit your doctor or health care professional for regular checks on your progress. Your body can become dependent on this medicine. Ask your doctor or health care professional if you still need to take it.
You may get drowsy or dizzy. Do not drive, use machinery, or do anything that needs mental alertness until you know how this medicine affects you. To reduce the risk of dizzy and fainting spells, do not stand or sit up quickly, especially if you are an older patient. Alcohol may increase dizziness and drowsiness. Avoid alcoholic drinks.
Do not treat yourself for coughs, colds or allergies without asking your doctor or health care professional for advice. Some ingredients can increase possible side effects.
The use of this medicine may increase the chance of suicidal thoughts or actions. Pay special attention to how you are responding while on this medicine. Any worsening of mood, or thoughts of suicide or dying should be reported to your health care professional right away.
Women who become pregnant while using this medicine may enroll in the North American Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry by calling 1-888-233-2334. This registry collects information about the safety of antiepileptic drug use during pregnancy.


text:
When Hayley from Welcome to the Mouse House asked me to participate in her Norah Dress pattern tour, I was powerless to resist. That collar! I have a real weakness for patterns with a vintage vibe, and this one really hit the spot. Plus, I love any pattern with a classic, simple shape. This is a dress that will never go out of style.
Of course, the collar is the real show-stopper. A cinched peter pan with ties? I die. When I was cutting the collar pattern piece, the scraps seemed like they would be just the perfect size and shape for a few pockets. They are a bit tight up top, but Ruby can still get her hands inside, and the first thing she did was start loading them with treasures. Plus, the pockets were a way for me to add more pink (at her request).
Fabrics used: main print - Emily Herrick Technicolor in Kryptonite, collar - Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in black, lining - Kona Cotton (not sure of the color).
Ruby approved.


text:
does Mike Brown want to coach some college?
'); var yuipath = 'clientscript/yui'; var yuicombopath = ''; var remoteyui = false; } else // Load Rest of YUI remotely (where possible) { var yuipath = 'http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.9.0/build'; var yuicombopath = 'http://yui.yahooapis.com/combo'; var remoteyui = true; if (!yuicombopath) { document.write('
does Mike Brown want to coach some college?
I consider you guys losing to Bucknell karma for mackey poking fun at our sweet 16 rings
Last edited by Trader Joe; 11-09-2012 at 10:12 PM.
Bucknell's good. They returned pretty much every one from a 25 win team. Should be in the tourney.
25 wins in the Patriot League!
Purdue Athletics is becoming LOL.
In his defense, those things are embarrassing.
Painter is a good coach and you guys have a young team. Bucknell isn't exactly a name brand, but they are a good team. But yeah, it's rough sledding for Boiler fans lately. At least you guys can rejoice when Hope gets axed at year's end.
I don't really know what people are expecting out of this team. Remember the Baby Boilers losing to Wofford at home early on? DJ Byrd's not the same punk high school kid that used to abuse me the majority of the time at local open gyms, but he kinda is. I'm nowhere near an NCAA (or NAIA) quality player but DJ didn't completely embarrass me. I don't say this to toot my own horn or whatever or rag on DJ, just to say that he's one of our two best players, we aren't going to be very good. Get on the bubble on and I'll be satisfied.
watching this Texas A&M/Alabama game just hurts
So Nord misses the game with an injured back (get well soon btw), and there's fairly intelligent playcalling that results in a road conference win. Coincidence?
I just watched the game last night. After watching I feel much better about the team than after looking at the box score. They missed a ton of free throws. They couldn't create turnovers on defense. They couldn't play defense without fouling. Bucknell also hit quite a few WTF shots that were well contested and/or so stupid they should have never been taken. Without Terone, DJ Byrd had to be more assertive offensively, and that's a bad thing. With Terone, they probably win somewhat easily.
Painter's substitution patterns were exhibition-like. He clearly still doesn't know what he has in his bigs, and outside of Hale - who looked good offensively - neither do I. He played all 6 bigs and each had their moments. The interesting thing was that Hale, Lawson, and Simpson were clearly better than Marcius, Hammons, and Carroll. If Painter has a strict idea of which guys are 4's and which are 5's, I'm going to predict that he changes that before season's end.
Ronnie Johnson looks special. He reminds me a bit of a Big 10 level Kyrie Irving. Does almost everything well, but doesn't have any discernible skill that is outstanding. Watching RJ play was like watching Hummel play as a freshman. You just know you're going to love watching this guy play for 4 years.
Davis was really good defensively, but he doesn't seem very quick. He's a power guard.
"A man with no belly has no appetite for life."
- Salman Rushdie
Sucks that the game is not on TV today.. Boiler up!
did MP bench DJ Byrd and AJohnson?
I almost never mention refereeing but Purdue has been royally butt ****ed in this Nova game. Without lube or a reach around.
"I had to take her down like Chris Brown."
-Lance Stephenson
I don't like blaming refs either but that was utter ********.
55 fouls in 45 minutes of play.
"A man with no belly has no appetite for life."
- Salman Rushdie
Despite the loss, I'm super excited about Ronnie Johnson. He's really gotta fix that short release jumper, but I have a hard time coming up with a guy that's shown his court vision so early in my time watching Purdue. Hammons disappointed me somewhat, he just seems soft and not willing to use his giant body much at all. He's got surprisingly good feet and isn't as unathletic as some led me to believe , but just needs a good bit of coaching up. He got abused a couple times by that fellow frosh big from Nova. Put Lawson's brain in Hammons's body you got a surefire lottery pick. Anthony Johnson's played pretty well too, I don't know what Painter recruited him as but I didn't expect him to ever be the go-to backup point, but he's pretty solid in the role, I don't know if that's just necessity or what. He's a gritty kid that really likes playing strong on ball defense and that's always fun.
And free throws. *****. These are predominately Indiana bred kids, hit your damn FTs, at least 70% or so. There's really no excuse for it. The bigs OK maybe, big *** hands and all. But the wings, Terone especially, I just don't get it. His stroke's ok enough, but it's just brick after brick. Get Billy Kelly on loan or something.
According to Ken Pomeroy the Byrd "flagrant" increased Villanova's win probability by 30%. That call is absolutely inexcusable. The broadcast crew said the 2 refs that reviewed it on the monitor simply couldn't decide. So they had the guy with the least experience (I assume that's why he wasn't looking at the replay initially) come in and decide for them. That's ****ing ridiculous. I don't care what jersey you root for, it's an embarrassment to refereeing. There's 3 refs. 2 of em say "hell, I don't know." So let the rookie take the blame.
For more good news, Kendall Stephens is missing his senior year because of shoulder surgery. Figures.
That was definitely a foul by Byrd, IMO, but it was probably one of the worst flagrant calls I've ever seen. Wow, that was bad, I honestly couldn't believe it when they made the call.
Despite what appeared to be a pretty severe flop, I don't think anyone was upset that a foul was called. It was a bad play by Byrd to even be there and a turnover there was probably well earned.
But the flagrant was absolutely brutal. Especially since they went through the trouble to actually review it and it was such a clearly non-flagrant foul. That's the part that got me.
"I had to take her down like Chris Brown."
-Lance Stephenson
Yeah Johnson is looking nice, got a decent amount of charging calls last night but I think that will be fixed with time, Hammons has gotten much smaller than what he was before, I was actually amazed, this was the first game of theirs I was able to see this season, and I think with him his game will come with his maturity, he is still young so I am not worried about it as much. Looking at our team you can tell we have a ton of young talent, would not be surprised to see our team push for a big ten title in the next 2-3 years, we will need to improve our outside shooting though.
Why so SERIOUS
So not a big basketball rules guy, but I always thought a player could bring the ball up as long as he came up straight and not in a swiping motion, and then should be able to have the space to maneuver to find someone to pass it to... Either way it definitely was not a flagrant and I was super surprised they called that, as well as the call on Johnson, they should have just let them play and not called the ticky tac foul to put them at the line on an inbounds play
Why so SERIOUS
Yeah, I completely agree with what you are saying.
Detroit here we come...
Interestingly Edison and Macarthy had 0 catches. What's up with that?


