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SAS Products
SAS/GRAPH software creates and delivers accurate, high-impact visuals that enable decision makers to gain a quick understanding of critical business issues.
The most recent release is SAS/GRAPH 9.4.
There are many changes and enhancements for SAS/GRAPH 9.4. Highlights include the following:
- The GEOCODE procedure now supports non-U.S. street geocoding. A new import macro program, %GEOBASE2GEOCODE, and an updated version of %TIGER2GEOCODE are available from the SAS Maps Online web site. These macros create lookup data sets in the new format. Starting with the first maintenance release of SAS 9.4, a new variable enables handling of multiple street type abbreviations during street geocoding, and two new variables in the SASHELP.ZIPCODE lookup data set further support city geocoding. Starting with the second maintenance release of SAS 9.4, the city geocoding method offers a new variable to handle non-standard state values, changes requirements for the customized versions of the SASHELP.GCSTATE lookup data set, changes variable values within the SASHELP.GCSTATE lookup data set, allows non-abbreviated state names, and offers an improved %TIGER2GEOCODE import program.
- The map data sets in the MAPSGFK library have been updated.
- The SVG and GIF devices now support animation. In addition, the GIF device now supports RGBA color mode (transparency) and anti-aliasing.
- The new TIFF and TIFFK devices produce TIFF images and support the RGBA and CMYK color modes, respectively.
- The new EMFDUAL device produces graphics file containing both EMF and EMF Plus records. It supports RGBA colors (transparency).
- The new %SHORTCUT autocall macro creates a shortcut device that is linked to the existing Universal Printer of the same name. It can also define a new Universal Printer and shortcut device and link the device to the Universal Printer.
- The Annotate Facility has several enhancements. The IMGPATH variable now accepts a URL location for graphics that are on web pages. The HTML= option enables you to animate text labels that are created with the LABEL function. The %CENTROID macro has been enhanced to return more accurate centroid locations.
- The GKPI procedure now supports user-defined formats.
- The Tile Chart applet supports adding one or more custom menu items to the tile chart pop-up menu.
- The Treeview applet supports assigning multiple drill-down links for each node in the diagram.
- Starting with the first maintenance release of SAS 9.4, the CHORO statement in the GMAP procedure supports a production level of the OSM (OpenStreetMap) option when displaying maps using a JAVA or JAVAIMG device. This is an appearance option that enables you to use the OpenStreetMap (OSM) map as a background map.
- Starting with the second maintenance release of SAS 9.4, the GRADAR procedure offers a new parameter on the SPKLABEL= option.
- Starting with the second maintenance release of SAS 9.4, the JAVAIMG and ACTXIMG are supported devices for the PowerPoint destination, and the ZPNG device is disabled. Also, new HTML attributes are added to the SVG, SVGT, and SVGView devices.
- Starting with the second maintenance release of SAS 9.4, the GTILE procedure now supports the NOLEGEND option.
Free Online Documentation
- Most recent release for SAS/GRAPH
NOTE: Documentation for ODS Graphics, including the Graph Template Language, SG procedures, ODS Graphics Designer, and ODS Graphics Editor, is in Base SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) Graphics Suite.
SAS/GRAPH Documentation
- For information about new features in SAS/GRAPH, see the What's New topic in SAS/GRAPH 9.4: Reference. This topic provides links to the documentation for the new features.
- For information about new features in SAS/GRAPH Mapping, see the What's New topic in SAS/GRAPH 9.4 Mapping Reference. This topic provides links to the documentation for the new features.
- SAS/GRAPH 9.4: Reference, Fifth Edition PDF | HTML | Samples ZIP
- SAS/GRAPH 9.4: Mapping Reference PDF | HTML | Samples ZIP
- SAS/GRAPH Procedures HTML
- SAS/GRAPH 9.4: Java Applets and ActiveX Control User's Guide PDF | HTML
- Help for SAS/GRAPH 9.4 is accessible within the product. The help for SAS/GRAPH also includes information about Graph N' Go and image capabilities.
- SAS/GRAPH 9.4: Network Visualization Workshop User's Guide PDF | HTML
Related Documentation
- SAS 9.4 Output Delivery System: User's Guide, Fifth Edition PDF | HTML | Buy | Examples ZIP
- SAS 9.4 Output Delivery System: Advanced Topics, Third Edition PDF | HTML
- Step-by-Step Programming with Base SAS 9.4, Second Edition PDF | HTML
Examples and Resources on the Web
- For information about using ODS Graphics for data visualization in SAS, see Sanjay Matangeâs blog Graphically Speaking. Sanjayâs blog covers topics related to the ODS Graphics procedures, the SAS Graph Template Language, and the SAS ODS Graphics Designer.
- For a simple interface to business and analytical graph examples, see the Focus Areas Graphics site. The site is maintained by the SAS Data Visualization team.
- For a collection of graphs organized by SAS procedure, see the Graphics Samples Output Gallery. Each graph in this gallery links to the source code in SAS Samples & Notes. The gallery is maintained by SAS Technical Support.
- For a searchable collection of examples, see Samples & SAS Notes. You can browse by topic, search for a particular note, search for a particular technology such as SGPLOT, and conduct other searches.
- For support and to share your experiences and questions regarding SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics, see the SAS Community SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics.
- All online documentation for supported releases of SAS/GRAPH [HTML]
- SAS/GRAPH titles in online bookstore [HTML]
- Featured Titles
- The How-to Book for SAS/Graph Software [Purchase book]
- Learning SAS by Example, A Programmer's Guide [Purchase book]
- The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Fourth Edition [Purchase book]
- Maps Made Easy Using SAS [Purchase book]
- SAS/GRAPH: Beyond the Basics [Purchase book]
- Saving Time and Money Using SAS [Purchase book]
Technical Papers
- SAS Technical Papers for SAS/GRAPH [HTML]
Need help?
SAS Publishing Representatives are available in the U.S. from 8-5 ET to answer your documentation questions. Contact us at 1-800-727-0025, option 4 or e-mail.
Need help?
Curriculum consultants are available in the U.S. from 9-5 EST. Contact us at 1-800-727-0025, option 4 or e-mail.
International customers, please contact your country office.
Highlighted Samples Notes Videos
Online Support ResourcesThis page contains online support resources that are specific to this product. Visit the Support page to access various self-help and assisted-help resources or submit a problem through the SAS Technical Support form.
Highlighted Samples
- How to Apply IF-THEN-ELSE Logic by Using SAS Enterprise Guide
- How to use code to write log and listing files to disk using SAS Enterprise Guide
- Changing the Output Format with SAS Enterprise Guide
- Converting columns using a custom add-in task in SAS Enterprise Guide 4.2
- Inserting Accessibility Information
Air date: March 2010
- Controlling the Graph Axis
Air date: March 2010
Graphically SpeakingSanjay Matange focused on the usage of ODS Graphics for data visualization in SAS.
SAS/GRAPH Communityhare your experiences, questions and ideas with other SAS/GRAPH users.
SAS Training PostBlog postings for SAS/GRAPH users from SAS Training.


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Heyward released from hospital after appendectomy
DENVER -- Jason Heyward checked out of Rose Medical Center in Denver on Tuesday following his emergency appendectomy performed there Monday evening.
Wednesday morning he sent a tweet to fans, thanking everyone for the good wishes they've been sending him.
"I'm fortunate enough that the surgery I needed was nothing more serious than removing something that we as ppl don't need to live anyway," Heyward wrote. "Although there's a little discomfort it won't last. And there are ppl that have surgery to remove things that are far more life threatening than an appendix.
"For those concerned, I'm as comfortable as I can be recovering. Resting up and I'll be back to work as soon as it's smart to do so."
Heyward will be returning to Atlanta from Denver to recuperate as soon as doctors clear him to fly. He's eligible to come off the DL on Monday, May 6 in Cincinnati.
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pirate Bike Fundraising
In the fall of 2009, over 200 members of the SU community supported the Pirate Bike program with donations.
Thanks to the generosity of 190 students and 51 faculty & staff members, a total of $1,718.49 was contributed toward the maintenance of the Pirate Bikes. Students alone raised almost $900 of that total. Supporters received a student designted t-shirt as a thank you from Student Foundation and the Student Philanthropy Council.
The Southwestern campus wouldn't be the same without these beloved bikes, so please know how much your participation is appreciated. This effort not only provided much needed dollars, but also helped demonstrate to alumni how important the program is to everyone on campus.


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Browsing by Author "Henson, Frances M D"
Now showing items 3-3 of 3
Ultrasonographic evaluation of the supraspinous ligament in a series of ridden and unridden horses and horses with unrelated back pathology Henson, Frances M D; Lamas, Luis; Knezevic, Sabina; Jeffcott, Leo B (2007-03-01)Abstract Background Injury to the supraspinous ligament (SSL) is reported to cause back pain in the horse. The diagnosis is based on clinical examination and confirmed by ultrasonographic examination. The ultrasonographic ...


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Did you know your new Office 365 Home Premium extends beyond one computer? You can install your Office subscription on up to five PCs and Macs. The quick video below highlights how to manage your installations, so your whole family can use Office.
You can get a free 30-day trial or buy Office 365 Home Premium today or learn more at Get Started with the new Office.