text:
This document provides guidelines and limitations on the use of the BCC-3 BPX Controller Card, and focuses exclusively on the switching architecture. The BPX switching architecture is based on a crosspoint switch design. The document targets any audience that has an interest to understand the BPX architecture.
The basic architectural characteristics of the BPX broadband shelf, shown in Figure 1, include a 15-slot chassis:
12 slots implement trunk interfaces to other BPX/IGX/MGX or ATM UNI/NNI interfaces.
Two slots are reserved for the redundant broadband control cards (BCCs) and combine both the switching fabric and the control subsystem.
One slot is for the alarm status monitor (ASM) card.
The heart of the BPX 8600 is a crosspoint matrix switching fabric, which is basically a space-switching device (a single stage that connects input with output). The crosspoint matrix is an independent subsystem on the BCC card. This section discusses the first-generation BPX crosspoint matrix.
The primary function of the switch fabric is to pass traffic between interface cards. A crosspoint switching matrix performs better than bus-based products, when it operates at broadband speeds. The crosspoint switching matrix is a single-element, externally buffered matrix switch. The BCC cards available prior to BPX Release 8.4.1, such as the BCC-3, are 16 x 16 matrices. Each of the 16 crosspoint matrix ports is a full-duplex-capable, 800-Mbps link. Only 14 of the 16 ports to the crosspoint matrix, are used: two by the redundant BCCs, and the 12 that remain for the 12 function modules on the BPX broadband shelf. Each interface slot in the BPX 8600 connects to a redundant switching matrix with a redundant, full-duplex, 800 Mbps serial interface. If there is a control card failure, the redundant card can control traffic without cell loss.
An overview of the crosspoint matrix operation is shown in Figure 2.
Every 687.5 ns, the crosspoint matrix arbiter polls the 14 connected cards for the internal destination of the next cell to transmit.
The crosspoint matrix:
Checks the requests
Verifies that there are no conflicts
Configures the crosspoint to serve all requests
Grants the cards permission to send cells to the serial 800 Mbps crosspoint port
The cell is switched to the destination egress card.
The function modules also implement onboard arbitration functions.Figure 2. First Generation BPX 8600 Switch Architecture
A switching element makes it possible for input to reach output when non-contending requests arrive.Figure 3. Four-Port Crosspoint Architecture
Nonblocking, in ATM switch architectures, refers to the treatment of non-correlated, statistical, Bernoulli traffic (a sequence of cells with no relation to each other). The term, nonblocking, is only theoretically relevant, and it is more important to analyze how the switch architecture handles real-world traffic patterns.
The Bernoulli traffic assumption can be used for ports that have thousands of logically multiplexed user connections. You can assume that trunks between switches in large networks with many users operate this way. Thus, in the traditional trunk card design of a BPX, the Broadband Network Interface (BNI) card relies nearly exclusively on egress buffering (up to 32,000 cells can be buffered for every trunk in the egress direction).
However, on an ATM User-Network Interface (UNI), you cannot assume that user traffic is uncorrected Bernoulli traffic. The frame-oriented, higher-layer protocols that feed long frames into the convergence, adaptation, and segmentation layers, such as TCP/IP, lead to long bursts of correlated cells. These cells head toward the same destination, which is the same output port in the switch fabric. When contention occurs, it affects the size of the egress buffer, which tries to accommodate these long bursts. The buffer size is the factor that determines whether an ATM switch architecture is lossy and is blocking or nonblocking.
Therefore, the egress buffer is a critical resource in the switch and in the network. Intelligent flow control algorithms, which rely on feedback messages that accurately reflect the use of resources, must work on top of the egress buffering architectures to avoid cell loss under high load.
Therefore, ATM service switch architecture mechanisms must do these:
Control long, correlated cell bursts on ingress ports.
Prevent the drop of cells, other than in the most extreme network overload situations.
Prevent cell bursts from uncontrolled flowing toward the egress buffers.
The blocking behavior on a switch is affected by the traffic volume and the speed of the port in and out of the crosspoint matrix. Clos' Rule, developed in 1953 by C. Clos of Bell Labs, uses three stages to convert different switching architectures into non-blocking networks. One of these stages uses the formula k*=2n -1 to determine if the switch is nonblocking. A simple generalization turns Clos' rule to k* =2 k. This means that if a switch must handle input lines of speed k, the switching stage needs to run at twice that speed to guarantee nonblocking performance.
While most switch architectures do this for T3 speeds, high-density OC-3 cards push many architectures beyond the limits of nonblocking claims. In fact, OC-12 interfaces turn all ATM service switches that exist into blocking architectures. This is not the case for the BPX switch with the next-generation BCC-4. The 1.6 Gbps allocated in the egress direction exceed Clos' rule for BXM cards that use one of the two OC-12 ports. This is why OC-12 trunks, where nonblocking behavior is important, only use one OC-12 port on the BXM card.
As shown in Figure 4, typical switch architectures are not reliable to deliver low blocking when port speeds and traffic loads increase. A typical ATM switch uses an architecture where the IN_n port speed is equal to the Out_n port speed. This is typically around OC-12 speeds, which are more than 622 Mbps. For example, if ports i1, i3, and o1 are OC-12 ATM ports that run at 622 Mbps, there are two major problems:
If ports i1 and i3 experience even brief bursts with cells that attempt to reach port o1, an architecture that relies exclusively on output buffering drops cells immediately. The Out_1 link runs at a lower speed than the aggregated traffic of the two ingress ports and cannot accommodate the cells. Since the ingress cards do not have buffers able to cope with this high-speed burst, cells are dropped. Therefore, every contention situation for an egress port leads to cell loss and requires ingress buffering. However, primitive ingress buffering implementations can cause head-of-line (HOL) blocking. The same cell loss can occur when high-density cards attempt to pass cells at equal or greater OC-12 speeds than the Out_n links can accommodate.
The only OC-12 traffic this architecture can accommodate is simple port-to-port forwarding, such as traffic from ports i1 to o1. In this scenario, the output buffer allocated on the egress card is not used efficiently, given the speed of the links involved. All the traffic that the Out_n links forward to the card can be immediately forwarded to the outgoing OC-12 port.
With the enhanced control cards (BCC-4) in Release 9.0, the BPX switch implements a switching architecture with 800 Mbps IN_n links, and 1.6 Gbps (2 x 800 Mbps) for the Out_n links with the new 16 x 32 crosspoint matrix chip. This architecture is more successful in OC-12 traffic switching. Therefore, the enhanced BCC-4 provides better service than the BCC-3 cards. This is especially true when multiple OC-12 traffic switching is required in networks where the Bernoulli traffic patterns cannot be assumed.
The BCC-4 is an enhanced control card for the BPX switch and provides the best performance of BPX technology in nodes equipped with BXM function modules.
This next-generation BCC provides enhanced processing power for general administrative node functions, but the real benefit is the fact that it provides the BPX switch with a 16 x 32 switching matrix. Some minor modifications have been made to the arbitration scheme to handle multicast traffic more efficiently.
From an architectural point of view, the BCC-4 card is similar to the BCC-3 control card that exists (see Figure 5). The CPU runs the software subsystem responsible for broadband shelf administration. An onboard Stratum 3-quality clock can be used for high-quality plesiochronuous node operation or distributed as a reference, or the node can use any interface or the redundant BCC clocking port signals as a clocking reference.Figure 5. BCC-4 Architectural Overview
The major innovation introduced by the BCC-4 is the asymmetrical crosspoint switching matrix. As Figure 6 illustrates, this only represents a minor modification to the architecture of the BPX switch as it is presented in Figure 2. The function modules still transmit their cells to the crosspoint matrix over an 800 Mbps link, but in receive direction.A 2 x 800 Mbps (= 1.6 Gbps) link receives cells from the crosspoint matrix. This leads to enhanced blocking behavior for high-speed links (OC-12) or high-density cards, such as the eight-port OC-3 BXM card.
In addition, switch latency is improved. The combination of advanced arbitration logic on BXM cards and the 16 x 32 crosspoint matrix switch delivers 19.2 Gbps of peak switch throughput.
Note: References [2] and [3] provide an exhaustive analysis of this switch architecture.Figure 6. BPX Switch Architecture With BCC-4
As mentioned earlier, the BCC-4 introduces a new, more elaborate arbitration dialog with the function modules. The installed BCC-4 maximizes the the BXM module use of the 16 x 32 crosspoint switching matrix and the interworking of the advanced arbitration logic. Advanced arbitration is a key system requirement because BXM cards can be configured to oversubscribe the 800-Mbps links towards the crosspoint switching matrix. Oversubscription is a strength of the BPX architecture, because it enables cost-efficient service implementation for ATM access. For backward compatibility reasons with ATM Service Interface (ASI) and BNI cards, the BCC-4 implements full interworking with these function modules. Therefore, it fully supports a mixture of all types of function modules and control cards in one switch.
Full interworking between all cards that exist and future cards is ensured in the BPX switch to maximize investment return for customers. Therefore, four possible combinations of crosspoint type and arbitration are possible.
Crosspoint throughput is not limited to 58.6 percent. This result applies to the simplest kind of arbitration and to a basic, single-line, symmetric crosspoint fabric. The BPX switch uses advanced arbitration techniques and, with the BCC-4, a double-line, asymmetric crosspoint fabric. The simulation results presented here complement the theoretical analysis, because they take into account the details of the switch arbitration mechanism and show the distinct performance advantage of using the combination of advanced arbitration and double output lines.
Note: References [2] and [4] provide a theoretical analysis of crosspoints with various arbitration techniques, and References [3] and [5] give an analysis of asymmetric fabrics.
What is the nonblocking throughput of the BPX architecture with the different BCC and function module combinations? There are two commonly understood definitions of nonblocking. The simple crosspoint is classed as nonblocking because of the potential to send cells from all cards simultaneously. In addition, nonblocking is used in a more conservative sense to mean the saturation throughput.
In both cases, the loading model for the switch simulations is Bernoulli traffic with traffic evenly distributed across all input ports, each port having traffic evenly distributed for each destination. The model is commonly applied in the switch performance literature. Other loading models can produce slightly different results. However, extensive simulations with a variety of traffic models indicate that the saturation limits that bind the function, shown here, are relatively independent of traffic model.
Oversubscription, achieved with BXM-based function modules (two-port OC-12 and eight-port OC-3), is a benefit for service providers who offer cost-effective ATM services (see Figure 7). Large buffers and elaborate arbitration schemes are required in order to support oversubscription without cell loss.
Service nodes behave in a fully nonblocking way for trunks, which is why BXM function modules support only one OC-12 trunk or four OC-3 trunks. However, an access switch must provide aggregation of user traffic toward the switching matrix. It is statistical unlikely for all user ports on one multiport function module to show peak activity, but the ingress buffering on the BXM card is able to cope with these extremely rare activity peaks.Figure 7. Supporting
The enhanced 16 x 32 crosspoint matrix is optimally suited to accommodate the characteristics of multicast traffic distribution, which is always output biased and creates more traffic in the egress direction of the crosspoint matrix. It is the crosspoint arbiter that replicates the cells from one input port to a number of output ports. In a second pass, BXM cards can implement logical multicasting to replicate one cell that arrives from the crosspoint matrix to different virtual connections (typically different VPs).
In network applications where multiple OC-12 trunks or ports are used to aggregate traffic to only one or two destination OC-12 ports, the recommendation is to use BCC-4 control cards. This non-Bernoulli traffic pattern is best served with the 16 x 32 crosspoint matrix of the BCC-4 Control Card.


text:
Today's mini blog session (as voted by all of you who follow us on facebook) comes all the way from the other side of the world, in Los Angeles where we roamed the charming streets of Pasedena - I LOVED the place. It was full of spanish charm, colour, and not to mention the famous Californian sun. I still stand to this day that Californians get to enjoy some of the most beautiful light in the world :)
Anyhow, meet Ron and Doleen!
Their session was shot a little more glamorous than I would normally shoot, but really?!! When you check out Doleen's amazing feather dress, you can't help but shoot a tiny little bit more sophisticated and sassy :) We even had other photographers we met that day, trying to grab a few shots of the dress while Ron and Doleen's session was underway. It was so funny! :D
Alright, lets move onto the images - hope you enjoy some of my favourites from their lightning quick session around the town :)


text:
I hope Ron Orenstein will reconsider his position to keep Willits behind the rest of Mendocino County in the issue of banning single-use plastic carry-out bags. Willits has held the lead in the area of recycling over the last several years, and it seems a shame that we can't take this partial but positive step toward protecting our community and environment.
Ron Orenstein's commentary (TWN February 6) attempts to justify his pivotal "no" vote that stands in the way of Willits adopting this ordinance. True, as he points out, there are adverse impacts from production of both paper and plastic bags. But at the disposal end, the impacts of plastic bags are much worse?littering our communities, vegetation, streams, and the ocean. Plastic bags do not biodegrade, and even in small fragments they are health hazards to fish and other animals that ingest them.
Moreover, while Mr. Orenstein points out it is not economic to recycle plastic bags, paper bags are quite cost-effective for recycling, and most people either reuse or recycle them (rather than put them in trash for landfills).
Perhaps a purist stance would be to ban both paper and plastic bags (as Mr. Orenstein suggests), but the ideal, which would have us all using canvas or other reusable bags for all of our purchases is still down the road. We need to change behavior incrementally. First people need to purchase reusables, and then they need to remember to put them in their car or in their purse. Then they need to remember to take them into the store. That takes a fair amount of re-learning of behaviors. Scores of stores in many communities throughout the state have learned that the purchase of a 10-cent bag is a gentle, yet affordable reminder/trigger to change "bag behavior."
I suggest Mr. Orenstein talk to the manager of Ukiah Natural Foods to find out how effective this strategy has been to change the behaviors of their customers.
In my mind, banning both paper and plastic bags is too punitive initially, forcing residents who neglect to bring a reusable bag to spend perhaps $1.00 (instead of 10 cents) per take-out bag. Charging 10 cents per paper bag is both an effective "carrot" to encourage reusables (you save your 10 cents) and it's also fair to consumers?those who bring their bags don't end up subsidizing the cost of those "free" one-time use bags.
It would be so much more effective if this change were taking place all over the county at the same time.
Karen Gridley


text:
Shockwave's command started in issue #5 and cedes command to Megatron again in issue #19. His leadership of the 'Cons lasts until issue #25, when depressed about the fact that Prime died in #24 and he didn't do the killing himself. He 'apparently' kills himself by blowing up the Space Bridge. Megatron doesn't officially command anything after this, even when he reappears on Cybertron at the end of #56.
Leadership of the 'Cons after his disappearance in #25 seems to jump from Shockwave, Ratbat, Scorponok, and finally Bludgeon by the end of the series.


text:
Bill Sweedler started on the fifth row. Turning strong lap times and doing a near hour-and-a-half stint Sweedler had the Lotus solidly in the top ten. Handing over to Townsend Bell on lap 59, the Californian continued the strong run in the Saturday afternoon heat of near 90-degree temperatures. In the closing minutes, with Bell running ninth, the team pitted him for a splash of fuel. The splash was brief, too brief, and the Lotus ran out of fuel with just one lap remaining.
"We know what we have with the Lotus," Sweedler said. "We need to some serious downforce on the car, which really can't be done by trial and error. The car handled well in the tight spots and always has the measure the GT field under braking. We also ran well through the back twisty section of the track. We took another step in the development of the car today, and that is goal - keep moving forward."
Bell had to get a tow back to the paddock as he ran out of fuel going down the back straight.
"The team called me in with a few laps to go for a splash, but we didn't get quite enough in the tank," Bell said. "I tried to shake it around and use the slower engine maps, but just couldn't nurse it to the finish line. Again, we had a good handling car in the tight stuff, and the Lotus really stops well. We just need the kind of development that we can't do on the road."
Alex Job, team principal, knows the team has a class measuring stick now for the Lotus Evora GT.
"Running out of fuel at the end of race is a tough way not to finish," Job said. "That is totally in our control, and we needed just a few seconds of fuel to get us to the checker. With the new Vipers coming to the series this weekend it gives us a development measuring stick. They have a big budget, so it will be interesting to see how that team progresses with those cars from this weekend to Petit Le Mans in October. The bar just got higher in GT."


text:
- Calendar
- Support
- Programs
- Education
- Series
- Summer Cabaret Workshop
- Visitor Info
- Galleries
- About
- rentals
In 2005, three like-minded songwriters came together on Austin's famous sixth street and formed the heavily fronted Band of Heathens. Nearly a decade later, The Band of Heathens have risen to prominence in the crowded world of American Country. With wide variety and high caliber talent, it's no wonder. They can rock like The Band, roll like Little Feat, and brood like Johnny Cash.
The Band of Heathens are all about the performance, keeping focused on touring and even going as far as to release not one but two live albums before beginning a studio release. The Band of Heathens are distinguished by their solid, no filler performances. Their two live albums made the reputation, and their tireless touring cemented it. With their minds on their art and their ego's aside, The Band of Heathens are a unique success and a fantastic show.


text:
Guidelines for Use of ALA Public Programs Office Electronic Discussion Lists
The Public Programs Office subscription electronic discussion lists are intended for:
- substantive discussion of issues and ideas relating to public programs at libraries, such as formats, funding, etc.;
- sharing information about library programming; especially cultural programming for adult community audiences;
- queries and advice to/from peers; and
- announcements from the ALA Public Programs Office regarding opportunities and initiatives.
When submitting a message to a list, please keep in mind:
- All postings should be of a public, non-confidential nature.
- All submissions should be in plain text without attachments.
- If you simply reply to a posted message, you will be responding to the entire list, not just the sender. When responding to a message posted to the list, please copy the sender's e-mail address and respond to them directly; reply to the posted message only when you wish to share your response with the entire list.
- Basic rules of electronic mail etiquette are expected; e.g., anonymous submissions, character assassination, sharing confidential information, and profanity are strictly prohibited.
- All messages sent to the Public Programming list are subject to review and approval by a list moderator prior to posting.
Questions? Please contact the Public Programs Office at email@example.com.