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A Minnesota logistics firm is set to launch dedicated refrigerated rail service from California to Illinois.
Edina, Minn.-based McKay TransCold expects to have its route from Selma, Calif., to Wilmington, Ill., up and running in early 2014, said Jason Spafford, the company's vice president of business development.
Two trains pulling 50 refrigerated boxcars are expected to make the weekly run between California and Illinois, with BNSF Railway providing rail service.
Eggs and frozen and refrigerated foods will make up the bulk of east-to-west shipments, but when the trains leave California, they'll likely have some citrus, stone fruit, carrots or other fruits and vegetables aboard.
"We imagine a good proportion will be fresh produce," Spafford said.
Each boxcar on TransCold Express will hold 3.5 to 4.2 truckloads of product, or up to 200 truckloads per train. The company could expand the service, dubbed TransCold Express, to twice a week, depending on demand, Spafford said.
With distribution centers at both ends of the route, McKay TransCold will offer door-to-door, crossdock-to-door and crossdock-to-crossdock service, increasing efficiencies for customers, Spafford said.
Cars on TransCold Express will feature racking systems designed by McKay TransCold to handle refrigerated cargo as safely as possible.
Company officials spent about a year-and-a-half talking with produce and other shippers to understand their needs, Spafford said. With the company's new racks, pallets can be double-stacked instead of flood-loaded, and the system's uniformity requires very little dunnage for stabilization.
"I grew up on a potato farm in northern Wisconsin," Spafford said. "I understand the special needs of things coming out of the ground."
TransCold Express trains will have no load restrictions, with full loads and LTL loads ranging from 2,000 pounds to 9 million pounds accepted.
The service will have a 70% smaller carbon footprint than comparable truck service, Spafford said.


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Sign into our member site to view your information online.Forget your username or password? Not registered? Register here
leuprolide (generic name)
Viadur (brand name)
It is a man-made protein that acts like a natural hormone in the body
(loo PROE lide)
Table of Contents
Top Learning Centers(Recursos en Español)
What is this medicine?LEUPROLIDE (loo PROE lide) is a man-made protein that acts like a natural hormone in the body. It decreases testosterone in men and decreases estrogen in women. In men, this medicine is used to treat advanced prostate cancer. In women, some forms of this medicine may be used to treat endometriosis, uterine fibroids, or other female hormone-related problems.
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?This medicine is for injection into a muscle or for implant or injection under the skin. It is given by a health care professional in a hospital or clinic setting. The specific product will determine how it will be given to you. Make sure you understand which product you receive and how often you will receive it.
Talk to your pediatrician regarding the use of this medicine in children. Special care may be needed.
What if I miss a dose?It is important not to miss a dose. Call your doctor or health care professional if you are unable to keep an appointment.
Depot injections: Depot injections are given either once-monthly, every 12 weeks, every 16 weeks, or every 24 weeks depending on the product you are prescribed. The product you are prescribed will be based on if you are male or female, and your condition. Make sure you understand your product and dosing.
Implant dosing: The implant is removed and replaced once a year. The implant is only used in males.
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. During the first weeks of treatment, your symptoms may get worse, but then will improve as you continue your treatment. You may get hot flashes, increased bone pain, increased difficulty passing urine, or an aggravation of nerve symptoms. Discuss these effects with your doctor or health care professional, some of them may improve with continued use of this medicine.
Female patients may experience a menstrual cycle or spotting during the first months of therapy with this medicine. If this continues, contact your doctor or health care professional.


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Note: This item is more than nine years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references.
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News Release
Media Contact: TPWD News, email@example.com, 512-389-8030
Jan. 22, 2008
New ShareLunker Eclipses Junior State Record
AUSTIN, Texas — By the slimmest of margins, Tyler Goetzman of Willis is Texas' newest junior state record holder for largemouth bass.
Goetzman's 13.06-pounder caught on Lake Conroe Jan. 13 eclipses a 13.00-pound largemouth taken by Kenny Schuette on Lake Alan Henry in June 2005.
The 15-year-old was fishing a tournament when the big bass took a Rat-L-Trap in six feet of water. The fish was 24 inches long and 20.25 inches in girth. By comparison, Schuette's fish measured nearly two inches longer.
The big bass is also a new junior lake record for Lake Conroe.
Goetzman donated his record catch to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Budweiser ShareLunker program. This is only the fourth time in the ShareLunker program's 21-year history that the season's first entry came in January.
Lake Conroe has now produced 12 ShareLunkers and ranks fourth in the number of entries from public waters, behind Lake Fork, Lake Alan Henry and Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Goetzman's fish is number 442 in the list of ShareLunker entries.
On the Net:
- Editor's Note — Photo of Tyler Goetzman and his catch: http://tpwd.texas.gov/spdest/visitorcenters/tffc/budsharelunker/archives/lunkerdetails.phtml?fishid=442
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(5.4.16 i)


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Sunwashed Floral Sheet Set
No longer available
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Blooming bouquets of sun-covered flowers stand out vibrantly against a dark background.
- 100% printed cotton percale.
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- Set includes flat sheet, fitted sheet and two standard pillowcases (one with twin XL).
- Twin XL sheeting has a longer fitted sheet to accommodate both standard twin and twin XL dorm mattresses.
- Extra pillowcases are available in sets of 2.
- Pillow insert sold separately.
- Machine wash.
- Personalization on the pillowcase is centered on the side cuff; personalization on the sheet set is centered on the top cuff and placed so it will be visible when the sheet is folded over as part of a made bed.
- Imported.
Mix + match our bedding to create your own unique look with our Design Your Own Bed Tool.
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Twin XL
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- 100% cotton percale. A percale weave is noticeably denser and wears well over time.
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This item will arrive in 3-5 business days. Please proceed to the Payment & Review page of Checkout for a precise delivery estimate.
- Final Sale
Final-sale items, identified by a price ending in $0.99, cannot be returned. Once placed, your order for any final sale items cannot be canceled.


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Lithosphere-asthenosphere interaction beneath the western United States from the joint inversion of body-wave traveltimes and surface-wave phase velocities
Mathias Obrebski
Richard M. Allen
University of California, Berkeley
Fred Pollitz
US Geological Survey
Shu-Huei Hung
National Taiwan University
Geophys. J. Int. , 185 1003-1021, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2011.04990.x, 2011.
Download a preprint:
Data products:
Download the
DNA10-S model data file,
or view the model in the
also makes the DNA10-S model available
The relation between the complex geologic history of the western margin of the North American plate and the processes in the mantle is still not fully documented and understood. Several pre-USArray local seismic studies showed how the characteristics of key geologic features such as the Colorado Plateau and the Yellowstone Snake River Plains are linked to their deep mantle structure. Recent body-wave models based on the deployment of the high density, large aperture USArray have provided far more details on the mantle structure while surface-wave tomography (ballistic waves and noise correlations) informs us on the shallow structure. Here we combine constraints from these two datasets to image and study the link between the geology of the western US, the shallow structure of the Earth and the convective processes in mantle. Our multi- phase model provides new constraints on the extent of the Archean lithosphere imaged as a large, deeply rooted fast body that encompasses the stable Great Plains and a large portion of the Northern and Central Rocky Mountains. Widespread slow anomalies are found in the lower crust and upper mantle, suggesting that low density rocks isostatically sustain part of the high topography of the western US. The Yellowstone anomaly is imaged as a large slow body rising from the lower mantle, intruding the overlying lithosphere and controlling locally the seismicity and the topography. The large E-W extent of the USArray used in this study allows imaging the "slab graveyard", a sequence of Farallon fragments aligned with the currently subducting Juan de Fuca Slab, north of the Mendocino Triple Junction. The lithospheric root of the Colorado Plateau has apparently been weakened and partly removed through dripping. The distribution of the slower regions around the Colorado Plateau and other rigid blocks follows closely the trend of Cenozoic volcanic fields and ancient lithospheric sutures, suggesting that the later exert a control on the locus of magmato-tectonic activity today.
The DNA09 velocity models are available for download and slicing at http://dna.berkeley.edu.


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Get free shipping on your next order when you spend over $100. The discount will be automatically applied to your purchase; no promo code required. The subtotal of your purchase must be $100.01 or greater after any promotional discounts have been applied. Additional fees such as tax or shipping and handling do not apply toward your minimum subtotal requirement of $100.01. Offer applies to standard shipping only. Certain items that require additional shipping and handling are excluded from this promotion and do not apply towards your $100.01 subtotal minimum. Offer subject to change.
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Our custom items are made just for you and cannot be returned except for damage or defect. However, if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, please contact our customer service team and we will do whatever we can to make it right.


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Marketing Information
Royal Sovereign's Card Size - 4" x 6" - 5mil - 25 Pack - Thermal Laminating Pouch Film
Gloss film is crystal clear with high transparency and excellent adhesion. Provides a bright shiny finish while enhancing colors and image sharpness. Great for presentation materials, ID cards, cards, posters, photos, small menus, photographic materials, and point-of-purchase displays.
General Information
|Product Type
|Laminating Pouch
|Manufacturer Part Number
|Manufacturer Website Address
|Packaged Quantity
|25 Pack
|Royal Sovereign International
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|Card Size - 4" x 6" - 5mil - 25 Pack - Thermal Laminating Pouch Film
|Brand Name
|Royal Sovereign
Product Information
|ID Card
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|Index Card - 4.38" Width x 6.50" Length x 5 mil Thickness
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Physical Characteristics
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This product is shipped only within Canada and Warranty valid for Canada only.
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Computer Valley wants to provide you with the best and fastest possible service. We try to ship in stock orders placed before 2:00pm EST the same day. For in stock orders placed after 2:00pm EST they are usually shipped the next business day. However there are always exceptions. Please contact us prior to placing your order if you need your purchase by a certain date.
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|Read Reviews Write Review


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el 04-26-2012 08:51 AM
Hi everybody!! I'm here againg asking for some help! Thanks in advance!
My problem should be a silly issue, but I cant solve it by myself
The point is that I have three waveform chart showing X Y Z coordinates each from multiple objects, in time measured by images frames. Before transfer the data to the waveform charts I set one color for one object in all the waveform charts through the properties active plot and the plot Color.
Later I give al the data to the waverform chart, and the problem is that always draws one black color (i think by default color) with 0 values in addition to the coordinates it has to draw.
I try to reshape the array of the coordinates in order to avoid older values, but it does not work.
Any suggestion?
el 04-27-2012 01:35 AM
Hi MagneticTweeze!!
Could you attach the VI?
el 04-27-2012 02:51 AM
Here is the vi, it is a small piece in a huge application so i will explain a little bit how it works:
The TrackImages queue provides images which are processed until a number of frames given. For each image there is an array of objects (Dna beads) which need to be analysed, that is the Track vi function. This function returns a list of X , Y , Z positions, each list stored in a reshaped array, I mean from the track function you get an array with no empty values.
Due to I want to show the data for different objects in time, I transfer the data to the waveform chart through a cluster, using Array to cluster vi. The cluster created contains 9 objects, usually I don't have so many objects to analyse, so the result is that exist Empty values in this cluster and I think this could be the reason to see 0 values in the Chart. But I don't know why it adds empty values if the array has less values.
I also attach a screen of the vi because I think just attaching the specific vi could be imposible to load it, and I cannot upload the whole app.
Thanks in advance!!
el 04-27-2012 03:07 AM
Hi MagneticTweeze!!
I will need to see the VI called TrackAlgor.vi. Also, you could try to put indicators just before and after the array to cluster and tell us the results.
Also, have you tried to expand the Plot Legend and disable the plot that is giving wrong data? Which plot is it? Have you seen the sizes in the colors array and the data arrays?
el 04-27-2012 03:38 AM
Thanks Jorge,
Track Algor.vi returns 3 arrays with no empty values, because It makes a reshape array with the number of elements given. The number of colors is rigth as well.
After the array to cluster function the array does not have empty objects but the cluster created has 8 items, is there any way to set up the number of plots of a waveform with programming?
Disabling the plots i think is not proper because the number of objects to represent is dinamic, so it will change in the diferents executions.
I think we may speak in spanish?
el 04-27-2012 04:17 AM
The problem is probably the cluster to array size, have you checked it?
el 04-27-2012 04:22 AM
You are right, but how can I solve this problem dinamicly? As I told you the number of items in the array/cluster changes.
el 04-27-2012 04:52 AM
He visto que un compañero mío (Dimas) te ha enviado un ejemplo. Si no te sirve, nos lo dices y buscamos otra solución. Por cierto, perdón, que no había visto lo de hablar en español.
Un saludo!!