text:
Blimey, I haven't posted in a while.
What's been happening in my world in all these months, let me think…umm…well, I've been making beads (as usual) and wondering how best to market them, which reminds me – I need to say a few words about Twitter (you're off the hook, as you don't have to read any of this, I won't know). Many of the people I know make beads and jewellery, some of them tweet about new listings on their websites, some of them do it just a bit too often, and I don't enjoy it. Those are the people I un-follow rapidly, it's so uninteresting to have one's time line filled with over-excited hyper posts about newly listed jewellery and so on – does advertising on Twitter work for them? If so then I admit it, I'm a bit envious, but un-following persistent self marketers is like putting the phone down on double glazing salesmen and their ilk – a relief. There is already too much bombardment with over use of exclamation marks, so I like to follow occasional tweeters who have something to add to my day (yes, even Brian Belo, no apologies for following Big Brother contestants).
When it comes to my own Tweets, they're pretty dull, I realise that Tweeting is an art form in itself. The well known people I follow (mostly) have something interesting to say because they are going about their famous fabulous business and letting the world in on snippets of it. I can't help but be interested in what they are doing, whereas in my quiet and unremarkable life I might be so pleased that the cat let me cut her nails again that I feel it is worth tweeting about, but who wants to know about that? Maybe people who know and love my cat (or me) or people who wish their cat would let them cut it's nails? In case you want to know, my cat lies back and practically holds her paws out for me to trim her nails, so it's not as if I have a big cat nail clipping secret or anything.
One of my favourite tweeters is my friend Sue. Sometimes all she writes is a word like 'can't', and because I know Sue, I get (I think) what she means. Sue isn't famous, but she is thoughtful, quirky and often funny. When I go to bed the last thing I do is check Twitter on my iPhone, you might think this is a bit sad, however, I'm using Twitter to overcome my habit of checking the Sky News app before I go to sleep. The last news story that upset me so badly and made my heart leap with shock was not floods in Pakistan, but Sydney the pygmy goat being attacked by people who ripped his horns out and left him to die after what must have been a bewildering attack. I do struggle with my inclination to feel more strongly about animals than human beings, because the inbuilt message I have is that it is wrong to put animals before people, but I can't help feeling that Sydney was just fine snoozing away in his dark hollow under the trees until pointless premeditated selfish human action killed him. Floods are part of what happens in nature, and terrible as it is, we have little control over it and just have to do the best we can to overcome what is thrown at us. I say 'us', truth is I have never had to contend with losing my home and most of my family and friends, I don't know what it is like to lose the entire structure of my life and face living in camps with little food, sanitation or comfort and a formless future. One might argue that human nature means that animals are tortured everyday, it's part of life. I'm not aware of animals torturing people everyday, although doubtless it happens that animals attack humans. The difference is that most adult humans have a choice in whether they maim and torture, they just don't make it. Anyway, I decided it would be better to go sleep with something less awful than horrible news, and as I am permanently attached to my iPhone, it may as well be Twitter.
I used to read books before I went to sleep, but after moving back to England David and I were very happy to discover Radio 7 and let it read us to sleep, it also removed the problem of me reading in bed and therefore having the light on which disturbed him, after all, he's the one who gets up and goes to work in the morning. Unfortunately, Radio 7 repeats so many programmes that I am now less enthralled, although I can listen to Russel Thorndike's 'Doctor Syn' stories read by Rufus Sewell over and over, it's a joy, so they can repeat that as often as they like.
The 'bad' thing about this reading compromise at bedtime is that I haven't read a book in ages, and I mean at least two years. Ok, so I borrowed the latest Stephanie Plum novel from the library recently and whizzed through that, but The Lovely Bones remain only two thirds read, and its such a great book too. I hate not reading, I also miss tv programmes in the evening because I'm in the shed making beads. I have a tv out there, but the reception is laughable. Mind you, while I'm out there I listen to audio books, we have a great library service here and don't even have to pay to borrow them, so I feel I have some contact with books, even if a lot of them are a bit smushy. Yes, I could read books with the Kindle app, but I haven't yet found a book I really want, perhaps because I like the feel of paper and a proper flick through the pages to get a taste of the author's style, samples online somehow don't feel real. I have downloaded several books, but actually, reading in bed on my side while wearing glasses doesn't work for me, and no, sitting up in bed neatly propped up against perfect pillows doesn't really work for me either. Or I don't work it…whatever. So, I might have to accept that I am no longer the avid reader I was, or knuckle down and make reading time again. Public transport was always useful for that, I read most when I was working and had to get a bus or train. Maybe I ought to get a different job, one outside of the house? I'll think about it. For a while. Quite a long while, and then, perhaps for a very long time after that. I'm very glad, and fortunate, to be making beads and selling some, it's all very modest, there will not be holidays overseas and a second car, but I am spared the frustration of a job for the sake of having one, I won't ever be rich or famous (thank God for the latter) but somehow I have the luxury of being free.
I really ought to go and do something with that freedom, right now.
Blimey, I haven't posted in a while.


text:
Today's Inside the Vault is about Shannon Bailey, programmer. He works on our internal tools – designers and artists love him because he handles their feature requests. Shannon also volunteered to help get the Star Trek Legacy Mod Tool into a state where we could release it to the public. One more thing – Shannon knows how to belt out a tune in Rock Band.
What's your job at Bethesda?
I'm a programmer in the systems group, which means that I mostly work on the ways things get into the game. Specifically, I do a lot of work on the editor and the art exporter, and I help maintain our build process.
What other games have you worked on?
The only game I've worked on besides Fallout was Midway's Gravity Games Bike title (though I started in their tools department, writing plug-ins and doing r&d).
I spent some time afterwards studying and working in cognitive neuroscience, ultimately in a lab that studied the effects of playing video games on the brain. But unless you count pushing a button to indicate the familiarity of a stimulus as gaming, Fallout 3 is the only other title I've worked on, and the first RPG.
What is the best part about working as a programmer? The worst part?
The best part is that there's no job I'd rather do. There's no worst part; there's no part of the process I don't enjoy, even on the more hectic days or those when something goes wrong. This is partly because of the cooperative spirit here – people are less likely to say, "You broke this," than, "Hey, could you fix this?" – and partly because programming is fun. It's a game, really; you have a set of rules and a goal which needs to be optimally accomplished using those rules.
And although I'm proud of the game we're making and I'm looking forward to shipping it, it's also rewarding to see the code I write getting used by the designers and artists on a daily basis.
How did you get into the industry? Do you have any tips for breaking in?
I applied to Midway at exactly the time when they were looking for recent college graduates – so I was lucky there — but I've done a bit more speculation about what got me in to Bethesda after being out of the industry for a while.
In any creative field, there are two qualifications that seem to guarantee both entry and success: tireless interest in the process and the ability to bring something unique to it. One of the things that I've noticed about Bethesda is that everyone contributes to the game and to the vibe of the place in a different and easily identifiable way.
While doing the cog sci thing, I also worked part-time writing applications for an engineering company; the largest of these was a CAD-style program that generated house roofs. Not exactly a game editor, but similar in an important respect: I was building, and later extending, a content creation interface in direct response to the needs of those who'd be using it.
When I started working at Bethesda, the editor was already written, but we've added a lot of things to it over the course of developing Fallout, and I'm one of the people who implement most of the changes.
Obviously you have to love making games, but chances are that whatever experience you've had can transfer to some aspect of game development… and there's your niche. Being aware of possible niches – really, just knowing what you're good at – can help a lot.
What would you say is your personal favorite game of all time?
I can't pick only one. Wizardry VII was the weirdest game I played during my teenage years, and one of the deepest. Few games will let you be a magic-using samurai who carries a laser and plate mail and negotiates with aliens. All this weirdness is believable, though, because the world doesn't feel dormant; things are already urgent and in motion, and your decisions effect genuine changes. Very cool for 1992. Planescape and Fallout were later favorites, the former for its surrealism and the latter for the depth of its world.
Since the second half of the Playstation era, my gaming has almost exclusively been relegated to JRPGs. I like the aesthetics – the collision of magical futurism and technophobia – enough to withstand the invariable set of clichés. Or almost invariable. The Shin Megami Tensei games break the mold of cackling would-be demiurges by letting you, in the case of Nocturne, rewrite creation according to your definition of enlightenment. Heavy stuff.
Persona 3's the best in the series so far. The atmosphere is incredible – esoteric, intellectual, and obliquely psychedelic – and everything about the game is deeply felt. Since the daylight half of the game is spent living a relatively normal life in Tokyo, you have to make a lot of choices that aren't like the sorts of things you're usually required to think about in games. This wouldn't work if the characters with whom you interact seemed false or shallow, but since they don't, every decision ultimately affecting your statistics feels a lot more like genuine role-playing than stat-boosting.
Rock Band is pretty great too.
What games are you looking forward to?
I just watched the preview for Persona 4, which looks as though it might become my new favorite game if it gets localized (and if it doesn't, I'll have to learn more Japanese).
What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
My raging caffeine addiction and the availability of free soda in the Bethesda kitchen.
Worst job you've ever had?
A year spent working at a video rental store during college made me sure that customer service wasn't my thing. No horror stories, though, just tedium; no job I've ever had has been inherently awful.
Any other hobbies and interests? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I'm in a couple of bands – I play bass and keyboards and sing a bit. I can be very competitive about Scrabble (though I'd probably get trounced in an actual competition). Several of us from Bethesda go rock climbing on a fairly regular basis, and I've started taking Kyokushin karate.


text:
Cash trade improved by a dollar per hundredweight last week, but higher total costs moved feeder margins marginally lower according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.
Feeder margins fell 40 cents per head last week, averaging $88.68 per head. Margins are more than double the $42.88 per head average of a month ago and well above the negative $35.60 this time last year when feeders were forced to pay high feed costs for drought-depleted grain supplies.
Although cash trade improved during the week, higher feed costs and total costs pushed profit margins lower according to estimates by Sterling Marketing, Inc., Vale, Ore. Feed costs were $345.19, increasing by 21 cents per head, which helped push total costs up to 1,733.51 per head.
Beef packer margins fell $1.71 lower per head last week, remaining in the red with an average of negative $60.28. Packer margins have fallen drastically over the past month, decreasing by $36.65. Losses were limited last week by higher beef cutout values which increased by $2.39 per hundredweight.
Lower feed costs and improving cash hog values turned pork producer profit margins positive last week.
Margins increased by 88 cents to $0.67 cent per head according to the Sterling Pork Profit Tracker. Although margins are in the black and 84 cents per head higher than a year ago, they're well below the $13.51 per head set a month earlier.
Feed costs moved $1.28 lower per head, bringing the total cost down to $148.56.
Pork packer margins remain negative, averaging negative $3.31 per head. Last week's margins are only two cents lower than a month earlier and $1.84 above the negative $1.47 per head average of a week earlier. Packer margins were hit by higher cash hog values, up 12 cents to $92.87 head and lower pork prices which fell 37 cents per hundredweight.
The Sterling Beef Profit Tracker for the week ending October 19:
- Average feedyard margins: $88.68 per head.
- Average packer margins: -$60.28 per head.
The Sterling Pork Profit Tracker for the week ending October 18:
- Average farrow-to-finish margins: $0.67 per head.
- Average pork packer margins: -$3.31 per head.
The Sterling Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are produced by Sterling Marketing Inc. and John Nalivka, president, Vale, Ore., and are published weekly by Drovers/CattleNetwork, and PorkNetwork.


text:
Ever wonder which yoga pose is Jennifer Aniston's favourite and which one makes her grunt?
Well, wonder no more.
FITNESS Magazine has shared the following with Keeping Fit blog readers:
Get Jennifer Aniston's Abs: Mandy Ingber Shares Her Yoga Wisdom
NEW YORK — A recent survey from FITNESS Magazine and OMG! from Yahoo revealed 65% want Jennifer Aniston's abs, so FITNESS caught up with Aniston's LA yoga instructor of nearly 22 years, Mandy Ingber, to get the low-down on how Jen maintains her fabulous figure.
Mandy dished on which yoga pose is Jen's favorite, which one makes her grunt and the best yoga moves. Read the whole interview HERE, or check out highlights, below:
What pose is hardest for Jen?
"It may be plank. I hear her grunt with that one sometimes. Or bringing the knee to the forehead from downward-facing dog-the moves that really engage the core."
What poses does Jen like the most?
"She likes sun salutations. Those are good for her arms. And she loves balancing poses. She's very focused and graceful. She could stay in tree pose longer than I could! She's learned how to stay focused amid a bunch of other stuff happening."
How are celebs like Jen different when they practice yoga?
"They're not. There's no secret. Everyone has to heat up and sweat through it. I'm not here to feed spirituality. I'm no guru, and I don't see myself as that. Spirituality is highly personal. But what I do with celebs is motivate to keep their workouts going. People need motivation on a daily basis."
What's different about your approach to yoga?
"It's light-hearted and open-minded. I don't take it too seriously. Life is hard enough-exercise is hard enough! Yoga is detached in a way. It shows you that you shouldn't let things bother you too much."
How should you prepare for a hot yoga class?
"Hydration is key. Coconut water or Emergen-C, the vitamin drink mix, are full of electrolytes to fuel the body and have nutritional value but won't give you that full-stomach feeling, which can make it hard to practice yoga."
I've seen people suddenly explode into tears or laugh like hyenas in classes. What's that about?
"Yoga can trigger a hit and release sensation. We hold a lot in our bodies. When we get physical and start moving, old stuff comes up to be released. That's part of the purification process. That's part of the transformation. We all feel so much better after. The real teacher is your body."
Website: http://www.edmontonsun.com/author/cary-castagna
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CaryIsKeepingFit#g/u
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cary-castagna/
Categories: Fitness


text:
This star rating is the opinion of the property owner only. A Self-Rated hotel has not been assessed by the AA or Visit Britain, whose official star ratings we use across LateRooms.com.
Roosevelt Hotel & Suites4 Self rated
Av. Álvarez Calderón 194, San Isidro, Frente al Parque Roosevelt, Lima, LIMA27
Price FromView Rooms
This hotel doesn't have any reviews yet.
About the hotel
The Roosevelt Hotel & Suites **** is located in the heart of San Isidro, the business and residential area more secure and exclusive. Facing the beautiful Roosevelt park and very close to business centers and malls, famous restaurants, outdoor cafes, casinos, theaters, supermarkets, banks and Lima Golf Club. Enjoy a complimentary Buffet Breakfast in our restaurant each morning.
Free Wi-Fi in all the hotel, Doctor On Call, Business Center, Parking, Terrace and Lobby Bar. Ask for our Connecting rooms. It´s ideal for your trip to Lima because the hotel offers warm hospitality, great location and exceptional service. It´s perfect for business or tourism. No-Smoking Hotel. Foreigners staying more than 60 accumulated days in Perú and Peruvian citizens will be charged 18% the national value-added tax upon check out
Read MoreLess
Facilities Show/hide
- Main
- Hotel Non-Smoking Throughout, Air conditioning in rooms, 24 Hour Reception, Cots available, Safety Deposit Box, Minibar in each room, Telephone In Each Room, Limited Hours Room Service, Concierge, Laundry/Valet Service, Wake Up Call Available, Interconnecting rooms available, Doctor on call, Porter, Lift to all floors, Public Air Conditioning
- Parking
- Car parking available onsite, Airport Shuttle, Car Parking Available Offsite
- Business
- Wi-Fi Available, Meeting Facilities, Wi-Fi Available In Public Areas, Wi-Fi Available In Rooms, Business Centre
- Dining
- Restaurant, Lounge Menu, Bar, Breakfast to go
- Leisure
- Massage, [Channels] News, [Channels] Sky Sports, [Channels] Movies (Free), [Channels] Foreign (European), [Channels] Foreign (Other), [Channels] Music, [Channels] Childrens
- In Room Entertainment
- TV, Satellite TV, Radio
Useful Info Show/hide
- From 13:00 hours
- By 12:00 hours
- Up to 2 years old
- The price shown is based on the occupancy and dates you have searched for. Prices and availability are subject to change based on the arrival date, number of nights and occupancy searched for. All prices are inclusive of all local taxes.
- Pets are not allowed
Customer Reviews
Our reviews are from genuine LateRooms.com customers. We verify that the customer has stayed before leaving a review.
No reviews yet


text:
You will find a wide selection of the best paper shredders in the market for the money. You can compare and review our full line of paper shredders on price, features and services. SimplyShred shredders have one of the best warranty and guarantee in the market. Micro Cut Shredders, Cross Cut Shredders, Strip Cut Shredders, Commercial Shredders
There are no products matching the selection.
Currently Shopping by:
Shopping Options
Regular Price: $39.99
Special Price $24.99
Regular Price: $79.99
Special Price $19.99
You have no items to compare.
Lastest News
Service & Support
Our Location
901 South Rohlwing Road, Unit H Addison, IL 60101