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Q&A: An Interview With Jorge Padrón
The president of Padrón Cigars Inc. speaks about his Nicaraguan cigar brand.
Jorge Padrón has been surrounded by tobacco his entire life. As a child, he spent his summer vacations working for the family business—Padrón Cigars Inc.—learning the art of cigar making and tobacco processing at the side of his father, chairman Jose Orlando Padrón. He has spent more than seven years as president of the Miami company, and today the 35-year-old is taking a more active role in the business. In June, senior editor David Savona traveled to Nicaragua to meet Padrón the week he opened the company's new, larger factory in Estelí, the small, agricultural town where most of Nicaragua's cigars are made.
David Savona: How did you get your start in the family business?
Jorge Padrón: In our family, we were not forced to enter this business. It just sort of happens. I remember when I was young, in high school, I'd spend the whole summer working in the factory. I used to call that the tobacco tan. All my friends would go to the beach, and I was going to the factory in Miami.
Q: Would you also do this after school?
A: No, school was school, but in the summers I would spend most of the time working in the factory. Before I drove, my dad would wake me up at 6:30 in the morning to go to the office. Early in the morning he would come into my room, turn on the lights and start shaking my feet so I would get out of the bed.
Q: I'm sure you loved that.
A: Well, at first, you kind of resisted, but after a while you would just expect it.
Q: About what age did that start?
A: I must have been 13, 14. I came to Nicaragua in 1976 for the first time, when I was eight.
Q: Do you have memories of that trip?
A: Yes, that was in the old factory. We had the apartment right upstairs, right on top of the factory; we would go down the stairs and the factory was right there. I was running around the factory, in the pilones [editor's note: bulks of fermenting tobacco.]
Q: When did your family's company start making cigars here in Nicaragua?
A: 1970. Before that, we made cigars in Miami. In 1977, because
of the problems [with political unrest] in Nicaragua, my father opened up a factory in Honduras. For several years, both factories were operating side by side. In the '80s, during the civil war, I never came to Nicaragua, but I did go to Honduras on many occasions. Then in 1985, [President Ronald] Reagan placed the embargo on Nicaragua, and at that point we shifted all our production to Honduras. For five years there, all the production we had came out of Honduras.
of the problems [with political unrest] in Nicaragua, my father opened up a factory in Honduras. For several years, both factories were operating side by side. In the '80s, during the civil war, I never came to Nicaragua, but I did go to Honduras on many occasions. Then in 1985, [President Ronald] Reagan placed the embargo on Nicaragua, and at that point we shifted all our production to Honduras. For five years there, all the production we had came out of Honduras.
Q: Was that difficult? It's a small factory, isn't it?
A: Yes, it was very difficult, but at the time we were taking advantage of every possible space in that factory. That factory was full. We had a lot of tobacco and raw material that we were able to salvage in years earlier, and that's what really helped us get along and get through. It wasn't until 1990 that we actually came back to Nicaragua for the first time and started the factory again.
Q: Wasn't your father living at the Honduran factory at that time?
A: He was living inside the factory. We both—when I was there—lived inside the factory. As we did for many years in Nicaragua.
Q: How were the accommodations?
A: Let's just say it was one room.
Q: One room for you and your father?
A: Those were good times. It was rough, but at the same time it was very practical. Don't forget, it wasn't very safe. There were a lot of kidnappings. We were in our little shell inside the factory.
Q: Kidnappings of local businessmen?
A: Yeah. There was a plot to kidnap my father in Honduras. They were found with plans of the factory, the layout, where his room was. Those times were very rough times, particularly in Nicaragua; and [in] Danlí, Honduras, being very close to the border, there was a lot of military activity.
Q: It must have been very challenging to run a business in that environment. How old were you?
A: 20 years old, 17, 18, 19. And at the time I was, more than anything, just accompanying my father, but in all of those trips you learned something. Even if it was not about tobacco, you learned something else. So I can tell you that, in all the years that I spent next to my dad, I think I learned more than I did all the years I spent in school.
Q: Tell us about your education.
A: I graduated from a Jesuit high school in Miami, and from there I went to Florida State University and got a bachelor's degree in marketing. After I graduated there in 1990, I worked in the family business for a year, in Miami, and then I went to the University of Miami and got my master's degree.
Q: When you got your MBA, what were you thinking in terms of a career path?
A: All my friends were interviewing for jobs with different companies, and I told them I was going into the cigar business and they thought I was crazy.
Q: When was that?
A: That was the tail end of '92. For me, all the family members had seen the hardships that my dad had gone through, so we felt an obligation. At that time, I always felt that what my father had created was something special, but that it could be taken to another level or taken advantage of in a way that we weren't doing at the time.
Q: Describe Padrón Cigars at that time. What products were you making, and where were you selling them?
A: The philosophy of the company has been the same since day one: to produce quality products, and to concentrate on the quality of our products, rather than the quantity that we produced. The only changes that we've made have been in the type of cigars that we make and in the areas that we sell. For many years, my father concentrated mostly on the Miami market, to the local Cuban communities in the area—and most of the consumers who smoked the cigars were Cubans—and some mail-order business that we had across the country, direct to individuals. We made the decision to expand our distribution and to go into the national market. Luckily, my father had enough confidence in me to allow me to try to get that done.
Q: That was your job?
A: Yes. At that time we had a lot of customers who were mainly older Cubans. When I kept seeing all these older people coming in, I said in 10 years, 20 years we're not going to have a market left. And that's when we went to our first trade show, in 1993.
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Along with the Piedmont, Tuscany is Italy's most important wine-producing area. Chianti, Brunello, Vino Nobile, and Vin Santo are known all over the world, as are the ""Super Tuscans,"" a large group of important, high-quality reds born in the early 1970s and now representing some of Italy's best wines. Back then, producers began chafing under the restrictive regulations of the DOC (Denominazione di Origin Controllata). Some sought to avoid using certain legally recommended grape varieties, such as the Italian white grapes that were considered an integral part of Chianti; others started blending Cabernet and Merlot, which at the time were proscribed, with native grape varieties.
While Tuscany offers a plethora of riches to the wine lover, some of its most famous Tuscan wines, especially Chianti and Brunello, are experiencing a slump in sales. There are many reasons for this, beginning with a steep rise in prices over the last five or ten years. There has also been a wave of new, moneyed owners who have not let their lack of winemaking experience get in the way of buying a piece of this beautiful region. This has opened the floodgate for oenological consultants, many of whom work for numerous estates in the same area but routinely apply their tried-and-true recipe to winemaking, leading to the production of Tuscan wines that resemble one another to a dismaying degree. Add to this the insistence on making deeply colored wines that are often overconcentrated, overoaked, and charmless, and you begin to have a good idea of why Chianti and some other Tuscan red wines don't sell all that well anymore. Fortunately, producers have begun to recognize these errors, prices have finally stopped rising, and, mercifully, more trees are being allowed to live as less importance is afforded to new oak barrels.
Italy, like France, offers a world of wine styles within a single country: dry Italian white wines ranging from lively and minerally to powerful and full-bodied; cheap and cheerful Italian red wines in both a cooler, northern style and a richer, warmer southern style; structured, powerful reds capable of long aging in bottle; sparkling wines; sweet wines and dessert wines.
Most of Italy enjoys a relatively warm climate, and the southern portion of the country can be particularly hot in the summer months. However, Italy's Apennine mountain chain, which traverses the country from north to south, provides an almost infinite number of soil types and exposures, as well as favored hillside sites in virtually every region, where vines can be cultivated at higher, cooler altitudes. Mountainous terrain has also resulted in the segregation of many small wine regions, enabling dozens of indigenous grape varieties to survive in near isolation. Here, Italy markedly differs from most of the wine world, which is becoming increasingly international in nature.
But Italian wine, as most North Americans know it, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Prior to the 1950s, only a tiny proportion of Italy's wines were even bottled by the farmer who grew the grapes. Most Italian wine was consumed by the local market. The Italian government's DOC system (Denominazione di Origine Controllata), created in the 1960s, imposed more explicit standards and thereby improved Italian wine quality while at the same clarifying the labeling of wines and thus making it far easier for Italian producers to ship their wines abroad. (Today DOCG -- Controllata e Garantita -- is theoretically the highest level in the quality pyramid of Italian wine, with this special status more recently granted to such historically important Italian wine areas as Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino and others: areas that had previously enjoyed DOC status for at least five years.)
Of course, some of the most innovative Italian wine makers quickly began to look for ways to escape the restrictions of this system. They believed that DOC laws actually prevented them from making the best possible wines -- for example, by proscribing the use of certain grape varieties or by requiring them to age their wines in wood barrels longer than they believed was beneficial in some years. Those with a more independent bent essentially opted out of the system, instead producing wines that were simply classified as Vini da Tavola (table wines) but that in a number of cases surpassed the "official" best Italian wines in quality and price. (A new law passed in 1992 created the IGT category, or Indicazione Geografica Tipica, for the innovative Vini da Tavola for which DOCs were not yet created.) These trailblazers have revolutionized Italian wine over a period in which French wines have merely "evolutionized."
Cabernet Sauvignon has been the flagship red grape of the California wine industry for decades, and its popularity shows no sign of abating. Napa Valley is the heart of Cabernet Sauvignon production and is clearly an ideal region for creating world-class wines. If any Cabernet-based wine is capable of giving Bordeaux a run for its money, it's Napa Valley's examples. However, due to the extremely high cost of purchasing and developing vineyards in California, and the cachet of Napa Valley on the label, this has largely become a category for the well-heeled wine lover.
At their best, Napa Valley's Cabernets are characterized by fruit notes of cassis, black cherry, and licorice and sweet oak notes of chocolate, mocha, cedar, and tar. Today, most of the best wines are aged entirely or almost completely in French oak barrels, which tend to produce somewhat more refined wines than do most American barrels. (These latter barrels often introduce exotic and pungent suggestions of scotch, bourbon, tar, coconut, and dill.) But the use of expensive French oak is no guarantee of a good bottle: too many wines today, due to high crop levels or insufficiently ripe fruit, do not have the stuffing to support their oakiness and can quickly be dominated or even dried out by their wood component. The best California Cabernets mellow and soften with five to ten years of bottle aging, developing more complex and less fruit-dominated notes of tobacco, leather, and earth, with mellower wood tones. Compared to the top Bordeaux, however, many California Cabernet Sauvignons merely endure in bottle rather than truly become more interesting. There are no shortage of quality producers, even if these wines are rarely values. And it remains to be seen if today's outsized showstoppers, made from superripe grapes and undeniably impressive on release, will reward extended bottle aging or will turn out to have been best suited for drinking in their youth.
Many wines labeled Cabernet Sauvignon contain small percentages of other so-called Bordeaux varieties -- chiefly Merlot and Cabernet Franc but also Petit Verdot and even Malbec (varietally labeled wines in California must contain at least 75% of the variety named).
Cabernet Sauvignon also flourishes in Washington State, Australia and even Chile. In Washington, prices have been creeping up at the high end, with some producers aiming to compete with cult wines from the Napa Valley. Consider Chateau Ste. Michelle and Woodward Canyon. In Australia, look to the Coonawarra and Margaret River regions. Chile can reveal excellent bargains to those who know where to look: Montes makes a strong range of quality bottlings, as does Casa Lapostolle.
As Cabernet Sauvignon is bold and assertive on the palate, it pairs best with foods like grilled red meats. Taken together, the proteins and fats in the food neutralize some of the stronger tannic qualities of the wine, leading to a harmonic combination that enhances both partners.
2004 had 10 regions scored 95 or above. Sonoma got the highest score, with a 99.
Other regions that scored 95 points or higher were Barolo (Piedmont), Brunello di Montalcino (Tuscany), Napa, Barbaresco (Piedmont), Chianti Classico (Tuscany), Ribera del Duero (Rioja), Rioja, Sicily, and Tuscany.
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vince90 wrote:I know it is silly topic but suppose there is a next life, you can have a choice to be anything such as human again, animals, trees etc., what would you like to be and why?
LennyeTran wrote:I either wanted to be me again
Lalee wrote:I would like to be you too.
LennyeTran wrote:Lalee wrote:I would like to be you too.
Man, I knew you were a weirdo. No one likes to be hated except you. You like pain, huh? C'mere and I'll give you something to cry about....
Lalee wrote:I mean it. I'd like to be you in my next life. Why can't you believe me?
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Since 1909, Borussia Dortmund have forged a unique path in German and European football, capturing a host of Bundesliga championships and UEFA Champions League honours, while winning the hearts of a yellow and black sea of support. Now, young fans of this beloved club can take the striking visual identity of die Schwarzgelben into a brand new season with the official BVB Home Mini Kit 2016-17.
Designed to help younger fans replicate the matchday image of the players at Signal Iduna Park, this 2016-17 BVB mini kit maintains a striking cyber yellow and black look that is unmistakably Dortmund.
Detailed Description


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I am not new to restricting my diet for one reason or another. For about 13 years now I have been vegan; not eating any meat, dairy or eggs. This means reading a lot of labels and advocating for myself on a regular basis to make sure I don't eat something I didn't intend to. This has definitely helped me with my 6-week gluten free challenge that my naturopath suggested I do. The first two weeks was fairly easy since I was doing a 4 day juice cleanse with eating mostly vegetables the days before and after that. Now that I am able to eat my normal diet, except the gluten, it has allowed me to challenge myself to create new foods. I right away found some wheat free soy sauce so I could make tasty stir fries and sauces.
I am lucky to live in a town which is not only vegan friendly, but fairly progressive on offering gluten free options as well. I went out to dinner with friends at a new Italian restaurant and after asking, was shown many options from the menu which did not contain any gluten. I had a hard time deciding which dish to try and was happy with a spaghetti squash dish with tomato sauce and a vegetarian meatball.
The hardest part has been wanting to eat tortillas and breads, but not having the time to make my own from scratch or from one of our many mixes. I tried a prepared rice flour tortilla and was not impressed since it had no flexibility so I couldn't even make a burrito. I did find a good selection of other gluten free prepared foods at my local natural foods store. Amy's products offer many gluten free options which I have enjoyed and I noticed a new frozen food company called Gluten Free Café. I am sure the world of gluten free options will continue to grow from both our company and others.
Hopefully next week I will have more time to play in the kitchen. I am entering a bake-off contest next weekend and I will be making something gluten free. This will be my chance to demonstrate gluten free does not mean giving up the sweet life.


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Hi all,
My name is Jason, and I'm happy to be joining this forum to get to know like-minded, spiritually inclined people like you guys and girls.
It's funny. I don't call myself a buddhist, but some of my greatest inspirations come from learning from masters like Ajahn Mahaboowa and Ajahn Mun. In terms of spiritual practices, I try to follow closely to what they teach. In fact, The Path To Arahantship by Ajahn Mahaboowa has been my guide in life for many years till this day.
Also, Ajahn Chah's Food For The Heart is never far from my side.
I feel life is wonderful for giving us the opportunity to practice and live by the dharma everyday, and that makes me happy and contented. And on doing buddhist practices throughout the years, I've had realizations and experiences that made me realize there's so much more to life than 'the ways of the world' -- how most people choose to live their lives.
The deeper my understanding, the more I realize how living like most people in society will never ever make sense to me... being career-minded, wanting to own everything, wanting to be well-liked, highly looked upon, famous etc. All the while not being aware that death is approaching and that we can't take any of these things with us when the time comes.
What's seen cannot be unseen!
Today, I sometimes reflect and wonder life would have been like without buddhism. Well, who knows.
I look forward to knowing each and everyone of you!