text: Big test on Big Monday for WVU By Dave Hickman January 27, 2013 Story Share AP Photo Freshman guard Ben McLemore (23) is the top scorer for Kansas, averaging 16.2 points per game. MORGANTOWN - Chances are, no amount of chemistry or togetherness or countless other intangibles are going to help West Virginia's basketball team unless the Mountaineers are more proficient at some of the basics of the game.Making shots would help, for example, as would preventing opponents from doing the same. That sounds simplistic, of course, but the Mountaineers are at or near the bottom of the Big 12 in both of those statistical categories. They are among the worst teams in the country, in fact, at making shots.Still, those intangibles also have to be at work, as well, if West Virginia is to make anything of a season that is approaching the worst in a decade, not to mention one of the worst in Bob Huggins' long coaching career.It would certainly help if things finally came together tonight at the Coliseum. That's when the Mountaineers (9-10, 2-4 Big 12) face their most daunting task of the season to date. In the first of three ESPN Big Monday games this season, West Virginia hosts No. 3 Kansas (18-1, 6-0). Tipoff is set for shortly after 9 p.m.But in order to have even a chance of staying with Kansas - winners of a nation's-best 17 straight games and a potential new No. 1 when the polls are released today - West Virginia's focus and attention to detail have to be better. There have been short spurts in recent games when that seemed to be improving.But then there have been even longer stretches like the one in Saturday's 80-66 loss at Oklahoma State, when the Mountaineers did nothing right and saw a 13-point lead wiped out in less than five minutes and then turned into as much as a 19-point deficit.And much of that had little to do with shooting and everything to do with focus."I'd like to be clairvoyant so I know what they're thinking,'' Huggins said in frustration Saturday in Stillwater. "But I'm not.'' No one knows, of course, but it's an odd thing to be going through, especially for those who have been around a while."I don't know what you call it, chemistry or whatever, but before this I knew exactly what everybody was thinking and it was easy to motivate people,'' said senior Deniz Kilicli, by far the most experienced of the Mountaineers. "It was easy to motivate guys when they were down. It just doesn't happen anymore."I don't know where everybody's heads are at. And that's a big problem.''If the Mountaineers aren't all on the same page tonight, it could be a long one. Kansas hasn't lost since a neutral-court, three-point setback to Michigan State on Nov. 13 and seems well on its way to its ninth straight Big 12 regular-season title and 13th in the league's 17 seasons. The Jayhawks have two potential first-team All-Americans in 7-foot senior shot-blocker Jeff Withey and 6-5 freshman shooting guard Ben McLemore, both of whom are on the midseason Wooden Award Top 25. Travis Releford is a 6-6 senior guard who is one of three starters (along with Withey and guard Elijah Johnson) from the team that lost to Kentucky in last year's national championship game.So, what are the chances West Virginia comes together and develops some sort of chemistry, if not by tonight then at least before the season completely crumbles apart? Well, it might not happen."Sometimes you don't,'' Kilicli said. "I've been on teams that the chemistry never got together. "But at least everybody had one thing they wanted, which was to win. And so the guys with high egos said, 'Alright, man, I'm just going to buy in and do whatever.' And guys with low self-confidence, they stepped their game up and tried to be a team. And that's when you start winning.''BRIEFLY: The bad part of playing a Big Monday game is the quick turn-around from a Saturday game. The good part is time off. After tonight, the Mountaineers don't play again until Saturday at Texas Tech. Then they do the same thing over again next week with a Big Monday home game against Texas, followed by time off before a Saturday trip to TCU. Kansas beat Oklahoma Saturday, 67-54, in the 800th game at Allen Fieldhouse. Withey had 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, while McLemore made three of his five 3-point attempts and scored 18. Kansas was second last week in the coaches poll behind Duke and third in the Associated Press media poll behind Duke and Michigan. Duke, of course, will drop after being crushed by Miami, so Kansas could rise to No. 1 in one or both polls when they are released today. The last team ranked No. 2 in the AP poll that played in Morgantown was UCLA, which lost 70-65 here in 2007. The last AP No. 1 team to play at the Coliseum was Connecticut in 2006. The Huskies won that game, 81-75.In all, five teams ranked No. 1 in the AP poll have played at the Coliseum - UConn in 2006 and 1999, UMass in 1995, Temple in 1988 and UNLV in 1983. West Virginia beat only one of those teams, UNLV.Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or email@example.com or follow him at twitter.com/dphickman1. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 WVU pulls away from Kansas for 56-34 win 2 Philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum of Shoney's fortune turns 100 3 'Heroin(e)' spotlights women helping combat Huntington's drug crisis 4 New company planning $73M synthetic fuel plant in Greenbrier County 5 WVU notebook: Defense feeling a bit run down Big Atlantic Classic begins play tonight Previous Story Herd hoops, Huntington hotels and Classic musings Next Story


text: Eagle Foodservice announces a full line of Panco transport holding cabinets for heating, proofing and heating/proofing processes. These NSF-, UL- and CUL- approved cabinets feature durable all-aluminum construction and accommodate full-or half-sizesheet pans. An optional combo slide accommodates 12″ x 20″ food pans.Features include a digital display, adjustable thermostatic temperature control with an adjustable


text:
Undergraduate Programs
Bachelor of Science in Psychology
The Department of Psychology offers a major in Psychology leading to the Bachelor of Science degree. Students majoring in Psychology may take a minor in the College of Liberal Arts or in the College of Science and Agriculture; or they may fulfill their elective requirements with 15 hours of courses in an academic discipline or field, which must be approved by their academic advisor. In selecting electives, a student must take into consideration the degree requirements which state that at least 40 semester hours must be earned in courses numbered above 300, and at least 12 must be in the major subject. Also, students may not present a grade below "C" in their major field. In general, freshman courses are numbered in the 100 series; sophomore courses in the 200; junior courses in the 300; and senior courses in the 400. Courses in the 500 and 600 series are open to graduate students only. See your advisor regarding graduation requirements.
For two consecutive years, our students have scored 1 standard deviation above the mean on the National Field Test in Psychology.
The Department of Psychology offers a minor in Psychology. Requirements for a minor are Psychology 101 and an additional 15 hours in Psychology, 12 of which must be chosen from courses numbered 300 and above.


text:
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 4 of 4
Hybrid View
Does a light or heavy foot effect MPG?
I have been driving our '06 Prius for 3 weeks (when my wife lets me) and love it.
I have read numerous articles on increasing fuel economy. Most say accelerate slowly. I have also seen a couple of people suggest that starting more aggresively works better.
When accelerating , the MPG tends to be on the low side, which makes sense.
When accelerating with a 'heavier' foot (not flooring it, but pushing the accelerator 1/2 way or more), the MPG is still low, perhaps just a little lower than when accelerating slowly, but since you get to cruising speed faster, you are driving for less time at the lower MPG.
I have tried both and seem to find that I obtain virtually the same MPG using both methods. I think it may be possible to increase MPG with faster starts.
What is your experience?


text:
|Home > Guides > Core Developers Guide > Interceptors > Timer Interceptor
This interceptor logs the amount of time in milliseconds. In order for this interceptor to work properly, the logging framework must be set to at least the INFO level. This interceptor relies on the Commons Logging API to report its execution-time value.
trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal)? - defaut is
Default is to use
The parameters above enables us to log all action execution times in our own logfile.
This interceptor can be extended to provide custom message format. Users should override the
invokeUnderTiming method.


text:
A FATHER-OF-THREE is hoping to raise £10,000 for a children's charity by riding the length of the UK on a scooter.
Dedicated fundraiser Scott Langley, 37, of Leigh Heights, Hadleigh will be travelling around 1,000 miles from John-o-Groats to Lands End in just 14 days, in a bid to raise vital funds for Little Haven's Children's Hospice, in Daws Heath Road, Thundersley.
The gruelling task will see him riding between 10 and 12 hours and travelling around 70 miles a day in order to meet his goal.
Family members, including Scott's three sons Fraizer, 8, Ned, 4, and Noah, 1, will be manning the finish line ready to cheer and spur him on at the end.
Scott said: "The hardest thing will be being away from my wife and children but I'm on a mission to do something big for these kids.
"Every time I drive past there I feel so bad for them and, at the same time, grateful that as a father I haven't had to go through what some of those parents are suffering. I just want to do all I can to help them."
The inspiration for this daunting task has come from Scott's dad Derek Langley, who died 14 years ago following a heart attack at just 48.
The tragedy kick-started Scott's determination to not only see the world, but also to do as much as he could to help those around him.
Scott added: "It was such a shock when my dad died, and he has been a massive inspiration for me, which is why I'm starting the ride on the anniversary of his death. It really made me get up and want to see the world and start doing things to help other people.
"Doing the walk last year and helping support a good cause made me feel so good, that I was determined to do something again this year. Hopefully by doing something this difficult people will really get behind me and help me raise a lot of money for the hospice."
Little Havens, which relies solely on donations, provides essential respite care to children suffering from life-limiting illnesses.
Scott will be starting his journey on June 1 and is hoping to reach a target of £10,000.
For more information on how to sponsor him, visit www.rollwithme.co.uk


text:
Explore true reports of the strange and unknown — get a free e-issue of FATE!
The oldest, longest-running paranormal magazine in the world, FATE has been published since 1948.
Six decades before the AMC's Walking Dead, SyFy's Paranormal Witness, late-night radio's Coast to Coast AM, and countless websites, blogs, books, and movies began captivating audiences with true tales of the paranormal—there was FATE—a first-of-its-kind publication dedicated to in-depth coverage of mysterious and unexplained phenomena.
To download your free e-issue, simply right click the image below (or press "command" and click for Mac Users), and select to download the PDF (Mac users will select "Save Link As").
To browse it online, simply click the image (make sure you have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. If not, click here to get the latest version).
Enjoy your free e-issue, and then subscribe here.
Order back issues, books, and FATE merchandise here.
Get the latest paranormal news and updates,
plus great deals and special discounts at the FATE Store on our Facebook page.


text:
The Tobago boiler by crown is a highly efficient, long lasting oil fired boiler with a wide variety of configuration options available. At its core is a wet leg cast iron heat exchanger, a material that has proven reliable in thousands of installations all across the globe. The boiler's burner door swings open for easy access and maintenance, and since all connections are on the front and top of the boiler, the unit itself can be fit into tight utility space corners and nooks without an issue. This Tobago comes packaged with a Beckett burner, a brand renowned for its reliability and consistent combustion over long periods of time.
Product Features
Wet Base Cast Iron Heat Exchanger
The Tobago uses a wet base, cast iron heat exchanger. Cast iron optimizes heat transfer efficiency and is durable enough to provide decades of reliable operation.
Easy-Access Burner Door
The Tobago line of oil fired boilers features a cast iron front-side burner door for easy burner access. This makes any required maintenance much easier, and reduces the need to move equipment in the event that service is required.
Included Beckett AFG Burner
This Tobago boiler comes with a Beckett AFG oil burner included. Beckett is a well known industry burner brand whose burners have proven reliable and efficient in thousands of boiler installs.


text:
The annual Hippity Hoppity Hunt takes place at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground on Saturday, April 19! Little campers and their parents will enjoy the Easter Bunny, an egg hunt, a petting zoo, crafts, and a lunch sponsored by Northside RVs.
The Hippity Hoppity Hunt is open only to campers, so be sure to get your reservation in by contacting the KHP Campground at (800) 370-6416 directly or the reservation system at (888) 4KY-PARK or www.parks.ky.gov or going straight to the campground pages on this website at:
Date and Time:
Saturday, April 19 – 11 am – 3pm
Campground Fee:
$30.00 – Sunday-Thursday per night/1-8 people
$32.00 – Friday-Saturday per night/1-8 pepole
$26.00 per night/primitive with electric
$20.00 per night/primitive
Park Admission:
Campground guests get a discounted admission to visit the Kentucky Horse Park during your stay as well as free parking –
$12.00 adults
$6.00 kids (7-12)


text:
O's land righty Guilmet; Reimold to 60-day DL
NEW YORK -- The Orioles made a minor trade on Monday, acquiring right-handed pitcher Preston Guilmet from Cleveland in exchange for Minor League outfielder Torsten Boss.
The O's optioned Guilmet to Triple-A Norfolk and moved outfielder Nolan Reimold from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL to clear a roster spot. Manager Buck Showalter said prior to Monday's game against the Yankees that Reimold had not been taking part in baseball activities and had just been receiving treatment on his neck.
Guilmet, 26, was drafted by Cleveland in the ninth round of the 2009 First-Year Player Draft, and he posted a 1.68 ERA with 20 saves in 49 games for Triple-A Columbus in 2013.
"[He] has command of his fastball, slider and split-finger, which he mixes to get hitters out," O's executive vice president Dan Duquette said of Guilmet in a text message. "We expect he'll contribute to the [Major League] team this season given his track record and experience closing games."
Last season in Columbus, Guilmet averaged 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings and appeared in four games for the Indians, posting a 10.13 ERA in 5 1/3 innings.
Brittany Ghiroli is a reporter for MLB.com. Read her blog, Britt's Bird Watch, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter @britt_ghiroli. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Note: This item is more than 11 years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references.
Print – Plain Text – Permalink
News Release
Media Contact: TPWD News, firstname.lastname@example.com, 512-389-8030
May 30, 2006
Hunter's Choice Bag Tops List of Migratory Bird Proposals
AUSTIN, Texas — Pending U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision in July, Texas duck hunters could get a "partial-mulligan" on their duck straps during the next three seasons.
A Central Flyway experimental bag configuration would create the "Hunter's Choice" that would help eliminate the confusing season-within-a-season framework for less abundant bird species such as pintail and canvasbacks. If implemented by the Service the bag limit drops from 6 to 5 birds overall.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced the potential option as part of proposed changes to the migratory game bird hunting regulations for 2006-07.
The "Hunter's Choice" proposal would allow hunters to shoot five ducks daily in one of two categories. In the "aggregate category" of less abundant ducks, one of those birds could be either a pintail, or a canvasback, or a "dusky duck" (mottled, black duck or Mexican-like duck) or a hen mallard.
Including hen mallards in the category would create a buffer to help reduce the harvest of the less-abundant pintails and canvasbacks.
"If this experiment works well, it could help us preserve season long hunting opportunities with other stocks of ducks that get down low, like scaup," said Vernon Bevill, TPWD migratory game bird program director.
The proposal would make the regulations less complex and eliminate the risk of hunters accidentally shooting a pintail or canvasback during the closed portions of the duck season, since the season-within-a-season takes place only during the last 39-days of the regular duck season.
"They could shoot that first duck without fear of violating the regulations all season long," Bevill noted.
Within the Central Flyway, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas and Kansas would offer the Hunter's Choice limits in the trial. Harvest results would be compared to the five states in the flyway not participating in the experiment.
Proposed dove season dates remain virtually unchanged from last year other than calendar shifts.
The proposed season dates and bag limits for mourning dove are:
North Zone: Sept 1-Oct. 30 with a 15-bird daily bag limit.
Central Zone: Sept. 1-Oct. 30 and Dec. 26-Jan. 4 with a 12-bird daily bag limit.
South Zone: Sept. 22-Nov. 12 and Dec. 26-Jan. 12 with a 12-bird daily bag limit.
In the Special White-winged Dove Area in the South Zone, the season would run Sept. 2, 3, 9, 10 then Sept. 22-Nov. 12 and Dec. 26-Jan. 8. During the first two weekends, the bag limit would be 12 in the aggregate, no more than 4 mourning dove or 2 white-tipped dove. The bag limit for the remainder of this season would be the same as the rest of the South Zone, except only 2 white-tipped dove daily.
For rails, gallinule, woodcock and snipe, TPWD is proposing the following:
Rail and Gallinule: Sept. 16-24 and Nov. 4-Jan. 3.
Snipe: Nov. 4-Feb. 18.
Woodcock: Dec. 18-Jan. 31
For the duck hunting seasons, TPWD is proposing the following:
Early Teal: Sept. 9-24 if the Service provides for a 16-day season, otherwise, Sept. 16-24.
High Plains Mallard Management Unit: Youth Only Oct. 14-15. General Season Oct. 21-22 and Oct 27-Jan. 28.
Remainder of State (North/South Zones): Youth Only Oct. 28-29. General Season Nov. 4-26 and Dec. 9-Jan. 28
If the Service does not approve the "Hunter's Choice" option, the proposed aggregate daily bag limit for ducks would be 6, no more than 5 mallards (only 2 hens), 2 scaup, 2 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 1 "dusky duck" (mottled duck, black duck or Mexican-like duck), and 1 pintail and 1 canvasback (restricted season for both pintail and canvasback at this time). The daily bag limit for mergansers would be 5 (only 1 hooded merganser) and the daily bag limit on coots would be 15.
For geese, a potential increase in the bag limit for dark geese in the Western Zone is being considered, as is the discontinuance of the Light Goose Conservation Order.
In 1999, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued the first Conservation Order Light Goose Season to encourage hunters to harvest additional light geese. Harvest surveys indicate the Conservation Order has become less effective in Texas during recent years with declines in both hunter participation and light geese harvest.
Here's what's being proposed for the goose hunting seasons:
Western Zone: Light and dark geese Nov. 4-Feb. 6 with a daily bag limit of 20 light geese. Bag limit of 4 dark geese, no more than 3 Canada and 1 white-fronted goose. The proposed conservation order for light geese would run Feb. 7-Mar. 25
Eastern Zone: Light geese Nov. 4-Jan. 28 with a bag limit of 20 daily. White-fronted geese Nov. 4-Jan. 14 and Canada geese Nov. 4-Jan. 28with a daily bag limit of 3 Canada geese and 2 white-fronted geese. The proposed conservation order for light geese would run Jan. 29-Mar. 25.
Here's what's being proposed for the sandhill crane hunting seasons:
Zone A: Nov. 4-Feb. 4 with a bag limit of three daily.
Zone B: Nov. 24-Feb. 4 with a bag limit of three daily.
Zone C: Dec. 23-Jan. 28 with a bag limit of two daily.
All proposed dates are very tentative and reflect a season structure based on the liberal package, according to Dave Morrison, TPWD waterfowl program leader. "Should another package be called for these dates will be changed drastically."
Public comment about these proposals may be made to Dave Morrison, TPWD, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744 or by e-mail to email@example.com.
Publication — Permission is granted to publish, in whole or in part, any news releases on this page.
Print — A print-friendly version of the news release shows only the release with font sizes set to the browser default.
Plain Text — Plain text versions of TPWD news releases are provided for copying and pasting into editing software.
To copy text into an editing software:
- Click a Plain Text link to display the plain text page in your browser.
- Select all.
- Copy.
- Paste in a document in your editing program.
Permalink — This is a direct link to the news release, omitting the navigation context from the URI.
English/Spanish — News releases posted in both English and Spanish have one of these links.
If you have any suggestions for improving these pages, send an e-mail to email@example.com and mention Plain Text Pages.
(5.4.16 i)