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Male Partner Involvement in the Prevention of MTCT of HIV
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|HIV Infections
|Behavioral: Voluntary counselling and HIV testing in ANC for PMTCT Behavioral: VCT
|Phase 4
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary Purpose: Screening
|Official Title:
|Optimizing the Impact of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in South Africa: the Forgotten Half of the Equation.
- Percentage of partners agreeing to attend VCT. [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]
- Percentage of partners and pregnant women abstaining, faithful to one partner and using condoms consistently. [ Time Frame: 12 weeks ]
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|November 2006
|Study Completion Date:
|May 2008
|Primary Completion Date:
|December 2007 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Behavioral: Voluntary counselling and HIV testing in ANC for PMTCT
- VCT for PMTCT
We will enrol 1000 pregnant women; recruited from antenatal clinic at Khayelitsha Midwive and Obstetric Unit (MOU). Community sensitization activities will be implemented in the catchment community to encourage male partner participation.
At the booking visit all women will be offered antenatal care, HIV group education and VCT as usual. Thereafter women will be recruited to enrol into the study, after signing the consent form half of the cohort members will be randomly assigned to partner VCT (Group A) and half to partner pregnancy information (Group B). Men in group B will be offered VCT at the second interview late in pregnancy. However, VCT will be provided if requested by study participants at any stage of the study or if the female partner is HIV positive. Women in group A will be given a written invitation to hand to their partners to encourage them to invite their partners to come to the antenatal clinic for VCT. In group B, women will be given a written invitation to give to their partners to encourage their partners to attend a pregnancy information session at the antenatal clinic.
VCT will be offered again close to delivery for all women and men who were previously uninfected or of unknown status. For those found to be HIV-infected at a prior visit, CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts, viral load, and full blood count tests will be conducted. Both women and men will be referred to the Antiretroviral clinic where ARV will be offered if appropriate and formula feeding (or exclusive breastfeeding) will be recommended. Reasons for declining VCT and data on sexual behaviour and violence will be sought at each visit.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|Child, Adult, Senior
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- To be eligible for participation, a woman must be less than 30 weeks pregnant at enrolment.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Women who are more than 30 weeks pregnant will be excluded.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00405990
|South Africa
|Khayelitsha Midwive and Obstetric Unit Site B
|Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, 7784
|Principal Investigator:
|Boshishi K Mohlala, MBCHB FCOG MSC
|Imperial College London
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00405990 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|November 30, 2006
|Last Updated:
|May 28, 2015
Keywords provided by Imperial College London:
heterosexual behaviour
sexual risk behaviour
couple counselling
Voluntary counselling and testing
HIV Seronegativity
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
HIV Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Retroviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Virus Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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The truth about Jeff Dean appeared on April Fool's Day 2007.
Somewhere inside Google, a private website served up a list of facts about Dean, one of Google's earliest employees and one of the main reasons the web giant handles more traffic than any other operation on the net. The site was only available to Googlers, but all were encouraged to add their own Jeff Dean facts. And many did.
"Jeff Dean once failed a Turing test when he correctly identified the 203rd Fibonacci number in less than a second," read one.
"Jeff Dean compiles and runs his code before submitting," read another, "but only to check for compiler and CPU bugs."
"The speed of light in a vacuum used to be about 35 mph," said a third. "Then Jeff Dean spent a weekend optimizing physics."
No, these facts weren't really facts. But they rang true. April Fool's Day is a sacred occasion at Google, and like any good April Fool's joke, the gag was grounded in reality. A Google engineer named Kenton Varda set up the website, playing off the satirical Chuck Norris facts that so often bounce around the net, and when he mailed the link to the rest of the company, he was careful to hide his identity. But he soon received a note from Jeff Dean, who had tracked him down after uncovering the digital footprints hidden in Google's server logs.
Inside Google, Jeff Dean is regarded with awe. Outside the company, few even know his name. But they should. Dean is part of a small group of Google engineers who designed the fundamental software and hardware that underpinned the company's rise to the web's most dominant force, and these creations are now mimicked by the rest of the net's biggest names — not to mention countless others looking to bring the Google way to businesses beyond the web.
"Google did a great job of slurping up some of the most talented researchers in the world at a time when places like Bell Labs and Xerox PARC were dying. It managed to grab not just their researchers, but their lifeblood."
Time and again, we hear the story of Xerox PARC, the Silicon Valley research lab that developed just about every major technology behind the PC revolution, from the graphical user interface and the laser printer to Ethernet networking and object-oriented programming. But because Google is so concerned with keeping its latest data center work hidden from competitors — and because engineers like Jeff Dean aren't exactly self-promoters — the general public is largely unaware of Google's impact on the very foundations of modern computing. Google is the Xerox PARC of the cloud computing age.
"Google did a great job of slurping up some of the most talented researchers in the world at a time when places like Bell Labs and Xerox PARC were dying," says Mike Miller, an affiliate professor of particle physics at the University of Washington and the chief scientist of Cloudant, one of the many companies working to expand on the technologies pioneered by Google. "It managed to grab not just their researchers, but also their lifeblood."
These Google technologies aren't things you can hold in your hand — or even fit on your desk. They don't run on a phone or a PC. They run across a worldwide network of data centers.
They include sweeping software platforms with names like the Google File System, MapReduce, and BigTable, creations that power massive online applications by splitting the work into tiny pieces and spreading them across thousands of machines, much like micro-tasks are parceled out across a massive ant colony. But they also include new-age computer servers, networking hardware, and data centers that Google designed to work in tandem with this software. The idea is to build warehouse-sized computing facilities that can think like a single machine. Just as an ant colony acts as one entity, so does a Google data center.
While Silicon Valley stood transfixed by social networks and touch screens, Google remade the stuff behind the scenes, and soon, as the other giants of the web ran into their own avalanche of online data, they followed Google's lead. After reinventing Google's search engine, GFS and MapReduce inspired Hadoop, a massive number-crunching platform that's now one of the world's most successful open source projects. BigTable helped launch the NoSQL movement, spawning an army of web-sized databases. And in so many ways, Google's new approach to data center hardware sparked similar efforts from Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and others.
To be sure, Google's ascendance builds on decades of contributions from dozens of equally unheralded computer scientists from many companies and research institutions, including PARC and Bell Labs. And like Google, Amazon was also a major influence on the foundations of the net — most notably through a research paper it published on a file system called Dynamo. But Google's influence is far broader.
The difference between it and a Xerox PARC is that Google profited mightily from its creations before the rest of the world caught on. Tools like GFS and MapReduce put the company ahead of the competition, and now, it has largely discarded these tools, moving to a new breed of software and hardware. Once again, the rest of the world is struggling to catch up.
Google's Twin Deities
Kenton Varda could have targeted several other Google engineers with his April Fool's Day prank. Jeff Dean just seemed like "the most amusing choice," Varda remembers. "His demeanor was perhaps the furthest from what you'd expect in a deity."
The obvious alternative was Sanjay Ghemawat, Dean's longtime collaborator. In 2004, Google published a research paper on MapReduce, the number-crunching platform that's probably the company's most influential data center creation, and the paper lists two authors: Dean and Ghemawat. The two engineers also played a major role in the design of the BigTable database. And Ghemawat is one of three names on the paper describing the first Google File System, a way of storing data across the company's vast network of data centers.
Even for Varda, who works on the team that oversees Google's infrastructure, the two engineers are difficult to separate. "Jeff and Sanjay worked together to develop much of Google's infrastructure and have always seemed basically joined at the hip," says Varda. "It's often hard to distinguish which of them really did what.
"All code changes at Google require peer review prior to submission, but in Jeff and Sanjay's case, often one will send a large code review to the other, and the other will immediately 'LGTM' it, because they wrote the change together in the first place."
"All code changes at Google require peer review prior to submission, but in Jeff and Sanjay's case, often one will send a large code review to the other, and the other will immediately 'LGTM' it, because they wrote the change together in the first place." LGTM is Google-speak for "looks good to me."
Varda means this quite literally. Over the years, Dean and Ghemawat made a habit of coding together while sitting at the same machine. Typically, Ghemawat does the typing. "He's pickier about his spacing," Dean says.
The two met before coming to Google. In the '90s, both worked at Silicon Valley research labs run by the Digital Equipment Corporation, a computing giant of the pre-internet age. Dean was at DEC's Western Research Lab in Palo Alto, California, and Ghemawat worked two blocks away, at a sister lab called the Systems Research Center. They would often collaborate on projects, not only because Dean had a thing for the gelato shop that sat between the two labs, but because they worked well together. At DEC, they helped build a new compiler for the Java programming language and a system profiler that remade the way we track the behavior of computer servers.
They came to Google as part of a mass migration from DEC's research arm. In the late-'90s, as Google was just getting off the ground, DEC was on its last legs. It made big, beefy computer servers using microprocessors based on the RISC architecture, and the world was rapidly moving to low-cost machines equipped with Intel's x86 chips. In 1998, DEC was acquired by computer giant Compaq. Four years later, Compaq merged with HP. And the top engineers from DEC's vaunted research operation gradually moved elsewhere.
"DEC labs were going through a bit of rocky period after the Compaq acquisition," Dean says, "and it wasn't exactly clear what role research would have in the merged company." Some engineers went to Microsoft, which was starting a new research operation in Silicon Valley. Some went to a Palo Alto startup called VMware, whose virtual servers were about to turn the data center upside-down. And many went to Google, founded the same year DEC was acquired by Compaq.
It was a time when several of the tech world's most influential research labs were losing steam, including Xerox PARC and Bell Labs, the place that produced such important technologies as the UNIX operating system and the C programming language. But although these labs had already seen their best days, many of their researchers would feed a new revolution.
"At the time of the bubble burst in 2001, when everyone was downsizing, including DEC, the main two high-tech companies that were hiring were Google and VMware," says Eric Brewer, the University of California at Berkeley computer science professor who now works alongside Dean and Ghemawat. "Because of the crazy lopsidedness of that supply and demand, both companies hired many truly great people and both have done well in part because of that factor."
"At the time of the bubble burst in 2001, when everyone was downsizing, including DEC, the main two high-tech companies that were hiring were Google and VMware."
Like Dean and Ghemawat, several other engineers who arrived at Google from DEC would help design technologies that caused a seismic shift in the web as a whole, including Mike Burrows, Shun-Tak Leung, and Luiz André Barroso. At the time, these engineers were just looking for interesting work — and Google was just looking for smart people to help run its search engine. But in hindsight, the mass migration from DEC provides the ideal metaphor for the changes Google landed on the rest of the world.
DEC was one of the first companies to build a successful web search engine — AltaVista, which came out of the Western Research Lab — and at least in the beginning, the entire thing ran on a single DEC machine. But Google eclipsed AltaVista in large part because it turned this model on its head. Rather than using big, beefy machines to run its search engine, it broke its software into pieces and spread them across an army of small, cheap machines. This is the fundamental idea behind GFS, MapReduce, and BigTable — and so many other Google technologies that would overturn the status quo.
In hindsight, it was a natural progression. "The architecture challenges that arise when building a data system like Google's that spans thousands of computers isn't all that different from the challenges that arise in building a sophisticated monolithic system," says Armando Fox, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in large-scale computing. "They problems wear very similar clothing, and that's why it was essential to have people with experience at places like DEC."
Jeff Dean Follows His Uncle to Google
Jeff Dean was the first to arrive from DEC. He came by way of his "academic uncle," Urs Hölzle.
Hölzle was one of Google's first 10 employees, and as the company's first vice president of engineering, he oversaw the creation of the Google infrastructure, which now spans more than 35 data centers across the globe, judging from outside sources. He joined Google from a professorship at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and before that, he studied at Stanford under a prof named David Ungar, developing some of the core technologies used in today's compilers for the Java programming language.
Dean's academic adviser also studied with Ungar, and this made Hölzle his academic uncle. In 1999, with DEC in its death throes, Dean left the company for a startup called MySimon, but when he saw Hölzle turn up at Google, he sent an email looking for a new Google job of his own. He was soon hired by the same man who hired Hölzle: Google co-founder Larry Page.
At first, Dean was charged with building an ad system for Google's fledgling search engine. But after a few months, he moved onto the company's core search technologies, which were already buckling under the weight of a rapidly growing worldwide web. He was soon joined by Ghemawat, who made the move to Google in large part because Dean and other DEC researchers — Krishna Bharat and Monika Henzinger — were already on board.
"It's fairly likely that I might never have interviewed at Google if Jeff hadn't been there," Ghemawat says. They quickly picked up where they left off at DEC. Over the next three or four years, together with an ever changing group of other engineers, the two engineers designed and built multiple revisions of the company's core systems for crawling the web, indexing it, and serving search results to users across the globe.
Yes, they would often code at the same machine — while drinking an awful lot of coffee. Cappuccino is their drug of choice. Their partnership works, Dean says, because Ghemawat is more level-headed. "I tend to be very impatient, thinking about all the ways we can do something, my mind and hands spinning at a very fast rate. Sanjay gets excited, but in a more subdued way. He corrects my course, so that we end up moving in the right direction."
But Ghemawat says Dean's approach is just as important. He keeps them moving forward. "I often get down, thinking about all the different ways of doing something, worrying about the right way," Ghemawat says. "It's good to have someone with the energy and excitement needed to get to the end goal."
The big breakthroughs came with the creation of the Google File System and MapReduce, which rolled out across Google's data centers in the early part of the last decade. These platforms provided a more reliable means of building the massive index that drives Google's search engine. As Google crawled the world's webpages, grabbing info about each, it could spread this data over tens of thousands of servers using GFS, and then, using MapReduce, it could use the processing power inside all those servers to crunch the data into a single, searchable index.
"What do you do when your job is to take the entire internet, index it, and make a copy of it — and not do it in a way that the copy is the same size as the internet? That's a pretty interesting technical challenge."
The trick is that these platforms didn't break when machines failed or the network slowed. When you're dealing with ten of thousands of ordinary servers as Google was, machines fail all the time. With GFS and MapReduce, the company could duplicate data on multiple machines. If one broke, another was there to step in.
"The scale of the indexing work made it complicated to deal with machine failures and delays, so we started looking for abstractions that would allow for automatic parallelization across a collection of machines — to give higher performance and scalability — and could also make long-running computations that ran on thousands of machines robust and reliable," Jeff Dean says, in describing the thinking behind MapReduce. Once these tools were in place on the search engine, he explains, Google realized they could help run other web services too.
BigTable arose in similar fashion. Like MapReduce, it ran atop the Google File System, but it didn't process data. It operated as a massive database. "It manages rows of data," Dean says, "and spreads them across more and more machines as you need it." It didn't give you as much control over the data as a traditional relational database, but it could handle vast amounts of information in ways you couldn't with platforms designed for a single machine.
The same story appears again and again. As it grew, Google faced an unprecedented amount of data, and it was forced to build new software.
"What do you do when your job is to take the entire internet, index it, and make a copy of it — and not do it in a way that the copy is the same size as the internet? That's a pretty interesting technical challenge," says Jason Hoffman, the chief technology officer at cloud computing outfit Joyent. "Very often the hammer swinger knows how to make the hammer. Most things that are innovative come from a forge. They come from those points where you're facing failure."
The Data Center Empire Built on Crème Brûlée
Luiz André Barroso followed Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat from DEC to Google. But he almost didn't.
Barroso had worked alongside Dean at DEC's Western Research Lab, and in 2001, he was weighing job offers from Google and VMware. After visiting and interviewing with both companies, he put together a spreadsheet listing the reasons to join each. But the spreadsheet ended in a dead heat: 122 reasons for Google, and 122 for VMware.
Then he talked to Dean, who asked whether the spreadsheet included the crème brûlée served by executive chief Charlie Ayers the day he visited Google. "Crème brûlée is his absolute favorite," Dean remembers. "I asked if he had factored it into his 122-point list, and he said: 'No! I forgot!'" Barroso accepted Google's job offer the next morning.
Barroso was unusual in that he wasn't necessarily a software engineer. At DEC, he helped pioneer multicore processors — processors that are actually many processors in one. But after Barroso briefly worked on Google software, Hölzle put him in charge of an effort to overhaul Google's hardware infrastructure, including not only its servers and other computing gear, but the data centers housing all that hardware. "I was the closest thing we had to a hardware person," Barroso remembers.
"Crème brûlée is his absolute favorite. I asked if he had factored it into his 122-point list, and he said: 'No! I forgot!'"
Hölzle, Barroso, and their "platforms team" began by rethinking the company's servers. In 2003, rather purchase standard machines from the likes of Dell and HP, the team started cutting costs by designing their own servers and then contracting with manufacturers in Asia to build them — the same manufacturers who were building gear for the Dells and the HPs. In short, Google cut out the middle men.
Uniquely, each Google machine included its own 12-volt battery that could pick up the slack if the system lost its primary source of power. This, according to Google, was significantly more efficient that equipping the data center with the massive UPSes — uninterruptible power supplies — that typically provide backup power inside the world's computing facilities.
Then the team went to work on the data centers housing these servers. At the time, Google merely leased data center space from other companies. But Barroso and crew started from scratch, designing and building their own data centers in an effort to save money and power, but also to improve the performance of Google's web services.
The company began with a new facility in The Dalles, Oregon, i.e. the rural area where it could tap into some cheap power — and some serious tax breaks. But the main goal was to build an entire data center that behaved like a single machine. Barroso and Hölzle call it "warehouse-scale computing."
"Large portions of the hardware and software resources in these facilities must work in concert to efficiently deliver good levels of internet service performance, something that can only be achieved by a holistic approach to their design and deployment," Barroso and Hölzle in their seminal 2009 book on the subject, The Datacenter as a Computer. "In other words, we must treat the data center itself as one massive warehouse-scale computer."
They designed the facility using a new kind of building block. They packed servers, networking gear, and other hardware into standard shipping containers — the same kind used to transport goods by boat and train — and these data center "modules" could be pieced together into a much larger facility. The goal was to maximize the efficiency of each module. Apparently, the notion came to Larry Page in 2003, when he saw the Internet Achieve give a presentation on its plans for similar modules — though Barroso doesn't remember where the idea came from. "Other than it wasn't me," he says.
The company's facility in The Dalles went live in 2005. Over the years, there were rumors of data center modules and custom servers, but the details remained hidden until 2009, when Google held a mini-conference at its Silicon Valley headquarters. In the data center, Google isn't content to merely innovate. It keeps the innovations extremely quiet until it's good and ready to share them with the rest of the world.
The Tesla Effect
Larry Page has a thing for Nikola Tesla. According to Steven Levy's behind the scenes look at Google — In The Plex — Page regarded Tesla as an inventor on par with Edison, but always lamented his inability to turn his inventions into profits and long-term recognition.
Clearly, the cautionary tale of Nicola Tesla influenced the way Google handles its core technologies. It treats them as trade secrets, and much like Apple, the company has a knack for keeping them secret. But in some cases, after a technology runs inside Google for several years, the company will open the kimono. "We try to be as open as possible — without giving up our competitive advantage," says Hölzle. "We will communicate the idea, but not the implementation."
In 2003 and 2004, the company published papers on GFS and MapReduce. Google let the papers speak for themselves, and before long, a developer named Doug Cutting used them to build an indexing system for an open source search engine he called Nutch. After Cutting joined Yahoo — Google's primary search rival at the time — the project morphed into Hadoop.
"We try to be as open as possible — without giving up our competitive advantage. We will communicate the idea, but not the implementation."
A way of crunching epic amounts of data across thousands of servers, Hadoop has long been used by the other giants of the web, including Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft, and now, it's spreading into other businesses. By 2016, according to research outfit IDC, the project will fuel a $813 million software market.
History repeated itself with BigTable. In 2006, Google published a paper on its sweeping database, and together with an Amazon paper describing a data store called Dynamo, it spawned the NoSQL movement, a widespread effort to build databases that could scale to thousands of machines.
"If you look at every NoSQL solution out there, everyone goes back to the Amazon Dynamo paper or the Google BigTable paper," says Joyent's Jason Hoffman. "What would the world be like if no one at Google or Amazon ever wrote an academic paper?"
Google's hardware operation is a slightly different story. We still know relatively little about the inside of Google's data centers, but the company's efforts to design and build its own gear has undoubtedly inspired similar efforts across the web and beyond. Facebook is now designing its own servers, server racks, and storage equipment, with help from manufacturers in Asia. According to outside sources, the likes of Amazon and Microsoft are doing much the same. And with Facebook "open sourcing" its designs under the aegis of the Open Compute Foundation, many others companies are exploring similar hardware.
What's more, modular data centers are now a mainstay on the web. Microsoft uses them, as do eBay and countless others. Mike Manos, Microsoft's former data center guru, denies that Google was the inspiration for the move to modular data center, pointing out that similar modules date back to the 1960s, but it was Google that brought the idea to forefront. As Cloudant's Mike Miller points out, GFS and MapReduce also depend on ideas from the past. But Google has knack for applying these old ideas to very new problems.
Google's Past Is Prologue
The irony is that Google has already replaced many of these seminal technologies. Over the past few years, it swapped out GFS for a new platform dubbed "Colossus," and in building its search index, it uses a new system known as Caffeine, which includes piece of MapReduce and operates in a very different way, updating the index in realtime rather than rebuilding the thing from scratch.
Google may still use data center modules in The Dalles, but it seems they no longer play a role in its newer facilities. We don't know much about what the company's now uses inside these top secret facilities, but you can bet its a step ahead of what it did in the past.
In recent years, Google published papers on Caffeine and two other sweeping software platforms that underpin its services: Pregel, a "graph" database for mapping relationships between pieces of data, and Dremel, a means of analyzing vast amounts data at super high speeds. Multiple open source projects are already working to mimic Pregel. At least one is cloning Dremel. And Cloudant's Miller says Caffeine — aka Percolator — is sparking changes across the Hadoop and NoSQL markets.
These are just the some latest creations in use at Google. No doubt, there are many others we don't know about. But whatever Google is using now, it will soon move on. In May of last year, University of California at Berkeley professor Eric Brewer announced he was joining the team building Google's "next gen" infrastructure. "The cloud is young," he said. "Much to do. Many left to reach."
"The Google infrastructure work wasn't really seen as research. It was about how do we solve the problems we're seeing."
Brewer — one of the giants of distributed computing research — is yet another sign that Google is the modern successor to Xerox PARC. But the company also takes the PARC ethos a step further.
You can trace Google's research operation through DEC, all the way back to PARC's earliest days. The DEC Systems Research Center was founded by Robert Taylor, the same man who launched the computer science laboratory at PARC.
Taylor started the SRC because he felt that by the early 80s, PARC had lost its way. "A lot of people who I worked with at PARC we as disenchanted with PARC as I was," he says. "So they joined me." He worked to build the lab in the image of the old PARC Computer Science Lab — even in terms of its physical setup — and in some ways, he succeeded.
But it suffered from the same limitations as so many corporate research operations. It took ages to get the research into the marketplace. This was also true at the DEC Western Research Lab, where Jeff Dean worked. And this is what brought him to Google. "Ultimately, it was this frustration of being one level removed from real users using my work that led me to want to go to a startup," Dean says.
But Google wasn't the typical startup. The company evolved in a way that allowed it to combine the challenge of research with the satisfaction of instantly putting the results into play. Google was a research operation — and yet it wasn't. "The Google infrastructure work wasn't really seen as research," Ghemawat says. "It was about how do we solve the problems we're seeing in production."
For some, the drawback of working on Google's core infrastructure is that you can't tell anyone else what you're doing. This is one of the reasons an engineer named Amir Michael left Google to build servers at Facebook. But, yes, there are times when engineers are let loose to publish their work or even discuss it in public.
For Google, it's balancing act. Though some are critical of the particular balance, it's certainly working for Google. And there's no denying its methods have pushed the rest of the web forward. PARC never had it so good.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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{Links can be found here}
Enjoy.... and Enjoy your weekend! I know I will!
Enjoy.... and Enjoy your weekend! I know I will!
Those are some of my favourite quilts too!
gorgeous...i see a few that i recognize!!!
I've got "Wordless Wednesday" and Flickr friday is new to me. Some great stuff on flickr, for sure.
Very nice selection! Thanks for including some of my quilts!
Great... Now you are tempting me to start quilting. ickes... Thomi got her box of goodies and love the mini quilt nappie. Someday, she might send me a picture, but she sure is busy with Aiden home now.
Still trying to get caught up from being gone.
Did you order any yarn? Now who is tempting who?
thanks for joining my blog
Love them all! I've got to check out flickr toys.
Gee, thanks for including me. Glad that I inspire. Great company too!