text:
Tu B'Shevat — traditionally known as the new year of the trees — has become Judaism's most environmentally focused holiday. But how much "greening" is going on?
For Congregation Ohev Shalom, 5773 is the year of sustainability.
The Conservative synagogue in Wallingford has created a sustainability committee, become part of a community-sponsored agriculture program, booked a noted Jewish environmentalist as a scholar in residence and, just last week, had members of GreenFaith — a New Jersey-based, interfaith environmental organization — perform a thorough "green audit" of the building.
"This is all very new for us," Richard Kaplan, who sits on the synagogue's sustainability committee, said, explaining that the synagogue's rabbi, Jeremy Gerber, had really pushed for the whole effort.
"Green," a catch-all word that includes everything from reducing the use of fossil fuels and driving hybrid cars to eating locally grown produce, may be new for Ohev Shalom, but not so much for the wider Jewish community.
A number of large suburban congregations have formed green committees, looked for ways to reduce energy waste and joined community-supported agriculture programs, known as CSAs. At the same time, Tu B'Shevat — traditionally known as the new year of the trees — has become Judaism's most environmentally focused holiday. It starts on Jan. 25.
When the modern environmental movement came into being in the early 1960s, it was considered almost entirely a secular phenomenon. Before long, early pioneers like Philadelphia's Rabbi Arthur Waskow began writing and teaching about the link between classical Jewish sources and environmentalism. Exactly 20 years ago, the first national Jewish organization on the issue was formed, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish life.
Environmentalism gained a new level of mainstream recognition in 2006 with the release of the highly influential film An Inconvenient Truth, which follows former Vice President Al Gore's campaign to call attention to global warming.
The buzz from the film and the focus of politicians on the issue helped make climate change a topic of choice — even as naysayers still questioned the science on global warming. For a time, it seemed that nearly every week, synagogues were hosting green fairs or announcing new initiatives such as installing energy efficient light bulbs or encouraging members to buy organic, local produce.
But now, these types of programs don't seem to be happening nearly as much.
Is that because the momentum for green initiatives in synagogues has run out? Or is it that environmental awareness has become so commonplace in the Jewish community that green efforts hardly warrant a news release anymore?
According to Nigel Savage, founder of Hazon, a 13-year-old New York-based organization dedicated to creating more sustainable Jewish communities, the answer is decidely mixed.
Savage, who, during the weekend of Feb. 10, will serve as scholar in residence at Ohev Shalom, said that, for most synagogues, taking green steps is "no longer newsworthy in a positive sense."
But, to some degree, Savage acknowledged, the enthusiasm over combating climate change has dimmed.
That's in part because no meaningful legislation related to curbing carbon emissions has been passed in Congress. President Barack Obama, however, may have given new hope to climate change activists by addressing the issue in his second inaugural address on Jan. 21.
"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Obama said. "Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms."
Another factor that may have slowed things is that the more people learned about climate change, Savage said, the more they realized how difficult it is to combat. "Climate change is a terrible issue. We are so poorly designed to handle something like that," because it is hard to define success and because there are no easily identifiable bad guys, Savage said.
Still, if anyone is capable of conceptualizing in millenia, and understanding that you have to start something even if you know you can't see it through to the end, it's the Jews, he said. Savage takes a talmudic approach to climate change: "It is not for you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it."
Sybil Sanchez, executive director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, said, "There is a certain amount of frustration that we haven't been able to go farther in addressing these issues."
"The whole environmental movement took a hit when climate change policy didn't pass a couple of years ago," she said, adding that doesn't mean her organization has stopped pushing for policy changes or encouraging people to make meaningful changes in their own lives.
A number of synagogues have grappled with reducing their own carbon footprints and have made real strides. The recession might have prompted environmentally friendly moves to curb costs, such as keeping the building closed one or two days a week, but budget cuts also forced many synagogues to abandon more ambitious greening projects, like installing solar panels or low-flush toilets.
Back in 2008, Congregation M'kor Shalom, a Reform synagogue in Cherry Hill, N.J., took the carbon emissions issue head on by hosting two green fairs that were attended by hundreds of people. At the first of the fairs, the community signed a congregational pledge to reduce its carbon footprint within five years.
According to Carol Hupping, who has chaired the synagogue's social action committee for years, the leadership has never been able to calculate if they successfully met the 50-percent reduction goal. But synagogue leaders keep an ongoing checklist and are constantly evaluating the steps they have taken to reduce waste by closely monitoring energy consumption, while also recycling, conserving water and purchasing biodegradables.
All in all, she said, the congregation has made progress. But the budget got in the way of some ideas, such as purchasing energy-efficient dishwashers and doing away with disposable plates and silverware, or installing solar panels.
"We have gone for what you would call the low-hanging fruit," she said, mentioning everything from office staff using mugs instead of styrofoam cups to encouraging religious school parents to car pool. "We decided not to have any more green fairs. People just kind of get it. We don't need to educate them. We just need to remind them."
The sustainable food movement — a subset of environmentalism — has really taken off in the Jewish community, in some ways eclipsing the issue of climate change, said Savage. In Jewish terms, this movement is both about supporting locally grown food and eating all kinds of foods that were produced in an ethical manner. It also touches on issues of kashrut and the link between eating and spirituality.
As evidence of this focus, Feb. 12 will mark the next program of "What is Your Food Worth?" — billed as a two-year conversation about food, ethics, sustainability and eating Jewish. The program is being sponsored by Temple University's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History in partnership with the Gershman Y, the National Museum of American Jewish History and Congregation Rodeph Shalom (whatisyourfoodworth.com).
Rabbi Kevin Kleinman, an assistant rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park who has a background in environmental education, said, "Environmental sustainability has shifted away from pure sustainable toward the ethics of food. There is only so much to add about recycling bins and turning down the heat. It is not as exciting as cultivating the food that we eat."
His synagogue's greening program focuses not on carbon emissions — at least not directly — but on its mitzvah garden. Last year, members of the religious school and sisterhood grew 350 pounds of tomatoes, squash, carrots and eggplant, all of which is donated to the Klein JCC and distributed to homebound individuals.
According to Kleinman, such an approach combines environmentalism and social justice.
His synagogue has done the environmental audit and made decisions motivated as much by the desire to save money as reduce waste. For example, based on how much it costs to keep the lights on in the building for an evening, synagogue officials decided to keep the whole building dark one night a week. So nothing is ever scheduled on Wednesday nights.
Kleinman said that there is now nearly universal awareness about Jewish environmental ethics. "Now congregations have to figure out how much of this relates to their core values as an organization. Congregations where it was just a fad, it didn't penetrate to the core." l


text:
The topic of this thread is the new translation published by SSI, the Marvelous Primordial State. Off-topic posts have been removed from view.
If you would like to discuss the economics of publishing translations from the Tibetan, or the business matters of non-profit organizations based in the US as they concern Buddhist communities, please do so in another thread.
If you would like to discuss the financial & business particulars of any particular Buddhist organization, or advocate for particular policies within that organization, please take that up with the organization in question. Thank you.
The Marvellous Primordial State.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: topazdreamz and 2 guests