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St. Ives Daily Hydrating Vitamin E Lotion
St. Ives Daily Hydrating Vitamin E Lotion Reviews
One of my favourite body lotionsI personally thing that a lot of St. Ives products are very much overlooked! Not only are a lot of their product environment friendly, but most don't contain parabens and are made with 100% natural moisturisers. I found this particular lotion very moisturising. When I use it in the morning, right after I shower, the moisture is locked in all day, and if I touch my legs at the end of the day, t...read morehey don't feel dry at all. Considering the fact that my legs are extremely dry, especially in cold weather, I definitely give this a big plus. The scent is very delicate and non-irritating at all. It smells a lot like camomile. And I really don't know how they make this lotion, but one of its most amazing qualities is that you can't overmoisturise with it. No matter how much of it you put on, your skin just soaks in in and it never feels greasy or oily. And I really like the fact that I can put my clothes on right after I use this lotion. I've used a few high end moisturizers, and not only they weren't as good ingredient-wise, but I had to wait forever for some of them to get absorbed enough, so I can start getting ready. So quality versus price for this product is very hard to beat. Another interesting thing I would add is that even though we have a few options in our bathroom, my boyfriend always goes for St. Ives. And he actually notices when we start running out of it and tells me that we'll need more soon. I find that very interesting, because he's not a very picky person, and he doesn't use any facial moisturisers or anything like that; he just put St. Ives all over his body and face and he's good to go… So this is really something that could be used by the entire family. I would definitely recommend this for anyone, and especially for someone on a budget, looking for a good moisturizer for the entire family. — 3 years, 10 months agoNikatron | 150 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 3 of 3 people said helpful
alrightI like this lotion but can't stand the smell of it, it's not too strong but still it stinks. — 6 years, 8 months agoBon_Bon | 522 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 0 of 0 people said helpful
I used to love it...I used to absolutely love this lotion but after learned in contains so many harsh chemicals I've stopped using it. It does hydrate well though and smells great. — 7 years, 10 months agoTBjunkie | 692 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 0 of 0 people said helpful
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Route 209 is a Sinnoh route that is east of Hearthome City and south of Solaceon Town. Some interesting places/locales in this route is the crumbling tower and the Lost Tower, where the souls of Pokémon are laid to rest.
- A remixed version of the music in Route 209 is on the soundtrack for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It is one of the most recognizable songs in Pokemon.
|This article is a stub. Please help the Pokémon Wiki by expanding it.


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Welcome Friends! When Pen Met Paper was created for the Romance Lover in all of us, a venue to contribute your current glee or angst. You know the books we're talking about: the ones that make you laugh out loud in a public place; the ones that reach down deep and pull on your heartstrings and cause tears to fall on the pages; the ones that elicit a gasp of surprise for a particularly good plot twist; the ones that make you hesitate to read the final chapter because then the story will be over; the ones that divide families and cause friends to fight because everyone has a different favorite, best hero; the ones that are so sacred the pages must be turned gently, the covers never creased and the ones that are so well-loved you could find the most read pages even in the dark. These are the books that fire our passions, make us think outside the box, take us on journeys to new and exciting places, and let us be whoever we want to be.
Within these pages you will find reviews, (a drop down menu with genre categories) of current publications as well as some older treasures! The Author Spotlight features a monthly bio on long time favorites as well as new authors. The Calendar tab lists new release dates (click on titles for extended details). Giveaways includes our own contests as well as author and publishers prizes! Man Candy is simply…the hotties. Everybody needs a Hottie! Check out the Casting Call option while you're there, where we play the 'What If' game with our favorite series. Join us every Saturday morning for a Supernatural Smack Down! where two of our favorite characters will go head-to-head. Your votes will determine the winner! Our Home page has a drop down menu for writers that outlines publisher contests and writing tips from Authors and Publishers alike. For everything else but the kitchen sink, Musings & Ramblings can be found on the same drop down menu. Be sure to check out the Archives on most of our pages for access to all of our content. Please feel free to browse! We welcome comments and suggestions!


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Eleven-year-old Sam's first visit to the remote west coast of Vancouver Island is nothing like she'd expected. Her older cousins tease "the city kid" mercilessly, when they're not ignoring her altogether. She often finds herself left to her own devices. Still, the woods and beaches around Brackenwood Point offer plenty of room to explore. Then, one day, Sam comes face-to-face with a wild cougar and her two cubs, and her summer vacation suddenly gets much more exciting.
Abandoned by her father during the Depression, eleven-year-old Elsie lives in the garage behind her old house with her mother, grandmother Nan and out-of-work uncle. Elsie's friend Scoop accompanies her as she searches for her father in the city, encountering unfriendly hobos, food lines and shantytowns. After both her uncle and her mother disappear on mysterious errands, Elsie and Scoop eventually discover them competing in a dance marathon. Persuading them to abandon the contest, Elsie and Scoop lead the exhausted dancers home, where Nan has news of Elsie's father and his impending return to the family.
In The White Horse Talisman, Chantel, Adam, Holly and Owen must help Equus, the great white horse, find his mate and foal and regain his magical talisman. But as the horse rises, so does the dragon. The age-old battle between good and evil threatens the bond between Chantel and Adam and endangers the quest. This is fantasy as its best, a story that raises hairs on the back of the neck and sends satisfying chills up and down the spine, a story that, while clearly drawn from the rich world of make believe, feels truer than true. The White Horse Talisman is the first of four books in The Summer of Magic Quartet. Book two is Dance of the Stones. Book three is Heart of the Hill. Book four is Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak.
Unlike his perfect older sister, Jenna, Conner hates his piano lessons and gets bad grades in math. He's really good at bike tricks and he loves animals, but his parents have a no-pets rule and they don't take his bike-riding seriously. When the local animal shelter gets overcrowded, everybody in Conner's pet club agrees to take in a foster pet. Conner has to hide his rat, Oscar, from his family, who would never believe that Oscar is smart and cute and pretty lovable. Or would they?
The four volumes of Andrea Spalding's Summer of Magic Quartet are among her most exciting work. The White Horse Talisman was nominated for the Silver Birch, Hackmatack and Manitoba Readers' Choice Awards. Dance of the Stones was also a Silver Birch nominee. Heart of the Hill left one of her four characters in grave danger. Now, in Behind the Sorcerer's Cloak, as the Dark Being discovers our planet and takes one of the children hostage, the others must restore the balance between light and dark, but at what cost?
For as long as he can remember, Matt has wanted to play basketball. Now, as he tries out for the team at his new middle school, he realizes that the easy days of elementary ball are over and that this is a much more serious game. Dealing with a hard-driving coach, competitive teammates and his own insecurities in a new school, Matt needs to call on all his skills, both on and off the court, to make the team and keep his head above water. When he is involved, albeit unwittingly, in tagging a store with racist graffiti, Matt finds himself in more trouble than he bargained for. And when he fights back against an aggressive teammate and is threatened with suspension from the team, he learns that it is not only game-time decisions that count, but also the choices made after the crowd has gone home and the gym is silent.
Thea and her dad are always on the move, from one small Cariboo town to another, trying to leave behind the pain of Thea's mom's death. They never stay long enough in one place for Thea to make friends, but when her dad gets work renovating a guest ranch on Gumboot Lake, she dares to hope that their wandering days are over. At the ranch she makes friends with Van, a local boy, and works hard to build the trust of an abused horse named Renegade. When Thea unearths the decades-old story of a four-year-old girl who disappeared from the ranch and was never seen again, she enlists Van to help her solve the mystery. When some disturbing facts come to light, she finally starts to come to terms with the losses in her own life.


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You may feel a lot of pressure from your kids to buy them the latest toys that have hit the stores. Take some time to consider these safety tips before you go on your next shopping trip.
Keep in mind the child's age, interests, and skill level. Look for quality design and construction in all toys for all ages.
Reading the Label
Pay attention to the age recommendations, such as "not recommended for children under three." In addition, look for other safety labels including, like "flame retardant/flame resistant" on fabric products and "washable/hygienic materials" on stuffed toys and dolls.
Making Sure the Directions Are Clear
Directions should be clear to you and, when appropriate, to your child. Plastic wrappings on toys should be discarded at once before they become dangerous play things.
Toys with long strings or cords may be dangerous for infants and very young children. The cords may become wrapped around an infant's neck, causing strangulation. Never hang toys with long strings, cords, loops, or ribbons in cribs or playpens where children can become entangled. Remove crib gyms from the crib when the child can pull up on hands and knees.
Toys can break to reveal parts small enough to be swallowed or to become lodged in a child's windpipe, ears, or nose. The law bans small parts in new toys intended for children under three. This includes removable small eyes and noses on stuffed toys and dolls, as well as small, removable squeakers on squeeze toys.
Toys for infants, like squeeze toys or teethers, should be large enough so that they cannot enter and become lodged in an infant's throat.
Broken toys may have dangerous points or prongs. Stuffed toys may have wires inside the toy that could cut or stab if exposed. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) prohibits sharp points in toys intended for use by children under eight years of age.
Projectiles, guided missiles and similar flying toys, can be turned into weapons and can injure eyes. Children should never be permitted to play with adult lawn darts or other hobby or sporting equipment that have sharp points. Arrows or darts used by children should have soft cork tips, rubber suction cups, or other protective tips intended to prevent injury. Check to be sure the tips are secure. Avoid dart guns or other toys that might be capable of firing articles not intended for use in the toy, such as pencils or nails.
Electric toys that are improperly constructed, wired, or misused can shock or burn. Electric toys must meet mandatory requirements for maximum surface temperatures and electrical construction. Electric toys with heating elements are recommended only for children over eight years old. Children should be taught to use electric toys properly and only under adult supervision.
Toy caps and some noisemaking guns and other toys can produce sounds at noise levels that can damage hearing. The law requires the following label on boxes of caps producing noise above a certain level: "WARNING—Do not fire closer than one foot to the ear. Do not use indoors." Caps producing noise that can injure a child's hearing are banned.
Check all toys periodically for breakage and potential hazards. A damaged or dangerous toy should be thrown away or repaired right away. And don't forget to check outdoor toys. Examine these regularly for rust or weak parts that could become hazardous.
Teach children to put their toys safely away on shelves or in a toy chest after playing to prevent trips and falls. Toy boxes, too, should be checked for safety. Use a toy chest that has a lid that will stay open in any position to which it is raised and will not fall unexpectedly on a child. For extra safety, be sure there are ventilation holes for fresh air. Watch for sharp edges that could cut and hinges that could pinch or squeeze. See that toys used outdoors are also stored after play.
Keep toys designed for older children out of the hands of little ones. Follow labels that give age recommendations. Some toys are recommended for older children because they may be hazardous in the hands of a younger child. Teach older children to help keep their toys away from younger brothers and sisters. Even a balloon, when deflated or broken, can choke or suffocate a child.
Protecting children from unsafe toys is everyone's responsibility. Careful toy selection and proper supervision of children at play is still, and always will be, the best way to protect children from toy-related injuries.
To report an unsafe product, visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission's website.
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Canadian Paediatric Society
Health Canada
Choosing safe toys. Kids Health website. Available at: http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/safe_toys.html. Updated October 2011. Accessed November 18, 2013.
How to buy safe toys. American Academy of Pediatrics Healthy Children website. Available at: http://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/How-to-Buy-Safe-Toys.aspx. Updated August 7, 2013. Accessed November 18, 2013.
Toys. Consumer Product Safety Commission website. Available at: http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Safety-Education/Safety-Guides/Toys. Accessed November 18, 2013.
Toy safety. National Network for Child Care website. Available at: http://www.nncc.org/health/toy.safety.html. Accessed November 18, 2013.
Last reviewed November 2013 by Michael Woods, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © 2012 EBSCO Publishing All rights reserved.
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Gaming: A New Consumer Touch Point
July 10, 2012
Games are mass media properties that offer new opportunities for brands and advertisers. This ANA Insight Brief provides an overview of the different gaming platforms and best practices for reaching this growing market. Case studies from Chicken of the Sea and Honda demonstrate how to integrate brands into social games to achieve hard dollar results.
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